Patch Tuesday released two important patches this month. Plugging a total of eight voles in windows and office. Microsoft also warns of another zero-day attack in Internet Explorer.

One vulnerability in Movie maker affects Movie Maker in Vista and XP. A hacker could send a dirty movie maker or producer file to a victim via e-mail. If the file is open by the recipient, malicious code is then released onto the machine. Producer 2003 is also affected, but has not been updated as it is a free download. Microsoft say that Producer 2003 “does not offer a means for automatic update”.

The answer according to Microsft, is to uninstall Producer 2003 or disassociate the project file type from the application using a Microsoft Fix It.

Another patch fixes 7 flaws present in all versions of Excel (including Mac), supported versions of Excel viewer and Sharepoint 2007. Same principle applies again, the attack can only be launched once an infected Excel file is opened. Microsoft has recomended these patches be applied staright away. Even though they have only been ranked as “important”.

The warning of the zero-day vulnerability affecting IE6 and IE7 is already being exploited. Versions that are vulnerable are Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft has said that IE 8 is safe, also IE 5.01 SP4 on Windows 2000 SP4. Good to know.

How it works is due to an invalid pointer reference. Hackers are able to launch malware when the pointer reference is accessed after an object has been deleted.

Microsoft believes the attacks that have occured so far to be targeted. A patch will be released for the next patch Tuesday or as a one off  before then.

There have been complaints that the browser choice ballot is not generating the “random” choice that it should do. Rob Weir of IBM has complained that the ballot is favouring some browsers over others. The ballot has come about after the European Commission’s investigation of anti trust complaints against the company. Opera felt it to be unfair that IE was bundled together with Windows operating systems.

Microsoft has now updated the algorythem that generates the ballot screen. And Weir is now satisfied that the choice is truley random. Microsoft said:

“We can confirm that we made a change to the random icon order algorithm in the browser choice screen for Europe. We are confident the algorithm change will be an improvement. As always, we are grateful for the feedback we get from developers, and we thank those who commented on the topic and suggested changes.”

Microsoft have not confirmed when the change was made, but it apears to have been some time last week. Suprisingly, Wier’s testing showed that Chrome was recieving the top slot in the ballot, and IE more likely to recieve the last spot.

Development for Essential Business Server, MS’s mid-market server software bundle, has been haulted. Microsoft is placing all bets on cloud computing for the m0re economicaly concious IT markets. EBS bundled Server 2008, Exchancge 2007, and server management tools together in one package. It will be discontinued as of the 30/06/2010.

Microsoft has said that the decision to discontinue the package was based on the fact that more and more mid-size businesses are turning to cloud computing or virtualisation as a means of saving money. These technologies are also improving the efficiency of businesses and therefore increasing competition.

Microsoft will still be selling it’s small buisiness sever. EBS will still be supported for the lifecycle period of its components. Microsoft will also be making the individual parts of EBS free to EBS owners. But only until the end of the year after it has been discontinued. Aiming to get all those on EBS onto the standalone components.

Microsoft has also said that this will not mean jobloss for any of the EBS develpment team. They will be intergrated into the Cloud and Server devision.

Microsoft have admitted that IE8 is still incompatible with over 2,000 frequently visity sites. This number has dropped by around 1,000 compared with last years figures. Back then more than 3,000 sites need to be run in compatability view.

In 2009, when IE8 was launched, it didn’t work too well with sites such as Apple, Royal mail, BBC, Amazon, PayPal, and even MSN. Ironic!

Microsoft offered it’s IE8 tools to surfers last year. This included a list of incompatible sites that would automaticaly render. Meaning, no need to manually switch to the non standard compatible option. This was appreciated by some as an effort by Microsoft to bring IE8 more in line with web standards. But others feel it’s just made for messier interwebs. Particularly after forcing developers to do a U-turn with IE6/7.

Marc Silbey revealed the usage of IE8 by surfers.  Of the 2,000 figure only 19% are running in full IE8 standards mode, with 42% in IE8 almost standards mode. With 26% in quirks mode and 14% in IE7 standards mode.

Microsoft have said that they are comitted to improving the browsers interoperability. So, what will this mean for the browser choice ballot. Perhaps the slick ads wont make the biscuit.

Microsoft has started it’s advertising campaing for IE8 in the UK by airing TV adverts. It’s all gearing up for the browser choice ballot.

Copies of Windows in Europe are now recieving an update for  the browser choice screen. The Ballot is an automatic update for XP, Vista and 7.  Users with IE as their default browser, will see an info screen regarding the update before they asked to to choose a browser.

The TV advertising campaign in the UK is aimed at raising the profile of IE8. Using what Microsoft calls 8 second demos. These demos present the new features of IE8.  Google has also started it’s own campaign for Chrome, using Newspaper, Billboard and Tube advertisments. The update will be pucshed out to 32 EU countries, which will mean around 195 million user will recieve it. So gaining the following of these users it well worth it’s while.

