REDMOND, Washington: Microsoft Corp. has served a cease-and-desist order on a website, VistaTorrent.com, which has been distributing the latest beta version of the software maker's Vista operating system. The company said its policies do not allow third party firms taking up unauthorized distribution of its products as it will not be possible for it to ensure the authenticity or security of any code that is not supplied via its own channels.
The company said in a statement that it appreciated the excitement among people in obtaining Windows Vista Beta 2, and "we encourage anyone interested in experiencing the Beta to visit the official website."
Two Microsoft enthusiasts had set up VistaTorrent.com in order to help people wanting to download Beta 2 and who were finding problems in doing so. The duo, Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington, said they understood Microsoft's need to protect its intellectual property and they hold no grudge for the cease-to-desist order. However, they felt the company is making a mistake by stopping such legitimate efforts to help dispense its products.
Microsoft has already stopped unrestricted access to the Vista Beta 2 software as it felt the unprecedented response threatened its other online services. People trying to download the program had found that the download manager had been having problems and the client sometimes crashes or hangs up for long periods.
Meanwhile, the company has provided details on hardware requirements for Windows Vista's basic and premium logo programs.
The company said in a statement, "To qualify for a basic system logo, the devices of a basic system that includes embedded or add-in devices must comply with the basic requirements (if a logo program exists for the device categories).
"Likewise, to qualify for a premium system logo, the devices of a premium system that includes embedded or add-in devices must comply with the premium requirements for the device category."
The following requirements need to be met for the downloads:
high-definition audio and DirectX 3D 9 support, one or more digital outputs for video adapters, Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi support, USB 2.0 support, and system resume times of two seconds or less from the "standby" state.
In addition, PCs to run Vista Premium would need to support the following by 1 June 2007: H.264 hardware decoding, HDCP support, multi-monitor support, HD audio and automatic detection of a connected HD audio device, Serial ATA 2.5 support, 50MB NV cache on a hybrid hard drive with at least 8MB/sec write and 16MB/sec read in mobile devices, support of USB flash drive booting, Windows Vista green button on the computer remote, and a Green driver quality rating.
The company is not changing its basic hardware requirements for Windows Vista, which specify an 800MHz modern processor, 512MB of RAM, DirectX 9 capability, and conformance with the "Designed for Windows XP" or "Designed for Windows XP x64" logo programs.
