Windows 7

Windows 7 Wireless Networking

Lately I have been doing a lot of work with the Windows 7 Release Candidate. One strange issue that I keep running into is that I keep losing my wireless networking connection.

I have been using an HP laptop with 4 GB of RAM to evaluate Windows 7. For some reason, my wireless network connection will drop for no apparent reason. If I wait for half an hour or so, the connection will come back, but in fifteen minutes or so it will drop again. during periods of inavailability, the machine seems to be able to see my access point, but it cannot communicate with it no matter what I have tried.

I suspected that a hardware failure might be to blame, so I blew out Windows 7 and installed Vista on the machine, but the problem went away when I did. I put Windows 7 back, and my connectivity issues returned with it.

The problem does not seem to affect wired network connections as far as I can tell. I was just curious as to whether or not anyone else has run into this issue.

Why Does Windows 7 Think it’s Vista?

For quite a while now we have known that the next Windows release is going to be Windows 7. The interesting thing is though, that Windows 7 will use an internal version number of 6.1. Actually, the version number is going to be longer than that, but we won’t know the full version number until Windows 7 goes RTM. In case you are wondering why I am even mentioning this, it is because Windows 6 is Vista.

You might initially assume that the reason why Windows 7’s version number makes it look like a Vista update is because Windows 7 was designed around the Windows Vista kernel. That’s not it though. According to my sources, the version number mimics Vista in an effort to avoid compatibility issues with applications that were designed to run on Vista.

Windows 7 Wireless Networking

I just installed the Windows 7 release candidate for the third time. For some reason this hadn’t registered with me until now, but the installer is actually designed to detect any wireless networks that happen to be in range. You can set up wireless networking as a part of the initial installation process. I absolutely love this feature, because it means that when Setup is complete, you are already connected to the network and are ready to go.

I haven’t seen tha automated installation kit for Windows 7 yet (if there is one), but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you could specify a wireless network and an encryption key within the installation parameters.

Talking About Windows

Microsoft has just created a new Windows 7 video blog called Talking About Windows. This blog is geared toward IT professionals. It features videos from the engineers who built Windows 7 providing their insight into the operating system. It will also feature commentary from some IT professionals.

This new blog won’t officially debut until sometime in May, but you can access it today at: www.talkingaboutwindows.com  

Windows XP Compatibility for Windows 7

Yesterday I was reading everyone’s opinions of Windows 7 on various technology related blogs. Some of the blogs predict that Windows 7 is going to be the final nail in the coffin for Microsoft. Other blogs predict that Windows 7 is going to be the best selling operating system of all times.

I thought about writing about the reasoning behind these speculations in yesterday’s blog post, but ultimately I decided not to. I’m really glad that I waited, because today something was announced that could change everything. Windows 7 is going to come with a Windows XP compatibility mode that is based on virtualization technology. This new feature hasn’t made it into any of the betas yet, but it will be included in the RC build that is scheduled for public release on May 5^th. Right now there aren’t a lot of details available regarding this feature, but I will definitely write more about it as details become available.

Windows 7 Starter Edition

In a slow economy, it is no surprise that netbooks are really starting to become popular. These low end laptops are small in size, and typically sell for around $300.

One of the problems with first generation netbooks though, was that they usually came with a Linux operating system. Manufacturers did this as a way of keeping netbook prices low, and also because first generation netbooks lacked the power to run Windows Vista.

Since Microsoft didn’t want to lose out on the entire netbook market, they have licensed Windows XP for use on netbooks. Using Vista still wasn’t an option, but because of improvements in the hardware and more efficient software, netbook users will be able to run Windows 7 when it is released.

Microsoft has created a low budget version of Windows 7 that they are calling Windows 7 Starter Edition. Netbook manufacturers can license this version of Windows 7 for about fifteen bucks. So what’s the catch? Windows 7 Starter Edition can only open three applications at once, regardless of what the hardware is actually capable of.

At first this probably sounds like a deal breaker. I sure wouldn’t buy a copy of Windows that only allowed me to run three applications at a time. Things are not as bad as they seem though. Just because you can only run three applications at a time doesn’t mean that you can only open three windows at a time. Microsoft also has a very easy going definition of what constitutes an application.

