From Windows Ultimate via ActiveWin

"We are pleased to announce the release of the remaining 19 languages packs for Windows Vista Ultimate. This Ultimate Extras release brings the total number of language packs for use with Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) to 35. Windows Vista Ultimate enables users install multiple languages on their system and quickly switch between them by associating a system language with their login name."

Learn more here

The additional supported languages are:

• Arabic
• Bulgarian
• Croatian
• Czech
• Estonian
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hungarian
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Polish
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Romanian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian

Also, this release includes an update to the lpksetup.exe installation component, correcting issues that affected some customers at installation. We recommend you download and install this component before installing any language packs; the updated component can be found here.

NeoWin.net

From Microsoft Downloads

This update improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista. This update includes the following improvements:

• It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
• It improves the stability of portable computers and of desktop computers that use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).
• It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
• It improves the stability of wireless network services.
• It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
• It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
• It shortens the recovery time when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• It improves the stability of Windows PowerShell.
  This update also resolves the following issues in Windows Vista:
• A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
• A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

Download x86 HERE

Download x64 HERE

Previously:

An update is available that improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista

I logged into my Yahoo email address this morning to catch up on some email. In addition to noticing a new look and feel and removal of the BETA Tag, Yahoo! Mail notified me I can import my Windows Live Contacts so I could also chat with them online. Previously, only Yahoo! contacts were supported for chatting. I love Yahoo's web mail interface, which I believe loads much quicker than Windows Live Hotmail and features integrated instant messaging and just a more flexible experience when it comes to email in the web browser. Its definitely a winner in my book. Check out some of the screenshots I took.

I was notified if I would like to import my Windows Live contacts into Yahoo!, too bad I didn't get the dialog that appeared after with the contact listing.

Windows Live and Hotmail addresses import successfully, no effort at all. Love the floating modal dialog btw.

The Chat experience is amazing, blazing fast and of course instant - Windows Live Hotmail are you learning?

IM conversations can also be saved as email messages.

Even Windows Live Mail or Hotmail IM Contacts Personal Messages show up - pretty cool!

An exceptional update, I hope they improve on the alerts part when it comes to IM part. I notice when my browser was not the active window, I missed a received message. Overall, this is quite an amazing, seamless integrated experience Yahoo has created here that provides a very cohesive experience for users in the Web 2.0 world. Fast, feature rich, powerful, simple, effective!

I logged in this morning to my Windows Live Space Home Page and was greeted by a new look that had a familiar feel to the popular Facebook user home page with quick overviews of what is going on with your Friends in your Windows Live Space social network. Some familiar features include, friends making new friends and updated photo albumbs or changes made to a persons space. Because Live Space is a blogging service, you still get some old features enhanced and rearranged in a more convenient layout, such as comments on your Space now on the right side, so you can see the latest responses. Its a very nice change thats not only convenient and productive, but just visually richer and connecting. Now this is what I call Social Networking. Check out the screenshots:

New Windows Live Spaces User Home Page

Friends can see whats going on in their social network, manage and respond to comments on their blog much easier.

New Windows Live Spaces 'Friend Request' email

Speaking of updates to Spaces, the Friend Request email has also been updated to be more simplified and get to the point. Check it out:

You can simply click Be Friends or No, thanks or check out the persons Space before you grant request as before.

The old Windows Live Spaces Friend request email

Some nice improvements I definitely like and appreciate. Windows Live Spaces is becoming more robust, reliable and offers a more integrated experience that makes blogging, expressing your self and interacting with your friends a treat.

From Microsoft

The Internet is a vast place--and not every site is friendly. How do you help protect yourself online? With Windows Internet Explorer 7. Already, the Internet Explorer 7 Phishing Filter prevents nearly one million visits per week to known dangerous websites. In just a few clicks, see how the latest version of the world's most popular web browser can help you be safer online.

• Download it now (it's free!)

• Take a tour of Internet Explorer 7

• Why should you upgrade from earlier versions?

Already have Internet Explorer 7?

• See how to navigate the web more safely

• Learn easy keyboard shortcuts

• Personalize it with add-ons

From APC Mag

Quote:

I’ve been running Vista Media Center (VMC) on two machines for a while now, and so far I have to say that the experience has been pretty good, but not all smooth sailing. Just like XP MCE 2005, VMC is very dependent on the capabilities of the hardware platform, the setup of the operating system and any third-party software which has been installed.

