NIM

Licensing is probably the most frustrating and depressing thing to confront. Not only are the license structures complicated, but it is expensive! Sifting through all the legalese written in the End User License Agreements that would even make a lawyer scratch their head is an overwhelming task. Today a software audit is more feared than a tax audit with horrendous penalties if you get caught. Getting on the straight and narrow in licensing might be one of the most important things you can do and hopefully this guide can help. What is a software license? A software license is given to you from a software company that gives you permission to use a specific software package and usually comes with many restrictions. The typical restrictions limit you to use only one copy of the software per license and prohibit you to distribute or copy the license in any way. Licenses for enterprise-class server software (such as SQL Server and Exchange Server) also require a Client Access License (CAL) as well for each user that is to access the server software. To keep things simple, assume that you need one license for each instance of software. This also applies to software and computers in the home. Clue: If you have 10 machines running Microsoft Office 2000, to be adequately licensed, you need 10 Microsoft Office 2000 Licenses. Purchasing Licenses If you find yourself short on licenses or looking to expand, there are several ways to get more licenses. OEM Licenses An OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) license is the cheapest to obtain, but you can only get them with the purchase of a computer. When you buy a computer from a System Builder (such as Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc) you are already paying for the operating system (such as Windows XP). By paying a little extra you can have it shipped with a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 as well. These are called OEM Licenses and of course they come with restrictions. An OEM license only allows you to use the software on the specific computer it came with. In other words, when that computer is old and slow and it is time to throw it away, that license must legally be thrown away as well. That is the bad news, but the good news is that keeping track of all your licenses (at least for your desktops) is really easy and the OEM is usually responsible for technical support on the software that you bought. Despite the ease of management, an OEM license is designed to be disposable and is not an investment. Not only that, but as you acquire new computers your network will end up being scattered with varying versions of Windows and Microsoft Office. This is typically not good for large offices trying to keep a consistent environment. Let's look at the next option. Retail Licenses With retail licenses you own the license and software no matter what happens to the machine it is installed on. But you pay much more than you would if you bought OEM, sometimes twice as much! Technical support is limited to a month after purchase. Retail software is usually bought at places like Staples, OfficeDepot, and Best Buy. The license protection built into retail software is a nightmare; not only do you have to enter a key code, but you must also connect to Microsoft over the Internet or call them and get a special unlock code. The software also keeps track of your system to ensure that it has not been moved to a different machine. If the software believes that it has been moved in some way, you must once again call Microsoft and obtain a new unlock code. Microsoft keeps track of the use of key codes and the unlock codes they give you. If they feel that you are abusing the License Agreement they may refuse to give you an unlock code. They could also request to audit your software. Being reported for illegal software licensing practices is especially easy. www.microsoft.com/piracy is the reporting page that Microsoft has set up. Clue: Just by making hardware changes to your PC such as RAM or a new Hard Drive the software might require to be re-activated. So with Retail, you get to keep the software, but are faced with a management headache trying to keep track of the number of licenses and which computer each license was installed on. You also have to make sure that you have not used the same keycode more than once so Microsoft does not start wondering what you are doing. This is an administrative nightmare and totally cost prohibitive. But on an up-note, you can purchase future additions in special upgrade packages. Upgrades are not available for the next type of license, Volume Licensing. Volume Licensing Lucky for us, Microsoft has three volume licensing programs available to help customers organize their licenses, stay up to date, and receive savings. These programs vary by features, services and requirements. The simplest is Open License intended for businesses with at least 5 PCs. Select License and Enterprise Agreement Plans are licensing programs intended for corporations with at least 250 PCs. Volume Licensing Programs vary with features and requirements such as free take-home licenses for employees, training programs, Software Assurance, employee software discounts, a single install key for each product, and extra install features - such as administrative installs. Each of these programs are described in detail in the Volume Licensing Article. The Microsoft Licensing Guide By Joshua Erdman Digital Foundation, inc.

Depends how many empty slots left you have on your MBO. Is it SDRAM or DDRAM, DualChannel or? Can you please tell me your MBO specification and I'll try to find more info on this.

