PC owners and OEMs discover what Microsoft means by a “diminished user experience”

Last week, Microsoft sent certified letters to its OEM partners regarding Vista’s anti-piracy technology — or, more accurately, what happens if they dare ship a system with a “non-genuine” copy of Vista.

The answer: The system is crippled for 30 days, then hosed entirely until you pony up for a license. This is apparently what Microsoft means when it warns of a ” diminished user experience .” (To me, that’s what you get when Windows works normally.)

This would be fine if Microsoft were a reasonably competent organization and Windows Genuine Advantage worked flawlessly. True pirates deserve to be punished. But Microsoft isn’t and WGA doesn’t — at least, judging by readers who have bought legit OEM copies of XP from major manufacturers, only to have WGA label them as pirates.

At press time, Microsoft’s Vista validation forum s contained about 600 similar complaints — including several from people whose validated systems suddenly failed the WGA test after installing third-party security software.

It gets worse. Microsoft offers OEMs a chance to “win a cool PC” by taking a quiz testing their knowledge of Windows Vista and WGA. But it doesn’t exactly instill confidence when you type the URL into your browser and find out the page doesn’t exist.

To be fair, I haven’t heard a lot of whining about Vista’s faulty WGA hosing people’s systems. But that may be because Microsoft has been playing nice, trying to avoid more bad PR for its underwhelming new OS. The certified letter could be the first step in a get tough campaign. If so, we may be in for a long ugly summer.

Does partnering with Microsoft mean always having to say you’re sorry?

Title: MS to OEMs: Get legit on Vista, or OS is toast
Author: Robert X. Cringely
Date: 5 Jun 2007
Source: ARN Net

A look at the changes programmers need to make for compatibility with Vista’s UAC.

Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) may seem like a strange topic for a programming column, but Microsoft designed this feature with programmers in mind.

The idea is to force them to build applications that work properly when users are not running with full administrative rights.

Presuming the strategy works, some future version of Windows will be even more locked-down by default. Windows guru Mark Russinovich, who now works for Microsoft, explained this in detail on his blog .

He said: “Windows Vista introduced elevations and Integrity Levels (ILs), even though there is no guarantee your elevated processes aren’t susceptible to compromise by those running at a lower IL: [Microsoft wants] to get us to a world where everyone runs as a standard user by default and all software is written with that assumption.

“Without the convenience of elevations, most of us would continue to run the way we have on previous versions of Windows – with administrative rights all the time.”

The essence of User Account Control is that all users run as standard users, with read-only access to system locations such as the Windows directory, Program Files, and the Hkey_Local_ Machine section of the registry. This applies even if you are running as a local administrator.

On occasions when you need real administrative rights, Vista raises a dialogue on a separate desktop inviting you to allow or cancel the action. This is called elevation. However, once it is approved, the elevated process runs on the same desktop as the standard user.

The obvious danger is that malware running with standard user rights may be able to trick the elevated process into running malicious code. To prevent this, Vista places restrictions on the extent to which non-elevated processes can communicate with elevated processes.

The degree of elevation is called the integrity level, and Vista actually supports four of these: Low is used for Internet Explorer’s protected mode; Medium for normal running; High for administrative tasks; and System. Processes running at a higher integrity level are protected to some degree from lower level processes, but Microsoft admits to some compromises.

Another feature of UAC is called virtualisation. This is designed to support applications that attempt to write to system locations. When virtualisation is enabled, which it is by default, the write appears to succeed, but the data is not really written to the system location. Instead, it goes to the virtual store, which is hidden in the user’s home folder. By default, this is at C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\VirtualStore.

If all your applications are behaving well, this will be empty. Most likely it is not: mine includes folders from Adobe, Borland, Creative, Open Office and Microsoft. The virtual store is ugly. Files written there appear to be in a system location, but only when you run as the user who created them. In addition, elevated processes cannot see the virtual store. There is plenty of potential here for bugs and other unexpected behaviour. The registry also has a virtual area that works in the same way for disallowed registry access.

As Russinovich explains, Microsoft created this elaborate system with one eye on security and the other on compatibility.

The aim is to make it feasible to run old applications that require administrative rights, but sufficiently awkward that developers will stop writing applications that need such rights.

This is not just about shrink-wrap software, but also the custom applications on which many businesses rely.

Should you just disable UAC? This is an option, but it does compromise security. You lose features such as Internet Explorer’s protected mode as well as the elevation dialogue. Furthermore, even if you do disable UAC, it is unreasonable to expect this of other users of your application.

