The PC Informant » Microsoft

Preliminary look at Internet Explorer 9

Vic Laurie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:51:49 +0000

Microsoft has been working on the next version of Internet Explorer and has released a few details. Stephen Shankland at CNET reports:

For those who doubted that Microsoft was serious in its effort to re-engage with the Web, it’s time to put the skepticism aside.

At its Mix conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Microsoft gave programmers, Web developers, and the world at large a taste of things to come with its Web browser. Specifically, Microsoft released what it’s calling the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview, a prototype that’s designed to show off the company’s effort to improve how the browser deals with the Web as it exists today and, just as important, to add support for new Web technologies that are coming right now.

ExtremeTech has some discussion of new features like GPU acceleration and JavaScript compilation.

The preliminary look at IE9 is promising but in the meantime Firefox and Chrome are also likely to improve. Incidentally, IE9 will not work in Windows XP.

The secret history of Windows

Vic Laurie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:30:27 +0000

Following up its collection of opinions on the future of Windows, Technologizer has a story, The Secret Origin of Windows. Tandy Trower, who was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, tells the story.

The future of Windows

Vic Laurie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:51:03 +0000

Windows just had its 25th birthday and it’s interesting how much talk there is about the future of Windows. Of course, the growth of mobile platforms and the perceived decline of the desktop model for personal computing has a lot to do with it. There is also more recognition that a cumbersome and complex Windows operating system is not really the best for consumers. Technologizer has done a survey of 28 Windows observers to get their opinions on the future of Windows:

Over the past quarter century, Windows has evolved many times, and it will change again in light of Microsoft’s investments in cloud services, mobile platforms, and other new technologies. And as the way people compute and communicate morphs faster than ever, the challenges ahead for Windows are huge.

With that in mind, Technologizer asked some of the industry’s big brains about what Microsoft needs to do to keep its operating system relevant in the years to come. Their advice ranges from merely simplifying the interface to borrowing ideas from other Microsoft products such as the Xbox to giving the OS a complete reboot. Here’s what they (and we) have to say.

I recommend that you take the time to read what these experts have to say.

Unpatched security hole in IE6 and IE7

Vic Laurie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:49:37 +0000

Microsoft has warned of another as yet unpatched security problem in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (but not IE8).

Video on the soul of Microsoft

Vic Laurie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:33:53 +0000

CNET has a program about Microsoft at its feature called Reporters’ Roundtable that I found worth watching. Rafe Needleman interviews three people who are very familiar with Microsoft. Robert Scoble and Don Dodge are former Microsoft employees and Ina Fried is CNET’s Microsoft expert. These three have informative and interesting insights into how things work at Microsoft and what the future direction of the company might be. I rarely watch long videos on the Web but this one kept my attention. (About 40 minutes long.)

IE8 still incompatible with many Web sites

Vic Laurie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:38:41 +0000

When Microsoft made Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) more compatible with Web standards, it ran into problems caused by its own past attempts to impose non-standard software on the Internet. As I wrote when IE8 was new:

It has always been Microsoft’s strategy to impose proprietary software and methods wherever possible. This may have worked on the desktop but on the Internet it has been a royal pain. The fact that Microsoft has to do everything differently and hasn’t abided by Web standards has caused programmers and Webmasters endless headaches. The various versions of Internet Explorer (IE) render Web pages each in their own Microsoft way and add complexity to designing Web sites. What works in IE7 doesn’t necessarily work in IE6 and all versions of IE to date are not standards compliant. What works in Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror, and Chrome may not work in IE. Because IE is still the most prevalent browser, Web designers have used many IE hacks and kludges to try to make their sites accessible to all browsers.

