This had to be the funniest thing to happen today for Microsoft. The newly released IE8 Beta 1 blocks access to Windows Update if you prefer to run it from the browser. If you visit the Windows Update site from IE8 this is what you get..

Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.

To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.

To upgrade to the latest version of the browser, go to the Internet Explorer Downloads website.

If you prefer to use a different web browser, you can obtain updates from the Microsoft Download Center or you can stay up to date with the latest critical and security updates by using Automatic Updates. To turn on Automatic Updates:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Security.
2. Click Security Center, and then make sure Automatic updating is turned on.

To enhance the security and performance of your computer, make sure Windows automatic updating is not turned off.

I was kinda shocked to see that message, but again IE8 is in beta and errors like this are bound to happen. Well at the moment the solution is to emulate IE7 Mode and access Windows Update. Meanwhile Microsoft is updating the Windows Update Site to support IE8.

For curiosity sake I checked the HTTP User Agents of both IE7 and IE8 and here’s what I got :

IE7 : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; InfoPath.2; Zune 2.0)

IE8 : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; InfoPath.2; Zune 2.0)

Pratically there’s no difference in the User Agent Strings other than the browser version. Come on Microsoft do you need so much time to just add one User Agent Check on Windows Update site. Seems silly to me…

Via Computer World

With the first release candidate of  Windows Vista SP1 just a few days away, Microsoft is now finally opening up and revealing what can be expected in the first service pack to Microsoft’s flagship operating system, Windows Vista.

Simply put, Windows Vista SP1 will add tons of added hardware compatibility, loads of compatibility, better system reliability, and Ofcourse better performance and better energy saving for laptops etc.. The standalone installer will come in at about 450MB, but if you were to download Service Pack 1 through Windows Update, it would take only about 65MB. The reason is quite obvious enough, you might have already downloaded many of the hotfixes, security updates and other features that are included in Service Pack 1.

Well here are the few features in SP1 that make me get really excited, and should probably get you excited too…

• Adds support for Direct3D® 10.1, an update to Direct3D 10 that extends the API to support new hardware features.
• SP1 addresses issues many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Windows Vista, as reported by Windows Error Reporting. These include issues relating to Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player, and a number of drivers included with Windows Vista.
• Adds support for exFAT, a new file system supporting larger overall capacity and larger files, which will be used in Flash memory storage and consumer devices.
• Enhances support for high density drives by adding new icons and labels that will identify HD-DVD and Blu-ray Drives as high density drives.
• Improves power consumption and battery life.
• Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.
• Improves the speed of copying files, folders, and other media.
• Improves startup and resume times when using ReadyBoost.
• Users can control which volumes the disk defragmenter runs on.

via iStartedSomething and DownloadSquad

Yahoo Mail has finally moved out of beta and the users should see the new Yahoo Mail in the next 3-6 Weeks. Looks like Yahoo has done some hard work and come up with some interesting features like Text Messaging right from the Yahoo Mail interface in select countries.

There are a host of other changes that include performance improvements, and keyboard shortcuts to add contacts, addresses, integrated maps, calendar and of course Yahoo Search is there too. I am not a big fan of Yahoo Mail since it seems to be a little bit bloated unlike GMail which has been kept to the bare minimum intrusion.

If you get a chance to test out the new Yahoo Mail then please let me in the comments on how it works for you.