File under ‘Stupid Decisions of the 21st Century’ as Microsoft confirms that there will be no cut and paste function in Windows Phone 7 series.

According to a question and answer session at the MIX10 Microsoft Developers Conference during which Microsoft stated that clipboard operations would not be supported in Windows Phone 7 Series, thatwould appear to be the case.

Now you may be thinking, no big deal as it took Apple years to get cut and paste onto the iPhone. But wait a minute, this is different isn’t it? This is Microsoft we are talking about, a company whose Windows Mobile software has included cut and paste forever. Heck, it’s an integral part of how people who have a Windows Mobile powered handset work.

Work being the operative word, on so many levels. If Windows Phone 7 Series is to be aimed at the work market, then surely cut and paste is somewhat vital to get quite a lot of work tasks completed? Not according to Microsoft which has apparently said that most Office users don’t need clipboard functionality.

Ah, right.

Just one more reason why Windows Phone 7 Series devices will remain on my do not touch with a very long barge pole list then…

It is always worth keeping an eye on patent applications from the bigger players in IT as they have the potential to reveal possible future business models long before any official statement.

In the past Microsoft has been held up for ridicule with some of the patent applications it has made. Perhaps most notable amongst these was the infamous Page Up Page Down patent. The latest Microsoft patent application to reach my radar will not, most likely, cause quite the same amount of sheer disbelief although it does point to something of a change in the way the Seattle giant sells us software and services.

Microsoft has filed for a patent for ‘Time-Based Licenses’ and the application abstract reveals this to be a method and system for “issuing a number of different types of time-based licenses associated with software products”.

The technical stuff about the system including an activation server which might maintain licensing information in a licensing database, along with a licensing platform which may might request issuance and renewal of time-based licenses, is interesting enough. But not nearly as interesting as the statement that each of the time-based licenses may be associated with respective product keys and may have a number of configurable parameters to make time-based licenses suitable for different licensing business models. Microsoft says, in the patent application, that licensing business models could include “a non-renewable evaluation license, a renewable trial license, a one-time promotion license, and a subscription license” as well as “a configurable parameter” which indicates “an amount of time for a grace period after a time-based license would have normally expired”.

I’m not sure how well this is going to go down with folk who are used to paying for their software with a single, one-off, license. Does this application reveal that Microsoft is going to get serious about Software as a Service after all? However, as we get increasingly comfortable renting our applications (anti-virus being a prime example) and increasingly comfortable with our software being in the cloud, it is surely only a matter of time before that includes the OS. Anyone prepared to wager if Windows 8 will be the first OS for hire from Microsoft?

The Army News Service reports that the US Army has opted to form a strategic alliance with Vista by migrating all of its Windows-based computers by December 31st 2009. The systems change, which will include upgrading from MS Office 2003 to MS Office 2007, has been ordered so as to “bolster Internet security” and standardise information systems.

According to Dr Amy Harding, Director of Enterprise Information Technology Services for the Army, currently some 13 percent of computers have already been migrated to Vista. “It’s for all desktop computers on the SIPR and NIPRNET” Harding said, of classified and unclassified networks. Standalone weapons systems networks are exempted, of course.

Some have suggested that the US Army has somehow declared war on Windows 7, but that would be missing the point. It has not said no to Windows 7 but rather not even asked the question as of yet. The decision to move to Vista was mandated in a ‘Fragmentary Order’ that was published way back in November 2008. It takes time and a lot of testing before a decision to upgrade any large enterprise to a new OS can be made, the Army is no different in this regard. If anything, one would hope it takes even longer than an ordinary business in making these decisions. Indeed, any suggestion that Windows 7, which has not even been released yet, should be up for consideration is laughable. As Marcus D. Good, Chief of the Information Technology Systems Support Division at DOIM, says “The Army has been testing Vista since its release and has run it through the Army Golden Master program. The Army Golden Master program is responsible for the release of the Army standard baseline configurations for commonly used computing environments within the Army Enterprise Infrastructure, the team responsible for making sure applications that ran on XP will run on Vista.”

