Microsoft Windows 7 News: 2014

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Gartner: Start planning to move off Windows 7 -- GCN

Government IT managers thinking they can catch a break from operating
system upgrades might have to think again. Industry analyst firm
Gartner recently suggested that enterprises need to make plans today to
move off Windows 7, in its recently published report, Plan Now to Avoid Windows XP Deja Vu With Windows 7.

Migrating from Windows 7 may be an unwelcome message right now for
many agencies. They may have just recently moved from Windows XP, or
they may still be struggling with getting all of their machines off that
12-year-old operating system, which fell out of extended support back in April.

Microsoft's current flagship client OS is Windows 8.1, which is
capable of running Windows 7 apps (Win32 apps) on the desktop side of
the OS. The next Windows under development, called "Threshold" by
Microsoft (or "Windows 9" by unofficial sources), is vaguely described
by Microsoft as bringing back a Start Menu and allowing Windows Store
Apps ("Metro") to run on the desktop side of the OS. Threshold is
rumored to appear in the spring of 2015, but Microsoft hasn't said
anything official about its arrival schedule.

Such vagueness means that planning for Windows 8/8.1 may be the main
consideration for organizations. However, they still face coming to
grips with some app compatibility issues when moving from Windows 7, the research and consulting firm contends.

Microsoft recently revised the product support lifecycle for Internet Explorer
on supported Windows releases, explained Michael A. Silver, research
vice president for endpoint computing at Gartner, and coauthor of the
report, in an e-mail. That change in policy will accelerate the upgrade
pressures for organizations using Microsoft's older browser versions.

"And now Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will only be
supported with IE 11 as of January 2016, meaning that IE 8, 9, and 10
will all lose support at that time," Silver said. "This presents more
support and compliance issues."

Gartner's report particularly calls out Internet Explorer as one of
the top application compatibility problems that IT pros will have to
face in migrating to Windows 8/8.1. Microsoft does have a remediation solution of sorts for organizations
running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This new solution, called Enterprise Mode for IE 11
(EMIE), provides a means for organizations to run applications based on
the older Internet Explorer 8 browser technology. The IE 11 browser
emulates IE 8 technologies via Enterprise Mode. IE 8 was the most recent
browser version that was supported on Windows XP, so many organizations
may still have Web-based applications that depend on continuing to use
IE 8 technologies.

EMIE apparently isn't perfect, though. It may have "bugs" and it can be "broken," Microsoft admitted, in a recent blog post. And Silver said that organizations haven't come around to embracing it.

"Orgs are not sold on EMIE yet, and it does not solve the compliance,
support and validation issues discussed above," Silver explained.
"Microsoft should not have included Windows 7 in the new policy. It's
going to be a huge problem for customers."

On a practical note, Gartner's report offers three approaches for
organizations using Windows 7 but considering moving to Windows 8/8.1.
One approach is to put Windows 8 on new machines as those machines get
replaced. A second approach would be to skip Windows 8 altogether and
hold out for Windows Threshold or a subsequent release (Gartner thinks
most organization will try to do this). The third idea is a total
replacement of Windows 7 with Windows 8 machines, but Gartner doesn't
see a compelling business case for that approach.

HP Still Touting Windows 7 PCs, Two Years After Windows 8 Debut | Re/code

While Microsoft continues to update Windows 8 to address its critics,
some computer makers have a different way to please fans of classic
Windows: Just keep selling computers with the old software.

In an email newsletter Wednesday, HP led its sales pitch with the
line “Windows 7 PCs on sale, just in time for school,” adding that
Windows 7 is still available preinstalled on select notebooks and
desktops. From HP’s website, more than a dozen laptops and desktop
models running Windows 7 are still offered for sale.

HP is not alone in continuing to sell Windows 7 PCs to consumers. Dell still offers a number of consumer PCs running Windows 7, as do other computer makers.

While not unheard of — PC makers clung to Windows XP after Vista flopped — it does show that the industry still sees Windows 8 as a drawback, at least for some PC buyers.

It has been nearly two years since Windows 8 went on sale.
Though the update was pitched as the future of Windows, Microsoft has
spent the last couple of years finding ways to make the new Windows look
more like the old one. With Windows 8.1, released last year, Microsoft added the ability to boot to the old-style desktop.

The company has promised the next version of Windows will go even further, allowing new-style apps to run from the desktop and bringing back a more traditional start menu.

As for consumer PCs with Windows 7, expect to see those on sale
through Oct. 31, after which computer makers will no longer be able to
sell them as a standard option, per Microsoft’s policy.

Microsoft hasn’t set an end-of-sales date for machines running the
professional version of Windows 7, and business customers often have the
right to “downgrade” their machines to an older version of Windows as
well.

You can launch Chrome OS Mode in Chrome on Windows 7 as well now - gHacks Tech News

When Google released the Chrome browser for Microsoft's Windows 8
operating system it included a basic version of Chrome OS in the
browser. Whenever you would run Chrome in Windows 8 mode, it would display a
Chrome OS-like bar at the bottom of the screen that acts as a taskbar in
the operating system. The developers at Google have added a similar option to Chrome for Windows 7 in the most recent Chrome Canary builds. I noticed the change in build 39.0.2144.2 and while I did not have
time to check, it is likely that Chrome Dev users can access the feature
as well. When you click on the Hamburger menu of the browser you see the entry
Relaunch Chrome in Chrome OS mode displayed prominently there. If you do, Chrome will restart and all other windows that are currently open on the screen are minimized.

