Before I go on with this, I tried it on three computers, two with Vista and one with XP, it did not work for one reason or another.  But here it is for those that would like to try.

The reported tightening of Windows Vista kernel defenses, which resulted in the issue of an updated Kernel Patch Protection (KPP), also known as PatchGuard, had nothing to do with the recent kernel hacks, Microsoft said.

Microsoft seems to be working hard to improve its Windows Vista Patch Protection defenses, with the company issuing an updated PatchGuard.

The updated PatchGuard is available as a high-priority download through Windows Update.

Hard drive fragmentation occurs when files are accessed, saved and placed back on the hard drive, the file is not put back in the same hard drive location it was accessed from thus leading to fragments of the file scattered over the hard drive, over time this degrades system performance.  There are several options when it comes do defragging your hard drive in both Vista and XP but this post will concentrate on Vista.

Microsoft has been downplaying the importance of releasing Service Pack 1 for Vista but that’s exactly what many businesses are waiting for.  It’s very doubtful that any large corporation will deploy Vista on a large scale before SP1 is released though some have small scale deployments.

Microsoft has released a security patch for Windows Vista to resolve the vulnerabilities on its small desktop applications, Vista Gadgets, which could allow an anonymous remote attacker to run code with the privileges of the logged on user.

AMD has released a patch for its ATI Catalyst drivers to remove the possibility of them being used as an attack vector to circumvent the improved security defenses of Vista..

Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, has again suffered another setback, with its predecessor Windows XP being chosen by the Beijing Organizing Committee to run the Olympic Games’ vital PC-related tasks. Vista will only be used in Internet lounges set up for athletes.

If you are one of the lucky few that have managed to get your hands on Vista SP1 then most likely you are enjoying a much improved Vista experience.  If you do not have access to a legitimate copy of Vista SP1 (meaning the one Microsoft shipped to testers) then you are on your own to find it.

Purple Pill, a utility software that can by-pass the new anti-rootkit/anti-DRM defense mechanism built into the 64-bit Vista kernel, has been released, downloaded 39 times and then removed more than an hour later.

Microsoft has been attacked by a researcher who says Vista’s content protection features not only degrade the quality of video in certain circumstances, but also require users to spend more on hardware and vendors to spend more on development.

Despite the release of Windows Vista, many XP users, particularly enterprises still await the release of Windows XP SP3, expecting it to be more stable compared to Vista.

Microsoft has officially released two patches for Windows Vista with the aim of improving performance, compatibility and reliability. The two patches were leaked as beta packages few days ago when they were only available as Pre-Betas to testers only.

Microsoft is accused of doing a lot of things these days, some good, some bad and in this case it has been accused of not accurately portraying computers through the use of the “Vista Capable” logo program.  This was supposed to tell consumers that a computer could run Vista but there is a dispute over which version of Vista it applied to.

So, you got that new computer and it came with Vista and you may not be too terribly happy with the performance.  Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do about that, there aren’t many software fixes and if it is running slowly the only solutions are to turn off the advanced features or upgrade your hardware and I have pity for you if it’s a laptop.