Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Will Cost be a Barrier?
According to a Dell executive, while windows 7 beats out vista in almost every aspect, the price itself could be a hindrance to people upgrading. When compared to windows XP and Vista the ASP (average selling price) for windows 7 is expected to be significantly higher. In these tough economic times it is to be considered that people do not want to put out money to upgrade an OS that many people still consider functional. As well at this price point it will likely delay the upgrading of government institutions as as well as schools.
Security Hole Found In Windows 7?
According to Chinese researchers at 360 security, a security hole has been discovered in Windows 7. This is described as the first zero-day vulnerability discovered in windows 7. Microsoft however has not issued a statement either confirming or denying this find, so this story could be proven wrong. Their is not much information available about the security hole, except that it is able to create blue screens when opening or closing windows due to incompatibility with old code from windows 3.1
The graphical interfaces system of Windows 7 RC contains old codes from Windows 3.1 where security is not considered when developed. When Microsoft optimizes the graphical interfaces of Windows 7, the incompatibility with old codes leads the system to blue screen.
Attackers will be able to firstly invade the System server of certain object to launch the attack, or to make a potential opportunity for a second attack. Thus, the security hole is a greater threat for the firm and government customers who’re using Windows 7 RC.
More information can be found here
What i’m really wondering is.. must we still deal with windows 3.1 code.. can’t we put it behind us?
Microsoft Confirms Launch for the Holidays
Microsoft has confirmd that windows 7 is on track for a holiday release. It looks like microsoft is shooting for a december launch date so they can capitalize on the holiday shopping blitz, so far the rc1 status and feedback seem to be good so nothing is getting delayed. Time will tell if they will make their deadline but so far rc1 seems very stable so it seems like this deadline is very possible.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/May09/05-11TechEd09PR.mspx
No WGA in Windows 7
With windows7, Microsoft has decided to do away with Windows genuine advantage, well not really, but it has been renamed to the not so offensive Windows Activation Technologies. Unlike with vista, in windows 7 you can simply tell it you will activate later and it will stop bothering you, at least for awhile. They have removed the kill switch from Windows 7, so that if a pirated copy is detected it will not kill windows, it will simply nag you and show you the benefits to having a registered copy.
Tags: WGA, Windows 7 non genuine
RC 1 Is Officially Here
After much anticipation Microsoft has officially released Windows 7 rc1, this brings us one step closer to general launch of this much anticipated replacement for windows vista. The release candidate does not expire until June 1st 2010 that should give everyone plenty of time to play with it and have fun.
The Final requirements.. do you make the cut?
The final requirements for windows 7 are out. Unless you haven’t purchased a new pc in years this should be no problem for you.
• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Unlike windows Vista, for windows 7 the requirements remain the same for all version.
If you want to run windows XP mode (which will allow you to use older XP programs) you will need at least 2 gigs of ram, as well as an additional 15 gigs of HD space.. plus a CPU that supports virtualization.
Overall these requirements should not be to hard to meet unless you are still trying to get by on your old p3.
“Some” Windows 7 RC build 7100 contains a trojan
We don’t like to say we told you so, but WE DID!!! in fact we even received some readers comments saying we are *#@% heads for telling users not to download Leaked builds.
Some Leaked versions of Windows 7 have been found to contain Trojans, as Windows 7 is one of the hottest topics on the Internet of late, and many many people downloading illegal copies of Windows 7 is was quite clear that someone would edit / modify the build to insert a Trojan / Backdoor.
Windows 7 virus
If you are one of these “IDIOTS” who downloaded a leaked version please check the MD5 hash and make sure it matches the ones below:
- Windows 7 RC Build 7100 x86 is 8867C13330F56A93944BCD46DCD73590
- Windows 7 RC Build 7100 x64 is 98341af35655137966e382c4feaa282d
Do not stress Avast anti virus has updated their database to catch this Trojan, you can download Avast Anti virus for Windows 7 here
Windows 7 RC will be publicly available very shorty(5th of may) so i ask that you just wait until then to download Microsoft Windows 7. Anyway as you can see we were not joking when we asked you to be careful if downloading leaked versions of Windows 7.
EDIT: Kaspersky has also updated their database to catch this Trojan and clean your PC.
Tags: Avast Windows 7, Windows 7 backdoor, Windows 7 Trojan, Windows 7 virus
Pirated copies to receive updates
Microsoft has made a fair effort in the past to ensure that people using pirated versions of windows albeit Windows XP or Windows vista have not been able to download updates and hotfixes, while not entirely foolproof Microsoft have tried many different avenues to prevent theft.
Windows 7 will still contain the famous “Genuine Advantage Tool” a revised addition, but will still allow for certain updates to occur for non-genuine Windows 7 users. Microsoft’s Paul Cooke who works on security measures for Windows 7 has reviled that Windows 7 non-genuine users will still be able to update their operating systems using the Automatic update tool.
Microsoft has always offered “Selective Downloads / Updates” and these will remain only for paying customers. One has to wonder why Microsoft have gone down this path, as they are almost promoting pirated versions.
Tags: Pirated copies windows 7, Windows 7 non genuine, Windows 7 updates
Nvidia GT300
Great news for Nvidia fanboys, some details of Nvida’s upcoming GT300 have been leaked and from all current reports the Nvidia GT300 will boast 512 shader processors which is double the current amount available on single board GPU’s to date. While the full GT300 specs have not been released as of yet some details have show up over hardware-infos.com you can read the article here. The GT300 should also be using DDR5 memory that has blistering transfer speeds.
Windows 7 will benefit greatly with this Video card from Nvidia some would even class it as overkill but the gaming community will be licking their lips with this news. With DirectX 11 being included with Windows 7 it would not surprise anyone if the Nvidia GT300 was the first GPU to be fully Directx 11 complaint.
Tags: Nvidia GT300
Windows 7 DirectX 11 is easy
A few game production studios including Dice the developer of the Frostbite Engine that was best known for its Battlefield 2 franchise have confirmed that it only took a few hours to update their game engines from Directx 9 / Directx 10 to Directx 11.
Frostbite Engine
Johan Anderson, Rendering Architect at DICE has stated that the upgrade to the new Directx 11 code only took 3-4 hours and was as simple as replacing strings of code within the game engine code. This is great news for game developers who are considering developing PC games and apps for Windows 7. The future of DirectX 11 is looking bright, now all we need are some Video Cards capable of rendering in DirectX11. ATI & Nvidia are hard at work producing DirectX 11 video cards as we speak, some articles going around on the web at the moment indicate that there will be Directx 11 video cards on the market by the end of October 2009.
