Microsoft Windows blog posts
IE Zero-Day Fixit Tool available
Published September 20, 2012
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it would be issuing an out-of-band patch on Friday, in response to the latest zero-day Internet Explorer vulnerability discovered this past weekend. For those users concerned about waiting, Microsoft released a FixIt tool on Wednesday that will temporarily neutralize the threat. Microsoft “FixIt” tools, are automated solutions that can diagnoses and repair problems on end user machines. There are several FixIt tools available, that can fix a wide range of issues on machines running Windows operating systems. More information on Microsoft FixIt tools can be found here.
New IE Zero-Day vulnerability discovered.
Published September 18, 2012
Security researcher Eric Romang has discovered a new zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer, which he claims will affect fully patched versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9.
The exploits, developed over the weekend for the Metasploit exploit toolkit, have been linked to Nitro, the same group of hackers from China who were exploiting two Java zero-days in late August. “Since Microsoft has not released a patch for this vulnerability yet, Internet users are strongly advised to switch to other browsers such as Chrome or Firefox until a security update becomes available,” a post on the Metasploit community blog said. “The exploit had already been used by malicious attackers in the wild before it was published in Metasploit.”
Microsoft is [strongly] advising all Windows users to install a free security software to protect their PCs from a newly discovered vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser. The free security tool, called the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), will prevent hackers from gaining access to Windows-based systems and is currently available from Microsoft here .
Windows 8 is coming…but, will Windows 7 be the new XP?
Published May 31, 2012
Are you excited for the release of Windows 8? Today, Microsoft is making the final public pre-release build of Windows 8 available for download before the product is released to manufacturing. If you want to take the upcoming OS on a test drive, you can get your copy at preview.windows.com.
If you’re a fellow computer geek or technology enthusiast, then you’re probably excited–if you’re like most users (particularly businesses), you most likely couldn’t care less. This brings me to my main point: Will the masses adopt Windows 8?
Many home users and businesses (or at least the lucky ones) skipped over the lackluster Windows Vista and decided to stick with XP. Some held out on upgrading with hope that something better would come down the pike—that “something better” just happens to be Windows 7. Business adoption of Windows 7 has been excellent when compared to Windows Vista. Microsoft is now claiming that up to 40% of all business desktops now run it. That sounds like good news, except for the fact that 60% of all business desktops are NOT currently running Windows 7—they’re still running Windows XP.
While Microsoft has continued to extend its support lifecycles to accommodate the slow-moving business market, its customers have responded by not upgrading to newer versions of the OS. My guess is that Windows 7 will simply be the next XP. It will be the main Windows version deployed throughout the Windows 8 lifecycle and, maybe…just maybe…even Windows 9’s.