Microsoft offers hope for people who want to keep XP

Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday offered a glimmer of hope to fans of the company's XP operating system, saying customer demand may see the company reconsider a decision to stop selling XP in June.

Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/...

Microsoft's Rich Signature (undocumented)

In this article I'm going to try to provide documentation for the undocumented Rich Signature produced by Microsoft compilers. I'm not completely sure when this signature was introduced, I wrongly believed that I had been introduced with Visual Studio 2003, but I was shown that it is present even in VC++ 6 executables. So, I guess this signature has been introduced with that compiler. Information about this topic is non-existent (seems strange, but it's a fact). Thus, most readers probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Link:
http://ntcore.com/Files/richsign.htm

Internet Explorer 7 'Tips and Tricks'

This document is designed to help IT administrators and developers evaluating Internet Explorer 7 understand some of the common issues seen with application compatibility. The examples provided in this document will help IT administrators and developers understand the issues involved, why they occur and how to workaround them with Internet Explorer 7 in your environment.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Windows Vista SP1 problems

A day after it was released for public download, Windows Vista SP1 is drawing barbs from some computer users who say the software wrecked their systems..

Rule of thumb for me with major service packs (like this one and the XP SP3 coming soon) is to give it at least 6 months before installing. Let everyone else work out the issues.

Microsoft on Tuesday made Vista SP1 widely available for the first time. The company has admitted it's still not perfect.

Does that scare you?

Link:
http://...windows-vista-sp1-wreaks-havoc-on-some-pcs

Microsoft Seadragon

Seadragon is an incubation project resulting from the acquisition of Seadragon Software in February. Its aim is nothing less than to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays to mobile devices, so that visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the amount of data involved or the bandwidth of the network.

If you missed the seadragon/photosynth demo then make sure you check out how cool this technology actually is or could be.

This goes on the list with Microsoft Surface as some very cool technologies being developed by Microsoft.

Link:
http://labs.live.com/Seadragon.aspx

Amazing Photosynth Demo built on Seadragon

Excel as a 3D Game Engine?

Cutting-edge computer games use different graphics subsystems -- so-called 3D graphics engines. Source (used in Half Life 2), Unreal Engine (Unreal Tournament), idTech 4 (Doom 3), CryENGINE2 (Crysis) or Clever's Paradox engine are well-known among the players and the game industry experts.

It's time to learn a new 3D game engine name: Microsoft Excel.

Link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/...

Give IE8 a test drive

Whats New:

• Activities
• WebSlices
• Favorites Bar
• Automatic Crash Recovery
• Improved Phishing Filter

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/...

3 places to get answers

Askville

Yahoo! Answers

Live QnA

Meet the fource

Nothing to say, except. Wow! (not sure if thats good or bad).

Link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/events/aa570304.aspx

Microsoft to make big announcement

When: 8:30 a.m. PST (17:30 CET) to 9:15 a.m. PST (18:15 CET), Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Teleconference Information: Listen-only news conference U.S. dial-in: (888) 810-3138 (toll-free) or (630) 395-0279 (toll) - Verbal passcode: Microsoft

Said to not be about the Yahoo deal.

Link:
http://.../microsoft-announcement-feb-21

Are you ready for Vista SP1?

Microsoft Corp. will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Monday, Feb. 4, according to reports Friday from Tech ARP.com, a Malaysian Web site.

Other sources, meanwhile, claimed that Windows Server 2008 will also reach RTM (release to manufacturing) in the coming week.

Luckily I'm still on WinXP and probably will be for the next couple of years. I see no reason to move to Vista and will probably wait to see what Windows 7 is like.

Link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

Microsoft maintains list of all Windows keyboard shortcuts

• Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer
  
• Windows Logo+L: Log off Windows
• Windows Logo+P: Starts Print Manager
• Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel
• Windows Logo+V: Starts Clipboard
• Windows Logo+K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box
• Windows Logo+I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box
• Windows Logo+A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)
• Windows Logo+SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys
• Windows Logo+S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

Complete List:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

Sysinternals Suite

The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities have been rolled up into a single Suite of tools. This file contains the individual troubleshooting tools and help files. It does not contain non-troubleshooting tools like the BSOD Screen Saver or NotMyFault.

