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[NOTE date of article, Feb 20, 2008] Responding to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs that flooded support newsgroups last week, Microsoft said on Tuesday it had pulled an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service Pack 1. Although the update -- actually a pair of prerequisite files that modify Vista's install components -- has been temporarily pulled from Windows Update, Microsoft has not yet produced a fix for users whose machines either won't boot or reboot constantly. "Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the update to avoid further...

Last week Microsoft rolled out three prerequisite updates to prepare users computers for the first service pack for Windows Vista. However, one of these updates apparently caused serious issues among some users, prompting Microsoft to quickly suspend automatic installations of KB937287 after customers complained that their PCs wouldn't boot up properly once the update had been applied. For affected users who already received the update, the only solution is to reboot their computers, boot from their original Vista disc and restore their computer to a state several days prior. However, some users have reported hardware and hard disk problems after...

Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer. The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn't clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP. "You can see the frustration," Walling said...

In the year that has passed since Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) released Windows Vista to business users, the operating system has gained a reputation in the channel as a bloated memory hog that many companies are avoiding like a trip to the dentist. But Microsoft partners have a more positive opinion of Windows 7, the next generation of Windows that Microsoft expects to ship in the 2010 timeframe. That's because Windows 7 will be based on MinWin, a scaled down version of the Windows core that will also serve as the framework for Windows Server and Windows Media Center. MinWin's source code...

Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft - From your machine! By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company. Microsoft makes no secret...

Report: Microsoft says open source violates 235 patents By Stephen Shankland Story last modified Mon May 14 06:16:01 PDT 2007 Microsoft claims that free and open-source software violates 235 of its patents, according to a magazine report published Sunday. In an interview with Fortune, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, while its user interface and other design elements infringe on a further 65. OpenOffice.org is accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, according to Fortune. It is not entirely clear how Microsoft might proceed in...

Pardon a vanity, please. So many articles are coming out about Vista horrors (I'm on Shadowace's Tech ping list) I need to ask a question and get assistance. My out-of-state sister, a complete computer newbie with absolutely no knowledge of how they work or why except how to save a Word document at the office, went and ordered one from Dell last month so she can get email and do some web browsing when she retires later this year. They sent her one with a Vista OS and what she is finding out is the almost no one can help...

XP Successor Doesn't Break New Ground on Ease of Use, But It's Best Windows Yet A new version of Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular and important computer operating system, will finally arrive for consumers on Jan. 30. It has taken the giant software maker more than five years to replace Windows XP with this new version, called Windows Vista -- an eternity by computer-industry reckoning. Many of the boldest plans for Vista were discarded in that lengthy process, and what's left is a worthy, but largely unexciting, product. Vista is much prettier than previous versions of Windows. Its icons...

Hackers have published code that could let an attacker disable the Windows Firewall on certain Windows XP machines. The code, which was posted on the Internet early Sunday morning, could be used to disable the Windows Firewall on a fully patched Windows XP PC that was running Windows' Internet Connection Service (ICS). This service allows Windows users to essentially turn their PC into a router and share their Internet connection with other computers on the local area network (LAN.) It is typically used by home and small-business users. The attacker could send a malicious data packet to another PC using...

Microsoft has begun wielding the law hammer against dealers it believes have been selling counterfeit software via eBay and other auction websites. Today, the company announced legal actions—both civil and criminal—against 55 resellers of Microsoft software in 11 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, the UK, and the US. The software giant tracked down the dealers via the Windows Genuine Advantage program, using "tips submitted from consumers." Those who bought counterfeit software that subsequently failed to be validated via WGA were asked by Microsoft where they purchased the software after they contacted the company...

October 27, 2006 (IDG News Service) -- Microsoft Corp. yesterday attempted to clear up confusion over licensing of Windows Vista for power users who rebuild their PCs on a regular basis. But the answer from the software vendor did little to placate some users, who are still upset about Microsoft's one-machine transfer policy for Vista. According to Microsoft spokesman Mike Burk, Microsoft users who frequently change the hardware configuration of the system running Vista might fail Vista's new Software Protection Platform software-validation feature more than once. If they did, they would be required to purchase an additional license or use...

