Archive for June, 2007

Windows Live Drive is Live

Just finished reading an article at Techcrunch that let us know that Windows Live Drive, or as it is now known, Windows Live Folders, is now in beta, or managed beta, as it said in the article. Not sure what the managed part is, but I went straight in with my Live id, entered my password and was uploading files in seconds. Just go to folders.live.com, sign in and you are ready to go, unless I just got lucky and they are letting so many sign up.

The system is very fast, as Microsoft’s sites usually are, I uploaded over 80 megs worth of stuff in a couple minutes, but that was while I was on a very high speed connection, it will be interesting to see how fast it is on my sucky cable connection. The only thing I didn’t like about it so far is the number of files you can upload at a time is only 5, they should AT LEAST increase it to 10 or think about allowing us to drag and drop files and folders into it, like we can using Internet Explorer and ftp sites.

It looks very slick, but, we need millions of people using it to really test out Microsoft’s connections, hehe, so get you a live id, if you don’t have one, sign in and start uploading and sharing your files and lets see if we can stress test this thing. Don’t forget to leave feedback if you think they could improve it.

Make Windows XP Look Like Windows Vista

And get the best of both worlds, almost, hehe.

Windows Vista Transformation Pack version 7 has been released and it looks really good from the screenshots I have seen, a bunch available on this website, Vista Transformation Pack 7 for Windows XP. This is called the most popular skinning utility for Windows XP, it also works for Windows 2003, and this one includes the new start menu. Here are some of the additions and fixes:

-Added default system font option for recovery
-Added Docking support for preview and taskbar replacement
-Added DPI auto-detection in Machine Configuration
-Added hiding menu bar option for Vista (Styler) toolbar
-Added information about KB925902 hot fix issues and solution on startup
-Added memory requirements checking for 3rd-party applications
-Added resetting DPI options and some extra information in Machine Configuration
-Added screen resolution auto-detection
-Added setting clear type font automatically after the transformation
-Added Vista transformation ?Express mode? (Make an appropriate setup configuration in single page!)
-Added ViStart (Vista Start Menu port for Windows XP/2003 with glass UI and search function)
-Added uninstalling existing components before updating
-Added WindowBlinds detection warning message (for user who is mistaken about glass border skin)
-Added Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 uxtheme patching support
-Fixed backing up system files bug on repair mode
-Fixed checking for Styler incompatibility with x64 edition OS
-Fixed file version checking bug that cause backup system files being overwritten by modified system files when update
-Fixed operating system checking bug (that allow user to install in Windows 2000 and below)
-Fixed Start Orb positioning bug
-Fixed Styler to execute Styler.exe only when user wants to hide menu bar to save up memory and some weird issues
-Fixed Styler to run in toolbar mode (prevent error and message popup)
-Fixed Vista (Styler) toolbar option with correction of menu bar
-Fixed uninstalling bug with system drive icon
-Fixed uninstalling routines
-Fixed uxtheme.dll patching detection bugs on machine without any service pack
-Fixed Windows Live Messenger skin uninstallation bug
-Moved extra dialogs in the main dialogs process so user can make all decisions before transforming
-Removed customized open/save dialog due to bugs in some applications
-Replaced closeapp with pskill (some programs reported closeapp as virus though it isn?t)
-Replaced Blaero?s Start Orb with ViOrb (Auto positioning and snap over the start button upon taskbar shifting)
-Updated battery tray icons
-Updated Getting Started and Help and Support FAQ
-Updated LClock x86 to version 1.62b
-Updated Maintenance Center to be Welcome Center
-Updated minor UI graphic resources in themes
-Updated Segoe UI font
-Updated Shutdown/Logoff dialogs
-Updated Start Orb to full circle version
-Updated Thoosje?s Vista sidebar to version 2.1
-Updated transformation to use backup system file if it has the same file version during update
-Updated updating function to uninstall previous components before updating
-Updated Vista logon screen (Thanks to SoFtEcH for updating my logon)
|-Added status message (Welcome, Shutdown, etc.)
|-Fixed user account disappearance bug on lower resolution
|-Fixed user account moving around when focused
|-Moved shutdown button to right part
|-Updated password panel resources
|-Updated user picture?s frame border
-Updated Visualtooltip to version 2.1

Download the Vista Transformation Pack from here, link is at the bottom. This page has some really good screenshots as well, check it out.

Windows Vista and Office 2007 News and Tips

Here are some news items, tips, and tweaks for Windows Vista.

