Right, so back in the depths of time I wrote a post about installing Windows Vista from a USB key in order to speed up the process.  I thought I had updated that for Windows 7, but apparently not.  So, as Windows is installing on my desktop machine right now, I decided to update that post for the new version.

When Microsoft released Windows 7 they also released a small tool to make installation from a USB key far easier than it was in the past.  This tool is called the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool”, and there are two pre-requisites to using it.  You must have access to a downloaded ISO of Windows 7.  You can’t use this method to burn a DVD to a USB key.  You can get the USB Download Tool from various places on Microsoft’s website including this page.  The second condition is that you need to have a PC whose BIOS is capable of booting from a USB key.  Most modern PCs can do this.

You need to obviously do this before you kill Windows on the target machine, or do it on another PC. (Interestingly I was going to suffix that sentence with “that has a USB port or DVD ROM, or an internet connection.  However what PC doesn’t have those these days?)  Download and install the Tool, and then run it to begin.  When it loads, you will see a screen like the one below.  Use the Browse button to navigate to your ISO of choice and select it.

You will then be asked whether you want to copy the files to a USB Key or DVD Rom.  Select USB Device.

The next step is to select the destination USB Key.  In this case I have actually two keys; One for my ReadyBoost data and one which I’ll use for the installation.  Make sure you choose the correct key if you have multiple USB devices.

When you click “Begin copying”, the program will do just that.  It can take a while depending on the speed of your PC and USB Key, but the cumulative time to image the key and install Windows is less than the time to install from a DVD, so its a worthwhile exercise.
 

When it has completed you will see this screen.  You can then remove your USB key (don’t forget to eject it) or restart your PC if you are installing on the same machine.

By this point most of you will know that Microsoft have just released Windows 7.  It should be appearing in the shops within the next couple of weeks, and by some accounts is already available in some places.  I have been using it for the best part of half a year I think, and I find it to be far better than Windows Vista from many perspectives. This has left me in a very unfortunate position, as I actually had to go out and purchase copies instead of getting them free.  You see, Microsoft gave me a free copy of Vista Ultimate for taking part in the beta test for that version, but I didn’t get invited to the beta test for Windows 7.  At least I’m not alone in that, and there were many complaints at the start of the beta test from people who expected to get invites not receiving anything. Rather then doing a large-scale beta like previously, they released two builds to the public; an early beta, and the first release candidate.  Like those of you adventurous enough, I had to download both of these, and have been using it mostly without problem since.

So, what’s new?  Well, the UI has been tweaked a little since Vista, and a lot since XP.  The Start button is different enough that I’m going to have to get a new tattoo.  When you click it, you see something similar to the Vista start menu, albeit one where the search function is taken to a whole new level.  For example, when opening Visual Studio, instead of clicking Start… All Programs… scrolling down to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and then clicking on Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, I simply click Start… type “vis” and hit Enter.  The results are shown on the left (click the picture to show a full-size version), and you’ll notice that this is really just an illustration as I have Visual Studio pinned to the task bar at the bottom of the screen.  It is a highly visual illustration of just how much the search feature in Windows 7 has been improved over previous versions.

The next great part of Windows 7 is connected, but a little separate.  The taskbar (the bit down the bottom of the screen to the right of the Start button) has undergone some subtle changes.  First and foremost, you can now “pin” documents and applications to the taskbar, which has been missing from Windows for a very long time.  Don’t get this mixed up with the "Quick Launch” toolbar from previous versions.  It is the same, but also so much more. Applications that are pinned can have what are called Jump Lists.  An example of a Jump List is seen if you right-click the Media Player icon.  Instead of the usual Copy/Paste etc options from previous versions, this click now brings up a special menu for Media Player containing a list of previously played media, which can be clicked on to re-play. Its an incredibly useful (when you remember that it can be done!), that I find myself using more frequently than I had expected.  Also on the taskbar, the notification area to the right has been cleaned up and organised a lot more than before.  MDI or multi-window applications now have a great feature added to them. Instead of switching to the application as an entity and then looking for the document within that application, you can now switch directly to the document.  If you look at the image to the left you’ll see that I have the mouse cursor hovering about the internet explorer icon, and an image has appeared of each of the open web sites.  I can switch to a specific one just as easily as I would switch to a different application.

