Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Microsoft releases Fix-It for latest 0-day vulnerability.
A few days ago a new 0-day vulnerability was discovered that affects all versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – but Internet Explorer 10 – on all recent versions of the Windows operating system. Microsoft suggested workarounds like installing the company’s own excellent mitigation tool or setting the Internet and Intranet security zone to high to block the exploit from executing. Third parties recommended to not use Internet Explorer until a fix is released by Microsoft.
The security advisory confirmed that targeted attacks were carried out on the Internet, with users only having to visit a website with a vulnerable version of Internet Explorer for the attack to take place. The Poison Ivy trojan was installed on a successfully exploited system, and for some days researchers assumed that it was the only threat.
Today it became known that other exploits have also been used in the last couple of days, making it even more important to fix the vulnerability as soon as possible.
Microsoft today as well has released a Fix IT to patch Internet Explorer and protect the browser and thus the underlying operating system from the 0-day vulnerability. A Fix it is a lightweight portable program that can modify the operating system or programs installed on it. This particular Fix It resolves the 0-day vulnerability for 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer.
Before you apply the patch you need to make sure that Internet Explorer is fully updated. Once done, download the Fix It from this Microsoft Support page and run it once it is on your computer. Just follow the instructions on screen to patch your system and protect Internet Explorer form being vulnerable to attacks exploiting the vulnerability. Again: this only works for the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer. It is therefor recommended to run this version only for the time being until a security update resolves the issue complete. The Fix It support page offers a second program that you can use to disable the fix again.
It may come as a surprise to many that Microsoft reacted that fast, considering that the company in the past has often taken its time before it released updates to the public. The quick patch may have been designed with Windows users in mind, but it certainly may have also had something to do with the bad press that Microsoft received after the vulnerability was discovered. (via Dottech)
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Microsoft Confirms Internet Explorer Vulnerability [Security]
Internet Explorer Vulnerability Fix
Microsoft Posts Advisory About New Internet Explorer Vulnerability
Old Internet Explorers Affected By Security Vulnerability
About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday September 20, 2012 -
Tags:fix it, internet-explorer, microsoft, vulnerability
Categories: Browsing, Internet ExplorerYou are here: Home » Browsing » Microsoft releases Fix-It for latest 0-day vulnerability.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Microsoft Worldwide Telescope, Explore The Universe
Microsoft Worldwide Telescope is a free application that lets you explore the universe from your local computer. It offers more than a planetarium with its guided tours, free exploration options, communities, extensive search and telescope connection feature. You can launch the application right on the official website, provided that you have Microsoft Silverlight installed, or download a client for the Windows operating system instead. The desktop client has a size of about 70 Megabytes right now. Microsoft recommends a reasonably fast PC with at least 2 Gigabytes of RAM and a 3D accelerated video card, as well as 1 Gigabyte of hard disk space and up to 10 for off-line features and high performance browsing.
You start the application in Explore mode, which lets you zoom in and out, and rotate freely with the mouse. A list of suggestions is displayed at the top and bottom of the window which you can use to zoom in on a planet, constellations, the solar system, black holes or a set of studies (Spitzer, Chandra and Hubble). You need to use the folder options at the top to navigate between different items. You can right-click on any item to receive detailed information, like the classification, names, or distance.
Some data may need to be downloaded before it becomes available. This may explain the 10 Gigabyte system requirements recommendation.
Tours can be particularly interesting as they run more or less automated in full screen. But instead of just displaying visuals, they also offer textual information or audio commentary. There are many different tours available, for galaxies, individual planets, supernovas or nebula. One interesting feature is the ability to create custom tours, and share those tours with other users.
The included search can be used to find planets, constellations and everything else you can think of by entering names, or partial names, into the search form. If you are in the know, you can also enter distance, Ra and Dec information.
Here is a video introduction of the WorldWide Telescope by Roy Gould.
The Worldwide Telescope has two core missions:
To aggregate scientific data from major telescopes, observatories, and institutions and make temporal and multi-spectral studies available through a single, cohesive Internet–based portalTo stimulate interest in science among younger generations, providing a compelling base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computational scienceMicrosoft’s WorldWide Telescope has just been released in a new version for desktop PCs. Version 3 beta can now be downloaded from the official website. If you are interested in the stars, then I’d suggest you give the application a try, it is great.
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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday March 22, 2012 -
Tags:astronomy, microsoft research, stars, windows software
You are here: Home » Software » Microsoft Worldwide Telescope, Explore The Universe
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Microsoft Reduces Touchscreen Lag To 1ms
One of the issues with most touch-enabled devices on the market today is that they have a visible input lag when you work with them. According to research Microsoft conducted, the lag’s about 100ms on modern touchscreen devices, with some devices having less lag, and some even more than that. The effect is less visible on devices with smaller screens, handhelds or smartphones for example, and more visible on tablets and other larger touch-enabled devices.
To put it in understandable terms: The average user moves the finger at about 1 meter per second on touch devices, and a lag of 100ms would mean that the response lags a tenth behind on the screen (which is 10 centimeters).
Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group published a video that is demonstrating some of the improvements that they have come up with to reduce the input lag down to 1ms. If you put that into perspective, the input lag would be reduced to 0.1 centimeters which makes it more or less invisible to the human eye.
The research term has released a video that demonstrates the device’s capabilities.
