Chad's News

The release version of Internet Explorer is available for download. If you’re not an early adopter, it’ll be available via Windows Update in the upcoming weeks.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has dropped to a 68% market share, while Mozilla’s Firefox is at 21% and Apple’s Safari is at 8%. In this case, at least, competition leads to innovation, which is good for the user.

Link: http://www.tgdaily.com/…
(via digg)

Microsoft has implemented a benign form of nagware for pirated versions of Windows. What I find ridiculous, however, is that the people using illegal copies are upset about this. They should just be glad Microsoft isn’t wiping their hard drives instead.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

As of November 1st, Microsoft stopped issuing licenses for Windows 3.x. You might be wondering why Microsoft was selling a 15 year old operating system, but apparently it’s being used in embedded systems. Windows 3.11 was, in my opinion, the first version that was usable in a business environment. It had networking support and better memory management, and it was much more stable than previous versions.

Link #1: http://blogs.msdn.com/…

Link #2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

The official name for the next version of Windows is “Windows 7″. The linked article has more information about expected features and changes.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Microsoft has released an out-of-cycle update for Windows, which means the bug is a significant security threat.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

Google has spent months working with Microsoft and modifying its latest version of Gmail to work with Internet Explorer 6. Apparently the Gmail code was too “modern” for the older browser to handle well. Does anyone else think this is hilarious?

Link: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

From the article: “Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk[s].” So instead of asking Microsoft to change Windows, the SSD manufacturers are modifying their drive controllers to “compensate for Vista shortfalls.”

Link: http://news.cnet.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Update: Ars Technica has an update on this topic. Samsung is taking action to help resolve the problem.

Here at the Chad’s News network command center we’ve read lots of online articles that list various performance tweaks for Windows—and we’ve even implemented a few. Turns out that not all of them actually increase performance.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/…

The linked article has a nice list of add-ons for Windows Explorer. I really like the one that adds tabs.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/…

Microsoft is providing “Free unlimited installation and compatibility support” for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). This includes support via phone, email, and individual chat.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

Earlier this year a security researcher found a previously unknown and far-reaching security hole in the Domain Name System (DNS). As far as I can tell, it’s not a bug in a specific DNS implementation but rather an issue with the actual DNS specification. It’s a form of DNS cache poisoning, which is pretty much impossible for the end user to detect or guard against and which we’ve discussed previously here at Chad’s News. Yesterday, a large coalition of vendors released a simultaneous patch for all of their products. Details about the vulnerability are sparse, as the security experts are waiting a month before giving out the specifics. What I found surprising was that both the DNS servers (usually hosted by ISPs) and the DNS clients (e.g., end-user PCs) require patches.

It’s recommended that everyone apply the appropriate updates. For Windows users, this means doing a Windows Update. But be careful. The Microsoft DNS patch conflicts with the ZoneAlarm firewall and will block all internet access if you have both installed at the same time. The exploit does not yet exist in the wild, so it will probably be okay to delay the updates for a few days while Microsoft and ZoneAlarm get their act together.

Link: http://securosis.com/…
(via Slashdot)