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Thanks, Microsoft Word, for all the (muscle) memories
,----[ Quote ]
| The other day I met a friend on the train who was revelling in his
| bought-for-work super-tiny Sony Vaio laptop. He was delighted with it, except
| for one thing. "I HATE Vista," he said. Which he acknowledged was ironic,
| since he helped with its launch last year. But, he explained, there's a
| difference between helping launch the thing and using it day in, day out, as
| he did.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/15/microsoft.computing
Microsoft Claims Vista UAC Is 'Misunderstood'
,----[ Quote ]
| But In a document published Tuesday that's sure to rile many in the 'Vista
| Sucks' camp, Microsoft insists that the pain some users have experienced is
| due to misconceptions that exist about certain features in Vista and what
| makes them tick.
`----
http://www.crn.com/software/207800185
Windows XP SP3 Problems Continue
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Windows-XP-SP3-Problems-Continue/
Recent:
Microsoft Exec: UAC Designed To 'Annoy Users'
,----[ Quote ]
| "The reason we put UAC into the platform was to annoy users. I'm serious,"
| said Cross.
`----
http://www.crn.com/software/207100934?cid=CRNFeed
Security design: Why UAC will not work
,----[ Quote ]
| Pinning all your end-point security hopes on UAC assumes that criminals are
| not as smart as they really are
`----
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/11/02OPsecadvise-user-account-control_1.html
XP SP3 crashes AMD machines
,----[ Quote ]
| One user reported, "I just installed Windows XP SP3 and after completing the
| processes and when the system reboots, the system cannot proceed to load the
| Windows. It just displays the flash screen of Windows then after it reboots
| again."
|
| Angry users have also reported that, after the installation, it is not even
| possible to boot in safe mode, usually the last resort before setting up a
| repeated forehead/screen interface.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/09/xp-sp3-crashes-amd-machines
Windows XP SP3 Sows Havoc, Users Complain
,----[ Quote ]
| Within hours of its release, Microsoft's Service Pack 3 for Windows XP began
| drawing hundreds of complaints from users who claim the update is wreaking
| havoc on their PCs.
|
| The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft's Windows XP
| message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes
`----.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207600950
Windows XP SP3: Beware the service pack!
,----[ Quote ]
| The first thing that happened after installing Vista SP1 is that it broke my
| HP printer driver. That wasn't too bad, I fixed that quite easily by
| uninstalling the driver and doing a clean reinstallation. However, the fact
| that a service pack upgrade caused an instability in a previously working
| standard software installation is a concern.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18109/1023/
Windows XP SP3 still officially AWOL, but can be found on BitTorrent, Microsoft
servers
,----[ Quote ]
| On Tuesday, in a low-key announcement on a support newsgroup, Microsoft said
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| it would delay the release of XP SP3 because of data corruption issues
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| between the updated operating system and its retail point-of-sale software.
`----
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=intellectual_property_and_drm&articleId=9082098&taxonomyId=144&intsrc=kc_top
XP change corrupts data, hamstrings SP3 rollout
,----[ Quote ]
| A Microsoft spokeswoman on Wednesday acknowledged that the same problems
| affected Dynamics RMS users running XP SP3.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=operating_systems&articleId=9081438&taxonomyId=89&intsrc=kc_top
Is Microsoft Aura Fading?
,----[ Quote ]
| Yesterday's early relief rally reversed, and Microsoft's value has now fallen
| by more than $30 billion since it unveiled its bid for Yahoo on February 1.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121004447596669953.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Microsoft stock drops amid slumping sales
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp., whose Windows software dominates the personal-computer
| market, fell 6.2 percent Fridayin Nasdaq trading after sales slumped, casting
| doubt on whether PC demand can hold up in a slowing economy. The software
| maker reported a 24 percent drop in sales of Windows last quarter and
| forecast earnings that may miss analysts' estimates.
|
| [...]
|
| "The risk is that Linux gets a foothold and then affects their long-term
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| revenue significantly."
