Operating systems Reviews

Windows Mobile 6.5: a first look

Preview Microsoft's updated mobile OS brings a handful of enhancements, including an application store, a backup and restore service, and an improved mobile web browser

Photos: Windows Mobile 6.5

Photos Microsoft has shown off Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress, although new devices will not appear until the second half of 2009. Check out its look and feel here.

Windows 7 Beta: screenshot gallery

Photos The first public beta of Windows 7 (Build 7000) is now available for download. Here's a tour of the upcoming successor to Vista.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 review

Review Despite taking a completely different approach to virtualisation, Virtuozzo Containers can match the best hypervisors on performance while at the same time making virtual workloads quick and easy to deploy and manage.

XenServer 5 review

Review Early releases of the Xen hypervisor showed promise but had lots of rough edges. Citrix's XenServer 5, however, is very much a production-class virtualisation solution with features that match, and in some cases exceed, what's available on rival platforms.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 review

Review This is an impressive update to Microsoft's Small Business Server that packs a big punch. However, it may be overkill for a lot of companies and isn't quite as easy to manage as it first appears.

Windows 7: screenshot gallery

Photos Attendees at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference have received a 'pre-beta' version of Windows 7. Check out some of the key changes in Vista's successor.

Windows 7: a first look

Preview Microsoft has finally unveiled Windows 7: here are our first impressions of the next Windows, direct from the Professional Developers Conference.

VMware ESXi review

Review ESXi is the easiest hypervisor to install and use. It's based on VMware's ESX Server code, making it among the most stable and mature virtualisation options available. It also uses very little RAM and disk space, leaving more server resources free for your virtual machines.

Hyper-V review

Review Microsoft's Hyper-V is a solid virtualisation platform that's compatible with a wide range of modern server hardware.

Windows Small Business Server 2008: a first look

Preview Microsoft's 2008 bundle of server OS, applications and services for small businesses will ship on 12 November. Here are our impressions of the public preview release, which shows some big changes from the previous version.

vCharter Pro review

Review This is a powerful performance monitoring and reporting system for servers running VMware ESX Server. Web-based dashboards show the resources in use by servers and their VMs, while the reporting module delivers printable reports of historical data.

What we know about Windows 7

Preview Microsoft is remaining tight-lipped about the next version of Windows, due in late 2009 or early 2010: ZDNet.com's Redmond-watcher Mary Jo Foley summarises what we do know.

Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring review

Review The latest version of Mandriva is a competent and well-implemented desktop release with lots to commend it to those with some Linux know-how.

Install and configure a DHCP server in Windows Server 2008

Photos Learn how to install and configure a DHCP server in Windows Server 2008, and explore some of the advanced features DHCP has to offer.