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It's Official: Microsoft Launches Windows 7
Information Week ^ | 10/22/09 | Paul McDougall

Posted on 10/22/2009 4:24:06 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta

Microsoft on Thursday formally released Windows 7, its latest in a long line of computer operating systems that are meant to bridge the gap between man and personal computing machine.

Windows 7 promises a streamlined interface, support for touch screens, and security features that, while robust, don't interfere with users' day-to-day interactions with their computers, the software maker claims.

Retailers girded for the debut of the new OS--the first since Redmond introduced Windows Vista in January 2007.

Best Buy is offering free shipping on Windows 7 computers, while Web merchant Amazon pledged to deliver the product on "launch day" for a nominal fee.

In a harbinger of its potential popularity, Windows 7 pre-sales were the top seller in Amazon's software category as of early Thursday.

The OS is available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions and pre-sales of both were holding up well.

Microsoft is hosting a Web site, dubbed the Windows 7 Compatibility Center, that lists third-party hardware and software products that have been certified as compatible with Windows 7.

Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a hit, given that the company's software sales have experienced sharp declines in recent quarters. Windows sales were off 13% in Redmond's last fiscal year.

Consumer scrutiny of Windows has been fueled by the fact that Vista was found lacking by numerous critics.

Common gripes pointed to its horsepower requirements, incompatibility with older systems, and its disruptive security measures.

Microsoft claims Windows' major problems have been fixed with Windows 7, which is said to be significantly more user friendly than its predecessor Vista.

Microsoft also has introduced new tools designed to ensure customers can run Windows 7 on their PCs, laptops, and mobile devices.

The full version of Windows 7 Professional is $299, with upgrades going for $199.

Windows 7 Ultimate is priced at $319, with the upgrade version at $219.

The full version of Windows 7 Home Premium is priced at $199, with an upgrade from Vista or XP costing $119.


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To: Spktyr
"...and most of your XP apps won’t work."

Does that include my win 3.11 apps?

61 posted on 10/22/2009 6:58:27 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Free Parking is what made America Great.)
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To: commish

Quick question - I am eligible for a free upgrade to 7 with the ‘puter I just purchased. Do I have to uninstall all my applications first (Office Suite, Firewall, etc...)? I don’t want to bugger my warranties and licenses, but also don’t want to do more than I have to. I know enough to backup all my data/pix/music. I’ve never upgraded from one O/S to another before.


62 posted on 10/22/2009 6:58:35 AM PDT by IYAS9YAS (The townhalls were going great until the oPods showed up.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

“Does it keep programs organized in one place?”I want to run apps out of their own directory w/o ANY installation C |~ @ |).


63 posted on 10/22/2009 7:01:57 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Free Parking is what made America Great.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

That looks like the start of an impressively bad day/week.


64 posted on 10/22/2009 7:10:13 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Free Parking is what made America Great.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
Well, you can get a 302 version/kit for the Ford Focus (Escort): www.ford-v8-focus.com

That would be a blast. Get some relatively quiet mufflers and go huntin'. Talk about a sleeper.

65 posted on 10/22/2009 7:11:24 AM PDT by IYAS9YAS (The townhalls were going great until the oPods showed up.)
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To: IYAS9YAS
Actually the Escort (especially the older ones) would be a pretty hot sleeper.

Keep it hideous looking and hide the required wider tires under stock fenders. You could keep it all Ford by borrowing from Mustang and Taurus.

By using the street rodder's favorite "Mustang II based front suspension subframe, and if you mounted the Taurus V-8 setup where the backseat should be, the unit would both get down and boogie, and still be able to turn without pushing.

All that while still retaining the Escort's inherent weak image and ugliness.

66 posted on 10/22/2009 7:36:32 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (RATs, nothing more than bald haired hippies.)
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To: Nateman

ROFL!


67 posted on 10/22/2009 8:38:26 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
Some enterprising company needs to provide support/fixes of the former MS systems that people liked.

That would be nice, but you can't expect a company to support very old software. It gets very expensive to support multiple versions going back ten years.

