Microsoft Confirms Windows Vista OEM BIOS Crack
Microsoft confirmed the fact that hackers have developed a valid Windows Vista crack designed to exploit the operating system's OEM BIOS activation.
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11.4.2007 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 Windows Vista Genuine Validation Fails Due to Incorrect BIOS Data
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this post in his blog. Even if the operating system was activated properly.
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27.6.2007 Vista Loader 2.2.0 OEM BIOS Crack Emulator
This is New version of Vista Loader 2.2.0 from Chinese hackers. With this you can force a bios emulation and let Vista think it's installed on a OEM machine.
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20.5.2007 Microsoft Confirms Brute Force Windows Vista Crack
Windows Vista KeyGen is a tool based on SLMGR, the vbs script used as the Licensing Manager in the operating system. Microsoft has confirmed the existence of the Vista hack and the method
used. Vista KeyGen is designed to crack out legitimate and valid Windows Vista activation keys.
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8.3.2007 Vista Brute Force Keygen
Thanks to Computer User to report this way and to Snooza to prepare the pack! This method is a brute force attempt at determining a usable key.
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1.3.2007 Should Vista be able to force an unwanted reboot when it wants to?
Like many departments within many companies, today was a day when our department got together and did some online slide slidesharing.
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3.8.2007 Microsoft to force users to upgrade to Vista for Halo 2
If you're a Halo 2 fan then brace yourself...
Microsoft has the sheer audacity to expect PC gamers to upgrade to Windows Vista in order to be able to play Halo 2 for PC.
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9.2.2006 Vista Brute-Force Method GUI 0.1 + SourceCode
Thanks to stof91 who report in our forum this download. He strongly suggest that you use SoftMod, if you are looking to illegally activate Windows Vista.
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15.3.2007 Free Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic Utility
Windows Memory Diagnostic is a free utility available for download from Microsoft designed to sniff out flaws in a machine's RAM modules.
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28.8.2008 Microsoft Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs Unattended Generator Utility
The Microsoft Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs Unattended Generator Utility provides an easy way to create and edit an unattended answer file for use in installing Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs.
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7.8.2006 Repair Corrupted Internet Explorer with Fix IE Utility
Often it happens that after getting infected with Malware, spywares or virus your Internet Explorer gets corrupted.
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13.10.2009 AMI Bios Tool by Gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog. Steve Jobs wrote: Thats another great tool by Gkend, created to easily add a SLIC table to an existing AMI Bios.
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25.5.2007 Hack to Force Enable Aero in Windows 7
Windows 7 has a nice little Windows Aero troubleshooting tool to find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects, and then enable and turn on Aero support (and also Aero Peek) in Windows 7.
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12.1.2009 Brute Force Keygens for Windows XP and 2000
I thought Vista had a brute force but found out they made ones for Windows XP too such as these files.. Thanks to our users btalex1990 and an2o1s12ds19dk for this info and downloads links.
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27.7.2007 Fix Windows 7 Does Not Start After Force Shutdown of Computer
No Microsoft operating system is bug free and it starts getting uncovered as more and more users start using it.
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10.10.2009 Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta Updated Log Collection Utility
With the availability of the first Beta of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft has also updated the range of solutions orbiting around its development platform and tools.
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27.5.2009 How To Reset, Remove, Clear or Reveal CMOS BIOS Security Password
There are times that we need to reset the computers BIOS security password. Yesterday I was at the local government technical school facility and the person who is in charge of the computer told me that they are not able to reinstall Windows because they are not able to get in the BIOS to set the boot order as it is password protected. The lecturers do not know the password as it is not set by them, but by some unknown student.
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6.7.2008 Compatibility Issues When Surfing in IE7? Use User Agent String Utility to Spoof or Simulate as IE6
Although almost all websites has supported Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), the latest generation of popular web browser from Microsoft, but there are still some very few Internet sites that are still not updating the web server configuration for Internet Explorer 7 compatibility, and are not accessible by IE7 users and blocked the Internet surfers from viewing the web pages properly when using IE 7.
