Microsoft Support & Discussions

Windows IT Pro Microsoft on Wednesday announced the RTM, or release to manufacturing, of the first service pack for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. While this is a major milestone for both operating systems, SP1 adds no significant new features to Windows 7. On Windows Server 2008 R2, however, SP1 adds two major new features that expand the product's virtualization capabilities. ... View the full article

Microsoft is planning to make available to its Software Assurance volume licensing customers a smaller footprint, locked-down version of Windows 7 that functions as a thin client. View the full article

Supersite Microsoft announces the RTM of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The public release is February 22. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro At a press event on Wednesday, HP announced three next-generation devices based on the webOS system it acquired along with Palm. Key among these devices, however, is the company's first webOS-based tablet, the TouchPad, which will compete against the iPad, RIM's PlayBook, and numerous Android-based tablets when it arrives later this year. ... View the full article

Last week, I was bearish on claims, prayers and predictions that Nokia would end up offering some kind of Windows Phone device as part of the company’s line-up. But now, I’m thinking it’s not just possible, but probable. View the full article

Supersite Today: Nokia CEO hints at changes in Burning Platform memo, HP plans a webOS press conference, Apple's next iPad is in production, Dell announces a new Windows 7-based slate PC, Dell (maybe) kills off the Adamo, Mark Zuckerberg is being stalked on Facebook, and Adobe offers up a Flash upgrade. ... View the full article

Microsoft has gone in-house and chosen Satya Nadella as the new president of the company’s Server and Tools division. View the full article

I’m hearing from a couple of my contacts that Microsoft plans to announce on February 9 that Service Pack (SP) 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 has finally crossed the finish line. View the full article

Windows IT Pro As part of its regular monthly release cycle, Microsoft on Tuesday issued 12 security updates that address 22 vulnerabilities across various products, including Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office. But two of the fixes are getting particular attention, including one that addresses a recently-revealed IE flaw. ... View the full article

A source of mine passed on to me some information that seems to come from Microsoft’s own scorecarding system from the end of 2010 that detailed some high priority areas for Microsoft’s sales and marketing folks. Exchange and SharePoint both figure prominently. View the full article

As word swirls of an imminent Microsoft management shake-up around the Server and Tools Business, I’ve been wondering about what’s happening on the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) side of the Microsoft house. View the full article

Supersite Today: A trip to Colorado this week, a Verizon 4 iPhone 4 proves my earlier point about David Pogue, a new Kindle firmware, and the passing of DEC co-founder Ken Olsen. ... View the full article

Supersite You may be unaware of the sheer amount of documentation that is available out there, all aimed at helping new and existing developers wrap their minds around the unique capabilities in Windows Phone. Microsoft new mobile platform is also an ideal way to learn programming skills, since it is a simple and new and features a modern and logical SDK. Here are some resources that will help you get started with Windows Phone software development. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro Microsoft is seeking to essentially combine the user experience models for traditional Windows client OSs with Windows Phone in Windows 8, providing a single OS solution that will run across the widest possible array of device types. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro According to market-share numbers from IHS Screen Digest, Apple's dominant iTunes Store lost major market share for digital video content in 2010 to rivals, primarily to Microsoft's Zune Marketplace. ... View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of these operating systems. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or …

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if a local, authenticated attacker installs a malicious service on a domain-joined computer. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves five privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logged on locally and ran a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit these vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logged on locally and ran a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit these vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS) in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of these operating systems. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a user's system and starts a specially crafted application that continues running after the attacker logs off in order to obtain the logon credentials of subsequent users. An attacker must have valid logon…

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the JScript and VBScript scripting engines. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a user visited a specially crafted Web site. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Visio. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Visio file. An attacker who successfully exploited either 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. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Windows OpenType Compact Font Format (CFF) driver. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views content rendered in a specially crafted CFF font. In all cases, an attacker would have no way to force users to view the specially crafted content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit a Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows Shell graphics processor. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted thumbnail image. 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 operate with administrative user rights. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Active Directory. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if an attacker sent a specially crafted packet to an affected Active Directory server. The attacker must have valid local administrator privileges on the domain-joined computer in order to exploit this vulnerability. View the full article