Microsoft to make Vista harder to crack with SP1

Microsoft will change the user experience of its automatic anti-piracy checks in Windows Vista and also make it harder for hackers to bypass the system in the first service pack for the OS due out early next year. Once Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed on a PC, that computer will no longer go into limited functionality mode if a user or administrator fails to activate Vista on that system in 30 days, or if the system fails Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation, which checks to see if a version of Vista is pirated or counterfeit. In Vista, WGA is called the Software Protection Program feature.

In limited functionality mode, a computer will shut down after 60 minutes and then allow only browser use. Now, instead of going into that mode, a version of Vista that has not been activated in 30 days will start up with a black screen and a dialogue box that gives users the choice of activating Vista now or later, said Alex Kochis, a group product manager at Microsoft.

Via Neowin
Read More

Microsoft launches advertising campaign in UK: StartDoingMore.co.uk

... and an especially designed website: StartDoingMore.co.uk has been prepared! Interestingly American version of this site is also available : StartDoingMore.com - but it looks completely different than the British version. Here is what Microsoft uses as unique selling points of Windows Mobile: Familiar Microsoft Software and Services With a Windows Mobile phone, your easy-to-use Microsoft software and services go wherever you go.

Microsoft Office Mobile
Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile
Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile
Windows Live for Windows Mobile

Windows Media Player Mobile Conclusion: competitors of Microsoft can create other operating systems for smartphones but in one area they will never be able to beat Microsoft: familiarity with Microsoft Software that is used in majority of Personal Computers worldwide. Cleary Windows Mobile division doesn't have such huge budget as some manufacturers, but Microsoft is starting to understand that the battle is not about mobile phone industry only but about everything!

Source:
Ms Mobiles

DirectX 10.1 in Windows Vista SP1 – The Evolution

As Windows Vista brought to the table the exclusive DirectX 10, the first service pack for the operating system will evolve Microsoft's graphics technology to version 10.1. DirectX 10.1 is already available to over 12,000 testers via the first beta of Vista Service Pack 1, concomitantly with the official release of Build 6001.16659. Although the testing milestones of Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3 Beta, are officially limited in terms of access, a hack is available designed to permit the download of Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 straight from Microsoft, and simultaneously test drive DirectX 10.1.

However, Vista users have to understand that DirectX 10.1, as well as DirectX 10 is a technology intimately connected with the underlying graphics card, such as the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series. According to an AMD whitepaper focused on the implementation of DirectX 10.1 in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series, the latest application programming interface from Microsoft, manages to "unlock the state of the art in GPU technology."

Source: Neowin

.net open source!

A great step taken, Microsoft just anounced that Visual Studio 2008 will come with viewable source libraries of .net 3.5 frame work. The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).

Everyone will be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing to use any text editor to browse it locally). We will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008.

References/Links:
ASP Blog entry

Zune 2

Microsoft tells about new Zunes 2 that will hit stores in mid November.

There will be an 80GB hard drive model, similar to the original Zune models, but packing a larger 3.2-inch QVGA screen, and a slimmer case design.

Smaller 4GB and 8GB flash-based models are also on the way to go compete effectively with the iPod Nano. All three new models are with the 4GB retailing for $149, the 8GB for $199 and the 80GB for just $249.

Additional details which have surfaced include automatic sync-over-WiFi capability (Apple, are you listening?), and a DRM-free music store (surprise!) As an added bonus to Zune early adopters, the original model (now known as the “Zune 30″) will get a firmware update to match the features of the newer models.

Additionaol information reaveals that the new zune has automatic sync-over-WiFi capability and a DRM-free music store

As an added bonus to Zune early adopters, the original model (now known as the “Zune 30″) will get a firmware update to match the features of the newer models.

Links:
Microsoft official Press release
Zune Website

Windows Vista Business for $149 (half price) - unlimited expiry

We have two Windows Vista Business genuine product keys(Not from the imagine cup, they are with unlimited expiry).

As we don't need them any more so we have thought of selling them on 50% price off. If you want to save money on this version of Windows, then contact us

email : support@razor-studios.com

Free Genuine Windows Vista Business, Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 for educational purposes till August 2008

I just discovered everyone registering for imagine cup 2008 is getting free genuine software from Microsoft that includes Windows Vista Business, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 and more.

