It’s that time again: time to patch your Windows systems. This month there are twelve bulletins, addressing a total of 57 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft software.
The Microsoft Security Response Center’s post has all the technical details.
Here are the individual bulletins:
Microsoft and Symantec, working with law enforcement authorities in the US and Spain, have disabled another botnet. The Bamital botnet first appeared in 2009, and at its height, included as many as 1.8 million computers.
User computers became infected with the Bamital malware through drive-by web-based infections (often from porn sites) and corrupted software downloads.
Infected computers were used to generate revenue for the perpetrators by generating or redirecting traffic to specific web sites.
This month’s Patch Tuesday is on February 12. Patches should become available starting about 10am PST.
Updates this month comprise twelve bulletins, five of them critical, that address 57 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft software.
The associated security bulletin has all the technical details.
Today is the last day you can buy Windows 8 for a reasonable price: $40. After today, you’ll have to fork out $200 for the new O/S.
According to The Register, Microsoft is accusing PC and handheld device manufacturers of not building enough Windows 8 devices. Despite publicly claiming that Windows 8 sales are similar to Windows 7’s at this point, the numbers being flouted are deceptive, in that they include sales to manufacturers. Internally, it seems clear that Microsoft is actually disappointed with Windows 8 sales and is looking for someone to blame.
Traditionally, with each successive version of Windows, startup times have grown longer. Even the steady performance improvements in PC hardware were no match for the bloat of Windows.
With Windows 8, Microsoft decided to ‘improve’ startup performance by fooling users into thinking their computer is completely shut down when in fact it is not. It turns out that shutting down Windows 8 actually puts Windows into a suspended state, in which the current state of Windows is stored on a hard drive, ready to be loaded when the computer is restarted.
This kind of sleep/suspended state has been around for a while, and is most commonly used in portable devices such as laptops. However, there are drawbacks to this in Windows 8. Anyone attempting to boot to a different operating system, from another device (besides the default hard drive), or enter the BIOS setup program, will be unable to do so without resorting to special (hidden) methods. Worse, the classic Windows troubleshooting step of rebooting a computer will no longer accomplish much: any problems in Windows that would previously have been cleared by way of a reboot will persist in Windows 8.
I have no problem with Microsoft improving Windows’ startup performance, and I have no problem with them using sleep states to do that, but hiding what’s really going on is just going to cause a lot of confusion and frustration.
After announcing that Internet Explorer 10 would only be available for Windows 8, Microsoft relented and started work on a version that will run on Windows 7. Work on that version continues, and no firm release date has been announced. Ars Technica has additional details.
If you’re going to buy Windows 8, you should do it soon. The promotional price of $40 for Windows 8 Pro Upgrade will end on January 31, 2012. After that, the price will be $200. I had hoped Microsoft would keep the price for Windows 8 low; $200 is excessive, especially if Microsoft really wants people to upgrade. Most people hesitate before spending $200 on anything, but $40 is a no-brainer, and even if you end up going back to Windows 7, at that price you won’t feel like you’ve been cheated. The accountants at Microsoft clearly haven’t yet learned that lowering software prices solves a lot of problems, including piracy.
Over at The Verge, Tom Warren has an interesting post about Pokki, a Windows Start menu replacement for Windows XP, 7 and 8.
Apparently, the Windows 8 version of Pokki has been downloaded over 1.5 million times since its introduction in October 2012. That would seem to imply that there is a strong demand for a Start menu in Windows 8, which Microsoft consistently denies. Similar surges in downloads of Windows 8 Start menu software like Stardock’s Start8 and Classic Shell reinforce the notion that a significant portion of Windows 8 users are not happy with the lack of a Start menu.
Microsoft has apparently fixed the vulnerability in Internet Explorer versions 6 through 8 recently reported. The previous ‘Fix-It’ – a temporary solution at best – was rendered ineffective almost immediately. The fix will be available from Windows Update starting at 10am PST today.
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