As I documented the process of preparing an external USB drive to install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, it’s only right for me to do the same for its counterpart Windows 7. It turns out doing this for the latter is much simpler than for the former. It should only take a few minutes to prepare the disk, plus the time your computer needs to copy the contents of the Windows 7 install disc or image.

Installing any operating system from a flash or hard drive has the advantage of being faster, because optical discs can only spin so fast – or rather, so slow as the spindle allows.

Here’s how.

Ingredients

What you’ll need to get this super-spiffy install medium:

• A Windows 7 RC or RTM/GA (Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate) install disc or image
• A working Windows XP/Vista/7 computer to perform the preparations
• A 4GB or bigger USB key or external hard drive

Preparing the disk

1. Pop the external disk into a vacant USB-port.
2. Open a Command Prompt window, either by hitting the Windows key in Vista/7 and typing cmd or selecting Run… from the start menu in Windows XP and typing cmd.
3. Then, in the black box, type diskpart – if you’re using Vista or up you’ll be prompted with a UAC window to which you must consent. XP users will be brought to diskpart right away, unless you’re using a Limited Account (if so, switch to an Administrator privileged account or do a Run As…)
   
4. We need to find out which index the USB device is at, so we’re sure we’re preparing the correct disk (and not, say, your C: drive). Enter list disk. In my case, my USB key is located at position 1. Check which number yours it at before you copy-paste the following commands!
   
5. To tell DiskPart we want to start preparing disk 1, enter select disk 1.
6. Type clean.
7. Now we’re going to repartition the drive into one primary partition, so type create partition primary.
8. To make the partition we just created the active one, simply enter active into the box.
9. Then, we’ll want to format the active partition as FAT32. This is done by typing and entering format fs=fat32 quick. The quick keyword will wipe the file table instead of wiping the disk sector by sector, which takes a lot longer. If you’re concerned with the wiped data being completely gone, omit ‘quick’.
10. Finally, type assign so the drive gets a letter in Windows Explorer for easy access.

Copying the files over

You now have a clean, ready to be copied to, disk. What follows is extremely simple:

1. Insert your Windows 7 installer disc into the tray or mount the installer image with a tool like DaemonTools.
2. Open the disc’s/image’s contents by browsing to it using Explorer.
3. Select all files and folders (CTRL+A or ‘Organize > Select All’).
4. Copy the files using the right-click menu or hitting CTRL+C.
5. Paste everything onto the root of the prepared USB drive.

Your USB drive is now bootable

Restart your computer and make sure you boot from USB. The installation procedure will continue as it would from a disc, only faster. Happy installing.

• Another Little Ice Age? Solar activity and climate change #
• Extrasolar Planets at Full Tilt #

Now for the tech news:

• Microsoft’s OneApp targets non-smartphones #
• Nokia to deliver Windows 7-powered netbook with 12 hours of battery life #
• Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch. Will Anyone Take Notice? #
• Sony’s new Reader lineup assaults Amazon Kindle #

Another Little Ice Age? Solar activity and climate change

The Sun’s is experiencing a slow return to normal activity after its natural 11-year cycle. The number of sun-spots have decreased, which could indicated a “Little Ice Age” may be impending. The last time this happened was the late 17th century. This time around its effects may not be as chilling due to the vast amount of greenhouse gases now circulating our atmosphere. Source at ArsTechnica.

Extrasolar Planets at Full Tilt

Exoplanets – scientists have recently discovered – don’t generally follow our Solar System’s common circular orbits. Instead, they’re usually tilted more than 30 degrees, causing some of them to actually orbit backwards relative to its parent star. The most tilted planet (7 degrees) in our solar system is Mercury. Interesting insights. Source at Discovery.

Microsoft’s OneApp targets non-smartphones

Microsoft recently launched a mobile application called “OneApp”, which is directed at the non-smartphone market. The application will act as a gateway to web applications and services like Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and more. Because non-smartphones are so low on processing power, OneApp will relay processing and storage to the web. The app itself only takes up 150KB and will even work on the most basic GPRS/EDGE phones. Source at TechRadar.

Nokia to deliver Windows 7-powered netbook with 12 hours of battery life

Yes. Truly. Read the specs at Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite Blog post.

Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch. Will Anyone Take Notice?

The cursed underdog of browser-land, Opera, has published the Release Candidate for its upcoming browser Opera 10. Codenamed “Peregrine”, it will offer “an improved user interface, increased web standards support, bug fixes, performance improvements, and new tools for web developers”. As with every release from Opera, I will download it and give it a fair chance. I rarely like what I see, though. So, in those terms, this will be Opera’s tenth chance to convince me. Source at TechCrunch.

