June 2009 - Posts
This is just a demonstration of how to write a blog through the application of Windows Live Writer.
It’s a matter of pleasure for me to show you how a blog can be written and published in web 2.0 platform.
I am now uploading a picture which I downloaded from the background of Microsoft’s new Decision/Search engine bing.
Photo: Niagara Falls
Today is the day Microsoft is availing its brand new anti-virus called “Microsoft Security Essentials” for download (for the first 75,000 users ) to the people in US, Brazil, Israel and China for the beta testing. I feel disappointed that this date is not for us (people of Nepal). May be we will get to download and enjoy this product which was earlier codenamed ‘Morro’ around the end of this year, 2009.
Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) is expected to tackle viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans as I have told you this in my earlier blog post about this product. It is crystal clear that MSE is gonna be absolutely a free Microsoft product, however, Microsoft will not give Security Essentials to everyone who wants it, that is to say, PCs running a copy of Windows which is "non-genuine", cannot download a copy of the security software. Further, this is a basic antivirus, antispyware program that has a simplistic interface and consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security applications like those from vendors such as Symantec and Kaspersky.
While OneCare, which was Microsoft’s earlier security tool and now in the verge of it’s scrapping, offered a Managed Firewall, PC Performance Tuning, Data Backup and Restore, Multi-PC Management, and Printer Sharing, MSE is rather closer to Forefront Client Security, Microsoft's antivirus product for the enterprise.
The important Features and performances of MSE are:
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Remove most-prevalent malware
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Remove known viruses
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Real-time anti-virus protection
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Remove known spyware
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Real-time anti-spyware protection
During the MSE installation, Windows Defender is actually disabled as it is no longer needed with MSE installed. Below you can see two screenshots, with the first showing MSE when everything is perfect while the second shows that a threat has been detected.
I have some more technical details here for you as well. To grasp the deeper insight it’s essential to know that MSE's engine is actually identical to the one that comes with Forefront Client Security. In fact, Microsoft uses the same engine for all of its security products(as said in my previous blog post). Thus, engine updates to MSE will be delivered at the same time as they are delivered to Forefront. Signature updates, on the other hand, can be delivered at different times and frequencies than Microsoft's other security software like windows defender. New virus signatures for MSE will be downloaded automatically on a daily basis.
One of the most interesting features for MSE is Dynamic Signature Service (DSS). Like, when MSE detects that a file is making suspicious actions (such as unexpected network connections, attempting to modify some crucial parts of the system, or downloading known malicious content) and there is no virus signature for it, MSE will send a profile of the suspected malware to Microsoft's servers. If there is a new signature for it, one that has yet to be sent out to the MSE client, MSE will be told how to clean the file. It should be emphasized that this communication will only occur for malware found that is not in the current signatures. This is a completely new feature and indeed the next version of Forefront will also use DSS.
Of course, security aside, the next most important part of security software is undoubtedly the performance. Since MSE doesn't include many of the features of OneCare, this is an area that Microsoft has a chance to excel in. In fact, the company includes three features in MSE to keep it light: CPU throttling (the system will remain responsive to the user's tasks), idle-time scanning (scans and updates use a low-priority thread and only run when the PC is idle), as well as smart caching and active memory swapping (virus signatures not in use are not loaded into memory).
Your fundamental system requirement for MSE to function properly in your machine are:
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For Windows XP, a PC with a CPU having clock speed of at least 500MHz and at least 256MB of RAM
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For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a PC with a CPU having clock speed of at least 1.0GHz and at least 1GB of RAM
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VGA (display): 800x600 or higher
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Storage: 140MB of available hard-disk space
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An Internet connection is required for installation and to download the latest virus and spyware definitions.
Yes, the other important thing I want to leave here is that, the genuine validation is required during the installation of MSE. Microsoft Security Essentials requires validation, which means that it won’t be available to anyone using a pirated copy of Windows. But it won’t require registration or personal information of any kind. In fact, not even your Windows Live ID in the name of your personal information is required.
So, the only thing you need is , you agree to the EULA (which you agree for each and every software you use), then validate, download, and you’re done!
Now, lets wait together for Microsoft to make this product to be available for Nepal as well.
