Microsoft has redesigns the new MSN home page and this is one of the most significant redesign over the decade. The new MSN home page is designed to be the best home page on the Web, with powerful Bing search, the top news and hottest entertainment, and some of the most popular social networks — all in a fresh new look. The new homepage page can previewed at http://preview.msn.com. The new home page will begin rolling out today and become widely available to U.S. customers early next year.

The clean and new MSN home page cuts through the clutter with 50 percent fewer links than the previous home page and a simplified navigation across news, entertainment, sports, money and lifestyle.

The new MSN home page also embraces the latest customer trends by deeply integrating powerful search from Bing and providing easy access to Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live services, comprehensive local information and in-line video. Sophisticated technology powers the home page to deliver personally relevant information, and improved performance satisfies people’s need for speed.

Key Features of the new MSN Home Page:

• Innovative search technology from Bing. Deeper Bing integration on the new home page helps people make faster and more informed decisions and easily find the information they want from anywhere on the Web.
• Information and news people care about. The new home page delivers against the No. 1 customer request — simplicity and ease of use, through its fresh design and smart categorization.
• Convenient ways to communicate. Simplicity drove the clean integration of popular social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live.

Check out the new home page here.

System resources, such as file data, registry data, and even in-memory data, can develop inconsistencies during the lifetime of the operating system. These inconsistencies might be caused by various hardware failures or might be caused by software issues.

In some cases, these inconsistencies can affect the Windows servicing store, and they can cause software updates not to work. The System Update Readiness Tool tries to resolve these inconsistencies.

Although this tool is available via Windows Update, you can also download it manually by following the links given below.

Download System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 (32-bit)

Download System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 (64-bit)

Download System Update Readiness Tool for Vista (32-bit)

Download System Update Readiness Tool for Vista (64-bit)

via

This application is written in C# using WPF. The Source Code is available for download here.

BingPaper has a few customization options as well. It allows you to set wallpaper in three different modes namely Stretched, Tiled and Centered. If you don’t like a particular image, you always have the option not to set it as your wallpaper by unchecking the Set as wallpaper option.

It supports both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows. I tested it on Windows 7 and it works perfectly.

Download BingPaper

Fix MSE utility will restore all registry values & service settings to known good defaults, without re-installing MSE. This utility works fine on both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows. It supports Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Note that you need to have installed Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 and Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 to run this utility.

All you need to do is to download and extract the file to see Fix MSE folder, double click on Fix MSE.exe file and click on Fix MSE button to fix the errors.

Download Fix MSE Utility

This ebook includes over 20 good troubleshooting tools such as the Aero troubleshooter in Windows 7. You can download and go through this short free e-book to get some basic knowledge about these tools.

Download (XPS)

Download (PDF)

Via Microsoft Press

Today Microsoft has announced a major partnership with Sky. Sky player is a Sky’s online TV service, will be available to users of Windows 7 Media Center. Sky previously announced the same service will be available on Xbox 360 later this month but have now confirmed this will now be available to Windows 7 Media Center users too.

Sky Player will allow current subscribers to view live streamed channels and on demand television through their PC although the download service is not in place as yet.

Existing Sky TV customers will be able to purchase an online Sky Player multiroom subscription for £5 per month. Customers with Sky Multiroom or Sky Broadband Unlimited will be able to access live channels for no extra charge.

Non-Sky TV customers will require a monthly subscription that starts at £15 per month to the Base Entertainment Pack. In addition to the live channels, customers will also have access to on-demand programs from channels they subscribe to.

This book covers every aspect of Windows Server 2008 R2 in nine chapters and approximately 200 pages.

Contents of Book:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What’s New in Windows Server R2
• Chapter 2: Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World
• Chapter 3: Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines
• Chapter 4: Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management
• Chapter 5: Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access
• Chapter 6: The File Services Role
• Chapter 7: IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform
• Chapter 8: Direct Access and Network Policy Server
• Chapter 9: Other Features and Enhancements

Download Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 (XPS)

Download Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 (PDF)

This download is available via Windows Update and from the Microsoft Download Center.

• Windows 7, 32-bit versions
• Windows 7, 64-bit versions
• Windows Server 2008 R2, 64 bit versions

These updates resolves following issues:

• When you view a PDF file that was created by using a 2007 Microsoft Office system document, the PDF file is displayed on the screen correctly. However, when the document is printed, some characters are missing. This problem occurs in fonts such as Calibri, Cambria, Courier New or Gabriola, in which characters such as “fi”, “ti”, “fl”, and other combinations are frequently presented as ligatures.
• In certain scenarios, an Emergency Alert System (EAS) message does not automatically tune to the appropriate channel in Windows Media Center.
• You connect a secondary monitor to a computer that is running Windows 7. When the computer resumes from hibernation, a black screen is displayed.
• In certain scenarios, the Windows 7 Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) diagnostic information settings are configured incorrectly for Windows Explorer. Only those users who are enrolled in the Windows 7 CEIP will be affected by this part of the update. This update limits the diagnostic information that can be collected by the CEIP.
• You put an x86-based computer that does not have Physical Address Extension (PAE) enabled into hibernation. However, it does not enter hibernation correctly. When you try to resume the computer from hibernation, a black screen is displayed. This issue does not affect x64-based or Itanium-based computers, or computers that have the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature enabled.
• A problem in Windows 7 affects the playback of certain media files in Windows Media Player, when Windows Media Player is started from Internet Explorer. Only those users whose media associations were changed incorrectly will be affected by this part of the update.
• On a computer that is running Windows 7, you use Windows Internet Explorer to open the certificate enrollment Web page and to install an end entity certificate. However, the installation fails. This issue occurs if the certificate chain for the new certificate cannot be built, or if the root certification authority (CA) has not first been installed in the Trusted Roots on the computer.

Yesterday Microsoft launched @MicrosoftHelps, a new Twitter account that provides customers around the world with help and information on Windows 7, in English.  Through this social medium, Microsoft will monitor and respond to real-time Windows 7 tweets and use them to improve the information, support and experience customers have with Windows 7.

Through Twitter, customers will have better access to help when, how and where they need it, key to Microsoft’s vision for customer support.  The @MicrosoftHelps team consists of experienced social media agents with extensive knowledge about support resources to get answers to customer’s questions. In addition to responding to direct tweets, they will monitor the Twitter sphere and suggest resources to tweets about Windows 7 problems, issues or questions.

This download helps you evaluate the new features of Windows 7, Windows 7 has better ways to find and manage files—like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews—to help you speed through everyday tasks. It’s designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to.

Note that Windows 7 90-day Evaluation VHD available to customers who are running genuine Microsoft Windows.

Download Windows 7 VHD