Microsoft finally shows some love to raw shooters

Microsoft finally shows some love to raw shooters

This is what you see unless you make Windows Live Photo Gallery the default program association for the raw file type.

(Credit: Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET)

Updated at 5 p.m. ET with correction about how this feature works.

Microsoft finally shows some love to camera raw shooters, but it feels like more of a hug than a big, sloppy wet kiss. The company now offers a free download of Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows 7 and Vista users that will render thumbnails and display previews of most popular raw camera formats. (A complete list is available at the download site.)

About mid-Vista vintage, Microsoft introduced its own "open" raw format that it hoped camera manufacturers would adopt for better integration with Windows, but the major camera companies tend to be notoriously proprietary about their raw formats and no one really raced to adopt it. The only notable cameras supporting it are/were the Nikon P6000 and P7000 with the NRW format. So I suppose we can take this as Microsoft giving in to the inevitable.

It didn't give in terribly gracefully, though. When you download the codec pack, you can immediately preview the images in Windows Live Photo Gallery. But in order to get the OS to display rendered thumbnails in Windows Explorer, you have to load them into the Gallery to force the OS to first create the thumbnails. This is a really clunky way to operate, and really annoying if you have images on removable media, since you have to import them to display them in the Gallery.

Source

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20083654-1/microsoft-finally-shows-some-love-to-raw-shooters/

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Handy Windows 7's utilities you may not know about

Many PC users love to tinker with the hardware and software on their machines. Other people consider any time they spend using Windows' built-in system tools a total waste. In between are those of us who understand the value of a little preventive maintenance--as long as it doesn't take all day.

Windows 7's arsenal of maintenance and system-tweaking utilities has been enhanced through the addition of new tools and improvements to existing programs. Unfortunately, one of my favorite Windows utilities isn't available in the Home Premium version of Windows 7: the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is included only in Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. (Vista Home versions also lack Group Policy Editor.)

You can download a spreadsheet from the Microsoft Download Center that lists the Registry key values for each setting that can be changed via the Group Policy Editor. Editing the Registry manually is less elegant and potentially more dangerous than Group Policy Editor's automatic approach.

I came up empty on my first attempt to make a Group Policy Editor-type change (adding a Web search box to the Start menu) by creating a Registry key based on the spreadsheet's instructions. However, I was able to find a simple workaround that achieved the same goal, as I describe below.

Be ready for trouble by creating a repair CD
In the two-and-a-half years I've been using Windows 7 on three different PCs, I'm convinced I spend less time on system maintenance and repair than I did when using Vista and XP. That doesn't mean there's not trouble on the horizon, though. Windows 7 lets you create a system-repair disc that replaces missing or damaged files in an existing installation.

Note that a system-repair disc is not a System Restore backup. To create a restore point (which backs up your Registry and other system settings), follow the instructions on Microsoft's Help & How-to site. The site also describes all your Windows 7 system-recovery options.

Windows 7's "create system repair disc" wizard pops up an alert to let you know your system-repair disc is ready to use. (The disc was created in Windows 7 despite the message's reference to Windows Vista.)

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

To burn a system-repair disc, press the Windows key, type "backup and restore," and press Enter. Click "Create a system repair disc" in the left pane, select an optical drive, insert a blank disc, and click "Create disc." When the repair disc is ready, a message appears indicating that the disc can be used to access system recovery options.

There are a couple of caveats, however. First, the version of System Restore used by the system-repair disc lacks an undo feature, so there's no going back if you use the disc to enable a restore point. Second, the System Image Recovery option works only if you've used Win7's backup program to create a separate system-image disc. Andy Rathbone compares System Repair and System Recovery discs on his Windows blog.

View your PC's performance and reliability report card
Now and then you may notice a hitch in your system's giddyup. It may be nothing major--just a bit of hesitation or an unexpected pause as the machine opens a program or performs some other routine operation. The Performance Monitor and Reliability Monitor tools in Windows 7 give you an up-close look at the past and current state of your system.

