Author: csharpner

This is not a “complaint’”, but merely a report of one of the many strange things going on with Windows 7…

Long after I installed Windows 7 (2 1/2 months after installing it), I opened a wav file from an e-mail message (it’s a voice-mail message via my VOIP provider), I got the following dialog box that’s only supposed to happen the first time you run Windows Media Player:

(BTW, you should choose “Custom settings” and ensure that “Send unique Player ID to content providers” is unchecked as well as “I want to help make Microsoft software and services even better by sending Player usage data to Microsoft”.  I also recommend that under “History”, you uncheck everything.  You don’t necessarily want anyone that sits at your computer to be able to browse back at everything you’ve been watching or listening to.  Click on the cookies button and on the privacy tab, turn on the pop-up blocker and under InPrivate, check both boxes.)

I use Windows Media Player daily, so this is definitely not the first time I’ve run this… It’s more like the 1000th time.  Windows 7 seems to have a considerable amount of glitches in it.  Since it’s new, that’s to be expected.  This is not a complaint, just a documentation of some of the strange things that have been going on in Windows 7.  If anyone’s interested, this is from Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Version 6.1.7600 with all of the updates as of 12:13 PM 10/23/2009 Eastern Time, with the exception of one pending “Microsoft – Input – Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Optical (IntelliPoint)” driver update and 34 optional foreign language packs.

I also viewed my update history and see no updates relating to Windows Media Player in the past week.

Text from the dialog box to help with web searches:

Choose the initial settings for Windows Media Player.  You can change these settings in the Player later.

Recommended settings

Make Windows Media Player the default program for playing media, automatically download usage rights and media information to update your media files, and send usage data from the Player to Microsoft.  Set Media Giude as my active online store.

Custom settings

Customize privacy, playback, and online store settings.

Usage data will be sent to Microsoft if you use recommended settings, but the information will not be used to identify or contact your.

To learn more about Recommended settings, read the Privacy Statement online.

Before I can answer this question, first let me explain how regular software distribution is done.  BTW, the context of this discussion is in regards to Windows EXE applications (not web applications).  I mention that because this deployment technology is web based, but what’s being deployed is an actual Windows executable.  A web browser is only involved during the launch of the application and not during the execution of the application.

How Windows software is normally deployed:

Without Click-Once technology, to deploy a Windows executable over the internet, you first create the EXE file and any DLLs and config files that go along with it, then package them up in an .MSI installation package file or maybe a .ZIP file.  You upload that file to a web server, then provide a web page with a link to the file (or distribute a link in e-mail).  The user then clicks the link and uses the browser’s capability to download and save or download and run the file.  Then the installation program is launched and the user answers the questions in the install options.  When that’s done, a new entry exists in the installed programs (so the user can go to the control panel and uninstall it), the files are installed usually under c:program files, or c:program files (x86).  An icon is optionally installed on the desktop, the start menu, and/or the quick-launch bar.  Entries are added into the system registry and potentially, DLLs are installed in the machines GAC (Global Assembly Cache) and/or COM components are installed machine-wide.

The next part becomes more difficult:  Updates:

If you find bugs in your software that you’ve deployed or have added new features, how do you distribute the fixes to your user base?  How do you notify them that there’s a fix available?  There are many solutions, but none of them are great.  They usually require some way to contact the users and those methods inevitably leave some users out because they can no longer be contacted.  Upgrading over an existing installation is difficult, especially if you are many versions into the life of the product, there are multiple versions to contend with.

Security:

Unless you sign your distribution, your users can’t be guaranteed that what they’re downloading is what you published.  Imagine a hacker got onto your web server and replaced your software with malware or just replaced one of the files, still turning your software into malware.  How do you ensure that doesn’t happen?

Problems encountered with deployment:

1. Creating an installation package (not too difficult, usually, but can be, and must be done if there’s anything more than a single .EXE).
2. Difficult to ensure that what’s being downloaded by the user is the same thing you put there (like backups, people are generally not concerned about this type of hack until it happens).
3. User’s can’t be sure that what they’re downloading is what you deployed (no standard way).
4. Difficult to prevent someone from stealing your software and publish it on their own server (and a modified one at that).
5. When the user installs, machine wide changes are made, even if it’s just adding uninstall capability to the control panel.
6. Uninstalls can go bad, making uninstalling or updating virtually impossible without a significant amount of tedious work.
7. Updating software becomes more difficult as more versions are released.
8. Difficult to ensure the user is running the latest version.
9. Difficult to prevent users from running old versions. (Maybe you’ve changed a web service API or removed an old URL, or some old data structure is now incompatible with the latest version, etc…)

How does Click-Once deployment make this better?

All of the problems above are solved with Click-Once deployment.

Distribution is nearly identical.  You deploy your software to a web server and provide a link on a web page (or e-mail the link to users).  But, to deploy, you do it directly from Visual Studio by right-clicking your project and choosing “publish” (This resolves issue #1 above).  Visual studio prompts you for a certificate to use to sign the distribution (this resolves issues #2, & #3 above).  It then prompts you for a file share or FTP path to publish to.  It also prompts for the URL from which the users will launch the application.  This makes it very difficult for theft (#4 above).  With this, the Click-Once run time on the user’s machine will ensure that they’re launching it from the URL you provided during deployment.  If it’s not on the URL you specified, Click-Once will refuse to run the application.

