Microsoft Corp. today released seven security updates to address 18 separate flaws in its Windows operating systems and Office software, including 13 problems that earned a "critical" severity rating, the company's most dire.
Whoever is leaking news about the Microsoft media player rumoured to be released at Christmas is having a hard time keeping his or her mouth closed.
The Seattle Times has pieced together some more information about the device, which looks to be part of a bigger project involving Xbox-branded products.
According to the report by Brier Dudley, the project is called Argo and is being developed within the Xbox group, hence the involvement of J Allard that Pocket-lint reported on earlier.
Microsoft has released a free application that allows users to create an encrypted and password-protected folder. Microsoft Private Folder 1.0 works on Windows XP and Media Center Editions with Service Pack 2 and is meant to provide a consumer-level of protection. Microsoft warns that it is "not intended to provide security against hackers." Interested users can download Private Folder from Microsoft's website which requires Internet Explorer and "Genuine Windows Validation". A reboot is required after the install.
Microsoft backed down on its proprietary stance over document formats but, if it was hoping for a pat on the back from the wider internet community, it should have known better.
In recognition of the rising popularity of the OpenDocument format (ODF) - especially among national and state governments - Microsoft agreed to offer new free open source tools that will allow its Office suite of programmes to handle documents in rival formats.
With online attackers taking advantage of holes in its Office software, Microsoft plans to release seven software patches next week.
Four of the updates will fix bugs in Windows while another three will address flaws in Microsoft Office, Microsoft said Tuesday in a bulletin on its Web site. Both sets of patches will address critical flaws, which attackers could exploit to run unauthorized code on a PC without any user action.
Matt Goyer answers the question on why Vista's Media Center uses all Caps for albums that MCE can't find cover art for.
But what's even better is if you look closely at his screenshot displaying a example of what Matt is talking about, you can see it uses a different non-Aero theme. Its no longer using the "Scrap Metal" theme when Vista is unable to utilize Windows Aero and Glass. Some may be able to see the difference while others might not but its different.
Microsoft has been hit with a second lawsuit over Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), its antipiracy program that checks if the Windows operating system on a machine has a valid license.
The class-action suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, just four days after the first one. The new suit lists its plaintiff as Engineered Process Controls and Univex, along with citizens Edward Misfud, David DiDomizio and Martin Sifuentes, who are listed as owners of licensed copies of Windows XP running WGA.
HAVE you ever been to a department store or supermarket that goes through your bag to make sure you haven?t shoplifted? Necessary as it might be to stop shoplifters, I always felt as a consumer that such measures were inappropriate and reflected poorly on the stores. Such establishments might catch the odd shoplifter but they alienate thousands of legitimate customers who may never come back again.
Microsoft has made the download available for free from its Web site here. Users of the previous betas will need to uninstall them before installing IE7 beta 3.
The software giant said the new beta included changes to the browser's look and feel.
Also, "Beta 3 allows users to add the e-mail button back to the toolbar, enables users to reorder the tabs by dragging them to the left or right, and enables horizontal scrolling while zooming," Microsoft said in documentation relating to the release.
As the debate over Windows Genuine Advantage rages on, Microsoft is attempting to reign in speculation that the antipiracy tool could be used put an abrupt end to the use of pirated versions of Windows. A spokesperson for the company firmly denied that the tool would be used in such a manner, saying that "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer." Confusion remains over just what WGA is designed to do.