Applied Sciences Group: Interactive Displays: High-Performance Touch
The video demonstrates the difference between 100ms and 1ms input lag in realtime and footage taken at 1/8 speed to visualize it even better.
Reducing the input lag to 1ms gives the interaction with the device a more natural feel, which the majority of touch-based applications could benefit from.
Microsoft is showing off a prototype device in the video, and it is not clear if and when this technology will be available on the market.
If you are testing the lag on your touch-based devices, would you say that it is noticeable, barely noticeable or not noticeable at all? I tested it on my Samsung Android phone and lag was noticeable despite the small size of the screen.
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Windows 8: What I Think Microsoft Is Missing
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Microsoft Touch Mouse About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 9, 2012 -
Tags:microsoft research, touchscreen
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Saturday, 21 April 2012
Microsoft Slash TechNet Product Keys from 10 to 5 to 3
In September 2010, citing concerns over piracy, Microsoft slashed the number of product keys available to subscribers of its TechNet service from 10 per product down to 5. This caused some arguments but Microsoft still insisted that the annual subscription of $349 was great value for what you got. Now though the company has announced that the number of available product keys is to be slashed even further to just 3 per product.
So what does this mean? Fortunately it doesn’t mean that for $349 you only get three Windows product keys and three for Office. You will get three for Windows 8 Home Premium, three for Windows 8 Professional, three for Windows 8 professional Plus, three for Windows 8 Ultimate and so on. For office it’s three for Office 15 Standard and three for Office 15 Professional etc. That’s still excellent value for money for software that’s just “for evaluation purposes”. Each licence will still also do 10 activations so so that will make up 24 installations of Windows 8 which is enough for anyone to “test”.
In a blog post that can only be seen by current subscribers the company said…
Beginning in mid-March 2012, subscribers to TechNet Subscriptions (excluding TechNet Standard which are entitled to 2 keys per product) may access a maximum allocation of three (3) product keys for Microsoft Office and Windows Client products in connection with their subscription. The allotted keys may only be used for software evaluation purposes. Once the maximum keys have been activated, no more keys will be made available. Additional product keys may be acquired through the purchase of an additional subscription.
There is another restriction though in that subscribers will now only be able to claim 44 keys in total in any one 24 hour period…
Reaching your limit means that you have claimed the maximum number of keys allowed for your program benefit level within a 24 hour period. Every 24 hours you may claim another set of keys, up to your program levels maximum.
So why is the company doing this? Again they say it’s because of piracy concerns…
Why has Microsoft limited my access to product keys?
We are acting to protect the value of your subscription. If we did not act to prevent abuse of subscriptions we would eventually have to either limit the products available in a subscription or raise the price of your subscription. We believe that this is the best compromise to continue to deliver the highest value to you while limiting abuse at the same time.
Some people might turn off TechNet now or perhaps take up a pricier MSDN subscription instead, though the question now needs to be asked how long it will talk for Microsoft to reduce the number of MSDN keys as well.
It’s a blow to existing subscribers, especially to long-time subscribers such as myself who need to be able to test different hardware configurations, dual boot systems and virtual machine environments. For those however there are the trial versions of Windows and Office. Office 2010 has a 60-day trial verstion and hopefully this will continue with Office 15. Windows 7 also offers a 30 day trial version and we can only hope that Windows 8 does to. This will help circumvate some of the issues regards fewer keys being available from TechNet.
It just seems a pity though that the move isn’t coming with a price reduction but never mind :/
No related posts.
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About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Thursday March 22, 2012 -
Tags:microsoft, technet
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Sunday, 8 April 2012
Samsung SUR40 Microsoft Surface Table – Hands On
I’ve today had a chance to have a play with the new Samsung SUR40 table running the latest version of Microsoft’s Surface operating system. The table, which starts at $8,400 is now available to buy in 23 countries after being released at the end of last year, but is it any good and would your business want one?
First of all let’s look at the technical specifications. This table contains a 40 inch 50-point touch screen running at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. It runs on an AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core Processor running at 2.9GHz with unspecified memory and the screen is run by an AMD Radeon HD6700M graphics processor.
The table itself is perfectly fine, though it has a slightly metallic, industrial-look and I’m personally looking forward to the time Surface and similar tables become available in wood. The screen isn’t completely flush with the bezel, creating a slight lip though the screen itself seems perfectly strong enough and handled my slightly wet coffee mug without any complaint.
You might then think that this isn’t be highest resolution or the best processing power you’d expect for over $8k and, to be honest you’d be right. In general use the interface itself is very responsive, but there were some times when I had to press an onscreen button twice before it responded.
What lets Surface and the SUR40 down is the poor app selection available for the product. Microsoft have provided generic apps for things like mapping and the Bing app, with it’s separate search and display widgets works extremely well. It’s never long though before you have done just about everything there is to do on the device and walk away. Any company wishing to deploy the SUR40 or similar Surface devices will most likely need to develop their own apps, perhaps in conjunction with Microsoft.
The support for RFID connectors on objects, in these case some transparent blocks representing everyday objects works very well. I really liked this feature and, although the table doesn’t always know which side of it you’re facing, it does a great job of making object rotatable without juddering or pixelation.
I used the first generation of Surface last year when I visited Microsoft’s UK head office. Comparing the two I prefer the coffee-table approach personally to the full desk, though I can still see occasions when this form-factor would be extremely useful. All in all the SUR40 is a very fine piece of furniture that would look fantastic in any modern place of business.
