Mcrosoft has released it’s much-anticipated Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, touting it as the last update for XP before it’s official demise in favour of it’s newer sibling, Windows Vista. But is it all over for the veteran OS?

At almost seven years old, many would think that the answer to that question is a resounding ‘YES’, but the public’s familiarity with the OS, along with a general dislike of Vista in the popular press may have given Microsoft pause for thought when it comes to finally retiring XP altogether.

Speaking of the withdrawal of XP for sale after June 30th, CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that Microsoft may reprieve the operating system should public demand warrant it. “XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter” he said during a news conference on Thursday.

Add to that the fact that Dell looks like it will continue to offer Windows XP after the deadline of June 30th by exercising ‘downgrade rights’ on their customers’ behalf (the ability to install an earlier version of Windows instead of the current version providing a current license is purchased) and it looks like XP might even manage to hang on until the much-talked about Windows 7 puts in an appearance around 2009/10.

As many of you will have noticed, the site has been somewhat slow for news this past month or two. This was due to the recent death of my father (I miss you dad!)

However, I have some exciting new projects in hand and hope to have some news for you soon, so watch this space!

Almost nine months after the release of Vista to business users, Microsoft has finally issued an official update to the OS to cure the slow file copy/delete bug that has been plaguing users for the best part of a year.

The bug, which causes the OS to slow to a painful crawl when copying files between drives (or even worse, crash explorer altogether) has been the subject of vigorous discussion on Microsoft’s own forums, with many sufferers keen to vent their frustration in the hope of spurring Microsoft into producing a remedy.

Carrying the auspicious title of KB938979, the article and attached update will bring effective relief to users of Microsoft’s latest operating system.

Although many think that this patch is long overdue, almost all agree that it is welcome. The patch is expected to make it to the Windows Update site shortly (probably the next Patch Tuesday). Anyway, why wait? Suffer no longer and download it for yourself. Relief is available for users with either the x86 or x64 flavours of Vista, here:

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=938979

At the same time, MS also issued a further compatibility and reliability update for Windows Vista. It too has yet to appear on the Windows Update site, but people wishing to find out more and download it now can find it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194

While it seems that AMD can do little but scratch it’s head and watch it’s competitor disappear over the horizon, Intel is about to step up another gear and launch it’s 6×50 series of CPUs on July 22nd, further accelerating it’s lead over AMD.

We’ve already mentioned these, but a quick recap: dual core, 4MB cache, 1333MHzz FSB and frequencies ranging up to 3GHz (basically the 1333MHz versions of the existing Core 2 Duo lineup). Intel will also take the opportunity to introduce some new quad core CPUs as well… in comes the Qx6850 at a full 3GHz, and a Q6700 Quad Pro CPU at 2.67 will also be introduced.

I also suspect they have a 3.2GHz (and higher) model up their sleeves, ready to be rolled out as soon as the market demands it.

But they’re not stopping there. Prices are also to be trimmed, and the new E6850 will be available for approx. £199, while the new Q6700 will be around £350 (note: as usual, buyers in the US will find these to be a fair bit cheaper than their equivalent UK price!)

With AMD reported to be struggling to attain frequencies over 2GHz for their new Barcelona CPUs, have Intel left them in the dust and with nowhere to go but home?

Most definitely not!

AMD have had a tough old 12 months of it and no mistake. Core2 Duo stole their thunder and beat AMD at their own game, namely increased performance at lower power consumption. AMD could only compete in the lower end of the market. Add to that their tardiness in bringing R600 to market, not to mention it’s rather lacklustre performance once it got here, and their recently-discovered problems in clocking Barcelona, and things couldn’t be worse for the underdog. At a time when their bottom line is screaming out for new product, they’re having problem after problem delivering.

However, all is not lost for AMD.

The Barcelona architecture looks great on paper (shame about the new naming scheme though!) and with a recent core revision, is said to have ironed out the problems which were stopping them reaching higher clock speeds. This really will be a CPU to take note of, once the new revision reaches market.

