Now that Windows Vista is on a glide path to a final release (with a few million individuals and businesses already having access to it), I’m building a list of sources for great advice and information about using Windows Vista.
I’ve got a few sites bookmarked already, but I’m interested in your input. Which sites do you trust? Which ones have the best news, the best tips, the best message boards, the best writing?
Post links in the comments.
If you have an MSDN or TechNet Plus subscription, you can go download your copy of the final version of Windows Vista x86 (and get the product keys to go with it) right now, a day earlier than expected.
If you’re an official beta tester and you filed at least one bug, you’ll get a copy too. Go to Connect (the official beta testers’ website), where you’ll find downloadable images of the x86 and x64 code and an agreement that you’ll need to electronically sign to get your choice of Vista Ultimate or Business.
(Thanks to Josh at Windows Connected for the heads-up on the MSDN release.)
… And the x64 versions are now available as well on TechNet and (presumably) MSDN.
… Some confusion about who’s an official beta tester. If you were invited to the beta test (a long time ago), your Passport account would have been given access to Microsoft’s Connect website and to private beta tester newsgroups. If you log on to Connect and check the My Participation page, you’ll see “Windows Vista, Longhorn Server, and IE7 Beta” in the list, with a status of Active. If you don’t see that, you were not an invited beta tester, you were a member of the Customer Preview Program (CPP), and you do not qualify for a free copy.
Also, “submitting a bug” does not mean posting about it on a newsgroup or bulletin board. It means submitting a detailed bug report using the Microsoft Bug Reporting tool. Again, if you’re an official beta tester you can see a list of all bugs you submitted by logging on via Connect and clicking the Feedback link in the left column. Bugs you submitted appear in the Posted By Me section.
In today’s e-mail newsletter from Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post, he notes that Windows Vista and Office 2007 have released to manufacturing and asks a legitimate question:
Neither of those products will be in stores until next year. Vista will make its retail debut Jan. 30, while Office doesn’t have a date more specific than “early 2007.” (I’d love to know what Microsoft will be doing with this theoretically finished release between now and then: Rewriting help files? Redesigning the box? Picking out ads?)
Here’s the legitimate answer:
Part of the delay is pure logistics. Getting disks pressed, documentation printed, boxes shrink-wrapped, and everything on retail shelves takes time. PC makers need time as well to verify that the final bits work with their hardware and utilities.
But the most important gating factor is waiting for third parties to get drivers and applications ready. Releasing a new Windows version involves a large ecosystem of devices, applications, and utilities. Many of the companies responsible for those products don’t want to release beta versions of their products.
As Microsoft’s Barry Goffe, Director of Windows Client Product Management, told me earlier this month: “Once we RTM, it takes a while for OEMs to write their drivers, build their PCs, and so on. A bunch of [device manufacturers] have deprioritized their driver work because they’re betting we’re going to keep slipping. The best way for them to bump up the priority will be for us to ship. It’s a little dose of reality for these guys.”
Welcome, Digg visitors! If I may be so bold as to suggest that you actually might want to click the links and read the FULL posts before commenting? Just sayin’. (Oh, and thanks to commenter Nick for some excellent design suggestions, which I have incorporated.)
Over at ZDNet, I’ve been publishing a series called Vista Mythbusters. The goal is to debunk some of the nonsense (both from Microsoft and from its many detractors) that has been written about Windows Vista in the past few months. Here’s a summary of what I’ve published so far. Be sure to follow the links to read the full story behind each myth.
Vista Mythbusters #1: It’s not a hardware hog
Lo and behold, Vista really does run on older hardware, with some relatively minor upgrades. And if you want to buy a Vista Premium Ready machine, you can get it for less than you might think.
Vista Mythbusters #2: Dual-core and 64-bit support
Once a week I read something from someone who is shocked, shocked to discover that the Vista Home Basic license prohibits its use on dual-CPU machines. They think that means they can’t use a dual-core machine. They’re confused. Click the link and read the full story. (Yes, every edition of Vista runs great on a dual-core machine.)
Vista Mythbusters #3: Will Microsoft dump XP to push Vista?
Eventually. But probably not until after April 14, 2009.