As someone who also used the first generation of Surface the technology has clearly come on some way, and the new UI is a significant improvement. I can’t help feel though that Surface is still a technology that’s looking for a market. While some businesses will find excellent uses for the SUR40, many more will be put off by the price, the lack of readily available apps and the comparatively weak hardware specification.
See below for my photos of the SUR40.
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Hands of War Tower Defense [Game Saturday] About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Tuesday February 28, 2012 -
Tags:microsoft, samsung, sur40, surface
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Friday, 6 April 2012
Microsoft Beta Day, Windows 8, .Net 4.5, Visual Studio 11
Microsoft has released several beta versions of upcoming products. You are probably already downloading the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that was released about an hour ago. The release marks the beginning of the beta phase of the operating system. Windows Server 8 Beta, Visual Studio 11 Beta and Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5 Beta have been released today as well. This article links to downloads for all released beta versions, and looks briefly at the changes and feature additions in those versions.
Windows 8
The Consumer Preview release was announced on Microsoft’s official Building Windows 8 blog. The post highlights what’s different in comparison to the developer preview version released last year:
Windows Store – Microsoft has integrated a preview version of the Windows Store in the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8.Cloud Support – Cloud services in the form of Skydrive have been integrated into Windows 8. This can be used to sync settings and files between devices efficiently.Internet Explorer Platform Preview 5 – A new preview version of IE10 has been integrated into the beta.Microsoft has completed the “user experience for touch, keyboard, and mouse” in this release.The system recommendations have been posted as well:
1 GHz or faster processor1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driverMicrosoft notes that these are not system requirements and not final.
Download: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview
Windows Server 8 Beta
The Windows Server 8 Beta has been released today as well.
Windows Server “8? is the broadest, most scalable and elastic platform for web and applications. Its consistent, open set of tools and frameworks give developers the flexibility to build and deploy applications on-premises, in the cloud, and in a hybrid environment. Windows Server “8? will empower you to deliver:
Flexibility to build on-premises and in the cloud: Developers can use the same languages and tools to build on-premises and cloud applications, allowing them to build applications that use distributed and temporally decoupled components.
An open web platform: Windows Server “8?, combined with Internet Information Services (IIS), offers a solid platform for both open-source web stacks and ASP.NET, opening up a wide range of choices for application development.
A scalable and elastic web platform: Hosting providers can use new features in Windows Server “8? to increase density, simplify management, and achieve higher scalability in a shared web-hosting environment.
Download: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh708764.aspx?ocid=&wt.mc_id=MEC_110_1_33
More Information: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx
System Requirements:
Processor: Minimum: 1.4 GHz 64bit processorMemory: Minimum: 512 MB RAMAvailable Disk: Space Minimum: 32 GB Note: 32 GB should be considered an absolute minimum value for successful installation. Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, anddump files.
Visual Studio 11 Beta
Visual Studio 11 comes with many feature additions and improvements. It includes support for Windows 8 and web development.
Reduced toolbar commands. To help free up precious workspace, Microsoft has reduced the number of default commands that show on toolbars in the user interface. These commands can still be accessed through the drop-down menus or added back onto the toolbar if the user wants them, but now the default work area is significantly larger. For example, the cut, copy and paste toolbar commands were removed because research has shown that most developers use the keyboard shortcuts instead.Simplified graphics. “Visual Studio 11” eliminates the use of color within tools except in cases where color is used for notification or status change purposes. Now, the user interface competes far less with the developer’s content. Other user interface graphics, such as line work and iconography, also have been simplified to be less distracting.Comprehensive search. “Visual Studio 11” features a comprehensive search capability, allowing developers to quickly find what they are looking for within commands and configuration options, tool windows, and open files.Workflow hubs. New workflow hubs combine common tasks into one simplified window. Rather than force developers to interact with two or more tool windows to get tasks done, ”Visual Studio 11” streamlines common tasks so that many can be accomplished from within a single window.Preview Tabs. Developers can view the contents of documents using new Preview Tabs, which get reused as the developer works. As a result, developers no longer end up with large numbers of extraneous documents open as a byproduct of common tasks such as debugging or browsing results.
It includes the Team Foundation Server Express Beta, a free collaboration software for small teams.
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us
Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5 Beta
The Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5 Beta improves the framework in many different ways. Core enhancements include:
Languages. To help developers deliver responsive clients and scalable servers, the C# and Visual Basic languages now have built-in support for writing asynchronous code almost as easily as if it were synchronous. And to help developers tackle data-complex problems, F# integrates Type Providers to make data access trivial in F# programs and components.Performance. The Common Language Runtime has been overhauled to provide better performance, in particular for server applications and services. With additions such as background server garbage collection, multicore background JIT compilation and profile-guided optimization, managed applications can now start faster and run with better throughput and lower latency.Networking. With the proliferation of devices and continuous services in the cloud, .NET Framework 4.5 builds upon the high-quality networking libraries already available in .NET to further enable the development of increasingly connected applications. New support spans from modern HTTP libraries to WebSockets to support for contract-first service development.
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us
Closing Words: Four new beta releases in one day may seem overkill, even for a company like Microsoft. The servers seem to be capable of handling the traffic right now. It remains to be seen though if it stays this way or if they will slow down to a crawl eventually when more users start to download the beta versions.
