The vulnerability was discovered in the Windows Canonical Display Driver (cdd.dll) which is used by “desktop composition to blend the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) and DirectX drawing”.

The vulnerability received a preliminary Exploitable Index rating of 3:

Although it is possible that the vulnerability could allow code execution, successful code execution is unlikely due to memory randomization. In most scenarios, it is much more likely that an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause the affected system to stop responding and automatically restart.

The vulnerability is only affecting Windows systems with the Windows Aero theme installed and in use. Windows Aero is not the default theme in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft’s suggested action is to disable the Windows Aero theme for the time being until a security patch for the vulnerability is released.

To disable Windows Aero by changing the theme, perform the following steps for each user on a system:
1.
Click Start, select the Control Panel, and then click on Appearance and Personalization.
2.
Under the Personalization category, click on Change the Theme.
3.
Scroll to the bottom of the listed themes and select one of the available Basic and High Contrast Themes.

The security advisory and the blog post announcing the security vulnerability contain additional information.

Update: The 64-bit vulnerability has been patched. Windows users who have downloaded all recent security patches for their operating system, or installed the first Service Pack for it, are safe from the exploit. Users who have disabled the Aero theme because of the exploit can turn it back on. This is done by following the same steps outlined above.

AutoPatcher is offered as a portable program that can be executed after unpacking the download file. It will then display a list of all available release packages that can be downloaded to the local computer system.

Available for selection are the core program files. operating system patches for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista, Microsoft Office XP, 2003 and 2007, the Microsoft .net Framework, DirectX, Java runtime and Adobe Reader. Most release packages are offered in all languages while some only in specific languages.

Windows 7 was integrated in the latest release of AutoPatcher. AutoPatcher only supports 32-bit operating systems right now which means that the Windows 7 patches are also only offered for the 32-bit version of the operating system.

The main benefit of using AutoPatcher is that it will download all patches that have been released to the local computer system with the option to install them afterwards. This means that the patches can be installed while the computer is offline. It also means that the patches can be distributed to other computer systems to patch those as well.

AutoPatcher can be downloaded from the developer’s website, it should run on all Microsoft operating systems including 64-bit editions.

Update: AutoPatcher development continues. Support for the first Windows 7 Service Pack has been added to the operating system updater recently. The site itself has seen change though, as it now redirects to a forum where download links and instructions are posted now.

• STOP 0×0000007A
• STOP 0×00000077
• STOP 0×000000F4

The cause for those error messages are SATA hard drives that require more than 10 seconds. The timeout of the SATA driver in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is set to ten seconds and the error message is produced as a result of this timeout.

Only large SATA hard drives are affected according to Microsoft. Large hard drives seem to be those with a capacity of 1 Terabyte or larger.

Consider the following scenario:

* You have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
* The computer has a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disk.
* The size of the SATA hard disk is large. For example, the size of the SATA hard disk is 1 terabyte (TB).
* You put the computer into the Sleep state or into the Hibernate state.
* You try to resume the computer.

In this scenario, you receive one of the following Stop error messages:

*
STOP 0x0000007A
*
STOP 0×00000077
*
STOP 0x000000F4

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users who are experiencing these difficulties are asked to install the patch that Microsoft has released on their support website.

Other users do not need to install this patch which will be integrated into Windows 7 Service Pack 1 which Microsoft aims to release in 2010.

The crack turns the Windows 7 RTM into a fully activated Windows 7 operating system that is passing all Microsoft genuine advantage checks with flying colors. Softpedia reports that the leaked Windows 7 key came from OEM manufacturers Lenovo and was first spread on a Chinese forum. The OEM activation crack makes it possible to turn both Windows 7 Ultimate versions, that is 32-bit and 64-bit, into a fully activated Windows 7 operating system.

The bypass designed for Windows 7 RTM involves abusing OEM activation 2.1, and in this regard the circumventing process is nothing more than an OEM hack. Via OEM activation 2.1, namely SLP 2.1, Microsoft allows OEMs to pre-activate Windows 7 for distribution preinstalled on new computers. In this context, the activation bypass process leading to the hacked Windows 7 RTM needs to be based on a BIOS (SLIC) hack first of all.

It seems therefor that Windows 7 is simply following in the footsteps of previously released and cracked Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Patches were created to unlock some of the features but until then no one did create a patch that could be applied to unlock all locked features in the build.

That wait is over now because Rafael Rivera created the Blue Badge tool to patch nine Windows 7 system files and unlock all locked features. It has to be noted that the files will not be backed up before the patches are applied.

A user wanting to apply the patch should make sure that they backup the files before applying the patch. Some of the features that will be unlocked are the new Taskbar and the wallpaper changer.