To open the Performance Monitor, press the Windows key, type "performance monitor," and press Enter. A System Summary appears on the Performance Overview screen. Click Open Resource Monitor under the overview in the right pane to see graphs of your CPU, disk, network, and memory performance along with statistics for each app currently running.

The Resource Monitor in Windows 7's Performance Monitor applet provides a snapshot of your PC's CPU, disc, memory, and network performance.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

Click Performance Monitor under Monitoring Tools in the left pane to view a graph showing the percentage of your CPU in use second by second. If something looks fishy, take a closer look by opening Win7's Event Viewer: press the Windows key, type "event viewer," and press Enter.

Click the categories under Windows Logs in the left pane and select an Error or Information entry in the main window to see more information about the event. Click Event Log Online Help to open a page on Microsoft's site that may provide more details on the event.

The Event Viewer in Windows 7 provides more details about recent system events logged by the OS.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

It's easy to get lost in the numbers, graphs, and obscure entries in the Performance Monitor and Event Viewer. You get a more palatable view of the same data in Windows 7's Reliability Monitor. To open the utility, press the Windows key, type "reliability monitor," and press Enter. (Are you seeing a pattern in these how-to-open instructions?)

Your system's history of problems and noteworthy events are graphed by the day or week: icons indicate critical errors, warnings, and informational events. Click an entry to view more information about it and links to a possible solution or technical details.

The Reliability Monitor in Windows 7 lists important system events logged by the system each day or week.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

Links at the bottom of the main Reliability Monitor window let you export a reliability report, review all problem reports, or check for solutions to all reported problems. I'm not sure I favor the one-fell-swoop approach because if one of the fixes introduces a new glitch, it might be difficult to roll the system back or to determine which patch caused the problem.

Search the Web from the Start menu
One of the most useful options in the Group Policy Editor is the ability to add a Web search box to the Start menu. The How-To Geek provides step-by-step instructions for using Group Policy Editor to put an Internet search field on the menu.

Win7 Home Premium users can get much the same effect by adding an Address box to the taskbar: right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars > Address. Then simply enter your search term in the box and press Enter to open your default browser with a page of results from your default search engine.

The Address box can put a serious dent in an already-crowded taskbar, but you can save space by using small icons and grouping them: right-click the Start button, choose Properties > Taskbar, and make the required changes to clear some taskbar space.

Choose the type that's right for you
Eyestrain sneaks up on computer users. One way to prevent eye fatigue on LCDs and other flat-panel displays is by enabling Microsoft's ClearType technology. Press the Windows key, type "clear type tuner," and press enter. A wizard opens describing the technology. With the Turn on ClearType option checked, press Next.

The wizard will verify that your screen is set to its optimum resolution and then will display several text samples. Choose the one that looks best to you and press Next again.

The Clear Type Tuner utility in Windows 7 lets you choose the type that displays best on your monitor.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

Clear Type Tuner is also available as a free download for Vista and Windows XP; the program installs as a Control Panel applet. You may not notice an immediate improvement in the quality of the text on your screen, but any opportunity to reduce your risk of PC-related health problems is worth taking.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-20072652-68/handy-windows-7s-utilities-you-may-not-know-about/#ixzz1T9ZyIyPy

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Photos: Windows 7 on the go

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How to manage folders in libraries in Windows 7

Windows 7 provides users with several libraries that consolidate different types of files, such as music or video, into one easily accessible location. But what if you want to add your own folders to these libraries or remove them? Follow these four steps to find out how!

Step 1: Launch Computer from the Start menu.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 2: In the pane to the left, expand the Libraries folder by clicking the small triangle next to it if the list is not already visible.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 3: Right-click on the Library you want to modify and select "Properties" from the menu that appears.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

From this new window you can add or remove the included folders in the Library.

Step 4: To remove an entry simply select it and click "Remove."

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 5: To add a new folder to the Library, select "Include a folder..." and navigate to the folder you wish to add. Select the folder and click "Include Folder" and the folder's contents will be included in the library.

