Carr IT Solutions - IT Security & Compliance Consulting

You may or may not be aware of the mass of "Hitler rant" videos on YouTube.  These take a clip (from the movie "Downfall") and subtitle it with a rant from Hitler about everything from college football to the iPhone to Facebook accounts to ... well, anything at all.

This one is about cloud computing and security, and makes a few cute points about security in general.

Since 1977, RSA public-key encryption has protected privacy and verified authenticity when using computers, gadgets and web browsers around the globe, with only the most brutish of brute force efforts (and 1,500 years of processing time) felling its 768-bit variety earlier this year. Now, three eggheads (or Wolverines, as it were) at the University of Michigan claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device's power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it. That's why they're presenting a paper at the Design, Automation and Test conference this week in Europe, and that's why -- until RSA hopefully fixes the flaw -- you should keep a close eye on your server room's power supply.

1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Register, TechWorld  |  University of Michigan  | Email this | CommentsSean Hollister00846674582015573064016693818842702016940881506346459182076208183196791780161044090775816678478780791406566945228080351908401528317081428011122680640388720418220105893732545190008116134658040611991521146745227186287985000628154192916373693904905807841118771425097335556837405436930146221408576583317804603607502933300923149373596814996462381269062151786286037200493147371113573670156289433289590717781252274702576737880005196210999645540731109787209748506860791815889950711769872914754721983918864954021364626711280467651297622470664511441816904164933583130653045274293474996371511052494049779450910013464076067335111270146288066624194958790661928020331351575906812008323234157173112267774906798870050554045000130159986811436582081809554747055286425250565084400775321609566599684604294526716709191285167253232089466797270635718968527580707308644107957088589680142743845005141509630512020707374691034605607766078815803211017649783578558754871095844074726342480213833541379917089398066066247536204967080379174921651057988002790627291003410743136929253801372165840375843073869296503809044151341686886342072209942361098210001343878320044040777114953040201314051275143514910928784194671678148323931882070708949910119601359423033393293263949663630320033676365178706201803355557489823080066692470229251309741524153587437924060509141663845289345650173241722243577522980654108527350785338401169879439978702358105250485085150355160344792790489660892903235656586413912418024933618644598977260604739552277156888413918250687054064926031886434475122509711340785582111232401213994049981293093933092543377083483952310640572991256246376015072499672994134940153438167987078277681087214052030918369711548582136358052314087488235885433123741243154418622754523915415170308888899355030506382900581726750105872609618865175111980036041887010752068485581162301348331726818317867356899708314309684863377005160900707724897850210958675035519933720801029958431233486467065706549644710344631482073704722606830714211916916699959538

Windows: If you want to store your Windows profiles independent from your system drive and standard Windows directories to protect against loss and corruption, Profile Relocator makes short work of moving your profiles directory.

The best time to use Profile Relocator is after a fresh install of Windows when moving empty profiles poses minimal risk and the least chance of conflicts. If you're set on moving your profiles in an existing installation it is possible and Profile Relocator won't delete the old profiles in the old location so if the move causes any complications you can just switch things back.

Like with all tinkering under the hood in Windows it sounds simple enough to just move your profile directory but any number of complications can arise when it's done on an established installation. Set a system restore point before making the move and read the included documentation carefully.

Profile Relocator is freeware, Windows only, and requires Microsoft .NET 2.0+. Have an application that's handy for remodeling the guts of your Windows installation? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Profile Relocator [via Addictive Tips]

Jason Fitzpatrick15146297373794818082008499663427376838261261015921594492591015835440548890645348028377116963635241931747995547033846058812255393277322585167079043722740068250580918813365811164884206890716851821942380061386446510393551261467681367715370652107541182593207520018100233718088009723361801119796886678213705237611097825063481169700016948048204540387084669384326939612616739368909164370067059616702244117881568155171164586501907649978599064810379039279098448779188380280441699131107099611456201563471204939176457731503263066101126830834709707635318429931586481531764094724242949162503571802864928587887186504817531317025334613053928779609488698030832783431033542788707806901300305942295002274750005002920500825333039487826272602892437588312830822115612308055880223311512376346451522030813402683240044562853035739829948519960620152987234938392615105545202790932571965014021943670926576500176068159834640108106804310854388788065102628914968852730771600384276371834838103207500715277856301008894688975822618590876643246113346394600252242833823537091101827667466269387621293612550812218121002983643959818716775031117791594945691560594341966426151809905681553878530696366020702158416467788930810055667530114820516889073785053859520114055541418027634410877571424129729159905472289833470421119168435569038913091270661878909505730750410087841342742182759151012691228976352510532242476211357037516228006975579891544