Windows Vista services that can be disabled One of the most effective ways to secure a Windows Vista workstation is to turn off the unnecessary services. This reference sheet lists all of the Windows Vista services, describes each one’s function, says whether you can safely disable it, and outlines what will happen if you do. The list assumes the machine is running Windows Vista Ultimate (some of the services that are listed won’t be available in other versions of Vista) in a corporate network environment and that the company is not using smart cards.

100 things you should know about Microsoft Office 2007 Don’t have time to sit down and read an exhaustive description of Office 2007′s most significant new features? Take a spin through this collection of “10 things” lists, which provide a concise and targeted view of the biggest changes, surprises, and enhancements in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access.

Shopping for Windows Vista software and drivers We’re just now approaching the five-month mark since Windows Vista was officially released. So it’s at this point that you would expect to find an abundance of software and device drivers on the market that are specifically designed for Windows Vista. Here’s a guide to finding some of those products. A great site to check for Windows Vista drivers is RadarSync.

10 key enhancements in Excel 2007 Given the learning hurdle that comes with an entirely revamped (albeit improved) user interface, Excel 2007 must offer significant enhancements to encourage you to upgrade. Herewith, my top 10. You can download all ten as a PDF here.

Here are the latest news items concerning Windows Vista from Google.

Here are the latest news items about Office 2007 from Google.

Windows XP Tweaks and Tips

Here are some pretty good tweaks, tips, downloads and info for Windows XP, some are older, some are not, but they all are useful.

Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive Ever had a PC crash and become unbootable? With this article, you can create a bootable USB drive that runs Windows XP, and if you can run Windows XP, you can get into the drive and run a virus scan, check for spyware, do some disk or partition repair to make your computer work again.

Hide shared folders with Windows XP Pro’s Net command line tool Use the Net command line tool to hide your PC, and/or your shared folders from other users on your network.

Use these four Registry tweaks to accelerate Windows XP Plenty of third-party programs claim to tweak or optimize Windows. However, most of them simply make Registry edits. Here are four manual tweaks that experienced IT professionals can make to improve the speed of Windows XP, from Windows XP Hacks, 2nd Edition.

XP Tools Pro XP Tools is a integrated suite of powerful PC Utilities to fix, speed up, and protect your computer. With only a few minutes of tweaking, XP Tools will optimize the performance of your computer, correct problems and it will help you to customize your system to suit your needs. XP Tools will erase your Internet tracks, the ones that it can anyway, hide your sensitive files and folders, lock your important applications, and give you the tools that you need to fine-tune your computer. When you run XP Tools, your Windows system will run faster, will crash less often, and will be more private and secure. And isn’t that about everything you want from a utility?

And check out some of the latest Windows XP News from Google.

Todays Tech 6/25/2007

Some interesting technology stories.

Leader of net piracy gang jailed A Briton has been jailed for 51 months after pleading guilty to software piracy charges in the US.

Microsoft’s anti-virtualization stance: forget DRM, think Apple This weekend Eric Lai of Computerworld attempted to describe the possible relationship between Vista’s DRM and Microsoft’s licensing restrictions against virtualization. The view that Microsoft’s prohibition stems from fears that users will circumvent DRM isn’t new, but the article comes at an opportune time: Microsoft came within an inch of reversing their position last week, but then backed off. The time is ripe for more speculation as to just why Microsoft says “no” to the virtualization of those two OSes, yet allows virtualization of other editions of Vista.

Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace Over the last six months, I?ve noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That’s only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it’s not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Which go where gets kind of sticky, because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class.

Symantec offers free software as amends for antivirus snafu Symantec gives away some more of their crappy software to the people they hosed in China with a bad dat file update.

First Apple iPhone shipments arrive stateside First shipments of the iPhone arrive.

Seagate Announces 1TB Drives Seagate today unveiled two 1TB hard drives for consumer and enterprise markets.

Windows Mobile and Windows XP News

For all of you people out there with Windows Mobile smart phones, you could soon be making free phone calls from your Windows Mobile and Windows Mobile 6 smart phones using Fring, a VOIP service that’s a lot like Skype.

Fring allows users to make free VoIP phone calls and conduct multiple live chat sessions through Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, and many other SIP service providers, according to the company.

Fringland says its mobile VoIP client enables “WiFi enabled but SIM-less” Windows Mobile PDAs to function as open VoIP phones, using either WiFi hot spots or 3G cellular data services for access to the Internet. It supports making low cost VoIP calls to PSTN/POTS landline phones using SkypeOut or similar services. “Presence” functions indicate a contact’s availability in real-time, allowing the user to select the best calling method based on factors such as the recipient’s availability, reception quality, and call cost, according to the company. Source: Free VoIP For Your Windows Mobile Smart phone

Download Fring here. In a related story, it appears Microsoft has been working on an application that will allow voice searches of your Windows Mobile device using Bluetooth and your mic. Check it out here.

