ILoans is an organisation which calculates and gets you quotes for secured loans, personal loans, quick loans and business loans. They offer assistance in getting you what you need and fast - they haven’t been around long but have a nice simple to use website which offers plenty of information and advice. They can help you with advice on getting personal loans and give out loads of information relating to each entry. They have testimonials and a debt calculator, so you can consider getting one of the loans on offer - perhaps a secured loan if you want one which stands against something you already own.

Install this update to resolve an issue where the Windows desktop may not refresh correctly. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista license Terms.

Update for Windows Vista (KB932406)
Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB932406)

Thanks Bink.

Install this update to resolve an issue where an error message is displayed when you start Internet Explorer 7. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Update for Windows Vista (KB935855)
Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB935855)

Thanks Bink.

Windows Easy Transfer Companion enables you to automatically transfer your most important programs from your Windows XP-based PC to your new Windows Vista-based PC. The software will move more than 100 of the most popular programs, as well as many others that you may have installed. You have complete control over selecting which programs to transfer, so only the programs you care about will move. The software will alert you if some programs may not be able to transfer, or may not transfer with high confidence. Most security software is not able to transfer due to technical reasons.

Easy Transfer Companion is designed to be used in addition to Windows Easy Transfer—which is part of Windows Vista and automatically transfers your data and settings. Connecting your two computers can be done with either an Easy Transfer Cable (available online, from retailers, and from PC manufacturers), or a home or small business network. If using an Easy Transfer Cable, you must first install Windows Easy Transfer on your Windows XP-based PC. By using Easy Transfer and Easy Transfer Companion you will be able to quickly and easily setup your new PC with all the data, settings, and programs that matter to you, so you can be productive on your new PC right away.

Easy Transfer Companion only transfers programs from a Windows XP-based PC to a Windows Vista-based PC. Easy Transfer Companion is currently in Beta, and only available for the US market.

Download the Widnows Easy Transfer Companion (Beta)

More details of the second coming surfaced yesterday when Mary Jo reported a few tips she had received about the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1 beta to be released later this month, including a very basic list of functionality and performance improvements. However a day prior, a Microsoft employee silently outlined a critical flaw in Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost feature and mentioned SP1 would include the fix - a rare occasion under the new Gorbachev Sinofsky administration.

Robert Hensing, a security engineer at Microsoft, wrote on his blog about a performance flaw in ReadyBoost which severely hindered the responsiveness after resuming from standby (S3) or hibernate (S4) due to an architectural bug. The problem causes irregular and unnecessary hard-disk thrashing after resume which can take up to 8 minutes to settle down - ironically the outcome is the exact opposite of ReadyBoost’s purpose to increase responsiveness by caching. The cause is a simple yet stupid oversight in the design of ReadyBoost’s security system which encrypts all cache-data with an AES-128 encryption key, a great idea badly implemented.

You see, Vista ‘forgets’ the key after resuming from sleep which invalidates all the ReadyBoost data already held in the memory device forcing it to flush and start over. Yes that’s right, gigabytes worth of good and otherwise usable cache-data which could actually be used to improve system responsiveness, down the drain. Mind you, this is all happening seconds after you’ve opened your lid or pressed the power button, a time when all processor cycles should be focused on getting the system back and running, not wasted to something as stupid as this.

Source: istartedsomething.com

Microsoft has launched new tools to help partners navigate two of the company’s more complicated offerings: product licensing and the Windows Vista client operating system.

The licensing tool, called Microsoft LicenseWise, builds upon a previously released tool for Microsoft customers, Product License Advisor. Product License Advisor helps customers configure an IT environment and generate a report online that would tell them what licences they would need and the cost, Mike Oldham, general manager for Microsoft’s worldwide licensing and pricing, said at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver.

LicenseWise picks up, for Microsoft’s business partners, where that tool leaves off, he said. It allows a partner to access a quote a customer generated in Product License Advisor, build its own pricing into it and then generate a proposal back to the customer for how much it would cost to license those products through the partner.

