Microsoft has come up with an e-book for Windows Vista that talks about Ms Vista Tricks.

Microsoft Windows Vista has been toted as an operating system that was difficult to use and Microsoft has did everything they can to make the life of users easier.

The Windows Vista Ultimate Tips & Tricks e-book titled: “Windows Vista Ultimate – Helpful Hints” is one of those materials Microsoft has made to inform and guide users the power and all features of the operating system. The e-book is 9 MB in size and has 17 pages with images. The topics covered includes topics related to using Windows Vista Ultimate.

This book is for Windows Vista Ultimate users, but people using other editions should still be able to try and use tips in this book but not all.

Go ahead and download the e-book here — Windows Vista Ultimate – Helpful Hints.

Image from Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate e-book.

Do you want to install Apache, MySQL and PHP in Windows? I understand most windows users developers are on the Visual Studio .NET side, sometimes, we want to get PHP on our machine and do some development. In my case, I would want to have Apache, MySQL, PHP and eventually install wordpress in my machine.

MintyWhite has a series that outlines all the steps required. The series are the following:

Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP in Windows

Installing Wordpress on Your Local Windows Installation

Installing Drupal on Your Local Windows Installation

Installing LDAP Integration Module in Drupal

Go ahead and turn your Windows machine into an open source centric development environment.

Image from standard Windows

A lot of Windows XP users did not upgrade to Windows Vista and have decided to wait for it’s successor. Because of this worldwide decision of users, Microsoft has decided to put the pedals on it’s Vista successor. Vista was released almost 5 years after XP was released, now Windows 7 is going out just over two years from it’s predecessor.

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows 7 is going out as early as October 22, as Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte says that the public had positive remarks on the Windows 7 Release Candidate.

Users who are planning to buy a computer before the October launch date, should choose to purchase the Vista Premium or higher edition since Microsoft confirms that they are offering free upgrades to Windows 7.

Blue screen has been a fixture to Microsoft for more than a decade and up until Windows XP SP2, or Windows Vista you shouldn’t see the blue screen whenever an error comes up.

In case you get to see a blue screen in you Microsoft Windows Vista box, with an error message of “checksum” or something like that, the problem is most likely it’s memory. Another cause could be it’s motherboard, although, problems in motherboards usually end up in restarting machines. I don’t think you would even be able to get to your Windows Vista operating system when the board is the problem.

What should you do?

Check the warranty with your laptop, or contact your vendor and they should be able to quickly assess the problem and get your machine up and running.

There is one problem though, in most cases, you might need to format and re-install your operating system and applications.

Windows 7 Release Candidate started shipping on May 5, ‘09 to both public customers and Microsoft partners. The Windows 7 Release Candidate Customer Preview Program did not receive any support from Microsoft. The partners however are enjoying free and unlimited support from Microsoft.

The “Partner Online Technical Communities” is a Microsoft sponsored community that boasts of 50 Microsoft technologists which offer technical support as well as business side support for Windows 7.

Microsoft has this to say about this group: “Access unlimited online technical support for Microsoft products and technologies as part of your Microsoft Partner Program benefits —at no charge. Online Technical Communities can help you resolve customer issues and build customer loyalty and satisfaction. Share ideas with other partners and receive guaranteed responses to your break-fix, developer and presales questions from Microsoft engineers,”.

Image from Google images on Microsoft.

Time.com has voted Windows Vista as one of the biggest technology failures in the last decade.

The company explains that the software giant made a worldwide release of the operating system on January 30, 2007  and from then on, the software suffered incompatibility problems with older PCs which spurred public perception that the operating system is not ready for primetime usage. Consumers began planning on either sticking to Windows XP, or downgrading to Windows XP. This scenario has further deterred the migration of consumers including the enterprise to Windows Vista.

Despite selling 100 million licenses to consumers, the industry thinks that Microsoft has failed in this front given the high standards the software giant has set.

Image and news source from Time.

Netbooks for Apple has been a hot topic for the longest time. Major computer vendors have joined the bandwagon and made sure they were in the netbook competition. Apple has kept silent on their plans for a netbook given that the company is known to create and innovate products rather than joining the bandwagon.

Things might have changed at the Apple camp as the company has hired former security director at the One Laptop per Child project – Ivan Krstic.

Announcements made say that Apple just wants their operating system to be made secure by Ivan.

Nonetheless, MAC fanboys just want their own version of a netbook.

Image source from Apple.

Windows Vista is probably one of the most negatively talked about software in the history of the industry.

Windows Vista Ultimate, the highest edition of Windows Vista, is where consumers complained the loudest given the amount people cashed out vs the extras they received from it.

Microsoft Windows 7 is months away from release and Michael Cherry who is an analyst for Directions on Microsoft says that Windows 7 should be a free upgrade for Windows Vista ultimate license owners.

I couldn’t agree more, the Ultimate extras were far from what was marketed and these consumers didn’t get the full value of their product and combined with anxiety and disappointment should get Windows 7 for free.

Windows 7 image is on a positive roll, if Microsoft ends up giving this as a free upgrade, then the software giant is going out on a bang with their latest operating system.

Put aside some money for Christmas as strong speculations indicate that Microsoft is pushing for a Holiday release of Windows 7. The release candidate of Windows 7 is looking good and we are still months away from the holidays. The way Microsoft is going from the release of Windows 7 builds to RC, it is clear that they are pushing this operating system out the door before year ends.

There were lots of apprehension on the upgrade from Windows XP to Vista before but I don’t think this is going to be the case for the latest operating system. Windows 7 is Vista featues with XP performance.

Image source: www.northpolestation.com

The best anti-virus for Windows Vista depends on the needs of the user. While there are heavyweight anti-virus that has compatible version in windows Vista like Norton, Symantec, Kaspersky, etc. Some users still prefer free anti-virus applications.

Below is a list of anti-virus that runs on Vista. Go ahead and choose the one right for you:

Free Anti-Virus Software

Free anti-virus packages are:

AVG Free
AntiVir
Avast

Paid Anti-Virus

Norton
McAffee
Kaspersky
F-Prot
NOD32

Which one is right for you?