Change Logon Background in Windows Vista
I caught this via Steve Clayton (who caught it via Jeff Sandquist showing off his home) - Stardock has a really neat application called LogonStudio that allows you to change the background of your logon screen in Windows Vista. I absolutely love the space background.
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2.12.2007 PC login Now - How To Change a Windows XP Limited User Account Into a Computer Administrator
One of the place that I work at has a few hundreds of computers and it is shared by students.
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12.7.2008 Windows XP LogonUI Changer - Change Windows XP Logon Background
Windows 7 has got built-in feature to change Windows 7 Logon background and we have already covered Logon Changer & LogonUI background changer for Windows 7. For Windows Vista & XP Logonstudio is best tool to use.
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12.8.2009 Windows 7 Logon Screen Rotator
Till Windows Vista & Xp there was no support for changing Login Screen background and you have to use third party apps like logon studio for changing login screen background.
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8.6.2009 New improved Win 7 Logon screen chenger
This app will auto resize you image to fit you current screen resolution. Must be run as admin. Works great.
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19.3.2009 Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization
As you probably know, Windows 7 build 7057, a build recently leaked to the public, sports a new (yet ugly) login UI background.
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16.3.2009 Configure Windows Logon Process with Winlogon Configuration Tool
Windows Logon Screen is the first screen displayed after you boot your Windows OS. Often you feel the need of changing logon user, enable/disable multi users logon session or running some script immediately after you login.
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15.7.2009 Windows 7 Build 7004 Is Win7 Beta 2?
The whole world is eagerly awaiting the official public release of Windows 7 Beta 1, widely speculated to be build version 6.1.7000.0 (or simply build 7000) in early January 2009, which may be as soon as within days.
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4.1.2009 Incoming - Real and fake Win7 patches
Microsoft has made available a patch to a Windows 7 bug in the Release Candidate (RC) and is preparing to roll out some “fake” test patches to verify Windows 7’s automatic-updating abilities this week.
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13.5.2009 Microsoft readies Win7 netbook specs
Microsoft is readying a set of maximum specs for Windows 7 netbooks –or, as Microsoft prefers to call them, “small notebooks” — that will likely dictate which PCs will qualify for lower per-copy Windows 7 pricing.
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22.5.2009 Microsoft readies Win7 netbook specs
Microsoft is readying a set of maximum specs for Windows 7 netbooks –or, as Microsoft prefers to call them, “small notebooks” — that will likely dictate which PCs will qualify for lower per-copy Windows 7 pricing.
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26.5.2009 Leaked memo hints at Win7 prices
Microsoft officials may not be ready to share the date of the Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade program they preannounced this week. But Best Buy is.
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5.6.2009 Windows 7 E (Europe) Build 7264 Win7 RTM x64 English DVD
Microsoft Windows 7 E Build 7264 Win7 RTM x64 English DVD
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8.7.2009 Get Free Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition with Party Pack By Hosting Win7 Launch Party
In a new campaign to promote Windows 7, Microsoft is giving chances to Windows 7 enthusiasts around the world to be part of Windows history by hosting a house party to mark the official launch of Windows 7.
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4.9.2009 What would you change in Windows?
If you were hired by Microsoft to make the Windows experience less annoying, what would be on your to-do list?
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30.4.2008 Can Dell change the Linux market?
After a lot of hemming-and-hawing, Dell has decided to accept the verdict of its IdeaStorm users and sell pre-installed Linux.
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26.2.2007 Exec says new Windows head will change culture
Sinofsky comes to the Windows group, which has not shipped a new product in nearly five years, with a reputation within Microsoft as an effective taskmaster and a track record of on-time new software releases delivered in regular intervals.
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27.3.2006 Change Office 2007 Product Key
When Office 2007 was RTM'ed and downloadable on MSDN I used Office Professional 2007. For my new course, SharePoint BI, which I'm writing at the moment I needed InfoPath as well.
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1.1.2007 Microsoft: We Didn’t Change Automatic Updates
Software giant says users are responsible for the modifications that generated claims of unauthorized patch installs.
