Blog:: Craig Pringle

Several people have asked for me to post more detail about the CMD scripts that I wrote to get the Cisco VPN client working on my 64-bit Win 7 machine using Virtual XP .

Basically I have written two scripts.  One adds routes to the subnets I need at work and the other deletes them.  So – what are routes?  Basically they are the directions that computers use to send communications to the right place. 

The first thing you need to do is identify what network addresses are in use on your work network.  Fortunately the Cisco client makes this fairly easy for you.  Once the Cisco VPN client is installed in the virtual XP environment, connect the VPN and then Select the Statistics option from the Status menu in the VPN client window.  This will list the subnets on your remote network as shown below:

I created a text file where each line in the file was a remote subnet and subnet mask, separated by a semicolon.  For example if your remote network used three networks: 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.2.0/24 and 192.168.3.0/24 then your text file would look like this:

192.168.1.0;255.255.255.0
192.168.2.0;255.255.255.0
192.168.3.0;255.255.255.0

Save this text file to your hard drive.  I saved mine in c:\utils\addroutes.txt

In a nutshell when I am connected to the VPN I run AddRoutes.cmd script and it helps the Windows 7 machine identify the traffic intended for my work network.  In the example above it would need to know to send any traffic for the above three networks to the Loopback adaptor of the host as discussed in my previous post.

Here is what is in the AddRoutes.cmd script:

@Echo Off
Set GW=192.168.233.1
Echo Setting Up Routes:
for /F "delims=; tokens=1-2" %%i in (c:\utils\vpnroutes.txt) Do route add %%i Mask %%j %GW% metric 1>NUL
Echo Done!

(note that “for” through to NUL is all one line)

What does this do?  The first line tells the script not to show the commands as it runs them.

The next line creates a variable called GW and sets it to the IP Address of the loopback adaptor.

The third line just provides some visual feedback and tells you that it is about to add the routes.

Line 4 is the workhorse.  I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of the “for” command, but it is very powerful.  If you want to know more, you can type “for /?” at the command line.  In a nutshell what line 4 says is:

In C:\utils\vpnroutes.txt each line is a list of values seperated by semicolons.  For each line run the following command with the first two values:

route add Value1 mask Value2 GW

Where GW is the address of the gateway we set in line 2.

That’s it – you are online and know how to talk to your VPN network.

Now when you disconnect  you don’t need those routes anymore, and if you leave them there they may cause issues.  So DeleteRoutes.cmd removes them again.

Here is what is in DelRoutes.cmd:

@Echo Off
Echo Deleteing Routes...
for /F "delims=; tokens=1" %%i in (c:\utils\vpnroutes.txt) Do route delete %%i>NUL
Echo Done!

This is very similar to the first script – For each line in the vpnroutes.txt file it runs a command to remove the route again. 

There is one last thing you may need to make everything work as expected and that is name resolution.  This one is easy to fix.  If you know the address of your DNS server on your remote network add it as the DNS server on the properties of the loopback adaptor.  This won’t cause any issues if you leave it there full time.

Hope that helps everyone.  I will admit it is a bit of a nasty work around but it does work.

Previously I blogged about the lack of a 64-bit Cisco VPN client. 

In the comments of that post yaz points out that NCP has a Beta Client that works on 64-bit clients – and that includes Windows 7.  It also supports 3rd party VPNs and that includes Cisco.

The NCP beta client is available via this page.  Install was simple and there is even a UI to import your existing Cisco VPN profile. 

It appears to be a 30 day trial – which is a bit odd for a beta product.  It does appear to work though.  I’ll give it a good work out over the next couple of days and report back.

A couple weeks ago the OS informed me that the extended battery for my Motion LS800 had issues and should be replaced.  Not really surprising as the battery is 3 or 4 years old and has been heavily used. 

I swapped back to the standard battery and now woe is me – it too tells me that it needs to be replaced.  This battery is actually even older than the Extended battery.

This could spell the end for my much loved Motion LS800, which is a real shame.  Worse than that it is my only tablet that is a slate.  And if I were to replace it – what would I replace it with?

Motion seem to have focused on vertical markets and as such all the new devices they are releasing are ruggudised, specialised or both.  Who makes a nice corporate Slate these days? 

Electrovaya and the Scribbler SC 4000 still seem to be around, but they have never made it downunder AFAIK.

The Tablet Kiosk Sahara range is probably the most comprehensive, but there has been little development in the year or so since I looked at it last.

Fujitsu have had an on again, off again affair with the slate form factor.

Why isn’t anyone building cool new slates these days?  Do you think we’ll see any new slates hitting the market when Windows 7 ships?