When the user runs the application (always done via a URL to your site), the application is downloaded to something similar to the Internet Cache folder… Call it a “Click-Once cache”.  No machine changes are made, unless your application has dependencies like DirectX, XNA, etc… that need to be installed (more on that later).  The files are simply copied into the cache folder.  This resolves issues #5 & #6 above.  Subsequent runs will run directly from the cache, but will check online for a newer version and according to your settings when you deployed, will either force a download of the latest version, or allow for 1 back level version to be run.  This resolves issues #7, #8, & #9 above.

Regarding dependencies:

One exception to the advantage of not making any machine wide changes are when you’re deploying an application that has dependencies on other technology, such as DirectX, XNA, etc…  If your application requires those, obviously, the users machine must have them installed.  With Click-Once deployment, you can indicate in your deployment whether you want to include the dependencies with your distribution, or have the Click-Once technology on the user’s machine go and get those dependencies from the vendor’s web site and install them before the first run of the application.  The effort on your part is to simply check a check box on or off.  There is a optional web page produced when you deploy your Click-Once application that will list all of the dependencies so the user knows what’s required and what may be installed, along with a “Run” button that the user can click to launch the application (which also checks the user’s machine for the dependencies).

You also have the option of actually installing it locally (putting it in c:program files, adding it to the list of installed apps that can be uninstalled, adding icons to the start/programs menu, the desktop, and/or the Quick-Launch bar.

Even if you don’t want it installed locally (usually the preferred option), you can still optionally have icons placed in the start/programs menu, the desktop, and/or the Quick-Launch bar.  These icons simply point to a file in the deployment on your web server.  This gives the user the user experience as if it were installed, but it always goes online to look for the latest version and runs that if it’s available, otherwise, it’ll run the one from their local cache.

XNA is a game development platform from Microsoft.  The letters “XNA” don’t stand for anything… They’re not an acronym.

Using XNA technology, you can write a game for Windows, XBox 360, & Zune.  A single project can produce BOTH an executable for Windows AND and XBox 360 game.

XNA supports both 2D and 3D objects in games (both at the same time, if you like).  It has support for networking built in.  “Games for Windows” is complementary technology that XNA also supports.  By simply adding a single line of code, your XNA game becomes a “Games for Windows” game.  “Games for Windows” games have a very slick user interface built in for logging onto your Games for Windows account (which is also the same as your XBox Live account).  You can add friends and send messages and compete against friends online… including your friends on XBox 360!!  That’s right, your game for Windows and your game for XBox 360 can have users competing against each other, in real time, on both platforms!

XNA is not a single product.  Developers download the SDK for Visual Studio.  They can then deploy their Windows games via Click-Once technology, which is quite awesome.

Game players for Windows can simply click a URL to run a game, but this game is NOT a JavaScript for Flash based game… It’s a real, hardcore Windows game that runs on Windows (not the browser).

To deploy a game to the XBox 360, developers pay an annual $99 fee and can participate in forum discussions with their peers, submit games for testing and approval, then get their games published on the XBox Live marketplace.  They set their own prices on their games using Microsoft Points (meaning they sell their game to users and users pay with their own Microsoft points, which are then converted to real dollars and sent to the developer).  The price options amount to about $2.50, $4.00, $10 and $15, if I recall correctly.  The developer keeps 70% of the income and Microsoft keeps 30%.  But, when you sell it as a Windows game, you set your own price, sell it however you like (on CD, as a download, or as a Click-Once deployed app) and you keep 100% of the proceeds.  The only time Microsoft takes a slice is if you sell it on the XBox Live marketplace.  (Update):  Microsoft has started a new app store for Games for Windows, so you now have the option of selling your Windows game through there too, but of course, Microsoft will take a slice.  You still have the option of marketing and promoting and selling all on your own, outside of the Market place and you’re not required to sell your Windows version through Microsoft’s app store… It’s just an additional option for you (you can sell it both by yourself AND in the app store, if you like).

I attended an XNA session at CodeStock 2008 and the same one (for a refresher) at CodeStock 2009.  You can read my review from the CodeStock 2008 XNA session here.

Shortly after the 2008 session, I began developing a game with my kids.  We worked on it in earnest for a few months, but have let it side idle, with only a little bit of work since.  When we complete it, we’ll be publishing it on XBox Live Marketplace AND on our own website for Windows players.  I’ll update this article when it’s released.

Related Reading:

Beware of cheap XBox 360 consoles!

CodeStock 2008 XNA

“Click-Once” is a deployment technology created by Microsoft.  It makes deploying Windows software drastically easier for both the writers of the software and for the consumers of the software that will run it on their machines.

Here’s how it works from the distributor’s end (I’ll explain how it works from the consumer’s end in a moment):

The distributor of the software deploys their project directly from Visual Studio to a web server (any web server… not just IIS).  Several files are created in the process, including a launch page with a run button (that doesn’t have to be used), a file ending in “.application”, a subfolder with the executable and associated DLLs.  All the files are digitally signed by the distributor for security and the whole thing is versioned and GUID’d.  The distributor has the option of letting the software be run straight from the URL or to let it be installed locally on the user’s machine.  They also have the option of letting it check for newer updates every time the user runs it and additionally can force a refusal to run unless it’s the latest version on the server.

From the user’s end:

They will either use the “run” button on the publish.htm file that gets generated during the deployment which then redirects to the “setup.exe” file on the server.  In that case, the setup.exe file is downloaded like any other file and the browser gives the user the option to save or run.

