Tag Archives: Windows 7

Windows 7

How to unpartition a hard drive using Windows 7?

Leave a comment

” You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

When you delete a hard disk partition or volume (the terms partition and volume are often used interchangeably), you create empty space that you can use to create new partitions.

If your hard disk is currently set up as a single partition, then you can’t delete it. You also can’t delete the system partition, boot partition, or any partition that contains the virtual memory paging file, because Windows needs this information to start correctly. For more information, see Can I repartition my hard disk?”

To delete a partition
Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management.‌ Administrator permission required If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management.

Right-click the volume, such as a partition or logical drive, that you want to delete, and then click Delete Volume.

Click Yes to delete the volume.
If you delete a primary partition, the resulting empty space is called unallocated disk space . If you delete a logical drive within an extended partition, the resulting empty space is called free space. You can now use the empty space to create additional volumes. To learn how, see Create and format a hard disk partition.

Warning
All data on a partition will be lost when you delete it. Be sure to back up any files that you want to save to a different location before you begin.
MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8

Update: Microsoft quietly seeds consumer PCs with Windows 10 upgrade ‘nag’ campaign

Leave a comment

Automatic update delivered to most Windows 7 and 8.1 consumer devices illustrates aggressive marketing intent
Microsoft has seeded most consumer Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs with an automatic update that will pitch the free Windows 10 upgrade to customers.

According to Myce.com, a March 27 non-security update aimed at Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 8.1 Update — the latter, the April 2014 refresh — lays the foundation for a Windows 10 marketing and upgrade campaign. The update, identified by Microsoft as KB3035583, has been offered as “Recommended,” meaning that it will be automatically downloaded and installed on PCs where Windows Update has been left with its default settings intact.

Microsoft was typically terse in the accompanying documentation for KB3035583, saying only that it introduced “additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available to the user.”

Myce.com, however, rooted through the folder that the update added to Windows’ SYSTEM32 folder and found files that spelled out a multi-step process that will alert users at several milestones that Microsoft triggers.

Computerworld confirmed that the update deposited the folder and associated files onto a Windows 7 SP1 system.

One of the files Myce.com called out, “config.xml,” hinted at how the Redmond, Wash. company will offer Windows 10’s free upgrade.

The first phrase, marked as “None,” disables all features of the update. But the second, tagged as “AnticipationUX,” switches on a tray icon — one of the ways Windows provides notifications to users — and what was listed as “Advertisement.” Myce.com interpreted the latter as some kind of display pitching the upcoming Windows 10, perhaps a stand-alone banner in Windows 7 and a special tile on the Windows 8.1 Start screen.

A third phrase, “Reservation,” turns on what the .xml code identified as “ReservationPage,” likely another banner or tile that lets the user “reserve” a copy of the upgrade as part of Microsoft’s marketing push.

Later steps labeled “RTM” and “GA” referred to Microsoft-speak for important development milestones, including Release to Manufacturing (RTM) and General Availability (GA). The former pegs code ready to ship to computer and device makers, while the latter signals a finished product suitable for distribution to users.

The upgrade won’t be triggered until GA, according to the .xml file’s contents.

Presumably, the messages shown in the tray icon — and when displayed, the ad banner or tile — will change at each phase, with the contents drawn from a URL specified by Microsoft in the .xml file.

Not surprisingly, the Enterprise editions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 — those are sold only to large customers with volume licensing agreements — will not display the Windows 10 upgrade pitches. That’s consistent with what Microsoft has said previously, that the Windows Enterprise SKUs will not be eligible for the free upgrade. By refusing to show the alerts and ads to Windows Enterprise users, Microsoft avoids ticking off IT administrators, who will, by all accounts, stick with Windows 7 for the next several years before migrating to Windows 10 as the former nears its January 2020 retirement.