Added to that, OEMs are said to be hot for HD2400 and HD2600 parts - their low price, cool-running and low power consumption makes them very attractive parts. OEMs are said to be snapping up as many as AMD can churn out, which should redress the balance somewhat on the bottom line.

I also believe that the rather sluggish performance of the cards is down to a problem with drivers - only beta versions were available to reviewers - and expect these cards to show greatly improved performance once these are refined.

Although these recent setbacks really couldn’t have come at a worse time for AMD, most of the problems look like they have been addressed. Make no mistake - AMD is not going anywhere - and that’s good news for us, the consumer. After all, no-one wants another monopoly, do they?

Although it may well take another few months to see the fruits of their labours really ripen, I predict that around November time, the competition will be much hotter for Intel, and AMD will be in a much better position, fighting back on all fronts.

Seems like Microsoft may have slipped out a fix to this problem.

I’ve noticed that, after running Windows Update on the x64 Ultimate version last week, I no longer suffer from the slow copying problem when transferring files from one drive to another.  Although nothing obvious was posted (the update was marked as a compatibility update for ipod users) I downloaded it anyway. Since then, I’ve been getting transfer speeds of 30-40MB/s - something reaching over 50MB/s - on drives that were previously giving me write speeds in the KB/s.

Have Microsoft finally snook out a fix for this problem, albeit under the guise of a fix for something else?

Intel officially lifted the lid on it’s new P35 chipset today, designed to support CPUs featuring the 1333MHz fsb - making an appearance two weeks earlier than previously expected.

Certain websites have reported that Intel also took the opportunity to send out the Core2 Duo E6850 - a 3.0GHz, 4MB cache, dual core part running on a 1333MHz bus with a TDP of just 65W. Apart from the low thermal envelope, one other bonus with this CPU is the price - reported to debut on July 22nd at just US$266 when purchased in quantities of 1000. That’ll be around £266 per CPU to us limeys then!

As previously reported, this is the first of a new breed of CPU to contain Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) - previously known as LaGrande.

Many P965 and P975-based motherboards will work quite happily with this CPU following a simple BIOS upgrade. If you’re thinking of buying one, check out your motherboard manufacturer’s website for an updated BIOS before splashing the cash.

Links: Intel’s Core2 Duo E6850 investigated.

English translation, courtesy of Google.

Further to our earlier article regarding the Vista bug (or should that be undocumented feature?) in which files operations between drives slows the machine to a crawl or worse, it seems a workaround may have been discovered by users contributing to the Microsoft forums.

Apparently the problem occurs when copying to an IDE drive which is not the only IDE device connected to the port, i.e. it’s acting as a slave or master and is sharing the interface with another device - regardless of the fact that both are configured correctly.

The solution in this case is to disconnect the second device and relocate it to a different IDE port so that your hard drive is the only device on that particular IDE interface.

In the case of SATA drives, it seems that a possible solution is to connect drives to different SATA controllers. Obviously, you will need one of the boards that contains two different SATA controllers to try this, or a secondary add-in controller board.

Although this is not an ideal solution and may cause inconvenience to some, it may resolve the problem in the short term until Microsoft come up with a proper fix.

In what is turning out to be a very interesting development, particularly for the consumer, Intel has informed it’s partners of further plans for more price cuts to it’s Core2 line of CPUs. The diary date is July 22nd. It also looks very likely that they will simultaneously launch the E6×50 model processors, which differ from their E6×00 brethren by upping the FSB speed from 1066MHz to 1333MHz.

New Core 2 Duos include the E6850 (3GHz), the E6750 (2.66GHz) and the E6550 (2.33GHz), all apparently to still fit within the 65W thermal envelope. These new models include a new technology - Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which you may be more familiar with as LaGrande.

Prices for the new processors will be $266, $183, and $163 respectively, which makes them around 40% less expensive than their 1066MHz brethren.

Intel is obviously looking to continue the pressure on AMD, whose launch of 65nm CPUs (Barcelona core, or Phenom as we have now been informed) are due at around the same time.

