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Rivera unlocks all hidden features in Windows 7 M3

Nov. 10, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

Rafael Rivera has spent a busy few weeks fulfilling the dreams of Windows users everywhere and his latest tool is a magnum opus of sorts: The Blue Badge tool, which unlocks all hidden features in Windows 7 M3:

Last week, I revealed a weird protection scheme around some unfinished features in Windows 7 (build 6801). I provided a buggy tool to enable the new Taskbar, then teased everyone with other features such as gestures, panning, and Desktop Slideshow. It wasn’t intentional, I just needed some time to rework the unlocking tool, which went faster thanks to some code snippets from my Vize friend surrounding the headaches of TrustedInstaller and PendingFileRenameOperations.

As the dialog indicates, patched files are not backed up. I suggest all users back up. [See post for details.]

Right now, an x86 download is available. Raf tells me he’ll get the x64 version done today. Good stuff, man.

Discuss this Article 101

Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
"How does that disprove the benchmarking statistics?" It's not finished. They're testing a product that is a) not designed to be benchmarked yet, b) not complete, and c) the authors test on production computers, discrediting their actual skill in IT. Until it reaches Release Candidate stage, you can't judge it against currently-released production software. Release Candidate stages are designed to be code-complete, but not necessarily feature complete. The last changes will be minor UI polish. If you want an accurate comparison, compare it to Vista in the first pre-public-beta stage in its development, keeping in mind that Beta 2 and 3 were released to the general public (well, those that signed up to the Connect site anyway - Windows 7 isn't available through that channel yet either). The development process for Windows 7 has changed a lot anyway. A valid comparison might never be accomplished, unless you compare final products. Then again, since Windows 7 is just "Vista 2" in Mackies eyes, all the improvements they've made over the last couple of years to Windows Vista, both prior and post SP1, would've made an impact in Windows 7.
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>They're testing a product that is a) not designed to be benchmarked yet,<< Oh stop it. You're buying into the marketing spin. If the device can encode MP3's and run Photoshop, there's nothing special about timing how long it takes to do it. We accept Paul saying "It feels snappy", but we can't run a stopwatch to see what the numbers say? Get real. >>the authors test on production computers, discrediting their actual skill in IT.<< I don't even know what this means. Look, if the Win7 gets progressively faster through each release until RTM'd while adding features, then that's actually a positive and says a great deal about MS's programming skill. No one is saying that these numbers are going to be static. All they are saying is that "TO THIS POINT...it seems that MS has done little work on the underlying structure."
shark47
on Nov 10, 2008
And the idiocy continues...
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
This is from the Windows Team blog. To the critics of posting about the speed of a 'unfinished' OS: kindly shut up. At least the guys I linked to had the chops to give their readers some hard numbers. All the quotes on the Windows Blog are little more than subjective impressions. They don't even tell us what "decent battery life" is. >>I thought it might be nice to do a little round-up of what folks are saying about Windows 7 after today’s keynote here at the PDC in Los Angeles. I’d like to share some of the best ones we’ve found so far. <<“This loaner machine certainly doesn’t feel like it’s running pre-beta code. It’s wicked fast and eerily quiet thanks to a solid state drive. In a very long day’s worth of use it has yet to crash or display any of the flaky behavior you might expect from a beta.”>> <> http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2008/10/29/po...
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
"Oh stop it. You're buying into the marketing spin." "Look, if the Win7 gets progressively faster through each release until RTM'd while adding features, then that's actually a positive and says a great deal about MS's programming skill. No one is saying that these numbers are going to be static. All they are saying is that "TO THIS POINT...it seems that MS has done little work on the underlying structure."" Thanks for backing up my point. Benchmarking this pre-beta will have no bearing on the actual outcome of the product as shipped. "I don't even know what this means." If an IT company is going to go out of their way to blow away production IT computers just to test a pre-beta OS (which has little purpose), then they're in the wrong business. Posting that kind of information without some sort of disclaimer (they should've said it was in a test environment, which they didn't - it was on *production* computers) is just plain stupid, and is worse when you consider some moron might think this is going to give you a better experience than Vista as-is. YOU JUST DON'T DO THAT, and I question their abilities as far as any computer skills go. They must suck at IT.
