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Windows Xp is among the stable operating software released by Microsoft but still there are choices to use other operating system. One new choice is ofcourse windows 7. Now why one should switch from windows xp to windows 7, there must be some benefits which are as follow

1- The introduction of UAC and many other security components in Windows Vista was probably one of the most annoying experiences for users who switched from XP to Vista. While it did increase the security of the computer system it annoyed users to now end to see UAC prompts all the time. Windows 7 will still use UAC but with a reduced number of user prompts. A convincing reason why UAC is good are the monthly security patches and classifications that Microsoft releases. Many vulnerabilities are classified as critical for Windows XP systems but only as important on Vista systems.

2- There are not many differences in hardware support between Windows XP and Windows Vista. The only notable difference that might affect users in the future is the support of Direct X 10 in Windows Vista while Windows XP users have only access to Direct X 9. While this is not a huge problem at the time being thanks to both game developers and hardware manufacturers it could become a issue in the coming years.Windows 7 will ship with Direct X 11 which again will not be available for Windows XP users. It is likely that the release of Windows 7 will see a critical mass shifting to Direct X 10 and 11 compatible gaming which might leave Windows XP gamers behind.

3- Windows Xp have very limited design to choose for wallpapers, themes, sounds  etc.  Windows 7 will have plenty of designs and sounds available to fit for your need.

4- Speed matters in current global tech world. Windows 7 will have edge over Xp and Vista regarding the speed. The Windows 7 will boot faster than other operating systems including xp.

5- Innovation is a process which human like the most. By using windows 7 one will feel of using new innovative technology. New fatures in windows 7 will definitely benefit the user. 

The release of Windows 7 yet to announced but we can wait for it in order to experience the most powerful and fatest windows.

News Microsoft-security, windows 7

Microsoft security Microsoft-security, roque software, scareware

Freddy tan who is a chief security advisor with Microsoft asia has been appointed as the board of directors of  Global Information Security Professional Body.

Global Information Security Professional Body aasists vendor-neutral education products, career services, and Gold Standard credentials to IT certified industry professionals.

Currently Freddy Tan will act as communicating Microsoft’s security strategy and architecture, identifying emerging security trends, and maintaining relationships with governments, law enforcement, financial services, industry associations and academia.

Tan is also a member of the (ISC)2 Asian Advisory Board and was awarded the (ISC)2 President’s Award in 2003 in recognition for his volunteer work with (ISC)2. He replaces Dr. Peter Berlich, who recently stepped down from the board.

Microsoft security freddy tan, ISC, Microsoft-security

An Indiana based company has sued Microsoft, Apple, and Google, on holding  the patent on a common file preview feature used by browsers and operating systems to show users small snapshots of the files before they are opened.

Cygnus Systems sued the giants  companies  claiming that they infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which offers to view preview images of documents on the computer. Mac OS X, the iPhone and Safari also infringe, the company patent. Apple uses this technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the filings state.

While Cygnus has sued three very high profile companies, there may not be the only vendors in Cygnus’s sites. “They were a logical starting place for us,” said Matt McAndrews, a partner with the Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, law firm, which is representing Cygnus. “We’ve identified many other potentially infringing products that we’re investigating,

Microsoft security, News apple, cygnus, Microsoft-security, patent

Microsoft confirmed the existence of a new and potentially serious security threat to users of its SQL Server database software. Microsoft is aware that exploit code has been published on the Internet for the vulnerability addressed by this advisory,” the company said in a bulletin published Monday.

The threat is essentially software code that hackers could use to access or alter corporate databases built with SQL Server. The malicious code could allow what’s known in IT security as remote code execution, a process by which hackers could, for instance, alter figures in a bank account without ever setting foot on the bank’s premises.Microsoft said SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine, and WindowsInternal Database (WYukon) are all potentially vulnerable to the threat. It added, however, that it’s not aware of any attacks having actually been carried out.

The threat does not affect SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4, SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3, or SQL Server 2008, Microsoft said.

“This vulnerability is not exposed anonymously. An attacker would need to either authenticate to exploit the vulnerability or take advantage of a SQL injection vulnerability in a Web application that is able to authenticate,” Microsoft noted in its security bulletin.

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One animated cursor bug, many animated critics.
Microsoft ’s failure to spot the animated cursor bug in Windows Vista could be a disconcerting sign that Vista’s security-oriented development process slipped up, researchers have suggested.

“Apparently Microsoft still hasn’t learned that counting vendor acknowledged vulnerabilities isn’t a good way to establish the security of an OS. As an analysis of Microsoft’s claims on Full Disclosure shows, we see that the methodology used was badly flawed. A bug in Firefox (not to mention emacs), counts as a flaw for Linux, while IE bugs get ignored on Vista’s chart. Then we see that vulnerabilities aren’t vulnerabilities when they’re security-challenged features such as Vista’s Teredo. Also, there’s far too little consideration given to severity, given that it stoops to counting even extra access restrictions on a file in OSX to have something to show. In short, the original Microsoft analysis was good PR and poor research.”