From Techrepublic, you can download a Font properties extension that will give you loads more information on the fonts that are installed in your Windows XP system, both versions, home and professional.

After you download and install this extension, the number of tabs on each font’s properties dialog box will jump from two to 11, with each tab providing all kinds of information about the font. The information contained on these 11 tabs includes very detailed descriptions of each font, links to the font vendors and font designers, legal information, such as ownership, copyright, trademark, license, and embedding permissions, as well as technical information about the font. Source: Download an extension to learn more about Windows XP fonts

Check out the extension here from Microsoft, where you can download it from here or an older version for everyone still limping along on Windows 98 or 95.

Tired of the auto play box that pops up every time you insert your USB drive(s) into your computer? You can set Windows Explorer to be the default auto play action and it will open up every time you insert a USB drive, instead of that annoying box.

1. Insert your flash drive into the USB port.
2. When you see the AutoPlay dialog box, click Cancel.
3. Open My Computer, right-click your flash drive icon, and select Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, select the AutoPlay tab.
5. Perform the following steps for each item in the Content Type drop-down list:
   - Select an item in the Content Type drop-down list.
   - Choose Select An Action To Perform in the Actions panel.
   - Select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer action.
   - Click the Apply button.
6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box

. Source: Permanently set Windows XP’s Windows Explorer as your flash drive’s default AutoPlay action

Computer Deals for 6/22/2007

Here are some of the latest and greatest computer deals from around the web.

US DEAL OF THE DAY! Gateway GT4023E Refurbished AMD Desktop Computer AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz 1GB DDR 200GB HDD DVD?RW DL nVIDIA GeForce 6100 Integrated Flash Reader WinXP Media Center $349.97 (US).

PNY 128MB Attache USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive $FREE (US) Price after $10 MIR, rebate expires 06/30/07.

Lexar 512MB Premium 80X CompactFlash Card (2Pk 1GB Total) $14.99 (US).
CA: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=bVeaszezF7E&offerid=101323.1056203&type=2&subid=0″ target=”_blank”>

XFX GeForce 6200 256MB DDR2 AGP 8x DVI VGA TV Out Video Card $44.99 (US) Price after $10 MIR, rebate expires 06/30/07.

HP Officejet 5610 Fax Scanner Copier All-In-One Printer $49.99 (US) Price after $50 MIR, rebate expires 06/30/07.

OCZ Platinum Revision-2 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Memory (2x1024MB) $79.99 (US) Price after $50 MIR, rebate expires 07/02/07.

I-Inc AG-191DPB 19″ LCD Monitor 8ms 700:1 SXGA 1280×1024 DVI VGA Black 300 cd/m Built-In Speakers $139.99 (US) Price after $50 MIR, rebate expires 06/30/07.

HP L1706 17″ LCD Monitor 8ms 500:1 SXGA 1280×1024 Silver-Black D-sub 300 cd/m ECO Friendly $139.99 (US) Price after $30 MIR, rebate expires 07/31/07.

Acer AL2216WBD 22″ Widescreen LCD Monitor Ultra-fast 5ms WSXGA+ 1680×1050 DVI VGA Black VESA 100mm $199.99 (US) Price after $50 MIR, rebate expires 06/30/07.

Gateway MX6454 Refurbished Notebook PC AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 1.6GHz 802.11g Wireless 2GB DDR2 120GB HDD DL DVDRW 15.4″ WXGA WinXP Media Center $549.97 (US).

Dell Computer Deals and Coupons

Here are some of Dell’s computer deals and coupons on their notebooks and desktops.

$699 Dimension E521 Desktop. Offer expires 6.27.07

$649 Dimension C521 Desktop. Offer expires 6.27.07

$949 Inspiron E1705 Notebook. Offer expires 6.25.07

$1149 Inspiron E1705 Notebook. Offer expires 6.25.07

$899 XPS 410 ? Performance Multimedia. Offer expires 6.27.07

$67.99 Netgear WPN824 RangeMax Wireless Router from Dell. Offer expires 6.27.07

$2399 Sony Bravia 46v2500 LCD HDTV from Dell. Offer expires 6.27.07

$445 off Inspiron E1405: Only $749 (before tax, fees, shipping & handling) after coupon. Use code DNSTWGTB5XSW3L. Offer expires 6.26.07