Previously I blogged about an issue I first encountered with the Windows 7 M3 build (the one that was released at PDC) and my hosted Exchange provider.

In short when running the M3 build and the public beta I was unable to authenticate to my hosted Exchange provider using my email address and password.  Instead I had to find out the domain name and enter credentials in the format DOMAIN\username in order for outlook to connect to Exchange.  This was a bit of a pain.

The good news is that the Windows 7 Release Candidate resolves this issue and I can now authenticate with my email address as I could under Windows Vista.

For reasons that escape me Cisco have chosen not to release a 64-bit version of the IPSec Cisco VPN Client.

This is a problem for me since I installed the 64-bit version of Windows 7 RC on my Toshiba M750.

To get around this without rebuilding with the 32-bit version I employed Windows 7’s new XP Mode – aka Virtual XP.

First I followed the steps on the download page:

1. Enabled virtualisation extensions in the BIOS.
2. Download and install the Virtual PC Beta.
3. Download Windows XP Mode.

That done I fired up the Virtual Windows XP from my Start Menu:

This loaded up a Virtual Machine already running Windows XP.  I installed the Cisco VPN Client and verified that it could connect to the VPN. 

This is where it gets a little tricky.  At this point I have my Toshiba, which is the host and an XP machine which is a guest.  The XP Guest has a virtual adaptor that leverages the host’s network adaptor and can connect to the remote network.  But the host has not way to connect through the guest to get to the remote network.

For initial testing I created a static route for one of the subnets and pointed it to the IP Address of the guest.  This worked, but it is a bit fiddly as the guest IP address is assigned by DHCP and as such will change depending on where I am.

I wanted something that required a little less work to get connected.  To achieve this I needed to create a virtual adaptor on the Host.  This is done by adding a loopback adapter to the host.

Adding a Loopback Adapter to the Host

In Device Manager right click the root node and select Add Legacy Hardware

On the welcome screen click Next.

Then select Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced) and then click Next

Scroll down and select Network Adapters and then click Next

Then select Microsoft as the Manufacturer and Microsoft Loopback Adapter and then click Next

On the confirmation screen click Next.  Then when the installation finishes click Finish.

Once this has completed you will find a new network adapter in the Network Connections.

I configured this adapter with a private IP address in a range that I don’t use at home or work. 

Next I added a second Virtual Adapter to the Virtual Windows XP machine and bound this to the new Loopback Adapter.  I assigned a static address to this in the same range as the Loopback adapter.

Because the network I am connecting to uses a number of subnets I wrote two quick CMD scripts.  One adds the routes on the host, the other removes them.

Virtual PC also creates shortcuts for applications installed in the guest on the Start Menu of the host. 

To connect to my VPN I can run this and it hides Virtual Machine’s desktop and the VPN client looks like it is running on the Windows 7 machine.  I then run my script to create the routes and I can work away.  When I disconnect the VPN I run another script to delete the routes again.  Of course I can add shortcuts to all three actions to my desktop to ease the process.  Not quite as clean as installing the client directly on the machine, but it works.

Update: For details of the command scripts see this post.

There is a new user group coming to town and starting the right way – with touch related demos and fresh Windows 7 goodness.

Nicholas Rayner and Craig Bailey have joined forces to create the Sydney Windows User Group.  From the site:

The aim of the SWUG is to support and provide advice to consumers, power users and small business in regards to the Microsoft Windows Operating System and related products. The user group will showcase the Windows Operating System and provide demonstrations of key components of Windows can be used both at home and in your business.

The User Group will also focus on related Microsoft Products including Windows Mobile, Windows Home Server, Microsoft Office, Windows Live and XBOX 360 and how they can be used to enhance the Windows user experience.

The first meeting will be at Microsoft in Sydney on the 13th of May, 2009.  Here’s the details.

Meeting details

Date: Wednesday 13^th May 2009

Time: 6pm – 9pm

Venue: Microsoft Australia - 1 Epping Road, North Ryde

Agenda:

6:00pm – Introduction

6:10pm – News with Q&A session

6:30pm – Windows 7 RC Demonstration

7:20pm – Break

7:40pm – Windows Touch including a demonstration on the HP Touchsmart PC

8:20pm – Close

If you can make it to the first meeting, please RSVP to nicholas@windowsusergroup.com

I’ve already put it in my calendar so if you can make it I’ll be seeing you there.  You may also want to add the RSS Feed from the SWUG blog to your feed reader, so you can keep tabs on future meetings.

My friend Chris recently took the plunge and installed Windows 7 on his Lenovo T61 notebook.  He had managed to get the fingerprint reader working on it and has documented the process in great detail. 