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20.10.2007 How to Change Windows Vista Boot Screen
Some of you remember how it was possible to change the boot logo screen of Windows 95/98. I'm not sure why anyone would go into the trouble of actually doing it, but it seems that it is possible to do the same for Windows Vista.
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19.11.2007 Microsoft Details IE 8 Security Default Change
The company will enable DEP/NX (Data Execution Prevention/No Execute) by default in IE 8 when running on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
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11.4.2008 XP: Get Updates No Matter What or Change your Product Key
If your windows installation has issues, or for some other unmentionable reason is unable to get updates from the windows server, this is what you need to do.
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27.3.2006 Popular Instant Messenger, Gaim, Forced to Change Name
It was announced, yesterday, that the popular multi-headed instant messaging client, Gaim, has undergone a name change. The new name, Pidgin, comes after years of secret discussions and legal issues with internet giant, AOL.
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8.4.2007 Microsoft agrees to change Vista desktop search
Microsoft agreed Tuesday to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with U.S. regulators.
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20.6.2007 Microsoft to change Vista to satisfy Google antitrust complaint?
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has agreed to modify its new Vista operating system in response to complaints that its desktop search function puts Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) and other potential competitors at a disadvantage, a source familiar with the case told Reuters on Tuesday.
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20.6.2007 Vista: the Gender Challenged OS, After the Longhorn Sex Change
Windows Vista is a Microsoft gender-challenged operating system, after it has survived the Longhorn sex change. Just bear with me, it will all make sense in the end, I promise.
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22.3.2008 Set and Change Windows 7 Registered Owner & Organization with SetOwner
It may happen that you have bought second hand laptop or computer with preinstalled Windows operating system and you are looking for the way to change ownership information.
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20.11.2009 The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software
Ray Ozzie has a long and storied history of technological innovation, with accomplishments that include creating Lotus Notes and founding Groove Networks.
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14.4.2007 Prevent 1.0 - Stop Unauthorized Copy, Delete, Move & Change of Settings
I am sure everyone has faced the situation where either their friends, colleagues, family member of kids renaming, deleting important files or changing settings like wallpaper, screen resolution etc. this is typical with younger sibling.
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17.9.2009 A Mac user switches to Vista?
Say something critical about Microsoft and Windows and no one bats an eyelash. But write anything even faintly judgmental about the Macintosh and in comes a flood of hate mail from Mac users. The worst part is the tone of most, which generally tend toward religious zealotry. So before I begin, let me begin by saying any e-mails of that type that are sent in response to this story will be deleted, with no reply.
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3.2.2007Microsoft on Win7 UAC: 'Take the emotions out of the discussion'
The latest blog posts from Windows 7 engineers reveal this quandary: If the whole point of accelerating Win7 was to eliminate the Vista complaints,
and the tool to accomplish that is generating more complaints, what do they do?..
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06.02.2009Elevations Are Now Blocked in the User's Logon Path
Hi, Jim Hong, Program
Manager on UAC, here again to
tell you about a new change in
the UAC user experience coming
in RC1. Applications that
start when the user logs on
and that require elevation are
now blocked in the logon path.
Without blocking
applications from prompting
for elevation in the user's
logon path, both standard
users and administrators would
have to respond to a User
Account Control dialog box
on every log on . While
this potentially becomes an
annoyance for administrators,
it is an unusable UI for
standard users who cannot
drive the UAC elevation prompt
without having an
administrator around to
provide credentials.
Furthermore, we advise users
to be wary of prompts that
appear without them taking an
explicit action -- and prompts
generated at startup go
against that advice.
In RC1 and later,
Windows Vista notifies the
user if an application has
been blocked by placing an
icon in the system tray and
providing a notification
balloon during the startup
sequence. See Fig. 1 for a
visual of what this might look
like:
microsoft.com/windowsvista - 29.05.2007
Why does Windows XP generate so many logon failure events?
Eric Fitzgerald: I got the question last week, why there are so many logon failure events on Windows XP when it is not domain joined.
The short answer is, by design. (Yes, bad design.)
The longer answer is that the shell team is working around the fact that
there is no "tell me if this user account has a blank password" API.
When in a workgroup (not domain joined), Windows XP
displays a welcome screen that has little pictures (called "tiles") for each user who is permitted to log on to the computer.