The Suite is a bundling of the following selected Sysinternals Utilities:

• AccessChk
• AccessEnum
• AdExplorer
• AdRestore
• Autologon
• Autoruns
• BgInfo
• CacheSet
• ClockRes
• Contig
• Ctrl2Cap
• DebugView
• DiskExt
• DiskMon
• DiskView
• Disk Usage (DU)
• EFSDump
• FileMon
• Handle
• Hex2dec
• Junction
• LDMDump
• ListDLLs
• LiveKd
• LoadOrder
• LogonSessions
• NewSid
• NTFSInfo
• PageDefrag
• PendMoves
• PortMon
• ProcessExplorer
• Process Monitor
• ProcFeatures
• PsExec
• PsFile
• PsGetSid
• PsInfo
• PsKill
• PsList
• PsLoggedOn
• PsLogList
• PsPasswd
• PsService
• PsShutdown
• PsSuspend
• RegDelNull
• RegJump
• RegMon
• RootkitRevealer
• SDelete
• ShareEnum
• SigCheck
• Streams
• Strings
• Sync
• TCPView
• VolumeID
• WhoIs
• WinObj
• ZoomIt

Link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/...

What is this?

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/en/us/default.aspx

Even Bill Gates doesn't truly like Vista

What did Bill Gates just say?
http://gizmodo.com/342920/holy-crap-did-bill-gates-just-say

Microsoft co-founder on 700 MHz bidders list, Verizon Wireless not

Thus far, the preliminary list of bidders in the US Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz auction is a veritable cavalcade of small telecom companies, plus small and large companies alike looking to become telecom companies. Google Airwaves, Inc. is the least surprising, and perhaps most spotlighted member of the group thus far.

Link:
http://.../Microsoft_cofounder_on_700_MHz_bidders_list

The list of bidders:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auctions_home

3 stubborn PC problems you can fix

1.You keep getting a "your system is running low on virtual memory" message
2.Your windows slide off the desktop . . . and you can't grab them
3.Your taskbar has disappeared

Read about the fixes:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/pcproblems.mspx

First look at the new Microsoft Download center

Use Microsoft's Silverlight technology and is painfully slow. Man I hate when websites add flash and cool effects over speed and usability. Just ruins the experience.

Link:
http://preview.microsoft.com/downloads/...

FastCGI Extension for IIS 6.0

The FastCGI Extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 enables popular application frameworks (such as PHP) to be hosted on the IIS web server in a high-performance and reliable way.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

Network Monitor 3 One Click Capture Tool

Wish you could get a network capture from a computer with no capture software installed? Wish you could have a network traffic "flight recorder" on a USB key? Here's your answer!"

The motivation behind creating this tool was to provide an extremely simple way to get a trace from an end user. And the name says it all, though maybe a small bit of false advertisement as it may take a bit more than just one click :). Once you have it downloaded to your machine, you can launch the executable and it will lead you through some simple dialogs that install the tool and start a trace. Once the trace is complete, which means it was manually stopped by the user or the default time of 2 hours have passed, a window will be opened to the location for the capture, called OneClick.cap.

Link:
http://.../nm3-one-click-capture-tool-beta.aspx

Get your @live.com email address today

Microsoft has finally made available the @live.com email address. Reserve your name now before somebody else does. Oh, and different countries can get their country tld's...

I have the Veign live.com email address.

Start here:
http://get.live.com/getlive/overview

Gatineau is Microsoft's answer to Google Analytics

Microsoft will be releasing an analytics program similiar to Google Analyitcs at some time in the future. Right now its in an invite only beta called Gatineau.

Read all about it:
http://www.liesdamnedlies.com/2007/10/its-here.html

Link to beta invite:
http://advertising.microsoft.com/microsoft-adcenter-gatineau

Strange Virtual PC 2007 behavior?

I have noticed a strange behavior in Virtual PC 2007 running on Windows Vista Business. When I start it, it always appears in the system tray. Then, if I right click on the icon and select the "Show Virtual PC Console" command, the program is shown in the taskbar, but it is minimized and I'm unable to restore the normal window

Link:
http://...Strange_Virtual_PC_2007_behavior.aspx

SyncToy v2.0 Beta

SyncToy 2.0 Beta for Windows is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

Whats New:

• Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.
• True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.
• Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.
• Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).
• Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.
• Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.
• Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.
• The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.
• Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.
• Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.
• 64-Bit compatibility
• Folder pair rename
• Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents creates under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded.
• Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.
• Removed combine and subscribe actions.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Microsoft Tester Center

The Microsoft Tester Center showcases the test discipline as an integral part of the application lifecycle, describes test roles and responsibilities, and promotes the test investments required to deliver high-quality software.

Link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/testing/default.aspx

Quick test from Windows Live Writer

Trying an offline blogging application called Windows Live Writer to see how well it works. Reason is I want to do some bigger and better blog posts that will take time to generate and an offline blogging application will help.

Link:
http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas

How strong are your passwords?

Microsoft has an online Password Strength Checker that will let you know. If your passwords are too weak, or you are looking for password ideas, then check out the article on How to create strong passwords.

Also, if you're looking to make a whole bunch of passwords at a single time then check out Veign's Online Password Creator.

