Microsoft is scrambling to repair a security hole in its widely used Internet Explorer web browser, saying it had detected attempts to exploit the flaw. The US software giant said in a blog post the coding problem affected versions six through 11 of its flagship browser, noting it was aware of "limited, targeted attacks" taking advantage of the newly discovered flaw. The exploit uses Flash and a technique called heap feng shui, which Microsoft says can allow an attacker who successfully exploits

Today (April 8th, 2014) marks the End of Life (EOL) of Windows XP, one of the most popular operating systems from Microsoft, however many people are probably still unaware of the fact (and there are probably many who simply don't care).     The operating system was released to manufacturing (RTM) on August 24, 2001, and generally released for retail sale on October 25, 2001.     XP grew in popularity because it was easy to use and worked on most hardware. I bet most of you have a cousi

Microsoft is pushing forward with it's plans to gain presence and dominate in the mobile and cloud space with the following email from Satya Nadel which makes clear that the new mission statement is all about a mobile-first, cloud-first world with flagship products like Office 365 (for viewing and producing content) and Onedrive (for storing your content) being key components of that evolving landscape.     After 22 years at Microsoft, Satya has commented that at the end of all exploring yo

The much-anticipated update to Windows 8.1, which is scheduled for release to the general public in early April, has leaked to the web early. And this time the leak comes from an unexpected source: Microsoft itself. After being released to manufacturing a couple days ago, the update was supposed to roll out on a carefully graduated schedule, first to “dogfooders” inside Microsoft, then to MSDN subscribers, and finally to the public via Windows Update.   But thanks to some accurate instructions

There's nothing like ending the week with a few fresh Windows rumors.First up, the target release date for Windows 8.1 Update 1 -- the relatively minor update coming to Windows 8.1 this spring -- is allegedly March 11, according to one of my accurate and trusted sources. Yes, that's a Patch Tuesday. Given that Microsoft will likely deliver Update 1 to Windows 8.1 users via Windows Update, this seems pretty believable to me.   Windows leaker WZor previously indicated that Windows 8.1 Update

At the BUILD developer conference in April 2014, Microsoft will discuss its vision for the future of Windows, including a year-off release codenamed "Threshold" that will most likely be called Windows 9. Here's what I know about the next major release of Windows. As a kind of recap, we know that Microsoft will update Windows 8.1 in 2014, first with a service pack/feature pack-type update called Update 1 (or GDR1 internally). I wrote a bit about this update recently in Windows 8.1 Update 1 (Very

Yesterday Microsoft released 11 security bulletins fixing 24 vulnerabilities in Windows, Windows Server, Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Office Web Apps, Lync, ASP.NET SignalR, and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013. Five of the bulletins address at least one vulnerability rated Critical. Another recently-reported zero-day was not fixed. Microsoft says that four of the bulletins (MS13-096, MS13-098, MS13-104 and MS13-106) contain a vulnerability which is being exploited in t

When I blogged recently about Microsoft's plans on the operating-systems front following Windows 8.1, I mentioned a couple of "spring 2015" releases. It turns out the Microsoft codename for that wave of deliverables is Threshold.   A couple of my contacts have confirmed that Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson recently mentioned the Threshold codename in an internal email about plans for his unified operating-system engineering group. If all goes according to early plans, Thresho