Customized Media Center Edition skin to be used with Windows Media Player 9 Series. This skin is optimized for Windows XP.

Just got word from our good friends Neowin.net that Windows 2000 SP4 Beta should be out soon.

We are pleased to inform you that the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) beta is near! You will receive detailed information about the beta program as soon as SP4 beta ships. Once the beta has been released it is very important that you install and test SP4 and we expect you to submit feedback via newsgroups on a regular basis.

Overview: The Microsoft® .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) includes the .NET Framework, as well as everything you need to write, build, test, and deploy .NET Framework applications?documentation, samples, and command-line tools and compilers. If you want to distribute the .NET Framework with your application, you will also need to download the .NET Framework Redistributable.

Thanks Voodoo @ Neowin

Dear Office 11 Beta Participant, In preparation for [Office 11] Beta 2 which will be coming in Q1 2003, the Office 11 pre-release program that you are participating in will be upgrading the Hosted SharePoint Team Services Beta 1 servers to Beta 2 bits in mid February 2003.

For those of you who dare install Pre Release M$ software updates, WinFutures have posted a Pre-SP2 Service Pack

I mentioned NT in an earlier post so before you hide it back in the hardest to reach recesses of your mind I found this cute little explanation of the true meaning of 'NT' over at bink 'During a trip to Microsoft's Redmond campus this week, I had the opportunity to meet with Mark Lucovsky, one of the original architects of NT. We had a long discussion about the development and evolution of NT, but one of the more fascinating tidbits he revealed was that NT does not, in fact, stand for "New Technology," as documented in books such as "Showstoppers" and "Inside Windows NT." Instead, the name comes from the earliest days of the product's development, when it was targeted at the Intel i860, a RISC processor. In those days, Intel's chip was behind schedule, so Microsoft had to use an i860 emulator called the N10. NT was so named because it worked on the "N-Ten." I'll have much more information from my meetings with Lucovsky and others involved with Windows Server in the days ahead.'

Looks like M$ have finally updated Hotmail and it's new look is not so bad. Check it out: Hotmail.comWhat do you think of the new look?

Microsoft has decided to give NT4 a further year to live as far as product support is concerned. They will now officially accept support requests until 31st December 2004. This decision is really because IT managers and corporate company's are taking longer to trust M$ in there new products and are leaving vital servers on the NT4 technology. Many are following the opinion 'If it's not broken, don't fix it'.

Silly old M$ have done it again and forgotten to pay a £35 ($50) bill to renew there Data Protection Record, Sadly for M$, the DPR folk say that it's not as easy as just paying up the 35UKP. This means that all personal data held by them in the UK is now illegal.

This update addresses the "Performance improvement fix for Windows NAT solutions based on ipnat.sys " issue in Windows 2000, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q329251. Download now to improve performance in the Windows based NAT (Network Address Translation) solutions that rely on ipnat.sys.

Big thanks to Bink for sending this in... I remember Novell admins complaining on NT what the hell is Windows Media player doing on the file server, what the hell is a browser doing on mail Server. Well in Windows2003 sound is disabled by default and now IE is locked down! Codenamed the IE HardeningPack!

Released: 11 December 2002
Revised: 22 January 2003 (version 2.0) Software: Microsoft Windows 2000 / Microsoft Windows XP
Impact: Modify group policy
Max Risk: Moderate Subsequent to releasing this bulletin it was determined that the fix was not included in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1. The bulletin has been updated to reflect this, and the patch had been updated so that it installs on Windows XP Service Pack 1 systems. Customers who are currently running XP Service Pack 1 should apply the patch.

The Outlook 2002 Update: January 22, 2003 offers the highest levels of stability and security available for Microsoft Outlook 2002. This update is part of Microsoft?s continued effort to provide the latest product updates to customers. Read more...

Hey guys this is gsurface from Flexbeta.net: Microsoft Corp. today announced broadened availability of the Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 application programming interface (API). The latest version of the Microsoft Windows® Gaming API delivers Microsoft's powerful new High-Level Shader Language (HLSL) and features its most-advanced suite of design tools for the development of rich multimedia elements such as full-spectrum color graphics, video, 3-D animation and enhanced audio capabilities.

Jason from the .project found two more security updates for windows xp you need to get! Unchecked Buffer in Locator Service Could Lead to Code Execution (810833) Customers running Windows NT 4.0 domain controllers or Windows 2000 domain controllers should apply the patch immediately. Customers should install the patch at the earliest opportunity on systems running Windows NT 4.0 (workstations and member servers), Windows 2000 (workstations and member servers), and Windows XP. Maximum Severity Rating: Critical Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-001

Microsoft has released new Windows XP updates:

Windows XP Patch: Hard Disk May Become Corrupted When Entering Standby or Hibernation
Hard Disk May Become Corrupted When Entering Standby or Hibernation

This just in from Winbeta.org...

Being bored, I took a dive in the Messenger pages and came across these MUI packages for the MSN Messenger 5 series. It seems it was put out quietly on December 09, 2002, 11:23:52 AM. Check it out guys

Das Projekt Dreamix wird die Xbox in einen Videorekorder verwandlen. Zurzeit steckt das Projekt noch in der Alpha-Phase, doch alle angestrebten Features werden vor der Beta-Phase implementiert sein...

From badnbusy @ ieXbeta

Exclusive: Microsoft have just now released SP3 for their SQL Server 2000!

This release of Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Microsoft® SQL Server? 2000 is provided in three parts:

Database Components SP3 provides updates for the database components of an instance of SQL Server 2000, excluding instances of the SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine. Database Components SP3 includes updates to: Read More

So it would appear - i must firstly thank Agent Jones for sending this in - extremely kind! A group called the "Holics Project" have, according to various reliable resources, successfully released a working "crack" that disables Office 11 Beta 1's WPA (Windows Production Activation) module. A source close to Neowin has confirmed the crack to be a working example of software that "breaks" WPA, for now at least. This really is quite a blow to Microsoft's anti-piracy effort. Not only is it an embarrassment, but unlike previous Microsoft cracks this crack patches files, as opposed to simply reseting timing mechanisms. This proves a major "advancement" (if one might call it that) against Microsoft's anti-piracy mechanisms. The crack patches the files "Mso.dll", in a similar fashion to Office XP cracks. Read the complete story over @ NeoWin.Net