Archive for the ‘windows’ Category:
Office 12 pre-beta screenshots
Paul Thurrott has some interesting screenshots of the office 12 programs running on Microsoft Windows Vista. He even included some of the new onenote program which looks pretty cool.
‘In an era of increased competition from OpenOffice.org and StarOffice 8, critics had charged that there was very little anyone could do with an office productivity suite. After all, they argued, word processing is word processing. And with OpenOffice.org taking on the Office 2003 look and feel, that argument seemed correct. Microsoft, the story went, was doomed to watching its competitors slowly catch up.
The Office 12 user interface has changed all that. Making a bold move–rather than “painting the pig” as they had with previous versions–Microsoft elected to dramatically change the Office user interface for the first time ever. It seems the menu and toolbar-based interface had become obsolete somewhere along the way. I’ll have a lot more to write about this in the near future.’
Head on over and check it out here
Microsoft anti-spyware
thehotfix.net report that the Microsoft anti-spyware technology that previous has been called Microsoft Anti-spyware is to be called “Microsoft Windows Defender”
I have been using the anti-spyware technology and would highly recommend people download it and install it for windows machines.
“Over the last few months we have been working hard on creating the next version of the Microsoft anti-spyware technology. Today, we are announcing the new name for this technology. Microsoft Windows Defender. Does this mean a lot is changing?? Well . YES – and all for the better!! As part of our development process, we have been lurking in the newsgroups, listening and talking to customers to hear how we can make this release better.
It is going to be a part of VISTA! The biggest announcement we are making is that Windows Defender will be a part of Vista when it releases. You will be able to run another spyware product instead of Windows Defender if you would like. Although I may shed a small tear, you will be able to disable or turn off Windows Defender and install whichever 3rd party anti-spyware application you would like. The really cool thing is that the Windows Security Center in Vista will be redesigned to detect if an Anti-Spyware application such as Windows Defender is running and operating normally. “
read more here
More Bits From Windows Vista
nternetnews has some information on a community technology review that Microsoft released recently regarding windows Vista.
‘While Microsoft cautioned that the Vista CTP is far from the final version, it includes several new features:
- Desktop management tools;
- Built-in diagnostics for trouble-shooting the PC, including finding memory problems and monitoring and alerting users when disk problems occur;
- Integrated network diagnostics for the entire network stack; Network Center, a hub for managing networking computers and devices that replaces My Network Places and Network Neighborhood;
- Smoother transitions between On, Sleep and Shut Down modes;
- Simplified sharing, so users can specify which files or folders they want to share and generate an e-mail message notifying others in the group;
- The ability to create and digitally sign documents in the XML Paper Specification (XPS) format’
Read the whole article here
Tags: vista
wifi setup to be easy
One of my bugbears with windows XP has been how hard it is to setup and a wireless network. In particular it is difficult for the average user to place ample security on their wireless network. Many people have complained about this and it looks like Microsoft has listened – as it is very pleasing to read that they intend to make it very simple and straightforward to configure your wireless setup.
‘A presentation by Intel’s Harsha Hegde and Microsoft’s Scott Manchester at the Developer Forum last week, promised better security in the future for wi-fi networks.
The problems, according to Wintel, are that many protocols define how data is secured but don’t tell you how to configure security properly.
And wireless network security setup is too complicated for plebs, with around 30 per cent of WAP users setting security up.
There’s also a high retail return rate of WAPs, and worse than this, hacks forced to work in a shared area at the Argent Hotel last week, noticed that one Intel WLAN had a shared drive with many folders although none of us peeked inside.
While Intel and MS believe there are many answers to this problem of network security including Windows Connect Now, Intel Smart Wireless Solutions and Broadcom Secure EZ Setup, they don’t interoperate.
Then there’s other wireless groups like Bluetooth, Wireless USB, WiMAX, and DNLA, all of which have different set ups.
So when Microsoft introduces Vista it will team with Intel, Philips, Sony, Atheros and others to provide WPA-Personal for home wireless LANs. To ease the angst of home users, a working group will study how to set up a secure WLAN which makes it easy to add and remove members from the network.’
Source NetStumbler
Tags: vista
Vista to boot up in 2-3 seconds
The Microsoft web site reports that under vista your computer will boot in around 2 to 3 seconds. That is very impressive. This is likely due to the major rewrite that Windows has undergone to deliver Vista. But even so that is very impressive.
This will be great in particular for notebook and tablet pc users to instantly get their machines up and running for use.
‘Fast On and Off: A Windows Vista computer starts and shuts down as quickly and reliably as a television, typically within 2 to 3 seconds. Windows Vista processes login scripts and startup programs and services in the background so you can start working right away. You’ll also shut down and restart your computer less often by using the New Sleep state, a simple one-click on and off experience which not only reduces power consumption, but also delivers and protects user dat. ‘
By the way Microsoft, I think you mean ‘data’ for the last word on your web page.
Read more about what Microsoft is confident about in regard to Vista – the next version of Windows here
(Via Digg)
Tags: vista
The rundown on Internet Explorer for Vista
Beta Life v0.1 has An interesting review of internet explorer 7. It will be interesting to see what the internet browsing experience will be like under windows Vista.
‘So this weekend I decided to test out Internet Explorer 7 inside of Windows Vista and give that a good run and see what I could do with it.
First things first…Transparency. I love the transparency in Windows Vista. I can care less if Mac OSX or Linux did it first or any of the “wa,wa,wa” junk others want to say. Microsoft got a big enough following *first*, they put their software on a chip I can use without spending 1,500 or 2,000, and now they’ll push it to however many users they have…end of story…now for the review.’
Read the full review here
Tags: vista