If your software garbles this newsletter, read this issue at WindowsSecrets.com.
 | YOUR NEWSLETTER PREFERENCES Change Delivery address: sekhargreen@gmail.com Alternate address: Locale: India 713215 Reader number: 41838-13269 |
|
| Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 180 • 2009-01-08 • Circulation: over 400,000
|
| Table of contents TOP STORY: XP deadline extended toward launch of Windows 7 WACKY WEB WEEK: More exciting than circling classified ads! LANGALIST PLUS: Reinstall Windows with one click of your mouse BEST SOFTWARE: Make Windows PCs safer by dual-booting Ubuntu WOODY'S WINDOWS: Fast and free way to recover deleted photos |
| You're receiving only our free content. Use the following link to upgrade and get our paid content immediately: |
| ADS
|
| TOP STORY XP deadline extended toward launch of Windows 7  By Dennis O'Reilly Microsoft has acknowledged that it will allow system builders to pay for installed copies of XP through May 30, rather than shutting down the pipeline this month. If you order from your preferred vendor by Jan. 31, you may be able to rely on XP for new systems almost right up until the long-awaited Windows 7 ships, an event that's expected to occur within a few months. Vista is looking more and more like the Edsel of the computer industry. Presumably as a result of slow uptake by corporations and individual users, Microsoft last month confirmed that it will allow OEMs and smaller-scale "system builders" to pay as late as May 30, 2009, for copies of XP ordered by Jan. 31. (Vendors won't have to pay Microsoft until the systems sell. MS previously had been expecting payments for copies of XP by Jan. 31.) The details of Microsoft's new, flexible inventory program were first reported on the ChannelWeb site. Combine this news with reports that Windows 7 may ship as early as mid-2009, and it looks like Microsoft is ready to relegate Vista to the binary scrapheap. Maybe the company's recent $300 million marketing push for Vista wasn't so successful as Microsoft claims it was. As Mary Jo Foley states in her All About Microsoft blog, vendors of low-budget PCs such as netbooks were already being allowed to sell new systems based on XP through June 30, 2010, or one year after Windows 7 ships — whichever came first. Microsoft's new policy now gives a reprieve to builders of mainstream computers, and to end users who want to buy systems running Windows XP, not Vista, indefinitely or until Windows 7 is a proven commodity. Will the Windows 7 RTM make an early entrance? The official release of Beta 1 of Windows 7 to the public is widely expected to occur next week. If all goes well with the remaining testing, indications are that the final, RTM (released to manufacturing) version will be available as early as August. Lending support to this theory is the fact that the end-user license agreement of Beta 1, like all recent prerelease versions of Windows 7, states that the software will expire Aug. 1, 2009. This feature — as well as the use of the product's built-in slmgr -rearm command to extend the beta's trial period without an activation key — was recently explained by Marius Oiaga of Softpedia. Other sources predict that Windows 7 won't ship to OEMs until October 2009, becoming available to end users the following month. Early reviews of the Windows 7 beta, such as those summarized by the Telegraph of London, variously describe the new operating system as being not much different from Vista or representing an unspectacular-but-solid improvement. If Windows 7 turns out to have better performance and reliability than Vista, as some reviewers believe, the OS may gain a measure of relieved acceptance from end users after only a few months on the market. Paying a premium to downgrade from Vista to XP The extended availability of XP on new PCs will gladden the hearts of many Windows users. For a few unfortunates, however, the XP option is coming at great cost. Eric Krangel reports on the Silicon Alley Insider blog that Dell has gradually been inflating its surcharge for "downgrading" a PC from Vista to XP. The bite rose last June from U.S. $20 to $50, then spiked in October to $100, and now is a whopping $150. The fact that Dell's customers appear to be willing to pay this amount or more to avoid Vista may be the greatest indictment of Microsoft's unloved OS. The reality is that the Redmond software giant has been forced by popular opinion to provide customers with a Vista-free option — an extended life for XP — more than two years after Vista's rollout. Depending on your point of view, this concession can be interpreted negatively as an act of desperation or more positively as a burst of marketing acumen on the company's part. As usual, the truth is likely somewhere in between. Dennis O'Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com. He was formerly a senior associate editor of PC World magazine. |
| ADS
|
| WACKY WEB WEEK More exciting than circling classified ads!
|
| PERMALINKS Use these permalinks to share info with friends We love it when you include the links shown below in e-mails to your friends. This is better than forwarding your copy of our e-mail newsletter. (When our newsletter is forwarded, some recipients click "report as spam" and corporate filters start blocking our e-mails.) The following link includes all articles this week: http://WindowsSecrets.com/comp/090108 Free content posted on Jan. 8, 2009:
You get all of the following in our paid content:
Thanks in advance for your support! |
| YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets resulted from the merger of several publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch in 2004, the LangaList in 2006, and the Support Alert Newsletter in 2008. Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, Attn: #120 Editor, 1700 7th Ave., Suite 116, Seattle, WA 98101-1323 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Senior Editor: Ian Richards. Editor-at-Large: Fred Langa. Technical Editor: Dennis O'Reilly. Program Director: Tony Johnston. Program Manager: Ryan Biesemeyer. Web Developer: Damian Wadley. Editorial Assistant: Katy Abby. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Scott Dunn, Mark Joseph Edwards, Stuart J. Johnston, Woody Leonhard, Ryan Russell, Scott Spanbauer, Becky Waring. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, Support Alert, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. YOUR SUBSCRIPTION PREFERENCES (change your preferences): Delivery address: sekhargreen@gmail.com Alternate address: Country: India ZIP or postal code: 713215 Reader number: 41838-13269 Bounce count: 0 Your bounce count is the number of times your server has bounced a newsletter back to us since the last time you visited your preferences page. We cannot send newsletters to you after your bounce count reaches 3, due to ISP policies. If your bounce count is higher than 0 or blank, please visit your preferences page. This automatically resets your bounce count to 0. To change your preferences: Please visit your preferences page. To access all past issues: Please visit our past issues page. To upgrade your free subscription to paid: Please visit our upgrade page. To resend a missed newsletter to yourself: If your mail server filtered out a newsletter, you can resend the current week's issue to yourself. To do so, visit your preferences page and use the Resend link. To get subscription help by e-mail (fastest method): Visit our contact page. Subscription help by facsimile: 206-282-6312 (fax). Emergency subscription help by phone: 206-282-2536 (24 hours). HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe sekhargreen@gmail.com from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
|
