What's New in Vista - File Select Check Box
Choosing multiple files and folders has been possible in Windows for as long as I can remember. Hold the CTRL key and choose the files and/or folders. Pretty simple, but there has to be an easier way right?
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1.6.2006 Microsoft rersponds to Google on search box in Windows Vista
The search box in IE7 is not Microsoft?s. It belongs to the user. Our guiding principle for the search box in IE7 is that the user is in control. Read on for details.
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2.5.2006 Windows Vista Build 5728 Availability Window Closing Soon
Nick White has posted this on the Vista team blog yesterday, thought I'd give everyone who is interested in testing the latest build of Vista a heads up on the limited availability.
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26.9.2006 Microsoft Office 2007 RTM'ed, Window Vista 99% RTM
On Monday Microsoft will announce that the 2007 Microsoft Office system products have been released to manufacturing (RTM).
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6.11.2006 The Vista license "loophole" that isnt
Software licensing is often hard to understand. But thats no excuse for so-called Windows experts to deliberately publish sensational stories that turn the facts upside-down.
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5.4.2008 The website is down because someone removed the X-Box
Public Universities are always running on a limited budget which means they sometimes come up with ?innovative? solutions. A couple of years back, an X-Box with some variant of Linux installed had been put in the server room to support a subject designed to teach computer-illiterate Philosophy students how to build their own web pages.
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8.6.2006 Microsoft Responds To Vista License Concerns
Amid a rising tide of questions surrounding its end-user license for Windows Vista, Microsoft is attempting to quell concerns that a one-time-only transfer provision could put roadblocks in the way of enthusiasts who repeatedly upgrade their PCs.
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30.10.2006 Gates opens entertainment window
Though Bill Gates is in town to tout his hot new Xbox 360 to the hordes in attendance at the huge Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), his horizon extends to the Hollywood hills ? and beyond.
Video games are key, but the Microsoft chairman also has his hand in much of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over entertainment and the Internet.
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12.5.2006 Window Seizer 1.00 Beta
Windows Seizer and a standalone freeware utility which lists all the windows you have open on your PC.
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31.3.2007 Asus Eee Box for only $269!
It will run on a 1.6 GHz Atom processor in Windows XP and Linux flavors, both of which are less green than a loaded iPod: $269 for the base 1GB RAM, 80GB storage Linux model and $299 for the XP version.
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3.6.2008 Vista License and Product Key Terminology Part 1
First part of mini serial of articles about Vista Licensing from
Steve Jobs blog.
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4.6.2007 Vista License and Product Key Terminology Part 2
Second part of mini serial of articles about Vista Licensing from
Steve Jobs blog.
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7.6.2007 Vista License and Product Key Terminology Part 3
Next part of mini serial of articles about Vista Licensing from
Steve Jobs blog - Vista Certificate of Authenticity (COA).
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Vista License and Product Key Terminology Part 4
Next article about Vista Licensing from
Steve Jobs blog - this is about Microsoft Product Activation (MPA).
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16.6.2007 Windows 7 Box Art Themes & Wallpapers
I have just updated my Windows 7 Wallpapers and Windows 7 Themes Gallery with the following additions.
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7.8.2009 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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3.2.2007 Turn a counterfeit copy of WindowsXP into a free Vista license!
Perhaps you have bought a license of WindowsXP Home, Pro or Media Centerd Edition 2005 from your local dealer and afterwards it turned into a counterfeit while trying to validate it through WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) program.
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29.4.2006 Cost of Vista Business License Offset by Savings, Says Microsoft
For a great many large businesses, "the move to the next Windows" has been an ongoing, daily affair for at least well over a decade. And up until recently, the reasons why this migration tends to proceed so slowly have been, to Microsoft, a complete mystery.
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15.6.2007 Napster hangs "for sale" sign in front window
Napster is evaluating the possibility of a sale by hiring of an investment bank. Citing "recent third party interest," the company has asked UBS Investment Bank to explore strategic partnerships or an outright sale of the company.
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20.9.2006 New Window Management System for Windows 7 Pre-Beta
The window management system is one piece of the Windows 7 graphical user interface which will evolve starting with the pre-Beta version of the operating system.
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3.10.2008 Windows 7 Ultimate Box Art DVD Cover
Windows 7 has already been RTMd and is now officially available to Connect, MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers.
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7.8.2009 User reports shipping Vista is different from RTM
ONE OF our readers already bought Vista OEM from Overclockers. He installed it and got back with a few first impressions. And he reckons that the OEM Vista is not the same as the RTM (release to manufacture) he tried before.
