There is rumor going round internally that Windows Live Mail has been updated. At the moment, Windows Live Mail (and will be soon known as Live Hotmail) is currently down and nobody seems to have access to it. But is rumor true and will we get to see a new milestone of this popular web based email?

You’ll find out soon enough

Microsoft has built into Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the operating system’s activation deadline not just three times, but many times. The same one-line command that postpones Vista’s activation deadline to 120 days can be used an indefinite number of times by first changing a Registry key from 0 to 1.

This isn’t a hacker exploit. It doesn’t require any tools or utilities whatsoever. Microsoft even documented the Registry key, although obtusely, on its Technet site.

But dishonest PC sellers could use the procedure to install thousands of copies of Vista and sell them to unsuspecting consumers or businesses as legitimately activated copies. This would certainly violate the Vista EULA, but consumers might not realize this until the PCs they bought started demanding activation — and failing — months or years later.

The following describes the Registry key that’s involved.

1. While running a copy of Windows Vista that hasn’t yet been activated, click the Start button, type regedit into the Search box, then press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
2. Explore down to the following Registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ SL

3. Right-click the Registry key named SkipRearm and click Edit. The default is a DWORD (a double word or 4 bytes) with a hex value of 00000000. Change this value to any positive integer, such as 00000001, save the change, and close the Registry Editor.
4. Start a command prompt with administrative rights. The fastest way to do this is to click the Start button, enter cmd in the Search box, then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you’re asked for a network username and password, provide the ones that log you into your domain. You may be asked to approve a User Account Control prompt and to provide an administrator password.
5. Type one of the following two commands and press Enter:

   slmgr -rearm or rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows

   Either command uses Vista’s built-in Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) to push the activation deadline out to 30 days after the command is run. Changing SkipRearm from 0 to 1 allows SLMGR to do this an indefinite number of times. Running either command initializes the value of SkipRearm back to 0.

6. Reboot the PC to make the postponement take effect.
7. To extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely, repeat steps 1 through 6 as necessary

Read full story and other tricks at source.

Some statistics for the closing beta:

• This beta started on 27th March 2006.
• There were a total of 3080 registered users in the managed beta.
• They received 832 bugs and 358 suggestions over the entire beta
• The newsgroup has had over 3500 posts.

Feedback has closed and no more submissions are being taken on, but it’s important to stress that only the managed beta is closing - the product will still be in beta for some time yet. The newsgroups will remain active for a while, and access to the beta product will still be ongoing. There will be a next release of this product it’s important to say, as development to v2 of the product is going ahead. All current testers will be shifted across to the new beta, just as Windows Live Messenger testers will be onto 9.0.

What next? A new build is just around the corner - shouldn’t be far off at all. Maybe not the final product, but a new build isn’t far off at all.

Update: a message to the testers was the source of this entry.

Something every single iPod should be shipped with…

via Flickr

I wasn’t far off - it’s been released this evening! Download ahoy!

Windows Server 2003 SP2 (32-bit x86)
Windows Server 2003 SP2 for x64 Editions
Windows Server 2003 SP2 for Itanium-based Systems

Two weeks have gone by - not through forgetting, rather blatent laziness. I’ve been busy with other things, so this week’s is actually remotely funny.

We’ve seen pictures of the next version of Yahoo! Messenger, designed specifically for Windows Vista as it’s written purely in the Windows Presentation Foundation. Well, on10 has a video of it at some big conference event. What are you waiting for? Download!

 iPod
 PSP
 WMV (Low) 
 WMV (High)
 Zune

Source: Winsupersite

Q: Will Windows Vienna be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions like Vista?
A: No, Vienna will almost certainly ship only in 64-bit versions. This is in keeping with Microsoft’s x64 migration schedule.

How wrong. Sorry Paul but you’ve got this one mixed up once again, and what a surprise - we can hardly get anything accurate from this man. Microsoft has pledged in the past that they will provide 32-bit operating systems until 2012, of which then 64-bit takes precedence. VistaBase has an article somewhere but it doesn’t seem to be working so I’ll update this page later.

The Windows Live OneCare Family Safety product, even though a beta refresh was issued last week, will now launch in summer as opposed to over the coming few weeks. Due to organisational restructuring, most likely due to Steve Berkowitz throwing his hat down, the product is not on hold but rather extended the program for more development.

This is a surprise as the product is in effect nearly done, but due to heads rolling and people moving, there is more focus on getting new people in than getting the product finished.

You heard it here first.