LG Giving Away Free Windows Phone 7 Apps

LG phones running on the Windows Phone 7 platform will have access to a selection of free applications, Microsoft announced Thursday.

"LG and Microsoft will subsidize a revolving portfolio of hand-picked applications, providing free access to quality applications that take advantage of the unique features and design of Windows Phone 7," Microsoft said in a statement.

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According to Microsoft, apps will be offered in a variety of categories such a social networking, gaming, and utilities. Every 60 days, 10 free applications worth a total of $30 will be doled out to customers, available through the LG Application Store.

This partnership also presents opportunities for developers. Through the program, certain Windows Phone 7 app developers will be given the chance to promote their products with LG through the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and LG's Facebook fan page.

"When we pledged early last year to support Microsoft's smartphone strategy, we knew we were making a decision that had the potential to generate ripples in the ecosystem," Chang Ma, LG's vice president of the mobile communications marketing strategy team, said in the statement. "Microsoft's commitment to the developer community is well known and respected in the industry, and we look forward to seeing this partnership with Microsoft lead to greater things."

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace went live at the end of October and already has more than 1,000 apps.

Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 on October 11, including five devices that are supported in the U.S. LG has two devices in the line - the LG Quantum and LG Optimus 7. The LG Quantum is expected to launch on AT&T in time for the holidays, but the Optimus 7 is currently only available overseas.

For more details, see PCMag's hands on with the LG Quantum and the slideshow below.

Zune is Dead, Long Live Windows Phone 7?

I think I know for whom the Windows Phone 7 ringtone tolls, and it is our old friend, the Zune player. My guess is that Microsoft won't discontinue the Zune lineup (yet), but I do believe we have seen our last new Zune.

Instead, Microsoft will focus on getting Zune software into various mobile devices from partnered manufacturers, via Windows Phone 7. It makes a lot of sense—software is Microsoft's strength, and while the Zune HD was an excellent device, it simply didn't matter because Apple's iPod lineup virtually devoured the entire MP3 player/portable media player market.

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If Microsoft put its best foot forward with the Zune HD (and I think it did), why repeat the move when the numbers show people didn't buy very many of the devices? One of the greatest strengths of the Zune lineup was the excellent user interface, and by the looks of the new Windows Phone 7 devices shown off today in New York, that software, or a variant thereof, is alive and well in a bunch of new phones.

In the age of Internet rumor, let me say that I am making an educated guess—this isn't based on inside knowledge from the Microsoft team. But I can lay my argument out pretty succinctly.

* The Zune HD was launched in September 2009, within a week or so of the 2009 iPod announcement. (The Zune HD was announced in May, but available to reviewers and consumers in September.) The prior year in September we had new Zune players, as well. This year? Crickets. If Microsoft were rolling out a new Zune, I think we would have seen it by now, or it would have implied that one was coming.
* There really seems to be no reason to continue the line, as other competitors have figured out. Apple has, without a doubt, won the MP3 player war. (Notice the manufacturers that, except for budget offerings, are out of the race: Samsung, Creative, to a certain extent, SanDisk.) The next frontier is tablets, and the current frontier is phones. The MP3 Player market is no longer up for grabs—unless we're talking sub-$100 players, but that's small potatoes.
* Microsoft has a better chance of taking Apple's iPhone on by making Windows Phone 7 its top priority and letting partners focus on the hardware. Not that the Zune was bad, but putting Zune capabilities inside an alluring phone gives Microsoft a fighting chance of biting into the iPhone market—a market that, with Android phones gaining popularity, is certainly a far more open competition than the MP3 player market.

That about sums it up. Any minute now, I expect to get a phone call from a Zune rep explaining that Zune is not actually dead, and although they have no official comment at this time, Windows Phone 7 is just the beginning of Zune. I would actually agree—as long as we're talking about software.

From a hardware perspective, however, I think Zune is over—and that saddens me. Competition keeps the big shots like Apple on their toes, and the Zune HD was an awesome product…it just arrived on the scene too late. Apple iTunes was already ingrained in most users' heads by the time Microsoft rolled out its equally user-friendly Zune Marketplace.

In the name of keeping things interesting, I sure hope I'm wrong, and if Microsoft gives me a reason to believe I am, I'll let you know as soon as I can. Until then, R.I.P. Zune.

Microsoft Makes Windows 7 SP1 Beta Available to Business Testers

A few days after announcing that Windows XP SP2 would no longer be supported, Microsoft on Monday announced the availability of a beta version of its Service Pack 1 update to Windows 7.

Intended for business computing professionals, the single update package simultaneously addresses Windows Server 2008 R2, which uses the same core code base as Windows 7. Microsoft made the announcement on the first day of its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C.

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Microsoft had discussed the coming service pack back in March at the company's Desktop Virtualization Hour event, but no release date was divulged at that time. Then just last month at Tech Ed 2010 Bob Muglia, Microsoft's president of Server and Tools Division, announced that the public beta of the service pack would appear in July, without getting more specific.

According to Microsoft's TechNet site targeting IT professionals, "This early release of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta is not available for home users. The SP1 Beta does not provide new end-user features, and installation is not supported by Microsoft." In fact, as has mostly been the case with recent Windows service packs, this first Windows 7 update is made up of previous fixes already delivered through Windows Update.

The server version gets a lot more out of this service pack than the desktop version of Windows 7, and the new capabilities stick with Microsoft's theme of virtualization for cloud-based computing. The two new big capabilities Service Pack 1 offers Windows Server both involve virtualization improvements: Dynamic Memory, and RemoteFX. The first allows Hyper-V virtualization servers to "pool available memory on a physical host and then dynamically dole that memory out to virtual machines running on the host, based on current workload needs," according to the Windows Server 2008 R2 page about the service pack.

RemoteFX allows remote virtual desktops in Windows 7 SP1 to take advantage of 3D graphics such as Windows Aero, video, Flash, Silverlight, and 3D applications. According to a Microsoft white paper, "Using new protocol enhancements between Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, end users can now access virtual machines on a wide variety of target devices and still get a rich graphics experience with server-side graphics processing."

At least one computer maker has chimed in with support for the new remote capabilities: "HP servers will interact with RemoteFX to provide the most advanced remote computing experience," said Allen Tiffany, manager, DSO ISV alliances and field enablement team. "We will offer RFX-supported solutions upon general availability and are exploring exciting new opportunities with Microsoft to expand the client virtualization market with simple, high-performance, low-cost access devices."

The beta trial versions of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 are available as a download on from TechNet. Installing them requires a valid installed RTM version of either operating system.

