Windows Vista Team Blog

Today we're announcing something you've all been waiting for -- information on the upgrade process for those of you who are planning to buy a new PC in the coming months but prior to the Windows Vista launch.  Well, now you can have both (and Office to boot)!

Here's the scoop:

PCs loaded with Windows XP or pre-installed with 2003 Microsoft Office software can be upgraded via the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Technology Guarantee program.  Express Upgrade will be available to consumers and small businesses from 26 Oct 2006 through 15 March 2007.

Check out the Express Upgrade site for details.

Windows Vista 

Windows Vista upgrades may be offered for free or at a discounted price (shipping and handling charges may also apply), so it pays to check with the particular PC manufacturer for details specific to their offer.

Consider looking for "Windows Vista Capable" PCs designated as "Premium Ready," as these PCs are designed to deliver the core Windows Vista experience.  PCs carrying only the "Windows Vista Capable" logo may be eligible for the program, but the offer may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Go here for more information about Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs. 

If you purchase a PC running Windows XP this holday, you should remember to take into account the upgrade path of the SKU you purchase.  In the US, the upgrade path looks like this (but will vary by region):

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 --> Windows Vista Home Premium (nominal fee)

Windows XP Professional --> Windows Vista Business (nominal fee)

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition --> Windows Vista Business (nominal fee)

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition --> Windows Vista Business 64 (nominal fee)

Meanwhile, upgrades of this type:

Windows XP Home Edition --> Windows Vista Home Basic

Windows XP Home Edition --> Windows Vista Home Premium

... are both available at 50% discount from the boxed product upgrade price, plus shipping and handling.

Office

You can upgrade to the comparable edition of 2007 Microsoft Office when you purchase a PC pre-installed with qualifying Microsoft Office 2003 software.  More details are at the Express Upgrade site.

Boxed Product (FPP)

Similar programs are available region-by-region for upgrading both Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows XP FPP to Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office; your local retailer will have the particulars.

So with this program, you can buy a PC with Windows XP now and upgrade it to Windows Vista once we've launched commercially.  How's that for making your purchasing decision a little easier?

I've noticed a few discussions out in the community on how Microsoft’s great new LifeCams don’t quite work yet with Windows Vista.

Well, to find out for myself, I just bought the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 this weekend.  I’m happy to say I am currently testing beta drivers for the LifeCams, to which Windows Vista Technical Beta testers also have access to (via Microsoft Connect).  No need to worry if you're not part of that program -- drivers are coming full-speed ahead for these neat new webcams which will work very well on Windows Vista.

Looking for a handy resource for tips and tricks to get the most out of Windows Vista?  No need to wait for RTM -- we've provided the Windows Vista Tips and Tricks Website for you to get acquainted with all the resources needed for making Windows Vista run exactly the way you want it.  Check it out at the Windows Vista Tips and Tricks Website.

My favorite tip is under the Top 10 Tips and Tricks:  #6 is on Windows Meeting Space, which allows two Windows Vista users to create an ad hoc network and share documents or desktops without connecting to the Internet.

What's your favorite tip or trick?  Got one that's not listed on the Website?  Let me know via the Comments section ...

After lots of late hours and a few pre-release builds, the IE Team is happy (and a bit relieved) to say that the final version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP has arrived.  You can now download  IE7 for Windows XP in English from either the IE site or the Windows Download Center.  Look for IE7 in other Windows-supported languages over the coming weeks.

We expect millions of customers will upgrade to IE7 because it’s safer and easier.  Some e-commerce and financial services companies like Paypal and VeriSign are endorsing IE7 because of its improved security for online transactions.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, we’re going to start distributing IE7 in English as a high-priority update thru Automatic Updates.  If you're an IT professional and have customers who want to manage their internal deployment of IE7, you should recommend they have blocking measures in place by 1 November.  We think it’ll take several months to complete the distribution worldwide.

The IE Team still encourages Windows XP users to upgrade to Windows Vista when it becomes available to receive the additional benefits of IE7 in Windows Vista, such as parental controls and Protected Mode.  Windows Vista is targeted to be available to volume license customers in November and all other customers in January 2007, although as we’ve said before, the exact delivery date will be driven by the quality of the final product.

