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Windows Archive

Microsoft Blocks Vista Rootkit Exploit

Microsoft has blocked the attack vector used to slip unsigned drivers past new security policies being implemented in Windows Vista, according to Joanna Rutkowska, the stealth malware researcher who created the exploit. Rutkowska, who demonstrated the exploit at the Black Hat conference in August, said she tested the attack against Windows Vista RC2 x64 and found that the exploit doesn't work anymore. "The reason: Vista RC2 now blocks write-access to raw disk sectors for user mode applications, even if they are executed with elevated administrative rights," Rutkowska wrote on her Invisible Things blog.

Windows XP SP3 Pushed to 2008

Microsoft has further delayed the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, moving expected availability from the second half of 2007 to the first half of 2008. The change came silently in an update to the company's service pack roadmap. Although that date is still listed as 'preliminary' a similar delay for Windows Server 2003 SP2 seems to be finalized. Initially planned for the end of this year and currently in beta testing, SP2 will now arrive in the first quarter of 2007.

Vista, Office 2007 To Launch Last Week of November

The long-touted Microsoft Vista/Office 2007 tandem launch is on for the last week in November in New York, sources said. This event will focus on business usage and scenarios. The new client Windows operating system and Office client and server applications have been promised for volume business customers by year's end and for consumers by early 2007. Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, would not comment on a specific launch timing or venue but said the company remains on track for the two promised delivery windows. He applied the usual caveat: Microsoft will not ship the code if it's not ready.

Microsoft Capitulates on Vista

Microsoft has agreed to make a number of changes to Windows Vista in response to guidance from the European Commission, the EU's competition regulator. It has also had successful talks with competition authorities in Korea who raised concerns about Microsoft's business practices. It expects to ship Vista on time in that country as well. Here's a summary of Microsoft's explanation of the changes that will be made in Windows Vista. Microsoft says the changes will apply worldwide.

Microsoft Opening up Vista Kernel to Security Vendors

"Microsoft has compromised with security vendors who've been demanding access to the kernel of the upcoming Vista operating system so that they can update their security offerings, two analysts confirmed Friday. Following conversations with the European Union, Microsoft will make two security-related changes to Vista. First, it will create a new set of APIs, which will let third-party security vendors access information from the kernel. Microsoft will also build additional APIs to make sure Vista's security status dashboard - Windows Security Center - doesn't send duplicate alerts to users who have installed a rival dashboard."

Vista General Release Date Revealed

Microsoft has revealed a general release date for its upcoming operating system Vista - 5 December, 2006. Speaking to IT professionals, parliamentarians and senior law-enforcement officers at the Parliament and Internet conference in London on Thursday, Microsoft revealed its release plans. "We will officially launch Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 on 5 December," said David Hipwell, a Windows client sales professional at Microsoft. On a very, very related note, the EC says that Vista will not be delayed due to regulatory issues. Also, the Shell: Revealed weblog has an item explaining why Aero Basic looks the way it looks. Update: ZDNet has removed the release date story, and since they are being rude by not offering an explanation, I have no idea what is going on.

Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use

Microsoft has released licenses for the Windows Vista operating system that dramatically differ from those for Windows XP in that they limit the number of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device and ban the two least-expensive versions from running in a virtual machine. The new licenses, which were highlighted by the Vista team on its official blog Tuesday, add new restrictions to how and where Windows can be used.

Windows Kernel Protection Expected to Break Soon

PatchGuard, a Microsoft technology to protect key parts of Windows, will be hacked sooner rather than later, a security expert said Thursday. Hackers will break through the protection mechanism soon after Microsoft releases Windows Vista, Aleksander Czarnowski, a technologist at Polish security company AVET Information and Network Security, said in a presentation at the Virus Bulletin event here. "It will probably take a year or so for it to surface publicly, but I believe it will be broken earlier," he said.

Longhorn Server’s ‘Improved’ Security

'The most secure Windows ever' may be very secure from hackers and malware - but what do you do when Longhorn Server let's you install the OS, set up Active Directory, and initialize the domain without once asking you to even create an administrator password? "What happened to Windows Server? Where did all of the stringent security checks and ultra-protection of Windows Server 2003 go? Windows Server 2000 was quite insecure, and Windows Server 2003 turned over a new leaf... But it seems Microsoft is more than willing to flip that page back - even Windows Server 2000 required an Administrator password at the very least."

Microsoft Struggles with Patch Tuesday

Microsoft on Tuesday released a slew of patches for Windows and Office, but a glitch prevented the company from pushing the updates out automatically. The patches, which include critical fixes for both Office and Windows, can be manually downloaded from Microsoft's Web site, and the company said it hopes the more-automated tools will have the patch available later on Tuesday. Microsoft said that its technical teams "have been working around the clock" to solve the updating problems.

Microsoft Promises Vista Security

A senior Microsoft executive has promised that its new operating system will be more secure than ever. Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said that beefing-up security was one reason behind delays to Windows Vista. Microsoft has been criticised for flaws in previous systems that left users vulnerable to attacks by hackers. Mr Courtois said Microsoft had done "tons of work to make Vista a fantastic experience when it comes to security".

Is Windows Still Relevant?

In the increasingly Google-YouTube-Web 2.0 age we inhabit, it's become fashionable to dismiss Windows as a relic. Ask around the office. You'll hear the Gen Xers sneer about how Microsoft's operating system is, well, so yesterday. Even a fair number of IT greybeards are warming to the notion that the times, they are a changing.

Support Ends for Windows XP SP1

Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP 1a on 10 October, leaving users no option but to upgrade to SP2 if they wish to continue to receive support for crucial components, including security software. The move to drop support for SP1 is in line with Microsoft's stated strategy for support. According to its guidelines, Microsoft guarantees to provide 'mainstream support' for a full product for five years, but will only guarantee to support a Service Pack for 12 months after the launch of the next version of that pack.

‘Vista Shapes up’

The Inquirer has been looking at the latest release of Microsoft’s Vista operating system. This time, we tackle build 5744, otherwise known as Release Candidate 2. Tested today is the x64 version, which has a date stamp of 03/10/06. So what has changed over RC1 and earlier builds? Elsewhere, Microsoft has said they expect Vista's deployment rate to be twice that of Windows XP. Finally, even though RC2 will be the last public test build, Microsoft still has changes up its sleeve for Vista RTM.

Vista SuperFetch: Adding Another Cache Level to Your System

SuperFetch, a new feature of Windows Vista, is designed to intelligently manage memory pages to keep the system responsive even after running background tasks that take a lot of memory. Watch this Channel9 video to see how Vista attempts to form subsets of memory to page together. The speaker also touches on other new kernel-level features such as ReadyBoost and flash-based hibernate.

Windows Vista RC2 Released

"Today, Microsoft is excited to announce the availability of Windows Vista RC2 to Technical Beta Testers, TAP Testers, and MSDN/TechNet subscribers. This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability - improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2. Thank you to our beta testers for the bugs and feedback you submitted for RC1."

Server Core: Windows Without Windows

One of the most innovative features coming in Windows Longhorn Server isn't really a feature as much as a whole new version of Windows. It's called Server Core, and it will only take one-sixth of the disk space of a normal Longhorn installation. It's not expected to need anywhere near as many patches and hotfixes as Windows 2000. It's a version of Windows that does not, in fact, use windows. It's breaking Microsoft's long-standing reliance on graphical interfaces and shaking things up in several of Microsoft's product groups.