Joseph Hinkle at MyITForum.com

Well, at least the release date as it was ten minutes ago. It seems just a likely as me winning that XBox360 from Mountain Dew.

Rumors are swirling that the release date for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system has been pegged at Decemember 7th, 2006: The report, which claims to be based on "very recent internal Microsoft documentation", said the first release candidate of the operating system, RC0, will appear on 19 April next year, with the second release...

[AnandTech News Channel] [channelTitle]

I always liked the yellow swoosh.

MSFN - Internet Explorer 7 Logo Introduced

As you can see, the new “e” has more modern look, and the edges are a bit darker so the icon stands out better against different backgrounds. We liked the gold ring too since it brings in new energy and helps the icon pop a bit more than the old one.


This icon and text treatment will be used on the versions of IE 7 for Windows XPSP2, Server 2003 SP1, and x64 versions. We’ll have a slightly different look for the Windows Vista™ version, one that’s more consistent with the icons there. We’re not quite ready with that one yet, but we’ll share it here once we do.

Download details: BDD Enterprise: "The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Enterprise Edition follows the best practices of a multinational bank with more than 15,000 employees on five continents using multiple data centers. This solution shows how both Zero Touch and Lite Touch deployments are performed in that organization."

I'm not sure what changed, but newer must be better.

If you happen to repackage Photoshop 7.0.1, follow the instructions below, but install the 7.0.1 upgrade before doing your final scan. By the way, if you haven't been to AppDeploy.com, you should visit. Most of the information there is very good.

AppDeploy.com > Packages Knowledge Base > Photoshop: "Fixing error 1911

These are the steps I took to repackage PhotoShop 7:

1. Captured the installation on a clean VMware Windows 2000 workstation, using Wise Package Studio 3.2 MSI Capture tool.

2. Used CCRP to force the registration of the proprietary Adobe type library found at: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop (this step might not be necessary)

3. Executed the program once (normally I do not do this; this step may be un-necessary)

4. NO REBOOT - every time I attempted to build this package using a reboot as part of the process, I received an error upon compiling the .msi that 'C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\local settings\temp\MSIA98.tmp\w1.cab' could not be closed. Skipping the reboot seems to have resolved this.

5. DID NOT DELETE THE ADOBE TYPELIB. The program may work initially without it, but this may cause unforseen problems down the road.

6. Compiled/Saved the .msi

7. Opened the .msi using Wise Package Studio 3.2 Windows Installer Editor. Went to 'Tables' and found the line item for 'TypeLib'. Deleted the rows in that table, but not the table itself. Leaving these rows in will cause the installation to deliver the '1911' error.

8. Resaved the .msi and tested it via straight install and GP/AD
"

Adobe Illustrator 10 Installer: "The one thing I dislike the most is working on an old Installshield installer.  We recently changed our process for installing Illustrator 10 and Photoshop 7, so I'm going back and creating SMS packages to install them.  I've worked on a plethora of Adobe installations, so I didn't think it would be a big deal, but I was wrong."

I finally got back around to my problem children today. I just repackaged Illustrator plus the 10.0.3 upgrade with Wise Package Studio. It was just easier. All of the clues I could find was that I was right in my original post. That particular installer doesn't pick up the serial number from the abcpy.ini in the install directory.

This won't be terribly in-depth, but I spent a large amount of time figuring this out today, so I hope this is useful to someone.

Assuming you have a single form and a NotifyIcon control created, you'll need to trap the Resize event for the form. This even it fired any time the form is resized, but also when the form's WindowState property changes. In this subroutine, you'll want to detect when WindowState is minimized. If it is, set the form's ShowinToolbar property to False and the NotifyIcon to visible. Otherwise, set the NotifyIcon to hidden and the form's ShowInToolbar property to visible.

The only other trick is to trap the NotifyIcon's DoubleClick event to set ShowInToolbar to true and the NotifyIcon to hidden.

I would love to just post the code for everyone, but you know how it is.

The Code Project - XP Button Style in VB.NET - VB.NET: "The way to get XP-style controls in your VB.NET application is to create a manifest file that accompanies your .exe file. The manifest specifies that your code depends upon ComCtl32.DLL. A manifest file is like a config file--it's XML and it has the same name as your app, but with '.manifest' appended. If your app is MyApp.exe, then you need to create MyApp.exe.manifest in the same directory."

I used this idea earlier today and wanted to pass it on. It always looks bad for the buttons to not match the Windows XP style if the Luna interface is being used. I'm writing an application that will act as a front-end for all of our support applications, so style matters!

AP Online - Weather: "A California automobile club has fired 27 workers for posting messages on a popular social networking Web site. The Automobile Club of Southern California fired the employees in one of its San Diego offices after at least one worker complained to management about feeling harassed by the comments, which were written by employees on the MySpace.com Web site on their own time at home. Club spokeswoman Carol Thorp said comments were made about other workers' weight and sexual orientation."

(Via .)

Yeah, this is what you don't do.

Download details: Word Viewer 2003: "Word Viewer 2003 lets you open Word 2003 documents and documents created with all previous versions of Microsoft Word for Windows® and Microsoft Word for Macintosh. In addition to Word document files (.doc), you can also open files saved in the following formats:

Rich Text Format (.rtf)

Text (.txt)

Web Page formats (.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml)

WordPerfect 5.x (.wpd)

WordPerfect 6.x (.doc, .wpd)

Works 6.0 (.wps)

Works 7.0 (.wps)

XML (.xml)"

(Via .)

Another way past Windows antipiracy found | CNET News.com: "The check is meant to prevent people with pirated copies of the operating system from downloading additional software from Microsoft. By changing a setting in a Microsoft validation tool called 'GenuineCheck.exe,' it's possible to generate a code that will validate the Windows software on a machine as genuine even if it is pirated, according to a Web site publicized on Thursday in a posting to the popular Full Disclosure security mailing list.

Microsoft would not confirm that the method works, but the software maker is investigating the issue, a company representative said. 'It is not a surprise for us that those who never intended to pay for software would try to find some way to circumvent Windows Genuine Advantage,' the representative said."

(Via CNet news.com.)

It should never be surprising when pirates find a way around copy protection, but we like to act surprised anyway.

Download details: WMI Code Creator v1.0: "The WMI Code Creator tool generates code that uses WMI to obtain management information or perform management tasks. You can use the tool to learn how to manage computers using WMI scripting and WMI .NET. The tool generates code that runs on the local computer, a remote computer, or a group of remote computers based on your selection from the Target Computer menu on the tool. You can also execute the generated code directly from the tool. "

(Via The Microsoft Download Center.)

Microsoft is planning to reissue the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Update rollup that it first launched in late June. While the company did not specify a reason for the planned reissue, a number of Windows 2000 users who have installed the download have been complained of a variety of problems, ranging from incompatibility with third-party security applications, to network-printing issues.

Just in time for us to deploy. Woo hoo! Check it out here.

MacNN | Intel-based Mac OS restricted to Mactels: "The report confirms that Intel-based Macs systems contain a digital signature necessary to install Mac OS X, following earlier speculation and first-hand reports that TCPA-DRM was being incorporated into Intel-based Macs. The article notes that users are able to install other operating systems such as Windows and Linux on Intel-based Macs, but that it was not possible to install from the DVD containing the Intel-based Mac OS X on similar x86-based PCs (i.e., systems that lacked a TPM). The new chip would prevent users from purchasing generic PCs and installing copies of Mac OS X for x86, preserving Apple's control over the total hardware/software 'Mac' solution. "

(Via MacNewsNetwork.)

I would have expected nothing less from Apple, but I still believe it won't be long before you can buy MacOS off the shelf and install it on your Dell at home. After all, we'll have Intel Macs and two button mice won't we? Choice is good, but I don't think Apple is giving up their stranglehold on hardware configurations yet. It might be a good while before they do.

eBay Deal of the Day: The Motorola MPx200 That Sucks: "It is rare to find an eBay seller so delightfully honest in his opinions about the object he is selling. In fact, I'm wondering why anyone would bid at all? Unfortunately the auction is over and apparently someone still wanted this thing. "

(Via Gizmodo.)