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Microsoft is planning to double the amount of promoted apps in the Start menu with the upcoming Anniversary Update to Windows 10. The software maker revealed at its WinHEC conference last week that the amount will increase from five currently up to 10 in the Anniversary Update that's due to roll out in July. Promoted apps are typically used on new PCs as links to encourage Windows 10 users to download Store apps, and different apps are promoted in different countries. Some promoted apps are pre-installed, but Microsoft notes that they can be fully uninstalled and any promoted items removed...

If you use Java, you know the drill: It's time to update for security vulnerabilities once again.Oracle is out with its latest Critical Patch Update (CPU) release with Java SE 7 Update 25. The June release is part of Oracle's regularly scheduled plan for Java updates, though don't let that fool you; this update fixes some very high-risk issues of immediate importance.Ten of the 40 issues were privately reported to Oracle by HP's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). "These vulnerabilities cover a wide spectrum of software weaknesses including sandbox bypasses, heap-based buffer overflows, and out-of-bounds writes," Brian Gorenc, manager of the...

Apple today updated the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple's innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display with greater color intensity, the innovative glass Multi-Touch trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics. Starting at just $1,199, the MacBook Pro line is more affordable than ever, with some models up to $300 less than the previous generation. The industry's greenest notebook lineup, every Mac notebook achieves EPEAT Gold...

When large businesses buy new PCs, they often wipe the hard drives clean and install a fresh copy of Windows, along with the other software they want workers to have. Some consumers, frustrated with all of the trial software, desktop icons and other stuff that comes loaded on their machines, are doing the same thing. However, what works for businesses isn't always so easy for individuals. Many computers don't actually come with a clean copy of the operating system. Instead, many ship with a "recovery partition" or a recovery disc that restores the system back to the way it shipped--with...

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s forthcoming Windows Vista will take much harsher steps to curtail piracy than previous versions of its operating system, including crippling the usefulness of computers found to be running unlicensed copies of the new software. The world's largest software maker said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology. If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting...

I've had what started out as a minor problem with my computer escalate way out of control. Two nights ago I got impatient waiting for all the junk on my computer to load after an installation reboot. I hit the reboot program before I should have, it clashed with a just loading Zone Alarm, corrupted a Zone Alarm dll, and all heck broke loose.The corrupted file looped and brought my system to a standstill. I finally got it turned off (unless I highlight it or do anything to it at all), but I can't delete it (inpage error), I can't...

Microsoft Corp. warned users of its Windows operating system on Tuesday of three newly found "critical" security flaws in its software, including one that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer. Computer security experts urged users to download and install the patches, which are available at www.microsoft.com/security. "Users (should) apply the updates as quickly as possible," said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager of Symantec Security Response, part of security software company Symantec Corp. SYMC.O. Microsoft said that vulnerabilities exist in its Internet Explorer Web browser, the most severe of which could allow an attacker to take complete control...

"A report on the Australian whirlpool forum suggest that a worm is currently taking out MySQL servers running on Windows. We have seen this happen with MSSQL before (not just 'Slammer', but also SQLSnake that used SA accounts without password). The SANS Internet Storm Center suggests that a rise in port 3306 scans can be attributed to the new worm, and is asking for observations to help figure this out. It appears the worm creates a file called 'spoolcll.exe'."

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced record revenue of $10.82 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, a 7% increase over the results in the same period of the prior year. Operating income for the second quarter was $4.75 billion, which was an increase of $3.27 billion over the same period in the prior year...... "Our record revenue came from across-the-board strength in both our business and consumer segments," said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "And our long-term approach to growing new businesses is paying off. Home and Entertainment delivered its first profitable...

Microsoft is admonishing those who found the IFRAME vulnerability - the flaw exploited by the bofra virus - for the way they made it public. Microsoft has slammed the people responsible for publishing details of the vulnerability that has lead to the creation of the bofra virus. The software giant, which has yet to release a patch for the flaw, said that the vulnerability was not reported in a responsible fashion. In a prepared email statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, the company said: "Microsoft is concerned that this new report of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer was not disclosed responsibly,...

W64.Rugrat.3344 is a direct-action infector (it exits memory after execution) of IA64 Windows Portable Executable (PE) files - this includes most Windows applications - excluding .dlls. It infects files that are in the same folder as the virus and in all subfolders. It is the first known virus for 64-bit Windows, and it uses the Thread Local Storage structures to execute the viral code. This is an unusual method of executing code. It does not infect 32-bit Portable Executable files, and it will not run on 32-bit Windows platforms. The virus is written in IA64 assembly code. Note: A true...

<p>Thanks to several high-profile vulnerabilities and an overall increase in the number of flaws, open-source software has taken over Microsoft Corp.'s position at the bottom of the security heap. A recent research note from two analysts at the Aberdeen Group calls open-source software and Linux distributions the "2002 poster children for security problems." Of the 29 advisories issued through October by the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, 16 of them addressed vulnerabilities in open-source or Linux products.</p>

Apache worm starts to spread Security experts are rushing to decode a worm program that exploits a 2-week-old flaw to infect computers running vulnerable versions of the popular open-source Apache Web server application. The worm is thought to be capable of spreading only to Web servers running the FreeBSD operating system, an open-source variant of Unix, that haven't had a patch applied for the recent flaw. Although few people have reported the worm, it is thought to be infecting vulnerable Web servers worldwide. "It is spreading," said Domas Mituzas, a systems developer for Baltic information-technology firm Microlink Systems and the...