Although Microsoft has often prepped existing versions of Windows for upcoming updates with behind-the-scenes code, the extent of the messaging generated by the .xml file issued on March 27 would be a change from past practices. That fits with Microsoft’s professed goal of getting as many as possible onto Windows 10, a position best illustrated by the unprecedented free upgrade.

Users will face a long line of nagging messages that will be impossible to ignore. Add to that the fact Microsoft set KB3035583 as Recommended — by default Windows Update treats those the same as critical security fixes tagged “Important” — and it’s clear Microsoft will be aggressive in pushing Windows 10.

Those who don’t want to see the Windows 10 marketing push on their machines can uninstall KB3035583 from the Windows Update panel. But because the .xml file was pegged as “version 1.0,” there’s a good chance more such updates will follow.

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Microsoft

Microsoft slates critical IE, Windows patches for Tuesday

Leave a comment

One month left for businesses to migrate from Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft today said it will ship six security updates to customers next week, patching all versions of Internet Explorer (IE) and nearly all supported editions of Windows.

The IE update, one of two classified as “critical” — Microsoft’s most serious threat ranking — will patch IE6 on Windows Server 2003, IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10 and the newest, IE11.

It’s unlikely that July’s IE update will match June’s in size: Microsoft fixed a record 60 flaws in the browser on June 10. (Originally, Microsoft said it had patched 59 IE bugs last month, but a week later acknowledged it had forgotten to add one to the list, and so upped the count to an even 60.)

Windows 7 users who have not freshened IE11 with a mandatory April update will not receive next week’s browser fixes.

According to Thursday’s advanced notice, which briefly described the July updates, the second critical bulletin will patch all client editions of Windows — from Vista to Windows 8.1 — and all server versions except for those running on systems powered by Intel’s Itanium processors. Windows Server 2008 and Server 2012 systems provisioned by installing only the Server Core — a minimal install with many features and services omitted to lock down the machine — are also exempt from Bulletin 2, Microsoft said.

Of the remaining four updates, three were labeled “important” by Microsoft — the threat step below critical — while the fourth was pegged “moderate.” All will offer patches for some or all Windows editions, both on the desktop and in the data center.

Security researchers pointed to the two critical bulletins as the obvious first-to-deploy for most Microsoft customers.

They also remarked on Bulletin 6, the single moderate update, which will patch Microsoft Service Bus for Windows Server. The bus is a messaging and communications service that third-party developers can use to tie their code to Windows Server and Microsoft Azure, the Redmond, Wash. company’s cloud service.

“The odd one out this month is the Moderate Denial of Service in ‘Microsoft Service Bus for Windows Server,'” said Ross Barrett, senior manager of security engineering at Rapid7, in an email. “It’s part of the Microsoft Web Platform package and is not installed by default with any OS version.”

Although Microsoft did not mention it in today’s advance notice, or in the blog post by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), enterprises have one more month to deploy April’s Windows 8.1 Update and Server 2012 R2 Update before losing patch privileges for devices running Windows 8.1 or servers running 2012 R2.

Hardware powered by Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 must be updated before Aug. 12, the next scheduled Patch Tuesday, to receive that month’s updates, as well as any future security fixes.

Or in some cases, even present patches, said Chris Goettl, a program product manager at Shavlik, in an email.

“One thing to watch out for [next week] will be [something similar to] the many exceptions we saw last month,” Goettl cautioned. “Many of the updates we saw in June required other updates to be in place, depending on the platform. For those running Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2, they need to be prepared for more of these updates to require Update 1 before they can apply them. Microsoft has stated they would delay a hard enforcement until August, but more and more of the patches [have] had variations that required Update 1. So look out for that cut over — it’s coming quick.

 

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCP Training at certkingdom.com

 

 

Tech

Microsoft ends Windows 7 retail sales

Microsoft ends Windows 7 retail sales
Sets October 2014 cut-off for sales to OEMs

Microsoft has quietly ended retail sales of Windows 7, according to a notice on its website.