The general desktop experience is far better than Vista.  In addition to a bunch of new features such as Aero Peek which allows you to look at the desktop and widgets without minimising everything else, several features have been added or enhanced.  Task switching with alt-tab is now much better.  When you press Alt and hit tab you see a new window appear with an image of each open window that you can switch to.  Additionally, after about a second, all of the other windows fade into the background (like the image on the right) with only the selected window showing in its true colours.  Its a simple and exceptionally handy feature that makes it incredibly easy to obtain information from another window without taking your fingers off the alt-tab keys.  There are a bunch of improvements such as these in Windows 7 which I’m not going to go into in detail, for a couple of reasons. Firstly it would take too long to write, and secondly if you really want a good review you should check out some of the better written versions on the net.

One of the biggest problems with Windows Vista was that it was slow, at least before the first service pack was released.  A lot of the speed issues were perception rather than reality, simply because Vista was so much more complex than XP.  When SP1 came out, it really came into its own with regards to speed, and that increase was carried forward to Windows 7 too.  If you compare fresh installs of Windows 7 and Windows Vista on the same hardware, Windows 7 is faster.  I believe that the same is true of a fresh install of Vista with SP2 slipstreamed into it too, but I haven’t verified that for sure.  In any case, while there’s a definite increase in speed, there’s also a significant perception of a speed increase.  This is partly because your first indication that things have changed is with the startup speed.  In comparison to Vista, its blinding.

I didn’t intend to go on about it as long as I have, and I’m going to stop now because I don’t really want to actually write a significant review of Windows 7.  Suffice to say I like it, and I bought it for all of the machines in the apartment.  Its going to be all over the place soon, so if you get a chance to score a demo copy then do so and give it a try.

I have no real excuse for not posting.  I’ve been busy, but not too busy.  I just haven’t had the inclination really.  I seem to get in this mood for a few months every couple of years.  There’s lots I could blog about, but the motivation just isn’t there.  So, here follows a collective update, without form or structure and in an almost free-associative manner.

I’m absolutely loving my new phone.  the major update to it (commonly called Cupcake) came out last week, and its looking great so far.  It comes with an on-screen keyboard which is pretty cool for short messages or text entry where you don’t want to flip out the keyboard.  I like the auto-orientation feature; turn the phone on its side and the it orientates sideways.  Turn it back up, and the orientation changes likewise.  Its awesome.  This works on any screen apart from the main screen (default screen?  top page? home screen?  Not entirely sure of the terminology), which makes sense even though I’ve read complaints about it on teh internets.  Widgets are now allowed, and some of then are just cool.  I’ve downloaded some brilliant apps for it so far, such as a travel planner for the German transport system, a shopping comparison package (scan the barcode of something in a shop and see if it really IS cheaper than the place down the road), and the Google maps tracks app.  That one lets me set the GPS to record, and then allows me to track where the phone has been.  For example, we went on a trip to the Englisher Garten last weekend, and then to one of the museums.  That trip was recorded and is documented here.

I still have to get my bike repaired.  I buckled the back wheel back when I fucked up my finger, and haven’t done anything about it yet.  I’ll get that done soon.

I’m doing physiotherapy about three times a week at the moment.  It hurts like hell, but is starting to pay off.  I can move the last knuckle on the finger again, which is very cool.  I have to remember when I’m doing the proscribed exercises that I need to concentrate on extension as well as flexion.  Apparently if I don’t then the finger could end up in a permanent “dipped” state, which would obviously be bad.

Tickets for U2 have arrived, and July 18th can’t come around soon enough.  I’ve also scored some tickets for Bell X1 next week.  I don’t know that much of their stuff, and may have to look out for some over the weekend, but it promises to be a good gig.  They are being supported by Duke Special, who I also haven’t heard before, but whose website produced some interesting sounds.

I have Windows 7 running now on both my laptop and one of the desktop machines.  The release candidate is incredible.  It has a stability and speed that frankly leaves Vista kicked face down in the dirt.  I’ll do another blog post on it later, but if you don’t have it already then download it from Microsoft.com.  Its free to use until march 2010.

