Paul Thurrott is right more often than he’s wrong (although he’s wrong more often than he’ll admit, like when he predicted just a few months ago that Windows 7 would “be finalized by April 2009 at the latest” – oops). But I’m willing to bet that this report is complete, unadulterated  nonsense:

There are rumors, too, that a new UI is coming and it may make sense for Microsoft to hold on to that UI for the RTM builds, so that it has one last surprise to offer up to its eager fans.

No one at Microsoft will confirm or deny this, obviously, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and trust my BS detector, which is pinning at 11 right now. At this point individual development groups at Windows can’t even get a typo in a dialog box fixed without papal dispensation. The idea that a “new UI” is rolling out soon is inconsistent with everything that the Windows 7 team has done so far, which is conservative, thoughtful, and geared toward shipping a stable, high-quality OS.

When the Windows 7 RC does appear, I predict that it will look exactly like the builds that have been floating around for the last two weeks. New desktop backgrounds, sure. Major (or even minor) changes to the UI? No way.

Over at ZDNet, I’ve put together an article that explains the inner workings of the Windows Easy Transfer utility in Windows 7, summarizing its advantages and its weaknesses, and explaining how best to use it. The context, of course, is that when the Windows 7 Release Candidate comes out (sometime before the e4nd of May), you’ll be strongly encouraged to avoid upgrading from the beta and instead will be expected to do a clean install. Which is a perfect scenario for using the Windows Easy Transfer utility to capture the settings and files from your existing installation and restore them on the new, clean install.

The whole thing is here:

How hard will it be to move to the Windows 7 Release Candidate?

Over the years,I’ve been lukewarm at best on the various iterations of this utility, from the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in XP to the first appearance of Windows Easy Transfer in Vista. But with Windows 7, Microsoft appears to have gotten this stuff mostly right. The big missing piece is that you can’t migrate programs themselves. I also wish that third-party developers (and even the community) could create templates for adding settings for additional programs.

If you have one of the second-generation HP MediaSmart devices (EX485 or EX487), you can look forward to a substantial upgrade later this month. Here are a few of the main features:

• Automatically convert your library of videos (including unprotected DVDs) for your viewing enjoyment.
• Create a mobile version of your videos that you can download and play on your iPod, iPhone, PlayStation Portable, and other popular mobile devices.
• Stream music, photos and video from your server to any Internet-connected computer or to your iPhone.
• Additional enhancements to the MediaSmart Server including an improved mobile streaming experience, a more robust Media Collector (which consolidates music and photo files form individual PCs and stores them on the server), improved Apple Time Machine configuration, and the ability to create public and private albums in the Photo Viewer.

I’ve been running beta releases of the new software for a few weeks, and it’s pretty impressive. I’ll have more details and hands-on impressions as the official release gets closer.

Note that this update will not be available on the first-generation MediaSmart servers (EX47x), which don’t have the CPU horsepower to perform most of these media tasks.

Everything should be properly migrated to the new server now. If you see anything that looks not right, drop me a note.

In the comments to my previous post on Windows downgrades, Paul G asks an interesting question:

Do downgrade options for businesses (or individuals) contain clauses that specify the end of free technical support, or additional fees that apply to the downgrade transaction?

Let’s start with the understanding that downgrade rights apply only when you purchase a new PC with a license for a business edition of Windows.

In this situation, the PC manufacturer is required to provide support for the operating system they pre-install. If you exercise your downgrade rights by installing Windows XP, the manufacturer is not required to provide support for the old OS. You can’t get support from Microsoft, either (except for security-related issues). In practice, this probably isn’t that big a deal. Most of the support you’ll require from an OEM is related to replacing or repairing defective hardware; for garden-variety Windows problems, you can find all the support you need in newsgroups and in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base.

As for additional fees, the answer is no. In fact, the terms of Microsoft’s agreement with PC manufacturers (as outlined in this PDF fact sheet) prohibit them from shipping downgrade media. Legally, they may pre-install an earlier version of Windows for you, but only if they use media supplied by the customer. The license terms in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate specifically relieve the PC manufacturer (and Microsoft) of any obligation to supply media for the earlier version. You are expected to find installation retail, OEM, or volume-license media on your own; in a business environment where you have other PCs with Windows XP installed, you would normally use the install disk from one of those other PCs.

