Looking for an easy way to select multiple files in Windows Explorer?  There are several options.

Old School File Selection:

This method is tried and true and has been around since at least Windows 3.0 in 1990.

• To select multiple files, hold down ctrl while clicking on the individual files you want.
• To select a large range, select the first file, then shift-click on the last file.  All files in-between will be automatically selected.
• You can combine the above two methods with ctrl-shift-click to select multiple ranges.

While the above method has been around forever, and is commonplace for most users, it can still require patience and dexterity.  It is also very easy to lose your selection by a wrong click of the mouse.  There is an easier method.

The easier method:

In Vista and newer, including Windows 7 and Windows 8, there is an option to use check boxes for multi selection.  For some reason, this cool feature is turned off by default, but it is simple to turn on:

1. In Windows Explorer, hit the ALT key one time to make the hidden menu bar appear.
2. Select Tools > Folder Options
3. Select the View tab
4. Scroll down and select the option named “Use check boxes to select items”
5. Hit OK

You will now have the option to select each file by simply placing a check to the left of each filename.  This can even be used in conjunction with the Old School method mentioned above.  Check out the samples below.

Broken Arrow is a great town, with great schools, great people, and…

… it’s one of the best places to live in the USA, but it’s nowhere near perfect.  Here is the list if items that I see DAILY that bug me that should be fixed.  What would you add to the list?

• Bury the stupid power/telephone lines!  I know this costs money, but this is the largest contributing factor to making Broken Arrow ugly.  We would have fewer power outages during ice storms and high winds. Isn’t a highly reliable power/communications infrastructure desirable for companies looking for a new city? During the Lynn Lane widening it was very frustrating to watch truck loads of new utility poles planted in the ground and power lines swung over from the old ones.
• Bring in nicer mid-tier restaurants.  BA is a beacon for all things fast and fried.  Have you noticed there seems to a McDonald’s every three miles?  Does a town of 100,000 people really need that many Big Macs?  There’s a new one opening near Broken Arrow High School on 61st Street at Lynn Lane. Thank you Louie’s, Hideaway Pizza, Los Cabos, Leon’s, Ted’s, and Thai Garden for investing here.
• Speaking of over saturation (there’s a double meaning there, do you get it?), why do we need a gas station on EVERY corner.  They are so common place, that it seems odd when there is a corner without a QuickTrip.
• Broken fences, blown over fences, discolored fences, mismatched fences, patched fences…  I guess when BA experienced such dramatic growth in the 1970s and 80s, the responsibility of maintaining privacy fences along main thoroughfares was placed on the homeowner.  The problem with this, 30 years later, is that every yard now has a different type or color fence  and at some different stage in its life-cycle. UGLY.  I like what some of the newer neighborhoods are doing now.  They require wooden privacy fences to have metal poles.  This will prevent the pole from rotting and cracking which leads to leaning fences.  Also, many developers are integrating more masonry into their fences designs. Most importantly, some developers are placing the responsibility of fence maintenance on the association and not the individual home owners.
• Clean the thoroughfares.  Yes, this takes money and lots of it, but the Lynn Lane corridor between 71st and 101st is a mess.  The same thing can be said about 71st between Lynn Lane and Elm.
• Build better homes.  Who thought it would be a good idea to let Simmons Homes build some cheaply made homes on a prime piece of golf real estate?  These homes have only been standing for a few years and they already need painting.  This does nothing to increase the surrounding property values — in fact, it makes the nearby land less valuable.  Check out the questionable homes in question. I saw this weekend that Simmons is at again in Arlington Court (across fromFloral Haven).  These homes are cheap and odd.  How odd?  Very odd. Drive by and look what they are doing to this nice gated neighborhood. If you figure out what side of the house is the front, let me know.
• Fix the blight!  BA is trying to grow downtown and they are doing a good job.  It’s too bad all the Main Street feeders are lined with dilapidated shacks.  Condemn these homes, push them over and re-develop.  Typically, I am in favor of saving old structures, but these homes offer no historic or architectural value.
• Fix zoning.  Why is one of the prime areas of town (Lynn Lane between 71st and 91st) a heavy industrial area?  I guess it’s not 100% industrial since there are homes and apartments sprinkled throughout.  Yes, that was sarcasm.
• Raze Kirkland field.  Enough said…
• Who is the primary land planner/architect for Broken Arrow High School?  The chain link fence around the football stadium really highlights the steel beams under the bleachers.  Nice touch! (More sarcasm) Did the architect ever see Lewis Stadium at OSU or Skelly Stadium at TU? Both of these were called Rustoleum Stadium by their own fan bases. How long until the new stadium looks like Kirkland? What’s up with that steel building just south of the stadium?  Did they throw a dart and say “let’s put the building here so it will be difficult to build an athletic building near the end zone.” ???   The school should build facilities the Broken Arrow High School band can be proud of!