The software is available for download with Geniune serial numbers. And the hilarious thing is anyone can register for imagine cup for free! So it means eveyone can get this software for free. I cant understand why Microsoft is distrubuting away like this but its true.

Officialy software is for educational purposes only (for those who are participating in imagine cup 2008) adn it will expire when the Round 1 of imagine cup ends (August 2008 expected)

When asked Michael Sean form WGA (Windows Geniune Advantage) Department about this, he said

"it was being discussed internally in the company and that they might soon put some restrictions. He also said tht those liscenses could only be used for the max of 1 yr.. they will expire after that"

Lets see how long it lasts

Link: http://www.imaginecup.com/

Microsoft Surface Parody

"Instead of playing with you kids, you can watch a video of them playing themselves...if ur mom has $10,000 laying around her house and she has nothing to do with...they can get one too and you can send her a post card...thats the power of microsoft surface!" lol

This video Paradoy of Microsoft Surface is soo funny! watch it yourself

Microsoft introduces animated search engine

Microsoft today announced the availability of Tafiti, a Silverlight-based search tool on top of Microsoft's Live Search engine. Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, enhances searching on the web by allowing users to store and share search results across multiple queries and sessions. This is accomplished by using "shelfs" to store one or more search results simply by dragging the search result onto one of five shelf spaces. Shelfs can then be stored for future use, or can be emailed or blogged about with ease.

Tafiti includes a carousel to simplify the organization of returned search results. By rotating the carousel, one can access search results from the web, images, news, RSS feeds, or books. Tafiti also supports a Tree View where by search results are placed on the limbs of a tree which can be rotated and zoomed as necessary to visualize the search result.

Source : MSDN Blogs

Brad Wardell speaks about 5 mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Vista

Windows Vista has kind of gotten a bum rap. Some of the rap is deserved -- Microsoft shipped it too early. But for the most part, the rap is carried on by vocal techies who just like to poop on things because they think criticizing things makes them appear more knowledgeable. Talking to a techie about the quality of mainstream software is a lot like talking to a film school graduate about the quality of mainstream movies. Sure, you might have liked Pirates of the Caribbean but talk to a film snob and it's the 7th sign of the Apocalypse. So how good is Windows Vista? The answer is, pretty good. Far better than Windows XP. But I can think of 5 big mistakes Microsoft made that has taken a window out of its sails. Let me outline those 5 mistakes Microsoft made with the Windows Vista launch and talk about how Microsoft might be able to keep Windows Vista from being a sequel to Windows ME.

#1 The UAC. The User Account Control in Windows Vista is a feature that appears to have been designed by a marketing committee. Some casual computer user decided that the way to make other casual users think that Windows Vista was "secure" was to have more prompts. A lot more prompts. And so, even a power user (i.e. early adopters) logged on as an administrator is going to find themselves being prompted regularly. They can turn it off but that defeats the entire purpose of having better security.

The result: Power users turn it off and casual users learn to ignore the myriad of repetitive dialogs.

Solution: Have the UAC be a lot smarter. A simple "Always give permission to continue for this action" checkbox at the bottom of the dialog would be nice. It's bad enough that changing the IP address on Vista requires 5 clicks to get to (versus 2 in Windows XP) but it adds a 6th click to get past the UAC.

#2 Windows Vista was shipped before drivers were ready. This, combined with item #1 are probably responsible for the majority of the negative vibe Windows Vista has received. As a practical matter, the first usable beta of Windows Vista wasn't made available until 4 or so months before Windows Vista shipped (or merely 1 month before "gold". This meant that many drivers, video drivers in particular, weren't ready. But for all those people who have a finicky scanner or Air card or other specialty peripheral had to be guinea pigs.

The result: Early adopters were stung with problematic behavior and a lack of drivers which caused frustration that they shared a lot with others.

Solution: This is mostly dealt with now (as of July 26th for nVidia users for instance). But when one considers how much reputation damage this caused Microsoft should really give more care in the future. Release a stable public beta long enough before going gold so that developers can provide adequate support.

#3 The new Start menu. Love the new Start Search. Kudos. Don't love the Start menu navigation which wants to exist in a fixed window. The example screenshot shows Microsoft's own apps being cut off. For those of us who liked to seriously organize our Start menu items into categories and such, this new start menu option is a huge pain.