After rebuilding my trusty T61 with Windows 7 about a week ago, the only device that was not functioning correctly was the “biometric coprocessor”. I tried installing the software using ThinkVantage Productivity Center, but this did not work. After asking google, I found that the device was manufactured by UPEK and that they have released a Windows 7 driver on their site.

Chris’ post is a great reference on how to install and configure the Lenovo T61 fingerprint reader in Windows 7.  Check it out.

OK – here’s the scenario.  You work for company that has a few thousand employees.  The standard desktop currently has Windows XP on it.  And you wonder – should I start migrating to Vista now, or should I just wait until Windows 7 is released and deploy that?  After all, Vista got slated in the press but Windows 7 is getting rave reviews – surely that is a better move?

For my money no.  The short answer I give customers today is to ensure that they are buying Software Assurance so they are licensed for Windows 7 when it releases, but start deploying Vista where it adds value today.

There are two may reasons advice.

1. There are features in Vista that some of your users would benefit from today.  Starting your deployment with these low hanging fruit adds immediate value.
2. Your transition to Windows 7 will be eased significantly if you have already rolled out at least some Vista machines.

Lets look at those in more detail.

Add Value for the Low Hanging Fruit

Firstly – let me be clear.  Being a low hanging fruit is in no way a bad thing.  In our company I’m one!  What I mean by this is that there are some features in Vista that add immediate value to some users in most organisations.  For example I am a highly mobile tablet user with some commercially sensitive data on my machine.  As such the improved power management, fast sleep and resume, much improve handwriting recognition and BitLocker are quick wins for users like me in most organisations.

Easing Your Transition to Windows 7

The transition to Windows 7 will be easier from Vista than for Windows XP. Under the hood there was a significant change between Windows XP and Windows Vista.  The change between Windows Vista and Windows 7, however is relatively minor. 

Architectural changes in the operating system lead to driver and application issues.  As the architectural changes are cumulative the jump from XP to Windows 7 is slightly larger than from XP to Vista.  But if you start the transition to Windows Vista now, you can address the application compatibility, driver and hardware issues you will probably have now.  If you get all your applications running on Windows Vista then for the most part they will also run on Windows 7.  With a few exceptions if there is a Vista driver for your hardware it will work on Windows 7.  If your hardware will run Windows Vista it will run Windows 7.

The last point to note is that if you are planning for a Windows 7 deployment you can put  in place Microsoft Deployment Toolkit environment based on the MDT 2010 beta to deploy Vista and use this same infrastructure to deploy Windows 7 when it releases. This would allow you to build the skills to create, maintain and deploy standard builds and these skills would be transferable to your Windows 7 deployment

In Conclusion

Don’t wait.  If you are on Windows XP now, start deploying Vista to those who will benefit most.  This will add immediate value to your business and ease your transition to Windows 7 when it is released.

I’ve been using Slysoft’s Virtual Clone Drive to mount ISOs on Windows 7 and I recently stumbled across this post that outlined an issue with VCD on Windows 7.  What would happen is that periodically when you try to browse to a folder you would just get a grey box when you tried to change folders. 

I was having that exact same issue, but I had not made the link with VCD. 

However, it transpires that there is a new beta of Virtual Clone Drive that adds Windows 7 support, among other things.  There is a forum post with more details that makes for interesting reading.  Or if you like you could just download the new beta version.

I installed this straight over the top of the previous version and have been running this beta for a couple of days now and the issue with file browsing is gone.  Every thing seems to be working well with it.  As always, however, YMMV.

I just posted my thoughts on Starter Edition and how it could open up the bottom of the market to the Microsoft platform.  I think this is a good thing.  Could this be the birth of a new category?  Windows Internet Devices perhaps?

I’m actually starting to get quite intrigued by the possibilities here…

Microsoft announced their SKU line-up for Windows 7 (Geekzone has a good overview here)and the reaction has been mixed.  One of the six SKUs announced is the Starter Edition.

The Starter Edition will only be offered via OEMs, will be limited to three concurrent applications and will be limited to certain types of hardware.

This has met with quite a bit of negative opinion – like this from atmaspheric|endevors.

And the worst thing I’ve read yet on the topic is that Netbooks will get something called Starter Edition which limits you to 3 concurrent applications - who the hell wants that?

I don’t see this as a bad thing at all.  OK – there is going to be a SKU that is the same platform, but a bit limited.  In order for an OEM to license this SKU there hardware will have to meet certain specs.

That is not to say that every netbook will run Starter.  I believe that the units that are running Starter will not be out there to compete against the units running other SKUs of Windows .  They will be competing against the Nokia internet tablets.  They will compete against the bottom of the eee range.  They will open up that lower end market where the Windows license itself prices the unit out of the market.  It will be great to have devices at the bottom end of the market that can run Windows apps. 

