Register for the wait list for the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Microsoft has begun accepting user information for possible participation in a Technical Preview of Microsoft Office 2010.

By registering at the site you are signing up to be considered for the Technical Preview Program. This means you will be wait-listed for consideration to be invited into the Technical Preview Program, it doesn't mean that you will definitely be selected.

Registration only takes a moment and offers a chance to see an early version of the next Microsoft Office suite. Microsoft will notify those selected in early to mid July.

Technical previews are not for the faint of heart so unless you plan to spend some time with possible issues from using pre-release software, I'd suggest waiting until a public beta is released.

You can register at the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Registration page.

Via GottaBeMobile

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Infected Pirate Copies of Windows 7 Build Botnet

Additional information related to the malware infected version of the Windows 7 RC making the rounds on the bit torrent sites indicates that the trojan program was building a network of bots. Check out this quote from Kelly Jackson Higgins of Dark Reading:

The rogue OS, which is rigged with a Trojan downloader, at one point had around 27,000 bots in its control as of May 10, when researchers took over the command and control (C&C) server that communicated with the bots and served them additional malware. At the height of the botnet buildup, the botmaster was recruiting more than 200 machines an hour...

The rest of the article is available at Dark Reading. JM Hipolito of the Trend Micro Malware Blog reports:

A file being hosted in popular torrent sites posing as a copy of the Windows 7 RC was found to be a Trojan by security researchers. The file which arrives with the file name setup.exe is detected as TROJ_DROPPER.SPX. TROJ_DROPPER.SPX drops TROJ_AGENT.NICE.

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Malware Infected Versions of Windows 7 RC Make Rounds

Microsoft released the Windows 7 Release Candidate last Tuesday on the Microsoft Developers' Network and TechNet web sites. Already Windows 7 RC is available on bit torrent sites being downloaded by those who don't have access to either of the Microsoft web sites.

On Thursday, Microsoft reported that some of the illegally-distributed copies are infected with malware (MALicious softWARE) designed to infect computers. Risks faced by users associated with using Malware infected software include potential identity theft, system failures and unrecoverable data loss if their systems become infected.

Windows protects itself from piracy by detecting when attempts have been made to circumvent or tamper with its built-in product activation technology. When the software is determined not to be “genuine,” the computer starts to display on-screen notifications that it is not, and then shows a “black screen of death."

The Windows 7 RC will be available for legitimate download from the Microsoft sites until the end of July.

Via SC Magazine

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Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

If you're starting to think about upgrading to Windows 7 when it's released this fall, you should be thinking about whether or not your existing computer is compatible with Windows 7.

Is your computer fast enough? Do you have enough free disk space? Do you need to install more memory? Will your printers be supported? Is there a driver for your mouse?

If your computer is currently running or is certified to run Windows Vista, you should have few issues. However, all these questions and more can be answered by downloading and running the free Microsoft Windows 7 Advisor utility.

The utility will generate a report telling you if your PC can run Windows 7, and if there are known compatibility issues. If the issues can be resolved, the utility will provide suggestions for next steps such as if you need an updated software driver. It will also provide advice on how to upgrade to Windows 7.

Note that Windows XP users are required to do a clean install of the Windows 7 Release Candidate as well as the final product when it ships. Only computers running Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7.

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The Six Degrees of Windows 7

Unless you live under a rock, you've heard about the next version of Windows to supersede Windows Vista, Windows 7.

Deciding whether to upgrade to Windows 7 when available is enough of a mental exercise however, as Microsoft did with Vista, they'll be offering numerous different versions, or SKUs, of the product intended for use by different groups of users in different types of environments.

Although this information has been available since February of this year, I thought it might be good to quickly review it again since the public release of the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) was recently released to MSDN and TechNet. Things may change between the date of this posting and the actual "gold" release date but as of now, there are six different versions that will be available as follows:

1) Windows 7 Home Premium - This edition has partial Aero effects, no support for Multi-touch, and no Windows Media Center and will be available to all users worldwide through retail and OEMs.

2) Windows 7 Professional - This edition adds features missing in Home Premium including encryption and XP Mode, and will also be available to all users worldwide through retail and OEMs.

