Tag: Announcements

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Sony offers customers a way to “opt out” of trial ware and applications on new TZ notebook PCs for free

Breaking: Sony Won’t Charge $50 To Remove Bloatware | Gadget Lab from Wired.com


Peter Sayer of infoWorld noted noted in an article yesterday that Sony initially offered to remove some of the trial software installed on new laptops for a fee…


“Buyers of the configure-to-order versions of its Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 laptops can opt to have Sony remove the some of its own applications, in addition to trial software and games.  The “Fresh Start” option, billed as a software optimization, costs $49.99, and is only available to customers choosing to pay an additional $100 to upgrade the operating system to Windows Vista Business from the Windows Vista Home Premium edition offered as standard.”


Fast forward 24 hours and now Wired reports on the gadgets blog that Sony reversed the plan to charge to remove pre-installed applications from the TZ-series of Sony notebooks.  Sony now makes the opt-out option free when customers select the Windows Vista Business Edition.  Says Wired’s Rob Beschizza…


“Earlier today, PC World reported that Sony would charge $50 for a configuration option called “Fresh Start,” which would not include the bloatware. When contacted by Gadget Lab, a spokesperson for Sony said that the company will now remove that charge.



“There will be no charge for Fresh Start,” said the spokesman.”


IMHO, impressive that Sony listened to customer and press feedback and responded by revising the offer.  I see this is another example of PC companies responding to customer requests to provide a sleek and streamlined experience free of software that may impact customer satisfaction with their new purchase.  Dell’s Michelle Pearcy, WW Client Software Manager noted that Dell would respond with options for customers requesting “No Bloatware, Please”… 


“Our goal is to provide useful pre-loaded software to our customers that want it, while giving intuitive options to customers that don’t.  We’ll stay focused on finding that balance.”


Ultimately, as noted in Dell & Bloatware, 2007, Dell started to offer an opt-out configuration of Dimension desktops, Inspiron notebooks and XPS PCs in response to customer demand. Pearcy continued…


“This means when you configure a system on Dell.com, you have the option of choosing “No software pre-installed” for things like productivity software, ISP software and photo and music software. On most XPS systems, the no software options are the default choice.”


Tags: computers, Sony, Dell, Michelle Pearcy, support, customer service.

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It’s really official: Windows Vista SP1 Available on Windows Update

Now it’s really official.  And not just on Amazon.com… 😉 

As noted this morning by Nick on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Windows Vista SP1 has been released to Windows Update…

“Today, you can now download Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. For those of you eager to receive the benefits of Windows Vista SP1 – you can now do so! We’ve seen quite a bit of questions in our comments so we want to communicate as much as possible surrounding Windows Vista SP1 and today’s release to Windows Update as we can.”

If you use have turned on Automatic Update, then don’t worry: SP1 will start downloading to PCs automatically beginning in mid-April.  The update is available in five languages: English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.  (A second wave of SP1 languages will be released in April.) 

As Nick reminds, “this happens only if you have your Windows Update configured to automatically download updates and SP1 will automatically download but not automatically install).  But if you want to get the benefit of a year’s worth of improvements right now, go check Windows Update today…(Hit the Start Menu, All Programs, and select Windows Update).”

See the blog post for more details, and info on why you may not see Windows Vista SP1 listed on Windows Update (eight reasons are noted here).

Nick also offers more info on the driver situation in the blog and hoted that “many… issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version.  We identified a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1.  Check out the list here; we’ll keep it updated with any additional drivers that we identify.”

Tags: Windows Vista, Vista SP1.

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It’s official: Vista SP1 to be available tomorrow (Tuesday, March 18)

Thanks to a confirmation on Computerworld, Gregg Keizer writes that the release of Windows Vista SP1 will be out tomorrow…



“In an e-mail meant to clarify when Amazon.com could begin shipping retail copies of Vista SP1, a company spokeswoman noted that Vista users could get the update on March 18.

“When looking at Amazon’s site, you will see separate listings — one for pre-orders of Windows Vista with SP1 integrated, and the current version of Windows Vista, which does not include SP1, and can be purchased now and easily updated with SP1 online beginning March 18,” the e-mailed statement read…

“If Microsoft holds to plan, Vista users will see SP1 in Windows Update tomorrow as an optional download, but only if their PCs do not harbor one of the balky drivers. Alternately, users will be able to download a much larger stand-alone installer from Microsoft’s download site, also beginning Tuesday.”


Visit Windows Update, or make sure Automatic Update (AU) is turned on once it goes live to AU.  [added 3/18] And watch http://windowsvistablog.com/ for the announcement of availability via WU. 


Tags: Windows Vista, Vista SP1, Gregg Keizer.

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Advisory: Potential changes to Daylight Saving Time in Iraq

Microsoft has learned of a potential change to the observance of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Iraq  that may impact customers using the Baghdad time zone.

An early, unsubstantiated report is that the Ministry of Iraq has decided that the country will no longer observe DST as they have in prior years, currently scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2008. 

Thus far, Microsoft has not been able to officially verify this change: if the change to the implementation of DST in the country is made, this may impact customers and partners in the region who use the Baghdad time zone, including military facilities and other entities engaged in business in or with the region. 

Microsoft is actively working with government representatives and customers in the region to confirm the change in Iraq, while also endeavoring to understand and document the scenarios and implications. 

Specific guidance will be provided as it becomes available on the Microsoft DST & TZ Hot Topics page off of http://www.microsoft.com/time.  For details on setting up RSS feeds for these pages, see my post on getting RSS feed updates.

(cross posted at http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007/archive/2008/03/15/dst-in-iraq-031508.aspx)

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST. 4,900,000 (up a million items); 4,450,000 (down approx. two million items); 1,880,000 (up)

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Turning up the volume… on blog comments

Last November, I noted that I turned down the spam comments on my blog, limiting the time to post comments.  Well, that strategy worked and I’ve decided to experiment by increasing the time to post comments, from seven days to 14.  We’ll see how that holds up over the next couple of weeks.