Solution: Make the All Programs button behavior an option between the classic expanding menu or the new menu container.

#4 Unbelievably bad desktop performance. Another item that really hurt the initial impression of Windows Vista was how horrible basic desktop operations like copying and zipping were. A user would be copying a handful of files and would get this dialog trying to estimate how long the copy should take. Here's your answer: less than a second! At least, that's what it should have taken. Instead, the estimating time dialog would take a few seconds and then the copy would take a second or two. This sort of thing on routine file copying and moving made Windows Vista feel like a pig.

Solution: Service Pack 1 is supposed to address this sort of thing more thoroughly but the good news is that Microsoft did officially release some patches that improves desktop performance significantly.

#5 Upgrade Pricing is a joke. I wonder what color the sky is on planet Microsoft. Because on planet Microsoft, the Xbox 360 is $350 which not only includes the OS (with Media Center), a 20 Gigabyte Hard drive and other goodies, but at the same time Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade lists for $160. Sure, it's not a truly fair comparison (console makers get a piece of revenue from console games) but the point is still valid. One might get the impression that Microsoft has a monopoly in the PC OS market but does not in the console market. The big problem is that Microsoft's marketing never made the case for what you are actually getting for that $160. I like Windows Vista. I think it's a big improvement over Windows XP. And when I buy a computer, I am glad Windows Vista comes with it. But upgrading my existing computers? The incredibly stingy "Family Discount" (which has expired) wasn't even close to justifying upgrading machines to Vista. Maybe there is $160 in value buried in Windows Vista Home Premium but Microsoft's marketing didn't make the case. And I can't find it -- especially when you combine it with the above issues. This wasn't a problem with Windows XP. Windows XP was blatantly better than Windows ME/98 and it was noticeably better than Windows 2000 (which only had a tiny share of the market compared to 98/ME). As a result, 7 months later, Windows Vista has less than 10% of the market. By contrast, I remember watching Windows XP's launch and the migration to Windows XP was pretty swift.

Solution: No solution. They aren't likely to lower pricing any time soon. Once Service Pack 1 has been integrated into the OEM versions (the ones that ship with new PCs) you'll see nearly everyone opting for Windows Vista on a new machine while older machines continue with Windows XP.

Conclusions: I could go on with numerous other items like the terrible icon handling, the fact that development tools weren't ready for prime time, that Microsoft's marketing efforts were seemingly handled by non-technical people (I mean, really, Flip3D is actually one of the first things mentioned on the Windows Vista home page -- how deep are you digging to find compelling features when a fairly useless task switcher is your money shot?), all have contributed to the negative buzz around Windows Vista. Which is a shame because Windows Vista is really very good. On a scale from 1 to 10, if Windows 98 was a 4, Windows ME a 3, Windows 2000 a 6 and Windows XP a 7 then Windows Vista is easily an 8. It's a worthy and significant upgrade. It deserves a good reputation. Hopefully, Microsoft can get Service Pack 1 out sooner rather than later and address as best they can the issues that many people have brought up.

Source: neowin

Microsoft drops Xbox 360 prices by $US50

Model with 20GB hard drive drops to $US349 starting today, Madden NFL 08 to launch August 14.
The recent $US100 price drop by Sony from its PlayStation3 console has already had the desired effect for consumers with Microsoft succumbing to the pressure to offer a reduction of its own.
The software giant has done that dropping the prices of all Xbox 360 models by $US50, coinciding with the release of Madden NFL ’08 due August 14.

That brings the price of the standard 20GB console down to $US349, the basic Core model down to $US279 and the 120GB-equipped Xbox 360 Elite to $US449.

Microsoft also expects big business from its upcoming Halo 3 release with plans to offer a limited edition green-and-gold finish Xbox 360 in September for $US399. The kit will features a matching wireless controller, Xbox 360 20GB model, headset, Play and Charge kit and other extras.
“The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360,” said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president, Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of ‘Madden NFL 08,’ there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360.”

All of the major console manufacturers are lining to grab a slice of the US holiday action as new price drops and greater competition come into effect.

