January 2007 - Posts
January 29, 2007
1:45 p.m. PST / 4:45 p.m. EST
From Times Square in New York City, join Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates for a live webcast celebrating the worldwide launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
See: Events and webcasts.
New at the TechNet site: some very interesting virtual labs about Windows Vista. It's all for free and it's a simple-no complex setup or installation to try out Windows Vista. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module.
The following modules are available:
Source: TechNet
Nice surprise from Microsoft for the OneCare Beta testers. If you participated in the Beta test then you'll get an offer by email up to 60% off the regular price.
The next version, 1.5 will be released on January 30th, 2007. However, it's already pushed to my computers at home and working very nicely. This release will be rolled out to 17 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
More information at: Windows Live OneCare Team Blog.
See also: Windows Live OneCare web site.
Yesterday Microsoft announced the addition of an Extended Support phase for the Windows® XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition operating systems.
With the addition of Extended Support, the support life cycle for Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition will include a total of five years of Mainstream Support (until April 2009) and five years of Extended Support, matching the support policy provided for Windows XP Professional.
Source: Microsoft PressPass.
See also: Windows Life-Cycle Policy.
Yesterday, when updating two PCs at the office, the SVCHOST.exe was using 100% of the CPU for a long time. There seems to be a fix for this but you have to get in contact with Microsoft. According to the KB article: 916089 it happens when you run Microsoft Update or apply updates to any applications that use Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) 3.1 together with Windows Update. Additionaly you may receive the folowing error in the Event Viewer:
Application popup: svchost.exe - Application Error : The instruction at "0x745f2780" referenced memory at "0x00000070". The memory could not be "read".
Hotfix information:A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.
To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support.
For more information, see this KB article: FIX: When you run Windows Update to scan for updates that use Windows Installer, including Office updates, CPU utilization may reach 100 percent for prolonged periods.
Related links:
The Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner and Windows Live OneCare are now located at one place on the 'Net: http://onecare.live.com/.
If you just need a quick scan then just go to this site: http://onecare.live.com/scan.
Other security related links:
I'm sure you already have installed the latest updates and patches for January, but just in case you still have to do this. Microsoft released a couple of security patches on January 9, 2007:
- MS07-002 Critical Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (927198)
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Excel that could allow remote code execution.
- MS07-003 Critical Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925938)
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Outlook that could allow remote code execution.
- MS07-004 Critical Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution (929969)
This update resolves vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer that could allow remote code execution.
- MS07-001 Important Vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2003 Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Checker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (921585)
This update resolves a vulnerability in Office that could allow remote code execution. User interaction is required for an attacker to exploit these vulnerabilities.
More (technical) information can be found in this article: Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for January, 2007.
An end-user version is available at: Microsoft security updates for January 2007.
Finally, we're back again. Have been offline because of some problems with my ISP but since January 11th we're back online again. This time I'm connected by UNET, a local Dutch provider who delivers Internet, phone and TV through a fiber glass connection. Meaning we have 20MB up and 20MB down. Pretty fast...
although, the chain is as strong as the weakest link. Not to be confused with the British TV program The Weakest Link.
Back to the security business.... a new version of the Windows Vista Security Guide has been released, version 1.2, and you can download it here. More information can be found at: Solution Accelerators - Security & Compliance.
To review the guide online visit the Windows Vista Security Guide.