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Windows XP and Windows Vista News

Windows Vista and Windows XP in the news.

Vista: Benchmarking or Benchmarketing? Microsoft is in an excellent position to create an industry standard benchmark on a consumer level, because Vista will be the dominant operating system for new PCs by the middle of this year. A built-in benchmarking solution would not only allow users to assess and compare the performance of components and systems, but be a powerful marketing instrument for the whole industry as well. Microsoft developed a comprehensive but simple to understand rating scheme, called the Windows Experience Index.

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista Free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create searchable PDF files by selecting the “Print” command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favourite web sites to PDF files.

Researcher to Demonstrate Vista Attacks A security researcher will show hackers new ways to defeat Vista’s BitLocker drive encryption. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Windows Vista Tip: Installing And Running Adobe Reader When you want to put a document online, or distribute it via e-mail, and you need it to look exactly the way it looks on paper, then PDF is the way to go — and the standard application used to view PDF files is, of course, Adobe Reader.

So Where is Microsoft Vista SP1? The April 25 release of a feature-complete Windows Server “Longhorn” beta is a monumental milestone for Microsoft, perhaps more important than the launch of Windows Vista. As the nucleus of Microsoft’s enterprise product strategy, Longhorn will likely pull deployments of other products, including Vista. However, uncertainty about the release of the first Vista service pack looms like a dark cloud over future upgrades.

How the ANI bug got baked into Vista: Microsoft explains In a postmortem of last month’s Windows animated (.ANI) cursor vulnerability, one of Microsoft Corp.’s security development gurus today spelled out how the bug sneaked into Vista.

Manual switch solves XP’s auto-play options Q. I have several flash drives and a couple memory card readers and want to change the automatic-play options that Windows XP offers when I plug them into a USB port. XP will automatically open Windows Explorer — unless there are any JPG picture or AVI movie files on the drive.

NVIDIA Releases nTune 5.05.38 For Windows XP and Vista NVIDIA has released a new version of nTune, its GPU and platform overclocking utility, to NVIDIA.com. The version is 5.05.38 and supports Windows XP (32/64-bit) and Windows Vista (32/64-bit).

Microsoft: Windows XP Sales Will Fade In 2008 as Vista Takes Hold Officials at the software maker said they expect that Windows Vista will account for 85% of OS sales in fiscal 2008 compared to 15% for Windows XP.

New 3d Layers in Google Earth

Google has teamed with the American Institute of Architects, AIA, to launch two new Google Earth Layers which you can use to explore some of architecture’s most popular structures in 3D! The first layer, America?s Favorite Architecture has 150 structures to explore, including, ballparks, bridges, memorials in one layer, the other layer, Blueprint for America, in which AIA members donate their time and expertise are collaborating with community leaders and local citizens to enhance the quality of life in their community, and you can track the progress in Google Earth.

Fly to America’s Favorite Architecture, a layer featuring the American public’s favorite architecture (as selected though a national poll announced earlier this year). View all 150 structures, including many with just created 3-D models of the buildings, ballparks, bridges, and memorials that characterize architecture in the eyes of Americans. And then explore the second layer, Blueprint for America. Blueprint is a community service effort funded by the AIA, in which AIA members donating their time and expertise are collaborating with community leaders and local citizens to enhance the quality of life in their community. You?ll be able to track the progress of these projects on Google Earth as they unfold over the next year and, we hope, become inspired to take action where you live. Source: New 3-D layers from AIA on Google Earth

Google Videos: authors@Google

Google has been releasing videos by some of our times most promising thinkers, in which these personalities come to Google and talk about their recently published books. The program has become so big; they are expanding it to 7 other offices, including the offices in London and Dublin. They have created an online home for the series here, Authors@Google and in 2007 only have had the following authors do one: Martin Amis, Strobe Talbott, Bob & Lee Woodruff, Jonathan Lethem, Don Tapscott, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Carly Fiorina. I have posted some links to these in our video section, here.

Source: Official Google Blog.

