To Microsoft, ‘downgrade’ describes the licensing rights it grants to older operating systems. Downgrade doesn’t mean the process for rolling back Windows from Vista to XP, since there isn’t such a procedure, not in the generally accepted use of ‘upgrade’. In an older-to-newer move, developers usually make it possible to retain all the digital detritus on the drive, from already-installed applications and Word documents to iTunes tracks and family photos, while updating the system files. Not so in a downgrade.
Specifically, these downgrade rights let owners of some versions of Vista replace it with XP without having to pay for another licence. In effect, the licence for Vista is transferred to XP. Think of it as a swap, Vista for XP, not as an extra licence. By Microsoft’s end-user licensing agreement (EULA), you can’t have both the Vista and its downgraded XP installed at the same time on the same or different machines. You have to pick: It’s one or the other. (more…)
Written by Jason on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows Vista and Windows XP and downgrade and how to and windows.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is without a doubt the main vector of attacks, when it comes down to web-based threats. Its ubiquity, as well as its intimate integration into the Windows platform, makes it an excellent avenue for attacks. With IE6, Microsoft has gained an ill reputation for failing dramatically to protect end users. From IE6, which undoubtedly is an apex of insecurity compared to alternative browsers, the Redmond company moved to Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 under User Account Control, virtually cutting the browser from the critical areas of the operating system. Web-based attacks coming via IE7 in Protect Mode will not be able to write themselves to disk without specific user permission, because the browser runs with the very least possible privileges. (more…)
Written by Jason on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on ActiveX and Internet and Internet Explorer and exploit and ie and microsoft and vulnerability.
The Microsoft Group Policy Team has released the very useful Excel spreadsheet describing Administrative Template and Security policy settings.
Check out the GP team blog here or download the XLS/XLSX spreadsheet right here!
Enjoy… 
.
Written by Jakob H. Heidelberg on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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I started getting that message when I moved our internal SharePoint server from a physical machine to our VMWare server.
We have made lots of customizations to Sharepoint - so when ever we touch the thing it creates headaches. We were getting this message for *all* web parts, so I knew it couldn't be a specific issue with just one of them.
After searching around for a while I found a very easy fix:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826786 Essentially you need to give the local group named STS_WPG permission to write the the C:\Windows\Temp folder.
After I did that, I refreshed the Sharepoint website and it was working fine again.
How did it lose this permission? Well after we moved the Sharepoint server we had to run windows repair (VMWare had a different set of hardware). This resets the permission on this temp folder.
Written by Steve Wiseman on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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A 1 min 39sec Korean Windows Vista commercial staring Ji Hyun Woo. This one shows him using Windows Live Messenger to communicate with friends, and Xbox as a Media Center Extender, and Vista interacting with Office 2007.
Post from: ITsVISTA
Korean Vista Commercial - 4
Related posts
Written by Joe on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Commercial and Extender and Media Center and Office and Videos and video.
Ok this is really a significant improvement!!!
I really love the pre-boot authentication.
download links below
New features:
- Ability to encrypt a system partition/drive (i.e. a partition/drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication (anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files, etc., needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts). For more information, see the chapter System Encryption in the documentation. (Windows Vista/XP/2003)
- Pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% (Windows)
- Mac OS X version
- Graphical user interface for the Linux version of TrueCrypt
- XTS mode of operation, which was designed by Phillip Rogaway in 2003 and which was recently approved as the IEEE 1619 standard for cryptographic protection of data on block-oriented storage devices. XTS is faster and more secure than LRW mode (for more information on XTS mode, see the section Modes of Operation in the documentation).
Note: New volumes created by this version of TrueCrypt can be encrypted only in XTS mode. However, volumes created by previous versions of TrueCrypt can still be mounted using this version of TrueCrypt. - SHA-512 hash algorithm (replacing SHA-1, which is no longer available when creating new volumes).
- Note: To re-encrypt the header of an existing volume with a header key derived using HMAC-SHA-512 (PRF), select 'Volumes' > 'Set Header Key Derivation Algorithm'.
Improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements: - The Linux version of TrueCrypt has been redesigned so that it will no longer be affected by changes to the Linux kernel (kernel upgrades/updates).
- Many other minor improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements. (Windows and Linux)
Website
TrueCrypt Foundation
Download
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
Details
Versienummer
5.0
Releasestatus
Final
Besturingssystemen
Linux, Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Website
TrueCrypt Foundation
Download
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
Bestandsgrootte
2,30MB
Licentietype
GPL
please do not put this on your own site,
link at least back to http://daily-it.blogspot.com
Written by Teus on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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It appears the roadblock preventing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 from being made publically available when it was released to manufacturing two days ago is a deja vu of the same but less severe problem that also happened in 2004 with Windows XP Service Pack 2.
The problem then affected a very particular ATI graphics driver and Dell Bluetooth driver which resulted in loss functionality after installing XP SP2.
The problem today affects an identifiable set of drivers which too results in loss functionality after installing Vista SP1. Both of which will require driver updates prior to the service pack install.
“What happens is during the update, the sound and video components are disabled, and in the process the drivers are accidentally removed.”
At the moment there is no precise list of drivers which are affected. Some but not all audio driver(s) from Realtek, graphics driver(s) from Nvidia and network driver(s) from Intel are believed to problematic.
Over the next 30 days, Microsoft is going to work on a preemptive measure to identify which drivers are affected and prevent users with those drivers from installing SP1 until they are cleared. At the same time, they will also be knocking on the doors of many hardware vendors to make sure a driver update is available before SP1 is released. When available, those new drivers will be offered as critical updates in Windows Update to make it for easy for users to overcome the problem without scourging through vendor support websites.
Knowing that, still wished those of us who can take a chance and worst comes to worst, reinstall the driver after applying the service pack, can do so without the Windows Update crossing lady who’s not coming until March.
Written by Long Zheng on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Hide All Desktop Icons
You can hide all the desktop icons the easy way by right-clicking the Desktop, and uncheck Show Desktop Items.
Being the nitty, gritty guy that I am, I enjoy looking for solutions to problems or non-problems, such as looking for the registry tweak equivalent to such functions as hiding the desktop icons and here it is.
Boom, you’re done!
To undo the changes, repeat the steps above and change or set the value of {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} to value of 0.
Written by PC Freak on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Microsoft shows off coming updates to its Visio diagramming tool, including support for Office 2007's vaunted "ribbon" UI.
Written by WinPlanet Windows Software News on February 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.