Microsoft is holding a contest to see who is the best at Microsoft Office applications Word and Excel. More than 115,000 people entered the contest, and now it’s down to 50 teens and young adults in the finals. I know a few people that are considered experts in Word or Excel (mostly Excel, and I’d go as far as to call them Excel Geniuses, rather than experts) and I’d like to see how they would stack up against the worlds “best”. I’m sure they’d give them a good run for their money, and it’d be a tossup as to who would win. [Also, pics are here]

As for the winners, each completed their exam with a perfect score and did so in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes as opposed to the allotted 50 minutes. The top finisher in each of the four categories (Word 2003, Word 2007, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007) each got a $6,500 scholarship.

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There are some sources saying that they have received an invitation to help beta test Microsoft’s Kinect platform for the XBox 360. They aren’t sure if it is 100% accurate, but if so, check your emails for an invite! I’d sure like to try this thing out!

If an invitation provided to Joystiq by several tipsters is accurate, Microsoft will soon begin the “Xbox Live and Kinect Beta Program.” Several readers claim to have received the invitation via Microsoft Connect, a Microsoft service used to gather customer feedback on its products. The invitation itself includes little information about the program, though it notes that participants will be provided with “a unique opportunity to see pre-release software.”

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Bing has been releasing quite a few themepacks for Windows 7, but they have now released a new theme that is dynamically changed via a RSS feed from Bing. It allows the theme to get content from the internet and display it as a background. This is very similar to Johns Background Switcher, but all contained in a single theme file, and isn’t as customizable (and doesn’t get “questionable” images!). I’ve used John’s Background Switcher for some time now, and it is a treat to have a new background image that you’ve never seen before on screen. Bing has some awesome pictures available, and this theme throws a lot of them at you, but I really like the custom ability of the type of images from John’s. It is more tailored to your interested (if you want anime, robots, food, or whatever, it’s there!).

Indeed, this is the first dynamic theme from the Redmond company, in the sense in which it is not a fixed package, with new wallpapers being accessed via the web all the time.

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More Pro-Windows advertising from Microsoft. They have a new comparison page for users that are looking to compare Mac vs. PC. Of course, it is from Microsoft, so there really isn’t any positive things from the Mac camp. There are a few positives about using a Mac, none of which apply to me, so a PC is definitely the right choice for me.

PCs are designed for work and play, with features you need to get things done on the job or at school and have fun at home or on the go. From easily sharing Microsoft Office documents to watching HDTV and Blu-ray movies, PCs help you do it all.

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For you alternative browser folks, Google Chrome has added Aero Peek ability to it’s browser. Aero Peek is another great under appreciated feature of Windows 7, but one I use daily.

The newest build of Chromium, the open-source project behind Google’s Chrome browser, was released earlier today, and includes a much requested Windows 7 compatibility feature. Chrome’s Dev channel now include Aero Peek functionality for individual tabs within any open Chromium windows. Aero Peek, of course, is the Windows 7 feature that lets you preview open windows and browser tabs by hovering your mouse over the corresponding taskbar icon. Previously, it was a feature only available with IE8, Safari, and Firefox 3.6. Light testing of Chromium’s implementation shows that Aero Peek works as expected, though it still lacks features like download status integration with the taskbar icon.

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This coming Tuesday, Microsoft is set to release 14 new patches on it’s “Patch Tuesday”, which is a record for Microsoft. People may find flaws in their software, but you have to commend them on the speed at which they bring out a fix… Other than the one that was in Windows since 95, and just fixed last year! 🙂

“For those who keep track of such things, this will be the most bulletins we have ever released in a month; we have released 13 bulletins on a couple of occasions,” Angela Gunn, Microsoft Security Response Communications manager, wrote on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog Aug. 5. “However, in total CVE count, this release ties with June 2010, so there’s no new record there.”

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CNN Tech believes that Microsoft’s Bing is out innovating Google. Both companies are very innovative, and both have been borrowing each others ideas for a while now. Only recently have they been more high profile.

When Bing’s look became popular, Google launched a feature to enable its users to make Google look colorful like that, too. For a day, Google even replaced its default background with an image, mimicking Bing’s look. Google users were not impressed with the decision, however. They howled, and Google quickly reverted back to the plain white look.

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Microsoft has released the Out of Band security bulletin MS10-046 this morning. Make sure you download this and get it installed ASAP if your OS is affected. The OoB updates are especially important, they were so critical they release them ahead of schedule of a scheduled patch release. Grab it!

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Windows Shell. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if the icon of a specially crafted shortcut is displayed. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

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