  SharePoint Outlook 2007/2010 Connector makes it easier for outlook users to Upload Emails to SharePoint or Attach SharePoint Documents to an Email message. You'll no longer have to save your email and upload from SharePoint UI, or download SharePoint documents and attach them to your email. Download --> SharePoint Outlook 2007/2010 Connector     Product Demos:  Watch --> How to Upload Emails to SharePoint
Watch --> How to Attach SharePoint Documents to an Email   REVIEW - I asked SharePoint Microsoft MVP, Göran Husman, for a few quick comments: This e-mail connector is similar to other tools from U2U & Colligo.  Even in SharePoint 2010 you will need a tool similar to this, since there will not be any way to import e-mail including their properties to a SharePoint list. Pros:  

• Very easy-to-use tool to copy e-mail to SharePoint lists
• Can choose between copy the complete mail, incl attachments, or store mail and attachments separate, (incl renaming the files)
•  It's FREE!

Cons:    

• No mapping of e-mail metadata, i.e. the destination list will not store information like To, From, Subject, etc.  (The developer, Serkant Samurkas,  plans to add metadata mapping in a coming release, and I look forward to see this.)

    Click Here for All Free Microsoft Office 2010 Software & Resources(author unknown)01444915250940505658

MEETorDIE takes a humorous approach to a serious issue—how much money is wasted by large staff meetings.

It's safe to argue that many times meetings aren't the most efficient way to spend the time—and the payroll!—of the people involved but unless you have access to HR records you have no way to even estimate just how much payroll is being wasted. MEETorDIE calculates the amount of payroll wasted based on industry wide averages, the number of the people in the meeting, and the type of employee they are.

Obviously it's just an estimate but it's a great way to get people thinking about whether or not a meeting is "worth it" and you might even be able to use it as an interesting talking point with your boss about cutting back on meetings that pull your team away from more productive work.

Have a neat tool for visualizing data? Let's hear about it in the comments.

MEETorDIE [via Mashable]

Jason Fitzpatrick108883666999304961070884882490579267426108716400807142150875028844816519075113631273098974961184443205779159522714221507172690519150347699991523988357212880065914200957620219163956135676486225071887951818069697460870727414557174717161266630009737126424989710750454090900191520032711841083336364435962046771476949277558390067495823231601580015879721454564107041094424229639805807241289675630113692285717543291858960396508063535178474335195260387084669384326939613949945115150848372067788727425536079890919073927667341458703908111175491098024169420796921973326221407021823990493416401232272100307789173132963997188863292850501040436628828717507021956837613969189006882673432418923040960719125411818416405461869933964301941127052024025730585261156123080558802233105205059956643360020105818306605152575890938157250680567389311869140471672526713058630462362655904240284831984045796090417134462927163215180025617971131403198801790635113674658158600889468897582261859012820394531403212680717931137655582550116556612191545981850052378557687718869160717765936837692753614398251055235947827028257341425729296340522129441438021887915160698224240655204106198978342656398221229291701210526303704485359510667888134046496174926808896791125110108961602217904055069837781460685129778520470666120911020249099095832092510620924693894668941154871815733052302751008784134274218275905048873859373024293087590086944214646291510126912289763525106947525908320989983121209459295440016240943593659336586177105859189576593141132

Forscher haben das bei EC- und Kreditkarten benutzte EMV-Verfahren ausgetrickst, sodass Karten scheinbar beliebige PINs akzeptieren. Ursache sind Fehler in der Spezifikation und Implementierung des Standards.(author unknown)0023066822002118810302921839077878952869

The average Lifehacker reader is rarely taken by a simple phishing scam—you're a techno-literate bunch—but a little refresher never hurts. Besides, this flowchart is perfect for showing to relatives who have no idea when to raise the phishing red flag.

