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I recommend you visit Microsoft and have a look at their "Windows" operating system. [...] Overall, it is kind of a poorly reinvented UNIX, but I think you might just like it.

I've seen some people use it, then they told me you had to pay for it. I was flabbergasted -- why would anyone pay for an operating system?

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/tree/src

Of note, copy.c, copy.h, and cp.c.

Wow.. it's like code that time forgot.

I love the way there's about a page of complex code that jumps through hoops to figure out a good buffer size, when 64KB would basically work well in all cases. From what I can see, there's a few situations in which 'cp' will pick tiny buffer sizes and waste a bunch of time on overhead. The default appears to be 32KB, which is too small these days. I've done experiments (admittedly on Windows, but same difference), demonstrating that using IO blocks as large as 1MB improves performance significantly. There's a reason Microsoft increased the default IO sizes on Windows Server from 64KB to 1MB.

A much better buffer selection algorithm would be to detect L2 or L3 cache sizes of the processor, and use a buffer slightly smaller than one of those. You'd have to play with benchmarks to see if staying within L2 is a benefit (I suspect that it isn't).

The biggest problem with 'cp' is that it's synchronous single-threaded. It does a read, then a write, then a read, then a write, etc... For comparison, Windows Vista and later does reads synchronously but then writes asynchronously so that the next read doesn't have to wait for the write to complete. Even with kernel buffering and lazy IO, 'cp' is probably much less efficient that it could be.

As usual, it appears to be a poorly designed pretty graph, made by someone who doesn't know or care that a graph is supposed to convey information. Root around for raw data around here

I recommend you visit Microsoft and have a look at their "Windows" operating system. The concept of a terminal doesn't run nearly as deep in it as it does in Linux. The same goes for the concept of security. Overall, it is kind of a poorly reinvented UNIX, but I think you might just like it. There are quite a few applications available for it nowadays, and it is gaining more and more marketshare and public recognition.

Yes they do. Others have put up various links; here is one from Microsoft's website about their dividends:
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/FAQ/dividend.mspx

Apparently, you are not a Excel user.
Try copy/pasting your post above into an Office '97 Excel cell and see what happens.

Option to do something like that correctly wasn't added until the 2007 edition.
Why?
Was it because Microsoft is an evil heartless corporation that intentionally chokes and cripples their own applications just so they can keep selling you another version WITH those options a few years down the road?
Or could it have something to do with available processing power and memory on an average PC in '97, 2000, 2003 and 2007?

Also, if you find Office '97 a paragon of text and statistical data editing, publishing and presenting... You need to get out more.

Riiight. And under the Microsoft Covenant to me as a (potential) Moonlight user, they promise not to sue me for using my computer. This covenant applies until, umm, they change their mind about it. After that, of course, all bets are off.

No thanks.

What I find most interesting is the way all changes are perfectly synchronized with the exception of entertainment related stuff. This is clear indication of the power of vendor lock-in and tying unrelated products together.

No. It's a clear indication that TFA used a Stacked Line Chart. If you were to move Office and Server to the bottom of the stack, you would see that they both account for relatively small sales bumps (~1 billion), with the real movement coming from the release of Windows Vista (Mar '07 bump) and Windows 7 (Dec '09 bump).

Normally you avoid data distortions like this by putting the least-variable data at the bottom of a stacked chart. I think "Chart of the Day" needs a better-trained Excel monkey.

Yea, I'd suggest that MS add detection and removal for this rootkit to the MSRT.

It's already there.

Malware Families Cleaned by the Malacious Software Removal Tool [June 05 to date], Win32/Alureon [Updated Jan 5]

The rootkit hasn't forgotten the old folks still on dial-up:

If a dial-up connection is sometimes used from the computer, reconfigure the dial-up settings in the rasphone.pbk file as necessary, as Win32/Alureon may set the fields "IpDnsAddress" and "IpDns2Address" in the rasphone.pbk file to the attacker's address. The Microsoft scanner code that automatically removes Win32/Alureon backs up the infected dial-up configuration file to:
%allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk.bak

The latest addition to the list is Pushbot [Jan 27]

Using backdoor functionality Win32/Pushbot can be ordered to spread via MSN Messenger by a remote attacker. It sends a message to all of the infected user's contacts. Some variants may also spread using other instant messaging programs, such as AIM.