And finally, if you run into any glitches with IE7, we’ll be supporting it with free, unlimited phone support for consumers throughout the product life cycle.  So upgrade with confidence and let your friends and family know how secure and easy the web can be with IE7.

eWeek Labs recently took some time to dig deeper into Windows Vista’s User Access Control (UAC), praising Microsoft for their dedication to securing Windows Vista.  "With Vista's UAC, Microsoft has finally gotten serious about securing the Windows operating system by limiting a user's rights during day-to-day computer usage," Andrew Garcia from eWeek writes.  Andrew also says that UAC "finally brings the Windows operating system up to speed with just about every other major operating system available today."

Check out more of eWeek's findings on UAC. 

Over the past several months Microsoft has acquired some incredible desktop management technologies including those from Softricity, Winternals, DesktopStandard, and AssetMetrix. Since then, many of you have wanted know how we are going offer these capabilities in a Microsoft solution.

Today we are happy to announce the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. A desktop management solution designed to complement Windows Vista Enterprise to provide even higher levels of manageability for desktops and software assets.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance includes:

·         Microsoft SoftGrid, an application virtualization and streaming solution that can deliver applications to users in seconds, without being locally installed, on any PC they login to. Virtualization also resolves many application compatibility conflicts because each application can run with the version of a supporting file that it needs.

·         Microsoft Asset Inventory Services, which analyzes all programs on employee PCs, reducing the labor and guesswork that often stymies attempts to inventory the applications on the PCs within an organization and turns that into intelligent reports and analysis.

·         Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management, which provides versioning, history, and rollback of Group Policy settings, along with delegation and role based administration.

·         Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset, designed to help IT departments quickly pinpoint the causes of PC troubles, recover lost data, and reduce future downtime with post-crash analysis.

Like Windows Vista Enterprise, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack will only be available to customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance or a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. This is another example of delivering on our commitment that Software Assurance will continue to provide the most cost-effective and flexible means of managing the Windows desktop.

This pack will be available worldwide in January 2007. For those already planning your Windows Vista deployments in your enterprise, it should reassuring to know that you will have an even richer set of tools available to you to manage those deployed desktops. You can learn more about the Optimization Pack in this article and at http://www.windowsvista.com/optimizeddesktop.

-          Alex Heaton

I have over 2 years' worth of digital camera photos taken from events and travels -- managing that with Windows XP is next to impossible outside organizing them in folders by date.  Windows Vista right out of the box offers incredible ways to manage your digital photos using Windows Photo Gallery -- so I can now organize my photos exactly the way I want.

Import and Fix Your Photos

Windows Photo Gallery gives you full control over your photos.  Import your photos from your camera or scanner and "fix" them directly within Windows Photo Gallery.  Crop your photos or fix "red-eye" or adjust the coloring.  Let’s say I want to crop a picture I took from my recent vacation to Greece:

What if I don’t like the changes I've made to a photo?  Windows Photo Gallery allows you to "roll back" to the original file by choosing the "Revert to Original" command.  This way you can make sure you adjust your photos to exactly the way you want them, and are free make any and all changes you may wish to, and recover from those changes you don't wish to apply.

Tag Your Photos With Information

Windows Vista allows for extensive file tagging to organize files, and Windows Photo Gallery takes full advantage of this.  Add captions to your photos or tag the files themselves very easily in Windows Photo Gallery.  All you have to do is click "Info" on the top toolbar after selecting the desired photo to which you’d like to add information.

You can add as many tags as you’d like to any given photo.  Here I’ve added three tags.  Once you add tags and a caption to your photo, those settings stick with that specific photo in Windows Photo Gallery and throughout Windows Vista.  If you browse to that photo in Windows Explorer, Windows Vista’s enhanced shell will display the tags, ratings and captions you've set in Windows Photo Gallery.  Tagging your files also provides faster search results for the specific types of photos you’re looking for.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my two-part post on managing your photos with Windows Photo Gallery.  In the meantime, you can also check out the Microsoft Photography Blog and get the low-down from the team that brought you Windows Photo Gallery.

