Windows on ARM fixes much that is wrong with Windows, but lack of apps makes it Microsoft’s big risk

By tim, on February 10th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Vendors who create new platforms work hard to attract developers, because high availability of apps is seen as essential for success. This is why, for example, RIM is offering free PlayBooks to developers who submit apps to BlackBerry App World.

Why then would Microsoft deliberately and consciously choose to release a new family

…continue reading Windows on ARM fixes much that is wrong with Windows, but lack of apps makes it Microsoft’s big risk

Windows on ARM: Microsoft can write Desktop apps, but you cannot

By tim, on February 9th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has written a long post describing Windows on ARM (WOA), which he says is a:

new member of the Windows family, much like Windows Server, Windows Embedded, or Windows Phone

There are many point of interest in the post, but the one which stands out for me is

…continue reading Windows on ARM: Microsoft can write Desktop apps, but you cannot

Cross-platform Windows and Mac lifts Delphi sales by 54%

By tim, on February 8th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Embarcadero has announced 54% growth in sales of Delphi and C++ Builder, its rapid application development tools, in 2011 vs 2010. These tools primarily target Windows, but in the 2011 XE2 edition also support Mac and iOS applications. XE2 also added a 64-bit compiler, making this the most significant Delphi release for years. The

…continue reading Cross-platform Windows and Mac lifts Delphi sales by 54%

Windows Phone 8 “Apollo”: Windows 8 kernel, more form factors

By tim, on February 2nd, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft’s partner ecosystem is vulnerable to leaks, as demonstrated today by reports of a video said to have been made for Nokia, which arrived in the hands of a smartphone review website. The leaked information was corroborated by Windows journalist Paul Thurrott who has received advance information independently from Microsoft, but under non-disclosure:

Thanks

…continue reading Windows Phone 8 “Apollo”: Windows 8 kernel, more form factors

What would you like to see in Microsoft Office 15?

By tim, on January 30th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Today brings the news that Microsoft Office 15 is now in Technical Preview (also known as private beta).

There is little news about what is in it other than this:

With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office,

…continue reading What would you like to see in Microsoft Office 15?

Fixing a Small Business Server 2008 broken by updates

By tim, on January 27th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

I had a call last night from a small business whose email no longer worked. They had applied updates to the server but Exchange had failed to restart.

Looking at the services it was easy to see why. All the Exchange services and certain others including the IIS web server were set to disabled:

…continue reading Fixing a Small Business Server 2008 broken by updates

Microsoft financials: Windows under stress, Server and Office making up

By tim, on January 19th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

If we are really in the post-PC era, then one of two things will happen. Either Microsoft will make a big success of non-PC products, or it will start delivering shocking financial results. Neither is yet true. Here are the results just announced, broken down into a simple table.

Quarter ending December 31st 2011

…continue reading Microsoft financials: Windows under stress, Server and Office making up

Meet Resilient File System (ReFS), a new file system for Windows

By tim, on January 17th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft has announced the Resilient File System (ReFS), a replacement for the NTFS file system which has been used since the first release of Windows NT in 1993.

The new file system increases limits in NTFS as follows:

NTFS ReFS Max file size 2^64 -1 2^64-1 bytes Max volume size 2^40 bytes 2^78

…continue reading Meet Resilient File System (ReFS), a new file system for Windows

OEMs are still breaking Windows: can Microsoft fix this with Windows 8?

By tim, on January 16th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Mark Russinovich works for Microsoft and has deep knowledge of Windows internals; he created the original Sysinternals tools which are invaluable for troubleshooting.

His account of troubleshooting a new PC purchased by a member of his family is both amusing and depressing, though I admire his honesty:

My mom recently purchased a new PC,

…continue reading OEMs are still breaking Windows: can Microsoft fix this with Windows 8?

Storage Spaces coming to Windows 8 client as well as server

By tim, on January 6th, 2012 Follow tim on Twitter

Steven Sinofsky has posted on the Building Windows 8 blog, making it clear that this feature is coming to the Windows 8 client as well as to Windows Server 8.

I took a hands-on look at Storage Spaces back in October.

The feature lets you add and remove physical drives from a pool

…continue reading Storage Spaces coming to Windows 8 client as well as server

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