Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Release Candidate (RC) Available for MSDN Subscribers

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Release Candidate (RC) builds are available for MSDN subscribers ,Public Release on February 10th.

 The public release of the same would happen on February 10th.  you can download it on February 10th from Microsoft Downloads Center.

Visual Studio 2010 will come with lots of new features . You can read more information about this new version at

following link:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 First Look

Download Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 RC (Only MSDN Subscribers)

Microsoft set to fix 17 year old Windows vulnerability coming week

Microsoft has confirmed it is on course to issue a patch next Tuesday for a recently discovered 17 year old Windows vulnerability.

the recent discovery of a Windows vulnerability that has existed since the release of Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. The vulnerability has only recently been published but it appears 32-bit Windows operating systems have inherited the flaw since NT 3.1.

Microsoft issued a Security Advisory on the vulnerability. The software giant described the flaw as an "Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability in the Windows kernel, affecting all currently supported versions of 32-bit Windows." 64-bit versions of Windows, including Windows Server 2008 R2, are not affected. The problem exists due to a flaw in the Virtual DOS Machine (or VDM), which was used to support 16-bit applications. The flaw allows for a 16-bit program to manipulate the kernel stack of processes.

In a company blog posting on Thursday, Jerry Bryant, Sr. Security Communications Manager at Microsoft confirmed "we are on track to release an update for this issue next Tuesday (February 9)." Microsoft will also be releasing 13 bulletins - five rated Critical, seven rated Important, and one rated Moderate - addressing 26 vulnerabilities.

Microsoft looks Windows 7 battery warning issues

Microsoft has confirmed it is investigating a problem causing some Windows 7 users to receive incorrect battery warnings on their laptops.

 

The warning is triggered when a laptops BIOS detects a battery replacement is required. Windows 7 provides the following alert: "Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly." One user who spoke to The Register claimed their laptop battery life had decreased from two hours to half hour and others posted their experiences in a TechNet forums thread.

Microsoft officials said on Tuesday the company is looking into the issue, "we are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners, which appears to be related to system firmware," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed.

Some commenter's in the TechNet thread are hinting at a class action lawsuit with one stating "If my battery has been permanently damaged or a fix not issued quickly, I will be forced to seek a class action lawsuit. Thank you."

Microsoft said it's working with PC manufacturers to determine the issue, "We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update the forum with information and guidance as it becomes available."

Microsoft confirms Office 2010 Release Candidate

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed : "Microsoft made a release candidate available to members in the Technology Adoption Program (TAP). This is one of Microsoft's planned milestones in the engineering process; however they do not have plans to make this new code set available broadly."

In January Microsoft announced Office 2010 pricing. The professional edition will retail for $499 boxed.  Office 2010 will be released in at least five different flavours, including a free version that includes Microsoft Word and Excel, but comes with limited functionality and includes advertisements. The editions of Office 2010 will include Starter, Home and Student, Home and Business, Professional and Professional Academic.

Microsoft is expected to hit the RTM milestone in the coming months with a general availability date of June.

Google dropping support for Internet Explorer 6

The problem with Internet Explorer 6 is that it fails at running some of the standard features of today's web development technologies, meaning that it gives web developers a rather hard time when they put websites together. If the market share were small, this wouldn't matter so much, but Internet Explorer 6 still holds a decent-sized portion compared to other browsers, due to companies and other organizations refusing to switch from it. Despite the fact that there are many faster, more secure, and generally better browsers, such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, Safari and Firefox, a lot of companies have yet to make the upgrade.

The announcement earlier, made on the Google Enterprise Blog, states that beginning March 1, Google Docs and Google Sites will no longer work correctly when viewed in Internet Explorer 6. These two services have a lot of users, so hopefully, this will help make a difference when it comes to what browsers are being used. Keep in mind that the company is only starting with those two; support for Internet Explorer 6 will be phased out as time progresses, giving users some time to switch. The announcement closed with,

"2010 is going to be a great year for Google Apps and we want to ensure that everyone can make the most of what we are developing.Please take the time to switch your organization to the most up-to-date browsers available."

Google may host games on YouTube

The recent patent application was brought to the public's attention,The patent lends people to believe that Google may begin using YouTube to host some sort of online games. Google's patent, Web-Based System for Generation of Interactive Games Based on Digital Videos, was filed back in February, but was just published in December. The patent brings about the idea of interactive video clips that can contain link objects, which can be used to jump to specific parts of the video. This can sort of be understood like a DVD menu, where clicking on a certain choice will jump you to a certain scene of the movie.

Here's the patent description:

"A video may have associated with it one or more annotations, which modify the appearance and/or behavior of a video as it was originally submitted to an online video hosting site. Some examples of annotations are graphical text box annotations, which display text at certain locations and certain times of the video, and pause annotations, which halt playback of the video at a specified time within the video. Some annotations, e.g. a graphical annotation (such as a text box annotation) comprising a link to a particular portion of a target video, are associated with a time of the target video, which can be either the video with which the annotation is associated, or a separate video. Selecting such annotations causes playback of the target video to begin at the associated time. Such annotations can be used to construct interactive games using videos, such as a game in which clicking on different portions of a video leads to different outcomes."

As confusing as the above description is, it's very hard to ignore the possibilities implied.

how ever,YouTube Games. Interesting indeed.

Facebook made new design to some users

Facebook is notorious for tweaking their layout on a regular basis. Back on December 19th, we got word that they were testing a new design and that it would go live in the coming weeks. Now, it seems that they have finalized the design.

The notable changes are as follows:
Search bar moved from the right to the left-center (next to Facebook logo)
Navigation bar has been simplified
Sidebar is scaled down (similar to Facebook Lite)
Duplicate link to profile is gone
Settings and login/logout have been combined into an "account" dropdown
Application bar is gone (bookmarked apps get listed on left sidebar)
Notifications are gone, replaced by a counter next to the application link in left sidebar

Many of these changes were expected and announced back in October at the Facebook Developer Garage. Users seem to be fairly pleased with the simpler design. The notifications change is a big deal, as it will prevent the never ending spam that users receive from application notifications. Overall, users are saying that the design is more streamlined and snappier.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6 Released, Download IT

Mozilla has updated Firefox to 3.5.6 version.

You can use "Help -> Check for Updates" option to update your browser or it'll automatically notify you about the update very soon.

You can download it using following direct download links:

Download

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6 (Windows)

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6 (Mac OSX)

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6 (Linux)

You can read about all changes in this update at following link:

Firefox 3.5.6 Release Notes

Microsoft stops Windows XP SP2, 2000 support

Microsoft has announced that they will be ending the product life cycle for Windows 2000 client and server support next year. Windows XP SP2 support will also come to an end, and are encouraging users to upgrade to Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or preferably upgrade to Windows 7.
Microsoft has announced that on July 13, 2010, both Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 server and client support will come to an end. Microsoft is offering migration guides for free online to help upgrade from Windows XP and Windows 2000 to Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
Windows XP currently holds more than 69% of the operating system market, while Vista currently holds 18.55% and Windows 7 with just over 5% and growing.
Users looking to upgrade to Windows Vista should know that Microsoft is set to support it up until 2012, and have not revealed plans to extend support further. Windows XP users will be happy to know Microsoft will be supporting Windows XP SP3 until 2014.