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| Live Search Cashback paying off for Microsoft Search. |
| Oct 6th, 2008. Last week, Microsoft unveiled its latest attack against Google's search empire: SearchPerks! The idea has potential, but the software giant stumbled when it came to the execution. Redmond likely decided to launch SearchPerks! based on its impression of how well Live Search Cashback, which went live in May, was doing. Results for Live Search Cashback weren't so bad a month in, and according to Hitwise Intelligence, new data shows the service is now starting to pick up. |
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| It's common knowledge on the web that Google continues to slowly and surely steal market share from both Yahoo and Microsoft, but as we've pointed out, just how well Google is doing really depends on whose metrics you look at. In our review of the past 18 months of data, we noticed that Hitwise showed that Microsoft's US search market share was on a slow decline. More recent data from the Experian company, however, which can take the effects of Live Search Cashback into account, shows that although Google continues to grow, and Yahoo continues to shrink, Microsoft's market share has stabilized a bit over the past three months. Further reading: Arstechnica. |
| PCWorld feels XP is overated and Vista under-rated. |
| Oct 6th, 2008. An interesting slide show from PCWorld about the 10 Most Overrated Products against Underrated ones. One comparision among the many : PCWorld feels XP is overated and Vista under-rated. |
"Save Windows XP! is the rallying cry of Windows users dismayed by the needless bloat of Vista. But didn't everyone have the same critique of Windows XP when it first galumphed into public view like an unsteady rubber monster?
What did Vista get right? For starters, though the User Account Control feature is like an annoying little sister who constantly pokes you, it makes Vista more secure than XP. Vista also trounces XP in handling mobile devices, networking, multimedia files and photos. On top of that, it has a cleaner, more navigable interface; one eerily reminiscent of a certain Mac operating system." Via tech.msn.com. Thanks Vasu. |
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| Win Folder Castle 3.0 Security Tool. |
| Oct 6th, 2008. Magnetic Soft is pleased to offer a limited number of licenses of Folder Castle 3.0 to the members of WinVistaClub. The full version licensed product costs $39.95, but is being offered as prizes for the Best Vista Article or Tip, absolutely Free. More details on this at WinVistaClub Forum. |
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| Folder Castle 3.0, is a trusted security tool that hides and encrypts your files and folders. Folder Castle employs two methods of data protection. First, you can hide a folder so that the snoop doesn’t even suspect there is something hidden away from him. Second, you can put a folder into a secure storage, which acts as a mountable virtual drive where you can drag and drop files and have them encrypted with instant 256-bit AESencryption. |
| 100 NEW Group Policies in Internet Explorer 8. |
| Oct 4th, 2008. A 100 new Group Policies have been added in Internet Explorer 8, bringing the total Group Policies supported in IE8 to 1300! Virtually all new IE8 features have Group Policy support, whether it is Compatibility View, Accelerators, or InPrivate Browsing Mode. These policies allow administrators to fully control IE8 features: hide the feature completely, preset the default, lock the user to only use the defaults, etc. For example, an administrator could turn off InPrivate Browsing by enabling the Turn off InPrivate Group Policy. Full read at MSDN Blogs. |
| Microsoft, NOD32 pass VB100 test; Kaspersky, AntiVir fail! |
| Oct 4th, 2008. Some of the biggest names in the security industry have failed the latest Virus Bulletin 100 test. The test used 100 pieces of malware collected from active samples and put them up against a number of major security suites for Windows Server 2008. |
| Most of the major vendors, including McAfee, Symantec, Microsoft and Sophos, were able to pass the test. However, several others, including F-Secure, Kaspersky and Computer Associates, fell short of the certification.