More news for IT Pros from Alex Heaton:

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming opportunity to get in-depth information on Windows Vista to help IT professionals planning their deployments.  The Windows Connections 2006 event is happening November 6-9^th in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This is one of many events happening around the world to help business get ready for the arrival of Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Exchange Server 2007.

This conference will cover:

• Keynote presentations from Ron Markezich, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Managed Solutions at Microsoft; Steve Riley, Senior Security Strategist at Microsoft; and Mark Minasi.
• 10 Windows Vista Sessions
• And 15 demo sessions that cover Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Exchange Server 2007.

This event is sure to sell out so book now if you want to go.  I’ll  be providing details about other events happening too.

-          Alex Heaton

If you find yourself in New York City this week, perhaps attending Digital Life, I invite you to come by and meet some of the team in person.  We're putting on a Blogger Lounge specifically for members of the community who write commentaries of their own, as well as read this blog.

The great thing is that we've scheduled the Lounge to be open all day, with special emphasis on the early morning and late afternoon, so as not to interfere with the show.

Here's the scoop:

Unwind at the
Microsoft Blogger Lounge

New York Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
Suite 4410

The Lounge is open all day Oct. 12th & 13th
7 a.m. for breakfast postings
4 p.m. for happy hour blogging
 
Chill before or after a day at Digital Life and post stories in the Blogger Lounge

Drop by!

Alex Heaton has some news to share with Virtual PC 2007 beta that was released today.  In his own words....

Virtual PC 2007 Beta is now available as a free download from connect.microsoft.com.  Virtual PC 2007 is optimized to work well for Windows Vista as both the host and guest OS.  This version works with both 32-bit Vista and 64-bit Vista as the host operating system as well as Windows XP and has improved performance including support for hardware virtualization technologies from AMD and Intel.  So now you have an easy way to try out Windows Vista, even if you are reluctant to replace the OS on one your existing PCs; or if you have already taken the plunge you can spin up a legacy operating system in a virtual machine on your Windows Vista machine. 

To install Windows Vista in a virtual machine

Dig out your Windows Vista RC DVDs or downloaded ISOs and I’ll show you how to get them up on running using Virtual PC (VPC) 2007.

1.       Download VPC 2007 and install it. Start Virtual PC and select New to start the New Virtual Machine Wizard.  As you go through the wizard: select Create a virtual machine, specify where you want to store the virtual machine file, select Windows Vista as the operating system, you can keep the default memory, select new virtual hard disk, specify where you want to save the virtual hard disk (you can keep the defaults), and click Finish.

2.       In the Virtual PC Console, select the virtual machine you just created, and click Start.  Now you are basically booting up a PC with no OS installed, and you need to install Windows Vista onto this virtual image.  You should see the follow prompt in your Virtual PC window:

What you do next depends on what type of Windows Vista media you have. 

·         If you have a DVD, put it into your drive now and press ENTER.

·         If you downloaded an ISO, go to the CD menu and choose Capture ISO image.  Now browse to and open the Windows Vista ISO.

Now follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation and you’ll have Windows Vista running on Windows XP!

Note: VPC is a great way to experiment with some of the functionality of Windows Vista.  But it should not be used to judge the full experience of Windows Vista as some features virtualize better than others.  For example, performance of any operating system will typically not be as high in a virtual environment as it would be when running natively.  Also note that while you can try out many of the great new features such as user account control, integrated search, the sidebar etc. virtualization technology is not yet suitable for use with 3D graphics so Aero Glass is not available and save the DirectX 10 gaming to your physical PC.

To install Windows XP in a virtual machine

For those not familiar with Virtual PC, it also works the other way around—you can run Windows XP or an earlier OS on Windows Vista.  This can be helpful if you have an older application that does not work well in Windows Vista.  Follow a similar process to that described above except choose the operating system you want to install, capture the ISO or insert the DVD and you are off and running.

Keep in mind that while Virtual PC 2007 is a completely free program Windows is not.  You will need to have a license for any Windows OS that you run in a virtual environment.  This is not an issue if you are using beta versions of Windows Vista but in a production environment you need a license.  If you use virtual machines a lot and you are an enterprise customer you may consider obtaining Windows Vista Enterprise, which also includes rights to run up to 4 additional copies of Windows in a virtual machine using a technology such as Virtual PC for a single license price.

