Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots UK Review

UK, May 30, 2008 - In return for letting us play Metal Gear Solid 4 before its release, Konami issued us with a list of things that we're not allowed to discuss. This list of prohibited topics is pretty long, and even extends as far as several facts that the company itself has already made public. Regardless of Konami's list of prohibited topics though, this review was always going to be a spoiler-free zone, because part of the pleasure of playing Guns of the Patriots lies in discovering everything it has to offer. MGS 4 is simply a game that you have to experience for yourself. Because the one thing that can certainly be said, prohibited topics or not, is that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is, without question, the ultimate Metal Gear game. It represents the pinnacle of Hideo Kojima's achievement, and it's undoubtedly one of the games of the year.

Metal Gear... It can't be.

Surprisingly, it gets off to a pretty slow start. Oh sure, there is something uniquely satisfying about the game's opening cinematic: the gruff, distinctive tones of David Hayter's Solid Snake, and the slow, measured edit. But there are various things that give the Metal Gear games a distinct, unique 'feel', and initially, it is the absence of those things that is most striking. The absence of fixed camera angles, for example, or of extended Codec conversations, or of the distinctive PlayStation 2 textures, making the game feel less like a Metal Gear game and more like a typical action title. As the game starts, with its fairly generic next-gen textures and desert battlefield setting, you can't help feeling that you could be playing the latest Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed.

Play on, however, and you'll soon find yourself re-immersed in Hideo Kojima's distinctive vision of gaming in what is the definitive Metal Gear Solid – tying up every loose end, reprising every notable character and location, and recasting the entire series as nothing less than a re-telling of the Messiah story. If that sounds a little grandiose, well so be it. If you've been following all of the twists and turns across the series so far, you'll gain enormous satisfaction from the multitude of cut-scenes in MGS 4 because they wrap up everything you ever knew about the Philosophers, the Patriots, The Boss, Big Boss, Solid Snake and his brothers. And if you haven't been following? Well then it does a pretty good job of recapping the whole thing: if you've never played a Metal Gear game, you'll still enjoy all the overblown drama and intrigue. But the perfect preparation for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 would be to sit down for a week and play through each game in turn, from beginning to end. It deserves nothing less.

An older Snake finds himself tested by the battlefield.

If cut-scenes aren't your thing you can, of course, just skip right through them all. You'll be missing out on a great deal, but you will be able to cut right to the chase – or in this case, cut right to the sneak. Metal Gear was the original stealth game, but here, the mechanics of sneaking around and snapping necks are the most polished they've ever been: a refined control scheme, new gadgets, and just the sheer muscle of the PlayStation 3 take the stealth in MGS 4 to another level. Blend into the background with the new OctoCamo – an extension of Snake-Eater's camouflage system that obviates the need to mess around with menus and consequently works much more effectively. Keep track of threats with the stealth ring system (pausing or crouching to get a bead on nearby enemies). Use your Solid Eye to switch to night vision, or thermal goggles, or binoculars to spot important items. Survey the battlefield with Otacon's new Metal Gear Mk. II. And use the new Dreben Points system to scour the battlefield for salvage – salvage that can be exchanged for ammo, items and new weapons.

Prince of Persia: Never Fight Alone

May 28, 2008 - In the Prince of Persia trilogy that thrived in the last generation of consoles, the Prince's story intertwined with that of Princess Farah. Though she was woven into the story, Farah had no real effect on gameplay. For the new POP, Ubisoft Montreal wanted to create a secondary character far more integral -- one who not only had importance to the story, but also was a major gameplay element. From those desires rose Elika, the Prince's female cohort.

As we revealed in our first look at Prince of Persia, the Prince gets lost in a sandstorm and finds himself in a beautiful oasis. That beauty is short-lived as an evil spirit, Ahriman, breaks free from his prison and begins infecting the outside world with his "corruption." It is in this garden oasis where the Prince meets Elika, one of the last remaining Ahuras -- the guardians of Ahriman's prison. It is Elika's duty to return Ahriman to his prison inside the Tree of Life. She's not about to let the Prince fight this evil alone.

Elika is by your side for the majority of the new Prince of Persia. She is primarily controlled by the AI, but is meant to be an assistant, never an annoyance. Elika isn't going to get in your way like so many other AI partners in other games. You just need to watch her in action for five minutes to see how gracefully she avoids hindering the Prince in any way.

A perfect example of this is when the Prince is shimmying along a ledge. Typically, Elika is pulling up the rear. She's a support character after all and isn't going to be leading the charge -- that's your job as a gamer. But if the Prince suddenly changes direction and begins backtracking on the ledge, well, he's going to run right into Elika right? Not at all. The moment the Prince changes directions, Elika lets go of the ledge. The Prince reaches down to grab hold of her with one arm and casually slings her behind him. His momentum never stops and she never gets in the way.

In the short demo we received, we witnessed such acts numerous times. The Prince would climb up a wall and Elika would leap on his back and then hop off as soon as they were clear. Or the Prince would make some acrobatic leap that perhaps Elika could not match, but she'd find her own way to return to his side. Though we didn't witness any tandem acrobatics, you will team with Elika from time-to-time to perform some amazing feats.

Elika is a smart AI character -- smart enough to know that the Prince is the leader. She won't take any direct actions unless you tell her to. Though controlled by the AI, there is a specific "Elika button" that when pressed calls her into action. This is most noticeable in combat.

During a battle, Elika roams the perimeter. She has some minor combat skills, but her specialty is magic. She won't take a negative initiative. She will never sully the Prince's combo or turn a fight into an episode of the Three Stooges. As we told you previously, the four face buttons act as attacks and that any one button can be used in combination with another. Elika is one of these buttons. So you can triple-tap the Elika button and she will jump in and hit the enemy quickly three times, then jump back to her support position. Or you can mix in the Elika button as you are creating combos on the fly. Some of the collaborative moves that come from this are truly inspiring.

Today, Ubisoft released a CG trailer showing Elika and the Prince teaming up in combat. Though the video is a cinematic creation, the moves are in the game -- we've seen the aerial somersault throw in action! On top of being a tool in physical combat, Elika's magic can also has a role, but Ubisoft isn't giving any hints on how that might play out. However, we do know that Elika may come in to block a killing blow and spare the Prince.

Just to reiterate, Elika's not going to cramp your style. She will never die and (assuming Ubisoft can pull it off) won't bog down the fast-paced combat. From what we've seen, we have little reason for doubt.

