Windows 7

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2: RTM and FTW!

by Joey deVilla on July 22, 2009

Windows 7 Released to Manufacturing

It’s been announced on the Windows Blog: Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing!

Brandon LeBlanc explained that “RTM” happens only after it’s been signed off. One of the release candidate builds becomes a contender for release to manufacturing after it goes through significant testing and passes all the validation tests for RTM including having all languages for that build completed. Build 7600 crossed all those hurdles and got signed off today.

The beta and release candidate period for “Seven” was quite unusual. Rather than hand it out to a closed group of beta testers, it was made available for download and I was given piles and piles of DVD-ROMs to hand out like candy. And strangely enough, people were asking for it. At the EnergizeIT installfests this spring, we played to packed rooms of people who took time out of their Saturday mornings and schlepped to Mississauga to install the beta. Even people with Macs, who ran it under Boot Camp or Parallels. It’s unusual for an operating system in beta – especially one from The Empire – to be in such demand.

I’ve been using the beta since January and the release candidate for the past few weeks as my primary operating systems with nary a hitch, glitch or blue screen. I’m looking forward to getting the final version of Windows 7, which will be the first of many new goodies coming from The Empire over the coming months,

If you’re a developer with an MSDN subscription or an IT pro with a TechNet subscription, you’ll be able to download the English Windows 7 RTM on August 6th, with other language versions on October 1st. Windows 7 will go on sale to the general public on October 22nd.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 was also released to manufacturing today. As they state in the Windows Server Division Weblog, the simultaneous release is no coincidence but a design goal. “R2”, as I prefer to call it, boasts a lot of features such as Hyper-V, Live Migration, File Classification Infrastructure, an improved Active Directory, Pervasive PowerShell, IIS 7.5, server scalability, DirectAccess, BranchCache and improved Remote Desktop.

Tagged as: Microsoft, RTM, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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Silverlight on the Silver Screen: Thursday, July 9th in Toronto

by Joey deVilla on June 24, 2009

Movie theatre with the Silverlight logo projected on the screen

The covers will be coming off our next generation of user experience tools and technologies on July 9th. That’s when Microsoft will be unveiling Silverlight 3, which gives you the all the goodness of RIA (Rich Internet Application, although you can use Silverlight to make desktop apps as well) with out the PITA (Pain In The Anterior regions).

To help promote Silverlight 3, we and our pals at ObjectSharp will be co-hosting Silverlight on the Silver Screen live at the Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond Street West, at John Street) in Toronto on the morning of Thursday, July 9th from 9:00 a.m. till noon (and yes, the event is free). The ObjectSharpies are early adopters of SIlverlight and have forgotten more about it than most people will ever learn. As seasoned pros, they’ll share their stories and wisdom about the next-gen version of Silverlight, as well as associated tech such as Expression Blend, SketchFlow and the touch technologies in Windows 7.

Joining them will be my friends from the DPE team, who’ll be there to talk about the opportunities offered by Microsoft’s “UX3” platform – they’re a great way for your development team and business to stand out in the crowd and give your customers a great user experience.

And yes, the accordion might make an appearance.

As I said earlier, the event is free and takes place on the morning of Thursday, July 9th. All you have to do to attend is register at the Silverlight on the Silver Screen page!

Tagged as: Expression Blend, Microsoft, ObjectSharp, premieres, presentations, Silverlight, Silverlight on the Silver Screen, Sketchflow, touch technology, Windows 7

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Windows 7’s Groovy Desktop Backgrounds

by Joey deVilla on April 26, 2009

Among Windows 7’s Release Candidate 1’s Best New Surprise Features in Gizmodo are the funky (and quite unexpected!) new desktop backgrounds that come with “the Vista that should’ve been”. I have a couple of favourites. One is the one below, which is reminiscent of one of my favourite videogames of all time, Katamari Damacy:

I also like the one below. Can anyone tell me which bridge or road is depicted in the photo?

Tagged as: Microsoft, Microsoft's Sea Change, release candidates, Windows, Windows 7

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Halifax Coffee and Code / Windows 7 Mini-Installfest Today

by Joey deVilla on April 20, 2009

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Today, as part of our EnergizeIT cross-Canada tour, Christian Beauclair, Rick Claus and Pierre Roman are heading out to Halifax. As part of their visit, they’ll be hosting a Coffee and Code event today from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Just Us Cafe at 1678 Barrington Street.