Microsoft has already fired its first salvo with the price drop plus the news that market research firm NPD Group found that 6.1 games are sold to every Xbox 360, the highest game takeup rate for any console according to its latest June 2007 figures.

Source: Techlogg

Microsoft Cuts Vista Price By Over 50% in China

Microsoft has more than halved the retail price of its Vista operating system in China.
The Home Basic edition dropped from $201 (1,521 yuan) to $66, and the Home Premium package dropped from $238 to $118. The move was effective as of Wednesday.
The price cut is the company's latest effort to tackle the rampant software piracy in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. The theory is that if legitimate software costs less, people will be less likely to turn to pirated versions. Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows Vista licenses globally by the end of June, including 20 million copies sold since mid-May, the company said last month.

Source: Cnet

The Imagine cup 2007 heat is on! someone is also there from Pakistan!

The most awaited and my favorite event is finally to be held in Korea. Thats Microsoft Imagine Cup 2007 South Korea that will be commenced from August 5-11 2007. 111 teams and 372 finalists from all over the world are expected to travel to Seoul to compete.

This year Pakistan is also participating in the Software development category and the team thats participating is "AVRiL"(That sounds like Avril Lavigne :p), it stands for Automatic Video Recording for Lectures, and this team is from LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences). AVRiL are winners of Imagine cup Pakistan 2007, Lets see what they can do at world level.

They say about their project:

"Do you believe that quality education is a privilege of only a few at the top universities? What do you do when you miss classes? Do you value the power of instruction? Do you think distance learning programs are over-priced? What about being able to review only a particular topic right before the exam without having to replay the whole lecture. --- Ever thought of the most effective and ready method to reproduce the classroom experience for the masses? Are you sick of boring static lecture videos? Or do you get distracted when they hire a professional crew instead? ...The aim of the project is to fully automate the video recording of lectures so there is no need to hire special camera men or a direction crew. Due to its extremely low day-to-day costs it finds many applications in the area of video archiving, lecture review, and in distance learning programmes."

Wish you Best of luck AVRiL!

Watch their project promo:


Links:
Microsoft Imagine cup
Team AVRiL on Imagine Cup
AVRiL Homepage

@live.com address registration

[Note: the @live.com registration hack is't available now. Windows Live has fixed the flaw, the following article was posted when hack was available.]

@live.com address registration is not officialy launched to public by Windows Live. There was once when some java script code was entered on addressbar of hotmail registration page and we were able to make @live.com ids. But the bug was later fixed my Windows Live team.

I found a way on liveside.com to make @live.com thats working right now. If you want @live.com id then try it before its fixed by Windows Live team.

Go to www.hotmail.com, click on Sign up, and choose a free account, as before.
Now, you will be taken to a signup page that shows an @hotmail.com domain for your email address.
Go to the address bar, make hmnewuser.aspx read newuser.aspx and look along until you see &hm=1, after removing that hit enter.
Your @hotmail magically becomes @live.

So, for example,

https://signup.live.com/hmnewuser.aspx?mkt=en-us&revipc=US&ts=3967950&sh=62Zm&hm=1&ru=http%3a%2f%2fmail.live.com%2f%3fnewuser%3dyes&rx=http%3a%2f%2fget.live.com%2fmail%2foverview&rollrs=04&lic=1

becomes

https://signup.live.com/newuser.aspx?mkt=en-us&revipc=US&ts=3967973&sh=P1iS&ru=http%3a%2f%2fmail.live.com%2f%3fnewuser%3dyes&rx=http%3a%2f%2fget.live.com%2fmail%2foverview&rollrs=04&lic=1

source/credit : Liveside

50 Silverlight Applications

As Microsoft Silverlight is making its way to open new levels of creativity for designers and developers. It is great to see many Silverlight applications in the world wide web. Following is the links to many cool Silverlight applications of the world wide web.

