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Public Beta Now Available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

In case you missed Brandon’s post yesterday, the public beta is now available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1…

Today, we announced at our annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) the availability of the public beta for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1). As Gavriella Schuster and I have mentioned in previous blogs, SP1 for Windows 7 does not contain any new features specific to Windows 7. However, the new features in SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 benefit Windows 7 by providing a richer Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) experience. For Windows 7, SP1 is simply a combination of updates already available through Windows Update and additional hotfixes based on feedback by our customers and partners. For more information on Windows 7 SP1 and new features for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, I recommend reading this blog post from the Windows Server Division Weblog.

If you are an IT Professional interested in testing Windows 7 SP1, you can download the public beta via the Springboard Series on TechNet where you will find the download as well as other key deployment and support tools. For everyone else, Windows 7 SP1 will be available in the first half of 2011 through the usual channels.

Tags: Microsoft, articles, blogs, Microsoft, Windows 7

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, Windows 7, computers, how-to

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Suggestions for weekend reading, Bill Gates explains why vaccines matter, and more of what I’ve read this week

United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division under the digital ID cph.3c05139This week John C. Maxwell offered this famous QOTD:

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison

To end the work week, Dominic Carr offers his own suggestions for weekend reading on the Microsoft Blog

It’s Friday afternoon again, and time to wrap up some of the interesting things that happened this week that you might not have seen.  It is Super Bowl weekend here in the US and so it only seems fair to start with something sports related.

Jordan Brand taps Microsoft technologies:  The Jordan Brand turns 25 this year, and Microsoft technologies are helping with the celebration in partnership with Wirestone.  First up is a social mosaic called Mosaic 23/25.The Mosaic uses Silverlight 3 and Deep Zoom to create a huge mosaic of the man himself, all built from hundreds of individual pictures uploaded by fans.  And Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud operating system helped to make it possible.  There is more to come with Microsoft Surface and Windows 7.   If you are interested in more details on how the technology works, then read the Silverlight team blog and the Windows Azure blog.

Internet Explorer 8 is very popular:  This week NetApplications released their browser market share report and it showed that Internet Explorer 8 is the most popular browser, just less than a year after launch.  Brandon LeBlanc has more details on the benefits of IE8, and on reasons to upgrade from older browsers in his post over on the Windows Blog.

Using technology to help the planet:  BBC Radio covered the European Environment Agency’s Eye on Earth project, a partnership with Microsoft and based on Microsoft technology such as Bing maps, Windows Azure and SQL Azure.  The project aims to combine inputs from citizens with scientific data to provide a better understanding of air and water quality in a given location.  You can listen to the the BBC Radio story with the Eye on Earth project starting at 6:45mins.  

SharePoint Gets Social:  This week seven startups from around the world (all participants in Microsoft’s BizSpark program)  came together at  Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus for SharePoint 2010 SocialFest.  The goal; see how each team could take advantage of some of the new features in SharePoint 2010 to extend their social networking applications.  Each team worked closely with the SharePoint team over 4 days and showed off their work to a panel of judges.  The Brits won, and you can read more, and watch the videos in this Microsoft News Center article or in Techcrunch.

Microsoft Tag:  You may not yet have heard of Microsoft Tag, but the band We the Kings certainly has and is putting it to good use.  Microsoft Tag lets you snap a picture of a “Tag” and get access to more information online about the particular person, product or service.  You don’t need to rememeber a URL or text a short code.  Just take a picture.  We the Kings has teamed up with Microsoft Tag to give away free concert tickets.

Well Done Bill:  Microsoft Research Principal Researcher Bill Buxton has been recognized by Business Week as one of the world’s most influential designers.  Congrats, Bill.  You can read more about Bill and his work on things like Natural User Interface and Microsoft Surface in the News Center article, or this video.