Hot off the newswire, C|Net is reporting that Microsoft is working on an issue with the Microsoft Update platform that was delaying distribution of today’s updates. Oddly enough, as of 10 minutes ago, my update worked just fine. "Due to technical difficulties experienced on the Microsoft Update platform, security updates released today are not currently available via Microsoft Update, Automatic Updates, Windows Server Update Services or Windows Update v6," the software maker said.

Windows 95 was 32mb. Win98 was about 200mb. This new OS is 2.5gig? Unbelievable. I'm downloading now and will try it out but my comp is a bit underpowered for it

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. has developed technology for people to pay by the hour to use a computer in their own homes, much like how many consumers use a pre-paid card for cell phone usage. The technology, called FlexGo, will be used as part of efforts to sell computers to lower-income consumers in developing countries, where Microsoft is eager to find new money-making opportunities but is battling software piracy and other barriers. Redmond-based Microsoft, working with computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and others, plans to launch a second trial of the FlexGo plan in Brazil beginning Monday. In the next...

I came across this article on BBC, which mentions that UK officials are talking to Microsoft about the new security measures in Windows Vista, specifically encryption of the filesystem, and expressing their concern that it would make it harder for them to gain access to a suspects’ computer. What surprised me is that the article notes that Professor Ross Anderson is asking the UK government to look at putting in ways to get around encryption in Windows Vista. And it seems the UK government is already talking to Microsoft about this. The question that immediately comes to mind is: Doesn’t...

Without any warning or even an official announcement, Microsoft has quietly pushed back the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to late 2007. This new schedule places the release at least a year later than the previous schedule, under which SP3 would ship sometime in 2006. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previously announced that his company would ship SP3 "before" Windows Vista, which is now due in late 2006. Microsoft's new schedule for SP3 was revealed in a service pack roadmap that the company posted to the Web late last month. According to this document, Windows XP SP3...

How to Reinstall Windows XP Without Having to Reactivate With Microsoft To tell you the truth, I have never understood what the big deal is with product activation. The fact of the matter is that software piracy is fairly rampant and that Microsoft is the target for a large percentage of the piracy due to their dominance in the operating system and office productivity software markets. They have a right to try to stop or at least control that privacy and the product activation seems to be a fair way of ensuring that only legitimate software owners get to benefit...

So you 've got yourself some new hardware and you're ready to roll huh? Or maybe years of surfing the net and adding odd software have finally taken their toll and you need to reinstall to get some stability and performance back? This guide covers how to install or reinstall Windows, with complete step by step advice covering pre-installation, BIOS, partitioning, formatting, installing and post-installation chores.*********************************Getting ready to install or reinstall WindowsThese instructions are applicable for all VIA chipset motherboards. All the screenshots are taken from an install of Windows XP but if you were installing an older version or...

An Indian researcher has breached the much-touted "impenetrable" Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft. Bangalore-based Debasis Mohanty has cracked WGA through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of the Windows XP programme. Microsoft confirmed the claims of Mohanty, but sought to downplay it saying, "It represents very little threat." A company spokesperson said they did expect counterfeiters to try a number of different methods to circumvent safeguards provided by WGA. WGA is an anti-piracy programme that keeps a tab on consumers whether they are running legitimately licensed copies of Windows XP. Mohanty has posted a detailed proof-of-concept...

Benjamin Tobias Franz has discovered a weakness in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service). The problem is caused due to certain objects not being initialized correctly. This can be exploited to crash a vulnerable browser via some specially crafted JavaScript code called directly when a site has been loaded. NOTE: It is currently not believed that this issue can be exploited for code execution purposes, but this cannot be ruled out completely.

Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming version of Internet Explorer will include tabbed browsing, a feature made popular by competitors Opera Software and Firefox.In a Microsoft blog, IE product unit manager Dean Hachamovitch told consumers not to expect too much from tabbed browsing in IE's beta offering. "The tabbed browsing experience in the upcoming IE 7 beta is pretty basic," he said. "The main goal for tabs in our beta release is to make sure our implementation delivers on compatibility and security. The variety of IE configurations and add-ins across the Internet is tremendous." Hachamovitch said his team would seek...