Video: Stupid Cat - catflip

I'm an IE7 user

Forum is upgraded to v2.2.2 We have problems with account activation, modules that have to be reinstalled and skin problems.. We're working to resolve upgrade issues. Upgrade log: IP.Board 2.2.2 Bugs Fixed eaccelerator and updating skin wrappers Upgrade IPS Driver Error Sql Problem with ibf_topic_markers IPB WARNING (array_merge, foreach) Require Error Due to Unchecked Input in Profile Editing Members (IPS Driver Error) Subscription manager delete members issue Linked images in PM's not resizing Custom fields on reg screen in IE7 Still a bug with quick topic title edition Help topics bad HTML Output allow_sub_select in sql_error_log Personal Statement text messed diacritics Encoding not sent for iframes when editing html templates [2.2.1] Editing Categories (MySQL 5) Using pagination where field of the input is not st Last post links and pagination for outline view Profile Behaiviour PHP Fatal error Images Images On Another Server Some other charset problems... rss_import_url data type Settings for group: Display Name Settings Search Members->More Options: Gender entry shown even when using classic profile mode url in quote tag bug Thumbnail IE line breaking code logic flaw Banned Filter doesn't work with UTF-8 Chinese Characters Custom BBCodes: Parsing errors when giving empty arguments PM address book Possibility to edit post without leaving "Edited by"-tag and merge action not saved in moderator logs quote code errors Upgrade wizard issuess Date missing in subscription expiration email Skin bugs (2.2.1) Gaining Root Admin with a Admin Account Rss import problem with other charset (logical problem) Pruning forums -> double entry in mod logs emoticons double parsed? user profile rendering bug under Safari multibyte: comment wordwrap No email on new topics in RSS-forum requiring moderation RSS import: 100 max per feed hardcoded CSS Bug PM Percentage Bar Old bug still not fixed IP.Board 2.2.1 - Topic View - Online Image & Long names - line break problem Line doesn't break in Interests field Staying logged in (finally, the actual issue?) Exchanged icons, I'm still confused Problem with topic description quick edit A very small issue Buggy input check in install's address action Portal enabled through init.php, cannot access forum popup windows and focus() Post view usability when cross-linking: Useless link to post with JavaScript disabled Lost Attachments on Topic Merge Bug with Lo-Fi and attachments Emoticon Limit Mysql error for google bot Approving member leaves member in Awaiting Auth. IPS Client Area in Help & Support tab (IE7) Multi-lined settings thinking they are not default Member #8 Could not be a Moderator with group #8 Forum rules doesn't accept two link at one line ban filter - email Captcha last digit sometimes off image [2.2.1] Import Languages_xml [2.2.1] Profile View - "Post Count" and "Active" fields not displayed for some members Long links in RSS export broken skin bug Apache going crazy at Security and Privacy settings page Show Card didn't show the real photo but only the nophoto.gif ACP Restrictions <script> Bugs inside [HTML] IPB 2.2.x [HTML] Attributes not properly higlighted IPB 2.2 Multi-line HTML comments not red in [HTML /] First line of code tag PM CC Member Error api_settings does not import Setting Group Module Profile Offset Error Forum announcement Skin_Store_ contains extra columns in caching db_skin tar.php regression 2.2 Photo Upload error Generate key error Error displaying image attachment with extension .php.png in post Stripslashes Missed When Click Go To Full Editor Classic profile view: Excess linefeeds in custom profile fields (text) Text aligning works in signatures with bbcode disallowed URL Avatar didn't appears Render Row Misplaced Tag Error when sending saved pm Admin Restrictions>Management>Members>Blank Row 4th down Attatchments Space graphics attachmt not enlargeable in editor preview Comments in profiles repeating. Viewing Profile->Comments, Check comments and delete comments xml_char used 2 times in same file Error in comments "Last Seen:" time on new profile portal Email From: doesn't accept diacritics Incorrect subhect encoding Topic Subscription Reply Notification HTML Meta Tags HTML adding tags skin output formatting CSS UCP 2 image errors showing up in cPanel error logs Profiles set to classic - but extended still visible [2.2.0] Upgrading from version 1.3 10003 Upgrade Bug CSS Font Spaces small hardcode in class profile mode Possiblke mis-spelling on ACP > Security & Privacy > Enable Captcha? IP Member Tools Guidlines Simple Spelling Secondary groups and unlimited PM storage Using eaccelerator & updating skins stats keep reseting after upgrading to 2.2.1 [2.2.1] One remaining PECL APC bug? Exclamation Marks not Parsing in P.P.'s Interests Double Comments while Pending Approval Impossible birthdays [IP.Board 2.2.1] System Overview showing wrong Version of IPB Odd character set issues Attachment Thumbnail Display 2.2.0 - Friends List in PM Box now block list [2.2.1][MSSQL - Search Doesn't Work With Two+ Words [2.2.1] Fatal Error In ACP Clean-Up Tool [2.2.1] Posting Comments Is this a bug? Unserializing cache values is broken if using local cache PM error in 2.2.0 final Login Auth [2.2.0]Bug with insert special items HTML in reported post pm 2.2 Enabling Portal Breaks Announcements 2.2.0 Search Bug? Rebuild forum's posts Who's Online In Chat Post any bugs or upgrade issues here.