68 posted on 10/22/2009 9:12:19 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Cracker Jack

My order arrived this afternoon! Apparently TigerDirect’s embargo expired yesterday, when mine was shipped. It was waiting for me when I got home at 11AM ET.


69 posted on 10/22/2009 10:28:51 AM PDT by Kieri (The Conservatrarian)
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To: Paladin2
Does that include my win 3.11 apps?

Yes. And your Win286. Just can't please some folks. ;-)

70 posted on 10/22/2009 12:07:48 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici
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To: VeniVidiVici

I only bought a PC and software at some point after the 486s appeared. B4 that I used mainframe apps at work and programmed embedded 16 bit micoprocessors, so I only need to go back to Win3. It was still better to have everything in a portable directory, functional app and data.


71 posted on 10/22/2009 1:46:32 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Free Parking is what made America Great.)
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To: antiRepublicrat
"It gets very expensive to support multiple versions going back ten years. "

Like all those "old" Unix/Linux tools?

72 posted on 10/22/2009 1:47:49 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Free Parking is what made America Great.)
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To: IYAS9YAS

If your PC has Vista it will do a straight upgrade and you should not have to reload anything. Mine went seamlessly.

You should always back up important files to you just to be safe.


73 posted on 10/22/2009 2:04:15 PM PDT by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: commish

Thanks!


74 posted on 10/22/2009 2:27:43 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS (The townhalls were going great until the oPods showed up.)
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To: Kieri

That was fast!


75 posted on 10/22/2009 2:44:03 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Kitsunebi

Well, one reason I ask that is to sort of point out the fallacy of the old M$ canard that says Mac OS or Linux are not targets of viruses because of their relative obscurity. But Windows 7 has been out for a while now as a release candidate and is thus fairly obscure—when compared to Win XP. But Windows 7 is still plagued by viruses.

Obscurity is not protection against virus infection in Windows 7, so in many ways all the old problems with Windows XP will still be problems in Windows 7.

To celebrate the launch of Windows 7 I just ordered the Snow Leopard upgrade for my iMac—only set me back $25.00 and I won’t be plagued by viruses and my 3 year old Intel iMac will run it just fine.


76 posted on 10/22/2009 7:19:44 PM PDT by comps4spice ("Fish have to swim. Birds have to fly. And liberal Democrats have to call their opponents racists".)
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To: VeniVidiVici

I have a mixture, early counting devices, vibration, shock and accelerometer, and temperature measuremet were designed and built to work with the the ancient Windows 3.1 but since that really was not a true o/s in reality the command structure is DOS. We use them primarily with Xp using Xp as an on/off switch. The majority of all pressure, strain gage, motion meaurement are newer and do not use a a dongle ... just a strict measurement of counts/voltage.

What HO is saying, is that in the changeover back to Xp from Vista something was corrupted. That I do not understand completely, becaue at first Xp was loadeed and Vista disabled, but when that did not work, all units were totally fornmatted, and Xp reintalled. That did clear uip a lot of problems with older printers and such, but none of my proprietary mearuement systems.

PC’s drive me nuts ... I’m a physicist, that in Pre 1985 years dealt strictly with mainframes but of course that was in a single fixed lab situation .. so much simpler. Ok .. I’m a dinosaur.


77 posted on 10/23/2009 3:23:06 AM PDT by HiramQuick (work harder ... welfare recipients depend on you!)
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To: comps4spice
Well, one reason I ask that is to sort of point out the fallacy of the old M$ canard that says Mac OS or Linux are not targets of viruses because of their relative obscurity. But Windows 7 has been out for a while now as a release candidate and is thus fairly obscure—when compared to Win XP. But Windows 7 is still plagued by viruses.

Since Windows 7 has been officially recently released for sale to the general public I'm sure it won't be long until we start reading/hearing about some new super trojan/virus/worm/malware/spyware that will make all previous Windows security issues pale in comparison.

78 posted on 10/23/2009 12:56:21 PM PDT by Kitsunebi
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To: Incorrigible

LOL. Hey, at least he had the underarm sweat under control this year.


79 posted on 10/23/2009 6:45:53 PM PDT by Scutter
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