Well not only did they fail to see why the 64 bit player should be the default, they also locked the user’s ability to switch the default player.  They locked the registry keys that the old Vista command altered.  Their excuse for this is that it “adds security” so that malicious code cannot modify the WMP play/enqueue commands.  Fine, I can buy that, but then alter the tool so that it can change those keys.  Well apparently this wasn’t on the timetable, and I decided to find a way around this, because after all, who wants to have to install TWO sets of codecs to watch stuff in Media Player (x86 player used by default) and also watch stuff in Media Center (which is x64).

So for those of you who recognize that the 64 bit media player SHOULD be the default in Windows 7, I have made a script with the help of Kristan Kenney that automates the entire process for you.  It unlocks the necessary registry keys, and then uses the old vista command to make the switch.  We have also included a script that allows you to switch back to the 32 bit player if you choose to do so.

So Microsoft, specifically the WMP team, you guys didn’t want to fix it, so we did it for you.  Now users can have some consistency in their 64 bit user experience.

NOTE: After changing the default Media Player to x64, remove the media player shortcut from the taskbar, start media player via the start menu and then re-pin it.  If you don’t do this you will see 2 WMP icons on your taskbar.

If anyone has any other questions or comments, either post in the comments section or contact me privately and I will answer them.

Download: Windows Media Player x64 Switch Script

ZDNet Blogger Ed Bott had taken the time to read the fine print on the Apple upgrade offer and has come to an interesting conclusion.  Windows 7 is CHEAPER than Snow Leopard for the majority of the market.

You see, you can only actually get Snow Leopard for that 29.99 price if you’ve bought an Intel based Mac AFTER October 2007.  Anything before that will cost you $169 and anything before 2006, well you’re SOL, no upgrade for you.  Kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it?  At the end of the day the Microsoft offer is actually pretty darn good, at least it’s cheaper than Vista right?

Here’s a chart Ed made that breaks things down nicely:

Full Story: Ed Bott’s ZDNet Blog

From AeroXP:

Just about everyone has seen the shots of the new Windows 7 retail packaging, but pictures of the new Anytime Upgrade packaging are much harder to come by. Nearly impossible to find are any current examples of the packaging besides press shots and renders, so having said that, here are a few good hands-on shots I managed to take.

(There’s nothing relevant inside the boxes themselves; just a fake key and a CD of Visio inside the retail box of which I was also taking some pictures.)

Have at it:

Source: AeroXperience

From the Windows Team Blog:

Simple, Clean and Easy To Open…

We approached the packaging for Windows 7 the same way we approached the product – by listening to what our customers told us they wanted: make it a simple clean design, easy to open, and reduce waste.

Simple Design

Customers told us they liked the big bold Windows logo and how it clearly communicates that it’s Windows 7. They like larger typefaces to make it easy to read and they like background colors for each edition to make it easier to differentiate between Windows 7 Home Premium all the way to Windows 7 Ultimate. In their own words, the “clean” design gives off a “fresh” feel.

Make It Easy To Open

We’ve reduced the number of elements in the package down to three: the plastic case, the paper sleeve, and a simple Getting Started Guide. The plastic case opens easily like a standard DVD case and it will have a single easy-to-remove seal at the top – And that’s it!

Reduce Waste

The plastic case protecting the Windows 7 disk is lighter and is recyclable. The packaging itself has a 37% weight reduction and a 50% improvement on it’s econometrics score over the predecessor.

Essentially, this packaging is what customers told us they were most interested in picking up to learn more about Windows 7. We hope you do the same.

Look for the new Windows 7 packaging to hit this fall!

View: Original Post @ Windows Team Blog

I want to pass on a message I received from a Microsoft employee.

The fix in the action center will be permanent, you will not have to repeatedly fix it.

Here is the statement from Microsoft on the issue, as seen on Mary Jo’s blog:

Microsoft deployed a configuration change which exposed this (installer) problem. New machines installing Windows 7 Beta will not experience this problem. An issue related to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP also known as SQM) client in the Windows 7 Beta is causing crashes of Explorer, MSI-based installers and other applications. In order to resolve the issue, impacted customers need to run the following script from an elevated command prompt. This script will stop crashes related to CEIP and removes those changes (registry keys) to prevent further CEIP related crashes.

I recommend that you ALL turn the Customer Experience Improvement Program back ON.  In order to do that, do the following:

1. Open gpedit.msc
2. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, expand Internet Communication Management, and then click Internet Communication settings.
3. In the details pane, double-click Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program, and then click Disabled.

That’s it, that should turn CEIP back on, and with Microsoft’s published fix in action center you will be good to go.

NOTE: I have also updated the old post with the fix instructions as to no longer instruct people to disable CEIP.

So as you can see, Microsoft have acknowledged the issue and posted the fix.  Looks familiar doesn’t it?

Also one thing I would like to note for everyone.  CEIP is one of Microsoft’s biggest avenues for feedback in betas especially.  You may want to turn it back on.  Although turning it back on may cause the issue to come back periodically, at least the action center will pop up telling you HOW to fix it now.

The reason for this is that Microsoft made the assumption that the sidebar process would never be run in an elevated state.  So when you try to start it with UAC disabled it detects that it would have to run elevated, so it just does nothing to abide by the pre-set rules set by Microsoft.  Thankfully there is an undocumented registry setting to correct this issue.

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings
3. Create a new DWORD Value called AllowElevatedProcess
4. Set the value of the new DWORD to 1
5. Close the registry editor.  Your gadgets should work now.  No reboot or anything necessary.

So there you have it, an actual fix to the issue that doesn’t require swapping out the sidebar executable like some sites suggest *cough* mydigitallife *cough*.