What this means is that things like control panel applets, anti virus software, system services, and Windows Explorer are not usually considered to be applications, and hence do not count against the number of applications that you have open. Furthermore, you are allowed to open multiple instances of an application. There is nothing stopping you for example, from opening a bunch of different copies of Internet Explorer all at the same time.

A Site for Sore Eyes

As someone who writes an astronomical amount of content each week, my eyes tend to get fatigued from staring at my monitors all the time.  Making the transition from CRT monitors to LCD monitors a few years ago really helped out a lot, but I always wished that there was an easy way to reduce eye strain even more.

Fortunately, I just stumbled on to a new feature in Windows 7 that helps you to calibrate your display for the optimal level of contrast. The calibration wizard also comes with a mechanism for tuning clear type fonts so that you can use the fonts that are the easiest to read. You can access the calibration wizard by going to the Control Panel and double clicking on the Calibrate Display Color icon.

Windows 7 Editions

A while back I recall seeing a list of all of the different versions of Windows 7 that Microsoft was planning to offer. At the time I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the list, but I do remember wondering how on earth the average person was supposed to choose.

I recently stumbled onto a news story in which stated that Microsoft will only be releasing three versions of Windows 7. There will be a Home Premium, a Professional, and an ultimate version. There are actually going to be some other versions too, but those are supposedly going to be used solely in other markets.

The Home Premium version is going to be the Windows 7 equivalent of Vista Home Premium. The Professional version will have all of the same features as the Home Premium version, but will also include the ability to attach to a domain, and will offer enterprise oriented management tools such as the group policy editor and remote desktop hosting capabilities.

The ultimate edition will have all of the same features as the professional version, but will also include BitLocker and the ability to boot from virtual hard drive files.

Natural Language Interfaces

I was thinking about my recent blog posts about the Windows 7 touch interface, and about other ways of interacting with a computer. I seem to recall attending a Bill Gates key note a few years ago, in which he said that he was surprised that natural language had not evolved more as a computer interface.

Vista has a speech recognition engine built into it, but I have never actually used it. I do however regularly use Dragon Naturally Speaking. I have experimented with speech recognition off and on since about 1995. As far as hard core dictating goes, it only really became practical a few years ago. Naturally Speaking version 8 was the first version that I considered to be half way decent. The current version is 10.0, and as long as you have the necessary hardware and you spend enough time training the application, it works really well. In fact, I dictate most of the stuff that I write.

So am I dictating right now? No, but I wish that I were.

I live in the south, and everything is in bloom right now. There is so much pollen that my drive way and my patio literally look as if someone spilled yellow paint on them. As you have probably already guessed, my allergies are going haywire. When I try to dictate, I end up sounding something like Alvin and the Chipmunks, and that doesn’t work very well for speech recognition. I guess that is just one problem that technology has yet to solve.

Touch screen gestures

In yesterday’s column, I mentioned that I was going to use today’s column to tell you about the gestures that are supported by Windows 7’s touch interface. Some of the gestures that are supported are pretty obvious. For example, you would probably expect to be able to tap, double tap, drag, and scroll. There are some other less obvious ones though.

One example of this is that you can invoke the zoom function by moving two fingers together (in a pinching motion) or by moving them apart.

There is also a gesture called a two finger tap. The two finger tap causes the area where you tapped to be zoomed in (or restored to its previous size). To be able to use this gesture though, you must be using an application that was specifically coded to support it.

Another gesture that requires special coding is the rotate gesture. To use this one, just touch two different spots on a digital photo, and then slide your fingers. The photo will be rotated in the direction of your fingers.

Windows 7 also supports a flick gesture, that is similar to the one used on the iPhone. Any application that uses a back button supports this gesture.

You might have noticed one very important gesture missing from the list… the right mouse click. You can use a touch interface to perform a right mouse click, but it isn’t exactly intuitive. You can either press the screen and hold it, or you can press the screen, and then tap the screen with a second finger. Either of these gestures does the same thing as a right mouse click.