UAC has received a bad press in some quarters for displaying too many dialogues, but the problems are exaggerated. Once a machine is set up, elevation dialogues are infrequent, and they will reduce further still as application compatibility improves.

How to use a UAC manifest

An annoying aspect of UAC is that much of it is automatic. At times this gets silly. For example, Microsoft decided that any application with the word ‘setup’, ‘install’ or ‘update’ anywhere in the name should run with administrative rights. It is easy to call a harmless utility UpdateSpreadsheet or something, and then wonder why it is displaying a UAC prompt.

The solution is to make your utility UAC aware, by embedding a manifest. You can use this either to prevent or require elevation for your application.

To embed a manifest in Visual Basic 2005, first create a text file. You can use Visual Studio for this. The key setting is the line:

<ms_asmv2:requestedExecutionLevel

level=’asInvoker’ uiAccess=’false’/>

Change the value of the level attribute to ‘requireAdministrator’ if you need to enforce elevation. Save the file as UpdateSpreadsheet.manifest, for example.

Now you have to embed the manifest in your application. To do this you need the mt.exe tool, which is part of the Windows SDK, a free download. If you have the full version of Visual Studio, mt.exe is installed with it. To use it, open a Visual Studio 2005 command prompt, or any command prompt with mt.exe on the path. Navigate to the folder where your manifest is saved and run the following command:

mt -manifest UpdateSpreadsheet.manifest - outputresource:bin\Debug\UpdateSpreadsheet.exe;#1

Substitute the path to the application for the output resource. The result is no UAC prompt because asInvoker was specified. The virtual store is also disabled for this application. If you have the full Visual Studio 2005, you can add the manifest in an automatic post-build step – see Project Properties, Compile, Build events.

Setup hassles

Once you have created your application, you might want to build a setup for it using a Visual Studio Setup project.

You can create one automatically using the setup wizard in Visual Studio 2005. This builds a setup file using the Windows Installer technology. On the surface this seems a handy tool, but dangers lurk.

The Installer API is among the most arcane and complex in Windows. Everything is fine if you just want to use a single executable, but once you start adding extra files or customising the installation process, there are many potential pitfalls.

One of the Microsoft installer team members wrote a document called the Tao of the Windows Installer. It contains no less than 69 rules you should observe to create a well-behaved setup. It is true that many of these are not relevant to a simple, non-corporate install, but even trivial tasks can trip you up, especially when combined with UAC.

For example, the Windows installer is designed as a database, the idea being that concepts such as commit and rollback are useful when installing applications. One problem is that many setup routines require procedural logic to accommodate user preferences, or different scenarios such as versions of Windows and upgrades versus new installations.

Procedural logic is an uncomfortable fit with the database model. The installer gets round this by allowing for ‘custom actions’, which are scripts or executables you can fire during the install. Even Visual Studio setup projects allow for these, in the Custom Actions editor.

Now imagine your custom action has to copy some files to Program Files, or make other system changes. Even on Vista, setup routines almost always run with administrative rights, so you would think this would be fine, but this is not so. Custom Actions can be of two types – deferred or immediate.

For various reasons, deferred Custom Actions are generally more useful, so Visual Studio creates these by default. However, they are executed using a feature called impersonation, which means that even though the setup has full rights, the Custom Action has only the standard rights of the current user; they are not elevated.

You can overcome this by changing the type of the Custom Action to switch impersonation off, but you cannot do this within Visual Studio. You have to use a clunky tool called Orca, which is a database editor for Microsoft Installer (msi) files, or else use a different setup tool.

Even then there are problems. When you switch off impersonation, the Custom Action runs as System. This means it probably has limited network access. If your users run the setup from a network drive, it may fail.

Also, Custom Actions can be DLLs or executables. It is tempting to make them executables, so they have their own user interface. However, this is not usually a good idea. If your Custom Action displays a dialogue, it may well appear behind the Installer window. Your users will probably think the setup has hung. The solution is to make the Custom Action a DLL, and call functions in the Installer API to display messages and dialogues.

Visual Studio setup projects are not for the faint-hearted. It is best to use other options, such as one-click install, which is the Publish option on the Visual Studio Build menu. Windows Installer is unavoidable in some scenarios, as many Windows management tools assume its use. PCW

Title: Hands on: Vista’s User Account Control
Author: Tim Anderson
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: IT Week

User Access Control (UAC) is probably the most hated feature of Windows Vista–if you want to really call it a "feature." Upgrading to Vista, every application you use or install "needs your permission to continue," and you have to click "allow" or "deny" a thousand times in order to get anything done. Unfortunately, you’re left with a horrible choice: you can either disable UAC entirely, and forfeit the protection it offers, or keep it active and suffer through the waves of dialog boxes with every installation. TweakUAC offers a solution to this conundrum.

