Welcome to www.mintywhite.com! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Take a tour of www.Mintywhite.com

Thanks for visiting!

Well it looks like XP is about to disappear from stores coming this June. Oh what shall I do If I still don’t want to migrate to Vista? Well actually it will probably still be for sale in stores and such but Microsoft itself will no longer sell it. Read on.

Microsoft originally announced over a year ago that Windows XP would be going off the market in January 2008. XP was later given a brief stay of execution, to June 30, 2008. That deadline is fast approaching, which has led to much panicking from people who aren’t quite sure what XP’s “going off market” means, exactly.

People are still as confused as ever. So let’s take a stab at clarifying, once again, what’s going to happen by answering some frequently asked questions about XP’s imminent disappearance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Windows XP Service Pack 3, despite the fact that it is yet to be released in its final version, is safe from the latest security vulnerability impacting a range of Windows platforms including XP SP2 and Vista SP1. Despite the fact that Windows Vista was constantly applauded throughout 2007 as the safest version of Windows available on the market, the operating system is in no way bulletproofed. And even with Service Pack 1, an update designed to increase security, among other things, Vista is still
susceptible to attacks exploiting security holes. Of course that Microsoft has failed to reveal why XP SP3 is not on the list with the affected operating systems. In this regard, the company could have already patched XP SP3, or is simply ignoring the final service pack for Windows XP until its finalization.

Read the rest of this entry »

So I guess this is what you call teaching an old dog new tricks. A couple of days ago Microsoft released a new update for Windows Vista that adds additional wireless support and functionality to the operating system through a “feature pack”. Specifically it adds support for Bluetooth 2.1, a new “Unified Pairing” interface as well as “Windows Connect Now” updates and can only be installed on Vista SP1.

Read the rest of this entry »

With both Windows XP and Windows Vista being available concomitantly on the market, Microsoft is doing nothing more than inviting the consumers to compare the two operating systems. The Redmond company inherently claimed Vista’s superiority over XP, but the latest Windows client failed to deliver on the
Wow promise. Microsoft’s efforts failed to convince consumers beyond the shadow of a doubt that XP is no contest for Windows Vista, but perhaps the company has not been using the right tools.

Read the rest of this entry »

This report has just been issued compiling the first year’s worth of security vulnerabilities found in Windows Vista, and comparing Windows XP and non-Microsoft OS’s first year vulnerabilities.

The report can be found here but here are a few highlights:-

These figures may be merely interesting until you consider the cost saving implications of reduced patches. A customer told me recently that each patch event costs them £30K, so this yr 1 reduction in patches would have delivered a direct £480,000 per annum saving to them running Vista over Windows XP!! Then there’s the incalculable reduction in corporate risk from this reduction in vulnerabilities.

I won’t comment but it’s interesting to note the comparison to non-Microsoft operating systems. It certainly does fly in the face of some of the IT press reports that have surrounded Vista since it’s launch.

Not sure about the 30k per patch … I’d like to see more information on that [Rich]

Source

A recent Vista update is causing headaches for users with USB devices.

Microsoft last week re-released a software update intended to provide performance and reliability enhancements for Windows Vista -based and Windows Vista Service Pack 1-based systems. It was one of eight security bulletins and updates the company made available on April 8.

Read the rest of this entry »