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1.2.2007 Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface
Multilingual User Interface packs for Windows Vista and Windows XP Professional are not as easy to come by as Microsoft partners and customers would expect. The general presumption seems to be that the MUI packs are available as separate downloads from the Redmond Company
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22.6.2007 Secunia round 3: Internet Explorer 7 Window Injection Vulnerability
A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer 7, which can be exploited by malicious people to spoof the content of websites.
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30.10.2006 Asus Eee Box desktop to hit UK in August
Good news for fans of those cheap, cheerful and great value PCs from Asus the desktop version of the Eee will be with us in the UK later this summer.
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21.6.2008 Microsoft Store reveals official Windows 7 box art
There has been a fair bit of debate about the final box art design for Windows 7; you may have seen earlier that CentrumXP revealed versions of it, which some were doubtful of, but now (thanks to Long Zheng) we may finally have official confirmation... and it seems that CentrumXP was correct.
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6.6.2009 Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface Available for Download
With the introduction of Windows Vista, Microsoft has evolved the MUI architecture, breaking the intimate connection between the language resources for the user interface and the operating system's binary code.
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3.1.2008 Disable Aero Snap Auto Maximize and Arrange Window in Windows 7
Windows 7 includes a new feature called Aero Snap that intends to improve open windows management on the desktop. Aero Snap allows user to drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize the window automatically, or to the left or right side of the screen to resize the window to fill and take up half of the screen estate on the moved side automatically.
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19.5.2009 Hack to Activate and Switch Window in Windows 7 By Mouse Over Hover Without Click
When there are many windows open on desktop of Windows 7, normally users will click on another window in order activate the window into front or foreground and switch to the task or window.
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19.5.2009 Windows Vista Beta2 users to run as standard user
David Cross a Director of Program Management with Windows Security has posted today over at the UAC blog that the users accounts created on Windows Vista Beta2 will be standard users. Yep, thats right...not an Admin, not a Protected Admin, but a standard user.
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3.4.2006WindowBlinds 6 Alters Vista Interface
Stardock has released version 6 of its popular WindowBlinds user interface skinning application, which is the first tool that can overhaul the look of
Windows Vista - from the Taskbar to window borders and buttons...
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03.10.2007Windows 7 Beta 1 has problems with XP Display Drivers (XDDM)
I've been enjoying Windows 7 so much over the past week, that I've been evangelizing it to all of my friends. One friend with a Dell Inspiron
710m decided to take the plunge. Windows 7 installation went well, but we can't find any compatible display drivers for the Intel 855gm graphics
card. The graphics card in question doesn't support Windows Vista or Window 7's new WDDM driver model, but Windows Vista shipped with XDDM
drivers for this card out of the box. I feel that Windows 7 should have all of the same in-box drivers as Vista, and it's a bummer that this one
is not included.
Read
full story.....
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12.01.2009Windows 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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07.01.2009Official Way to Use Vista without Activation 120 Days
Official Way to Install and
Use Windows Vista without
Activation for Free for 120
Days
By default,
Windows Vista can be
installed, used and run
without any license, product
key or the need of activation
for 30 days grace period, for
purpose of trial or
evaluation. Although Microsoft
initially stressed that users
should purchase a license with
valid product key before the
trial period expires, or else
Windows Vista will lock into
Reduced Functionality Mode.
However, a "rearm" method
has long since been discovered
to be able to extend, or reset
the remaining time for
activation to another fresh 30
days, for up to 3 times.
Now Microsoft has
confirmed that Windows Vista
can be used and run for 120
days or 4 months ( 3
rearms ), and extending the
activation grace period is not
a violation of the Vista End
User License Agreement (EULA).
All versions of Vista include
Windows Vista Ultimate allow a
30-day free period without
activation, except the
corporate-oriented Vista
Enterprise, which supports
only a three-day trial.
Read full story.....
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22.02.2007More clues: Why Microsoft backtracked on its Vista virtualization plans
Last week, Microsoft nixed at
the last minute planned
changes to its Windows Vista
end-user license agreement
(EULA) that would have
broadened virtualization
rights. Since then,
speculation has been mounting
as to why Microsoft did this.
Fear of Mac OS X and
Linux on the desktop? A desire
to thwart Parallels and
VMWare? DRM concerns?
Queries to Microsoft
regarding why company
officials nixed the planned
easing of Vistas virtualiztion
license were met with We have
nothing further to say.
Period.
I realized
over the weekend that none of
us press/bloggers who was
briefed by Microsoft on the
planned changes had run the
text of the EULA wording
Microsoft officials provided
to us. Maybe one of you out
there will see some clues the
rest of us missed as to why
Microsoft decided to continue
to ban users from running
legally Vista Home Basic or
Vista Home Premium in
virtualized environments...
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25.06.2007Application Specific Glass Colorization in Windows 7?