The shell team wanted the experience that when you click on a tile, that you will immediately be logged on if your password is blank (we have good
data that a large percentage of home users have blank passwords). They only want you to be prompted for a password if you actually have a password.
Fair enough, and it also helps with accessibility for people for whom typing is challenging.
winbeta.org - 10.11.2007
Windows 7 to support logon UI backgrounds
In the latest Windows 7 build (7057), recently leaked to the public, Rafael Rivera over at Within Windows has found that users can customize the UI
logon background images to include custom images. Rafael reports that the functionality was probably designed for OEM manufactures to include
custom images for Windows 7 in pre-configured computers, but users can now include their own images without the need to use a simple third-party
program. After enabling a registry setting, users can use any image of their choice, as long as their are less than 256kb in size.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 16.03.2009
XP Pro to receive WGA similar to Vista SP1
Remember how everyone was excited about how Vista SP1 received a WGA update to not block you from your computer?
Well, the same is coming
to Windows XP. (Professional only, though. Who would want to pirate XP Home?)
From the WGA Blog:
With this update to
WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we've implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows
Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their
next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously (see below).
The desktop
background can be reset to anything else in the usual ways, but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue
to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine.
Also, the user will see the addition of what we call the "persistent desktop
notification." This notification is similar to a watermark but works a bit differently. The image (see below) appears over the system tray and is
non-interactive in the sense that you can't click on it or do anything to it.
As with previous releases, if a copy of Windows fails
validation, notifications will appear above the system tray regularly - and we will continue to have the pre-logon message, the logon interrupt
message and the messages that appear from the system tray.
jcxp.net - 27.08.2008
Opinion: Windows 7's UAC is a broken mess; mend it or end it
Peter Bright: I wrote a few weeks ago about
changes Microsoft has made to Windows 7's User Account Control (UAC) that make the component less secure than it was in Vista. Though the company
has responded by saying it will change some of the problem behaviors, yet more problems have emerged that indicate that a real fix will be harder than
first expected. But more than that, the flaws call into question the entire purpose of the Windows UAC feature, at least in its commonplace "Admin
Approval" mode...
winbeta.org - 07.03.2009
Two timesavers when Windows misbehaves
Windows occasionally gets into a weird state where, well, things just stop working - the start menu doesn't launch some apps anymore, clicking links
in Internet Explorer doesn't work, context menus stop working, etc.*
Instead of rebooting Windows to get things working again,
try logging out and logging back in. When Windows (and the apps that plug into the Windows shell) get into some weird state, you don't need to
reboot; a logoff shuts down the Windows Explorer, and a logon loads it again.
The system services in Windows generally don't get
into too weird a state. So they can just keep on running during your logoff/logon.
winbeta.org - 22.01.2008
Ballmer: Yes on Windows 7 for netbooks, but maybe not a specific SKU
Did the Microsoft CEO really say what the financial press says he said about netbooks and Win7? Not really.
..
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09.03.2009Tech support firm expects bump in business from Win7
With Windows 7 in the wings, on-demand tech support firm iYogi is expanding its staff to accommodate an anticipated run on its services, especially
from those moving off XP.
The New York-based firm, which offers remote technical support to consumers and small businesses, has
increased its staff by more than 200 people. The company, which has 90,000 users around the globe, says it is anticipating that XP users will have the
most trouble and the most questions.
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17.09.2009Microsoft says yes, will augment UAC in the next Win7 RC
In a stunning and maybe unprecedented accedence to public opinion this morning, Microsoft has announced it will take the emotion out of its
discussion, and simply do something its users are asking for...
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06.02.2009Canonical discloses Samba Vulnerability in Linux
Canonical has disclosed a security vulnerability that affects various versions, including the latest version 7.10, of its Linux distribution, as well
as corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu. The flaw occurs because Samba, an application which provides seamless file and print
services to SMB/CIFS clients, does not correctly check the size of reply packets to mailslot requests. It is therefore possible for a remote attacker
to execute malicious code by sending a specially crafted domain logon packet, assuming that domain logon is enabled on the server. Thankfully, it is
disabled by default in Ubuntu and upgrading libsmbclient as well as samba to the latest versions for the OS fixes the issue.
