Microsoft has announced that it will post a downloadable beta of the Windows XP Mode tool for Windows 7 alongside the public release candidate on May 5th. The releases will be available from the Microsoft download center.
Filed under News, Windows 7, Windows XP by on Apr 30th, 2009. Comment. 
Microsoft has issued a press release to accompany the posting of the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) earlier today. The statement divulges two important areas of information for the new release: system requirements and official new features.
System requirements are as follows:
- 1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB of RAM (32-bit)/2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit)/20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher driver
Among the officially listed new features:
- Remote Media Streaming. allows remote access to home-based digital media libraries from another Windows 7-based PC
- Windows XP Mode. Allows Windows 7 users to run many Windows XP productivity applications; available in Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate customers
- Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. helps analyze PCs in preparation for a Windows 7 upgrade.
- Refined navigation. Several enhancements to the Windows taskbar, JumpLists
- Windows Touch. Controlling the computer by touching a touch-enabled screen or monitor; the RC update includes several Windows Touch updates, including the ability to drag, drop and select items with touch.
Filed under News, Windows 7 by on Apr 30th, 2009. Comment.
The RTM (release to manufacturing, or final) edition of Windows Vista SP2 has leaked to file-sharing networks, signaling that the update will soon be available for public consumption. Among the notable enhancements in SP2:
- Windows Search 4.0: “improved indexing and search relevance; helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed e-mail messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer.”
- support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies
- support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration
- ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media
Before installing the update, see our previous coverage with tips for preparing your system for Windows Vista SP2.
Filed under News, Windows Vista by on Apr 28th, 2009. Comment.
Microsoft today released Office 2007 SP2, the latest edition of the company’s productivitiy suite. The new release is cumulative, meaning that it includes fixes included in Office 2007 SP1 and other public updates, security updates and hotfixes that were issued through February 2009.
The new release can be downloaded here.
What’s New Among the major enhancements in this release:
- Word improved .pdf and .xps output; better integration/performance with Outlook
- Excel: improves the charting mechanism (better parity with Office 2003, improved robustness, and targeted performance improvements); adds a chart object model to Word and to PowerPoint
- Outlook Speed boosts, including faster startup, shutdown, and switching between folders; better search reliability; fewer duplicate RSS items
- PowerPoint faster file resaves; better .jpeg, .png and .gif image quality; fixes several printer-specific problems.
- Speed improves application performance when many graphic objects are present, especially for Excel 2007
- Miscellaneous OpenDocument Format (ODF) support: “SP2 lets you open, edit, and save documents in version 1.1 of the ODF for Word, for Excel, and for PowerPoint. Users of these Office programs can now open, edit, and save files in the OpenDocument Text (*.odt), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods), and OpenDocument Presentations (*.odp) formats.”; built-in “Save As PDF/XPS” support
If you are having any problems after the update, please let us know.
Filed under News, Office 2007, Windows Vista, Windows XP by on Apr 28th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Mozilla.org has released Firefox 3.0.10 for Windows, the latest release of the open-source Web browser. The release notes state only that this update:
- “Fixed a major stability issue.”
However, some users are reporting dramatically enhanced performance, particularly with regard to JavaScript.
If you are having issues after this update or have other feedback, please let us know.
Filed under News, firefox by on Apr 27th, 2009. Comment.
Users are noting a variety of issues after updating to the Windows 7 Release Candidate, build 7100:
Bugs
- Blue screens (BSODs) Some users have reported an increased incidence of BSODs after the update to Windows 7 build 7100. Some of these cases may be related to a conflict between the Kasperskey antivirus software and new security updates included in the OS, which we covered previously. See our fix here.
- Taskbar Thumbnails do not appear properly The thumbnail previews of items in the Windows 7 taskbar may not appear properly in the new build of Windows 7, coming up blank. This generally occurs directly after the user switches themes.
- Decreased Graphics Aero score A number of users have reported a significant drop in their systems WEI (Windows Experience Index) Graphics Aero score after the update to Windows 7 7100. This means that either Microsoft changed the scoring methodology, or a difference in drivers or some configuration file has resulted in an actual score reduction.
- Wireless signal bars never displayed Some users have reported an issue in which wireless signal bars are never displayed in the status portion of the taskbar. Instead, the “networks available” icon is persistently displayed.
- Windows Media Player problems Several users have reported that music tags are missing or songs display the wrong titles in Windows Media Player under Windows 7 build 7100.
If you are experiencing similar issues, or have any other bugs or fixes to report, please let us know.
See our previous coverage “Windows 7 RC Leaked: What’s New, What’s Fixed, What’s Broken” for more.
Filed under News, Windows 7 by on Apr 27th, 2009. 1 Comment.
