I had some time today to sit down and talk with a fellow Tech Community member, Cullen Dudas. Over the last year he has been silent working and researching ways to improve the User Experience and make the UI more friendly and able to do more. I had some time to sit down and ask him some questions about the project in general and where the project is intended to go in terms of its overall goal.

Ryan: First off Cullen, its good to speak with you. If you don’t mind me asking? What exactly is the Copenhagen Project?

Cullen: Copenhagen is a User Experience concept that I designed. It is unique in the fact that it manages to bring together classic design, contemporary design, usability, and art.Copenhagen shatters the composite prototypical event patterns people have developed for their OS, Windows.It is a collision of months of research, high visibility, proper affordance, accurate conceptual models, visceral experience, behavioral experience, and reflective experience, all coming together to create an amazing user experience.

Ryan: What made you start this project in the first place?

Cullen: It started with me being board last summer while I was at camp. I just started sketching and eventually it evolved into me having fun and refining designs. I started informally and formally watching friends, family, and acquaintances using Windows and started quantifying their actions and designing around those. I then started making mock ups in Photoshop and around this time, I started developing a ton of theories of how people interact with with computers, etc

Ryan: What is this built off of?

Cullen: The concept is built off of flash at the moment, it was done in Two weeks. To be clear, I learned flash in 2 weeks for the original. This version that you see in the video has been in the works for about a month or two

Ryan: Going from Flash; What platform could you see using that would really allow this to come to life? WPF? .Net Framework maybe?

Cullen: I really think it could be built using Direct3D

Ryan: What Benefits and Functionality would Copenhagen have over say…Windows Vista’s or Windows 7’s interface?

Cullen:We can start by Find and Organize, or FnO. High Visibility makes it easier to fully afford FnO’s full Capabilities. It is built to conform to mental patterns and it is more elegant. There are NUMEROUS studies that support the claim "beautiful things are easier to use" — but you have to find the balance between visceral experience (beauty) and behavioral experience (usability). Its very customizable and the mental boundaries are limitless, you do not have a constricting taskbar holding you back.

You can basically group tasks how YOU like.

Ryan: What other features are in it?

Cullen: There is this concept i like to call Task Module. Where you see the icon appear on the desktop (in the video), you can click that once, and all your apps pop up, exactly how you left them. It could really benefit IT Departments by allowing them to deploy certain work scenarios. Another feature I like is the scrap box which is up at the top. The idea behind that is that you can select any bit of text or URL link and drag it there and it is saved. Allowing you to recall it later.

Ryan: Can we expect a working Prototype soon?

Cullen: Not anytime soon, Way beyond my skill set. Though, I really would love the opportunity to impact the billion Windows users, by trying to make my visions a reality, at Microsoft.

I want to thank Cullen for taking the time to sit down and give us a little more insight on what Copenhagen is all about and we hope to see his work manifested somehow later down the road hopefully in a future version of Windows. For those of you still wondering what Project Copenhagen is all about check out the video below.

Creative… the once prominent company which had such a following with gamers for their resilient  sound cards. The problem started when I bought a brand new Creative X-Fi Fatality Professional series card. The creative name was a name of success. At least that was until I migrated my setup to Windows Vista shortly after RTM. Thinking i would enjoy the same sound quality as i did on XP with my Audigy 2, I went to creatives website and downloaded their drivers for Windows Vista..what i got was a crackling and popping $149 piece of crap. During the span of Windows Vista’s life cycle..The face of creative has changed. They simply do not care to support Vista, or solve any of the problems that their cards are having. Instead they blame Nvidia, at the time a motherboard chipset maker who made the successful NForce 4 chipset for the AMD CPU.