Elika will follow the Prince anywhere.

Aside from acrobatics and combat, Elika also assists with puzzles. How this works remains to be seen, though we assume there will be some puzzles that require carefully timed activations from two different people. Elika is also your compass. If you were wondering how you would find your objectives in the new open world of Prince of Persia, look no further than your AI sidekick. If you want to see where the next objective is located, Elika can use her magic to shine a beacon on where you need to go, keeping you from getting lost.

While there's still a lot to see with Elika, she shows tremendous promise. It seems Ubisoft has learned from the AI mistakes many other developers have made in the past. If they pull this off, Prince of Persia should be one of the most talked about games of the holiday season.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Review

May 29, 2008 - Traveller's Tales is back and tackling the plastic building block world again. After exhausting the Star Wars franchise with no less than three LEGO Star Wars releases, the company has worked with LucasArts on bringing another of its franchises to the peg-filled universe with LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

If you've played any of the LEGO Star Wars titles, you'll feel right at home as the formula has largely remained exactly the same, right down to the control scheme. There is a bit more adventuring this time around however, with more emphasis placed on solving puzzles and collecting keys or parts to unlock the next area, though mashing everything in sight and collecting as many Studs as possible is still the main gameplay focus.
The game runs through the original three Indy films and while it follows the stories well, there are some segments that have been added or tweaked to better fit the title. For example, after rescuing Marion from her bar towards the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll run through a section where you work along a snowy cliff side, take on some Germans and eventually head out of the area. Similarly, the temple at the end of the Last Crusade has much more than three tests to pass, with plenty of mostly non-deadly puzzles to complete before you get to the Grail. This all works well in terms of how the game plays as well as its pacing, and most all of the segments are fun, though there's certainly a bigger separation between game and films than what we saw with the LEGO Star Wars titles.

Though there's obviously a lack of Force powers this time around, Traveller's Tales has once again done a good job of providing distinct character groups. Indiana Jones' whip always comes in handy, and he's the only one that can open a number of the game's sections thanks to its numerous uses. Thugees, the bad guys from the Temple of Doom, are able to "talk" to statues of Kali and open up secret areas, while people with manuscripts, like Henry Jones Sr. or Elsa, are able to decipher hieroglyphs and open other secrets. Some characters come with shovels or wrenches, which allow them to dig up objects or fix broken items.

Fights with armed enemies can be a nuisance when all you have is your fists.

The cool thing here is that aside from Indy's whip (or a tiny character's small stature), you're able to find all of these items in-game to help you solve puzzles. So even if you only have Junior and Willie at your disposal, you'll be able to dig up treasure if you can find a shovel nearby, or you can work with hieroglyphs if you can find a book. There are plenty of areas that won't have these things lying around, requiring that you come back in Free Play to unlock more goodies, but the puzzle variety is able to be mixed much better throughout the game thanks to the ability to pick up and use items.

Adding a bit more character to the main cast are phobias that a couple of them have. Indy, for instance, is afraid of snakes, while Willie is scared of spiders. Both will cower in fear when near them, so you'll need to use another character to either clear the way or go ahead and solve a puzzle without them. It's a small touch, but one that works well to bring about some of the characters' traits from the films to the game. Since the characters don't really talk though, Short Round lacks his funny quips and just winds up being short. Oh well.

Process Monitor v1.33

By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

Introduction

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

Process Monitor runs on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup 1, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows Vista as well as x64 versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Vista.

Process Monitor Enhancements over Filemon and Regmon

Process Monitor's user interface and options are similar to those of Filemon and Regmon, but it was written from the ground up and includes numerous significant enhancements, such as:

• Monitoring of process and thread startup and exit, including exit status codes
• Monitoring of image (DLL and kernel-mode device driver) loads
• More data captured for operation input and output parameters
• Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
• Capture of thread stacks for each operation make it possible in many cases to identify the root cause of an operation
• Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user and session ID
• Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
• Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
• Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
• Process tree tool shows relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
• Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
• Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
• Detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn't fit in the column
• Cancellable search
• Boot time logging of all operations

The best way to become familiar with Process Monitor's features is to read through the help file and then visit each of its menu items and options on a live system.

Screenshots

What’s new from Sysinternals

• Process Monitor 1.33
• Autoruns 9.2
• AccessChk 4.1

Mark’s Blog -- Guest Post: The Case of the FrontPage Error
Mark Russinovich’s latest blog entry highlights how one IT pro used Process Monitor to quickly solve a perplexing FrontPage error message.
Speaking of Mark Russinovich, be sure to see Mark’s in-depth technical articles in TechNet Magazine. The magazine also features a special security issue this month. Don’t miss The Great Debate: Security by Obscurity or Michael Murgolo’s New Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista for a discussion on the enhanced Run as Administrator functionality that works with third-party scripting tools, a way to replace a handy Windows XP feature removed from Windows Vista, and many more useful tools.

Finally, watch Bill Gates at Microsoft’s 12th annual CEO Summit as he demonstrates the Touch Wall and talks about what’s changing over the next 10 years.

Server 3.5 / 3i - New Patches Available

VMware ESX Server 3.5 Patch Download Page [http://app.connect.vmware.com/e/er.aspx?s=524&lid=2398&elq=0BCF9A5B79414AFDB4C359866EB56DF7]

ESX350-200804401-BG (Critical): Prevent DHCP from resetting the IP address and netmask when trying to acquire or renew a lease. Change the default multipath policy for all HDS modular storage arrays such as AMS, SMS, WMS, 9500V to "fixed".

ESX350-200804402-BG (Critical): Prevent the guest from stalling for a long time during snapshot operations. Prevent the ESX Server host from crashing during snapshot consolidation. Prevent the ESX Server host from rebooting while powering on a vSMP virtual machine on a Unisys ES7000/one with eight or fewer logical CPUs. Fix emulation of instructions that access I/O ports. Fix emulation of string instructions on 64-bit guest operating systems.

ESX350-200804403-BG (Critical): Prevent hostd from crashing due to incompatible entries in /etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml. Allow spaces in a password while creating and editing local ESX Server users through the VI Client. Set the executable bit for .vmx configuration files. Fix a vmware-vpxa crash caused by invalid UTF-8.

ESX350-200804404-BG (General): Allow Windows virtual machines to boot when DataDigest is enabled in software iSCSI.

ESX350-200804405-BG (General): Include a megaraid2 driver fix for UNISYS platforms.

