Out-of-band Security Update for Windows hits

I'm always curious when Windows Update drops something into my hopper outside the normal second-Tuesday-of-the-month timing for regular updates. Yesterday was no exception, when five updates appeared right after lunch. It turns out that only one of them merited a security bulletin (
Soluto Getting Waaaay Closer to Production Quality

In the past two weeks I've written twice about Soluto, a Windows boot optimization program that observes the Windows boot process and makes recommendations about programs that run at boot time intended to speed up that process:
Prowess SmartMigrate: Free XP to Win7 VM Migration

Last week, I spent a fascinating hour on the phone with some engineers from Prowess, a Seattle-based software and services firm that offers a free software product called
Paul Thurrot Heaps Accolades on IE9

How about this for a quote from Windows guru and maven Paul Thurrot?
Unlike its immediate predecessors, IE 9 is not about more for more's sake. Instead, IE 9 takes the same path Microsoft plowed with Windows 7 and then Windows Phone 7. It's clean, simple and fast. It gets out of the...
PC Tools Posts Startup and Efficiency Gains in 2011 Versions

It's not often that fate conspires to show me how new software changes system behavior, without me having to jump through lots of extra hoops to gather the necessary data. But because of the confluence of two sets of unrelated events this week, that's exactly what happened as I started learning my...
More on Soluto Windows Boot Optimizer

In my last blog, I bashed the Soluto Windows boot optimization tool: "Just Another Blue Screen Monday Morning." I'm writing about it again because I do think...
Just Another Blue Screen Monday Morning

I'm a subscriber to PC World and always make time to flip through the magazine when it hits my mailbox. It was with some interest I looked over Preston Gralla's recent piece on...
Team Foundation Server (TFS) Users Take Note: New Power Tools Available

There's a new posting from Microsoft Technical Fellow Brian Harry, who's also working as the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server out as of yesterday (9/9/2010). It's entitled "
Microsoft Assurance Customers Get P2V XP Environment for Windows 7

I subscribe to numerous different Microsoft newsletters, to the tune of perhaps 15-20 per month (or more frequent mail-outs as the case sometimes is). Last Friday, a fascinating e-mail from Microsoft Connect showed up in my inbox. Entitled "P2V...
On-again/off-again Windows 7 Family Pack On Again Soon

When Windows 7 shipped last year, Microsoft offering a so-called "Family Pack" deal on Windows 7 Home Premium for about 30 days after the GA (General Availability) date on October 22, 2009. For $150 less one penny, buyers could purchase a license that covered up to three PCs for that Windows 7...