The worm can be ordered to send messages, which can contain URLs pointing to a remotely hosted copy of itself. The message may be provided by the controller via the IRC backdoor. Some variants of Win32/Pushbot may also spread by copying themselves to removable drives (other than A: or B:, such as USB memory keys) Some variants may be ordered to spread by copying themselves to the shared directories of various peer-to-peer file sharing programs, using filenames such as the following: KEY-GEN Adobe PhotoShop CS3.exe.

Some variants instead may attach a zipped copy of themselves to the [IM] message and/or randomly choose messages from a provided list. As an example, some variants use the following messages:

WoW? is that really you... what the hell where you drinking :D
LOL, you look so ugly in this picture, no joke...
Should I put this on facebook/myspace?
Hey m8, who is this on the right, in this picture...
Sup, seen the pictures from the other night?

Yea, I'd suggest that MS add detection and removal for this rootkit to the MSRT.

It's already there.

Malware Families Cleaned by the Malacious Software Removal Tool [June 05 to date], Win32/Alureon [Updated Jan 5]

The rootkit hasn't forgotten the old folks still on dial-up:

If a dial-up connection is sometimes used from the computer, reconfigure the dial-up settings in the rasphone.pbk file as necessary, as Win32/Alureon may set the fields "IpDnsAddress" and "IpDns2Address" in the rasphone.pbk file to the attacker's address. The Microsoft scanner code that automatically removes Win32/Alureon backs up the infected dial-up configuration file to:
%allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk.bak

The latest addition to the list is Pushbot [Jan 27]

Using backdoor functionality Win32/Pushbot can be ordered to spread via MSN Messenger by a remote attacker. It sends a message to all of the infected user's contacts. Some variants may also spread using other instant messaging programs, such as AIM.

The worm can be ordered to send messages, which can contain URLs pointing to a remotely hosted copy of itself. The message may be provided by the controller via the IRC backdoor. Some variants of Win32/Pushbot may also spread by copying themselves to removable drives (other than A: or B:, such as USB memory keys) Some variants may be ordered to spread by copying themselves to the shared directories of various peer-to-peer file sharing programs, using filenames such as the following: KEY-GEN Adobe PhotoShop CS3.exe.

Some variants instead may attach a zipped copy of themselves to the [IM] message and/or randomly choose messages from a provided list. As an example, some variants use the following messages:

WoW? is that really you... what the hell where you drinking :D
LOL, you look so ugly in this picture, no joke...
Should I put this on facebook/myspace?
Hey m8, who is this on the right, in this picture...
Sup, seen the pictures from the other night?

Yea, I'd suggest that MS add detection and removal for this rootkit to the MSRT.

It's already there.

Malware Families Cleaned by the Malacious Software Removal Tool [June 05 to date], Win32/Alureon [Updated Jan 5]

The rootkit hasn't forgotten the old folks still on dial-up:

If a dial-up connection is sometimes used from the computer, reconfigure the dial-up settings in the rasphone.pbk file as necessary, as Win32/Alureon may set the fields "IpDnsAddress" and "IpDns2Address" in the rasphone.pbk file to the attacker's address. The Microsoft scanner code that automatically removes Win32/Alureon backs up the infected dial-up configuration file to:
%allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk.bak

The latest addition to the list is Pushbot [Jan 27]

Using backdoor functionality Win32/Pushbot can be ordered to spread via MSN Messenger by a remote attacker. It sends a message to all of the infected user's contacts. Some variants may also spread using other instant messaging programs, such as AIM.

The worm can be ordered to send messages, which can contain URLs pointing to a remotely hosted copy of itself. The message may be provided by the controller via the IRC backdoor. Some variants of Win32/Pushbot may also spread by copying themselves to removable drives (other than A: or B:, such as USB memory keys) Some variants may be ordered to spread by copying themselves to the shared directories of various peer-to-peer file sharing programs, using filenames such as the following: KEY-GEN Adobe PhotoShop CS3.exe.

Some variants instead may attach a zipped copy of themselves to the [IM] message and/or randomly choose messages from a provided list. As an example, some variants use the following messages:

WoW? is that really you... what the hell where you drinking :D
LOL, you look so ugly in this picture, no joke...
Should I put this on facebook/myspace?
Hey m8, who is this on the right, in this picture...
Sup, seen the pictures from the other night?

