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Microsoft starts another Windows 7 blog

Oct. 23, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

... and if you thought the first one, Engineering Windows 7, wasn’t long-winded and boring enough for you, wait ‘till you get a load of this one. It’s called The Windows 7 Blog for Developers. Sounds exciting!

Welcome to the first post of a new Windows 7 blog. This blog will mainly focus on the development aspects of Windows 7 by providing valuable content for developers. We shell call this blog “The Windows 7 Blog for Developers”. By valuable content we mean that this blog will be a “one stop shop” on the road to get yourself familiar with what Windows 7 has to offer for developers and how you can “Light-Up” using Windows 7 features in your application.

With your help, this blog should evolve to become some sort of Windows 7 developer content index. If you are looking to write some code using one of Windows 7 new features, you should find some reference to that topic in this blog. If you don’t find it, please feel free to comment and we’ll try to pick the subject as quick as possible. In case you have content you want to share, ping us so we can write a post and reference your content.

You can also expect this blog to have lots of code samples, and cool demo showcasing some Window 7’s new features. You can also expect this blog to have Web Cast with different people from different parts of the Windows organization. With that in mind, some Windows folks have their own blogs which we will try to keep track and listing all the important Windows 7 content posted on these blogs.

Finally, this blog is part of an effort to highlight Windows 7 development story, a story that for some reason got lost with Windows Vista. As part of the Windows 7 Evangelism team and as developers, we hope, together with you and the rest of the community will be able to create an open and direct dialog about developing for Windows 7.

OK, so this will be interesting to a certain crowd. But if you’re looking for more in-depth looks at, say, how Windows 7 actually looks and works, stay tuned. I’ll be starting up a Windows 7 Feature Focus series as soon as I have the first pre-beta build in my hands next week. If Microsoft can’t stop boring people about Windows 7, maybe I can drum up something a little more interesting.

