Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Microsoft to release the two most important updates for Windows Vista next week

  These updates should go official on the next patch Tuesday (in one weeks time). So all have to wait for a week to download these updates or these updates are also available on some of the torrent sites of on file hosting sites.If anyone is so eager to download then he may do a little search and would easily find it!! .

Some information about the updates-

938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

  • Improves performance in resuming back to the desktop from the Photo and Windows Energy screensaver.
  • Resolves an issue where some secured web pages using advanced security technologies may not get displayed in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista.
  • Resolves an issue where a shared printer may not get installed if the printer is connected to a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and User Access Control is disabled on the Vista client.
  • Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
  • Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files.
  • Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate.
  • Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted.
  • Resolves a compatibility issue with RAW images created by Canon EOS 1D/1DS Digital SLR Camera which can lead to data loss. This only affects RAW images created by these two specific camera models.
  • Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode.
  • Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files.
  • Improves the performance of Vista’s Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption.
938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the reliability and hardware compatibility of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:
  • Improved reliability and compatibility of Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
  • Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
  • Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
  • Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics.
  • Improved quality of playback for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray disks on large monitors.
  • Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista.
  • Improved Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
  • Improved the reliability of Windows Calendar in Vista.
  • Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
  • Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
  • Increased reliability and performance of Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 2.0.2284.28

This is the updated version of the previously released Windows Live one care Beta 2,so If U haven't downloaded the previous version than be sure to download this to keep Ur windows safe from viruses.

This new version also establishes a foundation to better address the needs of small businesses.  Many small businesses need to protect and maintain a number of PCs but may not have the resources for extensive onsite IT support.  To help solve this problem, we added centralized backup to OneCare so local back up on a small business network is a simple step instead of a time consuming hassle. 

Here’s a quick overview of the new features we’ve added to OneCare version 2.0 to help keep users’ PCs and networks safe, reliable and performing well:

  • Multi-PC and home network management.
  • Printer sharing support.
  • Start-time optimizer. 
  • Proactive fixes and recommendations. 
  • Monthly reports. 
  • Centralized backup.
  • Online photo backup.

Download Here

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Microsoft Expression Media Reader (Mac)

Expression Media Reader is a free application that enables you to share Expression Media catalogs with anyone on the Macintosh or Windows platform who may not own Expression Media.

Expression Media users create catalogs that they can subsequently save and distribute, along with the original images, if they choose. Users who do not own Expression Media can then use Expression Media Reader to view, label, rate, and add comments to the distributed catalogs. Expression Media Reader opens catalogs written by Expression Media, iView Media, and MediaPro 1.5, 2.x or 3.x. and is also compatible with all the files that Expression Media can open. In addition, Expression Media Reader features the Slide Show function included in Expression Media.

For more information about Expression Media, visit the Microsoft Expression website.

Download Here 

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Microsoft Confirms Windows Seven

Windows Seven now has an official ship target - 2010.
At Microsoft's Global Exchange (MGX) annual sales conference in Orlando this week, Microsoft shared a bit more - albeit at a high level - on Windows Seven, according to a copy of a slide deck I saw that was distributed to the field sales force during the conference. Among the information shared was that Microsoft is anticipating it will take at least three years from now to get the next version of Windows client out the door.
Last time anyone got Microsoft to talk dates about Windows Seven, the next big Windows client release, a Windows exec slipped up and said something about 2009.
Microsoft officials told MGX attendees that the company is currently internally planning Windows Seven. So far, the company has determined Windows Seven will come in both 32- and 64-bit flavors. No word on how many SKUs or any kind of guidance on features was provided, but Microsoft did say it would address both consumer and business segments with Windows Seven. Microsoft is mulling the concept of how to extend Windows Seven with subscription-based services, according to the deck - more like Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which Microsoft currently offers to its Software Assurance customers, than Windows Live, however.