 

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

 

Source

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20077947-285/how-to-manage-folders-in-libraries-in-windows-7/  

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Cleaning Up Windows 7

In general, I’ve never really had to do any maintenance work on Windows 7. I’ve never had to go through my hard drive and see what’s taking up space and slowing things down. I’ve never manually had to perform a disk defragment, or even used the disk clean up tool. Windows 7 just seems to take care of itself. It pretty much does all these things automatically without you ever knowing.
But inevitably, your desktop will start to become cluttered, things get messy. You’ve new folders everywhere, shortcuts going nowhere and a bunch of old useless programs wasting unnecessary space.
Generally I’m pretty good at tidying up my desktop as I go, but this week I decided to put everything else to one side and clean up my laptop.
The first question I had to ask myself was whether or not I completely wipe my laptop and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. It wouldn’t take me too long and it would leave me with a fresh squeaky clean desktop to start fresh with.
However I eventually decided against this. Why?
Well firstly because my laptop originally ran Windows Vista when I bought it, the drivers weren’t designed for Windows 7. The vast majority of them work without any problems, but it did take me quite a while to find all the appropriate drivers, some had had new Windows 7 versions of them released, but not all of them. I didn’t particularly want to go through this process again in case some of those drivers weren’t available anymore.
Secondly I’ve a lot of programs and files, and while the majority of them are backed up, it would take too long to reinstall everything again
So instead of wiping my system what did I do?
Revo Uninstaller
I’ve used this program for ages, it’s basically an uninstaller but it does a much better job than the built in Windows uninstaller. It gives you a list of all the programs installed on your system, and allows you to run their uninstaller, then once that’s finished the program will automatically scan your system and registry for any leftover files and entries, it will then ask you if you want to remove them. This way the program you had installed isn’t leaving any leftover rubbish behind it.
(Revo used to be free and I still have that version, now it’s only available in a limited trial version and then you have to pay for it)
Organised My Folders
The libraries in Windows 7 make it much easier to organise all your files and folders. Up until recently I didn’t take full advantage of this and ended up leaving half of my folders on my desktop. So this week a spent a good hour just sorting everything out, deleting useless folders and putting everything in its place.
Now it’s much easier and quicker to find what I’m looking for and everything just looks tidier and neater.
MSCONFIG
I regularly check what’s loading at start up and slowing down my system. Go to Start -> then type MSCONFIG will allow you to see what’s starting up. I went through this yet again only to discover more start up entries that I didn’t want there.
Registry Clean
The next thing I did was clean up the registry. Most users never actually do anything to their registry, it’s all the software and programs they install that mess around with it. Overtime it becomes messy and grows enormously and can be the home to many nasty viruses. I cleaned mine up with CCleaner and as usual it found a ton of unneeded registry entries which I then got it to clean up.
CCleaner also has a couple of other tools in it to help clean up your system
CCleaner

DownloadDisk Defragment
And finally, the last thing I did was run a disk defrag. I used the built in Windows defrag program for this. (Start -> Disk Defragmenter)Windows 7 automatically runs these but sometimes the schedule set up might not suit so it never gets done. I also reckoned that after messing around with so many files,folders and registry entries that things might need to be rearranged a little. ( that’s why I saved it to last ) It took about an hour to do and after that I was finished and ready to go again.
So that’s the process I followed cleaning up Windows 7 on my laptop this week. What do you guys normally do? Any suggestions for me and the rest of our readers?
Let us know in the comments below

Source
http://www.windows7news.com/2011/07/28/cleaning-windows-7/ 

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Nuevo Microsoft Windows 8

 

Se han publicado varios videos de Windows 8 en días recientes, por lo que los agregaremos en esta entrada para que empecemos a tener una visión general del desarrollo de la nueva versión de Windows 8.






Algunos videos muestran el sistema operativo en detalle, pero otros solo pequeños características de lo que será el próximo bebe de Microsoft. Algunos de los videos son hechos por los propios socios o participantes en el proceso de desarroll.