Have you download and tried a beta version yet? If so, what is your impression so far?
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Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta Download About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday February 29, 2012 -
Tags:microsoft, net framework, visual studio, windows 8, windows server
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Sunday, 25 March 2012
Microsoft Extends Vista Extended Support Cycle To 2017
Microsoft initially planned to end support for some Windows Vista versions, Windows Home Basic and Ultimate for example, in April 2012. The effect would have been devastating for customers running those editions of the operating systems, as they would not receive patches, both normal and security related, anymore after that date. It would also mean that Windows XP would outlive these Vista editions thanks to its extended support end date.
Only Vista Home Premium, Business and Enterprise were known to receive extended support until April 2017. Microsoft recently has made changes to Vista’s product life cycle, and published those changes on the Microsoft Support website.
Mainstream support for all Vista editions will still end on April 10, 2012. The change affects the extended support end date, which has now been set to April 11, 2017 for all Windows Vista versions.
This means that all Vista users will receive free security updates for their system until April 2017. The Lifepolicy FAQ over at Microsoft highlights the differences between mainstream and extended support phases. Extended support includes:
Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)Security update supportNon-security hotfix support: Requires extended hotfix agreement, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending.Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge BaseProduct-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questionsProvided support excludes the following:
No-charge incident supportWarranty claimsDesign changes and feature requestsWindows XP in comparison will reach the end of its extended support period on April 8, 2014.
Including Home and Ultimate editions of Vista in the extended support phase is the right move, especially since the Ultimate edition back then was advertised by Microsoft as, uhm, the ultimate edition of the operating system. It did not make a lot of sense to exclude the priciest version of Windows Vista from the extended support lifecycle of the operating system. (via Winfuture)
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The Extra Money For Windows Vista Ultimate Is Finally Paying Off About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday February 20, 2012 -
Tags:windows-vista, windows-xp
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Microsoft Reveals SkyDrive Will Be Integrated Into Windows 8
There are not many Windows 8 features that excite me as much as the planned integration of Microsoft’s online storage and document editing service SkyDrive in the operating system. A new blog post over at the Building Windows 8 blog reveals how the Redmond company intents to integrate SkyDrive into the Windows operating system.
The post highlights three big features, and promises in the end that the announcement is not the end of it for SkyDrive in Windows.
The three big features that Microsoft announced today are a new SkyDrive Metro style app for Windows 8, SkyDrive file integration into Windows Explorer for Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, and remote file access through SykDrive.com.
A Metro style SkyDrive app
This is the feature with the least appeal to me personally. I can however see that users who will make use of Metro actively will love it. The new SkyDrive app will launch with the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 at the end of February. Windows 8 users can see and access their files in the Metro user interface directly, on all PCs they have access to.
If a user signs in with a Windows Live ID, Windows 8 will automatically check if important system files, like settings, customizations or the browser history, are stored in the cloud. If they are, they are made available on the system as well.
I’d assume that Windows will ask before transferring the files to the Internet and back to the current PC. This has not been explicitly mentioned though, and we may need to wait for the developer preview before we can test the feature to see how it works.
Other Metro apps can make use of SkyDrive as well. Microsoft notes that this “will bring a file cloud to every Metro style app”.
SkyDrive Desktop App
SkyDrive for the desktop will be offered as a small standalone installer. It takes about ten seconds to install the program on the desktop, and will create a SkyDrive folder in the userprofile folder. This works exactly like the Dropbox folder. All files that you put into the folder will automatically be synchronized with the cloud.
The app will run on Windows 8, but also on Windows 7 and Vista (sorry no XP version). We are also pretty sure that there will be a SkyDrive desktop app for the Mac as well.
SkyDrive’s current file size limit of 100 Megabyte would definitely be to low for this application, which is why Microsoft has increased the maximum file size to 2 Gigabytes. This is actually the same size that free Dropbox account owners get in total.
SkyDrive for the desktop integrates with Windows Explorer to provide a seamless experience.
Windows Vista or Windows 7 users who plan to upgrade to Windows 8, can use the SkyDrive application to move all of their important files to the cloud before they do so, to get them synced on the new PC or after the update.
Remote File access in Windows 8
The third and final feature adds remote file access to SkyDrive in Windows 8. It is not clear if both PCs need to run Windows 8, or only the desktop app for the feature to work. It basically allows you to connect to a remote PC to transfer files from that PC to the PC you are currently working on. The remote PC needs to be online for this to work.
This feature uses a 2-factor authentication, for instance by mobile phone or email, to make sure that only authorized users can access data on the remote PC.
SkyDrive currently provides users with 25 Gigabytes of free storage. We mentioned earlier that Microsoft plans to offer storage upgrades at a fair pricing for users who need more space in the cloud.
It is to early to tell if this will be one of the killer features that every Windows enthusiast has been waiting for. From the looks of it, it could very well scare the hell out of Dropbox and other cloud hosting and data synchronization providers.
What’s your take on this?
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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday February 20, 2012 -Tags:microsoft-windows, windows 8
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Friday, 16 March 2012
Why Have Microsoft Been So Quiet About Windows 8
In case you missed it, we’ve had a great Windows 8 discussion going on here at gHacks in the last couple of days, one that is no doubt set to continue for a while yet in various forms as we look forward to the release of the Consumer Preview (beta) at the end of this month. One of the issues that people have highlighted with Windows 8 is the poor communication we’ve had so far from Microsoft. So why is this and what has caused it?
