If you use Outlook Express as your News Reader, you should get a prompt asking if you would like to view new Newsgroups available. There is a whole bunch for Windows Vista that are now public, give users outside of the beta program the chance to share and colloborate on issues concerning Windows Vista.

 

Please check the following link about how to setup Outlook Express as a News Reader, its very easy:

 

microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

From Internet Explorer 7 Blog

 

"If you’re a developer, an IT Pro, or just plain interested, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ to try the IE7 Beta 2 Preview.

What’s a beta preview? It’s a release for everyone involved in making the Internet work.

Before we release a consumer-focused beta, we want to make sure anyone with a website can look at the changes we’ve made to our layout engine and the stricter user experience around security certificates. Developers should try out their toolbars, ActiveX controls, and applications that host or rely on the IE platform. IT Pros have their own concerns when a new browser is coming, as do domain registrars (especially with the IDN support), network operators, and many, many other groups. The site has some checklists we’ve written to help people exercise IE7 with their sites and applications. If we missed items you think we should call out, please let us know. We’re looking forward to feedback that will help us deliver a great, consumer-focused beta.

Read the rest here

Download the BETA HERE

From TechWorld

 

"Microsoft has hinted at the possibility of delaying Windows Vista if it does not meet quality expectations.

Microsoft’s Jim Allchin – the man most associated with the development of the operating system - said he still expected Vista to ship at the of the year, about the same time he was due to retire, but could not rule out if being delayed.

"Where we sit today, things are going according to plan, and we’re feeling very good," Microsoft's Co-President of the Platforms, Products & Services Division said during an interview in San Francisco.

"But I always like to preface that as I did with Windows 2000, Windows XP: quality is the thing that will dictate if we’re ready to go. So if we have any problems in quality, I'll slip this product. It's the thing that is at the top of my mind."

Read the rest here

Well, I really don't have an answer to this one, its really up to Microsoft to decide if what they develop is good enough for Public Computing Consumption. I have a lot confidence that Vista will be a success, its not the revolutionary release we saw back in October 2003, but it will be great release still for "both" consumers and businesses. The out of the box experiences are really going to drive that, we still have not seen the entire picture yet and I hope the February CTP provides the entire view on what to expect by RTM. Anyway, I just hope they work on getting some better, more reliable drivers for my Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Card and my nVidia Geforce FX 5200 128MB AGP Card.

From The Register

 

"Microsoft will omit anti-virus protection in Vista, the next version of Windows, which it plans to ship late this year. As with previous versions of Windows dating back to Windows 2000 at least, Redmond is promoting Vista as a landmark improvement in Windows security.

Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's platform products and services division, told reseller magazineCRN that safety and security, improved user experience, and mobility features will be key additions in Vista. But there will be no anti-virus software, the Windows development supremo said during a questions and answers session with CRN. For unspecified business (not technical) reasons, Microsoft will sell anti-virus protection to consumers through its OneCare online backup and security service."

Read the rest here

With all the Security Improvements and innovations, I don't think users will be missing much in terms of AntiVirus. The out of the box experience experience is just tremendous, User Account Protection, Secure Startup, Bi-Directional FireWall, Windows Defender, Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode. There is definitely a lot for Security in Windows Vista, so spending the additional amount on a good AntiVirus or downloading one of the free ones won't kill you.    

From Silcon Vallery Sleuth

 

"Bill Gates earlier this month had the opportunity to show off Windows Vista to the world. His keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show was actually the first time that the Microsoft chairman demonstrated the forthcoming operating system to an audience outside Microsoft – no developers or hardware engineers.

Surely a company will show the best features in a demonstration of this year's most important product launch at the world's most important consumer electronics show, before partners, competitors and a gathering of media from all over the world?"

Read the rest here 

No, its not vapourware, its just taking a little longer than expected to development because known issues that have been discussed. The code base reset, dropping of WinFS, and the development of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, those are what slowed the development of Windows Vista/Longhorn. We are still getting a majority of what was promised in the beginning and even better. Fast Search Technology, Live Previews, new organization capabilities, built in components such as Windows Calendar, Photo Library, a cleaner interface, a more secure system with tools such as Windows Defender, Internet Explorer 7 protected mode which provides a better browsing experience. Windows Parental Controls, User Account Protection so you can have better confidence in using Windows without securing it to the point where it feels like Fort Knox.

