Author: jay f

I heard for year all about security and browsers. Well it time I put my 2 cents in on this issue.

1. In Windows Vista and in Windows 7 The new security model protect the computer with IE running in a security mode of less that user. When you install Firefox or any other browser you install them and then they run as user a higher level in the operating system.

The higher the level the applications runs at the higher the risk of an successful web attack through the browser.

For phishing Issues the report  says…..

On the  site http://nsslabs.com/browser-security-malware-3Q2009

They report  average phishing URL catch rate for browsers over the entire 14 day test period ranged from 2% for Safari 4 to 83% for Windows Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered. Statistically, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 had a two-way tie for first, given the margin of error of 3.96%. Opera 10 beta came in third due to inconsistent protection during the test. Chrome 2 was consistent, albeit at a much lower rate of protection, and Safari offered minimal overall protection.

The report is here http://nsslabs.com/browser-security-malware-3Q2009 

 

For issues on Malware the sites says……

Internet Explorer 8 caught 81% of the live threats, an exceptional score which surpassed the next best browser (Firefox 3) by a 54% margin. Windows Internet Explorer 8 improved 12% between Q1 and Q2 tests, evidence of concerted efforts Microsoft is making in the SmartScreen technology.

Firefox 3 caught 27% of live threats, far fewer than Internet Explorer 8. It was, however, the best among products utilizing the

Google SafeBrowsing API. (Note: Firefox 3.5 was not stable enough to be tested during the course of this test. A patch has subsequently become available to address the stability issue. We were able to manually verify that the protection was identical between versions 3.0.11 and 3.5).

Safari 4 caught 21% of live threats. Overall protection varied greatly, with two short periods of severe dips.

Chrome 2 caught just 7% of live threats an 8% drop from the previous test.

Opera 10 Beta caught a mere 1% of live threats, providing virtually no protection against socially engineered malware. In our test bed validation, we verified there was effectively no difference between Opera 9 and Opera 10 Beta.

The report is here

Thanks to a great site http://nsslabs.com/ for this information !

 

The Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series has been updated to include new security baselines for Windows® 7, BitLocker^TM Drive Encryption, and Windows® Internet Explorer® 8.

The Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series provides organizations with an end-to-end solution to help plan, deploy, and monitor security baselines of Windows® operating systems and 2007 Microsoft® Office applications. The series has been updated to include new security baselines for Windows 7, BitLocker, and Internet Explorer 8.

This series is designed to help your organization meet its security and compliance requirements by providing prescriptive and tested security guidance from Microsoft, automated tools to help configure and deploy recommended security settings, configuration packs compatible with the desired configuration management (DCM) feature of Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, and reporting functionality to help verify that compliance requirements have been met.

Download the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series

Looking for other Windows 7 resources from the Solution Accelerators team? Check out the Windows Desktop Solution Accelerators page

 

Here is a security site with information for all to use and share.

With Content on

PROTECT YOUR FAMILY

PROTECT YOURSELF

PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER

Lots so good information and Videos for you to learn and think how you operate your computer and how to protect you identity

 

 

Go here

 

Direct Access Design and Deployment Guides

Brief Description

These guides provide information about advantages, disadvantages, requirements, recommendations, and design considerations for deploying Direct Access and instructions to configure Direct Access servers and other infrastructure servers. Think of Direct access as a 10,000 mile lan cable.

You need Windows 7 and Server 08 r2

To download the docs go here

To see a great video explaining this click here

SFO today Microsoft show integration with Bing and Twitter to show real time communications…

This is a Copy of the announcement on Microsoft.com

One of the most interesting things going on today on the Internet is the notion of the real time web. The idea of accessing data in real time has been an elusive goal in the world of search. Web indexes in search engines update at pretty amazing rates, given what it takes to crawl the entire web and index it for searching, but getting that to “real time” has been challenging.