Coffee and Code is your chance to have a nice up-close-and-personal get-together with people from Microsoft, ask questions, let us know what you think and get to know us better. As an added bonus, it’s your chance to install the Windows 7 beta on your laptop: Christian, Rick and Pierre will be bringing installer discs and helping people get the new operating system (which we’ve been using on our production machines since January) installed.

For more details about today’s Coffee and Code and mini-installfest, see this earlier article.

Tagged as: Coffee and Code, EnergizeIT, Halifax, Microsoft, Windows 7

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Halifax Coffee and Code/Windows 7 Mini-Installfest: Monday, April 20th

by Joey deVilla on April 17, 2009

Coffee and Code is Coming to Halifax!

As part of Microsoft’s EnergizeIT cross-Canada tour, we’re holding a Coffee and Code event in Halifax at the Just Us Cafe at 1678 Barrington Street on Monday, April 20th from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m..

Hosting the event will be Developer Advisor Christian Beauclair and IT Pro Advisors Pierre Roman and gool ol’ east coast boy Rick Claus. Whether you’re a developer, IT pro or tech enthusiast, they’ll be happy to chat with you, answer your questions, take your comments, and if you bring your laptop, they’ll even hook you up with a copy of the Windows 7 beta and help you install it.

Windows 7 Mini-Installfest

We’ve been holding Windows 7 Installfests in some pretty large venues across the country, but there’s no reason we can’t hold one at a Coffee and Code event. If you decide that you want to bring your laptop to the Halifax Coffee and Code, please do the following prep to ensure you get the best experience:

Note that the version of Windows 7 we’re giving out is the Windows 7 Beta, Build 7000. That’s the version that was made available for download in January, and it’s the version that all of us on the Developer and Platform Evangelism Team have been using as our main operating system since then. It’ll work until August 1, 2009.

Ensure that your laptop’s BIOS is at the latest revision and ACPI compliant. If it’s not the latest version, go to your laptop manufacturer’s website to download the latest BIOS installer and run it to upgrade your system.

You have two options when installing Windows 7: a clean install or upgrade.

If you’re doing an upgrade, the amount of data in your profile will greatly affect the length of your upgrade. We’ve seen an upgrade on a system that took over 2 and a half hours. Our advice: clean up your system before you show up. Delete temporary internet files, back up and move off your 10,000 song library – do whatever you can do to reduce the number of files on your system. If you don’t, your upgrade process could take more time then we have scheduled for the InstallFest.

That being said, we STRONGLY suggest you go for a clean install or dual boot. The majority of previous InstallFest participants went this route. It’s the fastest, cleanest, simplest way to do it.

Bring all the needed drivers for your system on a USB key. Check out your manufacturer’s site for Beta Windows 7 drivers; failing that, bring 32- or 64-bit Vista drivers. They may not be required; this is a precaution just in case Windows 7’s built-in drivers don’t work for your system.

And most importantly, remember that this event is about sharing, connecting with each other and having fun! We hope to see you there!

Tagged as: Coffee and Code, Installfest, Just Us Cafe, Microsoft, Windows 7

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Last Night at EnergizeIT Toronto

by Joey deVilla on April 15, 2009

Last night, EnergizeIT – that’s the cross-Canada tour where we talk to developers, IT Pros, students and faculty about Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Software+Services, cloud computing, architecture and a whole raft of other things that are coming soon from Microsoft – hit downtown Toronto with the “Future of the Platform” presentation aimed at IT Pros and systems administration types. IT Pro Evangelist Rick Claus flew in to do the heavy lifitng by presenting solo; I was there for support and to answer developer-specific questions.

Ballet School, on Maitland Street in Toronto

In Canada, the phrase “I’m going to the ballet” tonight is sometimes used as a euphemism for “I’m going to the strip club”. So it was with great amusement when we found out that the venue for the presentation was Canada’s National Ballet School. I’m pretty sure I said “Well, I’m off to the ballet!” a dozen times before making my way to EnergizeIT.

Ballet school main hall interior

The presentation went quite well, with many people asking all sorts of questions about the new features in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. As with all the other EnergizeIT shows I have attended, many attendees either couldn’t wait to get their hands on the Windows 7 beta DVDs we were handing out or couldn’t stop singing its praises.

I’ll close with this shot of Rick, whom I caught in a perfect moment – it looks like he’s doing the “Head Crusher” routine from The Kids in the Hall:

Rick Claus doing his presentation: "I'm crushing your head!"

