Microsoft has released the first public beta of a tool that solves one of the chief complaints businesses have with Windows Vista: that older Windows applications aren't compatible with the new OS.
The Microsoft's Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) lets people run legacy Windows applications, including those built for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, on Vista by using virtualization technology, according to a blog post on The Official MDOP Blog.
"Our primary goal was to deliver an enterprise virtualization solution for the compatibility challenges that IT teams have with some of their line-of-business applications, during the upgrade to new operating systems (like Windows Vista)," according to the post, attributed to Ran Oelgiesser, a MED-V senior product manager. "With MED-V 1.0, you can easily create, deliver and centrally manage virtual Windows XP or 2000 environments (based on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007), and help your users to run legacy applications on their Windows Vista desktops."
By using MED-V in this way, people don't have to test or migrate applications that before would have been incompatible with Vista before running them on the OS, saving companies money and time, he added.
To get the MED-V beta, people can sign up on the Microsoft Connect site
The final release of the software is expected later this year, according to the post. Microsoft acquired the MED-V technology when it closed its purchase of Kidaro last May. In fact, it is included in a larger software package called the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, which rolls up several Microsoft virtualization acquisitions. In addition to Kidaro, the pack is comprised of software from Microsoft's purchases of Softricity, AssetMetrix, Winternals Software and DesktopStandard
Microsoft is investing heavily in desktop- and application-virtualization technology as a way to alleviate compatibility issues that have especially hampered the adoption of Vista. Many businesses opted to skip Vista and continue to run Windows XP until Vista's follow-up release, Windows 7, is available, and application-compatibility was one of several factors affecting their decision.
Microsoft just released the first Windows 7 beta last week, and some expect the final release of the OS as early as August or September, although Microsoft has not given a firm date for when it will be finished.
Early reports from Windows 7 beta users are that the OS is more stable, runs faster and is more secure than Vista, and improves on some of the user-interface features Microsoft introduced in that OS. Some are even suggesting that Microsoft not charge a fee, or charge very little, for Windows 7, since Vista should have the same high quality in the first place.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Microsoft's New Tool Lets Old Windows Apps Run on Vista
One-Third of Windows PCs Susceptible to Worms
Based on scans of several hundred thousand customer-owned Windows PCs, Qualys concluded that about 30% of the machines have not yet been patched with the "out of cycle" fix Microsoft provided Oct. 23 as security update MS08-067.
"The unpatched numbers went down significantly around the 30-day mark," said Wolfgang Kandek , Qualys' chief technology officer, "when less than 50% were unpatched. After that, it went down a little slower. As of yesterday, 30% of the machines are unpatched."
With nearly a third of all Windows systems still vulnerable, it's no surprise that the "Downadup" worm has been able to score such a success, Kandek said. "These slow [corporate] patch cycles are simply not acceptable," he said. "They lead directly to these high infection rates."
The Downadup worm, called "Conficker" by some researchers, surged dramatically this week and has infected an estimated 3.5 million PCs so far, according to Finnish security company F-Secure Corp. The worm exploits a bug in the Windows Server service used in Windows 2000 , XP, Vista , Server 2003 and Server 2008.
Microsoft issued a patch in late October after confirming reports of in-the-wild attacks , most of them against machines in Asia.
On Tuesday, Microsoft laid at least some of the blame for the worm's success at the feet of Windows' users. "Either Security Update MS08-067 was not installed at all or was not installed on all the computers," said Cristian Craioveanu and Ziv Mador, researchers at Microsoft's Malware Protection Center, in a Tuesday blog post.
Kandek agreed with them. "This shows that a three-month patch cycle, which some companies use, is unacceptable," he said.
In related news, a researcher at McAfee Inc. today said that the author of Downadup/Conficker worm took a shortcut when crafting the malware by grabbing functional exploit code from Metasploit, the open-source penetration testing framework.
"By using the exploit from the Metasploit module as the code base, a virus/worm programmer only needs to implement functions for automatic downloading and spreading," said Xiao Chen, a McAfee security researcher, in an entry to the company's blog . "We believe that this can be accomplished by an average programmer who understands the basics of exploitation and has decent programming skills.
"It's obvious that worm writers are abusing open source tools to their advantage to make their work easier," Chen added.
Microsoft has recommended that Windows users install the October update, then run the January edition of the Malicious Software Removal Tool to clean up compromised computers.
Firefox 3.1 Beta Delayed Due to Bugs
Mozilla has delayed the third beta of its Firefox 3.1 web browser, citing a "large number" of remaining bugs as the reason for the slip.
The setback won't affect the final release date for Firefox 3.1, a company executive said. "Right now we're not expecting this to delay our shipping target of late in the first quarter," said said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 3, which until this week was set to launch on January 26, will now release a week later, on February 2, according to a tentative schedule Mozilla posted on its website. "Due to the large number of outstanding P1 blockers, we are declaring a code slip," Mozilla said in notes published after its weekly status meeting.
The third beta is expected to be the last for Firefox 3.1, which at one time was projected by Mozilla to ship in final form as early as late 2008.
There are 15 bugs blocking Beta 3's release, Mozilla said elsewhere in the notes, referring to those unfixed flaws labeled 'P1', the company's designation for show-stopping problems. Among the unfixed bugs are ones related to Firefox 3.1's new privacy mode, dubbed 'Private Browsing', a feature that debuted in Beta 2 last December; and several connected with the new ability to drag tabs from the browsing window.
Mozilla added a third beta to the Firefox 3.1 process in late November, saying at the time that it needed the extra build to wrestle remaining bugs and allow more testing of new features, including Private Browsing and a faster JavaScript engine. At the time, Beltzner said that the additional beta would not have a "major impact" on the final delivery of Version 3.1.
But Beltzner also said then that Beta 3 would enter "code freeze" - a milestone after which changes are either forbidden outright or tightly restricted - in early January. Yesterday, however, Mozilla set January 25 as the beta's code freeze deadline.
Beltzner remained confident that Firefox 3.1 would still be ready for release this quarter. But he also offered a caveat, the same that most major software developers regularly tout. "Of course, Mozilla will continue to abide by our policy of only shipping software 'when it's ready,' he said, "meaning that we'll never publish a release that doesn't meet our strict criteria for quality, stability and performance."