What happened was that a lot of Web sites designed to work with the eccentricities of previous versions of IE were broken by IE8. Microsoft tries to get around this by providing a special mode of browsing for incompatible sites. Apparently many popular sites are still incompatible with IE8. (Note that a lot of sites are incompatible with IE6 but that is an entirely different situation. That is due to the ill-behaved nature of IE6.) The latest statistics from Microsoft show about 2000 sites with high traffic are still incompatible.Mary Jo Foley gives some of the numbers at ZDNet:

According to the IE team’s data, only 19 percent of highly trafficked Web sites are currently rendering in IE 8 browsers in full in IE 8 standards mode. The majority (41 percent) are in “IE 8 almost standards mode,” and another 26 percent are being viewed in “quirks” mode. Fourteen percent still require “IE7 standards mode” to be viewed properly

So, if you are having trouble viewing certain sites with IE8, you may have run into a compatibility issue.

Microsoft proposes quarantine and tax to fight botnets

Vic Laurie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:34:14 +0000

There’s been a big meeting on security going on in San Francisco. It’s the RSA Security Conference and Microsoft Vice-President Scott Charney gave a keynote address with some new proposals for increasing security on the Internet. CNET reports on a quarantine suggestion:

–In his keynote at the RSA security conference on Tuesday, Scott Charney, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing, suggested that the security industry should follow the health care model of quarantining infected PCs to prevent them from being used to send spam and conduct denial-of-service attacks.

In a follow-up interview afterward, Charney elaborated on his vision for reducing the damage from botnets and explains how infected computers should be kept off the Internet just like doctors quarantine sick people and smokers are restricted as to where they can light up in public.

Charney also proposed an Internet tax to pay for cleaning up infected computers. Personally, I think Microsoft itself bears a lot of the responsibility for the security mess. I agree with Sebastian Rupley, who posted at GigaOM:

Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney today at the RSA conference in San Francisco proposed an Internet usage tax to fight malware infections and the effects of botnets. But do users at large really need to pay for one of Microsoft’s own most costly problems?

Added later: Adrian Kingsley -Hughes also thinks that Microsoft’s suggestion that we all be taxed to pay for Windows problems deserves a Bronx cheer:

Where does this idea come from that we should all have to chip in to fight this war of botnets? It’s safe to say that the majority of these botnet systems are Windows-based systems (I’m pegging this number at close to 99% of the botnet PCs). Let’s also not forget that Microsoft has gone out of its way to create a monoculture where one OS dominates, through legal and illegal methods. So the idea that we should now all pay to solve a problem that Microsoft not only wanted to create, but made billions of dollars in the process is frankly a ridiculous idea.

Right on, Adrian.

Beware fake Microsoft security software

Vic Laurie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:54:22 +0000

Microsoft is warning about malware masquerading as anti-malware. It is called “Security Essentials 2010″, not to be confused with the real Microsoft Security Essentials. The Microsoft Malware Protection Center gives details.

What Microsoft didn’t want you to know

Vic Laurie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:23:12 +0000

What got Microsoft’s hackles up when Cryptome published the document, “Global Criminal Compliance Handbook,” that a previous post reports about? What was it that Redmond didn’t want us to know? It seems that the details of the information that Microsoft collects about us is a touchy subject. In fact, Microsoft may know more about us than we realize. At Computerworld, Preston Gralla details how much personal information Microsoft is gathering:

What is gathered and available about you is quite comprehensive, including your emails, detailed information about when you sign in and use the services, credit card information, and so on.

Microsoft closes down botnet

Vic Laurie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:45:16 +0000

I don’t agree with Microsoft’s action in closing down Cryptome (previous post) but I heartily approve of the company’s actions against spammers. The busy legal staff has managed to get a US court order closing a spam botnet. BBC News reports:

Microsoft has won court approval to shut down a global network of computers which it says is responsible for more than 1.5bn spam messages every day.

Update: Some are doubting that closing down this particular botnet will make much difference in spam levels. Gregg Keizer at Computerworld reports:

A prominent security researcher today said he doubts Microsoft’s take-down of the Waledac botnet would have any impact on spam levels, as the company claimed.

“Waledac just is not a hugely prolific spammer,” said Joe Stewart, director of malware analysis at SecureWorks and a noted botnet researcher. “So I don’t think it’s going to affect spam [volume]. What it does do lately…, what it’s used for, is to install rogue antivirus software.”