Sony’s new Reader lineup assaults Amazon Kindle

Sony has refreshed its lineup of eBook readers with a trio of readers, each specialized in a certain type of end user. The first – called “Pocket Edition” – is portable and cheap. The second one – “Touch Edition” – offers a bigger screen with touch capabilities. And the über-reader is called the “Daily Edition”, with a big screen, touch capabilities and 3G & WIFI connectivity. In each case, Sony’s equivalents to the Kindle and Kindle DX are significantly cheaper than Amazon’s offerings. Also, Sony scrambles behind eBook-standard EPUB enabling broader compatibility. It has also partnered with Google. Source at ZDNET.
(click the thumbnail on the right for a closer look)

• Update | Mozilla asks EU to reject Microsoft’s Windows 7 browser plan #
• Update | Microsoft warns of chaos if Word sales are halted #
• iPhone Outsold All Windows Mobile Phones in Q2: Analyst #
• Snow Leopard now available from Apple Store, ships Aug. 28 #
• Blurb | Looks like Zune HD supports apps too #

Mozilla asks EU to reject Microsoft’s Windows 7 browser plan

After much ado over Microsoft’s “browser ballot screen” Mozilla is now requesting the EU to reject the OS vendor’s browser plan. Mozilla is obviously dissatisfied with the fact that Internet Explorer would get a more prominent spot on the screen, because – obviously – IE still has the biggest browser usage-share. Mozilla claims this is “unfair” and continues to whine. Source at ComputerWorld.

Microsoft warns of chaos if Word sales are halted

Because of the utter boringness of this story, I’m sure you won’t mind me just quoting ComputerWorld: “Microsoft Corp.warned last week that an injunction preventing it from selling Word in the U.S. after Oct. 10 would cause “massive disruptions” to sales of its Office software, as well as to key partners like Best Buy Co., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.” Source at ComputerWorld.

iPhone Outsold All Windows Mobile Phones in Q2: Analyst

I always take analyst reports with a grain of salt, but the inevitable has happened in the smartphone world. The Apple iPhone has outsold Windows Mobile based phones for the first time in Q2 2009, with a lead of approx. 4.7%. Industry leaders Nokia and Blackberry retain suit with respectively first (~44%) and second (~21%) places. Palm isn’t currently on the list, despite its efforts with the Palm Pre. Blog post at TechnologyExpert.

Snow Leopard now available from Apple Store, ships Aug. 28

After the Apple Store’s brief down-time on Monday morning the site pulled up again with Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s page updated and release confirmation. Shipping date of the OS is officially scheduled for August 28, 2009. If you pre-order now you’ll get it on the 28th – guaranteed. Also, no shipping fees will be charged for the time being. Source at ArsTechnica.

Looks like Zune HD supports apps too

Microsoft’s much anticipated competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch will sport an application platform/store after all. This was the last essential selling point needed for Microsoft to make a fair chance against Apple Inc. As things stand now, the Zune HD will also be more affordable than than the current-gen iPod Touch. Blog post at Paul Thurrott’s Supersite Blog.

Disclaimer: The news summaries above contain opinions of editorial nature. Opinions expressed in this post do not reflect those of source materials and are entirely my own.

• Apple Opens Up on App Store Approvals #
• Remember Cuil? Now It’s a Real-Time Search Engine #
• GPU Computing and Windows 7 #
• Chromium popularity rising on Ubuntu, gains 64-bit support #
• More tech news on my FriendFeed

Apple Opens Up on App Store Approvals

In response to Apple rejecting Google Voice, the F.C.C. filed an inquiry to investigate Apple’s motives with the possible inclusion of AT&T colluding to ban all non-traditional voice traffic. Apple has responded to the F.C.C. stating AT&T has absolutely no part in the rejection of Google Voice. Its reason for the rejection is that it replicates too much of the iPhone’s phone, texting and voice-mail functionality. They’ve also stated they’re “still investigating” Google Voice and haven’t actually rejected it yet. Source at The New York Times.

Remember Cuil? Now It’s a Real-Time Search Engine

Cuil.com – the search engine engineered by two ex-Google employees launched last year – has added real-time search to their portfolio. While in the beginning the site knew a humongous surge of visitors, its unique visitor rate has been declining drastically ever since. The real-time search capabilities are a welcome addition, though not stellar and certainly not better than existing solutions. Source at Mashable.

