microsoft

Microsoft will next week unveil a series of security bulletins meant to address five security flaws. The fixes are part of the company's monthly Patch Tuesday release, and will most importantly fix a critical Windows XP Help Bug flaw in Windows' ... Help and Support Center. The series of fixes include four patches for the five vulnerabilities, three of which have been dubbed "critical" by Microsoft -- the company's highest level of alert. Each of these critical issues involve holes that, if exploited, could allow a hacker to launch a remote code execution attack upon an unsuspecting user's PC. ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled a beta version of their latest software offering called 'WebMatrix'. The free tool is intended to simplify application-based development on Microsoft's ASP.Net web platform. Among its many features, "the (WebMatrix) tool is ... free, provides core coding and database support, integrates with an open source web application gallery and includes support to easily publish and deploy sites and applications to web-hosting providers" according to a recent blog post written by Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in the Microsoft Developer Division. (Source: computerworld.com ) ... (view more)

Are you still using Windows XP with Service Pack 2? If so, you'll want to take note of Microsoft's warning that it will terminate support of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on July 13th, 2010. According to a recent PC Advisor poll, 37 per cent of ... respondents are still using Windows XP. Of that number, 15 per cent of those users still have not yet upgraded to Windows XP Service Pack 3. (Source: pcadvisor.co.uk ) Windows XP users who have not yet upgraded to Service Pack 3 will need to do so before July 13th, 2010 in order to continue receiving Microsoft's latest security updates. Without the ... (view more)

Microsoft has recently attacked Google in what critics say is the latest shot fired in the ongoing battle between the two companies. Microsoft openly criticized Google for their lack of customer support services. Microsoft has a reputation of ... offering consistent support via phone, email and online community sites like Microsoft Answers. Google, however, does little to offer support for their customers -- at least, according to Microsoft. Barbara Gordon, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer service and support, offered the following rhetorical questions as it relates to Google-based ... (view more)

Microsoft is currently investigating the emergence of a new critical bug affecting users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The Redmond-based firm made the announcement via Twitter on Tuesday, and says the issue can be found in the dynamic link library ... (.DLL) file "mfc42.dll." Security firm Secunia posted a detailed report, which they say is based on a third party proof-of-concept exploit. It's suggested that the vulnerability can be exploited via PowerZip version 7.2 Build 4010, among other utilities that use the mfc42.dll file. (Source: pcmag.com ) Bug Affects Moderately Popular ... (view more)

Microsoft says more than 10,000 computers have been attacked through a bug in the Windows XP help system. Strangely, it has resisted criticizing the security researcher who publicized the security flaw. The bug involves the way XP directs web ... browsers towards help pages, having first checked the page against a "whitelist" to make sure it is legitimate. It's possible for hackers to exploit the flaw by fooling the computer during this checking process. The result is that the browser can be relocated to a page containing malicious software. Microsoft hasn't yet found a permanent solution to the ... (view more)

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week, Microsoft and Sony touted their upcoming motion-control gameplay devices, the Kinect and Move. Coming almost four years after Nintendo started the motion-sensitive movement with its Wii, one ... analyst says hype for the Sony and Microsoft devices is "relatively low." The report comes from analysts at EEDAR, who, in the wake of major E3 performances by both Microsoft and Sony, say that while hardcore gamers are interested in Move and Kinect, many casual gamers are not. Worse yet, EEDAR analysts think that even though hardcore gamers are ... (view more)

Have you ever wondered why casinos in Las Vegas are able to survive when offering dinners for 99 cents? It's a marketing tactic designed to lure consumers, with the hopes that they will stay and purchase regular-priced items out of convenience. ... Microsoft is now using a similar strategy to attract curious individuals to an all-new revamped version of their Bing search engine . Bing to Offer TV, Games, and Music Bing now features an entertainment page that will let users watch TV shows, play games and listen to music -- all without leaving the website. This, Microsoft hopes, will entice users ... (view more)

Microsoft representatives have promised that the forthcoming Windows 7 Phone system will be based around the way customers use their phones in their everyday lives. But when Microsoft speaks to the marketing world, it tells a different story. Kostas ... Mallios, who oversees Microsoft's Strategy and Business Development unit, recently spoke at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He spoke about the way in which Windows Phone 7 is designed to be a seamless experience for the user such that everything from social networking to multimedia is linked together smoothly. However, he also ... (view more)

A public beta of Microsoft's highly-anticipated Windows Live Essentials will be made available today, and promises to lure many curious onlookers with Office Web Apps and new social networking and media sharing options. Many of the programs which ... were part of Windows XP have been taken out of Windows 7 and re-branded into Windows Live Essentials. Programs included are: Messenger, Photo Gallery, Mail, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, and Toolbar, plus Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Office Live Add-in, and Microsoft Silverlight. (Source: microsoft.com ) Windows Live Internet Integration ... (view more)