Windows Archive

Simple passwords aren't good enough any more, as the flood of stories about phishing, fraud, and compromised accounts by the millions demonstrate. The Next Big Thing in computer security is two-factor authentication and, like it or not, you're probably going to be dealing with it in the next year or so. But two-factor authentication is a concept, not a product, and how it's implemented is critical to its success.

As part of its monthly patching cycle, Microsoft on Tuesday plans to release eight security alerts for flaws in the Windows operating system. They also plan to release by year's end an initial test version of a new product to protect business desktops, laptops and file servers against malicious code attacks. "Unofficial" preview of XP SP3 pack includes log-on improvements and network fixes for Windows XP PCs. Elsewhere, on Wednesday, Neil Barrett was named trustee in the European Commission's antitrust case against Microsoft.

With the first beta for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Solution barely out the door, the development team is already thinking seriously about features and functionality designed to make the next version of the product even easier to use and manage than its Linux competitor.

Microsoft's new operating system won't be out until late 2006, but here's a look at some of the new security features expected. This includes less kernel-level code, IE7 in restricted mode, and more.

"In this column, I'd like to try to answer some of the questions that we've seen asked repeatedly in the new Microsoft Windows 64-bit Newsgroup. The newsgroup became available during the launch of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and has been quite active since the launch."

The documents included are: the Getting Started guide (an 80-page introduction to using the shell and the MSH language supported by the Windows Monad Shell), a single-page summary of the MSH language, formatted as a tri-fold, a quick-start guide to tracing in the Windows Monad Shell, and the three Hands-On Labs from the 2005 Professional Developers Conference; "Monad Scripting", "Building Monad Cmdlets" and "Creating Monad Providers".

Microsoft has revealed plans to release a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system.

Vista Beta 1 and Longhorn Server Beta 1 include a new implementation of the TCP/IP protocol suite known as the Next Generation TCP/IP stack. The Next Generation TCP/IP stack in Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn is a complete redesign of TCP/IP functionality for both IPv4 and IPv6 that meets the connectivity and performance needs of today's varied networking environments and technologies. Elsewhere, will Office 12 be named... Office Mondo?

Jim Allchin, a senior Microsoft Corp. executive, walked into Bill Gates's office here one day in July last year to deliver a bombshell about the next generation of Microsoft Windows. "It's not going to work," Mr. Allchin says he told the Microsoft chairman. The new version, code-named Longhorn, was so complex its writers would never be able to make it run properly.

Graphics drivers developed for Vista, Microsoft's next generation operating system, will be far more stable than their Windows XP-based counterparts, and not crash the operating system anymore, an executive of graphics chip developer ATI said.

"The amazing thing isn't that Windows beat the pants off Unix; it's that so many of the Unix companies survived until today. Linux came into the field though with two big advantages over the Unixes. The first was that it was open-source. The second advantage was it had Linus Torvalds." In other news, here you can read what various people have to say about the restructuring operation at Microsoft.

Microsoft announced a sharp reorganization of the company into three divisions in order to streamline decision making and speed to market. The software giant will realign several existing units into three core divisions - Platforms and Services; Business; and Entertainment and Devices - that better represent Microsoft's goals, said Steve Ballmer, CEO. In addition, MS released SP2 for Office:Mac 2004.

It's the autumn release season, and new devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 have begun to hit the market. BargainPDA brings you a hands-on, in-depth look at the next-generation OS. The n300 series of PPCs from Acer are among the first to run Windows Mobile 5.0, sporting VGA resolution displays, SDIO capable expansion slots, Bluetooth 1.2 and more. In the meantime, the Mitac Mio phone with GPS was officially announced today. Additionally, the Dell Axim x51v specs and pics leaked recently (review).

In previous Windows releases, the entire audio stack ran in Kernel space. Vista will put an end to this. "The first (and biggest) change we made was to move the entire audio stack out of the kernel and into user mode. Pre-Vista, the audio stack lived in a bunch of different kernel mode device drivers, including sysaudio.sys, kmixer.sys, wdmaud.sys, redbook.sys, etc. In Vista and beyond, the only kernel mode drivers for audio are the actual audio drivers (and portcls.sys, the high level audio port driver)."