Error Forum Blog

Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows Vista was finally released yesterday – and already a hacker has claimed to have broken the operating software’s encryption.

At least a week before the rest of the world got its first look at Microsoft Windows’ new Vista operating system, bootleg copies of the software were widely available here for just a few dollars. Yes, the pirated program would work, vendors assured a prospective buyer. Yes, they said, it’s really Vista, the highly anticipated release available in the United States only Tuesday, the same one being advertised at a subway stop up the road. Copies nestled in next to Office 2007, another new release, and older programs were available at a tiny fraction of their true retail prices.

The vendors’ claims were true to some degree. The Chinese version of Vista, priced by vendors from $1.30 to $4, depending on haggling, appears to be the real deal.

The exact nature of the English-language version, which cost $7 in one Beijing market, is less clear. One copy viewed this week was labeled in its product information as the “Longhorn” beta, a testing version of Vista released by Microsoft to selected users in August 2006. The final versions of Vista, a pirated-software vendor promised, would be available sometime next month.

According to Microsoft, Vista has been ready to go since last February, and only beta testers who paid to belong to some of Microsoft’s developer networks had access to the beta. The Longhorn version on the streets of Beijing is likely to be close to what hit U.S. shelves Tuesday.

The availability of the new software in Beijing and other Chinese cities even before its worldwide launch highlighted the challenges companies like Microsoft face in this, the world’s fastest-growing major economy and a global hub of intellectual property rights theft. Even though Microsoft invested heavily in anti-piracy features and negotiated a deal to preinstall Vista on machines in China made by Lenovo, China’s largest computer manufacturer, pirated versions of the operating system can be had easily, cheaply and quickly.

Sales lost due to software piracy in China were about $3.9 billion in 2005, according to the Business Software Alliance, an industry group that tracks the illegal software trade.

Microsoft officials said built-in safeguards would disable parts of the program on illegal copies. Some beta versions expire after a certain time, Microsoft said, and other experts warned that pirated versions can be full of spyware and other malicious programs. Even so, if most of the pirated program works, there seems little incentive to do the right thing and buy a licensed copy.

The company said social and legislative solutions to piracy are even more crucial than technological fixes.

Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s business division, said in an interview in San Francisco on Tuesday that the company has a three-pronged strategy to fight piracy in developing countries: get the country to pass intellectual property laws; get the country to enforce the laws; and educate people about the importance of obeying the laws.

“My favorite anecdote was from Brazil,” Raikes said. “There was a soap opera that was the most-watched television show in Brazil. One character on the show was a business executive who went to jail for software piracy. (Soon afterward) we had a huge spike in sales.”

China’s software piracy problem is widespread and systemic. Factories in the southern part of the country, though routinely subjected to police raids, crank out millions upon millions of bootleg disks every year. Older programs, like Windows 2003, are simply copied from authorized users. In the case of Vista, the leaks may have come from beta testers, but this is hard to track, industry groups say.

Last year, an estimated 86 percent of software installed on computers in China was pirated, according to the Business Software Alliance. Though staggering, that number is better than the 92 percent tallied in 2003, said Victor Zhang, director of the alliance’s Beijing office.

“China has achieved noticeable progress in reducing PC software piracy, which indicates that the government’s education, enforcement and policy efforts are beginning to pay off,” Zhang said.

Among other measures, the Chinese government has banned the sale of “naked” computers, or those sold without pre-installed operating systems.

Even so, immense work remains. As much as 70 percent of the software installed on the Chinese government’s own computers was illegally copied, the software alliance estimates. Pirated software is not relegated in China to back alleys and shady sidewalk peddlers. It’s boldly on sale at large computer markets and shops, often more easily found than its legitimate counterparts. And with the price difference — $4 compared with roughly $295 for the basic version in Chinese — consumers, businesses and the government itself often opt for the cheap, easy route.

The Chinese government says software piracy is a problem, but not nearly as widespread as the Business Software Alliance or the U.S. government claim. In a study released last year, the State Intellectual Property Office estimated that 66 percent of software installed throughout China was used or copied illegally.

Officials did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday but have said in state-run media reports that the government is committed to cracking down and routinely increases its own in-house software budgets and inspections to root out piracy.

And the problem is not restricted to Chinese companies or its government. Many multinational companies, including U.S. firms, are reputed to have piracy problems in their China-based offices. Chinese police often conduct raids on companies, both foreign and domestic, to uncover software thieves, but the rate of usage slows only gradually.

