———————————————————————–

A couple of weeks ago, Tech Republic asked a series of poll questions about Microsoft Windows XP. That single blog post lead to close to 300 separate posts in the corresponding discussion thread. The poll results are very informative and definitely give us an indication about where the TechRepublic membership stands with regard to a potential operating system migration.

To put it politely and succinctly — most IT professionals are not looking forward to it. In fact, many are actively and passionately against the very idea.

Let’s take a deeper look at the results and see what we can glean with regard to the future of Windows XP.

Results

Figure A

Obviously there is a large installed base of Windows XP deployed worldwide.

Figure B

It looks like the real loser in this poll question is Windows Vista. The vast majority of respondents are either waiting for Windows 7 or planning to keep Windows XP.

Another interesting data point is the lack of consideration for Linux or Mac OS X. Despite what vocal and passionate proponents of those operating systems may advocate, IT professionals in the business space are only interested in Windows — at least for right now.

Figure C

Backing up the previous result is this question regarding which operating systems have been tested as a possible replacement for XP. A decent percentage of IT professionals have tested the potential of Linux, but the majority of respondents are still squarely in the Windows camp.

Figure D

While legacy applications are definitely a major consideration, they don’t seem to be the major obstacle to operating system migration.

Figure E

This is the first poll question to deal with the actual practical deployment of a new operating system. It is abundantly obvious that many IT professionals are not ready to implement a migration. Unless there is a catalyst that cannot be ignored, Windows XP is going to remain the primary operating system for many organizations for as long as it is feasible.

The discussion thread following the first blog post backs the response to this question. Many posters in the discussion were determined to keep Windows XP as absolutely long as they can.

Figure F

The two primary reasons Windows XP looks destined to remain a factor for some time to come is that it works and that Vista is not perceived as a viable replacement. Without some sort of catalyst to force a migration, the deployment of any operating system besides XP will be slow and methodical.

Format G

The concept of a methodical rollout is confirmed by the results of this poll question. Most IT professionals have no plans to roll out a company-wide deploy of a new operating system. Rather, new operating systems, if they are to be introduced at all into an organization, are mostly likely going to trickle in with new equipment.

Figure H

Once again, we see in the response to this poll question that operating systems other than some form of Windows are not really being considered. The implication is that IT professionals have very little interest in migrating away from Windows XP no matter what other operating system you ask them to consider.

Bottom line

Looking over the poll results, it leaves little doubt that the general consensus is against operating system migration until it is absolutely necessary. Windows XP is working just fine for many and, so far, no feasible or practical reason has presented itself as a catalyst that will drive IT professionals to consider a change. It looks like Windows XP is going to be around for longer than Microsoft may have suspected.

Original Article > IT professionals will not drop Windows XP quietly (if ever)

The company has activated its security response process to deal with the zero-day attacks has issued a pre-patch advisory with workarounds and a one-click “fix it” feature to enable the mitigations.

From the advisory:

Microsoft is aware of limited, active attacks that use this exploit code. While our investigation is ongoing, our investigation so far has shown that Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable; all versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are not vulnerable.

An entry on the MSRC blog provides more details:

The vulnerability is in the QuickTime parser in Microsoft DirectShow. An attacker would try and exploit the vulnerability by crafting a specially formed video file and then posting it on a website or sending it as an attachment in e-mail. While this isn’t a browser vulnerability, because the vulnerability is in DirectShow, a browser-based vector is potentially accessible through any browser using media plug-ins that use DirectShow. Also, we’ve verified that it is possible to direct calls to DirectShow specifically, even if Apple’s QuickTime (which is not vulnerable) is installed.

Interestingly, the vulnerable component was removed from Windows Vista and later operating systems but is still available for use in the Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Vulnerable Windows users should immediately consider disabling QuickTime parsing to thwart attackers. This KB article provides fix-it button that automatically enables the workaround.

Here’s how:

1. Download the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Run the msicuu2.exe file you downloaded to install the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility.
3. Locate and launch the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility on the Start menu.
4. From the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility window, locate the application in the list you want to remove and click the Remove button.
5. Once the application has been removed, click the Exit button to close the utility.

When you use Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, you can perform the following functions:

* Select one or more programs that were installed by Windows Installer from the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box.

To do this, select the programs that you want in the Installed Products list in the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box. After you make this selection, the utility removes only Windows Installer configuration information that is related to those programs.

* Remove all Windows Installer information associated with the selected programs. This includes the entries for the programs in the Add Or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. Be aware that only the Installer information for that particular program is removed, not the files.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility does not perform the following functions:

* Remove Windows Installer
* Remove files of any programs that are installed by Windows Installer, such as Microsoft Office 2003

If you use this utility to remove Windows Installer configuration information for your program and you plan to reinstall the program, you should reinstall the program in the same folder where you originally installed it. This prevents duplication of files on your hard disk or disks.