ESX350-200804406-BG (General): Add support for the Intel PRO/1000 PF Quad Port Server Adapter.

ESX350-200804407-BG (Critical): Add support for the Broadcom HT-1100 SATA/IDE controller. Prevent path thrashing during an Invista all paths down condition.

VMware ESX Server 3i Patch Download Page [http://app.connect.vmware.com/e/er.aspx?s=524&lid=2398&elq=0BCF9A5B79414AFDB4C359866EB56DF7]

ESXe350-200804401-I-BG (Critical): Fix typographic errors in the message strings of storage controller battery status, which is displayed in the VI Client. Include fixes for issues addressed by the following 3.5 patch bundles: ESX350-200804401-BG, ESX350-200804405-BG, ESX350-200804405-BG, ESX350-200804403-BG, and ESX350-200804407-BG.

Lancio del Legendary Map Pack di Halo 3

Preparati a un'azione multiplayer ancora più intensa in Halo 3, perché è arrivato il “Legendary Map Pack”! Questa raccolta di tre incredibili nuove mappe di Bungie sarà disponibile al costo di 800 Microsoft Points da Xbox LIVE Marketplacea partire dal 15 aprile.

Analizziamo le mappe in ordine alfabetico, perché è praticamente impossibile stabilire un ordine di preferenza. "Avalanche" fornisce il pretesto per mettersi alla guida dei numerosi veicoli resi famosi dalla serie Halo, con un ritorno sul campo di battaglia innevato. Avalanche è un tributo alla mappa “Sidewinder” di Halo: Combat Evolved, ampiamente rinnovata per Xbox 360.

La successiva (se le nostre conoscenze in termini di alfabeto non sbagliano!) è “Blackout”, basata su “Lockout”, la mappa preferita dai fan di Halo 2.La struttura di base è fondamentalmente la stessa di Lockout, ma con una grafica estremamente rinnovata.A volte ci dimentichiamo dei cambiamenti introdotti da Xbox 360 sul piano della grafica, anche se le modalità di gioco classiche non tramontano mai.

Infine c'è "Ghost Town”, una mappa completamente nuova per questa serie. Questa mappa di medie dimensioni è stata creata per le partite in modalità Team Slayer, perciò non sorprenderti se ti terrà piuttosto impegnato. Non meravigliarti se i tuoi battiti aumenteranno a dismisura mentre cerchi di attraversare un terreno infestato dai conigli o quando ti ritrovi su un tetto ben lontano da terra.

Viste tutte queste novità, senza dimenticare le nuove opzioni di personalizzazione Forge, non potrai fare a meno del Legendary Map Pack, tenendo anche conto del costo di soli 800 Microsoft Points. Nel frattempo potrebbe interessarti sapere che l'Heroic Map Pack può ora essere scaricato da Xbox LIVE Marketplace completamente GRATIS.

Che cosa aspetti? Vai!Preparati a scoprire le novità di Halo!

TOP SPIN 3 (PEGI 3+)

Top Spin 3, il più realistico videogame del tennis oggi disponibile, offre infinite nuove funzionalità su Xbox 360. Il rivoluzionario sistema di controllo fornisce ai giocatori una più ampia gamma di opzioni fin dal primo servizio. Anche il tempismo e la posizione contano, pertanto, oltre ad imparare a colpire la palla ad effetto, con la pratica miglioreranno anche la potenza e la strategia di gioco.

L'aspetto e i movimenti dei giocatori sono estremamente realistici. Aggiustano sempre la posizione per rispondere a ogni palla ma non si tuffano automaticamente sui tiri (per poi trovarsi in difficoltà sul tiro successivo) se basta allungare la racchetta. Inoltre, le condizioni meteorologiche e il terreno incidono sull'aderenza.

Può sembrare irrilevante ma la differenza è enorme.

è giunta l'ora della vendetta

Il viaggio lungo il sentiero della vendetta ha avuto inizio. Predisponi il tuo arsenale e preparati alla carneficina di Release Your Wrath, il minigioco in linea di Ninja Gaiden II, creato in esclusiva per la console Xbox 360.

Le regole sono semplici: vinci il duello e la spada dell'avversario sarà tua. Perdi e il tuo clan verrà mandato a recuperare ciò che resta di te. Puoi accettare la sfida di un nemico o lanciarne una a tua volta, ma ricordati che la vittoria sorride solo a chi è dotato dell'agilità e dell'astuzia di un maestro ninja.

Head To Head: GTA IV Launch

LINK

The Need for Web Application Scanning

Any application developed by a human is very likely (albeit certainly) to have some type of vulnerability in it. This becomes even more of an issue when the software being developed does not have any IT or security functionality at all, causing the developers assigned to the project to typically not have deep experience in secure coding practices. Although this issue occurs in any application, from the lowest embedded assembly code to the highest level .NET interpreted code, one location seems to have the least amount of secure coding practices with the maximum exposed surface: web applications.

There are numerous examples of how web applications have caused innumerable amounts of damage to companies. SQL injections reveal customer information; XSS breakdown customer reliability in the vendor; remote file include vulnerabilities allow attackers to take over the web server. It would only take a few minutes on any news website searching for web breaches to realize that this new “frontier” may actually be the most dangerous frontier thus far in our computer evolution.

With the rise of “Web 2.0” applications, we are seeing a large trend towards EaaS (Everything as a Service). Every major software company right now likely has a project to enable previously console applications to have some sort of web-based front-end. Customers are driving this evolution, wanting fewer applications installed in their desktops and more hosted in a “secure” and stable offsite location from the vendor. Although we cannot disagree that this is a very cool evolution of software, we are again seeing the rapid advancement of technology move a bit quicker than the security practices surrounding it.

Web developers often times are focused on providing a very interactive experience to the end user. Especially in the “Web 2.0” world, many of the applications being developed have their contact purely developed by end-users. As was the case with all of the different vulnerabilities seen within desktop and server applications, user-input is typically the entry point of an attacker to deliver an exploit for a vulnerability. The modern-day web developers typically do not understand vulnerabilities, security issues, or the attackers that are trying to exploit their applications. Instead, they consistently focus on ensuring that: 1 – the product is very powerful, cool, or innovative; 2 – the product works. Rarely do you see the mandatory other step adopted recently by so many large desktop/server developers being 3 – is the product secure?

