As a longtime Firefox user, I didn't pay too much attention when Microsoft announced the impending release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Still, after using the first beta and not running into the kind of horrible issues some of our readers reported, it warranted a download.
After a brief test drive, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Installation was almost totally painless, though I wish Microsoft would figure out how to pull off a reboot-free install. Pages rendered quickly and accurately, the Firefox import worked very well, and my LastPass toolbar worked without asking for an upgrade. The Google toolbar, however, failed to work.
I also appreciate that IE prompted me to disable an addon - the Acrobat toolbar - when I closed it's toolbar. It's a small but useful feature. Slices and accelerators are showing a lot of promise, and the two I tried - Stumbleupon Buzz and send to GMail - worked nicely. You can see the Stumble slice at work in my screenshot.
I'm not sold on SmartScreen yet. I expected Web of Trust-like funcionality, but it's just not there. I ran around several keygen sites that make WOT cringe and didn't get a single alert from IE. That needs adressing. I like the idea of InPrivate as well, but would like to be able to mix tabs instead of running two separate instances of the browser.
If you do install the new version, be sure to check out the IE 8 Gallery, a new website that provides one-stop access to accelerators, slices, search addons, and toolbars. It's much, much less annoying than the IE7 addon site.
Let us know your thoughts if you've demoed the new beta!
Microsoft is starting to roll out a new version of its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software for Windows XP Pro, which the company describes as the "most pirated edition of Windows XP." WGA is the software Microsoft uses to detect versions of Windows using fake or stolen license keys.
If you're running Windows XP Pro, you'll probably receive the new version through Windows Update soon. If you just can't wait to find out if your operating system passes the test, you can also visit the direct download page.
The new version of WGA will work much like the anti-piracy software implemented in Windows Vista. Your PC will not be immediately disabled if it fails the WGA check. Rather when you login you'll see a black desktop background instead of your background of choice. You can change the background, but every 60 minutes it will reset itself to black.
There will also be a warning notice that you cannot make go away unless you enter a valid Windows license key.
I can't remember when was the last time I actually used Internet Explorer as the default browser on one of my Windows computers. After posting my how to on making a DIY launcher with Explorer, I realized that I wasn't using another feature that's been part of Windows for ages: the favorites menu.
Most of us look at the menu, see all the factory links (like Windows Update, Windows Media, etc) and forget something: you can add local programs, drives, and folders to your favorites as well.
Why bother? Well, instead of using an app like Folder Guide you may just want to use the features Windows has already given you to work with.
Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a new, free, light weight virtual desktop manager for Windows called Desktops. Yes, Microsoft already had a virtual desktop manager called, well, Virtual Desktop Manager. But Desktops offers a few advantages. First, it's a single, tiny executable file. No installation necessary, which makes this a good candidate for carrying with you on a USB flash drive. And second, Desktops offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to choose from, which could come in handy if your Alt+1 key combo is reserved for something else.
If you're scratching your head trying to figure out what a virtual desktop is, here's how it works. You can create up to four different desktop spaces and switch between them. In other words, you can load a few programs in desktop 1, a few more in desktop 2, and a few others in desktop 3. They'll all keep running as you switch back and forth. So if you have iTunes playing in desktop one, and an Office document to edit in desktop 2, you can keep listening to music while you're typing away.
The advantage is that if you've got, say a 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor, but you like to have umpteen applications open at once and there's no way to keep them all visible on that display. A virtual desktop gives you another 1280 x 1024 pixel canvas or two, or three to work with.
There are lots of nice launcher apps out there (Launchy, SpeedLaunch, Executor, etc.), but why bother with them when you can do the same thing with functions already built in to Windows? Explorer's running anyways, so you may as well get something out of it.
First, create a new folder that will contain your shortcuts. If you've got a data drive or partition, put it there so it'll stick around after a reformat. Next, right click my computer, and open system properties.
Click the advanced tab, then click the environment variables button. In the bottom box, find path and click the edit button. Now scroll all the way to the right, add a semicolon to the end, and input the path to your new folder.
