Thanks eXtermia for the heads up on this news, found at DriverHeaven

They are reporting that Microsoft have publically released Windows Update v6, now dubbed Microsoft Update. Users on Windows 2000, 2003 Server and XP have access to the web site after downloading an ActiveX update. The new update site supports both Windows and Office 2003 updates in one central location making it easier for customers to get a hold of the latest patches and updates available to Microsoft software.

Once at the website, you'll have to agree to download some new software which may take a couple of minutes, but once done you'll see the new version of the Windows Update website - although there don't seem to be any new updates on there at the moment. Windows XP users will have to have at least Service Pack 1 to use the site.

View: Microsoft Update - Requires Internet Explorer
View: Related Article - Windows Update v6 Gone Public? (05 Apr 2005)

Here are some key features of "Exact Audio Copy":

  • Usage of the Windows 95 and Windows NT ASPI Interface, so both SCSI and ATAPI CD-ROM drives are supported
  • Hidden sector synchronization (jitter correction)
  • Secure, fast and burst extraction methods selectable. Fast extraction should run at the same speed as other grabbers, but is probably not exact anymore. Burst mode just grabs the audio data without any synchronization.
  • Read error and complete loss of sync detection and correction in secure modes, as far as possible
  • Output of time positions of all non-exact corrections and listen to these positions
  • Copy of ranges of music data, not only tracks
  • Automatic Speed reduction on errors and fallback afterwards
  • Normalization of extracted audio
  • Usage of the Windows Audio Compression Manager (ACM Codecs) for direct compression e.g. to MP3 waves
  • Support for the BladeEnc DLL that is usable like an ACM Codec for online MP3 compression
  • Support of external MP3, VQF, RA and AAC encoders for automatic compression after extraction
  • Batch compression and decompression of/to WAV files
  • Compression offset support for exact compression/decompression
  • Detection of pre-track gaps
  • Detection of silence in pre-track gaps
  • Automatic creation of CUE sheets for CDRWin, including all gaps, indicies, track attributes, UPC and ISRC
  • CD player functionality and prelistening to selected ranges
  • Automatic detection of drive features, whether a drive has an accurate stream and/or does caching
  • Sample Offsets for drives with no accurate streams, including the option of filling up missing samples with silence
  • Option for synchronizing tracks for non-accurate stream drives
  • Filename editing with local and remote CDDB database and cdplayer.ini support and more features like ID3 tagging
  • Browse and edit local database
  • Certified Escient CDDB(TM) Compatible
  • Local CDDB support
  • Record and Loop Record functions for recording from LP, radio, etc.
  • Automatic rename of MP3 files according to their ID3 tag
  • Catalog extraction function
  • Multisession (CD-Extra) support
  • CD-Text support
  • CD-Write support for some drives
  • ID3 Tag editor with drag and drop possibility from track listing and database
  • Glitch removal after extraction
  • Small WAV editor with the following functionality: delete, trim, normalize, pad, glitch removal, pop detection, interpolation of ranges, noise reduction, fade in/out, undo (and more)
  • Program is Cardware, so feel free to copy


    • There are 29 additional comments
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    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by Trix on 05 Jun 2005 - 14:22
    does it still bug you after you've installed updates to reboot.. every 30mins? if so i'm glad i turned of automatic updates, i can download and install them manually.
    (5 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Galley on 05 Jun 2005 - 14:26
    Why can't they release this as a stand-alone app, so we don't need to use freaking IE?
    Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by Trix on 05 Jun 2005 - 14:28
    umm, it ties people into using IE.. to keep people using there product so i doubt there ever gonna change that
    Quote this comment #2.2 Posted by metro on 05 Jun 2005 - 14:34
    Auto Update is pretty much an indirect application that lets you update away from IE. That is about as close to standalone as we will probably get, which sucks
    Quote this comment #2.3 Posted by xMorpheousx416 on 05 Jun 2005 - 17:03
    Unfortunately as well, Auto Update doesn't support any other MS apps other than the OS and it's features like IE, or WMP. Besides, only using IE to update, in my book, hardly qualifies as "using" the browser. In this case, IE would be the stand-alone app.
    Quote this comment #2.4 Posted by rob.derosa on 06 Jun 2005 - 08:23
    god. you only have to do an update check once a month, at most. is that so much bother using IE that regularly? get over yourself
    Quote this comment #2.5 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 06 Jun 2005 - 08:51
    Shh, don't ask them to use TEH EBIL IE. They begrudge the 2 minutes it takes to open IE and run through Windows Update. Now if there were more browsers supporting ActiveX this wouldn't be a problem, but as we know ActiveX is EBIL EBIL CUZ TEH SPYWAREZ. On that note, I say we ask 'M$' to stop supporting EXEs because they contain viruses and spyware also.
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by [DGS] on 05 Jun 2005 - 14:51
    So this is not obligatory?
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by TC17 on 05 Jun 2005 - 16:41
    I tried just now, and its still v5 for me with no upgrade notice.
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by waz on 05 Jun 2005 - 16:43
    I've been using this for a while, just goto http://update.microsoft.com/ instead of windowsupdate.com.
    (1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by Chrysalis on 05 Jun 2005 - 16:46
    Ok I am using v6, but I updated earlier the manual way.

    this url is in address bar.

    http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

    But I only have Windows updates no office, what gives?
    Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by GurliGebis on 05 Jun 2005 - 17:09
    Thats because you selected Windows Update, not Microsoft Update.
    Go to: http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx and install the activex from there.
    (1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by neufuse on 05 Jun 2005 - 16:55
    one thing that was left out of the article... with this comes the release of WSUS for corporations
    Quote this comment #7.1 Posted by Ideas Man on 06 Jun 2005 - 06:35
    Are you sure? WSUS doesn't appear to be there still, only the RC build.
    (1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by Andareed on 05 Jun 2005 - 17:09
    To clarify, there are 2 versions: windows update and microsoft update. WU does only windows updates, and MU does windows, sql server, office, and maybe some others.