The application is free, and allows you to temporarily disable and enable UAC at will, so if you’re going to be doing a lot of application installations or if you’re rebuilding your system, you can use the app to suppress the dialogs while you work. Best of all, turning on "quiet mode" doesn’t require a reboot, so you can continue working, without being bothered.

When you’re finished your installations, you can open TweakUAC again to turn UAC back on. TweakUAC is a stand-alone app, meaning you can take it with you from computer to computer, (especially good on a USB key, if you’re an IT system administrator) and it doesn’t need to be installed on the target computer.

Title: TweakUAC for Windows Vista
Author: Alan Henry
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: App Scout

Microsoft has made some drastic changes in Windows Vista’s support for personalization. How will this affect your move to Vista? Learn how you can mitigate the impact with built-in and add-on tools.

A computer is actually a highly personal device. As users, we take the time to personalize our desktop backgrounds, screen savers, shortcut placements, etc. to suit our tastes and sometimes even our daily moods. (And many workers will agree that nothing is more frustrating than working with a computer you can’t personalize because everything is locked.)

All of this comes to a head when you move to a new operating system. Protecting a computer profile or personality — data, favorites, desktop settings, application customizations, and more — is probably the most important aspect of any OS deployment project. Anyone who has spent time installing and configuring a new computer will know just how long it takes to get everything just right. This is why personality protection is so important to end users during the migration. So how do you minimize the amount of work required to move to a new OS and, at the same time, maintain all of the hard work users put in to customizing their systems?

There are actually three steps involved. First, you need to decide what to protect or what you will capture before the migration — and what you will restore after the migration. Next, you should look at the differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista in terms of how they manage the content that makes up a computer personality. Finally, you need to determine just how you’ll protect your users’ data and profiles.

1. Decide What to Protect
Windows stores personality settings inside the user profile . Each time a user logs on to a system for the first time — whether in a corporate network through a domain, relying on an Active Directory authentication, or relying on the local security accounts manager database that can be found on every Windows system — Windows generates a profile which is derived from the default profile found on each Windows system. The default profile contains standard settings for user document locations, a standard desktop background, a standard screen saver, and so on.

You can, of course, update and otherwise customize the default user profile so that each user gets a customized environment at first logon. Many organizations take the time to do this so that each user has a standard corporate environment when they use the organization’s computers. You can store this custom default profile in one of two places: within the system image you deploy on each PC or centrally on a domain controller — the server that provides authentication services — so that each time a user logs onto a system for the first time, they will be faced with a common and standard user experience.

But when you move to a new OS, you won’t want to maintain each profile in the network. That’s because some profiles are volatile while others are permanent. For example, when you need to repair a PC and you log on with your credentials, Windows will automatically generate a new profile for you. This profile doesn’t contain any information you need to preserve because, once the computer is fixed, you won’t need to log back onto it.

Network Profile Analysis
That’s why you need to perform a network profile analysis before any system migration. This will help you determine just what you need to protect on each PC. After all, the only profiles you need to protect are those that are in use by users and that actually contain data.

In addition, you’ll want to make sure you only protect valid information from within the profile. For example, your organization won’t want to use network bandwidth and central storage to protect a user’s music downloads, but you will want to make sure you protect a user’s documents and application settings.

On more note: Profiles contain application settings. If you choose to upgrade and perhaps even retire some applications during your migration, you’ll want to capture only those settings you’ve decided to carry forward when you perform the profile protection.

Here are some steps that can help determine which profiles to protect and prepare for migration:

• Protect only profiles that belong to end users.
• Protect only profiles that are in use. If a profile hasn’t been used for six months, then chances are it is not current and doesn’t need protection.
• Ask users to clean up their profiles as much as possible before your migration. This will reduce profile sizes and require less central storage space.
• Work with your application preparation team during the migration to identify which applications will be carried forward and include their settings when you capture user profile information. Discard everything else.
• Move profiles to a network share when you capture them and then back them up.
• Make a list of all of the document types you have decided to protect, then communicate this list to your end users.
• Provide support for users to perform their own backups of anything you will not protect.
• Be as clear as possible when you communicate your protection plan to users to make sure there are no mistakes, and then, if you can afford it, take a backup copy of their entire disk drive before the migration. This way, you’ll have a back out plan if users claim they are missing critical data once the migration is complete.