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21.11.2006 Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust
Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers.
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27.11.2007 Windows Vista Wow! Forget about Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows 7!
That's it, forget about Windows XP Service Pack 3, about Windows 7, the next iteration of Windows and even about Windows Vista Service Pack 1.
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1.2.2008 Windows Vista SP1 vs. Windows Vista RTM vs. Windows XP SP2
Feb 26th, 2008. Principled Technologies has released two Microsoft commissioned reports on Windows Vista SP1 performance. In these tests, Principled Technologies measured responsiveness of Windows Vista SP1 vs. Windows Vista RTM vs. Windows XP SP2 when performing a set of common business and home tasks.
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28.2.2008 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 Windows Vista on Super Nintendo, As Real As Vista on PSP
We're puzzled and confused... How can a console that's at least ten times less powerful than the acclaimed PSP cope with Windows Vista's requirements?
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15.8.2007 Vista SP1 Features the Same Sins as Windows Vista
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 comes with the same sins as Windows Vista. The service pack is not even out the door, and is already putting users at risk.
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16.1.2008 Will Vista SP1 Go Where Vista Never Went? Even with XP SP3 and Windows 7?
Throughout 2007, it became painfully clear to Microsoft that the main competitor for Windows Vista was not Apple's Mac OS X or even the open source Linux operating system but Windows XP, and, in fact, specifically XP SP2.
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1.3.2008 Microsoft Makes Its Own: 32-bit Windows Vista vs. 64-bit Windows Vista
With Windows Vista, Microsoft delivered both the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors concomitantly, a first for the company, whose Windows XP x64 Professional (April, 2005) was launched one year after Windows XP SP2 (August 2005) and four after the initial 32-bit Windows XP (2001).
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8.1.2008 Microsoft: Windows Vista vs. Windows XP Definitely Vista!
As far as Microsoft is concerned there is only one choice possible in terms of desktop clients. But Windows Vista is also the clear option over Windows XP when it comes down to the Redmond company's preferred operating system for mobile PCs.
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6.9.2007Intel's BIOS tool spells death bell for third party utilities
ECS is showing
Intel's backup utility called
the System Recovery Tool.
This utility sits inside
the BIOS of a motherboard that
of course, sports Intel's
latest chipsets. The
application features partition
and disk image backup and
recovery, just like a lot of
third-party applications.
However, being built inside
the BIOS, it has the advantage
of not needing any sort of
boot or recovery CDs, rather
pressing a function key (F3 in
the case of ECS's boards) on
a keyboard.
The image
creation process is very
simple - press the F3 key,
pick the option Create new
image, choose what partition
will be backed up and the
destination (different
partition, CD, DVD medium).
You can expect this
feature to come on many
motherboards in near future.
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08.06.2007Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility
This Windows operating system supplemental utility restores backups made on Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers running
Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
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28.03.2008How To Warm Boot Windows XP/Vista
Unless you have to, it is many
times advantageous to warm
boot, or rather warm reboot,
Windows. In a warm reboot,
Windows restarts, but the
computer doesnt, skipping the
whole pre-Windows boot
screen/BIOS/startup sequence.
You an
easily specify a warm boot
in both Windows XP and Windows
Vista. Just hold down SHIFT on
your keyboard before clicking
Restart in Vista, or before
clicking OK in the restart
dialog in XP. Enjoy the extra
20 seconds!
Technically, the use of
the term warm boot is a bit
misused here, but the small
amount of time saved by not
re-running the BIOS can be
worth it.
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17.08.2007ATI: Some 4830's were short on stream processors
Bit-Tech are reporting that
ATI has finally admitted to the strange goings on with its HD 4830 graphics cards.
Bit-Tech and other hardware review sites noticed that
after benchmarking, there were too many variances in the results and some cards were a lot slower than others, even though they were supposed to be
identical review units.
It was later discovered that the strange results were the result of some cards only using 560 of the total of 640
stream processing units available, hence the lower scores.
