MicroTechXP

I am a Windows XP user and I have tried Windows Vista on my computer and I can’t say I did not like it, but I can’t say I loved it. My experience was not that great because of horrible drivers  from nVidia (you make great cards but not drivers) and because my PC is older than 3 years. Yes I know, Vista was meant for a new computer and not for an old one with a Pentium 4 in it. Well I tried it and it ran smoothly until I wanted to play games or run multi-media applications.

After my experience with Vista I decided to revert back to Windows XP and wait until I get the new Intel Nehalem architecture latter this year and go back to Vista (hopefully Vista drivers from nVidia are much better). The experience showed me something though, it showed me what Vista needed and what it needed to improve upon. So I have made a list 7 things that I think that Windows 7 should have that will make Windows 7 a better operating system.

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The era of officially sanctioned iPhone applications should kick off on Monday.
That’s the same day Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to take the stage at the Moscone Center to unveil the next-generation iPhone at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference. A source at a software company that has been working on a native iPhone application tells us the company is getting ready to launch that application on Monday, which could also imply that Apple’s App Store will be up and running that day.
The App Store is going to be the only way to get official third-party iPhone applications onto your device. Developers have been submitting their applications to Apple for testing and verification since the iPhone SDK became available, and in exchange for hosting and distributing the applications Apple is taking 30 percent of the revenue generated by sales of that application. [cnet]

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Smartphones are seen as a more of a security risk than laptops and mobile storage devices, according to new research. Some 94 percent of senior IT staff fear PDAs present a security risk, just above the 88 percent who highlighted mobile storage devices as a worry. Nearly eight in 10 said laptops were an issue. Only four in 10 had encrypted data on their laptops, and the remainder said the information was “not worth” protecting.
The results come from a survey of 300 senior IT staff conducted by endpoint data protection supplier Credant Technologies. A key danger with PDAs was that over half of IT executives surveyed were “not bothering” to enter a password when they used their phone. Nine in 10 of the smartphones were being given access to company networks without extra security, even though the phones were individually owned by users. There were no access restrictions being applied to 81 percent of the phones.

View: The full story @ Infoworld

Consistent with our efforts to promote further interoperability across the Web, Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability allows us to help web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This commitment also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.
However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. As such, we have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.
We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers. To learn more and get started, please follow the step-by-step instructions located at KB952030. [MSDN Blogs]

Looks like Vista’s much-maligned User Access Control or UAC has one benefit for a savvy user: it can detect rootkits before they install. AV-Test.org conducted a test of popular antivirus programs to see how well they detected rootkits and the tester had to turn off UAC on the Vista test systems because it detected every rootkit used in the test. 
Once on a PC, rootkits can bury themselves quietly, but they have to get to that point first. As long as users interpret prompts from the UAC system attentively, or those messages haven’t in some way been spoofed, rootkits struggle to jump to the PC without drawing attention to themselves. [HardOCP]

Microsoft is launching a program to promote the use of its Windows OS in ultra low-cost PCs, one effect of which will be to limit the hardware capabilities of this type of device, IDG News Service has learned.

Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.

The program is outlined in confidential documents that Microsoft sent to PC makers last month, and which were obtained by IDG News Service. The goal apparently is to limit the hardware capabilities of ULPCs so that they don’t eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista, something both Microsoft and the PC vendors would want to avoid. [PCWorld]

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Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 sends some PCs into an endless series of reboots, according to posts to a Microsoft support forum.
Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft and a prominent Windows blogger, has worked with users to tentatively identify the problem as involving only machines using processors from Advanced Micro Devices.
Messages from frustrated users began accumulating on the XP SP3 support newsgroup Wednesday, just a day after Microsoft released the update to the general public.
“I just installed Windows XP SP3 and after completing the processes and when the system reboots, the system cannot proceed to load the Windows,” said a user labeled as “Olin” in a message that kicked off a long thread. “It just displays the flash screen of Windows then after it reboots again.
Most users who left messages on the forum said that they were unable to boot into Windows Safe mode. [ComputerWorld]

Microsoft may be preparing to discontinue sales of Windows XP, but some OEMs have found a way to circumvent the software giant’s June 30 deadline.
In yet another sign of the market’s resistance to Windows Vista, Dell Computer, and Sony on Wednesday all confirmed plans to exercise the downgrade rights Microsoft offers with OEM versions of Windows Vista Business and Vista Ultimate in order to continue offering XP-equipped PCs to their customers.
Downgrade rights, which Microsoft also offers to volume licensing customers, give users the ability to roll back to the previous version of the product they’re using. Downgrade rights have existed since 2001 for Windows, but many Microsoft partners say they’ve been seeing a recent uptick in the number of customers exercising downgrade rights to roll Vista back to XP Professional.
View: The Full Article @ CRN

As expected and reported by Neowin last week, Microsoft, via Chris Keroack the Windows XP SP3 Release Manager for the Windows Serviceability team, has announced the release of Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 to manufacturing.
Here’s the official word via a post to the TechNet XP Forum.
“Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.
We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.
Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas – you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn’t have done this without you.
We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3.” [Neowin]
View: Microsoft TechNet XP Forum

Internal Microsoft videos just aren’t what they used to be with Utopian technologies and eye-candy special effects. This internal promotional video for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was  apparently ‘leaked‘ by an unflattered employee who bluntly called it “stupid”. For those who doubt it’s authenticity (and I don’t blame you), Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer makes a pretty short but lasting appearance. (via Channel9 forums and Neowin).
Click read more for the video..

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