windows 7 Archives

Maybe 64-bit Firefox is on the way?

Dave Farquhar Software July 18, 2011April 17, 2017firefox, Pale Moon, windows 7

Mozilla is looking hard at questions regarding a 64-bit Windows build of Firefox. This is progress. This is good.

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

Microsoft sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses; what does it mean?

Dave Farquhar Software, Windows July 13, 2011March 25, 2025android, apple, apple ii, IOS, os x, piracy, proprietary unix, Steve Ballmer, unix, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows 98, windows me, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Steve Ballmer announced today that Microsoft has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses, but anywhere from half to two-thirds of PCs are still running Windows XP and need to get with the program.

He also continues to insist Windows 8 will ship in 2012, which really makes me wonder why those XP users need to switch now. December 2012 is 17 short months away, and XP support runs until 2014. I see little need to rush out now and buy Windows 7, use it for 18-24 months, and then turn around and buy Windows 8. If XP is fulfilling users’ needs, what’s the hurry? Unless Windows 8 is going to be late, as bad as Vista, or both. But none of that can happen, right? (Note: It’s not 2014 anymore, so if you haven’t upgraded from XP, you need to.)

I’m sure the Windows 8 Police will be along to haul me away shortly for insinuating such things. But until that happens, that 400 million figure lets us do some other interesting extrapolation. Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Upgrade diary: Compaq Presario C552US

Dave Farquhar Hardware July 9, 2011July 9, 2011apple, compaq, intel, spartan, toshiba, vista, Western Digital, windows 7, Windows Vista

The Presario C552US shipped from the factory with a 1.6 GHz Celeron M single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and Windows Vista Home Basic.

It’s the most miserable computing experience I’ve seen in a very long time, if ever. I don’t know how they ever sold a single one of these machines, performing like that.

Fortunately, there’s room to improve it.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

I’ve seen the Windows 8 screenshots, and I smell panic

Dave Farquhar Windows June 2, 20111980s, apple, IBM, model m, motorola, vista, windows 7, windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

I’ve seen the Windows 8 screenshots. What I see in them reeks of overreaction. Pundits are predicting a post-PC era, so Microsoft is trying their best to make a PC look and feel like a smartphone.

Why does a PC need to look and feel like a smartphone?
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Windows, ARM, emulation, misconceptions and misremembered history

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 22, 2011January 23, 20221980s, 1990s, 6502, amiga, android, apple, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, Digital Research, excel, IBM, intel, macintosh, Microsoft Basic, motorola, netbooks, Once Windows, unix, web os, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows nt, Windows XP, x86

I keep reading stuff about Windows and ARM and, well, I think people just aren’t remembering history.

I’m not saying that Windows 8 on ARM will save the world, or even change it substantially. It probably won’t, since Microsoft tends not to get things right the first time. But will I automatically write off the project? No. It could prove useful for something other than what it was originally intended. That happens a lot.

But I’m more interested in clearing up the misinformation than in trying to predict the future.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Disadvantages of Windows 98 and 98SE

Dave Farquhar Windows May 21, 2011June 28, 20251990s, antivirus, firefox, spyware, vista, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 98, windows 9x, windows me, windows nt, Windows XP

Many years ago, I wrote about the disadvantages of Windows 3.1 because I started noticing people searching for that. Now, I see people asking the same question about Windows 98. I spent 9 months of my life ripping Windows 98 apart and putting it back together again and writing about it, so I know it well.

As much of an improvement as Windows 98 was over Windows 3.1 and even Windows 95, it, too, is feeling the effects of time. Windows 98SE was the best of the Windows 9x series (better than its successor, Windows ME), but there are better things to run today.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How to secure a computer like a spook

Dave Farquhar security May 20, 2011April 15, 2017computer security, NSA, Orange Book, STIG, windows 7, windows nt

A link to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) guidance on hardening operating systems has been floating around various blogs today. But the NSA’s guidance on configuring Windows 7 and other recent operating systems is, to put it mildly, a bit incomplete.

What one government agency doesn’t do, another probably does. That’s usually a safe assumption at least. Enter the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). If you want to harden recent Windows operating systems, visit http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/index.html for guidance.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How Windows knows if your network requires you to visit a web page

Dave Farquhar Windows May 18, 2011vista, windows 7, Windows Vista

This is a nice writeup on how Windows Vista and Windows 7 know whether you have an active Internet connection and whether you need to visit a page in your web browser to activate it. It also talks about the privacy implications, and how to set up the service to use your server, rather than Microsoft’s.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Microsoft buyouts that worked

Dave Farquhar Software May 11, 2011October 13, 20251980s, excel, IBM, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office, SQL, windows 7, yahoo

On May 10, 2011, Microsoft surprised a lot of people by buying Skype for $8.5 billion. The deal closed October 13, 2011. I think most people thought Facebook would do it. Now I keep hearing pundits say that this will fail, because Microsoft buyouts always fail.

Thing is, I can think of 11 Microsoft buyouts that worked out really well. Over the years, I think Microsoft has proven itself to be pretty adept at both cloning products and buying products. They don’t always improve them all that much, but they frequently remain popular.

Sometimes I think Microsoft is better at buying products than developing them. After you see this list, you might agree.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Marketing or Engineering?

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized May 9, 2011July 14, 20171980s, apple, commodore, Digital Equipment Corporation, excel, panasonic, samsung, windows 7

The topic of marketing and engineering came up today. I won’t go into details. I’ll just share what I said about the two, by throwing out a few company names and just a little snippet about each company.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net