If it legally can't have an internet connection then it's most likely part of a company large enough to have volume license keys which would allow you to use a MAK that you activate *once* over the phone and never mess with it again. They specifically bring up a similar scenario in their disconnected environment activations document.

When does DirectX release new versions?

Bi-monthly. It says as much on the download page.

Is there currently a set of programs that does this in some automated fashion that will generate a list of discrepencies to parse through?

I believe RootkitRevealer does, although it does it by comparing the files as shown through Windows to a raw read of the file table.

//Microsoft Employee here//

Check out Microsoft Security Essentials if you work with customers computers.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

It is 100% free and has gotten favorable reviews. It is also very minimalist in design and simple to understand by non-technical people.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353447,00.asp

Theres a better patch out

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Actually, I had to dive into this a little in fall of 2009. Starting with Win7 and Windows Server 2008 by default Windows will phone home to validate your license every week. You can configure this somewhat, but it becomes problematic if you do not have an Internet connection - then Windows invalidates your valid license when it can't reach the Microsoft servers. The only way to disable this functionality is with a volume license - and even then, you have to go through special steps via the command-line to get it to validate once and be done.

More information available here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979805.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303276.aspx

Actually, I had to dive into this a little in fall of 2009. Starting with Win7 and Windows Server 2008 by default Windows will phone home to validate your license every week. You can configure this somewhat, but it becomes problematic if you do not have an Internet connection - then Windows invalidates your valid license when it can't reach the Microsoft servers. The only way to disable this functionality is with a volume license - and even then, you have to go through special steps via the command-line to get it to validate once and be done.

More information available here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979805.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303276.aspx

After all, there's no way that their malware tool could have spotted it, or the update could have checksummed the files before patching them.

If they put half as much effort into their anti-malware activities as they do into their DRM regime, the world would be a better place. We'd all have unicorns, and a pot of gold.

Microsoft does detect it - and has since last October.

File atapi.sys received on 2010.02.11 21:58:49 (UTC)

Virus:Win32/Alureon.A
Updated: Dec 07, 2009

Aliases:

Win32/Olmarik!generic (CA) Rootkit.Win32.TDSS.u (Kaspersky)
W32/TDSS.drv.gen4.A (Norman)
Mal/TDSSPack-V (Sophos)

Encyclopedia entry

Updated: Dec 07, 2009 | Published: Dec 02, 2009

Aliases

Win32/Olmarik!generic (CA) Rootkit.Win32.TDSS.u (Kaspersky)
W32/TDSS.drv.gen4.A (Norman)
Mal/TDSSPack-V (Sophos)

Alert Level
Severe

Detection initially created:
Definition: 1.69.77.0
Released: Oct 23, 2009

There are no common symptoms associated with this threat. Alert notifications from installed antivirus software may be the only symptom(s). When the infecting trojan is run, it infects a system driver, usually 'atapi.sys'. It has also been observed to infect 'iastor.sys' but other system drivers may also be targeted. The system driver detected as Virus:Win32/Alureon.A is infected by the addition of code, whose function is to load a part of the Alureon rootkit. The Alureon rootkit is a component that gives Alureon the ability to avoid detection; it is created by the same Alureon trojan that infects the system driver. The rootkit loaded by Virus:Win32/Alureon.A has the ability to avoid behavior blockers, which allows it to perform its malicious routines uninterrupted. It can also hide files and disk sectors.

Manual removal is not recommended for this threat. To detect and remove this threat and other malicious software that may have been installed, run a full-system scan with an up-to-date antivirus product such as Microsoft Security Essentials... . Win32/Alureon may modify DNS settings on the host computer, thus the following steps may be required after the Win32/Alureon removal is complete:
If the computer has a network interface that does not receive a configuration using DHCP, reset the DNS configuration if necessary

You could call it Microsoft SafeUpdate

or even Windows File Protection and only allow drivers that have been digitally signed.

Nice idea I suppose, but as they didn't work there's only one solution - DRM on everything in your C drive!!