The company’s policies for shutting off sales to retailers and shipping licenses to OEMS (original equipment manufacturers) are posted on its site, which was recently updated to show that Windows 7’s “retail end of sales” date was Oct. 30.

The next deadline, marked as “End of sales for PCs with Windows preinstalled,” will be Oct. 30, 2014, less than a year away.

Microsoft’s practice, first defined in 2010, is to stop selling an older operating system in retail one year after the launch of its successor, and halt delivery of the previous Windows edition to OEMs two years after a new version launches. The company shipped Windows 8, Windows 7’s replacement, in October 2012.

As recently as late September, the last time Computerworld cited the online resource, Microsoft had not filled in the deadlines for Windows 7. At the time, Computerworld said that the end-of-October dates were the most likely.

A check of Microsoft’s own online store showed that the company has pulled Windows 7 from those virtual shelves.

In practical terms, the end-of-retail-sales date has been an artificial and largely meaningless deadline, as online retailers have continued to sell packaged copies, sometimes for years, by restocking through distributors which squirreled away older editions.

 

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

 
Today, for example, Amazon.com had a plentiful supply of various versions of Windows 7 available to ship, as did technology specialist Newegg.com. The former also listed copies of Windows Vista and even Windows XP for sale through partners.

Microsoft also makes a special exception for retail sales, telling customers that between the first and second end-of-sale deadlines they can purchase Windows 7 from computer makers. “When the retail software product reaches its end of sales date, it can still be purchased through OEMs (the company that made your PC) until it reaches the end of sales date for PCs with Windows preinstalled,” the company’s website stated.

The firmer deadline is the second, the one for offering licenses to OEMs. According to Microsoft, it “will continue to allow OEMs to sell PCs preinstalled with the previous version for up to two years after the launch date of the new version” (emphasis added).

After that date, Microsoft shuts off the spigot, more or less, although OEMs, especially smaller “white box” builders, can and often do stockpile licenses prior to the cut-off.

But officially, the major PC vendors — like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo — will discontinue most Windows 7 PC sales in October 2014, making Windows 8 and its follow-ups, including Windows 8.1, the default.

Even then, however, there are ways to circumvent the shut-down. Windows 8 Pro, the more expensive of the two public editions, includes “downgrade” rights that allow PC owners to legally install an older OS. OEMs and system builders can also use downgrade rights to sell a Windows 8- or Windows 8.1-licensed system, but factory-downgrade it to Windows 7 Professional before it ships.

Enterprises with volume license agreements are not at risk of losing access to Windows 7, as they are granted downgrade rights as part of those agreements. In other words, while Microsoft may try to stymie Windows 7 sales, the 2009 operating system will long remain a standard.

As of the end of November, approximately 46.6% of all personal computers ran Windows 7, according to Web measurement vendor Net Applications, a number that represented 51.3% of all the systems running Windows.

Tech, Windows 8

Windows 8 Update: Microsoft urges Windows 8 upgrade for security’s sake

Microsoft: Windows XP machines are six times more likely to become infected than machines running Windows 8

Even those who don’t like Windows 8 should consider it for its superior security vs. older Microsoft operating systems, if nothing else the company says.

According to its latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, machines running Windows XP are six times more likely to become infected than machines running Windows 8, the report says. The raw numbers are that 9.1 Windows XP machines need to be cleaned per 1,000 vs. 1.6 Windows 8 machines.

The reason, Microsoft says, is that Windows XP’s data execution prevention (DEP) is old and doesn’t address modern threats as well as the defenses in Windows 8. “People figured out how to get around DEP as a mitigation,” says Holly Stewart, program manager for Micrsoft’s Malware Protection Center.

Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP next spring and has been urging customers to upgrade to a newer operating system.Worldwide Windows XP makes up 21% of the OS market, Microsoft says.

It’s not just Windows XP with an infection problem: Windows 7 machines are more than three times more likely (5.5 per 1,000) to become infected than Windows 8 machines.