Either way, it’s very good news for us, the consumer.

With thanks to HKEPC http://66.249.91.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=zh%7Cen&u=http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php%3Ftid%3D789466%26starttime%3D0%26endtime%3D0

This week I had to do something that every IT bod hates - wipe one of my customer’s hard drives and reload their system, programs and data.

 I’d tried all sorts to resolve their problems, but the final solution was decided for me when the drive started reporting faulty sectors. So, one hasty backup and a new HDD later, I got Vista loaded on the new drive. Since this was the OEM version of Ultimate and had previously been activated on the deceased drive, I knew I was going to have to ring Microsoft to get their Vista re-activated. Armed with their license key, pen and paper, I gritted my teeth and clicked the activate link, fully expecting to be informed that the key was already in use and I would need to speak to a Microsoft representative.

After a few seconds, the expected box came up. What wasn’t expected was the message telling me that activation had been sucessfull!

As I said, this was an OEM version which usually only allows one activation (rather than the retail version, which is supposed to give you ten). Mighty surprised I was!

I couldn’t help thinking about the criticism MS has received in the past for their product activation process, but for now at least, it looks like they have waived the need to call up one of their centres and you can simply reactivate online, regardless of the version that has been purchased.

So far, there has been no official comment from MS.

More on the problems relating to
Microsoft’s not-so-shiny operating system, Windows Vista. This time, the very basic requirement of being able to move, delete or copy files from one drive to another, either locally or over a network, causing machines to slow to a crawl (at best) or even hang completely.

The problem is being discussed (sometimes vigorously) on Microsoft’s own forums (and can be found here http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=1358057&siteid=17&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=0 ) and has been present since the public release of
Vista back in January of this year. The length of the thread suggests that this is no isolated incident. Copying even a small file can take an age, with one user reporting that a folder containing 500MB of data takes almost six hours to copy from one drive to another. Other users post that sometimes the copy process gets into such a muddle that the explorer shell itself hangs and has to be restarted.

I can confirm this, as it has happened several times on my own system, The same copy process under XP (same drives, same PC, in a dual-boot configuration) works as it should, and takes seconds rather than hours as it does under Vista.

The problem appears to be an intermittent one, and is version-agnostic, with users of x86 and x64 (various flavours) suffering from the symptoms.

So far, MS has declined to comment on this problem – or even confirm that it exists. They have posted a hotfix article designed to address problems with copying files across a network (KB931770 which can be read here  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931770/en-us although the hotfix itself is not included and users must contact MS directly to obtain it). So far, those who have tried the hotfix claim that it has had little or no effect. (I tried this on my own system and can confirm it did absolutely nothing towards fixing the problem).

Due to the deafening silence coming from Redcmond, contributors to the MS forums have resorted to trying to work out a solution for themselves. Accusatory fingers have been pointed at various processes running on the system, and several workarounds have been proposed by the posters themselves, including turning off thumbnails, disabling IPv6, disabling the Windows Search indexer and installing the KB931770 hotfix, although so far the various suggestions have, for the majority of users, done nothing to resolve the problem.  (Incidentally, turning off the Search indexer does have a nice side effect in that it gives a noticeable boost to overall system response).

Other contributors to the forum have suggested that perhaps something more sinister than a bug in the Vista code is responsible, and are pointing the finger at DRM, claiming that this is being applied as the files travel across the system bus and referring users to Peter Gutmann’s excellent article on Vista DRM, which can be found here http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Following a lack of response from MS, various users are reporting that they are going back to XP - or even deserting MS software altogether in favour of Linux. Jay Paterson posts, “I am absolutely astounded that a multibillion dollar company with the resources and talent of
Microsoft… that
Vista is the result of this braintrust.  They should be ashamed of themselves”. He also adds that he is “in charge of development for a medical software firm and make the recommendations for over 2500 users.   Guess who won’t be installing
Vista any time soon!” Quite. Perhaps
Microsoft should re-tag their OS – may I suggest the following: 

“
Vista: the woe starts now!”