Microsoft, Google Clash Over IE 0-Day Leaked to Chinese Hackers

Well-known researcher and Google employee Michal Zalewski has come across what appears to be an independent discovery of an unpatched Internet Explorer vulnerability by separate researchers in China.

The motives of those researchers are unknown. Zalewski discovered the vulnerability while working on a newly released "fuzzing" tool for Web browsers. Fuzz testing is a form of testing in which inputs to the program under test are generated by a "fuzzer" based partly on random factors. The aim is to create unexpected conditions and see if the program under test handles error conditions, edge cases, and stress properly.

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This 0-day appears to be unrelated to the one that exploits a .NET DLL unprotected by ASLR.

Zalewski described the tool, named cross_fuzz, as "an amazingly effective but notoriously annoying cross-document DOM binding fuzzer that helped identify about one hundred bugs in all browsers on the market - many of said bugs exploitable - and is still finding more."

The tool's design-cruel to the point of torture of a browser's DOM engine-has so much randomness in it that it often makes reproduction of errors difficult. Many of the reports to vendors from the use of this tool remain in a state of vagueness that makes them difficult to fix. Zalewski has released the tool in the hope that community involvement will help to make it more helpful to developers.

But the tool found several exploitable and fairly well-defined vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, which Zalewski reported to Microsoft in July. They acknowledged receipt, but did not reply further until just recently to ask that the release of the tool be delayed.

Google researchers have been involved in controversial disclosure episodes before, but clearly there is a point at which it's reasonable for researchers to go public if the vendor has not responded. Six months seems to be emerging as the industry standard for this.

Note that Zalewski has not completely disclosed the IE vulnerabilities (although he did release a stack trace). Everyone, and certainly Microsoft, has to assume they are in the wrong hands by now, especially as Zalewski's experience indicates that the Chinese researchers had found it themselves and were searching for further information.

Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications at Microsoft, said the company was aware that Zalewski had published his tool.

"A particular version of the tool was first reported to us in July 2010. At the time, neither Microsoft or the Google security researcher identified any issues. On December 21st, a new version of the tool was reported to us along with information about a potentially exploitable crash found by the new version," Bryant said in a statement. "We immediately worked to reproduce the issue with the updated and original tool and are currently investigating it further to determine if it is actually exploitable. At this point, we're not aware of any exploits or attacks for the reported issue and are continuing to investigate and monitor the threat environment for any changes."

Bryant reiterated Microsoft's pledge to work with researchers and outside companies on security issues.

"Working with software vendors to address potential vulnerabilities in their products before details are made public, reduces the overall risk to customers," he said. "In this case, risk has now been amplified. We will continue to investigate this issue and take appropriate action to help protect customers."

Zalewski later updated his timeline of work on this tool, the vulnerabilities found with it and his communications with Microsoft to indicate that the earlier version of the fuzzer provided to Microsoft in July did indeed produce the crashes.

It's also worth mentioning, as Microsoft does in its response, that there are no known attacks using exploits produced with this tool. Also, when used on Windows Vista and Windows 7, IE runs, by default, in Protected Mode, and a sandbox limits the impact of most vulnerabilities. There is no indication that cross_fuzz has found any vulnerabilities that break out of Protected Mode.

Microsoft Slams Google in EU Privacy Comments

Microsoft objects to Google's search-related business practices because Google locks in publishers and makes it hard for competing search engines to gain market share, not because of its popularity and competitive power, Microsoft said Friday.

Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, released a blog post this afternoon in which he discussed the EU's decision to look into Google's search result rankings. He slammed Google for what he considered to be finger pointing at Microsoft over the investigation.

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"Google's public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere--at Microsoft," Heiner wrote. "Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors."

On Tuesday night, Google announced that European antitrust regulators are investigating whether Google intentionally buries search results that might promote its competitors. Three companies - Foundem, ejustice.fr, and Ciao from Bing - filed complaints with the EU over Google's rankings, said Julia Holtz, Google's senior competition counsel.

Foundem, which Google said is partly funded by Microsoft, and ejustice.fr are arguing that Google's algorithms demote their search results because they are a vertical search engine and, therefore, competitive with Google, Holtz said.

In regards to the third company, Ciao, Google suggested that the problems with them started after Microsoft acquired the company in 2008. Prior to that, Ciao was "a long-time AdSense partner of Google's, with whom we always had a good relationship," Holtz said. After Microsoft bought Ciao and re-branded it Ciao from Bing, Google "started receiving complaints about our standard terms and conditions."

In his blog post, Heiner did not address Microsoft's connection to the three companies, referring to them only as "upstart innovators."

UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesman e-mailed to say that the company does not directly fund Foundem. Microsoft partly funds the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (ICOMP), of which Foundem is a member, Microsoft said.

The real issue, Heiner said, is "whether Google's response really addresses the concerns that have been raised [because] complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors."

Microsoft did not admit to being directly involved in filing the complaints against Google. Microsoft has heard complaints about Google over the years, Heiner said, and when those "antitrust concerns appear to be substantial, we suggest that firms talk to the competition law agencies."

Heiner acknowledged that Microsoft has talked with European investigators and the Department of Justice about Google, but only in the context of Microsoft's recently approved search deal with Yahoo.

"We told them what we know about how Google is doing business," Heiner wrote. "A lot of that entails explaining the search advertising business, which is complex. Some of that inevitably gets into Google practices that may be harming publishers, advertisers and competition in search and online advertising."

Specifically, Microsoft is concerned that "search and online advertising are increasingly controlled by a single firm, Google," Heiner said. "These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up."

This is why Microsoft and Yahoo are combining their efforts, Heiner said. "And that is why we are concerned about Google business practices that tend to lock in publishers and advertisers and make it harder for Microsoft to gain search volume."

Heiner concluded by saying that "leading firms should not be punished for their success [or] because a particular business practice may harm a rival." They should face scrutiny, however, for practices that "exclude competitors, thereby undermining competition more broadly," he said.

What Does 'Free' Actually Mean on Today's Web?

The economy is in shambles, the media industry is searching for viable business models, and Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson is exploring the limits of free, a price point that he says is the "animal force of digital economics." Anderson spoke at a keynote today at SXSW 2009 with Alltop.com CEO Guy Kawasaki. In a reversal worthy of SXSW's free-wheeling style, it was the CEO interviewing the journalist. The exchange was lively and humorous, producing none the drama of last years Sara Lacey/Mark Zuckerberg fiasco. Although it may come as news to Anderson's publisher, Kawasaki managed to convince Anderson to promise everyone in the audience a free copy of "Free" when it comes out on July 7th. The details of such a deal, of course, will be worked out at a later date.

