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Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 on Torrent Network

eches — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:57:34 +0000

It is not much that we know about the second service pack (SP2) for Microsoft Office 2007 which is rumored to be released in the first half of 2009 after the release of Service Pack 1 long time ago. However somebody in China has tipped off about Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) which has the KB number of KB953195. Interestingly, this guy managed to distribute the leaked Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 on torrent network.

Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 that is said to be more stable as compared to SP1 is currently available for download as standalone executable. This release will effectively upgrade the installed Microsoft Office 2007 to version 12.0.6416.1000 from 12.0.6331.5000 (Microsoft Office 2007 SP1).

At this point, nobody could tell for sure whether this is actually the final Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 build or probably a release candidate (RC) or a even beta software even though the EULA ID hints the beta version (012.0_B2TR_PRE.0_BTA_EN).

Anyway, here is a list of features for Office 2007 Service Pack 2

Supports Open Document Format (ODF)
Supports Portable Document Format (PDF)
Supports XML Paper Specification (XPS)

Details of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

File name: office2007sp2-kb953195-fullfile-en-us.exe
File size: 287.14 MB
SHA-1: 3c2269f5f0472dd606cd34f1d53981539cbe04b7

Download Links

Torrent | Direct Link

[via]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2007, Service Pack 2, Torrent Site, Microsoft, Office Application

Free POP3 Access to All Windows Live Hotmail Users

eches — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:06:29 +0000

Windows Live Hotmail team has officially announced the availability of POP3 access of Windows Live Hotmail accounts to its customers WORLDWIDE. With FREE POP3 you can access you email account by using mail clients such as Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

What is POP3 anyway? POP3 is an internet based standard for email retrieval from an email server executed by a user. It stands for Post Office Protocol. The "3" simply means it is the third revision with POP1 and POP2 were the previous versions of the standard.

Although you always could access Hotmail on your web-enabled mobile phone by going to mobile.live.com, now that Hotmail has POP3, you can get to it more conveniently using the e-mail software on your PC or mobile device* such as a Windows Mobile phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry.

Here is the list of information required to setup Hotmail in your mail client:

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)

POP SSL required? Yes

User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com

Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live

SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25 or 587)

Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)

TLS/SSL required? Yes

[via]

Technorati Tags: Hotmail POP3 Access, Windows Live Hotmail, hotmail, microsoft, POP server

Kumo: Microsoft’s Live Search Rebrand To Be Unveiled

eches — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:32:23 +0000

After failing to beat Google in owning the internet and the acquisition of Yahoo that didn't go as planned, the trademarked Kumo.com (rumored to be Microsoft's new brand Web search) may salvage Live.com by giving Microsoft the opportunity to start with a clean slate. As I'm writing this post, no source could tell for sure whether this is an effort to rejuvenate Live Search or simply another Microsoft's search project. Speaking of which, Kumo is a Japanese word that can be translated to "spider" or "cloud".

Breaking Google's dominance in search engine market is surely an uphill task. Microsoft needs to bring innovation and major improvements onto this new project otherwise it might be not be able to catch up with Google again.

Because the project is currently revolving in Microsoft's internal circulation (early stage of testing) it is very hard to form any opinion related to this new project. Anyway, judging from the screenshot (more here) above, it looks promising. We can see the explorer pane along with relevant information for the related search keyword on the left and the search results seem to be brilliantly organized.

As mentioned earlier on, the screenshot only shows the early stage of testing, so the final product may have a whole new look. I hope Kumo (or whatever name may later be given) can give a better competition to Google. Not that I'm a great fan of Microsoft products, but it definitely gives a good check-and-balance to the overpowering Google.

Technorati Tags: search engine, microsoft, google, kumo, new search engine

Download Windows Media Player (WMP) 12 For Your Windows Vista

eches — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:32:12 +0000

Windows Media Player (WMP) 12 which comes with lighter and brighter user interface as well as several new features, is scheduled to be shipped with Windows 7. Unfortunately Microsoft is not planning to release it sooner than the official launch of Windows 7 and this leaves people who are eager to use the latest version of Windows Media Player restless.

While we only see WMP 12 is distant away from reaching, Mikasi2009, a user over at Devianart brings the lovely WMP 12 closer for grab by coming up with a way to install Windows Media 12 on Windows Vista. For what is worth, this guy is one of the lucky 1000 participants who got invitation for Windows 7 Beta 2 Closed Testers and has access to the Windows Media Player 12.0.7000.7000 original files from Windows 7 Build 7000.