The above image is a companion image to the guide at LoginHelper on how to identify phishing attacks, but for a quick and easy refresher and way to explain to less than techno-savvy relatives what to look for to defend against a phishing attack it's a great stand alone aide.

If you're in educate-the-relatives mode make sure to check out our previous article: The Complete Guide to Avoiding Online Scams (for Your Less Savvy Friends and Relatives). It's a great starting point for opening the eyes of friends and family that give the sincerity of foreign princes a little too much stock.

Have a great visual aide or guide to help people become more security conscious? Share a link in the comments below.

The Phishing Flow Chart [via gHacks]

Jason Fitzpatrick11373336058798664433002306682200211881030793689936037472929601378362922825043920058586422658212736621523235815530401512214351491092878419467037669010759506370421583544054889064534817479955470338460588097452673468427186640147071247392505322014704459895613450589172681831786735689970577915952271422150713143385792399385398118896076887185567701475578223570320311311711834877345069437105369619689019400121194489213083788805114544296559775862536020153881570248736451166007827208632890514252031827322623894020260757934400481900909894218217124963204443619029271027014028091328203368087581122446618116183918213388345061718325419114530359665403513890676067749318182005807966912132844447346031235228180702783070252138796913791134314977823534682521561169949607518590381651286839644439140363415724282467809387798049842990588257387951711223159726452564704766117362870532830015612579941692414581430383497182126751808681750402410209699139281187200004305630598860574607582544016481459257320409203122151423810797110851101642405997762400402291322923112175222038976064801019235561313067033329763120603996887080082209428044338094182916398451257036238169487534010005705547151969729053928779609488698030206520534171780470608031839449035223341047313427647527053041188942793697802556318351843018379733835035739829948519960620041435060453742583814013302403063877659027802764773484482020959149078179738201013328545729738162199111068741709145656430435331021919693056614915576578753720585116047839158262729371096018521908378939816156738564819915672027567819710706776390932281246867359725315242624574605304093000072139315851895541397666196648083467007268950047485089549131016971268065290041662712585283871141413497338317061614150083597833411387859390655059417360566680117073511166979661565071655146989622335281700197248205801014008554281587733720993080725110962882641341058205850368718285902070215841646778893001609895473743396551584753500476443126204969556466090821271076518192168142221750503742250928753399906618789095057307504

This appears not to be a joke: The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing... (author unknown)00230668220021188103068364225281501264850596471391767662779616851815156817689753070093323785415378431097883906575879351213799842746695947710

ISACA maps of CobiT to ITIL, NSIT SP800-53, CMMI, ISO 17799/27002, Project Management BOK, and others.

Microsoft has a kit of awareness materials that you can download for free.  There are some PowerPoint slide decks.  These should be reviewed prior to use, since, while they do have some content, they have an awful lot of blank holes which need to be filled with your company name and some additional details.  There are also templates for brochures, etc, but these contain no content, and are simply formats and styles.

Want all your downloads, streaming video, and other techie media stuff on your TV? Wondering which media center works best for you? Here's a look at the biggies in chart and Venn diagram form, followed by some lengthy breakdowns of each.

New to the idea of TV-connected computers? Head down below the charts for some explainers and deeper comparisons of each system. If you're already familiar with the HTPC scene, we'll give you the good stuff first.

We focused on three widely available, and generally popular, media centers for our comparison and review. We're certainly aware there are many alternatives out there, as free software or stand-alone hardware boxes, but these are the three of the most popular media centers, they receive ongoing development, and they can easily be installed on a wide number of TV-connected computers.

The graphical explanations

Here's how we see the three major media centers, in chart list and Venn diagram forms. Note: The chart is based on out-of-the-box features that don't require the user to install any plug-ins.

What's a media center, exactly?

What does a media center do? It varies, but it generally takes all the stuff you'd normally enjoy on a computer or portable device MP3s, video files, Netflix, Hulu, digital photos, and web/social apps and plays it on a television, through your speakers, and back onto your wireless network, if you'd like. Media centers can be run off of pretty much any capable computer, but are generally intended for small and specialized computers, called Home Theater PCs, or HTPCs. HTPCs have the video and audio ports necessary to hook up to a modern high-definition television, and generally have enough processing power and memory to handle the heavy burden of converting, playing, and sometimes recording high-resolution files. If you've got a home network set up with shared files and network-attached storage (NAS), media centers can generally pull their content off other systems and devices, as well as receive files for storage and download them directly off the net.