Original Article by Greg Schultz for Tech Republic

Additional Information from Microsoft Support Knowledge Base Article 290301

Someday, someway, your organization is going to have to make a decision regarding the next operating system deployment. Do you know the facts of the current debate? Don’t you think you should?

————————————————————————————————

It seems like everywhere you turn on the Web these days, there’s another article bad-mouthing Microsoft Windows Vista and telling you to stay with Windows XP — arguing that XP is the greatest Microsoft OS ever. It also seems like there are just as many articles praising Windows 7 as our OS savior — and it’s barely even a twinkle in Bill Gate’s eye at this point. While reading these types of articles recently, I began to recall other points in the history of Microsoft operating systems and to draw parallels with what happened then with what is happening today with Vista.

Windows Vista vs. Windows XP

As you know, Windows XP has been around quite a long time now. In fact, if you calculate the duration between the official release date and the date on which Microsoft officially stopped general licensing to OEMs and terminated retail sales of the operating system, you get six years, eight months, and six days. These dates and the other milestones in between are shown in the timeline in Figure A.

The Windows XP timeline

While this timeline looks rather short, a lot can happen in six years, eight months, and six days. If you can remember that far back, you know that in between the original release date and the SP1 release date, Microsoft caught a lot of flak for Windows XP’s flakiness. When Microsoft released SP1 and touted it as a vast improvement, many users reported major problems with the update. (Don’t remember? Just Google “XP SP1 Problems.”)

In between SP1 and SP2, malware popped up everywhere, and Microsoft caught a lot more flak for Windows XP’s inadequate security mechanisms. When Microsoft released SP2 and touted its enhanced security features, such as the Windows Firewall, which was enabled by default, there was a major uproar as the firewall seemed to “break” a ton of applications. (Don’t remember? Just Google “XP SP2 Problems.”)

In between SP2 and SP3, the majority of the problems with SP2 were worked out and other improvements were added to the OS as patches and fixes delivered by Windows Update. In that time, Windows XP became the great OS that it is today — the OS that many people swear by. It didn’t happen overnight; in fact, it took a little over four years.

The point that I’m trying to make is that I think that it is unfair to compare Vista at this early point in its lifecycle to XP, which at this point in its lifecycle is an extremely mature OS. All the kinks have been worked out, and it is able to hum along perfectly. If you really want to compare today’s Vista to XP, then compare it to XP SP1. When you do, you’ll see that Vista has gone through the same type of growing pains that XP went through and that Vista’s growing pains at this stage really aren’t as major as XP’s were.

Furthermore, if you take a look at Vista’s timeline and calculate the duration between Vista’s official release date and the proposed SP2 release date of April 2009, you get about two years, three months — shooting at April 30 as a potential release date (Figure B).

Windows Vista timeline

If you compare this Vista timeline to the calculated duration between XP’s release date and the SP2 release date, you get two years, nine months, twelve days. That puts Vista about six months ahead of XP at this stage of the game. And if the relatively mild disruptions caused by SP1 are any indication of how well SP2 will go, then Windows Vista will eventually become a great OS too. It won’t happen overnight, but it will be closer to three years as opposed to the four or so years that it took XP.

Windows Vista vs. Windows 7

When it comes to Windows 7, I’m reminded of the story of Microsoft’s first attempt at a GUI windowing system, called Interface Manager. In their 1992 book titled Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire about Bill Gates and the making of Microsoft, James Wallace and Jim Erikson describe that in 1981 Microsoft first began working on Interface Manager. After about a year and a half into the development of Interface Manager, Gates realized that other software companies were developing similar GUI programs for the IBM PC. One such product was called VisiOn from VisiCorp.

Not wanting to lose out to VisiOn, in January of 1983, Gates let it be known to the computer press that Microsoft would ship its product before VisiCorp could ship VisiOn. However, the back story was that Gates had made this promise weeks before a prototype of Interface Manager had even run on an IBM PC. Even so, the story goes that Gates spent months selling computer manufacturers and software developers on his vision of the GUI. Somewhere along the line Interface Manager became known as Windows.

In October of 1983, VisiCorp announced that it planned to start shipping VisiOn, and at around the same time Quarterdeck announced that it was building a GUI called DESQ. To steal some of the thunder back, Gates immediately orchestrated the formal announcement of Windows — even though that actual product was not really ready. Apparently Gates had learned from IBM that one way to prevent potential customers from moving to a competitor’s product was to announce that your company was working on something even better. Soon afterward, the term “vaporware” was coined by the folks at InfoWorld to describe this marketing technique of announcing a product before it actually exists.