Cool collaboration tools such as Windows Collaboration for ad hoc networking, there is so much, instant on/off technology, better Media Center capabilities, Tablet PC tools, Cool Speech recognition, faster boot time. For Company's its gonna be greater with things like IPv6, Staged Builds, so you can have faster deployments for large organizations with multi-lingual employees around the world. We have not scratched the surface, the developer aspects of things will be something to look forward, such as Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, creating inviting easy to user applications that are more intelligent, dynamic and much easier to use and run great from the get go on Windows Vista.

From Information Week

 

"Microsoft plans to stagger the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 in two phases: one for businesses in the first quarter and one for consumers in the second quarter.

The first drop, dubbed Microsoft’s Enterprise Community Technology Preview (CTP), will be released to corporate accounts participating in its early Technology Adopter Program (TAP).

Then, in the second quarter, Beta 2 will go out more broadly to one million to two million consumers, according to the Microsoft executive leading the charge.

In an interview with CRN last week, Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s Platform Products and Services Division, who has said he plans to retire at the end of the year, said the software is now feature-complete, but the quality of Beta 2 is not ready yet for broad consumer testing. He said the two-phase Beta 2 release does not signify features are missing or that the ship date could be delayed until 2007."

Read the rest here

Another great idea. The thing is, the Feb CTP has a lot of features for businesses/enterprises best suited for TAP testers to test, I can't test those features with my resources at home. So, Microsoft's closest
partners will be a dedicated group that will take a whack it and see how it functions and send in necessary feedback.

Later this year, consumers will get a similar CTP, only this time, its to test the consumer features. Either way, technical testers are getting access to both of them I suspect.

From Microsoft Watch

 

"Redmond is planning to rely more on Community Technology Previews for Windows input, and has two new Vista test builds planned for the next two calendar quarters.

Customers and partners who've been holding their breath waiting for Beta 2 of Windows Vista before getting serious about testing Microsoft's next-generation operating system can exhale.
There will be no single, catch-all Beta 2 of Vista, according to Jim Allchin, copresident of Microsoft's Platform Products & Services Division in Redmond, Wa. Instead, Microsoft is planning to rely increasingly on Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds to get its feedback from Windows testers.

Allchin, who was on a cross-country press and analyst tour this week, stumping for Vista and Longhorn Server, was showing off the December CTP build of Vista, released in mid-December, as well as some of the features in what is likely to be the next CTP, timed to hit some time in the first calendar quarter of this year."

 

Read the rest here

 

I think this is absolutely wonderful idea. Giving testers and the general public and snapshop every month or bi-monthly will greatly help in the development and progress of the OS. For me personally, its the real time effect of the feed back I am able to give on the product, a lot of great things in terms of better driver support and hardware detection has come out of the CTP and it continues to get better with the introduction of a Iventory tool for hardware so that testers can send a collection of their devices that are not working properly with Vista and get it ironed out. I think the next few CTPs are going to be a wonderful experience and I can't wait to get my hands on them! Good move Microsoft!

As you already know, I recently received Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. But I don't know the first thing to do, the last time I messed with this stuff was at version 6.0 and a lot has changed since then. My basic plan is to learn both C# and C++ first, but I am having a hard time, the product comes with a wealth of information, but I just don't know where to start.

 

This is where you come in! If you know of any free beginner ebooks for C# and C++ that I maybe able to access I would really appreciate it. I really want to make good use of this stuff before I reach retirement. So if you could hook me up, I would be very grateful. The installation was smooth, ate up a good 2.7 GBs of space, but hey, its worth it. :) 

 

Thanks,

Andre

From WinInfomant

 

 

Windows Defender Beta 2 Coming Soon

Well, there are some changes taking place in MSN Space right now.

 

First notable one, is URLs have been changed to http://spaces.msn.com/username instead of http://spaces.msn.com/members/username

 

XBOX integration with Game Cards, you can enable this under, Customize > Modules

New Help System - searchable too

Bright Ads integration, you can make money off your MSN Space - COOOOOL

New Photoalbum, more convenience

Personal photo under comments

 

And lots more!