Background

Apple’s Mac OS X was a game changer for many reasons.  First of all, it made Apple relevant again.  The days of Microsoft pumping money into Apple to simply have a competitor and Mac being a hobbyist platform were now behind Apple. Secondly, and most impactful, was the effect OS X had on Microsoft.  From a consumer’s point-of-view, Windows was headed down a boring path of features that only mattered in large corporate environments.   The success of OS X made Microsoft reevaluate their strategy that if you used Windows at work, then you would also use it home.  This was true in the 1990s, but not true in the mid 2000s.

Vista helped boost OS X sales. Win 7 only helps Microsoft.

The success of OS X was at a high-point during  the Windows Vista era. During this time, OS X reached a previously unfathomable 7% market share.  Vista, the much anticipated and long overdue upgrade to XP, disappointed many early adopters.  There were so many early disenchanted users that the operating system earned a horrid reputation from which Vista would never be able to recover.  Many of these users decided a change was in order and jumped to OS X. Obviously, this made Microsoft re-think many things and eventually recovered their desktop dominance with the release of Windows 7. (See my previous post how Microsoft took Windows from a Vista flop to a success with 7.) For the year ending 2010, the OS X worldwide market share dropped to 4.13% — that is a significant drop in the 1.5 years Windows 7 has been available.  The entire drop in market share cannot be attributed to Windows 7 alone because a good portion of the drop is from the iPad cannibalizing Mac sales.

Keep in mind that Apple is experiencing record revenues each quarter. When you consider that Mac sales are down, it’s clear that Apple doesn’t make extraordinary amounts of money from its desktop operating system. (Mobile and iTunes, that’s another amazing story.)

So what should Apple do with OS X and their desktop line of business?  I’m glad you asked, here’s my plan!

Step 1: Sell Macs Running Windows

Sell Macs with Windows pre-loaded. I mean Windows only, not a hokey dual boot with OS X and Windows. No, I’m not crazy. This is very simple.  I am not suggesting that Apple stop selling Macs with OS X, but they should give consumers a choice which system they want to buy (yes, I know consumer choice isn’t one of Apples business tenets). Windows is an open system so any hardware maker can create a device and write drivers – even competitors like Apple.  In fact, this is possible today through Apple’s Boot Camp utility. Think about this, inside that cool Mac case is standard hardware. They have used ATI & Nvidia for graphics drivers, Intel for the CPU and so on. These Windows drivers already exist!  I have met several people that buy Macs to dump OS X in order to run Windows 7.  I guess these people like the cool Apple hardware but refuse to give up the conveniences and compatibility of Windows.   Before the iPod saved Apple’s bacon, I had the theory that Boot Camp was a market test to see if people would be willing to run Windows (XP at the time) on a Mac.  The answer was and still is yes.

Step 2: Sell Macs Running iOS (and OS X too!)

I know that many Apple purists would not run Windows based purely on principle. For those people there would be two options:

1. Run iOS on entry and mid level  Macs
2. Run OS X for higher-end solutions

Again, you may think I am crazy, but OS X development has seemingly stalled and it appears that Apple is near the end of its innovation road. Recent additions like a Mac App Store and a going back in time animation for Time Machine don’t really count as innovative. These “features” actually make my point for me. iOS (Yes, Apple’s mobile platform) has significantly outsold OS X. Now that iOS has a primitive form of multitasking, it’s not a far reach to think it could power a full featured Mac with keyboard, monitor, USB ports, etc.  This would be an appealing upgrade to iPod and iPad devotees. You could even have a mobile phone in your Mac!

