Windows Vista SP1 (RC) available next week

Next week the first Service Pack RC 1 for Vista will be available for download. Here are some features:

• The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
• The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
• Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
• Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
• We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

Read more

Reveal your saved Passwords in Firefox

Many users save their passwords in Firefox so that they do not have to enter it again when visiting the website it was saved for again. Firefox remembers the password and enters it automatically if the user selected this option on his first visit. This is great for us lazy users but poses the problem that we sometimes can’t remember the password when we need it again.

A classic example would be a Gmail user who has been using the Gmail website so far now trying to get the POP3 access running. So, what is this user going to do ? He actually has several options to reveal the password in Firefox. The first that comes to my mind is the ability to go into the security tab of the options. You do find a show passwords button there that displays all passwords, usernames and site urls.

I have written about this before and want to concentrate on other possibilities. Please note that a master password has to be entered for all the following methods if one has been set.

1. Greasemonkey Scripts:

If you are using the excellent Greasemonkey extension you can choose from a wide variety of scripts that reveal the passwords:

Show Password on Click - displays the password if you click the password form.

Show Password onMouseOver - reveals the password if you hover the mouse over the password field.

Unpassword - changes the type of the password form to text which always displays the passwords as text.

2. Javascript Code

Paste the following line of code into the address bar and hit enter to reveal the password on this website.

javascript:(function(){var s,F,j,f,i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for(j=0; j<F.length; ++j) { f = F[j]; for (i=0; i<f.length; ++i) { if (f[i].type.toLowerCase() == "password") s += f[i].value + "\n"; } } if (s) alert("Passwords in forms on this page:\n\n" + s); else alert("There are no passwords in forms on this page.");})();

3. Firefox extension

Unhide Passwords - this extension does basically the same as the Unpassword Greasemonkey script.

[via gHacks]

Longhorn arriverà nel 2008, e non sarà solo

Denver (USA) - Tra meno di un anno Microsoft si prepara a ripetere quanto fatto lo scorso novembre, quando ha introdotto contemporaneamente sul mercato corporate tre prodotti di punta come Windows Vista, Office 2007 e Exchange 2007. La prossima "ondata di lanci", come la chiama BigM, è stata fissata per il 27 febbraio 2008, data in cui faranno il loro debutto ufficiale Windows Server 2008 (nome in codice Longhorn), Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) e SQL Server 2008 (Katmai).

L'annuncio è stato dato in occasione della Worldwide Partner Conference, dove Microsoft ha chiarito la propria visione sul futuro del software tradizionale e dei web service: due realtà che, secondo il colosso di Redmond, sono destinate a convivere ancora per molti anni.

Il fatto che il lancio di Windows Server 2008 avverrà a fine febbraio potrebbe spiazzare molti: negli ultimi mesi sembrava ormai certo certo che il nuovo sistema operativo di Microsoft sarebbe stato rilasciato verso la fine di quest'anno. In realtà una cosa non esclude l'altra: similmente a quanto fatto con Windows Vista, Microsoft conta di rendere disponibile la Release to Manufacturing di Windows Server 2008 già nel corso di questo autunno, e di presentare ufficialmente il prodotto sul mercato qualche mese più tardi. In quest'occasione verranno organizzati oltre un centinaio di eventi in tutto il mondo. A quanto pare Microsoft ha ormai preso l'abitudine di distinguere il rilascio del sistema operativo a partner e grandi aziende dal lancio del prodotto sul mercato di massa: due momenti a cui l'azienda vuole evidentemente dedicare risorse e campagne più mirate.

Windows Server 2008 potrebbe rivestire un ruolo molto importante anche nel trainare le vendite del fratellino Vista: secondo alcuni analisti sono numerose le aziende che hanno deciso di affrontare la migrazione a Windows Vista in contemporanea a quella di Windows Server 2008. La cosa ha senso non solo dal punto di vista logistico, ma anche da quello tecnico: i due sistemi operativi sono pensati per operare in stretta simbiosi.

Alla conferenza di Denver Steve Ballmer, CEO di Microsoft, ha affermato che Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 e SQL Server 2008 rappresenteranno la piattaforma su cui costruire i web service di prossima generazione. "Tutti nell'industria stanno riconsiderando la relazione tra software e servizi", ha dichiarato Ballmer. "Noi crediamo che il futuro sia nel software più i servizi, una combinazione che fornisce ai clienti più opzioni e fornisce ai partner le migliori opportunità".

Microsoft dunque non crede nella visione di quei produttori che vedono nel Web 2.0 le potenzialità per spazzare via il software tradizionale. Kevin Turner, COO di Microsoft, ha assicurato che Windows Vista e Office 2007 non saranno gli ultimi prodotti del loro genere: le prossime versioni, Windows Seven e Office 14, saranno ancora software complessi e sostanzialmente monolitici, e tuttavia sempre più integrati con i servizi della piattaforma Windows Live.

http://punto-informatico.it/

Vista feature helps VXers trick surfers

Microsoft's trustworthy computing initiative is five years-old but the software giant is still making bone-headed design decisions that favour usability over basic security.

A good example comes from the folks at F-Secure who noticed that Vista continues to hide extensions for known file types by default, just like older versions of Windows. This is a bad idea because it allows virus writers to create malware with double extensions - such as LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.VBS - to run malicious code, Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure, notes.

"This sucks," he addds.

Microsoft's decision to retain this feature on default installs is galling because the company's mantra is that should not be blamed unless malware exploits specific vulnerabilities in its software.

But if Microsoft fails to take basic precautions to block well-known social engineering exploits used for years by malware authors, then all the hard work that's gone into making Windows more secure in other respects is squandered
c by the register

Microsoft still dominating the market, commissioner says

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes believes Microsoft is still benefiting from abusing its dominant position in workgroup servers.

Kroes told the European Parliament that Microsoft was continuing to gain market share despite being found guilty by the European Court three years ago.

Kroes said: "Microsoft is constantly gaining market share and that is what is worrying me in the work group server operating market. As a consequence of your abusive behaviour you are getting positive results for the company - that's not acceptable in my opinion," according to Reuters.
As part of the original verdict, Microsoft was ordered to sell a version of Windows without a bundled media player and open up access to its protocols.
Microsoft appealed the case in the Court of First Instance last year and is still waiting for a verdict. In court it insisted that it had done more than enough to open up access to the protocols needed by rivals to make products which interact effectively with its servers.

Kroes has taken a firm line with the software giant - earlier this month she said Microsoft was charging too much for access to its protocols which are not innovative enough to justify the high price.

c the register.com