James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said his members are keenly aware of software piracy issues. The group, he said, encourages all firms operating in China to use above-board software and follow the law.

Zimmerman said the reality of intellectual property rights protection is important for China, not just the foreign companies investing and doing business here. The government is openly striving for a stronger “knowledge-based” economy rather than its current heavy reliance on manufacturing and export production.

“The development of China’s innovation-based economy depends upon effective IPR protection,” Zimmerman said, referring to intellectual property rights.

Zhang said the Business Software Alliance believes China needs to act on several fronts to make a real difference in software piracy rates: implementing a joint agreement with the United States to require preloading of machines and legal software in government offices, better enforcement and stricter criminal penalties to clarify that corporate users are liable.

Microsoft launched its latest operating system - Windows Vista - on Monday, a move that will make finding easily exploitable vulnerabilities a lot harder, according to security researchers.

In a launch event in New York City, the software giant took the wraps off both Windows Vista and its Office 2007 productivity suite. Long awaited, Windows Vista brings together a number of security features, some aimed at hardening the operating system against attack and others designed to encourage users to make security a priority when using their PCs.

“None of the features in Windows Vista, either individually or together, are meant to be bulletproof,” said Stephen Toulouse, senior product manager for Microsoft’s Security Technology Unit. “But the defense-in-depth will significantly raise the security level compared to Windows XP.”

The launch of its latest operating system comes five years after the company restructured its approach to software security with the Trustworthy Computing Initiative. The revamped strategy - prompted by the Code Red and Nimda worms that struck a massive number of the software giant’s customers in the summer of 2001 - led to a massive push to educate developers and provide tools to weed out software bugs. In 2004, Microsoft refocused Windows XP Service Pack 2, making the update almost completely about security.

While other applications, including Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007, have benefited from Microsoft’s secure development lifecycle, the development of Windows Vista was the first time the software giant’s consumer operating system was designed from the ground up with a focus on security. For example, the operating system enforces least-privilege rules of access, requesting the user’s password to execute certain higher privilege tasks. The software giant has also improved the operating system’s firewall and revamped the Security Centre to give more information to users. Internet Explorer 7 brings additional security enhancements, such as limiting ActiveX controls and significant anti-phishing features.

For security researchers, however, it’s what’s under the hood that matters. Three major features will make Vista more difficult to exploit even when vulnerabilities are found: Kernel Patch Protection, Data Execution Prevention, and Address Space Layout Randomisation.

The controversial Kernel Patch Protection, also known as PatchGuard, limits the practice of some software developers of creating add-on features for the operating system by patching the kernel, the core system software. Many security software makers have criticised the feature because it limits their software’s ability to modify the core features offered by the Windows operating system.

“This is especially popular among anti-virus products, which sometimes use exactly the same hooking techniques as some popular malware, like rootkits,” Joanna Rutkowska, senior researcher for COSEINC Advanced Malware Labs, said in an email interview with SecurityFocus. “This is not good, not only because it may have potential impact on system stability, but it also confuses malware detection tools.”

Such restrictions are good for the overall security of the Windows platform, but it’s not comprehensive by any means, Rutkowska said. PatchGuard only protects against modifications to code and static-kernel objects, what Rutkowska calls type-I infections. It does not detect modifications to dynamic structures (type-II infections) nor does it detect modifications to code running through hardware virtualisation (type-III infections), she said.

That’s not surprising, because PatchGuard is not really about stopping malicious software from subverting the kernel, but preventing any software from destabilizing the system, said Ken Johnson, a software developer at remote-access provider Positive Networks.

“As far as I can tell, (PatchGuard) is a mechanism to force third-party driver (developers) to clean up their act and stop releasing poorly written drivers that destabilize customer computers and introduce security holes,” Johnson said.

In a recent article in the technical publication Uninformed, Johnson - writing under the pseudonym “Skywing” - described several deficiencies in the latest version of PatchGuard, version 2. Microsoft programmers are currently studying the claims, said the software giant’s Toulouse.

Other security technologies included in Microsoft’s Windows Vista are not as controversial.

Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR), which makes it harder for an attacker to reliably run code that exploits remote memory flaws, has garnered the approval of many security researchers. Microsoft’s implementation of the technique has some weaknesses, but overall the company has added a good foil to attacks that have plagued Microsoft’s software in the past, said Positive Network’s Johnson.