The explosive popularity of Twitter is the best example of this opportunity. Twitter is producing millions of tweets every minute on every subject you can imagine. The power of those tweets as a form of data that can be surfaced in search is enormous. Innovative services like Twitter give us access to public opinion and thoughts in a way that has not before been possible. From important social and political issues to keeping friends up to date on the minute-by-minute of our daily lives, the web is getting more and more real time.

Search needs to keep up. Shortly after we launched Bing, we did an experiment with the team at Twitter, where we took a fairly small number of “celebrities” from Twitter and provided access to their tweets as part of the search result. Here is a great example.

But what if we take that to the next level? What if we indexed basically the whole public Twitter stream and made it available to customers?

We’re glad you asked that. Because today at Web 2.0 we announced that working with those clever birds over at Twitter, we now have access to the entire public Twitter feed and have a beta of Bing Twitter search for you to play with (in the US, for now). Try it out. The Bing and Twitter teams want to know what you think.

How does this all work?

Were you as fascinated by the 6-year-old boy floating away in a balloon as we were? Was it a hoax? We know that people are going to twitter more and more for information surrounding all the latest chatter.

You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today.

 

 

New phones now carry “Windows phones” branding, offer new touch and browsing capabilities, perform equally well at work and at play.

 

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2009 — Microsoft today unveiled a new generation of phones from leading manufacturers and mobile operators that offer an intuitive user interface, powerful Web browsing, and access to an online library of downloadable services and applications. Windows^® phones — a new brand for phones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system — are now available in retail stores worldwide in a broad range of styles and prices.

Also announced the availability of two key services platforms for the new phones: My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. My Phone is a free service that helps people back up and manage photos, applications and other content from their phone or PC, as well as restore information in the event of a lost phone. Windows Marketplace for Mobile is an online library of business and leisure mobile applications — as well as games — that customers can buy and download directly to their phones.

Image 1 of 4

HTC Imagio
The HTC Imagio has a large 3.6-inch high-resolution touch-screen display that makes it perfect for viewing photos and video on the go. It also a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and anti-shake technology, plus GPS and GSM connectivity.

Image 2 of 4

Samsung Intrepid
The Samsung Intrepid features a slim design and full QWERTY keyboard that allows users to text, Instant Message and email with ease, plus a touch screen for added flexibility.

Image 3 of 4

HTC Pure
The HTC PURE incorporates a large 3.2 inch display and a slim, sharp design. The device features sensitive touch screen technology, which allows for fast and easy zooming of web pages, emails, text messages, photos and documents.

Image 4 of 4

HTC Tilt 2
The HTC Tilt 2 has distinct style and strength while delivering a powerful productivity experience available. It features a high-resolution 3.6 inch widescreen display and full slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

 

Windows phones are designed to keep people connected to their business e-mail, calendar and contacts, as well as helping people stay in touch with friends and family with voice, instant messaging, photo and video sharing and social networking.

The launch of the Windows phone brand signals a major evolution in the company’s mobile strategy from being purely a platform provider to delivering both a great platform and end-to-end experiences and choices through software and services, including a broad portfolio of applications and support from the developer community. The branding will also make it easier to find Windows phones in stores.

The new phones are available with a wide variety of styles and features, including full physical QWERTY keyboards, touch screens or both. Windows phones offer more choices of mobile operators and phone styles than any other mobile platform on the market. Manufacturers include Acer, HP, HTC Corp., LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba Corp.

The HTC Pure, for example, is engineered for one-hand use, and has a touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, expandable memory and ambient-light sensor. The HTC Tilt 2 features a high-resolution, 3.6-inch widescreen display and full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS technology, and gravity, proximity and ambient-light sensors. And the Samsung Intrepid features a slim design and full QWERTY keyboard, plus a touch screen for added flexibility, stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, a 3.0-megapixel camera and GPS technology.

A Single Phone for Work and Play

Windows phones offer the familiarity of Windows software, with mobile versions of Windows Live, Microsoft Office, Windows Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. People can access their work and personal e-mail accounts, surf the Web, look at a PowerPoint presentation, read a Word document or review an Excel spreadsheet.

