Here’s a pretty sweet deal. Microsoft is offering cash-strapped college kids a chance to purchase Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium for a mere $29.99. All you’ll need is a valid college email address to be eligible for this offer (yes.. that means you don’t necessarily have to be in college to get this offer – as long as you still have that college email address! Shh…)

Just head on over to http://www.win741.com/ and then click on the “Buy” tile. Then click on “Buy Now $119.99 $29.99” and you’ll be directed to the digitalriver.com website which will then send you an email confirmation.

The offer is good until January 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 AM CST so you do you have some time to take advantage of this offer. Oh yeah.. you won’t be able to download the purchase until October 22nd when Windows 7 becomes officially available.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Windows 741, Windows 7 College Offer

Mark your calendars folks! Microsoft confirmed today that Windows 7 will be available starting on October 22nd – well ahead of the original schedule and just in time for the holiday shopping season. The next version of Windows has been well received and well ahead of schedule over the last 12+ months which makes today’s announcement a no-brainer on Microsoft’s part. The company plans on finishing up any development related activities by the middle or end of July.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Windows 7 launch date

With the release candidate of Windows 7 now publicly available and receiving very high praise, the question on everyone’s mind is – “when will the final release of Windows 7 be available?”

Rumors had been swirling around the net that the general availability of Windows 7 would be slated for sometime this fall/winter but finally today, we’ve got some confirmation thanks to Brandon LeBlanc of the Windows Blog. In a posting entitled “Windows 7 on Track to Hit This Holiday Season”, Brandon publicly confirms that if all goes well, Windows 7 should be “done in time for the holidays.”

Of course a great deal has to happen before Microsoft can release the final shipping version of Windows 7. Check out Steven and Jon’s posting on the “Next Engineering Milestone” for Windows 7 over at the Engineering Windows 7 blog – that is of course the road to RTM. As they point out in their blog posting “RTM is not one point in time but a process.”

And finally, all of this is certainly not nailed into stone as of yet. The road to the final release is ultimately determined by the quality of the overall product. However, if the RC build is any indication, things are certainly looking up for Windows 7.

Out of curiosity, how many machines have you installed Windows 7 RC on? I have it running on four systems thus far with nary a single problem.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7 RTM, Windows 7 Release Date

And now.. onto the new Windows 7 XP Mode feature being introduced with the latest RC release. This new feature of Windows 7 relies on Microsoft’s Virtual PC virtualization technology and allows users who have investments in software which only runs on XP, a chance to runt he very same software on Windows 7. Clearly, it’s Microsoft’s attempt at removing obstacles from the Windows 7 upgrade path.

But the real question is – how does the current beta stack up? PC Magazine took the XP Mode feature for a test spin and found it to be a “mixed bag of clever programming, appalling kludges, missed opportunities, and challenges to the ingenuity of even the most experienced Windows user.”

Yikes.

I agree with the author of the article in that it would have been nice had Microsoft released a “classic mode” of sorts within Windows 7 – allowing users to run XP or older apps in they’re own container environment – yet seamlessly integrated with the Windows 7 desktop. I suppose using virtualization technology is an easier path for Microsoft in that it keeps the different systems separate to a certain degree (most of the work I’m guessing would be to bolt the Windows XP VM onto Windows 7 as opposed to the other way around).

sigh.. can’t have it all.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7 RC, Windows XPM, XP Mode, PC Magazine Review

That’s right.. go get your Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate NOW folks. The RC build is now freely available from Microsoft’s website here – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx. Just get yourself a key (the old Beta keys will work just fine). I do recommend that you do a complete reinstall of the OS – although I’ve been successfully upgrading the OS from build to build since the Beta.

If you’re been working with build 7000 up until now, you won’t be able to directly upgrade to build 7100. I tried that on my work laptop and the setup process denied me. Luckily I did have build 7077 (or something like that) on hand so I upgraded build 7000 to that build and then upgraded from 7077 to build 7100 just fine. Again – you’re probably better off reinstalling everything from scratch.

In any event, go install with confidence folks – Windows 7 RC looks awesome. The new XP Mode on the other hand.. well.. more on that in a second.

[Check it out]

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate

Windows 7 will not only be better than Windows Vista from a technical and usage perspective, but it will also be better from a packaging perspective. Microsoft announced today the upcoming Windows 7 SKU strategy – basically stating that the majority of users will be best served by two editions of Windows 7 – Windows 7 Home Premium for consumers and Windows 7 Professional for businesses. There will of course be other editions to Windows 7 but the above two editions will “meet most customers needs.”

