Microsoft

After all these years I am willing to admit that Microsoft has won the desktop and server wars. Thanks to VMWare Windows is spreading throughout the datacenter. And, of course, there is only one operating system to use if you are dependent on Microsoft apps like Outlook, Word, and Excel. While I have joined the chorus of security folks who rail against the Microsoft Monoculture I still cannot believe some of the uses for Windows. Some of them are just downright silly, some you may claim are criminally negligent.

So here is the Top Ten List of Worst Uses for Windows.

Cybercriminals are exploiting a bug in software used by Microsoft's Access database programme in a new online attack, Microsoft warned Monday. The flaw lies in the Snapshot Viewer ActiveX control, which ships with "all supported versions of Microsoft Office Access except Microsoft Access 2007," Microsoft said in a security advisory, published Monday.

Microsoft is planning to add a series of new security features to the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, including protection against cross-site scripting attacks.

You download, create, delete, and move around countless files and endless piles of data on your PC every day. While your PC would ideally handle all of this data for you, it doesn't take long before you end up with a disorganized, cluttered computer. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite Windows maintenance tools, and today we're back with the five most popular answers.

A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software. That, Bill Gates has often said, is the vision on which he and Paul Allen founded their software company in 1975. There's debate over when the mantra was first articulated--the earliest known instances go back only to the mid-1980s--but this much is undeniable: Microsoft made that audacious goal a reality.

GIANT Microsoft Corp will not name its next operating system "Windows Fiji", the company said.

Fairfax media reported the word "Fiji" was just an internal Microsot code word and would not be used for external marketing.

The development came after interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said he wrote to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In his letter, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the interim Government asserted its absolute ownership over the use of word "Fiji" and reserved all its rights under relevant laws to protect and defend the use of the word.

Bill Gates said a teary goodbye Friday to Microsoft Corp, the software maker he built into the world's most valuable technology company based on the ambitious goal of placing a computer on every desk and in every home.

He leaves Microsoft, which he co-founded with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, to focus on his philanthropic organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity, funded in part by his vast fortune.

The forced retirement of Microsoft's Windows XP is set--with some exceptions--for Monday. To quell XP separation anxiety and the rancor of seething Vista haters, Microsoft has agreed to offer Windows XP updates and security patches until April 2014.

However, PC retailers such as Dell have pretty much stopped selling computers preloaded with the venerable OS.

VeriSign, a provider of internet infrastructure services, has been selected by Microsoft as an OpenID provider for users of HealthVault, a free service that enables consumers to store and manage their health information online.

Acceptance of VeriSign's OpenIDs secured by the VeriSign Identity Protection Service is expected to give consumers choice when signing into Microsoft HealthVault to help safeguard their personal health information.

Security researchers are warning users about an unpatched cross-site scripting bug in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) that could be used by hackers to capture keystrokes and steal other information.

The vulnerability appears to be a variation of a vulnerability first discussed by researchers Manuel Caballero and Fukami at Microsoft Corp.'s on-site BlueHat security conference early last month, Yichong Lin, an analyst at McAfee Inc., said in an entry to the company's blog.