Microsoft has admitted — in a roundabout way — that Vista has “high impact issues”. It has put out a call for technical testers to participate in testing of Service Pack 1, due out later this year, which will address “regressions from Windows Vista and Windows XP, security, deployment blockers and other high impact issues.”

It’s hard to know whether to be reassured that Service Pack 1 is coming, and thus that there’s now a sensible timeframe for considering deployment of Vista within businesses, OR to be alarmed that Microsoft is unleashing an OS on the world with “high impact issues” remaining in it.

In other news there’s a battle raging over the top 10 reasons to get / not to get Vista. (And a rebuttal.)

Source: APC Mag via Neowin

Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry’s best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.

Download: Mozilla Thunderbird v2.0 Beta 2 | Other Languages (Freeware)
View: Release Notes
View: Mozilla Thunderbird Home Page
Source: MSFN

Yahoo! Messenger allows you to quickly exchange messages with your online friends. Unlike e-mail, instant messages appear as soon they’re sent. By downloading the application to your computer, you can send instant messages. Other features include voice chat, file transfer, mail and stock quote alerts, sports scores, news, and much more.

Download: Yahoo! Messenger v8.1.0.239 (9.94mb)
View: Yahoo! Messenger Home Page

Alright, hands up all who are going to the midnight launch of Windows Vista. For those unaware, 44 Harvey Norman stores in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne will be flinging open their doors at 11pm on Monday night to usher in the hordes of Microsoft devotees who can’t wait another second for the latest operating system. Various deals have been thrown in to entice punters to make the pilgrimage, including 10 percent discounts on computer hardware and a bonus Web cam for the first 100 customers.

But the main drawcard is at the Alexandria, Sydney store, where, at one minute to midnight, the first official copy of Vista Ultimate — autographed, rock star-style, by Bill Gates — will be sold by Harvey Norman Chairman Gerry Harvey and new Microsoft Australia Managing Director Tracey Fellows.

As a concept, the midnight launch is pretty neat. You get to share in the fervent anticipation of a product with like-minded souls, swapping embellished tales and forging a sort of techie simpatico as you wait in an ever-growing queue outside a shutter-bound store.

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Source: ZDNet Australia

Earlier this month, the people who run PirateBay.org announced plans to purchase the man-made island called Sealand. Michael Bates, Prince and heir to Sealand, said in a CBC interview that he has no intention of selling his micronation to any cause that violates international treaties. Oddly enough, Sealand was once home to nation founder Paddy Roy Bates’ pirate radio broadcasting operation.

When the interviewer asked Prince Michael about his awareness of PirateBay.org’s intentions, he spoke quite clearly on how he was against file sharing. “It’s theft of proprietary rights, it doesn’t suit us at all” he said. “In fact, I’ve written a book and Hollywood is making a movie out of it, so it would go right against the grain to go into the file sharing thing.”

The estate agent hired to handle the sale of Sealand has also gone on record to say that PirateBay.org would not be a suitable buyer. “We might not be able to sell to them, since one of the conditions imposed by the actual occupants of Sealand is that none of the activities to be carried out on Sealand should be an action against the UK, and potentially this group does not comply with this condition,” Sealand said a statement issued to InmoNaranja. “The final decision lies with the current representatives of Sealand at the time of seeing the purchaser’s proposal.”

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CompUSA will guarantee that customers are satisfied with their Windows Vista update or the retailer will refund the purchase price and reinstall the PC’s original operating system, the company announced Monday.

The program is part of the electronics chain’s Windows Vista rollout, which will begin 12:01 a.m. next Tuesday, Jan. 30. Customers who buy Vista or Microsoft’s new Office 2007 application suite along with in-store installation of the software are eligible for the satisfaction-guaranteed refund and reinstall.

Customers who bring their PCs to a CompUSA store before 3:00 p.m. Jan. 29 will be able to buy Vista or Office installation for US$19.99 (just installation, not the software), and retrieve the computer as early as 12:01 a.m. Jan. 30. From Tuesday on, installation fees will climb to US$49.99 (in-store) and US$149.99 (in-home).

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Source: InformationWeek via MSFN

FileMenu Tools lets customize the context menu of the Windows Explorer. It lets configure the following aspects:

- Add some build-in utilities in order to do operations over files and folders.
- Add customized commands which let run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.
- Configure the “Send to…” submenu.
- Enable/disable the commands which are added by other applications to the context menu.

The built-in utilities are the following:
- Synchronize Folders
- Extended Delete
- Delete Locked File
- Join File
- and more…
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Microsoft has finally pulled it off, the longest product name ever: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE Limited Numbered Signature Edition, or MWVUULNSE for short. Regardless of how long the name is, I’m sure you can figure out what it all means, but in case you cannot, let me break it down for you. This flavour of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is only available as an upgrade, meaning you need to own a previous version of Windows. “Limited Numbered” means there are only 20,000 copies available. “Signature Edition” refers to the fact that the box is signed by Bill Gates. This unique version of Vista is priced at US$259 and will become available January 30 along with all the other Vista Editions (minus Business, of course). Microsoft fanboys, I wish you luck in getting your hands on this one.

Amazon describes the product: “Signed by Bill Gates himself: Windows Vista Ultimate is Microsoft’s powerful new operating system for the home and business user. Thinking of upgrading? Get this limited-availability Signature Edition signed by the world’s richest man and own a little piece of history.”

View: Product Box
Source: Amazon via Engadget

As Internet access becomes vital to all business organizations, network security and privacy affects everyone. Comodo, a leading global provider of trust and assurance services for the Internet, provides the highest level of protection for networks and home users alike.

Comodo Firewall is one of the smartest firewalls you can ever see. While providing answers to firewall questions, users usually do not understand the complex questions which involve complicated connection details like IP addresses, Ports, Application paths etc.

Download: Comodo Firewall Pro v2.4.16.174 Final
View: Comodo Home Page
View: Screenshot
Source: In-House

After the acquisition of ATI Technologies by Advanced Micro Devices the latter started to force out ATI’s brand-name and emphasize AMD brand for graphics cards. However, there are still many fans of ATI, who are very addicted to this name and who would like to get something related to it. Especially for 500 of such people AMD is selling Radeon X1950 XTX Uber Edition bundles signed by Dave Orton, the former chief executive of ATI.

ATI Radeon X1950 XTX Uber Edition is two Radeon X1950 XTX graphics cards (one of which is a master edition version required for multi-GPU CrossFire mode) with clock-speeds of chip/memory increased to 670MHz/2100MHz from 650MHz/2000MHz on default graphics cards. Each of 500 of such bundles is supplied in a special suit-case equipped with a combination lock. Every Radeon X1950 XTX Uber comes with certificate of authenticity signed by ATI’s former chief executive officer David Orton.

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Source: Xbit Labs via Neowin