Download Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode Final RTM 7600.16393

Microsoft’s virtualization solution for Windows 7, Windows Virtual PC (VPC) and Windows XP Mode (XPM) final RTM builds have been compiled and signed off as build 7600.16393 on September 22nd, 2009.

Windows Virtual PC requires hardware-assisted virtualization, thus it’s recommended to check and verify system supports hardware virtualization (VT) or not prior to downloading and installing.
The main purpose of Windows Virtual PC, an optional component for Windows 7 is to support application backward compatibility for software and programs that can only run on older versions of Windows. With RemoteApp, which allows application installed on guest operating system to be accessed directly from host operating system (Windows 7) seamlessly, users can run and access virtualized instance of programs without running virtual machine. Windows XP Mode is provided by Microsoft with free Windows XP OS license as a way for users instantly install and run virtualization environment without having to manually install operating system in virtual machine, and have to acquire a genuine product key to activate the installed OS again.

Microsoft Windows 128-bit on Windows 8 or 9

“Just before the world receives Windows 7, there are already rumblings of a generation-after-next version of Windows that will come in a 128-bit flavor.

Eightforums spotted in Microsoft Senior Research & Development employee Robert Morgan’s LinkedIn profile that he was working IA-128 for the next two generations of Windows.

The update to Morgan’s profile, which has since been removed, read as follows:

#Windows 7 Start Slower Than Windows Vista

Even if Windows 7 isn’t proven by benchmarks to be the fastest, bestest version of Microsoft’s operating system yet, it certainly feels a lot better. We’d use it over Windows Vista any day of the week, but new findings show that it’s not the performance king – at least not yet.

Sure, there have been many tweaks under the hood to make it better than Windows Vista, but it seems that boot time is actually longer in Windows 7 – at least according to a certain standard.

Stolen Hotmail Data Finds Simple Passwords

ABC, easy as 123…456789!

We’ve all seen the warnings about having secure passwords. Even upon account creation, many online services even include tips on how to make a secure password. It seems, though, that most users do not take heed.

IDG reports that security researcher Bogdan Calin analyzed the 10,000 stolen Windows Live Hotmail usernames and passwords that were leaked late last week and found that users are still using simple, common and downright stupid passwords.

Passwords that used simple number sequences such as 123456789 made up half of the top 10 most common passwords. The other half of the list is made up of names alejandra, alberto, and alejandro, which lead Calin to believe that the passwords were stolen by a phishing kit targeting Latinos.

Security sites recommend that passwords should contain a combination of letters, numbers and other characters. Calin found that just 6 percent of the Hotmail passwords met such standards of complexity, but more than 60 percent were either lower case letters only, or numbers.

Interestingly, the longest password Calin found was "lafaroleratropezoooooooooooooo".

The top 10 passwords were:

   1. 123456

   2. 123456789

   3. alejandra

   4. 111111

   5. alberto

   6. tequiero

   7. alejandro

   8. 12345678

   9. 1234567

  10. estrella

Source : Tom’s Hardware US

First look: Microsoft Security Essentials impresses

 

Microsoft’s new antimalware solution, Microsoft Security Essentials, is now available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Ars puts MSE through its paces and finds an unobtrusive app with a clean interface that protected us in the dark corners of the Internet.

After a short three-month beta program, Microsoft is officially releasing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), its free, real-time consumer antimalware solution for fighting viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojans. MSE is yet another layer of defense the company is offering to help its customers fight the threats that plague Windows PCs.

Microsoft Security Essentials is available for Windows XP 32-bit (8.61MB), Windows Vista/7 32-bit (4.28MB), and Windows Vista/7 64-bit (4.71MB). The final build number is 1.0.1611.0. Microsoft warns that MSE should not be installed alongside any other antimalware application. Indeed, MSE’s installer disables Windows Defender completely, which makes sense as it is a sort of superset to Windows Defender. It builds upon Windows Defender by offering both real-time protection and on-demand scanning for all types of malware.

What to do when Windows Vista Won’t Shutdown

 

Computer not shutting down in Windows Vista has become one of the most common problems. It becomes so annoying when you really can’t figure out what’s causing this. I bought a new HP Pavilion DV 6 1215 three days back and faced this issue last night. I was really pist off because I didn’t even install any additional programs in this machine except Msn Messenger. I ran a full virus scan but didn’t find anything so I decided to Google it and found a few solutions.

When you get this, usually it’s because of a driver hanging. To check if any of the drivers is causing this problem click Start > Control Panel > Performance Information and Tools.

Click “Advanced tools” which is located at the left hand side of the window.

If your drivers are causing any issues or are not up to date it will display a message and will allow you to fix the problem.  It’s then just a case of disabling them from start up.

Linux saves Aussie electrical grid

QUICK THINKING open sourcerers might have saved an Australian power supply system after its electrical grid control room network got infected with a virus.

A Windows virus hit the networks of Integral Energy and, according to a submission to Slashdot, the virus managed to spread to the operator display consoles in the control room.

Quick thinking techies in the control systems department of the utility swapped the infected Windows boxes for machines running Linux that they were using for development.

The move prevented the virus from taking over all the operator displays in the control room.

There have been a number of government inquiries into the security of electricity companies worldwide because of the fear that hackers, terrorists or cyber warriors for a rival country might take control of electric power grids. Now it would seem that such fears might have been realised.

However in Oz there could be some concern that notoriously insecure Windows machines were even being used for critical infrastructure systems. The Slashdot submission says that the power grid’s system control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers run Solaris Unix and the operator consoles only really need to run X-windows displays. The question is why the utility would choose to run X on Windows boxes merely to talk to the UNIX-based SCADA “Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition” servers that control the electrical grid.

How to Install WordPress on your own Computer In 5 Minutes

You don’t have to be a geek to install WordPress on your own computer because the process is as simple as installing any other native Windows Application (e.g. Microsoft Office).

Before we get into the actual installation process, let’s look at some reasons why you may want to install a copy of WordPress on your local computer:

Reason #1. You have to buy a web domain and space on a web server to host your WordPress software online. These are however not required if you decide to run WordPress in a local environment.

Reason #2. Even if you have a website and web hosting space, you may still want to run a copy of WordPress on the local computer as it will help you test out new WordPress themes, plug-ins and other tweaks much faster.

Reason #3. Most WordPress hosts offer Linux based servers but with WordPress installed locally, you can try out the features of this powerful blogging software in a more familiar Windows environment.

How to Setup WordPress on your Computer