Tagged as: EnergizeIT, Microsoft, Rick Claus, Windows 7, Windows Server

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Windows 7 Feels the Love

by Joey deVilla on April 8, 2009

ComputerWorld has a report citing a couple of interesting poll results:

A poll conducted by ChangeWave says that 44% of the IT pros they interviewed said that they were “very satisfied” with the Windows 7 beta. This is leaps and bounds over a similar poll they conducted in February 2007 when 10% said they were as satisfied with Vista.
In the same poll, 53% said that they’d skip Vista outright and just wait Windows 7.

This is consistent with my own experience talking with people at various events ranging from the EnergizeIT cross-Canada tour to my Coffee and Code gatherings (where even Macheads have been asking me for Win 7 install DVDs) to the Mesh Conference. I’ve never seen people this stoked about a beta operating system, never mind a version of Windows!

It’s an interesting part of what I like to describe as the “sea change taking place within and without The Empire”. I’m looking forward to the upcoming release candidate.

Tagged as: Microsoft, sea change, Windows 7

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Toronto Area Windows 7 Installfest

by Joey deVilla on April 5, 2009

This article originally appeared in Canadian Developer Connection.

We held a Windows 7 Installfest yesterday as part of the cross-Canada EnergizeIT tour. The idea is pretty simple: invite developers, IT pros and early adopters of all stripes to the Microsoft Canada Headquarters in Mississauga, provide them with DVDs of the Windows 7 beta, walk them through the installation process and show them what the upcoming operating system can do!

room_2

We held two sessions on Saturday, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Both sessions were hosted by IT Pro Evangelist extraordinare Rick Claus, who with his signature Tilley hat and friendly delivery style ran them with great fanfare and high praise from many participants. Rick gave a quick presentation walking the crowd through the basics of the installation process, demonstrated a number of Windows 7 features and covered other topics such as creating a bootable USB stick with a Windows 7 installer.

laptop_1

The event wouldn’t have been possible without the able assistance of our proctors. They were volunteers from the local IT community who believed in Windows 7 so much that they were willing to spend a Saturday morning and afternoon helping people install a beta version on their computers. Thanks, guys – without your help, we would’ve been swamped!

proctors

I was also there for both sessions, helping Rick out as well as doing my own demonstrations showing all kinds of software than ran “right out of the box” on Windows 7, from Visual Studio 2008 and XNA (I showed them my incredibly simple and incredibly dumb prototype for a game based on the move Zardoz), to Far Cry 2 to the music synthesizer/production app FL Studio, which I used to build a hip-hop backbeat on the fly.

room_1

Also present was IT Pro Evangelist Damir Bersinic, who along with Anne Murakami and Cristina Ferreira from our partner company Maritz Canada, made sure that everything ran smoothly, from making sure that the room was set up to signing in the attendees to getting not just enough mini-burgers to feed the crowd, but also enough to haunt Rick’s dreams for the next week.

miniburgers

Most of the people who came brought laptop computers. A couple brought netbooks. Some people who really wanted Windows 7 brought desktop systems, and they weren’t tiny ones, either! Here’s one that got brought in, complete with a decent-sized monitor and webcam! The system was so new that it still had all the feature stickers on it.

desktop_1

The “Flashy Chassis” award goes to this guy, whose pimped-out enclosure got a lot of oohs and ahhs. Speaking as a guy who walks around town and tech conferences with an accordion on his back, I applaud personal expression of all kinds and salute this gentleman with a filet mignon on a flaming sword! I plan to build a gamer/music studio PC rig at some point, and you’d better believe it’s going to be at least this decked out:

desktop_2

Ages ago, a full two years before The Empire hired me, they sent me an Acer Ferrari 1000 as part of program to get prominent Canadian bloggers interested in Vista. I still have it…

ferrari_1

…but it no longer has Vista. Under Windows 7, it feels a little snappier. I plan to use the machine, which is now a couple of years old and whose specs are a bit lower than than developer-grade laptops that The Empire provides me, as a “reality check” device, where I’ll test applications that both Microsoft and I develop.

ferrari_2

I never thought I’d see the day when people would get jazzed about an upcoming Windows operating system, never mind sign up in droves to get their hands on a pre-release version, but that’s just what happened. The room was filled with geek love and techno-lust for Windows 7.

room_3

It was also great to meet new people and make new connections with the tech community at large, and they in turned seemed quite happy to meet some of the actual human faces that make up Microsoft. When we asked the audience if they’d like to see more Saturday events like this, they responded with a resounding “YES!”, and we’re keeping that in mind as we plan events for 2009 and beyond.