Put simply, a media center allows you to sit on a couch and do the most fun things you'd do on a computer with a remote. You can fire up a movie from Netflix's streaming service or from a file you've already downloaded, catch the show you missed last night on Hulu, put on background music while you're doing something else, share your Flickr or Picasa photos with visiting relatives whatever you'd like, really.

Not every media center can do everything, however, and some are much better at certain entertainment jobs than others. The editors at Lifehacker conferred on what each box does best, tried to pin down what each system can and can't do, and put it together in ways that we hope can help you decide.

Windows Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee

Here's a more in-depth look at the media centers installing and setting them up, and their pros and cons.

Windows Media Center is "free" with Home Premium or Ultimate copies of Windows Vista, all versions of Windows 7 except Starter or Home Basic, and available as a stand-alone, XP-based operating system dubbed "Media Center Edition." XBMC is a free and open-source media center software that was born as a game-changing XBOX modification, but now runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and XBOX systems, as well as booting and running off a USB stick. Boxee is based on the same core internal code as XBMC, but focuses on bringing web content video sites, blog streams, and social apps into your living room, while XBMC remains oriented toward a download-and-play setup.

Plex, a popular and very eye-pleasing media center for Mac OS X, is certainly a contender in this category. For all intents and purposes, though, it's a variant of XBMC. Most anything we write or display in this post about XBMC applies to Plex, too, except for matters of looks and interface.

Those would be our definitions in the Lifehacker Dictionary, anyways. Let's get a bit more encyclopedic on the strengths and weaknesses of each system:

Windows Media Center

Installation and Setup: Fairly easy. It comes pre-loaded in the higher-end editions of Windows Vista and 7, and assuming your computer or HTPC has the right outputs and plugs, Windows can fairly easily adjust its display to your television. If you're running other Windows systems on your wireless network, you won't have to do much configuration to start "sharing" files back and forth from the TV-connected system to your other platforms. If you're running Mac or Linux computers, you'll have a good deal more work to do. If your media computer came with a TV tuner card already installed, Windows will recognize it and work with it to record TV shows.

Here's how Adam turned a Windows PC into a Media Center powerhouse, with a good detail on the installation and setup process.

Strengths

• Nice and easy DVR: And you don't have to pay a monthly fee.
• Calm, easy interface: Divided into obvious sections and fairly intuitive directional layouts.
• Large range of compatible remotes: Look online or in an electronics store for a "Windows Media Center remote," and you'll find something with lots of buttons that instantly hooks up to your Media Center, usually through a USB-connected receiver.
• Generally easy networking: Across Windows systems, that is, and if you're down with the shared folders setup.

Weaknesses

• File handling: Generally, Media Center can handle the same files that Windows Media Player can handle, and, with the right codec installations, that can be quite extensive. But out of the box, don't expect support for the diverse range of video and audio you'll find around the web.
• Windows-only: But you knew that.
• Complex remotes: Media Center works with a lot of remotes, but they often look like parodies of button-stuffed clickers. If a simple, Apple-like navigator exists for Media Center, do tell us in the comments.
• Locked-down DVR files: Work-arounds and decoders exist, of course, but if you want to play your recorded TV shows on anything other than your personal set of authorized Windows machines, Zunes, and XBOX devices, good luck.

Note: Windows Media Center doesn't support Hulu by default, but with the right plug-in it can do the trick.

XBMC

Installation and Setup: It depends, of course, on the platform and hardware you're installing on. Getting it running and connected on a modern Windows or Mac system is fairly painless, at least from a software standpoint. Running it as a "live" system from a USB stick isn't too hard, either, and you can install it from there onto an HTPC hard drive. Plugging it into a Madriva Linux box and hooking it up to your very specialized 1080p plasma setup with optical audio out will likely require hair plugs and years of therapy.

Read up on Adam's guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap for a look at the live-USB-to-installation path on a $200 HTPC system.

