Windows Factor

On the one-year anniversary of the launch Internet Explorer (IE) 7, the IE team posted yet another “stay tuned” message to the IE team blog, regarding an informational update on IE 8.

Tony Chor, Group Program Manager, posted that IE 7 is now used by 300 million individuals, according to data from Visual Sciences. According to this data, IE 7 is the second most popular browser, after IE 6. IE 7 already is the most popular in the U.S. and the UK and Microsoft expects it to surpass IE 6 worldwide “shortly,” Chor said.

Chor added:

“While we’re happy with how well IE7 is doing, as always, we continue to listen to our customers and find ways to further improve Internet Explorer. Look for more news on this front in the coming weeks.”

Commenters on the November 30 IE Team Blog post quickly voiced their opinion that Microsoft is overdue in providing information on IE 8. Users have been clamoring for an IE update for months to no avail.

Poster “LorenzoDV” said, “While IE7 is (was) a big step ahead, we really need to move on, especially towards full CSS 2.1 (and even 3.0) compliance. Please update us on IE8.”

Poster “William” added, “If there is any update on the progress of IE8, that would be brilliant! If I remember correctly, I watched an interview with Bill Gates and he said there would be annual updates to IE). As much as I am a loyal user, I note that more and more websites are no longer using IE hacks, and the experience is degrading to the IE-user.. Security is important, but not everything!”

Microsoft Chairman Gates did, indeed, promise quicker browser updates going forward. He suggested at one point that Microsoft would provide new IE releases every 9 to 12 months. With IE 8 seemingly not in any kind of external beta test yet, it seems like it is going to be a lot longer than that before Microsoft it provides a new version of IE.

Microsoft has said it plans to make a test version of an IE 7 refresh available to testers in December. But no one is providing any kind of due dates or feature sets for IE 8.

Article: All About Microsoft

One year ago today, on November 30, Microsoft held its business launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 in New York City.

At the kick-off, PC makers, resellers and independent software vendors were upbeat. Many customers were curious to see the operating system it took Microsoft five years to develop, and the new Office suite that sported an entirely new interface.

However, things didn’t go as smoothly for Microsoft, at least on the Windows side of the house, as many inside and outside the company expected. When I was compiling my list of “Top 10 Microsoft Announcements in 2007,” I was struck by how much of what Microsoft did (and didn’t) do in 2007 involved Vista in some way.

As of today, Microsoft has sold more than 88 million copies of Vista and some still-secret number of copies of Office 2007. But the company still has a heck of a lot of convincing to do to get businesses to deploy — or even to start to think about deploying — Windows Vista.

A year after the business launch, Microsoft officials are saying that they want users to give Vista another chance and look at where the product is now, in terms of driver and application compatibility; reliability; and performance. Their contention (though no one will state it this bluntly, of course): Vista today is the product that Vista should have been a year ago upon release.

Going into 2008, is there anything you think Microsoft could do to convince the doubters out there that Vista is a worthy upgrade? A price cut? A Windows-Genuine-free version of the product (like the WGA-free Internet Explorer 7 Microsoft recently fielded)? A “Better Together” campaign that demonstrates how Windows Live services can make Vista a better product?

Source: All About Microsoft

The Windows Mobile team is nearly as reticent as the Windows client team to talk futures. Thanks to a variety of leaks over the past year-plus, however, Microsoft watchers had come to expect the Windows Mobile “Photon” release — the successor to Windows Mobile “Crosbow” (6.0) — to hit in late 2007/early 2008.

But now it looks like there will be an update to Windows Mobile 6.0 — call it WM 6.1 or what you will — that will hit in early 2008. This is not Photon and/or Windows Mobile 7.0. (I am not 100 percent sure Photon ever was supposed to be Windows Mobile 7.0, but who knows….)

