Microsoft Investigating Vulnerability In Vista’s Windows Mail
Reports have begun circulating that the bug in Windows Mail could give a remote attacker access to the user's computer.
Microsoft Corp. is investigating reports of a vulnerability in Vista's Windows Mail. Reports have begun circulating online that the flaw could give a remote attacker access to the user's computer. Windows Mail is an e-mail and newsgroup client that Microsoft built and dropped into its Windows Vista operating system.
"Microsoft is not aware of any attacks attempting to use the reported vulnerability or of customer impact at this time," said a Microsoft spokesman in an e-mailed response to an InformationWeek inquiry. "Microsoft will continue to investigate the public reports to help provide additional guidance for customers as necessary. Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include issuing a security advisory or providing a security update through our monthly release process, depending on customer needs."
The spokesman then warned users to always use "extreme caution" when clicking on links in unsolicited e-mail from known and unknown sources.
Full story: InformationWeek
Has IE 7 turned back Firefox?
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Visa USA sees cell phones as the best way to expand electronic payments, Chief Executive John Philip Coghlan said at the CTIA wireless show, where he also revealed ties with several wireless technology companies.
Wireless transactions are common in some countries, such as Japan, where shoppers with mobile phones can pay with a wave of a handset instead of a swipe with a credit card, but the market is in its infancy in the United States. U.S. mobile service providers see mobile payments as a way to increase customer loyalty while payment companies such as Visa view phones as the key to winning over American consumers, who use cash and checks for 46 percent of their spending.
"I think the mobile device is simply the most promising new form of payment system available today," Coghlan said during his CTIA keynote. About 57 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in using cell phones for purchases and 64 percent would consider leaving a wireless service provider that did not offer mobile payments, Coghlan said, citing a Visa survey of 800 people in mid-March. Visa said on Wednesday that it would become an investor in Web venture dotMobi, which is promoting use of the .mobi Internet domain address -- instead of .com, for example -- for mobile Web browsing. It did not disclose the size of the investment.
Visa also said it was working with wireless chip developer Qualcomm Inc on bringing technologies to market to allow the consumer to make credit card-like transactions with a phone and a reading device.
Is Vista Good for Gaming?
In some ways, debating whether or not Windows Vista is good for gaming is a moot point. A futile argument. Water under the bridge.
That's because, like it or not, Microsoft Corp.'s shiny new operating system is here to stay. By the end of 2007, a whole new generation of games for Windows Vista will be here as well. At that point, if you're a Windows gamer, you'll have no choice but to upgrade to Vista -- unless you're ready to throw in the towel on PC gaming and buy an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii instead.
In the meantime, Vista will continue to polarize the masses, generating tons of high-octane comments and flames on its numerous strengths and failings, both for gaming and more-productive endeavors. Truth be told, despite the flak Microsoft has taken for removing planned features from Vista and missing its target launch date by years, this is an ambitious new operating system in numerous categories, including 3-D graphics and gaming.
But is the new operating system good for gaming? To answer this question, we explored Vista's gaming strengths and weaknesses in depth. What we found at the end of the day was fairly surprising. Read on for answers, detailed explanations, and several suggestions that will help you get the most out of Vista gaming.
Three reasons Windows Vista is no good for PC gaming
1. Hardware incompatibilities. It's no huge surprise to anyone that the upgrade to Windows Vista has created numerous instances of driver incompatibility and dissatisfaction -- these kinds of issues arise whenever there's a major operating system upgrade. What has been surprising is the frustrations gamers have experienced in getting their existing hardware -- 3-D graphics cards and the like -- to work with their existing games library in Windows Vista at the same performance levels as in Windows XP. The Internet is rife with reports of games such as World of Warcraft and F.E.A.R. running at 20% to 40% slower frame rates.
Not surprisingly, the chief culprit is 3-D card drivers, particularly for DirectX 9 (DX9) and lower-caliber video cards. (DirectX is a Windows API designed by Microsoft to allow software developers standardized low-level access to PC peripherals such as the video graphics processor. The newest version is DirectX 10.)
Windows Vista includes a new driver model that taps the graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform memory scheduling, which is useful for allocating memory and other system resources to each open application. The operating system also uses the GPU to create and maintain multiple instances of 3-D graphics use at both the interface and application levels. As an example, each open window in Vista -- be it a folder, game, or otherwise -- is considered a separate application, and the graphics involved in displaying this application are controlled by the GPU.
