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How to Reinstall Windows XP Without Having to Reactivate With Microsoft To tell you the truth, I have never understood what the big deal is with product activation. The fact of the matter is that software piracy is fairly rampant and that Microsoft is the target for a large percentage of the piracy due to their dominance in the operating system and office productivity software markets. They have a right to try to stop or at least control that privacy and the product activation seems to be a fair way of ensuring that only legitimate software owners get to benefit...

So you 've got yourself some new hardware and you're ready to roll huh? Or maybe years of surfing the net and adding odd software have finally taken their toll and you need to reinstall to get some stability and performance back? This guide covers how to install or reinstall Windows, with complete step by step advice covering pre-installation, BIOS, partitioning, formatting, installing and post-installation chores.*********************************Getting ready to install or reinstall WindowsThese instructions are applicable for all VIA chipset motherboards. All the screenshots are taken from an install of Windows XP but if you were installing an older version or...

An Indian researcher has breached the much-touted "impenetrable" Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft. Bangalore-based Debasis Mohanty has cracked WGA through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of the Windows XP programme. Microsoft confirmed the claims of Mohanty, but sought to downplay it saying, "It represents very little threat." A company spokesperson said they did expect counterfeiters to try a number of different methods to circumvent safeguards provided by WGA. WGA is an anti-piracy programme that keeps a tab on consumers whether they are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. Mohanty has posted a detailed proof-of-concept...

Benjamin Tobias Franz has discovered a weakness in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service). The problem is caused due to certain objects not being initialized correctly. This can be exploited to crash a vulnerable browser via some specially crafted JavaScript code called directly when a site has been loaded. NOTE: It is currently not believed that this issue can be exploited for code execution purposes, but this cannot be ruled out completely.

Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming version of Internet Explorer will include tabbed browsing, a feature made popular by competitors Opera Software and Firefox.In a Microsoft blog, IE product unit manager Dean Hachamovitch told consumers not to expect too much from tabbed browsing in IE's beta offering. "The tabbed browsing experience in the upcoming IE 7 beta is pretty basic," he said. "The main goal for tabs in our beta release is to make sure our implementation delivers on compatibility and security. The variety of IE configurations and add-ins across the Internet is tremendous." Hachamovitch said his team would seek...

By Keith Reganwww.LinuxInsider.comPart of the ECT News Network 05/13/05 1:37 PM PT IBM's switch to Firefox is, if nothing else, a major PR boost for the browser, one that comes just days after Mozilla acknowledged some of the more serious security flaws found in the browser to date by releasing an update. Mozilla says some 50 million copies of Firefox have now been downloaded since it was made available last year. < The Firefox juggernaut, which had been slowed recently by a spate of security concerns, has picked up steam again on the strength of a decision by IBM...

t's not news to Microsoft that many, if not most, average Windows users have gripes about their PC experiences. In response, the software company is unveiling on Friday a new subscription-based computer fix-it service, aimed at automatically patching security holes, blocking viruses and spyware, and generally automating the chores of maintaining a computer's health. Dubbed Windows OneCare, the service will draw in part on existing tools like the company's anti-spyware software, as well as on basic PC management functions inside Windows. But it will add a more powerful firewall, ongoing antivirus protection, and the right to get a live support...

"Lintel," or the Linux operating system and Intel, is now encroaching on this empire, and behind it is the entire open-source software movement, which threatens to overthrow the Windows industry. Faced with this challenge, Microsoft is showing classic symptoms of "incumbents' disease." Rather than remaking itself, Microsoft is using legal threats, short-term deals, and fear, uncertainty, and doubt to fortify its position. But this strategy probably won't work. The Linux operating system and the open-source model for software development are far from perfect, but they look increasingly likely to depose Microsoft.

Multiple vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to install malicious code or steal personal data have been discovered in the Mozilla Suite and the Firefox open-source browser. Details of the nine flaws were published on Mozilla's security Web site over the weekend. Ian Latter, senior security consultant at Internet security specialist Pure Hacking, said most of the vulnerabilities are based on the way the applications handle JavaScript. "There are some permission issues related to running JavaScript at an escalated privilege level. They remove some of the security measures used to keep JavaScript sandboxed and allow it to potentially do malicious...

As Mozilla and Microsoft executives argue about which browser -- Firefox or Internet Explorer -- is more secure, fans of the former have numbers on their side, a Belgian security consultancy said this week. According to Brussels-based ScanIT, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) were "unsafe" 98 percent of the time during 2004, while Mozilla users -- which would include those using Mozilla and Firefox -- were "unsafe" only 15 percent of last year. ScanIT determined the unsafe periods by examining the life spans of vulnerabilities in IE, Mozilla, and Opera -- a Norwegian browser that has a nearly...

Battling browsers are back. Just as in the 1990s, when Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator fought each other for supremacy, today Mozilla's Firefox browser is trying to gain traction over IE. This latest skirmish, however, goes beyond just browsing the Web. Microsoft's security problems have left an opening for upstarts like Firefox and could lead to other products taking market share from the software giant, say experts at Wharton. As far as browsers go, customers are disgruntled with Microsoft. The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, formed in July 2003 with funding from America Online's Netscape unit to promote open-source Web software,...

Windows has a well-deserved reputation as a large operating system. A standard installation of Windows XP (with nothing else installed) can easily occupy something in excess of 1.5 Gbytes of disk space. In part, that's because Windows is a general-purpose operating system. As such, it's a kind of kitchen sink software, with all manner of tools, capabilities, and functions thrown into the mix. That trend started almost a decade ago when Microsoft built HTML rendering functions into Windows: What had previously been part of a separate application--a stand-alone browser--was now inside the operating system and available to any application or...

There are two new Windows 98 security updates available. You can find them at this address (direct Link to Microsoft website).They are quick updates and do not require you to start your computer. If you are using Windows 98, best to get them.Also, if you are using the old version of Ad Aware by Lavasoft, you should get the second edition. It picks up a whole lot of spyware the first edition does not catch and even updates on first edition will not do it.

Before you start reading, fire up the printer, and get the scissors. You may want to clip this one out and give it to your friends and colleagues who are still in Windows land. There are times in life when you actually hear words coming out of your mouth and even as they're coming out, you realize how stupid they sound. I realize that in my own personal and professional life, this sort of thing happens a bit more than the statistical average, but this morning I uttered words that sounded so completely insane, I had to share them. After...

MICROSOFT Corp. is staging another attack against software pirates with an amnesty program for unwitting users of bootlegged copies of its Windows XP operating system (OS).The project enables the software giant to collate information about the sources of pirated software and quickly work with authorities to capture illegal traders.In addition, the company also wants to get to the source of the problem, which it suspects is the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sector. It promised not to prosecute individuals.In its website, Microsoft announced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project for users who are “unsure” if they are using legitimate versions of the...