If you want a fully functional companion device – buy a netbook with Home Premium on it.  If you want a glorified media centre remote, a device to browse feeds on in the lounge or look at recipes in the kitchen or a media device for your train commute then a Starter Edition device might be just the trick. 

The Starter Edition SKU could open up a whole new range of low priced devices that could be very interesting indeed.  At any rate it is far too early to get upset about netbooks being knobbled by Microsoft.  Wait  and see.

The other day I posted about the process of creating a homegroup to share data between multiple Windows 7 machines on your network.  The obvious question that was asked by Jerry in a comment was:

I have only one running Windows 7 and I would like to be able to access WinXP and Windows Vista machines that are on the network. How do you configure the Vista machine to be able to see the "shared" files on it with the Windows 7 machine?

Well – I don’t have any XP machines but I tried it with my wife’s Vista notebook.

On my wife’s machine I opened Explorer and browsed to \\TV-PC.  I was prompted for credentials, just as you would be browsing to a Vista machine.  Now the user on the Media Centre does not have a password.  I tried to authenticate as that user (which is called tv) by entering TV-PC\tv in the username and pressing enter.  Denied – I got a message that this was not allowed by policy.  I remembered that Windows Vista by default has a policy that users without passwords cannot connect over the network.  Seems Windows 7 is the same.  This is a good policy.  I jumped onto the media centre and created a user called sharing and gave it a password. 

I repeated the process above and used the newly created user.  At the top level there was a folder called users.  I expanded that and there were folders called Public and TV.  Note – TV is the name of the user that created the homegroup.

Drilling down into the TV folder I see the three folders I am sharing in the homegroup – and nothing else.

This is exactly what I see when I access TV-PC via the homegroup.  Here’s the view on Windows 7.

So the short answer is that you can access homegroup shared data from Windows Vista (and presumably XP – but as yet untested).  To do this you will need to authenticate each machine you are accessing with an account local to that machine – much as you do today.

There is no doubt in my mind that the building wave that is the netbook craze is going to renew interest in tablet an touch technology.  Windows 7 provides a really nice tablet experience and is much more touch aware than Vista was.

We are also seeing something in the netbook craze that I think a great thing for all mobile PCs.  Lots of competition.

The Atom processors provide excellent performance and battery life, but they don’t seem to suffer the same heat problems.

Could it be that the planets are aligning for not only more tablets, but perhaps even more slates?  I think maybe the answer is yes.  The critical question is one of demand.  Is there demand for slate devices, particularly in the consumer space?

There is certainly interest – remember the interest sparked last year when it was revealed that an enterprising user was making a tablet out of an eee PC? 

And there is interest on the manufacturer side as well.  In December Fujitsu announced its first new slate in quite some time.

I hope we will see a revival of the slate form factor.

While I was pleased to see that there was, after a fashion, native ISO support in Windows 7 as I’ve previously noted it does not go far enough.  I have been seeing in my blog’s logs lots of referrers coming from searches for the likes of “Mount ISO in Windows 7”.

Here’s the bad news – Natively, you can’t. 

Here’s the good news – the key word there was natively.  You can mount ISOs in Windows 7 and previous versions of the OS, you just need to use a third party tool to do so.

My ISO Mounting tool of choice is Virtual Clone Drive by SlySoft.  I like it because it is light weight and easy to use. It is also free – but that is not a reflection on quality.  It is an excellent advert for SlySoft’s paid offerings like CloneDVD.

After downloading and installing Virtual Clone Drive (and I find rebooting is a good idea) you will find that you can mount an ISO file just by double clicking it (if nothing else is associated with ISO files) or by right clicking it and selecting Open With > Mount file with Virtual Clone Drive.

Once mounted the ISO will show up as another DVD drive in Explorer.  If autorun is enabled this does, of course work as well.

There is also a management application where you can add additional virtual drives or change the UI language.

Don’t ask me what the Virtual Sheep do – but it is a checkbox I’m sure some of my Aussie mates would tick ;)

According to the website Virtual Clone Drive supports the following Operating Systems:

Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64

I have found it runs fine on Windows 7 build 7000.

On the weekend I rebuilt my media centre with Windows  build 7000.  This brought the number of Windows 7 machines in the house to four.

Now that I had the Media Centre it was time to investigate one of the cool new features that Windows 7 brings to the party. This is a feature that will be of particular interest to a specific type of mobile user – the kind that takes their work mobile PC home and wants to make use of the resources – such as printers – and media that on other machines in the house.

