Palm has a gift for Vista users to help celebrate the operating system's first birthday: an 'final' desktop synchronization kit. It should be noted that Palm has offered a beta of this software since summertime, but the final revision still lacks a few features such a the Quick Install tool and the ability to synch e-mail over a USB...Read more...
Many corporations and government bodies tend to hold off purchasing a new Windows operating system until at least the first service pack (SP1) is out the door, and thus it comes as no surprise that Microsoft has been burning the midnight oil to get Vista SP1 ready to ship. To that end Microsoft has developed a new release candidate (RC)...Read more...
Don't get too excited, though. The promotion is only for MSDN and TechNet subscribers who beta tested Vista.Under terms of “The Ultimate Offer,” testers can go to any retail or online store and buy a copy of Vista Ultimate (full or upgrade version) for full price and Microsoft will match it with a second complimentary Vista Ultimate...Read more...
If we were forced to say that the ASUS Eee PC had a single fault, we might site its less limited storage capabilities. It's not a major problem when running the included Xandros distribution, but with only 8 GB of internal storage available the Eee PC is not quite up to the minimum specifications to install Microsoft's nearly year old...Read more...
Microsoft's download servers must be on overload this week. First Office 2007 SP1, then Windows XP SP3 RC1, and now Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) have gone public.Microsoft was vague this week about when Windows Vista SP1 RC1 would be available, but based on the other two releases yesterday, it was going to be soon, and here...Read more...
A lot of people, businesses included, have more or less decided to skip upgrading their OS to Microsoft Vista. Windows XP works for them, is well supported for foreseeable future, and many feel they can skip a generation and wait for Vista's successor, dubbed "Windows 7" to come along. Gartner Research VP Michael Silver thinks that might be...Read more...
Look what's coming. Windows Vista SP1 RC1 (don't you just love all those 3 letter acronyms) will be available next week via the Download Center, and to MSDN and Technet subscribers tomorrow."We feel really good and we look forward to receiving feedback from our larger set of testers," said David Zipkin, a senior product manager on the...Read more...
It seems that nearly a year of bug fixes has made Vista a lot more attractive to many consumers, and the Redmond Monolith is predicting a strong holiday season for their latest OS. This prediction could be in large part to traditional PC/notebook sales, many of which will ship with Vista this holiday season, and it isn't hard to imagine...Read more...
Glitchy playback in Windows? Yesterday Microsoft tried to give us an explanation of just what's happening, besides, say, the bloated Vista OS. Yesterday, Microsoft's program manager for sound in Windows Vista (what a great title!), Steve Ball, posted a blog entry explaining why audio playback sometimes gets glitchy in Windows. There's...Read more...
Apple is garnering all the headlines this morning upon the much anticipated arrival of their spiffy new version of their operating system, dubbed Leopard. It's set against the background of the enormous market share of their competitor, Microsoft, and the reported inability of the Redmond giant to wean people off of Windows XP and get them...Read more...
In early August Microsoft released a pair of performance and compatibility updates. Now they’ve released four (yes, four) more updates as we await Windows Vista SP1.The first, KB941649, addresses “the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista.” This type of vague description always makes me feel warm and fuzzy about an OS’s...Read more...
If you've been waiting for SP1 to be released before giving Vista a try, Microsoft says don't bother. There's not going to be too many new features for the home user, but many of the new features are going to be targeted at the large organizations. Perhaps the same organizations that made public comments about why they wouldn't...Read more...
Windows Vista. Those two words either make users cringe in fear or perhaps evoke happy times with the new OS. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of middle ground here. Perhaps some of the more jaded simply gave Vista a try before there were proper drivers for their hardware, or perhaps before some patch on Microsoft's part that fixed some...Read more...
We thought it might be interesting to see what the numbers looked like for the extreme performance junkies in our midst, running dual-graphics SLI setups with high-end DX10 capable GeForce 8800 graphics cards. Is SLI mode on Vista still two steps behind in performance in comparison to XP? In this article we offer a quick-take assessment...Read more...
Upon its release, it was expected that even the most ardent power users and enthusiasts were going to tread lightly at first with respect to adopting Windows Vista as their primary OS. Though end users in this demographic are classically early adopters, in terms of new hardware technologies coming to market, an operating system change brings with...Read more...
Approximately a month after first announcing the Vista SP1 beta, Microsoft has released it to a private set of testers.Microsoft on Monday said it has released a beta version of the first service pack of Windows Vista to about 12,000 testers. Microsoft had said back in August that it expected to start private testing of the service pack within...Read more...
In June Microsoft agreed to modify the built-in desktop search feature in Vista, in hopes of staving off another Justice Department battle, as well as to assuage Google. On Wednesday Microsoft outlined the upcoming changes, which will appear in Vista Service Pack 1.The primary impact of the change is giving Vista users who choose a non-Microsoft...Read more...
After a lot of speculation, leaked builds and closed beta testing - without specific public details about SP1 - Microsoft today posted an announcement on their official Windows Vista blog detailing SP1 and their plans for it. Now is the time and the time is now: let's talk about Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Much has been made...Read more...
The latest build of Windows Vista SP1 was distributed to its beta testers last week. Naturally it was also distributed to the likes of BitTorrent and other P2P file-sharing networks, though of course without Microsoft's permission. Unlike the first build that was released, this was a .EXE file, not an ISO image. Build 6.0.6001.16633 (longhorn.070803-1655)...Read more...
One of the first things we did upon installing Windows Vista was to turn of the User Account Control (UAC). Why? Because we didn't want all the pop-ups generated by the darn thing. And most people we know have turned it off as well. If we were to be generous, we would say the pop-ups are confusing. If we were to be honest, we would say they...Read more...
I looked at this story and wondered if it was months old. I mean, at this point, with Windows Vista being released in January, and this story basically addressing whether or not adoption by corporations would be quick - how could it be quick after all these months? I suppose the reality is that the original prediction for quick adoption...Read more...
While we wouldn't advise you to use a leaked copy of anything, that doesn't mean we wouldn't want to give you some insight into the upcoming Vista SP1 - which, as most of you should know, has had a beta leaked to the Internet. APCMag took a close look at it, and found nothing earth-shattering (typical for most SPs, with the possible exception...Read more...