industry news
Microsoft news
Thursday, November 20
WINDOWS VISTA DIFFERENCES
Microsoft’s latest Windows operating system is available in five different editions ranging from Vista Home Basic to Ultimate. The idea behind the range is to give users a choice depending on whether they use their PC for basic home entertainment tasks or business productivity applications. To help illustrate the main differences between the versions, see our attached features table.(Source: Microsoft Windows Vista)
Epicentre Says:
“Although uptake of Vista has been slow to start with, the majority of new PCs will now be pre-installed with the OS so it’s important to check your software will run without issues. At Epicentre, we can test your software against the complete range of Microsoft, Apple and Linux operating systems.”
Thursday, August 28
VISTA: UPTURN IN DOWNGRADES
A recent survey suggests that around 35% of PCs shipped within the last six months were downgraded from Vista to XP – either by vendors eager to distance themselves from the troubled OS or by users desperate to escape its many bizarre bugs and compatibility issues.
The survey, conducted by Devil Mountain Software, will come as yet another blow to consumer confidence in Vista, at a time when Microsoft appears to be shifting its PR focus from Vista damage limitation to the promotion of its next OS, Windows 7.
(Source: The Register)
Epicentre Says:
“It’s hard to believe that Microsoft is already promoting its next OS when the last one is still surrounded by confusion and distrust. Still, maybe next time around they’ll allocate more time and money to testing and usability studies.”
Monday, June 16
VISTA COMPATIBILITY TESTING
The London Borough of Newham have had their core portfolio of IT applications software tested for Vista compatibility before launching a Vista rollout pilot in June 2008. The suite of tests carried out by HP used AppDNA’s automated testing solution to check for the apps’ ability to install and run under Vista. The test results showed that approximately 70% of the software used by Newham will run without compatibility issues while less than 13% would require some form of fix.
(Source: BNET)
Epicentre Says:
“This case study not only highlights the importance of software migration and testing but also shows that early, structured planning is key to tracking down major issues. Bugs are to be expected in software environments – knowing what to look for, and what bugs will cause genuine problems, can help you prioritise what needs fixing and what may damage your brand if left unchecked.”
Wednesday, April 23
USB DEVICES AT RISK FROM LATEST VISTA SP1-RELATED PATCH
Microsoft’s woes with Vista SP1 seem to be continuing unabated. At the start of April, a patch was released to patch the prerequisite installation for Vista SP1. The update, entitled “Windows Vista SP1 pre-requisite KB938371”, has caused the failure of several USB devices, such as keyboards, mice and flash drives, amongst others.
So far, Microsoft’s response has been limited: “We are aware of concerns that a recent Microsoft update may be causing problems with USB devices. We are investigating the matter and at this time do not have any additional information to share.”
(Source: ars technica)
Epicentre Says:
“A patch for a prerequisite installation for a service pack - you’d be forgiven for thinking that sounds like a patch for a patch for a patch. How does it reflect on a company to be seen releasing repairs like this? Especially when the fix-for-the-fix-for-the-fix is problematic enough to cripple the user’s hardware? After the first year of Vista, it is clear that the quality of your product upon release is vitally important to its success.”
Monday, April 7
VISTA SP1 DOWNLOADS, INSTALLS AND BREAKS SECURITY APPS
As Vista Service Pack 1 makes its much anticipated arrival on the hard drives of users the world over, Microsoft have announced that applications and utilities previously installed on Vista and running without a hitch will be broken by the update bundle.
Customers who had Jiangmin KV Antivirus, BitDefender AV, Zone Alarm Security Suite or Trend Micro's Internet Security installed before SP1 is applied will no longer be able to use the software as it stands. However Microsoft's technical information centre, the source of the original statement, also pointed out that many of these issues could be corrected by simply uninstalling and reinstalling the security application(s) after SP1 had been installed. If this did not work, updated releases and patches for the problematic programs were already available in four out of five cases.
(Sources: The Register Microsoft TechNet)
Epicentre Says:
“Many articles and comments have been made about 'another Microsoft update that breaks my PC', which is hardly the case at all. Microsoft have done exceptionally well to provide a global operating system update with so few incompatibilities, but this is largely ignored in favour of knee-jerk assumptions that bloated, sloppy software is what we'll get.”
“But Microsoft have themselves to blame for this perception. After a decade of public-beta releases, the public are now used to an incomplete and buggy product from the software giant. So much so that when MS perform well, nobody notices. That's not the kind of reputation any company wants, and that's why Epicentre matters.”
RSS feed