So, I decided to put together a piece detailing the problems I encountered and how I got around them – what worked and what didn’t.

Read the entire article here

From nVidia via ActiveWin

Release Highlights:

• Beta driver for GeForce 6, 7, and 8 series GPUs.
• Added product support for the following NVIDIA Motherboard GPUs:
  • GeForce 7150 / NVIDIA nForce 630i
  • GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i
  • GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 620i
  • GeForce 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 630i
  • GeForce 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 610i
• Improved compatibility for Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
• Added NVIDIA SLI profiles for Portal, Clive Barker's Jericho, SEGA Rally Revo, NHL 08, and European Street Racing.
• Several game and application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.

• NVIDIA ForceWare Release 163.75 BETA (Windows Vista 64-bit)
• NVIDIA ForceWare Release 163.75 BETA (Windows XP 32-bit)
• NVIDIA ForceWare Release 163.75 BETA (Windows XP 64-bit)

Microsoft has released a 'test release' of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to a group of its Technical Testers last week. Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is a collection of updates and fixes that have been released for Windows Vista since it was Released to Manufacturering (RTM) in late 2006. Microsoft is also focusing on improving the general performance of the operating system in addition to supporting new technologies and standards. The final release is expected sometime in early 2008, but this is subject to change. Microsoft's Pete McKiernan, a Senior Product Manager for Windows gives us an overview of the update here:

Windows Vista Service Pack 1, V.275 build 6001

One is an improvement to the BitLocker drive encryption system, available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. Under SP1, BitLocker will be able to encrypt multiple drive volumes; all drive volumes, that is, except for USB drives.

Second feature touted by Microsoft is support for emerging hardware and standards. Windows Vista SP1 will support Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), Intel standard for the interface between software, the operating system and firmware, and Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), a new Microsoft file system that may eliminate the need for defragmentation in the future.

McKiernan categorized other expected changes within Windows Vista SP1 as:

• Security enhancements: There is nothing here that the desktop consumer will notice. Under the hood, Microsoft will provide more opportunities for third-party security vendors to communicate their product status with the Windows Security Center. In x64-bit editions, third-party security vendors can work with the kernel patch protection, a source of controversy last summer. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) files will be signed. The Windows Pseudo-Random Number Generator will have Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) added. And BitLocker will add multifactor authentication combining Trusted Platform Module (TPM) with a Startup key stored on a USB device, meaning that the startup key must match the hardware you are trying to use.
  
• Reliability enhancements: Microsoft has been analyzing crashes of Windows Vista reported by users and will be making improvements. In particular, more compatibility with newer graphics cards and printers; greater reliability with extended displays on a laptop, various networking scenarios, in systems that were upgraded from Windows XP, and when Windows Vista enters sleep or resumes from sleep.
  
• Performance enhancements: Microsoft says SP1 will offer performance boosts including the speed to copy and extract files, time to become active from Hibernate and Resume, CPU utilization within Internet Explorer 7 and CPU utilization in laptops, thereby reducing battery drain, and shortening the time when browsing network shares.

Learn more HERE

Sounds like a worthy update overall. Now on to my experiences with SP1. I installed it yesterday on a machine running Windows Vista Home Premium x86 RTM (no updates applied), no software installed. The time estimated by the software that it would take to install is around 30 minutes, but turned out to be 37 mins for me. Check out my hardware specs:

Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz

2.6 GBs of RAM

nVidia Geforce FX 5200 128 MB AGP

Initial phase of Windows Vista SP1 installation - its a pretty SP. :)

The installation was very streamlined and smooth until the rebooting started which happened around three times. During this portion of installation, SP1 lingered on, indicating that "a Service Pack for Windows is being installed", in addition other notifications that informed me that I should not unplug or restart my computer and the update will be applied automatically. Eventually, installation was completed and a dialog appeared on screen that informed that Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista was installed sucessfully.

Some scenes from the Windows Vista SP1 installation.

Is it?

