Vista News

Rumor: Server 2008 & Vista SP2 RC in February, RTM in April...25 November Service Pack 2 for Server 2008 and Vista, the first service pack Microsoft will be releasing simultaneously for both the client and server versions of Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, is officially slated for the first half of 2009, long before Windows 7. Microsoft says that a more concrete date will be chosen based on the feedback the company receives during the beta testing process. Soon after the first beta build was sent out, Redmond told testers that it was planning a Release Candidate build and a final build afterward, but did not give any details beyond that. Tech ARP claims the company has already narrowed down its timeline (still vague dates, but they're much...

Microsoft still hasn't officially said how many versions of Windows 7 it will sell but, based on what we've seen so far, it looks like "many" is a safe bet. We do know that Windows 7 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, and while not all of the editions have been officially confirmed, it is possible to read the tea leaves. Those who hope that Redmond will have a change of heart and go back to the ways of Windows XP will be disappointed. First, the pre-beta that was given away to PDC 2008 attendees was an Ultimate Edition, and while this doesn't prove much in itself, it is realistic to expect an Ultimate Edition of Windows 7. This is strengthened by the Windows 7 Pre-release Privacy Supplement, which makes reference to an...

Microsoft Announces Free Antivirus Software for H2 2009 Written by Jason Mick(Blog) - November 19, 2008 9:40 AM Microsoft has long annoyed security software makers over the last decade as it has rolled out free products which often offer a competitive alternative to competitor's packaged software free-of-charge. Microsoft merely offered a decently competitive product for a much cheaper price -- free. With its firewall and antispyware (Windows Defender) built into Vista, business for private firewall software already has taken a hit. Now in a move that is sure to make Trend Micro, McAffee, Norton, and other security software makers lose sleep; Microsoft has announced that in 2009, it will offer free antivirus software. Read...

Microsoft officially set the deadline for the final version of Internet Explorer for the end of 2008, and never gave details beyond that. We noted in September that, according to the IE8 Beta 2 support page, prerelease versions of IE8 would no longer be supported come November 1, 2008. Earlier this week I noticed that that date had changed to December 31, 2008 and speculated that the final release of IE8 wouldn't be on time. My suspicions have been confirmed: IE8 has been delayed. The IE blog has given insight on the team's plans, but still hasn't given a concrete date: We will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release. Our next public release of IE (typically...

Last week we were told to expect the Windows Live Wave 3 web services by the end of the year, with the Windows Live Wave 3 client applications following soon after. As usual, Microsoft didn't give any official dates to the public in its announcement. But yesterday, the company sent out an e-mail to its beta testers, in which the software giant explained, among other things, that December 1 was the day to mark on the calendar. So what exactly will be happening on December 1? Not all that much. It's the day that the rollout will begin. That means that beta versions of the Windows Live web services will be slowly ported to the final and publicly available version. Assuming that all goes as planned, you'll start seeing the final Wave 3...

Microsoft seeks to invalidate patents used to sue Allstate, Dell and FedEx. November 17, 2008 (IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week, asking a judge to invalidate several patents that are the subject of infringement suits filed by WebXchange Inc. against three large companies over their use of Microsoft's Visual Studio development tools. Full Story: Microsoft files suit to defend Visual Studio users

Less than a year after sending out Beta 1, Microsoft released the final version of Silverlight 2 in October. According to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, the final release of Silverlight 2 has been downloaded and installed on more than 100 million consumer machines in the past four weeks. What's next you ask? Silverlight 3 of course. Guthrie's latest blog post underlines how Silverlight 2 is being implemented by various companies across the web, but more interestingly, it also sheds some light on what's planned for the next release: Silverlight 3 will include major media enhancements (including H.264 video support), major graphics improvements (including 3D support and GPU hardware...

In August IE8 Beta 2 was released in English, German, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese, and in September Microsoft released support for 21 more languages. Microsoft officially set the deadline for the final version for later this year, and left it at that. We noted in September that, according to the IE8 Beta 2 support page, prerelease versions of IE8 would no longer be supported come November 1, 2008, suggesting that the final version would arrive this month. We've noticed, however, that this date has been recently changed to December 31: Free unlimited installation and usage support is available for Internet Explorer 8 pre-released versions, but only for North America English customers. This support for Internet Explorer 8...

AVG, the popular anti-virus package, has falsely identified Adobe Flash as potentially malicious. The snafu comes just days after AVG slapped a bogus Trojan warning on a core Windows component. Users on AVG forums complained on Friday that Adobe Flash was detected by AVG's scanner as malicious, following a recent update. The gaffe follows an even more glaring screw-up when user32.dll, a core Windows component, was identified as a banking Trojan following a signature update issued on Sunday. Users who followed AVG's advise and deleted the "harmful file" were left with systems that either failed to boot or went into a continuous reboot cycle. Users of both AVG 7.5 and 8 (free and full-feature editions) were affected. Less than a month ago...

After expanding to the UK in June, the Microsoft Store, which is already available in Germany and in Korea, has now hit the US. My first impression is that it has a very clean look, and is surprisingly quick to load despite all the images. It is expected that more countries will be added very soon. The development means that US customers can now purchase first-party software, hardware, and video games directly from Microsoft. Purchases can either be shipped or downloaded. The latter means no shipping costs, and a wait time dependent solely on the speed of your Internet connection, rather than how fast the delivery guy can get to you. Furthermore, Microsoft plays the environmental card and notes the savings on gas to ship products or...