Microsoft Update KB977165 triggering widespread BSOD One of Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" security fixes is triggering a widespread "Blue Screen of Death" problem. The cause is not the update itself, but an existing infection. So far, reports suggest that this problem affects Windows XP and Windows Vista. Once the update is applied and the system rebooted, Windows will bluescreen at boot. When booted to Safe Mode, the system will freeze. Removing the update from the Windows Recovery Console or using live media will get the system booting again, at least until the update is reapplied. I have found that the root cause is an infection of %System32\drivers\atapi.sys, and that replacing this file with a clean version will get the system booting normally. This is not the first time that an infection hitting atapi.sys has caused updates to trigger bluescreens. If you are running Windows and have not yet applied this update, make sure you scan your computer thoroughly for infections before applying this update. If you are experiencing this problem, get your computer to a professional that can replace the infected atapi.sys and clean any other malware from your computer. References: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=8209 http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/73cea559-ebbd-4274-96bc-e292b69f2fd1 Detailed Repair Instructions Using the Windows XP Recovery Console 1. Boot from your Windows installation CD Insert your Windows installation CD and boot your computer. If your computer is not set to boot from CD first, you may need to reconfigure your BIOS or press a boot menu key (often F12, F8 or Esc). If you are unsure of how to do this, consult your favorite geek. As soon as the boot starts, you should see a message like "Press any key to boot from CD..." - press a key. 2. Start the Recovery Console After the CD loads (it may take a minute), you will be presented with a few choices. One of these options is to start a recovery by pressing "R". Press "R" to launch the Recovery Console. * You may be asked to choose a Windows installation. If so, choose the damaged installation (probably "1). * You may be prompted for the Administrator password. If you do not have one, press "Enter". 3. Identify your CD drive letter You should now be at the command prompt. Enter the following command: map Look for the drive letter for your CD drive. It may look something like this: D: \Device\CdRom0 In this case, your CD drive is "D:". 4. Replace ATAPI.SYS Enter the following, replacing "D:" with your CD drive: cd system32\drivers ren atapi.sys atapi.old expand D:\i386\atapi.sy_ You should see the message "1 file(s) expanded." - this indicates you have succeeded. 5. Reboot and scan for malware Reboot your computer. With a little luck, your computer will now boot normally. Because this problem is caused by malware, you should immediately scan your computer with up-to-date antivirus software. Tags: Malware, Security, Windows This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 17:22 and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

I'd consider $33/seat comparable to the windows server 2008 CAL-license price of $39.95/seat (20 pack at $799). But then you would also need a CAL-license for the exchange server at $67/seat for email (included in the osx-server license).

Wait. $33/seat is a bargain!

I'd consider $33/seat comparable to the windows server 2008 CAL-license price of $39.95/seat (20 pack at $799). But then you would also need a CAL-license for the exchange server at $67/seat for email (included in the osx-server license).

Wait. $33/seat is a bargain!

I had the same problem: OOo (3.1 in my case) refused to be uninstalled, therefore installing 3.2 failed as well.
From the other posts the most helpful is probably that about msizap.exe, but it's a command-line utility that may not be that easy to use.

My suggestion, as it worked for me, is to use the Windows Installer Clean Up tool to remove the corrupted uninstall data, then install OOo 3.2.
A description of that tool can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301. The short Howto is: Install tool and run it, select "OpenOffice.org 3.x" from the list of installed programs and remove it.

I had the same problem: OOo (3.1 in my case) refused to be uninstalled, therefore installing 3.2 failed as well.
From the other posts the most helpful is probably that about msizap.exe, but it's a command-line utility that may not be that easy to use.

My suggestion, as it worked for me, is to use the Windows Installer Clean Up tool to remove the corrupted uninstall data, then install OOo 3.2.
A description of that tool can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301. The short Howto is: Install tool and run it, select "OpenOffice.org 3.x" from the list of installed programs and remove it.

its apples and oranges, pun intended. It is unreasonable to assume you have to buy an apple monitor with the mini, just buy a 125$ 20" from newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009158 , and a keyboard/mouse combo for another 20$. Without question, out of the box, Macs are geared for creativity, aka iLife, which is just about useless in an enterprise environment. But also out of the box you have iCal, mail, address book, itunes, preview and time machine.
I will state upfront, i have used win7 for less than 15 minutes of my life so I am not up to date with windows. Also I learned just now that XP has an address book.
I think that for out of the box something that syncs your phone contacts, calendar and mail as well as macs do is pretty awesome. Also something(itunes) that can sync that with your email account(gmail, yahoo at least) with your contacts is very nice. Our of the box you have preview with opens pdfs, pretty much any type of images, also OS X makes previews of psds, docx, xlsx, etc available in the finder cover flow. To my knowledge windows does not do this without the help of adobe reader or the previews like OS X at all.
Time machine can backup locally(usb disk) or over a network to a server drive, and restoring after a HD crash or to new hardware is very simple and easy. I have upgraded the hard drive in my MBP and it was an amazing feeling when i just hit restore after installing snow leopard and a few hours later I was back to where I was when I last shut down my mac, its like nothing happened.