Other firms failing the test included Redstone, Avira, Microworld, Quick Heal and ArcaBit, whose ArcaVir product missed 93 samples and returned three falsitives. |
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| Part of the criteria for receiving a VB100 award is that the anti-malware program cannot report a false positive alarm of malware when scanning a clean set of files. Avira AntiVir and Kaspersky Anti-Virus both had a single false positive report against different files in the clean set. Via Neowin. |
| Reality Check : GoogleFight - Microsoft vs. Apple |
| Oct 2nd, 2008. An interesting Forum Post about Googlefight. Wikipedia describes it as a website that allows users to compare the number of search results returned by the Google search engine for two given queries. The results are displayed graphically in a mixed flash and javascript animation. Two animated stick figures fight on screen after the queries are entered, and then an animated bar graph appears showing the results. The stick figure animation has no impact on the actual results. The results may be comforting, funny or self-referential. |
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| People often use this for entertainment & fun. Throws up quite interesting results actually. Here is one I tried for "I hate Microsoft" vs "I hate Apple". Try out a few searches of your choice to get a reality check ! Thanks FeelWindows. |
| SearchPerks! From Microsoft Live Search. |
| Oct 1st, 2008. Search a lot, earn a lot. Sign up to start earning great perks just for searching! Sign up for SearchPerks! and start earning tickets towards exciting prizes whenever you search the Web – up to 25 tickets per day. It’s free, easy to use, and your tickets accumulate as fast as you can search. |
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| And because SearchPerks! is brought to you by Microsoft Live Search, you know you won’t compromise quality while earning rewards. |
| Microsoft, Washington State Sue Scareware Vendors. |
| Sept 30th, 2008. The Attorney General’s Office along with Microsoft announced the filing of new cases under Washington’s recently improved Computer Spyware Act during a joint press conference today in Seattle. |
| “We won’t tolerate the use of alarmist warnings or deceptive ‘free scans’ to trick consumers into buying software to fix a problem that doesn’t even exist,” McKenna continued. “We’ve repeatedly proven that Internet companies that prey on consumers’ anxieties are within our reach.” |
| As of today, the Attorney General’s Office has filed seven suits under the statute. The Attorney General’s Office filed its latest case today in King County Superior Court against the marketers of a program called Registry Cleaner XP. |
| Spyware has arguably become the biggest online threat to consumers and businesses since the advent of the Internet. Microsoft has said that 50 percent of its customer-support calls related to computer crashes can be blamed on spyware. |
| Get Spyware Doctor Paid Version, For Free ! |
| Sept 29th, 2008. Another piece of great news for WinVistaClub members. WinVistaClub in association with PCTools, is now pleased to offer the PAID Version of its Spyware Doctor 6.0 absolutely FREE ! We have a limited number of licenses to distribute as give-aways. |
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| Spyware Doctor is one of the finest anti-spyware's available. It needs no introduction. Nevertheless, you may want to check out its very latest features of version 6.0. For details about this offer, please visit the WinVistaClub Forum. |
| I'm a Mac ... And We're the PC's. |
| Sept 28th, 2008. An old but telling cartoon from istartedsomething.com. |
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| The Power Play Of Digg-ers. |
| Sept 28th, 2008. An interesting read on Digg has been posted at our Forums. |
| An Extract : It is said that top 100 diggers control 56% of Digg's homepage content! The power diggers enjoy enormous success. So, many companies are reaching out to them with cash and are asking them to promote their story. These diggers in turn have a huge network with many friends on the instant messengers. They follow the ' I scratch your back and you scratch mine'' policy. So sometimes stupid stories get popular. |
| I also like to add that fanboyism pretty much exists in Digg. You write something good about Apple or Linux, you get huge diggs. You write something BAD about Microsoft, you also get a huge digg count. |
| Those interested may check it out here. |
| Steve Ballmer on Crapware. |
| Sept 27th, 2008. "When people complain about computers coming with too many applications, it runs slowly, that's not a good thing. There's some basic hygiene that we and our partners can participate in together. We can clean them up, run five times faster with four times more battery life", said Ballmer. Such things would never happen if Microsoft controlled both the hardware and the software. But that is not how things are, unlike a Mac. |