Want a way to boot up your Windows Vista PC from a full shut down in a matter of seconds? ASRock have the answer! The solution is technology that ASRock call Instant Boot. This is interesting technology because it leverages the S3 and S4 ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) features which normally enable the Sleep/Standby and Hibernation modes in Windows to cut boot times down to something like 4 seconds. By calling S3 and S4 at specific times during the startup and shutdown process, Instant Boot enables you to boot up to your Windows desktop in a few seconds seconds, even after a total shut down. There are two modes of Instant Boot available: Fast mode - This uses S3 and boots up in around four seconds Regular Mode...

Fake antivirus programs claim 30 million victims By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 17, 2008 - 05:56AM CT More than 30 million Internet users have fallen victim to fake antivirus programs that snatch up people's money and personal information, security research firm PandaLabs has announced. The phenomenon may not be a new one, but it's growing more and more popular as the scammers are getting more crafty. There are now over 7,000 variants of this type of adware, says PandaLabs, and the number of infections caused by it is increasing rapidly. Users can get infected with this fake antivirus scam in the same manner as any other type of virus or malware—by downloading questionable content from P2P networks, opening e-mail...

Windows 7 Aero Snap What is it? AeroSnap is a simple but powerful application that allows you to resize, arrange or maximize your desktop windows with just drag'n'drop. Simple drag a window to a side of your desktop to snap it or drag it to the top to maximize. When you drag it back to the last position, the last window size will be restored. Really easy, isn't it? It also works with multiple...

.NET Framework 3.5 builds incrementally on the new features added in .NET Framework 3.0. For example, feature sets in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 contains a number of new features in several technology areas which have been added as new assemblies to avoid breaking changes. They include the following: Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness. This new feature will let you write code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of SQL data, collections, XML, and DataSets by using the same syntax. ASP.NET AJAX lets you...

Since September we've know that Windows Live would be replacing some built-in Windows applications with the release of Windows 7. At PDC, we got further details: Microsoft is making this move in order to eliminate confusion between having similar applications (Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail for example), to avoid any potential lawsuits for stunting competition, and to be able to release and update these programs without having to tie their timelines to the operating system. The Windows Live applications, Family Safety, Mail, Messenger, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, Toolbar, Writer, as well as Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, will be bundled under the moniker "Windows Live Essentials." Full Story: Windows 7 to have just download...

Since this morning's Windows Azure announcement, a bunch of random details have materialized. Here's a rundown of what we've heard: Azure is being described as a new OS, albeit one based on the existing codebase. The Azure team is working alongside the Core OS team, and there's cross-pollination between the groups. For example, one of the improvements made for Windows 7 is an increase in the number of processors/cores/logical processors that can be used (currently, the number of processors supported is the same as the bitness of the OS; 32 in 32-bit, 64 in 64-bit); the Azure team is able to take this new, expanded ability and use it itself. Conversely, Azure has extended HyperV to make it use hardware virtualization support (it...

Microsoft is preparing to release a pair of updates next Tuesday. The company said in an advance notice that the November edition of the 'Patch Tuesday' release will include one fix labeled 'critical' and a second labeled 'important.' The critical fix addresses a vulnerability in the Microsoft XML Core Services component in Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, 2008 and Windows Vista. While Microsoft did not disclose the exact nature of the vulnerability, the company said that if exploited it could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a targeted system. While the second flaw could also allow an attacker to remotely execute code, Microsoft rated the issue as an 'important' risk. The vulnerability lies within a component in Windows...

Despite the fact that many developers would welcome more rendering-engine compatibility, anyone expecting Microsoft to switch out its “Trident” engine and replace it with WebKit in Internet Explorer (IE) — especially in IE 8 — is misguided. Comments this week by CEO Steve Ballmer set off speculation about Microsoft’s WebKit plans. Responding to a question during an appearance for the Australian development community, Ballmer said Microsoft could “from time to time take a look at” WebKit, the open-source rendering engine at the heart of the Apple Safari and Google Chrome browsers. I can see a number of reasons Microsoft won’t be adopting WebKit any time soon — and not simply because introducing an open-source engine into a closed-source...

Microsoft to ‘webify’ Office (sort of) Written by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:09 am October 28th, 2008 Microsoft is finally doing what many have been clamoring for — making Web-based versions of its Office apps available — but in a different way than expected. As part of the Office 14 release wave, Microsoft is going to provide“Office Web applications,” which it is describing as “lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These versions will allow users to access their documents via a Web browser on the PC, phone or other devices. Microsoft is slated to make the announcement about its Office Web applications plans at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles on October 28 during the morning keynote...

This report looks at all of the vulnerabilities fixed by Apple, Microsoft, Red Hat and Ubuntu during the first half of 2008. At the vendor level, the report examines all vulnerabilities as well as Days of Risk (DoR) associated with those vulnerabilities. The report further drills down to examine just those issues affecting the commonly installed desktop operating system components. The key findings for 1H08: The four vendors fixed a total 585 vulnerabilities in 1H08. 26.8% affected multiple vendors and of those, only 8 were fixed on the same day – the rest had an average 35 day delay between the first available fix and the last available fix.. Microsoft had the lowest average Days of Risk for all vulnerabilities fixed at...