By any standards, Microsoft’s marketing campaign for Windows 7 is much more modest compared to that of Windows Vista. The difference in financial resources allocated to each platform can be explained by a shift in focus as far as the message accompanying each operating system goes. With Windows Vista, Microsoft attempted to convince the world that the OS delivered the Wow factor, and it spent a reportedly $500 million attempting to do just that, and some might argue, failing to do it in fact. For Windows 7, the Redmond company is driving home the idea of absolute simplicity. The video advertisements offered by Microsoft to Switzerland customers are designed for this specific purpose.

Just watch the videos embedded at the bottom of this article, courtesy of Rob Margel, working in Windows Web Services and Content team in the UK. The message users can see at the end apparently reads “Windows 7 is designed to simplify your everyday tasks, work the way you want, and make new things possible.”

This is exactly why the very concepts and messages behind the Windows 7 video ads are as simple as the idea they need to sell to customers. Whether it be sticking mail into a mail box, taking out the garbage or walking the dog, all simple tasks, can be performed even easier than what users were accustomed to. The s…

It might look and feel like Windows XP, it might sport a similar graphical user interface and even be able to run XP software, but fact is that an operating system developed by Rain Forest Wind Guangdong Computer Technology Co., Ltd. is anything else but Windows Vista’s predecessor. Ylmf OS is designed as a Windows XP clone based on version 9.10 of the Ubuntu distribution of the Linux open source operating system. The makers of Ylmf OS revealed that the Windows XP’s GUI was adopted in an effort to allow users of Microsoft’s proprietary platform to immediately start running Ubuntu Linux without needing to adapt to a new operating system. An obvious downside to Ylmf OS is the fact that the release is Chinese only, at least at this point in time. Available for download localized exclusively in Chinese, Ylmf OS is bound to serve only users living in China and speaking the local language. No indications were offered by the team behind the project of future releases or support for additional languages. According to third-party reports, the people building Ylmf OS are in fact a group of Chinese pirates that were previously distributing a pirated copy of Windows XP, and which were tackled by the local authorities and Microsoft. It is clear that by mimicking Windows XP’s GUI as much as possible…

In addition to the performance enhancements built into its latest iteration of the Windows client, Microsoft is offering additional tools for download for customers and partners that want to squeeze all the extra juice from the OS. Case in point, the Windows Performance Analysis Tools, also referred to as the Windows Performance Toolkit, was released ahead of Windows 7, and included as an integral part of the operating system’s software development kit. Microsoft underlines that while “the WPT Kit is useful to a broad audience,” the tools will serve better specific audiences including “system builders, hardware manufacturers, driver developers, and general application developers.”

End users are missing from the enumeration above, and for good reason. The Windows 7 RTM Performance Analysis Tools are, in fact, designed to ensure a high level of hardware and software performance before the finalized products and solutions make it into the hands of home users. In this sense, the Windows Performance Toolkit is set up to permit the analysis and measuring of both system and application performance not just on Windows 7, but also Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008.

“Windows Performance Tools are designed for analysis of a wide range of performance prob…

Mozilla is moving forward with the upcoming releases for its currently supported versions of Firefox. Ahead of Christmas early adopters got the chance to download and start test driving the Beta development milestones of Firefox 3.5.7 and Firefox 3.0.17. Both downloads are currently being served through Mozilla’s FTP servers, as well as through each browser version’s update mechanism, as long as the users are part of the Beta testing pool. Users should bear in mind that Firefox 3.5.7 Beta and Firefox 3.0.17 Beta are pre-release software at this point in time, and will continue to be so until early next year, and as such are not ready for deployment into production environments. Mozilla enumerated the new additions to Firefox 3.5.7 Beta: “Firefox 3.5.7 fixes the following issues found in previous versions of Firefox 3.5: fixed a common stability issue; fixed a problem with how updates were being presented to users.” Believe it or not, but the same two problems are also resolved with the delivery of Firefox 3.0.17, according to the company. Mozilla delivered Firefox 3.5.6 and Firefox 3.0.16 in mid-December 2009, essentially releasing security and stability updates for v3.5.x and v3.0.x of the open source browser. Shortly after that, Mozilla noted that it had adjusted schedule to…

Microsoft isn’t exactly done with the delivery of the second Beta build for its next generation development platform and tools. In this regard, the Redmond company has now made available for download new Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 releases packaged as images designed to run inside virtual machines. Customers looking to test drive Visual Studio 2010 in their environments, but which fail to find any appeal in the effort synonymous with the actual VS deployment, can now turn to the virtualized copies of the development platform set up to integrate with either Hyper-V or Virtual PC.

“Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate simplifies solution development, lowering risk and increasing return. The virtual machine image in this download contains both Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta2 and the requisite trial software,” Microsoft stated.