3) Windows 7 Starter Edition - This edition is intended for installation and use on lower-powered Netbooks and will have a limitation of three concurrent applications, excluding Windows Explorer, Control Panel Applets, the Command prompt and Task Manager. It will be a 32-bit version only and lack the Aero Glass theme (probably to reduce the need for more powerful graphics) and support for Multi-Touch. An in depth look at Windows 7 Starter Edition is available at the WindowsITPro site.

4) Windows 7 Home Basic Edition - This edition is intended for "emerging markets" such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand. This version has no artificial limitation on the number of applications, but some Aero Glass options are excluded along with some new features.

5) Windows 7 Enterprise - This full-blown edition is targeted at the enterprise market and will be sold through volume licensing to Microsoft Software Assurance contract customers. This edition adds adding Multilingual User Interface (MUI) which allows for installation of multiple interface languages on a single system, Unix feature support, encryption features, and support for Windows XP Mode virtualization.

6) Windows 7 Ultimate - This version will include the Windows 7 Enterprise features and will be available to home users on an individual license basis.

It's probable that the computers sold this coming holiday season will include either the Windows 7 Premium or Professional editions depending on the specific OEM with Windows 7 Ultimate for higher end systems or as an upgrade. Vista may even show up on some models from some vendors with an option for upgrade to Windows 7.

It remains to be seen how many Netbook vendors will ship Windows 7 Starter Edition as many offer other non-Microsoft operating system options including Ubuntu. It will also depend on politics, profit and whether the OEMs feel that buyers will be interested in an abbreviated version of Windows 7. Personally, I would want a Netbook powerful enough to run Ultimate but that's another post...

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Windows 7 Release Candidate Available for Download

Microsoft has released the Windows 7 Release Candidate for download for MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers from the TechNet web site. It's available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, based on the version of Windows you are currently running and your machine’s hardware configuration. Both versions are available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

Microsoft recommends the following as recommended minimum system requirements for running the RC:

• Internet access (to download Windows 7 RC and get updates)
• A PC with these minimum recommended specifications:
- 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher
- 1 GB of system memory or more
- 16 GB of available disk space
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
- DVD-R/W Drive

The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. However, starting March 1, 2010, your PC will start shutting down every two hours. Windows will warn you two weeks before the shutdowns start. So, in actuality, you need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010 for non-interrupted use.

If you're interested in test driving Windows 7 before it's release, remember that this is pre-release software and you're bound to run into bugs and possible driver incompatibilities or issues.

Please make sure to back up all your data before starting!

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Free Microsoft Conficker Worm Scan Tool

Although initial panic about the Conficker worm has come and gone, it's possible that there are still thousands of infected systems, possibly one of your home systems. Refer to this overview from Microsoft about Conficker for more information.


If you're still concerned, I thought it might be a good idea to provide a safe site that you can use to scan your system through a web browser to check your systems.

Why care about a worm that appears to be under control? First, it is still unknown how many systems are/were infected with Conficker and if they've all been patched to address the threat. Second, the worm initially carried no malicious payload, meaning it's sole purpose right now appears to be simply for propagate itself across as many systems as possible. What is still not known are the author(s) intent for the worm.

The conspiracy theorists amongst us believe that the worm, which "phones home" or contacts one or more control systems for instructions periodically, may be activated or loaded with a malicious payload in the future before the industry experts can shutdown it's source.

So, an easy way to ensure that your systems are protected from known incarnations of the worm is to run a check on it's attack vector (or the Windows vulnerability it is known to exploit).

The Windows Live OneCare saftey scanner will check your system and provide information on it's safety, or how to patch your system to prevent infection. Firefox users will need to visit the For Firefox Users page to download a fix to allow the scanner to run under Firefox. To simplify things, we recommend that you visit the Live OneCare site using Internet Explorer and avoid modifying your Firefox configuration. Incidentally, the scanner will not run on pre-release versions of Windows 7 at this time.

Via Microsoft Live OneCare safety scanner

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Windows 7 "Windows XP Mode" Offers Backward Compatibility

Exciting news has been released about a feature that will likely be included in certain versions of Windows 7 called "Windows XP Mode" or "XPM". This feature standards to save business significant amounts of money upgrades and migration costs.

