The new Windows UI might contain some ideas from the Linux and Mac desktop. Using what they would call an “Advanced Desktop Mode”, it would allow multiple virtual desktops, among other things. As usual, Windows 8 isn’t released yet, so it is all still rumors. But, it’s always fun to entertain these rumors to see if they do become reality.

While put forward as a collaboration with academics to improve Windows 8, it’s not yet known how many if any of Manduva’s features will reach the shipping version. Microsoft has only just finished Milestone 2 and still has at least one more milestone before it reaches a beta that would show the largely complete interface. The proposal nonetheless implies that Microsoft is planning to continue the back-and-forth use of ideas between itself and rivals.

Look out Google, your match has come. Bing has surpassed Yahoo to take the number two space in the search engine empire. Ok, so Google doesn’t have much to worry about, still holding nearly 90% of overall searches. But, in the short time that Bing has been around, it has been grabbing search engine traffic away from other giants. Yahoo used to be #1, back in the day when Excite was a big contender. The Internet has seen some giants come and go in a relatively short amount of time. Lets just hope these giants can keep innovating and keeping the results relevant and reliable.

Let’s take a look at the hard numbers. In February, Bing nabbed 4.37% of the global share, just ahead Yahoo! at 3.93%. They both still pale in comparison to Google’s whopping 89.94% share of the pie, but it is interesting to see Bing growing. All of those TV product placements must be helping.

A man has taken it upon himself to install Windows 1.0, and work his way up the upgrade paths to the newest Windows: 7. He has is all documented on YouTube. Check it out.

According to WinRumors, the first Windows 8 Milestone 3 build has been compiled. This is some great news, and perhaps a beta build is likely sometime this year. Although Microsoft looks to be concentrating on the ARM and Tablets for an initial release of Windows 8, I’m sure a x64 version isn’t too far behind.

The company signed off on its final M2 build before compiling M3 this week. Microsoft’s internal Windows 8 roadmap states that the company planned to begin M3 builds on February 28. The company compiled build 6.2.7956.0.winmain_win8m3.110228-1701 on Monday according to Canouna over at MDL. Microsoft began compiling Milestone 1 builds of Windows 8 in early August 2010. The software giant finalized the M1 build in early December after four months of development. M2 builds began in early December and were finalized in late February. Milestone 3 development is expected to last until early June. The current schedule could mean we’ll see a Windows 8 beta during September at PDC.

Although I didn’t have any problems with the new and improved Microsoft Answers, quite a few other people noticed very slow loading and other issues. The managers made the techies stay overtime and get everything worked out. Hopefully, everything is back up to normal.

“Since we launched at 7 am this morning, we have seen extremely poor load time on the site. The entire dev team is still in the office working on this issue. We are narrowing the issue down, but still do not have it resolved.”

Yesterday I said they would be coming soon. Today, they are launched. The new MSTechPages.com forums. Registration is quick and easy. This is a work in progress, please leave any and all comments, suggestions and recommendations in the appropriate forum. Have fun, ask questions, answer questions!

Due to the numerous emails I get on a weekly basis, I have decided to finally add some forums and registration to the site. I try to avoid forums on my sites due to the fact that I belong to hundreds of forums, but I am only active in about a dozen or so of them. I know it is annoying to register and post on yet another forum for an answer, but I assure you that it will be worth it. I will personally try and answer any questions you may have, or if you have the knowledge, please share it with others. I will be running contests in the coming weeks which will require registration in the forum. I will try and make it fun for everyone, and see that everyone gets the help and attention they need.

Late March is when the Windows Phone 7 is coming to the Verizon network. I really wanted to jump ship from my Android phone to a Windows Phone 7, but now that they’ve signed with Nokia to allow other “exclusive” features with their phones, I’m not so sure. I would like to try one out for a month or so to see if it would fit an enthusiasts needs, but I don’t really want to go through the trouble with Verizon on switching phones back and forth…

The report follows on the heels of yesterday’s news that Sprint would be bringing the HTC Arrive, its first Windows Phone 7 handset, to consumers on the same day. That handset will ship with Microsoft’s first major update to its mobile operating system preinstalled. That’s the one that brings features like copy and paste, improved Marketplace search, and faster load times for some applications. WinRumors says the HTC 7 Trophy, which is the phone launching on Verizon, will also have that newer software version.

In the guise of security and to protect us from ourselves, the United States government has been taking down domains that infringe copyrights and host child pornography. While the intentions are good, their actions aren’t really that great. They shut down 82,000 domains by accident. Oops!

Thanks to a recent law rushed through Congress and  “Operation Protect our Children”, aiming to seize unlawful domains and eradicate child pornography respectively. Yet, it turns out many of the domains that were seized belonged to small business who had their images fairly harmed by this incident.