You probably knew that a lot of dissatisfied WIndows Vista users had downgraded -- some might say "upgraded" -- to Windows XP. It was never clear exactly how many people took that step, but it was enough that Microsoft extended the shelf life for XP for a while. Now we have a number, thanks to a survey by Devil Mountain Software: nearly 35% of new Vista machines are being downgraded.
The survey used data from PCs that have been shipped in the last 6 months, and included machines that were downgraded by vendors before delivery or by users after the fact. The Register seems to think that Microsoft is shifting focus away from Vista, and instead increasing the marketing effort for its next major OS release, Windows 7. I hardly think these numbers spell doom for Microsoft, but they hopefully provide some incentive to look at why customers are ditching Vista and address their concerns.
If you've ever used a keyboard app launcher like Launchy, Executor, Quicksilver, or Gnome Do you've probably asked yourself, why doesn't Microsoft build something like this into Windows? Now Microsoft Office Labs has released a free keyboard launcher called Speed Launch.
Speed Launch adds a little bull's eyee to your desktop. To add a frequently used program, file, or document, to Speed Launch, just drag it to the target. You can then activate Speed Launch by hitting Win+C to bring up the program window. You can either hit the buttons to perform specified actions or type into the box. In other words, it does pretty much what you'd expect any keyboard launcher to do.
But Speed Launch has a few quirks. First, the program doesn't lose focus or go away unless you hit the X button in the upper right. Second, there doesn't seem to be a way to change the hotkeys that bring up the Speed Launch window. So if, like me, you happen to have a computer with an awkwardly-placed Windows key, there's no way to change the hotkeys.
The program is also a bit of a memory hog, using as much as 30MB of RAM, which is far more than similar programs like Launchy or Executor use. That seems strange, especially considering the fact that Speed Launch doesn't index your program files or start menu items automatically, something which both of those other programs do.
Overall, Speed Launch doesn't stack up particularly well against the competition. But it's worth keeping in mind that this is an experimental project that's still under development.
Kids get computers. It seems like they take to them almost immediately, once they are big enough to be able to control a mouse. But what about kids that aren't yet big enough? I know both of my boys wanted to bang away on the keyboard from a very young age.
Rather than opening a Word document and setting the font to a huge size, why not run a program that is specifically created for young children? Well, that's what Scot Hanselman must have thought when he decided to create Baby Smash.
Baby Smash is a simple Windows program that will lock out the special keys on the keyboard so that baby can't accidentally exit the program, and will then show colorful shapes with fun sound effects in response to baby's key presses, or more likely key mashes (and slams, and bangs, and mashes, etc.).
Scott is a well-known Windows development blogger who recently went to work for Microsoft. He's using the development of Baby Smash to teach Windows development concepts on his popular blog, ComputerZen.
I've always been a little pissed off that Windows Explorer doesn't include buttons to do two very simple things: create a new folder and toggle hidden/system file display. Fortunately for me, StExBar adds that missing functionality - along with some other killer features.
What about a button to add a new folder? Oh, hell yes. StExBar supports hotkeys as well, so now I can ctrl + shift + N (though that's really no easier than alt - w - n). You can also copy file and folder names and paths as plain text to the clipboard and click console to open a command prompt window in the current folder.
SMP Seesaw is a small, simple application that gives you full control over your dual-core processor Windows system. Select a running process, click the move button, and you can quickly divide your active tasks between your cores any way you see fit. Sure, Windows is supposed to do this manually, but some of us would rather make it happen ourselves, thanks.
A pro version (still free) is available and offers support for up to 32 cores. If you're only running a dual-core, don't bother with it. You can't select multiple tasks and move them all at once as in the basic version. If you do have a plethora of cores, though, get it - you can move a task to a specific core or as many cores as you care to check off.
Microsoft has thrown open the doors to its Live Mesh file synchronization service. Now anyone can sign into the service using a Windows Live ID. You no longer need to sign up for an account and sit on a waiting list.
Live Mesh, which launched as a technical preview in April, allows users to synchronize files across multiple computers. All of your synchronized files will also be available via the web for easy access even if you're not near one of your computers. The service is still in beta, but now it's a public beta.
