Only days after the massive ban Microsoft initiated, hackers have been hard at work figuring out how to circumvent the ban. It seems like some modders have made some advancements on un-banning their Xbox 360s with limitations. Will Microsoft react to this with another wave of bans?
Windows 7 has been available on Bittorrent sites pretty much from the get go. Most of the torrent ISOS available right now are already cracked, bypassing entirely the need to enter a Windows 7 key. But that method involves using a script to hack in an OEM key, which allows Windows 7 — barring any surreptitious Microsoft updates — to run on any machine.
Microsoft was hit with a pair of unwelcome security reports on Thursday. The company released a fix for a vulnerability in Windows Server 2000 shortly before a security researcher posted details about a new flaw in Windows 7.
Researcher Laurent Gaffie said that the vulnerability could cause a denial of service, crashing the targeted machine by executing an infinite loop.
Microsoft has called a statement made by one of its own spokesmen "inaccurate and uninformed".
It comes after a statement made by a member of Microsoft staff, Simon Auldous, about where the company had taken its design inspiration from for Windows 7. Aldous told PCR Online that Microsoft's newest operating system was based on Mac OS X - in design terms, at least.
Microsoft's new search engine Bing, which is seeking to chip away at Google's dominance in Internet search, is teaming up with WolframAlpha, another rival for the Google crown.
WolframAlpha, which was launched in mid-May, announced that starting on Wednesday, Bing would incorporate results from WolframAlpha in answers to certain search queries.
Although some folks like to rail against Microsoft and the state of Windows security, the company's operating system is arguably more secure than it ever has been. That's in no small part due to the many new features that make Windows 7 a robust operating system.
Microsoft said on Wednesday it is looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 Release 2 that could be used by an attacker to remotely crash the computer.
The company is investigating claims of a "possible denial-of-service vulnerability in Windows Server Message Block (SMB)," the Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company was unaware of any attacks trying to exploit the hole.
Microsoft plans to fix at least three Windows vulnerabilities it rates as "critical" when it releases its regular Patch Tuesday bug-fix drop next week, the company said.
This time, none of the security holes affect Microsoft Windows 7 as they did last month, although one of them does impact Windows Server 2008, which shares a majority of its code with the new desktop operating system. Windows 7 had its official consumer launch on Oct. 22.
Figures from beancounters at NPD show that sales of Windows 7 are 234 per cent higher than the sales of Vista ever were.
The figures indicate that Microsoft might have returned to the heady days of making sales rather than having to cover for embarrassments.
NPD Group says that if Windows 7 had not done as well at this time of year Vole would have an excuse because Vista launched in January when people are more likely to buy an operating system. However Windows 7 still has managed to wipe the floor with Vista and also get into those corners which are hard to get into.
Microsoft says it will deliver six security updates Tuesday, less than half the number it issued last month, to fix flaws in Windows and Office.
The updates will patch a total of 15 separate vulnerabilities, Microsoft said in a follow-up entry to its security response center's blog.