How to install Windows Media Player 12?
1. Download this file and extract it.
2. - copy wmploc.dll in C:\Windows\System32
- copy Windows Media Player folder to C:\Program Files

Damn easy huh? Not really because overwriting on Windows Vista is not really that simple. For your information, Windows Vista has an annoying feature that deny ourselves from accessing our very own files on Windows Vista though we are the administrator! It's not covered here but you may take a look a tutorial on how to get around the problem at this reference (How to gain access on a system file in Windows Vista). The tutorial doesn't necessarily work for everyone but you can also examine other solutions provided by other users (comments) in the reference link.

Note: Please make sure to backup your files before proceeding. There is no roll-back-to-previous-version feature like in Windows XP otherwise you need to reinstall Windows Vista if your Windows Media Player goes haywire).

Technorati Tags: Windows Media Player 12, WMP 12, Windows Media Player 12 beta, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Paint.NET – Free Photo Editor for Windows

eches — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:21:21 +0000

Paint.NET 3.36 Final is an Image Optimizer product from getpaint.net. It is an image and photo manipulation program designed to be used on computers that run on Windows platform. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft and it was meant to replace Microsoft Paint, which was included in Windows, but has evolved into a viable alternative to Photoshop.

Since I have been using Adobe Photoshop for a long time, Paint.NET interface is extremely intuitive. Having said that, new users who don't have any experience with any other image editor will get used to all functionality in no time because you can always hover over the tools to learn specific function of individual tool or you can interactively get help from Paint.NET tutorials (forum). In addition to the basic tool (on the left side), it has many amazing features (not as much as Adobe Photoshop of course) like adjustments, corrections, color editing, special effects, artistic effects and the list goes on.

Paint.NET doesn't stop there. It also has infinite undo, layer support, action history, and the ability to transform (resize and rotate). It is a surprisingly feature-rich application that rivals even the best commercial photo editing software. Anyway here's the minimum requirements to run this application.

Windows XP(SP2 or later), Windows Vista or Windows Server (2003 SP1 or later)
.NET Framework 2.0 or newer (.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 recommended)
500 MHz processor (Recommended: 800 MHz or faster)
256 MB of RAM (Recommended: 512 MB or more)
1024 x 768 screen resolution
200+ MB hard drive space
64-bit support requires a 64-bit CPU that is running a 64-bit version of Windows, and an additional 128 MB of RAM

One of the reasons why I (am) will be using it for a very long time is because it is lighter (doesn't hog memory as much as Photoshop) and as a result, loads faster. Paint.NET is really handy especially when it comes to light image/picture editing.

I think Paint.NET is what MS Paint SHOULD HAVE evolved into several years ago.

Download Paint.NET 3.36 Final

Technorati Tags: Paint.NET, free photo editor, freeware, windows

Windows 7 Transformation Pack 2009 for Download

eches — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:55:54 +0000

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build copy was distributed via torrent and rapidshare recently to thousands of Windows enthusiasts who can't wait to see features that are going to be unveiled in the upcoming Windows operating system. With enormous exposure it gets from online community and the blogosphere we can expect more stuffs related to Windows to make their appearance.

It doesn't take long for Windows users to see Windows 7 Transformation Pack around. This pack contains almost everything for the transformation which include Windows 7 theme, start menu, wallpaper and many more. Here is a list of things included in the Windows 7 Transformation Pack:

Windows Se7en Visual Style
Windows Se7en Blaero Start Orb
Windows Se7en Start Menu
Windows Se7en Styler TB
Windows Se7en Pie Dock
Windows Se7en Wallpapers

So guys, here is your chance to grab Windows 7 Transformation Pack 2009 which contains the new looks of Windows 7.

Download

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 Transformation Pack 2009, Windows 7 Transformation Pack 2009 download, Windows 7 download

Download Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build via Torrent or Rapidshare

eches — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:17:41 +0000

Windows 7 has been the talk of the town since it was first introduced at Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008. People are eager ever since the event to try out Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build which was given away to PDC participants. The Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build copy was first spotted in this blogspot but it is spreading fast across the internet right after its first sight.

The activation is required for this Pre Beta build and if you don't have the activation key, a 30-day trial period will be automatically set.

It was reported that on The Pirate Bay, one copy of the 32-bit build had more than 1000 people uploading it whilst almost 7000 people are downloading it. As expected the 64-bit version was less popular, with only around 100 people hosting a copy and around a thousand still downloading it.