In addition, Windows XP machines also encounter more malware than Windows 8 machines, with 16.3% of XP machines encountering it vs 12.4% of Windows 8 machines, the report says. Stewart says she doesn’t know why Windows 8 machines face fewer threats. Windows 7 computers have the highest encounter rate with 19.1%.

Microsoft gathers data on Windows computers through its Bing search, Outlook.com accounts and Windows users who agreed to share data about their activities with Microsoft, adding up to information on billions of Internet transactions.

Windows 8 users supplement security
One of the big selling points of Windows 8 is its security, part of which is supplied by Windows Defender anti-virus. OPSWAT security management specialists say that despite integration of Windows Defender in the new operating system most customers run third-party anti-virus software, too. That’s 65% of the Window 8 users from a sample of 840 monitored by OPSWAT. Lower percentages of Windows XP users (9%) and Windows 7 users (20%) also run third-party anti-virus, OPSWAT says.

Old Surface Pro is cheaper
With the Surface Pro 2 expected to ship in December, Microsoft is cutting the price of the original Surface Pro by $100, making the current prices $699 for a 64GB model; $799 for a 128GB model and $999 for a 256GB. The prices for Surface Pro 2 are $899, $999 and $1,299, respectively. Surface Pro 2 also comes in a 512GB model for $1,799.

Microsoft has been trying to unload its inventory of the original Surface Pro for months in the run-up to Surface Pro 2. It cut $100 off original Surface Pro prices back in August, so the latest offer makes it $200 cheaper than it was originally. The latest deal expires at the end of the year.

All hands on deck
Microsoft’s corporate Vice President of Surface Computing Panos Panay personally hawked the product recently at malls around the country. He addressed about 150 potential customers at Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in Arlington, Va., according to a story in the Washington Post, in advance of the official launch of the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets.

He also popped up at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles, for a similar engagement, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

While he seems a bit overqualified for pitching computers directly to consumers, it’s hard to fault his enthusiasm.

Calling all cars

Windows 8 is making its way into police cars in the U.K., or at least into trials at the Hertfordshire Constabulary, according to a TabTimes report.

The tablet in question is a ruggedized 8.4-inch Panasonic that officers can carry with them to access police applications.

 

MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification

Microsoft MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification and over 3000+
Exams with Life Time Access Membership at https:://www.actualkey.com

 

Microsoft

Microsoft ships tool to block IE11 on Windows 7

IE ‘biggest inhibitor to continuous upgrades’ for enterprises, says analyst

Microsoft on Friday shipped a toolkit to block Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) from automatically installing on Windows 7 PCs, a signal that the new browser will release in the next few weeks.

The IE11 Blocker Toolkit is aimed at businesses that want to keep employees on an older edition of IE. Its tools include a script that can be run locally, as well as an administrative template IT administrators can use to block IE11 through Group Policy settings.

The toolkit blocks automatic upgrading of older editions of Internet Explorer to IE11 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 through the operating systems’ built-in Automatic Update service. Companies that rely on Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or System Center 2012 do not need the toolkit since they can manage the deployment of IE11 using those tools.

Individuals can also use the toolkit to keep IE11 off their Windows machines without disabling Automatic Updates for all other Microsoft software.

Microsoft has issued similar toolkits for IE7, IE8, IE9 and IE10 before those browsers’ public releases. Earlier this year, for example, Microsoft offered a blocking toolkit for IE10 about three weeks prior to the browser’s public release.

If Microsoft sticks to the same timetable — likely, since the idea of the early availability of the toolkit is to give companies time to deploy it — IE11 will launch near the end of this month or in early November. Microsoft has declined to disclose a ship date for IE11 on Windows 7, saying previously only that it would be this fall.

