Windows Home Server

We’ve long encouraged our readers to embrace the power of a dedicated home server—we love the flexibility an always-on rig provides to host media, important documents, and other vital data. But, it’s not a simple proposition—XP isn’t particularly well suited to server duties, and setting up and maintaining Linux can be a challenge. That’s where Windows Home Server steps in.

Microsoft started with the solid base of Windows Server 2003, then stripped out everything but the necessities. From that bare-bones base, the Home Server team added crucial functionality for home users: Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) media sharing, an automated backup solution, rig health monitoring, and an innovative disk management scheme. The result is a rock-solid piece of software that is outstanding today and hints at even more amazing functionality to come.

Naturally, Home Server includes basic file-sharing functionality, shipping with default shares for music, photos, and video. You can configure per-user permissions for each share and create custom shares for specific purposes. Additionally, you can stream content to an Xbox 360 or other UPnP-compatible client directly from the shares.

Home Server’s sexiest feature is Server Storage, which essentially accumulates all the available space on all the hard drives in your system into one massive volume. If you have more than one drive in your system, you can even configure individual shares so that data is automatically stored on more than one hard drive. Configuring a new drive or removing an older drive is a simple procedure.

Once you’ve installed the included Home Server Connector software on your PCs, it will notify you of any potential problems, like out of date antivirus software or machines that have missed updates. Best of all, Home Server includes everything you need to do automatic backups of up to 10 machines connected to your home network. Restoring those backups is as simple as booting off of the included CD and selecting the backup you want to restore.

While Home Server won’t be available from retailers, power users will be able to purchase an OEM bundle from sites like Newegg.com. It’s a great piece of software, and it absolutely blows lesser-featured NAS boxes out of the water.

Home Server features a GUI that dumbs down the basic Windows Server interface without omitting any functionality we need.

Microsoft Windows Home Server
www.microsoft.com

Homing Missile

Rock-solid performance and loads of backup and other network features make this one Windows OS we can enthusiastically support.

Home Invasion

Not available at retail.

Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

We like fancy gaming mice. We like them for their super-accurate sensors, their adjustable resolutions, and the veritable cornucopia of buttons that grace their frames. But above all, a gaming mouse has to remain comfortable during marathon wrist-crippling gaming sessions, which is where the new Sidewinder really falls apart.

You see, this mouse is just too big. It’s not as though we have tiny, inadequate hands. Really, we don’t. We all have large, extremely manly hands. However, even with our giant meathooks, this mouse is too wide.

What makes it difficult to give this mouse a poor verdict is that we quite like its shape and many of its features. Its sensor is remarkably accurate—and includes the now-standard shift-on-the-fly sensitivity that we’ve come to love. Its button placement is quite good, too, and we really dig the vertically arrayed thumb buttons. Unlike mice that have horizontally mounted thumb buttons, the Sidewinder’s buttons are easy to distinguish from each other and painless to press. And we love the built-in screen, which shows you exactly what mouse sensitivity you’ve set. We even appreciate the macro software, which lets you perform instant 180-degree turns and other custom maneuvers with a single button-press.

The mouse also comes with a weighted box, which keeps the mouse cord from flopping all over your desk. It’s a little gimmicky, but a nice gimmick nonetheless. Without a doubt, the Sidewinder’s interchangeable mouse feet are our favorite feature. The mouse ships with three sets of feet, each with a different level of smoothness. We love this and hope to see it on more mice. There’s nothing worse than wearing out the Teflon pads on an $80 mouse.

While the buttons feel just right, the wheel leaves something to be desired. Its action is too stiff, and it’s difficult to click the mouse wheel without accidentally scrolling the mouse.

Unfortunately, the wonky scroll wheel combined with the monstrously oversized frame means this mouse won’t be living in our house.

It looks good, but the Sidewinder's oversized design isn't good for people who have normal-sized hands.

Flimsy Anti-Piracy Regulations in China Worry Microsoft

China is not only vying for the top economy crown but also breathing down America's neck in a panoply of key industries. Take for example the global PC market, where it is currently ranked second - just behind the US - with somewhere between 15 to 20 percent of all PC sales. Its rise to the top of the PC market is most likely to happen sometime this year.

So the soon-to-be world's biggest computer market must have the undivided attention of Microsoft then? Not really. Not until China respects intellectual property rights and clamps down on software piracy. Microsoft after all only owes 1 percent of its total revenue to the Chinese market. According to Steve Ballmer, the company sees greater promise in countries like India and Indonesia.

The Microsoft CEO told media persons in Singapore that intellectual property protection in these two countries is far better than China. He also shared his concern over the ongoing debt crisis in Europe. Ballmer fears a possible global fallout from Europe's debt crisis.

Bing Inches Closers to Verb Status

Using Bing as a verb doesn't exactly roll off the tongue as fittingly as Google, but don't be surprised if you hear people doing it anyway. Microsoft's revamped search engine continues to gain in market share, while Google has come to halt.

