CDBurnerXP 4.1.2.745

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

* Folder sizes are now shown in the compilation window
* When printing audio covers, the tag information will be used in stead of the file name (if available)
* More native looking menus (especially on Vista)
* Fixed NullReferenceException in the "report working drive" dialog
* Fixed ArgumentException for the case that faulty visual styles are in use
* Fixed a KeyNotFoundException when closing a dialog (.NET bug)
* Fixed a FormatException when ripping (renamed!) audio tracks from the hard drive (which does, of course, not work anyway)
* Fixed an overflow exception when copying audio discs
* Fixed an overflow exception when calculating the remaining time
* Fixed an OverflowException when determining the available speeds
* Fixed a MissingFieldException in the startup dialog

CDBurnerXP website

andLinux : Linux on windows

andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system running seamlessly in Windows 2000 based systems (2000, XP, 2003, Vista; 32-bit versions only). This project was started for Dynamism for the GP2X community, but its userbase far exceeds its original design. andLinux is free and will remain so, but donations are greatly needed.

andLinux uses coLinux as its core which is confusing for many people. coLinux is a port of the Linux kernel to Windows. Although this technology is a bit like running Linux in a virtual machine, coLinux differs itself by being more of a merger of Windows and the Linux kernel and not an emulated PC, making it more efficient. Xming is used as X server and PulseAudio as sound server.

andLinux is not just for development and runs almost all Linux applications without modification.

andLinux.org

WinSCP 4.15 released

WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer.

Features:

* Graphical user interface
* Translated into several languages
* Integration with Windows (drag&drop, URL, shortcut icons)
* U3 support
* All common operations with files
* Support for SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2 and plain old FTP protocol
* Batch file scripting and command-line interface
* Directory synchronization in several semi or fully automatic ways
* Integrated text editor
* Support for SSH password, keyboard-interactive, public key and Kerberos (GSS) authentication
* Integrates with Pageant (PuTTY authentication agent) for full support of public key authentication with SSH
* Explorer and Commander interfaces
* Optionally stores session information
* Optionally supports portable operation using a configuration file in place of registry entries, suitable for operation from removable media

WinSCP website

SE-Explorer 0.0.18.396

SE-Explorer is a free simple and powerful file manager for Windows.

Main Features:

* Two file windows side by side
* Enhanced search function
* Tabbed interface
* A lot of build-in viewers
* Portable version available

HomePage: se-soft.com

Microsoft promised to extend XP support!

This is amazing news i read! Microsoft said, that they will support Windows XP upto 2014.And they will provide patches and hot fixes for XP for support upto April 2014.

May be this is because of lower acceptance of windows vista OR they have fear of lossing on windows users? Whatever it is, but this is good move by them for corporates. Many corporates are still using windows XP and not gonna upgrade their hardware for vista.

Microsoft senior VP Bill Veghte said,

"Our ongoing support for Windows XP is the result of our recognition that people keep their Windows-based PCs for many years,"

So obviously,as we have discussed before that if MS will stop XP support,then all corporates will be on linux? And may be some MS guy had read that :D? May be,but this gonna help lazy corporates who don't want to upgrade ;).

More @ InformationWeek

MS Office 2008 - Mac 12.1.1 Update

This contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance. For more information about this update, please visit the Microsoft Web site.

Improvements:

* Stability is improved.
* This update fixes an issue that causes Office 2008 applications to exit unexpectedly when you open or use Office 2008 applications.
* Dates in a chart are displayed correctly in Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac and in Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac.

This update fixes an issue that causes the dates in a chart to change unexpectedly when you open a Word 2008 document or a PowerPoint 2008 presentation that contains a chart.

Applies to: Office 2008, Office 2008 Home and Student Edition, Office 2008 Special Media Edition, Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, Entourage 2008. (more at source)

Download

Dell is always Hell - charging to downgrade to XP!

I had never liked dell configurations for desktops specifically.I prefer assembled ones.And for laptop, i suggest HP/IBM.

But this is something different weird thing friends. Dell has announced that it will stop selling new computers with Windows XP from now on, unless buyers spend an extra $50 to downgrade their operating system!

What is this?I mean this is something like buying some gas for your car and you will be charged for cleaning and air feeling!I think dell thinks that people will not take vista and they will get benefit. And yeah, sure if people will want XP then dell gets some more bucks on each purchase!

I suggest you,first, don't purchase dell :D. And if you, then take it as it is. And install yourself Windows XP you owning at home.So no need to pay extra $50.