Recently i wanted to try my luck again and stumbled upon a man who decided to become a one man wreaking crew. Daniel_K , managed to do what an entire crew at Creative couldn’t. Successfully tweak, fix and unlock the X-Fi Drivers so that they would work properly in Vista. After doing such a good service to his fellow die hard creative users, Creative went so far as to file a motion to sue them, the guy who basically saved your card and franchise from going belly up and you SUE him? I’d be offering the guy a metal of honor and a job to boot. Needless to say…I have since downloaded the SB X-Fi Prelude drivers that Daniel has released and have been running full speed 24-bit 192,000Hz in Vista SP1 AND Windows 7 7057…I have a new found love for my card now and do not have to worry that if i reboot weather or not it will snap,crackle, or pop. Thanks Daniel for all your hard work and being a die hard X-Fi user!

In the light of the recent news about the SKUs for Windows 7 which will consist of Starter, Home Premium, Professional,
and Ultimate. Microsoft has also decided to do away with the Ultimate Extras for Windows 7. Because the lack of notable
features that Ultimate Extras brought to Windows Vista and with the added criticism they made the right choice in my opinion. The features brought by the Ultimate Extras simply were not worth the added cost to Ultimate. Bit Locker type applications are out for XP and Vista so why exactly pay $400 for a ‘exclusive feature’ that is added when it should either be in the OS anyway or can be inferior to 3rd party applications. Honestly I think I got fed up with it when the only things that were being released were Sound Packs, Dream Scenes, and very boring games like Ticker. So why exactly would one even want to pay that kind of money for such poor add on’s?

So it begs to differ..what exactly is Windows 7 Ultimate going to offer? What will set it apart from the other two versions that merit its price tag? The whole point of Ultimate and Ultimate Extras were that you got additional ‘treats’ for having dished out more money for the exclusive version of the OS. I really think if they had looked out for the long term they probably wouldn’t have went with this solution. Nothing was wrong with the Home/Pro versions. It actually made it quite simple. I guess in some ways it could be a blessing but far more questions arise than answers.

Enable Write Cache on SATA Hard Drives:

Do you have a SATA disk drive in your computer, well guess what you can sweeze a little more performance out of it by enabling this tweak. This tweak speeds up the performance of your hard disk by enhancing write caching. However, if your computer is not connected to a battery backup and you loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or corruption. If you have a laptop your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. So let’s get started:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter.

2. Expand Disk Drives.

3. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.

4. On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance.

Hit OK and close Device Manager. And Enjoy the added Performance

Aero tweak for Underpowered/Onboard Graphics:

This tip is pretty useful for notebook owners or anyone whose PC is packing graphics that are a little on the weak side. The Flip3D animation as we know can slow down weaker graphics cards if it has to flip a lot of windows, so this is a tweak that lets you set the number of windows that will be rendered in 3D at one time.

Click on the Start Button, type regedit in the Search bar, and press Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM. Create a new DWORD and call it Max3DWindows.
Set the value of this to something between four and nine (“4” and “9”) depending on the performance of your card (a higher number requires more video card power). You should then feel free to experiment to find the best value for your computer. Restart your PC to finalize the change.

TCP Auto-Tuning:

To turn off the default RWIN auto tuning behavior, (in elevated command prompt) type:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

The default auto-tuning level is "normal", and the possible settings for the above command are:

disabled: uses a fixed value for the tcp receive window. Limits it to 64KB (limited at 65535).
higlyrestricted: allows the receive window to grow beyond its default value, very conservatively
restricted: somewhat restricted growth of the tcp receive window beyond its default value
normal: default value, allows the receive window to grow to accommodate most conditions
experimental: allows the receive window to grow to accommodate extreme scenarios (not recommended, it can degrade performance in common scenarios, only intended for research purposes. It enables RWIN values of over 16 MB)

Recommendation: normal  (unless you’re experiencing problems).

