Archive for the ‘ Free stuff ’ Category

XP mode RC for Windows 7

Microsoft has released updated bits of Windows XP Mode for Windows 7.

XP Mode is a method to provide better compatibility in Windows 7, and to pull it off with as little trouble as possible. It’s also dubbed XPM, or formerly Virtual XP. XPM is built on the next generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 product line, which requires processor-based virtualization support (Intel and AMD) to be present and enabled on the underlying PC.

Microsoft has made the following changes from beta to RC:

  • You can now attach USB devices to Windows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 task-bar. This means your USB devices, such as printers and flash drives, are available to applications running in Windows XP Mode, without the need to go into full screen mode.
  • You can now access Windows XP Mode applications with a “jump-list”. Right click on the Windows XP Mode applications from the Windows 7 task bar to select and open most recently used files.
  • You now have the flexibility of customizing where Windows XP Mode differencing disk files are stored.
  • You can now disable drive sharing between Windows XP Mode and Windows 7 if you do not need that feature.
  • The initial setup now includes a new user tutorial about how to use Windows XP Mode.

Windows XP Mode RC requires RC or RTM version of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise. It also requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, 15 GB of available disk space, and processor capable of hardware virtualization with AMD-V or Intel VT turned on in the BIOS. XP Mode RC is available from the Microsoft Virtual PC site.

2009
08/05
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
Virtualization
Windows
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Free Windows 7 Ultimate for beta testers

Yay! :)

To show our appreciation, members of the invitation-only Windows 7 Technical Beta Program will be eligible for a free, final copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.

Paul’s post in the microsoft.beta.win7.beta_program newsgroup is the following:

Thank you for doing your part in making Windows 7 great! As a member of the technical beta program you took the time to download, install and give us your feedback on Windows 7 during development. Over the last 7 months you have participated in chats, live meetings and newsgroups as well as reported bugs to help us find and fix many issues. To recognize your outstanding contribution to the product we are pleased to offer you a complimentary copy of Windows 7 for your personal use.

Details:

·         All current members of our English technical and international mini-beta programs are eligible.

·         We are offering you a full (non-upgrade) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition for your own personal use, not to be resold.

·         You will be able to get access to your copy one of two ways:

A)     To get up and running quickly you will be able to download your copy and get your product key via Microsoft Connect. English downloads will be available August 6th and other languages will follow as they become available.

B)     Members of our English beta program have an alternative. We have reserved a limited amount of boxed retail copies that you can choose to receive instead. These are ‘first come, first served’. If you opt to have us ship you the boxed copy you should be aware that it will take much longer until you will be up and running on the final version. We will need time to manufacture and ship the copies to you. This means that you may not receive them until they are available on shelves October 22nd or later. Also, for people outside the United States you may be required to pay duties or other local taxes upon receipt.

Instructions and forms for choosing one of the above options will be available on Microsoft Connect on Monday August 3rd.

On behalf of the entire Windows product team, THANK YOU!

Paul

More details on August 3rd, I guess… :D

2009
07/31
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
Windows
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Internet Explorer 8

It’s out. :)

http://microsoft.com/ie

And Paul Thurrott has a nice review for it. Check it out: parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

2009
03/19
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
Web
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Download Windows 7 Beta

After the announcement at CES earlier this week, Windows 7 Beta is now available for download, via Microsoft’s Beta Customer Preview Program. If you want to get your copy, head on to the Windows 7 site and get it now, since it has a limit of 2.5 million downloads the beta download page will expire on January 24th (source). Oh, and also note that the Beta itself will expire on August 1st, 2009! ;)

Update: I also agree with this article, Microsoft could have managed the distribution channel in a much more efficient way. :)

2009
01/11
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
Windows
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Virtual Earth 3D now in Beta

Virtual Earth 3D brings you another step closer to knowing “what it is like out there”. You can search, browse, and organize local information viewed in three dimensions, just the way it exists in the real world. This enables you to more effectively find the data that is relevant to you, making Live Maps more useful than ever. Even better — it’s just plain fun!

Download Virtual Earth 3D here.

2008
12/13
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
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Deep Zoom Composer is out

Deep Zoom Composer is a tool that enables you to prepare the images for using them in Silverlight 2, using the Seadragon technology. From the download site:

We are pleased to present a technology preview of Deep Zoom Composer, a tool to allow the preparation of images for use with the Deep Zoom feature currently being previewed in Silverlight 2. The new Deep Zoom technology in Silverlight allows users to see images on the Web like they never have before. The smooth in-place zooming and panning that Deep Zoom allows is a true advancement and raises the bar on what image viewing should be. High resolution images need to be prepared for use with Deep Zoom and this tool allows the user to create Deep Zoom composition files that control the zooming experience and then export all the necessary files for deployment with Silverlight 2.

You can download Deep Zoom Composer here.

2008
12/12
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Microsoft
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Stellarium 0.10.0 beta was released

Stellarium renders 3D photo-realistic skies in real time with OpenGL. It displays stars, constellations, planets, nebulas and others things like ground, landscape, atmosphere, etc.

The Stellarium team is proud to announce the release of version 0.10.0 (beta). This major release is the result of 8 months of efforts totalizing almost 1000 commits from all team members.

The most important changes are the new redesigned GUI, an important performance and memory usage improvement, a faster start-up, as well as new features such as dynamic eye adaptation to bright objects, improved rendering, light pollution simulation or improved location selector. The source code was also massively cleaned and refactored.

This version lacks two features from previous releases, namely the text user interface and the script engine which are being recoded for a later release. Because of this, the release is labeled “beta”.

More on the official Stellarium website.

2008
09/26
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
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