Google on Wednesday rolled out a beta version 5 of its Desktop product, which includes a desktop search, sidebar and Google Gadgets. It could be said that Google Desktop 5 has been "Vista-fied," with a new design that better blends into the background.

Other features in version 5 include a "Preview" feature in desktop search that enables users to quickly glance at documents without opening them fully. Security has also been bolstered such that Google will now warn users when they click on links from documents, e-mails or IM logs that may lead to a malicious Web site.

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While the release of iTunes 7.1 does include a number of compatibility fixes that enable the software to work with most Windows Vista editions, Apple warns that users may still encounter problems. The company is working with Microsoft to resolve outstanding bugs.

Apple notes that ejecting an iPod using Windows Vista's "Safely Remove Hardware" feature could corrupt the device and require a full restore using iTunes. In addition, iTunes text and graphics may display incorrectly, and contacts may not sync properly from Windows to an iPod. For now, iTunes and iPods remain incompatible with 64-bit versions of both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

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In a curious decision on the part of a security software company, a white paper released today on the Web site of Symantec - whose opinions of Microsoft's implementation of PatchGuard protection on 64-bit Windows Vista are well known - contains the address of an independent research paper which includes a demonstration of defeating PatchGuard, complete with source code, in an early Vista beta.

The address of the PDF white paper entitled "Bypassing PatchGuard on Windows x64" -- which was released in December 2005 and has since acquired a modicum of fame and respect -- is located in Symantec's 16-page analysis of Microsoft's security technologies, in a footnote to this sentence: "As demonstrated during the development process of Windows Vista and during its release, hackers can and will subvert PatchGuard."

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In a story for the Associated Press carried on many online news services this afternoon, one of the directors of Microsoft's Windows Client Product Planning team appears to make a curious and perhaps astounding statement. Scott Woodgate is quoted as saying that a Black Hat security conference demonstration last August, where virtualization functions were exploited to plant an active rootkit onto a beta of the Windows Vista kernel, scared Microsoft to the point where the company seriously considered removing virtualization capability from Vista entirely.

Ostensibly, the AP article was about Microsoft's decision to ban Home Basic and Home Premium editions of Vista from serving as guest operating systems in virtualization engines. This was a recent discovery for Macintosh users, though it was public knowledge for Vista users since last July, when Woodgate himself made the announcement.

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After much hoopla over Windows Presentation Foundation and its promise to create rich graphical user interfaces for Vista, not many of the demonstrated technologies have become reality.

Thus, the company set out this week with three media partners including Associated Newspapers, Hearst, and Forbes to leverage the power of WPF through a new digital reader application.

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Microsoft on Wednesday published a list of the applications that have received either "Certified for Windows Vista" or "Works with Windows Vista" status. Of the 787 listed, 103 are Microsoft's own products, indicating few software developers have completed the logo process.

104 applications thus far have been deemed "Certified for Windows Vista," including a number from Trend Micro, ArcSoft, CyberLink and Corel's CoreDraw. Software from Adobe, Symantec, McAfee and other major vendors has yet to make the list, which Microsoft says will be updated each week. The small number of applications could be why Microsoft is offering to pay up to $1,000 to a third party certification company for software developers to test their programs.

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Perhaps the most oft-asked question by consumers with regard to whether they should adopt Windows Vista is whether their six-month-old or older hardware is too obsolete for Vista to make good use of it. Users have already been told to expect to say, "Wow!" but is this necessarily a good kind of "Wow?" This morning, Microsoft released for free download the XP version of its Vista Hardware assessment tool, whose aim is to tell consumers what they may need to upgrade in order to put the best polish on those heavily anticipated exclamations.

As a "bonus," the Windows Hardware Assessment tool installs SQL Server 2005 Express, which is its database tool built on the .NET Framework. It isn't SQL Server 2005; if you've already installed that, Express will still need to be installed separately.

