 |
Brandon LeBlanc alerts us to a post on JCXP that reveals that Windows Defender, Microsoft’s spyware killer for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, has left beta and is now generally available. You can download a free copy here and users get 2 free support incidents. Since Defender is also effectively built into Vista, it looks like you can write off the non-free competition in the spyware detection and removal niche. Paging Neelie Kroes!
Update: Note that you have to install a Genuine Windows Validation Component in order to install Defender and also that the installation notes say Windows 2000 isn’t supported “as it will be out of mainstream support in October 2006.” Since all versions of Windows 2000 left mainstream support in June 2005, one wonders why it was ever included in recent betas.
The folks at Neowin have been checking the Windows Service Pack Roadmap and noticed an update this Tuesday that preliminarily placed Windows XP SP3 in 1H2008 and Windows Server 2003 SP2 definitely in 1Q2007.
XP SP3 had already been delayed from 2006 to 2007 and this latest move received a poor reception with Vista marketing conspiracy theories abounding. Whatever the Microsoft rationale, the primary utility of a late service pack like SP3 is to roll up all the fixes since the last service pack - in this case, XP SP2 in August 2004 making nearly 4 years of patches. Given the number of monthly security patches Microsoft is generating these days, it’s already quite an annoyance installing an XP SP2 system and then downloading and applying all the patches and this means no relief is in sight. That’s why 3rd parties are creating their own rollups (e.g. AutoPatcher) in the absence of official service packs. With the users creating their own security patches and their own service packs maybe Microsoft ought to consider subcontracting?
As for Windows Server 2003, SP2 availability had been expected this year, but the delay is less annoying since SP1 was released in March 2005, so it’s only about a two year gap. Speaking of which, Bink.nu reports that Beta Refresh 2 of SP2 was released to testers today.
Some Microsoft related news items from this week that didn’t find a post of their own.
What does Apple have up their sleeve for the iPod? And more European consumer groups are complaining about the iTunes/iPod interlock. What until they see Zune.
Microsoft has revised the Office 2007 user interface because of beta tester complaints. Among other things, the (unique but space consuming) “ribbon” is now collapsible. (Update: Jensen Harris says the ribbon always could be minimized, now the option is just more visible.) Speaking of Office, Microsoft has now come out on top in Massachusetts because of accessibility concerns – Massachusetts OpenDocument plan will use Office plug-in.
Windows servers also continued to show strength, with 3.1 percent growth in revenues, and 11 percent growth in shipments year over year. Servers based on the operating system made up 34.2 percent of quarterly revenue, as opposed to Unix’s 35 percent share, a 1.6 percent decline in revenues and 1.8 percent drop in unit shipments.
Microsoft Updates Flawed IE6 Patch:
It turns out Microsoft’s indefinite postponement of security bulletin MS06-042 only lasted a day. The Redmond company on Thursday released an updated version of the patch that corrects a security vulnerability in IE 6.0 SP1.
The original patch contained a deployment issue, and was later discovered to include another security vulnerability.
The 2007 Games Convention was held in Leipzig, Germany this week and Microsoft put on a big show. I mentioned some of the news separately, but in addition:
Anti-monopoly push by China may hit Microsoft. Microsoft runs that risk everywhere.
MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users in the UK will soon have a “report abuse” button to report sexual predators to the police. Also Microsoft is starting a beta for Windows Live Messenger 8.1.
Microsoft today released Release Candidate 1 of their Internet Explorer 7 Web browser. It is publicly available for download here for Windows XP SP2 and the other Windows operating systems (XP x64, Windows Server 2003) that it supports. This is likely the last public beta download before it goes gold and Paul Thurrott has a guide as to what to expect including:
Microsoft says there are no major new features in this version, but there is one feature that should cause users to cheer: It no longer requires you to manually uninstall any previous IE 7 beta versions you might have installed. Instead, the IE 7 RC1 installer will uninstall previous IE 7 versions for you, after a reboot, and then proceed with installing RC1, after a second reboot. Bravo.
More by following the link.
