The final release of XP, service pack 3 is now available from several hosts. Although the download is not hosted on the Microsoft website, other sites have taken the net by storm and offered the download themselves. Personally, I think I’m going to wait until Monday when it’s uploaded to the Microsoft site, but if you really cannot wait, here are the 2 present hosts:

MajorGeeks

Softpedia

Approach with caution however, as we have not checked these downloads ourselves. We strongly suggest you wait until next week if you can resist the temptation.

A recent Feature Article in the TechNet News Letter Read:

“If a business allows its users to install whatever software they choose and/or make configuration changes, they run an increased risk of the security of the machine being compromised. I recommend, wherever possible, businesses should refrain from giving end users administrative rights over the machines they use, thereby preventing users from installing software or making configuration changes that affect the system as a whole.

Regular user accounts CAN still customise items that just affect the current user, such as the desktop background.

By installing a piece of software the user is implicitly trusting both the author and distributor of the software that there aren’t any backdoors or security vulnerabilities in the software itself. In addition, there are many cases of malicious software ‘piggybacking’ onto/into perfectly legitimate code due to the distribution point (often a website) being compromised. To ensure effective security it’s critical to only install software from sources you have reason to trust.

If the user is allowed (due to having administrative rights over their machine) to make configuration changes, they could accidentally disable security features such as the firewall, thereby rendering them ineffective.

Some applications don’t work properly when run without admin rights, and whilst ideally such code should be replaced, in the real world that’s often not feasible in the near term. Vista makes life easier but you certainly CAN run XP without admin rights AND be productive - I did so for a couple of years. In such situations I advise giving each user TWO accounts - one with admin rights and one without - encouraging them to use the non-admin account as much as possible to reduce their attack surface and explain to them that their machine is less likely to ‘break’ due to malware/accidental mis-configuration while they are using that account.”

Extract written by IT technician:

Stephen Lamb

IT Professional Evangelist

stephlam@microsoft.com

View Stephen’s blog on Effective Security

There’s something i bet you never noticed. It is impossible to name a folder “con” on any Windows Operating System. Try if you like, you can try anything from creating a folder in a folder, to compressing a file into a new folder. You just can’t do it. Personally, I feel the title is being reserved, mainly because of the old MS DOS, Console, but this is more useful to the more computer skilled people out there.

So, in conclusion, you can’t call a folder “Con” because Microsoft won’t let you. That’s pretty much it.

On the 10th of April, Adobe announced the launch of their new media player, available to the public. The AMP allows you to stream and download files from their partners, including MTV and Comedy Central. You can also customise it to how you prefer it providing there is an RSS feed and it has Flash or MPEG-4. You can also automatically download and manage your downloads and videos for watching when you want, whether you are online, or offline. Of course, it wouldn’t be right if i didn’t leave the best part until last, so here goes.The AMP is practical, looks good, customisable and user friendly - Let’s top that by mentioning that it’s also free. Enjoy.dobe-launches-media-player

*For Windows XP Only

When copying large folders to a different location in XP, you may sometimes come across a box asking you whether you want to replace files with the same titles as those in the new folder with the new files. For this there are 3 options, the first being ‘Yes.’ The ‘Yes’ option will simply replace one file with a newer one, meaning only one file is lost or updated. The second option is ‘Yes To All’ which rather than one file, this option will replace all the files titled the same as those in the folder you are copying.

There is also a ‘No’ option, this will simply change the file name of the new folder slightly to make sure it has a different location.  All of these are helpful, but one that really should be there is ‘No To All.’ A lot of the time, you want to keep your files  and the constant clicking of the ‘No’ option will soon drive you mad, especially when copying large folders across to new locations.

If you’re the same as me and think a ‘No To All’ option is a great idea, get a load of this. If you press and hold the Shift key and then click ‘No,’ this will then act as the ‘No To All’ option we’ve been waiting for. It really is that easy!

*For Windows Only

Don’t you wish sometimes that there was just an easy way to remember things you need to do? I know I do, it took me about 2 weeks just to remember to get myself an E111 form from the post office. The problem lies that if you’re working, you’re mind is focusing so much on the task at hand, you forget about everything that’s going on outside of the work environment.

There is however, an easy way. At least for those of you who spend a lot of time on the computer. Let’s say for example, it’s your mothers birthday tomorrow and you need to post her card to her on your dinner break. She’s not going to enjoy the card not showing up now, is she? That morning, when you start work, you can actually set a reminder on your desktop using a program called Samurize.

The program allows you to embed text files onto your desktop, meaning every time you look at your desktop, you see a personal message. The program of course, is not the easiest to use first time round. So here’s a small guide line to make it easier for you.

1. Download Samurize Here and install.
2. Launch Samurize.
3. Highlight an area on the grid where you would like the file to appear on your desktop.
4. Click ‘Meters’ in the top toolbar. Go to ‘Add’ and then ‘Add Text File.’
5. Click ‘File’ and then ‘Save As.’ do this with all of your text files to make sure they are backed up securely.