Commonly VERSA articles are meant to show the InfoSec warriors how to protect themselves. However, in this case, many of the VERSA readers are unlikely to be the main developers of web applications. Therefore, the call to action will shift from a “protect” to an “evangelize” need. Those that know security must drive the protection of web applications until the web developer community starts commonly practices secure coding practices.

There are a few processes and tools that can help security evangelists and web application developers ensure that their applications are properly secured from the most common vulnerabilities.
Knowledge – As was the case with standard memory-based vulnerabilities a decade ago, developers are not privy to all of the different types of vulnerabilities that are exposed within web applications and how to ensure that their code does not allow them to be exploited. This knowledge can be derived from many resources including: Web Application secure development books, security conference briefings, and tools being deployed by attackers. One notable place to learn a great deal is the OWASP initiative, a conglomeration of web-based application security tools and documentation.

Testing
Perhaps the most powerful way to get through to a developer with the implications of a vulnerability is to show them with a demonstration attack. There are many different web-application scanning tools on the market (some being better and more robust than others of course) that can scan a web application for vulnerabilities, and actually demonstrate the vulnerability at the end. For the large web-app testing, there are secure exploit toolkits available as well that can help to identify the potential result of the attack, such as the data that might have been revealed during a SQL injection attack. If testing for vulnerabilities is done during the development lifecycle, developers will become much more familiar with what web application vulnerabilities have the potential to do, while also ensuring that they learn better practices for future development projects.

Constant Verification
The web application vulnerability realm is a rather young one, and new types of vulnerabilities and exploits are being discovered often. Because some legacy web applications might not have been scanned for the latest and greatest vulnerabilities, it is very important that security teams regularly test web applications from the outside point of view (similar to a penetration test) with a cutting-edge web application scanner to verify that no newly discovered threats were pre-existing on their applications. Some companies of course offer this as a service to keep the weight off of the internal security teams as well.

Web applications are rapidly becoming the most powerful delivery method of content for the future. Unfortunately, many security vulnerabilities are being discovered that could cause issues for developers if they do not ensure that they understand and test for vulnerabilities within their web applications. This is a quickly emerging issue that will gain even more importance as the emergence of web applications continues.

Source: Andre Derek Protas, Director of Research and Preview Services

Hiren's BootCD 9.5

All in one Dos Bootable CD which has all these utilities

Partition Tools

Partition Magic Pro 8.05 Best software to partition hard drive Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0.554 Popular disk management functions in a single suite Paragon Partition Manager 7.0.1274 Universal tool for partitions Partition Commander 9.01 The safe way to partition your hard drive,with undo feature Ranish Partition Manager 2.44 a boot manager and hard disk partitioner. The Partition Resizer 1.3.4 move and resize your partitions in one step and more. Smart Fdisk 2.05 a simple harddisk partition manager SPecial Fdisk 2000.03t SPFDISK a partition tool. eXtended Fdisk 0.9.3 XFDISK allows easy partition creation and edition GDisk 1.1.1 Complete replacement for the DOS FDISK utility and more. Super Fdisk 1.0 Create, delete, format partitions drives without destroying data. Partition Table Editor 8.0 Partition Table and Boot Record Editor

Disk Clone Tools

ImageCenter 5.6 (Drive Image 2002) Best software to clone hard drive Norton Ghost 11.0.2 Similar to Drive Image (with usb/scsi support) Acronis True Image 8.1.945 Create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning. Partition Saving 3.60 A tool to backup/restore partitions. (SavePart.exe) COPYR.DMA Build013 A Tool for making copies of hard disks with bad sectors

Antivirus Tools

F-Prot Antivirus 3.16f (2803) Very good virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu) McAfee Antivirus 4.4.50 (2803) a virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)

Recovery Tools

Active Partition Recovery 3.0 To Recover a Deleted partition. Active Uneraser 3.0 To recover deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS systems. Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.10 To Recover data that has been deleted/virus attack Winternals Disk Commander 1.1 more than just a standard deleted-file recovery utility TestDisk 6.9b Tool to check and undelete partition. Lost & Found 1.06 a good old data recovery software. DiyDataRecovery Diskpatch 2.1.100 An excellent data recovery software. Prosoft Media Tools 5.0 v1.1.2.64 Another excellent data recovery software with many other options. PhotoRec 6.9b File and pictures recovery Tool.

Testing Tools

System Speed Test 4.78 it tests CPU, harddrive, ect. PC-Check 6.5 Easy to use hardware tests Ontrack Data Advisor 5.0 Powerful diagnostic tool for assessing the condition of your computer The Troubleshooter 7.02 all kind of hardware testing tool PC Doctor 2004 a benchmarking and information tool Test Cpu/Video/Disk 5.6 a tool to test cpu, video, and disk Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0 a tool to test Hard Disk Drive

RAM (Memory) Testing Tools

DocMemory 3.1b RAM Test utility GoldMemory 5.07 RAM Test utility Memtest86+ 2.01 PC Memory Test

Hard Disk Tools

Hard Disk Diagnostic Utilities Seagate Seatools Desktop Edition 3.02 Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools Western Digital Diagnostics (DLGDIAG) 5.04f Maxtor PowerMax 4.23 Maxtor amset utility 4.0 Maxtor(or any Hdd) Low Level Formatter 1.1 Fujitsu HDD Diagnostic Tool 7.00 Fujitsu IDE Low Level Format 1.0 Samsung HDD Utility(HUTIL) 2.10 Samsung Disk Diagnose (SHDIAG) 1.28 IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.11 IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool 2.08 Gateway GwScan 5.12 ExcelStor's ESTest 4.20 MHDD 4.6 WDClear 1.30 Toshiba Hard Disk Diagnostic 2.00b SeaTools for Dos 1.09 HDD Regenerator 1.51 to recover a bad hard drive HDAT2 4.53 main function is testing and repair (regenerates) bad sectors for detected devices Ontrack Disk Manager 9.57 Disk Test/Format/Maintenance tool. Norton Disk Doctor 2002 a tool to repair a damaged disk, or to diagnose your hard drive. Norton Disk Editor 2002 a powerful disk editing, manual data recovery tool. Hard Disk Sentinel 0.01 Hard Disk health, performance and temperature monitoring tool. Active Kill Disk 4.1 Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical drive. SmartUDM 2.00 Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T. Viewer. Victoria 3.33e and 3.52rus a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics HDD Eraser 1.0 Secure erase using a special feature built into most newer hard drives