 

Source

http://www.blogwindows.com/nuevo-microsoft-windows-8/767/ 

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Engineering Windows 7 for a Global Market

 Engineering Windows 7 for a Global Market
 
Microsoft has been a global software company for a long time and has always put a lot of effort into engineering our products for a global customer base.  It is also an area where the engineering is complex—probably a lot more complex than many might think—and one where we are always trying to learn and improve.  Building global software is a responsibility for everyone on the team.  We also have feature teams dedicated to developing both global and market specific features—whether it is font handling or doing East Asian language input as two examples.  We of course have a significant engineering effort that goes into localizing (“translating” is not quite accurate) Windows into nearly 100 languages. Julie Bennett represents the global development and localization teams and she and John McConnell on her team collaborated across the team to author this post that provides an overview of engineering for a global market. --Steven
Many of the readers of the e7 blog are located outside of the United States or speak a language other than English, so we thought it would be useful to share the international and multi-lingual improvements in Windows 7. Our goal for Windows 7 is to deliver exciting features that benefit users worldwide as well as features that make Windows feel local to every user. Like Windows 7's focus to improve the fundamental scenarios of performance and reliability, we improved our processes to allow us to deliver a great customer experience in every language and every country we serve, including delivery of Windows 7 as close to simultaneously as possible worldwide. This blog entry discusses some of the new features and improved processes that we believe make Windows 7 a great worldwide release.

Features

The international features of Windows 7 are pervasive across the system, from such low-level aspects as the supported characters in NTFS file names (now upgraded to match Unicode 5.1) to such high-level aspects as the selection of backgrounds and themes (now including locally-relevant photos). But there are certain features which are intrinsically critical for proper support of the world’s many languages and cultures, and we will describe some of those here.

Fonts

Language and writing are at the heart of any culture and thus support for fonts is essential to supporting international users. Windows 7 significantly increases both the range and quality of fonts. We have added fifty new fonts:

 

As you might guess from the font names in the above table, many of the new fonts are for non-Latin scripts. In fact, Windows 7 will be the first version of Windows to ship with more fonts for non-Latin scripts than for Latin-based scripts. One major area of improvement is for the languages of India. To the nine (9) fonts for Indian languages that shipped in Vista, Windows 7 adds forty (40) more. Windows 7 will now include multiple fonts (often in multiple weights) for each of the official languages of India.

Aparajita: A New Devanagari Font in Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold-Italic

Besides new fonts, we have also improved many of the existing fonts. For example, we have added over two thousand (2,000) glyphs to Consolas, Calibri, Cambria Bold, and Cambria Math. But the most dramatic improvements have been to some of the non-Latin scripts. For example, Windows 7 does a much better job rendering the common Lam-Alef ligature in Arabic (see the illustration below) and in the placement of vowel marks.

Left: Lam-Alef Ligture in Vista Right: Lam-Alef Ligature in Windows 7

Changes to fonts (even clear improvements) are always tricky because of backwards compatibility issues. For example, if a character changes width or position, it may cause existing documents to reflow (repaginate), which is unacceptable. Therefore, whenever we change a font, we must run extensive verification tests against the changes to ensure the font metrics and other tables are unchanged. In the case of the Lam-Alef fix shown above, we discovered that there were existing applications that relied on the (undocumented) order of the glyphs within the old font. These applications would break if we simply replaced the glyphs. The font team worked closely with the international application compatibility team to ensure that changes we made did not affect the order of glyphs within the font, thus providing backward compatibility.

Font Control Panel

With so many new and expanded fonts for Windows 7, we also wanted to help users manage their fonts more easily. For the first time in years, we have done a complete overhaul of the font control panel.
The first picture below shows the font control panel with the large icon view. The most obvious change is that the font icons now convey much more information about the appearance of the font. The content of the icon gives a hint as to the glyph repertoire of the font. The style of the icon matches the style of the font. Non-Latin fonts show typical glyphs from the script for the font to see how it is designed. A more subtle change is that some font icons are faded to indicate fonts that are installed, but hidden. Hidden fonts will not show by default in the ribbon and font dialogs. Users can now use the font control panel to tune the fonts that they regularly use. By hiding fonts they never use, users can simplify choosing the correct font within applications. By default, only fonts supporting languages that can be written with the users installed input locales (keyboard layout plus language) will be shown. For example, users with English and French input locales will see only the Latin fonts, whereas users with the Japanese input method installed will see only the Japanese fonts. Users can override these defaults by right-clicking on any of the fonts in the control panel. Hidden fonts are still installed so an existing application that uses a hidden font will behave identically.

