Microsoft

Researchers at USC have hacked a Microsoft Kinect camera and gotten it to control the hugely popular computer game, World of Warcraft. And the software they used to pull it off, known as Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit or FAAST, is downloadable for free online.

FAAST, built by USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, allows users to play computer games with a Kinect motion-sensor camera by translating body movements into the inputs that would otherwise be triggered a keyboard and mouse, or a gaming controller with joysticks and buttons.

So you've got a shiny new Windows Phone 7 device for Christmas, but wondering what to do next? Well, first off, let me congratulate you for being one of the first adopters of the new platform. You've got great things to look forward to, as well as some not so great things that generally come with early adopting.

What might be the first major cloud data breach happened Wednesday. Microsoft announced that data contained within its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) has been downloaded by non-authorized users. You'd better get used to this kind of thing because we'll be seeing a lot more of it in the future. All any of us can do is pray we're not a victim.

We know that the Microsoft Kinect peripheral can do much more than just interface with the Xbox 360 for some Dance Central. Hackers have been able to make the Kinect system do some pretty amazing things when hooked up to a PC.

Last week we learned that one of those things was making a sex game. An Austrian game developer released a trailer for a game it calls ThriXXX.

Microsoft Corp. is reportedly preparing to unveil a version of Windows operating system designed for processors based on ARM architecture. The details are extremely sketchy at this point and it is unclear whether Microsoft intends to unveil Windows 7 for tablets or a flavour of Windows Phone 7 for PCs in slate form-factors. The public showcase is projected to be scheduled for CES.

Microsoft has just released Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0, a free anti-malware tool There are no major visible changes this time around, despite the jump in version number. But lurking just beneath the surface are some very worthwhile benefits.

Top of the list is a new network inspection system, which monitors network traffic to check for signs suspect behaviour. This can help block some known exploits, even if they’re been carried out by malware that Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 has never encountered before.

Microsoft today patched 40 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SharePoint and Exchange, including nine pegged "critical."

Five of the 17 security updates -- Microsoft calls them "bulletins" -- fixed long-standing flaws that could be used by attackers to plant malware on a PC by tricking Windows into thinking a malicious DLL (dynamic link library) was actually a legitimate part of the OS.

The first public glimpse at the next version of Microsoft's Windows could happen as soon as next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That's according to The New York Times, which has posted a report detailing the software giant's tablet-centric CES keynote plans, including at the bottom the Windows 8 bombshell.

We’re big fans of hacking the Windows Registry around here, and we’ve got one of the biggest collections of registry hacks you’ll find. Don’t believe us? Here’s a list of the top 50 registry hacks that we’ve covered.

It’s important to note that you should never hack the registry if you don’t know what you’re doing, because your computer will light on fire and some squirrels may be injured. Also, you should create a System Restore point before doing so. Otherwise, keep reading.

Microsoft today said it will deliver a record 17 security updates next week to patch 40 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SharePoint and Exchange.

Among the 40 patches will be two that address a pair of bugs that hackers have already exploited. "I really was not expecting 17," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "I expected 10 at the most."