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts:

Keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+Shift+Esc -> Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del -> Tasks Screen)
Ctrl+Shift+Enter -> Run an executable with elevated privileges
Windows logo key+1-0 -> Launch the shortcuts on the Quick Launch toolbar
Windows logo key+T -> Cycle through programs on the taskbar
Windows logo key+Tab -> Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Flip 3-D
Ctrl+Windows logo key+Tab -> Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Flip 3-D
Windows logo key+Spacebar -> Bring all gadgets to the front and select Windows Sidebar
Windows logo key+G -> Cycle through Sidebar gadgets
Windows logo key+X -> Open Windows Mobility Center
Open a folder and press & release Alt -> Show Menu Bar (also works in Internet Explorer)

Enable DEP on Internet Explorer to protect against memory

Because browsers can host plug-in extensibility, security settings within the browser can make plug-ins fail. This is why in Internet Explorer 7 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is off by default. Two of the most well-known and commonly used browser plug-ins, the Adobe Acrobat/Reader browser helper object and the Adobe Flash Player, now run when DEP is enabled. You can enable DEP by navigating to the following dialog and checking the highlighted option shown below (note, you must elevated to admin first, otherwise the option is grayed out).

Stay tuned guys as I bring you more of the best Windows Vista tips to help squeeze the most performance out of your PC.

Today Bill Laing started off day two of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Bill Laing was part of the team that worked on the Windows Server 2003 development as well as 2003 R2. He started off by stating that with Server 2003 , the server OS was released in 32bit and 64bit flavors. However with Server 2008 R2 it will be strictly supported on the 64bit platform and the Itanium. He also went into a little bit of detail of how the trends have helped shape the new landscape that has brought changes in Server 2008 and now R2. The increased adoption of Multi Core CPU’s , 64bit technology and a focus on power efficiency and virtualization.

A few other things Bill touched on were:

• Enable Data center automation
• Remote Management using Server Manager
• Active Directory Administrative center built on Powershell
• Refactored Server Core 2008 R2, to natively support Powershell
• Remote Server manager supported for Windows 7 and Server 2008
• Group Policy Enhancements
• Identical user experience from work or from internet
• Cost efficient support for Brach offices.

There was also a demonstration about the new role that is in Server 2008 R2 that includes Scanning into the Print Server role. This particular role would essentially allow a user to scan a document on a company scanning station and have it uploaded and displayed on a web portal or even in SharePoint services.

Improvements to the Branch Caching allows little to no bandwidth to be used if a document has been downloaded and cached it can be quickly accessed from other machines within the company without having to wait for the file or document to be downloaded again, a big plus for companies that do not have fast broadband connections.

Another big feature I see being used by corporations is the Direct Access function which allows seamless access to corporate resources regardless if you are within the domain or not. Securely being able to access important files will help many business users.

Data Security improvements have been stepped up through allowing Group Policy to manage bit locker encryption functions which will give IT admins better control over securing their data. Something that was not utilized in 2008.

This was not all that was talked about, there was also a demonstration about the improvements when coupled with SQL Server 2008, a demo load was run on 2 servers – 1 IBM server which housed 192 logical processes and half a terabyte (yes..half a terabyte ) of ram. Also another machine by HP that was run off of 256 Itanium cores to demonstrate the better use of multi core technology and scalability.

Brian Surace, a Senior Program Manager showed a brief demo of some of the improvements to Hyper V in Server 2008 R2. Better support for Linux is integrated now. And now generates a script so it can be integrated into large scale deployments through Powershell and Server Core.

Stay tuned for the 3rd and final day of coverage.

Today kicked off the WinHEC conference for engineers and developers to begin development for the new platforms and technologies from Microsoft.

As John Devann and Steven Sinofsky took center stage the focused on a lot of the new things they have been working on under the hood of Windows 7. Some of the major points that they focused on were improved boot times. Doing a direct comparison to Windows Vista, the Windows 7 machine booted into a ready to use desktop about 5-10 seconds faster than the Windows Vista machine. This is definitely promising since boot times have plagues Windows Vista users since well before the RTM was released but not really addressed.

Another point that drew attention was Windows 7’s ability to have better memory management and scaling. Devann demoed a stress application that would show how Windows 7 could continue to look the test and not run out of memory where it took only a couple seconds to break Vista and shift the UI to Aero Basic. This definitely looks promising because it will greatly help those who typically have a lot of applications open.

