Ooh. Here's a bit of an "oops" for Microsoft: It turns out it's possible, with no hacking or advanced skills required, to make a full-blown clean install of Windows Vista from a Vista upgrade DVD. Seeing as the upgrade disc costs about two thirds what the full version does, that seems like a pretty big oversight. DailyTech has the scoop. The process is very easy, but takes a bit of legwork. Here's the basics:

1. Boot from your Vista upgrade DVD.
2. Don't enter your product key when prompted; click "Next" instead, which will install a 30-day trial version of Vista.
3. Once your new trial boots up, launch setup from the DVD again, from within Vista.
4. Enter your product key when prompted, and then choose Custom (advanced) to do a clean install (yes, you're installing Vista a second time).
5. Congratulations, you've got Vista!

According to Paul Thurrott, all of this info is actually contained within internal Microsoft docs, so it's kind of amazing to me that Microsoft shipped Vista update discs with this capability. Regardless, doing this is almost certainly in violation of your license agreement, so don't try it at home (but if you do, let us know if it works).

I'm just a sucker for these drawing games. Paths 2, a sequel (as you might have guessed) to Paths, is a fun Flash action-puzzler in which you must guide a ball through a maze by drawing its path with a pencil. Once you've drawn a path, you press the space bar to set the ball in motion. Of course, it's not that simple: There are obstacles which you must move out of the way with your mouse, which as the levels progress quickly becomes a juggling routine. Paths 2 also adds another challenge on to the original paradigm: keys. Rather than just getting your ball to the goal, in most levels you have to pick up a key first to unlock it. Paths 2 can be a little frustrating at times, but overall it's a fun and addictive time-waster.

[Via Jay is Games]

If you've seen them, you've probably been annoyed by them. I'm talking about Snap's "Preview Anywhere," a little gizmo people can stick on their web site or blog that, when the visitor rolls the mouse over any link, will pop up a big bubble with a thumbnail image in it, giving them a preview of the destination site. Sounds kinda cool, right? Yeah, in theory. In practice, however, Snap Preview Anywhere is bloody obnoxious. It disrupts the browsing experience without actually adding any value--in the words of Performancing's Nick Wilson, "It's bling, a silly little shiney thing designed specifically to increase awareness of Snap.com." Just say no to bubbles.

So how does an interruption-averse web surfer get rid of it? Conveniently, Snap's SPA FAQ has the answer. Just click on the link provided in the FAQ and your browser will be imbued with a cookie that will banish those bubbles from your view. As long as the cookie lasts, at least. An additional step you can take on behalf of your fellow web surfers is to email the folks who put these things on their sites and register your displeasure.

[Via kottke.org]

As promised, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, pimping his little heart out for Windows Vista. I didn't get to watch it then, but thankfully Comedy Central has put the whole interview online. It's not a laugh riot, and I'm sad to report that John Hodgman (the PC from Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads and a regular Daily Show contributor) didn't make an appearance, but there's plenty of cute banter between Gates and Stewart. Here's Part 1:

Gates seems a little ill at ease, but I guess I would too if I were a guy not known for his sense of humor trying to sell a product on a show run by a guy known for skewering public figures. But everything goes down without any trouble until the very end, when Gates, apparently unaware that the usual talk show protocol is to sit and chat (or pretend to chat) with the host while the credits run, BOLTS OFF STAGE! But, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you can get away with that.

Check out the second part of the interview, and Gates' sudden departure, after the jump.

You might recall awhile back we posted some ads from Japan featuring Apple's "I'm a Mac" guy and his PC foil just like the U.S. ads but, er, Japanese. Today we have some more foreign "I'm a Mac" ads, but this time you won't need subtitles. Apple has brought its popular ad campaign across the Atlantic this time, to the U.K. Here's the first, called "Office at Home" and you can find the other five after the jump. (Or, if you're a purist, you can watch them in glorious hi-res QuickTime at the Apple web site.)

I'm more fond of the UK Mac than the smarmy US version, but as I said before there's no replacing John Hodgman as the PC. And I have a soft spot for that Eurobeat-grooving Japanese PC. The actors, in case you're curious, are Britons David Mitchell and Robert Webb as the PC and Mac respectively, stars of Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show.

OMG, the hour is nearly upon us! At midnight Windows Vista will go on sale all around the world. Can you hear the excitement? Hmm, maybe if you took out your white earbuds. How about now?

