Search results matching tag 'Windows'

RE: Windows XP Availability Now Ending In 2011

mhenriday — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:57:26 GMT

Perhaps it's about time for people to realise that there are better alternatives - in fact, a plethora of them - to Windows operating systems out there ?...

Henri

Re: Retreiving password XP

digitaldd — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:10:50 GMT

A linux bootdisk or live distro with the nt_pass program works wonders as well if you do not have an account that you can login with.

Windows XP Set to Leave "Mainstream Support"

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:20:51 GMT

Windows XP is set to enter the Extended Support phase of its life, moving out of Mainstream Support, as planned, Microsoft said on Monday.

In an email, Microsoft said:

"On April 14, Windows XP will transition from the mainstream support phase to the extended support phase, as planned and previously announced."

Mainstream Support usually only lasts five years, but in this case it lasted 7 1/2 years, because of the delay in delivering Windows Vista, as well as (let's be honest) the basic dissatisfaction with Windows Vista.

Extended Support means only paid support will be provided, and that only security fixes will be provided, with the exception of hotfixes to customers who have purchased the Extended Hotfix Support plan. Security updates via Windows Update will continue until April 8, 2014.

Windows XP has been dubbed "the OS that wouldn't die." A recent leak noted that Windows XP "downgrade rights" will continue until April 30th, 2010, well into the life of Windows 7. At the same time, a survey has indicated that Windows 7 adoption by enterprises will be slow.

Office 2003 will also enter Extended Support on April 14th.

RE: 83% Of Businesses Won't Go Windows 7 Next Year

3vi1 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:16:13 GMT

If they're running Win98... they might just be cheap. LoL!

It's one thing to wait for a new platform to become somewhat stable... it's another thing entirely when you run a production environment on an OS that ceased being supported three years ago.

Nyotron Claims Be Paranoid of Conficker

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:21:45 GMT

Reportedly, April Fool's Day will not be too amusing for millions of computer users, as the Conficker worm is anticipated to take full effect. The Conficker worm was released to the wild in October 2008. It targets Microsoft Windows machines specifically and its symptoms manifest as network congestion, account lockout policies being reset, disabled automatic updates and error reporting for Windows, slow domain controller response, and for added fun -- it blocks security-related sites.

The Conficker worm comes in two versions. Allegedly, it will affect more than 11 million computers. The third and newest version of it will present itself on April 1st. From this point, it will stop sitting idle in infected systems and launch its payload. It will connect from the affected computer to one of a few random domains to download a file, which will then execute the full attack upon its victim.

A home computer user will have an easier time clearing the worm out of their system by simply running their anti-virus software and downloading all current patches from Microsoft. Unfortunately, a network of users (such as a corporation or organization) will have a much more difficult experience. This is where more "industrial strength" solutions will be required, and supposedly leading the pack in this level of security technology is a product fittingly called Paranoid.

Nir Gaist, CTO Nyotron

Nyotron describes Paranoid as "a comprehensive security solution designed for monitoring system events on user end points and uses a pure heuristic behavior patterns based technology". This system specializes in preventing Zero-day attacks, while simultaneously providing protection from exploits, malware, trojans, viruses, and worms. Though we've heard that Paranoid was the only security system that detected the previous variant of the Conficker, this previous worm is still not a good example of all that Paranoid can do. Apparently,a worm that randomly affects the security of a system is much easier to detect versus a targeted/Zero-day attack. Nevertheless, Nir Gaist, CTO and co-founder of Nyotron is taking the responsibility upon himself to find a solution to this threat, "because if something major happens from this worm, that's our problem," so he says.

Gaist says all other security systems are protecting organizations from the threats that are globally spread and randomly targeted. They don't, however, protect these networks from the directed threats. This is where Paranoid's technology holds a competitive advantage. Most security software technology is generally based on signatures. When downloading updates, you're downloading protections only for viruses that are known and have already attacked tens or hundreds of thousands of users. The chance that the individual end user will be one of those victims is actually small. Paranoid provides protection for networks that are at a high risk from an attack designed specifically against them with a unique signature.

Image, courtesy Nyotron Information Systems

Among Nyotron's customers are businesses in many sectors, Governmental, Financial, Healthcare, Education, National Security, Critical Networks, Communication, Infrastructure etc. As the Zero-day threat is becoming significantly intimidating to the enterprise network, Nyotron's solution is reportedly only real solution enabling network security administrator to "detect the undetected," claim the folks at Nyotron.

Image, courtesy Nyotron Information Systems

"No one yet knows what will happen on April 1st or after," Gaist says. "It also doesn't help to detect who is behind this worm, but clearly it took a large investment of time and money to start this." There are speculations about this worm that range from it turning out to be a prank, a benign test of security systems, or even a way to eliminate pirated versions of the Windows OS (one cannot download patches for it without a valid license). Or, it may be just what it seems, a malignant attack to bring down networks worldwide. Obviously, that's a risk not many are willing to take, especially in the enterprise space.

VMware 6.5 DirectX support

3vi1 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:45:58 GMT

Anyone else try the latest VMware Workstation? Even though the DirectX features are still "beta", they're pretty darned impressive.

Running WinXPsp3 inside of a virtual machine under Linux, I was able to play CounterStrike: Source with all of the options set to max. Now, if you get crazy with changing resolutions and jumping back and forth between fullscreen/windowed, you *will* crash VMware. But, it's very nice to see it working as well as it does in a virtual machine. Also, the microphone didn't seem to work, but I usually have to fiddle with the settings to get it to work under Linux/Wine too, so it may suffer no more deficiencies than Wine.

If it wasn't for the fact that VMware cost $189... plus you have to pay for the Windows license... it might be worth it. Still, as someone who uses QEmu and Sun's VirtualBox, VMWare is really a step ahead in emulating a Windows desktop system.

USB support is one thing that doesn't seem to be easily (if at all for non-serial devices) useable under Wine, but it works well under VMware. It also works great under VirtualBox too though. I've never tried it with QEmu, so can't comment there.

Re: PC vs. Mac (PIC)

Dev — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:19:51 GMT

I have a MacBook and I like it. Great battery life, smooth consistant performance, stable, and a clean simple look. I thought the picture was funny. Still, I have to ask why people seem to have a grudge against Apple. They've really made huge leaps since OS X and the switch to Intel. Before that I didn't like Apple either. They had a tacky awful feel to them.

Re: Removing the bloat from XP or Vista

Dev — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:50:16 GMT

Thats an excellent question Nelson, on re-reading my post I come across as very vague to the benefits of the program and to exactly what it is.

You can cut the size of your XP install disk in half, and the time it takes to install. Basically what it does is give you almost complete control of your XP installation. It's not really a tool for deleting programs. It can also install programs during the XP installation. Firefox, anti-virus/malware, whatever else etc..

It's completely automated, so when done right you stick the disk in the drive and go do whatever. I can understand what it sounds like though. I would lump it in with that group of programs that have that "Not something I really need" thing about them. However, like Quicksilver on mac, which is just an application launcher but absolutely essential to any mac user in my opinion.

-Dev

How do I reset the Bio password?

NinjaRalphpuy — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:02:00 GMT

My bro hates me so tehy stole my laptop and set a Password in the bios and now i cant do anything wit the laptop. Anyone know how to get around this?

Re: Wat Causes CPU Spikes?!?!

NinjaRalphpuy — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:08:56 GMT

wat anti virus u think i should use?