Snowball - The Blog

Since Windows Explorer on my Dell XPS (which is my personal laptop I use for presentations and demo's) started acting funny, I searched for a replacement because I didn't feel like formatting and starting all over.

I came across Directory Opus 9. Since installing it, and using it instead of Explorer itself, I've had numerous people asking me what "that tool" is when I used it on presentations.
Why? Because it looks so damn handy that is! Split view, horizontal and vertical, FTP, Commander look... you name it, it's in there.
You can even make it the default (replacing Explorer entirely) and it doesn't slow down your PC at all.

It costs about €50 and here you can download a trial. My current version is still 9.0, but I'm hoping to upgrade as soon as possible to 9.1 which was released last week.

One of my favorite tools of SysInternals is ProcessExplorer. It's a nice replacement for Task Manager in Windows XP/2003/Vista, as it shows much more detailed info on the running processes.

It even allows you to check which processes are hosted by which svchost process, and that in turn can help you determine what process it using more memory than allowed (handy when trying to find memory leaks in your programs).

Version 11 was released earlier this week, bundled with even more features and a crisper looking UI. You can get it, as always for free, here.

We all know that piracy and illegal use of software is a risk for the further development of quality software. Microsoft started a new campaign to make the public aware of the dangers that lure when downloading pirated software from the internet.
Lots of these site try to install malware on the PC's, which can lead to numerous other problems.

The campaign consists of several short (and nicely) created clips, which can be seen here. 

While we're all eagerly waiting on Vista, MS is offering is some nice upgrades in these last weeks of the Windows XP era!
Just minutes ago, and exactly on the day they said (!), Microsoft announced the immediate availability of Windows Media Player 11.

Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all of your digital media. It's easier than ever to access all of your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV on your computer. Play it, view it, organize it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go, or share with devices around your home - all from one place. Windows Media Player 11 is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP with Service Pack 2, including Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.

So, instead of reading this post, you should be downloading and installing the new player already!

Microsoft will release the final build of IE7 today to customers, with the company expected to push the build by automatic updates on 1st November.

At the moment there is no link on Microsoft.com, but Yahoo has the final build bundled with Yahoo Mail. All you need to do is download the Yahoo edition and use WinRAR to extract the files and run IE7-Setup.exe

Download here.

Some time ago, I marked today as the release date of the beta of Virtual PC 2007 beta. MS kept its word, and released the first beta via Connect.

You can get it here.

According to a new Vista-related press release on Microsoft's site, Windows Media Player 11 will be released to the public on October 24th.

"Windows Media Player 11 will be available via free download beginning Oct. 24 and will enable users to take advantage of an elegant and intuitive user interface, a new level of online store integration, especially with MTV’s URGE service, and improved navigation for larger music libraries."

Another post over on the MSDN blogs, states that Microsoft is targeting October 18th as the release date for Internet Explorer 7. Looks as though Microsoft is planning to release IE7 automatically on November 1st:

"The final release of Internet Explorer 7 is targeted for release October 18th …and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates starting November 1st, a few weeks after it’s available for download. Are your Web sites, extensions, and applications ready? Microsoft recommends that Web sites and applications be reviewed and made ready for the release of Internet Explorer 7 this month."

Yes folks, it's finally here!! RC1 of the upcoming Windows Vista!

MS just opened the doors to CPP (Customer Preview Program), so everybody can starting to enjoy vista now already.

Microsoft notes on the website: Windows Vista RC1 is available for participants of the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. Please go to the Customer Preview Program website to register and receive a Product Key, which is required to install and activate the software.

Here are the linkzzz: (I provide you the direct links to the ISO's so you don't have to use the download manager MS suggests)

32 bit: download iso - 2,584.25 MB (Expires June 1st 2007)
64 bit: download iso - 3,677.22 MB (Expires June 1st 2007) (Lots bigger that 32 bit )
Get yer keys here (note that if you have a beta 2 key, that is also works!)
Download page

My experience so far with RC1: I installed it on Saturday in a Virtual PC environment. At first, I had not installed Virtual Machine Additions Beta 2... Oh my, that was a real disaster! After installing them in the Vista VPC, it worked like a dream! Fast and pretty reliable...
Some negative points too... it's not ready, you can see that easily. Annoying things like "the-first-file-is-not-selected-when-I-open-a-folder-in-Explorer" still can't make you enjoy the OS completely. But I'm sure they will pull this off (I'm not sure if they will in 6 weeks, however, but we'll see that...).

Should you also want to install Vista RC1 in a VPC, do install the VMaddtions for Vista Beta 2! You can download the here.