Folks, It’s a pleasure letting you know that Microsoft is getting ready to release a long-anticipated free anti-virus called ‘Morro’ for the personal computers. But, until now no date has been fixed on its rolling out process. But, a trial version or a beta product is speculated to be posted at its website very soon. “Morro” will be able to provide the essential protections that consumers need without overusing system resources, and will help more consumers have better protection against online threats. You know it or not but the current subscription service, Live OneCare which is not a free service, is ending its run on 30 June 2009. 
Morro is being developed by Microsoft’s Forefront security team and is based on the Forefront antivirus/anti-malware engine. The reason Microsoft is going from a paid subscription service to a free one is to make sure that Morro is installed on all consumer PCs, especially those whose users find it hard to afford or do not show interest to run antivirus/anti-malware software, that it will be able to better secure the entire Windows ecosystem. This anti-malware application will offer protection against viruses, spyware, root kits and Trojans.
The working mechanism for Morro will be such that it will function by routing all of a users Internet traffic to a Microsoft datacenter, where the Morro application will process the traffic and identify and block malware in real-time, by examining all of the rerouted traffic.
Do you think that this protection solution will work out in this world of technology where numerous types of other anti virus systems are already available? May be this is a tough task to answer for Microsoft but because the consumption of standard anti-malware is very low around the world, particularly in underdeveloped nations like Nepal, the availability of basic protection for anyone who wants it is all the more important.
Well, Morro will be architected for a smaller group that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs and it will work on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems only.
Recently, I attended a bootcamp on Microsoft Forefront Client Server(FCS) Security organized by Microsoft at Brainworks Learning Center in Khichapokhari, Kathmandu. The three day long training was absolutely hands-on with very little to do with the theoretical knowledge underlying within.
FCS Security demands a huge network( Min. 250 computers interconnected under a domain) of clients and server based computers. In such a case, learning FCS in real world scenario for FCS configuration is nearly impossible. So, here, in such a condition, making use of Virtual PCs is the best solution and that was what we did during the whole Bootcamp sessions.
I wanted to share with you (of course the forefront part is not possible here!) on how exactly we made use of virtual PC to serve our purposes.We were actually working on desktop PCs with Windows XP platform having sound hardware configurations. But, for the whole sessions, Windows server 2003 was our ultimate platform. So, how? …..Yes exactly! We made use of Virtual Machine with server 2003 setup in it. Everything went great, we had no problems running it.
After that, we wanted to create few more virtual machines to run on the same platform. It wasn’t easy though. But,Thanks to our trainer, Mr. Udhyan Timilsina, who was already ready with the tools in hand. So, what we did was we simply ran other ready to use virtual PCs to serve our client server requirements.
Now, it was more like a fun than cramming to learn. We configured a whole lot of server and client virtual PCs including the servers that deployed Microsoft exchange and Microsoft SharePoint. We needed time to learn, explore the panels and customize security policies. And, we did it all without having to worry for the chances to lose system database as we were working on virtual PCs. For a Server in Sydney to a client terminal in Cairo;), everything was made possible through virtual PC. Creating a virus in client machine, quarantining it and then applying various policies including to send an email notification to the Server was absolutely fun for a single trainee using a single computer.
Kudos to Virtual PC!
Microsoft Virtual PC is a product that enables us to run several operating systems inside our existing one, each one of them acting as a real PC. This is very useful when we have a problem of system incompatibility. A virtual PC can share its network with the host operating system, making it possible to run several virtual machines at one, simulating a complete network, acting as if it were unique servers on the network.
This makes a very fantastic use before deploying something to the real production servers. In the other hand, It also saves reconfiguration time so that we can increase up our convenience and efficiency without wasting much time.
Please, make note that above interface is a screenshot of Microsoft Virtual PC environment.
Windows Virtual PC (Beta) is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology that allows us to run many productivity applications on a virtual Windows environment, with a single click, directly from a Windows 7-based PC.
You may want to download Windows Virtual PC (beta) here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=65E1C5EB-DF9B-415F-B2D6-27F6EF5DCEB9&displaylang=en
(Please, make sure that your PC has Windows 7 RC installed in it. Windows 7 beta do not support this feature.)
You may also want to download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=28C97D22-6EB8-4A09-A7F7-F6C7A1F000B5&displaylang=en
Are you using office 2003? Is your hardware incompatible to support Microsoft Office 2007? If it is the case, I am damn sure you are facing big problems when you are required to open and save files that are created in Office 2007 format.