GPU Computing and Windows 7

The Windows Blog discusses a new technology that will debut with the release of Windows 7. It’s called GPU Computing and will allow software to utilize the processing power inherent to modern GPU’s outside of graphics processing. By doing this, the main processor(s) can be relieved and address more processing power to other computational tasks. GPU Computing will require DirectX 11, which will be part of Windows 7. nVidia’s GPU’s already support GPU Computing fully. Source at The Windows Blog.

Chromium popularity rising on Ubuntu, gains 64-bit support

Chromium – the open source version that drives the Google Chrome browser – is gaining popularity like wildfire amongst the Linux community. It has recently gained full 64-bit support and is increasingly being seen as a viable competitor to Mozilla Firefox by Linux enthusiasts. Source at ArsTechnica.

• Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot #
• Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives #
• Archos soft launches own Android app store #
• Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay #
• IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay #
• Microsoft offers cloud database previews #
• Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period #
• Check out my FriendFeed – uh, feed - for more tech news.

Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot

I only recently blasted Opera for pushing its childish whims into the lap of the EU and now Mozilla – Firefox’ creator of which I didn’t expect this – also chimes in and is urging for even more strictness and regulation of Microsoft’s browser ballot screen. If you haven’t read my prior rant, I’ll reiterate: it’s preposterous that Microsoft is even buckling under the EU’s weight, let alone it even have to bolt the specifications of the ballot screen down even more (!). Mozilla spokesperson Anderson brings up issues like “Microsoft is causing inadvertent changing of the default browser in Windows and that’s not right” (which isn’t true, BTW) and other nonsense. Don’t be such a crybaby, Mozilla. Source at ArsTechnica.

Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives

In response to Google’s own bookmark syncing feature for Google Chrome, Xmarks – the maker of password and bookmark syncing add-ons for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari – put out its alpha version of their add-on for Google Chrome. Source at CNET.

Archos launches own Android app store

Archos has launched its own Android application store, in response to Apple and RIM. The apps in this store, however, won’t only work with Android-enabled Archos devices, but will be available to any compatible device. Source at TechRadar.

Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay

Eircom, an Irish ISP, agreed to cut off customers that illegally downloaded music or movies – after an out-of-court settlement with the entertainment industry. Now, Eircom will also be preventing its customers from viewing The Pirate Bay. Source at IrishTimes.

IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay

Speaking of TPB: after a torrent was put out containing the whole Pirate Bay repository, people were wondering what to do with it. Today, btarena.net has brought a nearly exact replica of the whole Pirate Bay site online, including downloads, tracking and searching. The site is also capable of hosting new torrents, although its creator insists that this must remain to be a mere backup, for now. Source at Mashable.

Microsoft offers cloud database previews

SQL Server 2008 R2 and – more importantly – SQL Azure came out for developers to preview and use with their web applications. SQL Azure is Microsoft’s hosted relational database which developers can rent for a monthly fee. Prices vary between $9.99 US for 1GB to $99.99 US for 10 GB. With SQL Azure, Microsoft provides pay-as-you-go storage and promises graceful scaling – if necessary. Source at ReadWriteWeb.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period

Windows 7′s predecessor, Vista,  allowed a user to prolong his 30-day trial to 120 days by using the ‘rearm’ run command at the end each trial period. This was possible up to three times, after which you were supposed to purchase a license key to continue using Windows. As it turns out, Windows 7 – now in final form – will also support this behavior. Moreover, it has been confirmed by Microsoft as not violating the license agreement.

So basically, one can do the 120-day thing, re-install Windows and go at it again – endlessly, without ever needing to pay for Windows 7…

How much does this feature contribute to being a significant improvement over:

• Windows XP [rating:4]
• Windows Vista [rating:3.25]

What are Libraries?

‘Libraries’ is a new feature in the sense that it’s heavily exposed for the first time in Windows 7. A library is a virtual location within Windows that aggregates files and folders from different physical locations from all over your hard drive (and other media, potentially even online resources). Using this feature, you could combine related data to one logical spot without having to cut and paste them into a real directory. Using this slightly advanced, but very useful technology you could for instance:

• Put all your work-documents in one place, even if they’re scattered across multiple locations
• Gather photos related to a single event, no matter where they’re saved.
• Etc.

Changes made to included files and folders are instantaneously propagated to their libraries, showing up-to-date information across the board.

Vista Roots

Libraries actually harness technology that has been in development at Microsoft since the announcement of Windows Longhorn (codename for Vista). While ‘Search Folders’ — as they were called in Windows Vista – were taken from the foreground due its added complexity, they’re back for keeps in Windows 7.

With this technology, Microsoft is further abstracting the notion of absolute physical locations and is moving to a virtual system like we have known them for years from UNIX-based operating systems (e.g. Mac OS X and Linux).

