Microsoft

Barcode and QR code reader applications are now standard fare for smartphones and can be commonly found for free in any of the major app stores. But far less common are comprehensive services that let users make their own QR codes for free. This is why Microsoft’s TagReader, which was released in the Android Market today, is worth checking out. It’s similar to any number of barcode scanners available on the Android platform, except that it is designed to read Microsoft’s unique “Tags.” ...

Microsoft has released new spring theme for windows 7 to bring the feeling of season change right on your desktop. It is named Czech and is a light, simple and beautiful theme with eight eye catching nature wallpapers. Just download the theme and double click on it to apply. After applying the theme you can customize and tune color scheme according to your choice. Download: Czech Spring Theme

Microsoft Vice President of Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney, in a keynote address at the RSA security conference in San Francisco yesterday, called for quarantines on malware-infected PCs. His remarks were widely covered by a variety of web news outlets. He compared the threat from infected PCs with the threat from smokers in public places and resulting bans on smoking because of second-hand smoke: “You have a right to infect and give yourself illness. You don’t have the right to infect your neighbor. Computers are the same way.” Charney didn’t discuss specific techniques. ...

It won’t work if you have a rootkit infection, but it won’t blue screen your machine either. Microsoft has reissued Security Bulletin MS010-15 from last month to work around a problem that had occurred when a WinXP user attempted to install the patch on a machine that was infected with a rootkit. (blue screen, blue screen) Jerry Bryant, Microsoft’s senior security communications manager lead, writing on the company TechNet blog said that the new installation packages for MS10-015 have new logic that will prevent the security update from installing on rootkit-infected systems. Microsoft also is offering guidance for those with infected machines and a scanning tool that can detect system conditions that will prevent the patch from applying itself. ...

For anyone that missed Microsoft CEO’s Q&A during the Search Marketing Expo West yesterday, a transcript is now available online. I went through and picked out key quotes, so that you don’t have to read the whole thing. Several things stand out from Ballmer’s comments: Mobile operators that want a search engine other than Bing can’t have Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft almost certainly is stirring up trouble for Google in Europe through third parties. Microsoft isn’t interested — at least for now — in releasing a Bing application for Android phones. A Bing for iPhone search deal is still possible, simply because Ballmer deflected the question rather than denying it. Twitter is a great Microsoft partner, but the value of an acquisition is “not clear.” My favorite quote from the Q&A: “I haven’t found that when you’re trying to sell something to somebody yelling is very effective.” How funny is that. coming from boisterous Ballmer? ...

Here’s a new vector: exploiting a Windows vulnerability through an Internet Explorer help menu Visual Basic script: “get ‘em to hit F1 and you own ‘em.” Microsoft is warning of a VBScript vulnerability in Internet Explorer (on Win2K, XP and Server03) that could be used to run malicious code. A malicious operator could create a web site that displays a specially crafted dialog box and prompts a victim to press the F1 key (help menu.) The exploit could then execute malicious code on a victim machine. (Windows versions that are not vulnerable are: Vista, Win7, Server08 R2 and Server08.) ...

In the past, viruses and computer threats were created simply for the sake of it. Sometimes these threats would wipe your hard drive clean—just to let you know you’d been owned. This is not the case anymore; nowadays most of the threats we see are profit-oriented and try to keep a very low profile so that they aren’t easily detectable by security software. Backdoor.Tidserv does a very good job in that sense, especially with the latest version (TDL3), which uses an advanced rootkit technology to hide its presence on a system by infecting one of the low-level kernel drivers and then covering its tracks. While the rootkit is active there is no easy way to detect the infection, and because it goes so deep into the kernel, most users cannot see anything wrong in the system. ...

Many users have complained about Windows 7 strange Battery notification saying “Consider replacing your Batteries” on Laptops and there was a noise about it in Blogosphere but Microsoft has replied to it. There were many Forum posts and blog articles implying Windows 7 is falsely reporting this situation or even worse, causing these batteries to fail. After upgrading to Windows 7, Many users are seeing a** pop-up window that suggests they “consider replacing” their battery**, as capacity has slipped below the 40 per cent level. Butt, official MSDN blog has confirmed that Windows 7 isn’t killing Laptop batteries or causing them to fail but it’s a new intelligent feature of Windows 7. ...

Security blogger Brian Krebs is reporting that some Windows XP users are reporting blue screen of death on reboot after installing Microsoft’s Tuesday patch KB977165 (MS010–15: “Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege.”) “Turns out, a non-trivial number of XP users are reporting that their systems suffer from the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) and fall into an interminable reboot loop after installing the latest batch of patches from Redmond,” ...

Putting laptop in sleep mode is a common thing that we do to save power and perform our work at a later stage without much delay. But for some users there is a problem while they try to resume from sleep mode. As the resuming begins, a blank screen appears with a mouse pointer and stays until you press any key or click the mouse. This problem may be fixed by a HotFix named KB958685 released by Microsoft for Vista and Windows7 users and should be only used if you are facing this problem. ...