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"My publisher is Disney and when they signed me up they knew what they were getting," Anderson explains. "They knew I wanted to experiment with the publishing process." The offer will most likely involve giving away some form of the digital version, although he also suggested a sponsored paperback edition might be in the works. (Interestingly, Anderson has kept the audiobook rights for himself.)

Anderson's point is that individuals must find ways to monetize their celebrity. As an author, Anderson is grappling with the same issues facing Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other Web-based companies-namely how to convert attention and reputation into cash. "Each one of us has to figure out our own way to convert our reputation into money," Anderson explained. The problem in the publishing industry, he told Kawasaki, is that "publishers want to sell books, we want to sell ourselves."

To which Kawasaki replied, with his ever-present grin, "I just want to rent myself, but you can sell out."

Given the super low costs of reproducing and distributing digital goods, there cost will almost always be driven to free. These digital goods can be anything from this article to the latest Kanye West song, to last week's episode of Lost. "If you don't make your product free, piracy will do it for you." Anderson says. "You have to use piracy as a form of marketing. Each one of our jobs is to create microcelebrity and then figure out how to make money from it."

Guy Kawasaki mostly let Anderson talk, but he occasionally thew in his own bits of marketing wisdom. When asked for his definition of SPAM, for example, he explained: "My test for spam is: if I do it it is clever marketing, if it is done to me it is spam."

After the talk, when attendees lined up at the microphones to ask Anderson questions, Kawasaki spontaneously changed the economic model of the presentation. To ask a question, attendees were asked to pay $20 to a representative from Pledge to End Hunger. The site raised $80.

Is Windows 7 Right for Your Business?

Windows 7 is all over the news, but does that mean your business needs it? Here's a look at the pros and cons of switching to Microsoft's new OS.

No, Keep Your Biz With XP:

No learning curve. There's a hidden cost when you upgrade users to an OS with as many significant interface changes as Windows 7: training. Windows 7 features big improvements, especially over XP. But, after almost a decade, users know XP backwards and forward; getting them up to speed on Windows 7 might take time your company can't afford. Even programs like WordPad and MSPaint have a new interface.

upgrade advisorXP updates until 2014. You might feel you have to upgrade to Windows 7 because eventually Microsoft will stop patching XP for security and other issues. And it will. But do you consider five years from now soon? If you're happy with XP (and can live without the tech support from Microsoft, which ended earlier this year), why change?

No direct XP upgrades. Think you can just pop a Windows 7 disc into a system and upgrade the OS but leave your software and data intact? Think again. Microsoft is only allowing "in-place" upgrades from Vista— XP users have to format their drives and do a clean install. LapLink has an elegant solution, iYogi, for one, is offering "migration assistance" to help move data (but not programs), but either will cost you money and time to use. If you're okay with the nukeand- boot-and-reinstall scenario, do it; why upgrade and wonder if XP is responsible for new Windows 7 problems?

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New hardware needed. You've been running XP for years just fine on computers that were the top of the line in 2001. The chances of them supporting Windows 7 are slim. We're not talking just upgrading a couple of components—it's going to be time to get all-new systems, which can be costly, even if computers are cheaper today. Remember, at the very least, you need 1GB of RAM and 16GB of disk space just to install the 32-bit version of Windows 7. You need even more RAM and disk space to go 64-bit or to run XP Mode. Furthermore, installation from disc requires a DVD drive. You can get around that requirement, however, by copying the files to a bootable USB flash drive; instructions are available online in various places, including here. Slipstreaming the install onto a USB drive has the added bonus of giving you the same Windows 7 image to put on all the company computers.

The advances coming out of Windows 7 may be more evolution than revolution, but that doesn't mean they're not great for your company if you've got the right equipment, and the money to buy it, and users capable of handling the change. If so, take the plunge. You'll likely find the upgraded OS has an interface, security, search, and more to like. But if you don't like it, be sure to let us know.

Microsoft Advisory Tackles Unpatched IE Vulnerability

Microsoft has issued an advisory for an unpatched vulnerability affecting all versions of Internet Explorer on all platforms. The vulnerability could allow a malicious Web page to trigger a denial of service or remote code execution in the context of the IE user. Exploit code for the vulnerability has been published, but there are no reports yet of active exploits in the wild.

The vulnerability is of a type known as "use-after-free" and is in the CSharedStyleSheet::Notify function in the CSS parser in mshtml.dll. Multiple @import calls in the attack document trigger the vulnerability. It was first reported by wooyun.org.

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The exploit bypasses Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) by taking advantage of a library it loads (mscorie.dll). This was not compiled with the /DYNAMICBASE option that enables ASLR and therefore loads predictably at the same address. Microsoft doesn't say why this, and apparently other libraries, weren't compiled with this option, but suggests that you use its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit to force all loaded DLLs to dynamically rebase. This change should make the exploits highly unlikely to succeed. A video on the Microsoft Web site demonstrates the process.

Microsoft also stresses that protected mode in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 mitigate the vulnerability by limiting the privileges of attack code that succeeds in exploiting the vulnerability.

Killing Windows XP, Why?

The idea of using remote kill switches to kill operating systems deemed outdated is an abomination, Microsoft, oops, I mean Whittaker.

Every so often, a screwball idea appears in print from a reliable source, and I have to wonder if the writer is making a joke, trying to get attention, or actually fronting a dumb idea for the industry (or a specific company). After all, if the idea has any potential for backlash, it is easier for a columnist to say, "Hey, it was just an idea. What's the big deal?" without suspicion, than it is for a company to say the same thing.

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Over the years, Microsoft has been a documented abuser of fake grassroots programs, and the company has been behind a lot of questionable research results without its name being mentioned. So, I immediately thought of Microsoft when I read a column about Windows XP from the folks at ZDNet (no relation to PCMag.com and Ziff Davis), suggesting that that the OS and presumably other bits of old code should be "killed" in the field by utilizing remote kill switch technology.

The logic was incredibly sketchy, considering the fact that most machines that still run Windows XP are probably not capable of running Windows Vista or Windows 7. Still, the columnist, Zack Whittaker, thinks people that are using XP are vermin.

In an earlier piece, Whittaker had suggested a similar fate for IE6 and has since recommended putting an expiration date on operating systems as though they were dairy products subject to spoilage. I'm not sure where he is getting these ideas, but they sure do stink of Microsoft. In his column about the kill switch, he says, "But Microsoft is essentially losing money with people staying on older versions of the operating system and not upgrading to the latest and greatest."

This is a concern of his? Is he a shareholder?

Let me see. Last year, Microsoft made $50 billion in profits on $65 billion in revenue. My god, call an ambulance! It's losing its shirt over these old XP boxes in the field! Oh, no!

