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So what is new in Windows 7? Here are 18 cool things Windows 7 does that Vista doesn’t.

1. Shake ‘em away
Ever had 10 Notepad, two Powerpoint and 50 Outlook windows open? Want to minimize all of them except the most important one? In Windows 7, you can grab the top of the window and shake it about to scare away all of the other open windows. Simple.

2. Jumplists
Jumplists are a new feature that give you the option to view a list of recently accessed files by application, even when the application isn’t open, by right-clicking on the application’s icon in the taskbar. It also allows you to quickly access a favorite playlist without opening your media player. Jumplists can also be found integrated into the Start Menu.

3. A step forward in previewing
In Vista, hovering over a minimized window on the taskbar would provide a preview of the window. In Windows 7, a similar preview pops up which also gives the option to close a window (within the preview), along with a full-size ‘peek’. You can also press Win + T to scroll along previews in the taskbar.

Click here for all 18 cool things about Windows 7.

Microsoft has announced that the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 will be available to the public as a free download on May 5. And since the RC version seems to be pretty much finished (I have not tried it), then it’s essentially giving it away for more than a year: as mentioned earlier, it won’t expire until 1 June next year.

RC includes a couple of new features, mainly Remote Media Streaming (so you can stream stuff from your home PC to your work PC, for example), and in pro versions, Windows XP Mode (below).

The slight drawback is that if or when you want to buy the final version, it’s not designed to install over the beta RC. Microsoft is only testing the normal use case, which is an upgrade from a previous version of Windows.

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I would not recommend using it as a main OS if reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch later is something you’d like to avoid. However, installing Windows 7 on a test computer, or one you don’t mind reinstalling later, for the purpose of kicking the tires sounds great.

An anonymous reader recommends a Computerworld article on a new report from Australian security vendor PC Tools. The company released figures on malware detection by its ThreatFire product, and in its user base 27% of Vista machines were compromised by at least one instance of malware. From the article:

“In total, Vista suffered 121,380 instances of malware from its 190,000 user base, a rate of malware detection per system [that] is proportionally lower than that of XP, which saw 1,319,144 malware infections from a user base of 1,297,828 machines, but it indicates a problem that is worse than Microsoft has been admitting to.”

Microsoft hasn’t responded yet to this report.

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Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

Download Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition

Download Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition Released

Integrates the Latest Stable Applications with Long Term Support

LONDON, April 21, 2008 – Canonical Ltd. announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition for free download on Thursday 24 April. In related news, Canonical also announced the simultaneous release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition.

Ubuntu 8.04 Long Term Support (LTS) provides a stable platform for software and hardware vendors, developers and users. With three years of support and maintenance on the desktop, 8.04 LTS is a great choice for large-scale deployment. A substantial and growing ecosystem of free and commercial software built for Ubuntu provides a rich set of choices for desktop users. This is the eighth desktop release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu’s track record in delivering – on a precise schedule every six months – a commercial operating system that is free, stable, secure and fully supported, remains unique.

“Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition is a very significant release as it will take Ubuntu squarely into the business environment,” said Jane Silber, COO of Canonical Ltd. “Our business and home users have told us that they want a longer support cycle to make Ubuntu a better deployment option. We have responded to that and added a commitment to much broader software and hardware support that we and our partners are excited to deliver. With enhanced commercial support through Landscape, combined with our always excellent community support, expect to see 8.04 LTS drive Ubuntu into new arenas.”

“Ubuntu’s polished, user focused version of the Linux desktop has built itself a wide enough following to compel significant ISV interest and support,” said Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst at Redmonk. “By coupling a very capable desktop offering with long term support options, Ubuntu is becoming an increasingly viable option for enterprises as well as consumers.”

“Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino bring highly scalable messaging and industry-leading collaboration to the Ubuntu desktop,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president of IBM Lotus Software. “We believe the extended multi-year support for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS makes it an excellent desktop solution for corporate users who wish to deploy Lotus Notes on an open platform.”