Strengths

• Open source, open nature: Need XBMC to do something it doesn't do already? Chances are, there's a clever hacker working on it. XBMC doesn't have the same kind of "platform" that its offspring Boxee does, but coders can get into it and make it better, and make it do more.
• Meta-data and file recognition: From personal trials and commenter anecdotes, XBMC is really good at knowing when you've put new files somewhere in your system, figuring out what types of files they are (movie, TV, music, or picture), and reaching out to the internet to pull down relevant pictures, data, reviews, and even trailer links for the videos and music you plug into it.
• Light and agile: Relatively speaking, XBMC may have some really nice graphics and menus, but because it comes from a project to put a full media center on a game system, XBMC is focused on playing back media files as smoothly as possible.
• Slick, customizable looks: Even putting Plex aside, XBMC wins, hands-down, for looking like you're living in the future when displayed on a really big, nice TV. Don't like the way it looks by default? Put a new skin on it, and it's a whole different beast.
• Format support: Personally, I've never found a file on the web, or converted from a friend's computer, that XBMC couldn't play, unless something was wrong with it.

Weaknesses:

• Lack of Netflix, Hulu: There have been work-arounds, hacks, and other tweaks to make XBMC work with the two big names in streaming video. If you were depending on either one, though, XBMC would not be a safe bet.
• Over-stuffed, sometimes complicated menus: XBMC's menus and layout are the geekiest around how you react to that depends on your temperament. You can do all kinds of things from any screen in XBMC, and its interface often has a smile-inducing futuristic feel to it. But for someone new to media centers and looking to just sit down and play something, it can be quite imposing.

Boxee

Installation and Setup: On Windows and Mac systems, the latest Boxee beta is relatively simple to install, as it uses the built-in video and audio systems to push out content. On Linux, it's a good deal more complex, but, then again, what on Linux isn't? Apple TVs require a bit of hacking. In general, Boxee is compatible with the same kind of hardware as XBMC OpenGL or DirectX-compatible video cards are highly recommended.

Here's how Kevin set up a cheap but powerful Boxee media center using a brawny $350 HTPC and free copies of Linux and Boxee.

Strengths

• Built-in Hulu and Netflix: Boxee and Hulu have had their differences, but they seem to have reached a draw in the stand-off most Hulu shows and movies work, most of the time. Netflix works fine on Windows and Mac, assuming you don't mind installing Microsoft's Silverlight system.
• Growing directory of web content apps: Love FailBlog? Dig Vimeo's really hi-res stuff? Fan of TwiT's videocasts? Watch them all from Boxee's app, and grab more in the app "store," which has a very healthy selection of customized streaming content.
• Play anything (technically): Boxee uses a reworked Firefox browser to view Hulu, but it's available for nearly any kind of web video page you find on the web. The Boxee Browser is a kind of last resort for any web content that doesn't have its own app.

Weaknesses

• Love-it-or-leave-it interface: Even with its content-forward redesign, many media center aficionados have said they can't get used to Boxee's hidden left-hand sidebars and forward/back functionality. Some just don't like the default looks. It's not a make-or-break issue, considering it's basically the same core tools as XBMC, but if you're going to spend serious time with a media center, you want to like how it looks.
• Local file handling: Boxee doesn't seem as smart about recognizing and updating local file stores. In the words of one Lifehacker editor, "Local files are almost an afterthought." That's to be expected, somewhat, on a system that's so web-facing and stream-savvy, but Boxee could do a lot more to make downloaded music, movies, and pictures easier to gather, organize, and access.

We know we absolutely know that we may have missed a feature, put in "No" where "Yes" should have been, or otherwise missed a detail or two in our breakdown of these media centers. We tried our best to research and check them, but if you see something wrong, or missing, in our explanations or charts, by all means: tell us, politely, in the comments, and we'll update this post, and the charts to match the reality.

Feel free to also tell us which system has worked best for you, and why, in the comments.