Now, we’ve all read stories about the promise of Windows 7 and we’ve seen some very nice screen shots; but is Windows 7 real? Sure, Microsoft is working on Vista’s successor, but is it just vaporware at this point in time? Is the Windows 7 announcement just designed to prevent us from defecting to Apple and to keep us hanging on to Windows while Microsoft fixes up Vista SP2? Based on the story about Interface Manager, it is a very real possibility.

What’s your take?

Regardless of whether Windows 7 is vaporware, Vista is real and I believe that based on the level of improvements that we’ve seen so far, Vista is going to get better and better, and before we know it, Vista will be a great operating system. And when Windows 7 does come out, chances are good that we’ll start this whole process over again — there will be lots of articles bad-mouthing Windows 7 and telling you to stay with Vista. Then, we’ll start hearing about Windows 8.

What’s your take on the notion of Vista vs. XP and Vista vs. 7? Do you think that Vista SP1 is better than XP SP1? Are you waiting for Vista SP2? Do you think that Vista SP2 will be better than XP SP2?

Original Article Found Here

The Register reports that Microsoft has yet again extended the deadline for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to produce machines equipped with Windows XP to July 31, 2009. This claim has not been substantiated by Microsoft, but given its push-and-pull relationship with the XP cut-off date, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were true.

Windows XP was supposed to retire on January 31, 2008, a year after Vista’s release, but once Vista sales failed to meet expectations, its death date was extended to July 30, 2008.

Then, in June, Microsoft extended XP for low-cost PCs, also known as Netbooks, until 2010. Dell planned on adhering to Microsoft’s guidelines before they too changed opinions and chose to sell after the deadline.

Each time Microsoft wraps XP in floaties, it belies their lack of confidence in Vista. Opinions about their new OS are astoundingly negative, so much so that they pulled a blind taste test — known as the Mojave experiment — to get past user’s preconceived notions of the system’s crappiness.

There have been rumors that Windows 7 would be released in June 2009, which means PC buyers can bypass Vista entirely by sticking with XP until Windows 7. But remember: Windows 7 is being built upon Vista’s foundation, so if you’ve lost your faith in Microsoft’s ability to craft anything decent post-XP, 2009 may not be your year.

Original Article Found On PC World.com

More than half (58 percent) of businesses using Microsoft technology are “exploiting” Windows XP, compared to just four percent for Vista, according to research by the Corporate IT Forum (Tif).

Tif also found that 35 percent of organisations described themselves as “not yet interested” in Vista.

The operating system (OS) that most people appear to be developing or piloting is XP, with 12 percent of businesses saying they were doing so, compared to five percent for Vista.

More businesses (30 percent) said they’re currently investigating or analysing Microsoft’s next scheduled OS, Windows 7, than Vista (14 percent).

In contrast, seven percent of businesses said they’re still exploiting Windows 2000, although 19 percent said they are currently replacing or “sunsetting” it.

In April, research revealed that Vista uptake among businesses had been slow during 2007, although a quarter of businesses said they planned to upgrade in 2008.

The main reason given by Tif members for not moving to Vista was a lack of business requirement for doing so.

Microsoft’s latest browser, Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is undergoing a similar struggle for adoption, with a fifth of respondents saying they’re not yet interested in the newer version of the app.

Almost two-thirds of businesses surveyed (65 percent) said they are exploiting IE6, compared to four percent for IE7. However, 14 percent said they are currently piloting IE7, with the same proportion using it in isolation.

Almost a quarter (23 percent) said they are analysing and investigating IE8, which is currently available in beta form.

The full results of the survey can be found on the Tif website.

The left panel of the Start menu consists entirely of a divided list of programs that Microsoft Windows XP thinks will come in handy for you: the pinned items list above the separator line, and the most frequently used programs list, displayed below the line.

By default, Windows XP places links to your Internet browser and your e-mail application in the pinned items list and will place as many as 30 shortcuts to the programs that you’ve recently used in the most frequently used programs list. (The most frequently used programs list is, by default, six shortcuts long.)

In order to really take advantage of the Start menu as a launching area for all the programs you use most often, you can configure the entire left panel as a pinned items list. Here’s how:

1. Right-click the Start button and select the Properties command to display the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.
2. Click the Customize button adjacent to the Start Menu radio button to display the Customize Start Menu dialog box.
3. In the Programs panel, use the Spin button to set the Number Of Programs On The Start Menu setting to 0. Click the Clear List button.
4. In the Show On Start Menu panel, you can clear the Internet check box because the Internet Explorer icon already appears in the Quick Launch menu by default, and maybe even the e-mail check box, depending on how you launch your e-mail application.
5. Click OK twice-once to close the Customize Start Menu dialog box and once to close the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog boxes.
6. Click the Start button and access the All Programs submenu.
7. Locate and right-click on a shortcut to a program you use most often and select the Pin To Start Menu command.