Full press release

Majorgeeks has posted download links to the 316MB Windows XP Service Pack 3 Final download. It seems like you can get it sooner than the MSDN and Technet folks. Oh… they’re not happy. No. Not happy at all after Microsoft delivered a second “slap to the face”. Not my words… Read story below.

Download Windows XP Service Pack 3

Subscribers to TechNet and the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), who pay Microsoft hundreds of dollars a year for the right to download software for testing and development purposes, called the move a “farce,” a “slap in the face” and “ludicrous.”

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it had finished Windows XP SP3, the last major update for the six-and-a-half-year-old operating system, and said that it would post the upgrade on Windows Update and its own online download site next Tuesday, April 29.

But subscribers to the TechNet and MSDN services won’t be able to obtain SP3 until sometime “within the next month,” according to Chris Keroack, the service pack’s release manager.

Another Microsoft employee, Nick MacKechnie, a senior technical account manager with the company’s New Zealand operation, was more specific about dates. In a blog post yesterday, MacKechnie listed several dates in an SP3 timetable, including a May 2 release to TechNet and MSDN. The timetable has since been pulled from MacKechnie’s blog.

The delay — whether a month or several days — did not sit well with some TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Many, in fact, brought up the February incident, when Microsoft first refused to let subscribers download Vista SP1. After pressure from users, it reversed that decision about two weeks later.

“This is the same garbage that was pulled initially with Vista SP1,” a user identified as Rick Dee wrote in a message on the TechNet support site. “Are you trying to discourage people from subscribing to MSDN & Technet?”

“I’m not normally one to complain, but I can’t believe that Microsoft is screwing over their paying subscribers again!” said a user identified as Chris Mahoney. “Did [Microsoft] not learn anything from the Vista SP1 debacle?”

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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates indicated Friday that the successor to Microsoft’s Vista operating system will be available sooner than the company previously had indicated.Gates, in response to a question during a public appearance in Miami on Friday, said to expect Windows 7 “sometime in the next year or so.” Gates was speaking at the Inter-American Development Bank in Miami, and didn’t elaborate.

When asked to elaborate on Gates’ remarks, a Microsoft spokesman said Gates was alluding to a test version of the new software, and not the full-on commercial version. The spokesman didn’t offer additional comments outside the statement.

“As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its General Availability as a means to gain tester feedback,” according to Microsoft’s statement. “We’re not sharing additional information at this time.”

Microsoft last said it expected a follow-up to its Vista software around January 2010. Should Gates be referring to a full-scale release, his timetable on Friday lops at least a year off the wait.

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Well, it’s something to keep an eye on. With the messy (and some would say, incomplete) release of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system, it is no small wonder that Microsoft wants a successor out as soon as possible, if for no other reason than to quiet the masses about wanting to keep XP rather than upgrade to Vista.

Microsoft likely may want to give people something else (positive) to desire and talk about, thus drowning out the XP concerns, driving people to a feeling of more acceptance of where things are and that things are “moving forward” so they might as well accept the direction as it would be futile to swim against the current.

With little known about Windows 7, at this point, it’s difficult to get excited or bothered. So, we are at the point of the process where we speculate and wonder, much like most of us did when Longhorn was initially being discussed. The screenshots I have seen of early Windows 7 builds don’t really show very much as it looks much like Vista. Will it be like what Windows 98 was to Windows 95? Not sure at this point but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at that time. Well, outside of essentially purchasing the same operating system again 3 years later but with many of the bugs and quirks and lacking or lagging features brought up to spec. If that’s the case it causes me concern for how far Microsoft plans to take Vista as far as updates and tweaking. If Windows 7 will be essentially a better, updated and more fixed version of Vista then what’s the point of updating Vista to any effective degree? Well, for now, we will occasionally wonder and simply keep an eye out and see what we see.

