VistaBootPRO 1.0 Beta Released!

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VistaBootPRO is now deprecated. NeoSmart Technologies’ EasyBCD utility has replaced it.

VistaBootPRO is the first tweak-ware to be released for Windows Vista, but it's more than just that. When Microsoft first announced that they would not be providing anything easier than bcdedit.exe (a CLI-only tool with nested options and embedded tags) for the modification of the boot loader, we knew something had to be done, and now we're proud to announce that together with PROnetworks and months of hard work, planning, desiging, and researching have come to test with the initial release of VistaBootPRO.

It can literally do anything with your Vista boot menu, and will in time completely replace bcdedit, but for now in this release there is still plenty to do, and much to learn. With VistaBootPRO 1.0, you can change everything and anything about how your boot loader looks, and what it loads, and where it goes with it. You can use VistaBootPRO to backup, export, modify, and restore the BCD registry at any time, and from any OS; so that even if your Vista won't boot, VistaBootPRO will!

Official Announcement
Download VistaBootPRO 1.0
VistaBootPRO 1.0 Support Forums

VistaBootPRO: Update

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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VistaBootPRO is now deprecated. NeoSmart Technologies’ EasyBCD utility has replaced it.

I'm really sorry to have to make this post, but yes, the assumtions that many of you emailed me are correct: VistaBootPRO has been delayed.

Don't get me wrong, the program is done, the files, are ready, the servers are up, the forums are open, and the experts are at hand, but nevertheless, VistaBootPRO has been delayed. It seems that there are some unforseen complications in our partnership with PROnetworks for the release of VistaBootPRO, and management issues on their end have caused this delay. NeoSmart Technologies has finished our part of the agreement, we are now just waiting on PROnetworks to let us know when they are ready. At this point, your guess is as good as ours, but for everyone's sake, we hope it's soon.

VistaBootPRO: Friday, May 12th!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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VistaBootPRO is now deprecated. Use EasyBCD instead.

It’s official! VistaBootPRO is coming this Friday, May 12th; and you’d better get ready for it! Yes, VistaBootPRO is the name of the mystery app that many of you have been asking about; and no, I still can’t tell you what it does besides that (if you can’t guess…).

Both NeoSmart Technologies and PROnetworks are very happy to be able to bring you this release, and we’re all working really hard to make sure it’s a success. For now, here is a userbar with half a logo to whet your appetite until later. And I promise, if everything goes well, you’ll know more before Friday :D

Vista Build 5381.1 Re-Released

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Barely two hours after thousands of beta testers around the world began to download Vista Build 5381.1 Ultimate Edition for x86, it has been re-released. Though those that were downloading can continue to do so and those that have finished it can go ahead and run that build; there are certain complications.

As we reported here, the x86 build of Vista 5381.1 turned out to be an unstaged CHK build (see linked article for definitions and explanation) compared to the FRE staged build distributed for x64 machines. Now it seems there is another factor in the mix: Microsoft Corporation has pulled down the download links to the CHK debug build for x86 and replaced it with a staged FRE x86 build. On one hand this new build comes with a staged setup which will install faster and on more systems than an unstaged build would, and it is not a debug compile and as such it will most certainly run faster and smoother than the other; yet on the other hand, not everyone is even aware that it has been re-released, and for those that are, that's two hours of downloading gone to waste. Unfortunately the new build is also more than a gigabyte larger than the first build.

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Windows Vista Build 5381.1 Released!

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Microsoft has officially released Windows Vista Build 5381.1 today on Microsoft Connect.

Internal sources have confirmed that this is "what will be" Beta 2 – in a couple more days at WinHEC 2006. What we are seeing right now with this build is a feature complete Beta without the performance guarantee. If you want to put it in terms of practical use, etc. this is Beta 2; it will be compiled and recompiled several more times, mini-glitches taken care of, size and speed optimized, and maybe a couple of minor things changed, but for all intents and purposes, those of us that have been dying for another beta ever since the first; it's here. However, Microsoft Connect classifies this as being the Beta 2; so we're not entirely sure what's going on, but when we find out we'll be sure to let you know.

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NeoSmart Technologies needs your help!

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If you dropped by yesterday (like 300k others did…) you might have noticed that there was a “site susended” notification, asking us to contact our host to resolve it; because we had too much traffic in too little time. You may have also noticed that we are proudly ad and pop-up free, and may even realized that a non-profit organization sitting on the bleeding edge of technology and news costs a pretty penny to run. We need your help, and we need it ASAP. Our host has kindly given us a “probation period” for us to gather up the money and get upgraded to a VPS solution.

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Browser Traffic @ NeoSmart.net

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Following our story on the different browsers of the future, you may be interested in the traffic rankings for NeoSmart.net since the story's publication:

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The Trouble with Logos

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Many design logos for a living, and even more as a hobby. But the worst logo designers are those that make them because they have to. Making a logo for a program or application is even harder than making one for a company or organization; especially since the latter can easily be an abstract work, something to go with the name. But icons and logos for a program need to be exact, they have to fit the "mood" of the application and match it curve for curve. These icons need to display a message that coincides with the functionality of the program to give you the end user a complete user experience that they will never forget – ever.. that is if you plan on keeping and growing your user-base!

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A Cool Look at the Future Three

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Dear Readers, you might find this comparison of traffic-per-browser to NeoSmart Technologies since this articles publication interesting. 

Internet Explorer 7 has undeniably come a long way. Whether you like Microsoft's giant of a browser or hate it to pieces, the fact remains that Internet Explorer 7 is the single biggest update/upgrade this browser has ever seen, very comparable to the Windows 3.1.1 => Windows 95 upgrade in Microsoft's Operating System lineup. In this mini-writeup, we will be discussing from a fairly objective position how Internet Explorer 7 now stands compared to the latest offerings from it's biggest competitors: Firefox and Opera. This isn't a comparison, there will be no "winner," not in this article at any rate!

Unlike the other so-called reviews on the web, we're not going to compare it to Phoenix 0.1 and Opera 3; we're doing the real thing here, IE7 as it stands side-by-side with Opera 9 Build 8372 and the latest Firefox weekly. This isn't going to cover the glitches and the bugs that will be sorted out (hopefully) sooner or later, we're focusing on the hard-core features and the projected audiences, to evaluate the overall product experience.

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Vista 5365 Haunted by Bug from the Past: PDC 2003!

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5365 is was a good build. It looked pretty; it had nifty features, stunning wallpapers, and a fairly stable core. But, as the say, looks can be deceiving.
Can an operating system without the ability to access the internet be considered a "good" OS? As a desktop machine? I doubt that the best written operating system is worth a dime if it can't connect to other computers and services. It just won't work. So, excuse me while I uninstall Windows Vista Build 5365, and update GRUB2 to reflect the changes and boot FC5 instead.

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