Changes

Well, the first big change I noticed was, my theme was set to Windows AERO Basic, the default theme was originally Windows AERO Glass. I tried accessing Explorers such as Personalize and Control Panel, but was unable to. Personalize would not open and the Control Panel applets would not appear. Other parts of the system seemed to work fine. I don't know what has happened here, but I sure will send off a bug report to find out. I did check the Problem Reports and Solutions history to see if there were any issue logged, there was one particular log for Windows Installer Module CPLs. Notable changes to the system include the removal of the Search link on the Start Menu panel and the new Defragment Tool which allows you specify which drives you would like to defrag - very handy and functional compared to whats in the RTM release.

So far, those are issues I am experiencing on Windows Vista SP1. Its early days yet and I am sure things will smooth over time such as the numerous reboots required to accomplish the installation. I will be testing out some software to see how well application compatibility performs. The SP1 file is a stand alone installer which weighs around 687 MBs, the x64 file is over 1 GB. The installation seem to have consumed around 2 GBs of disk space, but I am sure there is some debug code in there resulting in smaller release. Also, users will be able to acquire SP1 over Windows Update resulting a small file if they have continually updated their systems since RTM.

Users can also look forward to a merged kernel that will be shared with Microsofts next release of their Network Operating System - Windows Server 2008. This should streamline updates and maintainance of both client and server releases in addition to supporting new technologies and standards such as 802.11n based hardware for example and the new EFI standard which was previously mentioned. I am going to do another reinstall though, I suspect something could possibly have gone wrong with my install and I love AERO Glass. ;) Stay tuned for more updates on SP1!

Andre

Resources:

The Windows Experience Blog: Experiencing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 beta

Windows Vista Blog: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 beta whitepaper

From Microsoft via ActiveWin

The BITS Repair Tool will help you fix a problem caused by the corruption of BITS state files. The problem stops the host process for Windows Services, which prevents you from using BITS to transfer files. Use this tool to resolve the corruption and re-enable BITS transfers. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Download: x86 | x64

From ActiveWin.com

Microsoft has released several updates to improve the reliabiliy and compatibility of Windows Vista in certain scenarios. The issues resolved by these updates are detailed in the following Knowledge Base articles:

• October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista (KB941229)
  Microsoft has released the October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista. This update rollup is intended for computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.
• Cumulative update rollup for USB core components in Windows Vista (KB941600)
  This update resolves some reliability issues in the USB core components on the Windows Vista operating system.
• Update for Windows Vista (KB941649)
  This update improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista.
• Update for Windows Vista (KB941651) [KB article TBA -- Download below]

This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

• Update for Windows Vista (KB941651)
• Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB941651)

I was just checking my email on Windows Live Hotmail and decided to see whats going on around the world, so I clicked the Today link. There I saw my Live Hotmail storage which is now at a whopping 5 GBs! Previously it was at 2 GBs which I barely scratched the surface. Check it out:

Windows Live Hotmail Mailbox storage

This is definitely an enticing value for users who are sharing large files or just plain email a lot. I love Live Hotmail (except for the banners), I plan to do a review of the entire suite of services soon. The services and technologies are just getting better and better, not to mention well integrated. Microsoft should just purchase Facebook and replace the Friends feature in Windows Live Space and we will be good to go.

Teching It Easy is proud to present you the October 2007 edition of the Windows Vista QuickStart Guide and FAQs for getting up and running quick and easy. Now available as a downloadable document in both Adobe PDF and Microsoft XPS you can read in your own convenience offline. The Guide will also be updated and published soon on http://www.activewin.com and my personal technology blog of course. The Guide covers the common basics for getting Vista on your PC, from system requirements to advance topics such as dual booting/partitioning your system.

Download formats:

XPS HERE

PDF HERE

My good friend Kristan M. Kenney who writes all those popular cool tweak guides for Windows Vista received news this evening that he was awarded the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Award for 2007 to 2008 in the category Shell User. Kris Kenney regularly maintains a blog at http://www.windows-now.com in addition to http://www.msblog.org  and he also maintains a personal blog on Windows Live Space at http://km-kenney.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

A well deserved awardee, Kris and I started testing Windows Vista at BETA 1 and he has experimented and tested the OS in so many ways I can only imagine. Finding productive ways to improve the end users experience on the operating system, his passion for technology shows through the many thorough articles and guides he has written for Windows Vista in addition to his kindness and willingness to help others. Again, congratulations Kris and keep up the great work you are doing!

Resources:

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional