Latest News of Windows 7

Windows 7 is a benchmark in the software development history of Microsoft. It has been designed with acute sharpness to deliver qualitative performance in a best and secure way. Since its launch on 22nd October, last year, it has earned net revenue of $6.66 billion approximately, which is many folds higher than Windows Vista.

Feature, usability and recommendation
From my prospective, Windows 7 update is an important option, which has been included for the smooth performance of your operating system, dependent application software and peripheral devices, such as printer and scanner.
I faced the most difficult situation in my computing life, when I found my computer equipped with Windows 7 in an absolute “no boot” condition. It was showing software conflicts repeatedly. But once I updated the Microsoft’s applications with the latest patches available on its website, I got everything resolved.
But things were not so easier, if I had not kept my Windows update enabled. From Windows update I came to know about the latest patch for my computer’s operating system and other application software and when I implemented those updates I got my computer back in sound condition.

Hence, Windows 7 update is essential to maintain the performance and security of computer. It dedicatedly searches for the latest available patch required for loaded operating system and application software.

Microsoft is still working to energize its latest Windows 7 operating system. There is a news is in the air about development of an update patch known as Service Pack 1 or SP1, which is expected to be available around September 2010.
So, the best thing is to keep your Windows updated with latest patch via Windows update option, which is not a bit difficult. It can be done as, Click Start > Control Panel>System and Security>Windows Update. Click OK to apply it finally.
Limitation
Running a computer is always at a risk if you don’t update your computer on regular basis, there can be risk of hardware failure/computer crash or stealing of important personal details through spyware or adware. So never compromise and get the best update from Microsoft’s website.

Conclusion
Over and all Microsoft has done a great job with the introduction of self update feature in latest Windows 7. It helps to get quick and automatic access to latest update available from manufacturer and hence you

Experimenting Series of Microsoft Operating System - Windows 7 Professional

Features
After experimenting with a series of operating system form Microsoft and others, I have concluded that there is no alternative for Windows 7 Professional in the present date. Once, I had installed it I took a sigh of relief as it is much stable and user-friendly and miles away from software conflictions. I am pretty much sure that its features, like JumpList, Aero, HomeGroup, Domain Join and XP Mode are enough to challenge any OS.

Usability
Windows 7 Professional has simplified my task. Now, I can easily connect my PCs at home to share files, music, video and even my printer without any hassle. Earlier, it was never possible without help of technicians. In addition, I can maintain my privacy too with the password protection feature. I don’t face difficulty while working with multiple Windows because Aero Shake minimizes unessential applications within an eye blink by just shaking them with the mouse. I can access file located in remote section of my computer network easily and quickly with smart search of Windows Search option. When I just enter an alphabet in the search box, it gives a list of relevant files. It was never so easy with Windows Vista’s “Instant Search.” With the Tab Group feature in Internet Explorer you can easily manage multiple tabs, which was not possible in earlier versions of IE. Hence, it’s a totally a never-before experience with Windows 7 Professional.

Limitation
Although, I have a good experience with Windows 7 Professional, but I think Microsoft should have been a bit liberal with the users on the compatibility front. I faced issues while doing custom install on one of my old computer. It showed software conflicts a number of times, when I had to do install device drivers.

Conclusion:
Above and all, Windows 7 professional is a good presentation from Microsoft. There are some new features, which will be soon adaptable for me. I liked it mostly on account of its enhanced performance with least of software conflicts and strong security features, which were tough challenge in earlier versions.

Windows 7 Microsoft - Performance Experience

Microsoft’s Windows 7, which was introduced on 22nd October, 2009, has climbed the new charts of popularity. Try this new Windows operating system to experience a new level of computing.

Performance accelerator
With latest Windows 7 loaded on your computer, managing your files and folders gets pretty easier. You can keep your frequently required files on your finger tips, with the help of JumpList and Aero Pin features of Microsoft’s Windows 7. Windows Search will help you to quickly access files, photos and other important documents which are occasionally used. Aero Snap will make your job easier, if you have to do work related to reading, organizing, and comparing windows.

Easy networking
Microsoft’s Windows 7 has introduced Home Group, which will simplify your home network, so that you can easily share your files and peripheral devices with a single click. Moreover you can customize your sharing job.

If you have a requirement to share your office or home network, you can make use of Direct Access. To maintain the security of your data you can implement BitLocker encryption feature.