Or they’ll click a URL that reference the “.application” file on the server, or they’ll double-click an icon on their desktop which references a “.application” file on the server.

In the case of the .applicaton file, what happens next is the Click-Once technology activates from the browser and reads the .application file (which is a manifest XML file explaining where the content is as well as a hash to make sure it hasn’t been modified since it was deployed).  It then downloads another manifest XML file from the application’s content folder on the server and then downloads and attempts to run the EXE, but not without asking the user’s permission first, as well as displaying the signed certificate information to the user.  The user has the option of accepting or rejecting it.

From the user’s point of view:

The user clicks a link, is prompted if they want to run it, then it just runs.

Benefits of Click-Once for a software distributor:

• Rapid deployment.
• Control over whether users can:
  • install it locally to launch locally (with or without checking for newer versions)
  • only launch it from the URL.
  • have to run only the latest version.

Benefits of Click-Once for a user:

• Easy launching (simply by clicking a URL).
• Very strong security:
  • Always given the option to accept or deny a certificate.
  • Always given the option to allow it to run at each launch.
  • Zero footprint… There’s no “installation” as most software.  No system settings can be changed during the simulated “install”.
  • Can be sure they’re always running the latest version.
  • It’s .NET software, so they have the ability to control what resources the EXE can have access to on the machine (through a control panel applet).

An application can also be deployed as a Click-Once application for CD or DVD distribution.  In that case, the end user uses the CD or DVD in the same way as a web site.

For an article directed at why you would use this (if that wasn’t answered here), click here. 

For more information, directly from Microsoft, go here.

If you or your users use FireFox, this morning, you and/or they got this message:

Firefox has determined that the following add-ons are known to cause stability or security problems

FireFox popped up this box, strangely, just as I was reading an article about WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation):

The first add-on is: “Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1”.

The second add-on is: “Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5.30729.1”

What or Who does this affect?

It affects all Click-Once deployed applications and users that launch them with FireFox.  These are things like games for Windows written with XNA and deployed for launching from your browser, or any Windows application deployed to a web site to be launched via a URL (with Click-Once technology).  This is a VERY IMPORTANT technology that affects a LOT of products, companies, and end users (including myself) and should NOT have been disabled!!!

Why were these disabled?

The claim is that they provide remote code execution.  The problem is that this disabling may be wrong and your system may not be at risk at all.  The vulnerability is NOT in the plug-ins, but in the .NET framework itself (part of Windows), and not part of the add-ons or FireFox.  If you keep your Windows Updates updated, you most likely are NOT at risk, but FireFox cannot detect whether you’ve got the fix from Microsoft already installed, so it just disables it anyway.  The FireFox programmers were hair-trigger happy to get their fix out quickly (which they did).  Now, they have no way to determine whether your machine is vulnerable or not.  In short, it’s not FireFox’s responsibility to do anything about this since it’s NOT a security vulnerability in either FireFox itself or any of the plugins, but in the Operating System itself.

FireFox should be checking for either the hotfix or the version numbers of the DLLs in the OS that are affected.  At the moment, the current version of FireFox doesn’t have the ability to check system DLLs.  It will require an update to FireFox itself, which they should certainly do if they plan on globally, unilaterally disabling important functionality such as this, even on machines that DO NOT HAVE THE VULNERABILITY!!!!

Here’s how to tell if you’re really NOT at risk:

• Open a command prompt (a.k.a. a “DOS Box”):
  • In Windows XP, open the start menu, choose “run” and type “cmd” in the run box and either hit [Enter] on your keyboard or click the “OK” button.
  • In Vista or Windows 7, hit +R and type “cmd” in the run box and either hit [Enter] on your keyboard or click the “OK” button.
• Type “wmic qfe get hotfix” and hit [Enter].
• You’ll get a list of 10 or so hot fixes already applied.  Look for KB974455.

If you don’t have this hotfix, just do a Windows Update to get it.

However, if you do already have this hotfix, then there’s no reason to let this be disabled, but there doesn’t seem to be anyway to stop it from happening.  Please post a comment below if you know how.  FireFox disabled the add-ons for me, even though I do have the hotfix already on my machine.

According to Microsoft, anyone with automatic updates turned on should already have the fix, but FireFox does not detect whether or not your machine is already protected and disables the add-ons anyway, royally screwing any company that provides Click-Once deployed applications (like me), and their users, and not to mention the help-desks of those companies.

If you want to manually apply the Microsoft hotfix, you should apply MS09-054.  If you understand what I just said, you don’t need instructions from me.

There does not appear to be a way to manually re-enable these add-ons.  If anyone knows of one, please, by all means, post it below.

Update (7:43 AM 10/19/2009):

Mozilla has finally come to their senses and realized that the Click-Once add-on was never vulnerable and has unblocked the Click-Once add-on.  Unfortunately, if yours was already blocked, it appears you have to fix it manually.  Pretty simple though.  Just go here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9449

Um… scratch that.  When I try to install it again, I get this:

Before I tried that, I tried doing an update (help/Check for updates) and it didn’t unblock it.  I’ll report back when I learn more…  Keep checking back.

Update:  Mozilla has unblocked both add-ons.  Your browser should have received the unblock instructions by now.  If not, read my comment below about changing the polling frequency.

