Windows XP

Data from a Czech security firm showed that a big slice of infected PCs fall upon machines on Windows XP.

Last week Avast Software released its report that reveals that Windows XP machines are disproportionally infected with rootkits.

Having a 58% share of all Windows systems used XP accounts for 74% of the rootkit infected PCs, says Avast.

In comparison, Windows 7 machines make up only 12% of infected PCs.

Microsoft reported that its February security update for Windows XP and Vista has reduced the AutoRun abusing malware infection rates by as much as 82%.

In February Microsoft offered optional update to XP and Vista users, later it was changed to automatically download and install. The update was meant to disable AutoRun.

On Windows 7 system Microsoft changed AutoRun’s behavior to block automatic execution of files on a USB drive.

Apple made a statement that it will not give access to its iCloud services to users of aging Windows XP platform. Apple said that users will need a PC running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to access the cloud computing service.

To access contacts and calendars users are encouraged to have Outlook 2010 or 2007.

Basing on the latest figures on the usage of operating systems it may be said that the bar means half of all PC users will be blocked from accessing iCloud.

According to the stats provided by Microsoft this week Windows 7’s malware infection rate surged by over 30% during the second half of 2010 while the same figure dropped by more than 20% for Windows XP machines.

"Infection rates have jumped [for Windows 7]," admitted Jeff Williams, the principal group program manager with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC). "We attribute that to the increased presence of malicious software attacks out there."

While Microsoft is boasting a good adoption of its latest operating system Windows 7 saying that the company has sold over 240 million licenses this year, the new research reveals that Windows XP still remains the king with the businesses giving it much preference. The report shows that XP beats Windows 7 by a margin of 7.5 to one.

The report from Forrester titled ‘Updated 2010: Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook’ says that Windows 7 "powers one out of every 10 PCs within North American and European companies." Windows XP, the report says, powers 75%.

Acer unveiled its latest netbook which combines Android and Windows XP operating systems in one pack. The netbook was announced at the Taipei Computer Applications Show.

The Acer Aspire One AOD255 netbook uses Android as a quick-booting operating system and then Windows as the main operating system. Acer software on the device, called Acer Configuration Manager for Android, controls which OS will boot.

According to a report from Net Applications the market share of Windows 7 is increasingly growing while Mac OS X is experiencing stagnation. Since it was released in October last year Windows 7 has been steadily progressing and this July it passed Windows Vista to become the number two operating system in the world.

The report unveils that Mac OS X market is not growing with a slight drop as Windows 7 fuels a PC-buying surge.

Meantime, the top operating system which is adored most by users remains Windows XP which will turn 9 years in October 25.

As news about Microsoft’s Windows 8 plans are quickly spreading the world Tony Bradley from PCWorld magazine expressed his mind on how this could impact individual and business customers who are still hesitant to move to Windows 7 platform from their beloved XP machines.

Today Windows 7 is the fastest selling OS of all time as Microsoft reports that over 150 million units have been sold to date and nothing indicates the pace will slow down due to the fact that some organizations are still deep in thought about whether to transition to Windows 7.

Older versions of Windows are under risk of a new attack that would allow hackers to take remote control of a user’s PC. According to an advisory published Wednesday by researcher Tavis Ormandy the vulnerability is in the Windows Help and Support Center, a feature that provides users with online technical support.

Hackers can exploit the bug by embedding commands in web addresses that activate the feature's remote assistance tool, which allows administrators to execute commands over the internet. The flaw presents in XP and Server 2003 versions of Windows and maybe others.

According to the report made last week by Matousec.com cyber criminals now can exploit the kernel driver hooks that most security software use to reroute Windows system calls through their software to check for potential malicious code before it's able to execute.

The technique is called “argument switch attack” and is considered by some experts as a "very serious" problem.

For users who want to turn their XP machines into Apple Mac OSX PCs without additional expenses for purchasing the Cupertino hardware may do it with simple tools available for download online. David Murphy from MaximumPC shared some ideas on how to have a legal version of OSX work on XP machines without any sacrifices.

Murphy mentioned FlyakiteOSX application that is offered on the osx.portraitofakite.com. The application transforms Windows XP system into a ‘carbon-copy of Apple's big operating system.’ Thus, many of the OSX features are mimicked in Windows directly.

The deal announced last year by Microsoft under which users could downgrade new machines bought with preinstalled Windows 7 Professional to the older Windows XP Professional comes to an end in late April 2011 or at the time when Microsoft launches Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), whichever comes first.

About two months ago the Redmond company acknowledged it is working on Windows 7 Service Pack 1. However, the definite date for the release has not been specified yet.

Users of Windows XP will have to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 7 if they want to use new web browser by Microsoft. Internet Explorer 9 that comes next year would not support the ten years old platform.

Having started deployment of its Windows 7 and paying less attention to its previous operation system product Windows XP, Microsoft, meantime, commenced sending its Windows XP users authenticity check program, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications.

WGA Notifications is loading every time subsequent renewal availability is being checked. It’s working as following: a piece of code, checking the authenticity, is built in the system.

In case a user settled the system illegally, he would get proper notification and an offer to buy new license product.

According to the latest IT spending survey conducted by Goldman Sachs' amid 100 IT executives from Fortune 1000 companies, in the coming year modest overall growth is expected with restrained demand for new hardware such as servers and PCs stimulating an increase in Windows 7 upgrades.

Totally, Goldman predicts an 8% decline in global IT spending for 2009, followed by 4% growth in 2010.