Office 2010 Technical Preview Screenshots

Microsoft Office 2010 Build 14.0.4302.1000 has just leaked onto the internet, so it looks like there's more happening today than just build 7600 of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Office 2010 will be available both in 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions.

In January the first screenshots of an alpha build of Office 2010 leaked onto the internet. In May a Technical Preview of Office 2010 in 32-Bit and 64-Bit was leaked.

This build of Office 2010 includes Access 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Project 2010, Publisher 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Word 2010.

Below are the latest screenshots:

Alleged Chrome OS Screenshots Leaked

Another set of unverified screenshots of Chrome OS has been leaked to the internet. An Engadget tipster says most applications run on the internet. Picasa runs locally for photo and movie viewing, and the "System" tab displays the contents of SD cards and digital cameras. Though this image is probably fake, it is interesting. The screenshots are below, tell us what you think by commenting below.

Stream Zune Songs to your iPhone

Gear Live has found a clever way to stream Zune Pass songs to your iPhone. Why would you do that. Zune Pass gives you an unlimited amount of songs for about $15/month. The issue is that they don't play natively on the iPhone.

You first need to set up Orb on a Windows based computer to transcode, on the fly, your already downloaded Zune songs. Then you can listen to all of your songs (not just 16GB or 32GB of them) wherever you have internet access. It works well on 3G and Wi-Fi but EDGE is too slow for full quality music. For a full guide on how to do it click here.

Windows 7 ISO Verifier

One huge problem people face when downloading a Windows 7 ISO from sketchy services is that they have to verify that it was not tampered with.  In other words, they need to verify that the Windows 7 they asked for is the Windows 7 they got.

The Windows 7 ISO Verifier has been created by Long Zheng and Sven Groot, and allows users to test to see if the ISO of Windows 7 they have has not been tampered with. ISO images can simply be dropped onto the exe after download.

The program calculates the hash of the local ISO and compare it with an online database, which is constantly updated. The process is very fast. It can obviously happen that a hash is not listed in the online database either because the release is to new, human error or because it has been tampered with (say another language was added).

Is Windows Installing Updates Without Your Permission?

Several reports say that Windows XP and Windows Vista are installing updates, at system shutdown, when the user configured the computer to ask to install updates first.

This Windows Secrets article explains it all. The problem comes up when Windows is configured to use Automatic Updates either to (Vista terminology here) "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" or "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them".

Now every tech know-it-all you talk to will tell you that you should have automatic updates set to “Install updates automatically”. There have been times when Automatic Updates shut down internet access to Zone Alarm users, but that is rear and the risks outweigh the benefits. People in the aggregate are better off installing updates automatically.

Scott Spanbauer in Windows Secrets explains what might have happened. The June 9th update was a rather large update. which addressed 10 updates and 31 vulnerabilities. Microsoft Knowledge Base explains how some problems can occur when a traffic is heavy on the update server. 

Spanbauer puts forward one possible avenue for users who really want to avoid this problem:

If you consider it important to research patches before they're installed, one possible workaround involves selecting AU's option 2 or 3. Then, run Microsoft Update (a superset of Windows Update, both of which require IE) and specify every patch to be installed or not installed -- every time you plan to shut down or reboot. Running Microsoft's updater should eliminate any queued downloads that might install unexpectedly.

This doesn't seem quite right to me in a few ways. First, neither Windows nor Microsoft Update on Vista use IE, but they do on XP. Second, I have at least one system where running Microsoft Update does not eliminate queued downloads, and in fact Microsoft Update fails in that case; I have to let Automatic Updates proceed. Third, this sounds like a major pain.

The Blue Screen of Death Over the Years

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an error message that appears when Windows experiences a fatal error. The error message can show up at any time, but it is still quite rear. I’ve compiled the BSOD of all the versions of the Windows, and they are shown below.

Windows XP, Vista and 7

The Windows XP Vista and 7 BSOD

Vista’s Unique Blue Screen of Death

A unique Blue Screen of Death with only one line of error code as seen in Windows Vista, which is an ACPI-related error.