CA's eTrust software wrongly identified Windows' in-built security as malware, and a fix has been made available.

Some Windows 2003 users have been experiencing problems with the operating system recently after antivirus software from CA wrongly detected part of the operating system as malware.

At the heart of the problem is part of Windows' in-built security, a file called Lsass.exe. This was wrongly detected as a virus by CA's eTrust software and was deleted, causing some servers to crash and fail to reboot.

More here.

Already added 2 posts about new stuff today, so I'm going to bundle these last 2 for today...

Yesterday, while I was at Disneyland (you can see my pics on my Flickr account...), MS released SP1 for Visual Studio 2003. It's a 160MB download, and once installed, you can't return without uninstalling, so install with care!

Go here for the download.

Something I came across are Nuggets. In Disneyland, you might ask? Yes, there were Chicken Nuggets, but since this a technical blog, I'm not going to bother you with what I ate... I'm talking about MSDN nuggets, hosted by Microsoft UK.

Don't have the time to read a 10-page how-to article or watch a full length webcast? Try an MSDN Nugget, a webcast that takes you step-by-step to discovering new functionality or exploring a hot developer topic, all in 10-15 minutes. View them online now or download for later reference.

Head over here for a lot of good content!

Sources at Microsoft say that RC1 (release candidate 1) is to be released on September 7th (or very soon thereafter), and not in August, as rumors said it would be.
Microsoft has put build 5520 as RC1, and that build is to be released to testers and the public after the Labor Day weekend in the US, which is Septermber 4th.

What's more important, is that MS is still set to deliver the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) on October 25 of shortly after. Despite all rumors, speculations and so on, it seems that the great Vista release is still on track for its release.

Let's hope we don't have to adjust these dates, and that Vista, together with WPF, WCP and all the rest will be here in time!

Today, sunday, WinRAR 3.51 can be downloaded for free! A fully functional version, no trial!

To get it: go to www.win-rar.com

Is it me, or is it like every day I have been announcing that Microsoft is giving yet some other software away for free?

Maybe it's the heat that's getting to them?

Anyway, a big thank you for all you not-MSDN subscribers to the big M, since they are giving away the complete MSDN library for free. You can download the May 2006 edition.

Prepare your computer however, since the download is quite large, up to 1.7 GB!

Go here for the download!

Thank you Microsoft... What?? Again no thank you... Tssss....

Today, Microsoft released a public beta of Internet Explorer 7.

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Beta 3 has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

To download this new beta, go here.

For a nice changelog, look on the IE Blog.

Finally, a new post on Snowball.be... I have been very busy in the last 2 weeks, and there are some very "secret" things going on at the moment, on which I'll be posting more later on... But enough about me
Back to Microsoft news!!

The Big M is, according to rumors, which seem confirmed by Samsung, making a monitor, specially crafted for use with Windows Vista! This monitor should make you get the best experience using Vista. It's supposed to be a 22" widescreen (vista is designed for best use with widescreen). No word on the resolution, though, however, I guess this will be quite high, maybe 1920 x 1280?

MS has not confirmed the rumors, but Samsung, which will actually make the monitor, has. No pics on this either... pity.

UPDATE: MS is also to release a very nice keyboard, with backlighting! More can be seen on this here.

The new issue of MSDN magazine is available. All articles can be read online for free here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/07/default.aspx .

This month, among others, 2 articles in particular are a very good read: the one on Ajax (on which I'll be doing a presentation later this week at Ordina Lummen) and one on WinFX.

Did you also know that you can download a chm-copy of the magazine for free? Go here for this months issue or here for an entire archive on back-issues!

The first CTP (which is I guess now the official new word for Beta ) is available to download and test. Here you can get the image-file.

More info can be found here.

Over 500.000 people have downloaded Office 2007 Beta 2 in the couple of first days it was available. That's a lot, a whole lot! Chances are that you are 1 of these, isn't it?

Now, finding some spare time to get to know the new interface, learning how to program for the new office... that's the hardest part.

Here are some interesting resources to get you started with the new suite in no time (even without installing it!!)
1. To get to know the basics, go to the Office 2007 preview site. Don't feel like installing it? No problem, just watch some videos on the new interface.

2. If you are a developer like myself, you're probably more interested in developing for the new Office. Chances are that you find what you are looking for in the Office developer center. In the What's new section, you can also find links to the most important Office blogs.

3. If Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is your cup of tea, you're gonna be thrilled when reading in the Servers section of the developer site. Some nice screenshots of Office Sharepoint 2007 can be found here.

Hope this brings some clarity in all the "Office violence" that awaits us!