CodeRewind Technology Blog

Windows 7 is going to be the Vista successor with lot of fixes and enhancements which Vista users are battling. Lets take a look at some of the exciting news features being introduced in Windows 7.
 

1. 64-bit Support - Windows 7 us designed with 64-bit computing in mind. It’s now easier to port x86 applications into x64.
2. Support for 256 CPU Cores - Microsoft managed to remove the so-called dispatcher lock in Windows 7, allowing the kernel to scale up to 256 processors. The move further increases the importance of adopting parallel-programming techniques.
3. Sensors Platform - Windows 7 featyres native support for sensors, such as GPS-based location hardware. Developers can now use the Microsoft Sensors API to created applications that adapt to location and environment.
4. New Media Formats - The updated “Windows Media Foundation” enables Windows 7 to play back more popular media formats, including H.264 video, MP4 and 3GP. The Media APIs have been enhanced to allow for less power and resource consumption.
5. DirectX Extends to the Desktop - The latest iteration of DirectX allows Win32 developers to use the GPU to draw high-quality graphics and text in their Windows applications.

These are some of the main enhancements in the upcoming Windows 7 release which is tentative to be release in second half of 2009 or early 2010.

Windows 7 pre-beta version is much more stable and faster than Vista and in some cases even XP. Windows 7 boosts 20% performance increase and runs more smoothly and consumes less memory.

Windows 7 is a work in progress at this stage. There are more features and improvements which has not been revealed yet and may it will be held until the official release.

This is generally a simple process, but not without it’s pitfalls.

Windows Vista, like all PC operating systems, requires periodic updates to function properly in the varied and changing computing environment. New software is introduced, new viruses are releases, and unforeseen issues can hamper and even threaten your computer systems. Regular updates keep your operating system on the cutting edge.

Most updates are relatively simple and are done automatically by Windows Vista during the regular, daily update checks. It is recommended that this feature is set at all times.

You can setup the automatic update feature by going to START – All Programs – Change Settings.

From this screen, you can select the kind of updates you want automatically done, and what time you want Vista to perform the updates.  This allows you to schedule the updates for a time when you are not using the PC.

If you have automatic updating off, or you have been off line for a while, you can get the latest updates by going to START – All Programs – Windows Update.

Click on ‘Check for Updates’. This will connect you to the Microsoft site and allow you do download and install all recent updates that are not in your copy of Vista.

This should be done weekly if you do not have Automatic Update set up. If you have not updated in a while, you may have to perform this operation more than once to get all of the updates installed.

So far I have a mixed feeling for Vista Upgrade. I think microsoft went with the release of Vista a little too early. So I would call this release as a post-beta release. There is word of advice for users who are planning to upgrade to Vista from Wndows XP. Dont expect every application to work flawless in Vista. If you are prepared to experiment only then go for Vista Upgrade. Up until now, Vista doesn’t support a significant number of applications, including some that are critical to business operation. Many hardware manufacturers also haven’t yet released drivers that support Vista. And up until now enterprises are waiting for the release of a more stable Vista release (SP1) next year or in 2009 before implementing Vista. The resolution of application compatibility and driver issues in Vista may come too late. While application compatibility and driver issues should not be a big concern in one or two years from now, Vista deployment by that time may be less beneficial, especially if the enterprise has found no compelling reason to move over to Vista, especially if Windows 7 is on the horizon. But on the other hand individual users can still go ahead with the upgrade is they want to reap some enhancements in security and the overall Graphical User Interface changes Microsoft incorporated in Vista.

In my personal experience XP still holds an edge over Vista in terms of stability and compatibility. I have heard from people that they dont prefer Vista due to its huge memroy consumption specially with its indexing feature. Even on a machine with 2GB RAM it hogs up memory very fast. Iam desperately waiting for the release of SP1 and hope that these issues will be resolved.

I heard so many rumors about Windows Vista, so I thought about giving it a try. I started testing Vista during the beta testing but lost the flow due to other endeavors. During the testing phase I realized that it did not comply with all the third party products, especially the device drivers. I bought my new HP Pavilion dv6000t Notebook preloaded with Windows XP professional in sep 2005. I was unlucky in getting a free upgrade copy of Vista from HP as they only offered it to people who bought the machine after sep 2005. Recently I got lucky as one of my good friend sent me free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate version (The most wanted..).

Installation Experience:

The Vista Upgrade Advisor did bring out issues with some of the softwares and device drivers on my laptop. After I backed up my data I went ahead with a clean install and the process went fine. The only issue I faced during the install process was setting up my webcam drivers. I had to dig into the WebCam manufacturers site for assistance. Finally I got it resolved with the help of Microsoft Vista Tech Support. Before that I was bounced by HP Tech Support because I had an unsupported OS on my machine.

 Vista User Experience:

I was amazed by the graphical enhancement they made in Vista. Even though I have worked on MacOS I did find microsoft’s improvement in the OS really interesting. Im not sure what’s in store for future from microsoft. I have been a microsoft fan since 1994. Lately I have been trying out some open source OS’s, which in my view have really come a long way. They offer almost all the features but the only thing which bring Microsoft’s OS is their support.

I would shed more light on my Vista experience in my coming blogs. Stay tuned……

Along the web development, email has made a huge contribution in wide spread of internet. E-mail is widely used and has a well-defined and universally implemented protocol and, it is a hot cake for hackers. It is easily done. Attacks on e-mail focus on two areas: the delivery and execution of malicious code (malcode) and the disclosure of sensitive information. E-mail has great latent risk due to the very sensitive nature of the data or information that is transmitted. E-mail can disclose a huge amount of company and personally sensitive data. The security risks linked with e-mail are often perplexed with the risks associated with collaboration tools that also serve as e-mail clients. Microsoft Outlook is one such tool.

The following are two issues to consider when comparing e-mail and collaboration tools:

• The acquisition and propagation of malcode
• The loss of privacy data.

E-mail, as defined by the Network Working Group’s RFCs, is implemented in simple

ASCII text. ASCII text cannot be executed directly. This can be a serious mutilation for malcode, which needs to be executed, promulgate, or do damage. Therefore, e-mail at its very basic core is safe because it does not transmit directly executable (binary) code.

When an e-mail client starts adding features to be more of a collaboration tool, such as Outlook, the malcode has many avenues of being decoded and launched. The goal of these tools is to make life easy and suitable for the users. This ease and expediency leads to the tools providing features for the user that the malcode can use to its advantage.

The basic protocols used in e-mail may not be inherently susceptible to malicious code such as worms and viruses, but the same cannot be said for protecting personal and sensitive data. For many years, the popular e-mail protocol, Post Office

Protocol (POP), was used in the clear (not encrypted). Even in today’s security-conscious society, most e-mail is still transmitted in the clear.