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ZDNET.COM
12-11-07
Mary Jo Foley
MICROSOFT STARTS ROLLING
OUT PUBLIC XP SP3 TEST BUILD
Microsoft has begun making a near-final
Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows XP Service
Pack (SP) 3 available to anyone interested in trying out
the new build — the same way that it is doing with
Vista SP1.
Microsoft has begun posting XP
SP3 RC documentation to its Microsoft Download site, which
is open to the general public. And the XP SP3 RC bits
are available from various file-download sites on the
Web.
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ZDNET.COM
11-27-07
Suzanne Tindal
WINDOWS XP OUTSHINES VISTA
IN BENCHMARKING TEST
New tests have revealed that Windows
XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance
of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1.
Vista's first service pack, to
be released early next year, is intended to boost the
operating system's performance. However, when Vista with
the Service Pack 1 (SP1) beta was put through benchmark
testing by researchers at Florida-based software development
company Devil Mountain Software, the improvement was not
overwhelming, leaving the latest Windows iteration outshined
by its predecessor.
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ZDNET.COM
11-27-07
Ryan Naraine
SUNBELT SOFTWARE: GOOGLE
SEARCH RESULTS DELIVERING MASSIVE MALWARE ATTACKS
For the last two days, security
software firm Sunbelt Software has been all over what
could develop into a scary trend: Rigged Google search
results that deliver big malware payloads.
On Monday, Sunbelt reported “we’re
seeing a large amount of seeded search results which lead
to malware sites.” The search terms leading you
to these malware payloads were pretty basic fare.
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ZDNET.COM
09-14-07
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
MICROSOFT
DODGING THE REAL STEALTH UPDATE ISSUES
I’ve taken some
time to properly digest Microsoft’s response to
the stealth update issue that I’ve been discussing
here for the last few days and I’ve come to the
conclusion that Microsoft is dodging the real issues about
the stealth updates.
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ZDNET.COM
09-13-07
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
CONFIRMATION OF STEALTH WINDOWS
UPDATE
I can now confirm
that the stealth Windows Update that I blogged about yesterday
actually exists - because I’ve detected its presence
on a machine at the PC Doc HQ.
At the PC Doc HQ we have several
systems set not to update. This is so that they are kept
at a specific patch level for testing duties. Many of
these systems are virtual machines but some are physical.
When I heard about this stealth update I decided to take
a look at one of these systems that don’t update
automatically - and within seconds I found what I was
looking for.
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ZDNET.COM
09-12-07
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
CONFIRMED: MICROSOFT IS FIDDLING
WITH SYSTEM FILES WITHOUT PERMISSION
[Updated: Sept 13,
2007 @ 6.50 am - After checking a system set not to automatically
update I can confirm that this stealth update is real.]
If this turns out to be true,
it has some very serious (and disturbing) implications:
Microsoft Corp. has started updating
files on computers running Windows XP and Vista, even
when users have explicitly disabled the operating systems’
automatic update feature, researchers said today.
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ZDNET.COM
07-25-07
Marc Orchan
VISTA IS TAKING BODY BLOWS
I’ve
been on a bit of a blog and RSS hiatus the past couple
of days and have been working my way through tales of
destruction and distress (the 365 outage, not Lindsay
Lohan’s latest episode), news, and views. In my
reading, there’s a recurring theme that beats louder
all the time. People are just not loving Vista.
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ZDNET.COM
07-02-07
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY SOME
WANT TO DOWNGRADE FROM VISTA TO XP
Last week my ZDNet blogging colleague
Mary Jo Foley reported that Microsoft is to make it easier
for some Vista users (specifically those using Windows
Vista Ultimate and Vista Business) to roll back to Windows
XP until they are ready to make the move. This is a good
move for everyone, except Microsoft.
Personally, I can understand why
users who jumped onto the Vista train might want to get
off. Even if you buy (or build) a PC specifically with
Vista in mind, you can still end up with some nasty headaches
when you try to slot a Vista PC into your hardware/software
ecosystem.
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ZDNET.COM
04-30-07
Ed Bott
HOW TO GET SUED BY MICROSOFT
Shopping at
SurplusComputers.com is like poking around an especially
geeky Goodwill store, Most of the goods are surplus for
a reason, but occasionally you’ll find a particularly
useful bit of hardware or software whose market has crested,
making it a great bargain.
I’ve been receiving the company’s
Deals of the Week e-mails for years, and I’ve always
been puzzled by one category of offers.
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ZDNET.COM
04-19-07
Dawn Kawamoto, CNET News.com
MOZILLA THUBDERBIRD 2 TAKES
FLIGHT
Mozilla on
Thursday launched Thunderbird 2, the latest version of
its free, open-source e-mail client featuring message
tagging and customization.
Thunderbird 2, with its enhanced
features, is intended to ease the organization of e-mail
via message tags, advanced folder viewing, and speedier
inbox and message searching.
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ZDNET.COM
04-19-07
Anne Broache
CYBERATTACKS AT FEDERAL AGENCIES
DRAWHOUSE SCRUTINY
WASHINGTON--As
new details emerged about cyberattacks against networks
at the State and Commerce departments last year, politicians
on Thursday said they're concerned many federal agencies
are ill-prepared to fend off such intrusions.
Members of a U.S. House of Representatives
cybersecurity subcommittee said they weren't confident
that the computer systems at bureaus within the State
and Commerce departments were adequately secured and scrubbed
of backdoors that could allow cybercrooks to re-enter.
They also questioned agency representatives on whether
they could truly guarantee that sensitive information
hadn't been accessed or copied.
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ZDNET.COM
04-04-07
Mary Jo Foley
VISTA BRANDING IS CONFUSING,
BUT IS IT CRIMINAL?
I feel Dianne
Kelley's pain. But I think the idea of suing Microsoft
for $5 million because the company's Windows Vista branding
is confusing is over the top.
Kelley filed a class action suit
against Microsoft, claiming deceptive Vista marketing
practices.
"In sum, Microsoft engaged
in bait and switch — assuring consumers they were
purchasing 'Vista Capable' machines when, in fact, they
could obtain only a stripped-down operating system lacking
the functionality and features that Microsoft advertised
as 'Vista,'" according to the suit, filed March 29.
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ZDNET.COM
03-26-07
George Ou
WIRELESS LAN SECURITY MYTHS
THAT WON'T DIE
It's been two
years since I wrote "The six dumbest ways to secure
a wireless LAN," and it's probably been one of my
more successful blog entries ever, with two flashes on
Digg. Since that time, I've written a free electronic
book on enterprise wireless LAN security for anyone to
use and download from TechRepublic. Since it has been
two years, I'm going to update the information with more
defined categories and better explain why they're so bad
from an ROI (return on investment) and security perspective...
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ZDNET.COM
03-17-07
Joris Evers
FEDERAL AGENCIES BAN WINDOWS
VISTA
As Microsoft
is out touting the "wow" of Windows Vista, two
federal agencies are among those saying "whoa."
The Department of Transportation
(DOT) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) cite fear of compatibility problems...
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C-NET.COM
03-05-07
Kathie Kingsley-Hughes
HOW NOT TO GET HACKED
It's important
to know how not to get hacked. The following details the
layers of security you can place on your wireless network,
as well as the effectiveness of each layer...
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