Assorted rumours and leaks about the upcoming ‘Patch 1’ for Windows 8.1 are starting to coalesce into a solid picture of the update:
It’s likely to be released in April 2014.
This will be a free update.
It may be available via Windows Update.
The update is focused on improving the user interface for keyboard/mouse users:
‘Metro’ window title bars with context menus
optional boot to traditional desktop
the return of the Start menu
search and shutdown options are easier to find
‘Metro’ apps optionally shown in taskbar
show taskbar within ‘Metro’ apps
Followup 2014Mar17: Peter Bright over at Ars Technica looked at a leaked version of the upcoming Windows 8.1 update, and posted his observations. Although Microsoft seems to have made progress in reducing the memory requirements of Windows 8.x (allowing it to actually run on many mobile devices), he’s unconvinced that the user interface changes will placate desktop users. Case in point: there’s still no Start menu.
Tuesday, February 11 will see five bulletins and associated patches from Microsoft. According to the advance notification, the patches will affect Windows, .NET and security software.
This month’s Ouch! newsletter (warning: PDF) from SANS provides a basic overview of malware: what it is, where it comes from, who creates it, and how it infects your computer. A good read for anyone who has wondered what malware is and why it’s a problem.
Steve Ballmer’s replacement as CEO of Microsoft is Satya Nadella, formerly in charge of the company’s enterprise and cloud products. Perhaps more interestingly, Nadella asked Bill Gates to get more involved in the company, and Gates agreed: he is stepping down as Chairman of the Board, and is expected to provide guidance for the company’s technology development.
Another new version of Firefox slid quietly off the production line yesterday. Version 27 improves interactivity with certain social web sites, and fixes a few bugs, including a dozen security vulnerabilities.
As usual, the only announcement of the new version was in the form of a post on the Mozilla Blog, which fails to mention that the post is actually about a new version of Firefox. The official release notes for the new version are as usual a total mess, barely even mentioning the new version identifier.
Yesterday Adobe released a new version of Flash (12.0.0.44) that addresses a critical security vulnerability. There is some evidence that the vulnerability is already being exploited in the wild, so everyone should update their browsers ASAP.
As usual, Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 8.1 will receive the new Flash version via Windows Update, and Chrome will update to the new Flash automatically.
Opera 19.0.1326.59 was released yesterday. Apparently the browser engine forming the basis of the browser (WebKit, also the basis of Google Chrome) since version 15 was updated.
Yahoo announced yesterday that some Yahoo Mail account addresses and passwords were being used in a coordinated attempt to gain access to those accounts. The source of the account information remains unclear, but Yahoo claims that it was not obtained from Yahoo’s services directly.
Yahoo is resetting the passwords of affected accounts and informing the associated account holders.
Since it’s difficult to know, at this point, the full extent of this problem, anyone with a Yahoo Mail account is advised to immediately change its password.
Rants and musings on topics of interest. Sometimes about Windows, Linux, security and cool software.
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