I now consider this issue finally resolved.  Let’s hope Mozilla has updated their standards for how they choose to implement future blocks.

There’s been a LOT of hype in the past year about Windows 7.  Here’s some toned down truth based on my hardcore usage of it between 8/8/2009 and 10/16/2009.  I installed it on my self-built Quad-Core 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM machine with multiple, internal SATA hard drives, USB external hard drives, and 2 DVD+/-RW drives.

1. Hype:  Windows 7 is much faster.  Reality:  I don’t notice any difference.  I haven’t done any actual timing, but if it is faster, it’s certainly not noticeable.

2. Hype:  Windows 7 boots faster.  Reality:  It doesn’t seem to be any faster to me.  I did NOT do a stop watch comparison between boot times before and after the upgrade, but it seems to take just as long.  Note that a lot of people time their old Windows installation, which may be quite aged with many things loading, then do a FRESH install of their latest OS.  Of course, a FRESH install will always be faster than a "mature" install.  For a true comparison, you have to do an UPgrade, not a fresh install.  That way, you know it’s going to be loading all the same stuff (unless, of course, you had Windows Live OneCare installed and had to remove it.  You should time boot up on Vista AFTER you remove One-Care.

3. Hype:  Windows 7 taskbar will show you thumbnail previews of apps as you float over the running app’s icons.  Reality:  While true, this is NOT a new, Windows 7 feature.  Vista has had this feature since it was released in December 2006.  Again, NOT NEW!  It is, however, slightly (very slightly) improved.

4. Hype:  I’m spending money for an upgrade, so obviously, I’m keeping all my old features plus gaining new ones.  Reality:  You lose Windows Movie Maker, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Vista Ultimate Extras, a clean UI that isn’t polluted with MS Office ribbon bars, the classic start menu.  Also, other features are hidden, like the Quick Launch bar.

5. Hype:  The new Windows 7 taskbar is MUCH better than the XP and Vista taskbar.  Reality:  No, it’s not.  You lose the quick launch bar.  "pinned" icons are not the same and are difficult to distinguish between "an icon to start an app" vs. "a running app".  It takes a lot of research and work to gain the lost functionality back.  For your convenience, I’ve done the research and have compiled a step-by-step tutorial here: 
   

   Get your Quick Launch bar back under Windows 7

Read about the different versions of Windows 7 that are available:

Windows 7 Versions

Please see my previous post:

42 Things I HATE about Windows 7

Not everything sux about Windows 7 though.  Things I like:

1. A side effect of one of the things I didn’t like (don’t like the less secure UAC) is that it no longer pops up for showing all processes from all users in the Task Manager.  That was the only time I thought it was unnecessary.
2. Right-click process in task manager, choose properties, and I can find out EXACTLY the file that process is and EXACTLY where it is on my hard drive!  YAY!
3. On "Applications" tab in the Task Manager, I can right-click an app and choose "go to process" and it’ll switch to the processes tab and show me the actual process for it.  I’ve been asking for this for a LONG time!  (Actually, I think this was introduced in Vista, not W7).
   1. Correction:  This is in Windows XP.  Thanks anonymous poster.
4. Resource Monitor — MUCH improved.  The one in Vista was completely useless.  This one actually shows real data and breaks it down to which programs are using memory and what types and how much of each kind of memory they’re using, disk queues PER DISK, and lots of other good stuff.  Still using a somewhat confusing layout, but much improved.  I still like the simplistic PerfMon.exe performance monitor of XP.
5. Calculator, now has a "programmer" mode!  FINALLY!  It only took TWENTY FIVE YEARS!!!!  It’s finally awesome to have it though!
6. Windows Themes:  Some themes have the ability to let you choose multiple desktop wallpaper photos and it will change them in sequence or at random, but at a time interval you specify.
7. Windows Media Player plays MP4 files right out of the box!  Yay!  Now I don’t have to do anything special to view my cell phone videos on the computer.
8. When copying "stuff", the copying task shows its progress on its taskbar icon, even when FireFox downloads files.
9. Speech Recognition:  Though, I’ve not tried it myself, this video
   [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VZnyKViC4]
   gives a decent demo of it.  What’s amazing, is not that this technology is here, it’s that I was using virtually identical technology 17 or so years ago in Windows 3.11 with my Sound Blaster 32 AWE.  I eventually turned that feature off because it just wasn’t useful, in spite of it being wicked cool.  It’s a little embarrassing if people see you talking to your computer.  Most things you can do with voice are MUCH faster with a keyboard and/or mouse and MUCH more accurate with a keyboard and/or mouse.
10. Multi-Touch.  Though, I don’t have a touch screen monitor, I do plan on getting one for this feature that looks incredibly awesome! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTABGen4Ckg]
11. Remote Desktop (when it connects), connects MUCH quicker than Vista.  So far, this is the only noticeable speed improvement in any part of Windows 7.
12. If I have multiple tabs open in FireFox or IE8 and float my mouse over any running instance on the taskbar, I get a list of all the open tabs in that instance (I have unselected the option to "group similar icons together) on the taskbar).
13. Fewer (if any) popups from the system tray.  Now there’s this icon in the system tray to let you know there are notifications waiting for you, instead of constantly popping them up.
1. If you don’t have anti-virus software installed, this becomes useless because it’s ALWAYS on!  Thanks to Windows 7 telling me to uninstall Windows One Live Care (which I paid for) before "up"grading, then refusing to let me install it back, this flag is constantly on.
1. When you install an anti-virus program, it’ll go away.  If you’re looking for a free one, Microsoft Security Essentials is pretty good and doesn’t seem to slow down your PC.

