Daily Tech Digest

Good news for all the Microsoft Surface fans, you can now experience Surface at a store near to you in london at New Malden. The new revamped Currys Megastore at New Malden has got a demo table so that you can experience it whenever you want. The whole store is in itself a unique concept as to the whole layout of the store has changed and there is loads of varied products to have a first hand experience.

I had a chance to experience surface and believe me it was a once in a lifetime experience when i least expected it. The applications included in it were Google Maps, Paint and there were apps. related to news, photography and there was the most famous application which many of us seenon Youtube or anyother site that whenever a mobile phone is placed on the surface, pictures and music pop out on the screen with which you can play. Wel let me tell you that it needs a Winodws Mobile or atleast J2me installed on it and a mobile application which allows communication between the devices.

So go ahead and have a first hand experience on Microsoft Surface at the address given below.

Currys Megastore
New Malden
Burlington Rd
GB – New Malden KT3 4PA
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The latest operating system Windows 7 from Microsoft is the most compatible and the lightest version till now after Windows XP. The feedback from the PC users worldwide has been very positive, whether its concerned to the compatibility of older applications or the overall performnace improvement without compromising the speed of the computer.

Right now I am using the final version of Windows 7 Ultimate which i got through my MSDN account and guess what? all my older applications runs as smooth as it used to be on Windows XP. It includes Winrar, Yahoo Msg., MSN Msg., Gtalk, Lexmark Printer ans scanner, Opera, Safari, Firefox, PowerIso, UltraIso, Nero 7, Office 2007 Ultimate, Picasa and the list goes on , on & on……

Even for my Sony VAIO laptop which has got a decent config. of Intel Dual Core 2GHZ, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB HDD and a DVD RW Drive (rating given by Windows 7 is 3.5) runs aplications without any hiccups which is far more better than compared to Windows Vista which would struggle even to run a simple application as Nero. The overall utilisation of processor is at max of 70% even when the PC is stressed to the max of using four applications at a time. The worst problem that i used to have in Windows Vista was Windows Update which used to take ages to install but in Windows 7 its a piece of cake, it hardly takes anytime to install the updates.

I would suggest all the Vista users to migrate to Windows 7 on or after Oct. 22nd  and utilise the full power of Windows without compromising on the speed.

Microsoft have confirmed that they will be releasing Windows 7 for public on October 22nd, 2009 and the RTM (Release to manufacturing) will be delievered to the partners by end of July this year.

In the recent keynote address at Computex 2009 in Taipei Microsoft’s OEM Division Corporate Vice President Steve Guggenheimer confirmed that they are ready to launch their latest offering of Windows by this year with the timeline given as end of July for RTM partners and October for general release.

As told by Steve Guggenheimer that

“We announce each milestone once we’re confident of where we are in the development cycle and that it is ready to be shared with customers and partners. We’ve received great feedback from our partners who are looking forward to offering Windows 7 to their customers in time for the holidays.”In addition to this, Guggenheimer announced that Microsoft will make available an upgrade option, so partners can offer customers the ability to purchase a Windows Vista-based PC and install Windows 7 when it’s ready.

“Microsoft has been working closely with partners to help our mutual customers be able to enjoy the many benefits of Windows 7,” he said. “With that in mind, we’re excited to say that there will be a Windows upgrade program available. Consumers can buy that new PC, whether for a student heading off to college or just because they need a new one, and know they’ll get Windows 7 as part of the deal.”

It will be available in six different versions as confirmed by Microsoft which will cater different type of users starting from Starter Edition, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and then the Ultimate version which will have all the features of other versions as well.

So be ready the for the next OS from Microsoft and lets see how it turns out.

Microsoft has released the latest service pack for Vista and Server 2008 and it is available to be downloaded from the microsoft website.

Windows Vista and Server 2008 SP2 standalone installer (x86)

Windows Vista and Server 2008 SP2 standalone installer (x64)

For me its a bridging gap between Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7 (release date Oct, 22, 2009). I have installed it and there is not much significant difference in the overall performance of Vista. For some it can prove to be improvemnet in performance but according to my personal experience, i would suggest the users to wait for Windows 7 release rather than installing Vista SP2.

Microsoft have finally released the release candidate version of Windows 7 to general public  to download  and test it further helping them to test it so that it can be possibly be launched by the end of this year or earlier (expected October 2009).

Windows 7 RC x86 (32-Bit) version.

Windows 7 RC x64 (64-Bit) version.

It has got many updates from the previous beta build made available in January. The best feature being the facility of running Windows XP compatible applications on Windows 7 using “Windows XP Mode” application which works very much like Virtual PC and that can be accessed through start menu. The other changes include new desktop backgrounds, have more control over UAC, enabling Alt+TAB with Aero Peek and many more new features as given on MSDN.

As with the previous builds its much more stable and reliable except some issues which i came across when using it with Nvidia graphic cards. I was not able to install it on my PC using Geforce 9500GT with the screen going completely blank after installing. Anyways I was able to install it by installing another geforce card.

So go ahead give it a try as its worth it and leave your feedback.