News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Microsoft has released an out-of-cycle security update for Internet Explorer 6. The real problem is that malicious people are hacking legitimate websites and adding pictures that, when viewed, will give them control of your computer. Outlook is also affected, so viewing spam email could do it as well. Run Windows Update.
ThePCSpy ran some performance tests to determine how much various programs slowed down the Windows boot process.
I never use the Caps Lock key, and every so often I’d hit it accidentally. So I physically removed it from keyboard—end of problem. But the linked article has a Windows registry script that converts the Caps Lock key to a Ctrl key. Additionally, Sysinternals has a freeware utility that essentially does the same thing.
Earlier this year, Microsoft made the decision to postpone the Windows Vista release to January. So all those computers purchased as Christmas gifts would still have WinXP. Turns out that, for purchases from October onward, the vendors will include a coupon allowing you to upgrade to Vista for free. Smart move on Microsoft’s part.
As is typical these days, when Microsoft issues security patches there are near-instantaneous exploits available in the wild. This time, the US Department of Homeland Security is even worried. So if you haven’t updated from the Aug. 9, 2006 patch release, you may want to do so.
It’s now possible to install a bootable version of Windows XP on a USB drive. Regular readers will recall how much I emphasize physical security, but this makes it even easier to compromise a system with just physical access to the computer. On the plus side, it does make it easier to quickly retrieve information from a damaged Windows installation. I had this occur once with Windows NT, and it took me a day of work to install a second bootable copy so I could access my data.
Given that Microsoft is coming out with version 7 of Internet Explorer, what would you expect to find at www.ie7.com? Think again…
I’ve never really had problems with buggy hardware drivers, but this program sounds like a good thing. Even though it only applies to premium editions of Windows Vista, I would expect the quality to trickle down to non-premium users.
I’ve written about this before, but I want to emphasize it one last time. Last Tuesday (6/13/2006) Microsoft released its monthly security updates. And exploits were available within a day. This is happening on a consistent basis, and it’s no longer safe to wait before updating Windows. That automatic update feature is looking better and better.
Internet Explorer has a feature where you can open desktop shortcuts from within the browser by typing the shortcut name. Interestingly enough, IE doesn’t differentiate between the various types of shortcuts (internet, executable, directory). So if you have a desktop shortcut named “Word” that runs MS Word, typing “Word” in IE’s address bar will bring up MS Word. This opens up some interesting possibilities.
http://www.infoworld.com/…
(via F-Secure via Digg)
It’s pretty bad when top Microsoft engineers can’t remove malware from a Windows computer. My favorite part of the article, though, is where a Microsoft vice president says “This really opened our eyes to what goes on in the real world.”
A while back, I lost the ability to play Windows Media Player (WMP) videos with my Firefox browser. The WMP controls wouldn’t show up, and there was just a blank space where the media was supposed to be playing. I downloaded and reinstalled the latest WMP version, to no avail. Eventually I just bit the bullet and opened WMP content in Internet Explorer.
Thanks to MozillaZine, however, I have identified and fixed the problem. Turns out there is a conflict between the VLC plugin and the WMP plugin. The solution is to remove the VLC plugin (accomplished by deleting the npvlc.dll file from the Firefox ‘plugins’ directory). I exited Firefox, deleted the file, restarted Firefox, and voila! I could watch Windows Media files.
If you have Firefox and VLC installed, there is a test page where you can check to see if you have this problem.
