Think Windows Firewall is tough enough to keep your system safe? Think again. Flexbeta pins Windows Firewall against a few tests to see how safe it really is.

This is the recommended method to update one or two personal computers running Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition. The Express Installation checks your computer and installs only the files that are necessary to bring your computer up to date.

After a slew of security vulnerabilities found in IE, its dominance of the browser market has seen a decrease in users. But a security breach alone isn?t the only culprit. Another reason that users have been flocking to Mozilla?s arms is the fact that IE hasn?t been updated and won?t be updated in quite some time. Well, the last remark isn?t 100% true; Internet Explorer did go through some changes for users who installed Windows XP SP2. Windows XP SP2 added a popup blocker to IE and a few other add-ons. But IE still lags behind as far as features and unless Microsoft does something about it, the decrease in browser market share will continue to plummet for IE. Since I am one of those users who has left IE because Mozilla Firefox offered more features, here are some suggestions which can make IE "cool" again.

The set of interfaces in this SDK makes it easy for a developer to script the behavior of the encoder itself. This is an easy way to build a powerful media creation application on top of Windows Media Encoder 9 Series, and is ideal for building batch encoding tools or simplified encoding applications for end users.

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. You cannot upgrade from a Windows XP startup disk. Windows XP Home Edition startup disks will not work for Windows XP Professional installations and vice-versa.

Windows XP Professional - Windows XP Home Edition

The install took about 5-10 minutes, yet clearly this figure will vary from system to system. After installing and rebooting XP asked me to turn on automatic updates (even before reaching windows). An excellent move on Microsoft's behalf, and one that serves to highlights a growing commitment to security and user safety. On the first run, Microsoft also loads up the new Security Center. The Security Center monitors your Antivirus, Firewall, and Auto Update situation. If it detects anything that is potentially damaging or hazardous, it will prompt you with a warning and give you advice on how to resolve the issue.

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides new proactive security technologies for Windows XP to better defend against viruses, worms, and hackers. In addition to a more robust security infrastructure, SP2 improves the security configuration options of Windows XP and provides better security information to help users faced with security decisions

The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.

The Multilingual User Interface Packs for Windows Media Player 9 Series enable customers using the Windows XP or Windows 2000 Multilingual User Interface versions of the operating system to switch the user interface (menus, dialogs and help files) for the WMP 9 Series from one language to another.

Neowin reports the Installation package of the final version of Service Pack 2 has just been released to the beta testers on the Windows Beta Website and is available in for download now. The file name is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. The self extracting compressed file weighs at 266.01 MB.

Windows XP SP2 2179 has been just released and we've snagged ourselves a nice link. Download at your own risk if you are interested in beta testing.

MSN Web Messenger lets you talk online and in real-time with friends and family using just a web browser! Use it on any shared computer - at school, at work, at a friend's house or anywhere you can't install the MSN Messenger software.

We have informed you earlier that MSN Messenger 7.0 is in development as we speak and we're expecting information about new features soon. But we think that one of our messers, Roy, might have captured a first and exclusive screenshot of Microsoft's next version IM client.

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3DChips-fr.com reports if you connect yourselves to the site Windows Update, you will realize that Microsoft has just put online V5 which had been already accessible to beta testers for several weeks, heralding the launching of the Service Pack 2 of Windows XP.

From games to the desktop itself, 3D graphics will be everywhere in the new Windows Longhorn OS. ExtremeTech got a sneak peek at the new Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF) architecture that will make it happen.

This update resolves several newly discovered public vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability is documented in this bulletin in its own Vulnerability Details section. If a user is logged on with administrative privileges, an attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts with full privileges. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system would be at less risk than users who operate with administrative privileges

A new build of Windows Media Player 10 is making it's rounds via the IRC channels. This new build, 3615, was ripped from Windows Media Center 2005 RC0 Build 2160.

Microsoft have published Office 2003 SP1 this morning to OfficeUpdate. It was widely expected that Microsoft would release this small update at the end of Summer and without the usual fanfare of service packs. The update (17meg) contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. SP1 will update Access 2003, Access 2003 Runtime, Excel 2003, FrontPage 2003, Outlook 2003, PowerPoint 2003, Publisher 2003, Word 2003, Office 2003 Web Components and Office XP Web Components. SP1 also includes many performance and feature enhancements for InfoPath 2003.

This download provides the DirectX 9.0c 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.

What happens when you become one of the richest companies in the world? When you have so much cash in reserve that you can no longer spend it or invest it wisely? That was the dilemma facing Microsoft. With $60 Billion in its cash hoard, it just became too much for Bill Gates and crew to handle. This unwieldy treasure trove was the reason Microsoft announced a plan this week to give a one time dividend payout of $32 Billion to its shareholders. But was it the right solution? Was it the best solution? Microsoft may be traveling down the wrong road.