November, 2009 Archive
November 18, 2009 by
Jason
Mozilla is cooking a new Beta Build of the next iteration of its open source browser. Early adopters will have a fresh revision, the third one since Firefox 3.6 debuted into Beta stage, available for download soon. Whether referred to as Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 or Firefox 3.6 Beta revision 3, the new release is just around the corner. In fact, Mozilla plans to release it either later today or tomorrow morning. At the start of this week, the company building the Firefox open source browser was undecided as to the specific deadline for the availability of Firefox 3.6 Beta 3/Revision 3.
Firefox 3.6 codenamed Namoroka “Beta 3 refresh should be coming Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Beta 3 includes a components directory lockdown feature,” Mozilla revealed. In this regard, Beta 3/revision 3 will be offered to Firefox 3.6 users at just a week after the introduction of Beta 2/revision 2.
With the introduction of the components directory lockdown feature, Mozilla is essentially closing the door to the browser’s “components” directory for third-party extension developers. Essentially, devs that work to extend Firefox 3.6 will no longer be able to have their code added to the “components” directory in Firefox 3.6, as they are able to do in version 3.5 and earlier. Instead, mobbing forward, the “components” are will be reserved exclusively for Firefox 3.6, and nothing more. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
November 18, 2009 by
Jason The first fully-fledged Beta Build of Office 2010 is now available for download to subscribers of Microsoft’s developer and IT professional portals. The Redmond company managed to live up to its promise to offer Office 2010 Beta by the end of November 2009, with public availability of the bits expected any day now, possibly as soon as tomorrow, November 18th. At the time of this article the latest development milestone of the next iteration of the Office System was only up for grabs via MSDN and TechNet, with the website set up to offer public downloads continuing to note that the bits would be served “soon.”
Microsoft has so far dodged all questions related to the official deadline for the availability of Office 2010 public downloads. However, the software giant did indicate that the latest leaked Build of the productivity suite differed from the bits that the general public would be able to get their hands on. In mid-November, Office 2010 Beta Build 14.0.4514.1009 was leaked to the web, although the illegal release didn’t really start growing in popularity until the past week when it became clear that the official version was just around the corner. Read More»
Posted in Office | No Comments »
November 15, 2009 by
Jason System tray icon has been taken quite seriously in windows 7, the windows 7 taskbar has been designed keeping in mind that system tray icons of the various third party applications should not occupy the task bar space. So, by default any program which has a system tray icon is hidden by default in windows 7 system tray.
In order to show a system tray icon in the task bar, here is how you can set it to show. Take your mouse over the arrow pointing vertically upwards, you can see the text saying show hidden icons
click the arrow pointing upwards on the windows 7 taskbar, and click the customize text.
After clicking customize it will open up action center where you can show the icon and notifications of a program [ as shown in the image below ]
Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
November 14, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft has reacted rapidly to public reports of a zero-day denial-of-service vulnerability in its latest iterations of the Windows client and server operating systems, and is providing customers with guidance on how to block potential attempts to take advantage of the security flaw. In this regard, the Redmond company has underlined that no exploits or attacks have been detected for the denial-of-service (DoS) hole in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol impacting both SMBv1 and SMBv2 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Proof of Concept (PoC) code was irresponsibly published in the wild, making it extremely easy for attackers to build exploits putting at risk users of Windows 7.
“Microsoft is aware of public, detailed exploit code that would cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable. If exploited, this DoS vulnerability would not allow an attacker to take control of, or install malware on, the customer’s system but could cause the affected system to stop responding until manually restarted. It is important to note that the default firewall settings on Windows 7 will help block attempts to exploit this issue,” Dave Forstrom, group manager, public relations, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, revealed. “The company is not aware of attacks to exploit the reported vulnerability at this time.” Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 14, 2009 by
Jason
A DVD5 ISO image file containing all the security bulletins made available on November 10th, 2009 for all supported Windows platforms, is now up for grabs via the Microsoft Download Center. As is the case every month, the Redmond company is accompanying the security patched it offers through Windows Update, Automatic Updates, and Microsoft Update with standalone downloads as well as with a package of updates. In this regard, the November 2009 Security Release ISO Image has become available for download earlier this week.
There are no less than six security updates packaged into the ISO image, four of which are now served through WU, AU, and MU to Windows users around the world. MS09-063, MS09-064, MS09-065, MS09-066 are all designed to patch security vulnerabilities in Windows server and client platforms, including versions such as Windows Vista SP2 and Windows XP SP3.
“This DVD5 ISO image file contains the security updates for Windows released on Windows Update on November 10th, 2009. The image does not contain security updates for other Microsoft products. This DVD5 ISO image is intended for administrators that need to download multiple individual language versions of each security update and that do not use an automated solution such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). You can use this ISO image to download multiple updates in all languages at the same time,” Microsoft explained. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
November 10, 2009 by
Jason There are more ways than one in which end users can translate Windows 7 into different languages. For some users, Windows 7’s Multilingual User Interface (MUI), including Windows Language Packs and Language Interface Packs (LIPs), is the most known way to translate the operating system. Deploying an MUI or an LIP will actually have Windows 7’s graphical user interface display all information in another language than the one that is default to the installation. But there are additional ways to translate Windows 7, not just elements of the OS but the actual terminology built around the platform.
