eWorld Translations

While most of the relatively current programs that were developed during the prime time of Windows XP can be installed and do run under Windows Vista and Windows 7, there is a small number of them that my not install properly.

Furthermore, there are other programs that might have already been slightly outdated when Windows XP came on the market or they were costly programs or you want to stick with a particular version. Or upgrade eligibility might even have ceased.

So, other than staying with Windows XP, what options are there? First and foremost, the Compatibility Mode feature of both Windows Vista and Windows 7 comes to mind.

In Vista:

• Run the Program Compatibility Assistant (Start > Settings > Programs > Use an older program with this version of Windows), or

In Windows 7:

• Right-click the executable file and select Troubleshoot Compatibility.

The resulting tweak of the settings tends to get things going.

Alternatively, you can

• right-click the respective executable file and select Properties > Compatibility

to choose compatibility to a choice of several past flavors of Windows and you have the option to tweak some other settings that might prevent a program from installing and/or running.

For Windows 7 users who have the Professional or Ultimate version, there’s also the option to install a virtual copy of Windows XP on top of Windows 7 and run the so-called “Windows XP Mode“.

But given the necessary licenses, hard disk space and performance impact, this option should only be approached if all of the above have been exhausted without getting your non-compatible application to run with any of the earlier options.

More information as well as all necessary downloads are available at Microsoft’s website.

For help in handling you applications’ compatibility problems, contact us today.

Microsoft is kindly reminding its customers that there will no longer be security updates for certain products and service packs so that it is extremely urgent for customers to move to a supported platform by the dates stated below:

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 will no longer be supported after July 13, 2010. Many customers are still on this version, so we encourage upgrading to Service Pack 3 or to Windows 7 as soon as possible.
• Extended support for Windows 2000 will also be retired as of July 13, 2010. After that time, we will no longer provide security or any other updates for Windows 2000.
• Windows Vista RTM (“Release To Manufacturing”, meaning the original release of Windows Vista, without any Service Pack installed) will no longer be supported after the April 13, 2010 bulletin release. Service Pack 1 will still be supported until July 12, 2011 but we recommend customers update to Service Pack 2 or Windows 7 at this time.

For help with the installation of these Service Packs and/or with the migration to a more current operating system or to have one of our PC specialists review the current status of your computer, contact us today.

A federal appeals court this week sided with Comcast, finding that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacked the statutory authority to force broadband companies to allow all content providers non-discriminatory access to their networks.

This comes at the tail end of a 2008 rebuke of the FCC to Comcast for slowing down movies and TV shows (among other things) shared via BitTorrent, often in violation of copyright laws.

This sets an unfortunate example, given that it more or less opens the door wide for also imposing similar speed bumps and road blocks against other content providers, such as Google, in favor of their own or affiliated content that covers similar turf.

Not only can this result in skewed competition but also in self-appointed censorship.

On the other hand, there is a good chance that government involvement might overshoot past the target. NPR’s National Review in this respect argues that “the FCC’s authority to reclassify broadband to suit its desires is also open to legal challenge. As a result, we are sure to hear louder calls for Congress to regulate the Internet or to grant the FCC the explicit authority to do so. These calls should be ignored. The Internet has thrived in the absence of homogenizing federal regulations, and this organic development should be allowed to continue so long as competition can act as a check on anti-consumer practices. If the broadband market becomes insufficiently competitive, then — as Apple CEO Steve Jobs might say — there’s an app for that: The United States has antitrust laws for regulating competition and monopolistic access. There is no need to develop a special set of rules just for broadband companies.”

GoDaddy, one of the largest registrars for domain names, is following suit to Google’s stance on doing business in China, as its executives announced in response to a new government policy that, according to The Washington Post, requires extensive information about registrants. Starting last December, individuals and businesses that wished to register a .cn domain name were being asked to submit a photograph of themselves as well as a serial number identifying their business license in China.

As Tom Krazit points out at CNET News, “for the most part, U.S. companies have reiterated plans to stay in China and adhere to their laws following Google’s initial announcement in January and subsequent moves this week. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged companies to do their part in pressuring governments to open up the Internet to their citizens, but many companies feel the issue is much more properly dealt with at the national level, according to trade group representatives.”

That said, Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Technology Institute, remarked in the SANS NewsBites in this context “This could be huge. Will China run the Internet in the future? Probably. If you are 25 years old or younger, this might be a wise time to take a class in Mandarin Chinese. We can hold the line for while, but not forever.”