“Vista’s ASLR is, on a whole, still a significant ’speed bump’ that makes exploiting many vulnerabilities on Windows much more difficult to do reliably, especially in a ‘fire and forget’ fashion as typically used by worms,” he said.

However, at least one other researcher has said the speed bump will not slow down the pace of exploits, because it can be circumvented.

“The ASLR implementation in Vista is not very resilient - it only randomizes the bases of certain system DLLs (dynamic link libraries) and not the rest of the loaded modules,” Matthew Murphy, an application security engineer at Hypermedia Systems, stated in comments to a previous SecurityFocus article. “This means that today’s attackers will still succeed tomorrow, because all they’ll have to do is slightly tweak the jump points in their exploits.”

Data Execution Prevention (DEP), a technology included in Windows XP Service Pack 2, monitors for attacks - or software bugs - that attempt to run code from a non-executable part of memory. While included in Windows XP SP2, the service is only activated by default on systems with 64-bit processors. With Windows Vista, Microsoft has set the technology to automatically monitor all essential Windows services.

Microsoft’s Toulouse emphasised that Windows Vista is not the end of the software giant’s fight to protect its customer from online threats.

“There are certain classes of attacks that we might see, after widespread deployment of Windows Vista, starting to go away, but none of this is to say that we can be complacent,” Toulouse said. “We will still try to provide our users with tools that help them know what’s going on their PC. And, we still urge customers that criminals are still out there, and you need to be cautious.”

Windows Vista went on sale yesterday.

Windows Vista User Account Control Step by Step Guide

This Step-by-Step Guide provides the instructions necessary to use User Account Control (UAC) in a test lab environment.
This document is not intended to provide a comprehensive, detailed description of UAC. Additional documentation is planned for UAC prior to the release of the Microsoft® Windows Vistaâ„¢ and Windows Server “Longhorn” operating systems. Additional resources include:

• All users of this Step-by-Step Guide will also be interested in Getting Started with User Account Control on Windows Vista (Search Microsoft.com.
• For additional information for IT professionals, see Understanding and Configuring User Account Control in Windows Vista (Search Microsoft.com.
• For information for developers and independent software vendors about how to develop applications for Windows Vista, see Windows Vista Application Development Requirements for User Account Control Compatibility (Search Microsoft.com.

What is User Account Control?

User Account Control (UAC) is a new security component Windows Vista. UAC enables users to perform common tasks as non-administrators, called standard users in Windows Vista, and as administrators without having to switch users, log off, or use Run As. A standard user account is synonymous with a user account in Windows XP. User accounts that are members of the local Administrators group will run most applications as a standard user. By separating user and administrator functions while enabling productivity, UAC is an important enhancement for Windows Vista.
When an administrator logs on to a computer running Windows Vista Beta 2, the user is assigned two separate access tokens. Access tokens, which contain a user’s group membership and authorization and access control data, are used by Windows® to control what resources and tasks the user can access. Before Windows Vista, an administrator account received only one access token, which included data to grant the user access to all Windows resources. This access control model did not include any failsafe checks to ensure that users truly wanted to perform a task that required their administrative access token. As a result, malicious programs could install on users’ computers without notifying the users. (This is sometimes referred to as “silent” installation.)
Even more damaging, because the user is an administrator, the malicious programs could use the administrator’s access control data to infect core operating system files and, in some instances, to become nearly impossible to remove.
The primary difference between a standard user and an administrator in Windows Vista is the level of access the user has over core, protected areas of the computer. Administrators can change system state, turn off the firewall, configure security policy, install a service or a driver that affects every user on the computer, and install software for the entire computer. Standard users cannot perform these tasks and can only install per-user software.
To help prevent malicious programs silent installation and computer-wide infection, Microsoft developed the UAC feature for Windows Vista. Unlike previous versions of Windows, when an administrator logs on to a computer running Windows Vista, the user’s full administrator access token is split into two access tokens: a full administrator access token and a standard user access token. During the logon process, authorization and access control components that identify an administrator are removed, resulting in a standard user access token. The standard user access token is then used to start the desktop, the Explorer.exe process. Because all applications inherit their access control data from the initial launch of the desktop, they all run as a standard user as well.
After an administrator logs on, the full administrator access token is not invoked until the user attempts to perform an administrative task.
Contrasting with this process, when a standard user logs on, only a standard user access token is created. This standard user access token is then used to start the desktop.
Important
Because the user experience is configurable with the Security Policy Manager snap-in (secpol.msc) and with Group Policy, there is not solely one UAC user experience. The configuration choices made in your environment will affect the prompts and dialogs seen by standard users, administrators, or both.
Who should use this guide?

