[Lexluethar]

I am going to The New Efficiency Windows conference in Kansas City Wednesday and wanted to know if anyone else has gone to one of these. I'm wondering what to expect.

I'm signed up for the morning Windows 7 Developers Briefing and also the afternoon Windows 7 for IT Professionals.

I just want to know what to expect and if anyone has gone to these. Ya ya you get a free edition of windows 7 but i'm more curious about the content of the briefings. My hope is it is less 'hey windows 7 is great and you should use it' and more useful information about the tools that make windows 7 more useful and the 'inner workings' of the OS and some of the admin tools available to a system admin.

Thanks for any input.

[MikeFuryXP]

I've never been to one of those meetings seeing as how georgia doesn't see to much microsoft action except for the occasional shutdown computers stores due to illegal microsoft products getting into the wrong hands.
However since I can't go ask them this from a questionable customer:

1.Since windows 7 is finally out and everything is good for the moment how "HARD" are they going to keep 7 from having another another windows 4 and windows 6 failure due to them not listening to what the customers are telling them point blank ?

2.I know 4 sellers on and off ebay.com who have MSDN accounts and sold over 200 illegal product keys of any version of windows 7 including to me before the release of 7.
Ask them what steps are they willing to take to swiftly shut down the person with illegal software and not charge the people who mistakenly bought it at full price ?

3.Last security in windows 7 is a problem even with the decent firewall or AV or any steps you takek with MS updates there is always someway for a OS to get easily corrupted and damaged even if it's not the customers fault.

[Lexluethar]

1. 7 is a product of listening to their customer base, i believe we will see this trend in the future from microsoft - more user input for OS's.

2. that is the consumers fault - if you aren't purchasing a software license from a reputable dealer it's your fault. Are you going to compain to GM because you purchased a used car with 100,000 miles but the used car salesman said it only had 10,000 miles? No, you go to the person you are doing business with. With the new way that microsoft slowly makes an OS inoperable if you don't activate your product, they are doing a pretty good job ensuring their OS's aren't pirated. Can they do better? Of course, but i think they are leaps and bounds better than they were 4 years ago. Long story short don't buy licenses from people, buy them from businesses. You got beef with the business take it up with the BBB or that company.

3. i haven't had any issues with 7 or updates breaking the OS. I run in in tangent with MS Essentials and have less issues then when i ran Vista with Avast!. How is infecting your computer not the consumers fault? Please give me one update that broke an OS. Breaking an OS 99% of the time comes from the user who downloads stuff they shouldn't be or DOESN'T update when they should.

[MikeFuryXP]

2.When I tried to activate my copy of windows 7 professional ms asked me to call msdn for support they said my product key "SHOULD" not have come from someone elses msdn account.
Sure enough I called msdn and they asked me to give them the sellers email address along with ebay username, they didn't fault me on this.
They told me the woman stole over 400 licenese from their website and now they are in the process of shutting her down as well as bringing criminal charges against her.
In the end I rebought microsoft windows 7 at a lower price and they thank me for my cooperation which is a "first" from them in over 5 years...

3.I'm not saying the windows updates are messed up, I'm saying how is ms going to protect windows 7 from lethal attacks from many different sources that will cripple the OS ?

[Mak213]

2. That is your own fault. NEVER buy a serial from any source like fleabay. Microsoft doesnt have to do ANYTHING to regulate this. That is buyer beware situation and it should be reported not purchased. Selling Microsoft Serials on eBay is illegal no matter what. Only way it is ever legal is if you have the full package with the box, media and COA. End of story. That is not a concern for Microsoft.

3. Microsoft has already done everything. Windows 7 has the best security to date. Add in MSE which is rated right up there with Kaspersky and BitDefender for protection. They CANT do anything more. It is the highest attacked OS in the WORLD. Even the so called impervious OS X has been hacked up now. No way in the world Microsoft can do anything more but inform people to use protection like MSE and protect themselves and stay off of stupid sites. There is NEVER anyway in the world to protect a OS that is used by 80% of the population and attacked by 90% of the hackers. If you could figure out a way to stop it, i am sure Microsoft would all be for it. Stop waiting for them to take action and find one for yourself.

Lex i have attended one of these. But i can tell you that from watching some of the videos and that of these things and reading the notes from them. It isnt one of those "Hey look at Win7!" things. The IT Pro aspect will be very deep.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/w.../dd361745.aspx

You will see more stuff like this covered.

[Lexluethar]

Awesome, that is exactly what i'm hoping for. I was worried it would be geared towards the general population and give me information i already know, like 'hey here is the new look and these are the requirements.'

[Mak213]

Sorry my statement should have read i "Haven't" attended one of these. I see the information that is presented at these things posted up for us to review and check out. Being that it is for the IT Pros you will see more of the stuff that i gave the link to. That is the TechNET IT Pro Win7 site itself. So it will be more geared toward Admin and stuff like than than the whole "This is Win7" aspect. Microsoft got that out of the way with the Launch Parties.

[Lexluethar]

So it was a good conference. Way more informative than I had expected. While there was promotional videos and what not, and a few guest speakers from various companies like Cisco talking their newest product, it was good.

I haven't studied windows 7 much, but i have played it it for a few weeks now. I did learn a good amount of information and useful tools. Even better are the tools that integrate with Server 2008 and how they were explaining how to integrate these features - like remote deployment, group policies and software installation. I thought that was really cool because i'm studying that right now and it was nice to see how these things integrate with windows 7.

[Hampton]

Awesome, you should have recorded it with a cam