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Microsoft has released an urgent hotfix for the Server service. This hotfix applies to Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. "Consistent exploit code has been discovered in limited, targeted attacks, affecting Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. While this service is enabled by default on all affected platforms, exploitation is most likely on Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Default installations of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 require authentication due to protections int…

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a full-blown anti-malware program that has recently left the labs and can be considered the next step in the detection and removal of malware. Malwarebytes Team put together a host of new technologies that were specially designed to quickly detect, deter and destroy any malware that could reside in your computer. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware monitors every process and actually stops malicious processes before they even start. It uses an impressive technology that is in fact a completely novel way of heuristic scanning and it is the teams response to the increasingly complex malware threats. And, as they did with Malwarebytes' RogueRemover we…

The most full-featured Internet power tool on the market, Opera includes tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, integrated searches and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking e-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse. Download: Opera 9.61 Homepage: Opera Link: Lunarsoft

Pidgin (formerly Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks. Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and…

foobar2000 is a comprehensive, easy to use audio player for Windows. Featuring full Unicode support, advanced tagging capabilities, customizable hotkeys, ReplayGain to help correct your audio and many more useful utilities to assist your media library. There are multiple ways to configure and customize your user interface. foobar's developer also includes an open component architecture allowing third-party developers to extend functionality of the player. foobar2000 allows you to easily use multiple playlists and utilize features to remove both duplicates and dead items. foobar handles multiple popular audio formats, including: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis,…

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a full-blown anti-malware program that has recently left the labs and can be considered the next step in the detection and removal of malware. Malwarebytes Team put together a host of new technologies that were specially designed to quickly detect, deter and destroy any malware that could reside in your computer. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware monitors every process and actually stops malicious processes before they even start. It uses an impressive technology that is in fact a completely novel way of heuristic scanning and it is the teams response to the increasingly complex malware threats. And, as they did with Malwarebytes' RogueRemover we…

Microsoft is hard at work on Service Pack 2 for both Windows Vista and Server 2008. Very little information is available at this time. Currently, the product release notes and related information about Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2 are not available. We will be keeping a watchful eye for any changes and updates about Service Pack 2. If you want to keep track of any changes then visit the following Microsoft link below. Link: Microsoft KB 948465 Link: Lunarsoft

Mike Nash has posted a blog discussing the decision to make the next version of Windows name officially Windows 7. This is one of a few rare instances where the Windows codename becomes the same as the final release. For those who are wondering what the other releases are that had the same codename and final name, they are (Windows) Millennium and Singularity. Nash has written a segment about why they have decided to go with the Windows 7 name. "The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" …

SUMo (Software Updates Monitoring) detects applications you are using and tracks updates. If a new version is detected, you'll be notified by SUMo. It relies a social networking as its database is populated by the other users. By using up-to-date software you'll reduce the risk of encountering bugs and will benefit from more features. Changes: [bug] Early version of DivX incorrectly identified [Refactoring] Java <6 not detected as "Java� Platform SE binary" [bug] Ad-Aware 6 / 7 : multiple products detection [bug] Process Lasso not correctly identified [bug] Mozilla SeaMonkey not correctly identified Download: SUMo 2.3.5.61 Homepage: KCSoftwares Link: Lunarsoft

Microsoft is tailoring Windows 7 to solid-state drives. Mum's the word on the matter as far as the Redmond giant is concerned, but this will no longer be the case come November 2008. Starting with the Windows 7 road show scheduled to debut with PDC2008, Microsoft promised to unveil the successor of Windows Vista to the world. Between November 5 and 7, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008, Microsoft plans to detail the enhancements introduced in the next iteration of the Windows client, in order to make it play nice with solid-state drives. "PC systems that have solid-state drives (SSDs) are shipping in increasing volumes. Microsoft is working with the …

OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format. It establishes the necessary facilities to make this open source technology available to the developer community. OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Download: OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 | …

The most full-featured Internet power tool on the market, Opera includes tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, integrated searches and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking e-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse. Download: Opera 9.60 Homepage: Opera Link: Lunarsoft

VLC (VideoLAN) is a multi-platform multimedia player. It can read DVDs, VCDs, MPEG, and DivX files and from a satellite card. It can also read a stream from a network sent by the VideoLAN Server or another source. The stream can be MPEG 2 TS in UDP or HTTP packets unicasted or multicasted on an IPv4 or IPv6 network. Download: VLC media player 0.9.4 | Other Versions Changes: Changes Homepage: VideoLAN Link: Lunarsoft

Security researchers have discovered one of the most subtle and sophisticated examples of Windows rootkit software known to date. The AutoRun-NOX worm extends the standard VXer trick of using software vulnerabilities to infect systems, by including functionality that allows the worm to exploit Windows security bugs to hook into parts of the Windows system that operate below the radar of anti-virus packages. "Most malware with rootkit functionality will tamper with the Windows kernel and attempt to execute code in kernel mode," net security firm F-Secure reports. "Typically, a special driver is used to do this... AutoRun.nox is different — it uses a vulnerability t…