And finally just when we thought we could go home the Bing team announced enhanced cooperation with Facebook on search.  This will give users a more complete search experience with access to some great Bing features, and expands the Bing-Facebook search integration beyond the US so that the more than 400 million people who use Facebook around the world will see the fruits of the partnership

And here are a few of my favourites found on Twitter during the week:

isdixon: Controlling Windows Media Center with an iPhone: http://goo.gl/fb/Mciy

nytimesbits: In an effort to compete with Google and Apple, Nokia makes its mobile phone software free of charge.  http://bit.ly/dyHWgT

PCMag – How to Buy the Right Netbook http://bit.ly/2cFkAX [If you’re not thinking about getting a powerful, cheap netbook, you should be.]

Pogue – My email column today: Why home videos matter. It’s a good one! http://bit.ly/a9CG42

andreaplattdyal – Measuring Microsoft’s Work by Its Broad Impact: http://bit.ly/9DFFeg

MSFT_IT – White paper on the benefits of Office 2010 + SharePoint 2010 (something to look forward to!) http://ow.ly/13Z38

Microsoft – Nat’l Sci Foundation & Microsoft team on cloud. Huge info cache requires both desktop computers & cloud http://bit.ly/aZ0BVD

techxav – Amazon Said to Buy Touch Start-Up http://bit.ly/ab5898

billcox – Some good stats showing why IE8 is doing well at http://bit.ly/anbYSO. Thanks brandonleblanc!

JohnFontanaMSFT-funded CodePlex Foundation gets first FT employee, executive director Paula Hunter http://bit.ly/dxInSg

Microsoft_GovMicrosoft Education (@TeachTec) launched a K-12 ebook – Digital Storytelling in the Classroom – http://bit.ly/ajiwzN

neilblecherman – Students invent/distribute soccer ball that generates electricity, bringing clean power to developing countries http://bit.ly/9OTts1

edbott – My latest at ZDNet: Will your new Windows 7 PC support XP Mode? It’s still too hard to find out: http://bit.ly/9ZC7Q3

MSFT_IT – See how Microsoft does IT, in this great post by BuckWoody http://ow.ly/13vy5

PCMag – The ever-divisive John C. Dvorak calls the Apple iPad "good for nothing." http://bit.ly/byzSjg

slashdotARM Exec Says 90% of PC Market Could Be Netbooks http://bit.ly/dBOWnG

thurrott – What’s New in Windows Mobile 6.5.3: http://bit.ly/ay1J0b

Cisco_Mobile – A Peek at Apple’s Plan to Re-invent Textbooks http://tinyurl.com/yk9h3zd

Cisco_Mobile How the #enterprise is going #social http://tinyurl.com/yc3m6pc – thanks, susiewee for this Very interesting read.

stevecla – Microserfs at Microsoft UK http://bit.ly/ajpahP

MSWindows – Set up an energy-efficient home with these tips from @MicrosoftCanadahttp://bit.ly/dsr7F2

comcastcares – New Personal Blog Post "The Customer, not the Company Defines How Products are Used" http://www.timetobefrank.com

MSWindows – Here’s a list of devices that work w/ Remote Media Streaming in Windows Media Center for you – http://bit.ly/cO5DRy

teedubya – Watching TV Without Cable: Series Part 1 – Netflix Solution http://digg.com/d31Haib

MSWindows – Stream your Windows Media Library to devices around the house w/ Remote Media Streaming – http://bit.ly/56KtWM

WSJ – Medical journal retracts study linking vaccines to autism: http://on.wsj.com/dghEEY More autism research: http://on.wsj.com/bVRtW9

LanceUlanoff – Why Chrome Will be Your Next Browser http://bit.ly/auhb4m #Google‘s browser is about to make the leap from upstart to leader of the pack.

njeaton – NYTimes reports that Google is planning a business-app store to boost Google Apps. http://bit.ly/c7PhII

Carnage4Life is impressed at how Google has made enemies. Apple and Firefox are the biggest surprises. See http://tcrn.ch/96JiLW & http://bit.ly/aibGyk

volkerwWindows XP to Windows 7 Migration workflow for the IT Pro on TechNet http://bit.ly/bxL4Eu

warrenellis – Still can’t buy Tor books by writers like @cmpriest or @doctorow on Amazon? @Scalzi brings science: http://bit.ly/9dQvki

toddbishop – New push for data-center tax breaks in Washington state, with support from Microsoft and others: http://bit.ly/bU29tT

ForbesTech – The Growing Malware Problem [Article by Charlotte Dunlap] http://cptlst.com/0ueh

thurrott – Apple Entry into Market Means Higher eBook Prices http://bit.ly/au7Xcf

mike_elgan retweeted this from ScotFinnie: Why Apple chose the iPad’s screen format http://bit.ly/bpeczx. Resident smart guy LanceUlanoff says he’s right.