Nice to haves, but not out of the box are, iWork and mobile me. MS Office business edition(no student and home for enterprise which is still $150)for mac is $400, http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2008/shop-now.mspx. iWork is 80$, excuse the possible bias but ms office for mac is overpriced and crippled. It seems office 2007 small business($450) is closer to mac ms office business in features but office standard is the most comparable to iWork and matches the mac ms office cost at $400. Again you cannot use the cheaper home and student editions on windows, you have to go full versions in business. So for the average cubicle worker (non engineer/science type) word excel power point, pages, numbers, keynote will do just fine.
MobileMe: nice to sync on the go if you did not sync over usb before you left, or if you drop your iphone in a puddle after you added meeting times and contact information.

Worth noting, mac hardware is the same price in their business store, http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313?cid=AOSA10000022131, as their regular store. I will leave it to the parent author to provide a link to a 500$ system with windows, a 20" monitor from a business computer division of a company.

So out of the box all you have to install on a mac is iWork, which you can order preinstalled, not nearly the same case for windows.

So cost for average cubicle worker(excuse my lingo), windows = 500hardware + 400office = 900$, mac = 700+80+125+20 = $925, negligible difference IMHO, I leave the final score up to you.

Or they should be able to use system restore from command prompt and go back to before the update that borked the machine. After getting the machine back up and running I prefer to give them Comodo Time Machine which allows them to press the home key if they ever end up in a "no boot" situation, and I set it for daily snapshots.

Comodo time Machine is simple enough that anybody can use it, and having its own boot console with easy to use GUI means even if the PC won't boot they can still restore from snapshot. Much easier than all that mess you typed.

Except you have to have the recovery console installed first... And the instructions are to install from the CD (before your OS BSOD's of course) which most users don't have, and if anything like my last 3 systems (HP, Acer, Lenovo), attempting to access the recovery partition where those files might be results in explorer.exe crashing.

Time to boot onto a live CD, copy important files onto usb stick or nas and decide if you really want to reinstall windows so you can have the privilege of doing it all again next patch tuesday.

You're already booted to the live CD and there's an icon right there that says "Install"...

A handy guide:

/export/home => c:\users on Vista or c:\documents and settings on XP.

/usr => c:\program files

/dev => Roughly equivalent to \\.\PhysicalDriveN or \Device\blargh

/etc => VERY roughly equivalent to c:\windows\system32

NT - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750081.aspx
2000 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174630
Now the same with Windows XP? Come on now, who are they fooling?
Reminds me of that stupid stride commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBlKFxGhNk
For those of you who feel left out with a working computer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx

NT - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750081.aspx
2000 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174630
Now the same with Windows XP? Come on now, who are they fooling?
Reminds me of that stupid stride commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBlKFxGhNk
For those of you who feel left out with a working computer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx

NT - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750081.aspx
2000 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174630
Now the same with Windows XP? Come on now, who are they fooling?
Reminds me of that stupid stride commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBlKFxGhNk
For those of you who feel left out with a working computer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx

You can install the recovery console as a boot option:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

(You should have an I386 folder somewhere)

It is more complicated for Vista and later:

http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/archive/2007/01/12/how-to-install-winre-on-the-hard-disk.aspx

Nope. If you follow that link, you'll see you still need the Windows XP DVD to install the recovery console. Sadly, it was not uncommon for XP systems to be sold with no recovery console. My Toshiba laptop (I'll never buy another) did not come with a Windows XP DVD, merely a "product recovery disk" which wipes everything off the hard drive and does a fresh install. No recovery console available. Apparently there's a huge difference between buying a computer that comes with XP and buying a computer that comes with "XP installed."