Engadget said Microsoft is briefing folks behind closed doors this week about the refresh which will go to handset vendors early next year. Due to non-disclosure restrictions, Engadget wasn’t allowe to say much, in terms of features that will be part of the new release. Engadget said of the new version:

“Our first impressions: very slick, and has a lot of features that just about any WinMo user will agree is way overdue. In other words, we’re expecting users will be stoked — no doubt about it. Expect specific details on features and the like in the near future, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more about it CES.”

Full Article:  All About Microsoft

Microsoft is planing to include iPhone syncing capabilities with Office 2008 Mac edition which is due to be released in January 2008.  At current Microsoft have said that powerpoint presentations will be able to sync directly with the iPhone in a similar fashion to how your other files sync.

“Getting presentations from PowerPoint 2008 for Mac to your iPod or iPhone is easy. PowerPoint exports your presentation as a series of pictures directly to iPhoto, or saves those same slide images as pictures to your Pictures folder. From there, sync pictures to your iPod or iPhone through iTunes as usual, then use the built-in Photos or slide show program on your iPod or iPhone to show your presentation. No sweat!

“Presentations look great on the big wide screens of iPhone and iPod Touch, but they look even better on a big screen TV or projected. Plug your iPod into a television or projector using the Apple Component AV or Composite AV cable and leave your laptop in the case.” (Microsoft Mac Mojo)

It has also been said that this new ability will be extended to support the all iPod editions that support pictures - this functionality will require iPhoto ‘06 or later.

Microsoft is expecting to ship the final version of Office 2008 on the 15th January 2008.

As predicted in our post earlier today, the Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta has been reinstated after a short delay. Tony pointed me to a forum post which states that the beta program is currently limited to 5,000 testers but that it will later be expanded to a larger group. So for now, just a few thousands of lucky invitees can download their 17.26 MB copy of build 9.0.1407.1107 from Microsoft Connect. We’ll let you know asap if we know a way to become an official tester. A leak would be pointless because the product team said that “if the build gets out too widely and starts causing problems on the service we may have to shut it down.”

Once more the general changelog for Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta0 as posted by Ryan over here:

* Sign-in and messaging in multiple locations - You asked for it, now you have it! You can now sign into Messenger from more than one computer at a time, up to four at once. Simply sign into Messenger from one computer, install Messenger on another computer and sign in using the same account. (Only works if all computers are running Messenger 9.0 Beta. Currently enabled only for users whose Windows Live ID country is US or Canada.)
* Signature sounds – Pick your own personal sound that your contacts will hear when you sign into Messenger (only works if you and your contacts have Messenger 9.0 Beta).
* Per contact sounds - Pick unique sounds for each of your contacts. You will be able to tell from across the room who is sending you a message.
* SPIM Reporting - If users send you unsolicited messages or invitations that you consider spam, you can block them and report them as spammers. If you report a user as a spammer, the messenger service will collect this data and put appropriate restrictions on the spammer accounts. All reports of spammers are kept confidential.
* Animated Display Pictures – Show your moves! Messenger now supports animated .gif files as display pictures.
* Link in Personal Status Message – URLs in Personal Status Messages are hot and clickable in the Messenger contact list.
* Behind the Scenes Changes – Architectural changes that modified how things work but shouldn’t have changed how things look
o Changes to sign-in, connectivity, presence, sending text IM’s, voice & video features
o Windows Live Contacts Server – wlcomm.exe runs in the background to keep your contacts’ information up-to-date and helps Messenger sign you in faster

jrgbx just informed me that Messenger Plus! Live is not compatible with v9.0. The upcoming Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 is unlikely to be either, but we’ll check with Patchou about that.

