Browsed by
Category: Windows

Windows 10 and free. Free answers to frequently asked questions.

Windows 10 and free. Free answers to frequently asked questions.

I keep hearing the same questions over and over again about Windows 10 and the free* upgrade, so I have decided to put together a set of frequently asked questions about the Windows 10 promotion. Who gets it? Q: Is Windows 10 really free? Yes. It is free. Completely free. But only if you meet the qualifications and take Microsoft up on the offer from a qualified PC before July 29th, 2016. You must have Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 installed…

Read More Read More

Farewell, floppy diskette

Farewell, floppy diskette

I never would have imagined myself in an arm-wrestling match with the floppy disk drive. But sitting where I did in Windows setup, that’s exactly what happened. A few times. When I had started at Microsoft, a boot floppy was critical to setting up a new machine. Not by the time I was in setup. Since Remote Installation Services (RIS) could start with a completely blank machine, and you could now boot a system to WinPE using a CD, there…

Read More Read More

It is past time to stop the rash of retail credit card “breaches”

It is past time to stop the rash of retail credit card “breaches”

When you go shopping at Home Depot or Lowe’s, there are often tall ladders, saws, key cutters, and forklifts around the shopping floor. As a general rule, most of these tools aren’t for your use at all. You’re supposed to call over an employee if you need any of these tools to be used. Why? Because of risk and liability, of course. You aren’t trained to use these tools, and the insurance that the company holds would never cover their…

Read More Read More

My path forward

My path forward

Note: I’m not leaving Seattle, or leaving Directions on Microsoft. I just thought I would share the departure email I sent in 2004. Today, August 6, 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the day I left Microsoft and Seattle to work at Winternals in Austin. For those who don’t know – earlier that day, Steve Ballmer had sent a company-wide memo entitled “Our path forward”, hence my tongue-in cheek subject selection. From: Wes Miller Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 2:32…

Read More Read More

Complex systems are complex (and fragile)

Complex systems are complex (and fragile)

About every two months, a colleague and I travel to various cities in the US (and sometimes abroad) to teach Microsoft customers how to license their software effectively over a rather intense two-day course. Almost none of these attendees want to game the system. Instead, most come (often repeatedly, sometimes with more people each time) to simply understand the ever-changing rules, how to apply them correctly, and how to (as I often hear it said) “do the right thing”. Doing…

Read More Read More

The end is near here!

The end is near here!

Imagine I handed you a Twinkie (or your favorite shelf-stable food item), and asked you to hold on to it for almost 13 years, and then eat it. Aw, c’mon. Why the revulsion? It’s been hard for me to watch the excited countdown to the demise of Windows XP. Though I did help ship Windows Server 2003 as well, no one product (or service) that I’ve ever worked on became so popular, for so long – by any stretch of…

Read More Read More

The trouble with DaaS

The trouble with DaaS

I recently read a blog post entitled DaaS is a Non-Starter, discussing how Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is, as the title says, a non-starter. I’ll have to admit, I agree. I’m a bit of a naysayer about DaaS, just as I have long been about VDI itself. In talking with a colleague the other day, as well as customers at a recent licensing boot camp, it sure seems like VDI, like “enterprise social” is a burger with a whole lot…

Read More Read More

Considering CarPlay

Considering CarPlay

Late last week, some buzz began building that Apple, alongside automaker partners, would formally reveal the first results of their “iOS in the Car” initiative. Much as rumors had suspected, the end result, now dubbed CarPlay, was demonstrated (or at least shown in a promo video) by initial partners Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. If you only have time to watch one of them, watch the video of the Ferrari. Though it is an ad-hoc demo, the Ferrari video isn’t painfully…

Read More Read More

Running Windows XP after April? A couple of suggestions for you

Running Windows XP after April? A couple of suggestions for you

Yesterday on Twitter, I said the following: Suggestion… If you have an XP system that you ABSOLUTELY must run after April, I’d remove all JREs, as well as Acrobat Reader and Flash. This was inspired by an inquiry from a customer about Windows XP support that arrived earlier in the day. As a result of that tweet, three things have happened. Many people replied “unplug it from the network!” 1 Several people asked me why I suggested doing these steps. I’ve begun…

Read More Read More

Bimodal tablets (Windows and Android). Remember them when they’re gone. Again.

Bimodal tablets (Windows and Android). Remember them when they’re gone. Again.

I hope these rumors are wrong, but for some odd reason, the Web is full of rumors that this year’s CES will bring a glut of bimodal tablets; devices that are designed to run Windows 8.1, but also feature an integrated instance of Android. But why? For years, Microsoft and Intel were seemingly the best of partners. While Microsoft had fleeting dalliances with other processor architectures, they always came back to Intel. There were clear lines in the sand; Intel…

Read More Read More