Last week AMD has put out a statement that they were “aware of the
issue” and now they have gone further and told the full story:
"AMD has identified that, in addition to reference samples of the
ATI Radeon HD 4830 boards sent to media with a pre-production BIOS potentially impacting the card’s performance, a very limited number of ATI
Radeon HD 4830 boards were released to market with the same pre-production BIOS. This is in no way hardware related, and an updated BIOS fully
resolves the performance limitation.
Through consultations with AMD board partners, it has been determined with a high degree of certainty
that fewer than 400 ATI Radeon™ HD 4830 boards from one AMD board partner, HIS, have reached the market with the pre-production BIOS incorrectly
provided by AMD. As only a small number of HIS-branded ATI Radeon™ HD 4830 cards are impacted, we ask any customers that purchased an
HIS-branded ATI Radeon™ HD 4830 to test the board using the GPU-Z utility. If
the GPU-Z utility reports fewer than 640 shaders, please visit the HIS website for information on how to update the card BIOS via a downloadable
install utility."
Read full story.....
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27.10.2008Free utility condenses Windows Vista from 13GB to 1.4GB
A Croatian college student has created a utility that installs a seriously stripped-down Windows Vista, saying the heft of Microsoft's biggest
desktop OS was just too big to believe. "Who can justify a 15GB operating system?" asked Dino Nuhagic, a fifth-year student from Split, a Croatian
city on the Adriatic. Not Nuhagic, or the uncounted users who have turned to his creation, vLite.
vLite, a free program that lets users
pick and choose which Vista components, hotfixes, drivers and even language packs are installed, then builds a disk image that can be burned to a DVD
for unattended installation of the operating system.
"Why did I do it? Well, it's performance and work environment," said Nuhagic
when asked why he came up with vLite. "Performance, that's easy to explain. The less things running, the more responsive the OS. But the
environment part is where it gets down to personal preference."
Read full story.....
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31.01.2008TechEd 2007: Software Assurance Licensees to Get Error Reporting Tool
Software Assurance licensees
for Microsoft Windows clients,
including XP and Vista, will
soon be receiving a utility
called System Center Desktop
Error Monitoring as part of
the Desktop Optimization Pack
(MDOP) they receive with their
licenses. As we learned at
TechEd, the utility will
enable admins to produce
aggregate reports that track
problems throughout an entire
enterprise...
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05.06.2007BIOS maker Phoenix reinvents itself as virtualization platform vendor
Over the past quarter-century, more than a billion PCs have been produced that use Basic Input Output System (BIOS) software from Phoenix Technologies
Ltd. The BIOS provides a key interface between the hardware and the Windows operating system.
But with the BIOS business in a
long-term decline, Phoenix is aiming for a rebirth as a vendor of application platform technology that instead of enabling Windows, starts to compete
with it.
On Monday, the Milpitas, Calif. vendor unveiled a Linux-based virtualization platform called Hyperspace.
Based on the HyperCore hypervisor developed by Phoenix and embedded within its popular BIOS, Hyperspace provides a thin software layer upon
which cut-down versions of popular open-source software can be loaded instantly without the need to boot up Windows, said Woody Hobbs, Phoenix's CEO,
in a telephone interview.
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05.11.2007Microsoft Responds to Reported OEM BIOS Hacks
The WGA team have finally
provided a written response to
the reported OEM BIOS Hacks
regarding Vista:
I
know many of you are aware of
reports of hacks that attempt
to exploit our OEM BIOS based
activation. We're aware of
this type of hack and I wanted
to take a minute to describe
how these work and how we plan
to respond.
First, what is OEM BIOS
based activation?
Here's a little more
information on how OEM BIOS
based activation works. This
form of product activation is
also known as OEM Activation
or just OA, which is how
Microsoft refers to it and how
I will refer to it in this
post. Back at the launch of
Windows XP when Microsoft
introduced Windows Product
Activation, we recognized that
as easy as end-user activation
is, it still represented an
extra step.
neowin.net -
12.04.2007Phoenix Instant Boot BIOS starts loading Windows in under a second
Phoenix is showing off a few interesting things at IDF, but the real standout is their new Instant Boot BIOS, a highly optimized UEFI implementation
that can start loading an OS in just under a second. Combined with Windows 7's optimized startup procedure, that means you're looking at incredibly
short boot times -- we saw a retrofitted Dell Adamo hit the Windows desktop in 20 seconds, while a Lenovo T400s with a fast SSD got there in under 10.
