Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Rights Extended

Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Rights Extended

Author JoeDigital | 12.07.2010 | Category Computers, Windows

It was announced today that Microsoft would extend the downgrade rights from windows 7 to windows XP for another 10 years. If that is right it means that the Windows XP extended support would need to be further extended to cover this new extended downgrade rights. This comes as no surprise as Microsoft has extended the EOL for Windows XP many times amass the large number of corporate
customers that refuse to “upgrade” to Windows 7 (or Vista).

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179109/Microsoft_extends_Windows_XP_downgrade_rights_until_2020

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Microsoft giving away another 777 copies of Windows 7

Author cobster | 15.10.2009 | Category Windows

Microsoft Netherlands is giving away 777 copies of Windows 7 to people who live in the small town of Zevenhuizen, which literally translates to “Seven Houses.” They will be getting an English-language copy of Windows 7 Ultimate with a license code valid for one Windows PC. In fact, one of the requirements is that you must be in possession of a PC with Windows as the primary OS; those using mainly Mac OS or Linux can’t participate. Another requirement is that the PC gets a green light from the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. Microsoft employees and those under 18 years of age not included.

Zevenhuizen residents must opt in over at zevenhuizengaatover.nl. The site explains that there are four options to choose from for getting Windows 7: pick up a copy, bring the computer over to have it installed, have Microsoft come pick up the PC and bring it back with everything installed within 48 hours, or have Microsoft install it for them at home. Microsoft is also offering to back up files (but not software) and to install Windows Live programs as well as Microsoft Security Essentials. Users are on their own for reinstalling their other applications.

Signup on the actual website ends tomorrow, though signup in person is possible till Tuesday, October 20. Actual Windows 7 installs will take place from October 17, 2009 to October 23, 2009, meaning these residents have the option to get the operating system early; much like those who choose to buy PCs from small custom PC makers as of earlier this week.

Microsoft’s obsession with the number seven for Windows 7 marketing became obvious in September 2009 when it debuted a Windows 7 sweepstakes on Twitter over at @mswindows with the #WinWin7 hash tag. Their most recent giveaway was for tickets to Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show in LA.

Microsoft claims 200,000 people in the Netherlands have already tried the beta version of Windows 7, but now it’s time to promote the RTM version, and this is one of the ways to do it. Microsoft has already given away the RTM version of Windows 7 to its faithful testers, to event attendees, to launch party hosts, and so on. The software giant is going to keep at it for the next few months though, so if you still don’t have your free copy, don’t make any rash decisions to move to Zevenhuizen.

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Microsoft’s Bill Gates Supports Technology in Agriculture to Fight Hunger

Author cobster | 15.10.2009 | Category Windows

Farming has the power to lift up lives of the poor, says Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and co-chair of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is funding agricultural research for developing countries. Gates spoke this morning at The World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Helping the poorest small holder farmers to get food from field to market is the single most powerful lever to ending hunger and poverty,” Gates says.

But Gates fears that solutions to solving the world’s food crisis are being endangered by division. On the one side are groups who want to increase technological improvements in crop production, including biotechnology, and on the other side are those fighting for sustainability.

“They say you have to choose, but I believe it is a false choice,” Gates says. “I believe we can have both.”

The next green revolution must be guided by technology, Gates explains. “When productivity is high, people can farm on less land,” he says. “We have to develop more crops that can be grown in a drought. But we will never get there without a continuous and urgent science based approach.”

The Gates Foundation is collaborating both public and private partners around the world to support a wide range of crop production methods, including some transgenic approaches. Gates says he was inspired by the work by Dr. Norman Borlaug, father of the green revolution.

“We can be the generation that sees Dr. Borlaug’s dream fulfilled, a world free from hunger,” Gates says.

For more information on The Gates Foundation work on crop production, read the upcoming issues of Farm Journal magazine.

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Windows 7 release date

Author itzco | 05.06.2009 | Category Windows

Everybody is wondering when is going to be the realize date of Windows 7, for many reasons a lot of people think it will be on October 23, but the official date will be on Oct 22. Microsoft said that they face tremendous pressure with the release. They have 1 great new and 1 bad news because of the realize date, the great new is Windows 7 will make the lucrative holiday shopping seasons and the bad new is that they will miss the lucrative back-to-school shopping season.