    Windows Update
    Microsoft Update

    It is possible to switch from one to the other too.
    Quote this comment #8.1 Posted by jwjw1 on 05 Jun 2005 - 18:38
    I know on the options to the left...under 'change settings' you can check this...

    To stop using Microsoft Update
    If you no longer want to install updates using this website, you can disable the supporting software on your computer.

    You can still get updates from the Windows Update website by visiting the site or by turning on automatic updating on your computer. However, you will not be able to get updates for products other than Windows.

    Disable Microsoft Update software and let me use Windows Update only

    Apply changes now
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by smashguy on 05 Jun 2005 - 19:01
    Great work!
    (2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by lord_zer0 on 05 Jun 2005 - 19:42
    Allright, here's the real scoop from my personal firsthand experience on several hundred machines.

    For NON-BETA TESTERS, visiting www.windowsupdate.com
    Windows XP SP2 boxes - NO CHANGE BY DEFAULT
    Windows Server 2003 boxes - NO CHANGE BY DEFAULT. We do (and have) ended up at http://ws03sp1.update.microsoft.com for several weeks now. So there's no recent change. And it looks (and feels) 99% like v5.

    For NON-BETA TESTERS, visiting http://update.microsoft.com
    Windows XP SP2 boxes - prompted for an update, then end up at http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us. Looks pretty close to the screenshots above. The settings page has a ticker box for enabling beta software. "Windows Update can offer you pre-release 'beta' versions of products as they become available."

    I can confirm that for non-beta-testers, *NO OFFICE PRODUCTS ARE SCANNED FOR UPDATES*, and that all of the updates I have tried [critical updates] the validation process never takes place, even on v6.


    I can confirm that for non-beta testers, Windows 2003 SP1 boxes still get kicked back to http://ws03sp1.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/default.aspx?ln=en-us even when vising update.microsoft.com.

    For beta testers, NOTHING I HAVE WRITTEN APPLIES.

    I hope that clears up the confusion.
    Quote this comment #10.1 Posted by ThunderRiver on 06 Jun 2005 - 02:58
    LOL, for once, I feel a beta tester like me is being devalued because none of what you said applies? LOL

    Yeah right..
    Quote this comment #10.2 Posted by Andareed on 06 Jun 2005 - 03:45
    See my links a couple pages up; you can get directly to v6.
    (1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by TheSarge on 06 Jun 2005 - 04:34
    So, we're one step closer to M$ locking out all the "bad" people who didn't pay the Microsoft Tax, huh?
    Whoop-de-do.
    Quote this comment #11.1 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 06 Jun 2005 - 05:41
    Very intelligent post, bravo.
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #12 Posted by fr33k on 06 Jun 2005 - 08:59
    I had trouble getting there too I kept getting v5 until I removed the update and genuine advantage control classes
    Go here and right click those files and select remove
    C:WINDOWSDownloaded Program Files

    Then go here and you should finally be prompted to install the new update class for v6 website
    http://update.microsoft.com/

    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #13 Posted by Ryster092 on 06 Jun 2005 - 09:20
    QUOTE
    They are reporting that Microsoft have publically released Windows Update v6, now dubbed Microsoft Update.

    As someone already said Microsoft Update is NOT simply Windows Update v6.
    Microsoft Update is a totally different thing to Windows Update v6.

    I was (well still am I suppose) a beta tester for Microsoft Update and can confirm that they are totally separate entities. Windows Update v6 is what Windows 2000 and Windows XP users will see when they go to Windows Update. You specifically have to "opt-in" to Microsoft Update which is the service that updates Windows (2000+XP), Office (2000+2002(XP)+2003), Exchange and Microsoft SQL.

    Last edited by 64792 on 06 Jun 2005 - 09:30
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #14 Posted by mr_demilord on 06 Jun 2005 - 12:22
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #15 Posted by mad_onion on 06 Jun 2005 - 16:13
    oh i see so the front page news is kinda misleading isnt it. im not on V6 anyway, mine didnt update so why am i bothered lol
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #16 Posted by madkingsoup on 06 Jun 2005 - 22:22
    It's not perfect, I see.

    OfficeUpdate shows that I require no updates. Microsoft Update, on the other hand, tells me I need to install an Update for Office 2003 - Update for Office 2003 (KB887980) - which is for Frontpage (which I don't have).

    Upshot - stick with OfficeUpdate for the moment, I reckon...
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #17 Posted by lord_zer0 on 06 Jun 2005 - 22:53
    As of TODAY, windows 2003 hits v6 by default.

    Just thought you should know.
    Quote this comment Reply to this comment #18 Posted by MtDewCodeRedFreak on 08 Jun 2005 - 19:14
    I have it; it looks nice.
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