Thanks to creamhackered at Neowin.net for the Info:

We've got hold of a few screenshots of the latest update to the Office 11 beta. From the screenshots below you can see there are a lot of icon improvements. It finally looks like Microsoft has decided to sort out the icon consistency in its products.

Want to know what's in the latest Service Packs for Microsoft's WindowsXP - Windows 2000 - Windows Server 2003! with direct links to the Microsoft articles.

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This download provides the DirectX 9.0a end-user multi-languaged redistributable that developers can include with their product. The redistributable license agreement covers the terms under which developers may use the Redistributable. For full details please review the DirectX SDK EULA.txt and DirectX Redist.txt files located in the license directory.

A new security hole has been found in Windows Media Player 7.1 and Media Player for Windows XP (Version 8.0).
The flaw is explained as following: Flaw in Windows Media Player Skins Downloading could allow Code Execution.
Windows Media Player 9, allready available for download, is not been affected. Read More

Microsoft® IntelliType Pro software provides full functionality for the Microsoft Office Keyboard, Microsoft® Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth? keyboardWireless Desktop, Natural® Keyboard Pro, Internet Keyboard Pro, and Internet Keyboard. It also lets you customize the keyboard to fit your needs. For example, you can:

Finally! you could say. Beta testers are receiving notifications that Windows Messenger 5 can be downloaded from BetaPlace. One sharp eyed reader by the name of Koen had already spotted the new icon in his profile on BetaPlace. The version that can be downloaded is 5.0.0149 and at present there are no test scenarios or report surveys to complete. At first glance it's not much different than 4.7, it does not include the new style that MSN Messenger 5.0 has but it does support ink (Tablet PC) and more services like SIP and Exchange and of course .NET passport. Get more informations and download over NeoWin

Thanks to creamhackered at Neowin.net for the Info and the Download!

No major improvements this time though. MSN 8.5 is shaping out to be MSN Explorer 8 but with a few extra tweaks and nice additions for its users. We've provided a download link for this build but remember you must be an MSN 8 subscriber to be able to login and use MSN 8 itself.

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows have posted their look at Longhorn Alpha Preview 3: Build 4015!

With Windows Server 2003 behind us, it's time to turn our attention to the more exciting world of desktop computing, where Microsoft is slowly plowing through pre-beta milestones of Longhorn, it's follow-up to Windows XP. Due in late 2004 or early 2005, Windows Longhorn will offer sweeping changes over its predecessors and be the most significant release of Microsoft's desktop operating system since Windows 95. For developers, consumers, and business users alike, Longhorn is going to be huge.

Big thx to NeoWin for this information.

Just recently a piece of code has been making its way round the internet that allows people to open others CD drives by simply getting them to vist a website. Annoying as that was there is another piece of code which isn't even really all that advanced that will crash Internet Explorer with the error "Unhandled exception in iexplore.exe (SHLWAPI.DLL): 0xC0000005: Access Violation". Shockingly this line code is very easy to implement into any HTML. The bug posted at BugTraq on the 21st of April is now spreading around the internet, so watch out for what URLs you click on from friends and in emails for now. The line of code is literally :

Read More for code and a test page which causes a crash.

The Windows XP startup disk allows computers without a bootable CD-ROM to perform a new installation of the operating system. The Windows XP startup disk will automatically load the correct drivers to gain access to the CD-ROM drive and start a new installation of Setup.

Thanks to Neobond at Neowin.net for sending this in!

Once again it is my turn to *cackle* as another pre-beta SP2 build has found its way onto the internet. So again it's fun all round, you get to post silly comments and I get to post silly screenshots. This time the build number has changed much like the clock digit on the lower right of hand of my screen. However this time MS seem to have fixed the Outlook Express bug where posting to a newsgroup using the reader would bring up a blank dialog box that was useless.

I have installed Win 2003 trial and everytime I use the right mouse click there is a stop ("hang") in Windows. I have seen that the process CSRSS.EXE which is part of the Windows kernel is responsible for this high CPU usage. Searching the net about this, I have discovered that this a known bug of all the NT systems. Why has Microsoft not solved this KNOWN bug for this "NEW" system?

I am looking for a patch, a solution, ANYTHING...

A new build 4.068 of Windows 2000 SP4 has leaked to the web and is available in English! Click on the Windows 2000 logo for your download.

Thanks to Tim at Majorgeeks.com for the heads up. PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after the product has been released to manufacturing, but before the next project has begun. These toys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience! These are available as individual files from Microsoft, but for this download, we have zipped them all up in one file for you.

Thanks to Neobond at Neowin.net for sending in this info and the proposed workaround!

I have found a problem in Windows XP in that right clicking on a file in Windows Explorer causes 100% CPU utilization on Windows XP. This only happens on files that have not been selected first with a left mouse click. This problem is reproducible on Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 machines of varying speed, does not happen on Pentium 2 systems.

Just got word from Neowin.net that MSN 8.5 beta build 1617.1 has been released.

No major improvements but powerdafuture has noted the status bar has been changed back to the original IE style rather than the new 'MSN 8 style' that Microsoft had implemented in earlier builds.

Looks like MS have updated the article on 811493 and recognise the performance issue: Buffer Overrun in Windows Kernel Message Handling could Lead to Elevated Privileges (811493) Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0, Windows® 2000 and Windows® XP systems

A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft® Windows® and gain control over it. To attempt an attack, the attacker would have to be able to log on to the computer. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.

This update provides stability and performance enhancements, and resolves the following issues: If you try to record an episode of a series that has been removed from the schedule, the whole series is deleted. (For example, if you schedule a series to record, cancel the current episode from recording, and then schedule the current episode to record by using Guide or the One Touch Record feature. If you do this, the current episode is recorded but the rest of the series is deleted.) Read More

Microsoft has released two new important updates - rated critical by the Redmond based Software giant - for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Affected versions range from version 5.01 to 6 SP1 of Internet Explorer where a security vulnerability has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise your Windows-based computer and, possibly, read files on it. A similar vulnerability exists in Outlook Express. I have added both updates to our Internet Explorer Post SP1 Updates chart. Users of other versions than IE 6 SP1 and OE SP1 please consult Windows Update.