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Microsoft rolls out long, long-awaited Windows update to disable AutoRun for USB drives
It's already changed the behavior in Windows 7, and Microsoft has now finally rolled out an update for earlier versions of Windows that prevents a program from executing automatically when a USB drive is plugged into a PC. That behavior has been blamed for the spread of malware in recent years -- including the infamous Conficker worm -- and Microsoft had actually already made it possible to disable the functionality back in November of 2009, albeit only through an update available from its Download Center website. It's now finally pushed the update out through the Windows Update channel, though, which should cause it to be much more broadly deployed (particularly in large organizations). As explained in a rather lengthy blog post, however, Microsoft has decided to simply make it an "important, non-security update" rather than a mandatory update, as it doesn't technically see AutoRun as a "vulnerability" -- it was by design, after all. That means you'll have to look for the option in Windows Update and check it off to install it -- if you choose, you can also re-enable it at anytime with a patch.
Mac OS X 10.6.6 introduces subtle changes to Boot Camp
MacNN cites two tips they received noting changes made to Boot Camp in Mac OS X 10.6.6. The first suggests that Apple has dropped support for Windows XP. When setting up a Windows partition, Boot Camp requests an "...authentic installation disc of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate." XP isn't mentioned. Also, users are discouraged from using software from a Mac OS X install disc or another computer in an attempt to find drivers and the like. Instead, Boot Camp will prompt you to download "additional software designed specifically for each Mac" to get your keyboards, etc. working. Just as MacNN speculates, we agree that this measure is meant to ensure that users have the latest software, helping to eliminate future troubleshooting.
CE-oh no he didn't!: Microsoft's Kevin Turner says iPhone 4 might be Apple's Vista
While not technically a CEO, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner is not immune to a certain amount of executive level foot-in-mouth. Speaking at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in DC and chatting up his company's upcoming slate of Windows Phones, he couldn't help a little iPhone bashing: "It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that." Should we point out to Kevin that attempting to criticize your competition by comparing it to your own flagship products is usually counterproductive, or leave him to figure it out on his own during some early morning magnificent moustache contemplation session?
Firefox 4 Beta 1 now available for download
Whoa, Nelly! Is that a Firefox 4 download button we're looking at? Why yes... yes it is! We can't think of a much better way to wrap up one's workday than by finding out that Mozilla's own Firefox browser has finally made the official leap to 4.0, with Beta 1 going live for the adoring public today. It's ready to be sucked down and installed for those with Windows, Linux and OS X-based machines, and the changelog itself is far too lengthy for this space (though it's linked below for your perusal). You'll obviously notice an overhauled look hitting you front and center, with a new add-on manager, support for the new WebM format, improved privacy settings and crash protection headlining the "big chart o' features." Give 'er a download and toss your thoughts on the new build down in comments below, cool? P.S. - Be warned that this may very well not work with your stable of add-ons right away, so we'd keep that stable 3.x.x build installed as a backup!
Microsoft updating Live app suite, declares Windows 'better than Mac for photos, hands down'
Looks like it's blowhard season up in Redmond these days, as the latest word from Microsoft on its Live Essentials suite of apps has been accompanied by the brash pronouncement that it's now markedly superior to Apple's efforts in Mac OS X -- at least when it comes to photos. This verdict was delivered by Brian Hall, General Manager for Windows Live, and is backed by a laundry list of new features we can expect by the holiday season of this year. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker will soon be able to link up directly to sites like Flickr, Facebook and YouTube -- which will allow for painless uploads as well as pulling in any additional tagging done on Facebook. New photo stitching and retouching abilities, along with face recognition (rather than mere detection) are also being touted, but the ultimate arbiter of the new software's utility will obviously be the real hands-on experience for users. We shouldn't have to wait too long for that, as a beta version of the freely downloadable (on Vista and 7, XP holdouts are no longer being served) suite should be making the rounds in the coming weeks.
Wi-Fi Sync now compatible with Windows and iPad
Wi-Fi Sync is quite the gem (at least we think so) but it had some limitations -- namely, it only worked on OS X for desktop, and only with iPhone / iPod touch. Developer Greg Hughes pinged us earlier today to let us know he's thrown the gates off such restrictions. The jailbroken app now works for both iPads and Windows -- XP, Vista, and 7. The desktop client is free to download but it still cost just a hair under $10 for the appropriate mobile device. Worth the price of breaking free from wires? Your call.
My weekend Windows experience, or why I love Apple so much
All I wanted to do was install a Wi-Fi remote-controlled webcam. Nothing spectacular. I had looked at a number of webcams on Amazon.com before settling on a rather inexpensive Chinese-made device. According to the vendor, the camera was "Apple Mac and Windows compatible," so I ordered it. It arrived quickly, and a glance at the manual revealed that I would need to use Windows to set up the camera prior to using it with an "Apple Mac." Since I always keep a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate running under VMWare Fusion for such emergencies, I felt this would be a quick process. Yeah, right. Fortunately for you, I've documented the installation procedure for posterity. Now you can enjoy my own personal vision of Hell. It's called using Windows.
