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Mac or PC? Desktop or Laptop? Web Video Producers Want to Know... Which Models, Features & Software You Need to Make GREAT Web Videos "This FREE video guide finally settles the debate between Macs vs. PCs and Desktops vs .Laptops When it Comes to Producing Great Web Video..."
Windows 8 is said to be under development and rumoured to be released in 2012 :-
Windows 8 Center, the one-stop resource for Windows 8 news,
rumours', screenshots, and downloads. Windows 8 news is still
scarce right now, but we will continually update the site as news flows in.:-
Windows 8 Center
Windows 8 News, Rumors, Screenshots and Downloads - Get it all here!
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:16:16 +0000 - As we’ve known for some time, Microsoft had already begun work on Windows 8 before Windows 7 was completed. The reason being that different teams work on different aspects of the operating system, which is why Microsoft was able to do this. Microsoft previously shed some light on what we can see in Windows 8 [...]
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Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:30:35 +0000 - A roadmap slide from an Italian Windows Server presentation spotted by UXEvangelist shows that the next major Windows Server release for Microsoft is set for 2012, which is approximately three years from the release of Windows 7.
Although the roadmap is titled Windows Server release, it is still appropriate for our guessing purposes
Windows Server 2008 was [...]
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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:17:45 +0000 - Dubbed the Copenhagen user experience, the following video is supposed to be a concept for a future generation of Windows – namely Windows 8. I was a bit surprised to see many Windows 7 concepts included so I contacted the creator, who confirmed that some concepts were adapted straight from Windows 7. The concept seems [...]
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Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:12:17 +0000 - Microsoft starting major improvements for Windows 8 soonMicrosoft already entered the planning stages of Windows 8 last year in March when Windows 7 was still in Milestone 1. The Redmond company recently revealed in a job opening post for the Lead Software Development Engineer position that it will soon begin working on major improvements on [...]
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Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:52:35 +0000 - Welcome to Windows 8 Center, the one-stop resource for Windows 8 news, rumors, screenshots, and downloads. Windows 8 news is still scarce right now, but we will continually update the site as news flows in.
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Windows 8 News Windows 8 News is dedicated to bringing you all the latest news, rumours, screenshots about the next release of Windows, and is the sister site to Windows 7 News, the best news source for Windows 7:-
Windows 8 News
The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:57:49 +0000 - I saw a documentary about Roswell, the place in New Mexico, USA that was supposed to be the place where an alien space craft went down. It supposedly was recovered by the US Air Force and had alien bodies among the wreckage. 60 years later, I smile when I hear how some people regardless of evidence or lack there of continue to believe wild stories about that [...]Related posts:
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:22:22 +0000 - USB 2.0 maxes out at 480 MBits/s. USB 3.0 is expected to max out at 5 Gbits/s. This dramatic performance improvement over version 2.0, makes it more desirable. However, these new data transfer rates while attainable by the USB hardware, my not be easy to implement. Intel is working with Microsoft to make sure that the hardware will work with Windows 8. It will fully support USB 3.0 Windows 8 integration.Related posts:
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:29:04 +0000 - Everybody’s got a wish list for what they want Windows to be. As a technical beta-tester for Microsoft and the author of the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, I’ve had a great insight over the last few years into what Windows could have been, having tested features that were later dropped from betas, and I’ve [...]Related posts:
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:07:32 +0000 - The reinvention of the tablet PC by Apple this week could have significant ramifications for Microsoft during the development of Windows 8, and impact the look and feel of their next OS considerably.
I think it’s brilliant that we’re now looking at a very near future where I can lounge around on the sofa with the [...]Related posts:
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:23:47 +0000 - In tandem with our sister site Windows 7 News, we’ve been giving away over $9000 worth of software and hardware this month. So far we’ve had some amazing prizes, and on Day 9 of our $9k Christmas Giveaway we are giving away one of our best prizes. Today the lucky winner of our main reverse [...]Related posts:
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:32:41 +0000 - Several sites have been keeping a close eye on the job postings at Microsoft Careers, to see if there are any indicators on there as to what direction Windows 8 may go in. In total in November they spotted seven job postings for Windows 8 and windows server 2008 R2.
One interesting job posting was for [...]Related posts:
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:38:26 +0000 - In tandem with our sister site Windows 7 News & Tips we are giving away over $9000 this December. Yes, everyday between Dec 1st and Dec 24th we are giving away prizes worth over $300!!
Entry is free and you can enter as many times as you want. All you have to do is visit our Christmas Giveaway [...]Related posts:
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:46:34 +0000 - Last month a number of sites, including this one, picked up on rumours that Windows 8 would support 128-bit processors. The main ’source’ of the rumours was a Robert Morgan who was a “senior member of Microsoft’s R&D team” who leaked information about Windows 8’s 128 bit capabilities on his LinkedIn profile.
However, it looks now [...]Related posts:
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:52 +0000 - More and more evidence is emerging that Windows 8 will be released in 2012. At this years Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC 2009), budding attendees managed to get their hands on two Windows roadmap slides that show ‘Windows 8′ launching in 2012:Now these slides don’t really provide any information that we didn’t know; Microsoft typically leave [...]Related posts:
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:58:07 +0000 - Resident editor Mike Halsey has just published on Windows 7 News, the latest post in his series ‘Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows‘. In part 5, he covers improvements he would like to see to Windows 7’s libraries and search in Windows 8:
I’ve spoken before about Libraries being an excellent example [...]Related posts:
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:09:36 +0000 - The dust hasn’t yet settled on the launch of Windows 7 and I’m fairly certain that in the new year, Microsoft will not only release Windows 7 SP1 but also (finally) some details of Windows 8. Windows 7 is a brilliant OS, but there is still room for improvement. What features would you add to [...]Related posts:
Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:12:01 +0000 - Long after Donald Rumsfeld has died, he will be known (sic) for one of the worst quotes ever:
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things [...]Related posts:
Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:42:40 +0000 - To celebrate the launch of Windows 7 and (hopefully) the start of some news from Microsoft on Windows 8, Windows 7 Themes have pulled together a mega pack of 1250 Windows 8 Wallpapers:
The wallpaper package includes a lot of different wallpapers: dual-screen, panorama (ultra-wide wallpaper), firefox, mac, windows vista and 7, cars, nature, underwater scenes, [...]Related posts:
Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:45:59 +0000 - Have you visited the Windows 8 Forum? If not, then maybe you should today. There are nearly 4,000 active users in the forum that we share with our sister site Windows 7 News, and a number of Windows 8 posts and rumours are starting to appear.Register Now!Related posts:Welcome To Windows 8 News!
Design A New Logo [...]Related posts:
Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000 - Who could have imagined over even the last ten years that the PC, a business device, would be welcomed with such open arms into the home. That huge sections of our living rooms and spare bedrooms would be devoted to huge beige, then black, boxes.
Windows 8 is due in beta 2011 for release in 2012. This [...]Related posts:
Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:45:17 +0000 - Recently there have been rumours that the next version of Windows will move the whole platform completely over to 128-bit architecture, dumping 32 and 64-bit compatibility completely.
This first came about because of a news story broken by Microsoft Kitchen a few days ago in which Robert Morgan, a senior research and development officer at Microsoft [...]Related posts:
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:02:35 +0000 - Windows 7 when it launched on October 22nd will include versions for both 32 bit and 64 bit users. It’s successor Windows 8 expected in 2011 was expected to only come in a 64 bit version, because Windows Server 2008 R2 was released in 64 bit form only and the next Windows OS was expected [...]Related posts:
Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:40:49 +0000 - There’s been no sign of any official news or Windows 8 media, but that hasn’t stopped talented designers pulling together their own. Rajesh Patel has created six Windows 8 Wallpapers that are available for download:More: Tweaking WindowsRelated posts:Download 1250 Windows 8 Wallpapers
Unofficial Windows 8 Concept VideoRelated posts:
Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:11:36 +0000 - There have been a number of fake Windows 8 leaks over the last couple of weeks, most of them probably packed with viruses and spyware which I’d advise readers to steer well clear off. As soon as a verified leak appears, you will hear about it first on this site.
My money is on a Windows [...]Related posts:
Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:34:25 +0000 - Windows 7 isn’t out the door yet, but Microsoft seem to be making good progress with Windows 8. A roadmap slide from Microsoft’s Italian subsidiary has Windows 8 penciled in for a 2012 release:Note though that Windows 8 is down as approximately 2012. Even still, it looks like Microsoft are sticking to their 2.5-3 year [...]Related posts:
Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:51:16 +0000 - Windows 8’s name was chosen because it will be the 8th version of Windows. Double-checking this isn’t as easy as you may think and trips up many people. Here are the Windows versions that preceded Windows 8:Windows 1.0
Windows 2.0
Windows 3.0
Windows 95 (Windows 4.0)
Windows 2000 (Windows 5.0)
Windows Vista (Windows 6.0)
Windows 7 – Launching October [...]Related posts:
Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:48:33 +0000 - We have our first set of Windows 8 Wallpapers! The Windows 8 Transformation Pack is from the same team who pulled together some of the early Windows 7 Wallpapers.Within the pack are are Windows 8 Wallpapers and Windows 8 Login Screen backgrounds.
More: Windows 8 Transformation PackRelated posts:Download 1250 Windows 8 Wallpapers
Ten Items On My [...]Related posts:
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:47:39 +0000 - You only have 2 days left to enter the $200 competition to design a new logo for Windows 7 News and Windows 8 News. There’s 2 days left to go and we need to pick a winner from the 190 entries so far.
Because there have been so many entries we need your help selecting a [...]Related posts:
Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:19:47 +0000 - Eagle eyed Stephen over at techwoo spotted the following in the LinkedIn profile of a Microsoft PM, which seems to indicate that Windows 8 will have some new networking features:
Evaluating and collating technical and business requirements for developing new networking features in Windows 8.
Designing features, functional specification and prototype for Windows 8.
I can only hope [...]Related posts:
Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:33 +0000 - The following video was not created by Microsoft, but by a UI team in Copenhagen. It nevertheless still shows some amazing new user experience features that would really make Windows 8 an amazing advance in the Windows series.
Check it out below!Copenhagen User Experience from Copenhagen Concept.Related posts:(Unofficial) Windows 8 Wallpapers
Microsoft Hiring For Windows 8
Windows 8 [...]Related posts:
Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:46:32 +0000 - To celebrate the launch of Windows 8 News we’ve decided to run another competition! We need two logos, one for Windows 7 News and one for Windows 8 News, that will look amazing in the header and also as a thumbnail image. The competition offers any budding designers not only an opportunity to win $200, [...]Related posts:
Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:35:44 +0000 - Microsoft will start taking pre-orders tomorrow for Windows 7. Users who place Pre-orders for Windows 7 before the end of the special offer could save up to $100 off the full list price.
If you live in the US, Canada or Japan you can now pre-order Windows 7 for a limited time, so hurry and place [...]Related posts:
Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:11:53 +0000 - Although Microsoft don’t intend to make a big splash when launching Windows 7, it will probably be Microsoft’s finest release yet if the feedback from testers and readers on our sister site Windows 7 News is anything to go by.
There’s still plenty of room for improvement in Windows 8. Mike from the Windows 7 News [...]Related posts:
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:39:19 +0000 - Windows 7 is almost complete and due to be launched on October 22nd, and Microsoft are already turning their attention to creating Windows 8. To some this may seem premature, but putting together a new OS takes a considerable amount of work and much longer than the 3 years gap between Windows releases.