| So is this a sign that Microsoft is actually planning to do something about the crapware problem on PCs, along with its Partners? Yeah that would be nice ! WinVistaClub has always maintained that this is one issue Microsoft needs to look into. |
| Its a mighty fine idea of having a snazzy new ad campaign and spending $500 million on it. But maybe Microsoft should consider diverting a bit of this money to the PC manufacturers instead, since they appear reluctant to let go of even pocket change. Microsoft wouldn't then have to resort to tricking customers into liking Vista, with Mojave sort of experiments. A Vista user would be happier with a virgin install of Windows Vista on his PC instead ! Or maybe the time has come for the consumer to put his foot down and refuse to buy the demonized versions of Windows Vista. In case you have missed our views, you might want to have a look at Exorcise Your New Windows Vista Computer before using it . |
| 50 Free Eset Smart Security Licenses For WinVistaClub Members. |
| Sept 26th, 2008. ESET, LLC, is pleased to offer the members of the WinVistaClub, 6 month license of the PAID Version of its acclaimed ESET Smart Security 3.0 absolutely FREE ! |
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| Built on the award-winning ESET NOD32 Antivirus and its powerful ThreatSense engine, ESET Smart Security also provides excellent antispam, antispyware and customized firewall protection. |
If you'd like to get this fine security solution for your Vista PC, all you have to do is make a simple request here in this thread. There is no last date date for this offer, so take your time ... but hurry !  There are only 50 licenses available, currently. |
| Wallpapers From MSN Beta. |
| Sept 25th, 2008. There are currently over a 100 great wallpapers available for free, on Wallpapers From MSN Beta website. |
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| You can Crop, rotate and resize the images; Add text & speech bubbles to create your own wallpapers;
Set your wallpaper by time; Create a slide show of images as your wallpaper on this site. Worth a check out ! |
| New Windows Ultimate Extras Released. |
| Sept 24th, 2008. 3 new Windows Ultimate Extras are now available for installation via Windows Update! This is the 6th wave of Ultimate Extras released by Microsoft exclusively for Windows Vista Ultimate users. Users will find the following Ultimate Extras waiting to be installed: |
Microsoft ® Tinker (TM): Microsoft Tinker is a casual game that provides players with short puzzle game play sessions set in a warm, calming environment.
Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker: Based on the positive feedback we received from the release of additional Windows Sound Schemes in April, we've integrated the unique audio sounds from Microsoft Tinker into a new sound scheme.
Windows ® DreamScene (TM) Content Pack #4 Windows DreamScene Content Pack #4 which adds three additional nature-setting Windows DreamScenes. |
| Mouth-watering recipes from MSN & Digital Media. |
| Sept 23rd, 2008. Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, and MSN today announced the launch of Delish.com a new online food destination. |
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| Delish features thousands of quick and easy food and cocktail recipes from Hearst Magazines and other sources, as well as fan blogs on the most popular food television shows, and the latest on food events and festivals worldwide. |
| With an authoritative point of view that is simultaneously fun and informative, the site’s content will provide everyday chefs and busy individuals with the tools to expand their cooking and entertaining skills and knowledge of what is happening in and around the world of food. MSN and Hearst anticipate that Delish.com’s traffic numbers will immediately place the site into the top 10 food-related destinations on the Internet. |
| Image Composite Editor From Microsoft Research. |
| Sept 23rd, 2008. Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. |
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| You shoot a set of overlapping photographs of a scene from a single location, and Image Composite Editor creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all your images at full resolution. Then save your stitched panorama in a wide variety of formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Silverlight Deep Zoom. Thanks Vasu. |
| Windows 7, in many ways, would simply be Vista SP2. |
| Sept 22nd, 2008. Windows 7 can and should be considered Vista Release 2 (R2). In fact, I think Microsoft should market the business versions of the OS under that very name. Beginning with the release of Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft no longer forks its Windows code tree for new releases. So the next versions of Windows client (7), Windows Server (2008 R2), and Windows Home Server (WHS) will all be based from exactly the same code. Microsoft will simply combine the right components to create the Windows version it wants and ship it. It's a much simpler system than before. |
