Windows 7 – Adjust Aero Peek Delay
Having recently tried Mac OS X and all of it Exposé and Spaces goodness, I couldn't help but to notice that Aero Peek feels like a complete rip off of the Exposé feature. Don't take me wrong though, it is not a critic. I am of the opinion that progress can only be made if we pick the best bits and pieces out of everything that is out there and put it all into one package. So while Windows still has a long way to go on user experience matters, I see this as a move forward.
Still, Aero Peek came with an annoyance for me: it takes too damn long! Basically, when you activate Exposé on a Mac (either by having a shortcut or by hovering over a hot corner) you instantly get to your desktop and can see what's underneath - with Aero Peek this takes at least one or two seconds which isn't ideal for me by any stretch.
With that in mind, and since there does not seem to be that much documentation about this yet, Microsoft allows you to adjust that delay time with some registry hacking. To adjust the delay, do the following:
- Open regedit (Start -> regedit -> press enter)
- Go to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
- Once here, create a new DWORD (32 bit) entry with the name DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime and set it to whatever time you'd like in milliseconds. I found that 100 works best for me but I will leave that at your own discretion.
Now I'm back to testing Windows 7 RTM - have a good one!
Windows 7 RTM’ed
Yes, that's correct. Windows 7 was officially released to manufacturing and this version should be available over the course of the next few days.
Here's the comemoration video the guy at Microsoft made to celebrate the launch:
For the whole release schedule, hit up the Windows Team Blog.
Was Windows Vista a mistake? Not really!
With the advent of Microsoft's latest operating system, the Windows 7, many people have come to state that Windows 7 is Windows Vista done right. Well, excuse me tech whizzes but as an IT professional myself, I beg to differ.
Windows Vista was a massive stepping stone in Microsoft's history. It was the first upgrade from the ever so loved Windows XP, that admittedly had its flaws at birth but it grew to become perhaps the most stable operating system that Microsoft had built until then. It is lightweight and to prove that we have the netbook market share that is dominated by Microsoft.
Now, we have to be analytic. What did Vista bring to the table when compared to XP? In a very brief and sketchy approach, it brought cleanliness to the user folders (no one really liked the spaces in 'Documents and Settings'), it brought UAC that albeit poorly-loved, it brought with it a great layer of security, it brought some driver modifications including a redesigned sound-stack and these last two put together with the bloated memory usage, made Vista Microsoft's bastard child.
Well, when you look at it closely, pretty much every Vista driver will work on Windows 7, including the soundcard drivers. UAC is also part of Windows 7 and has been partly redesigned so that it isn't so naggy. Still, my bottom line is that when switching from XP, Microsoft was always going to get complaints. When you add security, people will complain because the system is more restrictive. When you add features that change the way people interface with the computer, people will complain because we have an inertial nature and are typically against change.
However, now that Vista was Microsoft's escape goat for all the changes that simply had to be made, Windows 7 can come in its shinning armour and save the day. Because Windows 7 is so much better than Vista, even though it's actually Vista, just lighter.
Windows 7 RC out – maybe
Alright ladies and gentlemen, the announcement is out: the first (and hopefully only) Release Candidate of the newest, mind blowing, operating system from the folks at Redmond is out. Or is it really? There's a Microsoft Partners' page announcing the event and I say that that's as reliable as it gets.
According to said page, the RC should be available right now for MSDN and TechNet subscribers but well... it ain't. The same page also announces that a global (and I guess, public) release will be done on May 5th which is actually pretty close in time.
My guess is that we just sit and wait, and that within the day, this RC will be made available on the MSDN downloads page. Or so I hope.
Finally, this release is more coherent with Ed Bott's speculative timeline over at ZDNet which places the Windows 7 RTM release on late August of 2009. At this point, we just wait and see - being a 7 Beta user, I am happy and borderline ecstatic to get a RC release so soon. Way to go, Microsoft!
Courtesy of Neowin.net
Windows 7 goes official
That's right, this will after all be the official name of the next Windows version. According to Mike Nash on the Windows Vista blog, Microsoft is sticking with the simple name Windows 7, therefore cutting with the "aspirational monikers" that they have used in the past like Windows XP or Vista.
The same person writes that this is the seventh release of Windows, hence the naming Windows 7.
Another source tells us that a pre-beta version of this new Windows will be distributed at the Professional Developer Conference, set to take place on Los Angeles on October 27th.
Microsoft Dreamway 2008
This Microsoft event is taking place on October 3rd, on Lisbon at the Centro Cultural de Belém, and guess what? That's right, I will be there 
thanks to being an MSP I get to attend the event without having to pay a dime. Neat huh? Can barely wait to see Monke.... I mean, Steve Ballmer on stage with all his energy 
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Here's the schedule I picked:
8h30 - Welcome Coffee
9h15 - Dev01 - Software development: The current status and future trends of technological development
10h15 - Coffee Break
10h45 - Dev02 - Creating rich applications using Silverlight 2.0 (2 sessions)
12h45 - Lunch
14h40 - Keynote
Dreamway: Microsoft today and tomorrow, Steve Ballmer
IE8: pushing the web forward, Miguel Caldas
16h00 - ITP04 - SQL Server 2008 as an enterprise grade database platform - How to manage and provide robust, reliable, scalable and innovative solutions
17h00 - Coffee Break
17h30 - Dev09 - Windows Presentation Foundation: How can we take advantage of this technology to improve the user experience
So, yeah, it's my first event of the kind and I'm hoping it will be a great experience to learn 
I'll keep you readers posted on how it goes.
Microsoft Student Partner pt. 2
I'm here fresh out of Lisbon and out of my MSP interview. I confess I was a little scared to start with but it is also true that all of the interviewers were very friendly and not scary at all. After being introduced to the whole content of the MSP program, the first question came: "How many tracks does the Olympics swimming pool have?". Fortunately they were kidding when I was told I could not be an MSP since I answered that question incorrectly (I answered 6 and apparently it has 10 tracks) 
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Other than this I'd say I left a good impression, except the fact that I was nervous, no doubt about that - but I am guessing (and hoping) that that is the case with most MSP interviewees. I like the spirit and the environment and whilst I do not know anything for certain yet, I think I am on the right track for success - more news will follow and I promise I will keep you all posted!
P.S. Don't mind the ugly face on the picture there was heavy wind blowing on there.