A recent job [...]Related posts:
Thu, 21 May 2009 13:55:18 +0000 - Dedicated to bringing you all the news & rumours about Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 8, which will replace Windows 7 in 2012/13. New to the site? Check out the Windows 8 FAQ. We also recommend:The Archives to search all posts, checking out the latest Windows 8 Screenshots, Windows 8 Wallpapers & Windows 8 Videos
Visiting [...]
Windows 8 Forums The source for information regarding the Windows 8 Beta, RC, and RTM builds. Find out more about Windows 8 downloads and find the Windows 8 release date
Windows 7 Compatibility for developers'. Getting the green light for Windows 7 Compatibility is easy. We offer technical support resources to help you get your application compatible with Windows 7, and when you are ready we
have a host of marketing resources to help you get the word out to your customers and prospects. If your application is already compatible with Windows Vista, getting the green
light should be a straightforward process. The first step is to Get Started by registering. This allows you to track your progress and quickly get to the right resources. Depending upon your application readiness, we’ll direct you to the appropriate resources: Not Compatible – You’ll get access to simple step by step guides for testing your applications compatibility, as well as support resources that can help you solve problems. Compatible – You can list your solution in Microsoft’s worldwide catalogs and access customisable marketing templates for emails, business letters, direct marketing postcards, press releases, and newsletters to help you get the word out quickly to your customers that your applications are compatible with Windows 7.
You may be eligible for a copy of Windows 7* if you
purchased a computer was purchased between 26 June 2009 and 31 January 2010 and
it came with has Window Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate. If you
believe you may qualify for an Windows 7 Update check your manufacturer,
below:-
Windows 7 completed a major milestone Release To Manufacturing (RTM)! And in
three months time – on October 22nd – Windows 7 will be available for everyone to enjoy. Excitement about the upcoming public release of Windows 7 has
been growing for months and expectations are for a much quicker adoption rate than what we saw with the previous Windows version.
The infamous BOSD, (Blue Screen Of Death, when the display shows Blue with an
error message) may have been replaced by the BSOD, (Black Screen of Death KSOD,
blacK Screen Of Death) in Windows 7:-
Windows 7 users hit by 'black screen of death' The 'black screen of death'
is a play on the 'blue screen of death' colloquialism used for the error screen
that has plagued Windows users over the years.
While Microsoft is investigating Black Screen Of
Death in Windows 7 ,
Prevx has identified the fix for Windows 7. You can either
downloadPrevx fix or simply follow the
steps below
1. Restart your PC
2. Logon and wait for the black screen to appear
3. Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black
screen does not appear to affect this)
4. Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously
Note this command assumes that you are using internet explorer as your
browser, if not substitute your browser path and file details for those of
iexplore.exe or use the Browser option of Task manager to locate it.
9. Click OK and your browser should start up and begin the download
process
10. When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix
program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.
11. Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be
gone.
BlueScreenView
scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and
displays the information about all crashes in one table. For each crash,
BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the
basic crash information displayed in the blue screen (Bug Check Code and 4
parameters), and the details of the driver or module that possibly caused the
crash (filename, product name, file description, and file version).
Windows 7 Developer Guide: Learn how the Windows 7 platform makes it
easy for you to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow you to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities.
Develop for Windows 7 page: Discover both familiar and new tools along with rich development features that enable you to take advantage
of the latest Windows platform.
Welcome to Windows 7 Microsoft Learn more about Windows 7, the next version of Windows for PCs. Make everyday tasks easier.
Windows 7 News The Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News. Information about Windows 7 Milestones, Screenshots, Videos & Rumours.
Windows 7 Blog. News on Windows 7 Windows 7 Blog. News on Windows 7. Covers what Windows 7 is doing. Also programming and coding tips, etc...
Windows 7 E-Learning Clinics from Microsoft LearningDownload the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers This release of the Windows 7 Training Kit includes code, presentations, hands-on labs, and demos designed to help both native Win32 C++ developers and .NET developers learn how to build applications that are compatible with Windows 7 RTM. It explains how to use key Windows 7 features and application compatibility topics.
Windows 7 UAC Vulnerability or not a Vulnerability to Hackers? Windows bloggers Long Zheng and Rafael Rivera claimed to have unearthed two flaws in the Windows 7 beta that could allow an attacker to gain full administrative privileges by sidestepping the
UAC, (User Access Controls), in the planned operating system. The flaws are rooted in Microsoft's effort to make UAC less annoying to end users in Windows 7 than it's been in Windows Vista, which uses pop-up Windows to
ask them whether they really want to download and install code. The number of pop-ups have been a source of distraction and annoyance to end users and also
ISVs writing code that installs on Windows.
The Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program can help you ensure that your new and existing devices, systems, and applications will be compatible with Windows 7. Through Microsoft Connect, the program
provides you access to Windows 7 builds, support and toolkits to aid your development efforts in building innovative solutions for your customers.
Microsoft Update Catalog for Windows 7 (Including Hardware Divers such as NVIDIA and
ATI present alongside Hauppauge, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Razer and many others.)
Nasty Memory Leak Found in Windows 7 RTM Build Microsoft insists its not to blame. Microsoft is now in code-red panic mode as a major bug has been found in Windows 7's RTM build, one which threatens to kill the OS's release party. The RTM build -- 7600.16385 -- thus far only received by a handful,
features a reportedly massive memory leak in the unassuming, but frequently used program chkdsk.exe.
Also more about this at Critical Bug in Windows 7 RTM
High Definition Quality with Windows Media Video 9. Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series is a breakthrough set of codecs that enables multichannel audio and high definition (HD) video at resolutions up to 1080p. See high definition in action for yourself with these downloads. To deliver ultra-high quality, these clips were encoded at 24 frames per second (fps), and at the resolutions noted of either 1280 x 720 (720p) or 1920 x 1080 (1080p).
More High Definition Television. HDTV and Videos to Watch and Video Publishing
Microsoft Improves Windows XP Mode With New Windows 7 RC Windows fans are invited to test out the innovative new OS feature
Also see Windows XP Mode Release Candidate As you may know, Windows XP Mode is specially designed for small and
medium-sized businesses to help ease the migration process to Windows 7 by providing additional compatibility for their older productivity applications.
The newly updated Windows XP Mode now works with the RC and RTM versions of the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise SKUs.
Windows Driver Kit (WDK)
The WDK is a fully integrated driver development system that contains the Windows Driver Device Kit (DDK) and tests for stability and reliability of
Windows drivers, WDK Documentation instructions. Alternatively, the Windows Driver Kit can be accessed via MSDN. The actual Windows Driver Kit for Windows 7 are available to MSDN
subscribers and via Microsoft Connect which is a connection point between you and Microsoft, and ultimately the
larger community. Your feedback enables Microsoft to make software and services the best that they can be, and you can learn about and contribute to exciting
projects. Learn more.
MSDN Magazine: Multitouch Capabilities in Windows 7 From implementing the default gesture support to the more advanced raw touch messages, The Windows 7 Multitouch Platform gives you a lot of power with relatively simple implementation. This article walks through several scenarios by which you can enhance.
Read - Technologizer Windows 7 hands-on Read - Ars Technica Windows 7 interface walkthrough Read - Laptop Windows 7 hands-on Read - Windows 7 Media Center revealed
You may wish to consider using a Virtual Machine
Run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer.
Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button. Use virtual
machines to run legacy applications, provide support, train users, and
enhance quality assurance.
Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer's Guide. Describes how to
build a basic web service that leverages the Windows OpenSearch provider for federated search. Federated search enables users to search remote data sources
from within Windows Explorer and to interact with that remote data from within Windows Explorer.
Microsoft Surface Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft Corp. It turns an ordinary tabletop into an interactive surface.
Windows Vienna is now Windows 7 Microsoft revealed a new name for the upcoming operating system: - as it is built upon the 7.0 version of the NT Kernel.
Windows Vista Main Page . Windows Vista is now available for IT professionals, developers, and technology enthusiasts. Windows Vista (Microsoft has formally renamed Longhorn, the long-awaited operating system to Windows Vista. Windows Vista is being developed to replace Windows XP, (Arriving 2006). No more Longhorn.
Windows
Vista Upgrade Advisor This is a small application that
you can run on your current Windows XP-based computer to find out if it's ready
for an upgrade to Windows Vista.
Windows Vista Windows SDK and WinFX Beta are now available to all developers. Download or order Windows Vista Beta 2 via the Customer Preview Program (CPP) or the Beta Experience program.
Download the Latest Windows Vista If you are not already a member of the Windows Vista beta program, there are three other ways to obtain the latest beta version of Windows
Vista.
Installed 4GB of RAM with Microsoft
Vista? There's said to be a bug in Windows Vista that can prevent the operating system
being installed where there's more than 3GB of RAM installed. You mat get the following error message :-
Microsoft execs struggled with Vista too, say internal e-mails. Some of Microsoft Corp.'s own top executives had trouble getting Windows Vista to work
in the weeks after its release, according to company e-mails unsealed yesterday. The officials, including a member of the Microsoft board of directors, voiced
some of the same complaints about missing drivers and crippled graphics that users have raised since Vista debuted in January 2007.
You can manually execute and run the MSRT with the following
command MRT.EXE into the Start>Run box
Here are some switches that may be used with the MSRT
•/Q or /quiet – Use quiet mode. This option suppresses the
user interface of the tool.
•/? – Display a dialog box that lists the command-line switches.
•/N – Run in detect-only mode. In this mode, malicious software will be reported
to the user but will not be removed.
•/F – Force an extended scan of the computer.
•/F:Y – Force an extended scan of the computer and automatically clean any
infections found.
The Windows® Azure™ Platform is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. The Windows Azure Platform provides a range of functionality to build applications that span from consumer web to enterprise scenarios and includes a cloud operating system and a set of developer services. Fully interoperable through the support of industry standards and web protocols such as REST and SOAP, you can use
the Azure services individually or together, either to build new applications or to extend existing ones. What is the Windows
Azure Platform?
Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a set of technical content
including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you
learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: WindowsSQL Azure
and .NET Services.
Windows Azure Platform Developer Center
The Microsoft
Windows Azure platform is an Internet-scale cloud services platform hosted
in Microsoft data centers. Get the training kits, get the SDK, browse
documentation, and start today, sending your applications to the future of
computing. The Microsoft Windows Azure Platform is an Internet-scale cloud
services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. The platform includes the
Windows Azure operating system, .NET Services, and
Cloud Computing is a somewhat nebulous word to describe that modern users will "rent" or borrow online software instead of actually purchasing and installing it on their home computers. It is the exact same idea as people using Gmail or Hotmail services, except that cloud computing goes much further than simple email. Cloud computing is where entire businesses and thousands of employees will run their computer tools as online rented products. All of the processing work and file saving will be done "in the cloud" of the Internet, and the users will plug into that cloud every day to do their computer work. It is said that Could Computer suppliers buy computer systems by the container load. This help reduce cost because of Economies of scale. Software as a Service (aka "Saas" or "SaS"). Platform as a Service (aka "PaaS" or "PaS") . Software and Platform.
Cloud Security Frame.
Cloud Security Frame at
Shaping Software.
This frame is especially important because we’re using it to help us map out the
Cloud security space for our patterns & practices Cloud Security Guidance
project. It’s helps us scope our project. The frame is basically a
set of Hot Spots. We use the Hot Spots to find, organize, and share
principles, patterns, and practices. We also use the Hot Spots to find
pain points and opportunity or to organize key engineering decisions.
Windows Azure platform is a set of cloud computing services. It provides a
scalable environment with compute, storage, hosting, and management
capabilities. It links to on-premises applications with secure connectivity,
messaging, and identity management.
