Windows vista I have looked at, and for the most part, considering it the spawn of Windows ME. Vista has its good points, and Microsoft tried with it, but with a moving target, stripped down capabilities compared to what it was supposed to have, and massive delays on getting it to market, Microsoft really messed up.

It wasn’t just that older software would not run on it, but software and hardware companies didn’t buy into it. It took forever for applications to be written for it, let alone all the issues with hardware drivers Vista has had.

Well, it seems that Microsoft can learn from its mistakes. Windows 7 has been in beta for a little while now, and most people call it a big improvement from Vista. The first Release Candidate becomes public on May 5, and yes I’m going to get it. What I am looking forward to seeing how it works is the newest feature announced for Windows 7. XPM the feature is called, and if it works the way it is supposed to , well, there will be very little reason not to move to Windows 7.

The idea behind XPM is basically Windows XP sp3 running in a virtual machine, which allows legacy apps to be run normally. The kicker to XPM is the idea that it runs seamlessly in the background. Apps that require XP still get shortcuts installed to your normal Start menu and when you launch the app, it seamlessly launches in its own window, even though it is on a virtual machine, you don’t see the virtual machine running. You don’t have to start a virtual machine session first. Supposedly, it just works.

We shall find out how well it just works rather soon. This is the one thing that if it works right, could save Microsoft’s reputation.

Another Patch Tuesday happened this week, and this time 6 of the patches are for security holes which have exploits out in the wild, including the Office holes that I complained about last month. There are a total of 8 patches out this month and while that is good, you might want to check on the other updates this month due to end of mainstream support for XP, Office 2003, and Exchange 2003. All three will continue to get security updates for a few years, but all of them will no longer get new features, or non-critical updates.

Also, released today was the Beta for Exchange 2010. I know, most of you are just starting to use Exchange 2007, but if you have a test environment for this new version of Exchange, I would suggest using it and report on bugs to Microsoft so we can get a less buggy release of it.

Finally, SP2 for Office 2007 is on the horizon, and it will give Office native ODF file support. This means that if something is saved in Open Office’s normal formats, Office 2007 should be able to just open it.

Sorry that this blog has been a bit spotty this week. Work has been really busy, and I’ve been learning about some new initiatives and offerings that we are doing at the office. Let see if I can get some time to do some more posts, even if its just the evenings.

So, while mainstream support is ending for Windows XP, it seems that Microsoft is going to continue to allow downgrades by manufacturers until sometime next year. Yeah, this is both good and bad, especially considering that warranty support ends on Tuesday, April 14. Are the PC makers going to do warranty support for XP still is the big question. I would love to say yes, but who knows.

Also on the XP front, You will be able to downgrade from the upcoming Windows 7 to XP.  This does by companies some time to upgrade, but how long?

Tuesday, April 14 also marks the end of mainstream support for Office 2003. Same rules apply as with XP.

Now on July 14 of this year Office 2000 is dead to Microsoft. No more security updates, no support, nothing. Same thing happens to Windows 200 on July 13, 2010. Time to start planning accordingly, especially for Office 2000. Make sure you try to get your clients off of it before then for a smooth transition.

We all know that Windows 7 is on the horizon. We all know that Vista is a huge hunk of junk. We all love our Windows XP, which is why we are willing to pay a little more for the “downgrade” to XP that a number of manufacturers will ship, even though the machines officially count as having been sold with Vista (Microsoft loves to punch up its Vista numbers this way). Now, Windows XP is about to pass to the next stage, drawing us closer to the end of one of our favorite OS’s life.

Mainstream support for Windows XP ends on April 14, which just happens to be the next Patch Tuesday. What does this mean for everyone? Well in simple terms it means a few things:

1) No more Service Packs or feature upgrades! This of course is something that can be expected. XP can only do so much and handle so much, seeing as it is way beyond what Microsoft intended its lifespan to be.

2) No more free incident support. Yep, any support from Microsoft for XP is now fully chargeable. Make sure you know your way around google, Microsoft’s knowledge base, or know someone who is a tech that can help you.

3) No more Warranty Claims. Yep, XP is out of warranty, even if loaded on a brand new machine by the manufacturer. How does this affect the fact that Microsoft still pushes XP for Netbooks? Time will only tell if they are smart and make an exception, otherwise, make sure you get a netbook with Linux on it.

Now not everything is doom and gloom. There are still some thing that the Extended Support Phase, which is what XP is going into, does give.

1) The Microsoft knowledge base, and support site still will have all the XP information it can hold. So you still can look through all the things.

2) Security updates will still be pushed out. It is important to remember that Security Updates are different from Feature Updates. While no no features of feature bugs will be fixed, at least any Security Holes that could allow viruses, such as Cornficker to grab a hold of your machine, will still be created and pushed out, and this will continue until 20014.

So XP is not dead yet, but instead is more on life support for the next 5 years. Personally, I would have likes Microsoft to have pushed XP 64 bit more and longer instead of forcing Vista out there. The other thing is with end of mainstream support, Microsoft now can reallocate resources to other projects. Here is just hoping that Windows 7, which is in beta and has been getting decent reviews, doesn’t get screwed up and suck when released.

So here it is, the second Tuesday of March and we all know what that means. Yep Microsoft Patch Tuesday! So lets ee what good old Microsoft has patched up for us this month.

The only Critical is a Windows Kernel update, which is patching a hole that, “could allow an attacker to take complete control of your computer if you view a website, email, or document that contains an evil graphic or picture,” according to Eric Schultze of Shavlik Technologies.

Now we all know that a hole in the kernel is bad, and the way this is made to sound this hole can be even worse than other kernel hole, but still I would recommend installing the patch in a test environment first if possible, or at least on a non-mission critical machine. Something about making changes to the Kernel always make me a little leary.

Then there is a series of 4 patches for DNS. Not surprisingly these are for lesser used holes along the Kaminsky DNS attack lines. Definitely get these installed especially with some of the odd ways some viruses seem to be showing up from spoofed DNS.

Finally a patch related to SSL spoofing. Again important, but like the DNS patches, not listed as critical.

Personally, all the patches seem to adress some very serious issues. How SSL and DNS spoofing are not thought of as critical for patching is beyond my comprehension though. At least Microsoft did patch them. Now where is the Excel patch for a major hole in that program?

Mike

So it seems that a company called Beyond Trust did a little research into Microsoft’s disclosed vulnerabilities, and found that 92% of them could have been avoided if people didn’t have Admin rights.  You can read the full article at Computer World.

Honestly, I would have thought it was quite obvious that this was a big problem. Even with the UAC in Vista and Windows 7, it is a problem, and Microsoft just won’t admit to it.  Someone needs to hit them with a clue by four I think.