System Information Tools

Aida16 2.14 a system information tool, extracts details of all components of the PC PCI and AGP info Tool (2803) The PCI System information & Exploration tool. System Analyser 5.3t View extensive information about your hardware Navratil Software System Information 0.59.16 High-end professional system information tool Astra 5.35 Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant HwInfo 5.1.0 a powerful system information utility PC-Config 9.33 Complete hardware detection of your computer SysChk 2.46 Find out exactly what is under the hood of your PC CPU Identification utility 1.12 Detailed information on CPU (CHKCPU.EXE) CTIA CPU Information another CPU information tool

MBR (Master Boot Record) Tools

MBRWork 1.07b a utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR functions MBR Tool 2.2.100 backup, verify, restore, edit, refresh, remove, display, re-write... DiskMan4 all in one tool for cmos, bios, bootrecord and more BootFix Utility Run this utility if you get 'Invalid system disk' MBR SAVE / RESTORE 2.1 BootSave and BootRest tools to save / restore MBR Boot Partition 2.60 add Partition in the Windows NT/2000/XP Multi-boot loader Partition Table Doctor 3.5 a tool to repair/modify mbr, bootsector, partition table Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1 a multi boot manager Bootmagic 8.0 This tool is for multi boot operating systems MBRWizard 2.0b Directly update and modify the MBR (Master Boot Record)

BIOS / CMOS Tools

CMOS 0.93 CMOS Save / Restore Tool BIOS Cracker 4.8 BIOS password remover (cmospwd) BIOS Cracker 1.4 BIOS password remover (cmospwc) BIOS Utility 1.35.0 BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more. !BIOS 3.20 a powerfull utility for bios and cmos DISKMAN4 a powerful all in one utility UniFlash 1.40 bios flash utility Kill CMOS a tiny utility to wipe cmos Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43 DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents.

MultiMedia Tools

Picture Viewer 1.94 Picture viewer for dos, supports more then 40 filetypes. QuickView Pro 2.58 movie viewer for dos, supports many format including divx. MpxPlay 1.56 a small Music Player for dos

Password Tools

Active Password Changer 3.0.420 To Reset User Password on windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista (FAT/NTFS) Offline NT/2K/XP Password Changer utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password. Registry Reanimator 1.02 Check and Restore structure of the Damaged Registry files of NT/2K/XP NTPWD utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password. Registry Viewer 4.2 Registry Viewer/Editor for Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP ATAPWD 1.2 Hard Disk Password Utility

NTFS (FileSystems) Tools

NTFS Dos Pro 5.0 To access ntfs partitions from Dos NTFS 4 Dos 1.9 To access ntfs partitions from Dos Paragon Mount Everything 3.0 To access NTFS, Ext2FS, Ext3FS partitions from dos NTFS Dos 3.02 To access ntfs partitions from Dos EditBINI 1.01 to Edit boot.ini on NTFS Partition

Dos File Managers

Volkov Commander 4.99 Dos File Manager with LongFileName/ntfs support (Similar to Norton Commander) Dos Command Center 5.1 Classic dos-based file manager. File Wizard 1.35 a file manager - colored files, drag and drop copy, move, delete etc. File Maven 3.5 an advanced Dos file manager with high speed PC-to-PC file transfers via serial or parallel cable FastLynx 2.0 Dos file manager with Pc to Pc file transfer capability LapLink 5.0 the smart way to transfer files and directories between PCs. Dos Navigator 6.4.0 Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features. Mini Windows 98 Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support, Added 7-Zip which supports .7z .zip .cab .rar .arj .gzip, .bzip2 .z .tar .cpio .rpm and .deb Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor, Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc...

Other Tools

Ghost Walker 2003.793 utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP DosCDroast beta 2 Dos CD Burning Tools Universal TCP/IP Network 6.2 MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based network, it contains 91 different network card drivers

Dos Tools

USB CD-Rom Driver 1 Standard usb_cd.sys driver for cd drive Universal USB Driver 2 Panasonic v2.20 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage ASUSTeK USB Driver 3 ASUS USB CD-ROM Device Driver Version 1.00 SCSI Support SCSI Drivers for Dos SATA Support SATA Driver (gcdrom.sys) and JMicron JMB361 (xcdrom.sys) for Dos 1394 Firewire Support 1394 Firewire Drivers for Dos Interlnk support at COM1 To access another computer from COM port Interlnk support at LPT1 To access another computer from LPT port and too many great dos tools very good collection of dos utilities extract.exe pkzip.exe pkunzip.exe unrar.exe rar.exe ace.exe lha.exe gzip.exe uharcd.exe mouse.com attrib.com deltree.exe xcopy.exe diskcopy.com imgExtrc.exe undelete.com edit.com fdisk.exe fdisk2.exe fdisk3.exe lf.exe delpart.exe wipe.com zap.com format.com move.exe more.com find.exe hex.exe debug.exe split.exe mem.exe mi.com sys.com smartdrv.exe xmsdsk.exe killer.exe share.exe scandisk.exe scanreg.exe guest.exe doskey.exe duse.exe biosdtct.exe setver.exe intersvr.exe interlnk.exe loadlin.exe lfndos.exe doslfn.com

