Microsoft Allows Users to Remove Software

by Taylor Flatt on March 8th, 2009 at 10:41 am EDT - 5,907 views

Microsoft finally allows users to remove software that they include on your system when you buy their new Operating System, Windows 7, next year. In response to the EU’s protests and the US’s anti-trust suits they are finally allowing users to remove key programs like Internet Explorer and Media Player from their system by placing an icon in the Control Panel.

However, when you “remove” it from your system, it will remain installed but lack substinence. This is a big step forward from all the years of problems Microsoft has faced under Bill Gates regarding these issues. Now, it seems, that the new CEO will be complying more and more with international governments to eliminate such obstacles.

These new developments are gold to the ears of companies like Google and Mozilla who have been bottle necked by the bundling Microsoft has done to quell competition over the years.

Image courtesy of thetechherald.

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Future of Gaming – Where are we headed?

by Andreas Rothbauer on January 27th, 2009 at 9:31 pm EDT - 2,098 views

In these tough economic times when many people use the entertainment industry as an escape from the brutal reality and are looking for affordable family entertainment I thought it was time to reflect on the gaming industry and where we are going.  I am sure many of you have probably grown up with the NES and other 8 bit consoles – so have I. Looking back at those days of playing the Super Marios, Zeldas and constantly blowing on the dusty cartridges to get them to work makes me miss my first gaming experiences and the epic struggle of trying to play or should I even dare say beat some of those superhard video games from the early 90s. However, I loved every minute of it and doing it with friends were some of the best times I’ve ever had.

Today, video games take on a new but just as important of a role in our lives as adults. As mentioned before, money is hard to come by in this day and age and many people don’t even have jobs anymore. Still, families are seeking entertainment and the unlikely suspect of a video game console has stepped up to deliver just that. What was once a geeky and negatively looked upon activity has spread into nearly every living room and TV show in the United States and even the entire world – newly elevated to pop-culture: the Nintendo Wii.

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How to Extend Windows 7 Trial

by Nathaniel Ed on January 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm EDT - 1,158 views

If you weren’t one of the fortunate 2.5 million who were able to get into the full beta test, everyone else has access to a thirty day free trial, provided that you have Vista to run it. A Windows internal mechansm, however, allows this trial to be quadrupled, allowing Windows 7 beta access for 120 days.

How do I do it?
You have to run the “cmd.exe” program, which, according to PC Games Hardware ”can be found by typing “cmd” into the Windows search, as an administrator.” Then you must type “slmgr.vbs -rearm” into the command prompt. Once you restart your computer, the trial for Windows 7 will restart at thirty days. This neat trick can be redone 3 times, for a total of 4 trial resets.

I think that it’s good that this was found. If you’re busy like I am, thirty days is barely enough to try out an entire operating system. I hope this extra time is put to good use by giving Microsoft good feedback about how to make Windows 7 a better OS.

Source: PCGH
Picture courtesy of PC Games Hardware.

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Microsoft Releases MED-V Beta

by Taylor Flatt on January 19th, 2009 at 3:06 pm EDT - 889 views

Microsoft has released another beta that runs a legacy program which essentially allows you to run Windows XP and 2000 apps on Vista without the need of migration or testing. The beta, called MED-V, creates a virtual PC of the legacy version of Windows that you would like inside Vista. The whole project is said to be completed by at least second quarter.

If you are looking to give this new technology a try, you can download it here, but don’t forget to register or you won’t be able to take part!

This seems like some technology that should have been developed along with the release of Vista or shortly thereafter. However, it seems quite pointless to release it now with Windows 7 coming next year. Maybe they should begin developing technology for Windows 7 instead of the soon-to-be-obsolete Vista.

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Microsoft Updates Windows, Again

by Taylor Flatt on January 13th, 2009 at 6:30 pm EDT - 312 views

Microsoft seems to be having a bad couple of months with their SQL issues and IE troubles. Although this patch was scheduled for their “Patch Tuesday”, it fixes problems in Windows that could allow hackers to inject code into your computer. It had to deal with the SMB protocol that sends requests (information) to controllers such as printers.

The issue was ranked critical mainly due to the fact that the option for it was turned on by default in Windows XP, but turned off by default in Vista giving it a moderate ranking.

While the port is open (settings enabled), it would allow potential hackers the availability to hound the computer with a DOS attack, inject code and/or steal vital (financial) information. Although Microsoft claims that this exploit is not likely to be explored due to the fact that it is “too tough for the average hacker”.

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Want Windows 7?

by Taylor Flatt on January 8th, 2009 at 11:04 pm EDT - 303 views

Windows 7 will be released tomorrow and only 2.5 million downloads available. I bet you are asking how can I get it and where. Well, it is quite simple really. 