By Keith Reganwww.LinuxInsider.comPart of the ECT News Network 05/13/05 1:37 PM PT IBM's switch to Firefox is, if nothing else, a major PR boost for the browser, one that comes just days after Mozilla acknowledged some of the more serious security flaws found in the browser to date by releasing an update. Mozilla says some 50 million copies of Firefox have now been downloaded since it was made available last year. < The Firefox juggernaut, which had been slowed recently by a spate of security concerns, has picked up steam again on the strength of a decision by IBM...

t's not news to Microsoft that many, if not most, average Windows users have gripes about their PC experiences. In response, the software company is unveiling on Friday a new subscription-based computer fix-it service, aimed at automatically patching security holes, blocking viruses and spyware, and generally automating the chores of maintaining a computer's health. Dubbed Windows OneCare, the service will draw in part on existing tools like the company's anti-spyware software, as well as on basic PC management functions inside Windows. But it will add a more powerful firewall, ongoing antivirus protection, and the right to get a live support...

"Lintel," or the Linux operating system and Intel, is now encroaching on this empire, and behind it is the entire open-source software movement, which threatens to overthrow the Windows industry. Faced with this challenge, Microsoft is showing classic symptoms of "incumbents' disease." Rather than remaking itself, Microsoft is using legal threats, short-term deals, and fear, uncertainty, and doubt to fortify its position. But this strategy probably won't work. The Linux operating system and the open-source model for software development are far from perfect, but they look increasingly likely to depose Microsoft.

Multiple vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to install malicious code or steal personal data have been discovered in the Mozilla Suite and the Firefox open-source browser. Details of the nine flaws were published on Mozilla's security Web site over the weekend. Ian Latter, senior security consultant at Internet security specialist Pure Hacking, said most of the vulnerabilities are based on the way the applications handle JavaScript. "There are some permission issues related to running JavaScript at an escalated privilege level. They remove some of the security measures used to keep JavaScript sandboxed and allow it to potentially do malicious...

As Mozilla and Microsoft executives argue about which browser -- Firefox or Internet Explorer -- is more secure, fans of the former have numbers on their side, a Belgian security consultancy said this week. According to Brussels-based ScanIT, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) were "unsafe" 98 percent of the time during 2004, while Mozilla users -- which would include those using Mozilla and Firefox -- were "unsafe" only 15 percent of last year. ScanIT determined the unsafe periods by examining the life spans of vulnerabilities in IE, Mozilla, and Opera -- a Norwegian browser that has a nearly...

Battling browsers are back. Just as in the 1990s, when Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator fought each other for supremacy, today Mozilla's Firefox browser is trying to gain traction over IE. This latest skirmish, however, goes beyond just browsing the Web. Microsoft's security problems have left an opening for upstarts like Firefox and could lead to other products taking market share from the software giant, say experts at Wharton. As far as browsers go, customers are disgruntled with Microsoft. The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, formed in July 2003 with funding from America Online's Netscape unit to promote open-source Web software,...

Windows has a well-deserved reputation as a large operating system. A standard installation of Windows XP (with nothing else installed) can easily occupy something in excess of 1.5 Gbytes of disk space. In part, that's because Windows is a general-purpose operating system. As such, it's a kind of kitchen sink software, with all manner of tools, capabilities, and functions thrown into the mix. That trend started almost a decade ago when Microsoft built HTML rendering functions into Windows: What had previously been part of a separate application--a stand-alone browser--was now inside the operating system and available to any application or...

There are two new Windows 98 security updates available. You can find them at this address (direct Link to Microsoft website).They are quick updates and do not require you to start your computer. If you are using Windows 98, best to get them.Also, if you are using the old version of Ad Aware by Lavasoft, you should get the second edition. It picks up a whole lot of spyware the first edition does not catch and even updates on first edition will not do it.

Before you start reading, fire up the printer, and get the scissors. You may want to clip this one out and give it to your friends and colleagues who are still in Windows land. There are times in life when you actually hear words coming out of your mouth and even as they're coming out, you realize how stupid they sound. I realize that in my own personal and professional life, this sort of thing happens a bit more than the statistical average, but this morning I uttered words that sounded so completely insane, I had to share them. After...

MICROSOFT Corp. is staging another attack against software pirates with an amnesty program for unwitting users of bootlegged copies of its Windows XP operating system (OS).The project enables the software giant to collate information about the sources of pirated software and quickly work with authorities to capture illegal traders.In addition, the company also wants to get to the source of the problem, which it suspects is the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sector. It promised not to prosecute individuals.In its website, Microsoft announced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project for users who are “unsure” if they are using legitimate versions of the...