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<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> With the Clock Ticking, Dell Still Finding XP a 'Popular Demand' CRN, NY - 17 hours ago "After June 26th you have the option to purchase Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate with a downgrade service to Windows XP Professional," says ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft Reissues Critical Security Fix for Bluetooth Stack in ... TMC Net, CT - 47 minutes ago ... said Christopher Budd, a member of Microsoft Security Response Center, in a blog. However, the fix worked on Windows Vista, said Budd. ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> FreeBSD Technologies in New Firefox 3 Browser PR Web (press release), WA - 49 minutes ago According to the blog of Firefox developer Stuart Parmenter, "Our automated tests on Windows Vista showed a 22% drop in memory usage when we turned jemalloc ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> HP TouchSmart IQ505a ZDNet.com.au, Australia - 21 minutes ago While the TouchSmart uses Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit for its operating system, it also has HP's own touch interface available for use — and is quite ... More...

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss Boston's 17th NBA championship, Firefox 3 Download Day, Microsoft advertising, Paul's new Macbook, and an MSN Music extension! More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> With the Clock Ticking, Dell Still Finding XP a 'Popular Demand' CRN, NY - 34 minutes ago "After June 26th you have the option to purchase Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate with a downgrade service to Windows XP Professional," says ... More...

<img src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=Nl6AYHcC0KgJ&imgurl=lifehacker.com/assets/resources/2008/06/2008-06-18_091830.jpg width=80 height=60 alt="" border=1> Lifehacker Australia <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Control Windows Media Centre With Keyboard Shortcuts Lifehacker Australia, Australia - 28 minutes ago ... to your Windows Media Centre computer, you'll beat out any remote user with this collection of 42 keyboard shortcuts courtesy of the Simple Help blog. ... More...

In the first part of an ongoing series of Media Center Extender reviews, I examine how the Extender experience has changed with Windows Vista! More...

Microsoft is re-releasing Security Bulletin MS08-030 which fixes vulnerability in Bluetooth Stack. This update only works on Vista and seems to have problems on Windows XP. Hmmm, something fishy here.Anyways, be sure to download the re-released version.In an excerpt:Executive SummaryThis security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Bluetooth stack in Windows that could [...] More...

I found this picture over Flickr which is a Windows Vista Fatal Error T-Shirt. Cool! and the model too!Share This More...

Vista Woes: Netizens still love XP platformMan Gets Windows Vista to Work With PrinterMicrosoft earmarks another $200 million for Windows advertisingWindows Vista Lags With Developers Tags: Microsoft, Vista, WindowsShare This More...

This is a video on Windows Vista Speech Recognition.Share This More...

This is an interesting post on UAC wherein people of about 12% has decided to disable the feature of Windows Vista, making it behave like Windows XP. Though there are risks associated with it and Microsoft is doing things to make Vista secure even if UAC is disabled. 12% may be small, but the amount [...] More...

Apple has just released a fix for a security flaw in Safari running on Windows Vista. The flaw allows download of software from malicious sites without the knowledge of the user.This flaw is finally fixed, almost two months after Microsoft has released a warning on it (found here).The flaw works by luring a user to [...] More...

Microsoft is discontinuing their support for Windows Vista in two weeks’ time and this comes after the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 which makes the lower cost operating system attractive for consumers who wants a basic box. The release of the latest service pack of Windows XP strengthens the interest and desire of [...] More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Mac Bloggers Give 2 Cents on Firefox, Rub Lucky Penny for OpenCL ... MacNewsWorld, CA - 14 hours ago As one commenter brought up on the MacRumors.com site, Firefox can be an important transition application for Windows-to-Mac switchers. ... More...

