BootSave 2.8 Build 9417

A handy command line tool that saves / restores the master boot sector

Run BootSave from command line to save / restore the master boot sector on the hard disk. Suite of three utilities BootSave, BootRest and BootChk. Protects against damage to the partition table or boot sector done by rogue programs, viruses or accidents with tools like Norton NU. You should temporarily boot from a DOS diskette to save or restore. You can save the boot record under Win2K/XP (but not Vista) but you must boot under DOS to do the restore.

This version does NOT save the boot sectors for each individual partition, just the MBR (master boot record) that contains the primary booting code, and the partition information for the four primary partitions.

Requirements:

· DOS system boot disk for recovery

What's New in This Release:

· improved documentation

Download here

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Windows 8 NUI GUI Video Almost at 5 Million Views

The first sneak peek video that Microsoft shared of Windows 8, the next major iteration of the Windows client, has been watched almost 5 million times. 

4,979,559 times to me more specific, according to the official count on YouTube at the time of this article. 

Microsoft made the Building "Windows 8" - Video #1 available at the start of June 2011, on the same day it offered the first official preview of Windows 7’s successor to the world. 

Some readers might remember that the video shoot past 2 million views on the first day alone. Since then, the number of views has been growing at a slower pace, but growing nonetheless. 

At just a little over a month, the Building "Windows 8" - Video #1 has been watched 4,97 million times, and it’s bound to cross the 5 million mark soon enough. 

I have included it below, it’s the first video embedded at the bottom of this article, just in case you want to watch it again. 

The second video is a much longer preview of Windows 8 from Computex, Taipei, less popular than the official preview but worth the time it takes to watch it. 

Following the early June 2011 video previews, Microsoft hasn’t offered any additional details about the next major version of Windows. 

Still, BUILD Windows is approximately one month away, and it will be an event focused on Windows 8, as the software giant has stressed repeatedly. 

The fact that BUILD registration was already been closed is another indication that interest for Windows 8 is extremely high. The BUILD conference has been sold out even if Microsoft provided absolutely no details about any sessions, pre-sessions or any type of content to be presented to participants between September 13 and 16 in Anaheim, CA.

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Cisco CCNA - CCNP Certification Exam: Cabling Your Home Lab

More CCNA and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting together their own home labs, and there's no better way to learn about Cisco technologies than working with the real thing. Getting the routers and switches is just part of putting together a great CCNA / CCNP home lab, though. You've got to get the right cables to connect the devices, and this is an important part of your education as well. After all, without the right cables, client networks are going to have a hard time working!

For your Cisco home lab, one important cable is the DTE/DCE cable. These cables have two major uses in a home lab. To practice directly connecting Cisco routers via Serial interfaces (an important CCNA skill), you'll need to connect them with a DTE/DCE cable. Second, if you plan on having a Cisco router act as a frame relay switch in your lab, you'll need multiple DTE/DCE cables to do so. (Visit my website's Home Lab Help section for a sample Frame Relay switch configuration.)

If you have multiple switches in your lab, that's great, because you'll be able to get a lot of spanning tree protocol (STP) work in as well as creating Etherchannels. To connect your switches, you'll need crossover cables.

You'll need some straight-through cables as well to connect your routers to the switches.

Finally, if you're lucky enough to have an access server as part of your lab, you'll need an octal cable to connect your AS to the other routers and switches in your lab. The octal cable has one large connector on one end and eight numbered RJ-45 connectors on the other end. The large connector should be attached to the async port on your AS, and the numbered RJ-45 connectors will be connected to the console ports on your other routers and switches.

Choosing and connecting the right cables for your Cisco CCNA / CCNP home lab is a great learning experience, and it's also an important part of your Cisco education. After all, all great networks and home labs all begin at Layer One of the OSI model!

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Windows 8 Up to Build 8063.0.110804-1922, Onward to Beta

Windows 8 has yet to reach the Beta development milestone, even though Microsoft is approaching the moment when it will deliver the first deep insight into the next major iteration of its Windows client.

Sources familiar with the evolution of Windows 7’s successor reveal that Windows 8 is still in the Milestone 3 (M3) stage of the development process, the last phase before the platform will graduate to Beta, which has yet to happen.

The few Windows 8 leaks that happened earlier this year have revealed some details about the next version of the operating system, but for the past months the volume of unofficial information and code has dried up.

According to WinBeta, Windows 8 has reached Build 8063.0.110804-1922, still a M3 testing release. As the Build string information reveals, this particular version of Windows 8 was compiled on August 4th, 2011, namely last week.

There are no specific details about any new features, capabilities or functionality in Windows 8 Build 8063.0.110804-1922.

In the past months, Microsoft has opened up more and more on Windows 8, with the first pieces of official info being shared with the public.

In addition to Systems-on-a-Chip / ARM architectures support, the software giant revealed that Windows 8 will be tailored to next generation NUI (natural user interface) form factors and that it will support HTML5 and JavaScript applications natively.

The Redmond company is now gearing up for BUILD, the evolution of the Professional Developers Conference, an event focused on Windows 8, as Microsoft stressed time and again.

The BUILD Windows conference has already been sold out, despite the fact that the software giant did not share any details about the sessions or the content which participants will get access to.

Microsoft is bound to provide the first Windows 8 bits around BUILD, but it’s unclear whether the company will offer a pre-Beta M3 Build, or the fully fledged Beta development milestone. 

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