I shouldn’t have tried to install Windows 7 on the spare laptop.  I’ve porked it, as I knew I would.  There just aren’t good drivers for Windows for that machine, so I’m going to re-install linux and… hmm, I’ve just had a VERY interesting idea about what to do with it.  It’d be in addition to what I was using it for with linux a couple of days ago – to monitor some specific chat rooms for news about Android. I could use it to handle the nzb files that we process.  There’s a pretty good handler for newzbin files for linux that might just do the trick.  Have to look into that more…

I have an idea for an app I should write.  Its for Android, and its just an different implementation of something that exist on that platform.  It exists in such a way that it is cumbersome and unwieldy I have to say.  I know how it can be done better.

London was dirty.  I’ve been here in an almost sterile environment for the last year, and getting back to London was a touch of culture shock on a couple of levels.  Firstly, there’s soot on everything.  Its a lovely old city, but the operative word in that phrase is old.  Many of the buildings haven’t had their exterior cleaned since the industrial revolution.  You know what I mean… the old red-brick buildings where the soot and car exhausts have left the red covered in a thin layer of black smoke and soot.  Its horrible, and I forgot just how pervasive it all is.  I had also forgotten what it is not to have to walk around and constantly look at the ground to avoid things like dig shit.  Secondly, and nothing to do with dirt, I realise that the feeling I get when talking to people here is fear.  When I am required to talk in German, although I can mostly get along, it is a frightening experience.  I don’t mean scary frightening, but it is definitely something that I prefer not to have to do.  I didn’t have that in London – I was able to go in to shops and simply ask for stuff. 

The sushi in London is awesome.  The rice underneath a piece of salmon nigri (for example) was exactly the right sweetness, texture and moisture that it should have been.  Here in Munich for some reason (that might have something to do with living two hundred and fifty thousand kilometres from the nearest ocean) the fish never tastes as fresh as in London, and the rice is always a little crumbly and more bitter. I miss sushi for lunch every day. Each time I pick up some here hoping for something that meets my taste expectations, I am disappointed.

We ate in the first Wagamama that I have ever been in that had windows in it!  Its down by the Tower of London, go check it out.

Okay, so 2008 is almost over.  2009 begins in eight and a half hours (and you can work out how long it took to write this post from that), and it looks like we’re all ready for the fun.  Behind me on the couch are a bunch of awesome looking fireworks.  We have punch brewing in the kitchen and food is waiting to be cooked.  Guests will arrive in a few hours and then the revelry will begin!

I have to admit to a certain trepidation about 2009.  Tomorrow I will have spent a whole calendar year out of work, and despite having worked on some projects for OastOne as well as some open source work, I have spent a long time out of the workforce.  I really would like to get back to working full time, and soon too.  I haven’t been idle though.  I have learned a significant amount of German this year, more so than I had expected perhaps, but naturally enough not as much as I would like. I’ve still got a few months left of my current course, and I need to start preparing to get back to that soon.  There are actually some parts of speech that I think have slipped below my radar, and I need to go back and revise them soon. In fact, I really need to get a bunch of stuff revised before next Tuesday, which is when my next class happens.  I’ve recently subscribed to a language magazine called “Deutsch Perfekt”, which is a current affairs magazine for learners of German.  We (some of my classmates and I) are going to start up a conversation group too, which will definitely help.  That’ll hopefully start early next year, as soon as we can organise a time when everyone is free.

I remember back in 1990, around this time or slightly before, thinking about how distant a thing the year two thousand was.  Then at the turn of the millennium thinking about how distant 2010 was from then.  Time takes no prisoners however, and 2010 is only a year away.  Sometimes I want to be immortal simply to stem the all too rapid passage of time.

Anyway, as for resolutions, I really have only one.  I would like to accelerate the rate at which I learn German.  This means actual study on top of the classes I take every week.  I haven’t been too good at that in the past, preferring to study by speaking. Obviously the other thing is I need to find a job.

