By early 2008, you will not be able to buy Windows XP on a new computer, your only choice will be Windows Vista. Microsoft is doing this because people are still buying XP on their new PCs. I imagine this is because the users want to avoid the compatibility issues and don’t see the benefits of learning something different.

XP works for them.

I haven’t upgraded to Vista yet, and I am waiting for most of the bugs to be worked out. XP does everything I need, is quick, stable, and problem-free.

Microsoft has released a Windows Media Player plugin for Firefox through its “Open Source Lab”. I imagine Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Team isn’t too happy about this, but it looks like this is just another part of Microsoft moving its focus to media from controlling the window to the Internet.

In any case, this should be useful for users of Windows Media Player that are so efficiency-obsessed that they need to control their music through their favorite web browser.

Security researchers have discovered a virus that infects iPods running Linux. This in itself isn’t too noteworthy, but the researchers say that this demonstrates that malicious programs can be made for devices like the iPod.

I imagine that there will be an explosion in viruses for mobile devices: from cell phones to PDAs to music players, especially as these devices connect to the Internet.

Thousands of users are finding that a recent Windows security update is making new problems. After the update users that have some types of Realtek sound cards are seeing an error message that says:

“RTHDCPL.EXE - Illegal System DLL Relocation
The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\HHCRTL.OCX occupied an address range reserved for Windows systems DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL.”

Microsoft has issued a patch that you can find here

All versions of Windows are at risk.

Bad guys could put dangerous code in the custom graphical cursors many users use. The vulnerability has already been exploited in web based attacks. You should install the update right away.

Download the Update

If you want to secure your home network, consider using WPA or WPA2. Use WPA2 if your hardware supports it. Look through the documentation for your wireless router and wireless network card to figure out how to implement WPA.

More information can be found in this article from the great Ars Technica.

Yahoo! has decided that it’s going to give users unlimited email storage for free.

They cite the big jump in users sharing storage-intensive files like images, audio, and video as attachments. It’s amazing that just a year or two ago, 1 GB was seen as a huge amount of space for free email.

Currently, Yahoo! users are allowed 1 GB of storage space for emails, users of Google’s free GMAIL service are permitted 2.8 GB, users of Microsoft’s free Hotmail service are allowed 2 GB.

More from Reuters, here.

Several users of Microsoft’s OneCare are finding that the antivirus component is deleting entire folders of email.

What’s happening is that the program is finding a virus in an email attachment, and then it’s quarantining or even deleting the entire personal folder where non-Exchange Server user’s messages are kept.

Recovery is only possible if OneCare decides to quarantine the file.

If you’re using OneCare, it would be best to disable it until a patch comes out.

A fix will be included in the OneCare update set to be released on March 13.

Acer has released a patch for an ActiveX control called LunchApp.ocx. Acer’s official intention was to allow for easy downloading of updates and patches, but it has been found that bad guys can exploit it.

The patch is available from the Acer web site (Acer Preload Security Patch for Windows XP).

If your computer is from Acer, you should download this patch immediately.

New and expanded sections on the site include:

Downloads - Find and download safe freeware, demos, and shareware.
Drivers - Easily find the drivers for all of your devices.
Windows Tips - This section is going to be greatly expanded with windows tips for Vista.
Tutorials - This section is going to have several new tutorials.

Other sections will be added to and fixes to known problems will be made.

I hope to update this blog on a more regular basis as well. 2006 was great and 2007 looks like it will be even better.