Items tagged with Windows
Back in July, Microsoft announced a cloud-based Windows experience called Windows 365 that would allow anyone on any device to work with Windows. As reported, the service launched on August 2nd, and now pricing is available, ranging from $20 to $162 per user per month, depending on specifications. Windows 365 sits somewhere between full infrastructure as a service, like AWS, and platform as a service, like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. It allows businesses to easily deploy and scale a Windows environment up to 300 seats in Windows 365 Business and from 300 users to infinity with Windows 365 Enterprise. For each end-user, as Christiaan Brinkhoff explains in a blog post, “It...
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As it stands, Windows 10 gets monthly security, quality, and the occasional out-of-band update which all help to keep users “productive and protected.” It appears Microsoft has now officially confirmed that Windows 11 will be following the same update system which has worked well for the past six years. The continual updates to Windows 10 over the years have ensured that customers have access to all the latest features and security fixes at no additional cost. In a recent documentation post about monthly quality updates, technical writer Greg Lindsay outlines the plan for updates concerning Windows 10 and 11. First and foremost, quality updates which consist of either non-security...
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After the PrintNightmare vulnerability was found, the Windows Print Spooler and printer drivers were under the microscope. Now, yet another Print Spooler vulnerability has been discovered, allowing for code execution with SYSTEM privileges. First disclosed yesterday, the new print spooler vulnerability was uncovered by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. It stems from Windows allowing non-admin users to install printer drivers through a feature called “Point and Print.” However, Microsoft “requires that printers installable via Point are either signed by a WHQL release signature or are signed by a certificate that is explicitly trusted by the target system.” Want...
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Remember that scene in Office Space where a trio of disgruntled employees take a problematic printer to field and beat it to a pulp? Anyone who has ever dealt with stubborn printer issues has probably felt that way. It doesn't help that we also have to worry about printer vulnerabilities messing up our day, and to that end, Microsoft has warned of yet another one. The latest printer bug is being tracked as CVE-2021-34481. It has to do with the Windows Print Spooler service, and without a patch in place, a nefarious actor could potentially gain unfettered access to an affected system. At that point, they could install malware, swipe sensitive data, and worst of all, rearrange your carefully aligned...
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Everything is going to the cloud, it seems, and that now includes Windows with Windows 365. Windows 365 will allow people to stream their Windows experience so you can continue where you left off anywhere on any device starting August 2. Though virtualization, remote access, and cloud-based devices have been commonplace for several years now, Microsoft’s Windows 365 offering is taking a stab at the new market that has been born out of the pandemic. The goal is to combine “the power and security of the cloud with the versatility and simplicity of the PC,” to enable “a variety of new scenarios for the new world of work.” Windows 365 will work through any browser...
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After last week's out-of-band update to patch the PrintNightmare vulnerability, Microsoft has now released more vulnerability fixes as part of Patch Tuesday. With this update, the Redmond, Washington-based company knocked out a whopping 117 security issues that garnered a variety of concerns. Patch Tuesday has become something a holiday (or recurring nightmare) on the second Tuesday of each month for IT administrators, as Microsoft pushes out the latest security updates to its products. For this Patch Tuesday, a rather extensive list including Microsoft Office products, Microsoft networking products, and a swath of Windows products have been given security updates. Many of the vulnerabilities...
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At the top of July, a vulnerability within the Windows print spooler service, dubbed PrintNightmare, was discovered in the wild. Afterward, Microsoft rushed out a patch to fix the problem, but the Redmond, Washington-based company may have been just a little quick on the draw. Now, some users are encountering printer issues with the emergency Windows patch leading to an even bigger headache. As reported on Reddit, among other places on the Internet, users and system administrators are finding that the emergency patch KB5004945 to fix PrintNightmare is breaking Zebra printers’ functionality. The common theme appears to be that print jobs are getting stuck in the queue after a computer wakes...
