Microsoft today announced the beta launch of the new Windows Live Gallery site.  Windows Live Gallery will be the central site for users to find gadgets, MSN messenger utilities and extensions to personalize the various Windows Live services that are to launch along side of Windows Vista early next year. To see a video preview, go here .

Are you a gadget junkie and love building little utilities to sit on your desktop?  Do you have an unabashed love for all things Google ?  Do you want $5,000?  Well, if you said yes to any of those questions then man does Google have the contest for you! Late last month, the Google Desktop team released the Google Desktop SDK for people interested in building applications that hook into their desktop search utility, and part of that kit was a Gadget Designer.  In honor ...

After a week of rumors, AMD today announced that it has plans to purchase graphics card maker ATI and merge the two companies.  The value of the transaction is reported to be in the neighborhood of $5.4 billion (USD).  This marks a significant departure for AMD from its past business practices of focusing exclusively on building processors.  In addition to the merger deal, AMD announced that it would be cutting prices on its current processor line by nearly 50% in reaction t...

Today, AOL will be launching its new AIM Pro service, targeting the corporate market with features such as enhanced security and online meeting services. The new service will be available for free and offer WebEx and Microsoft Outlook integration to further entice corporate users away from more traditional offerings such as Lotus Sametime from IBM .  In the future, AOL will also offer premium packages for a fee that include management consoles, logging and other regulatory complianc...

CNet News is reporting today that Microsoft announced the acquisition of Winternals Software , makers of the popular Sysinternals system utility tool.  Microsoft hopes to add the Winternals staff to further strengthen its operating system development team. While no information on price has been discussed, part of the deal that was revealed is that Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich has been named a technical fellow.   Despite Microsoft acquiring the Sysinternals tool...

For those of you who didn't know, we do in fact have an IRC channel for WinCustomize on the official Stardock IRC server.  If you haven't stopped by in the past, give it a look.  I'd like to make it the main point for skinners looking for some real-time chat to gather. If you're unsure what IRC is, or how to join in on the fun, I've posted an article that should help you out. See you in chat!

It's Monday, so that means it's time for a new Weekly Poll.  Last week, we asked users to chime in on whether or not they like the new forum system and layout.  It seems some of our poll voting issues have been worked out as 207 of you cast a vote.  The results were overwhelmingly positive, with roughly 84% of you saying they were at least "OK."  Here's the breakdown: What do you think of the new WinCustomize Forums?   I like them. 78 37.68%   I l...

It seems Dell just can't catch a break lately.  Yet another one of their laptops has bust into flames, with the battery burning straight through the bottom of the case.  The report of the incident comes from a Toms Hardware forum member who was able to see first-hand the results of a burning Dell.  Being the dutiful geek he is, he grabbed his digital camera and rushed to the scene of the disaster to snap a few shots. Click on the link below to read the tale of woe, and see a fe...

As a departure from the typical news about Google releasing their 2396th product, or Microsoft removing a feature from vista, today we bring you some news from the world of data security and privacy. Yesterday, it was reported that two laptops were stolen from a U.S. Navy Recruiting station in New Jersey, and another from Armstrong World Industries Inc.  Between the three laptops, personal data such as addresses, names for upwards of 43,000 individuals were lost.  An estimated 16,0...

Earlier this year, Microsoft rolled out the controversial Windows Genuine Advantage tool to Windows XP systems in an attempt to combat piracy of the OS.  The tool, which was labeled as a "High Priority" update, despite it not resolving any security holes or bugs in the operating system, was met with a great deal of criticism and frustration on the part of both end-users and technical professionals. Despite the issues encountered with WGA, Microsoft remains committed to the Genuine Advant...

Yesterday it was the Enhanced File Dialog utility.  Today, we'd like to tell you a little bit about an update we made to one our existing utilities in the Object Desktop suite; Keyboard Launchpad. Keyboard Launchpad is a program that allows the user to quickly and easily build "hotkeys" that can launch applications, open web pages, paste saved clipboards, issue system commands, control media players and much more.  It is a great utility that can save a lot of time when it comes to c...

Sharman Networks, the company behind the Kazaa P2P program have finally reached a settlement with the record industry.  The deal has the company paying out more than $100 million to the labels in exchange for all pending litigation to be dropped. While the record labels pushed this settlement as a victory over P2P, and tried to cast Sharman Networks in a bad light, Sharman instead pointed out that this settlement actually legitimizes P2P as a viable download medium for digital content. ...

Coming close behind the announcement of a two-year low in share prices, Time Warner is expected to launch yet another plan to save the ailing service provider, America On-Line .  The new plan, the fourth in five years, is to give away the email and web services components of AOL for free. This plan hopes to recapture some of the market share taken by rival free mail and web services such as Google and MySpace .  While AOL will be giving away a large portion of its service for fr...

The word on the street is that consumers may not have a choice on upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 when Microsoft decides to release it.  CNet is reporting thatMicrosoft will push the browser update as a "high priority" update via the automatic update system much in the same way it pushed the WGA anti-piracy tool earlier this year. "The justification, of course is the significant security enhancements in IE 7" says Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of IE product man...

Sometimes you wonder if people actually think about what they're doing before they click send on an email.  NetworkWorld is reporting on one PR firm that doesn't appear to have any clue about the companies it represents.  Rocket Science , a PR company serving Singlefin , a provider of email, IM and web filtering for places like Juno and NetZero, decided to drum up some publicity and sent emails to eleven different staffers at NetworkWorld, instead of sending it to their spam or s...