With Windows XP, the operating system itself, not the GPU, performed these functions. More specifically, drivers for XP were written to and resided in kernel mode -- the base layer of Windows. In order to allow the GPU to maintain the aforementioned instances of 3-D applications, on the other hand, drivers for Windows Vista operate at a more localized layer of the operating system known as user mode.
The good news is that this architecture shift should result in increased stability under Vista. Because the driver is localized and exists in multiple instances, a crash that is caused by or otherwise affects the graphics driver will have no adverse impact on other 3-D applications.
Microsoft Vista sells 20M copies in Feb.
Microsoft Corp. said Monday it sold 20 million consumer copies of the new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February, but analysts said the data shed little light on the program's popularity during its first month on the market. By comparison, Windows XP, Vista's predecessor, sold 17 million copies in the two months following its 2001 launch, Microsoft said. "It's a stronger than expected start," Bill Mannion, a director of product marketing for Windows, said in an interview. But given that the personal computer market has nearly doubled since XP launched, Vista sales "probably should be more," said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner, a technology research group. The analyst said 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, the research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer. Starting in late October, PC makers included coupons for free or low-cost Vista upgrades that could be used once the software became available at the end of January. Microsoft's February sales total includes those promised upgrades, in addition to licenses ordered by PC makers to install on new computers, shrink-wrapped copies sold in retail stores and downloads from the Windows Marketplace Web store.
Silver estimates PC makers sold between 12 million and 15 million PCs with Windows XP Home Edition over the holidays — a significant chunk of the 20 million total, depending on how many included Vista coupons. While Microsoft wouldn't say how many Vista upgrades were ordered in that time frame, Dell Inc. spokesman Bob Kaufman said about two-thirds of its holiday PC shoppers registered for the upgrade. "That would say that those (Vista sales) numbers aren't all that great if that includes all that backlog," said Silver. Shipments of Vista to U.S. retailers in February lagged XP's first-month shipments by about 56 percent, according to the NPD Group, which tracks retail software sales.
Microsoft to release Xbox 360 Elite
Microsoft Corp. will sell a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a souped up high-definition video connection, in a bid to broaden the appeal of its popular console beyond video games.
Earlier versions of Xbox 360 came with 20 gigabytes of storage. But that filled up too quickly with movies, TV shows and games from the Xbox Live Marketplace online store, said Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment group. The new Xbox 360 Elite will sell for $479.99. Consumers who already own the $399.99 20-gigabyte model will be able to buy a snap-on 120-gigabyte hard drive for $179.99. Both the new console and the drive are expected to hit U.S. shelves April 29.
Microsoft also added an HDMI connection, which sends high-definition content from the console to the TV without losing picture or sound quality, while also helping prevent piracy. Xbox 360 was the No. 2 U.S. video game console after Nintendo Co.'s Wii in January and February, according to data from market researcher NPD Group. The Xbox outpaced Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, a $599.99 console that plays Blu-ray DVDs.
Microsoft discounts Vista 10%, but restrictions apply
Microsoft Corp. yesterday unveiled a second promotional deal for Windows Vista consumer and small business users, allowing them to buy additional licenses at a 10% discount over the suggested list price and upgrade as many as five more PCs.
The new Windows Vista Additional License program targets customers who obtained Vista at retail -- either the full or upgrade version -- or preinstalled on a PC and lets them buy up to five additional identical licenses at 10% off. Users running Vista Home Premium on a new PC, for instance, are eligible only for more copies of Ultimate. Customers can't move up or down the Vista version scale. Under the new plan, an extra license for Home Premium costs $143 (upgrade) or $215 (full versions) in the U.S. List prices for those editions are $159 and $236, respectively. Other versions are priced accordingly.
These new prices, however, are only slightly lower than those at large online retailers such as Amazon -- where Home Premium sells for $149.99 for the upgrade and $219.99 for the full version -- and are actually higher than the OEM versions sold online at discount stores like Newegg.com. At Newegg, for example, Home Premium OEM sells for $119.99. Online retailers also currently sell sans-media Additional License Packs: a license for another PC. On Amazon.com, a Home Premium upgrade pack costs $137.99, which is $12 less than Amazon charges for a separate Premium upgrade and $5 less than Microsoft's new program. When users buy one of these packs, they use their existing Vista DVD to install the operating system on the new machine.