Security and Maintenance
A lot of improvement has been done on the security front with the introduction of Multiple Active Firewall Policies, DirectAccess, BranchCache, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker and Biometric enhancement. Windows 7 Action Center is a user-friendly feature, because it offers a common platform to system maintenance information, security information and computer troubleshooting.

So, don’t wait and install Microsoft’s Windows 7 on your computer to get the best computing experience.

Planning for Multilingual User Interface Deployments for Windows 7

Based on your company's current geographic and IT infrastructure, you need to determine your language and country/region requirements, as well as your hardware requirements and limitations to deploy the appropriate language configurations of Windows 7 and configure country/region support.

You will also need to:

* Determine the roaming user needs in your organization.
* Evaluate the hardware requirements for multilingual support.
* Determine whether your organization will need to deploy a single global image or specific country/region builds for different offices in your organization.

Assessing hardware requirements for multilingual support
Supporting multiple languages can impact your hardware requirements in two areas:
Hard disk space: Some languages require more hard-disk storage space than others. The more languages installed on a computer, the more hard-disk space consumed.
Specialized hardware devices: Some languages or users require special keyboards, IMEs, or alternative input devices.

Determining the requirement of language and country/region
If you have polyglot office environments or you do business in multiple languages then you need to know which languages or bids your organization requires. Also you need to know that whether these languages require input devices or input method editors (IMEs).

You must determine whether currency, time zone, or calendar formats vary between the different countries/regions if you do business on international level. Additionally, you must determine which line-of-business applications you have that must accommodate such country/region differences.

A four-column planning table can help you determine your language and country/region needs. You can organize the table as follows:

* In column one, list your offices or divisions.

* In column two, list the languages or dialects used in those offices or divisions.

* In column three, note the corresponding Windows 7 language collections and locales that support those languages or dialects. For tables listing Windows 7 language packs and settings, see Supported Language Packs and Default Settings.

* In column four, note special standards and format settings, input language support, or default languages for non-Unicode programs required for your offices or divisions.

So, as release date of Windows 7 is close, we find ourselves with revolutionary and new Microsoft OS: Windows 7. Windows 7 seems poised to succeed where Vista couldn’t as it is built on the latest technologies introduced with Vista, but with a renewed focus on performance and compatibility. We’ve finally received a final build of Windows 7 and have run it through the wringer in both the Lab and in the real-world. Here’s what we found.

Supporting Tools and Technologies in Windows 7

Windows 7 Virtualization

1. Windows XP Mode provides a virtual Windows XP environment in which you can run many Windows XP productivity applications on a Windows 7–based computer. Windows XP Mode is included in Windows 7 and is available as a pre-installed feature by your computer manufacturer or as a free download.
2. Windows Virtual PC allows multiple client operating systems to run at the same time on a Windows 7 desktop, and it offers the runtime engine for Windows XP Mode, which provides a virtual Windows XP environment on Windows 7. Windows 7 Virtual PC provides the virtualization technology for Windows 7.
3. Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) is available through Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). MED-V is built on Windows Virtual PC and is designed to provide IT professionals with the capability to centrally manage and deploy virtual Windows environments to reduce complexity, maintain control, and keep costs low.

Application compatibility

1. Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5 enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and IT professionals to determine the following:
2. How an update to a new version of the Windows 7 operating system will impact their softwares.
3. Whether their devices and softwares are compatible with a new version of the Windows 7 operating system.
4. The toolkit can also be used by developers to:
5. Test Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to Internet Explorer.
6. Create compatibility fixes for application compatibility issues.
7. Determine potential application installation and setup issues.
8. Determine potential compatibility issues due to the User Account Control (UAC) feature.
9. Application Compatibility Toolkit contains the following functionality:
10. Inventories applications, hardware and devices on user’s computers that run earlier versions of the operating system.
11. Provides test tools for Internet Explorer 8 compatibility testing.
12. Provides tools to build compatibility fixes (called “shims”) for incompatible applications.
13. Analyzes compatibility traits of applications and devices and synchronizes compatibility data with ISV, logo, and community assessment.

Dolby Digital Plus Support

Now a days PC users are focused on audio quality than the other features. Microsoft's next operating system Windows 7 will support Dolby Digital Plus multichannel audio. The feature will be available in Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. Windows 7 will also support the Dolby Digital Plus features such as support upto 7.1 channels and bitstream mixing for secondary audio tracks. Dolby Digital Plus will give home theater-quality audio to the computer.

Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium editions supported Dolby Digital 5.1 the. Windows Vista was the OS of Microsoft to include Dolby Digital technology in Operating Systems.

Windows 7 will maintain the quality of Dolby Digital Plus at a lower data rate and also Windows is fully compatible with all current Dolby Digital A/V receivers. The format that is used to broadcast audio standard for HDTV services in many countries uses is an Blu-ray discs format. It is also used to drive up Internet content.

Windows 7 Deployment Scenarios

Four Types of Windows 7 Deployment Scenarios:

Upgrade Computer Scenario
In this you can upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 , this means that your applications, files and settings as they were in your previous version of Windows Vista by upgrading to Windows 7. You will need to use the Refresh Computer scenario if you want to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. But this will preserve only files and settings but not applications.

Although upgrading to Windows 7 might be the easiest way to deploy Windows 7, you run the risk of preserving misconfiguration and unauthorized software or settings. In most of the cases, change-control processes are more difficult to implement and the existing system configuration is difficult to evaluate. The computer's state is still unknown if you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 because it does not change the computer’s status. New Computer scenario is a better scenario for managed environments with user state migration to preserve settings selectively.

New Computer Scenario
You install a clean copy of Windows 7 on a new or clean hard drive in the New Computer scenario. New Computer scenario has the most similar results, creating a configuration in a known state. You can use established change-control processes to manage any subsequent changes closely. Installing a known configuration on a clean computer is the foundation of good configuration management.

Refresh Computer Scenario
This scenario is similar to the New Computer scenario. The only difference is that this scenario preserves user's existing files and settings and the destination computer contains a Windows operating system. To migrate user's files and settings from the previous version of Windows to Windows 7, you can use migration technologies, such as USMT 4 0. By doing this no data is lost while still installing the best possible system configuration. New Computer scenario provides with the benefits of preserving files and settings and the Refresh Computer scenario combines the benefits of a new installation.

Replace Computer Scenario
You can migrate between an old computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista
and a new computer running Windows 7 using Windows migration technologies such as the Windows Easy Transfer tool and USMT 4 0. The Replace Computer scenario allows you to perform a clean installation of Windows 7 on the new computer and also allows you to simply migrate files and settings from the old computer.

Windows 7 Imaging & Answer Files

Windows 7 is spread in wim files which use the Windows Imaging files format. You can do wim file settings for the following.

Windows 7 Imaging files

Windows Imaging files are file-based image format that lets you store multiple images in one file. If you don’t want to deploy paging files using the image then you can perform partial volume captures by excluding files.

By using a compressed file format and single-instance storage techniques, this format reduces files sizes. To reduce the size of image files that contain multiple images, this image file contains one physical copy of a file for each instance of it in the image file.

To update files in images they contain, you can mount .wim files as folders.

You can apply an image to the destination computer's hard disk using Windows 7 Imaging file. Because .wim files don’t require the destination computer's hard disk to be the larger size or same than the source hard disk, so, you can also apply an image to different-sized destination drives.

You can use CD-ROMs to distribute large .wim files with Windows Imaging files.

You can start Windows PE from a .wim file because Windows PE .wim files are bootable. In fact, Windows Deployment Services and Windows Setup start Windows PE from the .wim file 'Boot.wim', which you can customize by adding items such as device drivers and scripts.

Windows 7 Answer Files:
It is a XML-based file that contains settings to use during a Windows 7 installation. An answer file can fully automate all or part of the installation process. In this file, you confer settings such as the product key to apply, how to partition disks and the location of the Windows 7 image to install. You can also change settings of the Windows 7 installation, changing display settings, adding user accounts and updating Windows Internet Explorer favorites. These files are commonly referred as Unattend.xml.

Wim file
To create an answer file and combine it with a particular Windows 7 image, you use Windows SIM. This combination lets you to validate the settings in the answer files against the settings available in the Windows 7 image. Windows setup ignores settings in the answer files for features that do not exist in the Windows image because you can use any answer file to install any Windows 7 image.

The answer file feature section contains all the feature settings that Windows Setup applies. Windows PE, offline Servicing, generalize, specialize, auditSystem, auditUser, and oobeSystem are the different configuration passes into which Answer files organize features. Each configuration pass describes a different installation phase and not all passes run during the normal Windows 7 setup process. You can also apply settings during one or more passes. You can choose the pass in which to apply the setting if a setting is available in more than one configuration pass.