Posted 18 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category News
Most Windows 7 PCs max out their memory, resulting in performance bottlenecks, a researcher said. On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.
The 86% mark for Windows 7 is more than twice the average number of Windows XP machines that run at the memory “saturation” point. The most recent snapshot of XPnet’s 23,000-plus PCs — taken yesterday — pegs only 40% of XP systems as running low on memory.
The low-memory condition of most Windows 7 PCs is even more notable considering the amount of RAM in Windows 7 systems: According to XPnet’s polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer.
Source: Computer World.
Technorati Tags: Windows 7, Windows XP
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Posted 05 Nov 2009 — by Arun
Category News
Sophos reports that Windows 7 is vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses, despite Microsoft’s claim about Windows 7 being more secure. With User Account Control (UAC) turned on, it blocked only one out of the 10 proving that UAC in it’s default configuration is not effective at protecting a PC from malware.
Microsoft also claimed that Windows Vista infection was 61.9% less than Windows XP. What they didn’t say was the market share of Windows XP was 70.5% and Windows Vista is 19%.
Technorati Tags: Sophos, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, UAC, Microsoft
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Posted 05 Nov 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux
Ex-Microsoftie says that Windows 7 is doomed and Linux, free software, will ultimately dominate. Read the story here.
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Posted 27 Oct 2009 — by Arun
Category News
PC World reports
The Windows 7 launch party concept was a complete and utter failure. The YouTube video Microsoft created to market the launch party concept certainly got attention, but for all the wrong reasons. It was almost universally mocked and parodied. Just look at the endless list of ‘Related Videos’ making fun of the launch party promotion.
One reader commented in the PC World forums to lament his attempts at hosting a launch party. After receiving only one response, which wasn’t even the official RSVP, the reader examined the RSVP in more detail and found “it looked like the whole TON of apparently life-sucking legalese I had to agree to in order to HOST a party. With even GUESTS having to agree to everything short of giving up their BIRTHRIGHTS to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, heirs, etc., how is ANYBODY supposed to actually get people to do the “official RSVP?!?”
Even PC World’s Rick Broida got so little response to his own Windows 7 launch party invites that he simply canceled the event.
To continue reading this story, click here.
Technorati Tags: Windows 7, PC World
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Posted 26 Oct 2009 — by Arun
Category News
ComputerWorld reports
Some users trying to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have seen their PCs crippled by an endless series of reboots, according to reports on Microsoft’s support forum.
A Microsoft engineer writing on the same forum said the company was investigating users’ problems, but downplayed them as “isolated issues.”
Users began posting messages about the endless reboots Friday, saying that the Windows 7 installation would hang two-thirds through the upgrade. They reported a message on their machines that claimed the upgrade had been unsuccessful and that Vista would be restored. Instead, their PCs again booted to the Windows 7 setup process, failed, then restarted the cycle.
Take a backup before you start the upgrade. With the amount of Windows PC in the wild, the numbers may not be a lot, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s always a good idea to do a fresh install of Windows when you are moving to a new version. Windows upgrades are not always smooth and with the upgrade, you carry all the craps that Windows accumulate over the months to your new OS also. Since Microsoft releases a new version of Windows once in a blue moon, it’s a good idea to always do a fresh install.
I installed Windows 7 RC several months back on my laptop and the installation was smooth (fresh install). I’m using it on and off and didn’t experience any problem. When I tried to install Windows 7 RC on my desktop, it didn’t install. It was giving some error about the CD/DVD drive. I tried several times and didn’t work. Vista installs fine in that drive. I hope the final version would work fine.
Update: Windows 7 upgrade woes mount.
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Posted 24 Sep 2009 — by Arun
Category Time Pass
Posted 01 Jul 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux
Sun has released Virtualbox 3.0 yesterday. Virtualbox 3.0 brings one of the fixes I have been waiting for. It fixed the USB webcam problem. I haven’t tried it to see if it’s working. I would give that a try tonight. Here are some of the major fixes in Virtualbox 3.0, mostly related to Linux.
- Support for OpenGL 2.0 for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests
- Linux hosts: kernel module compile ï¬xes for 2.6.31
- ï¬xed 64 bits CentOS guest hangs during early boot
- GUI: added mini toolbar for fullscreen and seamless mode
- GUI: redesigned settings dialogs
- GUI: allow to create/remove more than one host-only network adapters
- 3D support: ï¬xed VM crashes for client applications using incorrect OpenGL states
- support Windows 7 RDP client
- Networking: ï¬xed another problem with TX checksum offloading with Linux kernels up to version 2.6.18
- VBoxManage: ï¬xed incorrect partition table processing when creating VMDK ï¬les giving raw partition access
- VBoxManage: support cloning to existing image ï¬le
- Shared Folders: sometimes a ï¬le was created using the wrong permissions
- Shared Folders: allow to change ï¬le attributes from Linux guests and use the correct ï¬le mode when creating ï¬les
- Shared Folders: some content was incorrectly written under certain conditions
- Shared Folders: ï¬xed incorrect ï¬le timestamps, when using Windows guest on a Linux host
- X11 clipboard: ï¬x duplicate end of lines
- X11 guests: a number of shared clipboard ï¬xes
- Linux guests: Guest Additions support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
- Linux guests: new daemon vboxadd-service to handle time synchronization and guest property lookup
- Linux guests: implemented guest properties (OS info, logged in users, basic network information)
- USB: Support for high-speed isochronous endpoints has been added. In addition, read-ahead buffering is performed for input endpoints (currently Linux hosts only). This should allow additional devices to work, notably webcams.
- USB: ï¬xed error handling for some USB dongles
For more information on fixes, refer to changelog.
Technorati Tags: Virtualbox 3.0, webcam, X11, Windows 7, CentOS, OpenGL 2.0
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Posted 08 May 2009 — by Arun
Category News
Posted 07 May 2009 — by Arun
Category News
Windows 7 is being touted as being faster than Vista. I installed Windows 7 RC day before yesterday. I’ll write more about my experience later. Windows 7 seems slightly faster than Vista to me, but I haven’t installed many programs to check the speed. PC World ran a test of Windows 7 RC against Windows Vista and found out that Windows 7 is only marginally faster than Vista which won’t be noticeable to users. They tried the test in 2 desktops and 1 laptop, but in no case the overall improvement was more than 5 percent.
PC World concluded that If these test results remain consistent with those for the final version of Windows 7, the news will likely be disappointing to many Windows users. If Windows 7 doesn’t significantly improve that situation, it may fail to convince people to move away from Windows XP.
Technorati Tags: PC World, Windows Vista, Windows 7
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Posted 27 Apr 2009 — by Arun
Category News
Microsoft is introducing Windows XP mode in Windows 7 to give flexibility to run older programs in Windows 7 PC. According to the Windows Blog, All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.
Microsoft will soon be releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. It’s a good news for business and individuals who are running Windows out of liking or necessity.
Technorati Tags: Windows XP, Windows 7, Virtual PC, Microsoft
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