Almost every review I’ve read about Windows 7 praises it for “improvements”, so naturally, I was excited to try it out, as I am with every new version of Windows.  Up until Windows 7, I’d never been disappointed over all.  VISTA was still better than XP (but not by much as they screwed up a lot of the UI (search, in particular), but the security and reliability pushed it over the top for me to call it “good” overall).  When I downloaded the beta bits of Windows 7 through my MSDN subscriptions and installed it in a VM, I didn’t like what I saw.  After messing with it for a week, I let it go and decided I’d wait for the final release (the RTM) to see if they’d improved any of the user interface elements that I didn’t like.  Unfortunately, they didn’t.  I downloaded the RTM in Early August and went ahead and installed it on my primary machine (since I’m a developer, I’m going to have to be on top of the latest OS anyway).

Update:  In response to the hate mail:  These are lists of opinions (plus some facts to back up some of them).  If you disagree, that’s fine (though, you can’t disagree with the facts part of this).  Feel free to waste your time sending me hate mail. I will read it, laugh at it, then delete it.  I don’t care if you disagree and if you call me names you only make yourself look bad.  If you have a constructive comment to make (even if you disagree), we’ll all appreciate it and I’ll publish it in the comments section.  If you just can’t deal with someone not liking your fav OS, then read this:  13 Things I Like about Windows 7

Things I really hate about Windows 7:

(Many of these can be reconfigured manually, many cannot.  I’m not listing all of the fixes here.  And, not all of it is bad.  See this: 13 Things I Like about Windows 7)

1. Quick Launch and ALL my quick launch icons are GONE! (Get your Quick Launch bar back under Windows 7)
2. TaskBar is set to group similar programs together (did not carry over my preferences from Vista of NOT doing this).
3. Start Menu… We’re now FORCED into the FisherPrice style start menu that they introduced in XP, but we could always set it back to the better "Classic" start menu.  It’s just freaking GONE now!!!  Now, it takes many more clicks (and now slides) to get to my program icons.  Less productive. 

Windows 7 Classic Start Menu (getting it back)

4. UAC — It no longer warns of important things that could harm my computer.  Thanks a lot for all those people that complained about IMPORTANT notifications.  Now my system is LESS secure.  UAC never bothered me.  It rarely came up and when it did, it was important, with the possible exception of when I’m in task manager and click "Show Processes from all users".  It did NOT come up that often people.
   1. Manual Fix:  Open start menu, type UAC, then move the slider up to the top.  Now your Windows 7 installation is as secure as your Vista installation was.
5. Network tab of Resource monitor:  I’ve just discovered that my virtual networks for VMWare that were already installed are now NOT SHOWING!  This could be seriously bad… could break VMWare.  I’ll have to try it out, may have to reinstall and re-setup all of my NAT settings… if I can remember what they were… a MAJOR pain.
   1. Update:  I ended up upgrading VMWare, which did lose my NAT settings.
6. From "Performance" tab of task manager, clicked on "Resource Monitor" and it showed for a split second (it was immediately placed BEHIND the task manager).  Why?  (bug, not a feature)
7. Still has the same problem as in Vista… occasionally, the mouse forgets where it is and resets near the bottom of the screen.  Very annoying! (bug, not a feature)
8. TaskBar SUX royally!  Here’s an explanation:  http://csharpner.blogspot.com/2009/10/whats-wrong-with-windows-7s-task-bar-or.html  Get your quick launch bar back with these instructions:   Get your Quick Launch bar back under Windows 7
9. Left pane in Windows Explorer (not "Internet" Explorer… "Windows" Explorer).
   1. After opening "My Computer", I was horrified to find my tree view was gone!  Vista was bad enough where the tree view was kind of hidden in a toolbar and had to discover on your own to click the upper edge of the toolbar to drag it up to the top to hide the ridiculous crap they had in there by default.  There does not seem to be a way to get the tree view back.  This is REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD!  Sure, "Computer" is there, which is essentially the tree view, but it’s the 4th item down, under "Favorites", which I will never use from there and don’t want there, "Libraries", which is something new… I may or may not use or like this, but I don’t want it there right now, and "Homegroup", which I don’t want there.  The left pane is for drives and folder trees ONLY!!!  I have no use for anything else there.  So now, "Computer" is way down on the list.  Way too much white space on that left pane too.  "Network" is below "Computer".  I don’t want it there.  Too easy to accidentally click on, then have to wait forever for it to gather info.  A waste of time.
   2. "Libraries" on left pane:  I didn’t use those things in Vista from December 2006 until yesterday (8/7/2009) and I have no use for them here.  I have files.  I have folders.  I store my stuff where I need it.  These vague things like "Music", "Pictures", and "Videos" do not know where I store my stuff and I’m never sure "where" these things point.  I have multiple, physical drives.  Windows 7 can’t possibly know where I need these files stored, therefore those virtual, undefined groupings are completely useless to me.
10. Start Menu:  It now takes LONGER to get to a program icon, because not only do I still have to open each folder branch, but I have to continuously scroll in this tiny area that’s only a FRACTION of the size of the classic menu for all my program folders.  I have a LOT of software installed (I’m a developer). 
    