See the Future of Microsoft Technology at PDC09 November 17 - 19 Los Angeles, CA Register by September 15 and receive US$500 off your conference
pass. Join leading-edge developers and architects to jumpstart product planningand get immersed in keynotes featuring luminaries Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia, sessions about the future of Windows, the Web, devices, developer tools, and our
services platform.
Microsoft
Virtual PC to run multiple operating
systems at the same time on the same physical computer. Switch between
virtual machines with the click of a button. Use virtual machines to run legacy
applications, provide support, train users, and enhance quality assurance.
MSDN Subscriptions - If you have an MSDN Subscription (Operating System level or higher), you can download Windows Vista Beta 2. (Read information on purchasing an MSDN Subscription)
Windows Vista Beta Program - If you wish to become a beta member, you can do so by registering for the world-wide Windows Vista Beta Experience. There you can download or order Windows Vista Beta 2 and receive additional resources, specialist knowledge, and bonus material.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program - Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available via the Customer Preview Program (CPP). Visit the Get Ready for Windows Vista site to download or order Windows Vista Beta .
The MSDN Library is an essential resource for developers using Microsoft
tools, products, and technologies. It contains technical programming
information, sample code, documentation, technical articles, and reference
guides.
MSDN TechNet Lab
is an agile platform to publicly incubate and showcase both fresh new
experiences and exciting new technologies. Our goal in the lab is to grow
the software through a public evolution with the express desire of
incorporating public feedback throughout the labs lifecycle. Ideas that
resonate with the public will eventually be folded into our regular sites
while projects that fail to appeal will be relegated to oblivion.
Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset. 30 day evaluation of the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset. This product provides powerful, intuitive tools that help administrators recover PCs that have become unusable, and easily identify root causes of system issues. This toolset is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.
Microsoft MSDN
Channel 9 TV. Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind
the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ
to SilverLight
Microsoft® Silverlight® is a cross-browser,
cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media
experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a
flexible programming model that supports AJAX,
VB,
C#,
Python, and Ruby,
and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast,
cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browser running on
the Mac
OS, Windows or Linux.
Boasts Video Editing online.
The Windows Secrets Newsletter brings you essential tricks of running Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Windows Update, and more - every Thursday, free.
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - Our free bonus this month is crammed with 83 tricks you'll want to take advantage of immediately (or whenever you install Win7). The bonus e-book is a 41-page printable PDF by Chris Pirillo of the Lockergnome.com tech site. Thousands of these e-books have sold for $7 each, but every WS subscriber can get a copy absolutely free. The offer is good only for a few weeks, so get your copy now. Simply visit your WS preferences page, update your info and save it, and you'll see a download link thereafter. Thanks! —Brian Livingston, editorial director
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - A hot topic at last week's RSA Conference in San Francisco was how to stem the flood of botnet-infected PCs.
The controversial solution posed by a Microsoft security executive? Quarantine them.
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - Technology can be great, but when you're trying to upgrade a PC, incompatible hardware can be a pain.
Moving data from an older drive to a newer one gave members of the Windows Secrets Lounge an opportunity to provide helpful information, as shown in the first of the following most-active threads this week:
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - Yes, there are reasons to keep print media alive. You may be happy getting your news online, but for some citizens the loss of the printed page will have a profoundly life-altering impact.
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - Most PC users take it on wary faith that their firewalls are providing full protection from malicious applications.
A better policy is to use firewall testing services and free applications to ensure your firewall is correctly set.
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - Floppy disks, tape, Zip drives, DAT drives, optical storage, NAS drives, and beyond — your backup options, past and present, can be mind-boggling.
These days, the most convenient backup medium is an external hard drive — it's quick, easy, and automated — but it's never good to put all of your archives in one basket.
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:00 -0800 - The most important news this Patch Tuesday was not about a new patch, but the lack of one.
Microsoft announced that it is investigating public reports of a new security threat to Internet Explorer 6 and 7. No IE patch came with the advisory, but the company did include a workaround.
Widgets and Gadgets. Small free-standing applications that reside on your computer.
Microsoft gadgets are a new category of mini-application designed to provide information, useful lookup, or enhance an application or service on your Windows PC or the Web.
Port 25. Everything you need to know about the world's leading .NET platform for social networks and online communities is right here!
Event Forwarding in Windows Vista Vista brings a new event
forwarding feature for Windows Administrators. Event forwarding allows configuring a central event collector machine to collect events from other
computers. This feature has a complete UI support in event viewer.
Advances in digital photography technology have catapulted the number of digital images that are available online. Whether through various online photo services or during an everyday search on Bing, the number of digital image results is staggering, and continues to grow at an amazing pace. How you sift through and find the right image and image size could seem daunting. Bing tries to make this easier by enabling you to sort by size, layout, color, or even filter for images that contain faces or entire body.
One feature that will make my life much easier is the ability to find other sizes of an image that I like. I cannot tell you how many times I am looking for a different size image for a specific use. And sometimes I want to limit my searching to one file type, like a jpeg. file. You can now do all of this with the “Find more sizes” option using Bing Image search.
To see how this works go to Bing and type in Seattle, click on images, then mouse over an image you like and you will see a link that says “Find more sizes”. Click on it
You will get a page listing where all of the “same” images appear online (with different format, resolution, or with minor editing). You will also be able to see the other ways this image has been used (mockups, editing, cropping, framing, etc). This will be helpful for the many instances where you need exactly the right resolution, file size or type for a certain project.
And if you need more information on an image -- for example, if you are interested in a particular painting, you can find all different pages talking about it, which can be helpful for that next school paper or research project you have.
Having access to online images is incredibly useful. Now with new tools to help you organize and sort images to find exactly what you are looking for, some difficult tasks have become a little bit easier.
Ok…so I know last week you were all wondering where Stefan was. To be honest he doesn’t remember and I am not in the business of keeping tabs on him anymore, so alas there was no video. However I still had Free T-Shirt Friday and we did have two winners from the week prior and last week! So if you are listed below I will follow you through the @bing twitter account so that all you need to do is Direct Message (DM) us your mailing address and your shirt size and we will get them to you as fast as we can get them from the Bing Shirt Shop (that doesn’t really exist but you know what I mean).
· Free T-Shirt Friday Winners – Them “The Academy Awards”
This week Stefan is back and took some questions from the forums as well as talked about some interesting stuff that the team is up to down at SXSWI, Mix as well as some cool stuff he saw over at Cray Inc. the Super Computer Company yesterday and he also gives us the #FTF theme for the week. Ok, the theme part ended up on the editing room floor on accident (my bad) so the Free T-Shirt Friday theme for the week giving a shout out to our friends down in Austin, TX for SXSW is “Music Groups.” Go to Bing and search for your favorite band, singer, indie rock group whatever is your thing and send us the result URL to us @bing via twitter and hash-tag (#) it FTF.
It’s been a little over 9 months since Bing launched back in June 09. In interweb years, that puts us at about 15, a raging teenager. And do we have a crush on big bad Texas. Dallas, you sure are a darling. But OMG OMG Austin WE LOVE YOU too!!!
As such (in our usual calm, collected voice), the Bing team is excitedly packing for Austin to join in the annual tech pilgrimage that’s SXSW Interactive. Our mission is simple – connect with you the community.
We want to chat you up all you cool interesting people doing cool interesting things, get the scoop from you on all the bubbling tech hotness, and maybe even drop a Milli Vanilli number with you (you will be Milli) at TechKaraoke. Where it’s at is where we’ll be at. But come to us too! Bing is hosting a number of cool & fun experiences throughout Interactive. Here’s a snapshot of Bing activities.
3/12 Friday 7-9PM: TechSet Party (with Bing Photo for Good) at Speakeasy (412 Congress Avenue)
3/13 Sat 4-7PM: Bing sponsored TWiST party (“This Week in Startup” the internet show hosted by Jason Calacanis of Mahalo)
Bing Photo for Good (located in Blogger’s Lounge in Austin Convention Center Room 19A. Open Sat - Tue 9:30AM-6PM): Everybody’s searching for something. Share your query and Bing will help make a difference in a child’s life. Bing will donate towards “Save the Children” efforts on behalf of children in Haiti.
Bing and Windows Phones are partnering with Check-inforCharity who will donate to “Save the Children” when you check in at the 25 check-in locations across Austin.
Bing Demo Booth in SXSW Trade Show Hall (Sat 12AM-6PM; Sun 12-6 PM; Mon 12-4 PM): Grab a plateful of Bing demo with a side of sweet swag.
Also, be sure to catch out friends at Foursquare who will be joining us at the Demo Booth and Bing Photo for Good to hand out killer stickers.
On Friday at NCCE Seattle we announced that our next homepage photo contest will kickoff on March 29 and this time there’s a twist. We’re asking students in the United States to submit photos to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and the winning photo will be displayed on the Bing homepage on April 22, Earth Day itself!
Justin Kraemer, winner of the Bing Home Sweet Homepage Photo contest
In addition to the grand prize winner seeing their photo on Bing.com, we’ve pulled together some great prizes for both students and their schools. Winners across the four age groups (ages 5-10, 11-13, 14-17 and 18+) will win a trip for two to the Microsoft Campus to take part in a Bing editorial team meeting where we pick images for future homepages. Additionally, each winner will receive equipment from HP and Canon to help build digital photo resources at their school. Prizes for individual winners and their schools across the four age groups will total over $70,000.
· 1st place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Lab” for their school.
· 2nd place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Kit” for their school.
· 3rd place prizes: Individuals receive an HP Pavilion desktop and monitor and a “Digital Photo Starter Set” for their school.
And here’s the “everyone wins” part. There’s a great opportunity to help other classrooms in need during the voting stage from April 13th to the 19th. Bing will give a $5.00 GivingCard for DonorsChoose.org to the first 20,000 people who vote each day. Voters can then decide what classroom projects (like math, science, art, reading) will benefit from Bing’s donation. If you do the math, we’re talking up to $100,000 a day to help schools across the country. Each day you can return to the site to cast another vote and have an opportunity to pick up another GivingCard.
Bing helps students explore the world with our rich homepage imagery every day, so we’re excited to see what the country’s students think we might all want to discover.
To find out more about the contest, including the submission and voting process and prizes for the finalists, visit http://earthdayphotocontest.com/. Teachers will be able to order free posters for their classrooms in the coming days, as well as take advantage of other contest resources on the site.
On Sunday night, I like many others will be glued to the television for those few hours to watch Hollywood honor the best of the best in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards show. Some people watch for the awards, some for the fashion, and other watch for the pure entertainment of the presenters, and this year, with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting we are sure to have a very entertaining show.
As we have done in years past we are offering up instant answers in order to make it easier to navigate all the important information you might need to know about the show. Currently, you can get the Academy Award instant answer for the show itself, which includes information on the show, nominees and links to images and past show information. For those of you that miss the festivities, there will be a post-show instant answer with links to images and videos so be sure and check back for a quick look at the winners and other highlights from the show.
With ten nominees for best picture, I have a lot of catching up to do before Sunday. So while researching the picks, I found a few places very helpful. The first is www.bing.com/twitter where you can see all of the chatter on twitter that has to do with the Academy Awards, nominees, and the event parties. It is pretty interesting to see feedback and opinions about the show from people around the country in real time. The second is the Oscar Winning Actors Visual Search gallery. In this gallery, you can find information about who won in 2009 and who won the most awards overall. You should also visit MSN Award Buzz which pulls information from blogs, twitter and forums to create a fun graphic on each nominee and predicts the winner of each category based on public buzz. It is a must for those Oscar enthusiasts! Check out the MSN blog for all the details.