IE11 on Windows 8.1 will debut sooner: The browser, part of the update to Windows 8, is to land on the Windows Store Thursday, Oct. 17. Current users of Windows 8 and Windows RT can download and install the free Windows 8.1 update — including IE11 — that day. Windows 8.1 retail upgrades and systems featuring Windows 8.1 are to launch Oct. 18.

Blocking toolkits, while long crafted by Microsoft, have become more important since early 2012, when the Redmond, Wash. developer began silently upgrading IE to the newest version suitable for a user’s version of Windows. Most Windows XP customers, for example, have been upgraded to IE8, while Windows Vista maxed out at IE9 and Windows 7 PCs have, in lieu of a block of one kind or another, been moved to IE10.

Shortly after Microsoft ships the final version of IE11, it will begin pushing the browser to all Windows 7 machines via Automatic Updates. The result will resemble 2013’s rapid rise in IE10 adoption. From February through September, IE10’s share of all copies of Internet Explorer soared from next to nothing to nearly 34% under the forced upgrade from IE9.

But the rapid release tempo of IE — accelerated this cycle, with just 7-8 months between IE10’s and IE11’s release on Windows 7 — hasn’t been welcomed by everyone. Enterprises are struggling to comprehend, much less manage, the faster pace that Microsoft’s kicked into gear with Windows 8.1, the update that followed its predecessor, Windows 8, by just a year.

And the constant turnover of IE versions is at the top of IT’s frustration list.

According to Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst who focuses on Microsoft and its operating system strategies, “IE is the biggest inhibitor to continuous upgrades” for corporations.

In an hour-long presentation last week at Gartner’s annual IT conference, Silver and fellow Gartner analyst Stephen Kleynhans outlined the changes companies should expect in Windows and Office over the next five years, and how to deal with those changes.

IE is a special stumbling block for companies trying to keep up with Microsoft’s new cadence. “The faster pace is absolutely the biggest pain point,” said Silver in an interview last week. “The problem with faster release cycles is that [enterprises] don’t know if their apps will work with each new version of Windows and IE.”

Some enterprises have hundreds of in-house, line-of-business (LOB) apps that work with IE8, but not with any newer Microsoft browser, and so have standardized on the 2009 application. While such companies may be interested in adopting Windows 8.1, they simply won’t because of the IE issue, said Silver.

The blocking toolkit will not bar upgrades on systems where the IE11 Developer or Release Previews has been installed, and also cannot prevent users from manually installing the new browser. The minuscule kit — just 98 kilobytes — has been posted on Microsoft’s Download Center website.

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification,
Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

 

Microsoft, Tech

Microsoft urges death of Windows gadgets as researchers plan disclosures

Reacts to upcoming revelations of gadget vulnerabilities at Black Hat by offering tool that kills feature in Vista, Windows 7

Computerworld – Just two weeks before researchers are to disclose bugs in Windows “gadgets” at Black Hat, Microsoft acknowledged unspecified security vulnerabilities in the small pieces of software supported by Vista and Windows 7.

To deal with the vulnerabilities, Microsoft has provided a way to cripple all gadgets and disable the “sidebar” engine that runs them.

“The purpose of this advisory is to notify customers that Microsoft is aware of vulnerabilities in insecure Gadgets affecting the Windows Sidebar on supported versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7,” Microsoft said in a security warning issued Tuesday.

“The deprecation of gadgets and the sidebar is interesting,” said Jason Miller, manager of research and development at VMware, in an interview. “Gadgets are not much used for business, so if you don’t use it, get rid of it. That’s one of the best ways to reduce your attack profile.”

Microsoft did not detail the vulnerabilities or explain why it was letting users ditch gadgets, but the move may be linked to an upcoming presentation at Black Hat, the annual security conference held in Las Vegas. On July 26, Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg are scheduled to present research on gadget flaws and exploits.

 

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

 

The Black Hat entry for their presentation, “We Have You by the Gadgets,” noted “a number of interesting attack vectors” in gadgets.

