Microsoft made a confirmation statement today that Windows Home Server will not have its own backup feature.

“Power Pack 1 will not provide a tool to back up your backup database. It was an announced feature, but it has been removed because it doesn’t meet the quality bar. I know of at least half-a-dozen bugs submitted around that feature that left end users in a bad place with no obvious way back,” said Ken Warren on a forum.

It was announced in January and it was called “Windows Home Server Data Backup.”

Microsoft also delayed Power Pack 1 because of a data corruption bug.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD

PC World has posted an article about three quick fixes on Windows XP.

The first one is disabling unused  driver letters. There are a lot of steps that are involved and the author makes a thorough explanation on how to do it. Restoring the Safely Remove Hardware Icon is the second fix in the article. It involves creating a new shortcut on a user’s desktop and typing in a directory in one of the fields. The last one is disabling the insert key. There are three ways to do this quick fix according to the author. One of them is download a small registry file onto a desktop.

Source: PC World

As most computer technicians should know by now, Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been available via Windows update since the 6th of may so enough time has passed for people to install it and some problems to arise. This article contains information that all computer technicians should know about Windows XP Service Pack 3 including what SP3 fixes, whats new, important information and some known problems and solutions.
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There is a vulnerability in Apple’s web browser, Safari, that makes the browser download resources from websites without asking a user’s permission. This includes malicious iframes and scripts such as downloading a file as many times as what the script intended to do.

“Please note that we are not treating this as a security issue, but a further measure to raise the bar against unwanted downloads. We want to set your expectations that this could take quite a while, if it ever gets incorporated,” said someone from Apple’s security team.

The researcher for this vulnerability is Nitesh Dhanjani. He also said that he discovered a seperate, high-risk vulnerability and Apple promised to fix it.

Source: The Register

I want to share with you guys the AutoIT script that I use on new Windows XP installs. The script will do the following:

Registry Tweaks:

• Disables Windows Tour on Fresh Install
• Shows the My Computer, My Documents and IE icons on the desktop
• Sets Google as the default search engine in IE
• Sets Google as Homepage in IE
• Disables Automatic Restart on Blue Screen of Death
• Disables Messenger Service (Often used for spam. not MSN Messenger)
• Turns on Automatic Updates to Download and Install

Applications:

• Installs Firefox (works on 2.0.0.14)
• Installs AVG Free 8 without its SafeSearch/Surf features and updates it
• Installs Foxit PDF Reader (works on 2.3)

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Microsoft has added 12 more months on supporting Windows XP with Service Pack 2 computers. Therefore, users can now wait to install the third service pack if they want to patch their computers for security holes that are critical for 24 months, instead of just 12 months which was the original duration of the support.

The article at heise.de notes that there is no fundamentally new functionality in SP3. It also notes that Microsoft hasn’t released a statement whether it will change the support end dates for Vista. However, in Vista Ultimate’s case, it will not be eligible for an extended support since it is classed as a product for home use.

Source: Heise Online

Microsoft issued patches earlier today which fixes a half-dozen security holes according to The Register’s article. Four of those holes are rated as critical.

One of the bugs is about Microsoft’s Jet Database Engine which is a component that exists on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003.

Three of the critical vulnerabilities exists on Microsoft Office 2000, 2003, XP, 2007 for Windows and the 2004 and 2008 version on the Mac.

Two holes that exists on Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Forefront were also fixed by the patches that were released today. These two holes are security bugs and they are rated as moderate.

Source: The Register

Over the course of time the cost of living constantly increases and you also gain more experience doing what you do. Am I Charging Enough? is a question all businesses need to ask themselves every few months to make sure we are keeping our heads above water financially and to make sure our prices match our reputation.

Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself to help you determine whether you need to raise your prices:
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Many websites had reported that computers that were made by HP and had an AMD processor on them are affected tremendously by the endless reboot reboot and other problems that are associated with the newly released SP3 for Windows XP.

A Microsoft document blames the endless reboot problem on computer makers. The document said that the issue is when an XP disc-image is run on a non-Intel-based machine.

There are only “hundreds” of complaints from users but it will have an impact on IT departments to delay on upgrading their systems to SP3 according to an analyst at Yankee Group.

Source: Top Tech News

An article has been posted at itworld.com about tips that can help you solve problems and improve performance in XP.

One of them is about restoring the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer if a third-party application somehow removed it. An application called Actual Booster increases the performance of old computers. The author notes that he saw a big difference when he used it on his old notebook. However, he writes that on some computers, it will cause some trouble with mice.

The article also shows how a user can create a hibernate button. There are at least three steps that are involved to make this happen.

Source: ITworld