Font Control Panel with Large Icon View

The next picture below shows the font control panel with the detailed view. Now users can see much more information about the font. For example, the user can sort fonts by style, whether they are hidden, and information about the creator of the font. Font files generally contain information only in the design language of the font (e.g. a Japanese font might contain only information in Japanese). In Windows 7, we needed a solution that would work for all languages and for all fonts, so we created a hybrid approach that combines information from the font itself with metadata (an XML file that provides the information about the fonts on the system).

Font Control Panel with Detail View

Local Packs

Windows 7 has increased opportunities for personalization. New themes, backgrounds, and sounds make it easy to customize Windows 7 to match your personality. To the extent that our preferences are influenced by our language and location, Windows 7 reflects this with the introduction of Local Packs. Local Packs provide customized Windows 7 visual themes for a specific region. These visual themes contain locally relevant wallpaper images, custom aero glass colors, and regional sound schemes. Windows® Internet Explorer® Favorites and RSS feeds may also be updated when the Local Pack is activated on an end user’s computer. For example, adding and enabling the Local Pack for France will add a market-customized theme for France to the end user’s Personalization control panel and a number of links to useful French Public Sector websites and RSS Feeds to the user’s profile.

Customized Themes in the Personalization control panel

The Local Pack content provides users with seamless local experiences right out of the box. Users are never exposed to Local Packs per se, they just select their Location as normal during Windows Welcome, and appropriate local content is exposed to them based on that setting.
Users looking for visual themes for other countries, or indeed any other areas of interest, can find them on the Windows Online Gallery, which is accessible via the “Get more themes online” link in the Personalization control panel.

Other Features

Other new features include five (5) new locales (bringing the total number of locales supported to two hundred and ten (210)), twelve (12) new input locales, and improvements to sorting for traditional Chinese characters. Also, we have generally updated our system databases to the latest version of the Unicode Standard (5.1). There are also interface improvements that should allow developers to create better globalized applications. Extended Linguistic Services (ELS) is a cool new feature we describe below in the International Timeliness and Quality section.
Perhaps one of the most important improvements outside the core international features has been in Search, which now recognizes more languages. For example, Windows 7 desktop search now recognizes Russian morphology (the rules for single and plural, tenses, and case). This means that searches for a particular word in Russian will now match not only that exact word, but also the common variations of the word, yielding significantly better results.

International Timeliness and Quality

In previous versions of Windows, final delivery of every language to every market took several months. For Windows 7, we changed how we worked on international releases to significantly shorten this delta so that all users worldwide can enjoy Windows as simultaneously as possible. This goal had far reaching implications on how we perform our work as engineers and on how we interact with partners and customers during our public testing phases.
To understand our approach, we should first explain two important concepts: localization and globalization.
Localization is the process of adapting the user experience into another language. Beyond the translation of strings, it can also include activities such as resizing dialogs and mirroring icons for right-to-left languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic. Localization bugs, such as the mistranslation of a menu item, are defects introduced during this process.
Globalization, on the other hand, is the process of producing a product that works well in every country no matter the user interface language setting. A globalization bug may be as simple as showing a UI element in the wrong language and as complex as not properly handling right-to-left scripts. Globalization bugs are inherently more serious than localization bugs as they usually affect many or all languages and often require re-thinking the technical design. In past Windows releases, repairing globalization bugs contributed to the necessity of the long release deltas. For Windows 7 we worked to prevent, find, and fix globalization bugs as early in the development process as possible.

