Newegg has just made it clear what you can expect to save when picking up an OEM copy of Windows 7 and its quite a healthy saving indeed. A full version of Home Premium will set you back just $99.99 after a $10 discount, $100 less than the retail version, whilst the Professional and Ultimate versions will set you back $134.99 and $174.99 respectively. Just remember, if you go OEM you lose the ability to transfer your licence between PCs and also cannot use it as an upgrade option, but this shouldn't be an issue for most.
Windows 7 PCs to Go on Sale Early
If you've been putting off buying a new PC because you're waiting for Windows 7 to ship, you're in luck. At least one manufacturer plans to make Windows 7 PCs available to customers early, nine days to be exact, and Redmond isn't going to get in its way. In fact, Microsoft is perfectly fine with the idea. "October 12 is the date that Microsoft enables our Authorized Replicators to begin shipping Windows 7 to Microsoft OEM Authorized Distributors," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with Ars.
Avast! Antivirus Earns the Windows 7 Logo
avast! antivirus software has earned the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo after successfully completing Microsoft Corp.s’ testing regime to prove it can be readily installed and run reliably on Windows 7.
“It’s important that our users know avast! is fully compatible with Windows 7 from the very beginning,” said Ondrej Vlcek, Chief Technology Officer at ALWIL Software, makers of avast!.
Microsoft’s “Compatible with Windows 7” logo can now be used with Avast! version 4.8 software. The logo will help Windows 7 users easily identify software and other products that have passed Microsoft tests for compatibility and reliability with Windows 7.
“We’re excited about Windows 7 and hope it will be adopted soon,” said Vlcek. “It’s not only nice for the users but it also brings a number of improvements and fixes for software developers.”
To complete compatibility testing and ensure that avast! worked with Windows 7, ALWIL Software sent specialists to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. “We had two teams working in parallel on this,” said Vlcek. The teams tested avast! with a basket of lower-level applications during their Redmond visit.
AWIL Software is preparing avast! version 5, the newest version of its antivirus program, for full compatibility with Windows 7 ahead of its launch this autumn. “”We’ve done the initial tests and are making sure that the new features such as persistent caching, process virtualization and the firewall all work great under Windows 7,” said Vlcek.
Will Games for Windows Finally Take Off In Windows 7?
A recent blog post by Brandon LeBlanc over at the Microsoft Windows Experience Blog details the improvements to the Games for Windows platform. Games for Windows is not exclusive for Windows 7 but will take advantage of features of the new operating system. The system has been revamped by Microsoft including new “technical guidelines, self-certification options and a set of 22 technical requirements which are designed to:”
Create an easier game installation experience.
Support both 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms.
Support Ratings and Parental Controls in Windows 7.
Game titles populated in the Game Explorer.
Enhanced game update notifications for game titles.
Stability, security and compatibility against commonly known issues.
The main question on the other hand is if this will be enough to convince game companies and publishers to make their games compatible with the Games for Windows platform. We all know that only a handful of games were released so far that made use of it. The number of games certainly picked up in the last twelve months but it was still only a minority of games that supported the platform.
The main reason why many developer’s have not joined the program yet is the money, time and additional work that is involved in the process.
While the Games for Windows platform certainly offers benefits to Windows users (like better manageability thanks to the Game Explorer) it lacks support by many popular game developers and causes concern by some gamers who fear that Microsoft is planning a subscription based model similar to the one offered on their Xbox gaming system once a critical mass of supported games has been reached.
What’s your opinion on the issue? Will Games for Windows take off in Windows 7? Do you share the concern of some users or think that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?
Windows 7 to Use DirectX 10.1
Our colleagues here managed to get a nice photo of a Windows 7 presentation where the big giant talked about GPU usage in Windows 7.
One of the most interesting things was the official confirmation that Windows 7 will use DirectX 10.1 API, something that works well in ATI's advantage. It doesn’t look that DirectX 11 will be ready to launch together with Windows 7 and it will probably come later even though there might be some DirectX 11 hardware to launch in 2009.
DirectX 10.1 will help Windows 7 to scale better from low end to high-end hardware and put it in good use especially when it comes to user interface. Shaders will be used for the Glass and Windows 7 memory consumption is cut by 50 percent per window, something that memory manufacturers and GPU guys might not really appreciate.
Windows 7 will also have richer thumbnail animations and at the same time it comes with Media Center user interface, Video playback and Desktop Window Manager (DWM), all borrowed from Vista. We are not aware of any improvements in these area compared to Vista.
We are sure that these features will also work on DirectX 10.0 hardware but Microsoft has decided to promote DirectX 10.1 support this time.
Source: Windows 7 to use DirectX 10.1
Microsoft Permitted to continue Word Sales for Now
Microsoft Word fans across the world can rejoice and breathe a sigh of relief today as Microsoft has won a temporary stay, allowing Word sales to continue.
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