Who runs SAP solutions faster? Oracle? IBM? The answer: Microsoft. New world record results show that a 32-processor Unisys server running Microsoft Windows® 2000 Datacenter Server and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition delivers the best performance ever for the highly-coveted three-tier SAP Standard Sales and Distribution (SD) Application Benchmark¹. No hardware/software combination previously offered to SAP customers has delivered better performance than this system.

Having a bit of trouble with XP? Well, so far MS has identified quite a list of problems with XP which MS plans to address in SP1 but since we all know you can't wait that long for a fix Yashiro assembled a pre-XP SP1 page listing all the problems MS is currently working on along with the KB article number so you can look up your problem and get the fix (if any).

WINOSCENTRAL Pre-XP SP1 Fixes

Loool I am just received an email from our buddies over @ 3dWin: I discovered a problem with the product activation. Some honest customers, who had bought Windows XP, wanted to activate their product after installing on the PC. But the activation procedure by internet failed. So they contacted Microsoft by phone for activation. The surprise: the original copies are already activated several times up to 31x and more. The reason: many copies have the same serial!! The fact: different dealers are affected by it. Microsoft is informed, but has no idea, why the problem consists. Perhaps there consists an error in the production or something else... We (or perhaps Microsoft) will inform you, if there are more new news. Stay tuned! This news are confirmed by Heise Online To read the article in german, head over to 3dWin by using the above link! Update: Saw just this comment over @ NeoWin:I've heard they've already decided to allow 'unlimited' activations using one key. Only keys that have been grossly abused will be de-activated.
But this isn´t confirmed at the moment.

A Nottingham-based security company claims Chinese crackers had disabled Windows XP's anti-piracy system within a few hours of the product's launch.

BitArts Labs' chief technology officer, John Safa, said that crackers have developed illegal installation files that bypass the registration process for Microsoft's new operating system.

"These files can now be downloaded from websites in the Far East and cracked copies of Windows XP, with the protection mechanism stripped out, can be downloaded from Warez sites across the internet," Safa said.

vnunet.com

I've just logged in to MSN Messenger version 4.5 and found out that Microsoft has tweaked the interface again. Now you in the interface you can group your contacts under certain categories. Co-workers Family Friends Other Contacts Sent In by Louis Green

NeoWin have found an article regarding a memory leak which occurs with SoundBlaster Live! device driver.

When you use the Microsoft Windows XP device drivers for the Creative SoundBlaster Live! audio adapter, a memory leak can occur. This can cause the computer to lose system resources and run more slowly.

Microsoft has addressed some issues with the retail CD recording engine built into the OS. Affected Software: - Windows XP Home Edition
- Windows XP Professional Symptoms: When you copy files or folders to a compact disc-recordable (CD-R) or a compact disc-rewritable (CD-RW) by using a compact disc recorder, any of the following behaviors may occur: The disc recording is consistently unsuccessful.
You are unable to read the disc by using Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98. You are able to read the disc in Windows XP.
You are unable to read the disc in a consumer MP3 player. You are able to read the disc in Windows XP.
You are able to read the disc in a consumer MP3 player, but not all of the files on the disc are available. However, all of the files on the disc are available when you read the disc in Windows XP.
When you add files or folders to a disc that already contains data, some files are lost. This may occur if one or both of the following conditions are true: A file is added to the disc, and the name of the file is the same as the name of a folder that was already on the disk.
-or-
A folder is added to the disc, and the name of the folder is the same as the name of a file that was already on the disk. Download the Critical CD Recording Engine Update

From Activewin

Finally Microsoft has released a new build of Windows/MSN Messenger that fixes a few bugs and glitches. Build 4.5.0125 can be download via the MSN Messenger site on the link below.

Fixes include:

Corrupt Sounds Fixes

List of actions closing bug fixed

MSN Messenger 4.5 Build Released 4.5.0125 for Windows German

MSN Messenger 4.5 Build Released 4.5.0125 for Windows English

MSN Messenger 4.5 Build Released 4.5.0125 for Windows® XP German

MSN Messenger 4.5 Build Released 4.5.0125 for Windows® XP English

Windows 98 & 98SE Security Patch: Invalid Universal Plug and Play Request can Disrupt System Operation.