Funny, when I go to this page, it says "buy" all over the place: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/default.aspx

Even the URL says "buy".

Yeah, yeah, I get that technically/legally I'm "licensing" the software, but let's cut the crap. When I buy software or music or whatever else, it doesn't have a little button that says, "rent" or "license", it says "buy". When I go to Best Buy and pick up a boxed retail version, the salesman most likely tell me that I'm "buying" a copy of Windows. If you ask your average consumer, they think they've bought a copy. Even if you asked a common lawyer, if he's not on his guard and being technical, he'll probably use the word "buy".

All of our conventions and expectations for this sort of intellectual property is that we actually buy something and it belongs to us. In this case, the technicality isn't the reality.

You can install the recovery console as a boot option:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

(You should have an I386 folder somewhere)

It is more complicated for Vista and later:

http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/archive/2007/01/12/how-to-install-winre-on-the-hard-disk.aspx

Several users posted solutions, but the one laid out by 'maxyimus' was marked by a Microsoft support engineer as the way out of the perpetual blue screens.

I don't think this is the solution you were thinking of. The linked solution has these notes:

# Proposed As Answer byFred_H 21 hours 11 minutes ago

# Marked As Answer by Cody - Support Engineer Microsoft Support, Moderator 20 hours 13 minutes ago

# Unmarked As Answer by Cody - Support Engineer Microsoft Support, Moderator 20 hours 12 minutes ago

So it seems "Cody - Support Engineer Microsoft Support, Moderator" had second thoughts about a minute after marking this as the solution.

[Disclaimer: I run Linux, not XP, so I don't really care either way.]

slmgr.vbs /ipk <MultipleActivationKey>

Windows Update checks your PC to determine which updates it needs depending on what software and devices you have installed. The service does not collect personal information -- Windows Update simply collects specific PC details needed for the update, including data such as computer make and model, version and ID numbers, and other such details.

Microsoft is committed to helping protect your privacy, and does not collect your name or other personally identifiable information. For more details on how the information is protected, see the Windows Update privacy statement.

In other words, while MS does not directly collect my name and phone number, they can uniquely identify my computer by "make and model, version and ID numbers, and other such details". Then, they can check where I am (via geolocation) and who I am by cross-referencing the information with data from data-mining companies.

Sweet.

There are few ways I can answer this.
1. The most comprehensive way is to tell you to refer to http://privacy.microsoft.com/
After which point you still have concerns, please fill our our privacy questions form:
https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1310&ws=1prcen

2. Microsoft complies with laws surrounding rention of customer data including IP addresses. Refer to this blog post that talks not only about Microsoft, but of Google and Yahoo as well.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10437137-265.html
Where as Google and Facebook want to redefine expectations of privacy on the web, Microsoft's privacy policy goes above and beyond the majority of companies that offer goods and services, both physically and virtually. Microsoft's privacy policy view comes from the very top from Steve Ballmer so when he says ours is better than Google's, he challenges anyone in the world to call him out on it. We do not go into your mail, we don't read your personal information, we don't access your stored content, period.

3. How you interpret Microsoft's agenda is up to you, but before trying to find any reason to fault Microsoft, I would ask you to thoroughly consider all the software you run on your environment and ask whether your information is safe with other 3rd party vendors. There are too many who do not apply as rigourous standards and in actuality, SELL your data to 3rd parties. If you play any computer game with an online component, you should be concerned. If you use extremely proprietary niche software that costs a lot of money, you should be concerned.

You should not be concerned about a company like Microsoft, a company who has billions of users and millions of business customers, about privacy. There are businesses who take security and privacy very seriously and if Microsoft were to pull this type of stuff, we'd get called out on it very quickly, and our reputation would suffer beyond repair.

Simply put, a failure on Microsoft's part to enforce a strong privacy policy would directly cause significant financial harm to the company. It's not worth it.

Hope this persuades you a little bit.

Windows Update checks your PC to determine which updates it needs depending on what software and devices you have installed. The service does not collect personal information -- Windows Update simply collects specific PC details needed for the update, including data such as computer make and model, version and ID numbers, and other such details.

Microsoft is committed to helping protect your privacy, and does not collect your name or other personally identifiable information. For more details on how the information is protected, see the Windows Update privacy statement.

