And its going to be....

[insert drum roll]

Windows 7.

Just don't forget to bump the kernel version up to 7.0 too. Its still 6.1 in the pre-beta builds at the moment.

I recently came across somebody posting on the Microsoft support groups who had problems with one of his input devices misbehaving. It seems one of the things this person tried to do to resolve this issue was to purchase a registry cleaning application. I won't name the specific one here.

The registry is a part of your computer where Windows and other applications typically store their settings. It is essentially a database, and it is critical to the functioning of your computer.

What these so called "registry cleaners" claim to do is to fix "errors" in the registry. One example this particular piece of software uses is "software you regularly instal (their typo not mine) on your machine is rarely accompanied by uninstall utility and, even when it does, fairly often it leaves broken Windows Registry keys behind".

Well other than the fact that most software does have an uninstaller, the language is overly alarmist. A lot of application uninstallers will leave orphaned (we don't call them broken) entries in the registry. However this is no cause for concern, those registry keys don't do anything, and due to the database like nature of the registry cause no performance impact.

They also claim "This software program will inform you on where the registry errors are located and it will eventually: Eliminate 100% of your PC Errors".

When you hear something like that your scumbag alert should sound. If I had a power surge and my PSU blew, how is this software going to repair that? If I've got blown capacitors on my motherboard how is this software going to fix that? It can't.

This sort of nonsense is so typical of the registry cleaner hard sell. Not only that I can count six download links to the software on their front page. Yes six, they really want this software on your machine. What they don't tell you is the price of this software, they'll wait for you to install it let it do a free scan, then they'll come up with a bunch of so-called errors you have and offer to fix them for a price.

There are registry cleaners from more legitimate sources, such as Windows Live OneCare, who have a free online scanner, which will also fix issues it finds for free too. However do you really want to put your computer at risk? If one of these scanners failed in some way they could take down your system.

My advice is, unless you have a specific problem that can be traced to the registry, and you have a specific address for a key in the registry, and specific instructions on what to do with the key. Leave the registry alone. Certainly never buy software that claims to "clean" it.

The following article is from the October issue of the Yeovil CLP newsletter, due to how rapidly the situation is developing I've decided to publish it here too.

The current situation we see in the financial system is no accident. For years we were told that the invisible hand of the free market will sort out the difficulties that market economies face. We see short term profits and bonuses put before long term stability as a result. Instead of financial companies looking at what they were doing when they were shifting such high risk debt around they just assumed the market would sort it out, and as long as they could sell the debt packages onto another company and make a bit of money in the process everything would work out alright.

However things didn't go alright and the US subprime mortgage market collapsed when somebody realised all this debt wasn't worth anywhere near as much as it was believed to be, as a result the system ceased up and financial companies found themselves lumbered with the high risk debt with no way to sell it on.

Over the last few months we've seen those who oppose regulation, such as the government in the United States face up to reality as they are forced to get involved or watch the world financial system suffer more setbacks. The most obvious examples being the takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, leaving almost half of America's mortgages under the watch of the US government.

Even the Tories are gradually facing up to the realisation that the financial market cannot be allowed to operate unrestricted – at least during the bad times. One can only imagine what sort of state we'd be in now if the then Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin got away with his plans to scrap the Financial Services Authority because of what he called their “intrusive regulatory regime”. Only last year was the Conservatives' policy commission on the economy saying “We see no need to continue to regulate the provision of mortgage finance”.

Of course what really matters now is what we can do to lessen the impact of these events. The Left Economics Advisory Panel is campaigning for:

1) Nationalising the banks and establishing democratic control over banking decisions, ensuring democratic representation on boards, ending the bonus binges, controlling executive pay and share holder rewards.

2) Cutting interest rates significantly and immediately, restoring democratic control over key economic decision making by not only widening the remit of the Bank of England beyond ensuring price stability to advising on the wider economic health of the country but also reverting the bank's role to being one voice amongst many others to be taken into account.

3) Securing people a home by converting repossessions to social rentals so that people have a 'right to stay' in their homes and embarking on a massive council house-building programme.

4) Enhancing security in employment by ensuring people have a say over the future of the companies by strengthening rights and representation at work.

5) Bring fuel bills under control with price controls on the consumer price of gas and electricity, so that people are not being forced to choose between heating and eating this winter, with the threat of nationalisation if needed.

This is the sort of programme we need implemented to protect the public and ensure long term stability. Not half-hearted nationalisations like Bradford & Bingley where the tax payer is lumbered with the bad debt, while other banks pick up the profitable parts of the business. Chancellor Alistair Darling informs us all options are being kept open, we'll see.

I came across Wakoopa few months ago, but never got round to using it. Well today I installed it on both my desktop and my Tablet PC.

It's an application which shares the applications you use either publicly or with a list of friends by posting the applications, and how much you use them onto their website.

You can see what I'm using here.

The application installed on the system is very lightweight. Over the last ten minutes its used on average less than 0.01% of the CPU, and its working set is just under 3MB. It sits in the tray, but the icon is relatively attractive. Although I have told Windows to always hide it. The only thing I can really fault with the application itself is the installer wasn't digitally signed.

If you're using an application you don't want people to see can also tell it to pause tracking.

It's certainly interesting to see what else is popular, I figure seeing what games people are playing will be quite interesting. World of WarCraft is leading the pack by a wide margin. It's also good at seeing how much junkware is on people's computers, I don't even want to imagine how poorly some of these people's computers must run.

Worth checking out if you don't mind people see what applications you're using.

It seems that Mr Naughton is a tad upset about the media coverage Microsoft has been getting lately, a few articles over the last week or so have directly quoted Steve Ballmer because of his recent trip to the UK. Heaven forbid.