I’m writing this as an outsider looking in. I’ve no real idea why Microsoft have chosen to keep quiet on so many things, such as having Windows 8 default to the desktop as the main user interface which seems to be the biggest and most common question. I do have some insight into the company, the products and the people behind Windows 8 however, so hopefully I might be able to shed some light as to the reasons why, and what the historical perspective of this is.
Before Windows 7 the Windows betas were a mess. The official testing community, of which I have been a member for years, usually got access to builds of a new operating system during the alpha stage. This was pretty pointless as if Microsoft wanted you to find bugs you would probably find one within five minutes of installing the thing that would prevent you from using it completely. In fact Microsoft have said that the majority of bugs reported by testers over the years were things the company already knew about. One of the problems associated with such an open development process was that features that never made it to the final product, either because they never worked reliably, or because the company simply ran out of development time, did on occasion cause some distress for testers and bad publicity for Microsoft. A couple of great examples are the relational file system WinFS and a new Guest Mode that would roll back user settings and files when someone new finished using your PC. Both were slated for release in Windows Vista and neither worked properly. WinFS, under a new name, is only making a comeback now, and only in Windows Server 8.
It was after this that the former head of Microsoft’s Office division, Steven Sinofsky, took charge of Windows development. Sinofsky was already a very secretive man and much of the secrecy now revolves around him, his personality and his desire to make certain that the only information that makes it out into the public domain is the correct information.
Thus Microsoft launched the Building Windows 8 blog where Sinofsky and his team have been trickling out information steadily since shortly before the Developer Preview of Windows 8 was released. We can be certain that if Microsoft didn’t need to get developers writing Metro apps we certainly wouldn’t have seen Windows 8 then at all, and it wouldn’t be appearing for the first time until now. This is because Sinofsky and the Windows development team hate releasing anything that’s neither finished nor ready.
Alas this was what they had to do with the Developer Preview and, as such, it’s had a lot of very bad, and probably equally unfair, press. What Microsoft didn’t do was adjust their marketing strategy at the same time and, as such, the communication about the operating system has focused almost entirely on what’s new, what’s cool, where huge improvements have been made, but that it has not actually been answering many of the questions people have been asking.
This could be because at the time the answers to those questions simply didn’t exist. Don’t forget that Windows 8 still had an awful lot of development to get through after the DP was signed off at the beginning of last August. That’s a long time ago now. It could equally be though that it wasn’t the discussion Microsoft wanted to have. For example, telling IT Pros that they could simply switch to the desktop as their default UI could very well have undermined all the work they have been doing getting the world, and software developers, excited about Metro. After all, if Metro was something that could just be switched off, why would people worry about it and you’d very quickly find it being relegated to a minor sub-feature in Windows like Media Centre.
I may be wrong with my assumptions and assertions here, but it’s certainly true that nobody within Microsoft is coming up with the answers. This might change in the coming weeks or it might not. One thing is for certain though, the wider world is simply not going to stop asking.
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Microsoft secretly updating Windows Files About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Wednesday February 8, 2012 -
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Thursday, 15 March 2012
Will we Anti-Trust Microsoft in the Future?
It’s not that long ago, really not a distant memory, when Microsoft were hauled before regulators in the US and Europe for several years over the anti-competitive practices of bundling Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player with Windows. Competitors such as Opera and Real Networks (remember them?) said such practices were damaging their own success and as such Microsoft had to spend millions of dollars defending themselves only to mostly lose and have to offer both versions of Windows without Windows Media Player and also the Browser Ballot screen in the EU (which I have to admit is a very good idea anyway) so that users could make an informed choice about what web browser they wanted to use.
Since this happened such software has begun to creep back into Windows. Windows 8 is without doubt the worst offender ever with a new Metro version of Internet Explorer embedded into the new Start Screen as well as the desktop version present also. It is the first version of Windows to include anti-virus software and now we learn that the ARM-version of Windows 8 will also include desktop versions of Microsoft’s next office suite, codenamed “Office 15? in the form of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. So what’s happening here and could Microsoft face more anti-trust action in the coming years?
To look at this we have to look at the competition. When Microsoft were going through their anti-trust actions there really wasn’t any. At first they just had two desktop operating systems to compete against, OS X and GNU/Linux. With this they had a monopoly, but one that they’d worked hard for and earned. With the software things were a different issue where there were a great many web browsers, media players and more.
I began to wonder what might happen with further anti-trust actions when Microsoft announced that, for the first time, they would be bundling anti-virus software with Windows. ”Windows Defender” isn’t like the existing Windows Defender that first appeared with XP, it’s a re-badged version of Microsoft’s free Security Essentials product. So far no other anti-virus vendor has kicked up a fuss, though that may still happen.
We had further news though this week that Windows 8 on ARM processors will also include bundled versions of the company’s next generation Office suite in the form of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Surely then this would cause a real storm and trigger another anti-trust investigation right away? Actually I don’t think it will, and it’s likely that Microsoft may never face another anti-trust investigation again.
There are several reasons for this. The first is that in the last few years all manner of popular and effective competition has sprung up in the operating system space, in the form of iOS, WebOS, QNX, Chrome OS and most notably Android. Each and every one of these operating systems (with the notable exception of ChromeOS which is entirely cloud-based) come pre-installed with a bespoke web browser, media player and more and all but iOS come with a pre-loaded Office productivity suite. This then is surely what will have triggered Microsoft’s decision to bundle a version of Office with Windows 8 tablets.