 

source- neowin

Friday, July 20, 2007

No Public Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta anytime soon

"There will be a Windows Vista service pack and our current expectation is that a beta will be made available sometime this year. Service packs are part of the traditional software lifecycle — they’re something we do for all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, and providing early test builds is a standard practice that helps us incorporate customer feedback and improve the overall quality of the product. 
Service packs are just one example of the work we do to constantly improve the Windows experience.  We also deliver improvements to Windows via Windows Update, which is an excellent channel for providing our customers with the most significant updates as they happen.  And, since Windows Vista launched, we have continued working with partners to improve overall device coverage and application compatibility. There are now more than 2.1 million supported devices and more than 2,000 logoed applications for Windows Vista. We think customers will have a great experience using Windows Vista today.”
So the only release that's occurring is a limited Beta to a very small, very select group of advance customers. A public version of the Beta is not being released this week, nor next, nor in July, nor anytime in the immediate future.

source- bink

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

Today Microsoft released the latest version of Microsoft Office Outlook connector.  With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free!.

Outlook Connector Beta enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

  • Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
  • Manage your Live Mail Contacts.
  • Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
  • Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
    With a paid subscription, Outlook Connector Beta enables these additional features:
  • Manage, share, and synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook.
  • Access your Tasks and Notes. For download link just visit the Microsoft's Latest Releases section.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Live Search for Windows Mobile v2 Released

 The latest version of our Live Search for Windows Mobile client is out the door! We continue to improve this great service by offering new requested functionality such as movie showtimes, restaurant ratings and better GPS navigation. As always, you can find the latest bits by pointing your Windows Mobile device browser to http://wls.live.com.

What’s new in V2?

  • Movie Showtimes:  Want to see a movie but don’t know what’s playing?   Get Movie Showtimes near you and be on your way! 
  • More Local Data:  Want to go out for dinner but not sure which restaurant to pick?  Let your fellow restaurant goers help you out – make a decision based on user ratings.
  • Maps:  View Mobile Virtual Earth maps wherever you are.  For improved performance, pop in your storage card to enable the large cache option.
  • Directions: Lost?  Get found with better support for GPS integration and improved turn-by-turn navigation.  We’ll even prompt you to auto-reroute if you get lost! 
source- activewin

Channel 8 coming soon

Channel 8 is the next best thing to come from Microsoft Communities, designed for students, by students, and for students. It’s hosted on the MSDN website so it’s for students developing and getting their hands knee deep in code and suchlike.

It’s been in the works for some time now but it’s almost ready to kick off. Charles who runs Channel 9 says, “The most important aspect of Channel 8 is the Student, not programming languages. We want to provide a place for technical students to call their home on the web; a place to meet and share ideas with fellow thinkers, and this means Channel 8 will be and provide, in time, many things that matter to students”.

See the splash screen - http://channel8.msdn.com.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 goes into public beta

Windows Live OneCare is an automatically self-updating PC care service that's on whenever your PC is on, helping provide persistent protection against viruses, hackers, and other threats. It also performs regular tune-ups to help keep your PC running at top speed, and helps you back up important documents. 

  • Runs quietly in the background, providing anti-virus, anti-spyware,  online identity and scam protection (anti-phishing) and firewall protection
  • Updates itself to help you keep ahead of the latest threats
  • Runs regular PC tune-ups, even checking for ways to shorten PC boot-up time
  • Provides one-click solutions to most problems
  • Makes backups a breeze
  • Lets you see the status of all your computer systems at a glance

Download here-http://get.live.com/betas/onecare_betas

source- Tech Today

Monday, July 9, 2007

Vista SP1 beta 1 to launch in mid-July

Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all  believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista — not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end — the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July.

Word (from various sources who asked not to be named) is Microsoft is gearing up to drop Vista SP1 some time the week of July 16. And despite what Microsoft seemingly led Google, the U.S. Department of Justice and other company watchers to believe, the final version of Vista SP1 is sounding like November 2007.

(November 2007 is also the release-to-manufacturing target for Windows Server 2008, sources say. Microsoft won’t provide an RTM date for Windows Server 2008, other than to say it is still on track to RTM before the end of 2007.)