Of course iOS, in its current form, is limited and couldn’t handle the heavy-duty processing required for more intensive tasks like photo and video editing.  For these users, they could opt for a Mac running OS X just like today.

Step 3: Open Source OS X

If the majority of Macs now run Windows or iOS, Apple’s attention to OSX will further decline.  That would be a shame because Apple has done a ton of good work over the last 10 years with the operating system. (There’s actually more than 10 years of coding if you consider they didn’t start from scratch and recycled NeXT.) To ensure that OS X doesn’t become extinct (NeXT and OS/2 come to mind), OS X should become an open source project like Linux.  Can you imagine what the open source community could do for OS X? Excitement for Linux has fallen off year over year, but Open OSX would be a huge hit in the software community.  Just think, within months, you would be able to install OS X on a computer of choice – not just those made by Apple!

Conclusion

There you have it — Joey’s road map for Apple’s operating systems. Yes, I know you Apple fans think I have committed the ultimate sin, but let’s face it.  Apple has shifted itself from a software company to a gadget and media company.  in the process, many resources have been shifted from the OS X product group.  If this trend continues (and it looks like it will) OS X will continue to be an afterthought in the Apple portfolio. If Apple sold Macs pre-loaded with Windows then sells would increase making yet even more money for the company.

After the CES2011 demo last week of Windows running on an ARM CPU, there has been all kinds of speculation what this means.  There’s even talk about a new touch interface for Windows codenamed Mosh which resembles the Windows Phone Metro UI. While it’s fun to speculate, most of the discussion has been around consumer based computing.  Very little of the discussion has been around the boring corporate features. I work as a desktop architect in a corporate environment and I have some ideas how to improve Windows 8 for my world. As boring as corporate computing can be, it is still a relevant driver forming the future of computing for all environments. Here are some of the main ways Microsoft could drastically improve Windows.NEXT.

Overhaul The Microsoft EA

The biggest improvement Microsoft can make is to fix the Enterprise Agreement licensing model.  The world is changing and virtualization is here. More and more companies are finding ways to implement Windows without signing an EA. (IBM even has a program to help users called Liberate.)  My company opted to not renew our EA and saved a load of cash.  The downside is that we cannot use the Enterprise edition of Win 7 and as a result we are implementing Win 7 Pro.  While Pro is ok for most users in my org, we have some users who need encryption. – not just isolated encryption, but the centrally managed BitLocker that only comes with an EA.  I could deploy some isolated BitLocker islands, but this is not a good practice since keys are not managed.  We have a 3^rdparty solution, but if we could implement a mix of Pro/Enterprise and still use the centrally managed tools in AD then life would be much easier and the MS sales people would have a better story to tell.  Other great features that I cannot use are AppLocker and Med-V.  When looking at the cost of the EA, AppLocker and the other included items did not justify the cost.  That’s too bad since these are some great tools that are just collecting dust and could benefit organizations. I bet most people reading this don’t even know what AppLocker is! (See a few paragraphs down; perhaps MS should combine BitLocker with Security Essentials.)

Make Hyper-V More Complete for VDI

While Microsoft is doing well with server virtualization, the desktop Hyper-V product needs to mature.  The fundamentals to Hyper-V seem very solid. In fact, we stood up a Hyper-V VDI environment quicker and with better performance than we had with our VMWare VDI solution. The problem with Microsoft’s solution is the lack of tools.  Like most other products, MS builds the base components with an open architecture, but waits for partners like Quest and Citrix to make the solution manageable in large organizations. So, to stand up a nice VDI solution I need to work with multiple products from multiple vendors. How is that EASY?  They also need to keep maturing RemoteFX as a full featured VDI client. To enable true VDI, the old roaming profile feature needs to dusted off and updated.  While this was a good idea, implementation often wasn’t practical because of the amounts of data that neeed to be streamed.  This feature now seems relevant again, but needs to be integrated with could and VDI offerings.