Windows Phone 7 is on the horizon, nearly. Only 8 months untill it makes it way into the hand of consumers.

Microsoft really had to pull it’s socks up at the Mobile Worlds Congress this year. And they certainly did, the new mobile platform has a very intuative interface and intergrated application set.

The home screen for Windows Phone 7 presents a number of slickley animated tiles that look vaguely familiar, Sony Erricson X1? These tiles have the capability to be linked to thing like Facebook accounts. the tiles display photographs or text info. Some what like a web widget. They can  also be configured for web page and application shortcuts.

Behind these tiles sit “hubs”, a series of touch screen controled sliding walls. These hubs accumilate infomation such as contacts or music, from your music or networking sites. There are also hubs for Office and games.

The intergrated software for the Music hub is called Zune, and all handsets with the Windows Phone 7 platform will be Zune compatible. Xbox live also has an intergration. And a promise has been made by Microsoft that third parties will be able to get involved in the hubs. Opertaors and manufacturers will not be able to change the home screen or hubs. So the user interface and functionality will always be consistent. But will be able to add their own hubs and tiles.

There will be three hardware buttons within the platform, home, search and back. There is also a multitouch capacitive screen. The browser is new and based on internet explorer. No Adobe Flash for the launch, but no objection by MS for the platforms enablement.

Can microsoft pull another one out of the bag after the success of Windows 7.

Microsoft has won the XP downgrade law suit. After a yearlong battle it has been dismissed by a federal judge. The order has now been issued to put an end to the lawsuit, which had been filed last February. The complaint, lodged by  Emma Alvarado, Accused Microsoft of forcing people to upgrade when they don’t want to. The OEM licenseing meaning that those consumers who want to run XP have to buy Vist/7 before downgrading to XP.

The accusaations were rejected by the judge because it could not be proved that Microsoft are benifiting from this downgrade practice. Infact the consumer effectively get two Operating systems for the price of one.

The plaintiff claimed that she had paid $59.25 for Lenovo to do the downgrade. However, Microsoft does not make any charges or recieve a royalty if a consumer chooses to downgrade. The reality is that the OEMs are charging for additional media and labour.

So it is infact the computermakers and retailers that charge additional fees for downgrading..

The much unloved Vista will no longer be supported by Microsoft. This has been set a few months ahead of XP SP2 and Windows 2000 scheduled support deadline.

The Vista service pack free OS will no longer be support by MS as of the 13th of april 2010. which meens a hackers delight for those that will get kicks from exploiting it’s code. All versions of Windows 2000 and XP SP2 are due for lights out on the 13th of July.

Microsoft is also moving Windows Server 2003 into its extended phase of support. Only the security updates will be free, any other support will have to be paid for.

So, consumers and  businesses be prepared to cough up! The end is drawing near and upgrading is on the horizon.

Micrososft has alerted users to a fake antivirus product. The software named “Security essentials 2010″ is nearly identical to MS’s own protection software.

The true identity of the fake software is Win32/Fakeinit, a trojan. If the software is installedf to a machine its scanner component monitors and attempts to end other processes. Somtimes even flagging processes as if they are infected. It is also known to lower security settings and reconfigures the desktop  background to a system warning, which cannot be changed.

This approach is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and has been common place for some time. Previously mimicing the Windows Security Centre.

However, there is ironicly good news. The genuine version of Microsoft Security Essentials has been confirmed by MS to successfully remove the fake version. It works with XP, Vista and 7. And even better news MES is free and available to download! The fake version will ask you to pay for a “full Version”, so beware. If you are in any doubt at all contact your IT support team. 

With the growing trend for desktop and application virtualization, the alternative seems all too often to get over looked. Thin-clients, all be it and “old” solution, is still a good way to deliver software to resource-constrained machines.

MS has repackaged their Windows Terminal Services. Aimed at students, it offers a thin-client platform on Server 2008 R2. Renamed Windows multipoint server 2010.

This system, which was announced last year, allows 10 PCs to connect to a host. The host runs MultiPoint via remote desktop services (WTS). Microsoft have dubbed MultiPoint Server their flagship product in this range, which also includes Mouse Mischief and MultiPoint Mouse SDK.

However the platform can only pr obtained via OEMs or MS’s Academic VL program.

The platform has been delivered in response to the demand for more modern and cost effective computing systems within education.

In recent years MS has certainly been pushing to make Windows more accessable to Educational Institutions with lower prices and large discounts to students on Windows 7.

But there is a catch. MultiPoint does restrict the end user experience. There will be no Media centre, No Windows Flip, task bar previews or Aero.

So, all this will also set up a new generation of computer users, and clearly a growing market as computing systems become more integral to educational Institutions. But  a growing market means competition, and the restrictions MulitPoint pose will surely open the door for Apple and Linux.