JVascellaro – Google to Launch Store for Online Business Software. http://bit.ly/dsQ3b1

MSWindows 4 steps to keeping your computer protected – http://bit.ly/aHgstb

EverythingMS – Syncing Windows Home Server, Zune and Windows Media Center! http://bit.ly/a9QCZl

dancosta – 42 Reasons Why Netbooks Are Better Than the Apple iPad http://bit.ly/96dzjC [Dan suggests that perhaps "Different" would be a better word.]

exectweets – Manage your company’s software with Windows 7 AppLocker (from our sponsor Microsoft): http://bit.ly/4xnTGJ

edbott – My latest at ZDNet: Can Microsoft close the ‘app gap’ with Apple’s iPad? http://bit.ly/bJIvvw

Microsoft: Windows Azure & SQL Azure now available in 21 countries [Microsoft Blog] http://bit.ly/9XHIqe

valleywag – Googlers Fire Back at Steve Jobs ‘Bullshit’ Jab http://gawker.com/5461539/ #nerdfight #stevejobs

joewilcox – Dalrymple’s beard speaks about "iPad and crazy people": http://tinyurl.com/ycgpetg

joewilcox – Apple US retail unit share is 90% for PCs selling above $1,000; doubled YoY in $500-$1,000 segment: http://tinyurl.com/y943uv3

maryjofoley – Microsoft to target SMB users with new ‘BPOS Lite’ cloud service: http://bit.ly/9En6Dc

And this from BillGates – A quick post to Gates Notes – "why vaccines matter" – http://bit.ly/bxeXTM

Have a good weekend!

 

Tags: Friday Link, humour, Santa Claus, Christmas , Windows, Microsoft

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Windows 7, Windows Vista.

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Announcement: Security Advisory 979682 Released for Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability in the Windows kernel

Yesterday, Jerry Bryant announced here on the MSRC blog that Security Advisory 979682 Released. Click on the link for the details: essentially Security Advisory 979682 addresses an Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability in the Windows kernel, affecting all currently supported versions of 32-bit Windows. Please note that 64-bit versions of Windows, including Windows Server 2008 R2, are not affected.

As noted, we’re not currently aware of any active attacks against this vulnerability and as Jerry noted…

"… [we] believe risk to customers, at this time, is limited. We continue to recommend customers review the mitigations and workarounds detailed in the Security Advisory.

"We are also working with our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) partners to help provide broader protections for customers.

"Our teams are continuing to work on an update and we will take appropriate action to protect customers when the update has met the quality bar for broad distribution. That may include releasing the update out-of-band."

For more details on the Security Advisory you can subscribe to our comprehensive alerts here to receive email when there’s new information. The team will also post updates on the MSRC Blog.

 

Tags: IE, Security, what I read, Internet Explorer, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Windows 7, Security, IE, Internet Explorer (IE)

MSRC references: Security Advisory, Internet Explorer (IE), Workarounds, Defense-in-depth, Exploitability, Zero-Day Exploit

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Advisory: Bangladesh makes a last-minute decision to end daylight saving time on December 31, 2009

j0189360[1] Yes, it’s true, Virgina: once again a government has decided on making a last minute change to their daylight saving time. Quite reminiscent of when Argentina made a change to their their daylight saving time back in 2007 and brought me into the office virtually whilst I was on vacation.

<rant> Less than a week is a tough time to get everyone in the region – regardless of operating system, time piece or sundial – alerted to a change of this magnitude.  In order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST rules and time zones, ample advance notice and concentrated efforts on promoting any change should be provided to the people and businesses impacted. </rant>

This time, Bangladesh decided to end daylight saving time on December 31, 2009 as noted on the Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog

On Monday, December 28, 2009 the Bangladesh government announced that, following a cabinet decision last week, the clocks would move back one hour to standard time at 11:59 PM on Dec 31. The decision was also reported on The Daily Star.
A notice from the power ministry on Sunday, however, clarified that clocks would be set back again one minute before midnight on Dec 31.