Microsoft’s complicated licensing schemes have long been a headache for partners and customers, but the company has made a concerted effort in the past several years to simplify the process, Oldham said. For instance, just two years ago Microsoft had 74 licensing models customers could choose from; now they have nine, he said.

More information about LicenseWise can be found on Microsoft’s partner website.

Source: Bink.nu

In Computer, some network drives may have a red cross in the icon indicating that a network drive hasn’t connected properly. However when you access them, they work perfectly fine. This problem might happen if:

• you logoff and logon the computer.
• you don’t select the Remember my password option when entering credentials
• the network drive is mapped using alternate credentials that were used to logon with

This is because the main icon library file (shell32.dll) updates the network drive icon only in the details pane of Windows Explorer, and not applied to the Folders area of the window.

An update is only available from Microsoft directly if you ask for it (silly I know, but it’ll be made available as a hotfix soon enough). You can find this information here.

Microsoft has recently switched its main website, www.microsoft.com to Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft-IIS/7.0.

Although Windows Server 2008 is not yet released, Beta 3 is publicly available for early adopters to use. Internet Information Server 7 is already released, but will probably not see widespread use until Windows Server 2008 (formerly “Longhorn”) is released, since it only runs on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista.

There are already around 2,600 sites running Windows Server 2008 on the Internet. Whilst some of the servers running Windows Server 2008 are at Microsoft itself, the majority are not, with developers and hosting companies taking advantage of Windows Server 2008’s availability under a Go Live license which allows the beta to be used for testing or in a live environment without cost.

Once it is released, it could be expected to take a long time for large numbers of sites to move over to the latest version; it took several years for the installed base of Windows Server 2003 to overtake Windows 2000, and there are still some 5 million sites running on Windows 2000 even today.

Source: Bink.nu

It seems that the next server operating system from Microsoft, Windows Server 2008, will be released next Febuary 2008. The final code will be finished before the year is out, and will be launched with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 as well, at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

If you haven’t activated Windows, you’ll eventually hit Reduced Functionality Mode. This is a serious problem, as all you can do in this mode is activate Windows… and if you’re not running a genuine copy of Windows then this is where you hit all manner of problems.

This is the screen you’ll be faced with, and the only external application you can use is Windows Internet Explorer. We cn use this to our advantage of course.

1. On the “Activate Windows now” screen shown above, click Access your computer with reduced functionality.
2. Once Internet Explorer loads, hit the Alt key to bring up the menu bar.
3. Click on File and then select Open.
4. On the open dialog, type in c:\windows\explorer.exe and hit OK.

   

5. You will now see the first of many open confirmations that Internet Explorer will prompt you with. Hit OK on the first. You can tick the box so that you won’t see this annoying message again.

   

6. Click Run on the next prompt.

   

7. Finally, hit Run yet again.

   

Windows Explorer will now be open, and you will see the taskbar and the Start menu and the other frills that you would ordinarly be accustomed to. You can now follow the “Run Vista without activation” article to extend activation.

Big thanks to Steve for the screenies.

You can easily change the format of your clock in the taskbar with a simple tweak in the Regional and Language settings.

1. Click on the Start Button, type in intl.cpl and hit Enter.
2. Click the Customize this format button.
3. Click on the Time tab.
4. Change the time format to H : mm : ss and hit OK.
5. Hit OK once more to close Regional and Language Options.

Source: TweakVista

Some information has come to light regarding Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1). This information is provided by Bink.nu.

Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista — not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end — the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July.

(November 2007 is also the release-to-manufacturing target for Windows Server 2008, sources say. Microsoft won’t provide an RTM date for Windows Server 2008, other than to say it is still on track to RTM before the end of 2007.)

Inkers is a great website where you can get all kinds of printer ink and cartridges. Most shops sell them but at really extortionate prices and they’re really expensive - this is where Inkers comes in. They provide toner cartridges for your printer, multifunction or fax devices, and what’s great is that they are 100% guaranteed against defect for a whole year, and you can also return them over 30 days from purchase no questions asked. With specialists on hand to deal with your request, they even ship between 2-3 days!