Mininova had a similar number of people downloading and uploading the 32-bit Windows 7 file as that on The Pirate Bay, although the 64-bit version on this site was a rare breed with only one copy boasting 30 seeds and around 150 leechers.

In this pre-beta build, users will be greeted with Windows Live Messenger sign-in page instead of Vista's Welcome Center. It is worth to note that this is not the latest build, instead, the stable one and it is meant to give users the flavor of what Windows 7 and what can be expected out of it. So, if you think of using it for your everyday activities you might need to knock off the idea. That also explains the absence of the new taskbar and new aero effects. Future builds will incorporate the new taskbar and aero glass effects features.

Download Sources
Pirate Bay | Rapidshare

If you want to keep yourselves updated with rumors, screenshots, latest news and anything related to Windows 7 perhaps you should visit Windows 7 Center often as I see lot of updates on Windows 7. Thanks Brian for the heads up.

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Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows 7 download, windows 7 rapidshare, windows 7 torrent, Download Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build, Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build

Windows Media Player 12’s New Features and Screenshots

eches — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:33:38 +0000

Windows Media Player 12 which comes with brighter and lighter user interface, will be part of the Windows 7 operating system and include some new features. The user experience should be be pretty much the same to the previous version of Windows Media Player 11 though the layout has some changes like the buttons have been moved around, removal of the Now Playing button and separated library management with 2 distinct player modes; Now Playing view and Library view.

Here are some screenshots of Windows Media Player 12

Though Windows Media Player 12 looks similar to WMP 11, it's however a very compelling version of its predecessor. Microsoft made a smart move by finally acknowledging the success of Tunes and other non-Microsoft video formats and decided to make Windows Media Player works with them as well. This attitude started a new refreshing change to Windows Media Player and as a result it is greatly improved. This proves to be good for longevity of Microsoft and will definitely entice consumers with new great experience.

[via]

Technorati Tags: windows media player 12, windows media player 11, window media player 12 features

A-Patch for Windows Live Messenger (WLM) 9.0

eches — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:31:38 +0000

A-Patch is essentially a small free patch for Windows Live Messenger (WLM) that customizes the look of Live Messenger to better enhance your Windows Live Messenger experience. A-Patch has many options for you to play with which might be a little bit confusing for new users and that explains why it is equipped with a built-in preview window. Basically, you can preview the changes of nearly every option before actually applying it.

After the recent release of latest Windows Live Messenger (WLM) 2009 which is packed within Windows Live Wave 3, A-Patch follows suit by releasing the latest patch for WLM 2009 which brings a whopping 56 options to play with. Some options were removed because it seems that the Messenger team implemented them and some more options will be added in the future.

Here's some of the features

Customize the Main Toolbar
Remove Contact Manager Bar
Remove Contacts' Personal Message
Remove Gleam Notification
Remove Emoticons from Contact Nicknames
Remove Yellow Information Bar

If you a regular user of Windows Live Messenger, this little patch is worth to be considered on board.

Download A-Patch

[via]

Windows Live Suite: Download Windows Live Wave 3 Beta

eches — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:01:37 +0000

On September 16th, Microsoft rolled out Windows Live Wave 3 Beta, the newly Windows Live suite of applications and for the record, this is another late buzz from the renowned procrastinator :) If you look at the installer (screenshot below), you may choose the applications of your choice or you may choose all of them together (197 MB) for the sake of testing out new products. While I was writing this post, the download progress was almost half of the way and it seemed to move barely, heck it's really a bad idea to download large files during peak hours.

This package include

- Windows Live Messenger v9 Beta
- Windows Live Movie Maker Beta
- Windows Live Mail Beta with Calendar synchronisation
- Windows Live Writer Beta
- Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta
- Windows Live Family Safety Beta
- Microsoft Outlook & Connector Beta
- Windows Live Toolbar Beta

These new applications bring some new features like the capability of uploading videos to Youtube from Live Writer and the user interface of the respective applications is given uplift, making them more vibrant and appealing.

To fully enjoy the applications, your system generally needs to have a processor of at least 1 GHz or higher, 256 RAM or higher (Windows XP), 512 RAM or higher (Windows Vista) and for certain applications such as Movie Maker, ATI Radeon 9500 (or higher) or nVidia GeForce FX 5900 (or higher) are required to run the programs smoothly. You may see the full system requirements here.