You can learn more about Virtual PC http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc and Virtual PC Guy's Weblog.

-          Alex Heaton

As you've probably already surmised, downloads of Windows Vista RC2 for the Customer Preview Program (CPP) have now closed and the links are no longer active.  We were bowled over by your response to RC2 -- in fact, we hit our download target (200K+) within 72 hours of propping the files!  This is an incredible response.

Special thanks go out to everyone who participated in the CPP by downloading and installing this new build, and please keep the feedback coming -- it makes a huge difference.

If you want another take on how your feedback helps and how the team tracks it, check out this story in the tech section of the New York Times.  (The story also has a good photo of the Life Cycle team -- that’s Sven Hallauer, Director of the Life Cycle team, in the black t-shirt, second from the left.  For more from Sven on the process of getting builds out to the public and what RC2 is all about, check out this podcast).

The amount of information coming out of the Windows Team between now and business availability in November is going to be daunting, but we’re really excited about Windows Vista and we know you are, too, so we’ll do our best to give you as much detail as soon and as often as we can.

On that note, today MS.com published the retail license terms for Windows Vista; you can find them here.  Two notable changes between Windows Vista license terms and those for Windows XP are: 1) failure of a validation check results in the loss of access to specific features (this is the SPP news you’ve likely been reading about this past week); and 2) an increase in our warranty period from 90 days to 1 year, which brings Windows in line with most other Microsoft products.

You already know that a new version of the Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) Beta has been released for Windows Vista RC1; its build number is 6.0.6526.  WMDC Beta 3 enables you to setup new partnerships, synchronize content and manage music, pictures and video with any Windows Mobile 2003- or Windows Mobile 5-powered device.

The Windows Mobile Device Center Beta is currently available as a stand-alone installation here.  In a few weeks it will be available through Windows Update.

Although formal support is not offered for this Beta release, you're encouraged to use newsgroups to help answer your questions.  The Windows Mobile also welcome your feedback at dcinput@microsoft.com.

As we get close to the business availability of Windows Vista, we'll want to provide more information specifically for IT professionals to help them get ready for their Windows Vista deployments.  To help out, one of my teammates, Alex Heaton, will become a regular contributor here on the blog, focusing on issues that impact organizational IT professionals (IT pros) and decision-makers who plan how and when to deploy Windows Vista in their organizations.  Previously, Alex has been managing the Windows Vista Security and User Account Control blogs.  Alex’s first post will be the initial in a series about upcoming events that will help IT pros get ready for Windows Vista.

Windows Mobile Program Manager Mel Sampat tells us that Windows Mobile Device Center (Beta 3) is finally here for Public Download for Windows Vista RC1 and higher.

Head over to the Windows Mobile Device Center webpage at Microsoft.com to download!

Today, Microsoft is excited to announce the availability of Windows Vista RC2 to Technical Beta Testers, TAP Testers, and MSDN/TechNet subscribers. This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability – improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2. Thank you to our beta testers for the bugs and feedback you submitted for RC1. The improvement shows as we raised our quality bar even higher!

Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just posted a special announcement letter of RC2 to Microsoft Connect for the Windows Vista Technical Beta Testers. I’d like to reproduce the letter here for all to read:

People asked for it, and here it is, Windows Vista RC2! We wanted you to be the first to get these bits; next week they’ll be available to a broader set of customers via MSDN and TechNet.

All your great feedback has helped us focus on nothing but bug fixes over the past month since RC 1 — each and every day. There are thousands of quality improvements since Windows Vista RC1. You’ll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work. We will continue improving quality until RTM. If you are an ISV, please use this build (certainly at least RC1 or later) to get certified. Visit www.innovateonvista.com for more information on logo certification.

You are integral to this creation and refinement process. We are just around the corner from RTM and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build made available prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line. Thanks for your help in finishing the job!

jim

I encourage you to download and install Windows Vista RC2. We’re almost finished with Windows Vista – RTM is almost here. Submit as many bugs as you can as we continue to work hard toward shipping.

UPDATE: Windows Vista RC2 is now available to Customer Preview Program participants for a limited time. If you’re in the CPP use these links to access RC2:

Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) English
Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) German
Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) Japanese