[Updated Sun., April 26th; 1:30 PM PST]
The unofficial release candidate edition of Windows 7, available to authorized beta testers, has leaked. The new release, build 7100, includes a number of significant enhancements and resolves some bugs extant in previous releases. It also provides some significant feature enhancements.
What’s new
- Better performance Several users have reported increased speed from Windows 7 build 7100, particularly with regard to startup times and gaming performance.
What’s fixed
- Erroneous “Read-only” message Previous builds of Windows 7 would sometimes state that Office documents were “read-only” when users attempted to save them, when in fact they were not read-only. This bug has been fixed in Windows 7 build 7100.
- Dropped connections Windows 7 build 7100 fixes an issue in which the Internet Connection would persistently drop when using some WiFi cards.
- Spotify, an online music discovery service, now works. It had issues with previous Windows 7 builds.
What’s broken
- ThinApp Users report that VMWare ThinApp (virtualized applications distributed as a single executable) still do not work with this build of Windows 7.
- Windows Media playback On some systems, Windows Media has problems playing back .mov and mkv files after the Windows 7 build 7100 update. In some cases, this issue can be resolved by removing the K Lite codec pack and instead installing CCCP.
- McAfee VirusScan Some users have reported problems with McAfee VirusScan Enterprise and other editions of the antivirus software after updating to Windows 7 build 7100.
- Upgrading If you had a previous, pre-release version of Windows 7 installed, you cannot directly upgrade to Windows 7 build 7100. However, there is a workaround.
- Upgrading If you had a previous, pre-release version of Windows 7 other than build 7077 installed, you cannot directly upgrade to Windows 7 build 7100. However, there is a workaround.
- DAEMON Tools Lite Several users have reported that DAEMON Tools Lite v4.30.4 causes an endless BSOD loop after the update to Windows 7 build 7100.
Noticed any other improvements or changes? Drop us a line at info@windowsfixup.com.
Filed under News, Windows 7 by on Apr 24th, 2009. 3 Comments.
Beta testers of Windows 7 report that recently released security updates pushed through the Windows Update mechanism cause blue screens of death (BSOD) at startup, with a failure on kl1.sys.
Fix
It appears that, in some cases, this problem may be caused by a conflict with the Kaspersky Antivirus package. Follow these steps to disable the software:
- Startup in safe mode (tap the F8 key on your keyboard repeatedly as the computer is starting up)
- Select a method of safe booting from the menu (first try with networking; if the crash still occurs, try without networking)
- Once the system has booted, click the Start button and type MSCONFIG then press enter in Windows Vista (in Windows XP, click the Start button, then click “Run” and type MSCONFIG then press enter)
- Go to the startup tab
- Disable Kaspersky and any related items (e.g. kl1.sys), then press OK, then restart the system if it does not happen automatically. Startup normally (i.e. not in safe mode)
Alternatively, you can launch the Kaspersky application and set it to not start at startup.
If you wish to continue using Kaspersky, you can try installing the technical preview for Windows 7, although it may exhibit similar issues.
Filed under News, Viruses/Malware, Windows 7 by on Apr 16th, 2009. 11 Comments.
The latest pre-release edition of Windows 7, build 7077, has been distributed to testers and subsequently leaked to various file-sharing services. Users of the new build report as dramatic speed boost relative to the prior build, particularly when launching applications and transferring files.
If you are having problems installing Windows 7, see our previous coverage for a fix.
We’ve also published fixes for the following Windows 7 issues:
Filed under News, Windows 7 by on Apr 8th, 2009. Comment.
A number of users have experienced problems updating to the newly released iTunes 8.1.1. Generally, when this issue occurs, installation appears to proceed normally but then delivers the error message “The installer encounted errors before iTunes could be configured. Your system has not been modified. To retry these operations at a later time please return to the installer again. Click Finish to exit installer.”
Fix
This problem can often be fixed by reinstalling the latest version of QuickTime via the following steps:
- Download the latest edition of QuickTime for Windows (make sure to pick the option without iTunes)
- Choose to save the file to your disk, then double-click the .exe file and install QuickTime
- After QuickTime is successfully installed, download iTunes again, choosing to save the file. Double-click the iTunes installer .exe and proceed with installation.
Other potential fixes for this issue include:
Run a disk check Disk errors, particularly in Windows XP, can prevent proper iTunes installation. See this Microsoft Knowledge Base article for instructions on performing a disk check/repair.
Use Windows Installer Cleanup Use the Windows Installer Cleanup tool to remove any references to Apple-related installation files (QuickTime, iTunes, etc.), then re-try using the aforementioned two-step method to reinstall QuickTime and iTunes.
Feedback? info@windowsfixup.com.
Filed under News, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, iTunes by on Apr 8th, 2009. 6 Comments.