Touting the collaboration between the two companies, Microsoft today released a patch it developed with Apple to correct problems Windows Vista users are having with iPods. While Apple already updated iTunes, issues remained with iPods becoming corrupted when ejected.

"The long and short of it is this: Apple and Windows have partnered together to ensure a great experience in using Windows Vista with iTunes and the iPod, and both companies recommend you download this update," said Vista product manager Nick White. The download is available now, and will be automatically downloaded for Vista users beginning May 22.

CA is looking for participants to join the beta program of the CA Protection Suite r3.1 for Windows Vista. Protection Suite is designed for small and mid-sized businesses, and includes a range of integrated solutions to minimize risks and prevent downtime.

Beta testers will have a direct impact on the product's development, and help ensure the update will function optimally in their work environment. The installation of CA Protection Suite r3 is a prerequisite for the beta program. Interested users can apply for the r3.1 beta by visiting CA's Web site.

Microsoft has release an April 2007 Cumulative Update for Windows Vista's built-in Media Center application, which aims to resolve a number of issues reported by users. On the list of fixes are DVD freezes, errors when deleting a picture, Media Center rotating the wrong picture, among others.

The Online Media feature in Media Center has additionally been improved with caching, and is now supported on 64-bit versions of Vista. Video Playlist support has also been added for Windows Media Center Extenders. The April 2007 update is available for download now from Windows Update.

Microsoft reminded users of Windows Vista beta builds Tuesday that their operating system will expire on May 31. However, those running the free pre-release copies of Vista may be happy to discover they can simply purchase a cheaper Upgrade version of the OS.

The beta builds were provided as part of the company's Customer Preview Program. Microsoft notes that Vista Beta 2, RC1 and RC2 will all expire and can be upgraded to any final edition -- although the Upgrade copy must perform a "clean install." After May 31, customers who continue to use pre-release versions of Windows Vista will only be able to log in for 2-hour sessions to retrieve data.

In response to huge customer demand, Dell has brought back Windows XP Home and Professional as operating system options on a handful of consumer PCs. The computer maker, like most others, had largely switched its product lines entirely to Windows Vista.

The decision came after feedback on Dell's IdeaStorm Web site, where customers are asked what things they'd like to see the company do. Previous requests have included offering Linux as an option, and including OpenOffice rather than just Microsoft Office.

The surprise in yesterday's numbers from IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker was not so much the continued rise in global market share for the world's new #1 supplier, Hewlett-Packard. It was that PC market growth grew at an annual rate a full 2.4 points faster than what IDC had predicted, well into the double-digit range at 10.9%.

And despite recent comments from executives from both Intel and AMD, who either nicely or bluntly qualified Windows Vista's consumer launch last January as a wash for their sales numbers, IDC analyst Loren Loverde credited Vista with giving the market a boost - one which he says is likely to keep on producing double-digit growth over the next two years.

As part of April's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft corrected an issue within Windows Vista that could allow for a variety of attack vectors, along with issuing patches for three other Windows flaws and one in Content Management Server.

The Vista related flaw resides in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS) process, Microsoft said in an advisory. Three separate flaws are fixed by the patch, including a critical code-execution problem and two less serious denial-of-service and privledge escalation risks.

While actual sales numbers may suggest otherwise, a new study from Harris Interactive seems to suggest that consumers are increasingly deciding to hold off on upgrading to Windows Vista.

The poll was initially taken in December 2006, preceding the software's consumer release. At that time, only 47 percent of respondents were aware of Vista. Of that group, 20 percent said they would upgrade, 31 percent said they would wait, and half were unsure.

For years, tech enthusiasts have been compiling hotfixes into unofficial service packs for Windows, offering brave users a quick way to update their operating systems before Microsoft finishes its own. But for Vista, Microsoft is warning users not to trust these third-party roll-ups.

In a blog entry posted Tuesday, Vista product manager Nick White specifically mentions one such "Service Pack 1 preview" for Microsoft new operating system. The fact that Microsoft is preparing SP1 for Vista is a given, but the company has remained coy about its potential release date.

A lady in Washington state who apparently purchased a computer in late 2006 bearing the "Vista Capable" sticker, and who only later discovered it was only capable of running Vista Home Basic, has filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft in her home state, seeking in excess of $5 million.

The lawsuit alleges Microsoft misrepresented the capacity of computers to run all of Vista's purported features, directly citing Acer senior vice president Jim Wong's comments last October that "Premium is the real Vista" as indication that at least one PC maker believed Basic was not the real Vista.

Microsoft has tweaked the licensing for Windows Vista slightly to allow users of the Enterprise version of its software to use the operating system in non-traditional environments, such as diskless PCs.

The changes were announced at Microsoft's Management Summit 2007, an annual event held for IT management professionals in Redmond. The company says its customers had been requesting the licensing changes so that IT administrators could experiment with new management architectures.

Microsoft confirmed Sunday that it would not wait until April's "Patch Tuesday" to release a fix correcting a critical flaw in Windows Animated Cursor Handling, which affects most supported versions of the company's operating systems. Instead, an update is coming Tuesday.

The exploit, which results in a crash-restart-crash loop, is triggered by a buffer overflow in an animated cursor file. A similar flaw was discovered in early 2005, but did not apparently affect Windows XP Service Pack 2. The new issue, discovered by McAfee's Avert labs does impact XP SP2 and Windows Vista, as well as Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows Server 2003.

In what could be the most embarrassing exploit to impact Windows Vista since its commercial launch in January, security engineers at McAfee's Avert Labs confirmed today - and posted the video to prove - that the operating system can be caused to enter an interminable crash-restart-crash loop, by means of a buffer overflow triggered by nothing more than a malformed animated cursor file.

It isn't even a new exploit, as researchers with eEye discovered in January 2005. At that time, Microsoft acknowledged it affected versions of the operating system from the first edition of Windows 98 through to early releases of Windows XP, though it stated at the time XP SP1 was unaffected.

Apple on Wednesday pushed an update to its Boot Camp dual booting feature, providing support for the 32-bit version of Windows Vista, as well as updated drivers for various hardware included with Intel Macs.

While Windows Vista could be installed on Intel Macs even before the update, some of the drivers provided by Apple for Windows XP would not work with Microsoft's latest operating system.

AOL on Wednesday released the final version of AIM 6.1, which primarily brings support for Windows Vista, as well as announcing a new beta of AOL Web Mail that integrates AIM. Users will be able to conduct AIM conversations directly from their Web-based AOL Mail interface.

AIM 6.1 has been in beta testing for a number of months and is fully compatible with Vista, which launched at the end of January. Other new features in the update include the ability to send an offline IM or SMS message when a buddy signs off AIM, and new Buddy List docking and color picker options.