Looking for a fast, free antivirus program that's easy to install and use? Microsoft Security Essentials employs practices like active memory swapping and CPU throttling to limit the impact on your PC performance, even on older or less powerful PCs. Get...

The Microsoft Answers Web site ( http://answers.microsoft.com ) has been updated with new forums, providing expert answers -- from MVPs, MSFT employees and other tech gurus from the community -- to common Windows- and Microsoft-related questions. New...

Whether you want to set up a dual-boot system, you're ready to migrate all the way to Windows 7 RC from XP, or something in between, here's what you need to know. http://lifehacker.com/5240931/lifehackers-guide-to-upgrading-to-windows-7-rc

Download Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 now - http://tinyurl.com/c8274e [Thanks to Sean Gephardt]

As you may have heard, the Windows 7 Reelease Candidate is now available to MSDN, MSDNAA and TechNet Subscribers, and the general public. Some things to be aware of with the Windows 7 Release Candidate: You must do a clean install of this release...

TechBlog has been whiling away the hours lately testing virtualization solutions, including Microsoft's freely available Virtual PC 2007. Why? Well, I just got this new computer, see -- and it came with a 64-bit OS.... A few random thoughts: 1)...

If you haven't tried the new "Accelerators" and add-ons , they are definitely worth a look. The performance of the new release is noteworthy, as well. The Windows Team Blog has details.

From the Things-we-didn't-expect-to-see Dept.: It's oh-so-amusing to see that the "Hero Hack Pack" and "More Heroes" links on the {Open Source} Heroes Happen Here page don't work in Internet Explorer 8 RC (native mode), but open as expected when using...

SD Times has details as  Mono Moonlight Goes Gold .

The Windows Live team notes a new way to get Hotmail on your phone . The POP3 option is now available to Hotmail users in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands . If you don’t see your country...

This attractive 25.5 x 33 printable poster defines eleven key solution patterns found in today’s IT environments. IT managers can easily see the relative relationships of the solution patterns to each other as well as learn how these patterns contribute...

It will be officially announced on January 12th, but it's live now: a brand-new IT Management site on TechNet . Here you'll find resources for IT Managers and their teams, platform solutions guidance, links to local dialogue (for UK , Canadian , Brasilian...

The TechNet page that briefly provided links to the public beta release of Windows 7 before "server too busy" errors took the site down finally returned , but not until, well, just about everybody began circulating direct links to Windows 7 downloads...

The number of feeds on MSDN and TechNet sites that are driven by social bookmarking (community members tagging relevant URLs) just keeps growing. The latest adopter is the System Center TechCenter , which has just put “links from the community” front...

Check out Mark Russinovich’s latest blog post on virtual-memory-related limits in Windows, including information on how to track down virtual memory hogs and how to size the paging file.

Need to start reducing travel and slashing operational costs? Got a Green IT strategy but need some further business case info? Wanting to build a Unified Communications business case? This month the Microsoft Australia team have published a great...

Updated Oct 29: Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations...

Do you have customers with questions or issues regarding Windows Vista Activation? The Windows Vista Activation forum is now available at http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2155&SiteID=17 . This forum offers a new dedicated...

In this Channel9 video , Mark talks about kernel changes in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, including the removal of the scheduler’s dispatcher lock, support for up to 256 CPUs, boot from VHD, MinWin, core parking for power savings, and more.

Download the October out-of-band security update for Microsoft Windows.

On the Windows Vista Team Blog , Mike Nash reports, "We've decided to officially call the next version of Windows, 'Windows 7.'" Read about the thinking behind the decision .

The Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals is a Microsoft Office Excel-based spreadsheet containing software applications which have earned the status of “Certified for Windows Vista”, “Works with Windows Vista” via the Microsoft Windows...

Upcoming Downloads Windows Small Business Server 2008 Windows Essential Business Server 2008 AVAILABLE STARTING NOV 12 Designed for small business, Windows Small Business Server 2008, is an affordable, integrated server solution that helps...

Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure...

We asked a dozen IT Pros and Developers to use our Live-powered MSDN and TechNet search as their default for Microsoft-related searches for 12 days. The goal was to see if technical pros think that our search is now more efficient to use than Google or...