On the Microsoft Language Portal, users can find equivalents of English technical jargon in their own language. The Redmond company is essentially offering the Windows 7 terminology for no less than 35 languages. However, the resources available on the webpage span across more than just terminology.
“On these pages you can search our localization glossaries and terminology database for over 90 languages, download style guides, give us feedback on terminology used in our products and find pointers to other languages and localization sites in Microsoft,” a message on the website reads. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 07, 2009 by
Jason On October 22, 2009 Microsoft reached the final milestone of the Windows 7 release schedule, namely general availability. Customers worldwide have already started embracing the product, buying 234% more boxed retail copies of Windows 7 since the official launch compared to the first few days after Windows Vista GA. The NPD Group took into consideration only sales of Windows 7 through the retail channel in the US in order to note that Windows 7 retail sales were outpacing those of Vista, but it’s likely that actual sold licenses of the latest Windows client are more than reported by NPD, taking into account the fact that the platform is available pre-installed on OEM computers, as well as offered for download through online outlets such as Microsoft Store.
Windows 7 guarantees a completely revolutionary UX for users upgrading from Windows XP, and evolutionary, as Microsoft itself has put it, for those that migrate from Vista. Either way, the latest edition of Windows brings a consistent range of enhancements that set Windows 7 apart from its predecessors. Assessing the value associated with the innovations introduced in Windows 7 certainly leads to recommendation lists with more than seven items.
Users will find that some of the new Windows 7 features and capabilities will come into focus more than others. Without having this aspect become a representation of the value they will bring to end users, there are things that customers will want to try ahead of anything else. Below is a list with seven of them, although in all fairness, users that will actually keep count will find that the limit of seven items “might” not have been respected entirely. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 01, 2009 by
Jason The first fully-fledged Beta development milestone of the next generation of Mozilla’s open source browser is currently available for download. Testers and early adopters that have been waiting for Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, to evolve from Alpha stage are now free to access, download, install and start test driving the Beta 1 build. In addition to being the first Beta for Firefox 3.6, the development milestone offered by Mozilla is also the first example of a third-party browser to embrace Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Windows client. Just like the native Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is designed to play nice with Aero Peek and Thumbnail Previews via the new Windows Aero Taskbar (Superbar) in Windows 7.
As you can see from the screenshot included below, Firefox 3.6 Beta users can now take advantage of the some of the same graphical user interface enhancements in Windows 7 as those running IE8. While Google and Opera are lagging behind when it comes down to tailoring their browsers to Windows 7, the same is not valid for Mozilla. And as Windows 7 became available for purchase on October 22, 2009, customers running the OS in combination with Firefox 3.6 will certainly enjoy the bells and whistles of the new Windows Aero GUI. Read More»
Posted in Firefox, Windows 7 | 2 Comments »
November 01, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft’s “Better Together” slogan apparently applies not only to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 but also to the latest iteration of the Windows client and the Redmond company’s peripherals. The vast majority of products offered by Microsoft Hardware features the Windows 7 Compatible logo and comes with device drivers designed to play nice with the successor of Windows Vista from the get go. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22nd and hit the shelves last week on October 22nd, with Microsoft applauding strong support and compatibility for the OS.
The Redmond company even features a webpage dedicated to Microsoft Hardware products and Windows 7, advertising a match nothing short of the perfect marriage between peanut butter and jelly. More importantly, the Microsoft Hardware + Windows 7 page contains a collection of special offerings for customers. The software giant noted that the special deals on Microsoft were open to all customers.
Microsoft Hardware products including mice, keyboards, LifeCams, gaming devices and notebook accessories, all compatible with Windows 7, are also available at discount prices from a variety of online retailers including the Microsoft Store. The only exception to the Windows 7 compatible line-up of Microsoft Hardware items is the Fingerprint Reader, which does not play nice with the operating system, the company informed. Read More»
Posted in Hardware, Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 01, 2009 by
Jason
Windows 7 is an evolutionary Windows client release, according to Microsoft, and it was also fit that support for the OS would also be an evolution compared to what was available for Windows Vista. And Windows 7 comes in a world where Microsoft Support is much different from what it was when the company made its debut.
According to the software giant, “Microsoft Corp. was founded in 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Customer support in 1975 consisted of Bill Gates and Paul Allen.” The focus on customer support has grown tremendously for Microsoft, as the Windows operating system became ubiquitous, and as the company started offering additional products.
Official statistics from the Redmond company reveal that this year alone traffic to Microsoft online support exploded to approximately 1.2 billion. “Microsoft Customer Service and Support now manages 30 million support requests online, through e-mail and phone each year in 29 languages across a range of products around the world. There are more than 7,000 agents in over 60 locations available to help Microsoft customers,” the company explained. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
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