Three-Tiered Virtualization Model

Speaking of virtualizing user profiles, why not take a radical shift and create three distinct virtual layers:

1. The OS
2. Applications
3. User profiles (or user state)

The latter two would be applicable for physical (non-virtualized) operating systems as well.  Imagine how much simpler administration would be if applications were virtualized with App-V and user profiles were virtualized with User-V (I just made that name up).  Not only could I easily login to any computer (or slate device) on the network, but app delivery gets easy, licensing gets easy, etc… There are a couple of problems with the scenario.  The amount of data being transferred for large profiles is one, but the other is how do I take virtual apps on the road without connectivity?  Regardless, this is a huge fundalmental shift in the way apps and users are managed today on the desktop, but this fits into Microsoft’s cloud vision.

Enhance MDT

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2010) deployment method is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Ghosting type technologies. Instead of maintaining a gold reference machine and making sector based images from this, MDT configurations can be managed from any desktop.  You simply point MDT to your Windows media, applications, and drivers.  From here you build logic around these items (for example, ‘If IsLaptop then install VPN’), then generate your bootable image with all the logic.  This is easy, but the learning curve is STEEP and not for the non-technical.  MDT needs refinement in initial setup (too many separate parts), driver management, wireless config (can’t import wireless profiles), IE config (most settings must be controlled via GPO), and the user experience (no way to set a theme for default user).

Clean Up AD

Speaking of Active Directory, it needs to be cleaned up. AD has grown over the years and the number of individual policy objects is nearly incomprehensible.  As you walk through the objects, the functionality of certain items has changed and the descriptions don’t always agree and many times actually conflict with the setting.  Furthermore, there is no check/balance system so setting A may undo setting B, or the combination of settings X, Y, and Z could have detrimental effects to the end user.   At the very least, AD needs versioning control with the ability to un-tattoo managed computers.

Touch, Pen, & Voice Input

Touch is the big consumer focus for 2011. However, it has relevant uses in businesses as well. Yes, Windows 7 has multi-touch and handwriting recognition, but that’s as far as it goes.  Again, MS wants partners to extend this functionality to make it useful.  MS needs to build in a touch UI that control 100% of the operating system.  Is this what Mosh is all about?

The pen input method is over looked these days due to touch devices.  However, pen is very useful for taking notes in an app like OneNote or drawing diagrams. The ability for Win 7 to convert handwriting to text is unparalleled.  It does a good job even when you try to write sloppily. It even learns as you use it.  When writing in traditional apps such as Office, Windows presents you with a pop-up containing a single line to write text on.  When you pause writing or click “insert” it places the text in your document.  This is a huge area for improvement.  Writing on this single line can be awkward and unnatural.

Most people don’t know that you can control Windows with speech.  It’s been there for years. It’s good for functions like “select word” or “select paragraph” but it’s not intuitive to say “search for mexican restaurants in tulsa.”  Microsoft owns a product called TellMe that is built into Windows Phone 7 devices.  TellMe is fantastic.  This product needs to be integrated into the core of Windows 8.

Windows Security

Keep improving the security story. Windows 7 made huge strides in security – at least in what most people think of security (viruses, spyware, etc).  It is now considered the most secure desktop beating previous versions of Windows, Linux, and OSX. On top of that, while not part of Windows itself, the free Security Essentials is one of the best malware engines I have used.  However, it doesn’t rank in Garnet’s “completeness of vision” chart since it doesn’t offer a Mac OSX version, and there are no firewall, encryption, or other loss prevention (DLP) features.  Figure out a way to combine malware, encryption, and DLP with audit, and then the security story for Microsoft gets even better.  Of course, this all needs be deployable through MDT and managed through AD.

IE9, IE10, and Beyond

Microsoft is doing a surprisingly good job with Internet Explorer 9.  They need to keep up the good work and continue standards compliancy.  Most people don’t really care about 100% compliancy, but it is still a good story to tell.

Dump WMP for Zune

Currently, Microsoft offers two media experiences: Windows Media Player and Zune.While media is often viewed as consumer focused, it still plays an important role in corp worlds.  Microsoft needs to dump WMP and focus on the superior Zune desktop software. Zune is more modern with ties into other devices like Windows Phone and Xbox.  It also has hooks into streaming and cloud storage. Of course, MDT and AD integration are required. (Windows Media CENTER is actually a third built-in media experience, but it doesn’t have much use in the corporate space. Actually, Media Center is one of my favorite home apps, it could use some updating from Microsoft.  I have lots of ideas for that, but that’s another topic.)