If you have Silverlight installed in you computer then try and view the links below to watch out what Microsoft has got in its new flash competitor the Microsoft Silverlight.

or Install it now:
Windows install / Mac install

50 Silverlight applications:

2D Physics Simulation	Grand Piano	Silverlight Mind Map
3D Teapot Demo	Infragistics Controls Demo	Silverlight Pad
Amazon Search Visualization	JavaScript / .NET Chess	Silverlight Playground
AOL Social Mail Gadget	Laugh-o-Sphere	Silverlight Rocks
Binary Clock	LiveStation	SilverNibbles
Browser Poker	Matrix Digital Rain	Smalltalk on Silverlight
Bubble Factory	Michael's Journal	Sprawl
Bubblemark	Office Ribbon	Surface Prototype
Comic Book Viewer	Photopoints Gallery	SVG to Silverlight Converter
Destroy All Invaders	Popfly	Telerik RadControls 3D Cube
Digger	Python Console	Verlet Integration Algorithm
Disco Dance Floor	Reflecting Graph	Windows Journal-to-Silverlight Converter
Dr Greenthumb	Reflector for Silverlight	Windows Vista Simulator
Dr Popper	Roxio Buzz	XamlWebPad
GlyphMap	Sierpinski Triangle	XPS Viewer
GOA WinForms Demo	Silverlight Airlines Demo	Zero Gravity
Gradient Animations	Silverlight Chess Game Replay

Note: Links may be broken anytime because they are hosted on number of places so no gurantee

Source: MSDN blogs

Ashkay Kumar featuring XBOX 360!

Well this is a thrilling and funny advertisement that was made for India on the launch of XBOX 360 in India. I love this add. Watch it out, I bet You will love it too

Video: XBOX 360 India Launch Commercial

Windows Vista SP1 Beta to launch in mid-July

Mary Jo Foely (who says herself "An unblinking eye on Microsoft") has posted some interesting information. She says Windows Vista SP-1 Beta is going to launch in mid July.

She says "It’s official: We are now in the under-promise and over-deliver era at Microsoft." and

"Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista - not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end - the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July.

Word (from various sources who asked not to be named) is Microsoft is gearing up to drop Vista SP1 some time the week of July 16. And despite what Microsoft seemingly led Google, the U.S. Department of Justice and other company watchers to believe, the final version of Vista SP1 is sounding like November 2007."

See more: zdnet blogs

What happened to my Live Hotmail on Internet Explorer 7?

This happened when I tried to adjust the message list plane frame and my mouse accidentally slipped and the plane went to corner. An now I am not able to bring it back to the normal position. I tried everything but cant get rid of it. Although when I reopened it in Mozilla Firefox 2 it was normal again but still isn't working on Windows Internet Explorer 7. I am using Windows Vista Ultimate

Microsoft Extends Xbox 360 Warranty

Great news for all you Xbox 360 owners. Microsoft has decided to extend the general hardware failure coverage for all X360 consoles to 3 years:

"As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date.

We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience".

Source : Neowin

Surface Computing has arrived!

Microsoft invents computer with no keyboard and mouse, its literately a 30 inch table like display that can be used for computing and serving drinks too. Also when you put your drink on it says "getting thirsty?". And when you put your camera on it it spreads out all the images in it on table that you can view with your both hands. Put you zune on it to spread out your music albums on screen and put your credit card on it to buy something...plus you can do allot more! (Watch videos demonstrating surface computing)

According to fact sheet published by Microsoft in May 2007 following are the features of the product

Overview:

Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft Corp. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail establishments and public entertainment venues, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.

Description:

Surface computing breaks down traditional barriers between people and technology, changing the way people interact with all kinds of everyday content, from photos to maps to menus. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information by using their hands and natural movements. Users are able to access information either on their own or collaboratively with their friends and families, unlike any experience available today. Surface computing features four key attributes:

Surface computing breaks down traditional barriers between people and technology, changing the way people interact with all kinds of everyday content, from photos to maps to menus. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information by using their hands and natural movements. Users are able to access information either on their own or collaboratively with their friends and families, unlike any experience available today. Surface computing features four key attributes:

Direct interaction. Users can actually “grab” digital information with their hands and interact with content through touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.

Multi-touch contact. Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger as with a typical touch screen, but up to dozens and dozens of items at once.

Multi-user experience. The horizontal form factor makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.Object recognition. Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content.

System:

The Surface custom software platform runs on Windows Vista™ and has wired Ethernet 10/100 and wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity.

...........................................

Microsoft says in winter, users will be able to use this product in hotels, restaurants, retail establishments and public entertainment areas

Watch the videos of power of surface computing:
www.surface.com