The phones come with enhanced touch capabilities, including the ability to recognize a standard set of gestures, and Internet Explorer Mobile, a new, more PC-like browser that comes with Adobe Flash Lite support for better rendering and can log onto secure Web sites, so users can bank online or connect to their corporate networks.

With Windows Live on their phones, users can keep track of friends through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Windows Live. They can upload photos and videos taken with the phones to a Facebook or MySpace page, or have video chats with friends. And they can have access to all their e-mail accounts — Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! mail, Gmail, Outlook Mobile and more — with auto updates so they don’t have to keep signing in to refresh.

My Phone and Marketplace

Microsoft is supporting the new phones with two new services. The first, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, is an online library of business and leisure mobile applications — as well as games — that customers can buy and download directly to their phones.

The second service, My Phone, lets people sync and back up information on their phones — such as contacts, appointments, messages, photos and videos — to a password-protected Web site. The free service is especially useful when a phone is lost, which happens 12 million times per year in the U.S., according to Microsoft surveys. My Phone premium service can ring the phone, even if it’s set to vibrate; show on a map where the phone was the last time it synchronized with the network; remotely lock the phone if it’s been stolen; and even remotely wipe the phone’s memory to protect personal data. If people need to replace the phone, My Phone can transfer to the new phone all the data that had been backed up from the lost phone.

People can personalize their Windows phones, outfitting them with apps and games from Windows Marketplace for Mobile. They can personalize the wallpaper on the home screen with their own photos and colors, or designs created by top designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, then further customize the home screen with widgets and plug-ins that show updates from their favorite Web services, tweets, sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather reports, etc.

Windows phones offer greater value, choice

 

Microsoft worked extensively with phone manufacturers to make sure that phones were equipped to allow users to make the most of Windows Mobile technology. The company’s partners are expected to deliver more than 30 new phones in more than 20 countries by the end of the year.

Source; Microsoft presspass

 

 

go to http://www.thewindowsclub.com/the-complete-windows-7-product-guide

 

 

 

And at bottom of the picture click on link to download 8 meg file.

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

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’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Operating System: Genuine Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3); Windows Vista (Gold, Service Pack 1, or Service Pack 2); Windows 7

• For Windows XP, a PC with a CPU clock speed of 500 MHz or higher, and 1 GB RAM or higher.
• For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a PC with a CPU clock speed of 1.0 GHz or higher, and 1 GB RAM or higher.
• VGA display of 800 × 600 or higher.
• 140 MB of available hard disk space.
• An Internet connection is required for installation and to download the latest virus and spyware definitions for Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Internet Browser:
  • Windows Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.
  • Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or later.
• Microsoft Security Essentials also supports Windows XP Mode in Windows 7. For more information see the system requirements for Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

Yes for HOME USERS it FREE !!!! with Support form Microsoft

 

To get this offer go here

 

Additional Infrastructure Planning and Design guides are available as beta releases on the Connect Web site. They are open beta downloads. If you are not already a member of the IPD beta program, and would like to join, follow these steps:

1. Go here to join the IPD beta program: https://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=1587&InvitationID=IPDM-QX6H-7TTV&SiteID=14

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team has released two updated virtualization guides: Windows Server Virtualization and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
These guides, updated to reflect the features and functionalities of Windows Server® 2008 R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, outline the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of these virtualization products.

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Windows Server Virtualization takes the reader through the process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. Identification of the Hyper-V™ server hosts required is presented in easy-to-follow steps, helping the reader to design and plan virtual server datacenters.

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager assists readers in the design and implementation of SCVMM architecture, thus enabling centralized administration of physical and virtual machines. Identification of the VMM server instances required is one of the simple, seven-step design processes presented in this guide.

Download the IPD Guides for Virtualization at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/ee395429.aspx
Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:

• Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
• Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.
• Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.
• Framing decisions in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive alignment with the appropriate business landscape.

 

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