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Written by ShaDow on October 23rd, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Vista SP2 and otherSoftware and Windows vista tips and Downloads.
As I’ve blogged about before, a lot of Windows and Macintosh users who have never tried Linux before, have this opinion that it is hard to install. I’m a firm believer that to simply install the OS, and get a working set of hardware drivers (on most common hardware), and a workable set of applications is far easier and simpler on Linux than on Windows. With most modern Linux distributions, all of your common tools and applications needed for day-to-day operation of your computer are already installed for you, and ready to go.
When setting up a Windows machine (regardless of version), not only will you need to be sure to have all of your hardware drivers handy (I recommend going on-line and making sure you have the latest versions rather than trusting the CD’s that came with your hardware), but you will need all of you application CD’s and will probably download a few freeware and open source applications from the web as well.
Honestly, I firmly believe that someone must actually be a little more computer savvy in order to properly set up a Windows system than a Linux system. The problems with Linux come into play with unusual hardware, and hardware that isn’t supported by open source drivers but that becomes another topic altogether!
In the coming posts I will highlight some of the applications I install to consider my installation “complete” as well as share a couple of web-sites that can assist you in getting your Windows Vista based computer “tweaked for speed”.
First, to start us off, here are two web-sites you should bookmark right now:
If you want to tweak your Vista system read through some of the information on those two sites, paying special attention to the articles (especially on BlackViper) regarding Windows Services. While I’m not going to make any specific recommendations on Vista tweaks, I will say that there is good information on both sites, and as always, some tweaks are good, and some are bad. Go through the services on BlackViper.com and read the descriptions on those he lists as can be disabled and/or set to manual and decide for yourself if you feel like you would lose functionality you desire. I will not tell you what services I have enabled and/or disabled on my machine, but I will tell you that I have 37 services set to Automatic and 4 are set to Automatic (Delayed-Start). Go ahead and count how many are set to Automatic on a out-of-box Vista install and you can see what an impact tweaking your services can have on boot speed as well as RAM usage. As always, use your best judgment when applying any tweak! Always tweak a clean install, and never tweak when your data could be at risk!
Now, to quote Forrest Gump: “That’s all I’ve gotta say about that.”
Check back tomorrow for information on some of the applications I install and use, also coming up, I am planning a post reviewing the newly released VMware Workstation 6.5 bundled with a review of Raxco PerfectDisk for VMware Hosts.
Written by jaysonrowe on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and Computing.
Typically hotfixes are released on the second Tuesday of each month as you are all well aware. Occasionally, I can personally only remember three including this one, there are out of band hotfixes released. While we don’t normally post hotfix release notifications considering this is an out of band release I wanted to let you all know about it.
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical
Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx
Executive Summary
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Server service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this vulnerability could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.
This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and rated Important for all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in the link above.
The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way that the Server service handles RPC requests. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information in the link above.
Recommendation
Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately.
Known Issues
None. If you experience any issues please call 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no charge for this call.
Update Availability
The update has been pushed to all Windows Update servers and will appear on your WSUS server(s) as soon as you synchronize them. You can also download the patch for your operating system at the link posted above.
Written by rodney.buike on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on rodney.buike and otherSoftware and Windows Client and windows server and Security.
Microsoft released an update to that fixes a vulnerability in current and future versions of Windows. The vulnerability can be remotely exploited by malware.
Microsoft advises every Windows user / Administrator to update their machines, every currently supported Windows version is affected, so: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008 Core Installation.
An interesting note I found out is that this vulnerability also affects the Windows 7 Pre-Beta build Microsoft is expected to hand out to PDC 2008 Attendees next week.
Quote: This vulnerability was reported after the release of Windows 7 Pre-Beta. Customers running Windows 7 Pre-Beta are encouraged to download and apply the update to their systems. On Windows 7 Pre-Beta systems, the vulnerable code path is only accessible to authenticated users. This vulnerability is not liable to be triggered if the attacker is not authenticated, and therefore would be rated Important.
So get patching!
More information: Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for October 2008
Written by Teching It Easy: Windows Vista & 7 on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and Security.
From All About Microsoft via Bink.nu
Mary Jo foley talks about two new Microsoft blogs dedicated to the next release of Windows, 7.
Quote: Welcome to the first post of a new Windows 7 blog. This blog will mainly focus on the development aspects of Windows 7 by providing valuable content for developers. We shell call this blog “The Windows 7 Blog for Developers”. By valuable content we mean that this blog will be a “one stop shop” on the road to get yourself familiar with what Windows 7 has to offer for developers and how you can “Light-Up” using Windows 7 features in your application. Check it out here
Quote: Microsoft also has started another Windows 7-related blog, known as the Springboard Series blog, which it is aiming at IT professionals. According to the first post on that site by Windows Client IT Pro Director Celine Allee, the Windows client division will use this site to help business users make sense of “the speculation out there.”
Microsoft currently has a blog dedicated to end users and enthusiast called Engineering Windows 7. I'll be linking these blogs and checking them regularly for tid bits about Windows 7.
Written by Teching It Easy: Windows Vista & 7 on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing an emergency out of cycle patch for Windows users today.
There are few details on why it is releasing the patch, but a little research shows that it is a flaw in SMB - Windows File Sharing. The update will be released at 10 A.M. Pacific time, as announced on the Microsoft Security blog.
If you take a peek over at the National Vulnerability Database, we can see this article Here is the overview:
Buffer underflow in Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 and SP3, Server 2003 SP1 and SP2, Vista Gold and SP1, and Server 2008 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a Server Message Block (SMB) request that contains a filename with a crafted length, aka “SMB Buffer Underflow Vulnerability.”
This means this vulnerability could be exploited to create a worm. Further it means if one PC gets infected on your network, then quickly all of them will.
After doing some more research it seems there is already an exploit in the wild - it is set to “go off” during the Thanksgiving holiday here in the states.
This is a very serious vulnerability and I suggest making sure your computers are updated with the patch as soon as possible.
Written by intelliadmin on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and Windows.
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