 

From Windows Connected

 

"Today the Windows Vista beta held a chat with the Shell team who provided answers to many questions from the Tech Beta community.  We learned that the February CTP won't be that much different from the current betas, but that changes are still coming for Windows Vista."

 

Read the entire Chat here

 

 

DHL guy came by the Office yesterday morning with a surprise package, I didn't know what it was, I simply was not expecting anything. I signed and accepted, immediately closed the door and started ripping the package apart. When I opened the envelope, to my surprise, a brand new copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition Not For Resale (NFR) came out.

I still don't know what I did to deserve this, the accompanying letter said it was from Microsoft, the question remains, "Why did I get it?" Still, like my friend Josh says, I am not gonna knock it, just accept and be thankful. Visual Studio 2005 retails on amazon.com for nearly $800, so getting this for free is a major steal.

 

I will be setting aside sometime to at least learn 2 languages, "C# (C Sharp) and C++". The only programming skills I have right now are for psuedocode alogorithms, which I loved doing back in high school. It comes with a lot of stuff, C# and C++ are just two of the development languages and tools included, others include Visual Basic, Visual J, Crystal Reports, SQL Server Express, MSDN Library with tonnes of content to get you up and running with the popular programming suite.

 

Well, I just would like to say thanks to whoever at Microsoft sent me this lovely package, I definitely appreciate it and will make use of it to further my knowledge and education.

 

From Information Week

 

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday launched a test version of its upcoming graphical user interface-design tool for applications built for the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer is available as a download. The Community Technology Preview is not a production tool, but is meant to give GUI designers the chance to try some of the new tool's "innovative features," such as 2D and 3D graphics, animation, dynamic layout, data binding, style and template editing and resource management, the Redmond, Wash., company said.

In addition, Microsoft released an update of Expression Graphic Designer, which is used to create graphics and export them to Interactive Designer for deployment within a user interface.

Both tools are meant for developing Windows applications that run on WinFX, which is the Vista presentation platform for displaying the user interfaces of Windows software. Vista is scheduled to ship later this year, but no timetable has been released for the production versions of the design tools.

Read the rest here

From Larry Osterman via Longhorn Blogs

 

"Before Vista, all of the controls available to applications were system-wide - when you changed the volume using the wave volume APIs, you changed the hardware volume, thus effecting all the applications in the system.  The problem with this is that for the vast majority of applications, this was exactly the wrong behavior.  This behavior was a legacy of the old Windows 3.1 audio architecture, where you could only have one application playing audio at a time.  In that situation, there was only one hardware volume, so the behavior made sense."

 

Read the rest here

From InfoWorld

 

"Microsoft will release the next beta of Windows Vista in April, according to a popular blog that follows the company.

In a blog posting on Tuesday, Stephen Bink (http://bink.nu/), a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer who writes from Amsterdam, said Microsoft will release another test version of Windows Vista, called a Community Technology Preview (CTP), on Feb. 21, with Beta 2 of the OS set for release in April.

Through a statement sent via e-mail by its public relations firm Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft said Tuesday that it will release the next CTP of Windows Vista in February, but it did not confirm the exact date in February nor confirm the date of the second beta release.

Read the rest here

Check out http://bink.nu

From LiveSide.net

 

"This week MSN Spaces moves closer to the portfolio of Windows Live services with the launch of its 10.5 release. This long overdue upgrade touts many user-requested features as well as introducing several major additions, including a social networking module, a revamped Profiles service and the introduction of Live Contacts.

 

Read the rest here

From Arstechnica

 

Several Windows Vista features have already been touted as being better than what any of its Windows brethren offer, but one feature that hasn't received much press is the new 2-way firewall. While Windows XP included a firewall, it was not robust enough to filter both incoming and outgoing traffic, with the exception of some ICMP messages. The new Vista firewall appears to be much more advanced compared to its predecessor, which also means that users may have to have a brief understanding of how a firewall works to get it set up properly, barring a simple out-of-the-box configuration that may keep out a few intruders.

From Extreme Tech