For help with your domain name registrations, web hosting needs, or translation of material found during incident response, contact us today.

Mozilla released its Firefox 3.6.2 version of the browser a wekk early in an effort to address 10 flaws, including one critical vulnerability identified by a Russian researcher in how the browser decodes WOFF (Web Open Font Format), a web-based font standard.

This vulnerability only affects Firefox 3.6 users; earlier version of the browser are immune from this integer overflow flaw since they are not using the vulnerable WOFF technology, as reported by The Register.

Detailed release notes for Firefox 3.6.2 are available here.

For help upgrading Firefox and/or to have one of our PC specialists review the current status of your computer, contact us today.

ControlScan is settling with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that it misled customers about how it verified their security and privacy practices; according to the FTC, ControlScan performed “little or no verification” of whether or not their practices were protecting their site visitors’ security and privacy.

Furthermore, even though its seal displayed a current date, ControlScan did not perform reviews of the sites on a daily basis, per the FTC’s allegations.

More detailed coverage of the settlement is available at the FTC site.

For assistance in reviewing and updating your current policies and procedures, contact us today.

A zero-day flaw in both Visual Basic Scripting (VBScript) and Windows Help is under investigation by Microsoft since this vulnerability could be exploited to introduce malware on computers that are running the Windows 2000, Windows XP or Server 2003 operating system and which use Internet Explorer (IE) version 7 or 8.

Polish security analyst Maurycy Prodeus, with iSEC Security Research, who revealed the vulnerability and posted attack code last week, called the bug a “logic flaw.”

Another security researcher, Cesar Cerrudo, believes “that there is a high probability a regular user will press F1 key if asked, since an attacker can annoy the user with hundreds of messages telling the user to press F1 to continue.”

One of the workarounds offered by Microsoft, namely to not press the F1 key when prompted by a website to do so, is a no-brainer and boils down to common sense. Prodeus’ attack is successful, as Cerrudo points out, because it abuses the VBScript “MsgBox()” function.

According to Microsoft’s Security Advisory, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not vulnerable to this attack.

Let us help you to assure that your products, policies and procedures are up-to-date. Contact us today.

RealDVD, the DVD copying software by RealNetworks, will no longer be supported by the company nor will any similar technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content.

This is the result of settlement reached with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) which had alleged that the product, in essence, allowed people to steal DVDs.

While RealNetworks argued that the product was intended and designed to allow people to make backup copies to their PC’s hard disk of movies they had purchased legitimately, the company probably did not want to drag this on any longer in court, risking even higher costs than the 4.5 million US dollars they have to pay under the settlement to cover the plaintiff’s legal fees.

The 2700 people who purchased RealDVD will each receive a reimbursement in the amount of 30 US dollars.

The general counsel of the MPAA, Daniel Mandil, asserts that copying DVDs amounts to “theft.”

According to security and vulnerability research company Secunia, a typical home user who is running Windows is facing the “unreasonable” challenge to patch one software or another every five days.

In the last week of January, of the users who ran Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector (PSI) application, half had at least 66 programs from more than 21 vendors on their machines, resulting in the need to master 22 or more different patch mechanisms.

While Secunia’s Chief Security Officer, Thomas Kristensen, is calling for software vendors to create a unified patching standard, he is not holding his breath for this to become a reality any time soon.

Therefore, the company is releasing a technical preview of PSI 2.0 which will include automatic updating functionality reminiscent of what Microsoft provides for Windows and other software. Their patch tool eventually will handle 70-80% of the software on consumers’ Windows machines.

You can read more about Secunia’s PSI findings in their white paper.

We’ll gladly help you to review and update your computer’s configuration, your security mechanisms and your policies. Contact us today.

Last week, Skype released version 4.2 of its Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and instant messaging client software, available for download here.

Among the new and improved features are

• Improved first-time user setup flow
• Call Quality Indicator
• Call Transfer
• Improved importing of contacts from other address books
• Client alerts
• Improved video quality in low bandwidth conditions
• Support for 720p video calls with the new encoding web-cameras that will be available soon
• Incoming authorization requests are now shown when a user returns to Skype after having been away for a while
• The Video call button is now always visible, even if there isn’t a web camera detected
• The default privacy settings for Instant Messages were changed from “anyone” to “people in my contact list only”
• The localization of Arabic and Brazilian Portuguese was also improved

For additional details as well as a comprehensive overview of known issues, please consult the release notes.

If you would like some help setting up and/or configuring Skype or to discuss your communications needs, contact us today.