In case you found the other day's 10 reasons to upgrade (and 10 not to) less than convincing, PC World took a stab at it too, upping the ante by 50% with its 15 Reasons to Switch. Here's the first five:

1. It's the Interface, Stupid (Aero is pretty)
2. Flip Over Windows Flip 3D (Alt-Tab is pretty)
3. Live Thumbnails (taskbar hover previews)
4. Boost Performance With ReadyBoost (not just an energy drink anymore)
5. Cool Performance Tools (Reliability and Performance Monitor)

If you're the kind of person who likes to go shopping at midnight, USA Today has the scoop on Microsoft's launch events. CompUSA stores will be open from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.; 14 Best Buy locations will be open until 12:30 a.m., and the Detroit, Cleveland and San Diego stores will have NFL players on hand signing autographs (synergy!!); Steve Ballmer will be making a morning appearance at the midtown Manhattan Best Buy; and 10 Circuit City stores will be open until 1 a.m., with NFL players in Miami and Nashville. Oh, and CompUSA is offering to install Vista on your machine for $50, and will take it off for free if you experience a bit of the old buyer's remorse. [Via Consumerist]

Thrilling! Just. Thrilling. I, personally, will be asleep, because none of those stores are within 150 miles of me. No, really.
So, on the eve of The Big Release, it's time to take stock one last time. Cast your votes in our very last pre-launch poll:

Here's a complain that would go along nicely with our Seven rules for Web 2.0 start-ups: Keeping me waiting for an account activation email, or anything else for that matter. Say you have a potential customer who wants to run a cool Ajaxy poll on his blog. He googles and finds that there are at least a dozen companies offering a free Ajaxy poll service. Your site looks good to him, so he jumps through your registration hoops (clearly you didnt' follow rule #2), slicks on the Submit button, and then... he has to wait.

I'm no Guy Kawasaki, but here's a free bit of business advice: If you're trying to compete in a field with a half-dozen nearly identical products, don't make a potential customer wait. If it takes five minutes for that account activation email to show up, he'll have already wandered along and found a different service that does what he needs without the wait. Thirty seconds is too long. The vagaries of the world's email relays aside, if your service's SMTP server isn't lightning fast, get another one, or you've just a pile of impatient customers--and on the internet, they're all impatient.

Ever had a PDF document that you needed to read, but was protected by a pesky password? Digital Inspiration has you covered. Now none of us endorse breaking passwords in ways that violate copyrights and so on, DI posits a plausible scenario: "Say one of your former colleague created some critical sales reports in PDF format but he is not working with the company anymore. In his absence, you have no option but to crack the PDF password in order to open, read or print these PDF files." Ah, yes, the good old departed, paranoid colleague. The guide covers how to copy or print PDFs that restrict such activities and how to use password recovery tools to ferret out that password--just hope your colleague used a simple password or it's bound to take awhile.

I have a Flickr account, and I take plenty of photos, but I find myself not using it as much as I feel I ought to. Maybe Thomas Hawk's list of Top 10 Hacks on Flickr will help remedy that. It's a round-up of tricks, scripts, and sites that make Flickr more pleasurable to use, and though I'd seen some of them already, several of them were pleasant surprises. His #1 Flickr "hack" is Flickr Leech. Its tagline is "because paging sucks," and what it does is shows you all of the thumbnails for any user, photoset, or pool all at once. Very refreshing. That's just the tip of the iceberg--Hawk also points out some great Greasemonkey scripts, some web (and desktop) apps, and more for your Flickr enjoyment.

Still pondering whether or not to get Windows Vista on Tuesday? I'll give you 10 reasons why you shouldn't from APC Magazine. Expensive! Lousy drivers! UAC! DRM! Case closed! Er, not quite. Here's 10 reasons why you should... also from APC Magazine. Multimedia! Better drivers! Search! Undelete! DirectX 10! Case closed! Uhhh... I'm not making this any easier for you, am I?

While you ponder that imponderable, I'm going to move on. It seems that government officials in South Korea--one of the most wired nations on Earth--are recommending that the citizenry not upgrade to Vista. Why? Because, apparently, South Korea is mad for ActiveX, the proprietary browser plug-in technology that powers much of the country's web services, from online banking to stock trading, shopping, and gaming, and apparently many of those services cease to work in Windows Vista (presumably because of UAC). More than a reason not to upgrade to Vista, this seems like a fantastic demonstration of how stupid it is to build web services on proprietary technologies. The irony, of course, is that ActiveX is Microsoft's own proprietary invention.

In gaming news, FPS luminary John Carmack--you know, the Doom and Quake guy--says he's not exactly chomping at the bit after Vista or DirectX 10 just yet. "Personally, I wouldn't jump at something like DX10 right now," he says. "I would let things settle out a little bit and wait until there's a really strong need for it." For now he's quite satisfied with Windows XP and accuses Microsoft of "artificially" forcing gamers to upgrade with DX10. "Nothing is going to help a new game by going to a new operating system. There were some clear wins going from Windows 95 to Windows XP for games, but there really aren't any for Vista. They're artificially doing that by tying DX10 so close it, which is really nothing about the OS ... They're really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system. I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it." He calls DirectX 9 "quite good" and also praises the Xbox 360's graphics API.

Phew. To catch up on the previous four days of our Vista Countdown, hit the archive.