1. You need Vista
2. Visit Windows 7 Website
3. Burn the file to a disk
4. Run

It is as simple as that. Now don’t worry, if you don’t have a dvd burner, you can get programs like Alcohol 120% or Daemon which runs a virtual drive (emulator) and you can just simply mount the .iso file rather than having to burn it to a disk and all that.

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Steve Ballmer Microsoft Keynote Speech

by Taylor Flatt on January 7th, 2009 at 11:06 pm EDT - 371 views

Just hours ago Steve Ballmer, Microsofts CEO, gave the Microsoft Keynote speech which lays out the upcoming year. With this year so full of economic depressions I couldn’t way to find out what was in store for all of us consumers.

At the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas Ballmer announced a lot of interesting things like partnerships with Dell that will add preloaded Windows Live programs to Dell computers before shipment. Another partnership is with Verizon which will reload Windows Live on the cellphones before sale. Finally, another partnership with Facebook allows users to hookup their Facebook with MSN Live profile.

Alright folks, here is the biggest let down probably of the entire year. There will be no new Zune. Sadly, they decided to revamp their Live Search rather than come out with tangible items.

Windows 7 was also announced to be out this friday for Beta testing. Hurry and get it because they said they will be capping the downloads at 2.5 million downloads. The recommended hardware requirements are as follows:

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Google, Microsoft, Apple sued

by Taylor Flatt on December 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am EDT - 329 views

The tech giants are being sued for infringement upon icons used in various programs. These include,

• Google – Chrome
• Microsoft – Vista, IE 8
• Apple – iPhone, Safari, Mac OS X

Cygnus Systems, the suers, are looking to score with this lawsuit. They claim to have had this patent since March 2008.  However, they have been applying for it since 2001 but first applied for it 1998. This raises the question, will they (Google, Microsoft, Apple), attempt to settle and get this out of the way, or will they fight it to the end?

That much has yet to be seen. The case was filed in the US District’s Court in Arizona where the CEO of the company, Gregory Swartz, lives. Gregory is seeking to prevent any further infringment upon these preview icons, thumbnails, used by these and other companies. This is leading it to consider accusing other companies and adding them to the stand as defendants to help prevent this and get them all in one swoop.

We will see how this turns out and hopefully it turns out to favor the little guy who seems to have the rights to these icons.

Source: CNet 
Image Courtesy of us-japan.org.

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Windows 7 Beta leaks

by Taylor Flatt on December 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am EDT - 236 views

Windows 7 Beta has been leaked to the internet as of this last weekend. A bunch of torrent sites have just picked up on it and the torrents are running wild.  With thousands of seeders, people who has downloaded and are now contributing to the upload rate, and thousands of leechers, people who have not downloaded it completely and are “leeching” on the seeders, one has to wonder how this happened.

It seems like Microsoft has a real problem with leaks with a lot of their good and “secret” stuff always being leaked. It might just be me, but I believe it might be on purpose to increase the hype and then get user feedback so then it can be a polished product when it does come out. So then, when people complain, they could simply say it wasn’t meant for release yet. Oh well, I suppose we will just never know.

I hope, however, that Microsoft does upgrade their IE standards to a more recent compatibility like those of Chrome and Firefox so we don’t have to make certain code changes to make everything appear right. In some cases, admins have to make 2 seperate sites and redirect based on browsers because IE has its own little world and all the other browsers are close enough together to not really throw a fit. This, I hope, will come coupled with the new system.

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Follow-up on IE Security Breach

by Taylor Flatt on December 22nd, 2008 at 1:47 pm EDT - 145 views

Microsoft has finally started giving insight of this bug that has actually been present for 9 years.  Microsoft said that the error was one that was never tested for.  Although they know of such bugs, they haven’t been training their staff to handle such issues which has essentially caused this major panic.  

To find the bug and to test for ones like this, which are called TOCTOU bugs (Memory errors), they had to use “fuzzers”.  These fuzzers would test out the software by dumping information into various parts and try to trigger a bug.  Since they didn’t have a fuzzer for TOCTOU errors, there was no way to find it.  The bug was not only present in recent browsers, but was traced all the way back to IE 5 (1999).  Micheal Howard, principal security manager at Microsoft had this to say about the bug,

“In theory, fuzz testing could find this bug, but today there is no fuzz test case for this code,” he said. “Triggering the bug would require a fuzzing tool that builds data streams with multiple data binding constructs with the same identifier. Random (or dumb) fuzzing payloads of this data type would probably not trigger the bug, however.”

Basically what he is saying here is that they had no idea an error existed and that there was really no way to test for it until people began to exploit it.

Although Microsoft was able to provide countermeasures to the folks using Vista, they could not, however, provide such countermeasures to those using Windows XP (which is out used 3:1 compared to Vista).  This was a tragic flaw that in the future, we hope they will be able to spot such bugs and not allow those within the program.  The bug could have been worse, but me being a Chrome/Firefox user, am thankful that I stopped using IE a long time ago.

What did you do when you hear this news?

Source: ComputerWorld

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