Whittaker's justification for this thinking is not directly related to Microsoft, but to Ed Bott, former editor at PC/Computing and huge pro-Microsoft maven. Bott relies on sales of how-to books orbiting around the Microsoft hive. In fact, Whittaker links to one of Bott's pieces within his article. In that write-up, Bott complains about Microsoft continuing to support XP past its prime. But even Bott came up short of the kill switch idea.

So this one is on Whittaker. And while he soft-peddled the idea a few days later, the concept itself has been bandied about the industry for years and incorporated in various license agreements. We know the kill switch technology works since many beta releases of Microsoft products are killed in the field once the final product is released.

The industry would like nothing more than to kill products and force users to spend more money on often useless upgrades. As someone who writes on behalf of the public, as opposed to writing as a PR stooge for a software company, it is beyond an abomination to ever seriously suggest that kill switch technology even be considered for such use. Once in play, it would be a disaster on many levels. It would kill hobby computing. It would kill countless older machines that were functional. It would confuse many users who do not understand how computers even work and probably never upgrade anything.

While Whittaker apparently took some flak for this stupid idea, the fact that he'd come out with it in the first place, with no obvious satirical bent (unless "Microsoft is losing money" was supposed to be a joke), tells you that these onerous ideas do exist in the industry, and a straw man will come along every so often to float it and see what happens. And you can be certain someone at Microsoft paid attention to the column naively hoping for the best. But the idea didn't take off. So now that person can crawl back into his hole and work on bug fixes rather than on ideas about how to further gouge the public.

Stop Using Windows XP, Please

Microsoft wants you to upgrade to Windows 7 and, to be honest, so do I.

I have a confession to make: I'm writing this story on a Windows XP laptop. It's not by choice, of course. My company is still standardized on the near-decade-old operating system, and only recently has entertained the idea of buying new systems and not ghosting them back from Windows 7 to some version of Windows XP. In other words: I feel your pain.

I am always shocked at how many people are still running Windows XP (74 percent of businesses by one measure). You don't hear about it much, but the recent release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 Beta shoved the issue back to the forefront of public consciousness. IE 9 Beta, and the final release that should arrive later this year, will run on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, but not XP or previous operating systems. (Nor, for that matter will any of Microsoft's new Windows Live Essentials apps.)

This fact was noted in stories and decried in forums and on social networks like Twitter. How could Microsoft leave Windows XP users behind—if you call releasing an operating system 9 years ago and then two new versions in the interim, "leaving people behind."

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I have no nostalgia for Windows XP. It was a decent operating system with its share of problems, but the longer I run it in the office, while using a smaller Windows 7 laptop as my mobile system and working on a Windows 7 machine at home, the more I notice its shortcomings. Windows XP lacks stability, strong security features like BitLocker, universal search, the Aero interface, innumerable usability features, Device Stage and the overall speed enhancements I enjoy in Windows 7. On the other hand, thanks to three service packs, it does still work.

Microsoft is partly to blame for XP's unnatural life span. Back in 2008, Microsoft decided to extend Windows XP support into 2014. With so many people still using Windows XP (probably half of all those running the OS in 2008) and many actively shunning Windows Vista, Microsoft likely had little choice. That promiseof long-term support, however, gave consumers license to continue using XP and hardware manufacturers confidence to continue bundling it with new PCs.

The Netbook explosion of 2009 and the early part of 2010 exacerbated the problem. Millions of brand new laptops were sold with a then 8-year-old operating system. Those netbooks are still in consumers' hands, and most are not being upgraded to Windows 7. These small-screen, low-power PCs are actually perfect for the leaner and cleaner Internet Explorer 9. Sadly, they can't run it. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is now making a big push to try and get those Windows XP stalwarts, especially businesses, to consider upgrading to Windows 7 today. I like Internet Explorer 9 quite a bit and appreciate the additional benefits you gain from running it on Windows 7, but Microsoft faces an uphill battle.

Yes, it may make perfect sense on many levels to finally upgrade to Windows 7, but businesses, and even consumers, use different metrics to measure the "costs" of upgrading their PCs. There is, obviously, the cost of a new operating system. Microsoft hasn't done much to make upgrading fiscally attractive to consumers. There have been some short-lived deals like the three upgrade licenses for $149 Windows 7 Family Pack, which came and went and now is going to make another limited appearance. Businesses focus on standardized system and disk images. If one system is running Windows 7, they all have to run it. Fifty employees means 50 licenses. Microsoft offers volume license plans, but it benefits, mostly, from the biggest businesses. Then there's the cost of training or relearning the new OS. If it doesn't cost the company that much in real dollars, the cost in lost productivity is almost impossible to measure. For consumers and businesses, upgrading to an OS two generations removed from their current one (or more if they're still, God forbid, running Windows 95) means hardware and software compatibly issues. New peripheral and productivity software isn't cheap either.

The problem with this "save money and time at all costs" strategy is that not only do these issues not go away, they grow larger the longer everyone waits to upgrade. Stalling could actually cost you even more in the end.

The hardware that originally ran Windows XP is aging, and Netbooks, while great, portable devices, are surprisingly limited in their utility and I think the romance with them has grown stale. To enjoy the best of the Web, video, photo viewing and editing, gaming, and more, you need new and more powerful hardware. That hardware will ship with Windows 7. For businesses, it's time to stop re-imaging to Windows XP. For those companies, industries and consumers still holding onto Windows 95 and DOS-based apps—well, there are almost no words for you. This was quaint 5 years ago. It's just ridiculous now.

I will not argue that Internet Explorer 9 or really any software update is a reason to abandon Windows XP. Instead, think of it as the transition from horse and buggy to car, or better yet, from black-and-white television to color. Those old TV sets continued to work for decades after the introduction of color TVs, but by the early 70's, most of them were gone. It was hard to argue to with the enjoyment you got from full-color television. The benefits of modern software are much the same. Windows XP works and should continue to do so for quite a while, but more and more you'll find yourself left out of or unable to access and enjoy the best that technology has to offer.

Let's take the Windows XP zombie OS and end its undead existence, so we can all start living the good digital life.

The PC era is not over -- yet II

Because you can't run any productivity apps locally, you'll probably be using Google Docs. In fact, with the exception of a few competitors, like Zoho and Microsoft Office 365, that's about it for choices. You won't have good options that enable you to create rich documents. And once you've created those docs, not to mention a load of your emails if you use Gmail, all of your stuff is sitting on a Google server, just waiting for the feds to come looking.

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If you use Web mail today, you have that issue as well, but at least your other documents are securely stored on your company's servers or on your own local drives. And when you use a real PC or netbook, you can access those emails and documents wherever and whenever you need. That's not the case when you can't get online because you're on an airplane or there simply isn't enough bandwidth in the neighborhood to work.

