At last the moment you've been waiting for. Microsoft wants to hit your version of Windows with an update, and this time you don't have to go rummaging around the internet to find it: just fire up Windows Update and let Microsoft do all the work. After a few false starts XP users get the much-anticipated SP3 update, which promises speed boosts and some of the fancy security features found in Vista. If you're a Vista user you're also in luck, since Microsoft has restarted its Vista SP1 distribution after some compatibility problems with Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Sounds like a party.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Last year Microsoft really carried on about fulfilling its commitment to all the power users that anted up to get untold future Vista Ultimate Extras -- yet none really materialized besides the disappointing early stuff like DreamScene and Texas Hold 'Em. Well, get ready to feel a whole new wave of Ultimate justification wash over you, because today Microsoft is releasing a trifecta of new Extras: sound schemes, DreamScape animations, and OS language packs. Oh yeah, there's definitely some Vista "Wow" in here -- but it's mostly from being kind of appalled at these sorry post-apologetic excuses for "ultimate"-grade software additions. Someone wake us when Microsoft decides it cares about making good on its many unfulfilled promises to Vista users.

Turns out Microsoft's unfathomably horrendous Vista SP1 promo video that turned up yesterday was just one great big spoof -- a spoof Redmond apparently had no qualms spending a good bit of dough on rather than just re-dubbing some old video from yesteryear. Nevertheless, a company representative said to be "familiar with the reason behind the production" noted that "they thought folks internally would get a kick out of not taking themselves so seriously all the time, but some people thought that's exactly what they were being -- serious." He continues on to say that this "little piece of art" had "caused quite a few laughs in Microsoft's hallways." Um, yeah -- and here in the outside world we aren't laughing any quieter just knowing this masterpiece of comedy was indeed intended as a joke.

[Thanks, Rooshma]

Owners of HP's older MediaSmart HDTVs, your sometime is now as Chris Lanier reports the company's posted the long-awaited Vista Media Center Extender update. The SL4278N and SL4778N model TVs should prompt for the update automatically if they're connected to the internet, and afterwards connect to your fully patched Vista Home Premium or Ultimate edition machine and access your Media Center library (DivX, Xvid, h.264, MPEG-2 and WMV of course), live TV, recorded TV or other features directly through the TV. Check out HP's support page for a full walkthrough on the process and keep your Windows Media Center remote close by.

[Via Chris Lanier, HP press release]

It's official, Microsoft knows no shame. We used to think that the Zune tattoo guy was bad for publicity, but now it's clear that the video promo team needs zero outside help in dragging whatever shred of dignity this company has through the mud. Whoever thought up this Bruce Springsteen-defiling "Rockin' Our Sales" piece of garbage to promote the launch of Vista SP1 should be fired instantly and sued for defamation. It's just that good. Video is naturally after the break.

[Thanks, Jacob S.]

If your pants / panties were in a "bunch" upon hearing news that Windows 7 would be headed into your ever-loving arms "next year," you might just want to hold off on those party invites for a little bit. Sure, Bill Gates just happened to mention that we'd see a new version of the OS "Sometime in the next year or so," but it's looking like that "or so" makes a world of difference. Microsoft wants to chill everyone out with the somber news that its got no plans to introduce Windows 7 any earlier than January 2010 (three years from the launch of Vista), and reassure us that crazy old Gates may have just been talkin' developer speak. "As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain tester feedback," a spokesman for Microsoft said, downplaying Gates' statement. Of course, this means that XP's cutoff will suddenly move even further down the line, which makes us wonder what the point of setting that June 2010 date was in the first place. Why are you toying with us like this, Microsoft?

[Thanks, Tony]

You know, we should have paid a little closer attention to Microsoft's decision yesterday to extend Windows XP sales to "June 2010 or one year after the general availability of Windows 7" -- if the company was really planning on shipping Windows 7 in 2010, that first date doesn't make a lot of sense unless the plan is to ship Windows 7 much, much earlier. And hey -- what's Bill Gates doing telling investors this afternoon that Windows 7 will come "in the next year" and that he's "super-enthused" about it? As far as we know, the official Windows 7 timeline hasn't changed, so Bill might just talking about beta versions, but something's clearly up Windows-wise in Redmond -- perhaps Vista's wow is not long for this now.

[Thanks, Jon]

Chances are that if you do your duties on Vista and rely on one of Creative's sound cards to get your dance on, you may have become frustrated by the firm's inability to offer up a driver package that lived up to those loosed for Windows XP. 'Course, if that rings a bell, you're probably not too concerned -- you know, thanks to those unofficial (but totally functional) drivers brought to you by Daniel_K. Unfortunately for users suddenly excited to gain some extra utility from their device, Creative has hopped on the offensive and is forbidding said compiler from distributing the firm's technology / IP (not to mention collecting donations), and it's also scouring the 'net to remove other links to the software. Granted, we fully understand Creative's desire to disallow the distribution of untested, potentially harmful third-party drivers, but until they release the drivers customers expect they should be a little more cautious about shutting down third party patches.

[Via Slashdot, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: It seems Creative has decided to allow Daniel_K to continue with one particular endeavor at least, noting that "as long as no intellectual property of Creative is distributed, [it] will have no problem with it." Thanks, Aaron!