There are of course, other considerations, but these guidelines should form the main crux of your personality protection policy. 2. From XP To Vista: Profile Structures
There are several differences between the profiles structures in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

First, there is location. In Windows NT, profiles were stored in the WINNT folder, which allowed users read and write privileges. With Windows 2000 and Windows XP, profiles were moved to the Documents and Settings folder structure. With Vista, this has been changed to become the Users folder structure.

The name and makeup of folder structures have changed from NT’s Profiles to XP’s Documents and Settings to Vista’s Users. (Click image to enlarge.)

In addition, the entire structure of Vista’s profile folders has been modified by Microsoft. Because of this new structure, XP user profiles are not compatible with Vista user profiles. To move information from one another, you need to convert the information to Vista’s new format.

Before moving a profile, you need to link the XP and the Vista profile structures. (Click image to enlarge.)

3. Moving Profiles
Now that you’ve decided what to protect and you know how Vista changes will affect this protection, you can determine how you’re going to protect user content during your migration. You could always build your own tool through a combination of scripts and batch files, but there are a lot of profile migration tools on the market, so why bother?

For example, Microsoft offers the free User State Migration Tool (USMT). The USMT is a command-line tool that relies on XML language structure to determine its operation. It lets you capture profiles from one location and restore them in another. In addition, the USMT lets you scan computers to determine which profiles exist and which you should protect. Migration Tools
Several commercial vendors also offer migration tools. Altiris, for example, offers several migration tools (such as Altiris Deployment Solution ) that not only migrate profiles but migrate the entire OS, applications as well as the profile in one smooth operation. And, everything can be automated in a few steps through the use of a wizard in a graphical user interface. The capture or restore job is packaged as an executable that can be delivered and operated in the background by the deployment tool itself.

The same goes for tools such as the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite and LANDesk Management Suite . This makes profile captures much easier and simpler to automate. In addition, it solves the issue of having to run the profile protection process under administrative privileges because that is part and parcel of the deployment tool itself.

Whichever tool you use, make sure it includes the following capabilities:

• Inventory profiles without capturing them to support profile analysis.
• Capture any profile, local or domain-based.
• Capture single or multiple profiles.
• Restore single or multiple profiles.
• Analyze profile usage to help identify obsolete profiles.
• Filter out unwanted profiles from the capture.
• Filter out unwanted profiles from the restore, letting you capture profiles for backup and restore only selected profiles to target machines.
• Filter out unwanted files and folders from the profile capture.
• Store profiles in a variety of locations: local hard disk, network drive, burn it to CD or DVD as required.
• Restore profile settings to appropriate locations for Windows Vista.
• Support either x86 or x64 systems in both captures and restores.
• Capture custom folders, for example, a C:\LocalData folder for information not stored into the default My Documents folder.
• Capture legacy application settings that may be stored in the program’s directory instead of proper locations and restore them to proper locations in Vista.
• Scour the local hard disk for data and documents that have not been stored in appropriate locations.
• Support automation for the capture and restore processes.
• Support the generation of automated executables or scripts for execution in disconnected environments.
• Include encrypted administrative credentials or support the ability to run in protected user mode.
• Integrate with an automated OS deployment tool to provide an end to end deployment process.
• Provide reports on profiles to capture in support of workload estimates.

Using a tool that provides these features will ensure your profile migration works as you expect each time you need to use it.

Take the utmost care when moving computer personalities from one OS to the other. Every migration can be deemed a success only if the end users — the people who will work with the systems you migrate — are completely satisfied and find themselves on familiar ground once you’ve done your work. The way you handle personality migrations can make or break your migration project. Don’t compromise. Get it right the first time.

Title: Windows Vista How-To: Moving User Profiles To Vista Systems
Author: Danielle Ruest, Nelson Ruest
Date: 5 Jun 2007
Source: Information Week

Jcx.Software today announces the release of VS.Php 2.3 for Visual Studio 2005, a PHP integrated development environment (IDE) for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Jcx.Software today announces the release of VS.Php 2.3 for Visual Studio 2005, a PHP integrated development environment (IDE) for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. VS.Php 2.3 adds support for Windows Vista and Visual Studio Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005. VS.Php 2.3 new features focus in providing developers with the ability to work easily on existing PHP applications hosted on remote sites.

