Posted by Ed Bott @ 12:05 pm   I just spoke with George Stathakopoulos, General Manager of Trustworthy Computing Security at Microsoft, regarding the ongoing security issue affecting Internet Explorer. (For background, see my earlier post, It’s time to stop using IE6. For an update on the vulnerability and its impact, see this Zero Day blog post from ZDNet’s Ryan Naraine.)   According to Stathakopoulos, a security update for all versions of Internet Explorer will be released “out of band” -

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.   The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems.   Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.   However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE ful

Today we are announcing the opening of the Technology Adoption Program nominations for the next release of System Center Configuration Manager.     The Technology Adoption Program is designed to provide a consistent experience for Microsoft customers to obtain real-world customer feedback on Microsoft pre-release products.   There are many benefits for our TAP customers, to name a few:   * Lead the market by adopting critical enabling technologies early * Influence and shape

There's a lot of talk around the net about a hidden God Mode in Windows 7,   but if you dig a bit deeper, you'll see that this is actually not new, this has been a feature since Windows 95.   By creating a Random name.{guid of shell namespace provider} this will give you a folder with that namespace. There are many such providers in the system.   For example, you could create "Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}", which is a new recycle bin.

It seems like Microsoft is accepting the outcome of the appeal case yesterday. The company has released an update for OEMs in the United States that strips the infringing feature from the ubiquitous word processor. "The following patch is required for the United States."   The patch removes the ability to edit custom XML elements. "After this patch is installed, Word will no longer read the Custom XML elements contained within DOCX, DOCM, or XML files," Microsoft said on its website, "These fi

Do you know how much money your company could save moving to Windows 7?   Thinking about deploying Windows 7? Need to crunch the numbers to show your boss the reduced TCO and quick ROI that Windows 7 will have for you’re company?   The Windows 7 Return on Investment (ROI) Tool, powered by Alinean, can help you evaluate your current PC total cost of ownership (TCO) and identify the potential benefits of deploying the Windows 7 operating system to help lower costs, improve service levels, and

Windows 7 is seeing success in the marketplace which I am very happy about from a security perspective. The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report has shown us again and again that the more up-to-date a PC is, the less likely it is to be infected by malware and other potentially dangerous software. So Windows 7 making strides is helpful to the ecosystem overall from a security standpoint. Success comes at a price though, through greater scrutiny and misinterpretation of some of the technologies.

Channel 9’s Larry Larsen pinged me earlier today to let me know of a video they just posted to Channel 9 on the default background in Windows 7. Larry was able to talk to Denise Trabona who is a Senior UX (User Experience) Lead on the Windows Design and Research Team. Denise shares insight into how we went about designing the default background see on Windows 7 desktops (the default) and also the logon screen. If you’re someone interested in UI and the thought processes behind how and why we mak