lotsamystuff
on Nov 10, 2008
"Oh stop it. You're buying into the marketing spin." No, s/he's just demonstrating, once again, that you can praise a Microsoft product all you want, but any criticism will be met with instant denunciation from the WinJihadists. IOW, you can say "it feels snappier" or "it runs better" or "it looks prettier, and my helper cat loves it", but if you say anything even remotely negative (or, gawd forbid, includes actual "facts"), you're obviously a MS-hater and should have your opinion squashed as quickly as possible.
subzerohitman721
on Nov 10, 2008
Wow. Ocean, congrats. You not only jumped the shark, you leaped over the ocean and every shark contained within. Your credibility is now on par with President Bush. We're talking Milestone 3 code for Windows Seven and you're already to condemn the product? Wow, thanks for the great reviewing and commentary there. There is still a lot of work to be done before we can honestly give this thing a grade. Seriously, take a step back and chill out. Wait for the betas or at least a Release Candidate, when its close to something resembling a finished product. Everytime you speak, it lends credence to the whole "iCabal" theory. A lot of the guys and gals in here barking the extremes do. Even I'm taking all of the Windows Seven M3 reviews with a whopping grain of salt. I'm even being completely openminded about SnowLeopard. Paul, I have to agree Master 3 wholeheartedly that a lot of moderation is needed. Some of these guys just need to be blocked from blogging. Especially the instigators just looking to piss people off and not add to the discussion.
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
@Ocean: Let's see cross-platform application benchmarks between Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, both as-is. Apple: *crickets*
DRWAM
on Nov 10, 2008
I think that you're all confused. What does this have to do with my $400 Vista SP1 laptop?
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>you're already to condemn the product?<< Did I say that? Because its not true. Read some of my posts from the day Windows 7 was given to the convention attendees up till now and you'll see I've been looking forward to this release. Of course I'm sure you skipped those posts. They don't fit in with your conspiracy theory about people who criticize Vista...
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>Let's see cross-platform application benchmarks between Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, both as-is.<< That would make for some interesting discussion. >>instigators just looking to piss people off << It seems like a couple of people are *talking* about test results and the value or lack of value of said results. A perfectly legitimate discussion. Others (subzerointelligence) are complaining that a technical discussion is going on because it doesn't cast MS in the best light. I'd say that it's these people who A, Need their own blogs B. Are trending toward acting like enemies of free speech. Paul sent me an email and said "Keep it civil, keep it about relevant technology". Master and Subzero are breaking that by trying to make the conversation about *ME* instead of contributing the discussion or just ignoring it.
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>What does this have to do with my $400 Vista SP1 laptop?<< See if it will run Win7 here: http://www.itworld.com/windows/57566/find-out-if-your-pc-can-run-windows-7
DRWAM
on Nov 10, 2008
Thanks Ocean. I'm going to wait for the MS product since I don't want to sign my life away for the Infoworld app which is based on the current knowledge of very little. But thanks for the link. Besides, I almost never upgrade my OSes. The expense is usually not worth it, even though I can write it off! IMO of course. Doc
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
DRWAM, I'm about to get a PC with Vista 64 pre-installed. I found a really nice price, but I'm wondering I should wait for black Friday or not. If we were six months closer to the release of Win7, I'd wait, but not a year. I think I'll be getting a netbook for portability in the coming year...I may wait and get 7 on that one...
nowimnothing
on Nov 10, 2008
Maybe I'm a little dense here, but I'm seeing two totally different things being reviewed here. 1) The operating system and generally usability is snappier and more responsive than Vista. This was a fairly well-accepted problem with Vista, I think, and if this is an indication of things to come, then great. 2) Benchmarks of tasks that don't have anything to do with the operating system - just tasks that a computer can do - showed that Windows 7 M3 (a pre-release build about a year off from release) has nearly identical scores to Windows Vista. I don't recall there being a lot of complaints about those benchmarks in Vista (once the graphics, etc. vendors finally caught up and gave us stable drivers, at least). So the fact that they're roughly equal in a pre-release build sounds like a good thing to me. What's the problem, again?
