Microsoft Windows Vista Feature Assured QuizTake a moment to fill out this easy little Quiz on Microsoft Windows Vista - Your reward will be a shiny new CD with your own personal copy of the latest Beta release. We even make it easier for you by posting the answers!

Distichannel.com

A security issue has been identified in the Windows Kernel that could allow an attacker to compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

DABS in UK is stocking a Microsoft Win XP Home SP2B OEM. It is priced at £59.92 inc vat. It is said that Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2B (SP2B) provides an enhanced security infrastructure that defends against viruses, worms, and hackers, along with increased manageability and control for IT professionals and an improved experience for users.

OCWorkbench

OK, so I've been getting RC1-related questions a lot, both via blog comments and directly over email: Will Microsoft open testing sign-ups again when RC1 is released?

Windows Vista Team Blog

In my latest commentary, I wonder whether a recent Windows Vista hack means more of the same for Microsoft's next operating system. Read more in Hacking Windows Vista!

Paul Thurrott Windows SuperSite

It may be a little early in the day to be talking about what happens after DirectX 10 and its supporting hardware becomes available, but seeing as much of the features and principles that will be making their way into the first point release of Direct3D 10 have already been decided upon, Elite Bastards have taken a brief foray into what we'll be seeing in the GPU world a little further down the line.

I'm reluctantly running a pirated version of Windows and can't get caught no matter how hard I try. A few weeks ago, I spoke to some of the folks on the WGA team and asked them to send me a pirated version of Windows XP.

This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in August 2006.

These ISO-9660 CD image files contain the security updates for Windows released on Windows Update on August 8th, 2006.

Starting in early 2007, Microsoft will launch the release of Windows Vista, its first major operating system upgrade since Windows XP (2001). The BETA 2 release of the OS I tested has shown tremendous improvements in areas such as stability, allowing for the ability to use it on a daily basis. Like its predecessor Windows XP, Vista has improved deployment options and device driver detection; these options have proven to be very user friendly and reduced the time it takes to get Windows up and running.

Download the August security updates for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Hey presto! It?s the next-generation MSN Messenger. Along with everything you already love about Messenger?your contact list, smilies, and instant access to your friends?there are brilliant new ways to connect and share photos (and other stuff). As always, it's free to download Messenger and use most of its features.

It's clear that Windows Vista will have a big impact on PC hardware. We've already written about how to plan for building a Vista system. Now we take a look at the near-term horizon for hardware.

I had mentioned a while back that we planned to call the version of IE7 in Windows Vista ?Internet Explorer 7+?. Well, the feedback we got on the blog was overwhelming ? many of you didn?t like it. So, as we?ve said on our website, we heard you. I?m pleased to announce that we?re switching the name back to ?Internet Explorer 7?. No plus. No dot x. Just ?Internet Explorer 7?.

Windows Media Player 11 for XP will RTM on September 14th, 2006. We obtained this information from the same very reliable Microsoft source who gave us a dead-on accurate date for the Public Preview of WMP11 a few months back.

TheHotfix.net

Todd from IEBlog yesterday posted on his MSDN blog about the future of IE7 as well as some tidbits about when to expect release candidate and final builds.

This download provides the DirectX 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.

To keep the motivation level up internally, Microsoft has stocked its refrigerators with its very own Windows Vista soft drinks. No, no, Microsoft didn?t spend its R&D budget to come up with a perfect drinking formula, it?s just Talking Rain sparking water disguised in a custom designed can. Talk about refreshing?

This DirectX SDK release contains updates to tools, utilities, samples, documentation, and runtime debug files for x64 and x86 platforms. This release also include a public pre-release Direct3D 10.

The Microsoft DirectX® End-User Runtime provides updates to 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX ? the core Windows® technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC.