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The .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package is available here. You can use the Visual Studio .NET Bootstrapper plugin to distribute it with your application.

Just going through the features tour IE7 appears to have a preference pane for the search box, you can easily choose which search engine to use yourself. I think this is a great idea. I requested the same thing of Apple/Safari through their feedback mechanism, but nothing ever came of it - I'm british so I would rather use google.co.uk or uk.yahoo.com than the google.com that Safari defaults to.

I only use IE6 for compatibility testing at the moment (via Virtual PC) it has a really annoying habit of requiring the 'http://' prefix to urls in the address bar, or sending you to search.msn.com, while other browsers will accept 'www.slashdot.org' and add the prefix themselves. I hope this is changed in IE7 as my next machine will almost certainly be one of HP's Ubuntu laptops which will be set to dual boot with XP.

Camino still has the prettiest buttons :-)

Release notes for this preview are up at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/releasenotes/.

Isn't it obvious? Microsoft aren't in the business of marketing,

You have got to be kidding me. They will even go so far as to spam for you and have been doing so for years.

Isn't it obvious? Microsoft aren't in the business of marketing,

You have got to be kidding me. They will even go so far as to spam for you and have been doing so for years.

microsofteup.112.2o7.net
mseupwinie.112.2o7.net

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/shared/s_code. js

The newspaper story doesn't, but the link to the patch does: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904018

This update removes the functionality in Access 2002 that lets users add new data to or edit existing data in a linked Microsoft Excel worksheet.

See Novells Complaint from page 44

I'm not sure how far this suit has progressed, but it would appear that at the time Microsoft made specific documentation available to ISVs on a case by case basis depending on how much of a threat the ISV represented to them.

According to the document Microsoft refused to include the specifications for using the windows Dialog Box Manager, a feature that is now fully documented on MSDN and seems to be regarded as ancient history by Windows developer Raymond Chen.

If such a major chunk of functionality was really initially reserved for MS Applications it would seem as though the Novell case couldn't fail to succeed. My guess is that they will end up settleing for some vast payout and the whole issue will disappear.

4. Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?
Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using the Express Editions.

I thought MS offered indemnification. Guess I was confused. Guess that was just server software. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/facts /topics/ipi.mspx

The guy who patented interaction with a spread sheet, or Microsoft?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmn,

Tough choice - I'm going to go with live-by-the-sword-die-by-the-sword Microsoft.

Seriously - software patents are wrong, alot of people who wield them do so unethically, but its hard to have sympathy for a company licensing stealth patented tech.

We received an email from Microsoft licensing last week that addresses this issue.

Here's the text:

Background:

It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office XP Professional and Microsoft Access 2002 infringe a third-party patent. As a result, Microsoft must make available a revised version of these products with the allegedly infringing code replaced.

Action required:

As a result of the above ruling, you are required to:

Install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (Office 2003 SP2) for all your future deployments of Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Access 2003, Install the Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 Patch (Office XP SP3 Patch) for all your future deployments of Office XP Professional and Access 2002

Action requested:

To keep your current systems in alignment with your future deployments of these products, Microsoft is requesting that you also update all your current Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Access 2003 installations with Office 2003 SP2, and Office XP Professional and Access 2002 installations with the Office XP SP3 Patch.

How do I do this?:

You can obtain both Office 2003 SP2 and the Office XP SP3 Patch by going to the website listed below and downloading it directly, or by contacting your reseller.

Please visit our site at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/def ault.aspx.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Licensing, GP This makes it seem like we are being forced to upgrade to maintain licensing.

Kudos to the well-informed parent. Tcl/Tk is indeed an excellent solution. More below.

But first ... Visual Basic is NOT the answer. The criteria were "fairly small" and "easy to install". For most Windows versions you'll have to distribute your VB application in an install package that includes the VB runtime DLLs or the .NET runtime (or get the end user to download them, which is a mission). If you're unlucky you'll have to distribute other MS DLLs like ComCtls as well. Find out more at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/ . Then there's accessing the serial port ...

For a simpler solution, grab TclKit, a single-file Tcl/Tk distribution. Tcl is ridiculously easy to learn, serial port access is as easy as file access, and it uses Tk to provide a powerful GUI.

You can put your scripts into the TclKit EXE as a resource, creating a single-file EXE distribution of your application. With UPX compression the resulting file will be around 1.2Mb (depending on what extensions you choose to use).

Not sure whether VB .Net 2005 has a serial component; probably not ...

It actually has. :-)

Here's some instructions on usage; unsure of how outdated since it's for beta 2:
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/SerialCommunicat ion.asp

Here's the official documentation of the System.IO.Ports.SerialPort class:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/system.io.ports .serialport.aspx

A much nicer language than VB, very powerful, and easy to use and there is a good growth path into the full Visual Studio products if you ever need too. After 6 Nov 06, new downloads & purchases will be US$49, but until then you can download it for free and use it for as long as you want. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/ faq/default.aspx#pricing

C# is free (for a year), and you don't have to learn Basic.

- .NET (C# or whatever) - free if you don't want MS development tools; very expensive tools to build one small app; much bigger learning curve; 20 MB runtime required

Check out Express Editions - C#, J#, C++, VB; comes with an IDE. Not as nice as the full edition but works very well. Highly recommended. You can then use .NET (Windows Forms is the graphics class ... do some googling, its not that hard) for your interface. Or Qt with C++. Qt (opensource) will *not* work with C++ by default, you need this patch.

Why not look into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express? Freely usable VB, C++ and C# IDEs with compilers and debugers. I'm not sure about support for building graphical applications though. Also note that the C++ compiler defaults to compile for .net 2.0, but there are instructions to integrate the platform SDK.

Can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/.

It would've helped knowing what language choices you have.

It sounds like you don't want to have your application require large libraries?

For a low level serial port reader app with a slick GUI designer on strictly Windows, Visual C++ Express seems to be one way to go. It's free as in beer and supports native Windows application as well as .NET application development (in that case via Managed C++, but then you need the ~20 MB or so .NET Framework runtime included with your apps, and I guess you don't want that).

One thing I can unfortunately not check now is whether it comes with the C++ GUI designer (which you'd probably be most interested in), as the screenshot only happened to show the .NET designer, and native C++ use a different one. I'm not sure if that one is included in the Express edition or not.

If you don't like VBScript, then use Windows Scripting Host with JScript. It's just the same as writing Javascript for a website, except there are different objects available. I think it's been shipping with Windows by default for years, so no installation is necessary, but you'd better double-check.

If the GUI is really simple and does fairly simple things, try writing an HTML application (.hta). You can find the "hta helpomatic" with google.

You'll need to script instead of code, and if you need help with scripting download "scriptomatic" (google).

You can also find a complete list of Windows scripting samples in a help file called the "Portable Script Center" which you'll find here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/crea teit.mspx

I'd agree from a complete programming novice
but you've got a nice free choice (as long as it's not commercial code)
if you have more experiance (especially C++)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

It's easy to learn and the GUI designer is also easy to use. What's more, with the new (2005) version, there is a free "Express" edition that you can download from Microsoft.

Everyone who wants to write a good word-processing package is going to be decoding Word 97+ for the next 50 years at least, and most importantly, when they stop including that compatibility, why should we think they'd be including compatibility for a similar standard?

Current non-MS word processors already have a hard enough time implementing Word 97 import, particularly for any really complex documents. Why should time make it any better?

Let's look back to the most popular word processors from ~20 years ago: WordStar. According to Microsoft, Word can only import version 3.0 and higher. OpenOffice appears to have no support at all (that I can find). Nor does Apple's Pages. So if you come across a WordStar v1.0 or v2.0 document, you're SOL -- and that's after not even half the 50 year figure you quote.

How about WordPerfect? From the same reference, Word can import WP v4 and higher documents. So anything created in WordPerfect v2.2 (from 1982) or v3.0 (from 1983) is likewise not importable. Again, I haven't found anything about WordPerfect v2.2 or v3.0 support in OpenOffice (it does support WordPerfect import, but I can't find what versions this includes), or in Pages.

And that's just the two most popular PC-DOS packages from the 1980's, and doesn't include documents generated for other systems (like the Commodore 64 -- Paperback Writer anyone?), or from dedicated wordprocessing terminals.

And it gets better. Check out the entry in the above link for Word 6 and Word 95 support -- not even MS Office supports importing these anymore ("Retired - no longer available"). Word 95 isn't even 10 years old. And what about Microsoft Works format? Nada.

If you think that in 2056 you'll still be able to import Word 97 documents in popular word processing applications, you're living in a fantasy world. It's not going to happen. Will they be able to read ODF? Perhaps not -- however if necessary someone could write whatever sort of importer or converter they want, as the official recipe for such documents will still be around.

Less than two hundred years ago, Egyptian Hieroglyphs were virtually unreadable. It took the finding of the Rosetta Stone to make it understandable again. ODF is the Rosetta stone we get to leave for future generations. We already have unreadable document formats, and we're not even 30 years into the Personal Computer revolution. Thinking that we're going to be able to read modern day Word documents 50 years from now is overly idealistic, and seems highly improbable.

Yaz.

DirectX 10 comes to mind pretty quickly. If you play games you will upgrade. I'm sure there are a slew of other features.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/def ault.mspx

That took all of 10 seconds. Please refrain from the MS bashing until you have something worthwhile to say.

Not sure how much you're kidding, but on the chance that you aren't:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/power toys/xppowertoys.mspx

Those are the WinXP powertoys from Microsoft. One of them is called "Virtual Desktop Manager", which gives you control over four virtual desktops. There are a ton of shareware and freeware apps that give you desktop pagers, too.

As for keeping apps visible, that's what multiple monitor support is for. :) I use this all the time so that I can have reference open on one screen, and work on the other. I don't really want my PIM/Email app taking up screen, since it tells me when I get mail as a notification. Pretty much every OS out there will let you do multiple screen spanned desktops.

The LCD thing is more for cute external displays so you could close a laptop, or have an LCD mounted on your case, and get all sorts of info. It's a cute feature, but by no means needing of an OS upgrade. MS could add a common driver API to do this, and make it available as a DirectX upgrade or something.

I didn't bother to listen to the podcast, but luckily this is Slashdot so no one will hold it against me.

Geoff Huston's "IPv6: Extinction, Evolution or Revolution?" is probably the most insightful thing I've ever read about IPv6 deployment, although the conclusion is pretty negative.

But assuming that IPv6 is worth deploying, Microsoft is way ahead in getting computers IPv6-enabled. Their work on Teredo should make life a lot easier for P2P developers.

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using the Express Editions.

From the faq

You can always use the Windows Services Update Server (WSUS)

It downloads all the updates released by Microsoft onto a server. You choose which ones are stored/released and point all computers on your network to it - you can even have all computers on your network go to this server on a schedule and download any updates available.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updat eservices/default.mspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default. aspx Price: Visual Studio Express Editions--Free for 1 year SQL Server Express Editions--Free

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/defa ult.mspx

This virus is very likely a POC and an advance guard to hold doors open for future infection or botnets.
As stated by others already, LURHQ has distribution stats. http://www.lurhq.com/blackworm.html US infections only number about 5% of total. Peru and India have most of the worldwide population of this. (this is ip-based, and may not be reliable.)
I haven't seen another mention, but SANS Storm Center has been following this - and actually has made an offer to sysadmins to share info. They limit the info they will give; if you can reasonably establish that you are the RP for a network or subnet - they will send you a list of known infections in your IP range. They have already sent out notice messages to admins of record (whomever the abuse or tech contact is currently on the whois lookup) using a script. [Check the ISC pages if you really want to know - I don't want to flood them by posting a direct email link here.]
Referred to in the SANS/ISC history on this http://isc.sans.org/blackworm and previous pages - Fortinet has done extensive analysis. This virus has several actions. Most folks already know it deletes files, breaks AV software, and spreads over Windows shares. What hasn't seen much daylight is that it drops a bunch registry entries that grant "trusted" status to the virus. http://www.fortinet.com/VirusEncyclopedia/search/e ncyclopediaSearch.do?method=viewVirusDetailsInfoDi rectly&fid=119856 I'm not an expert on this mechanism - but I'd assume that any machine with these "bad" trusts in place could easily be compromised later using code that is authenticated against these bad keys.
I read M$' page on this virus, http://www.microsoft.com/security/encyclopedia/det ails.aspx?name=Win32%2FMywife.E%40mm as well as a few AV pages. None mention these keys, so I would assume they don't fix this problem.
Any system that has been infected and then cleaned will probably retain these falsified certificates. This leaves a big hole in place, while some users (even the " all your AV is updated hourly folks.. return to your seats" IT guy) - will have a false sense of security on this.
Thankfully, many AV programs discovered this virus Heuristically. (see links to LURHQ & others) McAfee, Panda, NOD32, and several others identified blocked this virus without needing a signature update. This may be why we don't have 2 million AOL/Comcast sheep spreading the virus.
This should serve as a strong reminder to backup religiously, use defense-in-depth, and enforce strong registry policies when Windows systems are implemented.

not a problem. I mean, you will need to have a Windows server with Sql Server..... i'm sure you can read the prereqs, but you do not need an AD setup. You will need to rollout custom registry settings however.

Clippy says, I appears that you are trying to create a presentation. Your request seems to be asking for Microsoft's Power Point. If Open Source is your religion then, have a look at Impress, part of the Open Office suite.

On a side note, what are all the unemployed professors going to do when they are put out of jobs because of Computer-Assisted Instruction applications. What a crock of marketing dribble.

WMV plugin for QuickTime.

Microsoft sysprep for XP allows you to create a "MASTER" image and from that master, to automagically regenerate the identical config onto a new hard drive again and again (assuming you have legit license keys, of course).

The beauty is that you can re-load not just one machine, but quite literally *thousands* from your original hard drive, reboot once, put in the license key, reboot again, and you have a fully working machine, patched to the most recent level of your MASTER.

I've used this technique since Windows 2000, and I simply do not reload Windows manually anymore.

And if you really need proof that what I told you is legal. Here is a page on Microsoft's Support site that TELLS YOU: "How to integrate software updates into your Windows installation source files".

With dd if you have a 80 hd, you now have an 80 gig image. Gzip or bzip2 might take it down some, but it will still be insanely large.

If you insist on using cloning (imho, bad idea) you can use the free ntfsclone, which is part of the Linux NTFS project. With gzip it will get down to about a gig.

Whenever I have to reinstall someone's Windows system, the first thing I do after activating it and applying all Windows updates is to make a clone with ntfsclone. I then build a Linux-based restore dvd for them so they (and I) won't have to deal with activation the next time.

If you're looking to install more than one computer, though, reconsider using imaging. Spend a weekend learning how to use Unattended, AutoIt, and secedit/a After using this for a little, you're just cringe when someone suggests imaging.

fYou said, "All hotfix installers released since XP-SP2 have had an /integrate switch to do just that."

I tried that with two installers I just downloaded, and both had the /integrate switch.

A previous comment said to download the critical updates from here: Microsoft Updates Catalog, using Internet Explorer. Be sure to hunt for "Windows XP SP2". If you choose the logical "Windows XP Professional SP2", you will be offered only a ton of junk.

The system puts the files deep in separate folders. It is necessary to use an application like XXCopy or the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 from Ontrack to move the .EXE files to one folder. XXCopy and the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 are programs you need anyway. I've had problems with later free versions of PowerDesk, so I stay with the free PowerDesk 4.

There was no way to put the command line switches into a Slashdot comment, so I made a web page: Windows Update Installation Command Line Switches.

I haven't done the integration yet, but it looks promising.

You might also want to have a look at the /duprepare option of the winnt32.exe to update your installer and driver base http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312110/en-us

Find a sample VBScript on how to scan for missing updates, download and install them with the Windows Update Agent API under http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/wua_sdk/wua/searching__downloading_ _and_installing_specific_updates.asp

And slippstreaming http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828930 not only service packs.

You might also want to have a look at the /duprepare option of the winnt32.exe to update your installer and driver base http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312110/en-us

Find a sample VBScript on how to scan for missing updates, download and install them with the Windows Update Agent API under http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/wua_sdk/wua/searching__downloading_ _and_installing_specific_updates.asp

And slippstreaming http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828930 not only service packs.

You might also want to have a look at the /duprepare option of the winnt32.exe to update your installer and driver base http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312110/en-us

Find a sample VBScript on how to scan for missing updates, download and install them with the Windows Update Agent API under http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/wua_sdk/wua/searching__downloading_ _and_installing_specific_updates.asp

And slippstreaming http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828930 not only service packs.

It plays fine in both Windows Media Player for the Mac or in Quicktime using Flip4Mac.

3) Carmack says so. ;-)

Read anything from Carmack in the last year or so? He's big into pimping XNA, which means he's presumably gone all the way over to DirectX.

I just watched it on my iBook so there doesn't seem to be a total Windows dependence - it is Windows Media, though, so you'll need the appropriate software to play it.

There was the semi-official Flip4Mac being waffled on about a few weeks ago, I used the prehistoric Mac port of Windows Media Player instead. I don't think I've ever seen it work for a full 25 minutes or so before.

Anyway, trying to avoid sounding like a true nerd and switching off the white noise: the comedy itself. It was pretty funny, and was obviously more of the surreal Father Ted line than some razor-sharp nerd-specific humour - expect to see a vastly exaggerated version of reality, with the workers attempting to maim and/or kill the IT staff instead of some nerd-only Perl puns...

I do think I'm going to have to try the speech recognition thing on my non-boss, though... ;-]

Nlite can do this. It can slipstream all the post-SP2 hotfixes, your own drivers, make tweaks, and then reduce the installation process to about 4 clicks.

Use Microsoft Security Bulletin Search to find all the hotfixes you need, making sure you tick the box that reads 'Show only bulletins that contain updates that have not been replaced by a more recent update.'.

• One, as mentioned, is slipstreaming SP2 + the hotfixes. Pretty much a PITA, since you'd have to continually update your CD as new patches come up.
• Two, is AutoPatcher. Slipstream SP2 and run AutoPatcher after install, and you'll get 90% of the updates. Update AutoPatcher as needed.
• Three, is to hack your own. There's a couple of options for this. You can go the Unattended way and batch/Perl script it, but you still have to download the updates. But, if you do it from a network drive, at least you don't have to reburn a CD.
• The better way, IMHO, is to use the Windows Update API to force the client to run Windows Update, download, install, reboot and repeat until no new updates are returned. I hacked a .NET program together to do just that, but it seems to have issues installing SP2. I haven't had time to delve into the problem yet though. That, and you need the .NET framework installed first - but a bootstrapping installer can take care of that.

If you haven't very demanding third-party driver support, install Automated Deployment Services (the successor to RIS) and slipstream your source. Stop wasting CDs and ISO burn time and do it in a truly manageable way. Even involved driver dependencies can be integrated, but you have to actually learn about what you're doing to make that happen. But when you need to deploy a lot of windows servers at once or the same kind over and over, this is the most straightforward way to get a consistent build and keep the patches current.

There's SMS 2003 available from here

You might want to try the current version of AutoPatcher: AutoPatcher XP January 2006

It would be nice if Microsoft would make it easy to script the install onto one CD (or DVD). It is a sort of a drag to have to rely on a third-party for what Microsoft could do easily if they didn't want to sell MSCE and other worthless degrees by making sure Windows is (or seems) much more complicated than it can (or should) be. Case in point: here's how Microsoft expects you to "integrate software updates into your Windows installation source files" (please, read the document before you comment on how nice they were to make it easy for us).