Discuss this Article 78

shark47
on Oct 24, 2008
This looks like another case of John using inconclusive data to jump to conclusions. I'm not saying John is wrong, but for someone who talks about data, there's just not enough to support his claim. Remember, Apple makes both the hardware and the software so their hardware might be more optimized for their software. On the other hand, Lenovo is just one of many PC manufacturer and again, their drivers might not have been fully optimized for battery life, like Mike and Gorath indicated. Vista was called an energy pig, initially, after it was released. Since then, drivers have improved and Microsoft has been working on it too. Also, no - the $300 mn spent on advertising does not mean Microsoft's Windows team is not working on making Windows better. That's probably another myth that most of you believe is true.
animositysomina
on Oct 24, 2008
Both johnpapola and Ocean somehow missed very important fact that delivers final blow to Mike's made up theories of Vista being tuned/detuned on Lenovo and such... the "final blow" fact is: Lenovo uses 1.2 GHz 12W TDP CPU while MBA uses 1.6-1.8 GHz 20W TDP CPU. _THIS_ is the reason why Lenovo under Vista is _slightly_ better w.r.t. battery life than MBA under Vista. I'm surprised Mike missed this crucial point, and even more surprised johnpapola and even Ocean missed that too. That's one lousy Apple defense we saw today :) Hope Ocean and Co will do better next time.
animositysomina
on Oct 24, 2008
I bet Steve Jobs minions are already hard at work on another Mac vs PC commercial, now w.r.t. poor Vista's battery life. They won't pass on this opportunity to kick Vista's corpse one more time :)
Ocean
on Oct 24, 2008
I'm just quoting the researcher. The Winjihadists are the ones spinning it: >>Vista is a strange beast. It's quite possible that Vista's constant performance optimizations are preventing CPU and platform power management techniques from being effective, but that seems a little too simplistic of a view. All I can do for now is report the numbers as is. An unexpected benefit of OS X appears to be better battery life. Go figure.<< www.anandtech.com/.../showdoc.aspx
Mum
on Oct 24, 2008
"Wow... Seriously. Wow..." I could say the same. The discussion at hand is (and has been all along) whether or not Vista sucks at power management. The answer should be very clear to everyone. "Since the MBA probably had its OS X drivers tuned for power conservation since it has no ability to change out a dead battery (got to keep the bottom pretty even if it hurts the user)." MBA battery replacement takes mere minutes. The design decision where you need a screwdriver to exchange the battery undoubtedly has to do with keeping the machine thin. And thin it is. Which doesn't hurt the users much. "And you say that I'm the one basing my analysis on my biases? Even when I bend over backward to find explanations that DON'T criticize Apple hardware..." See your previous quote and try to connect it with this last one. You bend less than a crowbar, and it really has nothing to do with how wrong you happen to be in a given discussion. Seriously, I've never seen anyone as stubborn. There's no Mac fan on these blogs who won't admit that Microsoft does some good, even excellent stuff. But there's a few who never in their wildest dreams would admit that Apple also does produce good stuff. Curiously, they're the same people who also talk despisingly about those "religious Mac fans" who like everything Apple produce and "their leader" says and aren't afraid to say so. And somehow I just find liking some company's products much less sick than hating an entire group of people.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 24, 2008
I just find it amusing that carrying a screwdriver around to disassemble your laptop so that you can swap out the non-removable battery is considered a perfectly acceptable design choice for the users. That pretty much says it all.
Waethorn
on Oct 24, 2008
"The design decision where you need a screwdriver to exchange the battery undoubtedly has to do with keeping the machine thin. And thin it is. Which doesn't hurt the users much" "I just find it amusing that carrying a screwdriver around to disassemble your laptop so that you can swap out the non-removable battery is considered a perfectly acceptable design choice for the users." Just try and get a screwdriver onto a long plane flight with your carry-on. Someone'll think you're a terrorist building a bomb out of your MBA. Here's a question for you: does taking an MBA apart yourself void the warranty?
Waethorn
on Oct 24, 2008
"does taking an MBA apart yourself void the warranty?" Yup, it does! From the MBA manual, page 35: "Important: The battery is replaceable only by an Apple Authorized Service Provider." So you're just screwing yourself with that screwdriver, Mum.
Dipsh t Admin
on Oct 24, 2008
"MBA battery replacement takes mere minutes." Once again, the Apple fans are always talking about how easy a Mac is to use, etc. Well, carrying a screwdriver and taking minutes to do a process that takes seconds on nearly any Windows laptop and Apple's other laptops isn't really all that easy or convenient. I'm willing to concede that it makes a slicker looking package, but one could easily say that the MBA is designed as second or third computer and that Apple treats it like the iPod. Wouldn't it be nice for a user needing a battery replacement to go in to the Apple store and thinking, man, I gotta get me some new MBA. Methinks that is more the reason than anything else.
Dipsh t Admin
on Oct 24, 2008
"There's no Mac fan on these blogs who won't admit that Microsoft does some good, even excellent stuff." You've apparently never read a comment by bonch, fivepoint or drylight, among others.
Waethorn
on Oct 24, 2008
"Well, carrying a screwdriver and taking minutes to do a process that takes seconds on nearly any Windows laptop and Apple's other laptops isn't really all that easy or convenient." I'd like to see exactly where on Apple's website it actually says that you can take the battery out with a screwdriver.... (I'm waiting Mum!) The fact that it's NOT user-replaceable would suggest that they may have special connectors or the battery could even be soldered in. It's also possible that you can't open the MBA without a special tool to avoid snapping off tabs on the interior of the casing to hold it together. Without Apple saying how to do it, how would Mum presume to know how easy it is or what tools to use???
DRWAM
on Oct 24, 2008
The $400 Acer laptop got almost 3 hours of battery life while playing a DVD. there are 3 power management settings and I chose the middle one. I was also playing an online Webkinz game for a while and had to restart the DVD of course. I bought two 2 GB sticks of RAM that was $23 after Crucial rebate. I think I see some difference, but I'm not sure. The family seems to like the glossy screen. Since we won't be using it outside, sunlight doesn't matter, even if it does actually make viewing more difficult than the matte finish.Is glossy less expensive to make, as I see a lot of glossy glass in the low end screens?
gorath
on Oct 24, 2008
I just re-read the specs on the MBA, and I don't care what side of the fence you're on, nearly 4 hours of DVD playback on a single charge is impressive in such a small device. Really impressive. My Dell can do that, but (by choice), it's a rather big, clunky thing compared to a macbook air.