In Vista this is a pain.  Typically the home PCs are not in a domain and each machine has its own set of accounts.  Sure they are all on the same Wi-Fi network but if you want to do anything that involves one of the other machines you need to authenticate.  In practice this means that if you want to print something that is on the printer connected to the desktop in the study then you will be prompted for a username and password and you need to use an account that is on that particular desktop.  Similarly if you want to access the media on your media centre PC in the lounge you browse to a share and you are prompted to log on, which you do with an account from that machine.  The alternative to this credential chaos in Vista is anonymous sharing which significantly reduces the security of your home network and, IMO, is not a good idea.

Enter the Homegroup.  The homegroup is a new concept in Windows 7 that lets you establish a trusted relationship between the machines that you use on your home network by configuring a shared secret on each machine in the homegroup.  On each machine you configure what you want to be shared with the other machines in the homegroup.  Once this is set up you can access the specified content on the homegroup machines without authenticating each time you do it.  Very clean.

In order to set up a homegroup your machine needs to have the network type for the active connection set to Home.  If it is Public (the default) or Work then you cannot create a homegroup.  Assuming you have set your network location to home the process for creating a homegroup is as follows.  Click the images for larger versions.

In the Network and Sharing Centre click the Choose homegroup and sharing settings link as shown below.

Then click the Create Now button.

Specify what you want to share – below are the defaults.

The wizard will generate a secure password.  You can change this after the fact – but I think it is good that a random one is generated as this is likely to result in a more secure password than one that is easy to remember.  And you don’t need to remember it – you configure it once on each member of the homegroup and then forget about it. (note that this is not actually the password I ended up using – I’m not that stupid).  Click finish and your first computer is set up.

Back in the Change homegroup settings you can view or change the password after you have created it.   For instance if you add a new netbook to your collection months after initially setting up the homegroup – you can view the password from any of the PCs that are already in the homegroup.  If you do need to change the homegroup password you do it by clicking the Change the password link.

This gives a a screen that more or less says “Are you sure? This will completely break your current homegroup and you will need to change the password on all the members”   Click on the change the password link to proceed.

This will generate a new complex password.  However unlike the initial creation you can choose not to use the autogenerated one and type your own.  The little refresh button will generate yet another complex password (which I did after taking the screen shot below – again not that stupid)

Once you have create a home group on the first machine, you then need to join it from the other machines on the network.  This is a simple matter of making sure the machine’s network location is set to home and then clicking that Choose homegroup and sharing settings link in the Network and Sharing centre.  This time t.  he machine will detect that a homegroup has already been created on the network.  Click the Join button and then enter the password when prompted.  Repeat for each machine you want to add.

Once this is all set up the content you are sharing from each machine is available via Explorer:

Via Media Player

And even in Media Centre, which allows one media centre to play content that is actually on another media centre in the house.  Here we have media centre running on my tablet accessing the music library on the Media PC in the lounge.

All and all this makes for much simpler sharing between machines on your home network.  It is set and forget and it just works.

Way back when Windows Vista shipped one of my favourite features was the Search box in the start menu and in Explorer. 

Unfortunately it was a bit unwieldy when you were using the pen.  I found this really annoying and even had a go at writing a proof of concept application called SearchPad to try make Vista Start Search and Explorer a little more pen friendly.

The Windows 7 Beta makes this a little better.  When you click in a the search field in the start menu and launch the tip your pen strokes are recognised and inserted into the search field as you write – often even before the recognition result appears in the TIP itself.

I’ve downloaded and installed the Windows 7 beta – I currently have it running on my Toshiba M750, which I use as my main machine.  It looks fairly similar to the M3 build – but with a bit more of the eye candy implemented. 

There are a couple of hot tablet features I’ve spotted already – I’ll be blogging more on those over the next couple of days.  For now I better head off to bed as I have a wedding to attend tomorrow.

For those of you who may be running the M3 build of Windows 7 and using either hosted Exchange or accessing a corporate Exchange environment via Outlook Anywhere (nee RPC over HTTPS) there is an issue you may run into. 

When you try to open Outlook you are prompted for credentials.  With most hosted Exchange providers you use your email address as the username.  If you do this on Windows 7 (M3) I have found that you are repeatedly prompted for your credentials but no matter how carefully and correctly you type your password it just keeps prompting you. 

If you run into this issue try entering you username in the DOMAIN\Username format instead of your email address.  I don't know why this works, but I know it does for at least two Hosted Exchange providers.  Contact your hosted provider if you are not sure what the domain name is.

I stumbled across quite a cool feature in Windows 7 today.  I was copying a large amount - about 11 GB - off my video camera to my tablet.  The video camera I have connects via USB and just shows up as an external drive. 