Download Windows Live Wave 3 Beta

[via]

Technorati Tags: microsoft, windows live wave 3 beta, Windows Live Messenger 9 beta, Windows Live Movie Maker Beta, Windows Live Mail Beta with Calendar synchronisation, Windows Live Writer Beta, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Family Safety, Microsoft Outlook Connector beta, live applications

Open PDF files outside your browsers

eches — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 11:08:49 +0000

Sometimes it's annoying to find that a link we are opening are PDF files and they freeze our browsers as they try to open the adobe acrobat reader. Surely this is not the case for computer equipped with latest processor, massive RAM etc but as far as my computer is concerned, it's really a big deal. You might want to consider the following tips if this is a case too for you. I will go with Firefox first as this is my primary browser.

1. Firefox

There are two ways of dealing with PDF files in Firefox.

a) Link Alert - Once this plugin is installed to Firefox, the cursor will change its icon to the files associated with the links you are hovering on. There is further details about this plugin at my previous post (Firefox plugin: link alert).

b) PDF download - This plugin gives you the option on whether to open the PDF files on your browser or to save directly into your hard disk.

2. Internet Explorer

In order to disable your Internet Explorer from opening the PDF files inside the browser, you need to open Adobe Acrobat reader and go to Edit > Preferences. Untick the Display PDF in browser (see the following picture).

This should get over the nuisance from bugging your browsing experience and happy surfing.

[via Blog Herald]

Technorati Tags: firefox, microsoft, internet explorer, Adobe PDF

How to retrieve lost password on Windows XP

eches — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:47:08 +0000

The following is the tutorial on how to retrieve lost or forgotten password in Windows XP. I'm not sure whether the commands used will work on any other Windows platforms, but it does in Windows XP.

1. Bofore restarting your computer and pressing F8 to get into Windows with "safe mode" environment, make sure you jot down all the information here.
2. You will notice there's Administrator account appears on the user menu. Logon to Windows through the administrator account. It won't request you for a password.
3. Go to Start menu and click on "run.." (Start>Run..) and type CMD.
4. At command prompt type in cd C:\Windows\System32 (assuming C is your drive where all Windows and system files reside).
5. Make a backup of your Logon.Scr file for safety purpose by typing in copy logon.scr Logon.bak.
6. After that type copy CMD.EXE logon.scr and choose Yes.
7. Finally type this following command to reset the password, net user administrator YourNewPass (assuming YourNewPass is your new password you want to change it to)
8. Restart your computer and logon with your new password.

Technorati Tags: forgot windows password, tricks, hacks, retrieve password, windows XP

Are you ready for Vista?

eches — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:50:07 +0000

Windows Vista is the unprecendented Windows OS release that requires a dedicated graphic card to exploit its full potential. For home users, there will be three versions: Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Ultimate. With such high specifications, Microsoft really wants users to consider to upgrade their computers.

If you really interested in using Windows Vista, you must first check your computer capability to handle the enourmous needs of Vista. You can check your computer's compatibility by visiting the following url.

1. Visit Are you Vista ready?
2. Read through the license agreement and press agree at the bottom of that page. Shortly after that, a popup will appear and select the can you run it?

3. If the active-x is off, you need to turn that on. Supposed you don't have Java runtime environment installed in your computer, you need to install it and it will take a few minutes to complete.
4. After that, you are required to install a small software (adware,spyware free and it does not collect any info from your computer), to check your computer's compatiblity.

Here's the test result of my computer. I need to upgrade the processor and the graphic card (thinking of having new computer). So, how's your computer perform in the test? Are they Vista ready?

Technorati Tags: windows vista, compatibility

7 bugs in Windows XP

eches — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:56:32 +0000

As far as I'm concerned this is an interesting discovery. :) None of those gives you the extra edge over using Windows XP, but it's fun to know about these bugs.

7 Bugs In Windows XP - video powered by Metacafe

Technorati Tags: windows XP, bugs, interesting

How to uninstall Windows Media Player 11

eches — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:36:00 +0000

I've been using windows media player 11 for about a month and this piece of software sucks big time. Now, I change back to windows media player 10. I learnt that some people are wondering on how to uninstall it, so I post this short post to show you how to do that.

1. Open your "Add or Remove Programs" and click on the "show updates" at the top of the pop up window.

2. It will list down all the updates each of your program. Scroll down to Windows XP - Software updates and you will notice windows media player 11 amongst other updates.

3. Remove all the updates associated to windows media player 11 and this action will require you to restart your computer.

4. Windows will require you to install the previous media player version (10) and you are done!

Technorati Tags: uninstall windows media player 11