30 Years of Steve Ballmer

By DustinPosted on

It’s been 30 years since Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft. While I’ve had mixed feelings about Ballmer over the years, he has earned a lot of respect for helping Microsoft become what it is today. The car salesman lilke CEO of Microsoft had him speechless at the event when they brought out his family to the stage. I’ve had some mixed feelings about Bill Gates, as well, but have to admit that he does a much better job at the helm than Steve. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll be saying the same about the next successor to the throne at Microsoft. One thing to look forward to for MSFT investors: quarterly and fiscal year end earnings report on Thursday. Windows 7 has been doing extremely well, and I’m sure their earnings should be up.

Sentiment aside, the timing is very interesting. Ballmer has seen criticism of his leadership rise over the past year, despite the turnaround of the flagship Windows business, as Microsoft’s share price has remained stagnant and the company has struggled to keep pace against Google and Apple in the mobile phone business.

Some shareholders would no doubt like to interpret the tribute as a retirement montage, but in the context of the Microsoft rally it was more along the lines of a show of support. Assuming he’s not ultimately forced out, Ballmer said as recently as 2008 that he’s planning to stick around until his last kid goes to college, around 2018.

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Fix It Released for Security Advisory 2286198

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft has recently issued a security advisory for an issue that affects most systems from Windows XP to Windows 7. They released a Fix It workaround until a patch can be released. Make sure and get your systems patched up to prevent even bigger problems!

To implement the workaround that disables .LNK and .PIF file functionality automatically on a computer that is running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server R2 click the Fix this problem link under Enable workaround. To undo the workaround, click the Fix this problem link under Disable workaround. In either scenario, click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.

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Dell Releases a Secure Browser

By DustinPosted on

Dell has been coming out with some of their own software (Dell Dock) to put on PC’s to help their users. While most of the bloatware is crap (ok, all of it is!), the Dell Dock is decent and gets a lot of good press. Again, they have brought out something to make computing easier, or safer anyway. The new browser from Dell, KACE, is based on Firefox, but is designed to be a lot more secure than a base Firefox installation. I’m sure it will save a lot of users from getting an infection. Most of this stuff should be included in basic browsers, anyway. I’m not sure why it would take someone like Dell to release this, while Microsoft and Mozilla haven’t yet released something similar. You do need to input your name and email to download, but it is available for anyone to download. Check it out, and leave your experiences in the comments or in our forums! Edit: It’s a 74MB download for those that are on slow connections, beware!

The Secure Browser uses virtualization technology to provide a safer web experience to users and organizations. When using the Secure Browser any changes or malicious files inadvertently downloaded from the Internet are contained within the secure browser, keeping the underlying OS and computer secure from hostile changes. Any changes resulting from browser activity may be quickly and easily reset to effectively

Disable AutoPlay on Devices

By DustinPosted on

A recent Microsoft Security advisory says that there is a vulnerability with the AutoPlay in Windows 7. It also states that AutoPlay is disabled by default (which is incorrect). A temporary solution is to disable AutoPlay on your machines.

This is still inaccurate. Or at least, it’s not accurate enough. We know what Microsoft is trying to say but we think some folks might misinterpret. It would be better to state that AutoPlay functionality for removable disks is automatically LIMITED.

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Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 in 2011?

By DustinPosted on

The Technet FAQ on Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 shows a date of “First Half 2011”. Public beta is already released, and it could take almost a year to finalize? That sounds a little off, perhaps it is a placeholder? Sounds like a long time between a public beta of a service pack to final release.

Q: When will SP1 be released?
A: Service Pack 1 will be released within the first half of calendar year 2011.

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Microsoft Security Essentials Beta

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft has released a new beta of their anti-virus solution, Microsoft Security Essentials. It is available via Microsoft Connect (Microsoft’s Beta Portal). I’ve had some excellent results with MSE, and found that the new beta to be a bit quicker, and adds a few new features.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It

Back and Better Than Ever

By DustinPosted on

After a recent new PC build, I found that I had some issues. After they got all resolved, I’m able to get back to the site! 🙂 More news postings coming soon. For the record, Gigabyte RMA warranty service is top notch. Excellent service. I’ll definitely be buying their products in the future. Core2Duo running overclocked, 4 GB DDR2 RAM… Didn’t go for the i7 this time, definitely going for one next time! Watercooling coming up soon! Have a custom external case I have to finish, then it goes online!

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Windows 7 Boosts 64-Bit Computing

By DustinPosted on

More and more PC makers are installing Windows 7 64-Bit edition on their PC’s and laptops, helping usher in the 64-Bit revolution. As in the past, when we went from 16 to 32 bit computing, it didn’t happen overnight, but there was a time when a major push happened that finally gave it the lead, leaving the older technology behind. I believe that the majority of things holding it back right now are some of the smaller developers that can’t or won’t design a 64-Bit application or hardware driver. Things are looking up, though, with a LOT of software and most modern hardware compatible with 64-Bit.

A larger number of PC makers are installing 64-bit Windows 7 as the default OS on PCs, LeBlanc wrote. Most PCs include processors capable of running on 64-bit applications that can also address larger amounts of memory. The memory ceiling for 32-bit operating systems is 4GB, which could limit the ability to run computing-intensive applications that need larger memory sizes.

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Can Ballmer Stay in Charge at Microsoft Until January?

By DustinPosted on

ZDNet reports that Steve Ballmer will be doing the keynote speech at CES 2011: next January. But, they are not so sure that Ballmer will still be the big cheese, CEO of Microsoft. While I agree with a lot he has to say, I don’t think they will oust him over the little things. Although, the graph does speak for itself… Ouch. The so called “tech bubble” burst around the time Ballmer took over, but you can’t blame everything on that. Vista, KIN, Courier… Microsoft hasn’t been impressing a lot of consumers lately. Windows 7 is doing amazingly well, but Microsoft has to INNOVATE as they have done before. Right now, it seems like they are just skating by on past achievements.

The point of all of this is that Ballmer, as the CEO of Microsoft, seems to have spent quite a bit of time riding on the successful coat tails of Bill Gates – but really hasn

Students Get Awesome Deal on Windows and Office

By DustinPosted on

If you are a student, you should jump on this deal from Microsoft. A lot of college courses require Microsoft Office (some can be done with OpenOffice, too), including some business classes. There are some entry level computer science classes that use Excel and Word. And a lot of software packages that are needed for classes are Windows only (the big exception is art majors… They insist on Mac’s!). You can’t really beat this deal.