It’s a savvy move too. They will undoubtedly be cut-down versions, similar to the Office web apps, and will be used to try and up-sell people to the full version of Office on their PCs in the same way that Office Starter, which is commonly shipped free of charge with new PCs does already.
It is very easy now then for Microsoft’s lawyers to argue that bundling Office 15 with Windows 8 tablets isn’t anti-competitive at all, especially as they don’t do it with the desktop version of the OS. They’re just copying what other tablet operating system makers have been doing for some time now. With the anti-virus argument it might be a harder argument to make, and it is possible we will see some of the smaller or even major anti-virus vendors complaining to the US authorities or to the EU. It’s much more likely though that they’ll simply dismiss Windows Defender as being “rubbish” (which it isn’t I should add if you’re considering it) and trying to convince people to buy their own suites anyway.
So what do you think the legal future is for Microsoft given everything they’re bundling with Windows 8? Why not tell us in the comments below?
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Microsoft Product Key – Microsoft Office Key Remover About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Facebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Saturday February 11, 2012 -
Tags:anti trust, anti virus, excel, microsoft, office, onenote, powerpoint, security essentials, windows 8, windows-defender, word
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Saturday, 3 March 2012
Microsoft Slam New Google Privacy Policy in Newspaper Advert
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About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides.You can follow Mike onFacebook, Twitter or on his own website The Long ClimbAuthor: Mike Halsey MVP, Wednesday February 1, 2012 -
Tags:Google, microsoft, privacy
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Responses so far:Robert Palmar says: February 1, 2012 at 10:10 pmReplyRoman ShaRP says: February 1, 2012 at 10:23 pmReplyKoalaBear says: February 1, 2012 at 11:10 pmReplyTranscontinental says: February 1, 2012 at 11:18 pmReplyBobbyPhoenix says: February 1, 2012 at 11:49 pmReplyRobert Palmar says: February 2, 2012 at 12:04 amReplyPeople'sFault says: February 2, 2012 at 2:33 amReplyclazy8 says: February 2, 2012 at 6:24 amReplyJim says: February 2, 2012 at 6:31 amReplyMarkus says: February 2, 2012 at 8:48 amReplyLeave a Reply Follow Ghacks Subscribe To Comment Rss
Last week Google announced changes to its privacy policy that, on the face of it seem perfectly reasonable. In essence they want to treat all the different Google services you use as a single big account and share the data. What this ultimately means though is that the company will know absolutely huge volumes of information about you.
For instance they’ll see what emails you receive and subscribe to, what videos you watch, what things you search for, what sorts of documents you work on and what the content of those documents is, what you blog about, what you take photographs of and where, what newspapers and blogs you read, what you buy online, what parts of the world you’re interested in (and where you live), who you chat to and what you like to buy.
All of this information, when put together, helps advertisers paint an incredibly detailed picture of you and with about a billion users worldwide, that information is incredibly valuable.
Now Microsoft have hit back with newspaper adverts in the US saying that this isn’t what want at all and that you should ‘obviously’ use their products and services instead.
In the advert they say…
Google is in the process of making some unpopular changes to some of their most popular products. Those changes, cloaked in language like “transparency”, “simplicity” and “consistency” are really about one thing: making it easier for Google to connect the dots between everything you search, send, say or stream while using one of their services.
But, the way they are doing it is making it harder for you to maintain control of your personal information. Why are they so interested in doing this that they would risk this kind of backlash? One logical reason: Every data point they collect and connect to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser.
So is this fair enough, sour grapes or the pot calling the kettle black? In fairness it is all of the above as there are elements of all of these in the advert. Google make almost all of their revenue from advertising and the better and more attractive they can make their own advertising, and the data they collect on their users, the more companies they will attract and the more money they can charge for the (your) personal information.
Many people simply don’t want to be tracked and Microsoft point out that you can do this in the latest version of Internet Explorer. What they don’t mention is that you can also do it the latest version of Google’s Chrome browser as well and that many of the advertising and data-mining tactics used by Google are also used by Microsoft.
Consumers will have to decide for themselves how they feel about the approach Microsoft are taking here, though many will just see it as a company taking advantage of an open goal for a publicity stunt. The fact remains though that the US Congress is so concerned about the new changes Google is introducing that they are holding an closed door hearing to discuss what the changes mean.
So what do you think about Google’s new privacy policy? Have you even heard about it and what do you think of Microsoft’s response? Why not tell us in the comments below.
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About the Author:Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP for "Windows Expert". He is also the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out from Microsoft Press and the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides.You can follow Mike on
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Responses so far:Robert Palmar says:
First of all, what Google is doing is not “doing evil”. I suppose it was inevitable.
Google already had this information on users prior to the new policy and for all anyone
knew was already linking data bases behind the scenes where they now pulled the curtain.
As long as Google is up front about the changes consumers can decide whether they mind.
I prevent tracking by any vendor on general principles of privacy and not fear of advertisers.
Even with Google’s integrated approach no advertiser is getting specific information on who you are
but rather what kind of consumer you are, what class you fall into, and then display ads accordingly.
This is something marketers have tried to do long before the internet using any available information.
Microsoft does have a marketing opportunity here as many people do not like the new Google policy.