The Redmond company is offering three massive downloads: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 Image; Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 virtual image for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V; and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 virtual image for Windows Virtual PC. They ar…

Every year, Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference is a key event for developers around the world, but due to the costs associated, many devs might not be able to attend the event. Microsoft has, of course, made a tradition of offering content from the conference on the PDC dedicated website each year, but there are additional events designed to deliver the highlights from the developer get-together live. Devs living in Nashville will be able to attend MSDN Events Presents:Lap Around PDC featuring Steve Ballmer, scheduled to take place Wednesday, January 20, 2010 8:30 AM - Wednesday, January 20, 2010 5:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada) at the Vanderbilt University - Student Life Center, Commodore Ballroom in Nashville Tennessee.

“At this special FREE event we will cover the latest Microsoft technologies and exciting announcements from PDC09 and deliver over 16 sessions presented by Microsoft, Partners, MVPs and Community Leaders. The keynote will be delivered by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and will cover Microsoft’s three screens and the cloud strategy,” revealed Jon Box, an architect evangelist in Developer & Platform Evangelism with Microsoft. “Microsoft is releasing more than 25 products and frameworks over the next six months, more than at any other time. Our goal is to get you …

Users that have followed Windows 7 closely this holiday season know that Windows 7 discounts have been in short supply, with the company offering nothing more on top of the special deals related to the launch of the operating system. Still, there are ways in which customers can still access Windows 7 at a considerable discount compared to the retail prices. IT professionals, but not only, can take advantage of the TechNet Plus subscription which is available for $349. While $349 is indeed more expensive than even the high-end edition of Windows, while only being available for just one year, the TechNet Plus subscription offers access to all Windows 7 SKUs, and to additional software from Microsoft.

In addition, for a few more days, customers in the US can take advantage of a discount code provided by Microsoft in order to shave off no less than 28% from the full price of a the TechNet Plus subscription. However, those interested will need to hurry, as the special offering only lasts until the end of this year, which is just around the corner. The only downside to the software received through the TechNet Plus subscription is that usage is limited to testing, evaluation and training scenarios, with no deployments in productions environments.

“You have through December 31, …

Microsoft has confirmed officially a zero-day security vulnerability affecting Internet Information Services (IIS). The security hole was initially reported just ahead of Christmas on December 23rd, and the Redmond company provided the first response at the end of the past week. So far, the issue in question affects version 6 of IIS on a fully patched Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2; however, additional IIS releases might also be impacted. Jerry Bryant, Microsoft security program manager, notes that Microsoft is aware of the problem and that investigation into the matter has already been kicked off. At the same time, Bryant assured customers running IIS that it hasn’t detected any active attacks in the wild targeting the new 0-day flaw. “Our initial assessment shows that the IIS web server must be in a non-default, unsafe configuration in order to be vulnerable. An attacker would have to be authenticated and have write access to a directory on the web server with execute permissions which does not align with best practices or guidance Microsoft provides for secure server configuration. Customers using out of the box configurations and who follow security best practices are at reduced risk of being impacted by issues like this,” Bryant explained. The vulnerability identified in Microsoft…

With the advent of Windows 7, Microsoft built on the evolution of the platform’s search capabilities introduced in Windows Vista. Just like its predecessor, Windows 7 allows users to perform fast and seamless searches throughout the operating system, in Windows Explorer, as well as via the search box under the Start menu. Furthermore, locations such as Control Panel limit results returned to queries to topics specific of the computer’s settings. However, Microsoft notes that in some scenarios, Windows 7 search can deliver inaccurate results. “On a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you try to search for an item on the computer by using the Search programs and files box. However, the search results are not displayed correctly. Only the category headings of the categorized search results are displayed, such as Programs, Control Panel, and Documents. Additionally, if you click the displayed category headings, nothing happens,” the company noted. Searching the computer via the Search programs and files box means essentially entering queries in the box under the Start menu. Restarting the computer does nothing to resolve the incorrect results returned by Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. An update is not yet available from the Redmo…

Customers looking for a new access solution for their corporate network, or to upgrade from Intelligent Application Gateway will have a new product from Microsoft available in early 2010. Already released to manufacturing, Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 will start being offered to customers in early January 2010, Microsoft noted. The commercial version of Forefront UAG will be offered via the Volume Licensing Service Center, but the fact of the matter is that the solution is already available for download.

“UAG was first introduced in the second half of 2007 and its release is a significant milestone in over 2 year’s journey, creating a world-leading Access solution. Building on its predecessor, Intelligent Application Gateway, UAG enables remote access via managed and unmanaged PCs and mobile devices. It integrates a deep understanding of applications, the health state of end user devices, and the user’s identity for greater security and reduced management costs,” revealed a member of the Forefront UAG team.

Officially launched at the start of December 2009, together with Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG), UAG 2010 was only RTM’d in the second half of December. Subsequently, the Redmond company released an evaluation ver…