This guide is intended for the following audiences:

• IT planners and analysts who are evaluating the product
• Early adopters
• Security architects who are responsible for implementing trustworthy computing

Why use this guide?

The groups listed above should use this guide to test how their line-of-business (LOB) applications run in Windows Vista. Because UAC makes a clear distinction between administrator and standard user processes, some existing LOB applications might need to be either redesigned by the independent software vendor (ISV) or internal tools team, or marked to always run elevated.
In this guide

• Requirements for User Account Control
• Key scenarios for User Account Control
• Scenario 1: Requesting an application to run elevated one time
• Scenario 2: Marking an application to always run elevated
• Scenario 3: Configure User Account Control
• Logging bugs and feedback
• Additional Resources
• Requirements for User Account Control

  We recommend that you first use the steps provided in this guide in a test lab environment. Step-by-Step guides are not necessarily meant to be used to deploy Windows Vista features without accompanying documentation (as listed in the Additional Resources section), and should be used with discretion as a stand-alone document.
  Setting up the test lab

  The lab configuration needed for testing UAC includes a domain controller running Microsoft Windows Server® Code Name “Longhorn” (or Microsoft Windows Serverâ„¢ 2003) a member server running Windows Server “Longhorn” (or Windows Server 2003), and a client computer running Windows Vista. The domain controller, member server, and the client computer should be on an isolated network and should be connected through a common hub or Layer 2 switch. Private addresses should be used throughout the test lab configuration.
  Key scenarios for User Account Control

  This guide covers the following scenarios for UAC:

  • Scenario 1: Request an application to run elevated one time
  • Scenario 2: Mark an application to always run elevated
  • Scenario 3: Configure User Account Control

  Note
  The three scenarios included in this guide are intended to help administrators become familiar with the UAC feature of Windows Vista. They include the basic information and procedures administrators need to start using UAC. Information and procedures for advanced or customized UAC configurations are not included in this guide.
  Scenario 1: Request an application to run elevated one time

  In Windows Vista, UAC and its Admin Approval Mode are enabled by default. When UAC is enabled, local administrator accounts run as standard user accounts. This means that when a member of the local Administrators group logs on, they run with their administrative privileges disabled. This is the case until they attempt to run an application or task that has an administrative token. When a member of the local Administrators group attempts to start such an application or task, they are prompted to consent to running the application as elevated. Scenario 1 details the procedure to run an application or task as elevated one time.
  Note
  To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a member of the local administrators group. You cannot be logged in with the computer (or built-in) administrator account because Admin Approval Mode does not apply to this account. (The built-in administrator account is disabled on new installations of Windows Vista.)
  To request an application to run elevated one time

  1. Start an application that is likely to have been assigned an administrative token, such as Microsoft Windows Disk Cleanup. A User Account Control prompt is displayed.
  2. Verify that the details presented match the request you initiated.
  3. In the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue to start the application.Scenario 2: Mark an application to always run elevated

     Scenario 2 is similar to the previous scenario in that you want to run an application or process as elevated with the administrator access token. However, in this scenario you want to run an application that has not been marked by the developer or identified by the operating system as an administrative application. Some applications, such as internal line-of-business applications or non-Microsoft products might require administrative rights but have not been identified as such. In this scenario, you mark an application to prompt user for consent, and if granted, run as an administrative application. The following procedure steps you through that process.
     Note
     To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a member of the local administrators group. You cannot be logged in with the computer (or built-in) administrator account because Admin Approval Mode does not apply to this account.
     Important
     This procedure cannot be used to prevent UAC from prompting for consent to run an administrative application.
     To mark an application to always run elevated

     1. Right-click an application that is not likely to have been assigned an administrative token, such as a word processing application.
     2. Click Properties, and then select the Compatibility tab.
     3. Under Privilege Level, select Run this program as an administrator, and then click OK. Note
        If the Run this program as an administrator option is unavailable, it means that the application is blocked from always running elevated, the application does not require administrative credentials to run, the application is part of the current version of Windows Vista, or you are not logged into the computer as an administrator.

