Microsoft Windows 128-bit on Windows 8 or 9

“Just before the world receives Windows 7, there are already rumblings of a generation-after-next version of Windows that will come in a 128-bit flavor.

Eightforums spotted in Microsoft Senior Research & Development employee Robert Morgan’s LinkedIn profile that he was working IA-128 for the next two generations of Windows.

The update to Morgan’s profile, which has since been removed, read as follows:

#Windows 7 Start Slower Than Windows Vista

Even if Windows 7 isn’t proven by benchmarks to be the fastest, bestest version of Microsoft’s operating system yet, it certainly feels a lot better. We’d use it over Windows Vista any day of the week, but new findings show that it’s not the performance king – at least not yet.

Sure, there have been many tweaks under the hood to make it better than Windows Vista, but it seems that boot time is actually longer in Windows 7 – at least according to a certain standard.

Twitter Going to Sell Data To Microsoft or Google ?

Micro-blogging site Twitter is reportedly in licensing talks with both Microsoft and Google.

“Ever since Twitter launched, people have been wondering how the company plans to make money. One possibility was that it would launch its own search engine but going up against Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! isn’t something a lot of companies are eager to do. So what else can Twitter do to make money? Well, according to All Things Digital, Microsoft and Google are both speaking to Twitter regarding data-mining agreements and there are a several scenarios being discussed when it comes to compensating the site

#Windows7 RTM Critical Vulnerability

“Microsoft will, for the first time ever, release updates designed to fix security vulnerabilities in the gold version of its latest Windows client. Throughout the development process, early adopters and testers of Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 and Release Candidate (RC) Build 7100 have been able, on more than one occasion, to download patches for Critical security updates for the successor of Windows Vista. It is Microsoft’s official policy to provide security updates only for Critical vulnerabilities even for its software products that are in pre-release stage. But come next week, Windows 7 will get its first patches for security holes that have been discovered after the operating system was released to manufacturing.

Microsoft Offers Free Tools to Build and Host New Websites

Microsoft has been working hard to get their software tools in the hands of people who are starting out new ventures, and these efforts have been widely well-received.

For instance, the DreamSpark program has provided design and development tools to students worldwide free of charge, while the BizSpark program has provided licenses for the same set of tools to software startups for a mere token fee of $100.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta to Start Later This Year

There’s some new information about Microsoft Office 2010, the next version of Microsoft Office that will also have a web component similar to Google Docs.

1. Microsoft will replace Microsoft Works with a trimmed down and ad-supported version of Microsoft Office called the Office 2010 starter edition.

Top 10 Windows Vista Speed Tweaks

10 Speed Tweaks that can make a huge difference in Vista performance

1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing

Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching. This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.

To disable constant indexing:

• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the C: Drive
• On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
• On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files

2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression

Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.

To disable this service:

• Open Control Panel
• Switch to Classic View
• Select Program Features
• Choose Turn Windows features on and off
• Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression

3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation

Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.

To disable this feature:

• Open Control Panel
• Select Windows Defender
• Choose Tools from the top menu
• Select Options
• Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window

4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation

Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn’t really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.

To disable this:

• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the C: Drive
• Click on Properties
• Select the Tools Tab
• Click on Defragment Now
• Uncheck Run on a schedule

5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)

Ready Boost is Microsoft’s name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.

To set this up:

• Insert a USB Flash Drive
• Click Start then Computer
• Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
• Select the Ready Boost Tab
• Choose Use this device
• Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

6. Turn off Windows Hibernation

Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don’t use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.

To disable Hibernation:

• Select the Control Panel then Power Options
• Click Change Plan Settings
• Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
• Expand the Sleep selection
• Expand the Hibernate After selection
• Crank the selector down to zero
• Click Apply

7. Turn off System Restore

Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.

To disable this service:

• Control Panel > System
• Click System Protection on the left panel
• Uncheck the main system drive
• Agree to the confirmation

8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)

This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn’t directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.

To disable User Access Control:

• Click Start then Control Panel
• Select User Accounts
• Select Turn User Account Control on or off
• Uncheck User Account Control Box
• Restart as recommended

9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup

Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.

To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won’t be needing (they can always be started manually later):

• Click Start then Control Panel
• Select Administrative Tools
• Choose System Configuration
• Click the Services Tab
• You can safely deselect:
  • Offline Files (unless you’re using Offline File Sync)
  • Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
  • Terminal Services
  • Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
  • Fax (unless you’re using a fax modem)

10. Disable Excess Windows Features

Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.

You can view and disable these features by:

• Clicking Start then Control Panel
• Select Program Features
• On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
• You can safely deselect:
  • Indexing Service
  • Remote Differential Compression
  • Tablet PC Optional Components
  • Windows DFS Replication Service
  • Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
  • Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service)

Windows 7 RTM Black Screen of Death after Forced Shutdown Actions

According to the Redmond company, this issue affects the 32-bit flavors of all Windows 7 editions. In order to replicate the scenario, end users need only to force the machine Windows 7 is installed on to shut down. A common action in this regard would be to hold the power button of the computer pressed down for a few seconds. After the PC shuts down, users will discover that it will no longer boot again. Microsoft indicated that the startup process would stop at a black screen and Windows 7 will not boot.
The software giant informed that “This problem occurs if the following conditions are true: Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is disabled either in the BIOS or in the operating system. The system is configured to enter hibernation or to enter hybrid sleep mode when the power button is pressed. The language version of the operating system that you are running is a double-byte character set (DBCS) language. For example, you are running a Chinese, Korean, or Japanese version of Windows 7 on the computer.”
There is a simple workaround designed to let users reclaim full Windows 7 functionality, and get the platform to start up under normal parameters. All that users need to do is to boot the computer via the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) disc for Windows 7. Starting the machine in normal mode will not be a problem. In the eventuality that a Windows PE disc is not on hand, a Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 installation DVD can also be used. In addition, the Redmond company is providing a hotfix in order to help Windows 7 users prevent this scenario from happening in the future.
“This problem may also occur in a rare scenario where the power goes off when the computer is entering hibernation. By default, hybrid sleep is enabled on desktop computers. Therefore, if a desktop computer is configured to enter sleep mode when the power button is pressed, it actually enters hybrid sleep mode,” Microsoft added.

source: news.softpedia.com