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When I started at Microsoft, there were two independent families of Windows. The consumer releases that were all DOS-based, and the business releases that were all NT-based. Until I joined the Windows team in 2000, I really didn’t understand the intricacies of having these two different ways of doing everything. In particular, with Windows XP being the melding point where all Windows releases became based off of the NT codebase, a ton of effort was spent in terms of setup,…

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When I joined the Windows setup team in Oct. of 2001, Windows Whistler (what would become Windows XP) was already at beta 2. A rapid release tucked in after Windows 2000, which was well-received by business customers but was nowhere near customer ready, the goal of Windows XP would be creating the first Windows NT-based OS for consumers. VP Jim Allchin’s mantra was “It just works,” which we sometimes jokingly said as “It juuuust works.” Humor aside, Windows XP would…

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Windows XP was the first version of Windows that didn’t ship with boot floppies. It only shipped with a CD. Yes, you could download a tool that would build a few boot floppies for you if your computer didn’t support El-Torito boot for some reason, but most computers that ran XP happily at the time that we shipped also supported CD boot. So even as XP launched in late 2001, the writing was on the wall for the floppy diskette….

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Intel may have had the best of intentions for the Itanium architecture. However, from the very first day I sat down and tried to use one after I joined the Windows team, I found it frustrating. It was loud, slow, and hot. Just starting the notepad was slow. It was a hot, angry pig. (And not even a fast pig like a javalina.) Itanium was designed to be a brand new platform for high-end workstations and servers. The x86 instruction…

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For 10 and a half years, I’ve taught our Microsoft licensing boot camps with Directions on Microsoft co-founder Rob Horwitz. Over that 10 years, we’ve traveled and worked together so much that colleagues have referred to us multiple times as the odd couple. (Ahem… I am clearly Felix.) When we teach, it’s multiple days of Rob or myself presenting for a good chunk of the day. In the before times, when we did in-person boot camps every other month, the…

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“There are places I’ll rememberAll my life though some have changedSome forever, not for betterSome have gone and some remain” “In My Life” – The Beatles When we would go visit the river, I don’t ever remember asking my parents “Are we there yet?” It was obvious when you were there—because everything changed. If you’ve never lived in Montana, or visited multiple parts of it, you probably think of it as all mountains, all trees, or both. But there are…

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As I worked on my last blog post, it hit me that there are a ton of “frequently asked questions” that I’ve already seen around Windows on ARM running on Apple silicon Macs. I’ll try to keep these somewhat updated as I can, as things will likely change over time. Terms Related to Windows on ARM/Apple silicon Macs Running Windows on an Apple silicon Mac Virtual Machines (VMs) and Windows on ARM with Apple silicon Macs Windows Licensing and Windows…

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In my last post, I discussed the fact that Microsoft seems to have clarified whether people can license and run Windows on an Apple silicon Mac – and by and large, I think the matter is settled from a licensing perspective. But I also mentioned that in terms of support, Microsoft’s representative told me the following through email: “Note that the EULA does stipulate that not all versions of Windows are supported on all device types, so theoretically customers could…

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Last year, I wrote a long post about using Windows on ARM with Apple silicon Macs, the licensing and support problems with it, and why I felt like it was a bad thing for Microsoft to come out and fully endorse it. If you haven’t read it, it’s here. There are a few relevant points still, but there’s a lot that’s changed as well. In particular since I wrote that, Windows 11 has shipped, as has x64 emulation for Windows…

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