All of us who have struggled with AT&T's network over the last couple of years should know just how frustrating that can be. But at least when AT&T lets me down, I still have access to all of my stuff. That wouldn't be the case if I were chained to a Chromebook or similar paradigm-shifting (yuck) device.

The spectrum shortage is serious
More than a year ago, I warned that a shortage of spectrum was becoming a serious issue that few publications had noticed. Well, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has taken heed, and last week at CES he said: "The coming spectrum crunch threatens American leadership in mobile and the benefits it can deliver to our economy and our lives."

To be fair, Genachowski has been sounding the alarm about this issue for some time. "I believe that that the biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis," he said at the CTIA conference in October 2009. He predicted that total wireless consumption could grow from 6 petabytes a month in to 400 petabytes by 2013. (A petabyte is 1,024 terabytes.)

"What happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a BlackBerry Tour, or whatever the next device is? What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks?" Genachowski asked.

Great questions -- but we're still waiting for definitive answers. As part of its national broadband plan, the FCC last year proposed allowing broadcast TV stations to voluntarily sell some of their spectrum for mobile broadband purposes. In November, the Commerce Department announced a plan to allocate 115MHz of spectrum to wireless broadband in the next five years.

There's already some of the usual free-market Neanderthal opposition to anything the FCC and other parts of the government do to improve the communications environment, so we'll see what happens. Even in the best case, it will be years before that capacity is in place. But in the meantime, the shortage of spectrum is very real, and if you depend on wireless communications for day-to-day computing needs, you're going to be terribly frustrated.

That said, I certainly know we're moving away from a PC-centric world. Motorola's Atrix unveiled at the just-concluded CES, the iPad, and other Android devices ameliorate some of these issues. But the shift away from the PC is not going to happen overnight, and it'll be much more difficult than the digerati would have us believe.

Microsoft Outlook 2003

Microsoft Outlook 2003 is brimming with so many new features that we don't have room to mention them all, much less discuss them in detail. Most important, they're designed well enough that you won't feel overwhelmed. Instead, you'll probably take each change in stride and wonder why Microsoft didn't add it before.

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The obvious changes are those that, taken together, create a significantly different look and feel. When you launch Outlook, you'll notice the vertical Navigation Pane on the left, which is similar to the Folder List. The pane is divided into two sections. At the bottom are buttons for all the categories of data that Outlook handles—tasks, mail, and so on—as well as buttons for shortcuts and the Folder List. Pick a category by clicking on a button, choosing from the new Go menu, or using a shortcut key and the top of the pane will show only folders with that type of data. If you pick Contacts, for example, you'll see a list of folders with contacts, as well as a list of views so you can easily change the viewing format.

The Navigation Pane does an excellent job of making the myriad forms of data in Outlook easier to work with. Alas, having significantly improved this feature, Microsoft stops short of giving you everything you might want. For example, the pane would be even more useful if you could define new buttons and assign folders to them.

Much of the new look and feel comes from e-mail features. Mail folders show three vertical windows: the Navigation Pane, the list of e-mail messages, and the Reading Pane, which shows the currently selected message. This new arrangement lets you see more text at once.

Outlook alerts Other welcome enhancements include the ability to add color-coded flags for following up messages, a For Follow Up folder that automatically stores all the messages you've flagged, and an Unread Mail folder—separate from the Inbox—which shows all unread messages no matter what folders they are in. The app also lets you easily group messages by date, size, conversation, subject, and more, and a new visual message alert that includes the sender's name, the subject line, and options to flag, open, or delete the given message.

In the antispam department, you'll find a junk mail filter that does a decent job of identifying spam and automatically sending it to a junk mail folder. You can also block the program from downloading images and other files when you view or open a message (this is turned on by default), and you can override blocking for specific messages or senders.

One feature that demands mention even though we weren't able to test it (because we weren't running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003) is the ability to connect securely to an Exchange Server over the Internet without a VPN. Once you've set up this feature, Outlook will first try to connect directly to your Exchange Server. If you're not plugged into your network, however, it will establish a connection over the Internet instead.

The option to read two calendars side by side is extremely useful. For example, when you're planning a meeting with a coworker, you can bring up both your calendar and hers to check for available time slots.

With Office 2003 Professional Edition, you get Microsoft Outook with Business Contact Manager, which helps you track business contacts and send target marketing e-mail.

All of these features—and more—make Outlook 2003 a significant upgrade. If you use Outlook for e-mail, you'll find a lot to like in the new version, both as an individual and as part of a company.

IBM's Watson Supercomputer Beats Humans in Jeopardy Practice Match

Watson, IBM's latest DeepQA supercomputer, defeated its two human challengers during a demonstration round of Jeopardy on Jan. 13. The supercomputer will face former Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a two-game, men-versus-machine tournament to be aired in February.

However, the Jeopardy match-up was not the "culmination" of four years of work by IBM Research scientists that worked on the Watson project, but rather, "just the beginning of a journey," Katharine Frase, vice president of industry solutions and emerging business at IBM Research, told eWEEK.

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Supercomputers that can understand natural human language—complete with puns, plays on words and slang—to answer complex questions will have applications in areas such as health care, tech support and business analytics, David Ferrucci, the lead researcher and principal investigator on the Watson project, said at the media event showcasing Watson at IBM's Yorktown Heights Research Lab.

Watson analyzes "real language," or spoken language, as opposed to simple or keyword-based questions, to understand the question, and then looks at the millions of pieces of information it has stored to find a specific answer, said Ferrucci. "The hard part for Watson is finding and justifying the correct answer, computing confidence that it's right and doing it fast enough," said Ferrucci.

This is where Jeopardy comes in. The quiz show covers a broad range of topics, and the questions can be asked in a variety of ways, whether it's quirky, straightforward or downright strange. Creating a machine that can take on human challengers on Jeopardy became a "rally cry" for researchers to think about question and answer processing in a "more open and different way," Frase said.

"Grand challenges are a big deal to IBM," said John Kelly III, IBM's senior vice president and director of IBM Research. IBM's last major challenge was Deep Blue, the supercomputer that took on Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1987. Many of the supercomputers used by the Department of Defense are the "sons and grandsons" of Deep Blue, Frase said.

Jeopardy is significantly more complicated than chess, said Ferrucci. Chess can be broken down mathematically and there are finite combinations, he said, while Jeopardy has "infinite ways" to extract data. Watson needs to understand the clues, pick which categories to choose, decide how confident it is that the answer is correct and decide how to wager during for "Daily Doubles" questions or for the final round.

