300,000,000 copies of Windows 7 sold by the end of the year?

It could happen. With 90,000,000 sold through the end of January, it might actually be fairly easy to hit the 300 million mark.

Microsoft announced that as their sales goal. Softpedia has the details.

What’s really happening with Windows 7’s new Windows Activation Technologies

Ed Bott has put the new Windows 7 Activation Technology patch, KB 971033, through the paces, and found it to be pretty much as advertised. If you were looking for a re-run of the old Windows Genuine Advantage/Spyware debacle, you won’t find it here. Ed says:

I installed the KB971033 update on multiple systems using both the downloaded version and the one delivered through Windows Update. I also uninstalled the update and observed what happened.

From a technical standpoint, I was able to confirm that the WAT update does what Microsoft says it does. I was not able to read the contents of the signed, encrypted packets going across the wire, but I did locate the stored information in the registry and compared it to Microsoft’s published privacy policy.

Ed’s ZDNet post reads a lot like something from the Windows Engineering blog – which is both a compliment and an, uh, observation. It’s clear to me that MS will be thrilled by Ed’s results, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if MS helped with the research. That said, I can’t find any fault with what he’s done: thorough, accurate, and surprisingly supportive of Microsoft.

Read it yourself and tell me if you disagree…

Windows 7 mysteriously re-boots every two hours

If your copy of Win7 is mysteriously re-booting itself every two hours, and none of your changes are saved in the process, chances are very good that you’re running the Release Candidate.

It’s time to get real. Er, get the real version of Win7.

Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article 971767 has the details, but the bottom line is that two-hour re-boots start today, and on June 1, you’ll start booting to a black Windows wallpaper. It ain’t the end of the world, but if you haven’t saved your changes, the result could be, uh, startling.

European IE ballot screen final

Microsoft posted a final screen shot and description of the Internet Explorer “ballot screen” that will roll out across Europe shortly.

I think the most telling detail is this: the technical explanation appears on Microsoft’s Legal blog, “Microsoft On the Issues.”

The browser choice screen software update will be offered as an automatic download through Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7… [it] will present you with a list of leading browsers. In keeping with our agreement with the European Commission, this list is presented in random order. You can also scroll to the right to see additional browsers, which are also presented in random order.

I don’t see anything unexpected. Apparently Windows Update determines your location based on your IP address – so if you travel to Europe, but don’t live there, you may see this screen anyway.

Windows Genuine Advantage lawsuit fizzles out

Gregg Keizer at Computerworld reports that the lawsuit filed in the wake of Windows Genuine Advantage phone home discoveries has been dismissed.

Multiple lawsuits filed in July 2006 claimed that Microsoft mislead users by labeling the WGA software as a security update, and failed to tell customers that WGA collected information from their PCs, then frequently “phoned home” the data to Microsoft’s servers. The plaintiffs later combined their cases and asked the court to grant the joint lawsuit as a class-action.

Last month, the judge denied class action status. Last week the whole thing just fizzled out.

Oh well.

Windows 7 Battery issue – it ain’t the message, it’s the medium

I figured this was a non-event. Shows you what I know.

By now, no doubt, you’ve heard about the Windows 7 warning message “Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.” It’s a new message that didn’t exist in Vista, one that’s causing many people much angst. If you have a laptop running WinXP or Vista, and your battery’s been behaving properly, then you install Win7, and you suddenly get battery warning messages, you’re bound to think that Win7 has gone a bit bonkers.

I first saw the report on Ars Technica, which said that Microsoft was looking into the problem. I haven’t heard much about it – none of you have written to be about it – and figured it was another tempest in a teapot.

Kinda boring, actually.

Suddenly it isn’t boring any more. Why? Because Steve Sinofsky – the head Windows guy – posted a response to the allegations on the Windows 7 Engineering blog. That’s interesting.

This is very interesting: it’s the first post on the Win7 Engineering blog since August 10 – six months ago, long before Windows 7 shipped.

Is it possible that MS is going to use the E7 blog to keep up an ongoing dialog with its customer base?

If so, this is a great, new way to interact with us, keep us advised on the happenings inside the Windows team, in an official, reliable way. The E7 blog helped many of us understand the inner workings of Win7 during the development cycle. Maybe it’ll help while Win7’s out in the real world, too.

I hope it’s just the first post of many.

Why Keep Using Windows XP In 2010 (and Beyond)?

A recent Neowin article written by an Infrastructure Manager working for a UK Goverment body points out why certain large organizations are sticking with Windows XP instead of upgrading to the latest version of Windows, which is Windows 7.

Read about the article here:
http://www.neowin.net/news/why-windowsxp-in-2010

I will say for most home users and some small businesses, upgrading to Windows 7 and getting the hardware and software that are fully designed to run under Windows 7 should be relatively easy. For large businesses, that can be a different story as some may not even want to upgrade (to Windows 7) and just stick with Windows XP and the hardware & software that just worked with XP.

What’s your take on what Garry wrote in his article of sticking with XP in 2010 (and perhaps beyond)?

Windows Genuine Advantage claim fails to reach Class Action status

Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica reports that a complaint about Windows Genuine Advantage has failed to reach Class Action status.

A lawsuit that accused Microsoft of misleading consumers to download and install an update for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) under the guise that it was critical security update will go forward, but not as a class action. A federal judge has refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action, which would have meant anyone who owned a Windows XP PC in mid-2006 could join the case without having to hire an attorney. As Windows XP was easily the most popular operating system at the time, the move means Redmond has managed to avoid hundreds of millions in potential damages.

The lawsuit hinges around WGA’s disturbing propensity – severely curtailed in recent times – to “phone home” on a regular basis.

Thanks for the heads-up, yangs!