Update:
Several members have noted in the comments that this is, in fact, not a vulnerability limited to Ubuntu, but is a problem with samba itself. We
recommend keeping up to date, no matter what distribution you are using.
Read full story.....
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19.12.2007Windows 7 testers should upgrade their IE8
Though there is no IE8 release candidate for Win7, there's now another way for testers to apply critical bux fixes.
..
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25.02.2009Windows 7: User Account Control (UAC) overview
In part one of our overview of Windows 7, we looked into Federated Search. In part two, we look into the much criticized feature of Windows Vista -
The User Account Control One of the highly criticized features in Windows Vista is the User Account Control(UAC) which prompts up a dialog box
seeking users' permission to continue or stop whenever a system-level change is made. The problem with Vista is that even the default user account
which is created during the install, who is a protected administrator (unlike in XP where the user is an Administrator), could not bypass the UAC
until its tweaked.
Read full story.....
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07.01.2009Leaks indicate Microsoft is un-rethinking the Win7 taskbar
During last week's touring WinHEC conference in Beijing, attendees were treated to the latest Windows 7 build running in a virtual machine. Trouble
is, someone apparently pilfered a copy of the VHD, and now it's loose...
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09.12.2008Credential Prompt Change in RC2
Hi, everyone. I'm Daniel
Oliver, a program manager on
the Windows Shell Team.
If you're running
Windows Vista on a
domain-joined machine, you may
have noticed a small change
between Windows Vista RC1 and
RC2 when the UAC dialog box
prompts for credentials in an
OTS (over the shoulder)
scenario. In RC2, only the
empty Password Provider tile
is enumerated by default. Some
users thought this was a bug,
and other users requested we
revert to the previous
behavior. In addition, many
users wanted to know why we
made this change. Please allow
me to address these questions
individually.
microsoft.com/windowsvista - 29.05.2007
A peek at an early build of the new Win7 taskbar
One of Mac OS X's most successful features has been its zooming apps dock, which has been mimicked in third-party utilities for Windows. Windows 7's
new taskbar looks more similar, but its changes are already themselves being changed...
betanews.com - 05.11.2008
SP1 brings with it a softer, gentler, naggier WGA
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Windows Vista SP1 brings with it a new tweaked version of the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) anti-piracy scheme. How does
this look to the end user?
Check out the complete SP1 WGA gallery here.
Currently Vista offers two different user experiences to those considered to be running non-genuine
installations of Vista <...> As of SP1, both these states are gone and if a system is considered to be non-genuine it will enter what I can call a nag
state. In this state users will see:
- A nag screen to activate at logon that cannot be dismissed for 15 seconds.
-
Every hour the desktop background is switched to black (it can be changed back, but after an hour its set to black again).
- Activation
dialogs and balloon dialogs appear regularly.
- Optional Windows Updates arent delivered.
So, instead of losing
functionality, the user is nagged to activate...
winbeta.org -
10.02.2008Desktop Security: Create Custom Login Experiences With Credential Providers For Windows Vista
Credential providers in
Windows Vista allow you to
customize the logon experience
and integrate the
authentication methods that
best meet your organization's
needs. With this article,
learn how to write your own...
msdn.microsoft.com -
27.01.2007Microsoft on Win7 Beta: 'The download experience was not ideal'
After adding some server horsepower to the Windows 7 beta download over the weekend, some testers did manage to receive working copies. That's not to
say everything's working perfectly just yet...
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12.01.2009The Pirate Bay: User data stolen but not unsecured
The Pirate Bay, arguably the
largest torrent tracker and
easily the most controversial
one, has apologetically
notified its users that a
group of hackers managed to
grab a copy of the user
database, including usernames,
passwords and e-mails, via a
security hole in the site's
official blog. Although the
organization believes it knows
who the hackers are, it has
not said what it plans to do
with this knowledge. On the
positive side of things, the
stolen information was
encrypted and although the
Pirate Bay seems confident
with their encryption method,
they still " encourage all
our users to change passwords
as soon as possible - and if
you have the same password on
the bay as other places, you
should update them as
well ". Upon logging in,
the user should be
automatically prompted to
change their password.
neowin.net -
13.05.2007