Free Computer Magazines

Through our partnership with Tradepub we are able to offer our readers some great and FREE computer magazines, some of the big ones and some that are very specialized, so be sure your browse the appropriate section before giving up.

eWeek.

PC Magazine.

Info Security.

Dr Dobbs Journal.

Oracle Magazine.

One of the most popular with our readers has been Cisco on Cisco News. Note: It appears they no longer offer that one, but do have a few replacements on that page.

Here are all of the categories of free magazines you can subscribe to:
Agriculture
Automotive
Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
Computers
Construction
Education
Engineering
Executive & Management
Finance
Food & Beverage
Government
Healthcare
Human Resources
Industrial & Manufacturing
Internet
Information Technology
IT - Data Management
IT - Security
IT - Software & Development
IT - Storage
Insurance
Mechanical / Machine
Meetings & Travel
Multimedia
Network / Communications
Purchasing & Procurement
Retail
Sales & Marketing
Small & Medium Business
Telecom & Wireless
Trade/Professional Services
Transportation & Logistics
Utility & Energy

Windows Vista News and Nuggets

Another crop of news concerning Windows Vista.

Microsoft’s Vista sales boost 3Q profit Shares of Microsoft Corp. soared nearly 5 percent Friday, after the company posted a 65 percent jump in third-quarter profit, boosted by sales of its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007, and by upgrade coupons issued over the holidays.

Vista Security Security experts still proclaim Vista a major improvement over previous Windows versions, and readily say that its important new safety features–including an improved firewall, a “Protected Mode” for Internet Explorer, and User Account Control–make it much more resistant to the most common forms of spyware and malware. However, this latest flaw (now fixed) is a major black eye for Microsoft.

0wning Vista from the boot Federico Biancuzzi interviews Nitin and Vipin Kumar, authors of VBootkit, a rootkit that is able to load from Windows Vista boot-sectors. They discuss the “features” of their code, the support of the various versions of Vista, the possibility to place it inside the BIOS (it needs around 1,500 bytes), and the chance to use it to bypass Vista’s product activation or avoid DRM.

Windows Vista = Windows Me II? Is Windows Vista going to be a repeat of the Windows Me marketing and sales disaster that Microsoft experienced back in 2000? Say it aint so.

Ubuntu Linux Vs. Windows Vista: The Battle For Your Desktop Is Linux finally ready to take on Windows as a desktop OS? We tried out both Vista and Ubuntu on individual PCs to see which works better. Here’s who won. Ubuntu’s best strength is handling the ordinary task-based day-to-day stuff. Vista has a level of completeness and polish that some people find it hard to do without.

The MacLockPick, Live Forensics for Your Mac

This is one cool little USB drive, and I am currently looking for a Windows version, drop a comment if you know of one. The MacLockPick is a USB device that will allow you to perform live computer forensics on a suspects Mac OS X system, once the software is run, the drive will extract data from the Apple Keychain and system settings to give the examiner fast access to the suspect’s critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible.

MacLockPick takes advantage of the fact that the default state of the Apple Keychain is open, even if the system has been put to sleep. It also makes use of the openly readable settings files used to keep track of your suspect’s contacts, activities and history. These data sources even include items that your suspect may have previously deleted or has migrated from previous Mac OS X computers. Source: MacLockPick, live forensics for OS X via MacUser

Here is some of the data you will have after the software runs:
System passwords.
General passwords.
Internet passwords.
Appleshare passwords.
Folder dates.
Disk images.
Files that have been viewed in the preview program.
Recent QuickTime file names.
Recent Applications, Documents, and Servers.
IM default login and buddy list.
Email account details, address book and opened attachments.
Complete web history, including search strings in the Google toolbar, cached bookmarks, current bookmarks, cookies, and browsing history, including the number of times visited and the date and time of the most recent visit!
Serial numbers of attached iPods.
Bluetooth devices.
Wifi connections.
Network interfaces.

Unfortunately, this device if for law enforcement only, you must provide proof that you are a licensed law enforcement professional and that the use of this technology is legal on federal, state and local levels.