“A version of Vista that removes security-related functionality has the potential to be an even greater turkey,” it said. “Security is a major concern for the European market and needs to be addressed on multiple different fronts. If the EU is going to ask Microsoft to remove security-related functionality then it needs to be very precise in its request and very clear why it is making the request. It has the potential to cause a major market disruption, with no benefit for the end-consumer whatsoever.”

Windows security Microsoft-security, vista, Windows-security, Windows-Vista

Microsofts free Tool “SteadyState” offers a solution for all, a stable supervisor state and a continuous user surface are more important to which than Systemtuning and software installations. With SteadyState a once secured configuration is restored after each system start. Thus neither inadvertent changes of configuration nor computer viruses can cause durably damage. We betray, how you install the free Tool and optimally configure. Who doesn’t dream about a small time machine, if times again a everyday life Malheur happened? The Word Formatvorlage would not be choked yet and the Trojaner not yet on the non removable disk… Windows knows advice: the free Tool Windows SteadyState offers with each restart of the system a “RESET” on a correctly furnished basis configuration. Thus is a configuration mistake just as futile as a for a test installed, but then nevertheless nervendes program. Even Spyware and Trojaner disappear by a simple restart, the autostarting range and the Registry remain slim and the system feel always in such a way to as on the first day! SteadyState is a Sicherheitstool, whose main application field sees Microsoft with publicly accessible PCS, for example in schools and libraries. Which helps with school computers, naturally good services carry out also in the Home Office. Finally a safety software, which makes a PC for the rauen employment in InterNet cafes more vandalismussicher and maintenance-free, for at home should be than sufficiently dimensioned or the job more. Windows SteadyState protects the operating system so well against changes that normally neither virus scanners nor the internal Patchmanagement can install their urgently necessary updates from the InterNet. For remedy is however ensured. On the SteadyState console the problem with the option “Schedule software update” can be repaired. In principle each update runs out on the fact that the system logs out all users, who install necessary updates and after a Reboot again are available at a defined time of day. Windows operating system updates are as expected unbureaucratically treated thereby. The same applies to (handread out) the anti-virus products, which integrate Microsoft smoothly. In all remaining cases is somewhat more manual work demanded, which consists essentially of giving manually a custom-made batch file for the scanner update. With a to a large extent static system (no new software installations) it remains considering whether a firmly installed virus scanner is not renounceable. Conceivable also an occasional update of the virus signatures is during a maintenance phase.

Microsoft security, Windows security Microsoft-security, security, steadystate, Windows-security

Security vendor Sophos reported last Thursday that Microsoft’s Vista is vulnerable to at least three pieces of widespread malware, two of which date back to 2004. At least three well-known internet worms — labelled Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O by Sophos — are able to execute on the operating system, according to Sophos.

However, because these attacks rely on user interaction to execute the code, Microsoft has denied this is a flaw. Microsoft said that these attacks rely on social-engineering techniques to be successful.

“Microsoft is aware of a report by Sophos that claims variants of existing malware may affect users running Windows Vista,” the software giant said in a statement. “Based on our initial investigation, Microsoft can confirm that these variants do not take advantage of a security vulnerability, rather they rely on social engineering to infect a user’s system.”

Social engineering relies on tricking users into executing malicious code themselves — a user has to open an infected attachment on an e-mail for these worms to infect the system. Windows Mail Client — the Vista replacement to Outlook — will block the worms, but businesses running third-party e-mail clients such as Lotus Notes, or webmail such as Yahoo or GoogleMail, could be vulnerable to social-engineering attacks.

Microsoft stopped short of blaming third-party e-mail clients for the problem, but said that User Account Control (UAC) — which limits users’ ability to install applications unless they have administrator privileges — can “help to provide better protections”. IT managers can run Vista end-user accounts with limited “standard user” privileges, rather than administrator privileges. Users are also given security prompts when attempting to run executable code.

“In those cases where other e-mail clients may not have made the same aggressive security design decisions as Microsoft did with Windows Mail Client, other protections such as UAC can apply still to help provide better protections against email-based social-engineering attacks,” Microsoft’s statement said.

Computer security Systems, Microsoft security Computer security Systems, Microsoft-security, vista

Microsoft is warning customers about a zero-day flaw in the process of how Windows looks up other computers on the Internet.

The vulnerability is a variation of one patched in 1999, and attackers could exploit it to access sensitive data and redirect users to Web sites rigged with malware. It is not considered as big a threat as more recent zero-day flaws, however.

Tim Rains of the Microsoft Security Response Center communications team said in an email late Monday that the software giant is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in how Windows resolves hostnames that do not include a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN). He said the specific technology affected is Windows’ Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) program.

The problem affects Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server; Windows 2000 Professional; Windows 2000 Server; Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition; Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition; Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003 Web Edition; Windows Vista; Windows XP Home Edition; Windows XP Professional; Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7.

This is mainly a problem for corporate users outside the U.S, though Microsoft warned that attackers could exploit it to silently redirect users to malware-laden Web sites. Though the flaw was patched years ago, researcher Beau Butler recently discovered it in more recent versions of Windows.

“Microsoft has not received any information to indicate customer impact at this time,” Rains said. “Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process.”

