istartedsomething

WiFi is an incredible technology that has transformed how and where people used computers, however besides advancements in speed, range and security, very little has changed how we use wireless networks. Since 2002, Microsoft Research has been exploring a fascinating idea to virtualize the WiFi adapter, turning a single piece of hardware and radio into virtually (pun) unlimited adapters. Years after the project was seemingly abandoned, it is now uncovered Virtual WiFi technology has been baked into the Windows 7 networking foundations.

In essence, how Virtual WiFi works is very similar to how virtualization works for operating systems which most people are familiar with – the transparent sharing of limited hardware resources to many operating systems. Virtual WiFi, abbreviated to VWiFi, is a software layer that abstracts the wireless LAN card hardware into multiple virtual adapters. The software handles the connections of each adapter to ensure every adapter has an opportunity to connect to their respective networks limited by time. The result is an operating system none-the-wiser and acts as if you have multiple WLAN hardware adapters working independently.

If you like to dabble in a little hardware jargon, here’s an obligatory architecture diagram which explains how Virtual WiFi works in Windows 7 in much more detail.

If you got lost somewhere between the dotted lines, read on.

You might be wondering why anyone would ever need multiple WLAN adapters on the same PC, well to be honest, you don’t need but its sometimes good to have. In any case where you’re connected to an existing wireless access point and want to connect to another network whether that be a separate access point or even set up an ad-hoc connection, Virtual WiFi will allow you to do just that. But perhaps the scenario that is more appealing is the idea of a mesh network. In a mesh network, every client becomes a repeater, growing the network organically as more clients connect. Virtual WiFi enables this, since every client can become an access point too.

Now you might be asking, “I’ve looked at every nook and cranny of Windows 7 RC, how come I haven’t seen this feature?”. Surprisingly, the feature is in Windows 7 today and has been for quite some time apparently, but hasn’t been exposed due to a lack of driver support. WLAN hardware vendors are required to recompile their drivers with a couple new additions. The good news is that Virtual WiFi functionality is going to be a requirement for WLAN drivers under the Windows 7 certification logo so expect to see it soon.

Assuming it all goes to plan, the feature will be automatically exposed.

“On Windows 7 and later, the operating system installs a virtual device if a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is present on the machine. This virtual device normally shows up in the “Network Connections Folder” as ‘Wireless Network Connection 2’ with a Device Name of ‘Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter’ if the computer has a single wireless network adapter. This virtual device is used exclusively for performing software access point (SoftAP) connections [...]. The lifetime of this virtual device is tied to the physical wireless adapter. If the physical wireless adapter is disabled, this virtual device will be removed as well.”

Unfortunately as it seems, the implementation of Virtual WiFi in Windows 7 is not as liberal as the research prototype. In Windows 7, you are limited to exactly one virtual adapter. However by looking at the impact of multiple virtual adapters on latency and performance from their original research report, this is probably for good reasons.

More technical information aimed at hardware vendors and developers is available at the WinHEC 2008 session, “Wireless LAN Enhancements In Windows 7″, PowerPoint downloadable here. You can also learn more about their original prototype and research paper here.

Obviously this feature isn’t as glamorous as the fancy new wallpapers or as practical as Aero Snap in Windows 7, but I think it represents one of the many silent revolutions in Windows that probably won’t be recognized and taken for granted for releases to come. I’d be interesting to see if Virtual WiFi catches on, and how new networking scenarios can be enabled by developers and hardware vendors.

I was wrong. The leaked images posted yesterday on CentrumXP.pl portraying to be the Windows 7 retail box art and packaging are indeed real. The undeniable evidence ironically comes from no other than Microsoft employees, on a Facebook group they’ve set up.

The group “Windows Lounge” is a private Facebook group reserved for Microsoft employees to learn and discuss Windows 7. Understandably, the group admins have uploaded a banner to formalize the group but probably did not realize that even non-group-members can too see the image. An image that gave a little too much away.

In the spirit of hitting two birds with one stone however, not only is the box art now confirmed but the official Windows 7 mark or logo is also revealed and confirmed to be an artistic-variant of the Arabic numeral “7″ with a not-so-subtle lens flare effect. The internet will now judge.

Update: There is some speculation that the images may be just concepts in an ongoing design process, which I certainly hope is true. However, rumors of where these images leaked from is usually not a place where you would find unfinalized concepts.

Microsoft’s TechEd 2009 conference kicked off today with a fairly forthcoming keynote that included not only the announcement of a Windows 7 release date season but an indirect demonstration of the forthcoming Office 2010 Technical Preview build. The best-I-can-do-from-a-streaming-video screencaps above comes from Bill Veghte’s quick demonstration of Windows 7 in which he launched 3 Office applications: Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook.

Compared to the screenshots of Outlook 2010 that were leaked to ZDNet’s iGeneration a month ago, not much has changed, but the effects of a new fade-to-Aero gradient in the header bar is much more obvious. In terms of the actual applications, Excel does not seem to have changed at all whereas Powerpoint has a new “Transitions” tab possibly indicating improved effects and animations behaviors. Outlook’s changes are pretty self explanatory. Each application’s “Ribbon button” is also colored differently, allowing easy differentiation between the applications.

Having said all that, I have no idea what’s going on with “Office 2010 The Movie“. A viral campaign for business applications? Sure, bring it on.

Could you imagine the mockery if this reached Slashdot. A fairly unknown Polish website called “CentrumXP.pl” today published some images of what were portrayed as renderings of the Windows 7 packaging and box art. Since my Polish is as good as Google Translate is, I can’t say for certain the website actually claimed this to be leaked images of the official box art but it was certainly implied to some degree and has already begun to spread to at least Bink.nu, Softpedia and forums.

At first glance, the images are quite interesting and that is probably the only thing to take away from. Details like the butterfly and lens flare certainly raise suspicion of its authenticity, but you never know with Microsoft, like the bird on the Windows 7 login screen. The subtle however most conclusive evidence that this is a fake lies in the “Windows 7″ logo. The official logo uses the fonts Segoe Light for the letter “7″ which is not the case here.

The Windows 7 packaging secret lives to be leaked another day.

Update: Now people claiming to know something say these are not fakes. We’ll find out soon enough.

Update 2: I was wrong. There’s now undeniable proof that these are indeed real.

After reading last month’s Microsoft Surface installation horror story, it’s a nice surprise to see the Surface not taking itself too seriously during the setup process. Flickr user “mulmatsherm” captured these photos of the Surface when it was presumably just being initialized for the first time. The text on screen reads “I’m just a table right now – Check back later”. At least it’s honest.

Ninemsn, the Australian-subsidiary of MSN with an identity crisis, has come up with a pretty interesting and rather cute way of explaining Windows Live to the masses using liquid blobs morphing and connecting the different products and services on offer. In addition to the 30-seconds television commercial, there’s also a pretty casual and friendly mini-site drawing on the same blob mentality to explain more about the Windows Live offerings.

In a way, the blobs reminds me of the liquid-metal T-1000 Terminators, however unlike their humanity-annihilating counterparts, the Windows Live blobs are harmless, for now.