Microsoft must be confident they do not in fact catalog data on users to the extent Google does.
Of course no one has to believe them and Microsoft detractors will assume they do anyway.
I might be wrong, but I don’t care that much about Google privacy policy.
I use Gmail, most of the time by mail client, and I don’t see so far reasons for big concerns. Those who read my blog and/or use blog searches can found about me much more than Google can. So… Why to be concerned?
As for Microsoft – I never trusted them and their policies, so why to trust their ads?
Google provided to me
- free Gmail
- free Linux-based Android OS with less restrictions
- Chrome browser (not browser of my choice, but more useful and FASTER than the ugly buggy IE)
- OpenOffice/Libreoffice support (I really DO prefer OpenOffice-Libreoffice)
- some Ubuntu Linux support (perhaps, my next OS as Microsoft sinks into Metro)
and most of what MS boasts are commercial restricted tools I don’t want to work with if I’m not well-paid for it.
Yes, I’m not happy with many Google decisions, but I can’t remember any MS decision/solution I’m happy with.
I like the new privacy policy, so we can see more and better integration!
Also I trust Google more when it comes to privacy and keeping my data safe.
I’ve forgotten to remain pragmatic in my situation regarding Google and mainly its new privacy deal, when an irrational reaction made me slam a door.
From my Google account I called mainly Gmail and Reader, I mean these were the only services keeping my related data.
At this point the new privacy policy wouldn’t have changed much to my privacy, and yet … well, as I said, I got annoyed by the very idea of centralizing data within Google services, it just annoyed me. I guess in a way it was the final straw to a wide process that included the worst of the Web : naked community, and when I say naked you know I’m not referring to citizens on the beach in the late sixties !
Well, I’ve archived all my Gmail with ‘Mailstore Home’, and then closed my Google account.
I just feel much better.
At this time I perceive mainly two big companies as intrusive, as intruders even on a Web they seem to consider as their domain. Everywhere, almost I guess, Google and Facebook. You get a home-made cookie and/or a home-call to these companies on almost all websites. I know this is because those sites have accepted scripts, and they gave accepted them because users want them, and users want them because they believe that if they keep out of social web they will be like strange monjies disconnected from…. others.
I feel so lonely, gosh makes me wanna cry :)
Either way it does not bother me. My life is an open book. You want to know something just ask, and I will tell. I try to live the straight and narrow path of life, so I have nothing to hide. You want to track me? Fine. You don’t want to track me? Fine. I use all Google services and products from Gmail on the computer to Android phones with all Google apps. I use a lot of Microsoft products too. I am one of those who always checks the boxes to send anonymous data to who ever wants it when I use a product or app. Take my stuff! Do it! haha
Google responds. Looks like their pissed.
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2012/02/busting-myths-about-our-approach-to.html
Google should think of running an ad in the same
newspapers Microsoft has with the blog copy.
Google don’t need more than 1 page, because in short they are saying “we will play GOD and do EVERYTHING, and you will kindly agree, or you’re out”.
Also, the net is full of lies bout “using the service without logging” … the policy DOESN’T say that …
According to the policy, if you go to “google.com” and hit search then you agree to the policy PERIOD.
They will get away with it, because people still don’t read a one page policy!
Can someone explain why Congress should have anything to say about the Google policy? Google users are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves whether they are willing to barter exposure to advertising for valuable computational services. And really now: if you’re going to have to look at ads, wouldn’t you prefer ads for products and services you might actually want? I don’t understand the paranoia this issue arouses. People seem to assume that once they’ve seen an ad, they lose the power to make rational decisions. They also seem to think that Google products are free because life is beautiful. But someone has to pay for the goodies, and Google users should be grateful that the company has ingeniously found someone else to foot the bill.
I had high hopes for Google, but now I’m distancing myself from them. Their search engine is a last resort, I have a Gmail account that I don’t use, Google+ is a waste of time, and I get better maps from other sites. Of course the MS ads are pure marketing BS, so they should be ignored. All this situation proves is you can’t trust ANY company, regardless of their promises or lofty motto. If they are faced with a choice of making a buck over serving their customers’ best interests, the money will win every time.
What we need is a browser extension to block HALSEY, and his BIASED posts on Ghacks.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Microsoft Outlook Window Not Appearing Fix
Outlook is not my main email client and I never really used it that much. Still, I have it installed as a part of my Office 2010 installation, and I tend to use it sometimes to test a new plug-in or feature that I would like to write about. For the past month or so I have been experiencing a rather puzzling issue that I never bothered to look into until today.
Whenever I would start Outlook on my computer, it would launch minimized in the Windows taskbar. A left-click on the Outlook icon, which normally should display the window on the desktop, had no effect at all. A right-click and the selection of the task had not effect either. Last but not least, a left-click on the Outlook icon in the system tray area, or a right-click and the selection of Open Outlook did nothing either.
No matter what I did, I could not get the window to show up on my desktop.
After some playing around I discovered a solution to bring back the Microsoft Outlook window. Here is what I did:
Click on the start menu and locate Microsoft Outlook there. Right-click on the program and select Properties from the options. Locate the Run menu and select Maximized from the options. Please note that you need elevated rights to save the change. Windows will automatically display an authorization prompt when you click ok or apply in the menu.
Relaunch Outlook once you have completed the process and clicked on the ok button.