Microsoft might be introducing application specific glass renderings. The color of the glass frame around a window can be changed in Vista, but the
change is global to the system. The color of any particular window glass frame can not be set by choice. But, how about being able to change the
color/opacity level of a the glass frame of any application through defined events or commands? According to a Patent number 7418668:
A
method for changing a color value and/or level of opacity value of a glass appearance window frame for an application window is described. The method
includes steps of determining a defined color value and a defined level of opacity value to apply to a glass appearance window frame and displaying
the glass appearance window frame in accordance with the defined color value and the defined level of opacity value. A command may be received to
apply the defined color value and the defined level of opacity value to the glass appearance window frame, thereby applying the defined color value
and level of opacity value to the glass appearance window frame. Color values and/or level of opacity values may be changed automatically, be
application specific, and/or be changed in response to receipt of an input from a user to change one or more portions of a default configuration.
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06.09.2008Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use
"TechWeb has posted an
article regarding Vista's new
license and how it allows you
to only move it to another
device once. How will this
work for people who build
their PCs? I have no intention
of purchasing a new license
every time I swap out
motherboards. 'The first user
of the software may reassign
the license to another device
one time.
If you
reassign the license, that
other device becomes the
"licensed device," reads the
license for Windows Vista Home
Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate,
and Business. In other words,
once a retail copy of Vista is
installed on a PC, it can be
moved to another system only
once. ...
Elsewhere in the license,
Microsoft forbids users from
installing Vista Home Basic
and Vista Home Premium in a
virtual machine. "You may not
use the software installed on
the licensed device within a
virtual (or otherwise
emulated) hardware system,"
the legal language reads.
Vista Ultimate and Vista
Business, however, can be
installed within a VM.'"
Overly Critical Guy points out
more information about changes
to Vista's EULA and the new
usage restrictions. "For
instance, Home Basic users
can't copy ISOs to their hard
drives, can't run in a
virtualized environment, and
can only share files and
printers to a maximum of 5
network devices."
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13.10.2006Microsoft Tightens Vista Transfer Rights Under New License
Microsoft said today it will
limit the number of machines
to which users can transfer
the Windows Vista OS licenses,
to just one system beyond the
original PC.
When
Windows Vista is available,
consumers will be able to
transfer the OS license they
purchase to only one machine
other than the one for which
they originally buy Vista,
says Shanen Boettcher, a
Windows general manager at
Microsoft. He says Microsoft
thinks the change makes sense
because "lifetimes for PCs
are getting longer." Most
likely, a user will not need
to transfer an OS license to
more than one computer during
the time that OS is the latest
one available, Boettcher
says.
"It's a fit
for what most customers do,"
he says. Boettcher adds that
XP did not have a specific
limit for the number of times
the license was transferable,
but that Microsoft wanted to
be "specific" about transfer
rights with Vista.
neowin.net -
17.10.2006Giving up on Vista? Here's how to downgrade to XP
Microsoft's decision last week to delay the end of Windows XP sales five months means users have just that much longer to jilt Vista and return to
the older -- and some say more mature -- operating system. But even with XP's reprieve, few PCs come with anything but Vista. Even if you wanted to
take advantage of the wider window of XP opportunity, you might not know where to start.
For the rest of us, just what does it take to turn back the clock? Read on for more
about the trip to Windows yesteryear.
What is a downgrade? To Microsoft, "downgrade" describes the licensing rights it grants
to older operating systems. Downgrade doesn't mean the process for rolling back Windows from Vista to XP, since there isn't such a procedure, not in
the generally accepted use of "upgrade." In an older-to-newer move, developers usually make it possible to retain all the digital detritus on the
drive, from already-installed applications and Word documents to iTunes tracks and family photos, while updating the system files. Not so in a
downgrade.
winbeta.org - 02.10.2007
Buy More Vista Licenses, Save 10%
Microsoft has launched the
appropriately named Windows
Vista Additional License
program, which will enable
customers to save a bit of
money if they want to install
Windows Vista on multiple
computers. Before, users had
to purchase a completely new
copy of Vista...
betanews.com - 28.03.2007
Turn one PC into two for free
How do you like the sound of taking one machine, and having two people logged into it simultaneously? Sounds pretty neat to me and its free too,
which is always a tick in the right box.
Canadian company Userful markets Linux-based desktop multiplier and public access
computing solutions effectively turning one system into an X Window server supporting up to ten terminals. Theyre giving away a free 2-user copy of their PC Multiplier software, which lets you have two
people simultaneously connected to a single system, but running separate sessions.
winbeta.org - 29.12.2007
DirectX End-User Runtimes (August 2007) Available
This download provides the
DirectX end-user
multi-languaged
redistributable that
developers can include with
their product. The
redistributable license
agreement covers the terms
under which developers may use
the Redistributable. For full
details please review the
DirectX SDK EULA.txt and
DirectX Redist.txt files
located in the license
directory.