Just open up your documents ‘folder’ under Windows 7 and you’ll be confronted with Libraries right away.

(click to enlarge)

While this is not the main subject of this article, you may have noticed in the screenshot that Explorer-windows have undergone serious changes [once more]. The tree-based, hierarchical explorer side-pane has been replaced for a more Mac-like sidebar. It includes several items by default:

• Favorites
  Favorite explorer locations (folders and libraries). Customizable.
• Libraries
  Populated with de facto libraries like Documents, Music, Videos, etc.
• Computer
  Hierarchical view of physical locations on your computer.
• Network
  Tree-based navigation to discovered network and HomeGroup locations.

Look Ma! Aggregated Locations!

By default, the actual content pane of a library separates distinct physical locations by use of the new ‘Content’-view setting.

How do you get a library to pull its data from your specified locations? This is Microsoft technology, so there is more than one way to achieve the same result. In case of Libraries, there are two ways to fetch data:

• After selecting a folder on your hard disk, an option will appear on the Explorer contextual task-bar (light-blue, atop every window). This option is a drop-down menu listing any existing libraries and a command to create a new library and add the respective location on-the-fly.
• In the top-right corner of every library, click the ‘Include’-link. This will bring up a dialog box in which you can manually seek out a directory for inclusion.

Is it too difficult?

While this feature can seem rather abstract to a novice user, it’s seamless enough that an unknowing Windows-user won’t notice it and therefore won’t be bothered with its complexity.

Those who are technical enough to understand its importance will appreciate its entrance into the standard set of Windows features.

Conclusion

‘Libraries’ are a nice addition to Windows and will make a power users’ life more productive if used in the right way. It got lost in Vista having been renamed and toned down time after time, but this time around it’s back in quasi-full glory. Aside from its powerful organizational features, it is also an effort to work away drive letters (C:, D:, etc.) and move to a more relational file system.

I finally made the leap and installed Windows 7 Beta on my current production machine. While the experience has been generally flawless (on MS’ side), I’ve already encountered some incompatibilities. These are most probably caused by the applications’ vendors, not Microsoft, but they inconvenience nonetheless.

Beware of the following applications’ difficulties prior to installing Windows 7 Beta for production use.

This list will be updated regularly to reflect my findings as I use Windows 7 Beta from day to day. I’ll also try to resolve any issues I come across, if at all possible.

Incompatible on vendor-side:

• Daemon Tools Lite
  Can’t get past STPD-installation, alternative like SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive work

Random crashes (annoying, but livable)

• Latest Java Runtime
  Instability. Java can be brought back to life easily, though.
• Windows Live Essentials: Writer
  Writing works fine, but Writer locks up after requesting existing posts from the server (tested with hosted WordPress blog). Doesn’t happen every time.

Applications crying wolf:

• Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
  Probably does version checking but installs just fine
• Adobe Photoshop CS4
  Ditto Dreamweaver

Tested and cleared:

• AVG Free
• Windows Live Essentials: Messenger
• Mozilla Firefox
• Live Mesh
• µTorrent
• XAMPP

Talk of the day:

• Microsoft’s decisions
• Build numbering schemes
• Windows 7 release schedule

Who needs one name if you can have four?

Microsoft has been flicking names around like crazy in the past few years before they settled on Windows 7. Prior to Microsoft delivering Windows Vista (previously codenamed ‘Longhorn’), Windows 7 was initially baptized ‘Blackcomb’, ‘Windows Vienna’ and ‘Windows Seven’. Obviously, Microsoft’s vision on what this release was supposed to become has changed quite significantly as time passed. Windows 7 was once destined to evolve into one of the more (most?) important iterations of the Windows platform. This task was ungraciously passed down to its closest sibling, Vista, as it laid all the foundational and architectural work that was necessary for future versions. Evidentially, Windows 7’s feature scope is focused on fit-and-finish and fine-tuning of system performance. Additionally, it will also introduce a significant number of new and valuable features. This will be the topic of discussion of a future article. For now, we’ll get back to the names…

A recurring source of inspiration for Microsoft has to be Canadian ski-resorts, since Blackcomb, or “Whistler-Blackcomb” as it’s formally referred to, is actually such a resort. If my (Google-assisted) memory serves me well, ‘Whistler’ was also the codename for Windows XP during development. Windows Vista’s codename (‘Longhorn’) was a nod to the Longhorn Bar located at ‘Whistler Blackcomb’. These repeated references must mean Bill Gates was a regular visitor of the resort. Who knows, he could even have gotten drunk a time or two at the Longhorn Bar. Perhaps not.