You should now see the Outlook window open in fullscreen on the desktop. This has fixed the issue only partially though. Once you minimize the window you will notice that you cannot open it up again. While you could now close Outlook to start it maximized whenever you need to access the program, you’d probably prefer a permanent fix.
With Outlook displayed in full screen on the Windows, right-click the Windows taskbar and select the Cascade Windows options from the right-click context menu.
Once you have done that, you have fixed your Outlook issue. To check that you can now open Outlook normally again do the following:
Close all running instances of the messaging client on your system.Go to Start > Microsoft Outlook, right-click the entry and select Normal Window under run.Start Outlook normally. If the window appears, you have fixed your issue.Here is a video that walks you through all the necessary steps.
Hope this helps Outlook users who are experiencing the same issue.
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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday January 18, 2012 -Tags:microsoft outlook, outlook tips
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Microsoft Outlook Email Signature Creator
Email signatures are automatically added to emails. They often contain additional contact information, for instance the senders phone number, messenger chat name or address, and sometimes disclaimers and other legal notifications.
Creating a basic signature is actually pretty easy even though the process has changed with every new version of Outlook. You can create a new signature in Outlook 2010 by switching to the Message tab and selecting Signature > Signatures from the Include group there in the ribbon at the top of the program window.
Click on the E-Mail Signature tab there and select New, type a name and click OK. Start entering your signature text under Edit signature and use formatting and styles from the available selection. You can add an electronic business card, hyperlink or picture to the signature optionally. A click on OK saves it in the program.
You can then associate the signature with an e-mail account by selecting Choose default signature in the E-mail account list in the Signatures menu, or insert signatures manually into messages.
Microsoft Outlook Email Signature Creator is a handy tool that allows you to create professionally looking email signatures in a heartbeat.
The program displays a set of forms for you to fill out on start. Here you can add your name and job title, telephone, mobile and Fax, e-mail and web address, street address, footer or terms and a logo or picture.
A click on preview loads the created signature in the default web browser. The Outlook signature generator offers four different color schemes, blue, red, green and black, with the blue scheme selected by default.
You can furthermore change the text size from small to medium or large.
Once you are satisfied with the creation you can create the signature with a click on Create It. Microsoft Outlook Email Signature Creator can either create and install the signature automatically into Outlook, or only create the signature so that it is up to you to integrate it into Microsoft’s messaging software. Users who use a different email software may use the second option to create a signature for their email program.
Windows users can download the program from the official website. The software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and is compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 running on all versions of Windows from Windows XP on.
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Email Prioritizer for Microsoft Outlook About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 12, 2012 -
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Saturday, 14 January 2012
Microsoft Releases First 2012 Security Update
Microsoft today has released seven security related bulletins that fix issues in the Windows operating system and in Microsoft’s Developer Tools. One bulletin has received the maximum severity rating of critical, the highest available rating, while the remaining six bulletins have all received a rating of important, the third highest rating.
It is interesting to note that the severity rating of the first bulletin is critical on Windows XP and Vista, while only important on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. When you look at all bulletins you will notice that Windows XP is affected by all, Vista by five and Windows 7 by four of the vulnerabilities addressed in the bulletins.
The Security Bulletins have just been posted on Microsoft’s Technet website. Here is this month’s summary with links to each security bulletin.
MS12-004 – Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2636391) – This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerabilities 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.MS12-001 – Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Security Feature Bypass (2644615) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to bypass the SafeSEH security feature in a software application. An attacker could then use other vulnerabilities to leverage the structured exception handler to run arbitrary code. Only software applications that were compiled using Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 can be used to exploit this vulnerability.MS12-002 – Vulnerability in Windows Object Packager Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2603381) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate file with an embedded packaged object that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted executable file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. 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.MS12-003 – Vulnerability in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2646524) – This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. All supported editions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not affected by this vulnerability.The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application. The attacker could then take complete control of the affected system and install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. This vulnerability can only be exploited on systems configured with a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean system locale.
MS12-005 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2584146) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Office file containing a malicious embedded ClickOnce application. 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.MS12-006 – Vulnerability in SSL/TLS Could Allow Information Disclosure (2643584) – This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0. This vulnerability affects the protocol itself and is not specific to the Windows operating system. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if an attacker intercepts encrypted web traffic served from an affected system. TLS 1.1, TLS 1.2, and all cipher suites that do not use CBC mode are not affected.MS12-007 – Vulnerability in AntiXSS Library Could Allow Information Disclosure (2607664) – This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting (AntiXSS) Library. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a an attacker passes a malicious script to a website using the sanitization function of the AntiXSS Library. The consequences of the disclosure of that information depend on the nature of the information itself. Note that this vulnerability would not allow an attacker to execute code or to elevate the attacker’s user rights directly, but it could be used to produce information that could be used to try to further compromise the affected system. Only sites that use the sanitization module of the AntiXSS Library are affected by this vulnerability.The updates are already available on Windows Update. The easiest way to open the updating tool is to click on the start menu orb and select Windows Update from the program listing there.
Windows users who do not want to or can’t use Windows Updates can download the updates from Microsoft’s Download Center beginning later today. Microsoft as usual will release an ISO image with all security updates of the month for easier distribution.
Update: The severity and exploitability index and bulletin deployment information have been posted.
The next security updates will be released on February 14, 2012.
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Microsoft Security Updates May 2010 About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 10, 2012 -
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