Microsoft Support & Discussions

By Paul Thurrott In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo, Mary Jo and I discuss Carol Bartz’s firing from Yahoo, a bunch of pre-BUILD Windows 8 updates, several Windows Phone stories, Windows Intune 2, and a new Twitter and Bing linkup. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott An often irreverent look at some of this week’s other news, including two more Android patent licensing deals for Microsoft, the worst mobile app ever made appears on Windows Phone, Google buys Zagat for some reason, Intel claims that Meego will live on, judge looks to AT&T/DOJ settlement, Google talks up its electricity usage, and SFO police probe yet another lost iPhone prototype. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott This week on What The Tech: Andrew and Paul talk tablets. Specifically, the rumored Amazon Kindle tablet. How much does pricing play in to the success of a tablet? What will set it apart from other tablets that run Android? And will Windows 8 tablets be a game changer? Paul talks the future with a Windows 8 tablet. Andrew asks Paul whether or not Windows 8 will be able to run Windows Phone apps. Source: Win Super Site

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.1 (August 10, 2011): Removed two erroneous workarounds in this bulletin's vulnerability section for CVE-2011-1276. This is an informational change only. Summary: This security update resolves eight privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights…

Severity Rating: Moderate Revision Note: V1.1 (August 10, 2011): Revised the Server Core installation not affected notation for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to clarify that the update will still be offered to systems installed using the Server Core installation option. Summary: This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a user visits a network share (or visits a Web site that points to a network share) containing a specially crafted file. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force a user to visit such a network share or Web site. Instead, a…

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.1 (August 10, 2011): Corrected the restart requirements for the update on all affected operating systems. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate Excel file (such as a .xlsx file) that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted library file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operat…

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.1 (August 17, 2011): Corrected the hyperlink for CVE-2011-1967. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application designed to send a device event message to a higher-integrity process. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. Read Bulletin

Severity Rating: Moderate Revision Note: V1.1 (August 23, 2011): Added an update FAQ to announce a detection change for KB2539636 that corrects an installation issue. This is a detection change only. There were no changes to the security update files. Customers who have already successfully updated their systems do not need to take any action. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft .NET Framework. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a user views a specially crafted Web page using a Web browser that can run XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs). In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web si…

Today, the W3C announced the creation of a Tracking Protection Working Group to work on defining what tracking is, signaling user intent, and tracking protection lists. The W3C

Microsoft launched its high-end ERP product, Dynamics AX 2012, on September 8 with a new “switchers’ campaign targeted at Lawson users. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is readying the Mac client version of its Lync unified communications product. The Lync Mac client RTM’d on September 8 and will be on price lists next month. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott Microsoft today announced that its Lync 2011 corporate communications client for the Mac was complete. (A version previously shipped for Windows.) The product will be generally available to volume license customers on October 1. Source: Win Super Site

Microsoft added two more OEMs to its list of companies agreeing to sign patent-protection deals with the Redmond vendor to cover Android- and Chrome OS-based devices. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is aiming to launch two of its key enterprise server families of products — the next version of SQL Server and the next versions of its System Center family of systems management wares — in 2012, a top company official said today. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott In the wake of Yahoo’s sudden decision to unceremoniously fire its CEO Carol Bartz, the struggling online giant has apparently set itself up for a sale, or at least a breakup into several smaller pieces. But with an inept executive suite and an inability to monetize its still-popular online services, one big question remains: Which companies could possibly be interested in picking up Yahoo? Source: Win Super Site

Hi people, am new here and i have a problem that is bugging me. i have a newly acquired windows server 2008 standard R2 with no domain created yet.there is only the admin and two users created on the server and there is a shared folder. the server is visible on the network but clicking on it from a networked computer or entering its static IP address, the server does not request for username and password but gives the following error. cannot access \\10.0.0.200 You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested lo…

Windows 8 may or may not be the final name of Microsoft’s next version of Windows client, due out in 2012. If it is just a codename, what should the actual final name be? Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft’s Build conference is going to be full of Windows 8 terms and technologies. Here are 10 of the related codenames and features about which I’m hoping to hear more next week. Source: All About Microsoft

Windows 8 client — and not just server — will include Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor in some still unspecified SKU/SKUs, Microsoft officials publicly acknowledged in a new “Building Windows 8″ blog post. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott Microsoft confirmed today that Windows 8 will indeed include the Hyper-V virtualization platform. This has stunning ramifications to the future of backwards compatibility in Windows, as I’ve written about often in the past, since it means Microsoft can now more aggressively remove dated, legacy technologies from the core Windows product. Source: Win Super Site