Microsoft has yet to comment about rumors of yet another extension for Windows XP that first started circulating late last week, but that now seems to have changed, with a spokesperson for the company reportedly confirming in an email to InformationWeek that it is in fact pushing the end date back six months, all the way to July 31st, 2009. According to the spokesperson, that’s being done to make sure that customers moving to Vista are “making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible,” adding that, “providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment.” We believe that it has something to do with the fact that consumers don’t want to move to Vista.

Some time ago, Mozilla announced plans to create a new organization responsible for development of the Thunderbird e-mail client. Mozilla’s hugely popular Firefox web browser has been getting most of the attention from both developers and internet users, while Thunderbird has been standing in the dark.

Tuesday, David Ascher announced that the new Thunderbird project has a new name: Mozilla Messaging. He also released the following about Thunderbird 3:

An integrated calendar
Improved search
Easier configuration

In the long run, Ascher says the team is focusing on internet communication. Most people use instant messaging, IRC, blogs, and VoIP to communicate along side email. We hope to see an instant chat add-on included.

Firefox 3 beta 3 is now available to be downloaded. Updated versions include Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. There aren’t any major new features, but it does have improved OS-specific themes and a new bookmark/history manager. Check out Mozilla Links for a list of changes in the latest beta.

Firstly Firefox 3 beta 3 blends in better in Windows XP, Vista, OS X, and Linux. The new themes are still looking beta, but you will notice redesigned icons and some small changes to the toolbar layout. For example, the backward and forward buttons in the Windows version have been combined into one button. We actually like how it looks… and we found that it to be a faster way of going back and forward.

You will find that the Mac and Linux versions now have native windows for file and text selection boxes and other menus. And the OS X version also includes Growl integration.

Something that we have always wanted is now here. When you try to close multiple tabs or close a browser session with multiple tabs open, Firefox will ask if you want to save your session.

Can’t wait until March for Windows Vista SP1? Microsoft isn’t expected to officially release the update to users until March. But on their OEM partner site there is a full copy of SP1 ready for you to download, its a bit slow at the moment, due to everyone downloading copies. The 1.2GB disc image requires you run it as a clean installation, so you may want to wait until an easy update via Windows Update.

Download Image

Microsoft has included annoying anti-piracy measures in its software for some time now. We were happy to hear that Microsoft is toning down the Windows Genuine Advantage protection on Windows Vista SP1. With Vista SP1, ReadyBoost will not be disabled if you haven’t activated Windows or if you fail a WGA test.

This does not mean that WGA is dead. ZDNet reports that the new WGA will not take away certain features, but it may be just as annoying. Instead of logging you off or disabling services, Windows Vista SP1 will pop up an annoying screen every time you logon.

We wish that Microsoft would abandon WGA altogether, but this is a good start.

Other fixes include security holes, including browser history and navigation, holes related to multiple file inputs, and URL token stealing. Be sure to update for best security.

Most of us have some personal files on our computers. Hopefully no one has passwords or credit card numbers in a text file. For those who have only a few personal files we recommend that you download Lockbox. It is easy to use, and meets most users needs. If you want a program that offers more features check out TrueCrypt. It is free but packs many great features.

TrueCrypt 5 was released today, and has some great new additions:

Support for Mac OS X
New Graphical user interface for Linux version
Ability to encrypt system partitions

Via Slashdot

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that SP1 for Vista is now available on computers at retail stores. Meaning that SP1 has been finalized. As most of us know SP1 was available months ago. We have spent some time reading the 55 pages of documentation and here are the reasons you should update:

Improve in the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a zipped folder

Support for creating a single DVD media that boots on PCs with either BIOS or EFI

Hotpatching reduced the number of reboots when updating

New compression algorithm for RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) reduces network bandwidth by as much as 25-60%

Vista will now report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS on 32-bit systems

If you want to read all of the documentation go here

We don’t know if these screenshots are legitimate or not but as you can see they don’t really show anything new… sadly. The only thing that we see is Windows 7 Ultimate pasted onto the about windows window. We just hope it will be better than Vista.

The new version displays many improvements over beta 1, best improvements include plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a better download manager.

The updates to the download manager are very good. The new manager allows you resume stopped downloads, and it includes a built in virus detector.

One great new feature is the ability to zoom in on a Web page. There’s now one-click bookmarking and smart folders for bookmarks.

The Mozilla claims that Web site rendering is faster than it was in FF3 beta 1, we didn’t notice any difference. But from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 beta 1 we did see an improvement in speed.

You may download a portable version of Firefox 3 beta 2 from Portable Apps.