Microsoft has officially released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to the public and it’s available for download.
Windows Vista SP1 addresses specific reliability, performance and compatibility issues.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is available in the following 5 languages English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional).
Download: Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista
Download: Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista 64bit
MSN UK has released a free Fun Family pack which contains 30 Windows Live Messenger emoticons.
Download: 30 Free Windows Live Messenger Icons
For more free Windows Live Messenger emoticon packs you can visit MSN PimpMyLive UK . The packs include Display Pictures, Winks, Backgrounds and Emoticons.
Microsoft has released downloadable step by step guides for Windows Server 2008.
These step-by-step guides help IT Professionals learn about and evaluate Windows Server 2008.
These documents are downloadable versions of guides found in the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library.
Download: Windows Server 2008 Step by Step Guides
Microsoft has just released a new service called the Live Search Webmaster Center.
Similar to Google’s own Google Webmaster Central, site owners can use the service to troubleshoot the crawling and indexing of their website, submit a sitemap and also view statistics of their site.
This service is open to the public so you can sign in with your normal Windows Live ID.
The Microsoft Malware Protection Center includes the top 10 detections for Desktop, MSRT, Email, and Adware/Spyware.
Via the site you’ll be able to find an encyclopedia, tools and resources as well as a page that makes submitting new malware or potentially unwanted software samples to Microsoft much simpler.
There a number of links to Microsoft related security blogs which are a great resource for learning about security on the desktop.
Official Site: Microsoft Malware Protection Center
Network Protocol Analyzer Tool to allow capturing and protocol analysis of network traffic.
Network Monitor 3.1 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. Version 3.1 is an update and replaces Network Monitor 3.0. Network Monitor 3.x is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version.
Download: Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1
For organizations with complex desktop infrastructures, whether large or small, Windows Vista Enterprise is the operating system designed specifically to help realize a better return on IT investments. In this VHD, you’ll have the opportunity to road-test new and improved features including management (e.g. MUI, BDD, etc?) usability (e.g. Search, Navigation, etc?) and security (UAC, Windows Defender, etc?), enhancements to the Windows Vista platform.
Download: Microsoft Windows Vista 30-Day Eval VHD
Search and Browse Smarter with Windows Live Toolbar. Windows Live Toolbar helps you to start a search from any Web page and get better protection against phishing scams and viruses. You can also personalize your Web experience with custom buttons and use Windows Desktop Search to instantly find information on your PC.
Download: Windows Live Toolbar
Movie Maker 2.6 is for Windows Vista users whose computer cannot run the Vista version of Movie Maker.
To test if your computer can run the Vista version of Movie Maker:
If Movie Maker launches, you should not download version 2.6.
If you get an error message that says, “Windows Movie Maker cannot start because your video card does not support the required level of hardware acceleration or hardware acceleration is not available”, download and install Movie Maker 2.6.
Download: Windows Movie Maker 2.6 for Microsoft Windows Vista
Download Information: Microsoft
Welcome to the Windows Vista Security Guide. This guide provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of desktop and laptop computers running Windows Vista in a domain with the Active Directory directory service.
In addition to the solutions that the Windows Vista Security Guide prescribes, the guide includes tools, step-by-step procedures, recommendations, and processes that significantly streamline the deployment process. Not only does the guide provide you with effective security setting guidance, it also provides a reproducible method that you can use to apply the guidance to both test and production environments.
