According to Microsoft, the Internet Explorer 8 Beta is set to begin when Vista SP1 ships later this year. There is no information on when the exact date would be. However, since mainstream support for XP doesn’t end until April 2009 Microsoft will support IE 8 to Windows XP users.

But in the same way that IE 7 was released, there will be 2 versions: one that is built on the security settings of Vista, and the other one on the settings of XP SP2 or SP3.  More info will be posted when available.

Source: Bink.nu

This one is really easy - miss having the administrator on the Welcome screen? You can really easily put it back on there with a command from Run.

1. Go to Start, and in the Search box type in cmd.
2. Right click the Command Prompt at the top of the Start menu and select “Run as administrator”.
3. At the command prompt, type in net user administrator /active:yes then press Enter.
4. Log off and you should see the administrator sitting there on your Welcome login screen.

Source: VistaBase

It seems that Windows Sideshow, one of the coolest things to come out of Windows Vista, will offer devices running the software for as little as $80 (£40). Some of the more higher end devices might cost a bit more, around $150 (£75) but a little device containing all the vitals of your everyday life, it’s brilliant.

Source: Gizmodo

That’s right…we’ve reached another important product milestone!  The highly anticipated Windows Home Server Release Candidate is available today.  The product team has been logging long hours and doing heroic work to finalize this new and improved build.   

The community has been chomping at the bit for RC.  And while with Beta 2 and CTP we accepted applicants into the beta program in stages, we’ll make the RC software available to all 100,000+ beta program applicants asap, as well as all new sign ups. 

Source: Bink.nu

“This kind of dude. You might say he’s one in a million — literally. Is it just us or does he already look really regretful about the decision he just made?”

Via Engadget

I think ‘this kind of dude’ used to have no life, now he is part of the social. -PK

“The complaint says that Vista’s indexing service cannot easily be turned off and creates a drag on system resources when operating at the same time as rival indexers, like the one in Google Desktop Search. Google argues that this behavior is anticompetitive”

-via ars technica

Google is over doing it this time. This is absurd and the complaint will be throw out. Vista search performance and UI is better, if you using XP use Google desktop search, on Vista the in-built search is excellent. I see no reason why Microsoft should provide alternatives, it is their OS.

So they should give an option for every 3rd party app. that is out there? All that will be left is the core system programs and explorer, wait there will be a 3rd party explorer too! Rubbish!

Why is it when Microsoft adds anything to their operating system it’s anti-competitive, but when anyone else adds to theirs it’s a feature?

Well ask Google to provide search alternatives like ask.com and Live Search on their page or stop whining and start build their own freaking OS! I guess their ‘Don’t be Evil’ motto is still beta.

It seems that O2-UK is down for the pay-as-you-go service. I tried ringing work earlier on and I couldn’t make an outside call to anyone, nor could my friend ring me. Thank God for landlines eh

O2 have told me that “they are working on the technical difficulty and affects the majority of Pay-As-You-Go users in the UK.”

Ask.com’s recent relaunch seems to have built upon a prototype called Ask X.

If you look at the Ask X’s search field it is shockingly similar to Microsoft’s Live Search.

Mirroring the Search (Zoom) glass the other way round doesn’t really count as original design now does it?

“Ask.com launches a new search site today which is more beautiful than it is functional. The slick new look offers dynamic suggestions as you type on the search box page. The results page includes different types of results in one shot, like Wikipedia items, images, videos and feeds. Rollover the video results to preview them on the spot, subscribe to feed results, or use the “narrow your search” suggestions on the left hand side to explore further. Overall Ask.com’s facelift is slick and impressive, but the results themselves still aren’t up to par with Google.”

Via Lifehacker

Liveandbeyond says:

Love the new interface and it is super quick. Kudos to the ask.com team for this excellent relaunch but as mentioned above, the results aren’t up to par with Google. So all the millions they spent on the ‘Algorithm…’ ads that we saw all across US and the UK, was it justified? It did get people to talk about it but there seems to be more work done on the looks and layout rather than the algorithm itself as I don’t really see much difference in that!

Oh, this new relaunched site cannot be seen by default if you are in the UK. You will have to go to Ask.com US.