Windows Longhorn Server and Vista Service Pack 1

Interesting post about Microsoft backing off on their statements that they are releasing Windows Longhorn Server and Windows Vista SP1 at the same time. In November of last year, Bob Muglia, a senior vice president for server and tools at Microsoft, said that Windows Server Longhorn and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 would ship “simultaneously.” This would make lots of sense because it is one source code base for both products. But, when asked, Microsoft has backed away from this statement.

Windows Server is the nucleus of Microsoft’s enterprise strategy, around which all other products?even Windows client?revolve. Longhorn’s eventual release, which Microsoft claims will be later this year, will likely set off major software upgrades, including Office 2007 and Windows Vista.

The release date of either or both products is important to Microsoft and its customers. There is a huge opportunity for Microsoft if the Big Bang theory proves to be true. If there is a delay in the offing, Microsoft wouldn’t want to say. Businesses testing for Vista deployments might forestall the process.

Then there is the enormous impact on other products. Many IT organizations will choose to take one bitter pill, coordinated Exchange Server 2007, Longhorn Server, Office 2007 and Vista deployments around the same time, rather than many pills over time. Hence, the Big Bang, and all contingent on answering the question “When?” Source: Microsoft’s ‘Big Bang’ Is When?

Now they say it is too early to really give a release date for Vista’s service pack 1, etc, etc, I figure, if it is going to be later than that, they won’t tell until the last moment anyway, they don’t want those shops that are testing Windows Vista to stop what they are doing. I never really did agree with doing a bunch of critical apps all at once, they only upside is you aren’t constantly updating everyone’s computer with software rollouts of the new stuff, but it just seems crazy to do Exchange, the Domain servers, the clients at the same time, sounds like you are asking for trouble.

Leaked Halo 3 Beta Videos

Just uploaded a bunch of Halo 3 videos to the gaming videos section, the one below is one of the best, the footage takes place in a map called Last Resort which is a newly reworked version of the Halo 2 favorite, Zanzibar. I’ve also posted links to a bunch more Halo 3 videos below.

Gears of War COG Tag Strategy Videos

Major Nelson has posted some blog posts about some strategy guides they have for sell on Xbox Live, this one, BradyGames Gears of War COG Tag Locations strategy videos (5) is for Gears of War Cog Tag locations. Lots of comments on that post, mostly how there are already guides available for free, online and in video form, as a matter of fact, I posted one the other day, Gears of War COG Tag Video Guide. And I have also listed some websites that list the locations, so save your points for a game you can play or something, plus, I have reposted the cog tag guide below.

This webpage, Gears of War Guide (Xbox 360), Gears of War Walkthrough lists the numbers of cog tags by level and by section, example:

ACT 1 12 cog tags
14 Years After E-Day 3 cog tags
Trial By Fire 2 cog tags
Fish in a Barrel 1 cog tags
Fork in the Road 0 cog tags
Knock Knock 1 cog tags
Hammer 2 cog tags
Wrath 0 cog tags
China Shop 3 cog tags
They have listed specific locations on their Walkthrough portion of this guide

This webpage, COG Tag List, and it doesn’t have any advertisements on it, just straight information.

ACT 1
Prison area
COG Tag 1 - Right after you make your choice of paths (I chose
training) there is a tag straight ahead under the Gear logo. Can’t miss it.

COG Tag 2 - In the room where the locusts cut through the door. If you
are looking directly at the door they cut through, you can find it back and to
the left. It’s under the stairway across the room you came down.

COG Tag 3 - As you exit the above mentioned door into the courtyard,
there is a stairway to the left. Run up the stairs and turn left right at the
top. The COG tag is in the near side corner (if enemies are North, it would be
in the SW corner of the patio area.

Lots of great and free information on the internet, should always search before you buy any strategy guides for any game.

Windows Vienna Concept Logon Screen

Windows Vienna login screen, Logon 1.0. Click here to get it.

This is my first concept of Logon about Microsoft’s future Operating System. I have attached the PSD of Sidebar skins and user Vista images. You can replace your own wallpaper for personal use.