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Windows 11 is finally out in the wild, and though there are some early caveats, it appears to be a nice update to the Windows ecosystem. However, now that Microsoft has made it publicly available, it also means people get to tinker with it to the extreme. Some developers have done just that as well, with reports of Windows 11 now running on Android phones with just a little software help. Xilin Wu is a developer behind the GitHub project “Renegade,” where “people try to port edk2 to different phones.” EDK2 is an open-source UEFI implementation that would allow ARM-based operating systems to be loaded on phones once ported. In this case, the goal was to get Windows 11 working...
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Last week, we heard all about Windows 11 with its new features, alongside all the caveats that came with it, like requiring a TPM 2.0 module. Despite this, it is exciting to see a new version of Windows on the horizon, and you can try it right now if you wish. The Windows Insider Program (which coincidentally spells WIP or Work-In-Progress) is a way for enthusiasts to get their hands on the latest features and updates while letting Microsoft test things out. Within this program, there are three rings: The dev channel for the technical users who get access to updates first. The beta channel for “early adopters,” where user feedback is most important The release preview channel that...
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At the Windows 11 reveal event, we got to see several new features, which are quite exciting. One of these new features is the ability to install and run Android apps on Windows 11, as if they were regular programs, via the Amazon Appstore. But what about cases where an app you need is not available for the Appstore? The Android apps feature coming to the Windows 11 is happening is thanks to a partnership between Amazon and Intel with its Intel Bridge Technology. This technology is the important part of the equation here, as it is a “runtime post-compiler that enables applications to run natively on x86-based devices, including running those applications on Windows.” In short, this...
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Windows 11 upgrades may be free, but the hardware is certainly going to cost you. That's the message sent by Microsoft yesterday as the company published system requirements for the upcoming operating system, due during the Holiday season later this year. At first blush, the Windows 11 system requirements calling for a dual-core CPU and 4 GB of system memory doesn't sound like a lot, but once we dug into the nitty-gritty details, it became obvious that Microsoft is cutting ties with some pretty recent hardware. The most restrictive requirement appears to be a mandatory Trusted Platform Module (TPM). This technology has been with us for more than 15 years, but more specifically, Windows...
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Windows 11 has finally been announced, and it seems that many of the leaks and rumors were true. However, there is much more to cover that we had not heard about yet, so let’s take a look at what Microsoft showed off today during its Windows 11 livestream… Windows 11 User Interface As we mentioned, it turns out that many of the leaks about the Windows 11 interface were true, but what Microsoft did with Windows 11 is still fascinating. Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer for Windows and Devices, explained that the OS has been “redesigned for productivity, creativity and ease.” One of the most notable of these changes is the repositioning and reworking of the iconic...
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Sometimes you may not know that you have been infected with malware until it is too late, as is likely the case for users across more than three million Windows-based computers globally. In a stunning revelation, in the two years between 2018 and 2020, a Trojan-like malware managed to infiltrate millions of Windows devices and extract 1.2 terabytes of personal information. On Wednesday, NordLocker, a subsidiary of NordVPN, released malware research that led to discovering a database of stolen data. The stolen information includes nearly 26 million login credentials with 1.1 million unique email addresses, 2 billion or more cookies, and roughly 6.6 million files. Over 50 percent of the stolen...
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As we slowly say goodbye (and good riddance) to Internet Explorer, the millions of users still using it will need a replacement. Microsoft is trying to make sure that the replacement is its own Microsoft Edge browser based on Chromium. The company is now claiming that Edge will be the best-performing browser on Windows 10, but is it just marketing, or is the browser up to snuff? Today, Microsoft’s Build developer conference kicked off, and with it comes a slew of announcements concerning developers, businesses, and consumers alike. One of the bigger announcements was about the upcoming Edge version 91, bringing some new features to the platform. The first feature is called “startup...
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The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is an incredibly useful feature used by likely millions of people every day. Considering it is free and preinstalled from Microsoft, it beats out most other Windows-based remote desktop software with ease. This, however, does not give it a free pass from having flaws; however, as a security researcher has discovered his password in cleartext within the RDP service’s memory. Researcher Jonas Lykkegård of the Secret Club, a group of hackers, seems to stumble across interesting things from time to time. He recently posted to Twitter about finding a password in cleartext in memory after using the RDP service. It seems he could not believe what he had...