Since Stefan is off rubbing elbows in L.A. with the Hollywood elite for the Oscars and I am left here again to fend for myself, there will be no video or Fridays With Stefan. But we’ll still have Free T-shirt Friday and the theme for this week is “The Academy Awards” and all things related. To mix it up a little we want the entries to be RT’s (retweets) that you find on www.bing.com/twitter that have to do with the Academy Awards, add in your own commentary and tweet us at @bing make sure to include @bing and #FTF. We will be looking at all of the entries at the beginning of next week so tweet us all weekend and through the show.
Have a great weekend and Stefan I hope you are having a GREAT time in La La land!
O.K. - pop quiz: which social media game boasts an active fan-base of roughly 31 million players every day? Here’s a hint: it’s a happy place where you can plant virtual crops that can be harvested, or ask your neighbor to chase away raccoons. If you guessed Farmville, then you’re correct!
Earlier this week, we began an advertising pilot with Zynga, the folks who brought you Farmville. For a short time, we invited some people who were playing Farmville to join Bing’s Facebook community by becoming a fan of Bing. We also encouraged them to tell their friends about it. In exchange, we provided some farm dollars, which is the virtual currency used to buy things to build and maintain a farm. Here is what the ad looked like, once a Farmville user clicked on it:
In a 24 hour promotion, we added 400,000 new fans to http://www.facebook.com/bing. We were amazed by the response (and by how fast it went viral). But we always have room for more folks in the Bing community, so stop on by and join the fun.
We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Zynga on this advertising promotion, as an interesting way of getting more people to experience Bing’s unique ability to help make decisions, whether in Farmville or outside in the real world. We look forward to engaging more deeply with these users and helping them learn more about Bing.
Starting tomorrow, Bing will be participating in full force at what’s shaping up to be another stellar SMX West (March 2-4, Santa Clara CA). Every SMX show is a special one for Bing. But this one is super-duper special for one reason – we’re bringing Steve Ballmer! This will be Steve’s first ever conversation with the search community at an industry event. Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land and co-chair of SMX, sits down with Steve to discuss Microsoft’s commitment to search and how Bing is working to evolve the search experience.
In addition to Steve’s keynote chat, you’ll find Bing and Microsoft Advertising engaged with the community all across SMX in a number of ways. Here’s a quick summary of where you can find us.
· 12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch Topic Table “Talk to a Bing Engineer” Steve Macbeth, Principal Group Program Manager, Bing
Bing is also sponsoring the legendary SMX community event SMX After Dark on the night of March 2nd starting at 9pm in the Santa Clara Hyatt pool side (better not rain!)
And if these weren’t enough, Ignite is coming to SMX West as part of Global Ignite Week! Ignite is the fun, high-energy evening of a dozen or so “speed presentations” where each speaker has 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about a topic. The speaker lineup is an impressive who’s who from around the search industry. If you’re in the area, come check it out by registering for FREE (an SMX badge will get you in too). Free drinks and light food provided. And if you can’t join us in person, be sure to catch the live stream.
We’ve been working hard to help your complete your search tasks more quickly. We’re happy to announce support for query history in Autosuggest today to help make that vision a reality. Autosuggest now supports suggestions from your query history. Many users search for a set of topics again and again. It could be you searching on your favorite hobbies, doing online research, looking up local attractions or directions – the particular query subjects are very specific to you. To make searching easier and reduce all those wasted clicks, many people found our history feature very useful to get them to where they’re going faster. So we experimented with providing your prior searches in Autosuggest and found it’s even more useful in to helping find what you’re looking for faster!
Search history in Autosuggest can help you in other ways too. Many search tasks span multiple search sessions even days or weeks. In fact, 44% of non-navigational search sessions last longer than 1 week! Perhaps you need to research the purchase of a new automobile. You might use Bing to find a retail location and to further research online – over many days – to make the best decisions on your big ticket purchase. With history support in Autosuggest, you can restart a previous search session by typing a few characters to see your previous queries and start researching right where you left off. We know from our testing that this makes you more effective at your longer search tasks.
Previous search queries in Autosuggest show in a special color, purple, the same color your browser uses to display visited links.
You are in full control of your query history. We know your privacy is very important to you. You can turn History on or off at any time or selectively remove any portion of your search history using the Manage History option. You will see both of these choices every time you use Autosuggest.
We hope you enjoy Autosuggest with History and that it saves you time and improves your search effectiveness.
It’s been an exciting 17 days! By the end of the day on Monday, we will have featured 50 homepage images, 200 hotspots, and athletes from all over the globe. You can relive the past 7 images (including hotspots) using the image viewer. Just click the arrows in the lower right side of the image:
And now that the games are officially done, we’re shifting back to our ‘normal’ programming. Starting Tuesday, we’ll bring you a different intriguing image each day to help you explore the world around you. Look for the hotspots to find out more about each image if you’ve got time; otherwise you can cheat and check the image caption.
If you’re new to the page and want a guided tour, see Welcome Home. Got an idea for an interesting Bing homepage? Send us a note in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!
Stefan has been in the UK this week talking with the Bing UK team and he has sent us this week’s theme and video from across the water. The Bing UK team is doing some great work trying to raise money for Sport Relief, for more information and you are in the UK go to www.givewithbing.com for more information. So take a look and make sure you catch the theme for this week’s Free t-Shirt Friday at the end. Tweet us back at @bing with the #FTF for your chance to win a Bing t-shirt.
(Please visit the site to view this media)
The strange cut outs in the back are of a British Pop Group called The Saturday’s (just in case you were wondering)
Where would we be if people like Columbus or Einstein hadn’t taken a risk on an idea or notion or if people like Jane Goodall or even Dr. Bing hadn’t followed their passions? As a global community, we have benefited from discoveries in science and technology, exploration and the arts in ways we don’t always recognize day to day. But without these advances and explorations, our lives would be dramatically different.
Since the launch of Bing we have partnered on projects that we believe support this idea. Through projects like 10,000 Rockets and our work with the Pacific Science Center on the Facing Mars exhibit we try to encourage kids of all ages to learn and discover through science and technology. Our latest partnership with explorer Eric Larsen is something that we hope will keep that interest and importance top of mind.
Eric leaves today from Ottawa on his journey for the North Pole which begins the second leg of his Save the Poles Expedition in an effort to raise awareness and tell his story about the climate change in these areas. He recently returned from his first leg to the South Pole and will be attempting to summit Mount Everest in the fall reaching what Eric calls the “Three Poles”. Accomplishing all three of these adventures in one year is something that has never been done before. Ever.
It is our hope that you will follow Eric’s progress with us and get the opportunity to learn and discover what it takes to follow one’s passions, to take risks and to make the difficult decisions designed to increase the world’s knowledge and make life better for everyone. We will be tracking Eric’s progress and creating a forum for you to get to know Eric and learn more about his trek.
OK…so maybe it is a bit of an overstatement but isn’t everything bigger in Texas? I’m packing my bags today to join some members of the Bing team in Dallas where we’ll talk to some local bloggers, SEO experts and local media to get feedback, suggestions and to just find out how Bing can be better for them. We really value your feedback and are always looking for ways we can be better. If our paths don’t cross this time, we are always following the comments in Twitter @bing as well as in the Bing Community Forums so keep them coming.
If you are in Dallas this week and would like to join us in a great SEO discussion, Duane Forester will be hosting a SEO meet up on Wednesday night at Central 214 so make sure you grab a spot and register at EventBrite. Following that we will be going out on the town so follow us at @bing on twitter for all the updates…we would love to see you.
In preparation for the trip, I am checking the weather down in Dallas with Bing’s enhanced weather results…have you had a chance to check it out yet? Go to www.Bing.com and enter your desired location and ‘weather’ or you can type in “weather in Dallas” and you get a more comprehensive weather result right there in the results page. We are now pulling information from three different weather sources, giving you the ability to compare sources, and dive into the 10 day and hourly forecast. If you want to dig in deeper you can click “Weather in Dallas, TX” for more details including the monthly averages. Personally this is super helpful especially as I am packing for my trip tomorrow.
This is my first trip to the Dallas area and I hear the team is taking suggestions on things that I should do while I am there. If you haven’t already, you can cast your vote on our Facebook page. And why do I have a feeling it will be something extremely embarrassing?
It’s that time again…it’s Friday which means we have to listen to Stefan again and get a chance to win a free Bing t-shirt. So, make sure you watch the video for this week’s theme and tweet us back your answer at @bing with #FTF in your tweet for a chance to win a Free t-shirt.
This is a great example of a winning tweet from a few weeks back:
Did you catch the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics last Friday to kick off the games? To access that and all the latest videos from the games and for a snap shot into all the Olympic excitement visit www.msn.com to view the Winter Olympics module at the top of the page.
There has been a lot of buzz in the hallways about favorite events and favorite athletes. So we thought we'd look at what people are searching for on Bing to see which events people are most interested in online. According to our search trends it looks like leading up to the games snowboarding is at the top of them heap, followed closely by hockey.
As the games continue, we wanted to remind everyone of the many ways you can take advantage of Bing and MSN and our partnership with NBC Olympics to keep up to date on all the happenings at the winter games.
Use Bing to find answers to your quick questions about the games. You can use the Sports Events Schedule Instant Answer to get the schedule for each sport at the Olympics. For example search for: figure skating schedule, bobsled schedule, etc.
Andwhen you search for terms like “Winter Olympics”, “NBC Winter Olympics”, etc. you'll see the WinterOlympics Instant Answer with information from the official Olympics site at nbcolympics.com, an immersive and high definition slideshow experience, a “Today’s Events” section with links to sports with events, and the medal count for the top three countries.
Now if you are on the go, MSN Mobile has quick access to the top news stories for the Olympics, pictures and links to the most recent Olympic video on NBC’s site, and a summary of the US medal count and link to all see all other countries. Just visit mobile.msn.com from your phone.
Now that you can access all of this Olympic information, test how much you really know about the games by taking the Winter Games Quiz on our Facebook page. It’s a fun way for you to learn about all the different Bing features that you can use to keep current on the Olympics, such as instant answers and the Bing Maps app. Once you take the quiz you can share your results to your Facebook pages and challenge your friends to compete for the gold medal status.
We hope that for whatever you are looking for regarding the Winter Olympics whether at home or on the go, that Bing and MSN can provide it to you.
Have you ever thought about all the content and media out there on the Web? Information that we use daily to help make decisions, like reviews of the best restaurant for chicken parmesan or the t-shirt shop perfect for a vintage G&R t-shirt? We all know that you can find nearly anything on the web in the form of blogs, websites, user reviews, tweets, etc.
But the Web is changing. In the past we have been forced to ‘disassociate’ all this content from its physical context. Sure, you can write a review of that great B&B. But once you do that, it escapes into the ether and loses its connection to the real world - the place that gave you the idea to write it in the first place. We thought there was probably a better way to reconnect all this data with its home, to provide greater context, and to ultimately help you use it to make a better decisions about things you’re trying to get done in real life, not just on a search engine.
We began talking about this idea of Spatial Search a bit back in December when we launched our new version of Bing Maps and today at TED, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Bing Maps architect will be unveiling some more work that demonstrates how we’re reuniting data with context. Some of what we’re showing is in research stage, some you can use today, and some you’ll be able to use shortly. But before we geek out on the features, it might be helpful to frame in a context. So, let’s do that…
The idea behind Spatial Search came from looking at human psychology and trying to understand how we as humans make decisions. We use all our senses: sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste. Today’s blue-link model doesn’t do a good job in tapping any of those senses and instead made you visually recreate models in your head to get through complex tasks. In other words, when you read a review of that French bistro, you had to manufacture everything: the street location, the ambience, where exactly in the city it was, and more. While we’re not working on smell-o-search (yet!), we do think we can do a better job with the ‘sight’ and ‘touch’ senses you rely on every day.