Pseudo-Localization

To prevent common globalization bugs, pseudo-localized builds were created. Pseudo-localization is a process that creates a localized product in an artificial language. That language is identical to English except that each character is written with a different character that visually resembles the English character. Except for being entirely machine generated, we create the pseudo-localized builds exactly the same way as we create the localized builds. Because even monolingual US software developers can read pseudo-localized text, it has proven to be an excellent way to find globalization problems early in the development cycle. In the Windows 7 beta, some UI elements were still in their pseudo-localized form, causing some interesting theories about what the meaning might be. We hope we have solved the mystery with this blog post. :-)

Control Panel Dialog in Pseudo-localized Windows 7

Pilot Languages

Beta is always an exciting time for us as it is our first real chance to hear from you about our efforts. We are thrilled that people from over one hundred and thirteen (113) countries downloaded the Windows 7 Beta. With such a large and diverse beta program, we must have highly scalable processes to gather and incorporate your feedback. In Windows 7, we are very excited about some new approaches we took here.
In the past, localization languages for Windows beta releases were selected for a mix of pragmatic reasons. While this ad hoc approach had benefits, too often we found that serious globalization defects were not reported because they did not manifest in the chosen languages. For the Windows 7 Beta, our priority was to find globalization bugs and therefore we have concentrated on four languages (plus English) that experience has shown are most likely to find specific types of defects:

• German - Because it contains some very long words, German can reveal dialog size and alignment defects better than other languages.
• Japanese - With tens of thousands of characters, multiple non-Latin scripts, alternative input method engines, and an especially complex orthography, Japanese is a great way to find defects that affect many East Asian languages.
• Arabic - Written right-to-left and with contextual shaping (character shape depends on adjacent characters), including this language in the Beta helped us test code paths not exercised by German and Japanese.
• Hindi - Windows 95 and Windows 98 never supported Hindi and support for this language relies entirely on Unicode. Testing Hindi helps find legacy (non-Unicode) defects that affect all such languages.

By concentrating on these four languages during Beta, we maximized our chances to find and fix the globalization bugs that affect many languages. This in turn gave us more time to improve the localization of all languages before we release the actual product. The pictures below show two bugs found during Beta that illustrate the advantages of focusing on these pilot languages.

Globalization Defects Found During Windows 7 Beta

In addition to our goal of finding globalization bugs via these languages, we also asked some of our OEM customers to provide feedback on the language aspects within their manufacturing processes. Since many of the OEMs are located in East Asia, we also localized Windows 7 Beta for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.

RC Language Packs

In part because of the engineering process improvements described above, we were able to deliver more language packs for Windows 7 RC than we have ever been able to do in the past for Windows. For those of you running the Ultimate version of Windows 7 RC, you will have noticed the following thirty-two (32) Language Packs available for download on Windows Update:

32 Windows 7 RC Language Packs on Windows Update

One thing we will do differently in the future is to ensure that all languages available at Beta are also available at RC (e.g. not including Hindi for Windows 7 RC). We will correct this for future versions.

Understanding feedback from around the world

With Windows 7 beta localized into five languages and globally enabled for hundreds more, we received beta bugs from customers all over the world. We rely on these bug reports to help us improve Windows 7, so we devote much time to reading customer bug reports to determine product issues. Because bugs come from worldwide customers in many languages, we look for ways not only to understand their feedback, but also to address it as quickly as possible. The faster we can understand the issue, the better chance we have of addressing the feedback. As we receive bug reports in all the many languages that our customers speak, this has sometimes posed quite a challenge.
In the past, we have handled multilingual bug reports using manual processes, where individual bugs were examined and then manually translated one-by-one for appropriate follow-up by the feature team that owned the affected component. This is a time-consuming and error-prone exercise that scales poorly to a program as large and diverse as the Windows 7 beta. In the worst case, valuable international feedback has missed the window to affect the final product, and thus slipped to a Service Pack or subsequent release.
In Windows 7, by using the language detection API in the new Extended Linguistic Services (ELS), we have been able to automatically detect the language of customer bugs as they are reported. ELS functionality is new for Windows 7 and available to any developer who wants to leverage advanced linguistic functionality in the operating system. Beginning in Windows 7, developers may use ELS to provide language and script detection of any Unicode text, as well as transliteration to map text between writing systems. To use these Windows 7 services and all further services that we will add in subsequent releases, developers need only to learn one simple and unified interface. The ability to detect over one hundred (100) languages is available for all Windows 7 application developers, and we are happy to be able to apply this functionality to triage and handle beta feedback you send us from around the world. We use our own international developer functionality to improve our ability to respond to customer issues globally.
Once we have detected the language, we take the resulting text and use the machine translation support that is available online from Live Translator. This allows us to translate the text to English to get a sense of your feedback. Our engineers can then search our feedback database for specific features or areas of functionality. This also helps us in our efforts to ensure international application compatibility, as we can learn about potentially problematic international application experiences as soon as customers report them. Machine translation does not provide a perfect translation, but it does allow us to determine which issues might require further investigation. This in turn allows us to hear and respond to customer issues with a much faster turnaround time than we have had in previous releases, which means better quality in Windows 7 when we release it to the world.
By the end of Windows 7 Beta, we had used this process to translate 35,408 issues and comments submitted using the Feedback tool.