Windows NT

In Windows NT-based operating systems, the blue screen of death (displayed in 80x50 text mode as opposed to 9x/Me's 80x25) occurs when the kernel or a driver running in kernel mode encounters an error from which it cannot recover. This is usually caused by an illegal operation being performed. The only safe action the operating system can take in this situation is to restart the computer. As a result, data may be lost, as users are not given an opportunity to save data that has not yet been saved to the hard drive.

The text on the error screen contains the code of the error along with four error-dependent values in parentheses that are there to help software engineers fix the problem that occurred. Depending on the error code, it may display the address where the problem occurred, along with the driver which is loaded at that address. Under Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen may contain information on all loaded drivers and a stack dump, respectively. The driver information is in three columns; the first lists the base address of the driver, the second lists the driver's creation date (as a Unix timestamp), and the third lists the name of the driver.^[1]

 

Windows 2000

BSOD from Windows 2000. The red portion highlights the error that crashed the computer.

Windows 98/95/ME

Perhaps the most famous instance of a Windows 9x BSoD occurred during a presentation of a Windows 98 beta by Bill Gates at COMDEX on April 20, 1998. The demo PC crashed with a BSoD when his assistant (Chris Capossela, who is still working for Microsoft as Corporate VP in the Information Working business unit) connected a scanner to the PC, trying to demonstrate Windows 98's support for Plug and Play devices. This event brought thunderous applause from the crowd and Gates replied after a nervous pause: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."^[3]

 

Windows CE

The simplest version of the blue screen occurs in Windows CE except the versions for Pocket PC, which appears similar to the ones found in Windows 9x/Me.

 

Windows 1.0

The very first Blue Screen of Death happens in Windows 1.0 if a computer fails to boot up properly, it will show random letters and symbols ^[4] If Windows 1.0 encounters any (MS-DOS related) critical system errors, it will instead show a Black Screen of Death.

Windows 2.0's BSOD is the very same thing.

Windows 7 Running on a Pentium II Based PC

The moment I herd that Microsoft was designing Windows 7 to run on netbooks I was wondering what hardware it would run on.

A Windows Club Forum member that goes by the name of “hackerman1” has impressively installed Windows 7 on an ancient PC.  He installed it on a system packing a 266MHz Pentium II, 128MB of RAM and a 4MB graphics card. After succeeding, he decreased the RAM capacity to 96MB, which also handled 7. His experiment came to a temporary halt after dropping the RAM to 64MB. Hackerman’s fun won’t end there, though. He plans to try and get Windows 7 up and running on a 166MHz Pentium I and 1MB graphics card next.

Hackerman1 did not say how long it takes Windows 7 to boot or how long the install took. Other forum members said that on an ancient PC it took 17 hours to install, and 17 minutes to boot.

More Morro Screenshots Leaked

A Windows enthusiast blog on Tuesday posted what it says are leaked screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming free security software, code-named "Morro," which is due for public beta release soon. Today another set of screenshots were leaked.

In November, Microsoft announced that they would no longer be selling or supporting it’s failed anti-virus software, Windows Live OneCare.

Microsoft says that Morro will be available in the second half of 2009. OneCare will be continued to be sold until June 30 2009.

Morro will be compatible with Windows XP, Vista and the upcoming Windows 7.

When OneCare launched 3 years ago it managed to make a dent in the security industry due to lower than normal prices.

Windows 7 Build 7260 Leaked – With Screenshots

The latest leak of Windows 7 is build 7260, and yet again the leak comes from Russia.

The build is available as a 32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate VHD image (virtual hard drive image) with the build string 6.1.7260.0.win7_rtm.090612-2110 which indicates that the build was compiled on June 12.

MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.7.BUILD.7260.WIN7_RTM.X86.VHD.ENGLISH-WZT – NEW
FILE: 7260.0.x86fre.win7_rtm.090612-2110.client_en-us.ultimate.vhd
(the original VHD in packed RAR archive, size RAR file: 1,919,600,205 byte
SHA1: 0FF53F8ED2BBC0B1B174B47F80055BB3DACF2F01)
SIZE: 5,185,507,840 byte
CRC: 67C23FE0
MD5: 0703C259676D7E4C58E0EF2184369663
SHA1: 7540399601506675CF1B329CB3507875F64C555B

Microsoft is currently aiming for the RTM build which might raise the build number to 7300. Below are the screenshots provided by Wzor of Windows 7 Build 7260.

Morro Screenshots Leaked; Will it be Cloud Based?

A Windows enthusiast blog on Tuesday posted what it says are leaked screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming free security software, code-named "Morro," which is due for public beta release soon.

Neowin.net has three screenshots apparently obtained by a secret source. Morro is said to be tested internally by Microsoft

ZDnet is reporting that Morro will be cloud based.

"Instead of scanning every file or network packet as they arrive into the computer from the Web or an external device, it creates a virtual tunnel between your incoming Internet pipe at the back of your computer to a Morro data center, which scans every byte and packet for malware," writes ZDnets’s Zack Whittaker

In November, Microsoft announced that they would no longer be selling or supporting it’s failed anti-virus software, Windows Live OneCare.

Microsoft says that Morro will be available in the second half of 2009. OneCare will be continued to be sold until June 30 2009.

Morro will be compatible with Windows XP, Vista and the upcoming Windows 7.

When OneCare launched 3 years ago it managed to make a dent in the security industry due to lower than normal prices.

"With a number of free products already available, McAfee has experienced more than three years of global growth. On a level playing field, we are confident in our ability to compete with anyone who might enter the marketplace."McAfee said.

 

"Microsoft isn't going to change the business dynamic. Freeware is really about customer acquisition," Dave Cole, Symantec's senior director product management. "Norton offers trialware as a means to secure customers and even freeware vendors such as AVG, Avira, and Avast recommend upgrading to their payware solution for more complete protection. The reality is that shareware and freeware vendors have been in the market for 20-plus years. The freeware space is crowded and Microsoft is just joining the fray." Symantec said

 

 

And this from Justin Priestley, senior vice president of consumer sales at Kaspersky Lab Americas: "Right now, Kaspersky Lab offers free access to our antivirus detection technology through our Web site, allowing consumers to scan their systems or suspicious files...and for the foreseeable future, that will be the extent of our no-charge offerings."

Here are the leaked screenshots obtained by neowin from an anonymous tipster. Morro is currently in testing and is subject to UI changes.

Windows 7 Build 7232 Leaked Along With New Wallpaper

UX Evangelist has leaked a new Windows 7 wallpaper and build. For people who are addicted to downloading every single Windows 7 build Windows 7 Build 7232 can be found on BitTorrent.

A new wallpaper has also been included with the build:

Partition a Drive in Windows Vista

No need for third party programs to partition hard drive today we will look at how to create partition in Vista for free.

Note: It’s always a good idea to backup before partitioning drive.

Click “Start” now point to “Computer” and right click on it, and select “Manage” from the menu. Now the “Computer Management” window will appear. Look at the menu to the left, click on the “Storage” pointer to drop down the menu and select “Disk Management”. It will show you the current partition.

The image below shows three partitions on my drive, the first two partitions are used for my Ubuntu Linux operating system. The last partition is used by Vista. You most likely only have this one partition on your drive.

Before we can create a partition we need to free up some space and we can do that by shrinking the current one. Right click on your existing partition and choose “Shrink Volume”.

Choose the amount of space you want for the new partition. For the sake of this article I will only do 18mb, remember these figures are in megabytes if you want 2 gigabytes for example you would enter “2048″ which equals to 2gb. Click “Shrink” when finished.

When Vista finishes creating the new partition right click on it and choose “New Simple Volume”

The Windows Wizard will pop up. You can select the size, then the drive letter, format the drive in “NTFS” and name the partition and hit “Next” it will give you a recap of everything click “Finish”.

After formatting your new partition in Vista will be ready. You can check it out by go to Start > Computers. How lovely is that.