The PC Report

According to the latest report from Tech ARP, the first service pack for Windows 7 could be hitting us sometime in Q4 of this year. Originally Microsoft had planned for a 22 month development period for SP1, longer than the dev times for Vista and XP’s SP1s. According to the report though, MS has pushed this date forward to the last quarter of 2010 due to new bugs that need to be fixed.

For those of you using Windows Update frequently, don’t worry because these bugs will no doubt will be patched via an update. However, for businesses that may only update to a new Service Pack, they will need a release sooner rather than later. Many businesses also don’t adopt new operating systems until a Service Pack has been released to ensue that all the bugs have been squashed before they update their systems.

A few days ago Microsoft decided that it would share with the world the current status of Office 2010 on the development scale. They revealed that Office 2010 is on schedule to be released to manufacturers (RTM) sometime next month. Microsoft also revealed that they will be releasing Office 2010 to businesses on May 12 this year, around a month before the June 15 release date for the general public.

If you purchase a full copy of Office 2007 and activate it between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010 you will be able to download an upgrade to Office 2010 when it becomes available for free. Upon the release date of the latest Office, the price will vary between US$159 and US$499 for the boxed edition.

Microsoft has finally decided when it will be dropping support for old and outdated operating systems. First and foremost, if you’re using Windows 2000 (a ten year old operating system) support for all versions of the OS will end on July 13, 2010. Windows Server 2000 support is also set to be dropped on the same date.

Windows XP SP2 support will be dropped also on July 13 meaning you’ll no longer receive security updates or other support from Microsoft unless you upgrade to XP SP3. Support for Windows Vista RTM (the version without service packs) will be dropped earlier on April 13, 2010.

If you’re running any of the operating systems that are going to have support dropped, we strongly recommend that you update your system to a more recent operating system. We highly recommend Windows 7 for your upgrade, but if you’re not ready for that switch you can upgrade to SP3 for XP users or SP1/SP2 for Vista users and your support will continue.

Remember the browser ballot screen for EU Windows 7 machines that has caused Microsoft so much trouble? Today we all get to see what the browser ballot screen will look like when it hits countries across Europe starting with the UK, Belgium and France next week and then spreading throughout the rest on March 1. The top 5 browsers on the screen (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera) will be randomized to be fair, as well as the next 7 browsers.

If you live in the EU, and you’re running Internet Explorer, you will be alerted that there is “an important choice to make” and you will be redirected to the browser ballot screen where you can choose a new browser to download or stick with IE. Hopefully the browser ballot screen will inform more people of the other browsers available out there and give them some much need market share out of IE’s chunk.

According to Windows watcher Paul Thurrott, Microsoft Office 2010 will be hitting general availability on June 15 this year, while insiders at Microsoft say that they will RTM Office 2010 sometime in late March/early April. Currently, Office 2010 is in the Release Candidate stage, with the RC being released to testers a few days ago.

When available, Office 2010 will be on offer in five different packages: Starter (the free version with ads), Home and Student, Home and Business, Professional and Professional Academic, with pricing ranging from US$99 to US$499. Also, if you purchase a copy of Office 2007 between March 15 and September 30 this year, you will get a free upgrade to the equivalent version of Office 2010.

When using a rented-out PC at an internet café/business kiosk you might have thought it was legal. Well actually, up until now, it wasn’t legal under the old Microsoft licensing. Now, under the new Rental Rights Licensing all businesses have to do is pay a small fee and they can legally license out PCs to customers that have either Microsoft Windows or Office loaded on them.

The fee is a one-time only payment, and up until June 30, 2010 you can pay a cheaper promotional price (which is 30% off) to ensure your businesses legality. The prices to obtain the Rental Rights License are $58 (promotional)/$83 (standard) for Office Professional Plus, $45/$64 for Office Standard and Windows is licensed at $23/$32. Whether or not business will actually pay the fee after they’ve been running (illegally) for all these years has yet to be seen.

Microsoft is continuing to bask in the glory of their latest (and greatest) operating system, Windows 7, with new claims that suggest that it is the fastest selling operating system in history. While no actual sales numbers have been given, Craig Bellinson, the Director of Marketing for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, shares with us that PC sales went up 50% the week after 7 was released, Black Friday sales were up 63% and year-over-year PC sales were up by more than 50%.

After the flop that Vista was, it isn’t surprising to see that Windows 7 sales are so good as people flooded to use the new operating system to rid themselves of Vista. Good reviews and positive comments also would have helped Windows 7 successfulness. It also wouldn’t be surprising to see Microsoft’s next big OS leap over Windows 7 and see better, and faster, sales.

Microsoft Office 2010, the next big revision of the Office line-up that in recent times we’ve been able to test thanks to the beta, has finally got it’s pricing information released. There will be two options: one is to buy the boxed set which comes with an installation CD and a product key that will work on 2 computers, and the other option is to buy just the product key on a card, that is cheaper and only works with one computer only.

The prices are as follows:

• Professional - $499 boxed, $349 for product key
• Professional Academic - $99 boxed only (only available at academic resellers)
• Home and Student - $149 boxed, $119 for product key
• Home and Business - $279 boxed, $199 for product key

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An injunction against Microsoft to stop them selling Word has occurred before: it was Microsoft vs i4i, where i4i held a patent for custom XML tagging, something used by Word in the way it saves files, which Microsoft wilfully infringed. Microsoft lost the case and was barred from selling any versions of Word that contained the custom XML; however the injunction was delayed upon request until Microsoft could appeal the case.

Microsoft appealed the case, and today, once again, lost. The US Court of Appeals has ordered Microsoft to drop the Custom XML editing in Word, which has effectively banned current versions from sale and also prevents all versions of the entire Office suites from sale because they contain Word. The injunction will come into effect on January 11, 2010.

However, Microsoft has said that they have been preparing for this outcome since August, and will be ready to distribute copies of Office 2007 and Word 2007 without the feature by the injunction date. Microsoft Office 2010 will not be barred from distribution because it doesn’t contain the infringing technology, so you can keep downloading the beta all you like.

Microsoft’s 2 years of work will end soon with the imminent release Windows 7, but it is it worth the upgrade? Here are my five favourite things about Windows 7:

1. The revamped taskbar and desktop

The largest improvements in Windows 7 come from the user interface upgrades, most importantly the updated taskbar. The new taskbar lets you pin applications to the taskbar, which an improvement over quick launch. The window previews introduced with Vista can be hovered over to preview that window by making other windows transparent (called “aero peek”).

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