So when we think about Spatial Search, we think about the modes you all go through when you’re out and about, interacting with people and places rather than machines. First, you Explore: you orient yourself. You get a feel for what’s around and figure out your environment. Next, you Discover. Using your senses and visual cues you try and make sense of your surroundings. You look at storefront signage, street signs, and other clues to let you know where you might want to go to get your task done. Finally, you Decide: you take in and process all of the input around you to try and make the best decision for the task at hand. Maybe it’s the opening hours of the dry cleaners (oops – its closed) that tells you that you need to go to the bakery you can smell around the corner until it opens, and hop on their wi-fi network to get some work done while you wait. The challenge for Spatial Search is how we use technology to augment all those tasks, bring context to you so that information transforms into knowledge, which leads to actions taken to make your life easier and more informed.
For Exploring, we’ve made a number of updates to the Bing Maps platform to bring this idea to life through high resolution imagery from outer space all the way down to the front door of the bakery. Today at TED, we’re announcing a next step in this evolution of making this imagery more useful and interactive with the release of the technology preview of the Streetside Photos application. This tech preview mines geo-tagged photos from Flickr, and relates them to our Streetside imagery to show images matched to its original spatial context. Why is this cool? You’re now able to see what that club looks like at night (is it really THAT scary?), see if you’re really going to get a good sunset at that B&B you’re looking to book, or check out the crowds on a Saturday morning at Pike Place Market in Seattle or get a view of the same market from decades prior. As more people share imagery, our challenge is to reunite those photos with where they were taken – again, provide context to the data in the ether. Watch Blaise’s demo to see Streetside Photos in action.
(Please visit the site to view this media)
But we’re not just stopping at the street. Today, we’re also excited to demonstrate integration with the WorldWide Telescope, a project out of Microsoft Research. Once launched, you will be able to walk outside in Streetside mode, look up, and see what’s above – way above – right now where you’re standing. Constellations come to life as you pan – you can even set the time of day so you can see what you’ll see at 9pm – great for exploring with your daughter to get her ready for what she’ll see when the sun goes down.
At the same time as we’re getting more “universal” with World Wide Telescope, we’re also getting more intimate. At TED, Blaise showed the first results of our indoor panoramas work. This will provide an experience identical to Streetside, but won’t be limited to places you can take a vehicle. Whether you’re exploring Seattle’s Pike Place Market, or your favorite theme park, Bing Maps will give you the most immersive experience of the place. We’ve already given you a taste of this with the integration of Photosynths into Bing Maps (18,000 of them and counting), and you can expect Photosynth and Streetside to converge in a way that allows all of us to document the important places in the world – indoor or outdoor – and explore them in a completely natural way.
When it comes to Discovering, we launched our “Map Apps” gallery to bring that disconnected data home. From our Local Lens to Twitter, we’re bringing data back to where it can help you discover what’s in a physical area. And sometimes, there’s no substitute for absolute real-time. At TED we also demonstrated live Webcam feeds perfectly which enables real-time video to be overlaid seamlessly on street-level imagery, adding another dimension to the mapping experience. Imagine – you can see how long the line is at Five Guys before you head over for a burger. In the coming year, we think you will be pleasantly surprised with how far Bing takes this new technology. Stay tuned.
Finally when it comes to Deciding, we’ve just scratched the surface with Bing maps. We introduced innovations around our Opinion Index which lets you see just how good that Vietnamese Pho restaurant is based on what the community is saying. Our next step is to continue to augment the Spatial Search experience with these types of data. The potential for ‘augmenting’ your physical world with data pulled from everywhere, in real-time, and in context is exciting. The chance of getting lost diminishes greatly. You may never have to enter a fabric store only to realize you should have gone somewhere else to get your remnant. The ability to re-route before hitting a road closure due to construction will be right at your fingertips. The technology to enable the Deciding pillar of our Spatial Search strategy is daunting – but this is a key element in our quest to better understand how we naturally process information to make a decision. So that’s where we’re headed.
It’s going to take a little while to get there. But we believe our focus on your needs as searchers and more importantly as people will ultimately help us build technology to reconnect the wandering data to where it wants to be – the real world.
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your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows
Mobile® based portable device.
RSS in Windows Vista Today RSS is primarily used for news sites, blogs, and increasingly for audio-based serialized content. But RSS has the potential for broader reach and to more deeply integrate the information it delivers across applications of various kinds. Learn About the New Support for RSS in the Windows Vista Platform Learn about the new support for RSS in the Windows Vista Platform and how Windows Platform Services make it easy to incorporate RSS functionality into your applications. Microsoft Simple List Extensions Specification The Simple List Extensions are designed as extensions to existing RSS feed formats to make exposing ordered lists of items easier and more accessible to users
Microsoft Message about Windows 7 RC1 : Starting on March 1, 2010 your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Your work will not be saved during the shutdown. The Windows 7 RC will fully expire on June 1, 2010. Your PC running the Windows 7 RC will continue shutting down every two hours and your files won’t be saved during shutdown. In addition, your wallpaper will change to a solid black background with a persistent message on your desktop. You’ll also get periodic notifications that Windows isn’t genuine. That means your PC may no longer be able to obtain optional updates or downloads requiring genuine Windows validation. To avoid interruption, please reinstall a prior version of Windows or move to Windows 7. In either case, you’ll need to do a custom (clean) install to replace the RC. As with any clean installation, you’ll need to back up your data then reinstall your applications and restore the data. For more details about replacing the RC, see the Knowledge Base article KB 971767. For more information, visit the Window 7 Forum.
TweakVI
Basic. The first software designed to both tweak and optimize Windows Vista.
Tweak hundreds of hidden features of Windows Vista, optimize your machine and
customize it to your needs.
Free Web Application Toolkits These free Web app toolkits help you
complete common Web development tasks and quickly add new features to your
apps. Whether it's Bing
Maps
integration or adding
social
capabilities to your site, there's a toolkit for you. More
Web Master Tools and Utilities
Sitemaps
Yahoo and Google announced a collaborative site called Sitemaps.org
Watch
this Video. A single way to submit sitemaps to both Google and Yahoo. More
information about Google
Site MapYahoo
Site Map, Yahoo Site Explorer. Not only are Google
and Yahoo collaborating on
this project, they've also issued an open invitation to the other search
engines willing to join. Microsoft accepted that invitation
and will jointly support Sitemaps.org
and its efforts. More
about SiteMaps.
Windows
Server Update Services. Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0
Beta 2 delivers new features that enable administrators to more easily manage
and deploy updates across the organization. WSUS 3.0 Beta 2 benefits include a
new MMC-based user interface with advanced filtering and reporting, improved
performance and reliability, branch office optimizations and reporting rollup,
and a Microsoft Operations Manager management pack.
Microsoft Discussion Groups Ask questions, share information, or exchange ideas with others, including experts from around the globe.
DreamSpark is simple, it's all about
giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools
at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big
breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career. Free
Microsoft software for students and teachers.
The
Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) makes IT
professionals more productive by providing powerful preparation and installation
tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
With Windows PE, IT staff can build custom solutions that speed deployment
through automation, enabling them to spend less time and effort keeping desktops
updated.
Bart's Preinstalled
Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD. PE Builder is not a
Microsoft product and does not create Microsoft Windows Preinstallation
Environment ("Windows PE"). Using PE Builder does not grant you a
license to Microsoft Windows PE or to use the Windows XP or Server 2003 binaries
in a manner other than stated in the End-User License Agreement included in your
version of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has not
reviewed or tested PE Builder and does not endorse its use. Please do not
contact Microsoft for support on the preinstallation environment that has been
created by PE Builder! Microsoft does not provide support for PE Builder or for
the preinstallation environment created by PE Builder. More Backup/File
Compression. Data Recovery links.
Windows
Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE, WinPE) 2.0 is a minimal Win32
operating system with limited services, built on the Windows Vista kernel. It is
used to prepare a computer for Windows installation, to copy disk images from a
network file server, and to initiate Windows Setup. Windows PE is not
designed to be the primary operating system on a computer, but is instead used
as a standalone preinstallation environment and as an integral component of
other setup and recovery technologies, such as Setup for Windows Vista, Windows
Deployment Services (Windows DS), the Systems Management Server (SMS) Operating
System (OS) Deployment Feature Pack, and the Windows Recovery Environment
(Windows RE).
Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is a lightweight version of
Windows XP,
Windows Server 2003 or
Windows Vista that is used for the deployment of workstations and servers.
It is intended as a
32-bit or
64-bit replacement for
MS-DOS during
the installation phase of Windows, and can be
booted via
PXE, CD-ROM,
USB flash drive or
hard disk. Traditionally used by large corporations and
OEMs (to preinstall Windows client operating systems to PCs during
manufacturing), it is now widely available free of charge via the
Windows Automated Installation Kit More about the
Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) which was introduced with
Windows Vista. It is a lightweight version of Windows Vista that is used for
the deployment of workstations and servers. It is the second version of the
Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) that was intended as a 32-bit or
64-bit replacement for
MS-DOS, which
was needed during the installation phase of
Windows 3,
Windows 95,
Windows 98
and
Windows ME. WAIK can be booted via PXE, CD-ROM, USB flash drive or hard
disk. Traditionally used by large corporations and OEMs (to preinstall Windows
client operating systems to PCs during manufacturing), it is now widely
available free of charge via
Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). The package can be used
for developer testing or as a recovery CD/DVD for system administrators.
BitLocker Drive Encryption is the final feature release name for the project previously referred to as "Secure Startup Full Volume Encryption." Some preliminary releases of Windows Vista, still use the old project name in text strings and Windows titles. This step-by-step guide uses the old project name where appropriate, such as referring to the user interface where it appears. Otherwise, the feature release name is used.
More Backup/File
Compression. Data Recovery links.
The Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio (Microsoft RDS) is a Windows®-based
environment for academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers to easily create
robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. Microsoft RDS includes
a lightweight asynchronous services-oriented runtime, a set of visual authoring
and simulation tools, as well as templates, tutorials, and sample code to help
you get started.
More
Robotic Links.
The Microsoft Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for disadvantaged children, and its mission to preserve choice and promote innovation amongst this diverse group. The Microsoft Foundation was incorporated as an International not-for-profit
corporation to ensure that Microsoft and its partners continues to exist beyond the participation of individual volunteers, to enable contributions
of intellectual property and funds and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in projects targeting the disadvantaged
children.
Access
FrontPage Cover Microsoft FrontPage 97, FP98, FP2000, FP2002, FP2003
and FPE (FrontPage Express) and incorporate Tips, Tutorials, How-to's, Faqs and
Help.
Think Free OnLine
Office. ThinkFree is a comprehensive online office productivity solution.
ThinkFree products are platform independent (works on Windows, Apple,
Linux)
and include ThinkFree Write (word-processing), ThinkFree Calc (spreadsheet), and
ThinkFree Show (presentation) - applications
that are round-trip compatible with Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt).
Boot
Camp For Mac OS X Leopard, Apple that lets you install and run Windows
on your Mac.
Winhlp Windows Problem Solver. Community site open information exchange.
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). CWE is a community-developed formal list of common software weaknesses. The intention of CWE is to serve as a common language for describing software security weaknesses in architecture, design, or code; as a standard measuring stick for software security tools targeting these weaknesses; and to provide a common baseline standard for weakness identification, mitigation, and prevention efforts. Broad community adoption of CWE will help shape and mature the code security assessment industry and also dramatically accelerate the use and utility of software assurance capabilities for organizations in reviewing the software systems they acquire or develop.