Microsoft is cutting prices for various versions of Windows Vista. But good luck figuring out exactly what that means for you. In the US, CNet reports that customers purchasing a full boxed version of Vista Ultimate will pay the same high $399 price as always. But the price of an upgrade disc has dropped from $299 to $219. The base price of Home Premium stays the same at $240, but the upgrade price has dropped from $159 to $129. And of course, you can find everything for cheaper if you shop around.

Confused yet? Well, one thing is certainly clear. Microsoft is trying to push more copies of Windows Vista. And while the company claims that adoption rates have been high so far, the truth of the matter is that most new Vista users got their copies when they bought a new computer preloaded with the operating system. The high price may be one discouraging feature, but wide reports of software incompatibilities and other bugs have also scared away a lot of consumers.

And don’t forget the fact that Windows XP still offers most of the features many computer users are looking for, so why upgrade? Look, we’re not trying to bash Microsoft here. In fact, quite the opposite. The company put out an operating system more than 5 years ago that was solid enough that it’s still in use today. Maybe when Microsoft stops offering security and feature updates for Windows XP people will switch to Windows Vista en masse. But charging hundreds of dollars for software that may not run on existing computers and doesn’t offer many advantages over your existing software doesn’t make much sense to us, price cut or no price cut.

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Microsoft has often stated that it plans to expand its Windows Live suite and improve how this interacts with its client OS, instead of integrating everything straight into Windows. This has two main advantages:

1. Anti-competitive lawsuits are (hopefully) avoided as the optional services must be downloaded and installed first
2. The Windows team is free to focus on the core features of the operating system, which (hopefully) results in a less-bloated release

Windows Live’s future will deeply rely on whether Microsoft succeeds in acquiring the web giant that is Yahoo. It is unclear how Microsoft would use the Yahoo branding, but it’s more than likely that Windows Live is here to stay in some form or another. During the software giant’s employee webcast to discuss the Yahoo bid, Microsoft noted that it is already planning its next update for Windows Live. “We are now in vision phase for Windows Live wave 3, working to get that out later this year,” division President Kevin Johnson declared. Details were not revealed, except that search would play a big role in the update.

The heart of Windows Live, the part which needs to be successful for the whole suite to work together, is search. Windows Live Search hasn’t been doing so well; Microsoft believes its third place product is due for some rebranding, and a name change may be coming. The revamp was rumoured to come in September, when Live Search was overhauled, but is now expected in the next biannual search update, reported to occur sometime this spring (possibly in April). The new brand name has yet to leak; Microsoft employees keep referring to it as Rome.

Whatever it ends up being called will probably be an improvement over the current name. While I can “go google” something, somehow I just can’t “go windows live search” something.

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Following a recent court loss, hugely popular file storage service Rapidshare might soon be faced with a tough choice: stop users from uploading/downloading copyrighted music from its servers, or get shut down.

German’s equivalent of the RIAA, GEMA, has won a copyright infringement case against Rapidshare, as the judge ruled that Rapdishare can be held accountable for the actions of its users. It’s the story as old as the internet: if you’re merely providing a hosting service, should you also monitor every file hosted on your servers and prevent any copyrighted files to be uploaded/downloaded? Lately, the answer has been yes: at the very least, if the music/movie industry points to a file and ask you to remove it, you have to comply.

However, although GEMA was quick to declare victory on this one (press release in German), claiming that RapidShare now must take preventive action and check all the files on its servers for copyright infringement, it’s not quite clear what the court has decided yet. We’ve seen pressure to put similar requirements on ISPs, and the general consensus among experts is that this would be either impossible or highly impractical; RapidShare, with the huge amount of material it hosts (they claim 4.5 petabytes of storage), would be no different.

The folks at TorrentFreak spoke to Christian Solmecke, a lawyer at the Cologne Chambers of Lawyers Wilde & Beuger, who thinks that RapidShare’s demise is far from inevitable. “RapidShare will appeal against the decision of the Landgericht (District Court) of Düsseldorf. If they do so, we will have to wait and see what the Oberlandesgericht (Higher District Court) of Düsseldorf (as the Court of Appeal) says,” he says.

RapidShare is fully operational at the time of this writing.

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