Windows Vista
Windows Vista SP1 is now being deployed by Microsoft’s auto-update service
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that they have begun to deliver Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via an automatic update. Windows Vista SP1 will be automatically downloaded and installed on machines who have Windows Update. Starting first will be important patches, hotfixes, and other updates which will be sent via automatic updates. From there, Microsoft will begin to automatically distribute Vista Service Pack 1.
A Microsoft spokeswoman stated "Today, Microsoft will begin automatic distribution of SP1. This means the users with the Automatic Update feature turned on will automatically download SP1 to their PCs."
While all customers will not receive Vista SP1 immediately via Automatic Update, there’s no time line offered as to when they would all receive it eventually. Microsoft claims to have opted for staggered distribution to prevent mass occurrence of driver incompatibility and other such issues. The automatic delivery will be rolled out to English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish versions first.
Source: Half Life Source
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The Ultimate Steal: A Deal on the 2007 Microsoft Office System for Students
As part of Microsoft Corp.’s commitment to education, the company is re-introducing The Ultimate Steal program this school year, inviting students who are actively enrolled at educational institutions to purchase Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 at a low student price of $59.95 (U.S.). This program begins in the United States today with additional countries to be launched throughout the year. The offer will be available to students throughout the academic school year.
Office Ultimate 2007 provides students with a comprehensive set of tools that can help them create high-quality documents, gather and consolidate lecture notes and other information, stay organized, find what they are looking for quickly, and easily collaborate with colleagues and professors across geographies. Office Ultimate 2007 includes the entire Microsoft Office toolset that students are accustomed to working with and more, including Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office Access 2007, Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, Office OneNote 2007, Office Groove 2007 and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.
Additional Products Offered this School Year
This year, The Ultimate Steal program features additional products, including the following:
•Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade.1 The most comprehensive edition of Windows Vista, combining the power, security and mobility features that you need for work with all the entertainment features that you want for fun.
•Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007.1 Visio Professional makes it easy for students to visualize, explore and communicate complex information. Students can go from complicated text and tables that are hard to understand to Visio-based diagrams that communicate information at a glance.
•Microsoft Office Language Packs.1 Office Language Packs help multilingual students who routinely create or edit documents in different languages by providing the flexibility of switching the entire user experience — including menus, help and proofing tools such as spell checker, dictionary and thesaurus — to any of 37 different languages.
The additional products will be available in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2008. Those wanting to see what upgrades are available in which countries should visit http://www.TheUltimateSteal.com.
Source- Microsoft Press Release
Beijing 2008 Olympics Medal Count Gadget for Windows Sidebar
Are you someone who follows the Olympics every hour of the day? Or maybe you just want to keep and eye on who’s leading in the medal count. Either way, the Beijing 2008 Medal Count Vista Sidebar gadget may be for you. It updates every 15 minutes throughout the day and shows the top 5 countries gold, silver and bronze medal counts. Click on the country name or flag to view detailed medal standing on Beijing2008.com.
Click here to download the gadget.
Source- West,Donavon West
Telegu Windows Vista LIP now available.
the Windows Vista Telegu (the official language of Andhra Pradesh in India) LIP:
Click here to download the Telugu Vista LIP
Please Note A font-enabling package must be installed prior to installing the Vista LIP package. This font package contains important font update information that is required to view your language correctly. To install the font package, click here: Install font package.
Also note that the Telugu LIP can only be installed on a system that runs an English version of Windows Vista. It is recommended to use 96 DPI for this language.
Source- MSDN Blog
Georgian Windows Vista LIP now available.
If you like your Windows Vista in Georgian then you can download* the new Windows Georgian Language Interface pack (LIP):
Click here to download the Georgian Vista LIP
*Please Note A font-enabling package must be installed prior to installing the Vista LIP package. This font package contains important font update information that is required to view your language correctly. To install the font package, click here: Install font package.
Source- MSDN Blog
Microsoft offers free Vista-to-XP downgrade help
Microsoft has said it would offer free technical support to small businesses that buy new PCs with Windows Vista in the next three months, its latest attempt to convince users that moving to Vista is a good idea. And if those efforts are for naught, Microsoft will help those users downgrade from Vista to Windows XP, the same maneuver several large computer makers, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, have used in recent months to continue offering the older operating system to buyers.
The offer, dubbed Windows Vista Small Business Assurance, is available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees or 25 PCs, and it provides free telephone support through the end of October to companies that buy new PCs with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate between now and Sept. 30, according to details posted on the Microsoft Web site. Only businesses buying new hardware can take advantage of the free support; companies upgrading existing computers from, say, Windows XP, don’t qualify.
Source: The full story @ InfoWorld
Media Center gadget for Windows SideShow beta released
I’m currently working on the Media Center gadget for Windows SideShow. We’ve just put up the beta at http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=312 so be sure to create an account and download to try it today! Feedback is encouraged so please let us know about any issues or comments and be reading through them as we work towards the final version.
With the gadget you can control Media Center, including seeing the program guide, recording shows, viewing your photos, browsing through music, and more. I use it on a Vave 100 remote control but you can always use the SideShow simulator if you don’t have a physical device. (Get the simulator by following the links at http://blogs.msdn.com/sideshow/archive/2008/05/29/announcing-the-windows-sideshow-managed-api-sdk-and-runtime-releases.aspx)
Source- MSDN Blog
Reliability and performance update is available for Windows Vista SP1
This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista SP1-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who use the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.
This update improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in various scenarios.
This update includes the following improvements on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer:
•This update improves the stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. The crashes may occur on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer in the following scenario:
•Incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP traffic monitoring is enabled.
•Both a third-party antivirus application and an antispyware application are installed, such as the following applications:
•ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
•SpySweeper by Webroot Software, Inc.
•This update improves the reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang).
•This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers that experience issues in which large applications cannot run after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time. For example, when you try to start Excel 2007 after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time, a user may receive an error message that resembles the following:
EXCEL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application
•This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing the number of crashes that may be caused by the Apple QuickTime thumbnail preview in Windows Live Photo Gallery.
•This update improves the performance of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing audio and video (AV) stuttering. Such AV stuttering may occur when the audio or video component is streaming high definition content from a Windows Vista SP1-based computer that has a NVIDIA network adapter nForce driver version 67.5.4.0 that is installed to a Windows Media Center Extender device.
Source: support.microsoft.com
