Microsoft Pro Photo Tools (v2), Windows Search 4.0 and Windows Installer 4.5 Released!

The Pro Photo Tools allow you to add, change, and delete common metadata properties for digital photographs. You can place photos on the Live Earth map and then drag them to the right location. The GPS information will be stored back into the photos. If you have a GPS device, can load track route files from the most popular formats (NMEA, GPX, and KML) and see them on the map. Then you can place your photos on the track route. Again, the GPS info will be stored into your file. When you have the right GPS location for your photos, you can automatically generate location info like country, state, city and even street names. Or if you know the location where a picture was taken, you can type it in and get the GPS location information automatically.

More Information: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools
Download: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools version 2 [Validation Required]
Homepage: Microsoft Professional Photography

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Windows Search 4.0 lets you perform an instant search of your computer. Windows Search 4.0 helps you find and preview documents, e-mail messages, music files, photos, and other items on the computer.

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Windows XP Service Pack 3 Build 5512 Final Download

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system, in addition to a small number of new functionalities that will not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3, and how to deploy the service pack.

File Size: 316.43 MB
MD5 Hash: BB25707C919DD835A9D9706B5725AF58
SHA1 Hash: C81472F7EEEA2ECA421E116CD4C03E2300EBFDE4

Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors – 3 Weeks Deadline

Microsoft yesterday (April 5, 2008) sent the following letter to the Yahoo! Board of Directors:

Dear Members of the Board:

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) Officially Released to Consumers

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an update to Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues; supporting new types of hardware; and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also will continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional).

Download: Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista 32 Bit [434.5 MB]
Download: Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista 64 Bit [726.5 MB]
View: Windows Vista SP1 Overview
View: Notable Changes in Windows Vista SP1
View: Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows Vista SP1

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Released!

The 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 1 delivers important customer-requested stability and performance improvements, while incorporating further enhancements to user security. This service pack also includes all of the updates released for the 2007 Office suite prior to December of 2007. You can get a more complete description of SP1, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936982: Description of the 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 1.

Service Pack 1 will install even if a publicly available update has already been installed on your computer.

SP1 also includes stability improvements developed as a result of user input from the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis and from Microsoft Product Support feedback.

Download: Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 | Whitepaper
Link: More Information

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

.NET Framework 3.5 builds incrementally on the new features added in .NET Framework 3.0. For example, feature sets in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 contains a number of new features in several technology areas which have been added as new assemblies to avoid breaking changes. They include the following:

• Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness. This new feature will let you write code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of SQL data, collections, XML, and DataSets by using the same syntax.
• ASP.NET AJAX lets you create more efficient, more interactive, and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
• New Web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM, and several new WS-* standards.
• Full tooling support in Visual Studio 2008 for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflow-enabled services technology.
• New classes in .NET Framework 3.5 base class library (BCL) that address many common customer requests.

Download: .NET Framework 3.5 (Full Redistributable Package) 197.1MB
View: Details

New compatibility, reliability, and stability update for Windows Vista

This update improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista. This update includes the following improvements:

• It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
• It improves the stability of portable computers and of desktop computers that use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).
• It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
• It improves the stability of wireless network services.
• It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
• It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
• It shortens the recovery time when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• It improves the stability of Windows PowerShell.

This update also resolves the following issues in Windows Vista:

• A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
• A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

Download: X86 | X64
View: Information

Microsoft Releases Windows Vista Performance and Reliability Updates

Microsoft today has released a performance and a reliability update for Windows Vista. This is one of the steps towards Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Update for Windows Vista (KB938979)
This is a performance update. Install this update to improve the performance of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

Download
More Information

Update for Windows Vista (KB938194)
This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

Download
More Information

I highly recommend installing both these updates.

Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Finally Out!

Windows Live Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger—your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video—plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly. As always, it’s free to download Messenger and use most of its features.

Download: Windows Live Messenger v8.1.0178
Homepage: Windows Live Messenger

Beyond Windows Vista. Fiji and Vienna: The next versions of Windows.

These are some highly interesting ideas from the Unnecessary blog:

Windows Vista has been released for a month now to business, and is going to be released to the general public in a month (January 30). For those who haven’t been following Vista’s development, it is worh noting that even though Vista comes 5 years after XP, it is a rushed product.

Originally set to be a relatively small update to XP, to be released in 2003, it was re-envisioned as a major release, with revolutionary technologies such as WinFS (a new file system), Palladium (security system), Avalon (graphics system) and Indigo (communications system).

As the years went on, the folks at Microsoft found out that they are in over their heads with it, and following numerous delays and feature-cuts and slimdowns and a complete development restart in late 2004 – early 2005, they finally got on track of a much simpler OS. Nonetheless Windows Vista is a huge improvement over previous versions, and has many great features that makes it a must have (despite what many might say).

It doesn’t really matter if Vista is a success or not, Microsoft cannot wait another five years to release another Windows. People are becoming more aware of the choices they have, and Linux is no longer a hobbyist OS, and that day isn’t far away when it becomes simple enough to be a viable alternative to Windows.