But, don’t you worry folks, you have an easy solution only few clicks away. What you only need to do is to simply install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack in order to use 2007 Microsoft Office documents in Office XP, Office 2003, or Office 2000.
Remember, you may also be required to install additional updates to your Office programs if they have not already been installed.
When you are done with installing the Compatibility Pack,select an Office 2007 document( I have selected Word 2007) and simply right click it, now you have the new option in the scroll bar as in the screenshot below:
You may download the Office Compatibility Pack from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466
Some of you people must be still struggling to know why Microsoft chose the name ‘Windows 7’ for it’s yet to be released newer version of Windows Operating System. Particularly, why the number 7?
To simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense." If we go back to the history and make a note of names of the earlier versions of Windows OS, then it’s a bit more complicated. So, the decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Since, Microsoft doesn’t ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date do not make sense much as well.
Ahh…Wait! Since you have already entered into my blog, how can I let you go without making sure you know precisely on the earlier different OS milestones Microsoft have crossed so far?
So, let me get started. The very first release of Windows was Windows 1.0. The second was Windows 2.0 and the third was Windows 3.0. Quite simple!
The next is where things have gotton a little more complicated. Following Windows 3.0 was Windows NT which was code versioned as Windows 3.1. Then came Windows 95, which was again code versioned as Windows 4.0. Then, Microsoft released Windows 98, 98 SE and Windows Millennium each shipped as 4.0.1998, 4.10.2222, and 4.90.3000 respectively. So, Microsoft swept all 9x versions as 4.0.
Windows 2000 code was 5.0 and then the Windows XP was 5.1, Although Windows XP was a major release, Microsoft didn't want to change its code version number in order to bring greater flexibility in the maximize application compatibility.
This brings the Windows platform to Windows Vista, which is 6.0. So, this is how we can see Windows 7 as Microsoft’s next logical significant release and 7th in the family of Windows releases."
Bing is Microsoft's answer to all competitive search engines including Google and Yahoo. But, as far as I understand, Microsoft is preferably calling its new search engine ‘Bing’, a “decision engine,” aiming to bring a change in user perception and make the search engine stand out from the crowd. Bing went live on May 28, 2009, but the actual decision engine started to bing from yesterday onwards!
Since this release of Bing.com is a beta, not all of the features are available yet but it’s possible to get a pretty good understanding of what sets it apart from Google and Yahoo search engines. I loved one of the Bing features most that, if you move your mouse cursor into the right side of the individual search result, then you will find a copy of the text found on the website listed. Yes, Bing does it, but sorry, Google doesn’t. check it out yourself!
Folks, I have also gathered few other interesting specialties of Bing decision engine. So, Enjoy reading it and just ‘Bing’ anything you want to search and decide for yourself!
- Searchers can choose the best option for their search need.
- Bing can provide best match and useful links and information.
- Quick Preview of the any website is possible.
- Bing will Auto-Suggest the search queries.
- Bing contains Explore Pane which includes a table of contents of the various Web Groups generated by your search query.
- Viewing Images and Video in Bing is easy. (By the way, you don’t have to click and click again and again)
- Images can be filtered by size, aspect ratio, color, style and face. etc.
- Video can be filtered by duration, aspect ratio, resolution or source. etc.
- We can search over 16 million videos across the popular video website like MSN, AOL, MTV, ESPN, YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe and Hulu etc.
- Bing provides access to your Session History in the Explorer Pane within a single browser session for up to 48 hours.
- We can compare the rankings of favorite celebrity using xRank feature.
- Bing Shopping currently lists products for more than 540 online retailers like Lenovo, HP Home & Home Office Store, Buy.com, etc.
- User-friendly Quick Tabs search results with one click.
- Bing can provide related searches including videos in the search results page.
- Related Searches are displayed in the left-hand navigation.
- Rich Listing Results which display favorite restaurant location, phone number, one-click directions and menu.
- Travel information is at your fingertips. For example, Hotel Accommodations, Flight timings, etc.
- User can refine the search using Search Refinement functionality.
- Bing easily provides information about medical, symptoms, diagnosis and medical procedures from nine trusted medical resources like Mayo Clinic, the American Cancer Society and MedlinePlus.
- Bing simplifies tasks and provides great insight.
- The main focus of the bing is Health, Local , Shopping and Travel.
- Bing can be accessed through Mobile at http://m.Bing.com.