As the official Windows 7 launch is set in motion, a bunch of new content is being released online to support the wider public availability. To kick things off, a handful of new first-party theme pack have been released on Windows.com, but with a twist.

In addition to a number of new international themes released featuring photographs from different regions of the world, 14 sponsored themes are also available for download with wallpapers sourced from various notable brands. They range from movies to sports cars, video games and even refreshment beverages (from both Coke and Pepsi!).

As time goes on, I’d expect more companies to jump on this opportunity as an easy and fun way to promote their products and brand. Music label EMI has already planned a whole site dedicated to branded Windows 7 theme packs.

• [ Kill the Process, Use Killbox if your Access Denied ]

[In Windows Vista Run As Administrator, After Execution System Will Restart]

• %Windows\system32\servises.exe
  [ No Exact Information about Files, search above related files in Program files Folder ]
  If you have any of these files in running process from task manger, end the process before removal.
  Note: if task manager is disabled, Download the following file, Click to Download - Enable Registry.reg[ Right Click - Save Target As/Linked Content As ]
  Open it with Regedit.exe [%system32\regedit.exe], then it Confirms Add to registry Yes or No, Confirm Yes, then click Ok.
  

The wraps have been lifted off the Windows 7 global advertising campaign and apparently Windows 7 was totally my idea. The New York Times has a video clip of one of the ads in the series produced by Crispin Porter + Bogusky and the message is quite simple – Windows 7 is everything customers wanted. And what did we want? Less crazy. Less clutter. Less clicks. Faster. Easier. Leaner. Meaner. Safer. Cleaner. Simplerrrrrr. And Microsoft apso-frickin-lutely agreed.

Also as a fun fact, one of Microsoft employees featured in the video is Chaitanya Sareen, a program manager on the team responsible for developing the new Windows 7 taskbar.

Update: More ads in the series embedded below.

Pretty cool ad campaign I must admit.

You can start the Add/Remove Applications tool by selecting Applications -> Add/Remove from the Panel menu. If it’s been a while since your Ubuntu workstation has contacted the software repositories, you may see a notice message telling you the list may be out of date and asking whether you want to update it. Click the Reload button to update the list of available applications.

The Add/Remove Applications window consists of four sections:
• The software catalog
• The Applications panel
• The Filter drop-down menu and Search text box
• The Application Description window

The application software catalog appears on the left side of the Add/Remove Applications window. It breaks down the applications into categories to help you find applications. There are eleven categories of applications you can browse through:
• Accessories: small utilities that can enhance your desktop experience, such as an advanced calculator, an alarm, a virtual keyboard, and a dictionary
• Education: programs for supporting educational purposes, such as a test and exam editor, educational games, and language translators
• Games: programs to help entertain and amuse you
• Graphics: programs for handling photos and images and for drawing pictures
• Internet: programs for accessing Internet features such as email, web browsing, and news reading
• Office: alternative office productivity tools such as basic word processors, calendars, and finance programs
• Other: the junk drawer of utilities and small programs, including programs for setting monitor features and setting laptop touchpad features, and packages restricted by patents or copyrights
• Programming: Programming tools such as integrated development environments
(IDEs) and editors, as well as compilers and debuggers
• Sound & Video: a collection of multimedia applications for advanced audio and video capturing, editing, and CD burning
• System Tools: utilities that interact with the Ubuntu system, such as a battery monitor, all-in-one configuration editor, alternative file managers, and file backup managers
• Universal Access: applications that provide assistive technologies for workstations

Selecting a catalog from the list automatically filters the Application panel to display only the applications in that catalog.

The Filter drop-down menu and Search text box allow you to fine-tune the applications listed in the panel. The drop-down menu allows you to select the type of applications listed in the panel:
• All Available Applications: all applications available within the configured Ubuntu software repositories
• All Open-Source Applications: only applications that are part of the open-source community
• Canonical-Maintained Applications: only applications that are supported by Ubuntu and Canonical, Ltd.
• Third-Party Applications: applications that are not part of the Ubuntu software
• Installed Applications Only: only applications that are currently installed on the workstation

Selecting one of these options immediately changes the application list window to display only the applications that meet the filter specification. The Search box allows you to search the application names and descriptions for keywords. Only applications that meet the search keywords appear in the application list window.

Source of Information : Wiley Ubuntu Linux Secrets

I was setting up an offsite backup system for our source code. I wanted to use the VPN client within windows to connect the two machines.

One of the problems with this idea is that I only wanted this connection to be active while the source code was being copied

It turns out that it is very simple to do. Once you have your VPN connection setup, take note of its name.

Then, inside of your batch file you can add this command to connect to the VPN

rasphone -d wimberlynet

Notice, that the name of my network connection was wimberlynet. You would replace that with the name of your network.

At the end of your script, you can disconnect by using this line:

rasphone -h wimberlynet

One gotcha is that you need to make sure you go into the properties of the VPN connection, and make sure prompting is disabled:

And finally, make sure you connect to it once and save the password, and you will be able to totally automate your VPN connection.

If you’ve been hoping Windows Mobile 7 will bring unification to the user experience of the Windows Phones ecosystem then you should give up and go home immediately.

A recent Microsoft job advertisement signals that the Windows Mobile team will not only support the layer of custom interfaces on most Windows Phones today at an OEM level but will even help create custom interfaces for individual operators comes Windows Mobile 7.

The final responsibility of our group will be working with mobile operators to deliver a unique windows mobile experience that seamlessly integrates the mobile operator’s services (such as voicemail services, video-on-demand services, and navigation services for instance). Microsoft experimented with this back in 2007 with the introduction of the T-Mobile Shadow. That was a great success and with WM7 we will be expanding this effort to more operators. Because of this we will be working heavily on creating custom user interfaces, so passion around UI and graphics programming is a must.

The T-Mobile Shadow was one of the first documented cases where Microsoft not only worked with the operator to design new hardware but actually created a custom-tailored interface in-house to promote some operator-specific services and functionality. Obviously it must have worked out pretty great for T-Mobile and Microsoft they want to do it again with even more operators.

In my opinion, this practice has both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, every OEM and operator in the ecosystem wants to differentiate their product and this allows them an easy way to do so without resorting to changing the hardware which is more expensive. At the same time however it also means the same device across operators and all devices under the Windows Phone brand will have even less in common – adding more complexity to an already diluted ecosystem.

My fear with such customizations is that eventually the “Windows Phone” will water down to mean nothing more than “Windows Embedded” means for embedded devices – sure it runs Windows CE but you wouldn’t be able to tell (like the Zune HD) and wouldn’t care less. Sure consumers might not care either but it doesn’t make much of a brand if it’s everything and anything.

Update: Hat tip to MobileTechWorld for noticing this 3 months ago.