Windows Weekly 142

Windows Weekly Episode 142

Windows Weekly 142: Snake In The Brass

Paul and Mary Jo Foley discuss the revelations in today's New York Times [1] by former Microsoft VP Dick Brass.

Guest

• Mary-Jo Foley (@maryjofoley)
  • http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft

Topics

• Post-Microsoft Fears with Mary Jo Foley
  • It seems like Microsoft is shedding a lot of its Allchin-era employees all of a sudden
  • Coincidence or not?
  • And what about the fact that Microsoft is no longer the tech Industry's provider of the future
  • Apple, Google, and others are filling that gap
  • Is Microsoft on the way down?
  • Related: Microsoft just posted record revenues for the most recent quarter and sold 60 million copies of Windows 7 in a little over two months
  • Related: Windows 7 success hasn't helped Microsoft's other businesses or its PC maker partners
  • Related: IE 8 is now the world's most often-used web browser. But IE share, overall, is falling.

• Windows Home Server "Vail" details arrive
  • Rafael and I have installed the leaked build and examined it using Rafael's internals tools
  • Raf wrote up a nice blog post about our findings [2]

• Windows 7 battery life problems
  • Microsoft investigates
  • I have never seen this personally but people have been complaining about it since last summer

• Microsoft: Bing will be successful, Dammit
  • And profitable too!
  • The key: Getting the Yahoo deal done

• Don't forget: Windows 7 RC build is going to expire
  • Here's the schedule
  • February 15: Alerts begin
  • March 1: Auto-shutdown once every two hours
  • June 1: Expiration. Windows 7 RC will report as "non genuine." (Screen goes black, etc.)
  • There's no supported upgrade path from the RC
  • But there are workarounds

Windows 7 feature of the week: Homegroup

• Put simply, a way to share Library-based content (documents, music, photos, videos) as well as printers over a home network. Requires Windows 7 and does not replace legacy sharing methods or workgroups, which are still present in Windows 7 as well. It's super-simple, with a single Homegroup password that provides global access to all shared resources. Fun fact: Microsoft's use of the word HomeGroup may seem inconsistent because the word appears variously as HomeGroup, Homegroup, and homegroup throughout the Windows 7 user interface. However, Microsoft says this is by design. The word HomeGroup is a trademarked term and refers to the Windows 7 sharing feature. A homegroup, meanwhile, is the generic "thing" that is created by the feature, as we will see. And if you see it spelled as Homegroup (with a capital 'H' but a small 'g' that's just because it's a title or other place in the UI where an initial capitalization is required. [3]

Tip of the Week

• Run Windows Live Messenger from the tray as God intended
  • Windows Live Messenger spews unnecessary buttons all over the Windows 7 taskbar. Fortunately, you can fix this behavior.[4]
  • Thanks to Rodrigo Gómez Morales
  • Note: Anyone who provides a tip that I use here and on the site will get a free, signed copy of "Windows 7 Secrets." And I've gotten so many tips that I will back-date tips for each week to the beginning of the year so I can get this thing rolling more quickly.

• Zune HD price drop
  • 16 GB for $199 (was $229), 32 GB for $269 (vs. $299)
  • Amazon (16gb) Amazon (32gb)

Software Pick of the Week

• EASEUS Partition Manager
• Thanks to Patrick Robichaud

Significant Products

• Link URL and optional brief description

Sponsors

Audible

• Audible.com/windows
• ad times: 1:07-1:14 and 1:12:48-1:18:03

Picks

Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris (UNABRIDGED) Narrated by Simon Jones

GoToAssist Express

• Gotoassist.com/windows
• ad times: 0:50-1:06 and 42:35-44:38

Astaro

• Astaro.com
• ad times: 0:35-0:49 and 58:37-1:01:22

Production Information

• Edited by: Tony
• Notes:

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