A new breed of visually striking games promises to light up computer screens with even sharper, more lifelike graphics than ever before. But unlike the popular "Gears of War" or "MotorStorm," the games won’t be debuting on Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Microsoft’s Xbox 360 consoles.

Instead, the PC is returning to the pinnacle of video game graphics–thanks to some under-the-hood tweaks in Microsoft’s Vista operating system.

The technology behind these improved visuals, called DirectX 10, is the result of a collaboration among video game developers, graphics card makers and Microsoft. For years, they have been working to streamline and standardize the software used by Windows-based PCs to display graphics. The latest improvements, many believe, far surpass even the very best of what the consoles are capable of.

A new feature that allows Citrix/ICA users to record all user activity on their servers is the latest security innovation by RTP’s CNS Software and TSFactory, a Virginia software development company specializing in Terminal Services technology. RecordTS is the first Terminal Services and Remote Desktop protocol recording solution in the market for Windows and Citrix platforms.

RecordTS "security camera" software delivers security, compliancy, troubleshooting, and corporate surveillance under one monitoring program by recording everything logged-on users, consultants, administrators, and vendors do on an organization’s Remote Desktop or Terminal Services computer system. This new version of RecordTS takes security to a new level by not only capturing screen activity but also capturing transferred files, print jobs and keystrokes, making it an ideal solution to assure ethical user activity and monitor third party vendors and consultants.

Cyberspies have a new secret weapon: tainted Microsoft Office files.

A rising number of cyberattacks are taking aim at specific individuals at critical government agencies and corporations–enticing them to unwittingly open a corrupted Word, Excel or PowerPoint file sent as an e-mail attachment.

Clicking on the file relinquishes control of the PC without the user’s knowledge. The attacker then uses the compromised PC as a base from which to roam the organization’s internal network.

Microsoft responded Monday to European Union allegations that it is overcharging rivals for information that would make their products work better with Windows. The software maker also repeated its request for more guidance on what regulators consider to be an acceptable price.

To level the software industry’s playing field, EU officials want Microsoft’s rivals to have access at a "reasonable cost" to material that would help their programs interoperate with Windows-based servers. Regulators have called the current prices excessive and the Microsoft’s information insufficient.

Didn’t use all of your vacation days last year? You’re not alone. More than half of workers don’t use all of their vacation time, finds a survey published on April 18 by Hudson, an employment services firm.

The survey suggests that workers are apprehensive about using all of their vacation time allotted in a year, fearful that it will leave them without any room for flexibility should an urgent situation emerge. Of the workers surveyed, 56 percent said they did not use all of their vacation time each year and nearly one-third (30 percent) said they take less than half of their allotted time off.

Employer caution has extended the hiring process by weeks, even months. You may interview for a position several times, in person and by phone. No matter how long the process is and how well you’ve gotten to know your potential colleagues, it’s still perfectly acceptable to turn down a job offer. In fact, there may be many valid reasons that you should politely decline an opportunity, assuming, of course, that you’re not in dire financial straits.

Vertical Computer Systems is suing Microsoft for patent infringement related to Microsoft’s .Net framework for building Windows-based software. Vertical filed suit April 18 in a U.S. District Court in Texas alleging that Microsoft has infringed on its Patent No. 6,826,744 for a "system and method for generating Web sites in an arbitrary object framework."

The patent is for Vertical’s SiteFlash technology, which utilizes XML (Extensible Markup Language) to create a component-based structure to build and efficiently operate Web sites, according to the company’s Web site. A Vertical spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The complaint says Microsoft is still willfully infringing on the patent despite Vertical having put Microsoft on notice about it on Feb. 7. Vertical is asking for a jury trial.

Responding to customer demand Dell has restarted selling new PCs with Windows XP installed on them.

The decision reverses a policy begun in January that meant Windows Vista was the only operating system available on almost all new home machines.

The change came after Dell’s feedback site was swamped with calls for the return of the venerable software.

Microsoft served up a cornucopia of goodies to test, including a beta of Visual Studio Orcas.

The biggest beta of the bunch is Orcas. The long-anticipated Visual Studio test build is essential to Microsoft’s broader cross-product feature integration strategy–or "Integrated Innovation." Orcas anchors Microsoft’s "Smart Client" strategy, where Office is positioned as a replacement for other clients or Web browsers for accessing back-end data or Web services.

Both Fuji Xerox–and now Samsung–have signed deals that "allow" them to sell their products without the threat of a Microsoft suit claiming patent infringement by Linux on Microsoft Windows and other products hanging over their heads.

So far, there’s been far less outcry over Fuji Xerox’s and Samsung’s decisions to admit the possibility of patent infringement by Linux than there was when Novell signed its patent-protection clause with Microsoft. The fact that neither Fuji Xerox nor Samsung are Linux distribution vendors might account for the difference.