As Microsoft said,

"Last year you told us you weren't quite ready to say goodbye to Windows XP. We listened. That's why we delayed our plan to stop selling it until June 30, 2008."

,dell planned to get money from this also.So clever. :)

Windows XP Future | vnunet

Silverlight 2 Beta 2

Apparently entering thus far unannounced, Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is available for download. Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Version 2 Beta 2 adds several major new features, including:

* Improved Template Model
* Including controls in the runtime instead of packaged in the app package
* Upload support
* Duplex communication
* Silverlight DRM streaming content

ReleaseNotes | Download Silverlight

Microsoft Videos BETA: A Silverlight Promotion?

Microsoft Videos lets us explore and watch Microsoft's collection of online video. The whole experience is built using Microsoft Silverlight platform. The site is a collection of all types of Microsoft videos which includes demos, advertisements, tutorials, press releases, Microsoft Research videos etc. We can scan through Quick Picks for the latest videos, or enter a search for a particular video and we can also choose from one of the given Video Categories.

I have checked the site. It seems quite good for developers who want to lear new MS technologies using video tutorials. Ans think MS is giving it free is a big zing! :) But see the screenshot i have attached. On homepage, it will ask to install Silverlight. Again MS is doing a promotion of silverlight as i think :). But though, nice to check if you need something.

Microsoft Videos BETA

MS Office Word 2007 Opened - Article Authoring Add-in

As we discussed some days before, MS has added add-in to convert word doc to XML format used by the National Library of Medicine.

This Beta 1 release of the Article Authoring Add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 provides authors of scientific articles with the ability to read and write files from Word 2007 into the XML format used by the National Library of Medicine for archiving articles in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, PubMed Central.

This Beta 1 release is targeted at the staff of scientific and technical journals, Information Repositories, and early adopters within the scholarly authoring community, as well as developers of publishing solutions and workflows.

Download

Microsoft Office : New file formats opened

This is something of our interest. Cnet has discussed that BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) has filed complaint against Microsoft for not supporting Open standards. After two days of this complaint, Microsoft declared that they will provide support for ODF (Open Document Format), PDF and XPS. They also mentioned that,

"This is not because of a sue but we have already planned".

Microsoft will support ODF as it is used by many users in governments and schools. They want Office to be compliant with open standards, so users can view such files in Office. Also conversion support for older versions of Office will be provided. Ms also talked that they want to work with Open-source community for the conversion tool.

Now i think Microsoft is on right track. The open-source industry is the reason for this as per my opinion, because open-source is growing very fast and now MS feels a better competition. And we will get benefit of this competition. Its great :)! It seems that MS have to do some new changes in their products and polices as per the new Open-source era.

Let hope something better now :).

MessangerGroup - Why it is needed?

I just published the news of MessengerGroup feature. I have tried it, made my own group and invited friends. But what i think is what Microsoft is up to? I mean what is the benefit of this grouping?

As all of us know, we can create a group chat in Windows Live messenger then who wants this so called MessengerGroup?

The only thing unique about it is, who ever adds it in their MSN contact list will be a member of the group automatically. You don't need to invite them all again. Your conference is saved forever in your contact list. You just open it and chat to your friends.

It has some commands to get information about the users and the service itself. You can type '/help' in the input and it will show you all the commands. I will not talk here about all of them, but let's see some important ones.

write '/open' or send a 'nudge' - will show sidebar of user list.
/users - shows all registered users in this chat group.

But i don't think people will use this one if they are comfortable with Messenger conference. This one can be added to your website also, but i am not including it here.

Give your inputs, why this one is released when MSN has conference feature? I mean invite users into some chat is not so irritating. Ya may be if you have a hell lot of contacts in your list, then you can use this so no need t remember things!

MessengerGroup (beta) published new features

To prevent annoying from bots or spammers, Messenger Group (Intro) released the blacklist feature last week. And to provide users better services, they put out Membership Verification feature now!


Blacklist
Group owner and admin can delete and remove those spammers to blacklist directly
For those annoying bots, select the option “Setting - Blacklist”, add bots accounts into the blacklist
Users in blacklist will not annoy the group again. Each group’s blacklist can just hold 20 Messenger accounts.

Membership Verification
Group owner and administrator can open the right panel to set membership verification mode.
Currently there are four modes to be set:

1. Allow anybody join the group

2. Approved to join by the group admin (Messenger users must apply and get approved for membership by group owner or admin)

3. Answer a question to join (group owner or admin may set a question and an answer, membership applicants need to answer the question; if the answer is correct, ok, joined; otherwise cannot)
Question:
Answer:

4. Nobody can join the group.

Personal Information
Group users may also find an another new feature, personal information.
Click a group member’s nickname, you will see his or her personal information, which can be set in Setting – My Profile.

