Major software producers like Microsoft are moving relentlessly towards medialess software, where resellers and consumers alike will download the software and pay for the license by credit card. From Microsoft’s point of view, this cuts out the distributors and their margin as well as cutting the costs of packaging and transportation the physical product.
However, it is still true that most people prefer to deal with people, especially if they are uncertain about whether they are ordering the right sku, or have a question about functionality. And what happens if there is a problem? Have you noticed how difficult companies are making it for you to find a phone number, unless they are charging for their help line?
And what happens if you need to replace or reformat your hard disk and need to reload or repar the software? I guess that’s when a physical copy on a disc wins hands down.
More than a quarter of our free HP servers have gone in less than a week and they are still going fast. So if you have customers considering installing servers, get them to move quickly and take advantage of this amazing offer.
After all, its not often you can get an HP server for nothing!
Microsoft has released both Vista and Windows server 2008 SP2 today and are available for down load. Before installing SP2, users should ensure that SP! has already been loaded. SP2 will be released through Windws automatic update, but if you need it earlier, you can get the 32 bit version here and the 64 bit version here.
Blue Solutions is giving away an HP server with every two Microsoft OEM Server Operating Systems.
This means that if you purchase 2 copies of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Small Business Server 2008 or Essential Business Server 2008, you will receive an HP 455948-035 Server free of charge.
But you will need to be fast, stocks of these servers are limited!
No sooner did Microsoft make Windows 7 RC available for download, than pirated versions began to appear through Torrents and news groups. The only problem is that they are infected with malware Trojans aimed at recruiting the infected computer to a criminal botnet.
Even worse, the Trojans are so deeply buried in the pirated code, that conventional signature detection methods appear to be ineffective.
So, if you are considering down loading Windows 7 RC, only get it from the official Microsoft site , and make sure that your security software is kept uptodate.
Microsoft couldn’t keep the date of Windows 7 Release Candidate secret and now the date of the actual product availability has been let slip by the managing director of ACER when he was discussing the launch of a new PC.
Is it poor security or is everyone just anxious to see the back of Vista?
Microsoft have announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for both Vista and Server 2008.
The main benefits that Vista SP2 brings are faster searches, it will support Bluetooth 2.1, easier WiFi connection and provides the ability to record Blu-Ray within Vista. Microsoft also claim that SP2 will make it easier for business customers to upgrade to Windows 7 much more easily due to a high degree of compatibility.
If you have some application software that is incompatible with Vista (and there is quite a bit out there), then there is some hope that Windows 7 will let you get on with your work. The new Windows 7 OS will, if you go through a number of hoops and hurdles, let you operate XP compatible software within a virtual environment (Windows Virtual PC) in a virtual operating system (Windows XP Mode). There is a catch, of course, you will need to have either the Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate versions.
This may be the result of Microsoft realising that they could be faced with another Vista fiasco, if they didn’t do something to make it possible to run older apps. I think the expression is “enlightened self interest”.
Rumours in the trade suggest that Windows 7 RC may come out as early as May 5th for the public. The rumours, unsubstantiated at present, seem to follow the release of a screen shot from Microsoft’s Technet website taken over the weekend. In the screenshot, it shows that the page is due to be published in May and that the RC will be available for down load through June 2009 and the licenses will expire on 1st June 2010.
Microsoft has taken down the page and we have not yet been able to get any comment from them.
Symantec saw a 265% increase in malware attacks in 2008 according to their Internet Security Report XIV published today. The figure was 1,656227, up from 624,627 in 2007 which was up from 140,690 in 2006. One of the most common forms of attack is to exploit website vulnerabilities of popular, trusted sites and redirect the visitors’ browser to a server/site under the attackers control. Amazingly, only 394 of the 12,885 site vulnerabilities identified by Symantec in 2008 have been fixed!
April the 14th will see the end of support for Microsoft XP Home and Professional and Office 2003. Security updates will still be forthcoming until August 2014 for them, but you will have to pay for bug fixes, incident support or design changes.
Of course Microsoft has a schedule for when they will withdraw mainstream support for their products found at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex
Most Security industry experts expect a massive Conficker Worm attack tomorrow. Trend Micro have indicated that all the evidence points to an April Fools Day attack when machines infected by the malware are expected to contact a number of IP addresses to get instructions for a botnet attack.
Symantec estimate 9 to 15 million pc’s are infected because they have not down loaded and installed the Microsoft patch that was issued last October. In the mean time Trend Micro are offering free malware checks and clean ups at their House Call website.
We are having a fantastic offer on Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business MLK V2 OEM at only £455 for a three pack and £156.76 for singles. This is genuinely authorised Microsoft stock (as is all our stock). Please note that this is a limited offer while stocks last only, so you might think about stocking up. You won’t see prices like this again until there are 2 dollars to the Pound!
In a study carried out for Microsoft, IE8 RC1 beat six windows based browsers in blocking malware distributing sites. Though the results are being viewed with some degree of jaundice by the industry, the study was carried out by a company with a solid reputation.
The results were: IE8 RC1 69%, Firefox 30%, Safari 24%, Chrome 16%, Opera 5% and IE7 4%.
Windows Home Server Power Pack 2 has been released by Microsoft to fix identified problems and to improve certain functions such as content streaming and remote access configuration. It has also added Italian as a supported language on hew home servers. The Windows Home Server Team Blog has the details.
Power Pack 2 will be automatically uploaded via Windows update, but you need to have Power Pack 1 previously installed.
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