| In fact, at least one Microsoftie, speaking off the record during my trip to Redmond last week, explained that Windows 7, in many ways, would simply be Vista SP2. From a compatibility standpoint, all the work Microsoft is doing will show up in Vista first and will work identically in Windows 7. An extract from Windows7-Too Soon? |
| Microsoft trumps Apple in battle of the brands. |
| Sept 22nd, 2008. Apple may currently be king of consumer gadgets but the company is failing to hit similar heights in a list of the world's most valued brands. The iPhone maker languishes in 24th place in the Best Global Brands 2008 survey conducted by market research organisation Interbrand. |
| In contrast, Google moves into the top 10 for the first time, up from 20th place last year. Although Coca Cola tops the brand pile, tech companies dominate the top 10 with IBM (second), Microsoft (third), Nokia (fifth), Intel (eighth) and Google (10th) all making the list. Source. |
| Windows Guides From Microsoft. |
| Sept 22nd, 2008. Windows Guides is a library of around 20 easy-to-use guides that show you how to get more from your Windows Vista experience. Share these guides with your friends and family. |
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| Each guide focuses on a particular activity. Download these step-by-step pdf guides and quickly learn how to do essential Windows activities. Quite handy for you, and possibly for that certain someone who’s always asking for your help. Visit Microsoft Windows Guide Library. Thanks ItsMyWindows. |
| Find out whats new in Windows 7. |
| Sept 20th, 2008. Check out these screenshots to find out whats new in Windows 7. |
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| Start Menu: the visual design of search box and shutdown/lock buttons are changed. The right panel is simplified. User Account Control : appeared only once during an installation. That’s very nice to see Microsoft has decided to restrain UAC. The UI : Ribbon: First introduced in Office 2007 and now we can see it in Windows 7 Paint and WordPad. Watch Videos & More Inside. |
| Watch The New Microsoft Ad : I'm a PC ! |
| Sept 19th, 2008. "I'm a PC and I've been turned into a stereo type !" The concept that people who count, use a PC, looks cool. I find the ad direct, racy and easy to relate to. Could be that Microsoft has got it right now. The I'm a Mac - I'm a PC ads are so well known, that it just might be a good idea to use them to turn the tables around. Maybe in the next phase we will see Microsofts version of 'and I'm a Mac' ads being aired. |
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| Tell Microsoft, what kind of a PC you are, and you could hit the big screen in Times Square, appear in online advertising or feature on the Official I'm a PC website. Watch the 3 ads at WinVistaClub Forums. |
| Life without Walls : New Wallpapers for your PC. |
| Sept 19th, 2008. In light of tonight's new ad "Life without Walls" seen in newspapers today along with the new "Real PC" TV ads; Brandon has decided to make wallpapers for folks so they can add "Life without Walls" as wallpaper on their PC. |
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| Check them out at WindowsVistaBlog. |
| New Microsoft ads pack a punch ! |
| Sept 19th, 2008. For the past two weeks, millions of people have watched the series of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld television ads with the Windows logo at the end and wondered: “What’s next?” Today, Microsoft answers that question with the next phase of a multi-year, multi-million dollar Windows marketing effort designed to reconnect with consumers. And tonight, the Bill-and-Jerry “teaser” ads give way to a new series of television ads that celebrate the diversity and passion of consumers around the world who use Windows to stay in touch with the people, information and ideas that they care about. More at Microsoft. |
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These ads sure look good! Check them out here. Thanks iMav. |
| Microsoft Launches Live Search Maps India. |
| Sept 18th, 2008. Microsoft has launched the new Live Search Maps India site and for a v1 it is SUPER robust. Check out this list of features:
Street Maps for 9 important Indian cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur and National Road Network of India with roughly 20,000 cities/towns/major localities. More at MSDN Blogs. |
| Microsoft Releases Several new Windows Live Public Beta's. |
| Sept 18th, 2008. Microsoft has released public betas of several downloadable applications from Windows Live. This beta release aims to test new functionality and technology from Windows Live as part of our ongoing development to provide communication services that help our consumers stay in touch, share their experiences and keep their lives in sync. To get the public betas for any of these services, customers can go to http://download.live.com. |
The Windows Live public beta updates will be available in all markets including the following features:
· Windows Live Messenger beta
· Windows Live Mail beta
· Windows Live Photo Gallery beta