XP downgrade lawsuit thrown out, MS lawyers celebrate rare victory
It's hard to imagine a more busy team of lawyers than those on-staff at Microsoft, and while the news isn't always good for them, today they can hold their heads high as a lawsuit filed last year alleging that MS was profiting from so-called "downgrade fees" has finally been dismissed. US District Court Judge Marsha Pechman found that the plaintiff, Emma Alvarado, didn't prove Microsoft was in any way gaining value from these charges. In fact the downgrade fee to move to XP was, in this case, being charged by Lenovo, not Microsoft, and was to cover the additional time it took to physically install that OS over the standard (at the time) Vista. In other words Alvarado missed the mark and in the process surely cost taxpayers and Microsoft thousands and thousands of dollars. Hooray!
Steam users adopting Windows 7 at breakneck speeds
Though Windows 7 fever hasn't yet overwhelmed the PC community, Steam users seem to be getting on board with the latest Bill Gates-approved operating system. A recent Steam survey has revealed that a little over 23 percent of the platform's regular users have upgraded to Windows 7 -- a stark difference from the 6 percent of the total operating system market which Windows 7 currently represents. What we found more interesting about this survey is that so many people are still using Windows XP. Then again, considering the only alternative these people have had over the past four years was the most nightmarish, user-unfriendly operating system known to man, we don't blame them for being a little gunshy when it comes to technological progress. [Via Download Squad]
Windows 7 way hotter than Vista off the line, now more popular than all OS X versions
We learned back in November that Windows 7 was having a much (much!) better first few days in retail than Vista did when it launched, but now that the system has had a full quarter and change to make an impression, it looks as if that growth isn't slowing down. According to new figures from Net Application, Win7 is achieving a higher level of market penetration in a faster amount of time than Vista did; after a month, Vista was stuck at 0.93 percent, while Win7 nailed the 4 percent mark. After two months, Win7 jumped to 5.71 percent, while Vista was barely over 2 percent after the same amount of time. 'Course, the newest version of Windows had a holiday season to help it out right from the get-go, but there's still no denying that people are flocking to the system even now. What's most interesting, however, is that the overall market share of Windows 7 alone has now surpassed all OS X versions that are being tracked (10.4, 10.5 and 10.6), so put that in your pipe and smoke it. Smoke it long and hard.
NPD: Windows 7 sales 234% higher than Vista's first few days
Looks like Windows 7 is off to a much stronger start than Windows Vista, with the NPD Group claiming the first few days of sales saw a 234% increase over Vista's start. Part of that can be attributed to special deals and low-cost pre-sales -- total revenue was only 82% higher -- but it's hard to deny people are stoked for Windows 7. Interestingly, the PC hardware growth was actually stronger for Vista than 7 (48% year over year compared to 68% year over year), but there are enough variables at play there to make sure Microsoft won't lose sleep over it. In fact, 7's biggest threat seems to be Microsoft's other products, since Windows 7 PC sales were up against 20% of PC sales being comprised of Vista and XP computers, compared to the 6% of non-Vista PCs sold during that launch.
Windows 7 student upgrade installer not working for many
The Windows 7 launch seems to have gone off mostly roses and sunbeams, but we're hearing today that quite a few people have had issues installing the downloadable $29 student upgrade edition on 32-bit Vista -- apparently the file doesn't unpack to an ISO, but instead to an executable and two bundles that don't function properly, and eventually the process errors out with a 64-bit app trying to launch on 32-bit systems. It's possible to create an ISO using some hackery, but the install process seems to be 50/50 after that -- we've heard of both success and further crashes. For it's part, Microsoft says it's looking into things, so hopefully a newly repackaged download will be forthcoming -- every party has its ups and downs, right? Update: Our friends at DownloadSquad have a handy guide to making the ISO, in case you're interested -- and they say the installer does work in the end. Update 2: We just got a tip that Microsoft is offering refunds to users who are having issues. [Thanks, Christopher] [Thanks, Tom] Read - Original thread Read - Microsoft response
Apple welcomes Windows 7 the only way it knows how, with a new commercial (video, updated)
Can't argue with a wig like that, right? Video after the break.Update: Two more added. Are these still fun?
Software firm finds Windows 7 doesn't boot faster than Vista
There's no question that Windows 7 promises plenty of improvements over Vista, with one of the biggest being faster boot times. While that's certainly been the experience for some, Iolo Technologies (a maker of PC tune-up software) found some significantly different results in their long term tests, which they say show that Windows 7 isn't faster than Vista at all in real world use. Specifically, they found that while Windows 7 actually got to the desktop fairly quickly, it took a full minute and 34 seconds to actually become usable, compared to a minute and 6 seconds with Vista. They also unsurprisingly found that things got worse over time, with a three-month old Windows 7 install adding a full minute to the boot time, although in that case it did actually fare somewhat better than Vista. Of course, we are talking about complete reboots here, and it's a different story when Windows 7 is simply coming in and out of sleep mode. Details on the tests are otherwise a bit light, but Iolo is promising to release its complete findings next week.