The technology has to process natural language to understand "what did they mean" versus "what did they say," which has a lot of implications in the health care sector, said Frase. Patients are not using the terms doctors learned in medical school to describe their ailments, but more likely the terms they picked up from their parents growing up, she said.

A Watson-like system can take that information and co-relate it against all the medical journals and relevant information, and say, "Here's what I think and why," while showing its evidence for how it came up with the conclusion, according to Frase. The machine won't be making a diagnosis or treatment decisions—a doctor would—but the machine can present information to help the doctor, making diagnoses and treatment decisions much faster and more efficiently, said Frase. A similar situation exists for tech support, where the system would be able to figure out what the problem is.

Windows Tablets Need Tweaks to Become Apple iPad Threat: Analyst

Windows' next version will run on ARM-based systems, according to Microsoft, but any tablets could need software tweaks to compete against Apple iOS and Google Android.

The next version of Windows will run on ARM-based systems, Microsoft announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and in theory that could squeeze the operating system onto smaller and lighter form-factors. But according to at least one analyst, Microsoft will also need to make some fundamental changes to Windows’ software if it wants to compete against Apple’s iOS and Google Android for a chunk of the tablet market.

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"I think they will likely be successful in replacing some PC notebooks and netbooks, so they will bash it out with Android tablets fighting for spare money in consumer pockets for second or third devices," Al Hilwa, an analyst with research firm IDC, wrote in a Jan. 13 e-mail to eWEEK. "But these devices will not seriously challenge the iPad because they lack its user interface fluidity and simplicity and the content portfolio, and make different compromises on weight and battery life."

Microsoft announced Jan. 5 that the next version of Windows will support SoC (system-on-a-chip) architecture, in particular ARM-based systems from partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia Corp. and Texas Instruments. Windows currently dominates the x86 platform used by traditional PCs, but the rise of increasingly powerful mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, largely powered by ARM chip designs, has created both a growing opportunity and a threat for the decades-old operating system franchise.

"To have a viable media tablet on Windows, Microsoft needs a year or two of software surgery on it," Hilwa wrote, "including a more touch-tailored UI, better battery life and boot-time, less-disruptive OS updates, and hardware support for smartphone-like proximity, orientation, movement, direction and location awareness."

At least on a hardware level, though, Microsoft seems to be preparing to take the battle to smaller form factors. During a Jan. 5 press conference, Windows and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky demonstrated Windows running on native ARM architecture with little evident slowdown. However, Sinofsky also suggested that Microsoft’s engineers would have some issues to work through with regard to the new architecture, and that "x86 programs don’t run on ARM."

Nonetheless, ARM could be an essential part of Windows’ future.

"This is a big but necessary bet by Microsoft, which is effectively being forced to engage in self-inflicted disruption around the PC market," Hilwa added. "Many think this is too little, too late, and I do think Microsoft will be well-served by simpler tablets based on [Windows Phone 7] as well, but in the long run, Microsoft has to evolve the PC."

Microsoft’s booth at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) featured a handful of tablets running Windows 7, but these seemed largely devoted to the Asian market. During his Jan. 5 keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took pains to emphasize Windows laptops with touch-screen functionality and smaller form factors, but never made the big tablet announcement that some in the media had been expecting.

Microsoft MCSE 70-620 Windows Vista exam

The Microsoft MCSE 70-620 Windows Vista exam is a universally-recognized certification exam that tests you in your knowledge of installing, configuring, and administering Windows Vista. According to Microsoft MCTS Certification, typical candidates for this certification have already had some experience with Windows clients, such as 2000 and XP, and have worked in a mid-to-large size computing environment before. In practice, many candidates for this exam have neither worked in a large computing environment or have had extensive practice with Windows Vista before. The exam does not test you on your ability to use Vista, perse, but rather on your ability to install, configure, and administer the software.

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It is important for you to understand that this exam does not cover the actual use of Windows Vista, but rather, the configuration of Vista for business and enterprise purposes. That being said, a power user would have only a slight advantage over a typical user of Vista as the exam does not cover the gimmicks and special features of Vista.

70-620 Exam Location: You can register for the exam at any Pearson VUE and Thompson Prometric center. (Pearson VUE will discontinue selling Microsoft professional certification exams after August 31, 2007. To accommodate those who purchase Microsoft professional certification exams through August 31, 2007, Pearson VUE will continue to administer the exams through December 31, 2007.)

The question types found on the Microsoft Windows Vista exam are:
Multiple Choice with Single answer: Student is required to select a single answer from a range of options (generally 4-5) by clicking on a radio button.
Multiple Choice with Multiple answers: Student is required to select more than one answer from a range of options by clicking on a checkbox; when more than one answer is required free practice questions, the number of answers is specified as part of the question.

How to become a real Guru: The Microsoft Certified Architect Program

Microsoft’s most difficult–not to mention pricey–certification, the Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), offers industry professionals an opportunity to join an elite crowd (there are presently only about 90 Architects).

The MCA certification raises the bar to an entirely new level for Microsoft who has in the past been accused of facilitating paper-certified “engineers” with the MCSE program. With its steep costs ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 (depending on which architect program you’re seeking) to its rigorous on-campus boards where you defend a real-world solution before other architects who’ve earned the hallowed title, the MCA is the meatiest certification Microsoft has ever put forth–and it’s about time.

Here’s an overview of the MCA Program. Ready to become a legend?
MCA goals and why now?

The MCA program is the first of its kind from Microsoft and sets a new benchmark for their certifications. It is hands-down the most difficult and expensive certification ever offered by Microsoft. But why now?

Some key folks on the Microsoft certification team were kind enough to give me a few moments of their valuable time.

Bill Wall, director of certification strategy for Microsoft Learning, tells me that the MCA program has two main objectives: to maintain vendor neutrality and stay community-driven.
Vendor-neutrality

On the topic of vendor neutrality, Wall said, “Architects need to be able to speak to business problems which may involve multiple technologies. This isn’t a typical Microsoft product certification, per se, but a certification that you can design and architect a solution to a real business problem.”

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Per Farny, the director of advanced training and certification for Microsoft Learning said it this way: “The MCA seeks to find a balance between high levels of technical expertise and business acumen.”
Community-driven

Wall says that Microsoft’s vision is for the program is for architects certifying architects. Ccertified MCAs sit on all review boards and play a large role in the approval of new candidates. This helps self-regulate the MCA program. In order to maintain the credibility of their own cert, they must ensure that only the truly deserving get through.
The options

The MCA program has two major options: A technology-focused path, which I will call Technology Architect (though Microsoft refers to them internally as “rangers”), and a more generalized offering for those with broad-based skills which I will refer to by their formal monikers: MCA-Infrastructure or MCA: Solutions.
MCA: Messaging or Database Technology Architect

The Technology Architect program offers two tracks:

* Messaging (Exchange Server)
* Database (SQL Server, with an emphasis on online transaction processing)

There are two major phases to becoming a Technology Architect. First, a four-week mandatory training period with weekly written exams is required-the emphasis is on solving business problems with the technology. The onsite training occurs at Microsoft’s facility in Redmond and runs 8-6, Monday through Friday, with study groups on the weekends.