As you can see on the screenshot above, the Windows taskbar remains
which is different from how things are handled on Windows 8 where Chrome
can launch in the system's Metro mode which does not feature a taskbar. On top of that is the Chrome OS taskbar with its start menu and links
to default icons that load the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Search,
Google Docs and YouTube.

The start menu features a search button that displays additional apps
and a search option that you can use among other things to add more
apps to Chrome OS. These apps come from the Chrome Web Store and it may be necessary to
sign in to a Google account before some of the apps can be installed on
the system. As far as functionality is concerned, it is fairly limited. While you
can install apps, most load a website in Chrome that you can interact
with then. To get back, click on Chrome's Hamburger menu once again and select Relaunch Chrome on the desktop this time.

Conclusion

The switching to Chrome OS takes a considerable amount of time. It
takes a couple of seconds on a fairly decent Windows 7 Pro system and
may take even longer if the system you are using this on is older than
that. Please note that the Chrome OS integration is only available on
Windows 7 and not previous versions of the operating system, and that
you need Chrome Canary at the point in time to see the new option. So who is this for? Chrome OS users may notice that they apps get
synced across devices provided that they sign in to a Google Account.
They may find this useful while everyone else does not really have an
advantage here as there is not really anything that you cannot do in
Chrome directly as well.

What happens when Microsoft ends Windows 7 mainstream support

Windows 7 will be "finished next year." The truth is far from that.

On January 13, 2015, Microsoft will stop mainstream support
for Windows 7--which is still an extremely popular operating system. But
you'll still be able to use it safely for another five years.

[Have a tech question? Ask PCWorld Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector. Send your query to answer@pcworld.com.]

This isn't anything like the run-up to the end of XP support back in April, when everyone in the tech press (including me) warned you about dire consequences if you continued to use XP. That was the end of extended support, which is far more serious than the end of mere mainstream support.

Once mainstream support ends, there will be no more service packs.
Microsoft won't redesign the environment or add new features. Without a
special extended agreement, you won't get patches for bugs that don't
result in a security threat.

But if you like Windows 7, you probably don't really need new service
packs, and you certainly don't want a redesigned user interface. As
long as Microsoft patches vulnerabilities that could become security
risks, Windows 7 remains a safe operating system.

Microsoft doesn't plan to stop fixing security problems in Windows 7
until extended support ends. That's January 14, 2020--five years and a
day from the end of mainstream support.

If that doesn't put you at ease, consider this: XP's mainstream
support ended in April, 2009. It caused no problems whatsoever. Millions
continued to use XP for another five years without people like me
warning them of dire consequences. Windows 7 won't be any different.

Vista mainstream support ended on April 10, 2012. Extended support
will end on April 11, 2017, so you can continue to use Vista for another
two and a half years plus.

Having problems updating Windows 7? Try changing DNS settings | PCWorld

Microsoft may have republished its botched August update, but some
Windows 7 users are reportedly still having problems with Windows
Update. Fortunately, they've also found a simple solution.

On Wednesday, Microsoft reinstated its August update,
which had caused font issues and system crashes on some machines. The
problem, however, was that even though the new 2993651 update cleared up
the issue, Microsoft still recommended that users manually purge
security update 2982791, through a process that involved wading through the registry.

And that caused its own set of issues.

A number of threads have cropped up on Microsoft's support site
complaining that the update has apparently disabled and/or corrupted
Windows Update. Windows IT Pro listed about five, including this thread, which directly addresses the problem.

So far, Microsoft support staff haven't stepped in with an official response, and the original security bulletin
shows its most recent update took place on Wednesday. If you're still
having problems updating your Windows 7 systems, there are two possible
solutions:

First, try downloading the System Update Readiness Tool found
near the bottom of the linked page. Microsoft notes the update process
could take 10 minutes or so, and your hard disk may be accessed quite a
bit during the process.

The easier solution, and the one that seems to work, is simply to
change your DNS settings to use Google's DNS servers, with the IP
addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. (If you're not sure how to do this, Google offers a step-by-step guide on its Google DNS page.)
This simply tells your computer or router to contact Google rather than
your Internet service provider to get the IP address of a web page. If
you can't change the DNS settings for your router, you may just have to
set them for each Windows computer on your home network.

No one seems to be quite sure why this works, only that it does. As Windows IT Pro points out, it might have something to do with the problems that Time Warner Cable customers had accessing Microsoft's Web sites.

Keep in mind that by routing your Internet traffic through Google's
servers, you're explicitly telling Google what websites you're visiting
and what content you're accessing, instead of your ISP. That may or may
not be a concern, depending on your attitudes toward Internet privacy
and who you trust with that information.