Windows Tools

SpaceMonger 1.4 keeping track of the free space on your computer WinDirStat 1.1.2.80 a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. Drive Temperature 1.0 Hard Disk Drive temperature meter Disk Speed1.0 Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool MemTest 1.0 a Memory Testing Tool S&M Stress Test 1.9.1 cpu/hdd/memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages PageDfrg 2.32 System file Defragmenter For NT/2k/XP WhitSoft File Splitter 4.5a a Small File Split-Join Tool Ghost Image Explorer 11.0.2 to add/remove/extract files from Ghost image file DriveImage Explorer 5.0 to add/remove/extract files from Drive image file Drive SnapShot 1.38 creates an exact Disk Image of your system into a file while windows is running. Active Undelete 5.5 a tool to recover deleted files Restoration 2.5.14 a tool to recover deleted files GetDataBack for FAT 2.31 Data recovery software for FAT file systems GetDataBack for NTFS 2.31 Data recovery software for NTFS file systems Recuva 1.12.291 Restore deleted files from Hard Drive, Digital Camera Memory Card, usb mp3 player... Partition Find and Mount 2.3 Partition Find and Mount software is designed to find lost or deleted partitions Unstoppable Copier 3.12 Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. HDD Scan 2.8 This is a Low-level HDD diagnostic tool, it scans surface find bad sectors etc. Express Burn 4.08 CD/DVD Burner Program to create and record CDs/DVDs, also create/burn .iso and .nrg images Data Shredder 1.0 A tool to Erase disk and files (also wipe free space) securely Startup Control Panel 2.8 a tool to edit startup programs NT Registry Optimizer 1.1j Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista DefragNT 1.9 This tool presents the user with many options for disk defragmenting JkDefrag 3.34 Free disk defragment and optimize utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista Startup Monitor 1.02 it notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup IB Process Manager 1.04 a little process manager for 9x/2k, shows dll info etc. Process Explorer 11.11 shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded Pocket KillBox 2.0.0.978 can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them Unlocker 1.8.6 This tool can delete file/folder when you get this message - Cannot delete file: Access is denied, The file is in use by another program etc. HijackThis 2.0.2 a general homepage hijackers detector and remover and more RootkitRevealer 1.7 Rootkit Revealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility. Silent Runners Revision 56 A free script that helps detect spyware, malware and adware in the startup process Autoruns 9.13 Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys, Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses. Dial a Fix 0.60.0.24 Fix errors and problems with COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries, Automatic Updates, SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues, Reinstall internet explorer etc. comes with the policy scanner CurrPort 1.20 displays the list of all currently opened TCP and UDP ports on your computer Unknown Devices 1.2 (2803) helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (2803) device information tool (similar to unknown devices) NewSID 4.10 utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP Double Driver 1.0 Driver Backup and Restore tool DriverBackup! 1.0.3 Another handy tool to backup drivers CPU-Z 1.44.1 It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system CWShredder 2.19 Popular CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover tool SmitFraudFix 2.309 This removes Some of the popular Desktop Hijack malware Winsock 2 Fix for 9x to fix corrupted Winsock2 information by poorly written Internet programs XP TCP/IP Repair 1.0 Repair your Windows XP Winsock and TCP/IP registry errors CCleaner 2.06.567 Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool EzPcFix 1.0.0.16 Helpful tool when trying to remove viruses, spyware, and malware Content Advisor Password Remover 1.0 It Removes Content Advisor Password from Internet Explorer WinKeyFinder 1.73 Allows you to View and Change Windows XP/2003 Product Keys, backup and restore activation related files, backup Microsoft Office 97, 2000 SP2, XP/2003 keys etc. ProduKey 1.26 Recovers lost the product key of your Windows/Office Wireless Key View 1.16 Recovers all wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by WZC Monitor Tester 1.0 Allows you to test CRT/LCD/TFT screens for dead pixels and diffective screens Shell Extensions Manager (ShellExView) 1.19 An excellent tool to View and Manage all installed Context-menu/Shell extensions TweakUI 2.10 This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows Xp Xp-AntiSpy 3.96.8 it tweaks some Windows XP functions, and disables some unneeded Windows services quickly PC Wizard 2008 1.84 Powerful system information/benchmark utility designed especially for detection of hardware. Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.5.2 (2803) Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software. SpywareBlaster 4.0 (2803) Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 (2803) find and remove spyware, adware, dialers etc. (a must have tool)

MAC OS X

Se vi state avvicinando al mondo dei MAC, o solo volete provare questo mondo, vi consiglio un sito veramente bello e completo, qualsiasi dubbio o cosa stiate cercado su MAC e X86 la potete trovare.

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php

Se volete iniziare senza spendere troppi soldi ma al massimo un hard disk, qui ci troverete tutto cio che vi puo servire per trasformare un PC qualsiasi in un MAC.

Buon divertimento, io ho iniziato da 4 giorni e non riesco più a smettere.

Forefront (CodeName Stirling)

Da qualche giorno è disponibile la Beta 1 della nuova versione di Forefront (CodeName Stirling), che sarà composta dai seguenti prodotti:

. Dashboard/console centralizzata da cui configurare i componenti della suite e i parametri di sicurezza della rete aziendale per avere così in tempo reale lo stato dei problemi di sicurezza.

. Forefront Client Security, per la gestione centralizzata di policy di sicurezza e funzioni di antivirus/antispyware centralizzato

. Forefront Security for Exchange, come motore antivirus/antispam per la posta elettronica

. Forefront Security for SharePoint, come motore antivirus per Sharepoint

. Forefront Threat Management Gateway (ex-ISA Server), per la gestione delle policy di accesso e il controllo del traffico tra reti diverse

La nuova suite integra strettamente i diversi componenti tra loro (si possono usare anche separatamente) e all'infrastruttura di base: Active Directory e NAP.
Dalla suite è possibile configurare i diversi componenti, le policy di sicurezza (firewall policy, diritti utenti, ecc..) e la configurazione per l'integrazione con NAP. Le configurazioni sono applicate via Group Policy a gruppi di utenti e/o computer.
Forefront diventa quindi lo strumento unico per gestire l'intera sicurezza della nostra infrastruttura.
Altra novità sono le policy di Dynamic Response: definizione di risposte automatiche ai problemi di sicurezza.
Questa funzione consente, ad esempio, di impedire a un client infettato da un trojan l'accesso a Internet, configurando una regola che consente a Forefront Client Security di dire a Forefront TMG di isolare i computer che risultano infetti.
A questo link potete vedere una demo di Stirling; qui potete scaricare i diversi componenti della suite in Beta 1.

Guitar Hero®

Ed è sempre primo.... Guitar Hero® si conferma ancora al primo posto nella classifica come gioco più scaricato per Blackberry... forse il nuovo uscito Texas Hold'em King 3 riuscira a scalzarlo dal primo posto...

Guitar Hero® is now available on mobile! Rock out anytime, anywhere with this rhythm-based, three button game that stays true to the original.

This is the one-time purchase version of the game. The initial game comes with 15 tracks from some of rock’s greatest acts. With the one-time purchase, you will have access to an additional three tracks issued each month. For the subscription version, click here. Please note that downloading of new songs requires a data connection/internet plan for your device.

Open with 15 jamming tracks, all taken from the Guitar Hero console series.

· Grow your set list with 3 new songs monthly*

· Play through 3 venues each with 4 set songs and an encore

· Shred as your favorite characters on four authentic Gibson guitars, in three killer venues

· Unlock guitars, earn achievements and break records

· Hit the right notes to drive the crowd wild with star power!