· Windows Live Movie Maker beta
· Windows Live Writer beta
· Windows Live Family Safety
· Windows Live for Mobile |
 WINNERS : The 'Best Windows Vista Website' Contest 2008 |
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| There were around 45 Vista website who participated. Of these, the Judges had decided to put 10 up for a Public Poll. The top 5 vote getters were again judged, de nova, not taking into consideration, the number of votes garnered by each in the poll. In each Judges case, the site ranked 1st was given 5 points, the one ranked 2nd was given 4 points...and the one ranked 5th was given 1 point. All the points were added together to arrive at the final scores. |
| As you will see, it has been a close contest ! Go HERE to meet the WINNERS! |
| 40 reasons to lose Linux and go with Vista. |
| Sept 15th, 2008. It all started quietly enough with iTWire colleague David M Williams writing an article entitled 5 reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista to Linux, with David being a strong and well respected proponent of Linux. I countered back with an article entitled 10 reasons to stick with Vista and forget Linux. |
| This piqued the interest of iTWire’s other major Linux and FOSS advocate, Sam Varghese, who took my 10 reasons and added 10 more of his own, culminating in an article entitled 20 reasons to shed the Microsoft yoke and use Linux, while offering me the challenge to Double or quit ! |
So, here we go with the first 5:
1. Vista is far more polished than Linux, and in general, things “just work” far better in Vista than they do in Linux.
2. Vista has the widest software support, perhaps bested only by XP, for now. This includes the widest third-party software support, from commercial to free and open source software.
3. Vista has the widest hardware support, perhaps bested only by XP, for now.
4. Vista has the most advanced and widest range of security software available.
5. Vista has the best networking and Wi-Fi compatibility. |
| Full Read at ITWire. So given the background, don't be surprised if the 'mine is better than yours' game continues, and you see an article, 80 Reasons to dump Vista in favor of Linux, now ! |
| Virtual Folders to be re-incarnated as Libraries, in Windows 7 ? |
| Sept 15th, 2008. Plowing ahead towards Windows 7, Microsoft tossed up two more job listings explicitly looking for software engineers who want to “shape the vision of browsing, searching, indexing and visualizing data.” These new job listings only have one major difference: assuming this isn’t a typo like the word “a” further down in the listings, one is searching for an engineer for the next version of Windows (238893), whereas the other is in search of someone for future versions of Windows (238899). Besides this, the two are completely identical, which leads us to the substance: "Want to shape the vision of browsing, searching, indexing and visualizing data? The Windows group is looking for engineering staff to be a part of history by reinventing the way people think about their data. Our team is responsible for developing the Windows Explorer. In the next version[s] of Windows we will be breaking new ground enabling users to act on their items, irrespective of where they are stored and delivering a [sic] indexing technology to provide wicked fast views over their local data." |
| "Looks like I was dead-on with the Virtual Folders; they’ll be reincarnated in Windows 7 as Libraries. In short, they’ll “let you access and arrange items from one or more folders quickly without moving them from their original locations". Source. |
| Microsoft : Not speed, but UI top priority in IE8. |
| Sept 14th, 2008. The user interface was Microsoft's top priority when building its latest version of Internet Explorer, not performance benchmarking, according to a Microsoft executive. Stephane Kimmerlin, product marketing director, Windows client business group, Asia-Pacific, Microsoft, said during a press demonstration of IE8 beta 2 that the browser's important features were user-interface enhancements, aimed at automating some common actions for users. Performance benchmarking, such as the speed of loading pages, was a secondary priority in comparison, he said. Source: ZDNet. |
| Microsoft India wins U.S. award for corporate excellence. |
| Sept 08th, 2008. Microsoft India and 10 other U.S. companies have been selected for the Secretary of State's prestigious 2008 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE). |
| These companies were chosen from 61 nominations submitted by American ambassadors around the world. ACE finalists are international business leaders who recognise the vital role that US businesses play abroad as good corporate citizens, a State Department announcement said. |
| Microsoft India has been chosen for empowering small and medium enterprises, promoting economic development, and strengthening innovation through strategic product development, including improved technology for HIV/AIDS and TB diagnosis. |
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