Rafael has discovered that the fault lies with the SQM Client which is part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program.  It seems that ANY process that calls WinSqmStartSession in ntdll.dll will start crashing when MachineThrottling is enabled in the registry, which seems to happen as a result of CEIP running.

Use the following to fix the issue.

1. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator
2. Type reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions /va /f and press enter.
3. That’s it, no further action is necessary

Windows 7 is on a diet - Upon my initial boot, the first thing I noticed was that this build was only using about 30 processes, which is an improvement as 6801 has approximately 43 processes running without anything open or installed. This is definitely good news for those of you on older systems or netbooks.

Aero Peek - One of the goodies that was demoed at PDC yet was late to be uncovered in 6801 is Aero Peek. This nifty feature allows you to literally take a quick look at open windows by hovering over their taskbar preview. Then, other currently open windows will be temporarily “hidden”, and the window you have selected will be brought into view, as seen in Figure 01. You can also take a peek at the desktop by hovering over the button all the way to the right of the superbar. This feature comes naturally with the build, meaning that it doesn’t need any hacks in order to be accessed.

Figure 01 (click to enlarge)

GUI Changes  - This build is also filled with several minor UI changes. When hovering over a program in the superbar, the design is slightly different than what we saw in 6801. Along with that, there are also a few new icons. The Action Center (Solution Center in 6801) sports a new icon, along with Libraries, Windows Fax and Scan, and most of the Networking and Sharing center. Some of the new icons can be seen in Figures 2 and 3 below. Another GUI change is the Shut Down option in the start menu.

Figure 2 – (click to enlarge) Here are some of the new icons in 6956. From left to right: Libraries, Documents Library, Music Library, New Library (one that you create), Pictures Library, Video Library, Downloads Folder.

Figure 3 – New Action Center, Networking and Sound icons can be seen on the Superbar.

Windows Explorer Changes - Along with the general UI, Windows Explorer also has a few changes. There is now a new “Include in library” button, making life easier for everyone. When viewing a library, it also is more simplistic. There is no grey area anymore where the name of the library is.

Figure 4 – (click to enlarge) Easily integrate any folder that you encounter while browsing your files in a library; or add it in an all new library that you can create on the spot wherever you are in explorer.

Figure 5 – (click to enlarge) No grey in circled area.
Small Redefined - When you check the “Use small icons” box in the Taskbar Properties, it shrinks your taskbar down to an impractical size, making this more of a quirk than anything else in my opinion.

Figure 6 – (click to enlarge) No, your eyesight hasn’t been damaged or impacted in any way; its just the size of the icons.

New Windows Media Center Intro - When firing up Windows Media Center for the first time, you will now be greeted with a new “splash screen” which showcases the many features of Windows Media Center with a picture and a brief description. You can scroll from item to item using your mouse scrollwheel, keyboard, by clicking on each one (this brings the item next to it closer), or of course with your remote.

Figure 7 – (click to enlarge) First page. You can see both the “Internet TV” and “Television” options in the background. In the screenshot tour, we will go right and begin at “Television.

Figure 8 (click to enlarge)

Figure 9 (click to enlarge)

Figure 10 (click to enlarge)

Figure 11 (click to enlarge)

Figure 12 (click to enlarge)

Figure 13 – (click to enlarge) And… we’re back to Internet TV.
The Internet Games work! - If you’re an, ahem, diehard gamer, I’m sure you most likely missed Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, and Internet Spades which never survived to see the light of day in Vista. They have however made a comeback in Windows 7 Build 6801, but in that build they didn’t work. Now, they do work; if you can find more players. While I wasn’t patient enough to see what Internet Backgammon and Internet Spades looked like, I managed to get a peek at Internet Checkers, as seen in Figure 14.

Figure 14 – (click to enlarge) Internet Checkers with its fancy new look.

Now that we have covered most of the new stuff in Build 6956, lets move on to the guide.

Remove the Intrusive UAC Dialog Box - One of the first things that you may notice in this build is the return of the intrusive UAC Dialog Box; yeah, that’s right, the one that completely covers everything in a black blanket except for the UAC window. No need to panic however, as there is an easy fix to this. In this build, the level of protection that UAC provides is at default 1 level higher than that in 6801. So, in order to change this simply go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Action Center, and to the left where there are links, there should be one to adjust UAC settings. From there, simply turn it down a notch as seen in Figure 15.

Figure 15 – (click to enlarge) Using the slider bar, simply turn it down a notch and you can say goodbye to UAC being intrusive.

Removing the Recycle Bin from your desktop - In and prior to 6801, you could simply right-click on the Recycle Bin, click on “Remove from desktop” and voila, it’s gone. In 6956, it’s a little different. In order to remove the Recycle Bin from your desktop, right click the desktop, click on “Personalize”, and, to the left of the personalization window there should be links. From there, click on “Change Desktop Icons”. As you can see in Figure 16, the Recycle Bin is checked. Uncheck it, and click OK.

Figure 16

Major App Compat Layer Bug – In this build, the entire application compatibility subsystem is broken.  If you try to run anything in compatibility mode, it will crash instantly with various error codes depending on what compatibility mode you were trying.  Judging by other builds in the same range as this, I’m not sure this is a bug with the build itself, but rather a symptom of the EXTREMELY poor job the leakers did with the vhd imaging process.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it, a little review and a few simple tips.  I would seriously recommend anyone that wants to use Windows 7 as their main OS to stick with 6801 if you’re using x86, and if you’re using x64, give 6936 a shot.  I will be doing some write-ups for that build in greater detail over the next few days.

Normally I don’t request these sorts of things, but I would like everyone to digg the story below to put an end to the lies and deceipt.  The digg article links back to Paul Thurrott’s blog where the original post about this beig utter bullshit was made.  Click the link below to go to the digg story and digg it .

DIGG THIS STORY