My Technology Guide

Microsoft has released the official beta version of Windows 7 SP1 at last publicly. Users who want to download and install the beta version of SP1 are first needed to register at the Evaluation Center. During registration remember to select IT or any developer related occupation to be able to download Windows 7 Service Pack 1. SP1 is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, and are available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish language.

This service pack is also offered via Windows Update and in standard ISO image format, which is around 1.2 GB in size and required to be burned to a DVD first to use it.

You have just brought a brand new PC or laptop or netbook that came pre-installed with Windows 7 from one of the major manufacturers, viz. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, etc. But the problem that you face when buying from them is you won't receive any Windows 7 installation media with your purchase. Instead, you will receive either a "recovery disc" (if you’re that much lucky) with your purchase or you'll have a "recovery partition" built-in your machine.

You may ask what is the problem here, as you can easily recover your Windows 7 or Vista, using the "recovery disk" or "recovery partition." Well, the problem is, when you use the recovery disks/recovery partition to recover Windows 7 or Vista, it will delete all your files and restore your computer to the state it was in when you first purchased it.

VLC Media Player is one of the best media player for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platform and its new avatar is even better. VLC Media Player is updated to version 1.1.0, adding many new features like extensions, new user interface, support for GPU acceleration among others. If you are still living under the rock and is unaware of what VLC Media Player is, well:

VLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project. It is one of the most platform-independent media players available, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, and BSD.

Microsoft Security Response Center has released a notification that Microsoft will issue 10 Security Bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Microsoft Technet will host a webcast to address customer questions about the security bulletins the following day.

The list of affected operating systems includes Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows Server 2008 R2. In terms of the Microsoft Office suites, all supported versions are affected on both Windows and Mac OS X. Three of the vulnerabilities are rated "Critical" and seven are rated "Important." At least two of the 10 patches will need a restart. February's Internet Explorer flaw and April's SharePoint vulnerability will both be patched this month.

X-Setup Pro is the best Windows system configuration and tweaking utility. X-Setup Pro is extremely easy to use and it allows you to nearly change 1800 hidden Windows settings and configurations that no other tweaking tool provides. X-Setup Pro wizards help you when you changing critical Windows configurations.

If you want to control the maximum time that any user is allowed to spend on your computer, then Romaco Timeout is the application that will help you. Romaco Timeout is specially useful for parents who wants to restrict the amount of time their child spends using the computer. It is a very small and easy to use utility which helps lock a child or any user out of their accounts when the maximum set time for that particular user is reached.

This free utility takes parental controls on your Windows operating system to the next level. Romaco Timeout also controls how much time a user can spend online before the application locks down the browser, and also gives the option of turning everything back on again after a certain amount of time has elapsed. If you want to set the application to start-up automatically every time a certain user logs on, you can do that, too.

Few days ago I wrote about FixWin, a free application which helps you fix a number of Windows 7 and Windows Vista errors. It's a lot like Microsoft's web-based FixIt solutions. Windows users are now having another option to fix common Windows problems and this one comes straight from Microsoft stable. Microsoft Fix it Center Client contains troubleshooters that help detect issues on target PCs and solve them on demand or proactively.

Microsoft's new Fix It Center is a program which you can download for free. Fix It Center is currently in Beta stage and provides automatic fixes for a wide range of Windows bugs, problems and annoyances. You just need to choose the issue you need to fix, click Run, and follow the prompts (if any) by the program. The simple step-by-step instructions are very easy to follow and even your family and friends who are not so expert of computers can correct these problems with ease.