Software & Apps - Page 116

The Windows 7 team has been hard at work trying to improve performance all the way around. Many have wondered just what would be in store for SSD optimization.

Microsoft has released the Windows 7 Release Client to the public and it is now available to download.

Microsoft says that there isn't any rush to get it, however those wishing to get their hands on it and give it a shot probably are. You can download the both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions from Microsoft's website.

Micrsoft has been pretty vague as to when Windows 7 will hit the shelves, with information pointing at sometime between late 2009 and early 2010.

During the currently running Hack in the Box security conference in Dubai on Thursday, researchers Vipin Kumar and Nitin Kumar have said that they have created a method of hacking Windows 7 that is unfixable by the folks over in Redmond.

According to the report by Electronista, VBootkit 2.0 was used to show how Windows 7 could be compromised during boot up. The exploit is said to be suited only to the upcoming Microsoft operating system and according to the makers, probably won't be fixable.

Some good news about Windows 7 for ATi fans, AMD/ATi has managed to get the drivers for the HD 4890 and the 4770 integrated into the Windows 7 DVD.

This could put them a little ahead of nVidia in terms of "out of the box" usefulness when it comes to Microsoft's newest OS. No one seems to know how complete the drivers are or if there will be full 3D support in them.

Windows 7 is rumored to be released in Q4 2009, but all indications put it at Mid 2010.

Read more here.

The Windows Blog has some insight into a newly native function of Windows for Windows 7. You will be able to burn ISO CD or DVD images with the WIndows Disc Image Burner.

Well it looks like Microsoft will continue the downgrade program from Vista with Windows 7.

While downgrading is nothing new (businesses using Volume Licensing have been doing it for years) it is still interesting to see MS offer this with their new and supposedly much better OS.

It makes me wonder if 7 is really not much more than Vista with a new GUI. I supposed time will tell on that as Windows 7 is getting closer and closer to launch. Still I am sure it will be comforting for many to know that they can downgrade back to XP if they really, really want to.

Read more here.

Novell has released SUSE Version Linux Enterprise 11; this new edition to the open source community includes a runtime environment for Microsoft's .net environment.

Other improvements to the new OS are in the areas of interoperability, mission-critical computing and virtualization. With one of the biggest being the release of Mono. Mono is a set of programming tools for Microsoft's .net extensions.

Other features in the new OS are designed to lure customers away from UNIX with a high-performance, feature-rich high-availability offering.

Read more here

Browser security is always a hot issue and of course all sides claim their browser is better (like kids in a playground). The security of three popular browsers was put to the tech recently at Pwn2Own 2009, a competition where hackers attempt to break system security in the fastest time.

Charlie Miller took home the top prize ($10,000) when he hacked a fully patched MacBook Air in a matter of seconds. He did this by exploiting a know vulnerability in Safari. The hack was performed by the MacBook's user clicking a simple link. Miller also made predictions before the competition that are shown below. They are surprisingly accurate.

The second place winner showed off a second Safari Hack and was able to hack both IE8 and FireFox but not as quickly as Safari and Miller. Apple has a long standing history of claiming to be more secure than Windows especially Vista; I wonder how they are taking this news.

Be on the lookout for a new commercial.

Read more here

It looks as though Microsoft is taking a really strong stance on performance when it comes to Windows 7 and the dev team is doing everything it can to increase performance every which way possible, even when shutting down.

I am not sure if this is good news for Linux and OSX fans or not. However, it seems that DX10 might make its way to those operating systems courtesy of CodeWeavers' CrossOver project.

Codeweavers CEO Jeremy White posted in his blog that they are gearing up for DX10 support after the release of CrossOver Games 7.2 which had added even more support for DX9 in Unix.

CodeWeavers is looking to make all flavors of Unix (including Linux and OSX) fully Windows Compatible. They want users to be able to run Windows applications in native format without the need for an Emulation layer.

Perhaps one day we will have a core OS that everyone uses and be able to choose the GUI, and other services we want...nah probably not.

Read more here .

There might be a few more App Stores in town for the iPhone. According to a story by the Wall Street Journal there are a few developers that are looking to cash in on the Apps that Apple won't let in.

One of these, The Cydia Store, would require that your phone is jailborken before use. While another Rock Your Phone, would not require modification.

Apple has not commented on this as of yet but they appear to be trying to head some of this off. Last month they filed a paper with the US Copyright Office in an attempt to make "Jailbreaking" Illegal.

The App Store has been a great source of income for Apple as they receive a 30% commission on all sales. This has lead to an estimated $150 million in revenue in 2008.

Read more here.

According to a study that has been released FireFox has more bugs and security issues that Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera...combined.

The study goes on to say that while the leading third party browser might have more problems the team behind the browser was much better at addressing them.

The Study by vulnerability-testing company Secunia, reports that FireFox had 115 reported flaws in 2008, this contrasted with 31 for IE, 32 for Safari and 30 for Opera.

By contrast Mozilla was faster out of the gate with fixes and often did not require notification for a patch to be in the works. Microsoft took 110 days to fix a couple of publicly released vulnerabilities labeled as "high to moderate" Mozilla took only 43 days on three publicly released vulnerabilities which were labeled as "less critical" or "not critical"

Read more here.

In what I am sure will be a blow to the hounds at the gate (Google FireFox, et.al.) Microsoft looks to be adding in an IE kill switch into its Vista replacement.

According to tester of the latest build (7048) you can actually turn IE8 off through the Windows Features dialog box.

This throws a major wrench into the EU's current witch hunt into MS' inclusion of the browser in its OS.

I wonder what they are thinking right now?

Read more here.

On Monday, someone managed to leak a new 32-bit build of Microsoft Windows 7 to global torrents. Today, the x64 version was also unleashed via torrent.

NVIDIA announced that starting today they will be providing updated video drivers for Windows 7 on a regular basis.

Puget Systems has announced what appears to be the first free Windows 7 upgrade program for full systems.

The Spin cycle is running full blast at nVidia. The green team is claiming faster Windows 7 drivers as of right now. Pairing up a 4850 1GB card Vs, the GTS250/9800GTX+, nVidia was able to outperform the ATi card in internal testing.

The drivers compared were 8.561 (Jan 11 2009) from ATi and 181.65 Beta from nVidia. The test covered 7 games of which nVidia was able to win 5 head to head and another two due to the games not launching on the ATi cards.

I am sure there will be a response to this from the media once the GTS250 is fully renamed and available for review.

Read more here at Fudzilla.

Microsoft is boasting that due to the massive participation in the Windows 7 Beta 1 Customer Preview Program, that they have been able to make 36 changes to Windows 7.

These changes, according to MS are going to improve the look, feel and performance of the OS. Among the 36 changes are 10 for the desktop, four for the touch system, and four to the control panel.

The changes have been announced on the "Engineering Windows 7 Blog" and have received mixed reviews from bloggers. Some are claiming these are window dressing while others see them as MS really trying to act on tester's feedback.

Read more here at Computer World.