Displaying items by tag: Windows

As we have been working with Windows 8 and Windows 2012 server we have become increasingly concerned about security. Although Microsoft has claimed that they have improved security through items like the locked UEFI boot process there are still glaring omissions in security that keep popping up very recently it was noted that despite the claims from Microsoft of a more secure login process the password hint is exposed in the SID database and easily recovered remotely. We also found that users’ contact lists are also left in the open (and in plain text) and available to anyone that can gain remote elevated privileges; which is what almost all Viruses and Malware try to do.

Today during a global internet conference, Microsoft announced the availability of their server OS, Windows Server 2012. Everyone interested can view it at the link at teh end of this article. The presentation, from Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s president of the Servers and Tools Business, in which he emphasized that Windows Server 2012 is the key element Cloud OS, that will provide users a modern platform for global computer applications. "We're opening the door to every app being available on every cloud. We've thought through the delivery of the Cloud OS across public, private and hosts. Users will be cloud-ready from the get-go at multiple layers."

Another day, another Windows 8 misconception to kill. This time we are hearing from obviously uninformed journalists that Windows 8 is bringing the age of the Hybrid touch/keyboard PC to the world. The problem with this statement is that they are about 6 years too late. The hybrid PC has been around in quantity since at least 2006 and in limited existence going even farther back than that. Microsoft originally sought to build a “tablet” empire based on notebooks with touch screens and full keyboards. To accomplish this they enlisted the help of the usual suspects (Lenovo, HP, etc.) and tried to push them onto the market; unfortunately the concept did not take off that well.

Rumors going around Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 are saying that we could see some of these phones as early as October 29th. According to an anonymous source that gave this information to ZDNet October will be a very important month for Microsoft. Beside the launch of their new OS, Windows 8, they will launch the Surface RT, and after that Windows Phone 8. The month gets wrapped up with October 30th and the start of Microsoft's Build 2012 conference. Even though several manufacturers will release their Windows 8 or Surface RT devices on October 26th, Microsoft decided to wait 4 more days to release Windows Phone.

After 25 years Microsoft has finally decided to change company's logo. This time it looks more appropriate for new the new Metro [Ed – or whatever it is called] philosophy of simple Swiss-like design. Microsoft stated that “This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning.“. They will release new versions of almost all of theirs products this year, from new Windows OS, both for PC and mobile, to Xbox services.

It seems that while Microsoft was busy trying to turn your desktop into a phone they might have skimped on security a bit. According to some very interesting research Windows 8 has a flaw in it that allows for someone to gain access to the list of user password hints directly from the registry in unencrypted form. The flaw, which was found by the gang over at Spiderlabs is not a massive game changer, but it is troublesome and gives a potential attacker even more information to help him or her gain access to your system.

The other day Microsoft decided to make an official announcement of the OEM partners that will be supporting Windows RT for the October 26th launch party. The list is pretty much what we described before and shows Lenovo, Asus, Dell and Samsung.  Acer, HP, Toshiba, Motorola, HTC and more will be passing on this (Motorola and HTC not by choice …). Of that list HP, Acer, and Toshiba will still work to release Intel based tablets running Windows 8 by the official launch date. The list has been dwindling since Steve Ballmer first made his proclamation that there would be 20+ tablets running Windows RT for the launch.

Remember how we told you that Microsoft was going to pull out all of the PR and marketing tricks they can muster to try and convince people that Windows 8 is a good thing? Well now they are trying to counter the effects of the recent comments by top names in gaming; most notably Gabe Newell of Valve and John Carmack of id. If you do not remember what these two said we will boil it down here. Gabe Newell stated that Windows 8 was a “catastrophe” which John Carmack stated there was “no reason to upgrade”.

Russian leaker WZOR confirmed yesterday that he is in possesion of both x86 and x 64 Windows 8 Enterprise RTM. He stated that they will leak these to the web anytime and that the "Pro" versions (both x64 and x86) can also be expected in near future. This version differs from the earlier "N" editions by not having Windows Media Player stripped out. Windows Server 2012 was also leaked yesterday via the same source, and will probably be available together with Windows 8 RTM leaked versions on popular torrent sites, and similar sources.

Microsoft has announced that they are getting rid of the Metro name for the Windows 8 “start screen”.  The sudden shift on the eve of the launch (the final version has been released to OEM partners and other manufacturers) is unusual and Microsoft’s answers for this change are not adding up. The original term Metro can be dated back to the UI used for the Zune players and in particular the ZuneHD. This style of slimmed down icon-free user interface that many people liked about the now discarded media player. After receiving good feedback on the Zune (and with many comments asking for a “Zune Phone”) Microsoft pushed some elements of the Zune UI into their Windows Phone product.