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Tag Archives: windows

Windows 7: Are You Ready?

Windows 7I’ve you’re a hardware or software developer, you obviously know that Microsoft Windows 7 is on the way – and it’s coming quickly! According to the latest rumors (backed up by the stability of the test builds being made available), Windows 7 should be released by the end of the year, but the question is are you (and your products) ready? Have you tested your hardware and/or software products under Windows 7?

With the dismal release that was Windows Vista, many users and corporations have held off on upgrading their Windows XP or earlier platforms to the latest version of Windows. There is a huge amount of pent-up demand for a fast, stable, secure operating system, and as soon as Windows 7 hits, a large number of computers will be upgrading. Don’t get caught unprepared, as many manufacturers did with Windows Vista.

Windows 7 is much more than just fancy window dressings. Windows 7 has made significant performance improvements on the underlying technology which is based on Windows Vista, including much of the same driver technologies. If you’ve submitted products for Windows certification, you’ve probably already discovered that Microsoft is requiring that new submissions include testing under Windows 7. So, if you haven’t already, make sure to get testing NOW!

Using MSXML in your application? Double-check your installation.

Installing MSXMLJust a quick note, if you’re using MSXML (Microsoft XML Core Services), make sure you test and retest your installation routines. If your customers have upgraded to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3, you may run into issues. As of SP3, Microsoft has placed MSXML under system protection so that applications/installations that try to update/remove MSXML fail. The most common occurrence of this has been with Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft has posted a work-around on their website. However, last thing you want to be doing is fielding support calls, emails, and tickets because of this issue. We just caught this testing another company’s product and thought we’d pass it along. Hopefully, Microsoft will help developers in handling this issue.

Virtual Machines – Lots of browsers, lots of operating systems

Virtual MachinesWhen you’re trying to test your website with many different web browsers, you often run into problems. In particular, Windows really isn’t designed to have multiple versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) installed at the same time. You could setup multiple platforms and maybe use a KVM to save space, but most of us don’t have the room for all that equipment just sitting around all the time.

As we mentioned in a previous post, a good solution to the issue is to setup multiple “virtual machines” (VMs) on your computer. Each VM has it’s own operating system and storage so you can install a version of Internet Explorer in each virtual machine. We also have previously discussed how you use VMs to learn how to use Linux and try out the various distributions (distros). Many of the distros already have pre-rolled VMs available (via VMware’s site or various image sites like this one for Virtual Box), but sometimes there’s that one distro you want to try without a VM. What do you do? Easy – roll your own.

Rather than going into the details of setting up your own VM, however, Lifehacker has a great article on how to setup, configure and install operating systems into a virtual machine using Virtual Box. Give it a read – it’s a very well done article!

Remote Access using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)

Remote Control Your Windows PCPreviously, we discussed using VNC to remotely control a test platform. Today, a quick introduction to Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Like VNC, RDP provides remote access to a platform, using an RDP server and RDP client, to control the keyboard and mouse of the platform as if you were sitting right in front of it. However, there are many differences between the two products:

  • While VNC is GPL’d software, RDP is Microsoft’s proprietary protocol. So, while both the VNC server and client have been ported to multiple platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc.), the RDP Server is typically a Windows-based product.
  • Windows XP & Windows Vista ship with Remote Desktop Connection and Remote Assistance, both of which use the RDP protocol client & server protocols. While Mac OS X and Linux (Ubuntu, etc.) typically ship with VNC-based products.
  • Due to Microsoft’s low-level hooks in their software, RDP connections usually perform much better than VNC products.
  • Microsoft’s products use RSA Security’s RC4 cipher for encryption.

Which one is best? That’s up to you. Both offer many functions. If you’re using Windows platforms and you want the greatest performance, grab a copy of an RDP-based application like Remote Desktop Connection. If you’re cross-platforms, VNC may be a better tool for you. Either way, get your remote connections setup so you can get out of work on time!

Linux – Getting Your Feet Wet

LinuxIf you’re looking to expand your abilities/capabilities as a test engineer, Linux is a good way to become more familiar with Unix-based operating systems. Even if you don’t have an extra computer sitting idle to install Linux on, you can setup and install complete working copies of many Linux distributions (distros) without messing up your current Windows installation.

The easiest way to try out a Linux OS is to download a LiveCD. Many popular distros, including Ubuntu, provide downloadable CD images that can be downloaded, burned, booted up, and used to try out an operating system. Unfortunately, most of these LiveCDs don’t offer the ability to really customize or save your changes to the OS, and they suffer from slow performance due to the limitations of the CD. But you can at least learn a little about the OS, GUI, CLI, etc. Running a LiveCD is kind of like putting your big toe in the water.

If you’d like another easy way to try out different distros of Linux, you can also install VMware Player (free) and download one of the many pre-built virtual machines from the Virtual Appliance Marketplace, including openSUSE, Damn Small Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mandriva. Then all you need to do is run the VMware Player and select a virtual appliance to run. There is a performance hit running the operating systems in a virtual machine, but it’s very easy to get started – all you really have to do is download the VM you want to run. Everything is already setup and configured. Plus you’ll have the ability to save changes and gain a more detailed understanding of running Linux.

If you’d like to really get a good idea of how a popular distro like Ubuntu (or one of it’s flavors, like Kubuntu or Xubuntu) actually runs on your computer, you can download Wubi which provides an easy Windows based installer. It installs Linux like a normal application in Windows, configures a boot manager, and sets up a virtual hard drive for you to use. The great thing is you don’t have to worry about hard drive partitions or complicated setups. And, when you are done using the software, you can simply uninstall from within Windows and it will erase the virtual hard drive file and free that space back up almost instantly. It’s really a good way to jump into Linux without the configuration hassles, but with almost full-speed performance, and the ability to quickly revert back to Windows.

What Web Browsers Should I Test With?

Web BrowsersIn a previous post, we discussed the importance of testing your website with older web browsers. MaximumPC has a very informative article on the latest browsers of today and tomorrow (for Windows primarily) which makes a good starting place if you want to be comprehensive in the compatibility testing you perform. Here’s a summary of the list, along with the January 2009 stats for each from W3Schools:

Stable/Current Releases

Upcoming/Beta Releases

And don’t forget, you can use BrowserShots to generate quick screenshots of your website for review. All of the above browsers, except for Opera 10, are among the browsers that you can get screenshots of.