Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

This is eyebrow-raising. Microsoft denies it built ‘backdoor’ in Windows 7 Don’t worry, company tells users; NSA involved only in security compliance standards November 19, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft today denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official testified before Congress [...]

I was never a great fan of those mega-monster, dialup-choking service packs from Microsoft anyway, but I guess they were necessary from time to time. Windows XP is just over seven years old now, and Windows is getting eager to dump XP for their Vista and latest OS, Windows 7. I still have quite a [...]

Will someone please tell me WHY there is this great big push to shelve technology– especially operating systems? And especially Microsoft operating systems? OK, let me back off a little. There’s talk that MS will let Vista just fade away. It’s outdated, too buggy, and too bulky. The Microsoft executive in charge of Windows urged [...]

Like the sands of the hourglass, like the political tweaking of the Medicare supplement plan, software updates are ever with us. Two biggies hit the scene this month. Here’s what’s up… Firstly, if you use the Firefox browser, it is advisable that you update to the latest version, 3.5. The update fixes some serious security [...]

In a rare move, Microsoft has released a statement notifying the public of a severe vulnerability in their software that they have not a fix for, yet. Microsoft is investigating a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local [...]

Bing is the new search engine, released by Microsoft. I’ve been reading about it but I never checked it out thoroughly until today. It’s so great to see Google get some really healthy competition, and I had high hopes that Bing just do that… but there’s a caveat to Bing. CNet did a nice review [...]