Techlads Group: mgroup41284@hotmail.com | Official Website

Microsoft WorldWide Telescope

Microsoft WorldWide Telescope is a virtual telescope software that enables you to explore the universe with the help of interactive star charts and high resolution imagery from some of the best land and sky based telescopes. You can manually explore the night sky for your geographical location or enjoy one of the many interactive tours that will take you on an educational journey across the universe, to visit the solar system, black holes, star clusters, nebula, cosmic events and more. WorldWide Telescope also supports the ASCOM platform which allows you to connect and control a compatible telescope directly to the software. Other features include real-time tracking of the night sky in your location, a finder scope to reveal details for any object, multiple sources for imagery, object search and filtering, and morel. WorldWide Telescope provides a user friendly interface, and is well suited for casual night sky explorers as well as more advanced star gazers and hobby astronomers.


Homepage:Download | WorldwiseTelescope

10 Alternatives for Microsoft Word on Windows

How many times have you felt that is MS Word the only word processor that I have for Windows. Well can't blame you because most of the times me too have felt the same. So i browsed and browsed and browsed till i can browse no more and have come up with list of 10 alternative. I am sure you will love it.

1. OpenOffice.org Writer: This is arguably the most commonly used alternative to Microsoft Word. OpenOffice is a complete suite of applications similar to those found in the Microsoft Office suite; Writer is the word processing program in that suite. It is very similar in style to Word and also has functions that allow it to create and edit web pages as well as to export PDF files. The functionality of this program is comparable to Word and its eighteen-year history points to the viability of this product as a true Word alternative. The best part about it is that it's free. Notably, this product can also be used with Linux and with Mac OS X computers that have the X Window System installed on them.
2. KWord: Although it's fallen out of popularity in recent years due to the proliferation of word processing programs, KWord has historically been a fairly well-established alternative to Microsoft Word. It is based on frames which means that it's convenient for moving and editing large amounts of text as well as for incorporating images into documents. It is designed to be easy-to-use and flexible enough to meet the needs of a diverse group of people (from student to professional).
3. Microsoft Works: This is the Microsoft Word alternative that most people are familiar with as it comes on many computers as a standard free version of Microsoft Word. It has a lot of the same basic functions but also has some flaws and isn't considered a favoured alternative by most people. For the person who only needs to write basic documents that don't need to be widely shared, it can be a useful program.
4. StarWriter: This affordable software allows users to have all of the same basic features as Microsoft Word without having to actually use Word. It's great for people who are seeking an alternative primarily on the principle of a dislike of Microsoft or a desire to see this word processing giant face more competition. It is compatible with Word so that collaboration with others who use Word isn't made difficult by using this program. This software is also commonly used by Linux users.
5. TechDigm Office: This application suite includes a word processing program which is comparable to StarWriter and can be easily used as an alternative-but-compatible Word program.
6. AbilityWrite: Yet another alternative that is similar to StarWriter and TechDigm is AbilityWrite, the word processing program that is part of the Ability Office application suite. The benefit here is that Ability Office comes in five different versions which each include AbilityWrite along with different combinations of other programs (such as a spreadsheet program) which means you can pick and choose what you need in an application suite.
7. Atlantis: Take a look at the home page of this Microsoft Word alternative and you'll see that it looks a little messy. That's deterred a lot of people from taking a test run of this product even though it's available for a free 30-day trial before purchase is required. Those who have tried it, though, say that it's an easy-to-use alternative to Microsoft Word which has many of the advanced features that Word users enjoy at a lower cost than what Word typically runs.
8. Evermore Integrated Office: This is a useful but complicated alternative to Microsoft Word due to the fact that it's more than just a word processing program. Instead of opening up separate programs (for example, Word and Excel), you open everything up in one place. That makes it a great alternative for people who are seeking a really streamlined system but not so great for those people who are just going to want a word processor without all of the extras.
9. yWriter: This is a niche word processing program designed specifically for writers who are working on novels or other book-length works. It has features which make it great for these long works include organizational methods that make it easy to move chapters around and tools that allow you to track your progress on the work. It can be used on its own or file can be saved as .rtf files and opened with other word processing programs.
10. Nota Bene: This is another niche word processing program but this one is designed for academics and researchers. It has specific academic functions such as automatic bibliography and citation assistance. It also has advanced search functions that allow users to find their own quotes and documents using a search engine style method of searching. It's pricey software ($100+ depending on the version you want) but those who regularly write academic papers that need to be in tip top form may find that the cost is worth it.