Today seemed like it was gonna be a low-buzz day for Vista's impending retail release, until I came across this tidbit: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to appear on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on Monday, just an hour before Vista's midnight launch. As Candace Lombardi over at CNet points out, John Hodgman, who plays the PC on Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads, is a regular Daily Show contributor. I really hope Stewart & Co. can get the two together for some hijinks. We'll be sure to post some video as soon as we can get our little paws on it.

In other news, remember that huffing and puffing over Vista's copious DRM cruft and the response on Microsoft's Vista blog? Well, of course there's now a response-to-the-response. Peter Gutmann, who wrote the original "Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection" to which the Vista blog post was in reply, has added an addendum to the original article in, er, reply. Gutmann calls Microsoft's response "PR spin" and makes a pretty strong case, but I'll leave it to you to judge for yourselves.

Lastly, a Vista tips from the fine folks over at Lifehacker: How to disable annoying "Need your permission to continue" prompts. To quote our own David Chartier: "What happens when you try to save your users from your own security and usability mistakes over the last 15 years or so? Apparently, they revolt and hurl your solutions right back in your face."

In case you're not all caught up, you can check out the previous three days of our Vista Countdown over here.

Sometimes the best time-wasters aren't games at all. Case in point: isotope2. It's an engrossing Flash toy by Martin Jonasson that draws fun mathemagical patterns. You start out with a blank canvas and a mechanical arm. You can add segments to the arm (by clicking on the plus and minus buttons) and then adjust the speed and direction at which each joint rotates (by clicking on the joint and dragging up or down). With the right combinations, you can generate some very cool and very pretty patterns. You can zoom in and out and control the speed (higher speeds make for more angular lines), and you can also copy the "formula" for your pattern to share with your friends. Simple, but totally addictive.

Five days until Windows Vista is unleashed on the general populace. Back when we did our Vista upgrade poll, about 15% of you said you wouldn't be upgrading to Vista until after they release the first service pack. Well, good news for you: Microsoft is already laying the groundwork for Vista SP1's release. CNet says Microsoft has outlined an update with minor enhancements along the same lines as Windows XP's SP1, rather than a large overhaul like XP's SP2. "We expect Windows Vista SP1 to be a standard service pack that will include security updates and hot fixes, as well as limited other changes focused on improving overall quality," a Microsoft rep told them. Sorry, folks, that means no WinFS for you. Again. Redmond says expects Vista SP2 to be ready "in a timeframe similar to that of service packs for previous versions of Windows." Windows XP's first service pack came out 11 months after the OS' initial release.

Vista's release is no cake walk for Microsoft, owing in part to the fact that the internet is a very different animal than it was the last time Microsoft released a new OS. We now have the marvel that is BitTorrent, and as you might imagine it's as much a thorn in Microsoft's side as it is the movie industry's. Computerworld has an interesting article on the piracy challenges Microsoft is facing even before Microsoft hits retail shelves. "The pirates that cracked early copies of Vista all sidestepped Microsoft's latest antipiracy technology, the Software Protection Platform," the article goes. "SPP is supposed to shut down any copy of Vista not registered to Microsoft over the Internet with a legitimate, paid-up license key within the first 30 days." Microsoft is trying to scare consumers off pirated copies of Vista with boogey-man stories of viruses and malware, which I'd say probably isn't too effective on the sorts of people who are in the habbit of trolling BitTorrent for pirated operating systems.

And speaking of malware, Webroot Software, makers of Spy Sweeper, have issued a press release warning of "potentially ineffective blocking capabilities in Windows Defender, slow definition updates, and weak anti-virus capabilities in the default anti-spyware and anti-virus components of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system and Live OneCare suite." Are there really scary vulnerabilities in Vista and gaping holes in its anti-malware software? Well, probably, but what Webroot is doing here ain't public service. Webroot's CTO Gerhard Eschelbeck says the company wants to help cunsumers "make informed decisions about their computing security needs," which, if he has his way, means loads of them buying Spy Sweeper for their new Vista setups.

PC Pro is reporting that Microsoft will be extending support for Windows XP beyond 2010. It had originally intended to discontinue support for the operating system at the end of January 2009, two years after the launch of Windows Vista, but has pushed back the date in response to customer appeals. Now it says that "mainstream" support for XP will cease in April 2009 but "extended" support will continue for an additional five years, but only for Windows XP Home and Media Center editions. Extended support includes fixes for security holes but excludes warranty claims and "non-security hot-fixes or design changes." You can read more about Microsoft's lifecycle policy in the official FAQ.

I think it was around 1997 when I first thought, "gee, it would be great if when I made an obvious typo in a URL, the browser would cleverly fix it for me." I'm glad to see that progress marches apace: URL Fixer is an add-on for Firefox by Netscape developer Chris Finke that, a decade later, solves this problem, or at least takes a good stab at it. When you make an obvious typo--like using a comma in place of a dot, or typing ".cmo" instead of ".com"--when entering a URL in the address bar, URL Fixer will automatically correct it (or, optionally, prompt you first). OpenDNS has similar functionality, but in case you don't want to futz with your DNS settings, URL fixer is a solid alternative.