Jason Fitzpatrick & Kevin Purdy10888366699930496107136560269159928257110331008665602586617607821207543774008650079653570335337784991705112822709750770015581407310368936308025237688179651092570965818482277131858813195080000100454228055404500013015998680834137774294767476610148022814965707269181681878220915932700409809861199950285610510544456090599431145035097649403119790438890717348009006703684990516736841171024418336522728975500011299235946831463009235829713986426230141219499226177910351495304020131405127514351491092878419467016315617336629652490951864432943280163200558288576970018204071941288485561504181583544054889064534804597681169927635929011247142811670180161584941023212667128409745267346842718664178236705147608648760354263214331025058018078788385534166172081242413498284940340450438238455390672002269134929945944416129994662211816502630962206292017091082805229826414727599030147044598956134505891025741937329816436007301651861850166584115787287175130862701613550047018887808306168484209915561770079346078475543270631399413051029704086411889607688718556770125005365725153925950059781261472124841700159501277465078027032408483737208471871796438886574617109112967775145712772820178570097700676408911225539327732258516701959811905248436305168679255798584362310581455473148430343905036349423546004313123157562314988554071818069697460870727417322849518056397826023697588133568496241765055724047449153107514963697797893395103287579399069359050040282960770042144818275137144179518025089656131190606971291380620989820771443410636928972680512838116600782720863289050095135773505560730809910433080169090885021038646801572362551792154731499798937615679883276187481183084148242281567383900909894218217124963213753425091573470422016499727350088057961507915399866604172609868192080818709109100930884696519709160615461555786337811010000470336374896555097864407051013408120004333393160028394715978711797114047611109712994416179686640265196099164696057301319758791109660089039190066704101811621529610597375847881508105655410713383691

Want all your downloads, streaming video, and other techie media stuff on your TV? Wondering which media center works best for you? Here's a look at the biggies in chart and Venn diagram form, followed by some lengthy breakdowns of each.

New to the idea of TV-connected computers? Head down below the charts for some explainers and deeper comparisons of each system. If you're already familiar with the HTPC scene, we'll give you the good stuff first.

We focused on three widely available, and generally popular, media centers for our comparison and review. We're certainly aware there are many alternatives out there, as free software or stand-alone hardware boxes, but these are the three of the most popular media centers, they receive ongoing development, and they can easily be installed on a wide number of TV-connected computers.

The graphical explanations

Here's how we see the three major media centers, in chart list and Venn diagram forms. Note: The chart is based on out-of-the-box features that don't require the user to install any plug-ins.

What's a media center, exactly?

What does a media center do? It varies, but it generally takes all the stuff you'd normally enjoy on a computer or portable device—MP3s, video files, Netflix, Hulu, digital photos, and web/social apps—and plays it on a television, through your speakers, and back onto your wireless network, if you'd like. Media centers can be run off of pretty much any capable computer, but are generally intended for small and specialized computers, called Home Theater PCs, or HTPCs. HTPCs have the video and audio ports necessary to hook up to a modern high-definition television, and generally have enough processing power and memory to handle the heavy burden of converting, playing, and sometimes recording high-resolution files. If you've got a home network set up with shared files and network-attached storage (NAS), media centers can generally pull their content off other systems and devices, as well as receive files for storage and download them directly off the net.

Put simply, a media center allows you to sit on a couch and do the most fun things you'd do on a computer with a remote. You can fire up a movie from Netflix's streaming service or from a file you've already downloaded, catch the show you missed last night on Hulu, put on background music while you're doing something else, share your Flickr or Picasa photos with visiting relatives—whatever you'd like, really.

Not every media center can do everything, however, and some are much better at certain entertainment jobs than others. The editors at Lifehacker conferred on what each box does best, tried to pin down what each system can and can't do, and put it together in ways that we hope can help you decide.

Windows Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee

Here's a more in-depth look at the media centers—installing and setting them up, and their pros and cons.

Windows Media Center is "free" with Home Premium or Ultimate copies of Windows Vista, all versions of Windows 7 except Starter or Home Basic, and available as a stand-alone, XP-based operating system dubbed "Media Center Edition." XBMC is a free and open-source media center software that was born as a game-changing XBOX modification, but now runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and XBOX systems, as well as booting and running off a USB stick. Boxee is based on the same core internal code as XBMC, but focuses on bringing web content—video sites, blog streams, and social apps—into your living room, while XBMC remains oriented toward a download-and-play setup.

Plex, a popular and very eye-pleasing media center for Mac OS X, is certainly a contender in this category. For all intents and purposes, though, it's a variant of XBMC. Most anything we write or display in this post about XBMC applies to Plex, too, except for matters of looks and interface.