“We will be talking about our research into creating malicious gadgets, misappropriating legitimate gadgets and the sorts of flaws we have found in published gadgets,” the description stated.

In its advisory, Microsoft thanked Shkatov and Kohlenberg for their help with gadget bugs. The researchers were unavailable for comment or to answer questions late Tuesday.

Gadgets and the sidebar engine were introduced in 2007’s Windows Vista as a way to run and manage single-use, lightweight applications. Windows 7 also supported gadgets, but let users place them directly on the desktop rather than on the separate sidebar.

At their debut, some critics noted gadgets’ similarity to the widgets and Dashboard introduced two years earlier by Apple in OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger.

While touted by Microsoft before the launch of Vista, gadgets never caught on with users. It was thus no surprise when Microsoft announced last fall that it was pulling support of gadgets from Windows 8. At the same time it retired the Windows Live Gallery, a source for desktop gadgets.

The Windows website, which until Tuesday described how to obtain gadgets, now warns users. “Gadgets installed from untrusted sources can harm your computer and can access your computer’s files, show you objectionable content, or change their behavior at any time,” said the site.

Microsoft offered users a “Fixit” — one of its automated configuration tools — that disables the sidebar and all gadgets in Vista and Windows 7. The tool can be found on this page of Microsoft’s support site.

“My first take was that Microsoft was admitting that it’s very difficult for a third-party developer to securely write a gadget,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. “So they’re disabling them all. Thank goodness for that.”

This was not the first time that Microsoft has reacted to security problems in gadgets. More than four years ago, Microsoft updated Vista with a tool that let the company automatically — and remotely — disable suspicious or malicious gadgets.

Microsoft, Tech

Microsoft to charge $15 for Windows 8 upgrade deal

Blogger pegs price for Windows 7 PC buyers during run-up to fall debut of new OS

Computerworld – Microsoft will charge users who buy a new Windows 7 PC $14.99 for an upgrade to Windows 8, according to a report.
MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com
The cost of the upgrade was revealed yesterday by Paul Thurrott, a popular blogger who writes SuperSite for Windows.

An earlier report by CNET had claimed that Microsoft would charge a fee for the upgrade, but had not spelled out the amount. CNET said that the program would kick off alongside the delivery of Windows 8 Release Preview.

Microsoft has said it will ship the preview the first week of June. If the company follows the same schedule it used in 2009 to deliver Windows 7’s release candidate, the most likely date is Tuesday, June 5.

Eligible customers must purchase a new Windows 7-powered PC between June 2012 and January 2013.

Unlike the past two upgrades — a 2006 program for Windows XP-to-Vista and the 2009 deal for Vista-to-Windows 7 — Microsoft will this time not upgrade users to the corresponding Windows 8 edition, but instead will provide everyone with Windows 8 Pro, the higher-end version of the two that will be widely available at retail, said both Thurrott and CNET.

The two previous upgrade plans offered the newer operating system for either no cost or for a small fee. Details varied, as computer makers fulfilled the offer, with some demanding small fees while others provided the upgrade free of charge.

Some OEMs had given customers free upgrades to earlier editions as well. In 1998, Gateway, for years a Dell rival in the direct sales market, offered free Windows 98 upgrades to people who bought a Windows 95 machine prior to the former’s release.

Although Microsoft has not divulged upgrade pricing for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, if it sticks to its current scheme, those versions will run customers $120 and $200, respectively. Microsoft’s $15 charge for the Windows 8 Pro upgrade would then represent a discount of nearly 93%.

Apple, which is also releasing a new operating system upgrade this year, has not announced an upgrade program. Last year it offered customers a free copy of OS X 10.7, or Lion, if they bought a Mac equipped with Snow Leopard.

Apple’s OS pricing, however, has been significantly lower than Microsoft’s of late: Upgrades to OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, and Lion ran users $29 and $30, respectively.