Of course, many will be asking why the US Army is using Windows at all, let alone Vista which was voted the worst performing IT product of the year recently.

Here’s the thing: say you have invested a lot of time and money in shoving out yet another new Windows OS hot on the heels of, let’s face it, a not very well received new Windows OS in the shape of Vista. Then, obviously, you want people to try it, so some clever sort in marketing strategy says “why don’t we let users play with the release candidate of Windows 7 on as many different computers as they like, without restriction, for a whole year?”

You know what, it is actually a good idea. Until, that is, you get to the bit about what happens when that year is up. Or rather what happens before that year is up. Look, the smart money says that when you arrive at June 1st 2010, the day that the freebie expires, it stops working and offers an upgrade at a cost option or similar. Fair enough? Hey, even a little nagging during the month or so before to let people know that expiry is about to hit them in the face like a wet fish would be acceptable, and even sensible.

What is totally mental, and I mean running around the supermarket without your pants on shouting “where is the mustard” mad, would be to start shutting down the user PC every two hours until they upgrade to a paid for OS and to start this nutball feature THREE MONTHS before the thing actually expires.

Yet that is exactly what some loon at Microsoft thought would be a good idea, and that’s what is going to happen. Starting March 1st 2010 your PC will shut down every two hours.

Here is what Mental Microsoft has to say on the matter: “The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.”

Oh well, that’s OK then.

I don’t suppose some a little more sensible could add a few words could they? How about someone from the Microsoft Partner experience side of things? ” To avoid interruption, it’s recommended that you and your customers rebuild test machines by using a valid Windows operating system before Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 RC expire.”

OK, I give up, where are my underpants and a couple of pencils.

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We already know a lot about Windows 7, mainly because details of the new Microsoft OS have been leaking like crazy for the past four months. We know it will scale to 256 processors and could well feature some kind of instant on functionality. We know that it is unlikely to be the death of XP although Vista is a different proposition.

We know that some people have already got a legit free copy and that a beta is due real soon now. We also know that a pirate version of Windows 7 is doing the rounds as a Torrent from the likes of Pirate Bay.

We know that many people will be tempted into downloading this to take a sneak peek at the new OS, and we also know that this is a very bad idea. Funnily enough, we are not alone in reaching this conclusion, and Rob Rachwald of Fortify Software has pretty much the same reasoning us we do.

Look, forget for a moment the whole software theft, copyright issues, breaking the law stuff. What worries Rachwald, and us, is the fact that you could be opening yourself up to a whole slew of security risks by installing something as low level as an OS when that OS is not even an official Beta but rather a dodgy copy downloaded from a pirate site.

“Reports suggest that pirate versions of an early build of Windows 7, which is under alpha test with developers, is available for file-sharing on the Internet. Given the low level at which this operating system installs on a PC, we recommend users give the version a very wide berth because of the associated security risks” Rachwald says.

But it seems the message is not getting through, and there are unconfirmed reports that many tens of thousands of people have downloaded and installed Build 7000 of Windows 7 from Torrent sites, all with no idea if the build has been tampered with by hackers in some way.

What we do not know is just what malware might be hiding in the close on 2.5 Gb of download.

Not to mention the small matter that, as Rachwald warns “It’s highly unlikely that any IT security application will protect the new operating system from internally-coded malware, so the fall-out from trying an unofficial version of the new operating system could be quite severe.”

Mark Russinovich is a cool guy. He also happens to be a Microsoft Technical Fellow and Windows Kernel guru. Best of all, he has been talking at length (some 45 minutes or so) to the MSDN ‘Channel 9′ network about what’s inside Windows 7.

Sure, news about Windows 7 has been leaking like crazy especially now that early versions are available for free.

But this is different, this is not speculation, this is someone who really knows his stuff spilling the technical beans about Windows 7.

Now that’s where everyone’s ears should perk up, mine did. Especially when it got to the bit about how the reworking of the ‘dispatcher spin lock’ in Windows 7 means that the OS can scale to a whopping 256 processors. He goes into some technical detail about how bottlenecks have been removed to make this possible.

