Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft Windows 7’
Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade Cheaper for New PCs
Picking up that netbook but not wanting to deal with that Starter Edition of Windows 7?
Are you not entirely happy with the limitations of the Windows 7 Starter or Home Premium of that new computer that you were thinking about buying? Microsoft today announced that discounts are on the way.
Starting next week, those who buy a new computer have the option of picking up an Anytime Upgrade Package at a discount.
Microsoft’s Latest Small-Business Plan
It happens every couple of years. Microsoft’s newly installed head of small-business efforts goes on the road to talk about how the company sees vast potential in the huge numbers of underserved firms that all want the capabilities of big business software without the cost or complexity. The new executive assures me that Microsoft gets it and promises Redmond is rededicating itself to the market.
This time around, the executive was Birger Steen, a Norwegian oil trader who ran Microsoft’s Russian subsidiary before moving to Redmond last year to take over the small and midsize business sales effort. In addition to his unusual background, Steen also came in with a different pitch. Refreshingly, Steen said he didn’t really think that small businesses are all that poorly treated.
“They are underserved but they are also well served by some people who are not us,” Steen said, noting that in every market there tends to be a company like Intuit in North America that does a really good job of crafting accounting and other software products for smaller firms.
What Microsoft has the opportunity to do, he said, is to provide the operating system and Office (and related products like SharePoint and Exchange) and then partner with the Intuits of the world. In addition, he said, Microsoft can help spur the development of the next generation of extremely custom software that a dentist or car repair shop uses to run their core business.
Although Microsoft won’t make that last piece of software, Steen said, it could be based on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-based operating system. The cloud, Steen notes, is well suited to smaller businesses because it allows them access to the latest technology from a state-of-the-art data center that they don’t have to build.
That helps break a cycle in which businesses have to buy computing infrastructure upfront, yet another capital expense that forces entrepreneurs to take out a second mortgage or max out a credit card.
“Cloud computing, from a pure economics standpoint, is a more efficient way of servicing small business,” Steen said. “It’s not a one-time thing. It’s pay as you need it.”
More importantly, Microsoft is moving to deliver all of its software this way, in addition to continuing to offer on-premise software for those that wish. Some products, like Exchange, already come in hosted form, while other products will soon be offered on a subscription basis.
The other key thing businesses want from Microsoft is a good, stable operating system. And Steen says life has gotten a lot better for both Microsoft and small businesses now that Windows 7 has arrived.
Could there be a free, ad-supported Windows in Microsoft’s future?
When Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie outlined his suggestions for Microsoft’s gameplan back in 2005 (via his “Internet Services Disruption” memo), he was a big advocate of Microsoft introducing ad-supported, free software and services. Since that time, Microsoft has been dabbling with ad-supported products on a variety of fronts, including the forthcoming consumer version of Office Web Apps and Office Starter products.
But what about Windows? Would Microsoft ever go so far as to offer a low-end SKU of Windows client that would be free, but ad-supported? Back in 2005, a Microsoft researcher authored a ThinkWeek paper detailing how and why Microsoft could make Windows an ad-supported product. But I never thought anything came of that paper… until now.
Stephen Chapman, the blogger behind the Microsoft Kitchen blog, unearthed an interesting screen shot of a Microsoft employee’s LinkedIn profile that mentions a “prototype for advertising in Windows” project, codenamed “Madison.”
Based on that profile, it seems Lead Program Manager Krista Johnson spearheaded two Microsoft incubation projects between 2005 and 2008. One was Madison and the other was a prototype Windows CE-based PC that would sell for under $100. (The latter sounds like some kind of ultra-low-cost PC/”Origami” device.)
There’s no word whether these prototypes went anywhere. But now I’m wondering whether Microsoft might release some time in the coming months/years a free, ad-supported Windows SKU. Maybe it will be more like Office Starter, in that it will be a stripped-down subset of Windows, preloaded on new PCs, that includes the ability to move up to a paid, more fully-featured version (using the current Anytime Upgrade model).
Or maybe something like Madison will be the new alternative to Windows Starter Edition? If it is, I wonder how Microsoft will make up for lost revenues, as it currently charges OEMs $30-plus per copy for Starter preloaded on netbooks, according to various estimates….
I’ve got a question in to Microsoft about whether the company has ruled out the idea of an ad-supported Windows release. I’m not expecting much of an answer, but I’ll post what I get here.
Hack Expert Says Windows 7 is Hard to Hack
Windows 7 is harder to hack than Apple’s Snow Leopard–mainly due to Flash being installed by default on SL.
Security expert Charlie Miller has participated in the Pwn2Own contest over the last two years, and has won both times. Held in the CansecWest Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the contest challenges contestants to find “big bugs” in web browsers, operating systems, and even in mobile devices. With the 2010 conference just around the corner (March 24), oneITsecurity conducted an interview with the champ and asked Miller which was harder to crack: Windows 7 or Snow Leopard?
“Windows 7 is slightly more difficult because it has full ASLR (address space layout randomization) and a smaller attack surface (for example, no Java or Flash by default),” he said. “Windows used to be much harder because it had full ASLR and DEP (data execution prevention). But recently, a talk at Black Hat DC showed how to get around these protections in a browser in Windows.”
He also added that a safe browsing combination would be to use Chrome or Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, however he said that there isn’t enough difference between the two browsers to “get worked up about.” But he did emphasize that Flash not be installed no matter what browser or OS is used by the consumer.
The interview also covered exploits on game consoles. As the interviewer points out, the devices are in our living rooms, in our dens and offices, yet there are still few exploits and vulnerabilities discovered. Why aren’t security researchers working on finding exploits on these devices? Because there are more PCs, and game consoles don’t need to be connected to the Internet.
“I’ve had Wii for a year or so and its never been on the Internet,” Miller said. “Its hard to remotely attack the box when you can’t get packets to it 
Also, computers, and phones to a lesser extent, are designed to be customized, to download and use/render content from the Internet. This is where vulnerabilities exist and exploits are created. Game consoles don’t do this as much so the attack surface is much smaller. The final reason, is it is hard to do research on them. Its not easy to get a debugger running on an Xbox, for example.”
Microsoft Debuts FIX IT Program
Microsoft has launched “Fix It” software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.
The software basically adds the automatic diagnostics system in Windows 7 to older versions of Microsoft’s operating system.
The software, currently available as a trial or beta version, is intended for users of Windows XP and Vista.
The package also tries to anticipate how security updates will affect a PC before they are installed.
Once installed, the software gets updates about known issues with Windows or any connected devices, and regularly checks to see if a host machine has fallen victim. Once fixes become available it will tell users they are ready or attempt to apply them.
The software has onboard fixes for about 300 of the most widely encountered problems that stop Windows working as it should.
The software also maintains a list of the hardware and software on a machine so if the automatic fix does not solve a problem, it will be able to help users supply detailed information to Microsoft’s support staff about what has gone wrong.
Those signing up and downloading the Fix It software can use it on several different machines.
The free software can be downloaded from Microsoft’s support pages. Windows XP users wanting to use it must have Service Pack 3 for the operating system installed.
The Fix It service began in late 2008, when Microsoft began using the logo to highlight automatic fixes on its support pages that dealt with very common problems.
Anyone clicking on the logo kicked off a download that tried to fix that problem automatically.
Microsoft, like many other software firms, has built a vast database of faults and problems as technology built into Windows reports back about crashes and other bugs that machines encounter.