The certification phase is next. In this phase, the candidate must complete an online lab-style examination followed by a rigorous review board interview. The exam will be focused in your certification area and will be lab-oriented and difficult.

The Technology Architect review board-assuming you get that far-consists of five people including actual architects and Microsoft representatives. During the review board, which lasts almost two hours, candidates will be expected to present a case study, and then discuss different technology options with the board that’s evaluating their breadth of knowledge. After a short break, the board then role-plays with the candidate, simulating situations that involve consultative advice. Candidates are examined for communication skills, their ability to build trust, bring a project-oriented approach to the table, ask the right questions, and define the problem correctly.

Costs for the Technology Architect certifications are $25,000 dollars, paid in full before you begin the program. Rob Linsky, group manager of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Learning, helped explain why these costs are high: “The classes are a very expensive component of this program. The best people in the world teach these classes and as you might expect they are very busy folks and come from many places across the globe. The logistics to make all of this happen drive the costs of the program up, but we want to ensure quality instruction is provided-no compromises.”
MCA: Solutions or Infrastructure Path

On the more broadly based architect path, there are two focus-areas: Infrastructure and Solutions. Infrastructure architects are usually more operationally focused, whereas the Solutions architect is more consultatively focused (or customer facing). You could view these two paths as pre-sale and post sale if you’d like.

The path to certification for the Infrastructure or Solutions Architects is somewhat less intense as well as less expensive. For example, the four-week training period is not required, nor are all of the examinations. These certifications are heavily back-loaded, relying on the review board for most of their weight.

The primary hurdle with the the MCA Solutions or Infrastructure certification is the review board interview. The review board is no laughing matter though. Conducted only four times a year, it lasts over two hours and is comprised of four members. There are six stages:

* Presentation. You get 30 minutes to describe a solution that you were the lead architect on. Your communication skills are heavily evaluated during this phase.
* Solution questioning. For about 40 minutes or so, the board peppers you with questions about your solution. And then you leave for a break while the board privately discusses your strengths and weaknesses.
* Candidate questioning: When you return. the board focuses their questions on you the candidate (as opposed to the solution), fleshing out your competency in the skill areas.
* Closing statement: This is your final plea for certification. You get five minutes.
* Voting. You aren’t present for the voting. You have to obtain three of out four votes to be certified.

Costs for the MCA: Solutions or Infrastructure certifications are $10,000 dollars, paid in two $5,000 increments.
Are you qualified?

Frankly, not many will qualify for the MCA architect programs and that’s the way it’s designed. However, for those interested in exploring their eligibility, the qualification requirements are as varied as the programs. I’ve broken them down by each area of emphasis.
To qualify for MCA: Messaging

To even pre-qualify for the Messaging Architect program prospective applicants must:

* Hold an MCP (It’s safe to say that anyone seriously considering this program will have one of these already)
* Be fluent in English (speak, understand, and write)
* Be an MCSE with the Messaging 2003 specialization
* Have at least three years of experience architecting and deploying Exchange Server
* Have a 300-level knowledge of Exchange Server, which means that have a conceptual component level knowledge of Exchange that you usually only get from having “been there-done that!”

After applying, there are more requirements. Assuming your application is accepted the prospective candidate must:

* Pass a lab-based examination (where they check to see what your knowledge of technologies Exchange is dependent upon like DNS, Active Directory, and basic mail routing, etc).
* Complete an interview (not to be confused with the interview board that comes later)
* Give them a pile of money (you have to pay your tuition in its entirety)

And all of that is just to start the program!
To qualify for MCA: Database

On the database side of the house, the same pre-qualification requirements apply-substituting SQL knowledge for Exchange, of course. Additionally you need experience with the Microsoft Operation Framework (MOF) and must hold the Information Technology Information Library (ITIL) Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management. However, unlike the Messaging track, after your application is accepted, there’s no further examination. You only have to complete an interview and pay your tuition.
To qualify for MCA: Solutions or Infrastructure Path

On the MCA: Solutions and Infrastructure Programs, the pre-application requirements are far less stringent, with the weight of the certification being back-loaded. Since the bulk of your certification is determined in the review board, your ability to show you deserve the certification will be highlighted. This includes a review of your resume and experience. Because architects are certifying architects, there is an implicit desire by those already certified to ensure their ranks swell with only those truly qualified thus not diminishing the value of the certification.

Microsoft even mentions in their program guides that experience is one of the most important factors towards earning certification. Many of the architects have at least ten or more years of experience with some having twenty.

But just because the MCA: Solutions and Infrastructure programs have less up-front requirements don’t think that just any old idiot can get this certification. Only those truly deserving will be able to achieve this certification. That you can guarantee.

CertKingdom 70-291 Microsoft Certification Practice Products

You would think that being a Microsoft publication this would help you pass their 70-291 but it does not. The book has far to many typos, misleading information and down right errors. Using this book to prepare for the test is counterproductive. (total wasting of time)

After missing some DNS questions on the exam I went back to the book which indicated I had answered correctly. Then I verified through other sources just to find out the book was wrong. Unfortunately the book uses the same misleading and intentionally vague language that is used in their tests which I had hoped would help me pass the test but it did not. Look elsewhere for book to help with the 70-291 test, this book will hurt more than help.

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I also found too many errors, which made studying tough. It's distracting, particularly when working the practice questions to find out that some of the choices are typos. Or that some of the answers at the end of the chapter are typos. Most of the content is good, but the first reviewer had it right: Keep looking.

The 70-291 exam measures your ability to implement, manage, and maintain a 70-291 Exam Microsoft Windows Server 2003 network infrastructure. This exam is targeted toward IT professionals who work in the typically complex computing environment of medium to large companies and have 6 to 12 months of experience administering client and network operating systems.

Please note this exam will require the most recent Test Engine, version 3.7.7 or higher in order to use the download exam. Now Available -- Simulations for CertKingdom 70-291 - Transcender has now included 6 interactive simulation items in our CertKingdom 70-291 practice exams for CD-ROM or Download delivery formats. These new simulation items, which will require you to execute critical free A+ exam questions IT tasks in a simulated work environment, are designed to more effectively evaluate real-world competency. This practice exam file is over 33M. Order the CD-ROM version if you don't have broadband.