Vista Mythbusters #4: Yes, Microsoft really is price-gouging
I explain why the price of Windows Vista Ultimate doesn’t make sense.
Vista Mythbusters #5: Aero isn’t rocket science
Your old video card might choke on the fancy Aero interface, but you’ll be shocked at how cheap the upgrade is and how even low-end new PCs support it.
Vista Mythbusters #6: Is Vista really more secure?
Everything you always wanted to know about UAC and IE7 Protected Mode.
Vista Mythbusters #7: How much DRM is too much?
Vista contains a form of DRM that has never before been in Windows.
Vista Mythbusters #8: That license isn’t so bad, after all
The Windows Vista license is written in plain English. But you wouldn’t know it to hear some of the practically paranoid interpretations of it. Here’s some counter-balance.
I’ve got two more installments in the pipeline and will probably hold off on the last one until just before launch day, January 30, 2007.
I’ve read reports from two Microsoft bloggers (Maria Johansson from the Asia Pacific region and Daniel Melanchthon from Germany) that TechNet and MSDN subscribers can download the final released copies of Office 2007 and Windows Vista, complete with product keys, this week. The official dates are today, November 12, for Office 2007, and Friday, November 17, for Vista.
In fact, Maria’s post says that Office 2007 should be available for download, but I’m not seeing it when I log on to my TechNet Plus account.
(… Update 2:30PM Pacific: It’s there now.)
Of course, the RTM bits for both products are already circulating around various BitTorrent networks, with reports of one crack that exploits a weakness in the beta activation code that should be blocked within a matter of days. And so the arms race officially begins.
Oh, what they’re doing to get Windows Vista out the door. Long Zheng has the proof in the latest Next Week in Tech.
Nice piece by Ina Fried on ZDNet News:
That list includes rank-and-file Windows employees, as well as some of the company’s top brass. Allchin and his technical assistant, for example, are still trying to find bugs that the servers and development teams have missed.
“I’m doing video calls with my mom in Boston,” Allchin said. “I’m doing remote assistance to jump into a machine, and then I ‘remote desktop’ from that machine to another machine.”
Elsewhere, Allchin is testing a multimonitor set-up with four displays, including some in portrait mode. Paul Donnelly, who manages part of Microsoft’s Vista test operation, has been doing the same thing for some time. As the finalization deadline has neared, he has added more systems to his office. As of last week, he had nine machines crammed into his office. He is among those who nearly always picks up the daily build.
That’s pretty close to what I’ve got here. Over the past few months I’ve had five or six physical machines doing Vista testing and up to six virtual machines at any time. It’s hard enough keeping up with weekly builds; I can’t imagine what it would be like to keep daily builds running on that many boxes
From the official press release:
Microsoft is hosting a series of events around the world on November 30 to officially recognize business availability of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Vista, and we announced today that the worldwide general availability launch is January 30, 2007. [emphasis added]
OK, I guess that means I win the pool. From two months ago:
Vista fans, circle January 30 on your calendar.
The more I look at listen to Windows Vista, the more I like its new sound mixer.
It really is refreshing to crank up some music without also cranking up the annoying sounds from an IM program. Being able to control sounds individually is a good thing.
And although the fuss and secrecy over the sounds (created by Robert Fripp) was ridiculous, the sounds themselves are very soft and subtle and cool in a smooth jazz kind of way.
With Windows Vista, Microsoft is about to release the most widely distributed piece of shareware ever.
Oh, I know they’re not calling it shareware. In fact, Section 8 of the Vista license agreement specifically says you may not “lend the software.” But there’s nothing that technically prevents making copies of the Vista DVD, and you can install that copy on any computer without a product ID, with no activation required for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, your copy of Windows Vista will shift into “reduced functionality mode,” at which point you can wipe it out and start over, or pay Microsoft or one if its partners for a license.
That sure sounds like “try before you buy,” doesn’t it?
I certainly don’t recommend this strategy to anyone. But I won’t be surprised if a lot of people, especially enthusiasts, “borrow” a copy of Vista and try it out for 30 days. Microsoft might be betting that when the month is up, enough people will be pleased enough that they’ll pay up.
Ed Bott 