Microsoft’s black screen of… not very much at all!

Posted on 4/12/2009 by Rich Adams
Lab News, Microsoft, PrevX

Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the Harry Potter and the… sorry… Microsoft and the Black Screen of Death saga, it would seem that it isn’t actually black or death like at all. It doesn’t even appear to be very dark, or even a particularly nasty shade of beige.

For those in need of a refresher, it all started last week when a small UK based internet security company called PrevX announced the danger through their blog. It could, they informed us, conceivably shut down not just windows 7 but any system more advanced than Windows 98. To stop the worlds IT luddites rubbing their hands with smug glee, however, PrevX also announced it was offering a free fix. This only had one drawback… they couldn’t guarantee it was going to work – GREAT!

As you can imagine, this set the blogosphere alight with rumour and counter rumour. It also meant Microsoft launched an immediate investigation and, sure enough, announced that they could not see any problems.

Faced with standing down the might of the world’s largest software developer, PrevX immediately began to back track. They have now announced that “"Regrettably, it is clear that our original blog post has been taken out of context, and may have caused an inconvenience for Microsoft. This was never our intention.”

The whole saga has undoubtably put PrevX on the map. But the degree to which the IT world views all this as a cynical PR ploy remains to be seen, as does the extent of any possible backlash.

Google Chrome previewed

Posted on 20/11/2009 by Rich Adams
Google, Lab News, Microsoft

Another week, another round in the ongoing struggle for supremacy between Google and Microsoft. No sooner did Microsoft release its (pretty impressive) Windows 7 operating system, than Google has previewed its answer: Google Chrome.

Open souced (that means free!) and specifically designed for netbooks, all applications are designed to run in a web browser and all the user's data is stored on Google's own servers. That means it can be downloaded straight from the net.

Google has been able to boost the speed of the system by designing it for specific hardware. The firm said that it would only run on computers using "solid state drives" instead of traditional hard drives.

During a recent demonstration, Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, stated "We want Google Chrome OS to be blazingly fast."  He then showed it booting up in just seven seconds. He also gave a demonstration of its pretty speedy game playing, music and typing capabilities.

Microsoft still has 90% of the operating system market, which puts it light years ahead. Chrome OS, however, is a clear sign that Google isn’t simply prepared to chip away at this lead. It’s after a much larger slice of the pie.

Google Vs Switzerland

Posted on 16/11/2009 by Rich Adams
Google, Lab News, Microsoft

It could be argued that… You know you’re doing well in business when a competitor takes you to court. A straight fight hasn’t worked. You’re now too big, and they‘ve decided to run and tell the teacher.

You must, therefore, be doing something fairly spectacular when it’s not just rivals who’re getting all writ-happy, but European governments are muscling in on the act too.

Hot on the heals of Microsoft’s run in with the European commission over competition laws, Google is apparently about to find itself in hot water with Switzerland’s privacy watchdog over its Street View service.

According to recent press reports, Swiss data protection commissioner, Hanspeter Thuer, has demanded that Google ensures all faces and car plates are blurred to protect people’s privacy. He also wants enclosed areas such as walled gardens and private roads removed.

As a further mark of their success, Google don’t seem particularly fussed by the prospect of having a prominent European country take them to court. A spokesman said: “We believe that Google Street View is absolutely legal in Switzerland.” He also added that new obscuring software would deal with Mr Thuer's concerns, anyway.

True, Google hasn’t quite managed to annoy representatives for the whole of Europe (a la Microsoft) but they’re clearly doing something right as they continue their bid for world domination.

Windows 7 Bigger than Harry Potter

Posted on 21/10/2009 by Matthew O`Neill
Harry Potter, Microsoft, Windows 7

You read correctly, Amazon UK have announced a few startling facts:

1. Windows 7 has sold more copies in its first 8 hours of pre-release then Vista did in its entire pre-order period

2. Windows 7 has stormed ahead of Harry Potter as the biggest grossing pre-order product of all-time at Amazon.co.uk

Source: TG Daily.

Whether or not Windows 7 can defeat the dark wizard that is Lord Voldemort I don't know, but it's sure to be a highly successful operating system.

The imminent release of Windows 7

Posted on 21/10/2009 by Matthew O`Neill
Microsoft, Windows 7

With Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system hitting the shelves this week, astride a noticeable wave of publicity and positive reviews, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Well, it’s finally time for Vista to disappear into the night. Being rather flawed, and having a troublesome release, Vista led to a mass of businesses not even bothering to move on from Windows XP – now 8 years old. Many others struggled with the day-to-day problems of Vista as an operating system – ‘Application Compatibility’ anyone?

What’s great is that Microsoft have admitted that Vista was “less good” and have now pulled a veritable rabbit out of the hat in the form of Windows 7. It’s quite simply brilliant. 

There’s no question about it, Windows 7 is fantastic. It’s better in every way. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the key improvements:

It’s faster – Vista was resource intensive and didn’t run well on low-spec machines, which resulted in a very sluggish experience. The opposite is true of Windows 7. It actually runs faster on older/low-spec machines that would have struggled to run Vista. Overall, it’s very fast and a delight to use.

It’s compatible – Application Compatibility was a nightmare on Vista. However, Microsoft have seriously looked into this issue. Most legacy applications will now just work straight out of the box, and those that don’t can be seamlessly run in a virtual Windows XP instance.

It’s better – Everything about Windows 7 is better. Microsoft have put a lot of effort into the user experience: it looks better, its graphical, the searching and organising is easier. It also goes a long way to remove the traditional complexity of using a PC.

This is just the beginning. Check out our factsheet here, and our 7 reasons to get Windows 7 here for more information.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone is looking forward to Windows 7. There’s no reason not to upgrade. More importantly, as a business, you don’t want to be running an 8 year old operating system with the inherent security risks. Nor do you want to continue struggling with Vista, not when there's a free upgrade path from Vista to 7 if you purchased Vista after 26th June 2009 and before 31st Jan 2010.