WinHEC 2005: Day 2
by Derek Wilson & Jarred Walton on April 27, 2005 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Windows Driver Quality Signature
When Longhorn makes its debut, we can wave goodbye to that annoying pop-up window informing us of a particular driver's lack of signature. This doesn't mean that they've given up on the crusade to keep their hand in the driver development pot. The new logo program and driver signature management make it easier for developers, Microsoft and the end user.
Microsoft's goal is to significantly increase the number of drivers with signatures. They plan on doing this by expanding the range of drivers for which they will hand out signatures. Currently Microsoft will not sign a driver if they don't have a logo program for it. The Driver Quality Signature program will fix this by allowing the WHQL labs to test drivers for most hardware categories they don't currently support. In addition, they will now allow developers to sign their own drivers with Authenticode from Computer Associates. However, there are some caveats with the way Authenticode and unsigned drivers will work in comparison to Microsoft signed drivers though.
In order for a user to install an Authenticode signed driver, the administrator of the system must first designate the hardware vendor as trusted. After this is done, the end user will not be met with any problems while trying to install the driver. This is useful for companies that need to write their own internal drivers for hardware, don't have a use for MS certification, and don't want to give their end users or administrators unnecessary headaches.
Under Longhorn, only administrators will be able to install unsigned drivers - period. There will be no option for users without administrator rights to install a driver that is unsigned. Most home users do run administrator accounts, so, thankfully, this shouldn't be a large issue outside of the business world. Also on the plus side, installing unsigned drivers as an admin is no different than installing a signed driver (i.e. there are no unwanted dialog boxes to get in your way).
By increasing the number of options that hardware developers have when writing Longhorn drivers, Microsoft hopes to increase the quality of drivers by making quality testing easier and more appealing. Adding the non-logo signature program and expanding the logo program to include multiple tiers that represent the level of quality testing the driver has passed should serve their purpose well. Authenticode will help add flexibility and removing unnecessary dialog boxes will please everyone. Hopefully Microsoft can pull off the implementation of these goals as well as they think they can. Making sure WHQL keeps up with demand is not the least of our worries here either. Making sure that Gold, Silver, and all signatures are worth their cost rather than just marketing gimmicks is quite important. As the requirements for various signatures are not yet finalized, we can't really comment on whether this will come through or not.
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JarredWalton - Saturday, April 30, 2005 - link
I don't know what people do that causes these supposed crashes all the time. It's not that XP *never* crashes, but it's so rare that I almost always look for hardware problems if it begins to occur frequently. (Well, that and checking drivers, spyware, etc.) I have applications crash as well, but you can't really blame MS for an application bug (unless they wrote the application, of course).NightCrawler - Friday, April 29, 2005 - link
Damn my TV crashed, maybe the blue screen could include a picture of Bill Gates.Anyways here are the steps to enjoying Longhorn:
1. Buy super fast hardware from newegg/zipzoomfly etc.
2. Install Windows 2010 {Longhorn}.
3. Install Crack provided by 12 year old chinese/russian super hacker.
4. Enjoy :)
JarredWalton - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
Bill Gates mentioned in the keynote that the cost for a tablet PC is now ~$100 more than that of a standard laptop, and they feel that was critical in getting increased adoption of tablet PCs. Certainly, MS gave no indication that they think tablets are going away, although they didn't say a whole lot about them becoming more popular.Windows CE is still a pretty major business for MS, but I think the focus at this WinHEC was on the launch of XP-64 and the work being done on Longhorn. CE 5.0 is used in many products, and I believe it is the renamed version of PocketPC, right? (I don't follow that market as much, so I may be way off.)
Cygni - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
These arent the things that really get the most coverage or press, but i was wondering if there was much or anything on display from the Tablet and PocketPC worlds? I know all the market people seem to think that PocketPC's are on the way out, but i still see a gigantic amount of potential not being tapped. Tablets too... they seem to be dropping off the market instead of growing.Any new stuffs about MS's stance at WinHEC or anything would be enjoyed on this end. Thanks.
Son of a N00b - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
i for one, while i can see the future do not like HTPC's, expecially when they are not the best quality (plz correct me if i am wrong, becuase i do not know much abot thme), but i like having a TV and a PC, having them run out of the same box at the same time though wouldnt be to bad, along with house controls, like air conditioning, lights, ect...now that would be cool, yet unpractical until twenty years from now....HTPC's INHO cannot really benefit yet...DerekWilson - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
Thanks Pete :-)Pete - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
I figure with this nitpick, both of you will be as *wary* of my posts as I'm *weary* of how weak Word's spellcheck is in this era of 2+GHz CPUs.Last paragraph, page two. ;)
Good read, and good points WRT DRM.
sprockkets - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
funny but using my new cheap $150 lite on dvd recorder I use the svideo in port and record 1080i shows and it looks good enought for me in 720x480. And using one with a built in hdd is much easier than using a computer to do the same thing, not to mention much smaller and cheaper. Yeah you can do more with a computer, but why have a 200w device doing what my lite on does with 36w?IP over TV? I can see it now. "Sorry, cannot connect to show LOST due to too many users."
"My MCE got hacked, and all the friends I had over saw porn come on the screen during the movie."
I think for these people it's a matter of not making money, it's just I want to release my show when I want where I want. On the consumer side, I want the right to have it now, as in I don't want to wait 8 months for you to release a movie onto personal formats.
oupei - Thursday, April 28, 2005 - link
#13 just like you could use win98 right now? I don't think xp will be an alternative for very long. Linux, on the other hand, might be...man, why does it have to be "home theater IN A BOX"? do you have to make a point to exclude real home theater systems?
Brian23 - Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - link
Don't forget that we can still use XP or Linux if these newfangled operating systems take away our rights.