VS.Php 2.3 also upgraded the support for deploying local projects faster and more efficiently. It also added support for deploying files using FTP over SSL. Another key feature in VS.Php 2.3 is the ability to import projects from a remote server. The wizard lets the developer download the entire Php application from a remote server and allows working on the project locally. The developer can choose to deploy the files back to any remote server.

Jcx.Software founder J. Rivera explained: “VS.Php 2.3 allows developers to work on existing remote sites easily and pain free. Developers no longer have to worry about editing files over a command shell window or editing files locally and copying their changes via FTP. VS.Php lets you work on remote files like if they were locally. Our focus is to make developers productive with easy to use tools.”

“With this announcement Jcx.Software demonstrates continued commitment to bringing the power of Microsoft Visual Studio to the PHP community,” said Brian Goldfarb, group product manager in the Web/Client UX Platform & Tools Team at Microsoft Corp. “By making optimal use of Visual Studio, VS.Php provides an all-in-one IDE to PHP developers that allow them to build dynamic web applications faster and ensure quality throughout the development process.”

VS.Php 2.3 comes in four different editions:

VS.Php 2.3 Standalone Edition VS.Php 2.3 for Visual Studio 2005 VS.Php 2.3 for Visual Studio .NET 2003 VS.Php 2.3 for Visual Studio .NET

Founded in 2001, Jcx.Software is a leading provider of Php tools for the Microsoft Windows platform.

Title: VS.Php 2.3 for Windows Vista
Author: PowerHomeBiz
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: PowerHomeBiz

NXP Semiconductors today launched a consumer electronics grade module for 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. The new solution, MRX2000, enables higher throughput of rich content for quality critical applications, allowing for faster, more powerful wireless connectivity between everyday multimedia devices.

Optimized for HD video streaming in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the module can be integrated into a number of applications including set-top boxes (STBs), digital media adapters, TVs, residential gateways, routers, game consoles, media center applications, IP STBs, digital video recorders and home cinema systems. As a result, consumers can enjoy their multimedia content when and where they want to in the home.

Together with a 2×3 transceiver and a MAC/baseband processor chip set, the NXP MRX2000 features RF front-end technology which enables customers and end-users to maximize the benefits afforded by the emerging IEEE 802.11n standard.

Unlike its predecessors, the data throughput, spectrum availability, immunity to multipath interference, and picture quality required by HD video can be achieved in properly implemented 802.11n Wi-Fi networks using this module.

The NXP MRX2000 features a convolution code and an advance code (LDPC), uses maximum likelihood, and includes a 2×3 MIMO detector - all of which boost performance. The 2×3 MIMO detector makes the solution more attractive and cost effective than 3×3 MIMO solutions, while the 5GHz band support (in addition to legacy 2.4GHz) ensures the network does not interfere with other household applications like microwave ovens, baby monitors, cordless phones and Bluetooth devices.

The 802.11n feature set also includes advanced aggregation, which enhances MAC efficiency; fast link adaptation (FLA), which optimizes real home performance; and, the embedded quality of service (QoS) provided through EDCA plus admission control ensures that users can enjoy hours of picture perfect video without interruption.

As well as the consumer, the new 802.11n module offers numerous benefits to NXP customers. The solution can be easily integrated through various electrical and mechanical interface choices (mPCI, NXP Semiconductors proprietary interface, ST Microelectronics proprietary interface, USB2.0, PCI Express) and supports drivers for all of the mainstream operating systems (Linux 2.4, Linux 2.6, Kernel Series, Windows CE 5.0-6.0, Windows XP and Windows Vista).

Title: Computex 2007: NXP launches 802.11n module for wireless home connectivity
Author: Rodney Chan
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: DigiTimes Hot Systems

The UAE’s Burj Al Arab is generally acknowledged as being one of the best hotels in the world. Designed to resemble a billowing sail, the building soars to a height of 321 metres, dominating the Dubai coastline.

At night, it offers an unforgettable sight, surrounded by choreographed colour sculptures of water and fire. This all-suite hotel epitomises the Dubai lifestyle and reflects the finest that the world has to offer.

The hotel is part of the dynamic and fast growing Dubai-based luxury hospitality group Jumeirah, and it claims to be the most luxurious hotel in the world, catering to sophisticated business and leisure customers.

Located in the heart of the Gulf’s hospitality industry, Burj Al Arab is known worldwide for its exceptionally high standards. Many of its guests are repeat customers who appreciate the hotel’s commitment to providing a unique experience on each visit.