The one really cool feature of WMP that Zune does not have is the “play to” feature.  When set up properly, you can select any media file and stream it to any device on your network.  This could be an Xbox, a hand held device, or even another computer.  It’s a really cool feature but set up is less than ideal.

Photo Gallery Needs to Grow Up

Speaking of Media, Live Photo Gallery (part of Live Essentials) is a great tool for managing and viewing images/videos. It has a built in compact version of SQL Server which makes handling, tagging, organizing, moving, etc thousands of photos easy. In fact, my wife uses it for her photo business in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The problem is (once again) is that it is consumer focused.  There is no way to deploy parts of it with MDT. Furthermore, once the install is completed there is no method in AD to block the Live ID sign-in screen.  I don’t want all my users going out and creating Live IDs just to view photos.  I am NOT suggesting, MS include WLPG as part of Windows 8.  I like the idea of keeping it separate so it remains on its own development path.

Remote Support

The built-in remote support options work but are limited. While Dameware and Bomgar have built solid businesses for desktop support, MS could improve the built in offering to work more reliably over multiple LAN/WAN/Firewall segments.

Desktop Sharing

Building on remote support, I would like to see a user feature for easily and securely sharing desktop screens. Our graphics people would love the ability to share their screen as they are working on projects. We are currently implementing Microsoft Lync for web conferencing, but this is overkill for simple desktop sharing.

Corporate App Store/Marketplace

An internal App Store that allows end-users to install software would be a great idea! Early in 2010, a leaked MS document showed plans for a Windows 8 Marketplace/App store.  This is a great consumer feature (in fact, Apple took notice and created their own for OSX), but I do not want my 7,000 users buying Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja for their work computers.  The Marketplace needs the ability (through AD) to be redirected to an internal version. This could potentially reduce calls to the helpdesk for software installs.

What Else?

My time is running out, but I will re-visit this list again soon.  What other items would you like to see in Windows 8 that would benefit the corporate user?

Background

I have gotten several emails about Windows 7 recently (and even a couple about Vista). Since I am in the middle of a large Win7 architectural and deployment project, I thought I would take time and jot down some thoughts and try to answer the emails in the progress. 

I don’t want to do a feature by feature comparison of Vista and Win 7, because there are hundreds of those available. I could spend the next three months writing about XP Mode(virtualization), multi-core performance improvements, TRIM support for solid state drives, the new task bar, and on and on.   Within Microsoft the company, they changed the way they managed code internally during Windows 7 development. While this won’t necessarily lead to better code, it did speed development time and allowed more time for quality assurance testing.  These are all great features and topics, but I want to take a consumer’s view of what happened between Vista and Win 7.

Windows 7 has been available for less than a year and it has already surpassed the market shares held by Apple’s OSX and Windows Vista.  There will always be those who follow OSX in a cult-like fashion, but it seems that Vista has become a distant memory to even the most ardent Microsoft supporters.  How is it that Microsoft can release an operating system that infuriated people then turn around and release a successor a couple of years later and have people claiming it is the best operating system ever?

What was so wrong with Vista?

From a consumer point of view, Vista was a train wreck when it was released  in 2006.  Specifically:

