Windows SteadyState 2.5 beta is up on Microsoft Connect.
What is Windows SteadyState?
What state is your shared computer in at the end of the day?
- Hard disk filled with downloaded files?
- Strange options configured?
- Programs installed that you don’t want?
- System infected with viruses and spyware?
- Computer bogged down for unknown reasons?
Windows SteadyState, successor to the Shared Computer Toolkit, is designed to make life easier for people who set up and maintain shared computers.
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| An easy way to manage multiple users |
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You can manage whole groups of users as single user accounts. The new Windows SteadyState console makes it easier than ever to create and modify user profiles.
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| A locked-down platform for stable shared computing |
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Not every computer user should have access to every software capability. Your system can be more stable and consistent when you limit user access to control panel functions, network resources, and other sensitive areas.
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| Set it and forget it |
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Once you have everything set up the way you want it, you can share the computer and rest easy. Any changes a user might make to the configuration or hard disk can be undone by simply restarting the machine.
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Find more about Windows SteadyState at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/whatis/default.mspx
To join the beta, go here: https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=286
Written by Jabez Gan [MVP] on December 7th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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It took Yahoo almost 12 months to deliver a pre-beta build of its Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista with hardly any features but worst of all, isn’t even compatible 64-bit Windows. In contrast, it took just a little over an hour for a hobby software developer to write a patch making it so.
I don’t know what sort of show they’re running over at Yahoo, but they seem to partying and spraying champagne over live electronics more than writing code by the looks of things.
(Left) Photo from the official Yahoo launch party with
sandwich and cookies.
(Right) Photo from the unofficial X64 launch party with yogurt.
Rafael Rivera Jr., who some users might be familiar with for his work patching Microsoft’s UXTheme library for Windows, took a good look at Yahoo Messenger’s executables to figure out why it did not work on X64.
First of all, the installer actually prevents the user from even progressing in the install if it detects its run on an X64 machine. To get around this problem, users can download the actual installation files from Yahoo itself. After the installation completes, if you try to run the application it will halt with an error immediately after the splash screen. As it turns out, it’s not as serious as it sounds.
The root of the problem is that the application was compiled incorrectly. Rafael has the technical explanation, but to put it simply Windows throws a boulder at it when all it needs is a pebble. The fix basically patches the application so it tells Windows “I can has pebble?”, give or take some quantum mechanics.
So now I have to ask why 16 full-time Yahoo employees (counted from photos) couldn’t figure this out in twelve months. Writing X64-compatible applications should a be given in this day and age. And it’s not even like this is a major design problem preventing it to work, it’s just a stupid oversight ticking a checkbox or two when compiling the code.
If yesterday’s disappointing release wasn’t enough, now I’ve lost hope for the success of this project in general.
Written by Long Zheng on December 7th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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