Belkin's refreshed Easy Transfer Cable makes Windows 7 migration a little too easy
Okay, so maybe nothing can really be too easy, but Belkin's really stretching things by asserting that you need a dedicated cable to use Windows Easy Transfer, an application bundled with Windows 7 and detailed by yours truly right here. At any rate, you may recall that this very outfit milked the whole upgrade situation in a similar fashion when Vista hit the scene, and now a slightly redesigned version is out to transfer files easily between your existing Vista / XP-based machines and what will become your new Windows 7 system. Of course, this thing's really only important if you're buying a new Win7 machine rather than upgrading the rig you already own, and if you're willing to pay $39.99 to have your hand held through the migration process, you can be our guest on October 23rd.
The Queue: Prelude to drunken frivolity edition
Welcome to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert is your hostess today.I think the title is fairly self-explanatory, n'est-ce pas?Radioted asks...With the recent implementation of faction change thinning the walls between Horde and Alliance all the more, has there been any talking bubbling up of implementing cross-faction mail, even if only fore stuff like heirlooms?Battle.net 2.0 will allow cross-faction chat, but we haven't heard anything concrete concerning cross-faction mail. Wryxian has mentioned that it's something they'd like to do, however. Heirloom items do transfer with your character if you switch them from Horde to Alliance and vice versa, and right now that's the only way to get an heirloom to your cross-faction toons.
How-To: Install Windows 7 and live to tell about it
So you're thinking about going to Windows 7, eh? Chances are your head is swimming in a sea of TLAs and confusing charts -- enough to have the most adamant Microsoft defender reaching for a something with an Option key. Fear not, noble purchaser of legal software. Though XP users have been punished for skipping Vista by not being able to directly upgrade now, the process of backing up your data, formatting and installing Windows, and then restoring your goods again has never been easier -- even if you're on a netbook with less storage than your smartphone. Vista users have even less to worry about. We'll have our full impressions of the finally finalized OS later this week, but for now let's journey hand in hand down the gently sloped path of the upgrade process.
Official Windows 7 upgrade chart is ridiculous
This is seriously Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrade chart, and it's ridiculous. It manages to highlight the insanity of shipping multiple OS versions while totally minimizing the good news: most Vista users will be able to upgrade in place to the corresponding 32- or 64-bit version of 7. That should cover the vast majority of people running Vista, but if you're still on XP or you're trying to do anything out of the ordinary you'd better get ready for some pain: all those ominous blue boxes require you to back up, wipe your drive, and reinstall a totally clean copy of 7. You heard that right -- the Windows 7 installer won't even try to retain your data and programs if you're not updating from the corresponding version of Vista. Pretty lame move, considering Microsoft is currently selling millions of copies of XP on netbooks and will sell XP downgrades until 2011 -- sure, we get that most netbook owners aren't going to spring for 7, but it's insane that you can't just pop in a disc and upgrade. Of course, now that 7's been released to manufacturing and the final bits are available there's not much to be done, so let's all just take a moment to contemplate the fact that Ed Bott at ZDNet managed to totally outdo Redmond's infographics people with a much friendlier chart with "about an hour" of work -- check it below.Read - Original chart at AllThingsDRead - Ed Bott's revised chart
Microsoft giving Europeans with Windows XP and Vista choice of browser, too
As it turns out, it won't just be Windows 7 that'll be giving Europeans a choice of what web browser to use. In fact, the lengths that Microsoft is going to appease the European Commission is quite extreme. Ars Technica did some digging and here's the fine print of the proposal. Within three to six months of the EC's approval, an update will be sent out to Europeans with Windows XP and Vista, labeled "high priority" or "important." User who install the update and have Internet Explorer as the default browser will see the ballot screen on next log in, which will show up to ten different browsers with at least a 0.5 percent share of the market in the European Economic Area (EEA). Users can then choose to download something new, ignore the screen, or defer until an indefinite time in the future. Windows 7 users will get the ballot update within two weeks of the Commission's decision or by its October 22nd launch, whichever comes second. Extreme? You betcha -- but we can't argue over having more choice. [Thanks, Adrian]
The Digital Continuum: Reentering the Age of Conan
When I decided to come back and check out Final Fantasy XI, I'm fairly certain that I was in the small minority of people returning in that moment. With Funcom offering previous subscribers a chance to take a second look at Age of Conan, I somehow doubt I'll be in a minority this time around.So here we are, coming back to the digital realm of Hyboria just past a year since everyone first ventured into its lush and deadly landscapes. What will I find? What will I think? These are just a few of the many questions that go through my mind as I boot up the game for the first time in a while.