1. Bugs: Microsoft and their legion of followers cannot deny it, there were bugs. Vista was a re-write of the Windows client.  During the development process, there were numerous delays and feature cuts.  At one point early in the development process, Microsoft even stopped development completely to push XP SP2 out the door. Microsoft was feeling pressure to release this much anticipated operating system. With any re-write, especially on the magnitude of Windows, there will be bugs.  It is obvious this pressure forced Microsoft to release the bits before Vista was ready.  As a result, there were many more bugs than there should have been on release day.  I’m sure Microsoft was taking the “we’ll fix it later” approach just to say they shipped by a certain date.  Within weeks Microsoft began to publish reliability and performance patches.
2. Drivers: Like many things, the driver model changed from XP to Vista. As a result, all hardware drivers had to be rewritten. (This is the reason that some legacy devices won’t work with Vista/Win7) Even though there were several preview versions of Vista, hardware makers were not ready.  I saw a stat that claimed Nvidia video drivers were the number one cause of all Vista crashes — but I have no way to verify this.  This wasn’t just an Nvidia problem, they were just the most visible.
3. Hardware: The hardware requirements in Vista were dramatically higher than in XP. No longer would 512 MB of RAM be sufficient to run Windows.  Vista would require a minimum of 1 GB to operate, and 2 GB to operate proficiently.  The same leap in performance was also required for the processor.  Many early adopters were the first to buy Vista, but also the first to realize their XP-era computers could not handle the load.
4. Crapware = bloat:The scourge of crapware started in the XP days and reached a peak with Vista.  Mainstream computer manufacturers were adding their own utilities on top of the core operating system. Plus, they were offsetting the cost by allowing other vendors to place their apps and utilities on the system.  True, most of the craplets could be removed, but the problem was that if you ever needed to restore your computer to factory state, the DVD that shipped with your computer included all this junk.  Take for example my sister-in-laws Vista laptop.  This Dell laptop had decent specs with 3 GB of RAM and a solid CPU.  However, it took nearly five minutes for the laptop to boot to a usable state!  I got a hold of it and found media players, photo editors, printer monitors, wireless managers, and all kinds of unneeded garbage that she didn’t install.  Why would she need Dell’s wireless manager when the one built into Windows is clean and works very well?  After I removed the junk, it went from a five minute boot to under one minute!
5. Core Apps: Why did Vista include Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker if they were also developing a new set of the same utilties called Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Live Movie Maker.  It wouldn’t have been so confusing had the new Live apps actually replaced the bundled apps.  Instead, when you installed the new apps, it left the old ones behind too. If you has JPG files set to open in Photo Gallery and PNG files set to open in LIVE Photo Gallery, it would get really confusing very quickly.

As a side note, there is a free utility called The Decrappifer which claims it will scan your system and remove all this junk.

Why didn’t Windows 7 suffer the same growing pains?

Fast forward to 2009 to the Windows 7 release.  Why didn’t the problems listed above impact 7 in the same way they did with Vista?

1. Bugs: Windows 7 was not a re-write.  In fact, you could even consider it Vista Version 2 — really.  Yes, MS made many improvements on the surface and under the hood, but the fact remains that most of Win 7 is, in fact, Vista. As a result, the opportunity to introduce new bugs went way down.
2. Drivers: Since Win 7 was not a complete re-write, the driver model did not change.  Even though most hardware makers updated drivers for Win 7, the Vista era drivers were sufficient in most cases.
3. Hardware: Once again, since Win 7 is really Vista Version 2, the hardware requirements did not go up.  So any Vista capable machine could run 7.  In fact, due to lots of work optimizing the operating system, you could actually run Win 7 on fewer hardware resources than Vista required!
4. Crapware: Yes, crapware still exists, but Microsoft has put limits on what can be installed.  In fact, they even limit the number of icons which can be “pinned” to the Windows 7 start menu.  With any new store-bought system, you should still examine what is installed and remove what you can. Dell or HP will try to sneak their wireless manager onto some systems. The Decrappifier works on Win 7 also!
5. Core Apps: Windows 7 did not include a photo library, movie maker, or mail client.  Instead, they directed you to a download of the new Live Essentials site.  This is much cleaner and allows the Live apps to be developed and released independently of the Windows Client. No longer will you have to wait for a Windows Service Pack to add functionality to the mail client.

The Truth About Vista.

It seems that the industry in general ignores this, but the truth is that Microsoft eventually fixed Vista and it became a good operating system.  Take this note I got from Robert R:

“Why are people telling me to upgrade to Windows 7 when Vista works perfectly for me? To me, Vista seems just as good as Windows  7.”

I wouldn’t say that Vista as good as Windows 7, but it definitelybecame good enough to run on a daily basis and to operate your business on. It took a few years to get to this point and many of the improvements were actually a result of the Win 7 development.