I see from the MS Beta Newsgroups that invitations for the Windows 7 beta have been out for a week now.  I don’t have one.  I don’t know why, and I hate that of course.  I think it has something to do with their selection criteria rather than any failing as a beta tester.  I’ve read that the build the beta testers are getting has already been leaked to torrents already, which is bloody typical really.  I’ve also read that its going into public beta in January, which means that it is far more stable than any previous betas have been in the past.  Vista was unstable for a large portion of the test, and XP was severely driver limited for a long time.  So, if I can resist the urge to download the leaked build then I’ll grab the public beta as soon as its released.

So, its starting to get dark here, and while writing this I have watched another awesome episode of Planet Earth.  I bought a bunch of fireworks this morning and the entire estate will be out later to set them off.  One of the things I bought was a cube of rockets, which (once started) sets off 225 rockets in 70 seconds.  Can’t wait for that!!!

"There is a growing consensus of opinion forming that Windows 'Seven' will be 'modular,' the concept being that you buy the core OS first and then add to it individual 'modules' with logically distinct units of functionality".  That was a quote from a perfectly logical posting on Ars Technica. It links to another Ars Technica article which in turn points to a ZDNet blog by Mary Jo Foley where she proposes the whole idea.  I was about to tear the whole idea down for being baseless speculation until I read that she had ben in touch with contacts in Microsoft who said that this was how it was going to be.  I started to get interested then so I opened up my newsgroup reader and went to the MS Beta newsgroups.  The idea is floating around there too. In fact, it seems like everybody is talking about it, but I still can't find an actual source of concrete information other than Mary Jo Foley's "contact" in Microsoft.  I wonder if the 'softies are all having a laugh at our expense, or if Windows 7 really is going to be modular and possibly subscription based.

Lets take a look at the idea of a modular Windows for a minute.  One of the reasons that there are so many vulnerabilities in Windows has to do simply with the amount of applications that come with it.  Each of those applications, even something as simple as Notepad, is a potential attack point for viruses or hackers.  The more applications there are in Windows, the higher the "attack surface".  Wikipedia has a nice definition of the attack surface of a piece of software being "the scope of functionality that is available to unauthenticated users. In other words, how much can a piece of software do in its default configuration by unauthorized users". I don't know how large (wide / broad / high / bumpy?) the attack surface is on Vista, but I would hazard a guess that there's a lot that could potentially be hacked.  Whether it actually can be hacked or not is not the question, its more about the potential for being vulnerable.

It would of course make sense that the next version of Windows has additional applications and programs in it, which would in turn increase the attack surface and make it more vulnerable to hacking.  So, from a desire to decrease the attack surface, Microsoft could potentially be removing many of the usual applications from Windows 7 and providing them only as add-ins.  I've heard that programs such as Windows Mail and Windows Photo Gallery could very well find themselves transitioned to the Live team.  There they could follow an evolution separate from that of Windows itself and at the same time naturally decrease the attack surface of Windows itself, thus rendering it more secure. 

It makes sense, doesn't it?  We'll have to see how it pans out in the long term.  Very early leaked copies of the operating system don't have any of the usual applications removed, so its entirely possible that all this conjecture is just that.  Maybe Microsoft is having a laugh at our expense?

The other idea (which I find far less likely) was that they could lease the software to end users.  So, you would for example, pay Microsoft €200 per year for Windows 7 Premium and €300 for Windows 7 Ultimate. I personally don't see that happening.  Microsoft have a program called WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) which is responsible for handling tracking of pirated copies of software over the internet.  They have come under increasing press scrutiny and scorn for the WGA system failing too many times over the last few years. 

Lets be absolutely sure what we're talking about here.  If I lease Windows from Microsoft, I do not want it shutting down for any reason before the lease period ends.  To do so would require that I start having to calculate how much Microsoft owes me for the "downtime" I suffered.  Microsoft in turn would potentially have to build out a massive new infrastructure to handle this.  I can't see the benefits to be honest.

Who knows what's going to happen in the future.  We're just going to have to wait I guess.  Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for my invite to join the Windows 7 beta.  I've heard they aren't ready yet and that invites haven't been sent. I just hate not knowing though...