It's pretty slick stuff, and it should be out soon -- check a video after the break...
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25.09.2009Dell cures some Nvidia GPU woes with BIOS update
Dell has issued a BIOS update to prevent its notebooks equipped with faulty Nvidia graphics cards from overheating...
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29.07.2008Researchers Demo BIOS Attack That Survives Disk Wipes
A pair of Argentinian researchers have found a way to perform
a BIOS level malware attack capable of surviving even a
hard-disk wipe.
Alfredo Ortega and Anibal Sacco from Core Security Technologies — used the stage at last week's CanSecWest
conference to
demonstrate methods for infecting the BIOS with persistent code that will survive
reboots and re-flashing attempts. The technique includes patching the BIOS with a small bit of code that gave them complete control of the machine.
The demo ran smoothly on a Windows machine, a PC running OpenBSD and another running VMware Player.
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23.03.2009TweakVista Beta Now Available
TweakVista is a utility that enables
users to optimize the
performance and behavior of
Windows Vista. The program has
been designed to allow both
casual, non-technical users to
safely use it as well as
contain a host of advanced
features for power users to
dig into the internals of
Windows Vista.
The
feature-packed utility
includes features such as:
- Security Handling:
Users can now easily and
safely adjust the way Windows
handles security prompting
including the new UAC (User
Account Control)
-
Memory Optimization:
TweakVista knows which
start-up services different
types of users will typically
use and offers recommendations
on what services to disable.
Users can easily switch
between different profiles
(including the default) based
on their needs to maximize
performance and memory use.
- Resource Control: Tweak
Vista has several features for
keeping an eye on and flagging
programs that use excessive
amounts of resources (memory,
CPU, or system handles) as
well as integrating seamlessly
with built in hardware
diagnostic reports...
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21.06.2007NATO arms itself with Windows Vista
Even with Windows 7 headed fast for the market, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not waiting for the next iteration of the Windows client,
and has armed itself with Windows Vista. According to Microsoft, parts of the NATO Unclassified Network are now accounting for Vista as one of the
items in their arsenal, as a direct result of the collaboration between the NATO Communication Information Systems Services Agency and the software
giant. NATO is in the vanguard of military organizations rolling out Windows Vista. The Redmond giant revealed that among its top ten customers, the
US Army occupied the first position, with US Air Force at number three. News source: Softpedia
Read full story.....
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11.12.2008Apple pushes unwanted enterprise tool to Windows users
Apple has pushed out an unwanted update to Windows PC's through the Apple Software Update tool called iPhone Configuration Utility, reported by
ZDNet. The unwanted utility was made available to every Windows users, regardless if they have an iPhone or iPod device. The enterprise software
update is pushed to all iTunes users on Windows based PC's, even if the user does not have an iPhone, making the update unnecessary and unwanted
to many iTunes users. The iPhone Configuration Utility description reads: "iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, encrypt,
and install configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including
console logs.
Read full
story.....
neowin.net -
28.09.2009MSI Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization
The MSI Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization is a new tool designed to extend virtual application deployment in certain key scenarios. In
cases where a computer running Microsoft System Center Virtual Application Server is not available, the MSI Utility allows delivery of sequenced
applications directly to Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization for Desktops and Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization for Terminal
Services.
The MSI Utility enables the distribution of virtual applications without streaming. Instead, it uses Windows Installer
to load and configure virtual applications. By leveraging this standard format, the MSI Utility achieves Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 and
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 platform version-agnostic distribution of virtual applications if supported by organizational
Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) systems. As such, the MSI Utility is a stepping stone to the richer deployment options available in Microsoft
System Center Virtual Application Server 4.5.