For this reason, and in line with parent company Jumeirah’s “Stay Different” slogan, Burj Al Arab wanted to offer guests early access to “world leading” IT.

The hotel management decided to equip each of the Burj Al Arab’s 202 guest suites with laptops which were running Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Frederick Sabty, director of IT at Burj Al Arab, says: “Our aim is to be different and an innovator at the cutting edge of technology. We offer the world’s best service, the best food and beverages, the most luxurious accommodation and the best IT. We wanted to make it even easier for our guests to access their e-mail messages, the internet, and multi-media content.”

Burj Al Arab has begun the migration to a new operating system for back of house operations, but the 202 suites – there are no rooms at Burj Al Arab – have come first.

“Our guests are our top priority,” says Sabty, who is also using the 2007 Microsoft Office system. “Having made the decision to switch to the best, we wanted to be up and running with the new system within three weeks. By becoming an early adopter of a new system, we are putting our guests on the first step of a big staircase because eventually they will all be using it for their business and leisure.”

Burj Al Arab invited Microsoft Gold Certified Partner KalSoft to implement the technology for 206 laptops for all 202 suites after choosing Microsoft Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

The deployment tool used was Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, which provides tools and guidance for deploying Microsoft’s Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Shahid Roofi Khan, solution architect at KalSoft, says: “The deployment takes just 18 minutes at the end machine and only two clicks of the mouse to get the laptop ready for the end user. Working with the hotel, we have provided full back up for the live environment with excellent connectivity.”

Fast time to market was also a concern for Burj Al Arab. “If we had used manual deployment, it would have taken a lot more time,” says Khan.

“There were, of course, lessons learned, as there are with any new technology, but we were well supported by Microsoft Services in the event of any escalation issues. After the implementation in late October, it was ready for go live in just 23 days.”

The BDD solution is indispensable for Burj Al Arab. Khan adds: “Considering the number of machines that need to be deployed and maintained, and the changes to the ‘desired golden configuration,’ it would have been impossible to manage the diversity of changes otherwise.”

The applications deployed alongside Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system provide guests with a wide range of solutions for business and leisure use.

The project required KalSoft and Microsoft to transfer knowledge about the new technology to the Burj Al Arab’s IT support team to ensure guests could benefit from the new round-the-clock functions as soon as possible.

The benefits of implementing the software were plentiful. The Burj Al Arab’s guests are discerning travellers accustomed to the latest and best in hospitality services. IT is no exception.

The visual sophistication of Windows Vista helps streamline guests’ computing experience by refining common Windows functions so the user can focus on the screen’s content rather than how to access it.

The software also provides guests with a more informative, intuitive, and helpful desktop experience. It also provides greater clarity for the information on the computer, so users can see what files contain without having to open them.

Other notable benefits include an improved search function for files and applications, more efficient navigation and easier-to-use functionality, new deployment tools for rapid implementation in guests’ suites, built-in entertainment features and improved Internet surfing for guests through the new Internet Explorer 7.

The entire implementation took just three weeks, with the hotel guests now enjoying a streamlined computing experience, easier navigation, and instant access to e-mail messages, the internet, and multi-media entertainment channels.

Sabty adds: “We have always been an innovator. We were early adopters of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for our guests. Soon, everyone will be using Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System, and we want to be the first.”

The Burj Al Arab also recently implemented Trapeze Smart Mobility Solution. The award-winning implementation included 500 access points with Wi-Fi phones, internet access, guest access with IPTV streaming over wireless for their mobile station The hotel also implemented GSM synchronisation.

The hotel is undeniably one of the most technically advanced in the region. It is only a matter of time before it will see further IT advancements.

Title: Luxury launch
Author: Duncan MacRae
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: ITP Technology

SOFTWARE ALLOWING USERS TO CONDUCT WEB SEARCHES AND GET RESULTS IN THREE DIMENSIONS STILL IN ITS INFANCY - BUT POSSIBILITIES WILL SOON BE DIZZYING

When Microsoft started work on Windows Vista, it intended to make the user interface into a true 3-D experience. If the effort had succeeded, today you would be able to maneuver through your computer as if you were flying through a 3-D world.

When Vista arrived this year, most of it was the same old two-dimensional user interface. That was a big disappointment, and Microsoft’s retreat from its original goal was just the latest in a whole string of failures to make 3-D experiences useful beyond video games.

