If you have not heard about it already, many people are having big problems with Windows XP SP3.

I just want to remind everyone that we have had a tool out since January that will delay the automatic install of SP3 for 12 months.

You have 4 options for preventing the automatic install of SP3:

1. Download our Network Administrator to deploy the change across your network.



or

2. Download and use the free GUI tool we have to make the change on a single system



or

3. Download and use the free command line tools from MS

or

4. Update the registry manually. To do this you simply need to go to this key:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

Create a new DWORD value named DoNotAllowSP and set it to 1 (To disable the SP install), or 0 (To allow the SP install)

One final reminder - all of these blocking options are only valid for 12 months following the release of the service pack. After that, Windows will ignore the registry change and install.

Orkut Application Tutorial:-

Congratulation developers finally Orkut launch Orkut Apps for Indians. Now you can create your own Application on Orkut.
Before creating Orkut apps you need to understand in which platform it works.
Orkut Application works on xml and to know about xml click here.
Orkut apps work on a different style of xml and it uses its own google libraries.

If you want to make your own Orkut Application then follow the instructions:-

1. First of all you need to become member of http://sandbox.orkut.com/
2. For this you have to apply for developer from http://code.google.com/support/opensocialsignup/
3. It will take around 48 hours for confirmation.
4. After confirmation you can start making your Orkut Apps from http://sandbox.orkut.com/MyApps.aspx.
5. After reaching http://sandbox.orkut.com/MyApps.aspx you can see “add application” button. So enter your xml url here and you can see your Orkut Apps.
It will look like this.

6. After creating your apps submit your apps in Orkut Directory.

For more information about Orkut Application you can refer Orkut Development guide.

With the availability of rich media such as online video becoming more and more important in day-to-day life the Windows Live team have come up with a pretty neat idea to share video with a friend through Windows Live Messenger.
Messenger TV is born: Launching in 20 countries (Surprisingly not the U.S) and in 12 languages, Microsoft hopes to lure a few more people away from youtube and onto the MSN powered service.

“Watching online video is no longer about one person in front of their computer, it’s now a social experience. Users can now share a selection of free content and watch it at the same time as their friends through Messenger TV.” 

To do this Microsoft have partnered with a number of popular content providers, such as MTV, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, National Geographic, and the U.K.’s Channel 4 to offer content that people will want to watch

To give it a whirl simply open up a convo with a friend, click activities and select Messenger TV. If you cant wait to try it with a buddy you could add the bot (MessengerTV@live.com [click on the link to add]) and it will take care of the rest.

The service is determined by your Internet Language options…so if you have it set to English (U.S) then chances are it won’t work for you. Using something link English (U.K) or English (N.Z) should do the trick. 

Click for bigger view

Check out http://messengertv.msn.com/mkt/en-gb/default.htm

Many know for a fact that the transition from Windows XP to Vista was a major step for most. The heightened system requirements to run all that eye candy were immense-even if Vista only just slightly out performs XP.
People therefore turned to Microsoft’s next planned operating system, Windows Seven as the answer to speedy computing with system requirements equal to Vista’s and (hopefully) not a whole lot higher.

Today the Now retired Bill Gates had this to say about Microsoft Windows Seven:

We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.

Huzzah…The people rejoice?
…Not just yet-Its early days, and Gates touched on a lot more than just the system requirements of the next gen OS.
Seven is of course built on top of the existing Vista structure and so far not much has really changed dramatically-yet. Hardware will most likely change a lot by the time we see 7 on shelves. Watch this space

—–

Seven has been planned to ship 3 Years after Vista RTM’ed but let’s face it, Microsoft are useless at sticking to deadlines. I believe Seven will bring with it a lot more hype and I for one am looking forward to seeing/testing 7 a lot more than I did Vista.

One thing that we will all notice that once our computer slows down, our immediate conclusion would be to upgrade our memory. When we say upgrading, we are referring to placing additional memory chips with higher or same capacity or trading our old chips in lieu of higher ram memory modules. This is normally the case for both desktops and laptops.

But while this can indeed help, it is only temporary. Remember, the whole central processing unit operates on various computer components such as the processor (usually Intel, Celeron or AMD). These too have a bearing. What distinguishes them from the other is really price and performance. If you are wise, you will easily note that the best processor is really the genuine Intel chips.

Speed is important in computing. Computers are known to speed up your work and that is one aspect to why we see most people upgrading everyday. Computers automate certain procedures such as data encoding and document preparations and using a computer that is slowed down somewhat can become irritating for people or users with such high expectations.

The normal advice you will be given by technicians is to upgrade certain parts of your computer. It will all start from the memory chips, hard drive and eventually the main processor.

However it would be wise to note at this point, why not upgrade your PC as a whole? Do some costing and find out which is the best alternative. If it just a matter of a couple of bucks, why not buy a new PC instead?