windows

Microsoft plans to release a heavy Patch Tuesday, with 16 security updates addressing a total of 34 different vulnerabilities in Windows, the Internet Explorer web browser, Office software, SQL Server and various other products. The patches will ... begin to roll out starting June 14, 2011 via Windows Updates. Andrew Storms, nCircle Security director of security operations, says he isn't surprised by the weight of this month's Patch Tuesday. "It's the usual mishmash for an even-numbered month," Storms said. "But to some degree, we expected a big month. And they stayed true to form." (Source: ... (view more)

Some third-party developers have expressed concern with what they see as a lack of direction on the part of Microsoft in designing Windows 8. Many feel it's not clear how applications will be developed for the upcoming operating system. Current ... Windows software developers are most concerned with a new web standards-based development platform Microsoft says it will deploy for Windows 8. Rumors suggest that the main focus will be on HTML 5 and JavaScript because these languages are platform independent, meaning that it can run on virtually any hardware or operating system. "The new [ ... (view more)

On Thursday, Microsoft gave its first major public demonstration of Windows 8, and showed how it would be used to bridge the gap between PCs and mobile devices. To the surprise of many guests attending the event, Microsoft says that the new ... operating system's hardware requirements will actually be less than the requirements to run Windows 7. Windows 8 Optimized for Varying Screen Sizes and Processors Microsoft recently confirmed that Windows 8 would run on the ARM processor : a low-powered CPU (central processing unit) commonly used on mobile devices such as tablets, and mobile phones. In ... (view more)

German security technologies company Sirrix AG has recently released what some critics are calling the most secure web browser in existence: a sandboxed version of Mozilla firefox, known as BitBox. What makes this variation of Firefox most ... intriguing is that the web browser runs completely independent of Microsoft Windows. The program uses VirtualBox 4.04 (a software virtualization program by Sun Microsystems) and a securely locked-down ("hardened") implementation of Debian 6 Linux. The web browser (Firefox 4) then runs in a virtual machine with its own operating system (Debian 6 ... (view more)

It's rumored that Windows 8 may be released in special editions suitable for devices like smartphones and iPad-like tablets. The buzz has caused concern at Intel, whose products are at the heart of most traditional Windows computers. The change ... involves the processor's instruction set architecture, which is at the very core of a computer. As a very loose analogy, the difference between rival instruction set architectures is as fundamental as the difference between organizing words alphabetically in a dictionary and organizing them by meaning in a thesaurus. Most Windows PCs use Intel x86 Most ... (view more)

The man who co-founded Google believes that just one in five of the company's employees still use Windows. Sergey Brin also described Windows as a fundamentally flawed operating system. Brin was promoting Chromebooks, the first range of machines ... that will ship with Google's Chrome operating system built-in. The system works on the basis that the user is always online, and is effectively a glorified version of the Chrome web browser with built-in links to online applications such as Google Docs. The theory is that the majority of computer users spend most of their computing time using their ... (view more)

With the Apple iPad being touted as the "all-in-one" tablet computer, many would be inclined to think that its sudden global demand would account for a recent slump in PC sales. Industry analysts, however, believe that the decline is more closely ... linked to the success of Windows 7. In the aftermath of the 2010 holiday sales season, only 12 per cent of consumers admitted to purchasing an iPad in place of a standard PC (a slight dip from the 14 per cent who had initially picked up the tablet within the first six months of its availability). While the figures indicate that the release of ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed that the infection rate for Windows 7 computers has increased. But the Windows 7 operating system still remains considerably more secure than its predecessors. The most talked-about figure in the newly-published statistics is ... a 33 per cent hike in the proportion of Windows 7 computers suffering from a malware infection. That's a potentially misleading oversimplification, though. The actual rate increased during 2010 from three PCs per thousand to four per thousand, figures that could easily be distorted by rounding errors. Windows XP Still Riskiest for Malware ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced an overhaul of the way it assess and publicizes the risk security problems pose to users of its products. The new technique will give added detail as well as highlighting the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of ... Windows. The changes will affect Microsoft's monthly security update, which includes ratings for the potential damage that could be caused by a particular security flaw if the relevant patch is not applied. As well as giving an overall idea of the range and scale of problems, the ratings are also aimed at business users for whom applying updates ... (view more)

Credible reports suggest Microsoft users will be able to carry a copy of Windows 8 in their pocket. It also appears personal settings can be synchronized to the web to allow remote access when on the move. The details come through leaked screenshots ... of what's formally known as Build 7850, but commonly referred to as Milestone 1: the first full-fledged developmental edition of Windows 8. Windows 8 Build 7850 was released to developers late last year but details have only just leaked. Of course, Microsoft is keeping quiet about whether the leaks are genuine, so there's no cast-iron guarantee ... (view more)