*This is a one-time purchase version of the game. The initial game comes with these 15 tracks from some of rock’s greatest acts. With the one-time purchase, you will have access to an additional three tracks issued each month. For the subscription version, click here. Please note that downloading of new songs requires a data connection/internet plan for your device.

(1) Santana - Black Magic Woman
(2) Wolfmother - Woman
(3) AFI - Miss Murder
(4) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
(5) Alice Cooper - School's Out
(6) Pat Benatar - Hit Me with Your Best Shot
(7) Van Halen - You Really Got Me
(8) KISS - Strutter
(9) Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
(10) Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin on A Hole
(11) Matchbook Romance - Monsters
(12) Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
(13) Black Sabbath - Paranoid
(14) The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica
(15) Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane

BlackBerry & Bplay

E' di oggi l'annuncio del rilascio di TEXAS HOLD'EM KING 3 per tutti gli amanti del poker e del Blackberry, come si può leggere dall'annuncio presente sul sito:

"We've got a huge new release today with the latest version of our Texas Hold'em King franchise: TEXAS HOLD'EM KING 3: CONNECTED. It's full of great new multi-player features that make it the most advanced mobile poker game ever. And check out our two new themes: take the links mobile with GOLF, and drift off to visions of fantasy with BLUE DREAM."

"

About the Game

The latest edition of the best Texas Hold’em mobile franchise, with fast and brilliant game play and networked multi-player tournaments. Join an online poker community of over 100,000.

Texas Hold’em King 3 is the latest installment in one of the most popular mobile poker franchises. This latest edition improves upon the franchise’s already fast, brilliant game play and adds improved multi-player features. Single Player Mode features a unique “Turbo Mode” that fast-forwards you to the end of a hand once you’ve folded. In Multi-Player mode you can play online against other mobile players. Through the extensive mobile poker community, you can submit various high scores for bragging rights, view other players’ profiles, manage your buddy lists and message opponents in-game. In Contest Mode, you also have a chance compete against others to win prizes through special Magmic promotions.

For those new to poker, “No Limit Texas Hold’em” is a game of skill, cunning and deception. It is by far the most popular poker game in casinos and at homes throughout North America and Europe. This is the game played during the “World Series of Poker” and other major tournaments. Texas Hold’em King 3 is the third edition of Magmic’s “Texas Hold’em King” series, one of the top mobile poker franchises with over 5 million product downloads and a multi-player community of over 100,000."


link ufficiale: http://www.bplay.com/item/THK3

UEFA EURO 2008™

UEFA EURO 2008™ (PEGI 3+)

È uscito UEFA EURO 2008, il videogioco ufficiale del più grande torneo di calcio dell'anno e, per renderti ancora più partecipe, gli sviluppatori di EA hanno aggiunto la nuova modalità "Captain Your Country". Sei all'altezza di indossare la fascia di capitano? In EURO 08 ti esibirai in campo insieme alla tua squadra preferita e ogni partita potrebbe essere decisiva per conquistare la posizione di leader.

Potrai scegliere tra oltre 50 squadre nazionali europee. I giocatori di fama mondiale sembrano più reali che mai, infatti sarai in grado di riconoscere tutti i principali campioni che si schierano in campo, pronti ad affrontarsi negli stadi del torneo rappresentati in alta definizione: dal St. Jakob-Park di Basilea fino al Letzigrund-Stadion di Zurigo.

È l'ora del calcio di inizio!

The Next Web Now!

The Next Web Now! è l'evento Microsoft sulle ultime tendenze del Web, per esplorare nuovi modi con cui comunicare e fare business in una rete che è sempre più sofisticata, multimediale e interattiva.

È una conversazione aperta per manager, professionisti della comunicazione, sviluppatori, Web designer, advertiser e media agency.
È l'occasione per confrontarsi sul futuro di Internet e misurare le proprie esigenze con le opportunità messe a disposizione dalle tecnologie emergenti, per un'esperienza digitale di nuova generazione: partecipa Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation; conduce Marco Montemagno, curatore e conduttore di SKY TG24.

Agenda 9.00 10.15 Registrazione & Welcome coffee con visita all'area espositiva 10.15 11.15 The Online Opportunity Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation 11.15 13.00 Casi di successo, testimonianze di Clienti e Partner Microsoft: Software + Services in the Web 2.0 Arena Luca De Meo, CEO Alfaromeo e Direttore Marketing FIAT Group Gianluigi Castelli, Direttore Information & Communication Technology ENI Group Intesa Sanpaolo 14.00 18.00 Sessioni parallele di approfondimento: Business - Creative - Developer - Advertiser & Media Agency

Un'esperienza digitale di nuova generazione è alle porte.
Andiamo alla sua essenza, in una conversazione sul futuro del Web.

Come cambiare la product key di Windows XP

Alcuni utenti in possesso di copie originali di Windows XP si sono trovati in difficoltà all'aggiornamento del sistema operativo al Service Pack 1 poichè Windows update ha riconosciuto la loro chiave errata.

Microsoft ci aiuta con un suggerimento sulla "modifica del numero seriale di windows xp".

In calce a questa pagina troverete l'articolo riportato dal sito Microsoft.


Modifica del codice Product Key per un'installazione Volume License in un computer basato su Windows XP SP1

Numero di articolo : 328874
Ultima revisione : mercoledì 29 settembre 2004
Revisione : 3.1


Importante In questo articolo sono contenute informazioni su come modificare il Registro di sistema. Prima di modificare il Registro di sistema, eseguire una copia di backup e assicurarsi di sapere come ripristinarlo in caso di problemi. Per ulteriori informazioni su come eseguire il backup, ripristinare e modificare il Registro di sistema, fare clic sul numero dell'articolo della Microsoft Knowledge Base riportato di seguito:

256986 Descrizione del Registro di sistema di Microsoft Windows

CONTENUTO DELL'ATTIVITÀ
• INTRODUZIONE
• INFORMAZIONI
• Utilizzo della Procedura guidata di attivazione
• Utilizzo di uno script
• ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs
• ChangeVLKey2600.vbs
• Esempio

INTRODUZIONE
Se si utilizza un codice Product Key pubblico per la distribuzione di Microsoft Windows XP su più computer, ovvero un'installazione Volume License, potrebbe risultare impossibile installare Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) o ottenere automaticamente gli aggiornamenti dal sito Web Windows Update. Quando si installa Window XP SP1 potrebbero ad esempio verificarsi i problemi descritti nel seguente articolo della Microsoft Knowledge Base:
326904 Messaggio di errore: Il codice Product Key utilizzato per installare Windows non è valido
In questo articolo viene illustrato come modificare il codice Product Key di Windows XP dopo una installazione Volume License. È possibile utilizzare l'interfaccia grafica utente (GUI) dell'attivazione guidata o uno script WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation). Il metodo basato sull'attivazione guidata è più semplice, tuttavia se è necessario modificare il codice Product Key per diversi computer, è più pratico il metodo basato su script.