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
Great post NoWim...
DRWAM
on Nov 10, 2008
Ocean, Definitely wait for Black Friday, but also check at dealnews.com That's where I found a $500 off coupon for my nephew's HP laptop, a 17 in model that I beefed up with the works, including Vista 64 bit and RAID 0 7200 RPM HD's as well as the better video card. He loves it. It's not very lightweight, but he's almost my size, so he can carry a little more than most.
shark47
on Nov 10, 2008
"What's the problem, again?" No problem, except that those benchmarks were used by one of the two articles that Ocean posted that Windows 7 sucks. In the end, this is pre-beta software and I've indicated earlier too that some of the features that Paul seems to be getting excited about may or may not make it into the final release. Nevertheless, getting excited about possible features is different from using benchmarking studies on a pre-Beta software to draw conclusions about the performance of the final release. What does all this have to do with the geocentric model? Only Ocean knows.
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>this is pre-beta software<< Question: Since it and Vista have the same performance does that mean that Vista was released way too early? I'm kidding. :)
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
>>dealnews.com<< Thanks. I've got the Fetch Text Url add on for Firefox, so I just highlighted the name, right clicked and it popped up in another tab. Neat site, thanks!
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
Heres a public service announcement for the users of this site from DRWAM's site: >> Dell PowerEdge SC440 Intel Dual Core 2GHz Server for $199 + $20 s&h The Dell PowerEdge SC440 Pentium Dual-Core 2GHz Server costs $199 plus $19.99 for shipping at Dell Small Business.<< No preinstalled OS, but not a problem for users of this site.
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
"The Dell PowerEdge SC440 Pentium Dual-Core 2GHz Server" If it's not server hardware, it's not a real server. Xeon's only, please.
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
"Since it and Vista have the same performance does that mean that Vista was released way too early?" Ask the people that upgraded from Tiger to Leopard when Leopard shipped how relevent that is.
whiplash55
on Nov 10, 2008
I have to say for a pre-beta this OS is amazingly stable. It feels a lot snappier on the machine I'm trying it on than Vista. (Thinkpad R60 core duo) The battery life is much improved and it handles most programs I've put on it. BTY Avira AV works great on it as does Malwarebytes antispywre. I wouldn't be surprised to see this released by June of next year.
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
Xeon for $100 more...
DRWAM
on Nov 10, 2008
Ocean, check the site a few times each day. You may be surprised at what prices the find, as well as mistakes. Newegg had a 32GB USB flash drive for $29 for a few minutes, until they sold out. I had it in my basket but took too long looking for more stuff and it was out of stock, or they figured out the error and hacked my deal. Bummer. Now it's $99 or $79.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 10, 2008
Waethorn "If it's not server hardware, it's not a real server. Xeon's only, please." Or Itaniums. (I'd be quite happy with a nice HP Integrity Superdome with 64 dual core Itaniums if somebody felt like loaning me one...)
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
"you can say "it feels snappier" or "it runs better" or "it looks prettier, and my helper cat loves it", but if you say anything even remotely negative (or, gawd forbid, includes actual "facts"), you're obviously a MS-hater and should have your opinion squashed as quickly as possible." Oh please. You make the same argument against anyone on here who says anything negative against Apple. "Xeon for $100 more..." Just so you know, Xeon 3000-series processors sell for the same price as equivalent spec Core 2 Duo's/Quad's (a Xeon 3320 = Core 2 Quad Q9300, for instance). The difference is that Xeon's are validated for server use, while the desktop version Core 2 processors aren't. They both use LGA 775 sockets, and are interchangeable between motherboards (usually desktop boards will mistake Xeon's as their equivalent Core processor and vice versa, depending on BIOS version). Xeon 3000-series are single-processor only - a part of the LGA 775 platform design. Xeon 5000-series are similar, but are designed for multi-processor use. That said, it would be kind of a joke nowadays to get a server without VT support, or less than 4GB of RAM and a decent-sized hard drive (no less than 2 identical drives is the only realistic option for a server). I like the Intel S3210SH motherboards. That's why I sell them in small business servers that I build. BTW: If you run Windows Server 2008 w/ Hyper-V, or Hyper-V Server 2008, what is the minimum realistic amount of RAM to designate to the parent partition (forget the child partitions altogether)? You can run Windows Server 2008 on 512MB, just like Vista. 1GB more reasonable? Keep in mind, the parent partition is only designed only to run the Hypervisor and nothing else.
