If the number of emails and letters I receive on accidental deletion of files is anything to go by we’re in suffering an epidemic of ‘butter fingers’… Picture files on memory cards are by far the most popular files to get zapped by mistake but it affects everything, from Word documents to album tracks, and I can’t deny that I haven’t done it myself, but when it happens the worst thing you can do is panic. If you do the chances are you make the situation even worse, so when you’ve erased a file, and you want it back the first thing to do is check the Recycle Bin. If it’s not there then there is still a very good chance all or part of it is still on the drive, and this little freeware program, called Restoration could get it back for you. The program is small and runs from any file location, even a memory card, so it doesn’t mess around with Windows. (more…)

Well I guess it was only a matter of time. Microsoft has already shipped the first testing builds of Windows 7, the successor of Windows Vista, to key partners.

The Redmond company will not of course, under any conditions confirm this detail, or breathe a single word about the early testing development milestone of Windows 7, but various third parties were not as shy as Microsoft when it came down to sharing details about the next iteration of Windows. But despite the deafening silence from Microsoft around the next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6.1.6519.1 indeed shipped outside of Redmond. Included in this article are the first leaked screenshots of Windows 7. As you can see from the image at the top of this article Microsoft has dropped Windows 7 ULTIMATE into the laps of its selected pool of partner testers. Windows 7 Ultimate is version 6.1 (Build 6519.1.x86fre.winmain.071220-1525). Windows 7 features support for multiple video cards from different manufacturers running simultaneously and comes with a new Windows Media Center. With Windows 7 M1 already available, Microsoft is now planning to drop M2 in April/May 2008 as well as M3 in the third

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I have to blog this right away - it will be part of a larger "GP Processing" article at some point though… But this is IMHO important stuff which needs to get out there quick :)

I’ve heard the following sentence too many times (in one way or the other): "You can only assign Group Policy Objects to Site, Domain Level or OU’s"…

- but that’s only partly true! Normally in newsgroups, forums etc. this leaves the readers (eg. someone who asked a GP question or whatever) with the impression that you cannot "hit" members of a certain Security Group only (which leaves you with "Site/Domain/OU Filtering" and/or "WMI Filtering" as the only possible a choices available). But that’s simply not fair to the amazing Group Policy processing engine!

Even though "WMI Filtering" is pretty well-known these days (after WS2003 arrived), many people tend to forget the little - but extremely effective and flexible - thing called "Security Filtering" (even though it’s somewhat more "Basic" compared to WMI)…

Let’s talk about it for a minute or two if you are interested…

You can set this kind of filtering within

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If you think that Windows Vista, or Vista Service Pack 1, or even Windows XP Service Pack 3 are the apex when it comes down to the Windows operating system, then you should reconsider…

Microsoft revealed that Windows 7 would go beyond both Vista SP1 and XP 3, to deliver an entirely new experience for the end users. Windows 7 will not only bring to the table a completely overhauled Windows core, featuring a stripped down kernel and a redesigned graphical user interface, but it will also expand the user experience beyond what Vista and XP are able to offer today.
Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience, David Treadwell, Corporate Vice President of Live Platform Services, and Brian Arbogast, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Services, have authored an internal memo of the intimate connection planned for Windows 7 and Windows Live, that came under the eyes of Mary Jo Foley. "We will invest to deliver a seamless experience for customers who own a Windows PC. We have a unique opportunity to remove the seams between Windows, our applications, and our services. Windows Live

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