In other words, while MS does not directly collect my name and phone number, they can uniquely identify my computer by "make and model, version and ID numbers, and other such details". Then, they can check where I am (via geolocation) and who I am by cross-referencing the information with data from data-mining companies.

Sweet.

There are few ways I can answer this.
1. The most comprehensive way is to tell you to refer to http://privacy.microsoft.com/
After which point you still have concerns, please fill our our privacy questions form:
https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1310&ws=1prcen

2. Microsoft complies with laws surrounding rention of customer data including IP addresses. Refer to this blog post that talks not only about Microsoft, but of Google and Yahoo as well.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10437137-265.html
Where as Google and Facebook want to redefine expectations of privacy on the web, Microsoft's privacy policy goes above and beyond the majority of companies that offer goods and services, both physically and virtually. Microsoft's privacy policy view comes from the very top from Steve Ballmer so when he says ours is better than Google's, he challenges anyone in the world to call him out on it. We do not go into your mail, we don't read your personal information, we don't access your stored content, period.

3. How you interpret Microsoft's agenda is up to you, but before trying to find any reason to fault Microsoft, I would ask you to thoroughly consider all the software you run on your environment and ask whether your information is safe with other 3rd party vendors. There are too many who do not apply as rigourous standards and in actuality, SELL your data to 3rd parties. If you play any computer game with an online component, you should be concerned. If you use extremely proprietary niche software that costs a lot of money, you should be concerned.

You should not be concerned about a company like Microsoft, a company who has billions of users and millions of business customers, about privacy. There are businesses who take security and privacy very seriously and if Microsoft were to pull this type of stuff, we'd get called out on it very quickly, and our reputation would suffer beyond repair.

Simply put, a failure on Microsoft's part to enforce a strong privacy policy would directly cause significant financial harm to the company. It's not worth it.

Hope this persuades you a little bit.

The command line utility msizap will let you remove the leftover bits from the installer registry.

@FranTaylor, lots of people use Windows on a server

You are not refuting what I said.

okay fine, rather than pointing you to a case study or to a marketing website like:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver

I simply ask you to open your favorite web browser, enter you zipcode and/or city along with the term:
"Microsoft Parnter"

If that's not proof for you, think about all the companies that use Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, or MS SQL Server.

I have a feeling that you're not really this clueless.

All I can figure is that you're one of the upper-level MS sales execs astroturfing Slashdot.

Nope. Just a system administrator who is planning on migrating to Win7 this year. A few simple Google queries resulted in finding this page which is pretty comprehensive and has the essential information needed by any competent sysadmin planning a migration.

Windows Update checks your PC to determine which updates it needs depending on what software and devices you have installed. The service does not collect personal information—Windows Update simply collects specific PC details needed for the update, including data such as computer make and model, version and ID numbers, and other such details.

Microsoft is committed to helping protect your privacy, and does not collect your name or other personally identifiable information. For more details on how the information is protected, see the Windows Update privacy statement.

Enterprise customers who use WSUS to centrally manage Windows Update won't be affected. Also, if you are concerned about enterprise activation technology, refer to the differences between MAK and KMS.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929712

#2 it will change the background. Sorry, if you're going to pirate it, we're not going to let you make it pretty.

I manage a small group of machines that are connected to each other, but never to the Internet. Our customer asked for the Vista upgrade, paid for proper licensing, we installed Vista in a small test group, customers were happy. Vista failed, customers were extremely unhappy.

This is the sole reason that we haven't migrated all the clients to Vista. And why we had to rollback the test group back to XP. Vista's phone-home cycle is 180 days, then it lies to you and says that "Hardware Changed..." and drops the computer into its restricted use mode.

There is a solution for this problem, Microsoft Key Management Services (KMS). We SAs are ready to deploy KMS, but have run into management resistance for 6+ months now. Vista left such a bad impression with them, they decided to just wait until we migrate to Windows 7 to setup KMS. And that won't happen until the next hardware refresh cycle, so maybe 1Q2011.

Once you have KMS, the 180- to 90-day change really isn't that big of a deal.

Get spare box (or VM, or even your own machine if it's beefy enough), install WSUS (Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Small Business Server 2008, Windows Small Business Server 2003), point clients at WSUS either with a GPO or in local policy (gpedit.msc), decline KB71033 (if it even gets pushed through WSUS, which it probably won't; WGA didn't), sit back and relax.