An interesting feature, on Windows XP, is the ability to be remote controlled from a second PC: the so called

For those unaware of what it is, Concurrent Sessions allows you to Remote Desktop into a system that someone else is on, under a Different User account, and access the system without kicking the user off. I, for example, use the feature to have MCE running on my Television, and then I remote into my main user account to access all my files without interrupting my MCE session. Before I begin, I can take zero credit for this hack. This guide is strictly consolidating information spread out over several pages over at TheGreenButton. A million thanks to Sunmorgus over there, for hacking the .dll to make this all possible. Also note, following these steps WILL MODIFY SYSTEM FILES, so proceed at your own risk. If you break anything, just ask for help in our forums though ;-) But this is 100%, absolutely NOT SUPPORTED BY MICROSOFT. So seriously, proceed at your own risk. Ok, so let's get on to the steps: 1. Download Sunmorgus' hacked Termsrv.dll file HERE 2. Now, Vista's security needs a little massaging to allow you to modify the original termsrv.dll file, found in C:\Windows\System32, so.... 3. Click Start, then type "cmd" in the search box & hit enter. This will launch the Command prompt 4. Type the following & hit enter: takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\termsrv.dll 5. Then type this & hit enter (NOTE: Replace USERNAME with YOUR USERNAME!! If your name has a space in it, enclose it with quotes, like "Mike Garcen"): cacls C:\Windows\System32\termsrv.dll /G USERNAME:F 6. Then go to your Windows Explorer, and go to C:\Windows\System32 7. Rename the original termsrv.dll to something else, like "termsrv.dll.ORIGINAL", just in case 8. *NOTE* If you are unable to do the above, try rebooting into SAFE MODE 9. Then copy & paste the Hacked DLL you downloaded in Step 1 into the C:\Windows\System32 folder 10. And voila! Some things to check. Make sure your version of Vista SUPPORTS Remote Desktop connection to begin with. Only Vista BUSINESS & Vista ULTIMATE DO!!!! If it does, you'll need to make sure to ENABLE Remote connections to the computer. Then you'll also need to create another user. Remember, this doesn't let you connect 2 people to the same user account, so make another account & then just connect to that one & you should NOT be disconnected. Thanks to everyone who contributed these steps, I hope consolidating it all into steps makes it easier for people rather than searching all over the place. Thanks also to the Howtogeek blog post for how to modify Vista system files. And thanks to this Ricardo Raneri blog comment for the edits needed to be made on the .dll file. Source: LINK

You have probably run into the situation, where you had to take ownership of the file or folder in Vista, so you can mess with it.. To fasten this process a bit, you can use this script, which will add an option in context menu for the file. Right click on the file --> Send To --> OwnThefile. Here's the code for the script: Dim Act : Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Dim Fso : Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Dim File, File1, File2 For Each File1 in Wscript.Arguments Act.Run("takeown /f " & File1),0,True Act.Run("icacls " & File1 & " /grant administrators:F"),1,True File2 = Split(File1,".") Set File = Fso.GetFile(File1) File.Copy(File2(0) & "_Original." & File2(1)) Next Save it as .vbs file and run it. Or you can use attached file which actually is self extracting .vbs script. OwnTheFile.rar

I already installed Vista on all of my PC's, so I can't try this out, but the first theme colors looks preety good.. Thx!

Thanks Cro-man, I've posted this on the frontpage about a week ago http://www.wincert.net/index.php?option=co...1&Itemid=39, but not all of the WinCert.net members read the frontpage news, so it's good that you've posted it here.. All versions of Vista allow a 30-day period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, which supports only a three-day trial. With "slmgr -rearm" command, you can extend the activation deadline of editions such as Vista Home Premium and Vista Business up to four months past the original install date." The one-line command of "slmgr -rearm" changes the activation deadline to 30 after the current date. So this means that you can't extend the activation deadline for "strongest" version of Vista (Ultimate) to 120 days. Apparently "rearm" command can be run up to three times, extending the Vista Home Premium and Vista Bussines activation deadline to maximum of 120 days.. It's good to notice that extending the grace period is not a violation of the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA), according to Microsoft. Some critics have argued that the new activation rules and reduced functionality combine to make what's essentially a "kill switch" -- a way for Microsoft to disable PCs running counterfeit copies of Vista. Microsoft has repeatedly rejected that characterization.

