John Lamansky

According to a post on “Somasegar’s WebLog”, WinFX has been renamed to .NET Framework 3.0.

When speaking to developers about WinFX one question that repeatedly comes up is, “WinFX sounds great, but what happens to .NET?” .NET Framework has becomes the most successful developer platform in the world. Developers know and love .NET.

The .NET Framework has always been at the core of WinFX, but the WinFX brand didn’t convey this. The WinFX brand helped us introduce the incredible innovations in terms of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and the newly christened Windows CardSpace (WCS) formerly known under the codename “InfoCard.” The brand also created an unnatural discontinuity between previous versions of our framework and the current version.

With this in mind we have decided to rename WinFX to the .NET Framework 3.0. .NET Framework 3.0 aptly identifies the technology for exactly what it is – the next version of our developer framework.

The change is in name only and will not affect the technologies being delivered as part of the product. The .NET Framework 3.0 is still comprised of the existing .NET Framework 2.0 components, including ASP.NET, WinForms, ADO.NET, additional base class libraries and the CLR, as well as new developer-focused innovative technologies in WPF, WCF, WF and WCS:

The .NET Framework 3.0 will still ship with Windows Vista, and will be available down-level for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as planned. This change doesn’t affect in any way the ship schedules of either Windows Vista or the .NET Framework 3.0 itself.

What I find weird is that .NET Framework 3.0 doesn’t seem to be a new version of the framework per se, but it seems to be an extention to the existing .NET Framework 2.0.

I think Microsoft is trying to encourage developers to utilize WinFX by marketing it as the next version of the .NET Framework. To me, “.NET Framework 3.0″ certainly does sound a lot more “friendly” and approachable than “WinFX.”

But is WinFX really a new version of .NET?

It depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, WinFX seems more like an “add-on” package to the .NET Framework than an upgrade. But on the other hand, some program upgrades do indeed just add new features while for the most part leaving pre-existing components of the program alone.

For me, and I’m guessing for many other developers, this news was strange and unexpected. I think it’s probably because we had a different mindset of what we thought WinFX was going to be.

But this name change has let me know that I’ll be able to use my existing .NET Framework knowledge and experience to harness the power of WinFX. And that is very exciting news.

Here are some of my favorite screenshot tips that I have discovered for Microsoft Windows. Enjoy!

1. Take a screenshot

It couldn’t be easier: just press the Print Screen key on your keyboard (sometimes abbreviated to Prnt Scrn) and the contents of the screen are copied to the clipboard. You can then paste the screenshot into Paint, Microsoft Word, or another program.

If you just want to copy the contents of the currently selected window, hold down the Alt key while you press the Print Screen key.

2. Grayscale anything (Windows XP only)

Here’s a sneaky trick: You can easily turn any part of the screen into a grayscale version. First, make sure the part you want to capture is not in the center of the screen. The click the Start button and click Log Off.

As you probably know, after the Log Off dialog appears the screen will slowly fade from color to grayscale. But if you use the screenshot tip mentioned above, you are able to use that XP “eye candy” to take a screenshot of the now-grayscale screen.

3. Overcome screen-capture prevention

If you use tip #1, you may come across programs that prevent you from taking screenshots. If you’re sure that it’s legal to take the screenshot you want to take, you might be able to overcome this by first holding down the Ctrl key and tapping Esc twice. Then press Print Screen. Note that it will not work to tap the Windows key twice.

Windows icons aren’t used in just Windows. They’re everywhere: in software and on websites.

I haven’t been able to find any information on the Microsoft website that prohibits the use of these icons, so I guess that means it’s okay, right?

For Windows XP, maybe. But according to a screenshot of the “About Windows” dialog in Windows Vista Business posted on the SuperSite for Windows:

The Windows Vista™ Business operating system and its user interface are protected by trademark and other pending or existing intellectual property rights in the United States and other countries.

Of course, the OS name at the beginning of the sentance will vary if you’re using a different edition of Windows Vista.

But compare this to the legal info found in the “About Windows” dialog in Windows XP:

Copyright © 1981-2001 Microsoft Corporation

Yep, just a copyright notice.

Obviously, the legal information in the About Windows dialog has changed significantly from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

Does this mean that programmers and web developers will be unable to use elements of the Vista interface, including icons? If so, does this interface protection cover just Vista itself? Or does it also encompass programs included with Vista, such as Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Internet Explorer 7? If IE7 is protected with a “trademarked interface,” does that mean that usage of the IE7 feed icon is illegal? What other implications might this possibly have?