    Windows 7 Classic Start Menu (getting it back, sort of)

11. Explorer:  When driving down into folders, the poorly designed tree view on the left no longer expands to that folder… It’s out of sync.  I’m wondering if they were smoking crack when they trashed this once, totally useful program.  Here’s how to get the tree view working properly (mostly):  Windows 7 Explorer: Getting the tree view back
12. When selecting different themes, it keeps restoring Thunderbird from it’s minimized state… annoying.
13. Ribbon bars!  YUCK!  The horrible MS Office 2007 ribbon bars have escaped from the confines of MS Office and are now running rampant on many other programs built into Windows 7.  MSPaint for one, WordPad for another.  Windows Movie Maker is gone, but you can download Windows Live Movie Maker (with many features stripped (no more HD!!!)) and it too uses that horrendous ribbon bar interface.  Come on Microsoft!  Stick with STANDARDS!!!
    1. Update:  Microsoft has finally added HD support to the new Windows Live Movie Maker, but it’s still a separate download and it’s still missing many features.  Read the next item below.
14. Windows Movie Maker got REMOVED?!?!?!?!?!  WTH???
1. http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles/22658.aspx
2. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/movie-maker.aspx
3. http://www.microsoft.com/singapore/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/moviemaker.mspx
4. Windows Live Movie Maker: http://download.live.com/moviemaker
5. Theoretically, you can copy the Windows Movie Maker installed program off a Vista install onto a W7 install and it just works:  http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/GettingReadyforWindows7/thread/1ac049eb-9ea0-483a-8f43-24db3cb23f99
1. Update:  I’ve done this and it works, but many of the CODECS are now missing.
15. The background on the login page could only possibly be chosen by teenage girls.  If frilly, flowery nature artwork is not your taste (in other words, if you have any testosterone running through your veins), it appears you have to hack the registry to change this.   But, I’ve yet to find a set of instructions that actually works.  I’ve found plenty of instructions, but so far, none of them have worked.  Please, if you choose to post some instructions here, don’t do it until you’ve tested it yourself and confirmed it works.  When I find out how to do it (or if one of you posts a working list of steps), I’ll post it here.  Yes, there are some programs floating around in the wild that supposedly do it, but that’s generally a bad idea as you’re exposing your data’s security to that application.  I recommend living with the completely unmasculine image until there’s a manual fix available.
16. Windows Live OneCare (which I’ve paid for for a full year of protection) is NOT supported in Windows 7, and I was required to uninstall it before upgrading (but was not told that I could NOT put it back on!!!)  http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/activation/oc_eol_guidance.htm
17. Windows Mobile Sync Center:  Still Sux!  Can’t sync my Windows Mobile 6.0 cell phone.  2 sync partnerships exist on my cell phone (one for my work PC and one for my home PC).  NEITHER of which work.  After much ado, I got it working on both XP Pro at work and Vista at home, then they both stopped working within a week of each other and have never started back… not even after the W7 "up"grade.  Mobile sync still seems to be a hit or miss technology that Microsoft still hasn’t gotten right.
18. Can’t create folders on the desktop.  Right-click on desktop and choose "New" then "Folder" and nothing happens.  Oh Wait!  After opening Windows Explorer and browsing to "Desktop", 2 new folders are indeed there, but they’re NOT showing up on the desktop!  Must hit F5 to refresh the desktop before they show.  This seems to be an intermittent problem.
19. While browsing into the desktop from Windows Explorer, I deleted a folder from the desktop and it still showed.  I had to hit F5 to refresh.  This is likely related to the problem reported in the prior item above.
20. After hitting refresh to get a new folder to show on the desktop, I then renamed it, then tried to open it and got the following error:   Apparently, I have to hit refresh (F5) after renaming the folder too.  I renamed it to "Cell Phone Video", but it shows as "New folder" in the message box and also shows as "New folder" on the desktop.  Hitting refresh (F5) on the desktop updated the display of the folder name to the right name and I can now open it.  Wondering how things like this made it all the way through to RTM.  Obviously, Microsoft doesn’t have a proper check list of things to validate before releasing new software.  This seems to be an intermittent problem too.
21. Playing MP4 videos (great that it does it now!), I have no control over Windows Media player… can’t resize, can’t close… no response.   Right clicking on Task bar and choosing "close window" does nothing.  Had to force it closed with Task Manager.
    1. Update:  After a month or so of this problem, it just went away.
22. Starting Windows Media Player from the start menu and dragging and dropping an MP4 file onto it causes it to immediately stop responding.  No video… just a white window with all the controls on it.
    1. Update:  This too seems to have fixed itself after a month or so.
23. After copying 66 MP4 files from my cell phone into a folder on my hard drive, it only showed 6 of them in the folder.  I had to hit F5 (this is many minutes after it was done).
24. Although it’s certainly an improvement that Windows 7 can play MP4’s now, it does NOT play the sound in them.
    1. Update:  Again, after a month or so, this one started working.
25. Windows Media Player overlays the controls and title ON TOP OF the video!!!  Not good!
