April 1st 2009

It is widely thought that the pain-in-the-arse Conficker worm will start doing it's stuff on April 1st. No one really knows what that stuff may be - anything from data theft to recruiting machines to a zombie farm. It may even be just a scam for publicity (though I doubt it).

Every machine that is infected represents a threat to eveyone else connected to the internet. Please make sure you run Windows Update this week.

Better safe than sorry!

IE8 Arrives

Internet Explorer 8 has finally been released. As expected, this latest version builds on previous versions and exhibits some useful features. And it is a more secure browser than IE7, though remember that no browser is completely secure.

New features include:

• Colour-coded tabs
• Option to reopen closed tabs (a la Firefox)
• Isolated tabs - if one tab crashes, the rest are not affected
• InPrivate browsing, where private data is dumped on exiting the session
• Protection against clickjacking (where a mouse click acts on an invisible layer above the intended target, intended to redirect the user to a malicious site)
• Compatibility mode to render IE7-optimised sites correctly (this feature should really be automatic)

Sadly, those using Windows 7 Beta will not be able to upgrade to the full version of IE8 as the IE8 Beta included with the Windows 7 download is optimised for that operating system. Still, if you run IE7 under Win 2K, XP or Vista then upgrading to IE8 is the only sensible choice.

Internet Explorer 8 is currently only available as a separate download. Let's hope it is soon included in Windows Update.

Download IE8 from here
Read more here

Windows 7 Marches On

I must say I'm liking Windows 7. I must also say that I don't use it on my main system and so don't give it the workout it should be getting. But I like it enough to have decided to migrate from XP when the final release comes out.

Microsoft have got far better press with Windows 7 than it did with Vista. Now MS are showing they react responsibly to beta tester's comments by publishing a whole string of suggestions that are to be incorporated in the final release.

Some improvements will be handy, some will not be applicable. Many come under the category of "Why didn't I think of that?"

Read the full list on Steven Sinofsky's blog

A Merger of Giants

Big news from Emsi Software and Tall Emu !

Emsi Software, makers of the a-squared anti-malware product have joined forces with Tall Emu, makers of the Online-Armor firewall and are offering a package deal for the two applications at a 30% discount. I have been impressed with a-squared for some years, ever since using the a² Free anti-trojan (as it was known then) application marketed by Emsisoft. Online-Armor has an excellent reputation and was declared the best firewall of 2008 by Scot Finnie in his blog.

With these companies joining forces, users can be assured they are getting two effective applications that will play nicely together at a reasonable price. I wish them all the best.

As long as they don't include the Ask toolbar ...