In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft has released a beta version of the new Windows Vista operating system for free download. Vista will be the successor to Windows XP.
Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ Category
Microsoft released today Windows Live OneCare, an antivirus and spyware application that runs in the background and monitors the users system. OneCare costs $50 a year as an annual subscription fee.
“At the end of the day, all you want your PC to do is work when you want it to,” said Gina Narkunas, lead project manager for OneCare.
Uhm, that’s kinda what I was expecting when I paid $200 for the OS.
Here’s a very detailed review of the soon to be released Windows Media Player 11. There are no screenshots but you can download a beta version on Wednesday.
From what I have read WMP11 is going to exceed the Apple iTunes in ease of use, GUI, organization and presentation of media files.
Microsoft has released another weapon in its battle against Google. Steve Ballmer has announced today that Microsoft’s web properties (MSN, Live, etc.) will no longer use Yahoo!’s advertising services, and will instead use Microsoft’s new advertising platform ‘adCenter’.
The list of serious unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer keeps getting longer. Secunia finds another code execution hole in the world’s most widely used browser. Will it ever end?
Last November I reported that Microsoft was releasing free Visual Studio one year licenses. Today Microsoft announced that all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express will be free permanently!
Since November over 5 million copies of Express have been downloaded.
There should be an IE patch delivered today that will change the way ActiveX controls content like audio and video. Websites that have their content set to auto-play in the IE browser should be prepared to make necessary changes as users will now need to take some sort of action before the content will play. This all stems from a lawsuit Microsoft lost with the University of California and Eolas Technologies over the way rich content is automatically embedded into the IE browser.
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
I’ve written so much about Mozilla that I thought I’d give MS a little love. This may be old news to some of you but MS has a web developer toolbar similar to the web developer extension for Firefox. Here’s what you get:
The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides several features for exploring and understanding Web pages. These features enable you to:
- Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
- Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
- Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
- View HTML object class names, ID’s, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
- Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
- Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS Web feed links.
- Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
- Immediately resize the browser window to a new resolution.
- Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
- Choose direct links to W3C specification references, the Internet Explorer team weblog (blog), and other resources.
- Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align and measure objects on your pages.
The Developer Toolbar can be pinned to the Internet Explorer browser window or floated separately.
Windows Server 2003 Security Guide
In the last 6 months I’ve had to learn to manage a Windows Server 2003 network with about 25 workstations. When I built the network, I knew absolutely nothing about Windows networking or the 2003 Server operating system. It was actually a fairly intuitive set-up process and with some good online resources I didn’t have too much trouble. Luckily I have a son-in-law who is a certified MS networking professional and he helped me with the really difficult aspects.
Having had lots of experience with MS products I knew there would be security issues that would need addressed. This Windows Server 2003 Security Guide provides specific recommendations about how to harden computers that run Microsoft Windows Server 2003. It’s loaded with good stuff if you’re a Windows consultant, security specialist, systems architect, or IT professional.
Matt Hester is reporting that today, Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition will be available at no charge. This is the full Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise edition available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions that MS shipped last year. This is not a trial or limited version in any way. This is a fully-supported product.
The really cool thing about Virtual Server is that Linux is now supported!
Have you seen AjaxWrite yet? It’s an amazing Web 2.0 type of application emulating an online version of Microsoft Word. You can load a Word document and use it just as if you had your Word application running on your desktop. Simply amazing.
From Andre: Teching It Easy:
The pledge, made by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates during his keynote speech kicking off the RSA Conference 2005 here, comes after the company had been testing its AntiSpyware application–technology it acquired with its purchase of security software maker Giant Software.
“Just as spyware is something that we have to nip down today, we have decided that all licensed Windows users should have that protection at no charge,” Gates said.
Security outfit Secunia has news of further exploits for Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer. Three new problems have come to light, all of them critical, and all of them having potential to do serious damage to Internet Explorer users.
Microsoft will be releasing fixes, which will carry a maximum threat rating of “critical” on Tuesday.
Graytone | Design: Tenant Report
Welcome to johnhesch.com, a blog about my life, projects, and interests. I have been blogging for over 10 years in one form or another.