Category: Windows 7

Windows Vista introduced patches in MSU (Microsoft Standalone Update) format which has many advantages over the traditional Windows XP patches format. However, if one want to uninstall patches in Windows Vista, this is kind of tricky.

You will be glad to learn that in Windows 7 the wusa.exe command line tool has been improved so that you can use an uninstall switch and just supply the KB number for the update you want to remove.

wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:940102 /quiet

Could it become easier to uninstall patches using scripts?

So it seams it isn’t a secret anymore that Windoyws 7 will get a feature (separate download) that using the latest Virtual PC technologies will make it possible to run applications in Windows XP directly integreated into the Windows 7  operating system. The feature is almost the same as MED-V which accomplishes basically the same thing, but The “Windows XP mode” has advantages like it is available for anyone running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate SKUs.

With this Microsoft can guarantee compatilibty in a way no one could ever expect. This also makes the step from Windows XP to Windows 7 much easier and now there cannot be any apps holiding anyone back from upgrading the clients to Windows 7.

More information: Winsupersite

Windows 7 Release Candidate is now finalized as build 7100 and it has already found its way out to infamous torrent sites. The other day I learned a very interesting thing about Windows 7 through my participation in what is called the Windows 7 Ignite program. Apparently Windows 7 is not that feature complete after all and the feature that is coming is quite astonishing, but unfortunately I cannot discuss this further now. For those who wonder the Windows 7 Ignite program is a program which lets Microsoft partners and its small sized customers use Windows 7 at an early stage.

If you are using Hyper-V there is no way you won’t be using the Hyper-V gadget that is available and has been available for a long time for Windows Vista and now also Windows 7. The gadget lists all your virtual machines  and easily let you start, stop, shut down or save the virtual machines.

Download the Hyper-V gadget

In Windows 7 you can create and add your own federated search providers for use in Windows Explorer. A while ago I published a step-by-step guide on how you can build federated search for a SharePoint site or for your favorite web site. The article is available in its full (in Swedish) at tipsomvista.se.

Microsoft is working more active than ever to improve application compatibility in Windows 7. Recently two Swedes announced Microsoft’s willingness to help improve application compatibility in general but also for non-English applications.

First Jesper Holmberg, working with localization at Microsoft in Redmond, announced the face that Microsoft actively wants applications in non-English languages to test with Windows 7. Second Danwei Tran, a new IT evangelist at Microsoft Sweden, offered everybody to send emails to a specific address to report compatibility issues with applications. Microsoft will then contact the developers to see how they can resolve the problems, to everybody’s benefit.

These two actions will of course make compatibility for Windows 7 superb, but never to forget, compatibility for Windows Vista will improve as well as a direct result of these actions.

Just a final note, Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 got released yesterday, more about this later on.

If you have tried out Windows 7 you know that it includes some changes when it comes to Windows Update. The good news for Windows Vista users is that the Windows Update client included in Windows 7 also will be available for Windows Vista. A few days ago the beta program for the next version of the Windows Update client started on Microsoft Connect.

Some of the improvements that can be seen in Windows 7 and that will be available in Windows Vista are as follows:

• Reduced number of UAC prompts and the option to allow all users to install any updates.
• Much better interface and separated optional and important updates.
• More information when errors do occur, now also with descriptions.
• Better notification for the user telling them that the computer will be restarted at xx:xx hours and that the user need to save all open documents, if the settings are set to automatically install and restart the client that is.

If you want to try the new Windows Update client for Windows Vista, go to http://connect.microsoft.com and apply to the program called “MUv4 Beta”.

More information about setting Microsoft Update to be the default instead of Windows Update by script can be found in this post I made quite some time ago. I’ve also verified that this works in Windows 7 as well as in Windows Vista.

I’ve had the chance to offer around 70 slots to users for participating in the beta testing of the localized Windows 7 in Swedish. The interest in this opportunity was amazing and all the slots got filled up really fast. Now, we are all eager for the beta test to actually start.

Actually I think it is quite interesting and very useful to run the localized client operating systems from time to time. All (at least almost) servers are running in English and that also applies to my workstations and other machines at home.

A fact is that most users in Sweden actully run the client operating systems in Swedish and by running the localized version of Windows I get a good grip of what all features of the OS, in this case Windows 7, are called in Swedish. This is particularly important when new operating systems arrive such as Windows 7. It is always exiting to learn what some features are translated to in the Swedish version. Let’s see if we get any surprises in Windows 7!

Microsoft is now announcing some information about Windows Vistas successor with codename “Windows 7”. There wil be no all new kernel in “Windows 7”, instead Microsoft will improve the kernel from Windows Vista and make it more componentized.

Killer compatibility is something that is coming in “Windows 7”, as “all” applications and drivers that work in Windows Vista also will work in “Windows 7” thanks to “Windows 7” being based on the same kernel as Windows Vista. Looking forward to the beta program for “Windows 7”!