The notice also stated that the government has decided to continue with Daylight Saving Time from 2010 to ensure maximum utility of daylight.
Clocks will be advanced to 11:59pm (GMT+7) from 10:59 pm on March 31, to continue until Oct 31.
They will be turned back to 10:59pm (GMT+6) from 11:59 pm on Oct 31, to run until March 31.

This communication only addresses recommendations for the Dec 31, 2009 change. Microsoft will communicate future guidance for the 2010 DST transitions.

Users on all Windows OS platforms can switch their computers to the Central Asia Standard Time (Display name: (GMT+06:00) Astana. For users that did not apply KB978125, the time zone display name will look like this: (GMT+06:00) Astana, Dhaka).

Alternatively, for Windows OS versions released earlier than Vista, users may opt to update the registry key manually if they previously applied KB978125. Please note that the registry key value will be different if this operation is performed before Jan 1, 2010 than if it is performed after the start of the New Year, 2010. The reason for this is that the registry key value is different in 2009 than it is in 2010. Details on how to perform this operation can be found below in the section titled: “Manual Method to Perform DST Changes on down level platforms from Vista”.

An important note for Consumers:

For those customers (consumers, small businesses) wondering "Does this mean I have to install the updates manually?" 

No.  Generally, consumers should wait for the updates to be installed via Windows Update rather than download and install these from the DLC.  And for end users who have their PCs managed by a central administrator, your IT folks will handle the distribution and updating of your PCs over the network.  (When in doubt, ask. 😉

A note for IT Professionals:

More information including registry updates for folks who know how to do such things is available over at the Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog.

And now, a little history.

Microsoft’s product teams have moved to a regular rhythm to update their products and services to reflect time changes. For each update release, Microsoft accepts change requests at up to a few months prior to the release date.   Please refer to Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests, providing recommendations in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies. We suggest that governments should provide the following when considering changing DST or making adjustments to time zones:

  1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.
  2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.
  3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important notes for governments:

  • Please refer to Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It’s important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes.
  • We suggest that entities planning DST changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back-ups, financial reports, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Tags: Windows, Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST; 18,000,000; 20,400,000 (up >3M)

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Black is not the new Blue this season: more on “Black Screen” issues and the Microsoft November Security Updates

Well, Black really isn’t the new Blue this season, as some may have you believe.

Over at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog, Christopher posted a note on the reports of so-called “Black Screen” issues that some customers might have experienced with their systems as a result of issues with the November Security Updates

We’ve investigated these reports and found that our November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues.

While these reports weren’t brought to us directly, from our research into them, it appears they’re saying that our security updates are making permission changes in the registry to the value for the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell key.

We’ve conducted a comprehensive review of the November Security Updates, the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, and the non-security updates we released through Windows Update in November. That investigation has shown that none of these updates make any changes to the permissions in the registry. Thus, we don’t believe the updates are related to the “black screen” behavior described in these reports.

We’ve also checked with our worldwide Customer Service and Support organization, and they’ve told us they’re not seeing “black screen” behavior as a broad customer issue. Because these reports were not brought to us directly, it’s impossible to know conclusively what might be causing a “black screen” in those limited instances where customers have seen it. However, we do know that “black screen” behavior is associated with some malware families such as Daonol.

If you think that you’ve been affected by this type of an issue, contact our Customer Service and Support group and any time you think that you’ve been impacted by malware. As he further notes, Christopher reminds us that "this enables us to determine what might be happening and take steps to help customers by documenting new malware families in our MMPC malware encyclopedia or documenting known issues in our security bulletins and the supporting Knowledge Base articles."

To avoid malware and other bad things as I wrote here, you should only download software from a trusted source – for example, via Microsoft for our products and service – and avoid peer to peer to save yourself an additional security risk.

Additional information and guidance:

Tags: Windows Vista, Security, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Microsoft Security Essentials.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Security, download, Microsoft Security Essentials.

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