In total, there will be six editions of Windows 7 – Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 8 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate. According to Windows General Manager, Mike Ybarra, “With Windows 7 there is a more natural progression from one edition to the next.”

Here’s the high level summary for each of the new editions:

Windows 7 Starter Edition – will now be offered worldwide and only as a OEM pre-install for new hardware. You can not purchase this edition separately. According to Microsoft, “For OEMs that build lower-cost small notebook PCs, Windows 7 Starter will now be available in developed markets”. a.k.a. You can expect to find Windows 7 Starter on netbooks – ALTHOUGH Microsoft does mention that consumers will want to go with Windows 7 Home Premium if they want to get the most out of their PC.

Windows 7 Home Basic Edition – this will only be available in emerging markets for “customers looking for an entry-point Windows experience on a full-size value PC.”

Windows 7 Home Premium Edition – this is the recommended choice for consumers. It provides the “full-function PC experience and visually rich environment.”

Windows 7 Professional – recommended choice for small businesses and for people who work at home. If you’re on Windows Vista Business then Windows 7 Professional is probably the choice for you.

Windows 7 Enterprise – for the biggest enterprise customers. This will not be available at retail or by OEMs. Enterprise will only be available to annuity customers with Software Assurance agreements. Windows 7 Enterprise Edition will offer advanced data protection, lower cost compliance, and IT tools for PC management.

Windows 7 Ultimate – this won’t be sold directly to consumers either. Windows 7 Ultimate will be offered only as an upgrade to either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional. Windows 7 Ultimate takes features of Windows 7 Home Premium and adds in Enterprise features such as BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, BranchCache, DirectAccess, etc. There will no longer be “Ultimate Extras”.

So, there you have it. The six versions of Windows 7 – two of which you will really only care about.. and ultimately only one – Windows 7 Home Premium. Of course, no additional info on pricing nor availability.

[Check it out via PC Magazine]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7 SKU, Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate

If you’re still interested in the Windows 7 Beta, you’re in luck. Microsoft has decided to extend the general availability for the Win 7 Beta until February 10th. If you haven’t finished downloading the image by the 10th, you will have until Feb 12th to finish up. After the 12th, no further downloads will be available. If you already have an image of Win 7 Beta, you can continue to get product keys passed the 10th.

So go ahead and download if you haven’t done so!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 Beta

If you installed the pre-beta/M3 build of Windows 7 from last week’s PDC, you might have been disappointed to discover that some of the new taskbar features known as “Aero Shake” were missing (things like Jump Lists and the integrated Quicklaunch toolbar). It turns out however, that some of these new features were in fact hidden from view. Rafael over at “Within Windows” discovered the “protected features” were only available to 1) members of an allowed Microsoft domain who 2) were not temps, contractors, or vendors. He’s kindly put together an executable which will unlock the protected features on the M3 build. Now keep in mind – don’t set your expectations too high here. While the new quicklaunch feature is enabled, Aero Peek doesn’t work and the Jumplists “are stale”.

[Check it out via PC Mag]

Technorati Tags: Windows 7, pre-beta, Aero Shake, Protected Features Unlocked

Curious to see what the pre-beta build of Windows 7 would be like on a Mac system? Well the folks at PC Magazine/Gearlog did exactly this by installing the pre-beta build delivered at last week’s PDC on a new MacBook Pro system using Bootcamp. Unfortunately it appears the Mac drivers for Windows Vista did not help with Windows 7 as various features were not working including wireless networking, and mouseover preview. They’ve posted a video up on YouTube (shown below).

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 Pre-beta, MacBook Pro, Bootcamp

It’s 8am and it’s day two of the Microsoft PDC. Today we’re expecting the announcement of Windows 7 as well as the announcement of what exactly is in the next version of Windows. It looks like Wi-Fi is working just fine this morning – well at least until the rest of the thousands of developer drones walk into this hall. In any case, I’ll try and get you the latest updates as fast as possible. Pictures will probably have to wait till I get a chance to upload pics to my trusty little netbook. BTW – I now officially need a lighter SLR camera. Now that I have a netbook that’s under three pounds, I need a camera that’s lighter… then life would be perfect as a blogger. OK.. time to conserve battery..

Oh.. and I do believe we get “the goods” today… (for those at the PDC, this will occur at 1pm).

8:08am – Darn it.. just as I thought – too many users in one location and now Wi-Fi is practically useless. Oh well – guess you’ll have to wait for the info till after the keynote is over with

8:26am – they’re asking us to sit down now.. soon.. oh so soon.

BTW – excuse the typos – I’ll clean this up when I get out of the keynote (and add pictures).

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Microsoft PDC, Day two, Windows 7, microsoft