$468 off Inspiron E1705: Only $929 (before tax, fees, shipping & handling) after coupon. Use code 262M270MR?NXWT. Offer expires 6.26.07

Save $300 on select Inspiron notebook purchases of $999 or more (before tax, fees, shipping & handling). Use code XK27VB586CD5BZ. Offer expires 6.25.07

Save $500 off select Inspiron notebook purchases of $1399 or more (before tax, fees, shipping & handling). Use code 3H?06J1HM4D5LK. Offer expires 6.25.07

C&C 3 Maps, Halo 3 Achievements and GTA IV on the Xbox 360

Here are a couple interesting articles for you gamers. Their is now some new content on the Xbox Live Marketplace for Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, a free map, a preview of some maps you have to buy, new maps and some gamerpics.

Name: Ground Zero Map
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live regions
Dash Details: Ground Zero Map Lead your army against a rival commander in this 1v1 map featuring a huge meteor impact crater. Download this free map now! This map is also playable in single-player skirmish mode.

Name: Map Pack 1 Developer Interview
Price: Free
Availability: Not available in Japan
Dash Details: Get the developer?s insider tour of the five intense map designs available in Command & Conquer 3 Map Pack One. Discover the key strategies to dominating the Tiberium fields and securing victory, whether you play GDI, NOD or Scrin!

Name: Map Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Japan
Dash Details: Map Pack 1 What kind of commander are you? Are you a defensive specialist, an air-superiority junkie, or a clandestine operations fanatic? Whatever your preferred strategy, test your skills and your wits against other commanders in five new multiplayer maps. Ranging from brutal 1v1 shootouts to gigantic 2v2 showdowns, this pack has something for every commander. Includes: Black?s Bigger Battle | Tiber River Valley | Frontier Fracas | Tiberium Gardens III | Tournament Desert Redux. All maps are playable in single-player skirmish mode as well.

Name: Factions Picture Pack
Price: 80 Points
Availability: Not available in Japan
Dash Details: Whose side are you on? Support your favorite Command and Conquer 3 faction with these gamerpics! Includes 4 gamerpics: GDI, NOD, Scrin, and unique Tiberium EA logo. Source: Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars content (some Free)

Xbox360 Achievements.org has posted the achievements that will be available for Halo 3. There are 49 achievements worth a total of 1000 points. Check the full list here. 9 missions with a skull for each, achievements for beating the game on normal, heroic and legendary and many more.

I almost forgot, yesterday I red an article that said Microsoft paid Take 2 50 million dollars for exclusive episodic content for the Xbox 360 for Grand Theft Auto IV. 25 million for content that will come out by March of 2008 and another 25 million for content that will be released later that year. GTA has a huge following so they are trying to pull in more gamers to the Xbox 360 side with extra content for GTA IV. This is surely a good way to do it, exclusive content for your favorite game might persuade you to pony up the money for a new system. Either that or someone will find a way to port it to the PS3.

Security Roundup 6/19/2007

Some interesting security related stories making the rounds.

Is The iPhone Insecure? Analysts are already debating whether the iPhone is going to be secure or not, with some saying Apple did not give one thought to Enterprise security.

Microsoft flaw opened door to scammers Microsoft fixed a bug Tuesday that had been allowing people to signup with fake email addresses, which in turn allowed them to “be” someone else while running Microsoft Messenger. Microsoft has no idea how long the flaw was available to users and had no idea how many fake accounts could have been created.

Cerulean Studios Trillian UTF-8 Word Wrap Heap Overflow Vulnerability Remote exploitation of a heap overflow vulnerability in Cerulean Studios Trillian Instant Messenger could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code as the currently logged on user. Solution: They have already released an update that fixes the problem here.

Bundled Products: Where the heck did this new toolbar come from? A researcher on stopbadware.org got some extra bundled software he didn’t like with Trillian. Same thing happened to me. That’s what we get for not reading EVERYTHING anymore.

Appeals Court Says Feds Need Warrants to Search E-Mail A federal appeals court on Monday issued a landmark decision (.pdf) that holds that e-mail has similar constitutional privacy protections as telephone communications, meaning that federal investigators who search and seize emails without obtaining probable cause warrants will now have to do so. “This decision is of inestimable importance in a world where most of us have webmail accounts,” said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Phishers and Malware authors beware! Google has released an API that will allow you to download from Google their list of suspected phishing and malware URLs, so now any developer can access the blacklists used in products such as Firefox and Google Desktop. Pretty cool.