Run Windows 7 on you iPad NOW

most Apple users wanted to do was run Microsoft software. Well, maybe Office, but certainly not Windows. That changed as the Mac switched to an Intel architecture and solutions came along from companies like Parallels, VMware and others that let business users and other run Windows on Mac hardware. There's even been some remote "tunneling" solutions that bring access to Windows apps on the iPhone.

Now Citrix is first out of the gate to declare it's ready to bring Windows 7 to the iPad, which is set to ship later in March.

The Citrix Receiver software is free and already available for Citrix customers with an iPhone, since a Citrix Xen virtualization back-end is required to make this all work. Essentially the iPad becomes a thin client displaying Windows 7 running on a server. Citrix said it has more than 200,000 customers that already use Citrix XenDesktop or Citrix XenApp.

"We've been working on this since the iPhone SDK became available and gone through a number of revs to produce a good user experience," he added. "We think it's going to be even better on the iPad because screen size won't be an impediment."IT managers will be able to control who can access the Windows 7 desktop or even specific applications. "It's up to them, a lot of companies don't give the full Windows experience, they can just identify individual applications like Excel or SAP or Oracle, their employees need," Chris Fleck, vice president of Community Solutions Development at Citrix, toldInternetNews.com.

Go ahead and multitask

Because Windows runs from the server, users will also be able to multitask Windows apps as they would normally on a PC or notebook. The iPad software will not offer multitasking at launch for native software, which has been one of the loudest complaints heard since the iPad announcement earlier this week.

Citrix seems to have a ready market for the product based on user comments at the blog post where the Connector for iPad was announced.

"This would be great for our C-level Executives and our Field Agents. We are in the Insurance business and this would be great when our agents go out and sell insurance using our Windows Only Application!" wrote Scott Cochran."The iPhone is great, and I have one now, but this would be in another league. The ability to run the iPad as a thin client for XenApp/XenDesktop would make me consider purchasing the iPad.

An anonymous poster added: "This would be a great solution for my home theatre PC... it's running windows 7 right now... and I use media center to play all my videos in my database.... so what I see on the screen of the ipad... would also be shown on my 108" HD projector screen... This would in turn become the BEST remote.... I'll b coming back for an update."

Aaron Parker, the first user to comment to the blog, was less enthusiastic because like others, he isn't sure why he'd want to get an iPad:

"No mouse support may limit its use as a complete desktop replacement; it would be more usable than the iPhone but less portable. So where exactly does it fit?"

David Needle is the West Coast bureau chief at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Gaming Community using Windows 7 Massively

Gaming Community using Windows 7 Massively

steam, the world’s largest PC gaming platform, has reported in its December 2009 report that the latest iteration of its operating system by Microsoft, Windows 7, has become immensely popular with the PC gaming community.

The report, which was released as a part of Steam’s December 2009 hardware survey, revealed that almost 23 percent of Steam users are now running the Windows 7 operating system.

It also revealed that 30 per cent of users were on Windows Vista whereas around 45 per cent users were hooked on to Windows XP.

However, considering the fact that Windows 7 was launched only in October 2009, it is quite impressive that the software has managed to garner a respectable market share in the operating systems market.

Since its launch in October, Windows 7 has seen meteoric sales figures with Amazon.com reporting that the software ha become the website’s highest-grossing pre-order product of all time.

The software is still forging ahead even after a quarter since it was launched and it has now surpassed the combined market share of all the versions of Mac OS X operating systems from Apple.

Many analysts believe that the real challenge before Windows 7 is to wean away customers from its hugely popular predecessor Windows XP than from any other rival OS.

Our Comments
Windows 7 64-bit rather than Windows 7 32-bit is the most popular Windows 7 version. Even more impressive is the fact that Windows 7 64-bit grew by a staggering 2.45 percent while Windows XP 32-bit decreased by 3.20 percent. This means that Windows XP users are upgrading their system to 64-bit Windows 7.

25 January, 2010, by Desire Athow

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 first look

Looks like Microsoft is planning for a rollout of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) a few months into the official release of the best ever operating system from MS.

Both Softpedia and Neowin have confirmed that the SP1 for Windows 7 is scheduled for somewhere in July. A set of leaked screenshots is doing the rounds of the internet, courtesy Muy Windows (translated to English). Here are few of the screenshots from a non-English version of the SP1.

Apparently the Windows 7 SP1 is less than 150MB in size, which is good considering that service packs for Windows Vista have been much larger than this.

The build numbers for the SP1 is rumored to be somewhere between 7600.20500 and .20700. A beta release is expected in July 2010, so you can except a lot of changes to happen in between now and then.

Apparently this build fixes over 150 issues. However, users should not be troubled about the late release of the SP1, since Microsoft usually releases regular patches through Windows update. The SP1 contains most of the released patches and new ones in a single bundle.