     Scenario 3: Configure User Account Control

     Scenario 3 outlines three common tasks that local administrators perform during the set up and configuration of client computers running Windows Vista. The following procedures step you through the tasks of disabling Admin Approval Mode, disabling UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications, and changing the elevation prompt behavior.
     Disable Admin Approval Mode

     Use the following procedure to disable Admin Approval Mode.
     Note
     To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.
     To disable Admin Approval Mode

     1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.
     2. If UAC is currently active, a User Account Control dialog box will appear. If so, verify that the details presented match the request you initiated, and click Continue.
     3. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then click Security Options.
     4. Scroll down and double-click User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode.
     5. From the User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode Properties dialog box, click Disabled, and then click OK.
     6. Close the Local Security Settings window.

     Disable User Account Control from prompting for credentials to install applications

     Use the following procedure to disable UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications.
     Note
     To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.
     To disable UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications

     1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.
     2. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then Security Options.
     3. Scroll down and double-click User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation.
     4. From the User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation Properties dialog box, click Disabled, and then click OK.
     5. Close the Local Security Settings window.

     Change the elevation prompt behavior

     Use the following procedure to change the elevation prompt behavior for UAC.
     Note
     To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.
     To change the elevation prompt behavior

     1. Click Start, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.
     2. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then Security Options.
     3. Scroll down to and double-click User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators or User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users.
     4. From the drop-down menu, select one of the following settings:
        • No prompt
        • Prompt for credentials (this setting requires user name and password input before an application or task will run as elevated, and is the default for standard users)
        • Prompt for consent (this is the default setting for administrators only)
     5. Click OK.
     6. Close the Local Security Settings window.

     Top of page

     Logging bugs and feedback

     Since UAC is a new feature of Windows Vista, we are very interested in your feedback on your experiences with UAC, problems you encountered, and the usefulness of the documentation.
     When you log bugs, use the instructions on the Microsoft Connect Web site (Search Microsoft.com. We are also interested in requests and general feedback about UAC.
     General feedback and requests for UAC can be sent to uacdoc@microsoft.com.

     Top of page

     Additional resources

     The following resources provide additional information about UAC:

     • If you need product support, see the Microsoft Connect Web site (Search Microsoft.com.
     • To access newsgroups for UAC, follow the instructions that are provided on the Microsoft Connect Web site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=50067.

     Additional information for IT professionals is available on TechNet:

     • Getting Started with User Account Control in Windows Vista Beta 2 (Search Microsoft.com

     Additional information for ISVs and developers is available on MSDN:

     • Developer Best Practices and Guidelines for Applications in a Least-Privileged Environment (Search Microsoft.com

     Technology Adoption Program support

     If you are a beta tester and part of the special Technology Adoption Program (TAP) beta program, you can also contact your appointed Microsoft development team member for assistance.

Updating from XP to Vista can take hours and hours. Four to six hour upgrades are not uncommon for transitioning a fully-loaded XP box over to Vista. These steps will improve your upgrade time significantly.

When you think about all the information that Vista has to go through in an upgrade, it is not surprising that upgrading an XP box to Vista can take a long, long time. Hours and hours and hours.

In upgrading the various boxes on our test network, these are keys to speeding up your XP to Vista Upgrade.

1. Uninstall Old Programs

Upgrading your OS is a great time to clean out of the junk that you don’t use anymore. Removing your old programs will improve your chances of a successful upgrade as well. For many programs you are going to want to install the new vista-compatible version anyway. You don’t have to clean out everything, but take some time and do some spring cleaning first.

2. Uninstall Old Hardware/Drivers

You still have an old Palm or scanner installed that has not been connected in months? Are you going to need to update your printer with new vista drivers? If so, then go ahead and uninstall it for now. Remember you want your system as lean as possible before the transition.

3. Remove Non-Essential Hardware

Don’t try to update with two monitors, your iPod, and an extra mouse or two all connected to your system. Your risk Vista choking on the hardware. Also, Vista is going to have to try to figure out how to replace all these active drivers. Disconnect all that stuff for now. Leaving extra stuff connected during installation is asking for pain.

4. Defrag, defrag, defrag

You want to install onto a clean canvas of hard drive space. You are going to be copying and moving huge, huge chunks of data. This is when a defragged hard drive is vital. After you follow the above steps, take the extra few minutes to defrag your system as tight as possible. You’ll regain that time. Defragmentation will save you hours of time.

Best of luck and godspeed with your upgrade.

So you say you can’t find the Add/Remove programs function in Windows Vista?  Well, in Windows XP Add/Remove Programs is in Control Panel under an icon of the same name. But in Windows Vista it has been changed to ”Programs and Features”.