While the data copied I switched across to another window to carry on working.  Then I noticed that the button in the taskbar for Explorer was partially shaded.  I flicked through the open explorer windows and realised that one of them was the progress bar for the file copy.  The shading in the taskbar button was the same percentage as the copy progress window as the screen shot below shows.

This is a handy way to keep an eye on progress of a file copy.  Unfortunately it does not seem to shade the IE taskbar icon for Internet downloads.

One of the great features of Windows Vista is BitLocker.  This allows you to encrypt the system volume and store the keys either on a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) or on a USB fob.  This provides a degree of protection for the data on your mobile PC should it be lost or stolen.  Personally I've never lost a laptop or a tablet but for enterprises this actually happens with alarming regularity.

In Windows 7 in addition to being able to encrypt the system volume you can encrypt other volumes as well.  This will appeal to lots of organisations who continue to persist in having standard operating environments for laptops that have a OS partition and a Data partition. 

However, Windows 7 takes the BitLocker concept a bit further and addresses another major source of potential data leakage - USB thumb drives.  I selected one of my spares to experiment with.

Encrypting a USB drive with BitLocker is fairly easy.  You get the option of securing the drive with a smart card or with a pass phrase.  I selected the latter.  You can encrypt a drive with data already on it, without losing anything. 

Now that my USB drive is encrypted  when I plug it into a Windows 7 machine I get a dialogue that prompts me for a pass phrase.  Once the pass phrase is entered then you can just use the drive as you would normally.

To see what would happen I tried plugging the USB drive into Windows Vista machines, Windows XP machines and even a Linux machine.  With the default settings on the Windows machines the drive appears to have no files on it, but if you check the properties of the drive it is also full.  This seems a bit weird until you turn on the setting in Explorer that shows hidden files.  This reveals that he whole drive is filled.  There is one  really big file, a couple of smaller files and a whole bunch of 0 byte files.  Working with one of our security gurus at work we cracked open a couple of these files with various editor but the were just gibberish as you would expect. 

All of that is really great - but often the people who should be encrypting their thumb drives would never bother.  The good news is that according to Mark Minasi Windows 7 is going to have a number of Group Policies for the enhanced group policy.  Organisations will even be able to prevent writing to a drive unless it is encrypted.  Check out Mark's slides from TechEd Barcelona for more great Windows 7 tips.

I got a sneak peek at a team doing some interesting development with touch technologies in Sydney on Thursday.

My friend Nick Randolph is the Chief Development Officer at nsquared solutions. He his heading up a team of developers working on development projects with a range of cutting edge technologies including Windows 7, multitouch, multipoint and Microsoft Surface.  

They are working on some really cool projects that are really going to show how multitouch can really change the paradigms we work with in user interfaces now.

It is exciting stuff and I am sure we will be hearing more form nsquared in the near future.  In the meantime you might want to check out Nick's teaser post about what they are working on and subscribe to the nsquared blog feed.

I've been using Windows 7 for a few weeks now and I it is time I posted about my general impressions of the OS.  Bear in mind that this is a very early release and that anything I write about here is subject to change before we see the release.

I have already blogged about:

• The changes to the TIP
• The improvements in the Display Settings
• Easier Networking

All of these things are great examples of the changes coming in Windows 7.  It is an evolution, not a revolution.

Windows 7 does not have a great deal of architectural changes under the hood.  The move from Vista to Windows 7 is not going to be as disruptive as the move to Vista was.  However, there has been much refinement of the foundation laid down by Vista. 

Usability

There has been a lot little refinements - like those listed above - that have made it easier to perform many common tasks.  Remember that this is a pre-beta release.  I suspect there is more to come.

Performance

Windows 7 is fast.  I had low expectations for performance in a pre-beta release and I was absolutely blown away with how fast it is.  Resume time from sleep is significantly faster than Vista on the same hardware.  Everything is snappy.

Device Support

Again much better than I would of thought for a pre-beta.  Everything works on most of the devices I have put Windows 7 on so far.  The exception is the Toshiba Bluetooth stack, which installs but it has some stability issues. 

Overall Impression

A very nice evolution of Vista.  I expect Windows 7 to be easier to use, faster and rock solid.

Yesterday I blogged about the revamped Display Settings in Windows 7 and how getting to this frequently accessed settings page was a bit easier in Windows 7 than it was in Vista.  Today that theme continues with something that is near and dear to mobile PC users' hearts - connecting to a network.

Like Vista, Windows 7 shows network connectivity status with a single icon in the system tray.  The star on the tray icon shows that connections are available.

Left clicking on the icon gives you a pop-up list of your dial-up and VPN connections, any manually configured wireless networks (regardless of availability) and any currently available wi-fi networks.  The list appears just above the system tray, rather than in a full window in the middle of the screen.  Next to each wireless network is an indicator of the current signal strength. Clicking on a network item in the list causes that item to expand slightly and display a Connect button (or a disconnect button if you are already connected to that network).