26. Monday morning, attempted to remote control via Remote Desktop… It said my password was not valid… Not true.  Hours later (11:50 am), I tried again and got in, this time to a freshly booted desktop (I had many programs open last night and did not reboot).  There was a notice informing me that the system had recovered from an unexpected reboot.
    1. As it turns out, if someone tries to remote control your computer from outside, it crashes with a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD).  All the remote user has to do is initiate a connection… not even attempt to log in.
    2. It was further discovered that choosing "Switch User" immediately kills Windows 7 with the ancient BSOD.  I only saw this ONCE in Vista, now I see it daily.
27. Can’t remote control from LogMeIn.com.  Said password was wrong.  Also, not true.  I was eventually blocked from my work IP address.  This could be the fault of LogMeIn though.
    1. Update:  I’ve received an update or two from LogMeIn and it now works.  Let’s call this a LogMeIn problem, which makes this list “41 things I hate about Windows 7” 🙂
28. Randomly, a running app button on the taskbar will pop up its context menu (right-click menu) and won’t go away.  I have to click on a blank spot on the taskbar to make it go away.  Clicking around inside my apps doesn’t do it.
29. Screwy sizing of taskbar buttons:
    1. 
    2. Look at the lack of a gap and apparently overlap between the Calendar button and the reminders button.  Oh! and same deal between the 2 FireFox icons on the upper row.
30. Logged out and got a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death).  This seems to happen frequently when either switching user logins (My wife and I have separate Windows accounts) and about 30% of the time when I’m remoting in to my account and my wife was already logged in.  Vista and XP handle this just fine.
    1. Update:  It seems to BSOD now during Remote Desktop initiation, even when there has been NO OTHER USER using the machine.
31. VMWare 5.5 won’t start.  HD rattles a bit and cursor spins for a short while, but then…. NOTHING.
    1. Update:  VMWare 6.5.2 seems to work just fine.  Let’s call this a VMWare incompatibility, which brings this list down to “40 things I hate about Windows 7”.
32. Was asked to set up "family safety" after 5 days of using the OS:
    • 
33. "Minimize" selection is gone from context menu (right-click menu) from running taskbar app buttons.
34. "Maximize" selection is gone from context menu (right-click menu) from running taskbar app buttons.
35. "Restore" selection is gone from context menu (right-click menu) from running taskbar app buttons.
36. "Move" selection is gone from context menu (right-click menu) from running taskbar app buttons.
37. "Size" selection is gone from context menu (right-click menu) from running taskbar app buttons.
38. Windows 95 – Vista, to launch multiple instances of an app from the quick launch bar, you’d just click the icon once for each instance you wanted running.  In Windows 7’s "super" bar, the 1st click starts the app, the 2nd click minimizes it, the 3rd restores, and back and forth like that.  You actually CAN launch multiple instances, but it’s NOT intuitive and to demonstrate, I won’t tell you how. 🙂
39. Search:  OMG!!!  This is so horribly bad!  It was really bad in Vista, now it’s even WORSE!  Look, all I want to do is right-click a folder and choose "search", then enter my criteria (file/folder name, contents, size, date) and get results in a search results pane from the search window with the paths to each item and the item name, date, type , size.  That was simple and straight forward.  Now, I have to browse INTO the folder I want to search, then use the ambiguous search bar in the upper-right corner.  This is cumbersome, confusing, and difficult.  It also replaces the contents of the folder contents pane with the search results.  Now, if you drag a shortcut out of the search results onto your desktop, it’s not a shortcut directly to the file or folder, it’s a shortcut back INTO the search results?!?!?!?  This is very aggravating!
40. Trying to open more than one instance of "My Computer" seems to be impossible.  You have use the one instance to open a drive or a folder so that you’re not on "my computer" before you can open another one.  I’m pretty sure this was working properly and has only recently started happening.
41. The main system volume keeps resetting itself to zero.
42. Can no longer push a window’s title bar’s upper edge above the screen’s top edge.  It’s forced back down.
43. Can’t drag icons into the StartUp folder anymore because the new Fisher-Price style start menu doesn’t expand folders as you’re dragging icons over them.  Now I have to first, open the start menu, then programs, then scroll (because it’s too small now), then right-click the folder and choose open or explore.  Then drag the icon into the open folder, then close it.  Again, decreased productivity… takes longer.
44. I have explicitly set Windows XP, then Windows Vista, and now my “ugpraded” Vista to W7 has lost the setting again!  That is, I have specifically told Windows NOT TO AUTOMATICALLY INSTALL UPDATES because many times it reboots my computer without asking!  Yet again, Windows 7 has turned it on without asking my permission and yet again, I have lost work.
    1. 
    2. 
45. “Run As” is gone.  Well, it isn’t actually gone, but you have to do something completely unintuitive to get it.  This feature is important when a piece of software can’t run under the current user context because of security concerns.  This has cost me real time in my real job.  To demonstrate how unintuitive it is, I won’t reveal how to do it here.  But, the very fact that I’ve made available the fact that it is possible, makes it that much easier.  If the menu item isn’t even there anymore, how would anyone know that it’s even possible?  This was a VERY bad change.

