HelpWithWindows Newsletter

01. Microsoft to Ship Vista SP1 Beta Next Week?

by Arie Slob

Hello Windows users,

According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, unnamed sources at Microsoft told her that the company plans to ship Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Vista alongside Windows Server 2008, as it had originally planned. Previously Microsoft had said that making the changes to Instant Search because of Google's complaint would cause a delay to SP1. But it now seems Microsoft is accelerating development of Vista's 1st service pack.

Although (till now) no one at Microsoft seems willing to go officially 'on record' on a delivery date for the first beta of SP1, the intended ship date of the finalized service pack of November this year means the beta should come out as soon as possible. There are only a short four months remaining till then. In the past, Windows service packs have been in beta for six to twelve months (SP2 for Windows XP took seven months from first beta to final release).

According to Mary Jo, besides the bundling of current fixes in SP1, the service pack will also include performance tweaks to improve Vista's file copying and shutdown routines; improvements to BitLocker Drive Encryption (to allow for locally created data volumes to be encrypted); Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) boot support for x64-based systems.

02. Microsoft Ships Public Beta of OneCare 2.0

This week Microsoft launched a beta version of its upcoming Windows Live OneCare 2.0 security and maintenance subscription suite.

The new version includes these new features:

Multi PC management form central location with one common Windows Live ID
Printer sharing - you can share your printer with all the PCs in your OneCare circle
Securing wireless networks: if your router is supported OneCare 2.0 will allow you to secure your wireless network
OneCare Online Photo Backup - paid storage is available online for photo backups
64-bit support

System Requirements

Windows XP SP2 for all editions including Home, Professional, Tablet PC, and Media Center editions; or Microsoft Windows Vista for these editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions; X64 for Windows Vista
600MB of Hard Disk Space
256 MB of RAM (recommended minimum) for Windows XP; 512 MB of RAM (recommended minimum) for Windows Vista
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 or higher for Windows XP SP2; Phishing Filter requires Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft Windows Live ID account (formerly Passport)

You can sign up for the beta on Microsoft's Live Beta's Web site.

03. Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for July, 2007

The security update for July 2007 includes three updates for Microsoft Windows, and one for .NET Framework.

Severity Rating: Critical

Severity Rating: Important

Vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (939373)

Severity Rating: Moderate

Vulnerability in Windows Vista Firewall Could Allow Information Disclosure (935807)

04. Windows Updates

Microsoft issued a number of updates for Windows Vista in the past weeks:

Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [July 2007] (KB905866)
KB935280 - Update to to address a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Vista.
KB933928 - Update to enhance the user experience by improving messaging and reducing the steps required to resolve potential problems with product activation and validation.

A list of these & previously released updates can be found on the HelpWithWindows Web site.

05. Recent Support BBS Postings

Remove Shortcut Arrows in Vista - Windows Vista
Safely remove hardware notification - Windows XP
How much bandwith pcs are using - Networking
Cannot import pst file - Microsoft Mail
Windows Live Messenger! [Signing in fails] - General Internet

06. Windows Vista Hardware Assessment

The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is a tool that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Through use of the detailed inventory data, the tool will assess and report whether the computers can run Windows Vista, where to find drivers for devices on the computers, and provide recommendations for hardware upgrades, where appropriate.

Supported OS: Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-Bit x86); Windows Vista; Windows XP SP2

Download

07. 08. Microsoft to spend $1.15 billion for Xbox repairs

In what may be one of the costliest consumer warranty repairs in history, Microsoft announced earlier this month that it would spend up to $1.15 billion to repair failing Xbox 360 game machine consoles.

Read International Herald Tribune Article

09. Latest Microsoft & Windows News from around the Internet

Latest Microsoft & Windows News from around the Internet

10. Windows XP Tip: Can only Save Images in Internet Explorer as .BMP Files

When you try to save a graphics file in Internet Explorer, you may be able to save the file only as a .bmp file even if the file is in another format (such as .gif or .jpeg). The file name may also appear as Untitled.

Read Full Article