Link:
http://.../protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Microsoft and Zend juice PHP for Windows

Zend Technologies, the industry's PHP steward, today delivers the first fruits of its collaboration with Microsoft while expanding the companies' relationship.

FastCGI is an alternative to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and follows work by Zend in turning the PHP engine to boost the performance on Windows servers of web applications written using PHP. In the past, Microsoft has claimed a performance boost for PHP of up to 20 per cent using FastCGI.

Link:
http://.../microsoft_zend_server_core/

Steve Ballmer lets the cat out of the bag

A team of Microsoft spokespeople have been working throughout the day to devise a plausible explanation for a comment made by CEO Steve Ballmer during a company gathering in the UK, which on its face appears to say it is considering litigation against users of Red Hat Linux for copyright infringement.

Read more:
http://...Microsoft_Scrambling_to_Explain_Ballmer_Comment/

HealthVault from Microsoft beats Google to the punch

When it's your job to protect your family's health, you need every advantage. Imagine if you had a way to collect, store, and share the health information critical to your family's well-being.

HealthVault is the new and FREE way to do just that.

Imagine controlling the flow of your health information. Whether you need to search the Web for the most up-to-date treatments, catalog existing health records, receive test results, or monitor current physical readings — HealthVault gives you the control you need.

Link:
http://www.healthvault.com/

Microsoft Office Goes Online

Read the full story over at SarahInTampa's blog:
http://www.sarahintampa.com/sarah/2007/10/microsoft-offic.html

This is something I have been giving a lot of thought lately. What will the software world look like in 5 years? In 10 years? Will desktop application development be needed anymore for software built for the masses? Will everything move to the online world? Google and Microsoft think so.

The online world and online applications have so many benefits that it may be an inevitable future and the reason I have realigned myself to websites and online applications. Slowly the hurdles of online applications are being overcome, like offline work (see Google Gears) and as more are addresses, like security, the need for a local application will become less.

What are your thoughts? How would you like having you sensitive data processed online?

How Windows Update Keeps Itself Up-to-Date

There have been some questions raised about how we service the Windows Update components and concerns expressed about software installing silently. I want to clarify the issue so that everyone can better understand why the self-updating of Windows Update acts the way it does.

Link:
http://.../how-windows-update-keeps-itself-up-to-date.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides: "These step-by-step guides help IT Professionals learn about and evaluate Windows Server 2008."

Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In

The Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In makes it easy to use a Web page as a data source in Excel. The add-in plugs into Excel 2007 seamlessly, its entry point located on the Data Tab under the From Web option. The system extracts data by learning from a user’s selection of data they wish to capture into Excel. The more selections, the more the system is trained. An example scenario: You wish to import and track data from MSN's weather page. Visit the site using the tool, enter Data Capture mode, and select a row or two of data from the table. Then click Select Similar, and the system will find similar data based on your previous selections. You then can click Import and leverage Excel's rich data-editing capabilities, including the Refresh command, which will revisit the Web page and extract potentially new, updated data.

Link:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads...

Misc. Microsoft downloads of interest

BITS Repair Tool for Windows Vista (KB940520):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Microsoft Office Hotfix Installer v.2.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Microsoft Application Verifier v3.4:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP (KB917013):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Scriptomatic 2.0

A completely new version of the famous Scriptomatic, the utility that writes WMI scripts for you. (And, in the process, teaches you the fundamental concepts behind writing WMI scripts for yourself.) Unlike its predecessor, Scriptomatic 2.0 isn’t limited to writing just VBScript scripts; instead, Scriptomatic 2.0 can write scripts in Perl, Python, or JScript as well. In addition, Scriptomatic 2.0 gives you a host of new output formats to use when running scripts, including saving data as plain-text, as a stand-alone Web page, or even as XML. Scriptomatic 2.0 handles arrays, it converts dates to a more readable format, and it works with all the WMI classes on your computer; on top of all that, it also writes scripts that can be run against multiple machines.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Money Plus

Building on the company’s 17-year history of delivering award-winning financial management solutions, Microsoft Corp. today launches Microsoft® Money Plus, the latest release of the popular Money product line. Money Plus debuts innovative new tools that enable consumers to effortlessly manage all their finances. With customizable “Insights,” Microsoft Money Plus delivers important financial information right to the desktop, without the need to open the Money program. Consumers can personalize Insights to alert them when they are close to preset spending limits or when bills are coming due and can also quickly and easily check accounts to see balances and cash flow.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/...MoneyPlusPR.mspx

Hungary competition authority raids Microsoft office

Hungary competition authority raids Microsoft office: "Hungary's competition authority (GVH) said it had raided Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Hungarian subsidiary because it suspected the firm had abused its market power when dealing with software distributors."

Link:
http://.../technologyNews/idUSL2671940720070726