Download Google Chrome 4.0.295.0 with Windows 7 Fixes

Google has refreshed the bits available to developers. At the start of this week, users were able to download and start test-driving Chrome Beta 4.0.249.64 for Windows. As of January 14th, 2010, the Dev channel release of Google Chrome was updated to Build 4.0.295.0. But unlike the Beta flavor of the open source browser, Build 4.0.295.0 is also available for users of Linux and Mac OS X.

“The Dev channel has been updated to 4.0.295.0 for all platforms,” said Orit Mazor, from the Google Chrome team, noting changes specific for Chrome running on the latest iteration of the Windows client, namely Windows 7. “Win7 - Add profile info to app id associated with shortcuts and window; append profile info to win7 app id; "Don't show "Did you mean" infobars on single-word searches for users whose ISP or DNS provider displays custom error pages for nonexistent hostnames".”

There are additional fixes introduced for the Chrome versions designed for Linux and Mac OS X. At the same time there are a number of issues that have survived past this release and that Google made public. Most affected will be users running Mac OS X, which are bound to stumble across problems involving the Bookmark manager for Mac, the close button and crashes within the Inspector. “You can find out about getting on the Dev channel here,” Mazor added.

In tandem with boosting the Dev channel release of Chrome to 4.0.295.0, the mountain View based search giant also refreshed the Google Chrome Frame. “Google Chrome Frame has been updated to version 4.0.295.0. All users should be updated automatically. This release fixes several of the most common crashes and (…) issues,” Mazor said.

The latest release of Google Chrome is available for download here.

Form Softpedia

How to Activate Windows 7?

To activate your Windows 7 copy, use the following steps:

1. In Windows 7 Product Activation, choose the ‘Activate Now’ link and you’ll be offered two options – namely, activating over the phone or online. The simplest way is by activating online. (It’s also preferred by Microsoft.)

2. When asked, type in the unique 25-character key that’s shown on the Windows 7 CD case. If you choose to activate by phone (if your unique situation requires some jawboning or you don’t have Internet connection), you should punch the installation ID by phone. During online activation, after you type the activation key, Windows 7 will do the following:

a. Windows 7 scans all serial numbers inside the computer – the processor, disk drives, and network card, among others. Using a secret algorithm the numbers are mixed, producing another unique 25-character key that identifies your computer. Both keys (50 characters, in all) are taken together to form an installation ID.

b. Your machine sends Microsoft its 50-character installation ID.

c. Microsoft verifies if the installation ID is valid.

If the first 25-character code (activation key) has never been used before or if similar installation ID is received by Microsoft (which means that you have activated this Windows 7 copy in the same computer twice), Microsoft gives a confirmation ID (42 characters). Both the confirmation ID and the installation ID are stored on your machine.

However, if the 25-character code has been used in other PC, though, a polite notification informs you that your Windows 7 copy cannot be activated. You are asked to enter another valid key. You are given further information for contacting Microsoft, in case you need it. Microsoft reps are often understanding, fair, and courteous. If you have a valid reason for reactivating your Windows 7 – for example, after your hard drive or motherboard died – don’t hesitate to contact a Microsoft rep by phone.

Chrome Overtakes Safari, and Becomes Number 3 Browser

NetApplications has released its latest browser market share figures, and these figures show that Chrome has overtaken Safari as the number three browser worldwide, behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. IE, by the way, continues to lose popularity rather fast.
Chrome was introduced almost 18 months ago, but yet it has already become the third most popular browser in the world. NetApplications' figures cover the entire month of December 2009, and they show that Google Chrome has gained 0.7 of a percentage point, putting it at 4.63%, ahead of Safari's 4.46%. Internet Explorer lost almost a full percentage point, dropping to 62.69%. Firefox remained more or less flat at 24.61%, while both Safari and Opera gained slightly.

Chrome's steep rise in December can probably be attributed to the release of the betas for Linux and Mac OS X, so we may see a slight decline again in January, as some people will most certainly fall back upon their established choice of browser.

As for operating systems, Windows 7 is, unsurprisingly, doing rather well. Microsoft's latest baby already broke the 5% mark, and in December its share amounted to 5.17%, up from November's 4%. Windows 7's popularity seems to have little effect on Mac and Linux users, as both platforms remained more or less flat at 5.11% and 1.02% respectively. Since both Windows XP and Vista lost share, the logical conclusion is that Windows 7 is competing with previous versions of Windows. That really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Of course, the usual disclaimers apply. These are statistics, and therefore, are troublesome. However, even though you shouldn't take them at face value, they can be used to indicate trends. In this case, the two important trends are that Windows 7 is eating away quite well at the base of previous Windows versions, and that Chrome's star continues to rise.