Tool disables protection scheme blocking some unfinished features in upcoming OS
(Computerworld) A programmer has unlocked several still-unfinished features of Windows 7 that Microsoft Corp. has hidden from users who received the alpha build at two recent developer conferences.
Over the weekend, Rafael Rivera, a developer for a Virginia-based company that sells secure messaging software to the U.S. government, posted a utility he dubbed "Blue Badge" that patches nine system files in Windows 7, including "explorer.exe" and "shell32.dll." The tool disables the protection scheme that Microsoft added to the alpha to keep eyes off some features that still need work.
The utility's name is a nod to the background color of card keys given to full-time Microsoft employees. According to Rivera's analysis, Windows 7 checks the user's allowed domain and username, then unlocks the features if it decides the user is a full-time worker. Microsoft is currently testing Windows 7 internally.
Rivera's tool lets users access Windows 7's new taskbar -- a feature that Microsoft heavily promoted at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in late October -- as well as other unfinished bits of the operating system, including multitouch gestures and a dynamic desktop slide show that pulls images from Web-based feeds.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119918&source=NLT_MSFT&nlid=74
(Computerworld) A programmer has unlocked several still-unfinished features of Windows 7 that Microsoft Corp. has hidden from users who received the alpha build at two recent developer conferences.
Over the weekend, Rafael Rivera, a developer for a Virginia-based company that sells secure messaging software to the U.S. government, posted a utility he dubbed "Blue Badge" that patches nine system files in Windows 7, including "explorer.exe" and "shell32.dll." The tool disables the protection scheme that Microsoft added to the alpha to keep eyes off some features that still need work.
The utility's name is a nod to the background color of card keys given to full-time Microsoft employees. According to Rivera's analysis, Windows 7 checks the user's allowed domain and username, then unlocks the features if it decides the user is a full-time worker. Microsoft is currently testing Windows 7 internally.
Rivera's tool lets users access Windows 7's new taskbar -- a feature that Microsoft heavily promoted at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in late October -- as well as other unfinished bits of the operating system, including multitouch gestures and a dynamic desktop slide show that pulls images from Web-based feeds.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119918&source=NLT_MSFT&nlid=74