The final hurdle is activating the system. Here’s how Microsoft explains the procedure:

When an end user is using their downgrade rights offered under the License Terms in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions and they use both Windows XP media and a product key that was previously activated, they will be unable to activate on-line over the Internet, due to the hardware configuration change when installing on the Vista system. In these cases the end user will be prompted to call the Activation Support Line and explain their circumstances to the Customer Service Representative. Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Vista Business or Ultimate  license, the Customer Service Representative will help them activate their software.

I’ve done this before, and the procedure works exactly as described.

Update: TechARP, which has a pretty good record at providing accurate information on Microsoft’s OEM policies, says Microsoft has recently changed downgrade options that apply to OEMs:

OEMs may now choose to install Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Professional Tablet PC or Windows XP Professional X64 editions instead of Windows Vista Business / Ultimate, provided they meet the following additional requirements :

• Each system must be distributed with a Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and must have the appropriate activation markers for both OA (OEM Activation) 2.X and OA 1.0.
• OEMs are required to distribute physical recovery media in the system packaging for the Windows Vista Business or Ultimate version that corresponds to the COA. If the system does not include an optical drive, then the OEM is required to provide a hard drive-based recovery solution for that version of Windows Vista software.

In addition to the required Windows Vista recovery media, OEMs may also choose to provide a recovery solution for the preinstalled version of Windows XP. This may be hard drive-based or on physical recovery media provided in the system packaging or to an End User of such systems upon request.

According to this unconfirmed report, the policy will remain in place for six months after Windows 7 is released.

 

I have been flabbergasted this week at all the reaction to the non-news that Microsoft will allow business customers to buy a PC with Windows 7 installed and then replace its OS with an earlier version (specifically, Windows Vista or Windows XP). The common thread in all the blog posts and comments I’ve seen is that this represents Microsoft “planning to fail” with Windows 7.

Uh, no.

For starters, this is not new. I’ve clipped the relevant portions from various Windows license agreements through the years and posted them at ZDNet: There’s nothing new about Windows downgrade rights. Anyone who gets all breathless about this policy doesn’t understand Microsoft’s business model and is clueless about corporate computing. So let me see if I can explain here.

When you buy a new PC with Windows preinstalled, you are actually buying a Windows license along with that hardware. The Certificate of Authenticity on the side of the PC is the physical evidence of the license, which is embodied in a detailed agreement. The terms of the Windows license vary, depending on which edition of Windows is installed.

Home customers buy a license to run a specific version of Windows, typically Home Premium. If you want to replace that installed OS, you have to buy a new license.

Business customers buy a license to run Business or Ultimate edition (depending on which one they paid for). But the terms of that license include a section that is not part of the home license. These business licenses include downgrade rights. In the case of Windows Vista Business edition, this section specifically allows you to replace, Vista Business with XP Professional. You as a corporate IT professional might want to do that while you plan migration of all the PCs in your business. Your existing systems are running XP, and you want the new PCs to fit into your existing infrastructure. When you’re ready to upgrade, the license allows you to restore Vista Business.

As I said, this is nothing new. If you bought a PC with Windows XP Professional anytime in the past eight years, it contained a similar clause in the license agreement allowing you to replace the installed OS with Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation version 4.0, or even Windows 98 Second Edition. Back in 2001 or 2002, those operating systems were in wide use, and people might not have been ready for the headache of upgrading to XP.

Anyway, that’s what all this means. Nothing more, nothing less. When Windows 7 comes out, customers who buy a business license will have the right to maintain compatibility by choosing older business versions of Windows without violating the terms of the license.

Sorry, conspiracy theorists.

Update: Just a note to clarify this isn’t aimed at my ZDNet colleague Mary Jo Foley, who stopped by the comments section with a link to her excellent post on the subject: Microsoft will allow Windows 7 users to downgrade to XP. An awful lot of people have been piggybacking on her original reporting and adding their own miguided interpretations.

This website has been having some performance problems lately, which turn out to have been caused by a server that was limiting the number of allowed connections.

To fix the problem, I have to move everything to a new server. That might result in a few glitches over the next few days. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope when all is done it will result in better performance across the board.