Even th0ugh there are many people using Vista (some liking it, some not) it has become the forgotten operating system and it is time to move on to Windows 7. In fact, there are already talks about what is going to be included in Windows 8! The damage is done.  Even those who have never used Vista, claim it is a horrid operating system.  Did you ever see those Microsoft Mojave commercials? The producers sat typical consumers down and asked them rate Vista.  Then, they unveil Mojave, Microsoft’s newest OS.  They then ask the same consumers to rate it.  The commercials show user rating Vista a 2 to 3, then Mojave anywhere from an 8 to 10.  Of course they drop the boom and inform them they are actually using Vista.  A little dramatic, but they were trying to overcome the stigma which the bad release caused.

Time to Move On

The point is, the damage is done and no clever marketing can undo it (well, maybe Apple’s marketing could). This is why Microsoft saw Windows 7 as such a ciritical release.  Even though this was really Vista Version 2, people saw it as much more and the results have been much much better for Microsoft, consumers and corporate users.

I have had some emails recently from people wondering if I was still alive. I’ve also had messages from various people needing some technical advice.  Obviously I am still alive. So, over the next few weeks I am going to make a concerted effort to put these emails into a blog entry.  Here are some of the topics I will cover:

1. Assuming you’re running Windows 7, can you complete your system with free applications?

2. Building on question #1, can you run your computer — including the operating system — on 100% free software?

3. Now that Windows 7 has shot past Vista market share (in just six months), I’ll post a high-level review of what made this forgotten operating system such a sore subject for many people. (Update 9-8-10:  Here is that blog entry: http://www.bowlesonline.com/from-vista-to-windows-7-how-did-microsoft-fix-windows/)