But SpaceTime3D is hoping to deliver what Microsoft couldn’t. More than eight years in the making, SpaceTime3D debuts its free trial software today. With it, you can conduct Internet searches and get your results in three dimensions. That is, you can maneuver through the results as if you were flipping through a 3-D rolodex. Microsoft has a feature, Flip3D, that does this in Windows Vista. But Flip3D is extremely limited.

SpaceTime3D is in a trial stage now. It crashed on one of a couple of machines I tried it on, but the company provided me with a fixed version that worked fine. The software has a lot of promise. It makes use of the infinite amount of space that can exist on a computer display, if you think of it not as a flat image but a window into a 3D space.

“Operating systems maximize a finite space,” says Edward Bakhash, CEO and founder of the company, which has a small, self-funded team in New York. “We have unlimited space. I

After you download and install SpaceTime3D, you see a clear blue sky in front of you. On the top menu, you see a few boxes. One has a Web address. Another has a tab that allows you to do a search through eBay, Yahoo images, Yahoo, Google, Google images, and Flickr’s photo-sharing Web site. The last box is where you type in your search terms.

Once you type in a search, SpaceTime3D presents 10 results at a time, just as you would see with a Google search. But the first search result appears as the largest window on the screen, and the next results recede into the background and appear smaller and smaller, giving you a 3-D effect. You can double-lick on a result page to maximize it into a traditional two-dimensional Web page view.

You can scroll the mouse wheel and bring the more distant results into the foreground. Although it takes a few seconds to load the results, you can see the entire page quickly. You’ll know immediately whether you want that page. You can scroll through a lot of pages, waiting at certain intervals for pages to load. This part is the worst part of the software right now, but I believe it is something they can address. You can wait more than 30 seconds for all of the pages to load so you can continue scrolling. That’s not acceptable compared with the instantaneous results you can load in 2-D.

But a quick visual of a page tells you whether you need it or not. Where SpaceTime3D becomes useful is how it organizes your search history. There are arrows at the bottom of the screen that allow you to go forward or back in your search history. You click the arrow, the entire column rotates and in centers the view on the first page of your previous search. All of those results from that previous search are readily available for viewing.

You can store and access an infinite number of searches on the horizontal axis. Bakhash refers to the sideways scrolling as a kind of timeline because you can see the searches you’ve done before. That means the searching ability of SpaceTime3D is a “mile wide and a mile deep,” says Bakhash.

Searching through images can be faster with SpaceTime3D because the process is a lot like looking through a pile of photos. If searching for merchandise on eBay, you can quickly see the photos of the objects that you’re shopping for. You can see hundreds of items quickly. Wherever you are in the results, it’s always easy to go back or start a new search.

Bakhash says the software is limited to linear maneuvering for now. You go back into the background, or scroll from side to side. But you don’t fly through the results in any direction you want. That’s because it can easily become confusing if you could do so.

Other features deserve noting. You can go to a particular site, such as a jewelry site, and search for pictures of pearls that appear only on that site. The results come back to you the same way that other SpaceTime3D results appear. You don’t have to navigate through the site if all you want to do is find pearls.

The software doesn’t require a hefty machine. You need a 3-D graphics card with 128 megabytes of memory and 512 megabytes of system memory. It runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista and it requires a broadband connection. A Mac version is expected next year.

If the features sound familiar, you may remember Sun Microsystems’ Linux based demo, dubbed Looking Glass. With that feature, you could turn Web pages sideways for a 3-D view and type comments on the back of them. You can do some of that with SpaceTime3D as well.

Although there were many predecessors to this technology, the failures don’t mean it’s hopeless. Meng Chee, vice president of technology at design firm frog design, says 3-D user interfaces simply need the right context and the right applications to succeed. He’s confident they will make a comeback.

For now, this is the most advanced 3-D navigation system I’ve seen. It doesn’t make me dizzy, except with the thoughts of what this could become.

Title: 3D and not 2D
Author: Dean Takahashi
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: Mercury News

Complex and lengthy migration process cited as key deterrent to migration.

Half of UK IT managers say they have no plans to migrate to Microsoft’s Windows Vista within the next three years, with just 3% intending to introduce the operating system immediately.

Respondents in a survey of 100 IT managers at companies with over 1,000 employees said deploying the new system represented a significant challenge and investment in resources.

The main deterrent to Vista migration was complexity, with 62% of those surveyed by automated system deployment vendor Enteo and technology marketing consultancy Vanson Bourne saying this would make them think twice.