Microsoft Doctor Watson for Windows Dr. Watson for Windows is a program error debugger that gathers information about your computer when an error (or user-mode fault) occurs with a program. Technical support groups can use the information that Dr. Watson obtains and logs to diagnose a program error. When an error is detected, Dr. Watson creates a text file (Drwtsn32.log) that can be delivered to support personnel by the method they prefer. You also have the option of creating a crash dump file, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger.
WhatIsProcess, a site dedicated to
providing you with detailed information on the processes that are running on
your computer. Some processes are essential and are needed to keep your
computer working as expected. Other processes can seriously reduce the
performance of your computer and may even present a security risk. It is common
for Viruses, Spyware, Adware and Malware to disguise themselves as normal
processes, making spotting them a rather
Advanced
Windows Care - Freeware Advanced Windows Care v2 Personal is a comprehensive
PC care utility that takes an one-click approach to help protect, repair and
optimize your computer. It provides an all-in-one and super convenient solution
for PC maintenance and protection. This fantastic program is available free of
charge for private use.
FreeTechBooks. Lists free online computer science and engineering books and lecture notes, all of which are freely and legally available over the Internet. What's the Catch? None. All the books listed in this site are available for free, as they are hosted on websites that belong to the authors or the publishers. Note that each author and publisher has their own terms and conditions in the forms of free documentation licenses or other specific ones. Of course, you are most welcome to view, download and print the books for your own private use at no charge.
Windows Open Source apps and Emulations for the Apple of Microsoft and Windows software. From OSDir
CoreUtils for
Windows. CoreUtils: collection of basic file, shell and text
manipulation utilities.
XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option. Fred Langa shows you how to completely rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation without losing data, and without having to reinstall user software, reformat, or otherwise destructively alter the setup.
A Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is a label to help you and your customer identify genuine Microsoft® Windows® software. Without it, your customers will not have a legal license to run their Windows software. A COA is not a software license. It is only a visual aid that helps assist in determining whether Microsoft software is genuine it should never be purchased, sold or distributed by itself without the software it authenticates.
Microsoft Product Activation In an effort to reduce software piracy and ensure that Microsoft's customers receive the product quality they expect, Product Activation technology is being included in several.
Fresh
UI - Tweek System Settings - Freeware Fresh UI is a
tool for configuring and optimizing Windows. It comes loaded with hundreds of
useful hidden settings in Windows such as: customizing the User Interface (UI),
optimizing system settings, optimizing hardware settings, customizing Windows
application settings, control user environment with policies. Fresh UI is
organized by section for easy navigation and completed with detail description
for easy reference.
.NET Home Page .NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform, .NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device. The Microsoft platform includes everything a business needs to develop and deploy a Web service-connected IT architecture: servers to host Web services, development tools to create them, applications to use them, and a worldwide network of more than 35,000 Microsoft Certified Partner organizations to provide any help you need.
.NET Framework Developmenr Centre. SDKs, Redistributables Service Packs Stay up-to-date with these downloadable service packs, updates, samples, and related components for the .NET Framework.
Belarc
Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed
software and hardware,
missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus
status, CIS (Center for
Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web
browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and
is not sent to any web server. More Diagnostics
and Security links.
Windows
Live Spaces It's where your online world and relationships come to life.
It's the place to share and discover what's going on in your community. Take the
Spaces tour.
Windows Live Writer - Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes
it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service.
Windows Media Bonus Pack - Free Jam-packed with utilities,
PowerToys, visualizations, skins, sound effects, and much more, the free Windows Media Bonus Pack installs on your Windows XP-based PC and lets your personality and creativity shine. Fully packed with utilities, PowerToys, visualizations, skins, sound effects, and much more, you can install the Windows Media Bonus Pack on your Windows XP-based computer and let your creativity shine.
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP. PowerToys, (TweakUI), add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. What are they? PowerToys
are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released.
SyncToy for Windows XP With new sources of files coming from every direction (such as
digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops), SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories.
Windows Script is a comprehensive scripting infrastructure for the Microsoft® Windows® platform. Windows Script provides two script engines, Visual Basic® Scripting Edition and Microsoft JScript®, which can be embedded into Windows Applications. It also provides an extensive array of supporting technologies that makes it easier for script users to script Windows Applications.
Windows Script Control. The Microsoft® Windows® Script Control is an ActiveX® control that provides developers with an easy way to make their applications scriptable.
Microsoft Script Debugger. This section provides information about to use the Script Debugger how to start it, how to set breakpoints, run scripts, and so on.
WindizUpdate. This free website allows users of Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3, Netscape 4.0, Mozilla Firebird 0.7, Opera 5, or K-Meleon 0.9, to keep their copy of Windows up-to-date.
Microsoft XP style guidelines Creating Windows XP Icons. This article discusses how to design and create colorful and dynamic icons for Windows XP using a vector program, such as FreeHand or Illustrator, and Photoshop. (19 printed pages)
Back up Outlook data with the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool Backup Outlook emails automatically. For Outlook 2007/2003/2002 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup. The Personal Folders Backup download creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals, in Outlook 2002 and later versions, making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up. Download the tool from the Microsoft Office Online site by clicking the Download link and following the instructions in the dialog boxes.
EnjoyXP!
This site is dedicated to teaching and support about Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft
Office XP! This site is run by the same people who run MSN 8 for Windows XP,
so we know what we are talking about.
The X-Mac icon collection provides you with a realistic style which has all the main characteristics of Mac® icons. The designs have been created to give a clean and smooth sensation for your software and web projects. It has a great definition and details but also stylized images that enhances the functionality of electronic applications. For Windows 2000/XP/Me/98/95.
CodePlex, Microsoft's community development Web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with your fellow developers around the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback.
Microsoft Application
Platform A set of integrated technologies and tools that enable your
business to innovate and create strategic advantage. By enabling you to
extend and unlock the value in your existing applications, and to rapidly
develop new applications that differentiate you from your competition, you
can make significant gains in time to value, productivity, and total cost of
ownership. More
Programming Applications (VBA). Using Applications
Nvu (pronounced N-view) Finally! A complete Web Authoring System for
Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for "new view") makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. Nvu is open source and covered under the
MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license
Wine
A compatibility layer that tries to provide the Windows application
interface (API) on top of Linux.
FINECOUNT Freeware.
An essential free software package for translators and translation managers - providing a wide range of features and functionality needed for document analysis. FineCount can quickly provide detailed statistics for documents in many different formats (Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, and many, many others.) FineCount can also be used to prepare cost estimates and invoices for translation work. FineCount also allows the user to create their own report templates that can be reused with different documents.
Tweaker is a utility that can customize several Windows settings that you can't control anywhere else. Tweaker is more for the "power users" out there who want more control on Windows settings -- to be able to change things that Windows just doesn't have a spot to change them in.
Fast Defrag is a tool that can free and optimize RAM and the swap-file usage .It displays current memory usage and statistics and can also be run from the command line (useful for automation). Fast Defrag cleans only the memory that was filled by previous loaded applications and does not remove Windows components or active programs from memory.
Start Menu Cleaner Clean up your Start Menu! A small and handy tool that finds and removes invalid entries from the Start Menu as well as your desktop. It cannot only delete broken shortcuts, but also empty folders (in the Start Menu) that were left behind from previous software installations.
Codec is an abbreviation for Coder-Decoder or Compressor/Decompressor,. It may be used for analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converter for translating the signals from the outside world to digital, and back again. Or used to compress/uncompress files for easier storage and/or transmission.
Digital Cameras. Video Camcorders. Make you own videos. Take Professional Quality Stills. Find the best cameras whether you enjoy still photography or making your own videos and Video Production. Amateur and professional cameras. Camera Memory and batteries. Quality and Value.
WinToFlash A wizard that will help pull
over the contents of a windows installation CD or DVD and prep the USB drive
to become a bootable replacement for the optical drive. It can also do this
with your LiveCD. You don't have to worry about scratches on the disc or
misplacing your original media discs once you transfer their contents to the
flash drive. The optical drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past,
especially in office environments, as media is shifted to the cloud.
Dependency Walker is a free utility that scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
Resource Hacker™ is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. Viewing Resources: Cursor, Icon, Bitmap, GIF, AVI, and JPG resource images can be viewed. WAV and MIDI audio resources can be played. Menus, Dialogs, MessageTables, StringTables, Accelerators, Delphi Forms, and VersionInfo resources can be viewed as decompiled resource scripts. Menus and Dialogs can also be viewed as they would appear in a running application.
!exploitable, (pronounced "bang exploitable") Crash Analyzer, (!exploitable Crash Analyzer - MSEC Debugger Extensions). A plugin for the
Windows Debugger
that parses your crash logs and gives you two important pieces of information.
First, it will collate all of your crashes and determine exactly how many there
actually are. So for example, out of 60 crash reports, there may only be 2 or 3
actual problems. The second thing it does is look at the type of crash and try
to determine if the error is something that could be exploited by a malicious
hacker. This means that more junior employees can work these bug issues without
taking the time of more senior examiners.
If you have other admin accounts on the machine that you can use then you can reset the password with their account.
Open the Control Panel.
Click on the icon called User Accounts.
Click on the user that you have lost the password for.
Select remove password from the list of choices.
If you only have 1 profile or the others are password protected as well then you need to
Reboot the PC and press F8 when prompted to do so
This displays a menu with number on a black and white screen.
Select Safe Mode and press Enter.
Login in using the Administrator account (previously hidden)
Now follow the instructions above.
If the Administrator account is password protected then you will need to take the PC to a computer shop.
Understanding
SAMI. This article describes how the new Microsoft Synchronized Accessible
Media Interchange (SAMI) technology expands the ability to provide
closed captioning to a wide range of multimedia
products.
Junction (Free) Many web developers are familiar with symbolic links on Linux, Mac OS X, and similar operating systems. With a symbolic link, you can reference any file or directory by a different name and/or in a different directory. It turns out that NTFS supports a very similar feature called junctions, but you need an expensive set of tools from Microsoft® or this convenient little command line program to use them. Windows 2000® and higher supports directory symbolic links, where a directory serves as a symbolic link to another directory on the computer. For example, if the directory D:\SYMLINK specified C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 as its target, then an application accessing D:\SYMLINK\DRIVERS would in reality be accessing C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS. Directory symbolic links are known as NTFS junctions in Windows. Unfortunately, Windows comes with no tools for creating junctions - you have to purchase the Win2K Resource Kit, which comes with the linked program for creating junctions. I therefore decided to write my own junction-creating tool: Junction. Junction not only allows you to create NTFS junctions, it allows you to see if files or directories are actually reparse points. Reparse points are the mechanism on which NTFS junctions are based, and they are used by Windows' Remote Storage Service (RSS), as well as volume mount points.
Stretch Break is an ergonomic stretching and typing break timer program. the program reminds you to take periodic breaks from your computer and provides ergonomic information, including workstation setup guidelines.
Eyes Relax is a small freeware Windows utility that reminds you taking breaks
when working with computers. This software allows you to customize the duration of your work and length of the breaks. During the break you may exercise your
eyes, look away, or look at distant objects either in your office or outside, take a stroll outside your office. A "Parent mode" feature can be used to
protect your children eyes.
RSI Action is a student group providing preventative education about RSI to the general public and to students at Harvard. It also provides advocacy and support for Harvard students with RSI. RSI stands for Repetitive Strain Injury. It includes a whole spectrum of conditions, from tendonitis of the hand or wrist to carpal tunnel syndrome to cubital tunnel syndrome.
