vista

There's a bit of a tempest in a teapot brewing over what one can and can't do with a Windows 7 upgrade disk.

My hope with this post is to help things simmer down as opposed to boiling over, but we'll see. So here goes.

The upgrade version of Windows 7 (as opposed to the higher-price full version) lets one move from any properly licensed version of Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on that same computer. Only certain of these upgrades, however, can be done as a simple update--what Microsoft calls an "in-place … Read more

Microsoft appears to be getting relatively strong early adoption of Windows 7 in the 10 days since its official launch.

According to Net Applications, more than 3 percent of PCs accessing the Web in the past two days have been doing so using the new operating system. Usage of the operating system has been growing strong in recent days, though Windows 7 already accounted for 2 percent of global Web traffic in the days ahead of its formal launch.

"The early adoption of Windows 7 looks very strong, and I don't believe Vista enjoyed the same early success,&… Read more

Apple's new iMac all-in-one desktops impressed us, especially the massive 27-inch model we reviewed this week. But we're left wondering what happened to the rumored Blu-ray drive option. Playing HD optical disc content on that big 2,560x1,440 screen seems like a no-brainer, so we set out to see if we could successfully hook up an external Blu-ray drive.

First we connected a USB-powered external BD-ROM drive from HP to the new 27-inch iMac. The iMac's OSX 10.61 operating system allowed us to explore the file structure of the Blu-ray disc, but there's no … Read more

With the launch of Windows 7 many signs point to the fact that Microsoft seems to have gotten its operating system engineering in order. That's obviously good news for its OS business unit and also good news for PC manufacturers and software companies that develop for Windows.

A rising tide of Windows adoption is not a bad thing for the technology industry in economic terms but it doesn't yet do a lot to enhance the way we use computers and applications in our every day lives.

The main problem is that Windows 7 reinforces a desktop centric-paradigm for 93 percent of the market and continues to exert a certain level of misguided design principles in the way the system handles data and file structures. And while it's a giant leap forward in terms of customization, visual effects, and security there is a missed opportunity in the cross-border approach of combining the desktop and cloud services.

Cloud-based applications and storage are still so nascent that Microsoft could jump in and usurp much of the power and market share while shoring up its cloud story for the future. Having the dominant desktop landing pad gives Microsoft a huge advantage over upstarts--even Google and Apple, if it can focus on integrating the services.

Here are a few ways Microsoft could assert its dominant desktop position to compete with Google and Amazon as a cloud player: … Read more

Some businesses midway through upgrades to Vista are asking for Windows 7 instead, a Microsoft executive said at Thursday's launch event in London.

"This is the first time that we have had customers talking about slipstreaming the deployment of one OS into another version," said John Curran, who until recently headed the Windows client group in the U.K.

About 15 percent of business computers in the U.K. have Vista installed.

Ten large companies in the U.K. have already begun deploying Windows 7 on a total of 300,000 machines, according to Microsoft.

"In … Read more

NEW YORK--If consumers like the new Windows 7 operating system, they'll have the much-maligned Windows Vista to thank.

In part, that's because Windows 7 actually builds on the under-the-hood changes that came with Vista. But, it also turns out that the vast headaches created by Vista were just what the PC industry needed to improve their cooperation.

With consumers lukewarm to Vista and many businesses shunning it entirely, both Microsoft and the computer makers realized that the standard way of business just wasn't cutting it, particularly with Apple coming on strong.

Redmond, in particular, was humbled by … Read more

If you're upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 it should be a fairly easy install. You can do what's called an in-place upgrade as long you install the same version of Windows 7 as you have of Vista.

For instance, if you have Windows Vista Home premium you can upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. You can also go from Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional, and from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate. Any other upgrade, like Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional, will require a clean install. That means you can't just turn Vista into 7. You have to export all your data, erase the hard drive, and then reinstall all your applications and data. A lot of computer experts think you should do a clean install anyway, just to make sure your machine runs better.

See our video for upgrading XP to Windows 7 for that process.

But if you're lucky enough to be able to do an in-place upgrade and want to, here's what you do.… Read more

Is Windows 7 just Vista done right, or is it a real departure for Microsoft? This week on the Roundtable, we discuss what Windows 7 means for the industry as well as its impact on vendors like Apple and Google--with special guests Farhad Manjoo of Slate and Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.

Reporters' Roundtable #6: What Windows 7 means

We are days away from the launch of Windows 7. There is, to put it mildly, a lot riding on this release. Vista never lived up to expectations. Even today, three years after release, Vista has less than 19 percent of market share, and it's declining, according to Net Applications. Many people never upgraded from XP or got a machine with XP instead of Vista. Some are even abandoning Vista for the not-for-sale-yet Windows 7 through various pre-release programs. What can Windows 7 really do for Microsoft, and the tech industry? Click past the jump for the full show notes for this episode of Reporters Roundtable and for the full content, play the podcast, above.

… Read more

Most of the audio engineers I've met--both home and professional--are Mac people, and Avid's ProTools running on a Mac is often cited as the industry standard. But there are Windows loyalists out there.

In late 2007 I took an introductory audio production class taught by David Huber (who wrote one of the bibles on the subject, "Modern Recording Techniques") and Scott Colburn (who has produced albums by The Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Sun City Girls, among many others). Both of them used Nuendo from Steinberg (which is basically the upmarket version of Cubase) as their … Read more