Users ineligible for the low-cost Windows 8 upgrade may be able to score a copy at a substantial discount if Microsoft’s promise of “limited-time programs and promotions” results in a repeat of the aggressive deal the company ran for Windows 7 pre-sales.

In mid-2009, Microsoft sold Windows 7 upgrades for between 50% and 58% off the sticker price, then delivered those orders after the late-October launch of the OS.

Microsoft will likely run the Windows 8 upgrade program through a website it registered in February.

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

IE9, Microsoft, Tech

IE ‘silent’ upgrade helps put newest browser on Windows

Stats show some Windows 7 and Vista users upgraded to IE9, but the new practice affected few XP users

Computerworld – Microsoft’s decision late last year to switch on “silent” upgrades for Internet Explorer (IE) has moved some Windows users to newer versions, but has had little, if any, impact on the oldest editions, IE6 and IE7, according to usage statistics.

In December 2011, Microsoft announced it would start automatically upgrading IE so that users ran the newest version suitable for their copy of Windows.
MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com
Under the plan, Windows XP users still on IE6 or IE7 would be updated to IE8, while Windows Vista or Windows 7 users running IE7 or IE8 would be pushed to IE9.

Previously, Microsoft has always asked users for their permission before upgrading IE from one version to the next, even if Windows’ automatic updates was enabled.

First to get the automatic treatment, Microsoft said, would be Australia and Brazil, both guinea pigs for the January 2012 debut. The program would then be gradually expanded to other markets.

Yesterday, Microsoft declined to disclose what other countries, if any, had had the auto-upgrade switched on.

But in Australia and Brazil, the move shuffled share among some editions of IE, according to data from StatCounter, an Irish Web analytics company that publishes country-by-country usage share numbers for IE6, IE7, IE8 and IE9.

In both countries, IE9 jumped unexpectedly in February, the first full month after the auto-upgrade switch was thrown, while IE8 saw an almost-corresponding decline in share.

IE9 in Australia climbed 3.3 percentage points that month, a 23% increase, which was significantly greater than any spike of the previous 12 months. Meanwhile, IE8 slipped 2.8 points, or 15%, in February.

The result in Brazil was eerily similar: IE9 jumped by 3.5 points (42% increase over the previous month) and IE8 dropped by 3.1 percentage points (for a decline of 16%).

There was some evidence that the auto-upgrade did impact IE7’s share in Australia, since the browser’s February decline was only a third that recorded for both January and March.

It’s impossible to tell if, assuming some copies of IE7 were upgraded to IE8 or IE9, which operating system — Windows Vista or Windows XP — was affected: Both those editions can run IE7.

The theory that IE auto-upgrades primarily applied to Windows 7 and Vista users was bolstered by the shares XP owns in each of the two countries: In Australia, XP accounted for 19.5% of all operating systems used in February, while Brazil’s XP share that month was double that at 37.7%.

If appreciable numbers of XP users had had their copies of IE upgraded, one would have expected to see Brazil’s numbers for IE 6 and IE 7 show a larger variance from the norm than Australia. That just wasn’t the case.

The shifts reported by StatCounter hint that IE’s automatic upgrade program successfully moved some Windows 7 and Vista users from IE8 to IE9, but did little to migrate Windows XP users to a more modern browser, since IE6 and IE7 shares did not drop more than the usual.

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com

Microsoft, Tech, Windows 7, Windows 8

How to Migrate from Windows XP to 7, Windows Server 2003 to 2008 R2

With Microsoft ending support for these old operating systems, now’s the time to plan your transition to the latest versions

When it comes to adopting new operating systems and applications, common practice among system administrators is to delay adoption until the release of the first service pack. Admins found plenty of reasons to put off moving from Windows XP to Windows Vista, and then to Windows 7: The new operating systems demanded more capable hardware, the user interface changes required user training, and there were compatibility issues with legacy hardware and applications.
MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com
Get ready for Windows 8 support headaches
These days, it’s becoming difficult to find device drivers and applications compatible with Windows XP. More importantly, Microsoft has ended mainstream support for Windows XP, and extended support ends in 2014. New PCs come with Windows 7 by default, so admins must support both operating systems anyway. And with Microsoft widely expected to ship Windows 8 in October, can your business afford to be two or three OS generations behind? Unless you intend to set aside the first-service-pack rule, it’s time to bite the bullet and move forward.