UserHealth.
Do you spend several hours in front of the computer without breaks or pauses?
Maybe you want a tool that can monitor how much time you actually spend in front
of the computer? In that case this software can be perfect for you, and by the
way did I mention that it is freeware!
Safe computing tips Know the basic tips about Office Ergonomics, Workstation Ergonomics, Ergonomic PC, Laptop Ergonomics, Ergonomic chair and avoid health problems such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome & Repetitive Strain Injury. Stay Healthy & Fit while working in front of your computer. No eyestrains, back pains or other discomforts.
Windows Server Update Services. Download it today and find out how you can fully manage the distribution of updates that are released through Microsoft Update to computers in your network.
Microsoft Software Update Services. Microsoft will continue to support Software Update Services (SUS) 1.0 until December 6, 2006. Microsoft will no longer support SUS 1.0 after this date. SUS 1.0 will no longer synchronize or provide new updates after December 6, 2006. Additionally, as of August 24, 2005, you can no longer download SUS from the Microsoft Web site. Microsoft that you upgrade to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) before December 6, 2006.
Registry Guide for Windows, formerly RegEdit.com, provides an extensive range of registry tweaks, tricks & hacks for optimizing, enhancing and securing the Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98, 95 and Windows Me operating systems
Registry Wizard allows you to scan Windows registry for errors or useless keys and fix registry problems. You can also backup and restore deleted keys. This program does not require installation. Features: Scan Registry - Scan Windows registry on critical and non critical errors. Fix founded Registry Errors - Delete from registry keys and values useless and containing errors. Restore backup - Restore registry keys and values from backup file.
Windows Live Search makes it easy to find the information you want. No matter what you're looking for music, images, the closest pizzeria to your hotel, something you thought you read in a blog a month ago you'll simply find it faster
Microsoft Office Live is the perfect way to get started on the Web. It features all the basics you need to create your first Web site, including free hosting, Web site statistics, personalized domain name, and e-mail addresses.
Microsoft Reader Text-to-Speech Package. Microsoft Reader for Tablet PC and Microsoft Reader for Windows-based PCs and laptops boast accessibility features that are bringing eBooks to more communities and providing a richer on-screen reading experience with additional TTS and Verbosity functionality. To enable Microsoft Reader to take advantage of existing speech technologies, you must install the Microsoft Reader Text-to-Speech Package (TTS) Package.
Microsoft Virtual PC is now free! This may help you during testing as a developer. It lets one much more easily replicate the production environment without investing in hardware. It lets one test out beta software (such as IE 7 or Windows Vista) without breaking their current, working installation. The VPC image is stored as a file, it allows one to do some serious test runs on violate resources, such as databases, then restore without complex scripts.
VBRun60sp6.exe installs Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 run-time files. VBRun60sp6.exe is a self-extracting executable file that installs the latest versions of the Microsoft Visual Basic run-time files that are required by all applications that are created with Visual Basic 6.0. The files include the fixes that are included with Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 6.
WinErrs Did you ever get an 'Illegal Operation' or 'Page Fault' error message and wonder what it meant? WinErrs is a database of 1.554 Windows error codes and their definitions. These codes are extracted directly from Microsoft Windows and are their descriptions.
MS .NET Framework 2.0 The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 (x86) redistributable package installs the .NET Framework runtime and associated files required to run applications developed to target the .NET Framework v2.0. The .NET Framework version 2.0 improves scalability and performance of applications with improved caching, application deployment and updating with ClickOnce, support for the broadest array of browsers and devices with ASP.NET 2.0 controls and services. For more information on the .NET Framework 2.0, click here. Required Software: Windows Installer 3.0 (except for Windows 98/ME, which require Windows Installer 2.0
or later). Windows Installer 3.1 or later is recommended. IE 5.01 or later: You must also be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later for all installations of the .NET Framework.
Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0, the collection of reusable and extensible application blocks for enterprise development, has been improved and updated specifically for Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 (January 2006)
Microsoft patterns & practices are Microsoft's recommendations for how to design, develop, deploy, and operate architecturally sound applications for the Microsoft application platform.
Depositit automatically protects all the essential data you hold on your computer, laptop, mobile phone and PDA. Keep your data safe from damaging viruses, hardware errors & natural disasters. Software and this backs up Microsoft Exchange servers. In order to use this feature customers must subscribe to the 'standard package' on our website which will take them to the 'package selection' area where they can then select the Exchange 'plug-in'.
Microsoft Global Input Method Editors (IMEs). Now, you can input Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text into any Microsoft Office XP applications, Web forms, and e-mail messages on any language version of Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium, Windows 98, and Windows NT® 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (SP6) or later. And it's easy. After you have installed the Global IME for Office XP, you just start your Office XP program, select the language from the Language bar, and you can type the language you choose, regardless of the language version of Office
XP or Windows you are using. Translation
Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search Microsoft provides support on the current service pack, and in some cases the immediately preceding service pack, for the products listed below. See the Lifecycle Support Policy FAQ for details on the Service Pack Support Policy. As a convenience to you, Microsoft is providing a list of the
currently supported service packs: Supported Service Pack List. If you have any questions regarding support for a product, please contact your Microsoft representative. If you need technical support, visit the Contact Microsoft Web site.
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Technology Advancement Program. Upgrade to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition from Windows XP Professional (32-bit). Notes Not all Drivers may function. This like all software may be buggy. You may have to give up using the 32bit version. You will need to have an x64 processor (the AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Pentium 4 with EM64T, or Intel Xeon with EM64T) to run the new software.
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner allows you to safely clean and repair registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks. After scanning and fixing the invalid entries, your system will be more stable and run faster.
SQL
Junkies A feature-packed SQL Server Web site communities on the Internet
today. Community for developers to come and learn about building solutions using
Microsoft SQL Server while being part of a collaborative community of peers.
SQL, MySQL (Structured Query Language; other database links)
Advanced Windows Care - Freeware Slow downs, freezes and crashes are over. Repair and cure your windows with 1 click. Unlike other utility, Advanced WindowsCare does not do simple registry cleaning. It thoroughly examines Windows system, accurately detects the bottleneck for slowing down and crashing, and fixes them. With the novel system technology, Advanced WindowsCare empowers you to run computer faster, more stably and more efficiently than with any other system utilities.
NTFS - New Technology File System designed for Windows NT, 2000, XP NTFS is a high-performance and self-healing file system proprietary to Windows XP 2000 NT, which supports file-level security, compression and auditing. It also supports large volumes and powerful storage solution such as RAID. One of the most important new feature of NTFS is the ability to encrypt files and folders to protect your sensitive data.
JIS FAQ. Windows NT® / Windows 2000® / Windows XP® / Windows Server 2003® Tips and Tricks Purchase a license for our Desktop Tips and Tricks, available in a form suitable for use on your local computer.
Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) Donation Program, provides Windows 98 and Windows 2000 operating systems to nonprofit PC refurbishers for an affordable administrative fee. Providing affordable access to technology Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) Worldwide The Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) programme is part of Microsoft's Partners in Learning and Unlimited Potential initiatives. The MAR programme works with eligible refurbishers to provide legally-installed Microsoft operating systems on donated computers to eligible recipients. The primary goal of the MAR programme is to increase the number of donated and low-cost computers available to eligible charitable organisations, eligible academic users, and other Microsoft-specially approved recipients. In addition, the MAR programme benefits the environment by helping to keep serviceable computers out of landfills. How the MAR programme works The MAR programme authorises eligible refurbishers to install either Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000 Professional operating systems, and Microsoft Works 7.0 software on donated computers. Through the programme, Microsoft provides authorised refurbishers with Microsoft media, special certificates of authenticity (COAs), and Eligibile Recipient agreements. By reducing the cost refurbishers incur when refurbishing donated computers, the MAR programme makes the equipment more affordable for eligible refurbishers to restore and eligible recipients to obtain. The MAR Web site facilitates the process by bringing together eligible refurbishers, computer donors, and eligible recipients. For more Hardware donating view the Hardware Guides, BIOS, Drivers, DLL files and Peripherals page
Mini is a application server designed to be simple and have a small footprint. It has the features you need to be able to develop small web applications that you want to deploy on a machine with modest hardware. Mini is implemented as a windows service and runs under windows 2000/XP/Vista. Mini is developed by Toni Thomsson and is still under heavy development, far from
finished, especially the documentation, which for the moment is quite sparse. Still, it has been successfully used in a number of projects already. So if you are looking for something like Mini and you're not afraid of "The bleeding edge", try it out! Mini application server API for C++.More C/C++ Links.
GIMP for Windows GNU Image Manipulation Program. An open source Graphics creation and manipulation application similar to Adobe Photoshop. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. This is the official web site of the GIMP, and contains information about downloading, installing, using, and enhancing it. This site also serves as a distribution point for the latest releases. We try to provide as much information about the GIMP community and related projects as possible.
OPERATOR DIFFERENCES The .. range operator treats certain character ranges with care on EBCDIC machines. For example the following array will have twenty six elements on either an EBCDIC machine or an ASCII machine. Find out about cJ, cI, (You may see these when loading Excel characters codes via PERL), etc...
The Official Win32::Perms Home Page. One of the most frustrating aspects of administrating Win32 machines is the way that permissions are managed. The only way to modify permissions is by using the GUI tools that come with the operating system, such as the Explorer.exe program. There are other tools such as Cacl.exe but they are not necessarily easy to find nor are they easy to use. Additionally such tools typically only work on permissions for one particular type of object (such as files and directories or printer shares). This is what the Win32::Perms extension was designed to combat. It allows a script to query and modify the permissions on files, directories, registry keys, network shares and printer shares. In addition to permissions the extension also allows the management of how an object is audited as well as editing the objects owner and group.
WiredX.net enables access to Unix applications from Windows machines via web browsers.
Overview of the RHCE If the company Red Hat has its way, its Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) credential will eventually replace Microsoft's MCSE certification as king of the network operating system...
Utter Access Microsoft® Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, Visual Basic®, SQL Server®, Office online help discussion forums. And... many more!
Tutorialfind Learn more about computer related items.
Annoyance is the most complete collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows.
OldVersion.com Sometimes upgrading to a newer version can be a good thing. Other times, your computer may not be compatible with the new version, the new version is bloated, or all the good options are no longer available. OldVersion.com has been supplying the online community with old versions of various programs since 2001. The service is utilized by thousands of users every day and has been featured in newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and television.
Daylight
Saving Time Help and Support Center from Microsoft. Beginning in 2007,
daylight saving time (DST) will be extended in the United States. DST will start
on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on
November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual (more details on the new
DST start and end times can be found here).
This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous
years. Observance of DST, and Summer Time in much of Europe, is often
different around the world; many areas, countries and territories shift their
clocks at different times throughout the year. During these changes, clocks are
usually shifted by one hour. Some locations follow a set of standard, uniform
rules for the start and end dates of DST, but some locations determine the dates
on a much more dynamic basis. Unless certain updates are applied to your
computer, the time zone settings for your computer's system clock may be
incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that
both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated. View
our World
Time & Zone links
The Internet Content Rating Association The original aims of RSACi Rating System, (now folded), to protect children from potentially harmful content while preserving free speech on the internet, continue to provide the cornerstone for ICRA's work, backed by the biggest names online.
Micosoft Infomation RSACi Rating System Internet Explorer is installed with a PICS-based content rating system known as the Recreational Software Advisory Council on the Internet (RSACi) system. This built-in PICS support can help you control the types of content that users can access on the Internet. When you enable Content Advisor, Internet Explorer reads the meta tags to determine whether Web sites meet your criteria for suitable content. You can also subscribe to independent ratings bureaus or use third-party ratings to control access to Web content.