I mean, what geek could not be seduced by the lure of a forthcoming Windows Server 2008 release that supports 256 logical cores? Must be a possibility, considering that it will be a Windows 7 based upgrade. About bloody time as well, after all 32 core limits are so 20th century.

There is not a lot a point in me just trying to explain all this in highly technical detail, in text, when Russinovich does a perfect job in person. Seriously, if you care about this stuff it is worth sacrificing 45 minutes of your life to view the video. And I wouldn’t be saying that, I wouldn’t be pointing you away from IT Pro for goodness sake, if it wasn’t so!

We all know that Microsoft issues security updates and fixes on the second Tuesday of the month. That is why it is called Patch Tuesday. So why the heck is Microsoft issuing a security patch today, a Thursday, in-between Patch Tuesday runs?

The twee answer is ‘who cares’ as long as Microsoft is fixing a hole? The slightly longer and serious answer is that we simply do not know. All we do know is that it is that rarest of beasts for a company that has built a reputation for taking a slowly, slowly, catchee monkey approach to bug fixing and security hole filling: the emergency security patch.

Indeed, this will be the first time since April 2007 that Microsoft has made such a move. Back then it was to cover the corporate arse as a well known vulnerability with .ani files was being exploited in the wild and getting a huge amount of publicity.

But this time it is different, this time there is no great media outcry and no great insider whispering campaign either. Which all points to a serious vulnerability that has not yet been made public, which does not mean that the bad guys are unaware of it of course. The very fact that an emergency patch is being rushed out suggests that there is either a real and imminent danger of it being exploited, that it is already being exploited or that if it were exploited it would have wide-ranging and harmful implications for Windows users.

All we know, all the IT security grapevine knows, is that the update will be rated as critical for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 and is scheduled to appear at 5pm this afternoon.

Good news for consumers and business customers alike who would not touch Vista with a slow-running barge pole, bad news for Microsoft which is already touting the wonders of Windows 7. XP simply refuses to die, and Microsoft appears unable or unwilling to turn off the life support…

On April 15th 2007 I penned a story suggesting that the death of Windows XP should be accompanied by an epitaph of good riddance to insecure rubbish. In that same piece I reported how Microsoft had set a date of February 2008 to “kill off XP.”

It seems I may have been premature, as Microsoft really just does not seem to have the stomach to kill XP. This is not all that surprising, especially when you have the likes of Intel flicking the V’s at Vista. Just three short months ago an Intel insider (geddit?) revealed that the company had decided against upgrading to Vista after a “lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff” suggested the costs and potential benefits of making the switch were simply not worth it.

Nonetheless, Microsoft ploughed ahead with the official death to XP strategy and announced it was dead on June 30th when the OS would no longer be available to the likes of Dell and HP, and shrink-wrapped distribution would also cease. Shame then, that at the very start of July I was able to reveal that Dell was introducing a Windows Vista Bonus package for its buyers: the bonus being that your computer came with XP pre-installed instead of Vista.

XP just will not die for one simple reason, well two actually. Firstly there is a genuine demand in the market for an OS which is not as resource hungry as Vista yet is still Windows based. That OS demand is met by XP and not anything else, not even Linux which still frightens off the masses. Secondly, there is the reason for that demand. Which, and I’m sorry about this Microsoft, really does come back to the fact that Vista has just not made a compelling case for itself. It demands too much raw power to perform its magic, and even then you end up feeling like you have paid for Derren Brown and got Paul Daniels.

Which is why Microsoft OEM partners have been able to continue selling XP, with the no doubt begrudging blessing of Microsoft. The get-around is by way of selling a Vista PC with XP in the box and the ability to ‘downgrade’ by way of the supplied recovery disc. Seems quite apt really that you can recover from Vista and end up with XP.

Microsoft apparently had decided that OEMs could continue doing this until the end of January 2009, but under pressure has now caved in and given them an additional six months.