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Microsoft on Monday released Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005, a major upgrade that adds support for Windows Vista and Office 2007. In addition, Microsoft is now allowing unlimited virtual instances of SQL Server on severs licensed for the Enterprise Edition of the database software.

SP2 for SQL Server 2005 is available for immediate download. Separately, Microsoft released a new Community Technology Preview of Windows Server "Longhorn," the successor to Windows Server 2003. Although Microsoft planned Beta 3 for early 2007, the February CTP is not quite there yet, and the company asks all beta testers to download and install the interim release.

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The abundant mix of both upward and downward slopes that have characterized Microsoft Windows Vista sales projections since last September, and the strangely dichotomous co-existence of expectations exceeded and fears realized, has led many experts to start asking serious questions about the role the operating system plays not only in the markets but in our lives: Has Windows evolved out of its shell as a consumer product, into the homogeneous commodity that Microsoft simultaneously hoped and feared it might become?

In other words, does Vista really matter?

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This morning, NPD marketing manager David Riley offered to clear up some potential discrepancies with regard to how previous NPD launch week data for Windows operating systems has been reported, and how it's currently stated. Accounting for a change in tabulation strategies, what yesterday looked like a 58.9% decline in first-week retail sales for Windows Vista over Windows XP, might actually even out.

The problem, Riley said, is that over the years some retailers surveyed provided NPD with monthly sales data rather than weekly. As a result, NPD decided to no longer extrapolate weekly volume numbers, though for comparison's sake, the company continues to calculate weekly trend numbers, which is what NPD reported yesterday.

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Microsoft on Wednesday made available a beta of the second "Ultimate Extra" for Windows Vista, which is available for download free of charge for those who purchased the Ultimate Edition of the new operating system. Called DreamScene, the Extra lets users put videos as their desktop background.

Developed by Stardock and first demoed at CES in January, DreamScene also adds the capability to fill a background with an image without distorting its size. Microsoft reminds users that DreamScene is still a Technical Preview and unsupported until the final release. Vista Ultimate users can download DreamScene from Windows Update.

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The 'alliance' between Novell and Microsoft got a bit weirder after Novell's CEO indicated that he was pleased by Vista's slow rate of adoption, and will continue to battle the company directly in the marketplace.

Ron Hovespian made the comments to reporters in Australia on Thursday. He mentioned that Vista took over five years to produce, while open source is much easier to develop for. Also, the agreement brings Novell closer to Microsoft's customers.

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Microsoft said Friday afternoon that it was in the process of issuing new keys to those who may have received invalid ones through the Vista Family Discount program. The feature, provided exclusively to purchasers of Vista Ultimate, allows for two PCs to be upgraded to Vista Home Premium at a cost of $49.99 per computer. However, a glitch in the key-generation system produced invalid keys.

According to Microsoft, the keys would be on the way via e-mail to those affected over the next five days. The company is at a loss to explain the cause of the key-generation issues, although it said it was taking steps to prevent it from happening to future participants. News of the response was first reported by Windows enthusiast site Neowin.net Friday.

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If you have an iPod, and plan to install Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, Apple has one word of advice for you: don't.

That's because issues with iTunes 7.0.2 and the next-generation operating system are creating havoc for some users, Apple disclosed on Friday. The problems include issues with purchased music tracks playing, syncing issues, and even incidents where the device becomes corrupted.

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Since last July, when Intel introduced its Core 2 Duo processors and, perhaps more importantly, effectuated a complete U-turn in its microarchitecture, experts and enthusiasts in computing have judged Intel to have regained the performance lead from AMD in CPUs, which includes the lead in providing processor performance per dollar.

But in its multi-faceted campaign to wrest back the title of hero, if not yet leader, in consumers' minds, AMD is leveraging its fusion with ATI and ATI's cooperation with Microsoft to make a bold new case for itself: Now that the Windows Vista era is upon us, AMD's executives and managers believe the time has come to throw out the old XP-based benchmarks, and re-evaluate AMD's current line of processors using more updated metrics.

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