Archive for September, 2007
Microsoft adds 5 months to XP availability
Responding to continued demand for Windows XP, Microsoft has added 5 months to the time that OEMs have for installing XP instead of Vista. The XP operating system will now be available until June 30, 2008.
Addendum: If you want to install it yourself, copies of Windows XP will still be available to system builders until [...]
Review of Acronis True Image 11
One of the better regarded programs for backup is the imaging software True Image 10 from Acronis. A new version 11 is out and the Tweakhound has a review. The author is a fan of version 10 but gives the new version 11 thumbs down. He concludes:
As it stands right now I’m afraid I cannot [...]
Microsoft stealth update causes problems
A previous post pointed out that Microsoft was updating certain system files without asking. Microsoft apologists claimed that there was much clamor about nothing and that it was all proper and fitting. Now it turns out that in fact the stealth update broke some functions. Scott Dunn at Windows Secrets first reported the problem [...]
Microsoft’s latest search effort
Microsoft is a distant third in the search game and the company keeps scratching around trying to get more traction. For one thing, the name of the search facility keeps getting changed. I don’t see that it matters much what it’s called but anyway, at the moment, it seems to be called “Live Search”. [...]
Security suite reviews
Neil Rubenking of PC Magazine has reviewed five new suites of security software. His top pick is Norton Internet Security 2008:
Norton Internet Security 2008 remains our Editors’ Choice for security suites. Its virus/spyware scan scored very well on tests, and it cleans up more thoroughly than most. The firewall is tough and includes [...]
How the average PC user benefits from multicore CPUs
Most new PCs now come with some variety of multicore processor. If you have been wondering what that means for performance, read this article by Serdar Yegulalp for some analysis. The article is a little technical in places but the gist is that there is substantial benefit for many common tasks with the [...]
Don’t believe everything Excel tells you
If you have Excel 2007, watch out – it can’t multiply. Neil Rubenking relates an Excel 2007 bug. It thinks 65,535 is really 100,000. Since 65535 = 2^16 -1, maybe that has something to do with it. In the meantime, don’t use an Excel 2007 spreadsheet for complicated calculations until the bug is fixed.
Much ado about Facebook
Right in the middle of the top half of the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal is a story, Microsoft Fires Volley At Google in Ad Battle. The story begins with the somewhat breathless line:
The battle of titans between Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. over the future of the Internet is about to [...]
Free alternative to Office from IBM
IBM is offering a free office suite called Lotus Symphony. It is still in beta but it sounds like it might be a possible alternative to the pricey (unless you’re a student) Microsoft Office. PC Magazine reviews the software and says:
If you’ve been considering OpenOffice.org as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, consider IBM Lotus [...]
Hold off installing Office 2003 service pack
Microsoft has a new service pack for Office 2003. Office Watch says that you should not install it yet because it disables some Office features:
We strongly recommend you do NOT install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 – at least not yet. Peter is working deciphering the glyphs of Microsoft documentation and will report in a [...]
New Microsoft Office file formats redux
A while back I made a post about the new file formats in Microsoft Office 2007. I keep encountering people who are confused by the new formats so I am going to repeat what I said previously:
There are many changes in the latest release of Microsoft Office. The interface is quite different and there are [...]