Of course, the fatal bullet could come from Microsoft itself when it releases the much talked about Windows 7 OS. If you cannot wait until the first half of 2010 when Windows 7 is slated for delivery, then you could always try a legit free copy this month as Microsoft is giving away pre-beta builds at PDC and WinHEC if you happen to be attending.

Microsoft probably doesn’t like it very much. Actually scrap that, Microsoft definitely doesn’t like it at all. However, there seems little it can do about the fact that screen shots of Windows 7, specifically the M3 Build 6780, have been popping up online this week. The Internet will do what it does best, and ensure that those images live on no matter what steps are taken to have them removed. Web content: once up, never down. I want that on a T-Shirt.

Microsoft only started the release of ‘Milestone 3′ Windows 7 builds on or around the 12th September, and I am surprised that it took the best part of a week for the screen shots to start permeating across the Web. That said, and fair play to Microsoft, it had managed pretty well in preventing leakage up until this point (if you discount the early Milestone 1 leaks a year ago that is) and Milestone 2 never really saw the light of day online.

The UX Evangelist blog promises truly unique Microsoft content, and seems to be delivering. While a screen shot of WordPad might not ordinarily be the most exciting thing you have ever seen, when it is the WordPad UI from Windows 7 M3 Build 6780 it starts to take on a whole new dimension.

From this single definitely we can see, for example, that it has a definite Office 2007 feel about it. In fact, it looks very similar, stinkingly so, to Word 2007 in many ways. Not least thanks to the inclusion of the ‘Ribbon UI’ which I understand will be a prominent feature of Windows 7. Mind you, I am also led to believe that while WordPad gets the Ribbon, NotePad thankfully does not. There is a limit, I would suggest, as to how far the line in terms of basic applications such a UI change is needed.

The ThinkNext Blue blog, at least I think that is what it is called (it is a bit hard to tell, to be honest) has even more detailed screen shots. In fact, it goes way beyond just exposing the WordPad UI, with images of everything from the new Start Menu (with a change in look to the search box and shutdown buttons, plus a simplified right panel) through to detail of the new User Account Control which the blogger says only appeared once during and form this concludes that Microsoft is reigning in its use in Windows 7 when compared with Vista.

Other little points revealed from the screen shots here include the changing of My Documents to Libraries in the Windows 7 My Computer screen, and some new Control Panel items and system icons.

Microsoft has only itself to blame about the prominence these leaked screens will take, after all it has decided to pretty much clamp tight shut with regard to talking about Windows 7 to the media this time around. So what does it expect, that we will all just sit around and twiddle our thumbs until it wants us to get hyped up over the Beta release in December? Sorry Mr Ballmer, that just ain’t gonna happen. We all know you are bonkers, but I didn’t think you were that daft.

IBM has built what could well be the largest ever dual booting Windows and Linux HPC blade system, comprising some 5376 Intel Xeon quad-core processors each of which is running at 2.5GHz and which will be able to reach a sustained 46 teraflops worth of processing power. Running Windows HPC Server 2008 (Beta) the high performance computing system has been built at the Umea University in Stockholm, Sweden and forms part of a resource used by a number of academic research groups.

In itself the system is sufficient enough of a powerhouse to lay claim to being one of the top 50 most powerful computers on the planet, which should be enough for any geek to get excited about. However, I suspect that the bit of the announcement that will get the most coverage will be that this one has been built around Linux and Windows rather than Linux alone. Heck, look at the statistics and it appears that around 85 percent of such HPC systems are running exclusively on Linux and Windows cannot even claim to scoop up the remaining 15 percent but instead sits somewhere around the 2 percent mark at the most (if you use the latest available Top 500 list as your metric anyway.)

This could all change when the latest Top 500 list is released later this week, Microsoft is certainly hoping to start making a bigger impression and has been investing heavily in the HPC market of late. I don’t think that the Linux fanboys have too much to worry about though, as it would take something of a seachange in the HPC world to shift even to the point where half the machines were dual-booting let alone Windows exclusive. I’m not sure I am even convinced by the argument that as people using Linux-powered high performance computers more often than not will be using Windows-powered desktops or laptops at home or outside of the research lab so there is a ready made market for the dual boot option.