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Window 7

Author itzco | 06.05.2009 | Category Windows

For all who want to preview the new version of windows, “window 7” is now available at Microsoft for download. Also, “Microsoft is suggesting that novice users not download the build as no tech support will be provided. Customers who download the build will have to burn the ISO onto a disk.”

The installation minimums are suggested at 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of ram and 16 GB of free disk space.

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Support is over for Windows XP

Author JoeDigital | 07.04.2009 | Category Windows

windows xp support over

At long last after many delays and extensions Microsoft will stop main stream support for Windows XP and Office 2003. What does this mean for the corporate world? more then likley that you will be forced to use Vista (since the only place we know if that will still XP PRO with their systems in Dell). So that leaves us with 3 options.

1) Keep using XP until its dead and no longer patched
2) Change over to Vista
3) Wait for Windows 7 to be released next year

Microsoft has extended the support life of XP before.. we hope they will do it again in fears of corporate backlash. One should only hope.

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Windows Touch

Author itzco | 26.03.2009 | Category Windows

Do you live everyday with your Ipod or touchscreen? but you arrive at home and you have a normal PC, so you feel so bore, because you only can use your mouse or keyboard. According to reports on the BBC website, Microsoft see Windows Touch becoming “a first class way to interact with your PC without mouse and keyboard”.

Windows 7 is tipped to be out at the start of 2010.

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MS Silverlight 3 in beta

Author JoeDigital | 24.03.2009 | Category Computers, Windows

The problems with Netflix users encounter while streaming videos is brought into two categories: (1) People who want to be Netflix customers can’t enjoy of the service because they were Mac users, and (2) those who CAN be Netflix users don’t really like to do updates by reinstalling them.

This is what President of Netflix Web Engineering Kevin McEntee talked about, among other things, in the first day of MIX 2009 when he gave a speech on online streaming.

But perhaps the problems mentioned above were meant to precede the great news that is the Microsoft Silverlight 3. The software, which is still in its beta version, was introduced by McEntree as one that is capable of solving all the problems brought about by Netflix. A few more upgrades and we might actually see these things happen.

Also, Silverlight 3 is a developer’s tool, so users are free to write programs for both Mac and PC. For all these reasons, MS Silverlight might actually be a solution we can all look forward to.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, silverlight

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Internet Explorer 8

Author JoeDigital | 22.03.2009 | Category Computers, Windows

Since the release of Internet Explorer 7, it wasn’t hard to spot that Microsoft was already working on a couple of beta versions for IE 8. And now it’s here, with its own set of ups and downs that were noticed by many reviews.

On the up side, IE 8 has got a lot of new features going for it. It uses the traditional IE interface, so no problems there. IE 8, however, has a much better privacy mechanism which allows you prevent the storage of any details of your browsing while it is activated. You also get thumbnails of images relevant to your search when you use the built-in search box. Tabs are also color coded to indicate which ones are related to each other.

On the other hand, Microsoft has drawn a list of websites that are not compatible with IE 8, so unless the compatibility mode is activated (to go back to IE 7), the websites look funny or are just blank. While this is automatic for the sites listed, the problem is that if there are incompatible sites not in this list users tend to forget that you can just click on the compatibility button to fix a non-working website and just mistake these sites to be down, unavailable or something.

But if you know these sort of things and you think the perks are worth it, then the IE 8 is a good browser in general.

Technorati Tags: Internet explorer 8, IE 8

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Windows 7 Upgrades

Author JoeDigital | 17.02.2009 | Category Computers, Windows

With the different versions of the much awaited Windows 7 from Microsoft, it makes simple Windows users like us wonder what we’d have to go through just to be able to take that step of a supposedly much better OS. After all, Microsoft has been pushing us to tag along the upgrade train, like when they phased out the XP from stores during the Vista era. We could at least be assured a comfortable ride.

While things aren’t really all that clear yet, one thing is for sure: those who are using Windows Vista or XP can be assured of being able to upgrade right from your present Windows with a much appreciated discount. But the manner of upgrading will obviously vary from version to version.

Vista Home Premium, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate users are shoe-ins for an easy upgrade, as you can directly upgrade to Windows 7 while retaining present features and settings and gaining the exclusive ones from the new system. So far, other Vista users and Windows XP users will have to re-install their Windows, which means losing files and everything. But if the upgrade is worth it; why not?

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