3. I got an Apple ipad for work (yes, for work).  What are my thoughts?

May 2011 Update:  The Dell Latitude E6420 XFR will now include an integrated serial port.  This is a huge deal.  If you’re needing a fully ruggedized modern laptop with a serial port, then I suggest you check out the E6420 XFR.  It’s too bad that this is now the only Dell with with a serial port.  For my use, I don’t need a fully rugged machine.  A “business rugged” laptop with SSD will fit my needs.  Hello HP 8560p!

~~~~

Rugged Laptops

One of the great things about my job is that I get to test new gear from time to time. Most of the time this usually consists of new computers that are just new iterations of existing models. On occasion, something interesting comes along. Dell has half-heartedly been in the specialty market of ruggedized computers for some time, but has recently gotten more serious with a new line of laptops. Although the market is small, it is primarily dominated by the Panasonic Toughbook line. Dell has expanded their Latitude line by releasing a semi-rugged model (Latitude ATG), a fully ruggedized model (XFR), and a rugged convertible multi-touch tablet (XT2 XFR).

While the tablet is the most interesting to me, I have my hands on the Latitude E6400 XFR. All these models fall within the Latitude line and have the same internal specs as the mainstream Latitudes. As was explained to me by my sales rep, these are Latitudes which have had the cases removed and new cases applied by hand. The ruggedization work is actually performed by a third party company called Augmentix. Building, tearing apart, and rebuilding seems inefficient to me, but what do I know? Building a rugged line on the existing Latitude platform is good news if your business already has an investment in the Latitude line. All of your images, peripherals, and docking stations should work without modification.

What is a Rugged Laptop?

The term “fully ruggedized” is confusing to some. The term does not imply 100% waterproof. The computer is meant to withstand dirty conditions, moisture and rain, salty fog, and some abuse but cannot be fully submerged.  Update:  My Dell rep told me today that the XFR can be fully submerged in the case of a drop but should be immediately retrieved. There are no exposed ports, the speakers are enclosed, even the heat vents, speakers, and webcam are covered. The XFR achieves an ingress rating against blowing dust and moisture of IP65 (if you know what that is).  To further clarify what rugged means, there is a battery of military spec tests. The results are impressive.

To further increase the durability, my eval arrived with a solid state diskdrive (SSD) to reduce the chance of mechanical failure. Dell utilizes an alloy casing called Ballistic Armor Protection System featuring PR481 which they claim has twice the impact resistance of traditional magnesium alloy. (I’m assuming this Ballistic Armor is a marketing term made up by Augmentix.) I have performed some minor drop tests but can’t bring myself to really test the durability. Dell claims the XFR is first in class to achieve the military’s MIL-STD-810F specification for a four foot drop on plywood over concrete. My test was a two foot drop on carpet over padding as I prayed.

You would think with all the covered ports, that heat would be a concern. According to Dell, the XFR meets military standard MIL-STD for temperature extremes. Heat dissipation is managed by their QuadCool thermal management system (See photos below for the QuadCool vent).

XFR Performance

The computer does not lack horsepower. This is one of the most responsive computers I have used in the business laptop class. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and it takes about 20 seconds from power-on to being in a usable state. Impressive. There does seem to be a refresh glitch with the Intel video driver from the Intel site.  I find myself having to minimize/restore various windows to force a refresh. There is also an Nvidia video option which probably does not suffer the same issues. (Update: I used Intel’s Auto Detect utility on http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm and installed the latest video drivers. Refresh problem solved. This proves you should always update your drivers.)

I should note that this is not a Dell image with the typical bloat/crapware.  I installed Win 7 fresh from the installation DVD and added drivers from the Dell support site.  To further increase responsiveness, I am using Microsoft’s Security Essentials anti malware program and not a resource hogging program like Norton or McAfee.

Other XFR Observations

As I mentioned before all the ports are covered to prevent dust and moisture from entering the system. The port covers are opened by a two step motion by pressing and sliding the release.  These doors feel a bit awkward compared to the Panasonic Toughbook doors. The SD card slot is the most inaccessible. It is located behind the handle on the front of the unit.  Opening the cover and inserting the SD card involves some phalange gymnastics. Even getting a good photo (see the gallery below) of the SD slot was difficult. Other than that, the design seems well thought out. This model includes a VGA, Display port, modem, Ethernet, three USB, one USB/eSATA combo, PCMCIA, SD slot, fingerprint sensor, and one 1394 Firewire port. Like all other manufacturers, there is a swift move from serial interfaces. This laptop is no exception. The serial port is following the steps of the parallel port and the diskette drive.

The battery is small and based on the body design, I don’t think an extended capacity battery will fit. (Although there is a “battery slice” option available for extended power.) With Windows 7’s power management features, and the SSD, battery life has been very impressive so far.

An important note is that Dell will not release an 6410 XFR.  They are sticking with the 6400 and will most likely release an update with the 6420 product refresh.  Interestingly, there is a 6410 ATG.

Dell XFR Accessories & Serial Port Adapter

There are NUMEROUS accessories available for the XFR.  There is a shoulder strap that screws in brass screws near the built-in handle.  There is a “battery slice” which is a flat extra large capacity battery that screws onto the bottom of the laptop.  To solve the lack legacy ports, there are two legacy port extenders which attach onto the bottom of the unit with metal screws. There is an adapter with one serial (RS-232) and one parallel port, and the other comes with two serials. These serial adapters are big and rugged, but they secure to the bottom of the unit very tightly.

UL Certification

The Latitude E6400 XFR is UL1604 Class 1 / Div 2 certified, but the ATG is not.  I believe you can get the Panasonic certified also, but only in a touchscreen unit. Keep in mind that these devices are only certified when all port enclosures are closed and locked. The Latitude ATG is not certified at all and no device that I have found is Class 1 / Div 1.

Dell XFR vs Panasonic Toughbook

This note is not a Dell vs Panasonic comparison. However, it’s hard to not make some cursory observations. Compared to the Panasonic Toughbook (CF-30 & CF-31) the XFR is a modern device.  While Panasonic invented this niche, the Toughbooks have stuck to their original design and compared to today’s standards seem bulky and ugly. For example, even though the CF-31 is new, it still has a 4:3 aspect ration, while the Dell has a modern 16:9 screen.  Panasonic claims they are sticking with the original form so that existing users can leverage their docks and truck mounts.

Furthermore, Panasonic’s driver update model is odd. First of all, you need to register to download updates. Then, since they don’t update model numbers often, you need to know what “mark” your Toughbook is (roughly equivalent to the date it was produced).  Then, once you get logged in, you download driver updates in packages.  On the other hand, Dell treats driver updates like they would any other Latitude. You simply browse to support.dell.com, select your model, and download the driver you need.  Much simpler.

Dell Latitude XFR Photos

Here are some photos of the XFR. Sorry for the lack of professionalism, my wife sold her studio a few years ago so all I have now is my dining table.