Archive for category Software
Windows Live Messenger Crashes; Possible Fix
Posted by Brad Rowley in Software, Windows Live on April 7th, 2009
I have the latest build of Windows Live Messenger installed on both my desktop (running Vista) and my ASUS eeePC 900HA (XP). Both crash whenever I try to use the Win-E key combination. At my wit’s end, I Googled for hours on end trying to find a fix.
I ran across a forum thread at Adobe that talks about Vista and Flash being the root cause of the crashes. Hmmm, interesting.
I have been testing a couple of Twitter apps that were built using Adobe’s AIR. (AIR is a cross-platform software runtime that lets developers build rich Internet apps.) Reading the thread got me thinking that maybe it wasn’t Flash et al, but AIR alone. I broke out my eeePC, uninstalled AIR and any AIR apps I had installed… no more Windows Live Messenger crash. I will have to test this out on my Vista desktop when I get home, and post my findings.
Update: April 8, 2009 @ 10:05 AM: Well, no joy on the Vista box. Even after removing AIR and rebooting WLM is still crashing on Vista. Damn Flash dependancy! Back to Googling.
IE8, FF Pwned at Pwn2Own
Posted by Brad Rowley in Google, Microsoft, Security, Software on March 20th, 2009
Mere days after the release of Microsoft’s latest browser (Internet Explorer 8), contestants at Pwn2Own tried to “pwn” browsers on several platforms. Day one saw IE8, Firefox and Safari exploited. Day two was uneventful, with no exploits of mobile platforms.
The only browser not exploited (so far) is Google’s Chrome. So, without any futher ado…
Update: March 20, 2009
It looks like the version of IE8 used at Pwn2Own may have not been the final release version. Microsoft has stated on their Security Research and Defense blog that “the final release of Internet Explorer 8 on Windows Vista blocks the .NET DEP+ASLR bypass mechanism from malicious websites on the Internet”. If I am understanding things correctly, the combination of the final release IE8 and Vista is quite secure. The Internet Storm Center questions whether IE8 would have been exploited had the competition been held a day later and the “Official” release been available.
Check out the links and decide for yourself if you’re going to install IE8.
Free Virtualization Software
Posted by Brad Rowley in Software, Trends on March 9th, 2009
Have you ever wanted to test out new operating system software like Linux or OpenSolaris, but don’t want to dual boot your machine or reformat your drive. Try virtualization software.
Virtualization software allows you to create a virtual machine, a computer within a computer.
You can download one of the following free VM products:
- VirtualBox: This product is provided by Sun and can run different flavours of Linux, Windows and Solaris. The big benefit here is that VirtualBox also runs on OS X, Linux and OpenSolaris
- VirtualPC: This Microsoft product is limited to Windows and OS/2 platforms, but integrates better with the host system.
- VMWare Player: This application can only run images created by VMware’s commercial products. However, if you do a quick Google, you can find a number of sites that you can download free (and legal) VM images from.