Like busses you wait ages for a Windows Service Pack, then two come along at once. Hard on the heels of Vista SP1, which mostly went without a hitch, we can now look forward to XP Service Pack 3, the last for the operating system, which is now heading towards retirement, probably next year.
If you were around when MS unleashed SP2 you are forgiven for a brief shudder of trepidation, but I think this one should go quite smoothly. Unlike XP SP2, which re-wrote a lot of the operating system’s code, this one focuses on rolling up all previous security updates since the release of SP2, and a reported 1074 fixes and upgrades. Most of them are anonymous behind the scenes things that you’ll be happier not knowing about (because they are mostly deathly dull…), but there are a few interesting bits and bobs. One of them is a new Product Activation module, which allows users to install XP without having to enter an activation key, better network integration with Server 2008 and there’s a promise of improved performance with Microsoft Office. XP SP3 will be on your auto update list in the next few days or weeks but if you just can’t wait you can jump the queue and download it from Microsoft Update. Be warned, it’s a bit of a whopper at 428Mb, you need to have installed SP1 or SP2 before you can install SP3, and this is for the 32-bit version of XP only.
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Written by Jason on May 5th, 2008 with no comments.
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How many times has this occurred? You find a great web site, but it requires an account before you can access the site. So you create the account, password and secret question and let FireFox remember the account information. Time goes by and your at work or on another computer, and decide that you want to visit that great site, but can’t remember the password.
Sure you can have the site email your password, but it also wants you to answer the secret question. Now what? Time to dig into FireFox Password Manager….
Just go to Tools, Options and click on the Security Tab then click on Show Passwords (version 2.0 shown below) or View Saved Passwords (version 1.5 not shown) button.
You will see two columns, one for the Site and another for your Username. To view your passwords, click on the Show Passwords button and answer Yes to show your passwords.
The third column will list all passwords that have been saved…including the web site that you forgot!
Password Manager is a handy tool to use, but keep in mind, there are some potential security issues you should be aware of:
* Never let anyone access your computer un-attended. Doing so, will give them access to your account info as shown above.
* Make sure you are running the latest stable version of Firefox included any security updates.
* If you keep backups of your Firefox profile, keep it secure since Password Manager stores the data in a file. Although it is difficult to read, it’s not impossible to crack.
* Don’t use Password Manager for personal or banking/credit card sites (some banking/credit card sites by default don’t give you the option).
* Use “Password Never Saved” setting in Password Manager for sites you don’t trust or do not want to save passwords.
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Written by Jason on April 30th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Contributors and Firefox and Internet and Password and Security and Web and security updates.
After over a year since the release of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 in October 2006, and then along with Windows Vista in November 2006 and January 2007, Microsoft has delivered the first beta of its next iteration of Internet Explorer. IE8 Beta 1 is a release aimed at web content developers, but the company has provided full access to the bits, with the promise that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 will be more user-centric.
IE8 Beta 1 integrates seamlessly with Windows Vista Gold and SP1 RTM, but also with Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows XP SP2 and SP3. With the exception of Windows XP SP3, IE8 Beta 1 will support both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of the operating systems enumerated above. Of course, XP SP3 only comes in x86 and not in a x64 variant. At this time, Microsoft offers XP SP3 RC2, with IE8 Beta 1 installing on the beta of the third and final service pack for XP even though it fails to do the same with pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1. (more…)
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Written by Jason on March 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Windows Vista Service Pack 1 might very well deliver users from the Reduced Functionality Mode black screen of death kill switch, but the prerequisite updates for the service pack are doing a wonderful job at cutting access to the operating system. Following Microsoft’s monthly patch cycle non-security updates released on February 12, 2007, containing two of the remaining prerequisite updates for Vista SP1, Vista users began complaining about installation failures. Some Vista machines, after the implementation of updates via Automatic Updates are thrown in an infinite reboot loop, while stuck on displaying the following message: “Configuring Updates Stage 3 of 3 0% complete. Do not turn off Computer.” (more…)
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Written by Jason on February 19th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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A new version of Firefox is available for download. On October 19, Mozilla made available an update to its open source browser, taking the version build from 2.0.0.7 to 2.0.0.8. The version numbers are not a clear indication of the evolution between the two Firefox variants. According to Mozilla, over 200 issues impacting the Firefox browser were addressed by the 2.0.0.8 update. However, at the same time, the extent of the modifications introduced by Firefox 2.0.0.8 also affected the functionality of the browser regressing a handful of aspects.
On October 22, Mozilla promised to update the Firefox 2.0.0.8 update in order to take care of the problems generated by the refresh. You will be able to find a complete list with the issues fixed at the bottom of this article. “As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.9 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download. (more…)
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Written by Jason on November 2nd, 2007 with comments disabled.
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