Not everything about Windows 7 sux though.  See my article on:

13 Things I Like about Windows 7

And again: (In response to the hate mail:  These are lists of opinions (plus some facts to back up some of them).  If you disagree, that’s fine (though, you can’t disagree with the facts part of this).  Feel free to waste your time sending me hate mail. I will read it, laugh at it, then delete it.  I don’t care if you disagree and if you call me names you only make yourself look bad.  If you have a constructive comment to make (even if you disagree), we’ll all appreciate it and I’ll publish it in the comments section.  If you just can’t deal with someone not liking your fav OS, then read this:  13 Things I Like about Windows 7)

Read about the different versions of Windows 7 that are available:

Windows 7 Versions

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 took 2 days!  Here’s my experience and timeline and some things you should be aware of:

(To those wondering why I didn’t do a fresh install:  I have TONS of software installed and configured and recently did a fresh install of Vista 64 bit (to upgrade from 32 bit).  It generally takes me 2 weeks to get back up to speed with a fresh install and I’m not sure I could find all of my install media anyway).

• 2009-08-06 Thursday: From work, Remote Desktop’d into my home computer to start the W7 Ultimate 64bit download from MSDN.  Estimated time between 8 and 11 hours.
• 2009-08-06 Evening: Download had suspended after about 2GB of the 3GB.  Started a new download from an official mirror site… Much faster.
• 2009-08-06 later evening: After making 3 coasters out of DVD+R DVDs (Vista was never able to properly use my 2 DVD burners (TDK 420N DVD+/-RW and HP lightscribe dvd640 DVD+/-RW Dual Layer)), I copied the downloaded ISO file to my kids’ computer downstairs (also running Vista Ultimate, but 32bit instead of 64bit) and successfully burned a DVD down there… but not until the next morning.
• 2009-08-07 morning: Successfully burned the DVD.
• 2009-08-07 morning~noon: 

  Took the DVD to my main computer (Vista Ultimate 64bit).  Startup program starts up.  I read all the notes and start the upgrade.  It spends many minutes examining my system and says this:
  The following issues are preventing Windows from upgrading. Cancel the upgrade, complete each task, and then restart the upgrade to continue.

  • For these items, make the following changes:

  Uninstall these programs. Open Control Panel and search for "uninstall a program".

  • Windows Live OneCare

  Upgrading Windows will affect the following features:

  • Windows Vista Ultimate Extras have been discontinued and will no longer be available after upgrading to Windows 7.

  Upgrading Windows will affect the following devices and/or programs:

  These programs might not work properly after the upgrade. We recommend uninstalling these programs before upgrading. Cancel the upgrade, open Control Panel, and search for "uninstall a program". (Note: Programs marked as * can be safely reinstalled after the upgrade.)

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008
  • Logitech DesktopMessenger
  • Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 *

  Logitech QuickCam

• 2009-08-07 noon through late night:

  I uninstall all of the programs it said I need to uninstall, except Logitech QuickCam because it’s not listed in my installed programs and has no menu in the programs menu.  Inspecting c:program files(x86), it’s in there, but there’s no uninstall.  I search the web for problems with QuickCam and Windows 7 upgrade and find zero results with Google Web, Google Groups, and Bing.  I proceed to do a registry hack, searching for ALL references to QuickCam and removing them or their parent folders (you just have to "know").  Still won’t install and still claims QuickCam is installed.  I reboot, thinking that was needed to refresh something that was already loaded from the prior registry entries.  Try to reinstall.  Still says it needs to be uninstalled.  I proceed to delete the logitechquickcam folder.  There are 2 files that won’t delete.  I look in TaskManager and running processes and find "QuickCam.exe" running.  I kill that process, then attempt to delete the remaining 2 files… They DO delete.  Try to upgrade again, this time it doesn’t complain (most of the day wasted on this).  Upgrade says it may take several hours!!!  IT’S ALREADY BEEN MORE THAN SEVERAL HOURS!!!!
  This is on a computer with an Intel QuadCore 2.4Ghz processor, 4GB RAM, multiple, internal, SATA hard drives, including a fast Fujitsu drive as the boot drive!!!  My Vista speed rating index was 5.6!
  (Later…)  It’s telling the truth.  It’s taking FOREVER!  I take the kids out for pizza, get back, watch Eureka on DVR, then head back upstairs.  It’s waiting on me to respond to something.  I do, and it continues, saying it needs no more input from me and will reboot multiple times.  I monitor it for a while and it shows percentage completed of multiple tasks.  The 2nd task (of about 4) sits at 86% for about 10 minutes.  I go to bed.

• 2009-08-08 morning: FINALLY!  It’s done!  Now I have to go through and change all the settings to my liking.  I’ve already run the beta in a virtual machine and HATED it.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the "My Computer" icon still on the desktop (the beta removed it and I suspect a full install (not an upgrade) will not put it on the desktop).

  First run of FireFox:
  
  I hit "restore" and it reopened them all.  Nice feature of FireFox.  IE8 has this too.  Not sure why I’m mentioning this here… has nothing to do with Windows 7.

Read about the different versions of Windows 7 that are available:

Windows 7 Versions

The Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) is a term all too familiar to Windows users.  When Windows fatally crashes, it turns the screen blue and displays a bunch of archaic hexadecimal numbers on the screen, then either locks up or reboots.

This was a huge problem in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, and earlier versions of Windows XP.  Later service packs for Windows XP and updated drivers from hardware manufacturers greatly reduced the frequency of this on Windows XP.  On Windows Vista, between December 2006 and 8/8/2009, I only had ONE BSOD.  Vista was by far, the most reliable version of Windows created so far.  Windows 7 falls FAR behind.

The Macintosh has a similar screen, but it’s not blue and therefore is not called the BSOD.  Instead, it shows a dialog box with an icon of a bomb.  It’s essentially the same thing though.

I’ll post an image later of a BSOD later.  I don’t want to crash my system right now (as if I ever wanted to).