This package is localized
into Chinese (Simplified),
Chinese (Traditional), Czech,
Dutch, French, German,
Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Polish, Portuguese (Brazil),
Russian, Swedish, and
English.
Supported Operating
Systems: Windows 2000; Windows
XP; Windows Server 2003;
Windows Vista
winbeta.org - 28.07.2007
Vista is Watching You
Are you using Windows Vista?
Then you might as well know
that the licensed operating
system installed on your
machine is harvesting a
healthy volume of information
for Microsoft.
In
this context, a program such
as the Windows Genuine
Advantage is the last of your
concerns. In fact, in excess
of 20 Windows Vista features
and services are hard at work
collecting and transmitting
your personal data to the
Redmond company.
Microsoft makes no secret
about the fact that Windows
Vista is gathering
information. End users have
little to say, and no real
choice in the matter. The
company does provide both a
Windows Vista Privacy
Statement and references
within the End User License
Agreement for the operating
system. Combined, the
resources paint the big
picture over the extent of
Microsoft's end user data
harvest via Vista.
winbeta.org - 02.07.2007
Windows 7 packaging officially revealed
Microsoft has finally confirmed that the Windows 7 box art, first leaked back in May, is in fact the genuine design and will be used when Windows 7
hits the shelves in October. In a post over at the Windows 7 Team Blog, Brandon LeBlanc reveals that, as with the new operating system, the packaging
has also been simplified since Windows Vista. Unlike the fairly complicated side opening three-step method required for the Vista box (obviously some
consumers found it so confusing that Microsoft had to make a "how-to" article) the Windows 7 box will be a simple and more traditional DVD-style
case. It also features less packaging materials to reduce environmental footprint.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 24.06.2009
Google Debuts 'Quick Search
Box'
Google on Wednesday released
the final version of Google
Desktop 3.0, adding a new
feature the company calls the
Quick Search Box. By pressing
the control key twice, a
search box will appear in the
middle of the desktop to
facilitate Web and local
searches. Hitting control
twice more makes the box
disappear...
betanews.com - 16.03.2006
Microsoft to beef up anti-piracy checks in Vista SP1
Microsoft will change the user experience of its automatic anti-piracy checks in Windows Vista and also make it harder for hackers to bypass the
system in the first service pack for the OS due out early next year. Once Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed on a PC, that computer will
no longer go into limited functionality mode if a user or administrator fails to activate Vista on that system in 30 days, or if the system fails
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation, which checks to see if a version of Vista is pirated or counterfeit. In Vista, WGA is
called the Software Protection Program feature.
In limited functionality mode, a computer will shut down after 60 minutes and then allow
only browser use. Now, instead of going into that mode, a version of Vista that has not been activated in 30 days will start up with a black screen
and a dialogue box that gives users the choice of activating Vista now or later, said Alex Kochis, a group product manager at Microsoft.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 04.12.2007
Vista SP1 up to 86% faster
Is Vista SP1 really the shot in the arm your Vista system needs? We've spent many hours strapped to our benchmarking system in a caffeine and pizza
fuelled haze to uncover these very interesting results.
We tested Vista:
- as it comes out of the box (RTM --
or "release to manufacturing")
- as it comes out of the box, with all Windows Update patches applied ("RTM patched)
- with
the final SP1 service pack applied
winbeta.org - 05.03.2008
Microsoft Relaxes Vista License Terms
Responding to a wave of
criticism following news that
the licensing terms in Windows
Vista allowed the operating
system to be moved to another
computer only once, Microsoft
has changed its position and
relaxed the restriction for
retails copies of Vista...
betanews.com - 03.11.2006
Public Debate Begins on GPLv3
Public debate on the third
revision of the General Public
License began on Monday as the
Free Software Foundation
released the first draft of
the popular open source
license. The new version of
the license focuses on patents
and digital rights management
issues...
betanews.com - 17.01.2006
Boost to anti-piracy check in Vista SP1
Microsoft will change the user experience of its automatic anti-piracy checks in Windows Vista and also make it harder for hackers to bypass the
system in the first service pack for the OS due out early next year.
Once Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed on a
PC, that computer will no longer go into limited functionality mode if a user or administrator fails to activate Vista on that system in 30 days or if
the system fails Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation, which checks to see if a version of Vista is pirated or counterfeit. In
Vista, WGA is called the Software Protection Program feature.
In limited functionality mode, a computer will shut down after 60
minutes and then allow only browser use. Now, instead of going into that mode, a version of Vista that has not been activated in 30 days will start up
with a black screen and a dialogue box that gives users the choice of activating Vista now or later, said Alex Kochis, a group product manager at
Microsoft.
winbeta.org - 04.12.2007
