Microsoft

Microsoft is reportedly working on a brand new edition of Windows specially designed specifically for tablet devices. The goal would be to overcome battery life problems with existing portable Windows machines. The key to the new edition would be ... how it interacts with the processor. The CPU (or "processor") is the the chip in any computing device that carries out calculations and processes information. There are two main types of processors in common use for portable devices: Intel's x86 architecture and the ARM chip. The two chips are very different inside, which means that the ... (view more)

Yesterday we reported on a new critical flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) that allows hackers to circumvent the operating system and take control of MS Windows. In most instances, a Trojan is deployed on affected systems and spyware is ... installed. The flaw affects users of Windows XP through Windows 7. Microsoft recently acknowledged the vulnerability's existence, and has provided a limited workaround for the issue. Internet Explorer Flaw "Not Serious Enough" to Warrant Emergency Patch The Internet Explorer flaw was discovered earlier this month by a French security company ... (view more)

A new Internet Explorer (IE) security vulnerability has been found. The flaw, which is related to Internet Explorer's HTML engine, allows hackers to infiltrate systems running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. The issue was first discovered early in ... December by French security company Vupen . The company says this flaw could be exploited with the processing of a CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets) file intended for use by web designers. Rigged Website Key to Attack Those running Internet Explorer could find themselves under attack if they're (knowingly or unknowingly) directed to a specially- ... (view more)

Microsoft has released its second edition of its popular security software package, Security Essentials. Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 2.0 features a new scanning engine, integration with Windows Firewall, plus network traffic monitoring. ... Microsoft Security Essentials: Free, Decent Software The original MSE was released last year for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, as a successor to Microsoft's less-than-successful Live OneCare. Up that point most free antivirus programs had done little more than detect security threats before petitioning users for a costly upgrade in order to fix them ... (view more)

For those of you who dislike the pesky anti-piracy measures used by software companies, here's good news: Microsoft will discontinue its program of additional anti-piracy monitoring for its MS Office software. A few years ago Microsoft introduced ... Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), an anti-piracy measure that checked the validity of user operating systems by dialing into their computers. PCs found to be running illegal copies of Windows had their operating system desktop screen turned black with a message that their PC may be running counterfeit software. Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage ... (view more)

New figures suggest that sales of Windows Phone 7 handsets have effectively flat-lined at a statistically insignificant level. It's led one research firm to suggest Microsoft will have to find a completely different way to make money from the mobile ... market. There have been several indications that sales of handsets running the new system, launched in Europe in October and North America last month, have been disappointing. Statistics from the Windows Phone 7 launch include an estimate that just 40,000 people bought a Windows Phone 7 device on its launch day (the respective figure for iPhones ... (view more)

PC security and fraud analysts are today warning users of the alarming online spread of fake defragmentation tools for Microsoft's Windows operating system (OS). These fraudulent programs, referred to as scareware, are sold to consumers to "fix ... their PC," based on an illegitimate warning message, but perform no necessary function. Bogus Defrag Tools Flood Online Market GFI-Sunbelt Security recently posted a warning online their blog, stating that many bogus defrag tools have made their way online in recent weeks. The company recommends users steer clear of several deceptive products ... (view more)

Some rumors are hard to believe, and yet sometimes you can't help buy pay attention. That certainly describes a story coming from an Italian web site (blog) which claims that Windows 8 will come in a fully three-dimensional edition. The blog is very ... careful to call the story unofficial. It begins by noting that Windows 8 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions, but not 128-bit. Those numbers refer to the amount of information that a computer's CPU (center processing unit) can process simultaneously. Software has to be specially written to work with the number of bits on a computer, ... (view more)

Microsoft has provided more information with regards to Silverlight 5, the next edition of its multimedia software. The company hopes Silverlight 5's barrage of features can dampen speculation that the system will take a back seat to other forms of ... web media, including that of Adobe Flash and HTML (hyper text markup language) version 5. Silverlight is an application framework, a system that designers can use to create graphics, animations and multimedia content. With the new edition of Silverlight, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on its use in a business context -- particularly in ... (view more)

Microsoft will yet again release a gargantuan list of security bulletins for flaws found in its Windows operating system, Internet Explorer browser, and MS Office applications suite. In total, 17 security bulletins will address a mind-boggling 40 ... flaws and will be released this coming Tuesday, December 14th. While this isn't the largest release to date, it is a significant number and users of all MS Windows need to patch their PCs in order to steer clear of online threats. Remote Code Execution Threats Plague MS Windows Thankfully, just two of the bulletins have been rated "critical," ... (view more)