Anti-piracy features and a stepped up campaign against illegal software comes added in
By Martin Slofstra
Microsoft Corp. has announced that the Release Candidate (RC) of its highly anticipated Windows 7 operating system is now available for download from the Microsoft Windows 7 site.
The RC milestone “is a result of feedback from millions of customers and partners around the world, indicating the operating system is entering the final phases of development and is ready for partners to develop new applications, device drivers and services, and ready for IT pros to evaluate Windows 7 and examine how it will operate in their environment,” says the company in a statement.
More than 10,000 companies have signed up to have access to the release.
New to the Windows 7 RC are advancements such as Remote Media Streaming, Windows XP Mode (beta) and the upcoming beta of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor:
- Remote Media Streaming. Enables highly secure, remote Internet access to home-based digital media libraries from another Windows 7-based PC outside the home.
- Windows XP Mode. Utilizing Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode allows Windows 7 users to run many Windows XP productivity applications, launched right from the Windows 7 desktop. Windows XP Mode will be available to Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate customers via download or, for the best experience, pre-installed directly on new PCs. As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft is releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC. For larger businesses where management is important to reduce the total cost of ownership, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) within MDOP adds management to Windows Virtual PC including centralized policy, administration experience and deployment.
- Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. To help enable a smooth transition, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will help people analyze their PCs in preparation for a Windows 7 upgrade. Available soon, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will be a downloadable tool that will help people determine their ability to upgrade from their Windows XP-based or Windows Vista-based PC to Windows 7.
In addition, a number of enhancements were made to existing features based on feedback from beta testers, including:
- Refined navigation. Several enhancements to the Windows taskbar, JumpLists and search make navigation and finding exactly what you want much easier.
- Internet Explorer 8. InPrivate browsing in Internet Explorer 8 prevents browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser. With Windows 7, you can start an InPrivate session straight from the JumpList. You can also open a new tab from the JumpList.
- Windows Touch. Controlling the computer by touching a touch-enabled screen or monitor is a core Windows 7 user experience. Improvements in the RC include several Windows Touch updates, including the ability to drag, drop and select items with touch, even inside Web sites that scroll both horizontally and vertically.
- In a related announcement, Microsoft said would step up its campaign against software piracy, specifically by offering “product activation and validation” features in Windows 7 that are built off the Software Protection Platform that it introduced with Windows Vista.
“Counterfeit software delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products — particularly if users don’t know that their software is non-genuine. For example, one piracy exploit caused more than one million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before we were able to resolve it,” says Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft. “Customers running genuine Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are protected from that experience. And there’s an even simpler reason. If you pay for something, you want to know that you got what you paid for. We see many cases of customers who wanted to buy genuine software and believed they did, only to find out later that they were victims of software piracy. We want to prevent that kind of thing in the first place,” says Williams.
Industry research shows that up to a third of customers worldwide may be running counterfeit copies of Windows. “Our experience has shown that a significant percentage of these people do not know the software they are using was pirated,” says Williams.
“Overall the technology we designed for Windows Vista allows Windows to better protect itself and be updated over time. As a result, Windows Vista is harder to pirate, and we’re seeing fewer copies of non-genuine Windows Vista on customers’ machines,” he says.