This week, Microsoft finally admitted what many of us have suspected for quite some time: Its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy tool is faulty and has mistakenly identified hundreds of thousands of valid Windows installs as pirated. Meanwhile, over 22 percent of all Windows installs that have gone through the WGA validation process have been correctly identified as pirated, making the program a huge success, at least from Microsoft's perspective. Read on at WinItPro

Microsoft announced today that it will double the support life cycle for the consumer versions of Windows XP to ten years, matching the support life cycle for XP Professional, the version of XP aimed at businesses. This change affects both Windows XP Home Edition and XP Media Center Edition (MCE, all versions), Microsoft says. Read on at WindowsItPro

Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company.
Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent. 56,000 reports have been made by customers of counterfeit software, which grants that user a free replacement copy of Windows. Source: ActiveWin

Whoops, missed that... Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP offers you unmatched choice and flexibility for your digital media. You can easily manage your libraries of digital music, photos, and video on your computer; explore a new world of music through the integrated URGE music service; and connect with mobile devices so you can have your digital media collection wherever you want it. Requires Windows XP. MajorGeeks

Microsoft will make Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 available for direct download via Windows Marketplace starting January 30 at suggested retail prices (but without the discs, packaging and manuals of the retail version). Windows Vista editions offered through Windows Marketplace will be available in English only, in either 32-bit or 64-bit versions. Windows Marketplace visitors also can find a wide variety of Windows-compatible hardware and software, including products carrying the Certified for Windows Vista logo. More at DailyTech

For 32bit and 64 bit clients. When Windows Automatic Updates tries to download updates on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based or Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, an access violation error may occur in the Esent.dll file. Again powered by Digital Dave over @ WinOsCentral

Spotted over @ WinOsCentral Not a bad deal actually. All you have to do is register and attend a Vista/Office/Exchange launch event (coming to a city near you soon) and you can get a free copy.

Windows DreamScene Your desktop background comes to life with Windows DreamScene?. When you download this Ultimate Extra, you can select a video for your desktop background the same way you select a stationary picture.

Running Windows Vista's new Aero graphical interface doesn't impact PC performance, a study sponsored by Microsoft claims.

TechWeb

Vistasp1.net has posted links to six hotfixes set to appear in Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) codenamed Fuji. All six fixes can be obtained via Microsoft Support if you can prove that you are indeed having the problem listed. The site links directly to Microsoft KB articles that describe each problem in Vista.

The Release candidate includes one new feature, PXE boot. In addition it address a number of issues including installation on Windows 2003 as a host; Audio in Vista; DVD support for Vista installation; binding to wireless network cards etc.

Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. This viewer also supports opening password-protected Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. You can view and print presentations, but you cannot edit them in the PowerPoint Viewer 2007.

Microsoft has updated its Get Ready Web site to include the minimum system requirements to run Windows Vista.

DailyTech

At this point, solution providers have heard plenty from Microsoft and others about all the benefits that the Windows Vista operating system will bring businesses and other users.

Install this update to resolve timing issues resulting in race conditions when using Bluetooth devices connected via USB.

Install this update to fix a situation where your Windows-based system that supports processor power management features, and is equipped with multiple processors, may experience decreased performance.

Install this update to address an issue where a system using a dual core or multiprocessor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor that supports ACPI processor performance states (AMD PowerNow!) stops responding.

The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Windows Vista enhancements.

The Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Packs for Windows Media Player 11 enable customers using the Windows XP Multilingual User Interface versions of the operating system to switch the user interface (menus, dialog boxes, and Help) for Windows Media Player 11 from one language to another.

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.