`----
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9061263
Related:
Learning to Live with UAC
,----[ Quote ]
| Like most veteran Windows users, I balked when I first encountered the User
| Account Control (UAC) mechanism in the latter BETAs of Vista. The constant
| interruption of nearly every system or maintenance related task was
| unbearable. Finally, after one particularly frustrating bout of "move the
| file/yes I really want to move the file/please let me move the file/sorry, do
| dice buddy," I did what many early Vista users did: I turned UAC off.
|
| Hint: For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the option to disable
| UAC is buried under the User Accounts sub-section of the Control Panel.
|
| Ah, the bliss of no UAC! I could now do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted!
| It was just like Windows XP, but with a cooler UI!
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisedesktop/archives/2007/07/learning_to_liv.html
Researcher Reveals 2-Step Vista UAC Hack
,----[ Quote ]
| A Web application developer has uncovered a two-step process
| (PDF) for exploiting Windows Vista's User Account Control,
| essentially by having a Trojan piggyback on what could be al
| egitimate download.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2131595,00.asp
Vista User Account Control and the Linux Superuser
,----[ Quote ]
| So, when I was researching the way to determine the shadow storage
| size on Windows Vista for my February 23rd entry, I wasn't too surprised
| when I got an error message about needing to elevate my privilege after
| I tried to run vssadmin from a standard command shell. What a Linux
| system would have done right there would be to ask me for the
| administrator password.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/stratdev/archives/2007/03/vista_user_acco.html
Vista's UAC needs an overhaul. Ideas?
,----[ Quote ]
| It seems like everyone, other than possibly Microsoft's Vista team
| itself, seems to believe that the User Account Control (UAC) in
| Vista already needs an overhaul.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=277
Windows Vista: Secure Or Just Frustrating?
,----[ Quote ]
| The problem with Vista’s security implementation is that lots of warning
| dialog boxes don't provide security. Users get frustrated and eventually stop
| reading them altogether. They think of them as annoyances, an extra click
| required to get a feature to work. Is Windows Vista really more secure than
| the operating systems that preceded it, or simply more frustrating? Since
| Microsoft left us with no choice but to buy a PC with Vista pre-installed,
| we’re inevitably stuck with it. Let the frustration begin.
`----
http://www.theitarticles.com/windows-vista-secure-or-just-frustrating/264/
,----[Quote ]
| "Oh, excuse me, is this supposed be a joke? We all remember all those
| Microsoft's statements about how serious Microsoft is about security in
| Vista and how all those new cool security features like UAC or Protected
| Mode IE will improve the world's security. And now we hear what?
`----
http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2007/02/vista-security-model-big-joke.html
Vista's Faux Security
,----[ Quote ]
| At the end of the new Apple ad, the security guard finally asks the
| hapless PC: "You are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or allow?"
|
| Unfortunately, after conditioning the world to click "allow," all
| Microsoft will have accomplished is to pass the buck to the hapless
| PC user, trying to make the user responsible for anything bad that
| happens because they ultimately chose to allow it.
|
| While that may allow Microsoft?s security engineers to sleep at night,
| the rest of us won't rest as easy until Vista's holes are plugged
| with something more substantial than a dialog box.
`----
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/article.php/11162_3660976_2
Vista's UAC security is hopeless, says Symantec
,----[ Quote ]
| A key security feature of Windows Vista, User Account Control (UAC) is
| still nearly unusable, Symantec has said.
|
| At a press presentation last week, Symantec vice president of
| engineering Rowan Trollope said Symantec's customers had found the
| feature so "chatty", that it was a burden on users, potentially
| creating new help-desk calls.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7769
Windows Vista set to overwhelm helpdesks
,----[ Quote ]
| The Windows Vista features that will most benefit end users are
| likely to cause a flood of calls to enterprise IT help desks, it
| was claimed today.
|
| SupportSoft predicted that one of the main areas in which
| end-users are likely to experience problems will be dealing
| with Vista's security features.
`----
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=44424
Windows Forces you to use UAC to Add a Printer
,----[ Quote ]
| Another bug that got past the extensive RTM testing process? Nope.
| It's a bug that came into existence during the finalization process.
| This bug wasn't there in RC2, but it's most definitely there now. All
| we can say is, hopefully this gets patched before SP6.
`----
http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/326
Vista: Slow and Dangerous
,----[ Quote ]
| Most of the time I spent testing Vista was with sluggish pre-release
| versions. I expected things to improve when I ran the finished software
| on PCs configured for the new Windows version. I now realize that
| Vista really is slow unless you throw a lot of hardware at it.
| Microsoft claims it will run with 512 megabytes of memory. I had
| recommended a minimum of a gigabyte, but 2 GB is more like it if
| you want snappy performance.
|
| [...]
|
| The most exasperating thing about Vista, though, is the security
| feature called User Account Control. UAC, satirized in an Apple
| ad as a security guy who constantly interrupts a conversation,
| appears as a pop-up asking permission before Windows...
`----
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/BusinessWeek/2007/03/26/3124001
Your expense = my revenue
,----[ Quote ]
| "Windows is a money making machine for everyone involved" - but
| describing it as really a kind of work for welfare scheme in which
| everyone wins -except the customer to whom it's a cost, and the
| national economy for which it's a productivity sink.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=803
Analyst slams Vista's 'backward' UI
,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Vista is a step back in usability, researcher claims
`----
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=17334
Windows Vista Tip: Run as administrator
,----[ Quote ]
| This will make every admin operation prompt you for credentials
| while it is great if you do a lot of remote operations it can
| become tedious if you are performing a lot of local admin operations.
`----
http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/joshs_blog/archive/2006/12/01/windows-vista-tip-run-as-administrator.aspx
http://tinyurl.com/y64c6r
Microsoft: Turn off Vista's UAC to fix problems
,----[ Quote ]
| I've been fairly critical of the new User Access Control (UAC) in
| Windows Vista, as I feel it is too secure to be usable, which will
| probably result in many users and corporations turning off and
| losing out on what could have been Vista?s best feature.
|
| [...]
|
| He recommends turning UAC back on after fixing the problem, but
| when users need to do this more than a couple of times to get a
| usable system, they will just leave it turned off.
`----
http://beta.amanzi.co.nz/2006/11/13/microsoft-turn-off-vistas-uac-to-fix-problems/
'Vista's Account Protection: One Click and It's Gone'
,----[ Quote ]
| One of Vista's big security features is 'User Account Protection'
| (or 'User Account Control') which pops up and asks for user
| authentication before software can make any administrative changes to
| the system. But the TweakVista utility can turn off UAP in one click...
`----
http://securitydot.net/news/exploits/vulnerabilities/articles/2661/news.html
The Truth About User Privileges
,----[ Quote ]
| Has the time finally come for the least-privilege user -- you know,
| setting your Windows client machines to run without system
| administrator rights?
|
| [...]
|
| Today, some Windows applications just won't run properly on a
| desktop without administrative rights. "It's a dirty little
| secret people sweep under the rug because they're not able to
| do much about the problem. A lot of applications and pieces
| of environments won't work if users aren't given admin rights,"
| says Steve Kleynhans, vice president for Gartner's client
| platforms group. "If you can get applications to function
| with lower rights, in a lot of cases it hampers the user
| experience."
`----
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=110225&WT.svl=news1_1
Opinion: 'Vista Casts A Pall On PC Gaming'
,----[ Quote ]
| In the interest of full disclosure I should make it clear that in a
| previous life time I was responsible for all of Microsoft's OS
| strategy for games and media, from writing the original DirectX
| development plan, to managing Microsoft?s relationships with the
| industries leading game developers. 10 years after launching DirectX
| 1.0, I still have strong opinions and feelings about how to make
| Windows a great game platform, and probably feel a stronger sense
| of pique than most when I see Microsoft making careless or callous
| mistakes that impact game developers.
`----
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12314
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