The maturity of the ecosystem of software and hardware products built around Windows Vista contributed not only to the evolution of the operating system's level of performance, along with Service Pack 1, but also to making irrelevant the vast majority of incompatibility problems which affected the RTM build of the platform. With the introduction of the Windows Vista Compatibility Center, Microsoft revealed that in excess of 9,000 products are fully compatible with the client, including over 5,500 devices and more than 3,500 software programs. In addition to the center, the Redmond company has also made available for download the &ldqu... [read more >>] Microsoft has made a new release of the Windows operating system available for download for free. The Redmond company is offering the gold bits of the next iteration of its Windows embedded platform via the Download Center as of October 8, 2008. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 was packaged as WES2009Eval.iso, an offering aimed exclusively for test driving. The evaluation edition of Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is designed to offer a taste of what the embedded version of the Windows platform has to offer for a total of 120 days.“Windows Embedded Standard 2009 delivers the power, familiarity, and reliability of the Windows operating sy... [read more >>] Windows XP SP3 RTM Build 5512 was made available for download at the end of April 2008, and five months later, Microsoft is releasing a new wave of the third and final service pack for XP. However, while the initial release of SP3 was designed to integrate with the 32-bit versions of the desktop client, the October refresh is meant for implementation with Windows Embedded for Point of Service and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. But make no mistake about it, the latest wave of XP SP3 brings nothing more than the original Service Pack 3 bits for the XP client, but tailored to \WEPOS and WinFLP.“This SP3 update includes all pre... [read more >>] The promise from Microsoft is that Windows 7 will be fully compatible with the applications currently designed for Windows Vista. However, this does not exempt developers from actually testing their solutions on Windows 7 in order to ensure compatibility with the next iteration of the Windows client. Concomitantly with the delivery of the pre-Beta bits of Windows 7 at the Professional Developers Conference in Las Vegas at the end of October, Microsoft will also debut the Windows Application Compatibility and Quality Lab."PDC 2008 is coming up in just a few weeks and you don’t want to miss it because that will be the first place ... [read more >>] With Windows 7, Microsoft is not only working to steer away from the mistakes made with Windows Vista, but also to move on territories where the successor of Windows XP has failed to gain a consistent level of traction. Even with 180 million Vista licenses sold, the operating system has failed to convince the vast majority of corporate customers to make the jump. This is why Microsoft is building Windows 7 as enterprise-friendly as possible, delivering devices profile for web services, virtualization, and network optimization for branch offices and additional features tailored to corporate IT infrastructures.According to a recent survey put... [read more >>] While the first Beta taste of Windows 7 is planned for the end of 2008, the gold build of Windows Vista's successor is expected to have a general availability date set for 2009. Officially, Microsoft is sticking to its “by January 30 2010” or “three years after the general availability of Vista” release date for Windows 7, and offering nothing palpable on the matter. However, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) indicated that the next iteration of the Windows client is right on track to drop in 2009. At the Cutting-edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition (CEATEC) Japan 2008, AMD revealed that 2009 and not 2010 w... [read more >>] Back in May 2008, Microsoft made the first step towards opening up its online reference libraries, namely the TechNet, MSDN and Expression portals, providing the “fertile soil” necessary for communities of IT professionals and developers to form around the websites. The social bookmarking tools for MSDN, TechNet and Expression evolved past the preview stage in September, and John Martin, from the Server & Tools Online (STO) group, was kind enough to answer a few questions related to the social platform Microsoft is building via its web-based reference libraries.Softpedia: To get started... Please tell our readers who you are and... [read more >>] Upgrading to Windows Vista (now with Service Pack 1) vs. upgrading to Windows 7 and skipping Windows XP's successor altogether is a recurrent subject, and Microsoft itself has shifted perspective and changed tone on the matter. Catalyzing the modification in position is the proximity of the Windows 7 releases, now no more than a year away, with the pre-Beta and Beta builds on the horizon and expected by the end of this month, respectively by the end of 2008. According to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, customers might now consider skipping Windows Vista and wait for Windows 7.Present at the CIGREF - Club Informatique d... [read more >>] With Windows 7 in the baking oven, Microsoft is looking past its traditional roots on the desktop to the Internet. In this context, the Redmond company is not only gearing up to release the pre-Beta bits of Windows 7 at the end of October, but also the first Beta of a new Windows operating system. In October 27-30, 2008, at the PDC2008 Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, the pre-Beta build of Windows 7 will take Windows Vista's successor past the Milestone development phases, accompanying a new operating system referred to with the label Windows Cloud.Microsoft itself is not in short supply of potential Windows killers, ... [read more >>] With Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 delivered in the first half of September 2008 and the feedback incorporated in the development process, Mozilla is gearing up for the next stage of Shiretoko. The first taste of Firefox 3.1 is now available for download. Mozilla is offering the nightly trunk of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Pre signaling that the release of the first Beta development milestone of codename Shiretoko is just around the corner. In this regard, September 30 was synonymous with the code freeze of Firefox 3.1, but although Mozilla indicated that the Beta 1 build would be delivered in October, it failed to pin point a specific deadline.“It'... [read more >>] | 
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