Microsoft Security Advisory 945713 suggests users mitigate the threat by creating a WPAD.DAT proxy auto configuration file on a host-named WPAD to direct Web browsers to the organization’s proxy; disabling the automatic detection settings in Internet Explorer; disabling DNS devolution; and configuring a domain suffix search list.

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Microsoft warned companies on Monday that a flaw in the way Windows searches for Web proxies could allow an attacker the ability to reroute traffic through a malicious server.

The security issues occur when a Windows computer attempts to find a proxy server using Microsoft’s Web Proxy Automatic Discovery (WPAD) technology and the organization’s domain name starts at the third level or deeper, such as somecompany.co.jp, the software giant stated in an advisory. The WPAD search first attempts to find the server using the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN), and if it doesn’t find the server will try the next higher level of the domain name. For example, a search for a proxy server in somecompany.co.jp will look for servername.somecompany.co.jp and then move on to servername.co.jp, which could be a malicious server outside the company’s network.

“At this time, we are not aware of attacks attempting to use the reported vulnerability, but we will continue to track this issue,” Tim Rains, a spokesman for the Microsoft Security Response Center, said on the teams’ blog. “The advisory contains several mitigations that customers can use to help protect themselves from attackers.”

Successfully exploiting the vulnerability would reroute a Windows computer’s Web traffic through the malicious proxy server, allowing man-in-the-middle attacks and eavesdropping.

Microsoft has had to deal with a handful of vulnerabilities in recent months caused by the Windows software that handles domain names. In April, the software giant closed a buffer overflow in the remote procedure call functionality of its Domain Name Server for Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. The company is also one of the browser makers searching for a solution to the issue of DNS rebinding, which could be used by an attacker to gain access to resources on a Web surfer’s network.

Microsoft security, News domain, malicious, Microsoft-security, News, proxy

Microsoft Office software (especially Excel) uses what are called “macros” to perform a
series of steps for you. Excel spreadsheets use macros to perform calculations or paste
information throughout a document. These require security measures to make sure
what you are using is safe and not infected with a virus. In order to use an existing
spreadsheet effectively, you may have to change the security settings in Excel. The
following tutorial will give a narrative explanation of these steps, as well as a series of
“screen shots” that will walk you through this process.
Step 1

First, you will know when you need to either disable or change the security settings of a
spreadsheet’s macros, as you may get a dialogue box that prompts something like:
“Macros are disabled because the security level is set too high and a digitally signed
Trusted Certificate is not attached to the macros. To run the macros, change the
security level to a lower setting (not recommended), or request the macros be signed
by the author using a certificate issued by a Certificate Authority.”
Click “O.K.”
Note: While this may sound like a serious message, in order to view/use some
spreadsheets effectively it is necessary. The content included in the RFF is considered
“trusted content,” and has not been written with any malicious macros hidden.
Step 2

In order to change the security settings to allow macros to run in Excel, you must first
go to the “Tools” menu, located at the top of the Excel window.
You must then select “Macro” from this drop-down menu (note: If you don’t see this
option at first, click the double arrow pointing down at the bottom of the drop-down
menu. This expands this menu to display all the options that are available to you).

Step 3

Once you place the pointer over the “Macro” menu option, a second slide-out window
appears revealing the options available for working with macros. You now want to
select “Security” from this slide-out window.
After clicking on the “Security” option from the “Macro” menu, a new window pops up
that will allow you to change your security settings. You must change your settings to
either “Medium” or “Low” in order to use the spreadsheet properly. After selecting the
setting of your choice, click “O.K.” and close the spreadsheet (you will be asked
whether or not you would like to save your changes. Go ahead and do so before
closing).
Step 4 

If you changed your settings to medium, you will be prompted when opening a
spreadsheet that uses macros whether to enable or disable these macros. You need to
enable the macros in order for the spreadsheet to work properly.
After enabling the macros, you can start using your spreadsheet!

Step 5

If you chose to set your security settings to “Low,” then you just have to close the
spreadsheet, save the changes, and you will be ready to use the spreadsheet the next
time you open it!

Microsoft security excel-security, macros, microsoft-office-security, Microsoft-security

Sender ID authenticates inbound e-mail to help verify that it is from the person that it says it is from. Messages that have been authenticated by Sender ID are less likely to be spam and messages that fail Sender ID are more likely to be spam.

To help distinguish between verifiable and unverifiable senders, Sender ID checks and validates the sender’s e-mail address against the sender’s Internet Protocol (IP).

icrosoft began implementing Sender ID in MSN Hotmail early in 2005 and has seen positive results. As of April 2007, 8 million domains worldwide have adopted Sender ID technology.

Momentum for Sender ID adoption is quickly growing. As more Internet and e-mail providers begin to work with this new technology, the ability of Sender ID to intercept spam, phishing attempts, and other online exploits continues to increase.

Also, an increasing number of technology organizations have announced Sender ID support by encouraging industry adoption, publishing their own sender records, or offering specific products and services that support the Sender ID system, from e-mail applications to anti-spam services. For more information on Sender ID, visit www.microsoft.com/senderid.

Email security, Microsoft security Authentication, email-security, Microsoft security, Microsoft-security, sender-id