You can pin as many as 30 of your most often used programs to the Start menu, depending on your screen resolution setting. With your actual favorite programs on the pinned items list, you can now really take advantage of the Start menu.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

Original Article From Tech Republic

The Windows XP SP3 release schedule as follows:

* April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
* April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
* April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
* June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates

To conclude, automatic patches will not come until June 10th. So, if you are a system administrator, you can rest assured that you do have ample time to fully test the release and prepare for unanticipated issues. You can also find additional details on Windows XP SP3 from Tech ARP.

Calling the situation “untenable” and describing Windows as “collapsing,” a pair of Gartner analysts this week said Microsoft must make radical changes to the operating system or risk becoming a has-been.

In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the Redmond, Washington developer acts.

“For Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, the situation is untenable,” said Silver and MacDonald in their prepared presentation, titled “Windows Is Collapsing: How What Comes Next Will Improve.”

Among Microsoft’s problems, the pair said, is Windows’ rapidly-expanding code base, which makes it virtually impossible to quickly craft a new version with meaningful changes. That was proved by Vista, they said, when Microsoft — frustrated by lack of progress during the five-year development effort on the new OS — hit the “reset” button and dropped back to the more stable code of Windows Server 2003 as the foundation of Vista.

“This is a large part of the reason [why] Windows Vista delivered primarily incremental improvements,” they said. In turn, that became one of the reasons why businesses pushed back Vista deployment plans. “Most users do not understand the benefits of Windows Vista or do not see Vista as being better enough than Windows XP to make incurring the cost and pain of migration worthwhile.”

Other analysts, including those at rival Forrester Research, have pointed out the slow move toward Vista. Last month, Forrester said that by the end of 2007 only 6.3 percent of the 50,000 enterprise computer users it surveyed were working with Vista. What gains Vista made during its first year, added Forrester, appeared to be at the expense of Windows 2000; Windows XP’s share hardly budged.

The monolithic nature of Windows — although Microsoft talks about Vista’s modularity, Silver and MacDonald said it doesn’t go nearly far enough — not only makes it tough to deliver a worthwhile upgrade, but threatens Microsoft in the mid- and long-term.

Users want a smaller Windows that can run on low-priced — and low-powered — hardware, and increasingly, users work with “OS-agnostic applications,” the two analysts said in their presentation. It takes too long for Microsoft to build the next version, the company’s being beaten by others in the innovation arena and in the future — perhaps as soon as the next three years — it’s going to have trouble competing with Web applications and small, specialized devices.

“Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large, which makes application development, support and the user experience all more difficult,” said Silver and MacDonald.

“Windows as we know it must be replaced,” they said in their presentation.

Their advice to Microsoft took several forms, but one road they urged the software giant to take was virtualization. “We envision a very modular and virtualized world,” said the researchers, who spelled out a future where virtualization — specifically a hypervisor — is standard on client as well as server versions of Windows.

“An OS, in this case Windows, will ride atop the hypervisor, but it will be much thinner, smaller and modular than it is today. Even the Win32 API set should be a module that can be deployed to maintain support for traditional Windows applications on some devices, but other[s] may not have that module installed.”

Backward compatibility with older, so-called “legacy” applications, should also be supported via virtualization. “Backward compatibility is a losing proposition for Microsoft; while it keeps people locked into Windows, it also often keeps them from upgrading,” said the analysts. “[But] using built-in virtualization, compatibility modules could be layered atop Win32, or not, as needed.”

Silver and MacDonald also called on Microsoft to make it easier to move to newer versions of Windows, re-think how the company licenses Windows and come up with a truly modular operating system that can grow or shrink as needed.

Microsoft has taken some new steps with Windows, although they don’t necessarily match what the Gartner analysts recommended. For instance, the company recently granted Windows XP Home a reprieve from its June 30 OEM cut-off, saying it would let computer makers install the older, smaller operating system on ultra-cheap laptops through the middle of 2010.

It will also add a hypervisor to Windows — albeit the server version — in August, and there are signs that it will launch Windows 7, the follow-on to Vista, late next year rather than early 2010.

Original Article taken from ComputerWorld

You can change this screensaver to something of your choice, such as the 3D Flying Objects or 3D Pipes screensaver and you can even shorten the amount of time that Windows XP waits before activating your choice of screensaver.

Here’s how to do both:

• Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
• Go to HK_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
• Locate and double-click the SCRNSAVE.EXE string value.
• When you see the Edit String dialog box, type the name of the screensaver you want in the Value Data text box and click OK.
• Locate and double-click the ScreenSaveTimeOut string value and change the value from 600 seconds to another number, such as 120 for two minutes.
• Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.

After the system restarts you will see the Logon or Welcome screen. If you leave the system untouched (for two minutes in the example above) you will see the screensaver of your choice appear.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. As always, remember that editing the registry is risky, so be sure to back up your computer before undertaking any registry changes.