Discuss It: Linux is faster then windows...

I was just surfing net and i found this long but cool article which talks about speeds of Linux and windows.

It talks about how Linux is optimized that it can run on even lower configurations also which win XP can't. Windows applications are good and fast on Linux compared to windows itself! Isn't its strange? Yeah and also windows based games runs faster with wine on Linux. It shows some benchmarks also for results of comparisons.

Main reasons which can be the main cause of windows slowness are,

-Linux use preemptive multitasking which means 'processes are forced to share CPU rather they want to or not'. And windows use Cooperative Multitasking which means 'process currently controlling the CPU must offer control to other processes'.

-windows is based on registry so while booting, it will load registry in memory. This is not the case with Linux.

-Windows has only one desktop which uses more resources and on the other side, Linux has many desktops which are configurable and many new are coming for different distributions.

The best lines said on source,

So, it seems to me the primary reason why Linux runs faster than Windows is because it is better designed to work with hardware, in the context that it handles operations in a more efficient manner than Windows.

In my opinion, I also get the perception, that perhaps the development of Linux is guided by people who seek to maximize performance. It does not appear to be developed predominantly by those who seek to maximize profits.

Full article @ ubuntuLinuxHelp

Endless Reboot Cycle for AMD/XP SP3 PCs

How about watching your PC continually reboot? That's what some aggravated Windows XP users have been doing Friday after installing the XP service pack 3 (SP3).

The problem appears to primarily affect AMD -based computers, though there are also some cases in which Intel -based machines will also run into trouble, Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft who now runs a Windows-related blog, wrote in a recent post.

Mention of the reboot problem first popped up on the Microsoft forums on April 23, prompting some to speculate that the poster's problem was due to an outdated version of SP3, but users who installed the final version soon reported the same issue.

via pcmag

Windows XP SP3 - now via Windows Update

Windows XP SP3 is finally here for those that use Windows Update, and here is a direct link to the stand-alone version of SP3 for x86 XP systems (32 bit).

Here is an interesting article regarding SP3 performance, ignoring the fact that Vista SP1 is still faster than XP SP2/SP3 users will enjoy a performance boost over SP2. When will people learn that Vista ain't all bad!

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.

Installer for Windows XP SP3 English, 32 Bit [316M]
SP 3 for Windows XP via Windows Update

Messanger group chat on your WL Messenger!

Messenger Group, developed with Windows Live Messenger platform, is a service for a group of Messenger users chatting together in real time. Maybe you think that Windows Live Messenger supports multi-conversation, but this multi-conversation is temporary, will be dismissed with the finish of conversation.

Compared with multi-conversation, Messenger Group is an existing group with each member in, members can talk together at any time without creating a temporary multi-conversation. Messenger Group makes a group of people connecting closer, no matter whether they are on your Messenger contact list. You can create a group for a team, a department or a company to chat online together.

Now if you have a Windows Live ID, then go to Messenger Group website (http://www.messengergroupchat.com) to create your own Messenger Group.

* Free to create Messenger Groups
* Each Messenger Group can have 900 members at most
* Group manager can change group name and display picture
* Group manager can set an administrator to help manage group
* Group member can change their nickname in the group

At present there are more than three million users and 500,000 Messenger groups have been created.

Messenger Group official website

Microsoft Web Servers Hacked

Hundreds of thousands of Web sites - including several at the United Nations and in the U.K. government -- have been hacked recently and seeded with code that tries to exploit security flaws in Microsoft Windows to install malicious software on visitors' machines.

The attackers appear to be breaking into the sites with the help of a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers. In an alert issued last week, Microsoft said it was investigating reports of an unpatched flaw in IIS servers, but at the time it noted that it wasn't aware of anyone trying to exploit that particular weakness.

On Thursday, Spanish anti-virus vendor Panda Security said that it had alerted Microsoft that a flaw IIS was the cause of all the break-ins. When I asked Microsoft whether they'd heard from Panda or if the hundreds of thousands of sites were hacked from a patched or unpatched flaw in IIS, a spokesman for the company didn't offer much more information.

According to Finnish anti-virus maker F-Secure, the number of hacked Web pages serving up malicious software from this attack may be closer to half a million.

Washington Post