This is also handy for any other "critical" updates that you might want to avoid, or any updates that are incompatible with your system, or may cause errors (Like KB977165), especially in environments where other people have administrator access to your machine and like to click things without reading them or you're managing several machines (friends, family, housemates, girlfriends, etc).

I have a machine, purchased by my employer that has to be validated against the key server at the office.

The machine however is at my house. The only way to make it validate is to ensure that I'm connected to the VPN when it attempts to find its key.

You shouldn't be using a KMS-licensed computer away from the KMS server for such a long time. The whole point of KMS is to reduce licensing headaches by having clients automatically aquire a volume license and activate themselves, all without going over the Internet. Removing such a machine from the local network completely invalidates this.

If you have a computer at home, it should be converted to a MAK license so that it doesn't need to communicate with the KMS server. Anyone mildly familiar with Windows 7 volume licensing should know this. I suggest you (or your system administrator) take a look at the Win7 Volume Activation Deployment Guide and the Volume Activation Planning Guide. You know, the things you should read before you do a wide-scale deployment of a new system.

I'll probably end up cracking my legit install to stop this stupid behavior.

So instead of connecting to your VPN four times a year, you'll put yourself in a position of almost certainly getting blacklisted? That makes sense.

I have a machine, purchased by my employer that has to be validated against the key server at the office.

The machine however is at my house. The only way to make it validate is to ensure that I'm connected to the VPN when it attempts to find its key.

You shouldn't be using a KMS-licensed computer away from the KMS server for such a long time. The whole point of KMS is to reduce licensing headaches by having clients automatically aquire a volume license and activate themselves, all without going over the Internet. Removing such a machine from the local network completely invalidates this.

If you have a computer at home, it should be converted to a MAK license so that it doesn't need to communicate with the KMS server. Anyone mildly familiar with Windows 7 volume licensing should know this. I suggest you (or your system administrator) take a look at the Win7 Volume Activation Deployment Guide and the Volume Activation Planning Guide. You know, the things you should read before you do a wide-scale deployment of a new system.

I'll probably end up cracking my legit install to stop this stupid behavior.

So instead of connecting to your VPN four times a year, you'll put yourself in a position of almost certainly getting blacklisted? That makes sense.

False positives, hey?

Here's one:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=diJ&q=KB71033+site%3Amicrosoft.com&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=&oq=KB71033+site%3Amicrosoft.com

Here's another:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/71033

Where exactly is this strangely numbered KB71033?

Bullshit yourself. You might be referring to things like advertising and marketing, which try to promise things so people will buy it. To me, "Buy Windows" means I have the source code and all related trademarks and patent licenses so I can turn around and sell Windows. Clearly that's not what they mean, so it must not mean what it says.

Here is the EULA you agree to, which as I said is locality dependent, I chose Windows 7 Home Basic / English:
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx

By using the software, you accept these terms... If you comply with these license terms, you have the rights below for each license you acquire... License Model. The software is licensed on a per copy per computer basis. A computer is a physical hardware system with an internal storage device capable of running the software. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate computer.
a. One Copy per Computer. You may install one copy of the software on one computer. That computer is the "licensed computer."
b. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at one time. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, you may not use the software on any other computer.
c. Number of Users.

You can't run it on a quad-processor computer. You bought it, just like the store said, but you're not allowed to do certain things. That's licensing.

e. Device Connections. You may allow up to 20 other devices to access software installed on the licensed computer to use only File Services, Print Services, Internet Information Services and Internet Connection Sharing and Telephony Services.

WTF, a limit on the number of attached devices? And an arbitrary one at that, since it supports USB which can daisy-chain 127 devices.

SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the features included in the software edition you licensed. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you may use the software only as expressly permitted in this agreement. In doing so, you must comply with any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways. You may not
  work around any technical limitations in the software;
  reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law expressly permits, despite this limitation;
  use components of the software to run applications not running on the software;
  make more copies of the software than specified in this agreement or allowed by applicable law, despite this limitation;
  publish the software for others to copy;
  rent, lease or lend the software; or
  use the software for commercial software hosting services.

Oh snap! You just got told. You might be thinking about what normal customers think, but they are misinformed and lied to. It's right there, licensed not sold.

Maybe. Maybe not: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/977377.mspx