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Yesterday was Microsoft’s routine Patch Tuesday release, which tackled quite a few vulnerabilities, 55 to be exact. Though this may seem like a lot, it is actually the smallest update from the company since 2020, but it does take care of some big problems. This includes a rather worrisome wormable HTTP protocol-stack vulnerability within Windows that thankfully has not been seen exploited in the wild. Of the 55 fixes coming with this patch, the wormable HTTP protocol-stack vulnerability, denoted by CVE-2021-31166, is the most concerning. This vulnerability has been given a rather high Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score at 9.8 out of 10, which means it can be dangerous if used....
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Earlier today, we reported on DNS issues with the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5001330 and 1337), and the Windows 10 pain train does not seem to be slowing down. Users are now reporting a variety of gaming-related issues such as unstable frame rates and game stutters. Earlier this week, Reddit user /u/m4dden posted to the Windows 10 subreddit that he was facing numerous issues while trying to play games. These included stuttering, unstable FPS, broken VSync, and FPS drops when sharing games in Discord calls with screen share. After he uninstalled the new patch, the issues seemed to all disappear, making Windows 10 the culprit. There are 72 comments on the post at the time of writing,...
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Last month, several issues with printers appeared when Microsoft released its regularly scheduled Windows 10 update. Another Patch Tuesday has come and gone, but not without additional concerns from from users. Some Windows 10 corporate users are reporting DNS and shared folder issues, with the current fix being to simply roll back the update. After installing the new updates, which brought security vulnerability and bug fixes to users, some people reported having DNS resolution issues that could stop access to shared folders on servers when they attempted to identify them by name. If a user used the IP address for the server instead, they would have no issues. However, that is rather inconvenient....
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With everyone using Zoom for both work and school, a vulnerability in the software can be especially concerning. This week, researchers competing in a zero-day hunting competition found a bug in Zoom that allowed them to remotely execute code without any necessary action from the target. This find netted the researchers a sum of cash and the concern of Zoom customers everywhere. Pwn2Own is a zero-day hunting contest organized by the Zero Day Initiative, which brings white hat hackers together to make software better by finding vulnerabilities. The multi-day event uncovered many issues in software, but the most interesting one that could have the most impact is with Zoom. We're still confirming...
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Windows 10 can be used for just about anything due to its versatility, from running services to simply being a basic client PC. Soon, Microsoft will add more functionality to hopefully make the operating system even better for specific usage scenarios. In the past few months, we have heard about Microsoft testing new workflows, designs, and other features to improve user experience. Internally, Microsoft has also been testing a new “Device Usage” page in the Settings App, according to Windows Latest. This new page would allow users or organizations to customize Windows 10 for "specific use cases, such as schoolwork, entertainment, gaming and more.” This feature is being...
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As classes are being held remotely and students still need to get work done, having a device versatile to handle it all is essential. Thus, Lenovo has announced a new line of Chromebooks and Windows laptops geared toward education, and they seem rather impressive. There are features for students, educators, and administrators which should up the game across-the-board. Lenovo Chromebooks When you think "Chromebook," there is typically an image that comes to mind, including rounded edges, matte colors, and pokey performance. With Lenovo's 14e, that idea of a Chromebook is torn down with a sleek finish that makes the 14e look quite professional. Besides the looks, the Lenovo 14e...
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On Friday, Microsoft released another patch to fix some outstanding issues when printing graphical images in Windows 10. It appears that quality assurance is certainly struggling this month; however, as many users are reporting the update has failed to install with error code 0x80070541. While the error code may be largely useless, there is a workaround if you must install the update. Last week, Microsoft provided a separate workaround for a printer issue that was causing blue screens of death (BSOD), among other problems. This stemmed from printer driver incompatibilities and was easily fixed by an optional patch just two days later. Afterward, some users found they could not print graphical...
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