Windows Home Server testing uncovers nearly 2,400 bugs
March 23, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft's Windows Home Server developers have been inundated with bug reports on the under-construction consumer server software, which -- when it was announced in January -- was expected to ship this summer. There was no word today from Microsoft whether the necessary fixes would delay that planned release. In an entry on the Home Server blog, program manager Chris Sullivan said that the group has received nearly 2,400 bug reports so far from beta testers, and still had 495, or about 21% of the total, classified as "active."
In Microsoft nomenclature, an active bug is one still under investigation, pending a response or waiting to be investigated. "As you can see, we have our work cut out for us," said Sullivan. Of the bugs that have been addressed, Sullivan said that only 15% have actually been fixed. The remainder are issues that are in the server by design (13%), not reproducible (21%), will be postponed to later versions (11%) or likely won't be fixed (7%). Windows Home Server, which debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), will be Microsoft's first home-specific server software. In January, company executives said the software would ship before the back-to-school selling season starts in July and August, with a release to manufacturing deadline set for late June. The software, based primarily on Windows Server 2003 code, will connect to systems running Windows Vista and Windows XP for file sharing, media playing and backup; and to Mac OS X and Linux machines for file sharing.
Surprise, Windows Listed as Most Secure OS
"According to a Symantec study reported by Information Week, Microsoft has the most secure operating system amongst its commercial competitors. The report only covered the last 6 months of vulnerabilities and patch releases, but the results place Microsoft operating systems above Mac OS X and Red Hat.
According to the article, 'The report found that Microsoft Windows had the fewest number of patches and the shortest average patch development time of the five operating systems it monitored in the last six months of 2006.' The article continues to mention the metrics used in the study (quantity and severity of vulnerabilities as well as the amount of time one must wait for the patch to be released)."
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that people looking to save energy and reduce the environmental imp
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that people looking to save energy and reduce the environmental impact of their computer should turn off their screensavers. A PC running a screensaver consumes more energy than an idling PC in sleep or hibernating mode, according to a statement from Dean DeWhitt, the director of Microsoft's Windows Kernel team. In fact, the screensaver-running PC consumes the same amount of electricity as a 100-watt light bulb left on around the clock for one year. That is about $80 in power that releases about 1,350 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft got the energy statistics on PCs from UK-based PC Pro Labs, which conducted an independent study on the energy consumption of Windows Vista vs. Windows XP computers in a work environment. Vista includes a 'sleep' mode, as do Apple computers, which enables a PC to hibernate for energy savings but also to allow users to 'awake' the monitor and machine instantly to resume use. Microsoft said the new mode could be useful to large organisations that require users to leave their PCs running, so that security patches and updates can be applied during non-business hours.
MSN Soapbox: No longer going it alone against YouTube
It always felt wrong to me to call the fledgling Soapbox on MSN Video a "YouTube killer."
As of March 22 — with NBC, News Corp., MSN, Yahoo, AOL and MySpace all aligning to try to take on Google's YouTube — it feels a tad better to refer to Soapbox and YouTube in the same breath.
In the end, the deal's not really about content — in spite of Microsoft's public statement, which I'm including in full as part of this post. It's all about who will have the best ad platform for video on the Web. (Especially if you concur that Google's an advertising company, not a search company.)
Here's Microsoft's official statement on the deal, from Microsoft's Platforms & Services head Kevin Johnson:
“Today’s announcement is a great win for MSN’s more than 460 million consumers and for online video more broadly. When launched, this new venture will provide free access to an unprecedented library of high-quality video content.
“Our investments in MSN Video and SoapBox over the past couple of years have shown us that video is an amazing driver of user engagement and excitement, both for consumers and for advertisers.
“Joining forces with Fox/Newscorp and NBC/Universal is completely in line with our strategy to offer our users easy access to the best video on the web in a way that is good for content owners, great for consumers, and provides compelling opportunities to advertisers. Building on the work we have done with MSN Video and SoapBox, we are taking another step toward realizing that vision.