Microsoft has released a patch that will eliminate a possible Vulnerability that may result because the UPnP service does not correctly handle certain types of invalid UPnP requests. On Windows 98, 98SE, and ME systems, receiving such a request could cause a variety of effects ranging from slow performance to system failure. Download now to prevent a possible system failure.

Electic have the Microsoft update to their task switching application that comes with XP (You know the alt-tab thingy). The Task Switcher Application is an augmented AltTab app that shows an application preview plus icons and title text. This download is a companion piece to the MSDN Library article: "Using Windows XP Visual Styles and PrintWindow in Windows Applications".

Download Microsoft Windows XP Task Switch Application

Update here's the Mircosoft link for the Task Switcher Application and Documentation

Microsoft Task Switcher Application

ActiveWin reports: Today, MSN Messenger 4.5 users have discovered that a new tab dubbed 'Expedia' is available from the instant messenging software. The expedia tab gives you a condensed view of the expedia info you'd normally see on the site. Plus they have also added passport which wasn't on expedia.com before.

The Microsoft Data Access Components are the key technologies that enable Universal Data Access. They include ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), Remote Data Service (RDS, formerly known as Advanced Data Connector or ADC), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). MDAC 2.7 RTM (2.70.7713.4) is available for download in English, Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), German, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean. The RTM release is the same version of MDAC components that are installed by Microsoft Windows XP. This redistributable setup is supported on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. M$ UDA Download Site

Our good pals @ NeoWin have some screenshots of Windows Longhorn a.k.a Blackcomb and Windows .NET. These have been submitted by an anonymous source but according to Neobond the source is reliable!
Click to enlarge Check out the other nudies @ NeoWin!

NeoWin have found a tiny c program that can crash or reboot Windows XP!? LOL.

If the following code is excuted on Win2k or XP, Win2k or XP crashes or rebooted. On Windows 98, nothing happens.

#include
int main( void )
{
for( ;; ){
printf( "hung up " );
}
return 0;
}

Masaru Tsuchiyama

Balloon Tips is a new & unique feature in Windows XP. They are used to catch the users attention about all possibly imaginable things happening in Windows XP. If you are annoyed by them like some of us are then you can disable the Balloon Tips via the registry. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer Advanced
Look for "EnableBalloonTips" and change the the DWORD of 1 to 0. Done.

This behavior occurs because the Universal Disk Format (UDF) driver (Udfs.sys) in Windows XP & Windows 2000 is unable to read certain data stored on the Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Collection DVD. This problem does not affect any other DVD disks known to Microsoft at this time.

I just got my copy of Windows XP Pro today and had a little play with it. The installation was completed on my system in under 40 Mins (Windows 2000 Pro 45 mins) and once completed I was greeted by a flashy intro. Afterwards I began playing with - what to me looks likes a kiddies OS - and found that part of Direct X that comes with the OSand part of it is still beta. I found it by running the DXDIAG from the run command on the start menu, selected the tab to see what Direct X files were installed and came across this little suprise. The mfc42.dll is still a beta file. The others all say final retail but this one say beta retail. So what is M$ up to?

For those of you that have been waiting for the official release of PowerToys for Windows XP, it's here now:

PowerToys 939 KB Download - Warp2Search local download or visit the Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP page

WinosCentral are reporting they had some inquiries about the supposed "SP1 for XP" that's been floating around the net asking if they knew if it was "legit" or not. MS has NOT released an SP for WinXP and will not for a few months. What they are doing is posting "Hotfixes" which deal with some of the problems they have found since the 8/28 OEM Gold release of XP. These are available via the XP Windows Update site and should only be gotten from MS itself.

But... there are those of you who just have to have it and for those I have a treat courtesy of WindowsXP.nu . Hit their page and about a 1/3 of of the way down you'll see what I'm talking about all packaged up all nice and neat just for anyone who really wants an early look at some of the fixes and of course you can try them if you want but as the site states it may make your XP PC MORE UNSTABLE so my recommendation is to stick with the MS Windows Update site as your source for updates and patches.

I know I've already posted this but hey some people missed it and it's a new link so there goes.

Today's the day Microsoft officially launched Windows XP and already NeoWin have found some new XP updates! LoL nice bugs.

So hit Read More for a list of updates so far.