HelpWithWindows Newsletter

01. Microsoft Ships Office 2007 SP1 - Ahead of Schedule!

by Arie Slob

Hello Windows users,

Is this a sign of the new Microsoft? You know... under promise & over deliver? A reversal from how we have come to know the company?

This week Microsoft shipped the first service pack for Office 2007 - a month ahead of schedule. According to Microsoft Office Product Manager Reed Shaffner, the Office development team was able to deliver the enhancements and fixes earlier than anticipated, and Microsoft wanted to get Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Office 2007 in the hands of customers as soon as possible.

"SP1 provides stability and performance improvements across the 2007 Office system, keying in on customers' leading productivity concerns, and beefs up security precautions to stay ahead of the latest threats from malicious software and other risks," Reed Shaffner said. "We're optimistic that with the shipment of SP1 we're removing any residual barriers that may have impeded deployment and that adoption will only accelerate."

Office 2007 SP1 is available via a standalone download from the Microsoft Web site. The company will roll out this release via Windows Update and Automatic Updates in the coming weeks.

For a complete listing of issues addressed by this service pack, read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 936982.

02. Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for December, 2007

The security update for December 2007 includes six updates for Microsoft Windows and one for Internet Explorer.

Severity Rating: Critical

Severity Rating: Important

03. Happy Holidays!

This is the last issue of the HelpWithWindows Newsletter for this year. Most of you will celebrate the Christmas holiday, so from myself and the entire InfiniSource team I want to wish you & your loved ones happy Holidays and all the best for 2008!

The Newsletter will return to your mailbox with the January 12 issue.

04. Windows Updates

Microsoft issued a number of updates for Windows Vista in the past weeks:

KB905866 - Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [December 2007].
KB943899 - Update to resolve some performance and reliability issues in Windows Vista.
KB943302 - Update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Vista.
KB933860 - Update to resolve an issue where DFS failover does not occur when a system running Windows Vista attempts to connect to a DFS root server that is unavailable.

05.

S P O N S O R

Can you imagine that all of a sudden you lose the PC data you've been accumulating for years? Your business files, photos and music just vanish without any hope of being accessed again. A kind of disaster for you, isn't it?

To avoid the nightmare, make sure you have a reliable data protection suite to image your entire system and thus get prepared for a possible hard disk failure, which in most cases happens when you least expect it.

Acronis True Image 11 Home Trial Download [137 MB]

06. Recent Support BBS Postings

Back in November I ran a poll on the WindowsBBS forum, asking for the operating system users are running on their computer. The results are in: a full 73.4% are running a Windows XP version, while 21.9% are running a Windows Vista OS. You can access the full details here.

This month's poll asks which CPU your computer(s) are running. You can vote here.

Recent Support BBS Postings

Good ol Defrag - Windows Vista
What are $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ files? - Windows XP
Need Advice on Storage - Hardware
Running out of private IP address - Networking
sound recorder software--THIS works w/Vista! - Windows Vista

07. Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. SP3 also includes a small number of new functionalities, which - according to Microsoft - do not significantly change users experience with Windows XP. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3

More Info & Download

08. 09. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC Public Availability Program

Microsoft released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC Public Availability Program which allows users to install Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate using Windows Update. Please be aware that you are downloading a beta version (a "Release Candidate" is still a beta), so only do this if you know the implications of running beta software!

10. Latest Microsoft & Windows News from around the Internet

Latest Microsoft & Windows News from around the Internet

11. Microsoft Changing WGA Behavior in Vista SP1

Microsoft last week announced it will cease hobbling Windows Vista installations that fail the company's validation processes in its forthcoming Service Pack 1 update, scheduled for next year.

Currently, Microsoft penalizes Vista users that fail to activate their operating system software within 30 days, or three days after a major hardware configuration change, by restricting Vista to running in "out-of-grace reduced functionality mode." This denies access to games included in Window Vista and to premium features like Aero Glass, ReadyBoost, and BitLocker. It also limits the amount of time the user can remain logged in to one hour.