Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor is the latest version of Server Performance Advisor, which is a simple but robust tool that helps you diagnose the root causes of performance problems in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 deployment. Server Performance Advisor collects performance data and generates comprehensive diagnostic reports that give you the data to easily analyze problems and develop corrective actions

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor provides several specialized reports, including a System Overview (focusing on CPU usage, Memory usage, busy files, busy TCP clients, top CPU consumers) and reports for server roles such as Active Directory, Internet Information System (IIS), DNS, Terminal Services, SQL, print spooler, and others.

System Requirements
* Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003
* .NET 1.1 Framework
* SQL 2000 or MSDE (if you use the data trending feature). For more information, see “Trending Data” in the Server Performance Advisor Help
* Do not install on Windows 2000 or Windows XP as neither are supported.

Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past.

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft high performance Visual Experience Engine and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelenghts: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.

WWT is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes of images, information, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. Kids of all ages will feel empowered to explore and understand the universe with its simple and powerful user interface.

Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe like never before.

To use it you should have Microsoft DirectX version 9.0c or later and .NET Framework 2.0 or later

Freeware, 20.8 MB

Corel Corporation released Corel WordPerfect Office X4, the latest version of the real alternative to Microsoft Office.

WordPerfect Office X4 combines all of the trusted features that WordPerfect Office is known for while breaking new ground as the world’s first PDF office suite. Offering a full range of PDF capabilities, WordPerfect Office X4 makes it easy for users to import, edit and export PDF documents – including scanned PDFs – dramatically simplifying user workflows and reducing the need for third-party PDF software.

In addition to its significant PDF enhancements, WordPerfect Office X4 now provides suite-wide compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007 files (OOXML) and Open Document Format (ODF) in WordPerfect X4. With PDF-reading software installed on more than 80% of all U.S. PCs (Source: Jupiter Research), WordPerfect Office X4 enables users to collaborate and share files more broadly and more effectively than ever before.
WordPerfect Office X4 extends WordPerfect’s legendary reputation for superior formatting power and control by introducing new Web collaboration and storage services, a new document redaction tool, a Web-connected digital notebook and an innovative new business intelligence package.

WordPerfect Office X4 – Standard Edition includes the familiar word processing, spreadsheet, slide show and email applications that have consistently distinguished Corel’s office suite: WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations and WordPerfect MAIL. This release also features innovative additions including Corel Connector online services, WordPerfect Lightning for digital note taking and Corel Visual Intelligence SE for data visualization and business intelligence. These elements, in combination, make up a powerful suite that helps customers communicate their ideas more effectively and with greater impact.

WordPerfect Office X4 will be available in four versions:

- WordPerfect Office X4 – Standard Edition is available starting today at an SRP (suggested retail price) of $159.99 US for the upgrade version and $299.99 US for the full version.

- WordPerfect Office X4 – Professional Edition, designed for enterprise and government customers, includes many of the features in the Standard Edition along with the relational database Paradox, the WordPerfect Office Software Development Kit (SDK) and other enterprise-class tools. The Professional Edition is available for an SRP of $259.99 US for the upgrade or $399.99 US for the full version.

- WordPerfect Office X4 – Home and Student Edition, available starting May 5, 2008, includes WordPerfect X4, Quattro Pro X4, Presentations X4, WordPerfect Lightning and Corel Visual Intelligence SE. Priced at an SRP of $119.99 US, Home and Student Edition is licensed for non-commercial and education use and may be installed on up to three PC’s in the same household.

- Corel Family Pack 2009, priced at an SRP of $89.00 US, is specifically designed to address the needs of the home PC user, combining the inviting word processing and spreadsheet experience of WordPerfect X4 and Quattro Pro X4 with the creative capabilities of Ulead VideoStudio 11 SE for video editing and Corel MediaOneTM for organizing and editing digital photos and videos.

Download a free trial version of Standard Edition (358 MB):

Windows Vista SP1 will arrive one of three ways. Most users will automatically receive the update via Windows Update. Users with limited or no Internet connectivity, or who need to update more than one PC, will be able to download a complete image of Windows Vista SP1 via DVD. Volume license customers (enterprises) will receive an integrated DVD media package for installation on new PCs.

Before installing SP1, all users running Windows Vista RTM (that is, if you bought your computer with Vista preinstalled) will need to install three updates from Microsoft. Microsoft’s Windows Update will automatically detect and install these updates prior to the release of Windows Vista SP1. Two of these updates increase the success rate for installing Windows Vista SP1; one is necessary only if you have Windows Vista Enterprise or Windows Vista Ultimate installed.

While all this sounds complicated, Microsoft says it has learned from Windows XP SP2, an upgrade that sometimes stranded users with long, overnight downloads. Windows Vista is modular, thus the upgrade will download only the bites of code necessary for your specific system. If you have enabled Automatic Updates, in theory, you should have a much shorter download and installation of the upgrade than someone who hasn’t kept up with the numerous updates since Windows Vista’s release. Despite the many changes within the code, Windows Vista SP1 does not change the basic hardware requirements for running the different editions of Windows Vista.

Where Windows XP SP2 introduced the Windows Security Center, and changed the existing Windows Firewall, Windows Vista SP1 introduces almost no visible change to your desktop. There are no new features to view, with almost all of the nearly 300 changes occurring under the hood, and mostly intended for Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

Specific reliability improvements include the prevention of data loss while ejecting NT file system file-system-formatted removable media; enhancements to TCP/IP Version 6; improved driver sleep and wake-up times; improved Meeting Space connections; improved Remote Assistance applications; and it includes Encrypting File System in the Windows Vista file-backup set.

For performance, Microsoft says SP1 uses less bandwidth when browsing network shares, and automatically selects between wireless and wired when more than one is offered. There are also many tweaks and improvements in ReadyDrive (requires the use of special hybrid drives) and ReadyBoost (requires special USB drives), and SuperFetch (requires a specific amount of RAM). As a result, users currently running Windows SuperFetch will notice, after installing Windows Vista SP1, their system is slower. Microsoft says that’s because SP1 erases the existing SuperFetch data. As new data is collected, the system will respond “within a few days,” Microsoft says.

There are many new standards introduced with SP1. For example, there’s a new Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, x64 Extensible Firmware Interface network boot, Direct3D 10.1 for 3D gaming, new flash based xFAT, identifies HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives as HD drives, supports SD Advanced Direct Memory Access, second-generation Windows Media Center Extenders, enhances the MPEG-2 decoder, and enhances support for Windows Network Projector.

For security, SP1 improves the Bitlocker encryption in Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Ultimate by adding multifunction authentication methods; moreover, Microsoft now allows encryption support for volumes other than the bootable volume. SP1 also includes some Smart Card enhancements, and allows for biometric, as opposed to PIN, access to Smart Cards. Within Vista, SP1 creates a more secure PIN channel for authentication.

For most home users, the new features will have little or no effect on the day-to-day use of their systems.

In general, CNET Labs found that Windows Vista SP1 offered a mixed bag of improvements. For example, Microsoft says that reading and writing files will be much faster within Windows Vista SP1.

Do you need Windows Vista SP1? Yes and no. It’s always good to install the latest code for any operating system. But downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems.

Unfortunately, you can’t free download Windows Vista SP1 even to trial it. But you can buy the software on the Microsoft site for about $200.