RSACi is an open, objective content ratings system for the Internet developed by the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC), which has since been folded into the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), an independent, nonprofit organization. The RSACi system provides information about the level of sex, nudity, violence, and offensive (vulgar or hate-motivated) language in software games and Web sites. For more information about ICRA and the RSACi rating system, see the ICRA Web site at The Internet Content Rating Association You can also download the ICRA's new content ratings system from this Web site.
The following table shows the five levels of the RSACi Rating System and describes the content allowed for each level. Level 0 is the most restrictive, preventing users from accessing Web sites that include offensive language, nudity, sex, and violence. Level 4 is the least restrictive, allowing users to access Web sites that present explicit content.
RSAC no longer exists. In 1999 it was "folded into" a new organization, the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). The original aims of RSAC, to protect children from potentially harmful content while preserving free speech on the internet, continue to provide the cornerstone for ICRA's work, backed by the biggest names online.
Level Language rating Nudity rating Sex rating Violence rating: -
4
Explicit or crude language
Provocative frontal nudity
Explicit sexual activity
Wanton and gratuitous violence
3
Obscene gestures
Frontal nudity
Non-explicit sexual touching
Killing with blood and gore
2
Moderate expletives
Partial nudity
Clothed sexual touching
Killing
0
Inoffensive slang
No nudity
No sexual acts
No violence
You can set content ratings to any level for each of the four content areas. All content ratings are set to Level 0 by default. When Content Advisor is turned on and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) rating for a Web site exceeds the rating level you specify, Internet Explorer prevents users from accessing the site. Also, you can configure Internet Explorer to prevent or allow users to access unrated Web content. For more information, see "Configuring Content Advisor Settings" later in this chapter.
mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the most popular and most interactive services on the Internet. Sure, the Web is nice for finding info and E-mail beats snailmail hands down, but when you've been wondering'where the others are?', then IRC is what you're looking for. IRC is the net's equivalent of CB radio. But unlike CB, Internet Relay Chat lets people all over the world participate in real-time conversations. IRC is where the Net comes alive! VProtector mIRC Contains mIRC, virus scanner (F-Mirc Worm Scanner) to scan and remove all kinds of mIRC viruses and worms.
XP's Little-Known'Rebuild'Command There's an easy fix for "Missing HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," and several other fatal startup errors, Fred Langa says.
It usually takes a lot to stop XP in its tracks. Even in those rare cases when the operating system is badly damaged, you'll usually at least have the option of booting into the "Last Known Good" configuration, or to Safe Mode. But sometimes, especially after major hardware failures or part swaps (e.g. moving the operating system to a new hard drive), or after problems with dual- or multi-booting software, you may encounter seemingly intractable errors such as "Missing or corrupt HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," or "Windows could not start..." These problems can seem hard to get past. For example, the first time I got a "Cannot find \Windows\System32\hal.dll" error message, I thought I'd be clever and replace the missing file via a simple Copy command from the Recovery Console. I booted the PC, switched to the \Windows\System32 folder, and there it was: The HAL.DLL was already there. It wasn't missing at all. Why couldn't the operating system find it? For DLL files view our Hardware Guides, BIOS, Drivers, DLL files and Peripherals page
Events and Errors Message Center. Find detailed
message explanations, recommended user actions, and links to additional support and resources. To perform a search, enter the
event ID, the source, the message text, or the file name in the Search for text box, and then click Go. These values can be found in the Event Viewer logs. Bugs
and Crashes. Use the Windows XP 'Event Viewer' to help assess problems... to get to it, use the Start button > right-click on My Computer > Manage >
System Tools > Event Viewer > Application. Scroll through the log and check anything with a red Error icon. Double click on the line item to read
about the problem. When checking the event log, don't stop on Warnings or items of Information. Go right to the Errors.
WHQL, (Windows ® Hardware Quality Labs).
Sets the standards for device driver's certified by Microsoft® that are compatible with Microsoft Windows® and the respective hardware. Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing or WHQL Testing is Microsoft's testing process which involves running a series of tests on third-party (i.e. non-Microsoft) hardware
or software, and then submitting the log files from these tests to Microsoft for review. The procedure may also include Microsoft running their own tests on a
wide range of equipment, like different hardware and different Microsoft Windows editions. Also see Windows Logo Kit home page, Microsoft Windows Windows7, Vista. Windows XP, etc. and
Hardware. BIOS, Drivers, DLL files and Peripherals
Set Up Unix Shell Account using SLiRP with Win 98. Expita. Includes RFCs by e-mail, accessing the internet by e-mail, agora servers, anonymous posting by e-mail, anonymous servers, archie by e-mail, archie servers, e-mail FAQs, finger by e-mail, finger gateways, finger servers, ftp by e-mail, ftp servers, getweb by e-mail, getweb servers, gopher by e-mail, gophermail servers, gophermail, jughead by e-mail, jughead servers, mail2news gateways, mail2news, other e-mail only servers, search engines by e-mail, usenet by e-mail, uudecode by e-mail, uudecoding e-mail, veronica by e-mail, veronica servers, web by e-mail, webmail servers, webmail, whois by e-mail, whois gateways, whois servers, www by e-mail, www4mail by e-mail, www4mail servers, and the WWW by e-mail. Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain ASCII Text, Email only servers listing,
This sometime occurs when
downloading files from a host server to a local hard drive.
It will mainly cause problems
with
Linux hosting because filenames with different case are seen a
different files in the
Linux System whereas in
Windows there are seen as the same file.
Sometimes this may also
affect folder or directory names as well.
This is how I solved this
problem.
Returning Virus, keep getting a virus report even after removal? System Restore feature.
This may happen because of Windows XP system restore feature. This is able to restore your software to an earlier time. For example you've installed some software that has caused problems with your computer drivers and that even a standard uninstall does not fix it. In this case a system restores will be able to return your system back to before the time when you installed the problematic software.
System restore is semi-automatically able recovering eliminated files or the system settings for example if the where accidentally changed.
Windows XP keeps modified elements inside its hidden directory, called _restore This is protected so that its contents can't be normally changed by anything else.
This feature is an advantageous if you need to return your system to an earlier state.
With anti-virus/anti-spyware it may cause an issue that while the anti-virus/anti-spyware may have removed the virus/spyware the _restore files may still contain that virus.
The anti-virus/anti-spyware may detect again the infected file in the _restore folder but it may not be able to remove it because the file is protected by the operating system.
Returning Spyware, keep getting a spyware report even after removal?
This may happen because of Windows XP system restore feature. This is able to restore your software to an earlier time. For example you've installed some software that has caused problems with your computer drivers and that even a standard uninstall does not fix it. In this case a system restores will be able to return your system back to before the time when you installed the problematic software.
System restore is semi-automatically able recovering eliminated files or the system settings for example if the where accidentally changed.
Windows XP keeps modified elements inside its hidden directory, called _restore This is protected so that its contents can't be normally changed by anything else.
This feature is an advantageous if you need to return your system to an earlier state.
With anti-virus/anti-spyware it may cause an issue that while the anti-virus/anti-spyware may have removed the virus/spyware the _restore files may still contain that virus.
The anti-virus/anti-spyware may detect again the infected file in the _restore folder but it may not be able to remove it because the file is protected by the operating system.
How to remove anti-virus/anti-spyware from the System Restore folder:-
How to turn off System Restore option
Log on as the Administrator or with the details of
the user that has administrator rights.
Click with the right button of the mouse on My Computer.
Select Properties.
Click System Restore tab.
Click in the Turn off System Restore all drives checkbox.
This box should now have a tick in it.
(This may take a few seconds).
Click Apply and then
OK.
How to reactivate the System Restore option, it is recommended that you have this option turned on.
Click with the right button of the mouse on
My
Computer.
Select Properties.
Click in the Turn off System Restore all drives checkbox.
This box should now NOT have a tick in it.
(This may take a few seconds)
Click Apply and then
OK.
After turning off the system restore, as sown above you may also need to download a program and install
WinDirStat
Will list out all your hard drives folders as well as in graphical
form.
It will allow you to access the System Volume Information folder.
Highlight the "_restore{ .....}" folder and then go to the menu to choose
"delete". Then the folder will be deleted.
Delete System File Information Utility.
This Utility is a DOS batch file and is used to delete System File Information.
This Utility is provided as-is without any warranty, obligation or
guarantee of any kind. THIS MAY AFFECT THE WAY WINDOWS RESPONDS and
PERFORMS. DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU ARE SURE YOU HAVE NO OTHER WAY
OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. Note that the System Volume Information folders will be
rewritten by Windows. Even if you have System Restore turned off Before using
Turn OFF System Restore See above video how to.
I also suggest you perform a full Registry Clean:-
CCleaner is a freeware system
optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your
system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is
that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO
Spyware or Adware! :)
Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry
cleaning tools available in the market today. Its scanning engine is thorough,
safe and fast.
After completing these steps, carry out a full scan of your computer using the antivirus/antispyware program in order to ensure that it correctly disinfected.
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:. A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality
Silverlight helps you create rich web applications that run on
Mac OS, Windows,
and Linux.
Welcome to a new level of engaging, rich, safe, secure, and scalable
cross-platform experiences.
VirtualBox is a
general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop
and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization
solution that is also Open Source Software. As VirtualBox is a cross
platform project, we use a cross platform build system meaning that there won't
be any Visual C++
project files that you can open and just build.
Sysinternals web site was created in 1996 by
Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell to host their advanced system utilities and technical information. Microsoft acquired Sysinternals in July, 2006.
Whether you're an IT Pro or a developer, you'll find Sysinternals utilities to help you manage, troubleshoot and diagnose your Windows systems and
applications. If you have a question about a tool or how to use them, please visit the Sysinternals Forum
for answers and help from other users and our moderators. They have some
Tools and Utility links that may help you out.
Advanced WindowsCare Repair and fix windows with 1-click. Slow down, freeze and blue-screen crash are over. Advanced WindowsCare thoroughly examines the Windows system, accurately detects the bottlenecks for slowing down and crashing, fixes these problems and repairs Windows. All work will be done with 30 seconds and 1 click. The intuitive interface makes Advanced WindowsCare the perfect tool for Non-IT professionals
Cron for Windows
you can use Cron for windows or Windows Scheduler (or one of the other
numerous scheduling utilities). Cron runs programs at scheduled times. CRON scheduler running of programs. CRONTABS
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Hardware Help from BIOS to Windows and UNIX.
big bad Texas. Dallas, you sure are a darling. But OMG OMG Austin WE LOVE YOU too!!!
Justin Kraemer, winner of the Bing Home Sweet Homepage Photo contest
It is our hope that you will follow Eric’s progress with us and get the opportunity to learn and discover what it takes to follow one’s passions, to take risks and to make the difficult decisions designed to increase the world’s knowledge and make life better for everyone. We will be tracking Eric’s progress and creating a forum for you to get to know Eric and learn more about his trek. 
![clip_image002[4]](http://www.bing.com/community/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/search.metablogapi/4426.clip_5F00_image0024_5F00_7A855141.jpg "clip_image002[4]")
Now that you can access all of this Olympic information, test how much you really know about the games by taking the Winter Games Quiz on our Facebook page. It’s a fun way for you to learn about all the different Bing features that you can use to keep current on the Olympics, such as instant answers and the Bing Maps app. Once you take the quiz you can share your results to your Facebook pages and challenge your friends to compete for the gold medal status.