"I do hear people saying 'I Binged it,'" says Danny Sullivan, who heads up the search analysis website Search Engine Land.

According to comScore, Bing searches are up 4 percent since its launch last year, while Google's share has remained flat at 64 percent. That's quite a turnaround from Microsoft's pre-Bing days, when the company's search share fell eight percent from 2004 to 2009. And in terms of monetary value, most of Microsoft's $6 billion in losses from its online business division were related to search, BusinessWeek reports.

None of this means Bing is going to catch up with Google, but that isn't necessarily the goal in the first place. You might remember that Microsoft and Yahoo struck a deal in late 2009 to have Bing power Yahoo's searches, and if both search sites don't give up any ground, Bing will power almost 30 percent of all searches.

"At that size, advertisers can't ignore them," says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with market research firm Directions for Marketing.

Microsoft Turns Office into a Game with Ribbon Hero Training Tool

Listen up Office users, Microsoft has made available a free tool to help you level up your productivity skills. It's called Ribbon Hero and it offers up different 'games' or challenges for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 2007 and 2010.

"Ribbon Hero watches what features you do and don't use, and then it recommend challenges for you to play, to hopefully expose you to new features," Microsoft writes in an Office blog. "The first time you complete a challenge, you'll earn points. But then we want you to use those same features in the app (on another day) to prove you've mastered those features! You can max out a feature using it twice, on two separate days -- and one one of those times can you get points from playing the challenge."

Ribbon Hero also serves up Facebook integration so you can spam your friends' walls with PowerPoint updates right next to your latest Farmville achievement. Oh joy.

Download and Videos

Image Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft Turns Office into a Game with Ribbon Hero Training Tool

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

Listen up Office users, Microsoft has made available a free tool to help you level up your productivity skills. It's called Ribbon Hero and it offers up different 'games' or challenges for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 2007 and 2010.

"Ribbon Hero watches what features you do and don't use, and then it recommend challenges for you to play, to hopefully expose you to new features," Microsoft writes in an Office blog. "The first time you complete a challenge, you'll earn points. But then we want you to use those same features in the app (on another day) to prove you've mastered those features! You can max out a feature using it twice, on two separate days -- and one one of those times can you get points from playing the challenge."

Ribbon Hero also serves up Facebook integration so you can spam your friends' walls with PowerPoint updates right next to your latest Farmville achievement. Oh joy.

Download and Videos

Image Credit: Microsoft

Critical Windows Fixes For DirectShow, Network-based Attacks

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

Today's Patch Tuesday update release from Microsoft ships out a bevy of high-priority fixes, including five rated critical. Many of the vulnerabilities are likely to be attacked, according to Redmond.

A fix for a flaw involving DirectShow "should be at the top of your list," according to the Microsoft Security Reponse Center blog. Opening a poisoned .avi file could trigger an attack on a vulnerable system. The MS10-013 update is critical for all supported Windows systems except for Itanium-based Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 machines.

A second critical flaw in the Windows Shell Handler could allow a malicious Web site to execute commands (such as installing a Trojan) on vulnerable Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 systems. The flaw hasn't been publicly attacked, according to Microsoft, but the company still assigns the MS10-007 patch an exploitability rating of 1, meaning we'll likely see attacks against the underlying vulnerability.

Next comes a hole involving SMB (used for network file sharing) that is of most concern to business environments with a file server. According to Symantec, "if an attacker can find a vulnerable remote server that has a guest account set up, just like that, they've got access to the machine and possibly the entire local network." The MS10-006 patch is critical for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, but is only rated important for Windows Vista and Server 2008.

The MS10-009 update closes additional network-based vulnerabilities, this time in Windows' TCP/IP implementation. The patch closes four separate holes, the most serious of which can be targeted with a specially crafted IPv6 packets (the target system would need to have IPv6 enabled). MS10-009 is critical for Vista and Server 2008, but other Windows versions aren't affected.

A fifth and final critical-rated update rolls out additional killbits for Internet Explorer, which prevent vulnerable ActiveX controls from running in the browser. MS10-008 is rated critical for Windows 2000 and XP, important for Vista and Window 7, moderate for Server 2003 and only of low importance for Server 2008.

Yet another patch didn't rate critical, but is still listed as top priority by the MSRC post because of publicly available proof-of-concept attack code. The vulnerability fixed by MS10-015 allows a logged-in user to run a "specially crafted application" to gain additional privileges on a system. Such privilege escalation attacks are sometimes used in multi-pronged invasions of high-value networks to gain administrative control. This patch addresses Security Advisory 979682.

In addition to these high-priority fixes, Redmond's large patch batch also includes six other important-rated updates and one rated moderate. To pick up all the fixes for your system, fire up Windows Update.