AWS

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft MPEG Layer-3 audio codecs. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file or receives specially crafted streaming content from a Web site or any application that delivers Web content. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local 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 Microsoft XML Core Services. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade 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

Microsoft has always seen the world through developer-colored glasses. And this month, they're at it again, with the upcoming beta of Visual Studio LightSwitch, a version of its developer suite so simple even an admin can use it. View the full article

Microsoft’s product groups are busy crafting their answer(s) to the Apple iPad. But Microsoft Research is working on slate/tablet-related projects of its own, including a way to add physical keys to the backs of these kinds of mobile-computing devices. View the full article

Signs are pointing to Microsoft backing away from IronRuby, the .Net-targeted implementation of the Ruby dynamic programming language that the company has been developing and funding for the past couple of years. View the full article

Welcome to the community.

In this week's mailbag, creating a USB memory stick version of the Windows 7 Repair Disc, learning the Office 2007/2010 ribbon UI with a game, Windows Phone and desktop sync, what to do before you get a Windows Phone, whether Windows Phone will support tethering, and when an upgrade is really just a new computer. View the full article

Microsoft researchers have published a photo of a prototype Microsoft ‘Menlo’ phone and have shared information about a new sample application codenamed “Greenfield” that is running on it. View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Tom Merritt and I discuss Paul's completion (sort of) of "Windows Phone Secrets," IE 9's final platform preview and pending public beta, Microsoft's out of band fix for the shortcut vulnerability, some news out of Microsoft's annual Financial Analysts Meeting, Mac Office 2011 due in October, Android whomping on iPhone, and more. View the full article

Unfairly derided by tech critics, the secret "God Mode" in Windows 7 is really just a nifty way to discover features you never knew existed. View the full article

Windows 7 includes a number of display improvements, including a Display Color Calibration wizard, improved support for high DPI displays, improvements to ClearType, and better support for external displays. View the full article

Yes you'll need admin rights on the server.

I've posted a preliminary list of the Windows Phone 7 features I'll be documenting in the coming months. Take a look, and let me know what you think. View the full article

To entice customers to sign up for its Software Assurance subscription-licensing plan, Microsoft has added a number of carrots over the years. But it’s about to cut one of those carrots, its Employee Purchase Program (EPP), as of November 2010. View the full article

Microsoft is adding federated-identity support for providers including Google, Facebook, LiveID and OpenID to its Azure cloud platform via a new update to its Windows Azure AppFabric component. View the full article

It seems to be a tough job running the small/mid-size business (SMB) group at Microsoft. Even though Microsoft’s execs have made it plain that they consider the SMB segment to be key to the company’s success, no one lasts very long in the SMB chief’s chair. View the full article

This week, Microsoft completed the rollout of the new Hotmail to all of its 350 million+ users. Find out what's new in this release, including quick views, view filters, Conversation View, better photo mail, Active Views, and more. View the full article

is there anyway in OCT 2010 to remove the upload center when Office is installed? i looked thru and didnt see anything but maybe i missed it. Tech with Alberta Education View this thread

Microsoft is dropping Quadrant, a tool originally slated to be part its data-modeling platform, which was originally codenamed Oslo, and is revising its plans for its M data-modeling language. View the full article

Microsoft’s relatively unsung (and ungainly named) Bing for iPhone app camera scanning feature is the Redmondians’ equivalent to Google Goggles. View the full article

Microsoft announced on August 4 that it has settled its patent infringement case with Salesforce. While the terms of the agreement aren’t being disclosed “Microsoft is being compensated by Salesforce.com,” according to a Microsoft press release. View the full article

It’s that time again: Time for an updated version of the monthly Microsoft CodeTracker. This PDF is the same chart I use myself to keep up with the many, morphing codenames of products and technologies coming from Microsoft. View the full article

It sounds like Microsoft is going to deliver one more developer preview of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 before it rolls out the first public beta of its next-generation browser in September. View the full article

In this week's (late) mailbag, about my home swap this year in Europe, how you can tell if you have the new Hotmail, the best way to copy email messages from one service to another, about the phone functionality in Windows Phone, when will Exchange ActiveSync for Hotmail ever arrive, and photo sync in Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011. View the full article

They can't connect remotely to a network. No VPN or RDP connections to servers are allowed and they can't join a domain.