Microsoft has released a Fixit tool enabling system admin users to protect their PCs against a wide range of critical vulnerabilities discovered in over 100 applications from various software manufacturers. The Fixit tool works in combination with the workaround provided by Microsoft tech support last week, enabling users to tweak settings responsible for application compatibility. read more

Microsoft has warned users of a vulnerability in Windows applications manufactured by out of house developers, which potentially enable intruders to inject malicious code straight into your PC. The attacks, also known as binary planting or DLL preoload attacks exploit the way in which programmes load associated libraries, which in combination with binary files stored in hacker-controlled directories, can swiftly relieve you of complete control of your PC. read more

The buzz around the release of Microsoft’s latest Office edition, Office 2010 has not only got users talking about the big changes and advantages in the software applications, but also the developers , themselves; enter Office 2010 the movie. Contrary to its URL, visitors to the website www.office2010themovie.com shouldn’t expect Microsoft’s attempts at the next silver screen box office hit, rather a YouTube-esque video content library of behind the scenes info and advertising for Microsoft Office 2010. As well as the expected cheesy smiley “thank you for choosing us” back door marketing drive, there are a wealth of actually very interesting videos by MS staff offering interesting insights into a host of new features in the popular office application bundle. read more

Microsoft has announced the planned launch of its Internet Explorer 9 beta version on the 15th September. Microsoft blogger James Pratt commented on the release taking place in combination with a VIP release event in San Fransisco, celebrating “the Beauty Of the Web”. The invite itself of course was sent by email containing a special HTML5 website link, where in order to complete their RSVP, invitees had to unravel the jumbled letters VEANTI and type them in the correct order into the sentence “Unlock the _ _ _ _ _ _ web”. read more

Microsoft is preparing to release a bumper sized patch bundle for the latest ‘Patch Tuesday’, fixing security holes and vulnerabilities in a broad spectrum of software across a large amount of the company’s operating system product range, listed in a bulletin update on its tech support site on the 2nd August.The record breaking update is scheduled to include a whopping 14 security bulletins, fixing a MS best-of amount of 34 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and Silverlight. Microsoft hasn’t addressed this many vulnerabilities in a single month since June 2010, but only released 10 bulletins. read more

Microsoft Outlook 2010 is better than ever after receiving a much needed facelift, but also and more particularly in its ever-increasing convergence, as can be seen with the addition of Facebook to your mailing and calendar environment. Microsoft has integrated Facebook and Windows Live Messenger into Outlook, bringing newsfeeds of millions of Facebook users into one combined inboxes, arguably making the area splitting social and business somewhat greyer, but certainly a lot more user-oriented.The success of the integration is riding on the back of the launch of Microsoft’s Outlook Social Connector last year, a plugin that syncs social networking feeds with your Outlook contacts, giving you feedback data on what your friends and other contacts are doing and thinking. read more

Microsoft has released an emergency patch ahead of schedule rectifying a critical vulnerability being exploited to install malware on a wide selection of supported versions of the Windows operating system. There has been much pressure for the past 3 weeks to provide users with more than just a quick fix for the vulnerability, especially due to its critical nature, manipulating  infrastructures such as gas, refineries, power plants and much more. read more

Softwareload has gone all out this week, offering Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business for just £186.90, saving lucky buyers a whopping £53.09 (25%) on the UK RRP of £239.99. Office 2010 Home and Student is also yours for the taking for just £82.90 (a saving of £27.09 of the RRP), and Microsoft Outlook 2010 has been slashed to £89.90, more than 25 per cent less than the UK RRP of £119.99. As an added incentive, the offer is up for grabs for the next 2 weeks (2-16 August 2010) as part of Softwareload’s extended “Deal Of The Week” series, so be sure to go to the shop here and secure your download for an unbeatable price. Get your copy now, or for more information, read more

Microsoft has released a beta version of its first Service Pack for Windows 7 . SP1 beta, including a beta download for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 to save on individual download and deployment time. Another justification why both SP betas were released in one bundle could be the actual lack of really new updates. The Windows 7 SP beta release is a compilation of all released updates to date and is also advised by Microsoft as not being of great use Home users, with the only “new” features included in the service pack being Dynamic Memory Overview and RemoteFX Overview, tools focussed on Windows Server platform advancement for improving virtualisation in 2008 R2. read more

Microsoft is planning yet another Patch Tuesday next week to combat five security issues, closing, closing critical holes in both Windows and Office. The five issues, including vulnerabilities a Windows Help Center flaw disclosed by a Google research employee, will be repaired in 4 security bulletins. The two bulletins alleviating issues in Windows includes one rated critical for Windows XP and low for Windows Server 2003, whereby the other only needs to concern users running the 64-bit version of Windows 7. read more