When you click on this connect button you get a progress dialogue until it connects. 

Once connected to a wireless network the system tray icon displays the green bars indicating signal strength. 

The connection process is just that little bit cleaner and more efficient than it was in Vista.  The process in Vista was to right click the network icon in the system tray and select "connect to a network".  This launches a new window with a list of networks.  You then select the network you want and click connect.  Not only is this more steps than in Windows 7 but it is less efficient well.  As I said in Windows 7 the list of networks appears just above the system tray.  In Vista the list of networks opens in a new window in the centre of the screen it also takes more movement of the mouse or pen to connect to a network.

Overall the process of connecting to a network is much simpler in Windows 7, making a better mobile experience.

One of the little annoyances I had with Vista was that it was a little harder to get into the Display Settings than it had been in Windows XP.  In XP, you simply right clicked the desktop and then clicked Properties and you were into a dialogue that included a settings tab.  In Vista you need to right click the desktop and select personalize.  From the resulting dialogue includes a link that will launch the display settings dialogue. 

The problem with the Vista approach is that I found that the Display Settings is the bit I want to get to far more frequently than the other items in the Personalize dialogue, but it is a layer deeper than it was in XP. 

In the Milestone 3 build of Windows 7 I was pleased to see that the display settings had been promoted.  Right clicking on the desktop launches a context menu that includes a Display Settings item as well as the Vista style Personalize option.

The next pleasant surprise came when I clicked that link and found that the Display Settings dialogue has had a bit of an overhaul.

Each monitor (when there are multiple monitors attached) has a meaningful label so that it is pretty easy to figure out which is which. 

For each monitor it also detects the native resolution of the and shows (recommended) next to that resolution.  There is also a handy tip shown to tell you about the keyboard shortcut that helps you connect a projector, which I found by accident and blogged about previously. 

There seem to be a few handy little tips like this scattered through Windows 7 and I am betting that there will be a few more in the final version.  These hints are going to make some of the "power user" features more discoverable and therefore more widely used. This can only be a good thing.

The TIP in Windows 7 has had a lot of work to make it more usable.  I'm finding it to be a really good user experience so far.

This video explores some of the new features that are in the Milestone 3 build (6801) that was released at PDC. 

Windows 7 is much more pen and touch aware than Vista.  And it draws a distinction, too.  When you are using a tablet that supports both pen and touch - such as the Toshiba M750 that I am using - you sometimes get a different depending on how you are interacting with the computer.

The features I demonstrate in this video include:

• The TIP vanishing when you move you pen away from it
• The revamped text correction UI and gestures
• The changes in the On Screen Keyboard when launched with a finger rather than a pen

There may be more that I have not found yet, or that may be added into a future build - who knows!

Click the video below for a glimpse of some of what's new in Windows 7 for Tablet users.

One of the things I was very pleased to see in the Windows 7 pre-beta is that .ISO files have a file association.  Right clicking an ISO file shows you that the default action is to burn the ISO to a disc.

I burned off an Office 2007 CD using this - just to see if it works - and it did work a treat.

It is certainly good that support for ISO files has finally made it into the OS and I have to say it is about time.  Especially when you consider that Microsoft distributes a massive amount of software as .ISO files through the MSDN and TechNet subscriptions.

Unfortunately the support simply does not go far enough.  It is simply not safe to assume that everyone has a blank CD or DVD lying around.  It is not even safe to assume that they have a burner.  Many mobile devices don't have an optical drive.  What really needs to be added in to Windows is the ability to mount and ISO image.  Until Microsoft sorts this out you will need to continue to use 3rd party software like Slysoft's Virtual CloneDrive (which is great freeware) to mount ISOs. 

The fabulous folks over at Toshiba have loaned me a brand new M750 to help with my early testing of the Windows 7 pre-beta.  While certainly not the lightest tablet I have used this is a seriously fast workhorse of a tablet.  It really is the whole package.

The unit I got came with:

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
• 12.1" WXGA 200NIT CSV Display(1280x800)
• 2GB DDR2 (800MHz)
• 200GB HDD (7200rpm) SATA
• DVD SuperMulti Double/Dual Layer Drive
• 1Gbit LAN + AMT 4.0
• WLAN (802.11a/g/n)

The screen is a Wacom dual mode digitizer, supporting both the active stylus and resistive touch.

Lets have a look at the outside of the device.  As we go through click the images for a larger view.

Down the left hand side we have

A - Venting.  This blows out a little air but not much and not very warm.