I have previously considered the use of Windows XP icons on websites to be okay. Many popular sites use them, and Microsoft hasn’t complained about it as far as I know. In addition, the usage of Windows icons presents a consistent user experience for new PC and Internet users.

But it looks like this might be changing. For me as a programmer and web developer, I would find it very helpful if Microsoft would make it clear what exactly they want to prohibit and what they want to allow.

What do you think?

Looks like Microsoft will be considering Atom an “RSS format” in Windows Vista.

From the Windows Vista Developer Center RSS homepage:

Windows Vista will support all common RSS formats, including: RSS 1.0, 2.0 and Atom 0.3. We will support Atom 1.0 when it’s released.

And from the RSS Support in Longhorn article:

RSS, as we use it in this document, refers not to a single format (such as RSS 2.0), but to the general concept of feeds of syndicated content. It should be considered to cover all feed formats that meet the basic criteria of updateable [sic] collections of items.

I do see why Microsoft has chosen to define RSS this way, and at the same time I don’t.

There really isn’t a term that exclusively encapsulates both “RSS” and “Atom.” You could say the word “feed,” though that can include other formats such as OPML.

But don’t you think “feed” is more technically accurate and user-friendly than “RSS” when describing both RSS and Atom?

Wow. Apple did it. They created a beta program called Boot Camp that lets you dual-boot Windows XP on a Mac. And according to the SuperSite for Windows review, published just today, it works quite well.

Paul Thurrott (author of SuperSite for Windows articles) gave an interesting an opinion on why Apple would do this:

One might wonder why Apple would create such a thing. After all, with barely 2 percent of the market for computer operating systems, should Apple be trying to win market share for Mac OS X and not offer a way for Mac users to run Windows? Not exactly. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn’t actually make a lot of money directly from sales of its OS. Instead, Apple makes most of its money–even now, in the heady days of iPod supremacy–by selling computer hardware. So one might think of Boot Camp as a win-win. Apple wins because a much wider audience of users can now consider its Mac systems, secure in the knowledge that they can run Windows if they want to. Microsoft wins because these users will still be using–and paying for–Windows. And best of all, we as users win, too, because now we can have the best of both worlds: the elegance of Apple hardware coupled with Windows, the operating system that runs all those applications we want to run.

Some Mac users don’t see it that way. They’d like you to believe that Mac OS X is all anyone would ever need, and they’re actually quite a bit distressed that anyone would want to run Windows on a Mac. Get a life: This software will open up the world of Apple to a much wider audience and if OS X is as great as they think it is, surely some of those people will start spending time with OS X instead of Windows. I can’t really see the issue there.

The review also said that:

A future version of Boot Camp will be included with Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard,” due in late 2007. That version, presumably, will support Windows Vista as well.

I do daresay that I’m actually getting somewhat excited about this. I’ve never wanted to switch from Windows because it is, as I consider it, the ultimate progamming platform. With a dual-boot setup like this, I could still do programming etcetera on Windows and then doodle with Mac OS X if I ever wanted to. Hmm…

Microsoft has a 4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer’s Performance article that I found some time ago. The steps are, in summary:

• Free Up Disk Space
• Defragment
• Run the Windows Disk Checker
• Get an Anti-Spyware Program

Pretty basic steps, but it looks like a very good step-by-step guide for someone who’s new to computers.

I noticed that a recent Neowin article mentions that Windows Vista will be released in the mid-end of October 2006, to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the release date of Windows XP.

Now that I think of it, I’m surprised someone didn’t guess that beforehand.

I found this quite amusing: according to the Washington Post, a definitions update to Microsoft AntiSpyware has reportedly caused the program to identify Norton AntiVirus as a keylogger and password stealer and to suggest making component removals that will cripple the Norton installation.

Yep, sure looks like Microsoft is getting ready to launch Windows OneCare.

[Update: Hmm… according to CNet, Norton products aren’t affected, but rather only Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Client Security. Who do we believe: Washington Post or CNet?]

According to this Microsoft Watch article, the next major client version of Windows, which will come after Windows Vista, has had its codename changed from “Blackcomb” to “Vienna.” The reason?

These code names are derived from cities/locations in the world known for great ‘vistas’.

Hmm… I’m can’t decide whether I think this move is smart or silly.

But shame on Microsoft. That period should be inside the quotation mark. [?]

SuperSite for Windows has an interesting review of WinFS Beta 1, which was given a surprise release in August 2005. Although the fact that it was a “surprise release” seemed to have resulted in not many people knowing about it.

The article says that a WinFS Community Technical Preview is due on February 15, 2006 — coming right up.