To locate the Program and Features function:

1. Click Start and choose Control Panel,

2. In Control Panel double click on the ”Programs and Features” icon.

3. Here you can find all the programs and items which are installed in Windows Vista.

4. To remove any of them click once on the program you want to uninstall and then click on Uninstall/Change and follow the prompts.

Now wasn’t that easy!

The blinking cursor that indicates where you can type text is really quite thin in Vista, which sometimes make for moments when you cannot locate it. To make it easier to see: * Open up Control Panel –> Appearance and Personalization –> Ease of Access Center –> Make the computer easier to see * Increasing the size of the cursor to 2 or higher makes a pretty noticeable difference, but going all the way to 11 would really make it impossible to miss.

Sony’s Playstation 3 has been having some problems getting sold lately in Canada, probably due to stiff competition and it being the most expensive console on the market.So how does Sony combat this? They don’t! In fact, they just increase the price of the Playstation 3 and make it even more expensive, now clocking in at Canadian $699.99 compared to Canadian $659.99 before.

This means that the Candian and US price are exactly the same, which may seem fair, but according to reports by The Inquirer the Candian consumers are “fuming�.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) CEO Kevin Rollins today announced that customer interest in Microsoft® Windows Vistaâ„¢ was even stronger than expected during the first weekend of the new operating systems’ availability.

Rollins, who is participating in Microsoft’s Windows Vista global launch in New York, said Dell took orders for thousands of Windows Vista-enabled desktop and notebook systems Saturday and Sunday as Dell leads the industry in ushering in a new era of computing.

Dell systems equipped with Windows Vista are designed to deliver a rich digital lifestyle experience, combined with secure operations and ease of use. With Windows Vista customers can easily record and watch high definition video, organize digital photo and music libraries, quickly search data and multimedia files and browse the Internet with better security.

“Because Dell sells direct, we’re among the first to see just how excited customers are about Windows Vista,� said Mr. Rollins. “To ensure a great customer experience, we’ve trained thousands of contact center representatives on Windows Vista. They’re ready to help our customers as they transition to this great new operating system.�

Partnership and Dell Business Model Equals Excellent Experience

While industry competitors are scrambling to move old technology sitting on store shelves, Dell’s build-to-order manufacturing facilities are customizing its new desktops and notebooks with Windows Vista pre-loaded and shipped directly to customers.

Since September 2003, Dell has been working with Microsoft on developing and testing Windows Vista on more than 100 applications. Dell engineers have tested over 500,000 different PC configurations to deliver a high quality customer experience. Sales and technical support employees have spent more than 215,000 hours in training to help customers configure and purchase the right systems and help customers with questions as they transition to Vista.

“Dell and Microsoft have worked closely together to deliver a breadth of innovative products and services that take full advantage of the breakthrough capabilities of Windows Vista and Office 2007,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. “With its direct business model, Dell has a great approach to listening to customers and building PCs that deliver great digital lifestyle experiences.” “The goal of consumer technology today is to help customers gear up their imaginations, have more fun and get more accomplished in a more secure setting than ever before. Windows Vista helps make that all possible,â€? Mr. Rollins added.

Upgrading to Vista? Don’t delete XP Vista is almost in consumers’ hands, but techies don’t have to wait for the official launch to find things to complain about. XP upgrade The latest concern is the requirement that users installing an upgrade version of Microsoft’s new operating system have an older version of Windows working on their computer. Earlier Windows upgrades simply required users to have an old installation disk on hand as a proof of ownership. Microsoft says it made the change because Vista, which goes on sale first thing Tuesday, does not check upgrade compliance. But the new requirement has irked many users who prefer “clean installs”–formatting the hard drive before installing the upgrade. Blog community response: “This annoys the hell out of me because clean installs simply make for better performing machines. Why is Microsoft making our lives difficult?” –Gizmodo “One again, Microsoft appears to have made licensing decisions without considering how people actually use their products. Last fall the company trotted out changes to its retail licensing that would have punished users who frequently upgrade their PC hardware had the company not relented. Now Microsoft seeks to complicate our ability to start a crisp, new install with an upgrade version. Why?” –Ars Technica “Many may say, what’s wrong with that? But when switching OSes like this, you should really have a clean install. Otherwise you’re going to have a system full of unused files and garbage. I realize that most users will just go with the direct upgrade, without starting from scratch, but I wouldn’t be one of them.”