Source: blogs.zdnet.com

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Microsoft takes on Joost with LiveStation

It sure took them a while, but at least this time they started before the competition's product went final, was a huge hit and had a massive userbase.
Microsoft Research has teamed up Skinkers Limited to offer live broadcasting of television on your computer by means of a p2p network. The service uses Silverlight, Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash, to playback the content on the broadcasted channels. "Imagine your audience being able to watch your live TV content at their desktop, at the airport, at home and in fact, anywhere they can get an Internet connection to their PC! Imagine a quality image with no buffering or stopping! Imagine the possibilities of being able to allow your audience to 'click' on a TV advert exactly as they do on the web but while watching your existing TV channels. All without having to change your current business processes in the slightest!" Let's hope when the two go at it, they'll not only be fighting for picture quality and reliability but for less advertisements as well. The beta program will start small, but all requests will be considered as more testers are needed.
 Link: LiveStation Beta Signup | Home Page

Internet Explorer 8 Alpha screenshots!!!

A person at leneros.com has posted some of the images saying that the images actually are that of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha.The forum is in Spanish language so it may be difficult for some to understand.Here is the translated version of what he writes-

Internet Explorer 8 goes the development of the new explorer of Microsoft. At the moment, one knows that the greater priority of the company is to implement all the supports of RSS, CSS and AJAX within this new project.
In addition, also they have commented which this navigator will include support for the microformats, small labels written in code HTML that can be interpreted of different form, or like dates of a calendar or information of contact. The support for these microformats already was announced for the new version of Firefox, reason why Microsoft also will include it not to be behind its main competitor.
In fact, this new version of Internet Explorer is an answer towards Firefox 3, since Microsoft does not want that the navigator of Mozilla to them continues taking terrain. At the moment, the date of launching is not known, but Chris Wilson has announced that, at least, needs a year more development or even something more, reason why surely will be necessary to wait for near a year and means to be able to enjoy this new IE.

Here are some of the images of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha

Source- Laneros.com

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 beta almost here

In an email sent to Windows Live OneCare testers, Microsoft confirmed the imminent start of the OneCare 2.0 beta program. Designated as a "pre-premiere", OneCare 2.0 will not be available as a public beta initially.

New features we should be seeing include:

  • Multi PC management - designate a hub PC and then add additional PCs to your OneCare circle using a common Windows Live ID. You can then see the status of the other PCs within the group.
  • Printer Sharing - share your printer with all the PCs in your OneCare circle
  • OneCare Online Photo Backup - paid storage is available online for photo backups (we're hearing 10GB but that could change by the end of the beta)
  • Securing wireless networks - if your router is supported OneCare 2.0 will allow you to secure your wireless network
  • x64 support

The ability to backup online is a feature we've been talking about for a while, as a potentially key part of storage in the cloud. Windows Live Folders is currently set at 500MB, but if 10GB is what is being offered for OneCare Photo backups, a significant increase for the final version seems more than likely.

If you haven't signed up for the beta already, here's the link.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Windows Ultimate team provides an update on Extras

The Windows Ultimate Extras Team today posted a short notice on the Windows Vista Ultimate site updating the community on the status of Ultimate Extras; go here to read their post.
The team recognizes that they've been dark for some time on the topic of Ultimate Extras, but want to go on record that they plan to deliver pending DreamScene and Language Pack Extras by summer's end, and expect to disclose a schedule of further Extras releases after that milestone.
The reason for the Extras' delay has been the team's staunch devotion to final quality; your feedback, on DreamScene in particular, has been key to ensuring their focus on meeting the community's exacting standards.
They plan to add to the Extras line up from then on out to make Ultimate the only version of Windows Vista you'll want to use.

Microsoft giving free cafe coffee Day vouchers for Indians

 Microsoft in association with Cafe Coffee Day came forward to give vouchers worth rupees 100.

All you need to do is just fill up a short form and complete the slogan. They would give away the best 1000 entries cool cafe coffee day vouchers

Click the link below to get your FREE CAFE Voucher-http://www.microsoft.com/india/windows/winwithwindows/

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Join the "Centro" beta program

“Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses. The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements).
Please take a moment to read through the hardware requirements below. If you meet these requirements, go to http://connect.microsoft.com, click on Invitations, sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID; Extr-GHBC-JCJM.