Microsoft releases security patches on the second Tuesday of every month. The quantity of patches varies month by month. For September, there are 9 patches. 4 are rated Critical and 5 are rated Important. Patches are provide for all supported Windows platforms. (Currently Windows XP SP3 and above) We have started our testing process and will begin rolling the patches out to our Monitoring Plus Clients as soon as testing is completed.
More information on this month’s patches can be found here.
If you purchased Office 2007 after March 5 and before September 30 2010 you are probably eligible to upgrade to Office 2010 at no charge. But you only have until October 31, 2010 to request your free upgrade. You can find the details here.
Office 2010 adds many new features especially in Outlook. However, there are a few menu changes that can be frustrating at first. File formats between the 2007 and 2010 versions are the same. We would suggest Clients that are eligible go ahead and upgrade.
Ever since Windows Vista came out, Microsoft has allowed OEMs (companies that build computers) to downgrade new computers to Windows XP if the customer wanted to. There were compatibility concerns and just general dislike of Windows Vista, so most customers opted for this option. When Windows 7 came out Microsoft continued to allow OEMs to downgrade new systems to Windows XP even though Windows 7 has been much better received by businesses. As we are an OEM ourselves, we have been able to install Windows XP for Clients that requested it. We are however, seeing more and more Clients move to Windows 7 with very few issues.
Microsoft has announced that OEMs may no longer downgrade new computers to Windows XP after October 22, 2010. This means that Dell, HP, SSGI and other OEMs will not be able to provide computers with Windows XP installed. This is what we have been preparing our Clients for for quite some time now. If you have not begun testing Windows 7 in your environment, you need to start as soon as possible. If you have Line of Business software vendors that are not yet supporting Windows 7 you need to push them to get moving. Otherwise you will be painting yourself into a corner.
Now, for the interesting part of the news. Even though OEMs are not allowed to downgrade new computers to Windows XP, the purchaser themselves can do it as long as the new computer is purchased with Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. In addition, if a company has a volume license agreement for Windows 7, they may still downgrade to Windows XP.
Now, the issue is going to be that new computers may not run Windows XP very well. For instance, drivers will most likely not be created for new hardware functions such as wireless devices. new peripherals, etc. So even though you might legally be able to downgrade, you may not technically be able to downgrade. As I mentioned last week, support for Windows XP SP2 has expired. The last Service Pack for Windows XP is SP3 and support for it, and thus Windows XP will end in 2014. But hardware issues are sure to start becoming problems almost immediately now.
The bottom line here is that it’s time to start migrating to Windows 7. Clients that have started using Windows 7 have not had many issues at all. However, the move does require doing some analysis. We can help with that if necessary. Realize that Windows 7 and Windows XP computers can live on the same network without problems. Generally we do not suggest trying to upgrade older computers to Windows 7. Instead, Clients would start the Windows 7 migration when purchasing new computers.
It’s time to get moving on this. If you wait too long your business operations could be affected. Give us a call if you have any questions.
Microsoft is ending support of Windows XP Service Pack 2 today. This means that Microsoft will no longer provide updates, including security updates for this version of Windows XP.
So what do you do? First, you can simply upgrade Windows XP to Service Pack 3. (Make sure you complete a full backup BEFORE installing any updates). Second, you can upgrade to Windows 7. Generally speaking however, we do not suggest trying to upgrade to Windows 7 on older computers.
You can find Windows XP SP3 here. Note that it is about 320M.
How can you tell what Service Pack your Windows XP is running? Right click on My Computer. Click on Properties. You will see your version of Windows XP in the upper portion of the window.
Keeping up with security updates is very important nowadays. If you are not running Windows XP SP3, you need to get going!
A security flaw has been discovered in the Windows Help system. Generally, if you hit the F1 key in Windows, you will get a help screen relative to the function you hit the F1 key on. A programming flaw can allow this function to run a script file that can do harm to the workstation.
A potential exploit to this flaw can be made by creating a rogue page on a website. While the visitor is browsing the site, they can be requested to hit the F1 key while on the web page. This in turn can trigger the malware. Depending on how the malware is designed, various things can happen.
Microsoft is working on a fix to this flaw. In the meantime, users should be warned not to hit the F1 key on any websites. Generally speaking, it is unusual to have to hit the F1 key for any purpose on a website. Windows 7, Vista, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 are not affected.