The Live Mesh interface also features a nifty news category that presents you with recent updates to your folders and files. If you add music to the shared music folder on your home PC, you can read about it on your work PC or on the web.
Eventually Microsoft plans to roll out Live Mesh clients for Mac and mobile devices, but right now Live Mesh works only with Windows XP and Vista.
Can't justify spending hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office? Starting this week, Microsoft will be offering Equipt for $69.99... per year. Equipt is an office suite which features the applications from Microsoft Office Home and Student, Microsoft OneCare, and comes bundled with several (already free) Windows Live services.
When you consider the fact that Microsoft puts out a new version of Office every few years for $300 or more, Equipt might seem like a bargain. But when you factor in the fact that you can pick up a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student for just over $100, things might start to look a bit different.
Still, your $70 gets you working versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and other programs. You also get free upgrades. And as much as we love free alternatives like OpenOffice.org, we have yet to find one that's 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. Nothing screams unprofessional like opening a document a boss or colleague sends you and completely messing up the formatting.
At launch Equipt will be available only at Circuit City stores. Microsoft is expected to announce more distributors soon.
Yahoo! has rejected the 10,247th buyout proposal to date from Microsoft. The New York Times reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and investor Carl Icahn made another offer to purchase Yahoo!'s search business on Friday night -- and gave the company 24 hours to respond. Because we've seen how well ultimatums work in the past. Unsurprisingly, The Yahoo! board rejected the offer.
Now are you ready for the funny part? In a detailed press release, Yahoo! explains that the board would prefer an outright sale of the company. The asking price? $33 per share -- or exactly what Microsoft offered several months ago. Yahoo! has seen its stock price fall significantly since that offer, and probably one of the only surefire ways to boost the stock price is to sign a deal with Microsoft or another company. But there's really no reason for Microsoft to pay $33 per share for a company that's stock price would only actually be worth that much money if and when Microsoft ponies up the cash.
Microsoft may have sent Windows XP into partial retirement in June, but did you know that you can still pick up a copy of Windows 3.11 for Workgroups? Microsoft has been allowing OEMs to license the ancient operating system for embedded devices for years. But Windows 3.11 for Workgroups will no longer be available after November 1, 2008. So hurry up and get your copy (if you're an equipment manufacturer) now! Or don't.
In other news, CNET reports that Windows XP is selling like wildfire at online retailers like Amazon. That's because while Microsoft may no longer be offering the operating system through retail channels, any store that's still got a few boxes in stock can continue to sell Windows XP until the inventory is gone.
Right now Windows XP Home version is #15 in software sales at Amazon, while Windows XP Pro is #14. It's not clear how many copies the retailer has left, but the operating system is currently listed as "in stock."
Microsoft may have ceased offering Windows XP to retail customers, but that doesn't mean you can't get your hands on the venerable operating system. The company is allowing PC makers to offer customers a "downgrade" option if they purchase a new computer with Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. And Microsoft has been trying to fend off the Linux threat (more of a mosquito than an alien invasion) posed by ultra-low-cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC by allowing some cheap laptop makers to use XP.
Originally, Microsoft was only letting PC makers get away with that low-cost option if a PC met strict requirements. For example, it had to use 1GB of RAM or less, have a 10.2 inch or smaller display, and less than 80GB of storage capacity. Now IDG news is reporting that Microosft is easing off on some of those requirements.
Here's the new definition of an ULPC (Ultra Low Cost PC):
Display: 14.1 inch or smaller
Hard drive: 160GB or less
CPU: Single Core, and no more than 1GHz (with exceptions for low-power processors like the 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU used by the Eee PC 901, Acer Aspire One, and MSI Wind)
RAM: 1GB
Will this move be enough to help Microsoft maintain its market share? We're going to tentatively say yes, because honestly, we're not convinced that Linux-based laptops were going to make much of a dent anyway. Especially ULPC Linux based laptops, which are so cheap that many users are picking them up as second and third computers, not primary machines.
