EasyBCD 1.6 Released!

It’s been a while, though we haven’t really noticed. The EasyBCD 1.5x line has worked loyally and without complaint for the past 7 months, and it’s time to put it to rest. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 8 months now since EasyBCD 1.5 went gold in October of 2006 – and since then its popularity has just soared beyond all expectations.

Today we’re proud to announce the availability of EasyBCD 1.6 to the general public. It’s been a rough, long road developing the 1.6 line, but we hope you’ll find it worth the wait. With 1 million+ EasyBCD users strong, we’ve learned a thing or two about compatibility and standards – or rather shall we say the lack of them. What worked for 98% of EasyBCD users didn’t work for the remaining two percent, and NeoSmart Technologies doesn’t accept anything less than perfection – that’s why EasyBCD 1.6 goes the extra mile.

Continue reading

Windows Longhorn Server Beta 3 Public Downloads!

Microsoft has just released the public downloads for Windows Longhorn Server Beta 3, not even a month after the April CTP!

Even more exciting, it’s a public download! Now anyone who wants to test out Longhorn can do so, with LHS Beta 3. It’s basically a beta-quality version of the April CTP, not too many more features; but supposedly faster (due to compilation optimizations), and more reliable. But we haven’t tested it yet, so don’t take this to the bank for fear of an overdraft.

In our opinion, Windows Longhorn Server and Windows Vista are entire opposites. If you’ve been holding out on the LHS-love because of lack-luster Vista performance, bugs, and instability: don’t worry, LHS isn’t like that – even now in the Beta stage. 

Continue reading

Windows Longhorn Server April CTP

Windows Longhorn Server April CTP has just been made available for download to official tech beta testers over at Microsoft Connect. The last build available was 6001-16497-070330-1510 for the February CTP, released two months ago.

The LHS April ’07 CTP is build 6001-16497-070330-1720 and adds quite a few new features, and brings LHS down to the real playing field. With the April CTP, it seems we can finally say that Microsoft has a real beta product on their hands – unlike previous LHS builds that had a general incomplete feel to them.

Pay close attention to the services, application server, and MMC – quite a few changes to keep up with. With 1720, Microsoft has made available 9 binary downloads, including the general x86/x64 installation media, the LHS WDK, the April CTP for the Itanic, in addition to the usual symbol packages for each build as well as the Checked Builds for developers.

x64: wsl_6001-16497-070330-1720_x86fre_server-KB3SFRE_EN_DVD.iso crc: 0x238801E6 x86: wsl_6001-16497-070330-1720_x64fre_server-KB3SxFRE_EN_DVD.iso crc: 0xB27FF9A0 Continue reading

Vista and Longhorn Wallpapers Gallery

Just a quick update of sorts: The NeoSmart Technologies Image Gallery now has every single Longhorn and Vista wallpaper released to date,1 most in hi-res, all available for free download. They’re really beautiful and capture what Vista is all about – whatever that is. That’s over 120 high-quality wallpapers for you to enjoy!


  1. We’ve done our very best to make sure we have them all, but if we’re missing some, please, let us know

Microsoft Murders Max

Well, it’s official at any rate. Contrary to what you’ve heard, Windows Vista will not be shipping with any of the original technologies, features, capabilities, or subsystems originally promised (and for those of you that really couldn’t tell: it’s called sarcasm!). First it was the real Aero – complete visual control over one’s system. Amazing graphics, sidebars that were a part of the Windows Core, Aero Diamond. Then it was NGSCB and its amazing security features – not DRM, but total privacy control; your privacy. Monad. Last we heard, it was WinFS, the king-pin feature that was promised to change the way you think of data… And now the last one is gone: Microsoft Max is dead.

Microsoft Max was a “virtual photo albums and distributing them online in a peer-to-peer fashion.” But it was more than just a sharing tool, it, in-keeping with the original Longhorn “tradition” provided a different way of looking at the data stored on your drive. Microsoft Max + WinFS would have been a formidable duo, but alas, it was not to be. For example, “3D Mantle View” (pictured above), treated albums as individual items. It provide a way to visually “stack” these and photos on top and around each other in ways that pertained to the way you actually used them – visualization of information movement.

Continue reading

Vista & Longhorn Server’s “Improved” Security

“Windows Vista is the most secure Windows ever!” — or so Microsoft claims. That’s not much of a boast however, I mean, if an operating system doesn’t get more secure as it progresses and evolves, there is certainly something fishy going on. So we weren’t too impressed by those claims in particular. But that doesn’t mean Vista isn’t actually secure (especially when compared to the competition). In fact, Windows Vista’s end-user security is down-right excellent, as we reviewed it back when RC1 came out.

“So what’s the problem?” Windows “Longhorn” Server is!

Continue reading