Members speak out about Microsoft's Product Activation feature

If you're working in a Microsoft Windows or Office environment, stop and think how often you've been forced to reinstall software to fix a problem or upgrade a user's machine. Now, consider the labor costs that your organization would incur if Microsoft required you to call and get an activation code for reinstallation. You should know that Microsoft is currently preparing new antipiracy technology called Microsoft Product Activation that will restrict certain reinstallations as well as moving licenses from one machine to another. Although Microsoft's official statements downplay the effect of this new policy on corporate environments, many IT professionals are very apprehensive about the possibilities of this new policy.

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Not surprisingly, a current TechRepublic discussion center is packed with member opinions about Microsoft’s plans. While the degree of discontent varies, no one is happy about having to ask permission to reinstall software they’ve already purchased. Here are the highlights of members’ reactions—including a few thoughts about switching products if Microsoft carries through with this feature.

Reinstallation is standard
Who hasn’t had to reinstall one of Microsoft’s products for one reason or another? Many members believe that Microsoft doesn’t realize the frequency of reinstalls. Cindy Psych claimed that she reinstalls Windows four or five times per computer because of “the stupid things that happen” and said, “Any time anyone adds something annoying from the Web that causes conflicts, our solution is to wipe and reinstall. How am I supposed to do this if I call Microsoft every time it happens?”

Member rromo supports 250 users and reinstalls at least two machines a week. In addition, reinstalls are required for the new machines that are bought to replace old desktops. “Now my staff is going to spend more time on the phone than actually supporting the desktops.”

Administrating 250 users is no small task, but the problem intensifies as the number of machines increases. According to CIO Eric Whiteman, when you have 1,100 users in one building with one full-time person doing new installs and another conducting re-images, dealing with this “licensing nightmare” will easily require two more people on board.

“Goodbye, Windows; hello, Linux”
If Microsoft carries through with requiring permission for reinstalls, some members vow to sever ties with the company’s products. Many said that Linux is an attractive alternative, along with Star Office, a freeware rival of Microsoft’s popular Office software. Combining the two could cut Microsoft’s presence out of many desktops set up for common office tasks.

Technical systems specialist Gary Cota has reinstalled and reconfigured countless machines on his network over the past years. Because of the instability of the environment, he doesn’t expect the need for these tasks to end anytime soon. “If MS thinks I’m going to call them every time their operating system trashes its own configuration and forces a reinstall, I’ve got just one thing to say: ‘Goodbye, Windows; hello, Linux.’”

According to s0meb0dy_else, the transition from Microsoft to Linux can’t be accomplished quickly, so it’s important to get started right away. “If you get up-to-date on Linux now, you might be able to switch to a Linux-only environment by the end of the year.”

However, LAN administrator Rich McKinney doesn’t see widespread Linux migration as a solution for everyone: “We can migrate to Linux because we’re tech-enough to do it. But for the other 98 percent out there, Linux is not an option.”

The “98 percent” Rich referred to are organizations whose average desktop users rely on Windows’ simplicity. If an organization chooses to switch its operating system to Linux, it could mean serious headaches for administrators. Member coryh wrote, “There is no way in hell I would throw Linux in my building full of people who were introduced and weaned into the computer world using Windows. I will not support these average users trying to run Linux. What a nightmare.”
How do you feel about Microsoft’s plans to require reinstallation approvals? Are your users ready for a Linux migration? Start a discussion and sound off on the issue.

Download our Excel spreadsheet to help track Microsoft patches

Every year Microsoft releases dozens of patches, security updates, and hot fixes. Keeping track of these items can be a real headache, especially for an overworked support pro with too much to do and not enough hours in the day. While forcing Microsoft to improve its software to the point where it never needs patching is beyond my power, our Microsoft patch-tracking Excel spreadsheet can help you manage the fixes it does release.

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Why you need it
Why should you track the Microsoft patches your organization installs? First, Microsoft releases so many patches, service packs, security updates, hot fixes, and updates each year that it's often difficult to keep straight which items you've installed and which ones you haven't. Second, the next time your manager asks you how up to date your organization's systems are, you can give him or her a quick, definite answer. Third, if you're the person responsible for managing the installation of Microsoft patches and you leave the organization, there is a record of which patches have been installed and when. This will make it much easier for those who come after you to do their jobs.

Our simple, yet highly effective, spreadsheet is based on a submission from TechRepublic member Stephen Bailey and allows you to catalog those Microsoft fixes that you choose to download and install. Download this spreadsheet and then customize it to meet the needs of your organization.

There are sections for the following characteristics:

* Security Bulletin: Microsoft numbers each security bulletin (e.g., MS02-072).
* Ticket Number: If your help desk uses a call/problem tracking system, use this column to log the ticket number associated with the patch's installation.
* Name (MSKB Number): Many patches are associated with Microsoft Knowledge Base (MSKB) articles. MS02-072, for example, corresponds to the MSKB article Unchecked Buffer in Windows Shell Could Enable System Compromise (329390). Enter that information here.
* Affected System(s): There are two ways to use this column. You can either enter every application the patch affects, or you can enter just those affected systems that your organization has. While the later may allow you to save space, there's always the possibility that you could acquire a system at some point in the future, check your list for applicable patches, and not see that system listed.
* Assessment (High, Medium, or Low or N/A): Not all patches are created equal. Critical security patches should be implemented immediately, while others can be implemented more slowly.
* Response Plan Complete: If your help desk creates a response plan for each security patch installation, you can indicate the status of that plan here. If not, you can delete this column.
* Installation: Use this column to track how quickly the patch was installed.
* Date Complete: This column allows you to track the date all patch installations were completed.
* Add to standard install? (Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP): If your help desk has standard installation images for different Windows operating systems, use this section to note whether a patch should be added to that standard installation or not.
* Superseded: Some Microsoft patches are occasionally (or even regularly) superseded by a newer patch. For example, Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-068—the December 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (324929)—is superceded by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-004—the February 2003 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (810847). Use this column to indicate when a patch has been superceded by a more recent patch.


Download our Microsoft patch-tracking Excel spreadsheet
You can download our Microsoft patch tracking Excel spreadsheet by following this link or by clicking on the Downloads link in the navigation bar at the top of this page. TechRepublic has many useful documents, templates, and applications available for download, so be sure to check out our other offerings.

Our Microsoft patch tracking Excel spreadsheet was created using Microsoft Excel 2000. To increase download speed, we've zipped the file. You'll need an unzip utility such as WinZip or PKZIP to expand the zipped file. You'll also need Microsoft Excel 2000 or higher to edit the spreadsheet.

Online resources for preparing for the 70-297 exam

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