Putting it all together

The end result of the work to improve globalization and localization quality is reflected in the announcement that all fully localized releases of Windows 7 will be available within two weeks of the initial release wave with all languages available in October. We hope (and believe!) end users will find the overall quality of these releases to be the best ever.

36 Windows 7 language releases available in October 2009

In addition to the 36 languages that will be released in October, there will be additional languages available for download as Language Interface Packs (LIPs) onto any Windows 7 edition as part of the Local Language Program (LLP). The LLP is a partnership with governments, universities, and language experts from around the world. (You can find more information on the LLP at http://www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential/programs/llp.mspx.) Work on a LIP starts at RTM and continues for many months based on the schedules of our partners. Two (2) LIPs will be available for download when Windows 7 is available in October – Catalan and Hindi. Additional LIPs will become available for download over the following months based on the schedules of our partners. We are happy to have improved the delivery time of the first 38 languages (36 + 2 LIPs) and recognize that future releases are an opportunity to improve further. Creating a track record of dependable release schedules on our part will help everyone around the world plan better for a more unified release timeline.
More information about Extended Linguistic Services (ELS) and other cool new features of Windows 7 are available on-line on MSDN. In particular, you can download the Windows SDK for Windows 7 and read about what is new in the ‘International’ section. Also, the new Go Global Developer Center on MSDN has a wealth of information about international technologies.
If you want to send us feedback, please comment on this blog entry or use the Feedback button in Windows 7. We love to hear from you (in any language).
-- Windows International Team

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Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says '400 million Windows 7 licenses sold'

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says '400 million Windows 7 licenses sold'

So much for not keeping pace, huh? We heard back in June of last year that Microsoft had blown through 150 million Windows 7 licenses, and just a few months later, it had surpassed 240 million. At this year's Worldwide Partner Conference, head honcho Steve Ballmer took great pleasure in announcing that said figure has now swollen to beyond 400 million in under two years. Not surprisingly, that makes Win7 the fastest-selling operating system in history, and Tami Reller -- corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Windows and Windows Live -- made clear that it's "the path to Windows 8." The outfit also announced that 100 million copies of Office 2010 have flown off the shelves since launch, and while no one really came out and said it, we're counting on seeing a Windows 8 build at the BUILD event this fall. Head on past the break for a whole heaping of (deserved) self-congratulations.

Show full PR text

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Lenovo intros 10.1-inch IdeaPad Tablet P1 with Windows 7, should've waited for Windows 8

Lenovo intros 10.1-inch IdeaPad Tablet P1 with Windows 7, should've waited for Windows 8

We know, we know -- Windows 8 isn't splashing down on consumer devices for a good long while, but seriously, how's a boy to get excited about something that's already old hat? And moreover, something that has never, ever worked out. Every single Windows 7 tablet that we've tested has suffered a similar fate: too bulky, too sluggish, not longevous enough and too difficult to to operate sans a keyboard and mouse. That said, Lenovo's providing a darkhorse option for those uninterested in its duo of new Honeycomb tablets, with the IdeaPad Tablet P1 bringing Windows 7 into a familiar 10.1-inch shell. Within, you'll find a 1.5GHz Intel processor, a 1280 x 800 capacitive touchpanel, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, up to 64GB of SSD storage, built-in Bluetooth / 3G / WiFi, a USB 2.0 connector, microSD card slot and a docking port.

