Microsoft may face tough patch job with Windows shortcut bug

Microsoft may have a tough time fixing the Windows shortcut vulnerability, a security researcher said. A noted vulnerability expert, however, disagreed, and said Microsoft could deliver a patch within two weeks.

"The way Windows' shortcuts are designed is flawed, and I think they will have a very hard time patching this," said Roel Schouwenberg, an antivirus researcher with Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab.

Microsoft has acknowledged that attackers can use a malicious shortcut file, identified by the ".lnk" extension, to automatically execute their malware by getting users to view the contents of a folder containing a malformed shortcut. The risk is even greater if hackers use infected USB flash drives to spread their attack code, since the latter automatically executes on most Windows PCs as soon as drive is plugged into the machine.

Another problem facing Microsoft is that the code is obviously old, making a quick patch that much more unlikely. The vulnerability exists in Windows as far back as the Windows 2000 edition, which Schouwenberg has tested and successfully exploited.

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Outlook Friends Facebook

Microsoft's integration of Facebook into its Outlook email and calendaring application is indicative of its desire to stay relevant in a world that's becoming increasingly social.

Facebook has joined the list of social networking sites available in the in-boxes of Outlook users, thanks to Microsoft's Outlook Social Connector. Outlook users have been expecting the announcement since November, when Microsoft said the service would be included in its Office 2010 suite.

Social Connector works by including a "People Pane" that provides information about each sender, including posts from other social networking services. The Social Connector also links to company Sharepoint sites, downloading activity feeds from colleagues and placing them into the same People Pane information flow.

The free service is available for Office 2010, Office 2007 and Office.

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Nearly Half of All Windows 7 Users Running the 64 Bit Version

Microsoft has released new figures that indicate nearly half of all Windows 7 installations are running on a 64-bit computing setup. And it could very well be said that Windows 7 is to "blame" for the switch. 54 percent of worldwide systems run the 32-bit version of Windows 7 compared the 46 percent that opts for Windows 7 x64.

Nearly three and a half years after the launch of the OS, Windows Vista users are decidedly 32-bit at a measured percentage of 89 to 11. And, as one might expect, Windows XP users are predominantly running their operating system on a 32-bit system versus 64-bit to a measurement of more than 99 percent to less than one percent, respectively.

The analyst numbers stack up as well. Microsoft cites NPD's Stephen Baker, who says that 77 percent of all retails systems sold in April of 2010 were being pushed out with Windows 7 x64 preinstalled.

So what, then, do you get for running a 64-bit OS? We've covered some of the advantages brought forth by the newer architecture, including granting one's system the ability to process more memory—up to a theoretical limit of 16 exabytes, technically.

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Firefox 4 Beta 1

A week after a pre-beta version of Firefox 4 appeared on Mozilla's nightly developer build site, the browser has been released as a public beta.

The latest version of the Web browser sports some visual changes, including Chrome like tabs on top, and an Opera like button to replace the menu bar. Firefox 4 now supports Google's WebM HTML5 video format, regulates plug-ins such as Flash to a separate process for greater protection against crashes, and offers faster JavaScript performance.

The move to tabs atop the browser began with Chrome's first beta, which backtracked a bit, moving to a design with a window border over the tabs (though they were still on top of the menu). The design is good in that it leaves more space for the Web content, but it may confuse some users who are used to seeing them down below the toolbars.

Firefox 4 beta 1's new menu button may also confuse some people, since its function isn't perfectly clear. Another detail taking inspiration from Opera (and Safari) is Firefox 4's combining of the Stop and Reload buttons, which switches between the two functions depending on whether you're loading a page or not. The address bar now offers a switch to tab option when you start typing text from another page's URL or page title.

Firefox 4 beta 1 plug-ins such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, or Apple QuickTime are now run in their own separate process, which can prevent crashes in the event of an error. A couple of major benefits for users is that they'll no longer have to restart the browser to install extensions, and they won't be thwarted from starting the browser by incessant update messages whenever any extensions have new versions.

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Windows 8 Details Leaked On Internet

Bloggers have uncovered what are claimed to be internal Microsoft slides detailing some of the features planned for the company's next computer operating system—Windows 8. The slides, which first popped over the weekend on the Italian blog Windowsette, are stamped "Microsoft Confidential" and "Under NDA".

If real, they would appear to show that Microsoft may be looking to mimic rival Apple's success in developing products that provides users with a more intuitive computing experience. The documents also indicate Microsoft is focusing on portability in Windows 8 from the ground up. They describe built in support for motion sensing accelerometers, ambient light sensors, GPS units, wireless networking, and cameras.

Microsoft also may be planning to mimic Apple in other ways, as another document supposedly reveals plans for a Windows "App Store."

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Rumor: Google to Challenge Facebook with "Google Me"

Is Google prepping to launch some kind of Facebook killing service? That's the rumor of the day, spawned by a brief Twitter update by Digg founder Kevin Rose. If true, it wouldn't be the first time that Google's launched a new high profile service to compete with an equally high-profile Web 2.0 entity. Remember Google Buzz?

So what, then, would the proposed "Google Me" really do? The only details thus far are sheer speculation. However, it appears that Google Me could fly in as an upgrade to the preexisting Google Profiles service that, itself, is almost like a mini biographical profile page.

Adding more fuel to the fire, the site All Facebook reported earlier this week that Open Graph friendly Web pages were now showing up in search results on the social media site. Open Graph connects Web elements to Facebook by allowing users to "like" elements of third party sites such as a movie on a retail platform which then becomes a part of one's social experience on the site.

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150 Million Copies of Windows 7 Sold

Microsoft announced that it has sold over 150 million Windows 7 licenses, and that the next generation of its Windows Live Essentials apps are now available as public betas. As a result, Windows 7 is now the fastest selling operating system in history; a copy sells every seven seconds.

Jamie Cannon, Microsoft's group product manager for Windows Live Essentials, said that Windows Live Essentials could be considered a "free upgrade to Windows."

Messenger in particular links Windows to the online world. It can connect with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Microsoft's own Windows Live online services such as Hotmail and SkyDrive, along with dozens of third-party services like Flickr.

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Google's Street View faces multi-state US probe

Connecticut will lead a multi-state investigation into Google's collection of wi-fi data. Google has admitted that its Street View cars "accidentally" collected data from unsecured wi-fi networks in 30 countries because of some rogue code in the software used by the service.

The US investigation will attempt to answer how that code ended up being used by Street View. It will ask the search giant who inserted the code and why, whether the data was extracted and why Google saved it.

Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has asked for copies of the company's internal procedures regarding Street View and for exact details of how and when Google learned that its cars were capturing sensitive data. Consumers have a right and a need to know what personal information - which could include e-mails, web browsing and passwords - Google may have collected and why. Google must come clean," he said.

Investigations are also on-going in Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

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