Bad news for the XP diehards out there, hard drive manufacturers are tired of supporting you, and the next generation of controller technology is not going to work properly with DOS and Windows XP users. Of course it won’t be a major issue until 2011, and maybe not even then. → Read More
So XP Mode is a major bullet point in the list of Windows 7 features. Yay! Except that the way it works — by using Microsoft Virtual PC and a legit copy of Windows XP SP3 — requires that your CPU have Intel VT virtualization support. Whoops, not all CPUs have that! → Read More
I’m down with Windows 7. I really am. It’s going to be a good, solid OS that will take us well into the next decade. Microsoft does this kind of thing every few years – they dump out a clinker (Windows ME) then amaze us all with something great (Windows XP). They’re not the richest company in the world because they’re dumb. They know what they’re doing.
The folks at DownloadSquad, however, note that XP mode isn’t just an admission of defeat by Microsoft. It is, instead, it is a way to allow folks to run POS systems on new hardware. Fair enough. But it is a cop out. It’s a cop out on the part of IT departments, just as it should be, in that it allows them to sit on tested – but old – software while updating their junky old hardware. → Read More
Do you want to install Windows XP on your Sony VAIO P (don’t call it a netbook!)? Do you even have a Sony VAIO P yet? If you answered yes to both questions, read on. → Read More
A few weeks ago, we read about how the British Royal Navy would be installing Windows XP on some of its submarines. Oh boy, did we all share some laughs! “Control-Alt-Drown,” said one commenter; “Beware the blue cruise missile of death!” said another. We ROFL’d and LOL’d all the live-long day. → Read More
Citing affordability and ease-of-maintenance thanks to off-the-shelf parts, he British Royal Navy is rolling out a customized version of Windows XP on its nuclear submarine fleet. → Read More
Microsoft initially intended for Windows XP to die when the ball dropped on New Years Eve ’08, but the OS has gotten a reprieve – for now at least. The new cut off date for licenses will be May 20, 2009. → Read More
The ever-sassy Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is pointing out that Apple is essentially lying like Satan lied to man about the cancer-causing potency of high-fructose corn syrup. In “Bean Counter,” for example, Apple suggests that Microsoft spends more on advertising than on “fixing Vista.” Adrian tells the honest truth: For each $1 of sales Apple spends: – 1.9 cents on Advertising – 3.3 cents on R&D For each $1 of sales Microsoft spends: – 2.6 cents on Advertising – 13.9 cents on R&D → Read More
Read this line and you’ll understand how Joe Wilcox (and pretty much everyone else online) over at eWeek feels about Windows Vista: Vista is headed to as quick a death as Microsoft can give it. Someday soon, some gun-toting Microsoft executive will lead Vista out back and “Pop!” Screaming “Vista sucks!” is by no means a novel idea, but Wilcox uses, you know, evidence to support his claim, that Vista is dead to Microsoft. For example, Microsoft didn’t bleat endlessly about Vista licenses sold during last week’s earnings call. Is that because sales are down, or because sales weren’t as impressive at last quarter? There’s also netbooks, the tiny half-laptops that, for whatever reason, people are snapping up. Needless to say, RAM- and graphics-hungry Vista doesn’t exactly run well on netbooks, which is why so manufacturers offer XP or Linux in lieu of Vista. If Microsoft can’t sell its fancy operating system to manufacturers of netbooks, where is growth going to come from, Mars? This is why, by the way, Microsoft is so bullish on Windows 7—ignore that whole Vista thing, ’twas but a minor setback. → Read More
A recent article in APC Magazine finds a marketing manager for HP detailing how business users are still able to order machines pre-loaded with Windows XP while making it appear that the OS sold was Windows Vista. Jane Bradburn of HP Australia says, “From the 30th of June, we have no longer been able to ship a PC with a XP licence. However, what we have been able to do with Microsoft is ship PCs with a Vista Business licence but with XP pre-loaded. That is still the majority of business computers we are selling today.” So the business customer gets an XP machine but it appears on the books as a Vista license. Microsoft is aiming to make Windows XP completely unavailable by January of next year, but HP is apparently “already in discussions with Microsoft about how it could push this deadline back” because the feedback that HP’s been getting from businesses is that most of them don’t have time to do compatibility testing and the cost of re-imaging all their machines is too high during the slow economy. → Read More
InfoWorld has a somewhat long-ish article about how to beat the drop-dead date for Windows XP sales, which Microsoft has set as June 30th of this year. That’s in less than a month! What to do?! Well, here are a couple of options. First, June 30th is the last date that Windows XP can be sold. However, retailers and manufacturers can still sell copies of XP to the public and/or load copies of XP onto computers after that date, they just won’t be able to buy more copies of XP from Microsoft once stock runs out. So you’ll probably see retail stores and PC makers buying up copies of XP this month, lots and lots of copies. Second, manufacturers have the option to provide downgrade rights to customers who buy new computers that would normally be pre-loaded with Vista. Dell is apparently offering downgrade rights until January 31st of next year and HP will be offering downgrade rights until July 30, 2009. So for many custom-built PCs, you’ll have the option of loading them up with XP instead of Vista. → Read More
Like the episode of The Office where Michael shows up uninvited to Jim’s barbeque, Microsoft has shown up at the netbook party, thrown its coat to the Temp, and grabbed the Karaoke microphone. A recent press release says the following. “Customers and partners have made it clear to us that they want Windows on their netbooks and nettops,” said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer Division at Microsoft. “We are committed to providing Windows solutions for these devices, helping to ensure a high-quality experience for both our partners and customers.” → Read More
Since HP can’t seem to make the SP3 patch for XP work with its AMD procs, Microsoft has blocked these computers from getting the free update from Windows Update. The bug affected AMD-based computers that were getting updates for Intel-based computers on accident, notable those made by HD. This would cause endless rebooting as the machines couldn’t utilize the downloaded software. No word from MS on when updates for the AMD-based computers will be out, but we’re hoping shortly. → Read More
All the craziness going on with XP’s SP3 and AMD processors is complex, but Microsoft wants you to know it’s not their fault, it’s HP’s fault, among others. It turns out that the OEMs, including HP, have been installing the wrong sysprep before XP, using an sysprep designed for Intel’s platform. So it’s not a Microsoft issue, or an AMD issue, it’s a configuration issue. There’s no patch yet, though Microsoft is working on the problem. We’ll let you know when there’s a fix. → Read More