Those would be our definitions in the Lifehacker Dictionary, anyways. Let's get a bit more encyclopedic on the strengths and weaknesses of each system:

Windows Media Center

Installation and Setup: Fairly easy. It comes pre-loaded in the higher-end editions of Windows Vista and 7, and assuming your computer or HTPC has the right outputs and plugs, Windows can fairly easily adjust its display to your television. If you're running other Windows systems on your wireless network, you won't have to do much configuration to start "sharing" files back and forth from the TV-connected system to your other platforms. If you're running Mac or Linux computers, you'll have a good deal more work to do. If your media computer came with a TV tuner card already installed, Windows will recognize it and work with it to record TV shows.

Here's how Adam turned a Windows PC into a Media Center powerhouse, with a good detail on the installation and setup process.

Strengths

• Nice and easy DVR: And you don't have to pay a monthly fee.
• Calm, easy interface: Divided into obvious sections and fairly intuitive directional layouts.
• Large range of compatible remotes: Look online or in an electronics store for a "Windows Media Center remote," and you'll find something with lots of buttons that instantly hooks up to your Media Center, usually through a USB-connected receiver.
• Generally easy networking: Across Windows systems, that is, and if you're down with the shared folders setup.

Weaknesses

• File handling: Generally, Media Center can handle the same files that Windows Media Player can handle, and, with the right codec installations, that can be quite extensive. But out of the box, don't expect support for the diverse range of video and audio you'll find around the web.
• Windows-only: But you knew that.
• Complex remotes: Media Center works with a lot of remotes, but they often look like parodies of button-stuffed clickers. If a simple, Apple-like navigator exists for Media Center, do tell us in the comments.
• Locked-down DVR files: Work-arounds and decoders exist, of course, but if you want to play your recorded TV shows on anything other than your personal set of authorized Windows machines, Zunes, and XBOX devices, good luck.

Note: Windows Media Center doesn't support Hulu by default, but with the right plug-in it can do the trick.

XBMC

Installation and Setup: It depends, of course, on the platform and hardware you're installing on. Getting it running and connected on a modern Windows or Mac system is fairly painless, at least from a software standpoint. Running it as a "live" system from a USB stick isn't too hard, either, and you can install it from there onto an HTPC hard drive. Plugging it into a Madriva Linux box and hooking it up to your very specialized 1080p plasma setup with optical audio out will likely require hair plugs and years of therapy.

Read up on Adam's guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap for a look at the live-USB-to-installation path on a $200 HTPC system.

Strengths

• Open source, open nature: Need XBMC to do something it doesn't do already? Chances are, there's a clever hacker working on it. XBMC doesn't have the same kind of "platform" that its offspring Boxee does, but coders can get into it and make it better, and make it do more.
• Meta-data and file recognition: From personal trials and commenter anecdotes, XBMC is really good at knowing when you've put new files somewhere in your system, figuring out what types of files they are (movie, TV, music, or picture), and reaching out to the internet to pull down relevant pictures, data, reviews, and even trailer links for the videos and music you plug into it.
• Light and agile: Relatively speaking, XBMC may have some really nice graphics and menus, but because it comes from a project to put a full media center on a game system, XBMC is focused on playing back media files as smoothly as possible.
• Slick, customizable looks: Even putting Plex aside, XBMC wins, hands-down, for looking like you're living in the future when displayed on a really big, nice TV. Don't like the way it looks by default? Put a new skin on it, and it's a whole different beast.
• Format support: Personally, I've never found a file on the web, or converted from a friend's computer, that XBMC couldn't play, unless something was wrong with it.

Weaknesses:

• Lack of Netflix, Hulu: There have been work-arounds, hacks, and other tweaks to make XBMC work with the two big names in streaming video. If you were depending on either one, though, XBMC would not be a safe bet.
• Over-stuffed, sometimes complicated menus: XBMC's menus and layout are the geekiest around—how you react to that depends on your temperament. You can do all kinds of things from any screen in XBMC, and its interface often has a smile-inducing futuristic feel to it. But for someone new to media centers and looking to just sit down and play something, it can be quite imposing.

Boxee

Installation and Setup: On Windows and Mac systems, the latest Boxee beta is relatively simple to install, as it uses the built-in video and audio systems to push out content. On Linux, it's a good deal more complex, but, then again, what on Linux isn't? Apple TVs require a bit of hacking. In general, Boxee is compatible with the same kind of hardware as XBMC—OpenGL or DirectX-compatible video cards are highly recommended.

