Microsoft has made an interesting offer to PC users - in return for participating in its Windows Feedback Program, you can receive a 'free' copy of software titles including Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium Edition, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 and Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008. However, as you would expect from Microsoft, this so-called free software comes with a price. If you participate Microsoft will ask you to do a survey once a week and will collect data about the following:

We are looking for information that will help us understand problems you encounter with Windows, how you have configured your computer and Windows, what hardware you are using, and general information about how you are using Windows and Microsoft Office products on your computer.

Microsoft will basically be collecting all sorts of information, including hardware details, Control Panel settings, file and folder information and usage statistics for Windows and Office as well any problems you encounter with them. So if you value your privacy less than a copy of Windows Vista, this could be for you. Or perhaps you could just install it on a secondary system and get a free piece of software for that?!

Update: Apparently Microsoft has already had too many people register, so it's reached its limit for free software giveaways. You can still register for the program, but you won't receive anything in return.

With the company putting the finishing touches to no less than three major service packs at the moment, Microsoft has released a tool which will allow users to prevent them from being automatically downloaded. The Windows Service Pack Blocker Toolkit lets users block XP SP3 and Vista SP1 for up to one year, and Server 2003 SP2 until March next year. There are three versions - an executable, a script and a group policy template - so take your pick. This is recommended for any users worried about potential security and stability issues that may result from installing the service packs.

On November 20, 1985, Microsoft unveiled Windows 1.0, and it began seeing mass-adoption by users this week. While Microsoft seems content with just letting the anniversary of the landmark operating system pass away, Windows lasting this long says plenty about it's quality and power. While some people love it, and others hate it, for various reasons, Windows has been growing ever since that week in 1985. The words Bill Gates said as he pushed Windows 1.0 out of factories are quite fitting for the anniversary:

Windows provides unprecedented power to users today and a foundation for hardware and software advancements of the next few years. It is unique software designed for the serious PC user, who places high value on the productivity that a personal computer can bring.

As a bit of nostalgia, the original version of Windows was $99USD, just like the Nintendo 64 and original Sony Playstation. Windows 1.0 also introduced Microsoft Write and Microsoft Paint to the computing scene.

Despite of widespread critics among certain groups of end-users, Microsoft Windows Vista operating system (OS) captured additional part of the market in October, whereas other operating systems from Microsoft reduced their installed base. At the same time, platforms from Apple reduced the shares of the market they command. In September the share of Windows Vista-based personal computers used to browse the Internet was close to 8%, 7.91% to be precise, up insignificantly, according to data collected by Net Applications, a provider of Web tools. The shares of Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems decreased to 3.16% and 79.07%. The share of systems based on Mac OS decreased to 6.55% in October, down from 6.61% a month before. Other operating systems, namely outdated Windows versions, Linux OSes and so on, which have been losing market share for many months now, are now used in 3.31% of devices that are browsing online.

Software giant Microsoft is making progress in creating a modified version of its Windows operating system designed to run on the XO laptop built by the One Laptop Per Child project. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole said:

We're spending a nontrivial amount of money on it. We remain hopeful with our progress to date, we still have significant work ahead to finalize our analysis and testing processes. At the end of the day, there's no guarantees.

The OLPC project intends to start producing its laptop next month, which is designed for elementary school children in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The laptops were originally designed to run Linux, however Microsoft hopes to develop a cut-down version of Windows in order to install it on the XO, with the biggest issues being reducing the power consumption and the space required by the operating system in order for it to run efficiently.

Microsoft's automatic updates system has once again found itself in the limelight following an issue with Windows Desktop Search 3.01 which has slowed thousands of computers and is causing havoc for IT technicians around the world. Despite client computers being configured only to update currently installed software, numerous blogs have reported that the Desktop Search software is installing itself and then hogging resources by loading an indexer, resulting in client computers slowing to a crawl and file servers struggling with the increased load. A Microsoft spokeswoman says the company is looking into reports, but IT administrators won't be too impressed with Windows Update at the moment as this comes just weeks after news that the update services secretly downloads and installs updates even on computers with automatic update disabled.

IGN has released some videos for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They are located in the PC section, but are marked with 360. So it makes it hard to say on which version they are showing. In one of the videos it states that the PC and PS3 version will be identical to each other. The game its self looks very promising, and could bring a lot fun to FPS fans when it is released.

You can check out the videos here.Source/Videos: IGN

Things are still a little cloudy, so take this with a pinch of salt, but a number of Microsoft's software testers claim to have received an early version of the first service pack for Windows Vista. Apparently a few testers have given ZDNet a tipoff, although each tester has come forward with a different build number, which suggests that Microsoft could even be using them to track down anyone who gives away information about new features, but it's equally possible each tester is just running a different build. The screenshots below are from WinBeta and supposedly show a version of Vista with the service pack installed, although there is still very little which will be of interest to most people. The private beta had been rumoured for mid-July, with a public beta following soon afterwards and a final version coming as soon as November this year, although Microsoft has not given any official confirmation of this. Hopefully more information will become available soon, but it looks like the first service pack could be here soon.

Despite there once being rumours of Microsoft dropping service pack three for Windows XP, the software giant has now confirmed that it still intends to keep its old operating system up-to-date with at least one more service pack. Although no information about major changes has yet been leaked, a Microsoft spokesperson said the following:

We're currently planning to deliver SP3 for Windows XP in the first half of calendar year 2008. This date is preliminary, and we don't have any more details to share at this time.

By that time, service pack two (which was quite a huge security update) will have been around for about four years, and given the slow start for Windows Vista, Microsoft may have no choice but to continue supporting its larger consumer market for a few years yet if it doesn't want to upset millions of customers. However, considering that Windows XP is now very secure and stable, the next service pack could turn out to be little more than a bundle of Windows Update patches - unless Microsoft intends to integrate features from Vista such as user account control, which is very unlikely.