No IE9 for XP

By DustinPosted on

What some are calling “The assassination of Windows XP by the coward Internet Explorer” (ok, that was just me in reference to the great movie I recently watched!), Internet Explorer 9 will not work on Windows XP. I don’t really think that it’s going to matter too much. If people are still using Windows XP, they probably aren’t in the habit of upgrading much. Corporations that still use XP still haven’t upgraded from the old Internet Explorer 6. Some people that really want to use IE9 will be forced to upgrade to at least Windows Vista SP2.

Good news is that Firefox, Opera, Safari and others still work great with Windows XP. If you’re really not in the habit of upgrading, Netscape Navigator 3.11 can still be found for your 386SX running Windows 3.11. Ah, memories.

Although Microsoft excluded Windows XP from the list for the IE9 developer preview, it sidestepped the question about which versions of Windows the final browser would support. In an IE9 FAQ, for example, Microsoft responded, “It’s too early to talk about features of the Internet Explorer 9 Beta” to the query, “Will Internet Explorer 9 run on Windows XP?”

(more…)

Free Career E-Book from Microsoft

By DustinPosted on

If you’re looking for a career in IT, Microsoft has released a free e-book: “Own Your Future“. Personally, the best advice I can give is this: do what you love. If you love working with computers, you’ll never work a day in your career. I love doing anything with computers, be it programming, server admin, fixing desktop issues, or building PC’s, it’s just fun. If you’re in it for the money, you won’t like it and you’ll want out as soon as you can. I’ve seen people who love this stuff go from desktop support to a network admin in charge of a whole corporation just by learning as he went and taking the initiative in moving forward. They’ve asked for tasks that were above what they normally do, done them and learned from mistakes. While others have gotten stuck in tech support because they only do the technical support, they don’t want to learn anything outside of that.

We

Microsoft Talks SP1 For Windows 7

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft is officially talking about the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The main part is that it mostly is a rollup of all the previous updates that are freely downloadable now. There are a few new additions, mostly for the enterprise sector. Microsoft and analysts are saying that businesses don’t need to wait for the first Service Pack release to upgrade to Windows 7, as it is stable and ready for implementation as it is.

For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.

(more…)

Opera Browser Spikes After Ballot Choice Screen

By DustinPosted on

With Microsoft being forced to add a ballot choice screen in the EU, Opera downloads have spiked considerably. I really like Opera, with its speed and compatibility. It’s nice to see an alternative browser come up from behind like this. It should hopefully get the major browser developers in high gear to bring out some new and innovative features.

The increase represents more than a doubling from the normal download numbers. At the beginning of this month, Opera touted that browser downloads actually tripled at first, so maybe that growth rate won

More Businesses Going for Windows 7

By DustinPosted on

It seems that more and more businesses are looking to finally upgrade their aging Windows XP machines to Windows 7. Most businesses skipped over Vista, for many reasons, but are going to upgrade to Windows 7. Some still seem to worry about their application compatibility and the higher system specs needed to run a newer operating system. Personally, I wonder how some IT people even got to where they are today. They say that XP was so much better at launch, it runs so much faster… Put Windows XP on a machine circa 2001, with the standard 64-128 MB of RAM and a machine from today using Windows 7 and we’ll see who wins. Then they use the arguement that it runs so much better on a Core 2 Duo (or i7). I come back with “So does MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11”, and it does fly. I’ve never seen Windows 3.11 go so fast, it was a treat! Let’s see how fast Windows 7 is in 9 years on that hardware.

Although many businesses are planning a move to Windows 7, that doesn’t mean concerns have evaporated. Some 57 percent of businesses said they have worries, a drop of 10 percentage points from the April 2009 survey. The study was conducted by Hagglund and commissioned by corporate IT systems management firm KACE, which was recently acquired by Dell.

(more…)

IE9 Preview

By DustinPosted on

It’s guaranteed to have some bugs in it, but Microsoft has released an Internet Explorer 9 Preview for developers. Grab it if you want to try it out against your website, or just to check it out. Just remember that there will be a lot missing and not working correctly.

Finally, we announced the availability of the first IE Platform Preview for developers, and our commitment to update it approximately every eight weeks. We want the developer community to have an earlier hands-on experience with the progress we

Windows Phone Marketplace

By DustinPosted on

Judging by the success of the Android and the iPhone apps, I’d wager a bet that the major selling point on the newer “phones/mini-computers” is the apps and the marketplace. There are some extremely amazing and very worthwhile applications on both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the Android phones. I find something new daily. Sure, some are really dumb, but you’ll find that anywhere.

Microsoft has unveiled their Marketplace for the new Windows Phone 7 Series. I really like the look of the new UI, but I’m still waiting to see the phone in action with some killer app’s. If it’s a good enough phone, I might just drop my Android and just buy the phone out of contract. Otherwise, I’ll wait the 2 years to check it out.

The biggest chunk of eye candy we’ve seen out of Microsoft’s MIX10 event so far today has been the unveiling of the significantly-retooled Windows Phone Marketplace that’ll debut in Windows Phone 7 Series — and needless to say, it’s a looker. It’s got support for credit card purchases, operator billing, and ad-supported content — a hot topic right now with Google’s and Apple’s mobile advertising acquisitions — and a try-before-you-buy scheme not unlike Android Market’s policy.

(more…)

Microsoft Launches .Toolbox

By DustinPosted on

Budding web designers and programmers wanting to learn how to develop Silverlight applications can look to Microsofts new .toolbox site. You earn badges for completing certain tasks along your way to becoming a Silverlight expert. It looks fun, and isn’t a dry, boring course to take.

.toolbox features two core learning paths: Design Scenarios and Design Principles. Both begin with teaching basic techniques and build skills and knowledge incrementally. In Design Scenarios, designers and developers learn to create dynamically-rich Silverlight applications using Expression Studio. You will learn to add code-free functionality to designs by following step-by-step tutorials that illustrate how to create interactive user experiences. In Design Principles, you will learn fundamental design concepts (e.g., choosing the right colors and the right fonts) along with tips and techniques in how to apply them to your creations.

(more…)

Single White Pixel “feature” in Windows 7

By DustinPosted on

I’ve noticed this in the past, but chalked it up as an isolated incident. Apparently, it’s well known, and Microsoft is letting people know about it. However, they aren’t really doing anything about it at this time. Windows 7 users running the Aero interface without transparency, as well as certain Windows 7 Home Basic users, will notice a single white pixel in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It’s not a dead pixel, it’s a small issue with Windows. It doesn’t cause any problems or crash your machine, so Microsoft doesn’t have a fix for this, as it isn’t critical. I think they used to call it a “feature”, not a bug!

One white dot (1 pixel in size), may appear on the top-left corner of the screen in the following scenarios:

  1. In Windows 7 Home Basic Edition, the issue may occur after a user