Here's how Kevin set up a cheap but powerful Boxee media center using a brawny $350 HTPC and free copies of Linux and Boxee.

Strengths

• Built-in Hulu and Netflix: Boxee and Hulu have had their differences, but they seem to have reached a draw in the stand-off—most Hulu shows and movies work, most of the time. Netflix works fine on Windows and Mac, assuming you don't mind installing Microsoft's Silverlight system.
• Growing directory of web content apps: Love FailBlog? Dig Vimeo's really hi-res stuff? Fan of TwiT's videocasts? Watch them all from Boxee's app, and grab more in the app "store," which has a very healthy selection of customized streaming content.
• Play anything (technically): Boxee uses a reworked Firefox browser to view Hulu, but it's available for nearly any kind of web video page you find on the web. The Boxee Browser is a kind of last resort for any web content that doesn't have its own app.

Weaknesses

• Love-it-or-leave-it interface: Even with its content-forward redesign, many media center aficionados have said they can't get used to Boxee's hidden left-hand sidebars and forward/back functionality. Some just don't like the default looks. It's not a make-or-break issue, considering it's basically the same core tools as XBMC, but if you're going to spend serious time with a media center, you want to like how it looks.
• Local file handling: Boxee doesn't seem as smart about recognizing and updating local file stores. In the words of one Lifehacker editor, "Local files are almost an afterthought." That's to be expected, somewhat, on a system that's so web-facing and stream-savvy, but Boxee could do a lot more to make downloaded music, movies, and pictures easier to gather, organize, and access.

We know—we absolutely know—that we may have missed a feature, put in "No" where "Yes" should have been, or otherwise missed a detail or two in our breakdown of these media centers. We tried our best to research and check them, but if you see something wrong, or missing, in our explanations or charts, by all means: tell us, politely, in the comments, and we'll update this post, and the charts to match the reality.

Feel free to also tell us which system has worked best for you, and why, in the comments.

Jason Fitzpatrick & Kevin Purdy03570460653242822393108883666999304961071353032980261469496713656026915992825711033100866560258661760782120754377400865004141545738148103231079653570335337784991705112822709750770015581407310368936308025237688179651092570965818482277131858813195080000100454228055404500013015998680834137774294767476615995392075227427866101480228149657072690874255016811770620618168187822091593270040980986119995028561051054445609059943114503509764940311979043889071734800900670830538978780822268203684990516736841171024418336522728975500011299235946831463009235829713986426230141219499226177910351495304020131405127514351491092878419467016315617336629652490921586813186148838809518644329432801632005582885769700182040719412884855615041815835440548890645348045976811699276359290112471428116701801615849410232126671284097452673468427186641388494805700861448817823670514760864876035426321433102505801434995774366311416810560478562565467739180787883855341661720812424134982849403404504382384553906720022691349299459444161299946622118165026309622062920170910828052298264147275990301470445989561345058911319686786336119124102574193732981643600730165186185016658403651307367743567267115787287175130862701613550047018887808306168484209915561770079346078475543270631399413051029704086411889607688718556770021647632786767535241250053657251539259500597812614721248417001595012774650780270324084837372084718717964388865746171091125207519339594521081296777514571277282017857009770067640891004446085162447968740073850559515898361912255393277322585167019598119052484363051686792557985843623108977314218120569926058145547314843034390503634942354600431312315756231498855407109872545714590268110670319182448477586014669809620277621719181806969746087072741732284951805639782602369758813356849624176505572404744915310613329986587258040207514963697797893395103287579399069359050040282960770042144818275137144179518025089656131190606971291380620989820771443410636928972680512838116600782720863289050095135773505560730809910433080169090885

  Install, reinstall, upgrade or uninstall Windows - a new Microsoft Windows webpage providing information for when you need to Install, Reinstall, Upgrade, or Uninstall Microsoft's Windows. (Thanks Chris) INSTALL WINDOWS:  If you're installing Windows for the first time on a new computer and you don't have any existing version of Windows to remove, upgrade, or replace.  To install Windows and keep an earlier version of Windows on your computer, click on: Install Multi-boot  

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