Windows 7 News: Software, Virus Protection

Our MDOP customers have told us that they want to see Windows 7 Support for Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) so that they can move ahead with their application testing for enterprise deployments of Windows 7 early on. We heard you loud and clear. Today we are announcing the availability of App-V 4.5 CU1 with support for the Windows 7 Beta.
All subscribers of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) can head on over to Microsoft Connect and register to download the update. This release will have access to the new …

Tip 19: Lock Down Unauthorized Applications with the Built-In AppLocker Tool
Whether you’re dealing with users in your work environment or kids at home, being able to control what applications a user can use can prevent a lot of hassle and headaches. Windows 7 includes a new tool, called AppLocker, that lets you do just this by creating a policy to specify exactly what applications a user is allowed to run.
To access this feature, click start and enter Gpedit.msc. Then navigate to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings …

The Virtual basic 6 support page has been updated and it states that VB6  runtime is supported in Windows 7.Here is what the summary on the page reads
Since the initial release of this support statement, the Windows 7 operating system has been announced.  This document has been updated to clarify Microsoft’s support for VB6 on Windows 7.
VB6 runtime will ship and will be supported in Windows 7 for the lifetime of the OS.  Developers can think of the support story for Vista being the same as it is for Windows …

Bloomberg reports that Microsoft may start shipping Windows 7 as early as in September or in October, months before the software maker’s official prediction, a computer-industry executive said.
“According to current planning, it should be late September or early October,” said Ray Chen, president of Taipei-based Compal Electronics Inc.?the maker of laptop personal computers for Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc.
Their has been predictions by some bloggers that Windows 7 would be released on 28th October and the Microsoft Swedish Partner blog reported that Windows 7 would be released on October …

It should be no surprise but the Release Candidate for Windows 7 will have quite a few changes, many under the hood so to speak but also many visible.  Some have asked if the featureset is "frozen" then what will we change–we change a lot of things in the beta based on feedback and we try to do so in a systematic manner with the focus on the goals for the release.  The goal of having a fully functional Beta was to make sure we received reliable feedback and not …

Tip 18: Perform Multithreaded File Copies with Robocopy in Windows 7
Windows included the popular Robocopy utility, which offers powerful file copy capabilities in a command line interface. Robocopy is included in Windows 7 and features a new multi-threaded copy option. To perform a multi-threaded copy, you use the new /MT[:n] switch, where n indicates the number of threads to be used. By default, n is 8 when you use the /MT option, and can be any value from 1 to 128.
Note that the multi-threaded option is not compatible with the …

Tip 17: Set Different Default Printers for Different Locations
If you use your system in multiple locations (for example, using your laptop at work and at home) you can set a different default printer for each location. You can default to the networked color laser printer when you’re in the New York office, the scanner/copier/laser printer when you’re in the Seattle office, and your personal printer when at home.
Simply click on the Start Menu and type “printers” in the search field, and choose “Devices and Printers.” Click on one of …

As far as the Windows 7 Beta goes now that we’re just over 30 days since the broad availability of the beta I wanted to explain a little about how the 30 day activation grace period works and the experience customers will have if they do not enter a product key and activate by the end of the grace period. As with Windows Vista and Windows XP the Windows 7 Beta includes a 30 day grace period for activation (generally copies that are pre-installed by major OEMs and copies distributed …

We wanted to let you know that an update was released earlier today that will improve Internet Explorer’s reliability for users running the Windows 7 Beta. The update is now available via Windows Update, and can also be downloaded via Microsoft Update.
In this post we’ll discuss how we used the information that we’re receiving from Windows 7 Beta customers to determine the reliability fixes to include in this update.
We use the term “reliability” to broadly encompass all types of stability problems including crashes, hangs, memory leaks, etc. When we measure …

With Windows 7, the likely reason that Redmond didn’t support an XP upgrade is due to the amount of validation and testing required to support it to Microsoft’s standards.  With such an aggressive schedule, my opinion is that those testing hours can be better utilized for other things like compatibility and performance.  Nevertheless, IT admins aren’t completely out of options.
Vista had many way to be deployed and in-place XP upgrades were one of them.  Because of the small number of core differences between Vista and Windows 7, it makes sense …