Windows 7 is Windows 27 in disguise

There has been a lot of (relatively) unfounded commotion about Microsoft’s naming scheme for the next version of its flagship OS (and no longer ‘only’ operating system: Windows Azure is number two). The ‘7’ implies that the OS or kernel has reached version seven, which is outright baloney, of course. As numerous techies have stated, the actual version number exceeds far beyond whatever conservative statements Microsoft’s PR-department disclosed. According to my own modest and very insignificant calculations, and without taking mobile versions into account, Microsoft has come out with up to 26 distinct versions of Windows since its debut to the market back in 1985.

With all those fact(oids) in mind, I’m of the opinion that ‘Windows 7’ may well be the best name Microsoft has come up with in years. Compared to previous ‘inspirational’ names (Me, XP, Vista), ‘Windows 7’ could do away with the [unjust] flaky perception of Windows Vista by virtue of the mere contrast. Its dissimilarity in nomenclature could be enough to make the bad taste that Vista left behind fade away.

Building up numbers

Historically, the numbering-scheme Microsoft applied to the internal builds of its OS reflected the actual version number. That was, until MS decided to artificially bump the build number to accommodate its PR-needs. The most memorable example of this was near the end of Vista’s development cycle; where they bumped up the build number to 6000 upon RTM (‘Release To Manufacturing’). Currently, Windows 7 has landed at build 6948, as demonstrated on the ‘Engineering Windows 7’ blog, and will most likely be brought up to 7000 (or something) when it ships.

Is this justified? One could get into the specifics of this endlessly, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, since build numbers are an internal way of keeping track of things. They have absolutely no relevance to consumers, whatsoever.

(It’s also significant to BitTorrent users wanting to snatch the latest build from the interwebs.)

Development Progress

Microsoft, for the first time in history, is planning to only put out one beta and one release candidate, demonstrating that the componentization groundwork they’ve put in with Vista allows for easy deployment and timely releases.

For now, this is what the rudimentary schedule looks like:

• M1 (build 6519)
• M2 (build 6589)
• M3 (build 6780)
• Build 6801 (PDC 2008)
• Pre-Beta 1 (builds 6933, 6936 and 6948)
• Beta 1
  To be expected in early 2009.
• Release Candidate
• Final Build
  Approximately mid-2009 for RTM, which would make it in time for the 2009 shopping season.

I’ll report back soon.

(click thumbnails for full-view)

* According to Microsoft; there has been a lot of controversy on the web about this.

Hello OS X Dock

Windows 7 will only partially retain its current task-management paradigm, as Microsoft’s currently prototyping a ‘new’ way of navigating your way through windows. This revolutionary –old- method, as it turns out, is very reminiscent of Mac OS X’ dock, which mixes app launchers and running applications in a [somewhat] arbitrary fashion.

Aero Peek

The revised taskbar consists of a series of launchers, save textual labels, on a slightly bigger pane. Application launchers double as task-switchers as soon as they’re clicked, revealing an attractive [Aero] Glass frame if more than one instance of a program was initiated. Hovering over them will trigger a new feature called ‘Aero Peek’, which allows for live window previews as you highlight the preview, an attempt at streamlining the process of window-switching even further.

The following video allows for a more visual understanding of this feature (fast-forward to 3:45).

As expected, Microsoft is only just starting to utilize Vista’s underlying technologies to their full potential. Evidentially, Aero Glass is getting a more prominent function, aside from just embellishing window frames.

Jump Lists

You may already be familiar with ‘Jump Lists’ if you’re a Vista user. Think of the type of menu that pops up when you click the power icon in the notification area. This type of menu-element is also used for the wireless networking dialog.

Windows 7 will incorporate Jump Lists in a more pervasive manner, allowing individual applications to generate their own when a user clicks on their switcher on the taskbar. These lists can contain informational elements, or they can — as demoed with the new version of Windows Media Player [12] – allow for on-the-fly application controls (see image on the left).

Revised Start-menu

The Start-menu is also still present in Windows 7 and has been updated to display a dynamic list of frequently/recently visited Explorer locations. Other than that addition, it remains to be a familiar UI-element that’s probably occupied every bit of innovation it had left.

Closing Thoughts

While these small updates may seem of trivial importance, they are valuable usability improvements which were inspired by Windows’ competitor OS X. Yes, some may accuse Microsoft of plagiarism, but I don’t agree. What’s wrong with learning from the competition if it benefits the overall quality of your product? Apple has undoubtedly done this as well in the past: the Finder in OS X was originally inspired by Microsoft’s integrated search in Windows Vista (formerly Longhorn).

Windows 7 is looking pretty good so far.