Waethorn
on Nov 10, 2008
@mike: Itaniums are overrated. I'd rather set up a performance cluster with HPC Server on Xeon's. Better performance for less money, plus x86-compatibility. The NVIDIA Tesla's look kind of interesting too.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 10, 2008
Waethorn Depends on what you're using them for. Now, as to HPC Server I've got a very different wishlist but the key there is a nice infiniband network...
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 10, 2008
Of course, a nice Cray CX1 http://www.cray.com/products/CX1.aspx would also suffice for HPC work but since SC08 conference http://sc08.supercomputing.org/ is next week in Austin, I'd expect some new toys for that market to show up in time for Michael Dell's keynote and the "Keep SC Wierd" reception.
Lindy
on Nov 10, 2008
"Let's see cross-platform application benchmarks between Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, both as-is." Why wait lets do Vista and Leopard now. I suggest the following tests..... 1. Boot up speed. 2. Shut down speed. 3. File copy performance. 4. Battery life on a notebook. 5. Elevated privilege ease of use. 6. Ease of connecting to a wireless network. 7. Out of the box ability/ease of use to manipulate photos and video. 8. How well iTunes works on each platform:) 9. Lastly do a independent customer satisfaction survey. Windows 7 right now is Vista finished. They could ship it tomorrow, since it is a service pack at this point, and patch its bugs via windows update. Its NO surprise that benchmarks show no difference compared to Vista at this point. That said MS has 10-12 months to approve things. No one should judge Windows 7 at this point, give it time to bake some more.
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
@subzerohitman721: "Wow. Ocean, congrats. You not only jumped the shark, you leaped over the ocean and every shark contained within. Your credibility is now on par with President Bush." The thing is, you have to jump the shark to keep up with this blog. It jumped the shark many moons ago. Over 25% of posts are anti-Apple or about Apple. Now there are some serious credibility issues right there.
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
@webguy3000: "Yeah, the Slashdot crowd is always pretty unbiased when it comes to operating systems..." And you think the MS fanboys here, and the blog's author aren't? This has to be one of the most biased places on the net.
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
@master3: "How F'ing arrogant can you get!" You forgot a question mark at the end. That's a question. So you need to put one there. You can do so either before or after the exclamation mark. I thought all you guys used Word. The grammar checker not helping you enough?
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
@mikegalos: "you'd finally found a less biased source than the ones you usually post here when you cited The Onion" Any site, including 'The Onion', is less biased than this one.
Lindy
on Nov 10, 2008
"I like the Intel S3210SH motherboards." Great mobo indeed. Throw in a quad Xeon, 8gigs of RAM and 4 SATA drives in a RAID 5. VMware ESXi (free) runs like a champ. I setup a Windows 2003 R2 DC, 2003 R2 File server, 2003 R2 Terminal Server (for quickbooks enterprise), and a 2003 R2 x64 Exchange 2007 all on that one box in VM's for a client. A small company in a box. The hardware is pretty cheap, build a second one, backup and restore the VM's to the second box for a offline standby.