Battery life for laptop’s were also a central point when talking about mobile computers and many laptop users will be glad to know that better power management will allow for almost an extra hour in terms of use for laptops that usually get 3 hours of battery life.

Devann also pointed out a Call to Action plan which includes the following:

1. WinQual – Find the top Crashing item and Fix it quickly.
2. WHDC -
   a. Xperf – for performance
   b. App Verifier and Driver verifier for improving reliability.
   c. Check OS version correctly in installers.
3. WVCC – Update your Support information for 64 bit.
4. Run powercfg/energy in Windows 7

There was a brief mention that with dropping memory prices that the adoption for 64-bit technology is now at the tipping point and breaking the 25% mark. Most PC Manufacturers are now shipping with full 64bit support and operating systems.

In addition to the point’s listed earlier, Stephen and John also demoed the new functionality and ease of use that comes with Bluetooth 2.1 and how it seamlessly makes connecting your mobile devices easier than before. All part of the Device stage initiative which improves the recognition and ease of use for any peripheral.

Look here tomorrow for more coverage of WinHEC as Day 2 will focus on Windows Server 2008 R2.

As the stream of photo’s comes in here are the initial batch of Windows 7 screenshots. More as the day unfolds.

Noteworthy changes:

• Home group – This feature allows you to connect pc’s to your network at home and them instantly connect with the other clients within your network. Including cell phones, printers, scanners, shares. All seamlessly connected.
• Taskbar – As most of you noticed through the actual PDC video coverage that the taskbar has changed dramatically from Windows XP and Vista. In fact, the Windows 7 team has made it more useful by taking the grouping mechanism in Vista and going a step further by bunching the tasks in one icon and making them appear similar to how OSX stack feature works.
• Ribbon – This really isn’t anything new but for those of you who are new to Windows 7 the Ribbon that is all too familiar in Office 2007 is now making its way into Paint and WordPad to add more functionality and update them for a more modern use.
• Themes – You can pretty much customize your theme settings anyway you want. Do you want glass and different colors and effects? Go right ahead! How bout classic but with your touch…you can do that too now with the restructured Windows 7 Themes

As the changes continue to report in from reporters I will add to this. But according to Sinofsky, the pre beta build will be stripped down so some of the features possibly demoed will not necessarily be in the Windows 7 build given out to attendees. More as it becomes Available.

Ok so here are some links for tomorrow’s keynote which will unveil Windows 7 for the first time:

Keynote - Ray Ozzie, Steven Sinofsky, Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell
Tuesday, October 28 8:30-10:30am PST

• 100 kbps
• 300 kbps
• 750 kbps

There will also be coverage by many of the community favorites like Rafael, Tom Warren, Steven Chapman and Paul Thurrot. So keep your eyes on those respective places as I also bring coverage of PDC here.

Yep that’s Windows 7 alright ! As you can see the new taskbar is in place and also has complete transparency. Also the taskbar in the bottom right color has some subtle improvement and looks to be for the better. Looks like Microsoft is on the right track, so stay tuned for more.

Alright guys I know most of you have stared at this little weblog waiting for some sign of life. To be straight forward with most of you. I have been busy with a few things. First and foremost I am still working diligently on my Masters degree in Management Information Systems. You will be glad to know that I am doing good and still maintaining a 3.0 GPA.

An Update on my wife – Hadley is doing very well and is currently 5 months PG . And Yes i have been running out at 12 AM to get random selections of food that would other wise make a grown man puke. We find out if its a boy or girl on October 8th so we’ll see then.

Above all, I want to extend my greatest thanks and gratitude to Paul , Administrator for Geeksmack for making such a wonderful web design for me. I want you all to know that in the very near future something is going to be coming that is really good and I am sure you will be excited when you finally see it unveiled.

Look forward to some good opinionated content as well as tidbits along the way…oh and enjoy the new look!

Ryan Price - BlueScreenOfDeath