Microsoft decided to publish several versions of Windows Vista who all differ from one another when you compare the functionality of the operating systems. Prices vary from $199 for Windows Vista Home Basic to $379 for Windows Vista Ultimate. Those prices are already beginning to fall slightly but it will take some time until they drop significantly. There is however the possibility to purchase Windows Vista for a cheaper price.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

I never thought that a lot of users would still run Windows XP with the default service configuration but reality proofed me wrong once again. The default settings want to make sure that the majority of Windows users can use Windows XP without having to think about services that they would have to enable. This is great for compatibility issues but bad for the overall security of your operating system.

Categories: Operating Systems, Security, Windows

I recently received an email from one of my readers who asked if there would be a secure way to update a Windows XP installation that already had service pack 2 installed with the latest patches issues by Microsoft in the months after the second service pack was released. His main concerns were about WGA, Windows Genuine Advantage. He did not like the fact that data was sent from his computer to Microsoft.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

One of the flaws of the Xbox 360 is the inablity to playback divx movies on it. Microsoft might have left it out intenionally to push their own wmv format or avoid that the Xbox 360 would be used as the universal media center like the orginal Xbox with the (unofficial) Xbox media center was able to do.

Categories: Entertainment, Games, Knowledge

Do you remember Blackvipers services recommendations for Windows XP ? The site helped me a lot when I started using Windows XP by explaining the services that were running on my system. I just the information on his site to disable services that I would never need which had the effect that it speed up my system and hardened its security at the same time.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

Windows XP will be the dominant operating system for the next years even though Microsoft released the successor Windows Vista just a few days ago. The major disadvantage of Vista is that it is hardware hungry and poses problems to users of Windows XP who would like to change but can’t because of the hardware of their computer.

Categories: Knowledge, Operating Systems, Windows

Windows has no obvious method to lock folders, even administrators have no obvious way of locking folders. Locking folders could be important if you want to hide certain files or folders to prevent someone else from seeing them or altering the contents. You never know what your children could do until they do, so better lock the important folders.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

Did you know that it is possible to extend the 30 day evaluation period of Windows Vista to a maximum of 120 days with a single command from the command line ? You can use the following command to reset the counter up to three times to use Vista for a period of up to 120 days without activating it.

Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

For some time everyone thought that it was only possible to use a Vista update DVD from within Windows XP to update to the latest operating system. The Windows XP key would become invalid and the Vista installation could commence. DailyTech posted a workaround which makes it possible to install Windows Vista using a Vista update DVD without XP.

Categories: Hacking, Operating Systems, Windows