Lindy
on Oct 24, 2008
Anyone and I mean ANYONE that has used Vista on a notebook knows battery life SUCKS compared to XP and OS X. My HP notebook (2.0ghz core 2, 2gigs of RAM) lost over 30min of battery time going from XP to Vista. This was a clean install of Vista, with the latest HP drivers. My Macbook with OS X gets at least 50% more battery life than the HP on Vista. Poor Vista battery life and slow file copies have been covered over and over and over for the last year and a half. Everyone should know it SUCKs on Vista. It sucks less with SP1, but still lags behind XP and OS X.
Lindy
on Oct 24, 2008
"There's no Mac fan on these blogs who won't admit that Microsoft does some good, even excellent stuff." I think server 2003, server 2008, Exchange 5.5-2007, LCS, SQL, MOM, Office 2003 and MOM, KICK @$$!!!!!!!!!! SMS, Vista, Zune, 360...SUCK @$$!!!!! All other MS products, Office 2007/08, Hyper V...etc are just....meh, dont like em, dont hate em. You can quote me on that:)
DRWAM
on Oct 24, 2008
The cool thing about cheap laptop is that you have more money to buy a second battery. I bought a car for my mom with the cash savings.
Dipsh t Admin
on Oct 24, 2008
DRWAM, you crack me up!
gorath
on Oct 24, 2008
I've not witnessed the file copy problem anywhere for quite sometime now. i thought SP1 eradicated it? If you think WS2008 is so great, I hope you realise that it's the same file system and kernel as Vista. Doh! LOL @ DRWAM's comment!
DRWAM
on Oct 24, 2008
Fine then guys! I admit that I could not afford the metallic paint upgrade, but at least she got the V6 and I got more RAM!
Lindy
on Oct 24, 2008
If you have run Vista and Windows 2008 you will know they are quite different. Its like taking Vista, and turning off every thing, and setting it to classic mode. Sure they have the same kernel. If fact MS thanks everyone that bought Vista in the first year for flushing out the bugs for Windows 2008 launch. Windows 2008 is the best server product they have release hands down. The event logs/performance monitoring is 1000X better than 2003. TS Gateway, SSTP VPN, DFS supports delta copies, and much more make it great.
shark47
on Oct 24, 2008
I won't deny having problems with Vista. Battery life used to be an issue. Not anymore. There are other issues like file copying, which have been fixed to some extent. Overall, though, there is no way XP is better than Vista now. Vista is a lot more stable except for iTunes, which is horribly slow, and Media Center, which is a little slow, most of my applications run well even with just 1 Gig or RAM. The problem is that there is no fact check organization when it comes to ads. Apple's ads spread FUD about Vista and the media, instead of correcting the perception, joins in it. Hey, Jobs doesn't lie, after all. Now, the ads have gone to another extreme, where they're spreading FUD about the company itself. I think they're in dangerous territory at this point. No other company can get away with this kind of behavior. Microsoft can continue to make ads, but as long as the media does not paint the correct picture, Apple will own the story about Vista and now about Microsoft itself. Joe the plumber does not know about patch Tuesday because he's got Automatic Updates enabled. He doesn't know about Windows Vista SP2 or about Windows 7. Microsoft probably needs to tell its side of the story directly to Joe, because it sure ain't getting any help from the media. People have talked about MS indulging in similar behavior in the past. Yes, but did MS get away with any of this? The answer is: No.
animositysomina
on Oct 24, 2008
shark47, MS did not get away with that because it was a monopoly, and Apple is not (yet) Mike and Waethorn, your picking on non-replaceable MBA battery doesn't make any sense, because you can buy an external MBA battery like this one: http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_charger.php
shark47
on Oct 24, 2008
animosity, Apple does have a monopoly, especially in the portable media player market. Whether they're illegally leveraging it is a matter of discussion and obviously your opinions will depend on which side of the fence you are. If the company is ever convicted, it will be in Europe first. The Democrats here will be busy going after the oil companies. I think that will only enhance the company's reputation in the media. If this were ever to happen, the media will portray Apple as the victim of bad European laws and the same people who want the US to be more like Europe (oh, France is so cool with its wine and fine dining!) will finally detest Europe.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 24, 2008
Source of amusement 2 for the day. People will actually vigorously defend the brain dead idea of sealing a Lithium Polymer battery inside the case of a $2,500 laptop so that the company founder's fetish against case seams doesn't look quite so insane. And will do so in the context of being able to use that computer on a trip in comparison with a laptop that has not just interchangable batteries but the option for extra power batteries and an optional second battery slot. And they think that opening the sealed case with a screwdriver and voiding their warrantee is a perfectly fine solution that doesn't bother users Or that carrying around a 3rd party external battery pack is such a good solution that the sealed battery is a good idea Thanks guys. I needed a good laugh. Next time I need a good laugh I'll ask you guys to tell me how the MBA's lack of ports is really a user benefit, too or how a two button mouse is too confusing for the users but 1 vs 2 vs 3 vs 4 finger gestures are simple. I'm sure you won't disappoint and I'll be rolling on the floor by the end of it.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 24, 2008
shark Actually Apple likely has multiple monopolies. And there's nothing wrong with having a monopoly on a market. It just means you have to comply with extra rules to make sure that you don't abuse that monopoly. Like, say, putting code into OS X that did nothing but keep it from being used on non-Apple hardware. Or restricting 3rd party businesses from developing applications that compete with those you make. Oh. Wait...
animositysomina
on Oct 24, 2008
shark47, Apple has the majority of MP3 player market, but it's lions share of the market is concentrated mostly in the US, and nowhere close to the total monopoly MS used to have in personal computers just about 10 yers ago. And with major sources of DRM-free music such as Amazon and Walmart I'd say good luck to European antitrust watchdogs trying to prove that iTunes somehow hurts consumers. Mike, what's the difference between carrying a spare battery for your Windows notebook and carrying an external battery for your MBA? In any case you haul one extra battery together with the notebook. So there seem to be no difference at all. Right? Or am I missing something?
anonymous
on Apr 27, 2009
I still can't believe their so ontime for the RC release, Gone are the Vista days i guess.
D Paul Hackett
on Nov 24, 2012

OK, so there are some features of Wind 8 that are holding back my work in history...mainly in Files. So, I think the Blog needs to continue, with my question: Can I take a Wind 8 PC and wipe it out and install from my CD Wind 7?

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