Stephan Glathe, chief technology officer at Enteo, said it was “a shame” that IT managers appeared to be delaying adoption of the new operating system because of fears about migration. “A number of those surveyed were deterred by post-migration issues such as patching, which is understandable. Microsoft has already announced the launch of the first service pack for the product, so many IT managers may be waiting for this to come out before they roll out the new OS.”

IT managers were also concerned about security during and after rollout, and just under a third were discouraged by having to manually roll out the software.

The time it takes to make a full migration is another issue, with 49% of those interviewed saying the process of preparation, testing, roll-out and resolving post-migration issues would take 12 months or longer. A further 45% expected it to take six months or more. Only 6% estimated that it would take under three months to migrate to Vista.

One of the top concerns was the possibility of downtime for users, and consequently, loss of productivity. IT managers were also concerned that helping users restore their personal settings could take too much staff time. Installing software which will not always visibly enhance productivity, unlike a new application for a project, customer relationship management or enterprise resource planning system, was also a worry.

The research contradicts findings in other surveys , which indicate that despite the concerns over a migration timeframe, a significant number of firms have begun to change over to the new system, and see it as a necessary development for their businesses.

Glathe said businesses should be prepared to put work into adopting the important change. “Realistically, companies need to think about rolling out a new OS as they do about Christmas,” he said. “As annoying as it is, you have to plan.”

He continued: “Vista represents an opportunity for businesses to gain improved functionality and a generally more efficient OS. However, migrating to a completely new OS is no easy task and IT managers need to be prepared and have the right tools in order to gain the maximum benefits.”

Title: Half of UK IT managers have ‘no plans’ to move to Vista in the next three years
Author: Leo King
Date: 4 Jun 2007
Source: Computer World UK

Tech world had thought new product would spark computer sales as other launches had done.

The tech company that really seems to be enjoying Microsoft’s new operating system is Apple .

The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker has used Microsoft’s Vista, introduced in November for businesses and January for consumers, as an opportunity to make hay over the self-proclaimed superiority of the operating system in its own Macs. Microsoft doesn’t agree with that message, noting it has shipped 40 million copies of Vista for consumers.

Still, Apple has the hotter hand. Mac sales were up 35 percent in the first quarter versus a year earlier. PC sales were up by 9 percent, according to research firm Gartner — a bit better than the prior two quarters, but below the average rate of the past three years.

“Somebody in Cupertino ought to send flowers to Redmond and a nice ‘thank you’ note,” hedge-fund manager Jeff Matthews noted in his blog.

The rest of the tech world probably isn’t in a letter-writing mood. Many technology companies appear to have geared up operations on the expectation that computer sales would get a bigger boost from the release of Vista, which requires more computing power than the previous Windows release. That expectation might be one factor leaving tech companies with higher inventories and more production capacity than needed.

Recently, Applied Materials warned that demand for dynamic random-access memory chips — vital components in every computer that are better known as DRAMs — is slowing. As a result, semiconductor companies are buying fewer of Applied Materials’ chip-making machines.

In April, chip maker Micron Technology said that DRAM prices fell sharply in its quarter that ended March 1.

“We have not seen any benefit in the corporate area from Vista upgrades yet,” Micron’s vice president of worldwide sales, Michael Sadler, told investors on a conference call.

Disk-drive maker Seagate Technology said demand for desktop PCs was lower than expected in the first quarter, and it lowered its expectations for the current quarter.

The problem may not be Vista so much as expectations that Microsoft’s newest operating system could spur computer sales as past launches did. The PC industry has matured, and businesses get pretty much everything they want from the computers they already have in place. As a result, they’re in no rush to implement Vista.

CDW, which sells PCs directly to companies, found in a recent customer survey that 71 percent of respondents aren’t using or evaluating Vista, though most expect to eventually upgrade.

“They’re just going through a very methodical process of adoption,” says CDW’s David Cottingham.

Consumers have been forced to buy Vista, because many computer makers no longer make consumer PCs configured for its predecessor, Windows XP. But FTN Midwest Research analyst Bill Fearnley Jr. reported that many computer sellers are now selling consumers business PCs that run XP.

The hope, on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, is that later this year Vista will start spurring sales. Given companies’ slow and steady purchase plans and consumers’ apparent lack of enthusiasm, that’s a pipe dream, says Pip Coburn of Coburn Ventures . “There are people who are disappointed now, and there are people who are going to be more disappointed,” he says.

Title: Vista’s view clouds a bit
Author: Justin Lahart
Date: 2 Jun 2007
Source: Kansas City