XP Mode is reported to be based on Microsoft Virtual PC 7 (VPC) technology, which provides a Virtual Machine (VM) of a licensed copy of Windows XP to run seamlessly within the Windows 7 desktop environment.

What this offers is a method to run applications that may not be fully compatible with the new Windows 7 environment by providing a virtualized environment that is essentially Windows XP. The application neither knows or cares that it's running in a VM "on top" of Windows 7. The virtual machine XPM technology takes care of providing resources to the application and allows the application to appear to run directly on the Windows 7 desktop. XPM is reported to even include entries in the Windows Start menu and other tools to make the XPM application appear even more seamless with the Windows 7 desktop. Users could, for example, run older versions of Internet Explorer alongside of Internet Explorer 8.

This strategy, which is based on technology available from Microsoft for a number of years, offers two primary benefits: first, it allows Microsoft to "move forward" with their operating system code base, potentially slimming the code down by elininating the requirement to support older functions, and most importantly for businesses and consumers, to reduce issues with supporting older legacy Windows applications.

XPM allows legacy applications to run side by side with newer applications, reducing the need to support two different desktop environments.

It is reported that XPM will not ship with the Windows 7 operating system, but instead be offered as a free download from Microsoft for owners of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Via Paul Thurott's SuperSite for Windows

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Microsoft Announces Release of Windows 7 in 2009

Although the release of Windows 7 this year has been publicly discussed for quite a while, Microsoft officially announced on Monday that Windows 7 will be released in 2009. It is anticipated that release will occur in time for the operating system to be available for the coming holiday season. According to Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte, "a holiday release is accomplishable".

A Windows 7 pre-release version, referred to as a Release Candidate or "RC" of the operating system is still due to be released to developers in the July to August timeframe.

This is great news as Windows 7 is, in my opinion, is superior to Vista. Even early beta versions appear to be more stable and out-perform Vista. Many companies and consumers skipped upgrading to Vista and many even downgraded their systems to Windows XP. Many in the industry expressed that it felt like Vista was rushed out the door before it was finished. All in all, Windows 7 appears to be the "finished" version of Vista.

Via WindowsITPro

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Home Routers and DSL/Cable Modems Attacked by psyb0t Worm

According to a report by PC World, a new computer worm believed to have originated in Australia has been discovered "in the wild". The worm is reported to infect 55 different consumer-oriented routers and cable modems including common brands such as Linksys and Netgear.

The worm is designed to infect systems and then run commands sent by its author across the Internet, creating what is known as a botnet. Once infected, most home users will be unaware that they're infected, and the worm could potentially be used by it's authors to steal personally identifiable information such as account names, passwords, social security numbers, and other personal information.
Recently no longer considered a threat by organizations that track botnets such as DroneBl Blog, psybOt could be an indication of things to come wherein the infrastructure of home networks is attacked at a lower and more discrete level than normally seen.

The best way to combat similar attacks is to ensure that your router or cable modem is configured correctly through a thorough lock-down and the default factory settings have been changed to improve security.

Via PCWorld

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Free Information About Identity Theft From the FTC

Were you aware that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers information about combating Identity Theft? Guides and booklets about topics such as Personal Identity Theft, Stimulus Scams (Phishing), advice on purchasing and using Identify Theft services, and Protecting Personal Information for Businesses are available for download in PDF format.

The materials are well-written, free, and easy to understand. I've personally used their guide "Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft" to include in a security awareness program I developed and found it to be invaluable. The nice thing about having access to them electronically is the ability to forward them to friends and family who might never know about or be able to obtain this information. We recommend starting with this guide first.

We recommend that you visit their site and check out their materials as soon as possible!

Via the FTC Web site

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Microsoft "Security at Home" Web Site

Microsoft has a nice web site designed for home users we recommend that you take a look at. The site provides information about many topics including the latest security threats such as the Conficker Worm, protecting yourself from Identity Theft via Phishing, using parental controls, etc.

There's a lot of information to help educate home users about security threats as well as links to free Microsoft security tools for download and Windows updates. Microsoft has even created and posted video tutorials on topics such as Security, privacy, and Internet safety, e.g. "Defending against viruses and worms", "Reducing spam", and "Protecting your privacy and personal information online".

Via Microsoft Security at Home

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