Server admins are even more conservative. In this case, Windows Server 2008 R2 requires 64-bit hardware, and the interface is just different enough to make them nervous. The latest server applications, however, are compatible only with the newer operating system. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 2003 in 2010, and extended support ends in 2015.

Here are the top six decisions you’ll need to make before embarking on a migration:

1. Should you install the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version?
At the desktop level, there are few advantages to installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7. The biggest reason to stick with the 32-bit version is that you might have difficulty finding 64-bit drivers for legacy hardware. And some applications don’t function well in a 64-bit environment. Unless you’re positive you won’t need to support legacy hardware, or if you have specific needs that can be filled only by a 64-bit OS (addressing more than 3GB of RAM, for instance), you should set up most desktops with the 32-bit OS.

There is no 32-bit version of Windows 2008 R2. You can run 32-bit applications, but 32-bit support is not installed by default

2. Can you find compatible device drivers?
As we’ve already mentioned, you might have difficulty finding Windows 7 drivers for legacy hardware, ranging from old printers and scanners to specialized tools such as pointaof-sale devices that rely on legacy serial ports. In fact, any new PCs you acquire probably won’t even be outfitted with parallel or serial ports. Make a list of these devices and decide whether you’ll replace them or retain some Windows XP computers to continue running them.

3. Which applications will need upgrades?
You can run Office 2003 on Windows 7, but no one would recommend running Office 2010 on Windows XP. Make a list of the applications that will need to be updated and remember that users will need training on both the new operating system and the new applications.

On the server side, Exchange 2003 or 2007 will run on Windows Server 2003, but Exchange 2010 requires Windows 2008.The same is true for the latest versions of SharePoint, SQL Server, and most other server applications. To reduce the impact on the enterprise, you might want to install new servers along with the new server applications, and then migrate users and their data from the old server to the new.

4. Should you upgrade in place, or start fresh?
When upgrading desktop systems, you have two choices: Install the new OS in an existing system, or start fresh with new hardware. Windows 7’s system requirements are beyond the capabilities of most PCs that came with Windows XP installed, so you might need to beef up the hardware to upgrade in place. The same is true of servers put in service when Windows Server 2003 was new.

Upgrading in place enables you to transfer user settings, application settings, and more from the old hardware to the new using the Windows migration tool or aftermarket tools. Most applications will have to be reinstalled, and you’ll want to run Microsoft’s Windows 7 compatibility tester to determine if any of the old applications will have problems running on the new OS.

5. Is virtual desktop infrastructure a viable alternative?
You can avoid acquiring new desktop hardware by deploying virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Set up a server application that runs virtual iterations of both Windows 7 and Windows XP desktops, and your users will use their existing Windows XP machines to access these environments. This will help them transition to Windows 7 while ensuring continued access to their familiar Windows XP desktops and legacy applications. VDI will require server and networking infrastructure that will likely offset the savings realized by retaining your old desktop hardware. In the long run, however, VDI will simplify desktop management, and your users will experience an easier transition.

6. Should you invest in migration tools?
Migration tools can ease the pain of a mass upgrade by transferring operating system settings, application settings, and even some applications and drivers from old systems to new ones. Users can spend dozens of hours setting up their applications just the way they like, updating dictionaries in word processors; recreating macros, templates, and forms; and so on. The cost of such tools could be offset by avoiding such productivity loss.

MCTS Training, MCITP Trainnig

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com