Microsoft is giving customers and channel partners their first look at the next generation of its Visual Studio and .NET Framework developer tools and platform. The move comes less than a year after Microsoft debuted the current releases of those products, Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. Application life-cycle management will be a key theme in the Visual Studio 2010 and .Net Framework 4.0, Microsoft said Monday. Visual Studio Team System 2010, code-named "Rosario," will "democratize" ALM by better integrating the stages of software development and eliminating what the company calls the siloed tasks carried out by core developers, testers, project managers, d…

An Internet entrepreneur's latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket, carrying a dummy payload, was lofted into orbit from the South Pacific. It was the fourth attempt by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit. ''Fourth time's a charm,'' said Elon Musk, the multimillionaire who started up SpaceX after making his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal Inc., the electronic payment system. The rocket carried a 364-pound dummy payload designed and built by SpaceX for the launch. ''This really means a lot,'' Musk told a crowd of whooping employees. ''There's only…

Jack Thompson is the guy who raised ruckus about games like Grand Theft Auto and several others. On September 25, 2008, Thompson was officially disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court, effective October 25th, 2008. Link: Kotaku Link: Thompson's response

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted the company intentionally accepted some early compatibility problems to make sure Vista was as secure as possible. But he claims customer complaint figures show Vista is better than previous editions of Windows. Ballmer spoke at an event hosted by the Churchill Club, which bills itself as “Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum”. Asked by a “long-time Windows user” why a firm the size of Microsoft can’t make its system more reliable, Ballmer fortunately avoided the crazed outburst of a recent installment of the 'I’m a PC' commercials. Instead he explained that the early compatibility problems with Vista were a…

SUMo (Software Updates Monitoring) detects applications you are using and tracks updates. If a new version is detected, you'll be notified by SUMo. It relies a social networking as its database is populated by the other users. By using up-to-date software you'll reduce the risk of encountering bugs and will benefit from more features. Changes: [bug] Firefox 3.0.3pre incorrectly detected [Refactoring] OpenOffice improved detection based on registry [bug] MemInfo "1.81 SR1" reported as "1.8.1" [Refactoring] Shockwave Flash for Internet Explorer (Company merge) [Refactoring] Merge of all VSO Software company names Download: SUMo 2.3.4.60 Homepage: KCSoftwares Link: Lunars…

Recuva is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses. Changes: Redesigned the Options window Fixed bug related to Insufficient resources error Improved handling of invalid file records Downloads: Recuva 1.19.350 | Portable Homepage: Recuva Link: Lunarsoft

Microsoft and Washington state are cracking down on scammers who bombard computer users with fake warning messages in hopes of selling them useless software. The state's attorney general and lawyers from Microsoft's Internet Safety Enforcement team are expectd to announce today several lawsuits against so-called 'scareware' vendors, who are being charged under Washington state's Computer Spyware Act. The vendors targeted by the lawsuits have not been named yet, but the Washington attorney general (AG) referred to them in a media alert sent out on Friday as "aggressive marketers of scareware - useless computer programs that bilk consumers by using pop-up ads to warn …

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Some of the useful features include drag and drop support, filename filters, network configuration wizard, powerful site manager, transfer queue, and it even supports resume and transfer of files larger than 4GB. When FileZilla v3 was released a built in updater was introduced. This allowed users to update their FileZilla Client faster and easier. Included are options to check for nightly and beta builds of the FileZilla Client. Changes: Download speedlimits were not working since 3.1.3-b…

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. CCleaner can also clean very quickly, usually taking about ten seconds to run. Changes: Improved Google Chrome support. Download: CCleaner 2.12.660 Slim Screenshot: Image Previews View: Version History Homepage: CCleaner Link: Lunarsoft

As Microsoft readies for the first widespread distribution of Windows 7 at two key conferences later this year, details of planned changes to the software continue to emerge. And while the issue of how much Windows 7 needs to be differentiated from Vista remains in the air, Microsoft has committed to making some interface changes that will firmly differentiate the new Windows from its predecessor.One of the more obvious (and annoying) changes to the Start menu in Vista was burying the options for shutdown and restart in a tiny fly-out menu, while making the sleep button much more prominent. In the latest post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Microsoft core user experien…

Firefox (referred to as Fx) is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite, managed by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox is a highly customizable browser that allows you to enhance it using Add-ons. Some examples of Add-ons that you can use to customize Firefox are AdBlock Plus, CuteMenus - Crystal SVG, DownThemAll!, TabMixPlus, NoScript and many more. Tabbed browsing is one of the many features that helps to make Firefox more secure than most browser. Firefox does not use ActiveX. Firefox does make use of many plugins to enhance your web experience. From Shockwave, Flash, Quicktime and more; your browsing experience reaches new levels with the Firefox brows…