We all know that Microsoft can update Windows Vista and Windows XP at will if automatic updates are enabled. Did you know that Microsoft can also update your operating system even if you disabled automatic updates ? Most users would probably deny that this is possible but it turns out to be true.

Categories: Operating Systems, Security, Windows

Beta 2 of Windows Live Messenger has been released today and can be downloaded from the official Microsoft Live Messenger website. The successor of MSN is available in more than 30 languages and can be installed with several additional products such as Writer, Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar and Family Safety.

Categories: Operating Systems, Tools, Windows

The war between HD-DVD and Blue-Ray entered a next stage with the announcements of Paramount and Dreamworks to publish their lineup exclusively on HD-DVD. Rumors soon spread around the Internet that both companies were receiving payments (Paramount $50 million dollars, Dreamworks $100 million dollars) from HD supporters to make this decision.

Categories: Music and Video

The Autopatcher team seems to be back on track with the release of core and update Autopatcher files for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server. Additionally, and for the first time, Autopatcher files for Office 2002, 2003 and 2007 have been released as well.

Categories: Operating Systems, Tools, Windows

Microsoft released a total of nine security patches yesterday fixing six critical and three important vulnerabilities on its August Patchday. Those updates were available on both my Windows XP and Windows Vista system and Microsoft in Windows Update but can also be downloaded as single updates from the Microsoft website.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

Microsoft was never good at keeping files and releases for themselves. It is normally only a matter of hours until the first scene release of a popular Microsoft alpha, beta or final version hits the net and gets spread around like crazy on p2p networks, the Usenet and ftp.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

The leaked patches for Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista made their round on many Internet sites and blogs last week and caused some heated discussions whether one should install them right away or wait for the official announcement on the Microsoft website.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

Archer posted a link to Ms. Dewey in the comments and I decided to give it a more in depth trial after taking the initial look. Have you met Ms. Dewey reminds me a lot of a line in one of my favorite tv series called How I met your mother which is a way to appraoch women for Barney and Ted in the series.

Well, Ms. Dewey is basically a search engine with a twist. Ms. Dewey is there to, talking to you, making fun out of you and being mean if you ask here some impolite questions. I don’t want to repeat what I have written because it is not that appropriate but you probably get it anyway.

Categories: The Web

The news has been out for some days that Microsoft secured the exclusive rights to provide additional content for the upcoming blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 4 paying a total of $50 million for that content alone. The two episodic content packages which haven been bought for $25 million dollar each will both be released in 2008 exclusively for the Xbox 360.

I personally think that this is a huge sum that Microsoft paid for these exclusive rights. I’m wondering how much it would have cost Microsoft to purchase the whole company instead and add it to their gaming empire. There are no information available about the contents of those episodic content packages but I suppose that it will probably have at least the size of a decent add-on.

Categories: Entertainment, Games