Source: Mess.be

Microsoft are not saying much about Vista SP1 externally and the service pack is being kept very hush, hush. However, internally Microsoft have been promising some very weighty improvements for the OS. Employees have stated the the following improvements are expected:

• Improve by 25 percent local file copying on the same disk on the same machine
• Improve by 45 percent the speed of copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system
• Speed up by 50 percent the rate of copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system
• Improve the reading time for large images by roughly 50 percent
• Improve the time to resume from standby for a “certain class” of USB hubs by about 18 percent
• Improve the performance of user login on corporate PCs outside of the corporate environment so that it is comparable with login inside companies

• Reduction of the number of User Account Control (UAC) prompts from four to one when creating or renaming a folder at a protected location
• Improvement of compatibility with third-party diagnostic tools that rely on raw sockets
• Addition of a password hint during the initial set up of Vista SP1
• Resolution of many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Vista, especially those involving Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player and a number of other drivers included with Vista

Microsoft is looking to release the Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 to selected testers the week of December 1, according to sources close to the company.

Microsoft’s plan is to expand the SP1 RC test to the general public by making the build available to any interested parties in the second week of December, sources said.

Microsoft is currently testing the escrow of the SP1 RC build internally. The build being tested internally is build number 17051, sources said.

Microsoft has said it is planning to deliver the final SP1 code in the first quarter of 2008.

Microsoft made a preview build of the Vista SP1 RC available to 15,000 pre-selected testers on November 14.

It’s not clear if Microsoft is planning to make next week’s RC of Vista SP1 available to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) testers. Microsoft posted to the MSDN site on November 2 a note saying the company had made available for download a preview of the Vista SP1 code. But the note was posted in error.

I’ve asked Microsoft for confirmation on the latest SP1 RC schedule details. No word back yet.

Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. will face more than 40 vulnerabilities in Windows Vista next year, as the operating system climbs past the 10% market-share milestone and malware authors really start to find flaws, a McAfee Inc. analyst said today.

“Most of the current malware has ignored Vista,” said Craig Schmugar, a threat researcher at McAfee’s Avert Lab — but that’s not because the operating system has been frustratingly secure. In fact, Schmugar argued, Vista has been a worthwhile target in the first year of its release.

“These people make their living writing malware or attacking users,” he said. “They’re driven by financial motivation, and only when market share has an impact will they really work on Vista.”

At some point in 2008, Vista will own a tenth of the desktop operating system market, Schmugar predicted. The milestone should mark the beginning of concerted efforts by attackers to root out vulnerabilities in the newer operating system. “Although the huge market share that XP has means [attackers] will still be profitable there for years to come, Vista at 10% will put it on their radar,” he said.

Source: Computerworld

Several anonymous readers pointed us at CNET UK’s Crave blog for a list of what is or was, in their opinion, the worst consumer tech in history. Vista comes in at number 10, in company with Apple’s puck mouse (number 6) and Sony’s CD rootkit (number 9).

According to Crave: “[Vista’s] incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some examples of why this expensive operating system earns the final place in our terrible tech list.” That’s gotta hurt a little, coinciding as it does with Apple’s Don’t Give Up On Vista attack ad.

Source: Slashdot

Security researchers warn that attack code targeting an unpatched bug in Apple Inc.’s QuickTime has gone public and added that in-the-wild attacks against systems running Windows XP and Vista are probably not far behind. There was no word as of Sunday whether the Mac OS X versions of the media player are also vulnerable.

The critical bug in QuickTime 7.2 and 7.3 (and perhaps earlier editions as well) is in the player’s handling of the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a audio/video streaming standard. According to alerts posted by Symantec Corp. and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), attackers can exploit the flaw by duping users into visiting malicious or compromised Web sites hosting specially-crafted streaming content, or by convincing them to open a rigged QTL file attached to an e-mail message.

Symantec credited Polish research Krystian Kloskowski with first reporting the zero-day vulnerability on the milw0rm.com Web site Friday. By Saturday, Kloskowski and an unnamed researcher identified as “InTeL” had followed up with separate proof-of-concept examples that executed on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista machines running QuickTime 7.2 or 7.3.

A successful exploit would let the attacker install additional malware — spyware or a spambot, say — or cull the system for information like passwords. An attack that failed would likely only crash QuickTime.

View full article: Computer World