Category Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft

Anti Virus Company Recommends You Don't Use Windows

Posted on by

It used to be the joke was “Friends don’t let friends do Windows” – well now it’s a case of many a true word spoken in jest.

The UK anti-virus company Sophos is reportedly recommending that you don’t use Windows any more due to its increasing vulnerability to attack.

Security threats to PCs with Microsoft Windows have increased so much that computer users should consider using a Mac, says a leading security firm.

As someone who is constantly having to fight spam because of Windows PC’s that have become infected by viruses, trojans and other malware I second the call – please think twice before buying a Windows PC!

Microsoft ‘Genuine Advantage’ – Kill Your PC ?

Posted on by

Boy am I glad I don’t use Windows! I don’t have to worry about another company deciding that I don’t have the right to use my computer..

There is a ZDNet blog article relating a conversation someone had with a Microsoft support person which was posted to the interesting people list in which the MS support person said:

“in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn’t installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now.”

I don’t think this is actually likely to be true as the only way they could be sure to disable Windows it if WGA wasn’t installed is to have planned this from the first release of Windows XP, otherwise they’d have no guarantee that the code they need to do this would be installed.

However, the ZDNet person questioned Microsoft and only got this in response:

As we have mentioned previously, as the WGA Notifications program expands in the future, customers may be required to participate. Microsoft is gathering feedback in select markets to learn how it can best meet its customers’ needs and will keep customers informed of any changes to the program.

Now given that MSFT is already being sued over WGA for violating the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Washington Anti-Spyware Laws, California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California Anti-Spyware Laws, California Business and Professions Code and California’s Unfair Competition Law you would think that they would take this opportunity for a good PR exercise about it..

US Wants to Remove More Rights, Expand DMCA

Posted on by

It would appear a coalition of the repressive wish to expand the remit of US Copyright law, including the DMCA, to make it even harder to do research, play media on any OS but those you have to payed Microsoft/Apple for, or defend yourself against damaging software they put on silver circles they claim to be (but are not) Compact Discs.

Jessica Litman, who teaches copyright law at Wayne State University, views the DMCA expansion as more than just a minor change. “If Sony had decided to stand on its rights and either McAfee or Norton Antivirus had tried to remove the rootkit from my hard drive, we’d all be violating this expanded definition,” Litman said.

Even the current wording of the DMCA has alarmed security researchers. Ed Felten, the Princeton professor, told the Copyright Office last month that he and a colleague were the first to uncover the so-called “rootkit” on some Sony BMG Music Entertainment CDs–but delayed publishing their findings for fear of being sued under the DMCA.

..and how do they propose to get this through ? Fear of course! That resurgent American political tool.

During a speech in November, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed the idea and said at the time that he would send Congress draft legislation. Such changes are necessary because new technology is “encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft,” Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, “quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities.”

Ed: my emphasis added

Stupid CNN

Posted on by

Clicking on the video link on this article I get a pop up that says (in an image, just to make it even dumber):

Dumb CNN Plugin Image

In text, it says:

PLUGIN WARNING

The CNN.com video experience is optimized for Windows Media Player 9 or above.

No Windows Media Player detected

They also give you a “GET THE PLAYER” link to click on and when I do, the Microsoft site helpfully tells me that:

Your operating system is not currently supported by Windows Media Player.

What a suprise.. I’ve sent a whinge to CNN to ask them to fix this bug and support more video codecs – be interesting to see what (if anything) happens..

Portable Applications – An Office on a (USB) Stick

Posted on by

For those folks trapped using Windows here’s a really nice way to get access to all those free open-source applications in such a way that you don’t have to install them on your computer to be able to use them.

These can just be copied onto a USB memory stick and (apparently) run directly from there – you can even save your documents onto it, unplug it and move it to another computer and your virtual office should follow you!

The Portable Applications site has a heap of applications built for this, including:

and much much more!

3 New Serious Internet Explorer Bugs Found

Posted on by

The BBC is reporting that three new serious security bugs in Internet Explorer have been found, two of which will let an attacker take over your computer.

Security firms said specially written websites and hijacked servers were already being used to host the malicious code that uses the loopholes to invade vulnerable machines.

Microsoft will not fix this until April 11th so until that day everyone using Internet Explorer on Windows is vulnerable.

Don’t panic – there is a free alternative! Firefox is a state-of-the-art web browser that will let you surf the net safely.

Get Firefox!

“Spread Firefox” WordPress plugin

Posted on by

Want to alert those visitors to your WordPress blog who use Internet Explorer about upgrading to Firefox ?

This ‘Spread Firefox‘ plugin may be just what you want. As you can see from the screenshot below you can easily configure it to put a nice IE style warning bar at the top to tell them that they’re not getting the best from their current browser (the message is completely configurable), or you can pick banner ad’s, pop-ups (which I wouldn’t recommend) and other promotional methods.
1398

Halo2 for PC Only for Windows Vista

Posted on by

In their latest brainwave on how to pry money out of people fed up with paying for upgrades they don’t want, Microsoft apparently are going to make the new version of Halo for PC only work on Vista.

Of course, this may also require people to upgrade their computers too as it is rumoured to require a lot more beef than XP does, though Microsoft are being very cagey about what they are for now. However, both AMD and Intel provide suggested processors. Then you’ve got to have at least 512MB RAM (though some would argue that XP really needs that) and a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) capable card, for which nVidia, ATI and Intel provide specs. Also check out this blog post by Steven Roddis who’s come up with a list of the individual specs.