You'll also get an integrated 2 megapixel webcam up front, support for stylus input and an enclosure that's 14.5mm thick; for perspective, the absolutely delectable Galaxy Tab 10.1 measures just 10.9mm from top to bottom. The company's giving you the option of snagging this in silver-gray or "Clementine Orange," the latter of which is obviously the frontrunner in the race to awesome. The sealed two-cell battery is said to be good for six hours of use, compared to the 8.7 hours that the same cell gets while situated in the Android-powered K1. Lenovo's not serving up pricing details on this one just yet, but you can look forward to not looking forward to its Q4 2011 arrival.

Lenovo IdeaPad Tablet P1 with Windows 7 (press images)

Lenovo [PDF]

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NTT DoCoMo's Fujitsu F-07C now available, marries Windows 7 and Symbian at last

NTT DoCoMo's Fujitsu F-07C now available, marries Windows 7 and Symbian at last

Calling the Fujitsu LOOX F-07C an eccentric device is not a stretch -- in fact, it's one of the more unique smartphones we've seen in a fair length of time. Now available on NTT DoCoMo, the dual-booting hybrid is touted as "the world's smallest PC," since it can switch between Windows 7 and Symbian and offers a few netbook-worthy specs. It runs off a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z600 CPU (downclocked by 50 percent, unfortunately), a 32GB eMMC SSD, and 1GB LPDDR400 RAM, packed underneath a 4-inch SVGA (1024 x 600) LCD display. You can also take advantage of the 5-megapixel camera on the back, paired up with a VGA front-facing shooter. Things get a little strange when it comes to battery life, however; while you get up to 600 hours of standby time and 370 minutes of talk time in mobile phone mode, it gets sucked dry after just two hours when using Windows 7. If your smartphone just doesn't have enough brainpower to handle your daily grind, here's an alternative. Full press release with specs are after the break.

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SlashGear

Fujitsu

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Microsoft Q4 FY11: revenue, earnings, and profits all up, beating expectations

Microsoft Q4 FY11: revenue, earnings, and profits all up, beating expectations

 

The news wasn't so good for Nokia this morning, but its new bedmate is in much, much better shape. Microsoft's Q4 earnings for the 2011 fiscal year have been posted, showing revenue of $17.37 billion -- up eight percent over the same period last year, and besting the $16.43 billion record Q3. That drove $5.87 billion in net income, which is a whopping 30 percent climb over the year previous. Looking back over the full year, revenue broke another record, clocking in at $69.94 billion, 12 percent higher than the year before.

Why all the good news? Well, the Entertainment & Devices Division saw a 30 percent revenue jump in the quarter, 45 percent over the year, as the Xbox 360 and Kinect continue to sell like gangbusters. Bing and Online Services also had good news, 17 percent revenue growth in the quarter thanks to the plucky search engine gaining ever more ground against the competition. But, not everything is rosy, with the Windows-related revenue staying flat -- down one percent this quarter, two percent over the year. Windows 8 will surely turn things around on that front, though, right?

WinRumors

Microsoft

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ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro hits the FCC, feds don't mind its split personality

ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro hits the FCC, feds don't mind its split personality

Who ever said multiple personality disorder was a bad thing? Certainly not ViewSonic, whose Oak Trail powered ViewPad 10Pro -- which does the dual OS dance with Windows 7 and virtualized Android 2.2 -- just made its way through the FCC. The government's stamp of approval on its WiFi and AT&T-friendly WCDMA radios means it won't fry our brains, and it shouldn't be long before we see the 10Pro in stores. Of course, we still don't know the price of this device... or the psychiatric costs of its OS switching ways.

FCC

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