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19.12.2007Utility Spotlight: Windows Memory Diagnostic
Suppose one of the PCs you support is acting upfreezing, crashing, blue screening. Is some piece of hardware failing? Is some newly installed
application causing trouble? Or could it be faulty memory?
One way to
find out for sure is with the free Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic utility. This tool will run a variety of tests on your PC's RAM to
determine whether flaws exist in any of the modules. And, like all of the utilities presented in our
Utility Spotlight column, its FREE!
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28.08.2008Aussies rage against the Microsoft machine over Vista security feature
Linchpin Labs, a small
Australian security company
whose free utility Microsoft
has blocked from loading
unsigned drivers into Windows
Vista, today lashed out at the
American giant. Microsoft,
said Linchpin, should set its
own security house in order
before it accuses other
developers of turning their
legitimate software into
threats.
Earlier this month, the
Sydney, Australia-based
Linchpin released Atsiv, a
program that uses a signed
driver to load other, unsigned
drivers into the 64-bit Vista
kernel, behavior that
Microsoft said late last week
evades a Vista security
feature. In 64-bit Vista, only
drivers accompanied by a valid
digital certificate may load
into the kernel; the provision
is meant to stymie hackers
from infiltrating the kernel
with, among other things,
malware-cloaking rootkits.
Thursday, working with
VeriSign Inc., which had
issued the Atsiv certificate,
Microsoft got Atsiv's signing
key revoked, blocking the
utility from loading its
driver.
Calling the
certificate-bearing utility a
"potential as well as actual
security threat," Microsoft
said it also recently added
signatures to its antispyware
program Windows Defender to
detect, block and remove
Atsiv's current driver.
On Monday,
in response to e-mailed
queries by Computerworld,
Linchpin defended its software
as legitimate. "
assists users of Microsoft
Vista that are currently
unable to use legacy hardware
without signed drivers, and
casual developers (such as
hobbyists) that are not able
to use a company's signing
certificate," the company
said. "With Atsiv, consumers
could once again make use of
their legacy hardware,
actually increasing the user
experience of Microsoft
Windows Vista."
winbeta.org - 07.08.2007
Microsoft nonchalant about Phoenix assault on Windows
BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies Ltd.'s plans to market a new application platform the company claims will solve a number of problems endemic to
Microsoft's Windows platform might be taken as a provocative gesture at their longtime partner. But Redmond's immediate reaction was nonchalant.
On Monday, the Milpitas, Calif. software maker announced Hyperspace, a Linux-based virtualization platform that will let OEMs bundle
cut-down versions of popular open-source software that end users will be able to access instantly, even without booting Windows.
"We call this embedded simplicity, or PC 3.0," said Woody Hobbs, CEO of Phoenix in an interview.
Phoenix has for many years
been the leading maker of BIOS, which enables a PC's Windows operating system to communicate with the hardware. But BIOS is being slowly supplanted
by a newer technology called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).
winbeta.org - 06.11.2007
Windows 7 695x boot screen revealed
Chris Holmes, Windows Enthusiast and blogger, has posted a short and somewhat blurry video of the new Windows 7 boot screen in action. The latest
sign of changes for Windows 7 signals a departure from the Vista boot up screen. Microsoft kept the boot screen simple with Vista after asking BIOS
makers, PC makers, and video card makers to remove product advertisement screens at system boot. Microsoft created a simple boot method which it
claimed took 6 seconds off initial boot compared to the more graphical boot that it had originally planned with the Longhorn betas.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 04.12.2008
EU may force Microsoft to bundle Firefox with Windows
Just as Internet Explorer 8 goes RC1 we have the European Commission's anti trust considering Microsoft to force bundle Firefox with future
versions of Windows as per the Microsoft's quarterly filing with the U.S Security and Exchange Commission. European Union(EU) recently accused
Microsoft of breaking antitrust laws by including the company's Internet Explorer (IE) browser with the Windows operating system. The outcome may
be either Microsoft or other computer manufacturers will be forced to install Firefox or other browsers (Chrome, Opera and Safari) by default
alongside Internet Explorer on new Windows-based PCs.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 27.01.2009