As far I know, there's no such thing as Vista.. My rating in Vista is 4.3, and the lower grade (4.3) I got from my Graphic Card (GeForce 6600GT).. I wonder what rating score would you have on Vista?

Congratz to Rick on this: http://www.pantip.com/tech/software/topic/.../SR2302138.html http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?amp;show...&p=10288713 http://digg.com/software/Install_the_Vista...In_One_Package_ (last comment) There are a lot of links more, but I have to register to find a thread that's linking to us..

Now, where have you been so long, glad I see you again Tain..

OMG, now how did that machine run??

That sendspace link confused me, just like Rick too Sorry.

Is this free cro-man?

Actually, I bought this skin, but wolf made this awesome logo and will change the team icons.. No doubt he'll do great work once again..:thumbsup_anim: Anyway, glad you like it

WinCert.net has a new forum skin installed. It's the most revolutionary skin ever for IPB, it uses sophisticated programming to totally modify the layout and look and feel of IPB and enhance the inherent power of the forum software. Soft blue/grey tones harmonise with the small amount of orange highlights - this skin features too many edits to list! You just have to see it to believe it... members can select the skin from the drop down menu on the forums for a closer view. The revolutionary i-tab skin is very easy and intuitive to use, it is flexible, allowing multiple rows of tabs if you have many many categories, it has some great logic built in, whereby if your member

Thanks mate, this is crazy video

I used that one before, already forgot about it..Thx

Have you guys noticed that they've changed the result pics? :lol:

Tutorial | Add Vista style context menu handler under Windows XP Windows Vista is the latest workstation version of Windows after a long delay and is designed for business and home users. First of all, we should understand the mean of Vista; We can check our dictionary or explore the encyclopedias. Vista as a beautiful view, for example, of countryside, a city, etc. In formal mean is a range of things that might happen in the future. According to name it’s really have a new look style (aero glass), with easier way to handle personalization and navigation menus. The most interesting thing in Vista is its look, new icons, cursors, theme, sounds, login screen, boot screen, etc. there are a lot of Transformation Pack and themes are available and we can change the look and feel of Windows XP to Vista. Here, I m going to introduced some registry hacks that may helps to make too similar look to Windows Vista in our existing Windows XP. (1.) Add Delete and Rename option to Recycle Bin's Context menu Navigate registry to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder Change the value of Attributes to 70 01 00 20 and the value of CallForAttributes to 0 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder] "Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20 "CallForAttributes"=dword:00000000 (2.) Rename Set Program Access and Defaults and Network Connections under Start Menu By Default In Vista Set Program Access and Defaults and Network Connections are renamed as Default Programs and Connect To respectively. In Windows XP, there is no option to rename these. Perfrom this task, follow the steps. Navigate registry to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f7-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder Change the value of Attributes to 70 01 00 20 for Set Program Access and Defaults Navigate registry to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}\ShellFolder Change the value of Attributes to 70 01 00 20 for Network Connections Now U will get option to rename these. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f7-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder] "Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}\ShellFolder] "Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20 (3.) Add Open Command Windows Here context menu under Drives and Folders with Hidden property Windows Vista contains context menu of Open Command Windows Here but it doesn't display normally. We can see and use this menu by clicking with Shift Key. Its not new thing, Windows 98 also contains Open With context menu and we can see and use this as the same method as Windows vista. Now this can be created in Windows XP as windows Vista. If U have already created the menu, U can modify by following steps. Navigate registry to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd Create a String value named as Extended and leave blank this one. Navigate registry to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd Create a String value named as Extended and leave blank this one too. here is the reg code. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; For Drives [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd] @="Open Command Window Here" "Extended"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd\command] @="cmd.exe /k \"cd %1\"" ; For Folders [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd] @="Open Command Window Here" "Extended"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\command] @="cmd.exe /k \"cd %1\"" Note : Save the reg codes into .reg files and patch these.

Can you give us a bit more info. Do you get any error or it just won't start?. Have you tried to reinstall it?

I have joined the beta testing program for Microsoft Windows Home Server which is now in beta 2 stage. I'll probably make a review on it, and I think that this is the server you're looking for, but, as Tarun said, you'll have problems with this hardware. I'd put more ram in it, at least 512MB and if possible bigger and faster disk.