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Secret No More: Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7
http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-windows-xp-mode-for-windows-7/ ^

Posted on 04/24/2009 4:20:39 PM PDT by DevNet

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To: DevNet

That’s what I’m talking about too. There’s plenty of pure research out there. Not all of it is published. Matter of fact, much of it is no longer published outside the company at all. IBM is one of the last outfits that, like Bell Labs, puts forth some really nice publications.


41 posted on 04/24/2009 9:48:32 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: aft_lizard

I wonder if this means virtualization is built into Win7.


42 posted on 04/24/2009 9:51:07 PM PDT by gitmo (History books will read that Lincoln freed the slaves and Obama enslaved the free.)
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To: scoobysnak71
Buy a new machine (like me) and Vista is awesome. (Please no snipers). It just happens that way.

Just make sure you have around 2 Gig Ram. I've seen people with new machines that scrimp on RAM and Vista runs poorly. Add RAM and it behaves nicely.

43 posted on 04/24/2009 9:53:15 PM PDT by gitmo (History books will read that Lincoln freed the slaves and Obama enslaved the free.)
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To: DevNet

Fair enough; I just wanted to try to determine what your perspective might be. Your questions are based on a false premise, namely that Microsieve actually does any engineering. So I guess technically the answer is no, they’re probably not engineered badly.


44 posted on 04/24/2009 9:55:56 PM PDT by VoiceOfBruck (Waste the afternoon with Bruck! vobns.blogspot.com)
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To: DevNet

See, this is the problem. Microsoft has developed this attitude they have good reasons for doing things that aggravate the hell out of virtually 100% of their customers, and the customers will just have to learn to like it. The interface is CRAP. It’s an irrational mish-mash of inscrutable icons and words, with many very commonly used functions relocated to completely random and hard-to-find places. 99.9% of users don’t care about the geeky technical philosophy underlying the giant mess Microsoft made out of its user interfaces; they just want a rational interface that doesn’t have hundreds of pointless rearrangements from what they’re used to. That’s why so many people have “downgraded” from Vista to XP, and why most people who have later versions of the new Office software that enable reverting to the “Classic” interface, have reverted.

And yet for all the misguided attempts at “improvement”, very, very simple obvious improvements that are needed just don’t make it onto Microsoft’s radar screen. Example: on whatever new version of Explorer is on my Vista machine, there’s a spot on the toolbar for “Search” that you can supposedly set up to use the search engine of your choice — except that you can’t, because some genius at Microsoft decided you should only be allowed to set it up with a search engine with a very specific URL format. If your search engine of choice is, like mine, Google Advanced Search, you’re out of luck. Microsoft will generously allow you to set the spot on the toolbar to go to the main Google Search page, but then you have to navigate to the Advanced Search. So of course, after spending time trying to set up this supposedly convenient tool to reach my preferred search engine in a single click, I learned that actually no such thing was possible, and that I just had to stick with the old method of going to my Favorites list to click on my search engine link. I’m all in favor of change when it actually makes sense and makes the software or operating system easier to use, but it’s been quite a while since Microsoft offered that sort of change.

I’m really starting to get the feeling that Microsoft is run by hordes of people with Asperger’s — they understand machines and technical code brilliantly, but are just hopelessly baffled by how PEOPLE work. And they make pathetic attempts to appeal to people, but keep missing the mark because they just lack the basic mental wiring to understand people. For a trivial, but blindingly clear example, see the thread I posted a link to, re a new user’s experience trying to set up the Surface computer. Rhodamine??? WTF is “rhodamine”? They’re talking about indicator lights that are supposed to convey information at a glance, and think it makes sense to concoct some wacko new word for the color pink that nobody on the planet will recognize without a translation. The idea to refer to a pink light as “rhodamine” came out of the same sort of mind that designed the new Word interface, and that decided that the “Start” button on the desktop should be replaced with some blob that looks like a Christmas tree decoration, and that decided that the “File” button on Word should be replaced with another blob that looks like a Christmas tree decoration.

They can write a thousand pages of technical gobbledy-gook about their “reasons” for all this nonsense, but they would do better to spend their time sitting down next to ordinary people who are trying to use their products, and seeing what problems they have and asking what the users would like to see changed. And do this BEFORE developing an expensive new operating system or a complete overhaul of the Office software.


45 posted on 04/24/2009 10:24:10 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: aft_lizard
But they work, in fact I just opened up 2007 and gave it a whirl to make sure so I wouldn’t sound dumb. When you hit Alt-E a drop down says continue with the Windows 2003 key sequence and the copy/past function continues as normal. I personally use a different method like ctrl-c, ctrl-v etc.

It absolutely does NOT work on my 2007. Was yours an upgrade or did you install 2007 on a new machine?

46 posted on 04/25/2009 1:40:36 AM PDT by meyer (Obama is to the USA as Mugabe is to Zimbabwe.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker
...it’s just totally irrational to hide a function that people use constantly, behind meaningless symbols.

That sums it up.

47 posted on 04/25/2009 1:43:40 AM PDT by meyer (Obama is to the USA as Mugabe is to Zimbabwe.)
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To: meyer

A new machine. I never do a in place upgrade.


48 posted on 04/25/2009 6:23:56 AM PDT by aft_lizard (One animal actually eats its own brains to conserve energy, we call them liberals.)
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To: aft_lizard
A new machine. I never do a in place upgrade.

Interesting - I built my desktop in November, 2007 and did a clean install of all the new software as well. I've never had the option to use pre-2007 shortcuts presented to me.

49 posted on 04/25/2009 12:02:01 PM PDT by meyer (Obama is to the USA as Mugabe is to Zimbabwe.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

I couldn’t have said it better. And it took them 20 years to figure out that some people could use more than 256 columns in a spreadsheet.


50 posted on 04/25/2009 12:03:08 PM PDT by VoiceOfBruck (Waste the afternoon with Bruck! vobns.blogspot.com)
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To: GovernmentShrinker; ShadowAce; SlapHappyPappy; JoeProBono; martin_fierro; 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Oh goodie...MS does it again...

Try this one:

Ubuntu 9.04 as slick as Windows 7, Mac OS X

51 posted on 04/26/2009 2:15:06 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: aft_lizard
that pile of steaming filth called Windows ME

ROFL!

The Knuckledraggers revolt...

52 posted on 04/26/2009 2:20:28 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
that pile of steaming filth called Windows ME

ROFL!

The Knuckledraggers revolt...

I recently had the pleasure of being told by someone, someone that has been put in charge of me mind you, that he's still using Windows 98 on his home computer.  I tried my best to explain to him what he was doing and pleaded with him not to take that thing out on the net, but I could see that we were outside his zone of comfort technically speaking and if he just nodded his head I would shut up and he could go home to his Internet Explorer 6.00.

53 posted on 04/26/2009 2:39:51 PM PDT by MichiganMan (Wow, that's a big truck you're driving... Compensate much??)
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