One alternative to Google's DNS services is OpenDNS,
which provides similar services, although mistyped queries are sent to a
landing page that will serve you ads. We can't say for certain whether
using OpenDNS settings will solve the Windows 7 problem, however.

Nevertheless, if you're still struggling with the recent updates, give it a try.

Report: Windows 7 Still Holds Vice Grip on Desktop OS | Business Technology Solution Sales content from The VAR Guy

Microsoft’s
Windows 7 still commands more than half of the worldwide desktop
operating system market with Windows 8.1 making some barely noticeable
gains in the past four months.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7 still commands more than half of the worldwide desktop operating system market with Windows 8.1 making some barely noticeable gains in the past four months, according to statistics compiled by Net Applications.

The
researcher’s August 2014 figures show Windows 7 with a 51.21 percent
share of all global desktop OS activity, followed by the venerable
Windows XP (despite no Microsoft support) at 23.89 percent, Windows 8.1
with a 7.09 percent stake and Windows 8 with a 6.28 percent share. Apple’s (AAPL) OS X 10.9 owns 4.29 percent of the desktop OS market for fifth place.

The figures are interesting considering the buzz that Microsoft is prepping a Windows 9 preview to showcase on Sept. 30
at a special event at which the vendor will detail changes to the
operating system. According to reports, the Windows 9 preview will offer
developers an early look at new features and changes in the operating
system, which is said to feature virtual desktop capabilities but not
the oft-criticized Charms bar offered in Windows 8.

At
this Alpha development stage, it’s safe to say Microsoft’s goal is to
make a non-traumatic Windows 9 upgrade path for Windows XP, Windows
Vista and Windows 7 users. Considering Windows 7’s stranglehold on the
desktop OS market, an easy migration path certainly would reside at the
top of Microsoft’s priorities.

According
to Net Applications, Windows 8.1’s August performance amounted to a
slight uptick from the 6.56 percent stake it held in July, the 6.61
percent share it owned in June and the 6.35 percent of the market it
held in May. Still, the operating system’s performance can’t be what
Microsoft envisioned when it launched the upgrade a year ago.

For the May-August period, Windows 7 gained 1.15 percent in market share while Windows 8.1 ticked up .74 percent.

Right
now it appears that new Windows 8.1 features such enabling users to
bypass the Start screen with a boot-to-desktop feature or adding a
Shutdown button on the Start screen haven’t provided the operating
system the kick it needs to gain significant market share.

Google bringing Chrome OS to Windows 7 | News | Softonic

Google's browser-based operating system, Chrome OS, may make it to Windows 7 eventually. The latest experimental version of the Chrome browser includes a Chrome OS mode, giving the browser a full screen Chrome OS experience.

This isn't the first time Google has included its own operating system in a browser. Windows 8 users got the same fullscreen ChromeOS experience at the beginning of this year.

So why is Google doing this? For Google, this is a strategy to get
more users onto its Chrome OS. The more users using Chrome and Chrome
OS, the more ads they can sell to them. Google also sells Chromebooks,
which are basically low cost laptops that run Chrome OS.

Basic users will find Chrome OS a good alternative operating system
if they use a lot of Google services or just need to browse the web.
Users looking for a lot of local storage, processing power or need to
use Microsoft Office will want to use a traditional operating system like Windows or Mac instead.

Still, there's no harm in giving Chrome OS a try when it does come
out on Windows 7. If you don't like it, you can always quit Chrome and
go right back to Windows.

Source: François Beaufort (Google+) | Chromium.org

Via: Engadget

Google's ChromeOS Trojan Horse Coming to Windows 7 | Windows 7 content from Windows IT Pro

At the crack of 2014, Google announced a new feature in Chrome 32 that essentially turned Windows 8 computers into Chromebooks.
Running on Windows 8 as a Metro-app, Chrome 32 would simply take over
Windows and supply a very ChromeOS-like interface, similar to what
Chromebook buyers experience.

The
interface added its own "shell," which included the ability to run apps
from a "Start" button from a very familiar system bar:

In
its latest experiment, Google is developing the same experience for
Windows 7 users. Only in beta form right now, Chrome Canary can be
installed on Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP and it's being dubbed "Chrome
OS Mode". It's enabled through a configuration setting in the top-level
menu called "Relaunch Chrome in Chrome OS mode."

It's
not for the faint of heart and intended for those users who like to be
on the bleeding edge of Chrome browser features. As with any beta
software, it's sure to come with bugs. There's already numerous reports
of app crashes, but Google will work all of those out eventually. But,
still, if you're the kind of person who waits until the last minute to
pop the parachute, this might be worth checking out.

Here's what it looks like on Windows 7:

The
thought, of course, is that if more people become accustomed to using
Chrome and the ChromeOS experience, those people will begin choosing
Google apps over other offerings – and, Google will sell more
Chromebooks, which in turn means Google can sell more ads. This isn't
too much different than the intent behind Microsoft delivering OneNote
for Android for free, or using Office 365
for Android to sell its own services – well, except, of course,
Microsoft's primary business success isn't determined through the use of
customer's personal information to better tailor advertisements.

You can get it here: Download Chrome Canary

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Conclusion

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