All in all, the Toronto Area Windows 7 Installfest was a lot of fun, and from where I stand, it was a great success! Thanks to everyone who attended and helped out!

Tagged as: EnergizeIT, Installfest, Microsoft, Windows 7

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EnergizeIT 2009: Coming Soon!

by Joey deVilla on February 23, 2009

It’s been announced on Canadian Developer Connection, but I thought I’d mention it here: we folks at Microsoft Canada are gearing up for the 2009 edition of EnergizeIT, a cross-country tour where we’ll show off our upcoming tools, technology and platforms.

Logos: Windows Azure, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

For starters, we’ll be showing off Windows 7. I’ve been running it on both my “developer” and “TPS report-writing” laptops for weeks now, and it’s been nothing but rock-solid: all my XP and Vista-based software, from development apps to games and even my synth software (I run Ableton Live and FL Studio, a.k.a. “FruityLoops”) work like a charm on it. We’ll show off the improved UI, additional capabilities that you can take advantage of as a developer, and even give you a chance to install the beta on your own machine.

EnergizeIT is also an opportunity to check out what we’ve got in the way of server tech, such as the revamped Windows Server 2008 R2 with its Hyper-V virtualization and Windows Azure, our cloud computing platform that scales to meet your needs and saves you maintenance headaches.

We’ll have five different kinds of events at our EnergizeIT stops:

The Future of the Windows Platform: We’ll talk about Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, all with this question in mind: “How is this going to make my life easier?”
Energize IT: From the Client to the Cloud: Find out about our “Software + Services” vision, where you can access computing power anywhere, any time and on any device.
Student Connection: Get Energized About the Future! Get a head start on your journey from academia to “the real world” as we show you some upcoming tech and talk about the opportunities that exist, even in current economic mess.
Faculty Connection: Supporting Faculty to Support the Future: Find out about our programs to support people who teach technology and let us know what you need.
Enthusiast Connection: Windows 7 Installfest: Take Windows 7 for a spin and ask us about our experiences with our up-and-coming desktop operating system.

Map of Canada

In the past, we’ve only held EnergizeIT in Toronto, but this time, we’re borrowing a page from Aerosmith’s book and coming to your hometown. Starting in mid-March and running through until the end of April, we’ll be hitting these cities:

Victoria
Vancouver
Edmonton
Calgary
Regina
Saskatoon
Winnipeg
London
Kitchener-Waterloo
Mississauga
Toronto
Ottawa
Montreal
Halifax
Moncton
Fredericton
St. John’s

As for how much it’ll cost for you to attend our EnergizeIT events: nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. Honkis de Konkis, as we say in some circles. Simply put, it’s free of charge.

Want to find out more about EnergizeIT or register? Go hit the EnergizeIT site.

Tagged as: Azure, conferences, EnergizeIT, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows Server

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xkcd on the Windows 7 Beta

by Joey deVilla on January 9, 2009

Even though this organization gives me a nice paycheque every two weeks for evangelizing:

Microsoft logo, featuring the evil monkey from "Family Guy"

…I still found today’s xkcd comic on the Windows 7 beta release funny:

Click the comic to see it on its original page.

The alt text for the comic does say "Disclaimer: I have not actually tried the beta yet. I hear it’s quite pleasant and hardly Hitler-y at all."

By the bye, don’t quote me on this but I hear tell that the next Ubuntu release will do nothing but show Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond forming a sexy “Eiffel Tower” (see this post for an explanation) with Linus Torvalds in the middle. I’m just sayin’.

Tagged as: comics, Microsoft, Vista, Windows 7, xkcd

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Taking Windows 7 for a Spin

by Joey deVilla on December 15, 2008

windows_7_ultimate_installer

I had my first look at the next version of Windows – Windows 7 – at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles back in October, a week after I joined the company. By the powers vested in me as a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, I got my paws on an installer for a recent beta edition and a spare machine – a Dell Latitude D830 with a 2GHz Core Duo processor and 4GB RAM — on which to take the new operating system for a test run.

The installation of the Windows 7 beta went considerably better than my experience installing the Windows Vista beta back in 2006: this time, it worked.

setup_is_preparing_windows

Over the next little while, I’m going to spend some time – perhaps a day a week – doing actual daily work on the Windows 7 machine in order to really experience it. It’ll also give me a chance to try out some “developing for Windows 7” example code. I’ll post my observations here on Global Nerdy – at least as much as the non-disclosure rules allow.