Ballmer was in town last week, graciously granting audiences and genially talking through his hat. Yet his every word was reverentially chronicled. The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones reported Ballmer's metaphorical comparison of Microsoft (annual revenues, $60bn; 90,000 staff) as 'David' in comparison to Google's 'Goliath' (annual revenues $20bn; 19,000 staff).

What's wrong with that? Oh you're trying to make it seem that Microsoft is the Goliath – well sure, they're the larger company but then they're active in more businesses than Google who have one business which is online advertising. Google control depending on the country between 50% and 90% of the online advertising market, primarily through its search engine. Microsoft on the other hand commands worldwide about 9% of the search market. Of course Naughton is fully aware that this was the comparison that Ballmer was making, which is why he's talking about Google, but why bother to report it in context when you can make it seem like Ballmer is nutty straight off?

Commenting on Google's just-launched Android platform for mobile phones, Ballmer declared that 'an open-source solution would not be attractive to phone manufacturers

His opinion, and historically accurate, Linux for example hasn't gained any traction in the mobile phone market.

...and predicted that Windows mobile phones would stay ahead of BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone and Google Android in the smartphone market

Despite the hype over Blackberry, iPhone and Android - Windows Mobile outsells them. Blackberry is close, and possibly slightly ahead in the United States, but Windows Mobile is much stronger in Europe. As for the iPhone, Microsoft sells 20 million Windows Mobile devices in a year. Apple project 10 million iPhones sales this year, however for the first quarter of the year they only moved 1.7 million. IDC project Windows Mobile to continue to outsell iPhone 2 to 1 in the consumer space until 2012, and 9 to 1 in the business space.

And he went on to say that Windows Vista had been 'the most popular operating system that Microsoft had ever introduced'.

It's certainly the fastest selling, both on raw sales figures, but also on how quickly it is spreading through the PC ecosystem, which is larger than ever before. Windows XP sold 17 million units in its first 2 months on the market; Windows Vista achieved 20 million in the first month. Windows XP was on 16.9% of all computers by the end of 2003, about two years after launch; Windows Vista on the other hand was on 18.3% of all computers a year and a half after release, by the end of the year that's projected to be 21.3%.

Unfortunately for John Naughton, despite how he attempts to spin it, Ballmer is actually spot on. But that's not all Naughton does to demonstrate his ignorance.

This hooey was conscientiously relayed by Cellan-Jones, who was too polite to ask why, if Vista is such a success, Ballmer is to unveil its successor, Windows 7, to the Microsoft developers' conference at the end of this month.

Microsoft holding its developer conference two years after release isn't unusual, in fact it is to be expected, the Windows team has been working for last two years and they're ready to start showing off what they've been doing. Microsoft held a PDC in October 2003, two years after Windows XP shipped to introduce Windows Vista (then codenamed "Longhorn"). Here we see Microsoft doing another PDC in October, about 2 years after Windows Vista was finished to introduce Windows codename "7". Getting the people who actually write software (and the hardware, the hardware conference is the following week) for a platform in on the process early means they're not caught off guard by a new release of Windows and then have to work to make all their old applications compatible, they can play with the early version of Windows "7" now so they can start getting ready for its release.

Perhaps Rory Cellan-Jones actually knows something, unlike Naughton, which is why he didn't need to ask Ballmer such a dumb question.

So as many have no doubt heard it looks like Microsoft are planning to remove Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Windows Mail from Windows codename "7".

Instead what will be expected is for people to use the Windows Live suite of applications, which now includes Movie Maker (a much stripped down Movie Maker in its current form), as well as a e-mail application which can tie in with Hotmail (which the built in Windows one never could) and a photo gallery application.

I've got a few concerns with this, firstly does this mean Windows won't come with an e-mail client? Or, will the current build of Windows Live be included on the Windows disc and refreshed with service pack releases?

I understand the reasons for Microsoft reducing the duplication from having an OS e-mail client and a Windows Live one and so on, but when you're talking about removing things we've expected an operating system to have for the last 15 years you need to look at what you're doing from an end user perspective, and for the average end user that will mean being confused and not being able to find their e-mail program.

There are some advantages, such as more frequent updates. The Windows team are largely tied into the Windows release schedule, the Windows Live team have their own schedule so updates can be rolled out more rapidly.

But, to date I have not replaced any of the built in programs such as Windows Mail or Photo Gallery with their Live alternatives on my system. I have Live Photo Gallery installed, but I only use it for when I want to use one of the specific features I need, such as panoramic stitching.

This is because it looks different to the regular version of Photo Gallery, the Wave 2 release had a bright blue UI, and had its layout changed around a bit. The result was an application that did not blend in well with the rest of the Windows Vista, resulting in me continuing to use the regular Photo Gallery as the default. Not only that but Live Photo Gallery wanted to change the generic image icons to something other than the default system ones. There are few things more annoying, and confusing to end users than having the icons for things change. Such behavior is overly invasive.

If Microsoft are going through with this plan, they need to ensure the applications blend in well with the system, and that they don't tinker with things like icons in newer releases. If I can sit down at a Windows "7" system, and after a few releases of the Live suite not be able to spot any differences in the look and feel of an application - maybe they could get away with it. The Windows Live applications must not look like a crappy add-on bolted on the side of Windows, it must look and feel like Windows itself.

Lastly, advertising. Microsoft should come out and say that they will not feature advertising in any future versions of Live Photo Gallery, or Windows Live Mail, or the others. Unless the end user is making use of services with a back end in the cloud, namely Hotmail, Messenger etc. I pay good money for Windows, I don't want future versions to feature advertising in components that have historically been included with Windows.

Hopefully we'll have these concerns addressed at the PDC later this month.