Microsoft is offering a $250,000 bounty for anyone that could provide information for the capture of the author/s of the conficker worm that affected Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, Windows XP SP3.

Microsoft sees the conficker worm as a criminal attack — “Microsoft has deemed the Conficker worm as nothing short of a criminal attack, and considers the reward a stem to this scenario. The company indicated that residents of any country worldwide are eligible for getting the $250,000, as long as they lead international law enforcement agencies to the author of Conficker. In the past, the software giant revealed that the worm was designed not to infect computers with the Ukrainian keyboard layout, which could be an indication that its creator was Ukrainian.”

The company has already teamed up with various organizations to fight the worm which includes: ICANN, NeuStar, VeriSign, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International Inc., M1D Global, AOL, Symantec, F-Secure, ISC, researchers from Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks and Support Intelligence.

Source: Softpedia

Have you already registered on the Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program? From the Microsoft site; it indicates that it would be closing soon.

The information on this programs is as follows: Time is running out! We’ll be closing the Customer Preview Program for new registrations soon. So if you want to try the Windows 7 Beta, be sure to register and download within the next few days. (Now would be a good time, actually.)

Windows 7 is…
the next release of the Windows client operating system, built on the secure foundation of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Performance, reliability, security, and compatibility are core tenets of this release as we collect your feedback to meet our engineering goals of making Windows 7 the best-performing and most stable Windows operating system to date. New innovations in the product are designed to augment your ability as an IT professional to better provision and manage increasingly mobile PCs, protect data, and improve both end-user and personal productivity.

Go ahead and register.

Microsoft has made the version of Windows 7 simpler compared to Windows Vista. Below are the editions:

Windows 7 Starter - this should have the basic features namely: new taskbar, standard Windows Media Player, Jump Lists, Backup and Restore, Action Center, Device Stage, Fax and Scan, a few games

Windows 7 Home Premium - the following features are missing in the starter edition but found on the home premium namely: Aero Glass & Background, Home Group creation, Media Center, Windows Touch, DVD playback and authoring, more games, Mobility Center

Windows 7 Professional - this has everything that the home premium has plus: Joining in Domains, advanced backup, Remote Desktop host, EFS, Offline Folders

Windows 7 Enterprise - this has everything that the professional edition has plus: BitLocker To Go, BitLocker, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD

Windows 7 Ultimate - this has everything that the enterprise has minus volume licensing. This is only available in retail license.

This is clearly a simplified version of Windows Vista; and I think it would be best if they scrapped Windows Starter Edition altogether.

Unlike Windows Vista, Microsoft has been conservative with Windows 7. They are not being aggressive to marketing campaigns or promising anything soon. What Microsoft has been doing is releasing and showing the power of the operating system before anything else. They are letting the public discuss the beauty of their next OS.

From previous announcements, Microsoft is saying the release date of this OS is on 2010, three years after the release of Windows Vista. Reports circulating however; suggests that Microsoft might release in January of 2009 holiday season.

What does this mean to consumers? Wait for Windows 7. Unless Microsoft makes big discounts from Windows Vista to Windows 7, I think people should wait a little longer before upgrading. Or better yet, why not use Windows 7 beta release instead?

Lenovo is going all out in expanding and improving their product line by acquiring Switchbox whose operations have been a mystery so far; but not its founders. Michael Sievert was a former Microsoft Windows executive who was responsible for Windows Vista Worldwide Introduction in 2006 and 2007. He along with Robert Dickinson and Blake Ramsdell have joined Lenovo’s ranks.

The acquisition of the company is expected to bring new and exciting technologies to Lenovo’s computing line who already rolled out instant-on technologies to IdeaPad S10 netbook. Aside from this, they have also launched ThinkPad W700DS laptop workstations with two screens and IdeaCentre A600 (PC with remote control Wii like capabilities).

I am hoping the acquisition of Switchbox would add technologies that enhance the Windows Vista experience and provide consumers with better products.

This is a how to video of Windows Vista’s speech recognition. It is easy to follow and straightforward.

In case you have installed or dual-booted Windows 7, I would suggest not to make it your primary operating system unless you have installed an anti-virus protection. Initial reports indicate that McAfee Total Virus Protection is not compatible with Windows 7 and upon installation it gives you this message:

“The version of Windows installed on this machine is not supported. Please refer to the product documentation for a list of supported operating systems.”

Also, given that Windows 7 is in public status, avoid doing critical productive work in the operating system that may jeopardize your files and output.

Feel free to evaluate and play around with Windows 7, and leave it at that purpose for the moment.

More articles on McAfee compatibility problems:

McAfee Has Compatibility Issues on Windows 7
McAfee Hosed in Windows 7 Beta

As I have reported last week (story here), Microsoft has now released their most recent critical patch. As described on their site:

Executive Summary

This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution on affected systems. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect networks from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter. Best practices recommend that systems that are connected to the Internet have a minimal number of ports exposed.

This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, and Moderate for all supported editions of Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by validating the fields inside the SMB packets. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

The security bulletin is here.

I came across this post from Mark Kellner about his testing done on netbooks. From the article I read about SIMtone’s online virtual pc which was announced in this article earlier this year.

Going to the site of Simtone, it says “Computing Without Your Computer”. Going back to the Online Virtual PC, it seems that you can load Windows XP in the cloud for use on low power computers especially on Netbooks which make it more attractive.

However; I think the attractiveness of Online Operating system for Netbooks has peaked today when Netbooks still have limited computing power. As I have reported that Netbooks sales is going to soar; Netbooks are just going to remain cheap and become more powerful that there is no need for Virtual operating systems anymore.

Given that Simtone’s online Virtual PC is not yet available; they are a case of great idea too late.

I became a fan of Netbooks and bought my Lenovo Ideapad S10 recently.

This is a video of Windows 7 6956 Preview