B - Lock port

C - A combination eSATA or powered USB port.  This particular USB port is suppose to be able to charge your USB devices while the tablet is asleep, but I've not put that to the test yet.

D - A normal USB port

E - PCMCIA slot

The front bezel has...

A - a plathora of indicator lights - including ones for optional components such as a second battery or a 3G WWAN radio.

B - Hardware switch for the radios.  This is a nice touch.  I never remember to turn my wireless off before I get on a plane :)

C - IEEE1394 port.

D,E - Headphone and mic jacks

F - hard to see in the picture but a volume control wheel.

Down the right side and we have

A - The stylus dock.

B - A multi card reader

C - A slimline DVD dual layer recorder

D - A modem port (I can't remember the last time I used a modem - seems like a waste of space to me!)

The back side is fairly sparten.

A - Another USB port.

B - VGA Output

C - Power input

D - Gigabit Ethernet port

The top of the screen sports an inbuilt web cam and microphone.

There are also a host of buttons at the bottom of the screen - or on the front bezel when in slate mode.

And a fingerprint reader on the other end of the same edge, which is also well placed for ease of access in both laptop mode and slate mode.

Speaking of slate mode the M750 has the same locking hinge that we first saw on the R400 and have since seen on the M700 as well.  This eliminates the floppy head that some other convertibles suffer from.  Basically you can only rotate the screen when it is roughly 90 degrees to the base.  The rest of the time the bottom corners lock into these latches on the corner of the base.

Another nice feature - no doubt aimed at eliminating a common cause of breakages - are the indicator arrows by the hinge that tell you which way to twist the screen.  These are located front and back of the hinge.  The former is visible when in laptop mode and the latter when in slate mode.

Another great feature the M750 shares with many of its predecessors is the emergency stylus.  I used it a couple of time when I had a M400 and wished for it many times with some of my other tablets.  Basically if you flip the unit over there is a panel by the docking station connector.

To open this you push a pen in the hole on the right end (ironically - if you have lost your main stylus) and pull the other end to slide the cover to the left.  You can then flip the cover over and - hey presto - a little mini stylus clipped into the lid!  Very cool.  Note there is even a little button on it - this is a real active digitizer stylus.

Over all I am pretty impressed so far.  The M750 is a really nice device to work with.  I have put Windows 7 on it and it runs very fast and so far pretty stable.  I'll have more to say on that as I get into it.

I've been playing with Windows 7 as time permits (which has not been a lot) over the last couple of days.  While I am not yet in a position to do a full review, but as I scratch the surface I am starting to uncover some cool features.

Here is a of a feature I found by accident.  As you drag a window to the edge of the screen it will turn into a transparent window and "snap" to a certain pre-defined position.   If you drag it up to the top it will snap to full screen view.  If you drag it the the left or right edge it will snap to that edge and take up half of the screen area. 

Very nice.

Once I had Windows 7 (the Milestone 3 build) up and running one of the things I decided to try was to hold down the Windows key and press all the letter keys to see if there were any new keyboard shortcuts exposing new features.  And guess what - there was!

Pressing Windows+P shows the dialogue below...

...which lets you quickly choose an alternate display output method.

Running left to right the options are:

• Laptop only
• Clone display to projector
• Extend desktop to projector
• Projector only

I love the Mobility Centre in Vista, but this takes the cake!  What a great feature.

I was lucky enough to be one of those invited to preview the Windows 7 Milestone 3 build that was released at PDC this week.  I downloaded it last night and installed it on an Acer Ferrari 1000 notebook I had lying around. 

The install experience was remarkable - for such an early build the install was really smooth.  I did not sit and watch it build but it had finished the bulk of the install and was waiting for me to enter my name inside of an hour.

Another interesting event during the install was being given the opportunity to enter my wireless settings during the initial setup routine. 

After the install completed I logged in.  Again it was remarkable.  For such an early build the it looks pretty good.  At this stage very Vista-like, but it actually looked fairly nice and seemed at least as responsive on Vista on the same hardware.

Next up I checked Device Manager to see what hardware had not been installed.  This was my next surprise.  A generic display driver was being used.  The inbuilt webcam and the multicard reader did not have drivers.  Everything else was detected. 

Contrasting this with my first experience with an early Vista build - that was very different.  It looked unfinished.  Driver support was awful and it ran like a dog.

There are fewer "under the hood" architecture changes in Windows 7 and as such application and driver support is pretty good even at this early stage. 

Overall I am happy and intrigued by this early build.  I've found some nice features already and there are some noticeable absentees.  That is a another story.  I've not even had a chance to check out the tablet bits yet.  I'm looking for some more hardware to test out this build on.  Stay tuned!