Informazioni
Utilizzo della Procedura guidata di attivazione
Avviso L'errato utilizzo dell'editor del Registro di sistema può causare gravi problemi che potrebbero richiedere la reinstallazione del sistema operativo. Microsoft non è in grado di garantire la risoluzione di problemi causati dall'errato utilizzo dell'editor del Registro di sistema. L'utilizzo dell'editor del Registro di sistema è a rischio e pericolo dell'utente.

Se il codice Product Key per Volume License deve essere modificato soltanto in pochi casi, è possibile utilizzare la Procedura guidata di attivazione.

Nota Microsoft consiglia di eseguire Ripristino configurazione di sistema per creare un nuovo punto di ripristino prima di effettuare la procedura descritta di seguito. Per informazioni sulla creazione di un punto di ripristino utilizzando Ripristino configurazione di sistema, vedere l'argomento relativo alla creazione di un punto di ripristino in Guida in linea e supporto tecnico.

1. Fare clic sul pulsante Start, quindi scegliere Esegui.

2. Nella casella Apri digitare regedit, quindi scegliere OK.

3. Nel riquadro di sinistra individuare e selezionare la seguente chiave:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents

4. Nel riquadro destro fare clic con il pulsante destro del mouse su OOBETimer e scegliere Modifica dal menu di scelta rapida.

5. Modificare almeno una cifra di questo valore per disattivare Windows.

6. Fare clic sul pulsante Start, quindi scegliere Esegui.

7. Nella casella Apri digitare il comando riportato di seguito, quindi scegliere OK
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

8. Fare clic su Sì, verrà effettuata una telefonata a un addetto al servizio clienti per attivare Windows, quindi scegliere Avanti.

9. Fare clic su Cambia Product key.

10. Digitare il nuovo Product Key nelle caselle Nuovo codice, quindi scegliere Aggiorna.
Se viene visualizzata di nuovo la finestra precedente, fare clic su Visualizza in seguito e riavviare il computer.

11. Ripetere i passaggi 6 e 7 per verificare che Windows sia attivato. Verrà visualizzato un messaggio analogo al seguente:
Windows è già attivato. Scegliere OK per uscire.

12. Scegliere OK.

13. Installare SP1 per Windows XP.

Se non è possibile riavviare Windows dopo avere installato SP1, premere F8 quando si riavvia il computer, selezionare Ultima configurazione sicuramente funzionante, quindi ripetere questa procedura.


Utilizzo di uno script

È possibile creare uno script WMI per modificare il codice Product Key per Volume License e distribuirlo come script di avvio. Negli script di esempio ChangeVLKey2600.vbs e ChangeVLKeySP1, descritti in questa sezione, viene utilizzato come unico argomento il nuovo codice per Volume License da immettere, in forma alfanumerica in cinque parti. Microsoft consiglia di utilizzare lo script ChangeVLKey2600.vbs nei computer basati su Windows XP in cui non è in esecuzione SP1 e lo script ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs nei computer basati su Windows XP in cui è in esecuzione SP1. Con questi script vengono eseguite le funzioni descritte di seguito:
• Rimozione del trattino (-) contenuto nel codice Product Key alfanumerico in cinque parti.
• Creazione di un'istanza della classe win32_WindowsProductActivation.
• Richiamo del metodo SetProductKey con il nuovo codice Product Key per Volume License.

È possibile creare un file batch o cmd che utilizza uno degli script di esempio riportati di seguito, unitamente al nuovo codice Product Key come argomento, e distribuirlo come script di avvio o eseguirlo dalla riga di comando per modificare il codice Product Key in un solo computer.

ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs
'
' WMI Script - ChangeVLKey.vbs
'
' This script changes the product key on the computer
'
'*********************************************


ON ERROR RESUME NEXT


if Wscript.arguments.count<1 then
Wscript.echo "Script can't run without VolumeProductKey argument"
Wscript.echo "Correct usage: Cscript ChangeVLKey.vbs ABCDE-FGHIJ-KLMNO-PRSTU-WYQZX"
Wscript.quit
end if

Dim VOL_PROD_KEY
VOL_PROD_KEY = Wscript.arguments.Item(0)
VOL_PROD_KEY = Replace(VOL_PROD_KEY,"-","") 'remove hyphens if any

for each Obj in GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf ("win32_WindowsProductActivation")

result = Obj.SetProductKey (VOL_PROD_KEY)

if err <> 0 then
WScript.Echo Err.Description, "0x" & Hex(Err.Number)
Err.Clear
end if

Next

ChangeVLKey2600.vbs
'
' WMI Script - ChangeVLKey.vbs
'
' This script changes the product key on the computer
'
'*********************************************

ON ERROR RESUME NEXT

if Wscript.arguments.count<1 then
Wscript.echo "Script can't run without VolumeProductKey argument"
Wscript.echo "Correct usage: Cscript ChangeVLKey.vbs ABCDE-FGHIJ-KLMNO-PRSTU-WYQZX"
Wscript.quit
end if

Dim VOL_PROD_KEY
VOL_PROD_KEY = Wscript.arguments.Item(0)
VOL_PROD_KEY = Replace(VOL_PROD_KEY,"-","") 'remove hyphens if any
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.RegDelete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents\OOBETimer" 'delete OOBETimer registry value
for each Obj in GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf ("win32_WindowsProductActivation")

result = Obj.SetProductKey (VOL_PROD_KEY)

if err <> 0 then
WScript.Echo Err.Description, "0x" & Hex(Err.Number)
Err.Clear
end if

Next

Esempio
Nell'esempio che segue viene descritto come utilizzare lo script ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs dalla riga di comando:
1. Fare clic sul pulsante Start, quindi scegliere Esegui.
2. Nella casella Apri digitare il seguente comando, dove AB123-123AB-AB123-123AB-AB123 è il nuovo codice Product Key che si desidera utilizzare, quindi scegliere OK:
c:\changevlkeysp1.vbs ab123-123ab-ab123-123ab-ab123

Articolo originale a questo indirizzo