After a week full of Red Bulls, Fruit by the Foot and dreams of In-N-Out, the mighty Sony VAIO loaded with Linux stood as the only machine unhacked by the end of the PWN 2 OWN hacking contest at CanSecWest. As you're well aware by now, the MacBook Air on display was seized in two minutes by the presumably well prepared Charlie Miller, and after two full days of work, Shane Macaulay and a few of his 1337 associates managed to crack the Vista rig on Friday. Reportedly, Shane and his pals weren't expecting to do battle with the extra protected SP1 version of Vista, and while the exact loophole won't be divulged, we are told that it was a cross-platform bug that "took advantage of Java to circumvent Vista's security." In the end, it was reported that some folks on hand had discovered bugs in the Linux OS, but many of them "didn't want to put the work into developing the exploit code that would be required to win the contest."

[Image courtesy of TippingPoint]

That huge bundle of damning emails and documents Microsoft produced as part of the Vista-capable lawsuit is full of fascinating information about how the company developed, planned, and launched Vista, but the latest juicy nugget to come out if it suggests that a lot of problems faced by the troubled operating system are actually NVIDIA's fault -- nearly 30% of logged Vista crashes were due to NVIDIA driver problems, according to Microsoft data included in the bundle. That's some 479,326 hung systems, if you're keeping score at home, and it's in first place by a large margin -- Microsoft clocks in at number two at 17.9 percent, and ATI is fourth with 9.3 percent. Now, the chart doesn't contain a ton of additional information that would help put it in context -- a specific time period in 2007 would be nice, as would and driver and OS versions -- but we've been hearing about NVIDIA issues with Vista from the start, and this seems to confirm it. So that's pressure by Intel to support incompatible chipsets, outrage by Dell and Wal-Mart that the Vista Capable program was confusing customers, Microsoft executives saying they had been "personally burnt" by Vista, and now what looks like a huge NVIDIA driver problem -- who knows what else is going to come out of this lawsuit? At this point we're half expecting a photo of Gates signing a Save XP petition.

And just think -- last year you were singing Dino Dai Zovi's praises for taking control of a MacBook Pro in nine whole hours. This year, the PWN 2 OWN hacking competition at CanSecWest was over nearly as quickly as the second day started, as famed iPhone hacker Charlie Miller showed the MacBook Air on display who its father really was. Apparently Mr. Miller visited a website which contained his exploit code (presumably via a crossover cable connected to a nearby MacBook), which then "allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers [read: unashamed nerds] cheered him on." Of note, contestants could only use software that came pre-loaded on the OS, so obviously it was Safari that fell victim here. Nevertheless, he was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement that'll keep him quiet until "TippingPoint can notify the vendor," but at least he'll have $10,000 and a new laptop to cuddle with during his silent spell.

Last year's PWN 2 OWN contest at the CanSecWest security conference went over way better than expected (read: exploits were glorified), so this year, organizers have spiced things up by letting hackers have their way with three separate machines. The Linux, OS X and Vista-based rigs were all setup as similarly as possible in order to "make sure the attack surface was the same on all of them." For attendees in Vancouver, there sits a $20,000 top prize -- which dwindles with each passing day as restrictions on attacks ease up -- but it can only be acquired if an all new zero-day cyber roundhouse kick is used. Anyone here going to give it a go? You get to keep the freshly victimized laptop too, you know.

There are a lot of reasons to pick another laptop over the MacBook Air -- especially if you're into little things like "useful ports" -- but the comparison to non-Apple hardware isn't even relevant unless you're willing to switch to OS X, right? Well, the crew over at Xbit Labs decided to even the slate and evaluate the MBA solely as a Windows machine, wiping the drive clean of Leopard and installing Vista Ultimate. Although actually getting Vista on the Air was a bit troublesome due to the lack of a built-in optical drive and the Vista installer's refusal to wipe out the OS X partition, once installed the OS performed fine, with Apple-provided drivers activating the media and brightness keys and even the multi-touch trackpad. The only major issues were over-aggressive activation of CPU power-management, which resulted in dramatic slowdowns during some tasks, and the fact that the case got fairly warm during use -- both issues MBA owners using OS X have reported. Overall, while the MBA was a solid if unspectacular Windows machine, the lack of support and nagging issues with running a pure Windows MBA mean you're probably better off going with laptop designed for Vista -- hmm, we can think of one that might spark your interest.

Alright folks, it's been a whole day with Vista SP1, and like any OS release, reaction is mixed -- although we're certain the people with problems are being more vocal than the rest. As you'd expect, major complaints seem to center around driver issues, that perpetual thorn in Vista's side -- sound cards seem to be the major problem, although there are also reports that NVIDIA drivers are being finicky. For what it's worth, Windows Update won't offer SP1 to anyone running what Microsoft calls "problematic drivers," until they're updated, but that includes several machines sold with Vista pre-installed, which is causing some confusion. In addition, older versions of security software like BitDefender AV and Zone Alarm are flat-out blocked from running on SP1, but updates are apparently available. Obviously that's a lot of chatter, so we figured we'd ask the experts -- how'd it go? Any speed-ups or slow-downs to report? All your drivers and apps still working? Let us know in comments!

[Via Pocket-lint]

Read - Official Windows Team Blog entry on getting SP1 to appear in Windows Update
Read - List of problematic drivers
Read - PC Pro article on Vista SP1 problems

Looks like all those rumors yesterday were true -- Microsoft has just posted up the official standalone version of Vista SP1. Sure, you've been able to get it in one way or another for a while now, but if you're into silly things like "legit OS updates," the wow (SP1) is now.

Update: Here are the release notes -- as we've known for a while now, it's mostly bug fixes and performance tweaks, but the sheer volume of 'em is something to behold.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]