As James and I mentioned in our blog post What’s coming in IE8 for IT Pros?, IE8 can now be slipstreamed into Vista and Window Server 2008 OS images. If you manage the desktop images for your organization, slipstream saves you time by simplifying the task of adding Internet Explorer 8 and any IE updates. If you’re adding Internet Explorer 7 to a Windows XP image you’ll typically install XP and then add IE7 before capturing the image -this can take 2 hours! With IE8 and Windows Vista, you are able to integrate IE8 into the image file of the original operating system in about 15 minutes. No more booting the OS image, manually installing IE and re-capturing the image. The slipstreaming support also extends to IE8 cumulative updates and language packages. Slipstreaming IE8 into an OS image will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not currently offer a solution for slipstreaming Windows components, which are built using update.exe. Here are the steps to create a Vista image with IE8 being the out of box browser by default. You can try this yourself with IE8 beta1. Preparation 1. Install Windows Automated Install Kit The Windows Automated Install Kit (WAIK) is a tool available for Vista and Windows Server 2008 to manage and customize OS images. This is the tool you’ll be using to slipstream IE8. Download a version of WAIK that matches your local machine configuration (not the image you’ll be slipstreaming IE8 into). Note: Using a WAIK x64 bit version for a Vista x86 image will not work. For more information, please refer to the WAIK Readme. 2. Create the Vista directory Copy the Vista directory from the CD onto your local machine. 3. Create 3 temp folders: Mount, Pkg, Sandbox You can name each folder whatever you want, however remember the purpose of each folder created. For this example, I created: c:\slipstreaming\mount c:\slipstreaming\pkg c:\slipstreaming\sandbox. Your final folder structure should look something like this: http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/temp.folders.png 4. Download IE8 Beta 1 Download IE8 Beta1 to your local machine from here. For this example, I saved the IE8 Beta1 exe in c:\Slipstreaming\IE8x86en 5. Extract and expand the MSU file From the IE8 exe file: To extract the MSU, in the command prompt run this /x: . For example: c:\Slipstreaming\IE8x86en\IE8-WindowsVista-x86-enu.exe /x: c:\Slipstreaming\IE8x86en To expand the MSU, in the command prompt run this expand.exe -F:* </I></B>. For example: expand.exe c:\Slipstreaming\IE8x86en\IE8.MSU -F:* c:\Slipstreaming\pkg Slipstream 1. Mount the Vista install image to your temporary location. In the command prompt, run this imagex.exe /mountrw install.wim For this example: I am slipstreaming IE8 into Vista Ultimate which has the imagenumber = 4. The command I ran is as such "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe" /mountrw C:\Slipstreaming\VistaSP1x86en\sources\install.wim 4 C:\Slipstreaming\mount If you don’t know the image number of the OS image you are using, you can use the arbitrary large number instead of 4 in the command above like this: imagex.exe /dir c:\VistaRTM\sources\install.wim 20. This triggers help information to be displayed. From the output in your command prompt, choose the SKU that you are using and the IMAGE INDEX is the that you need. 2. Slipstream IE8 into the Vista image. If you are using Vista Gold image, you need to change a read only attribute flag prior to executing a slipstream command: attrib -R "\Windows\Offline Web Pages" For example: attrib -R "C:\Slipstreaming\mount\Windows\Offline Web Pages" Now, you are ready to slipstream IE8. Run this in the command prompt: pkgmgr.exe /n:\WindowsVista-KB#-NEUTRAL.xml /o:”;\windows” /s: /l:. Ensure the pkgmgr.exe you use is the one installed with the WAIK tools. For example: "c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing\pkgmgr.exe" /n:"c:\Slipstreaming\pkg\Windows6.0-KB944036-x86.xml" /o:""c:\Slipstreaming\mount";"c:\Slipstreaming\mount\windows"" /s:"c:\Slipstreaming\sandbox" /l:"c:\Slipstreaming\slp.log" Once the slipstreaming command is finished successfully, the slp.log will say “exit code 0x00”. Remember to add the read only attribute flag back after slipstreaming is complete if using a Vista Gold image: attrib +R "\Windows\Offline Web Pages" For example: attrib +R "C:\Slipstreaming\mount\Windows\Offline Web Pages" 3. Save the changes. Use imagex.exe to save the changes: imagex /commit /unmount For this example: "c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe" /commit /unmount c:\Slipstreaming\mount You are all done!!! The Vista install image on your local machine is the new Vista build with IE8 slipstreamed. Since IE8 is part of the Vista image, you can customize it by creating an answer.xml file and running Vista setup with unattend option as such: \setup.exe /unattend: The Unattended Windows install option enables customization of the OS install, and the answer.xml file provides the “answers” for customizations and drives the unattended install. You can find more about unattend installs and answer files here: Unattended Documentation (This documentation is also included in the WAIK) IE Settings customizable via unattend After you install the final image, IE8 beta1 will appear under installed updates as such and can be uninstalled in the same way as when installing IE8 standalone.You will be reverted to IE7 if you choose to uninstall IE8. http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/Installed.Updates.png Thanks, Jane Maliouta IE Deployment Program Manager http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8619368 More...

<img src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=NMSDz0u5x3YJ&imgurl=www.windowsfordevices.com/files/misc/microsoft_livemesh_home-thm.jpg width=80 height=68 alt="" border=1> WindowsForDevices <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft updates cloud sync beta WindowsForDevices, CA - 4 hours ago Intended to integrate desktop and mobile operating systems -- including Windows Mobile, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Macintosh OS X -- it provides ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Some Hard Data On Vista Users and UAC InformationWeek, NY - 1 hour ago Of all the changes in Windows Vista, perhaps the most controversial is the User Account Control (UAC) functionality that often results in multiple ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Some Hard Data On Vista Users and UAC InformationWeek, NY - 38 minutes ago Of all the changes in Windows Vista, perhaps the most controversial is the User Account Control (UAC) functionality that often results in multiple ... More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft Reissues Critical Security Fix For Windows XP InformationWeek, NY - 38 minutes ago The original patch worked on Windows Vista, but failed to accomplish its task in Windows XP SP 2 and SP3, Microsoft Security Response Center said. ... More...

<img src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=NWRlvw9RDrsJ&imgurl=images.betanews.com/media/1702.jpg width=80 height=64 alt="" border=1> BetaNews <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> OpenSUSE 11.0 final release now underway BetaNews - Jun 19, 2008 But, I run into fewer and fewer people who are happy with Microsoft Windows -- particularly when you're talking Vista. I think openSUSE offers several value ... More...

<img src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=NMSDz0u5x3YJ&imgurl=www.windowsfordevices.com/files/misc/microsoft_livemesh_home-thm.jpg width=80 height=68 alt="" border=1> WindowsForDevices <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft updates cloud sync beta WindowsForDevices, CA - 1 hour ago Intended to integrate desktop and mobile operating systems -- including Windows Mobile, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Macintosh OS X -- it provides ... More...

Check out HP's upcoming digital media receiver and Media Center Extender, the HP MediaSmart Connect x280n, in this new photo gallery! More...

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Serious Security Vulnerabilty In Apple OS X Leopard Washington Post, United States - 46 minutes ago You can open the Utility Manager on Windows XP or Vista anytime by pressing the Windows key and the "U" key at the same time. The important thing to note ... More...