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
What?! No post today about Microsoft copying Apple's iTunes store format? Microsoft, working hard at copying others' ideas (tm).
tayme
on Nov 10, 2008
"did I miss anything" Evidently not! I see that: -Ocean is still hijacking Paul's blog. -robertsjoe is still being an irritating troll. -mikegalos is still arrogant. -Waethorn is still trying to convince everybody that Canada is an actual country, and not just the 51st state of the USA. -DRWAM is still talking about that awesome sub $400 laptop. Which, by the way...is damn nice laptop and runs great! My sister thanks you! The only thing that I think is missing is shark47 and bettieblu insulting each others' friends and families. Come on people...get over it. They are just computers. --tayme
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
"did I miss anything" Not much. - The blog posts are extremely biased. - Apple hatred, bashing and general anti-Apple posts are still a high priority here. - The Microsoft fanboys are one-eyed, one-sided and still refusing to see the truth in many matters. They post one thing, but when shown another side, they completely ignore it. That's the definition of fanboy right there. - The blog's fanboys, mikegalos et al are still pushing the Microsoft lines. What the Borg says, the little borgs mimick. Just sheep towing the company lines.
runner7775
on Nov 10, 2008
Wow tayme is right guys, they're just computers! And to everyone complaining about the content of this blog, it is Paul's and he can blog about what he wants. Btw, have had some good experiences with the beta of windows 7, interface felt very responsive.
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
@runner7775: "And to everyone complaining about the content of this blog, it is Paul's and he can blog about what he wants." Of course it is and he can. But that doesn't mean he can just post Apple-bashing posts, and go on and on about it, in a biased manner, without anyone pointing it out. One can't go through life so oblivious to facts with others helping them along the way. @tayme: "Come on people...get over it. They are just computers" Yes, just some a lot better than others.
sharp65
on Nov 10, 2008
The irony in some of your posts is hillarious, I really do hope you go back and read them after you post. It's good for a great laugh. If you hate it so much then why do you need to feel the need to troll? Is macrumors not good enough? Up for a challenge?
robertsjoe
on Nov 10, 2008
" If you hate it so much then why do you need to feel the need to troll?" Because I can't believe some of the outrageous tabloid sensationalism littering the posts and comments. Not to mention the hypocrisy of the author and the follower fanboys.
Ocean
on Nov 10, 2008
Why do you guys talk about *people*? Computers are so much more interesting.
Mum
on Nov 10, 2008
Will someone please point out how hardcore pc fans differ from hardcore mac fans.
Waethorn
on Nov 11, 2008
"I setup a Windows 2003 R2 DC, 2003 R2 File server, 2003 R2 Terminal Server (for quickbooks enterprise), and a 2003 R2 x64 Exchange 2007 all on that one box in VM's for a client. A small company in a box. The hardware is pretty cheap, build a second one, backup and restore the VM's to the second box for a offline standby." Or you could just use SBS, accomplish the same thing, make it easier on yourself, while making more money on managed services, and save your client thousands upon thousands of dollars in software fees. My assumptions were correct: You DO suck at IT. You seem to be pretty good at fleecing customers though. Do you work for Apple by any chance? "Waethorn is still trying to convince everybody that Canada is an actual country, and not just the 51st state of the USA." No - Iraq is. Just ask Bush. "Because I can't believe some of the outrageous tabloid sensationalism littering the posts and comments." Yours notwithstanding, I'm sure.
Waethorn
on Nov 11, 2008
"DRWAM is still talking about that awesome sub $400 laptop. Which, by the way...is damn nice laptop and runs great!" Straight from the horse's mouth. Vista runs great on a new $400 laptop. Any Leopard love [sic] from Cupertino at that price? Apple: *crickets*
shark47
on Nov 11, 2008
"What the Borg says, the little borgs mimick. Just sheep towing the company lines. " :-) You have a nice imagination. You should make a movie. You might become famous like Michael Moore. OT: BTW Eric Schmidt seems to have played his cards well. If he becomes the US CTO, that might not be good news for Microsoft there and may be the best thing to happen to Apple and Google.
Dipsh t Admin
on Nov 11, 2008
So Ocean, first you say: "Attack the argument, not the messenger." Later, you say: "subzerointelligence" Care to reconcile?

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