They’re not wrong either as all of your software and hardware needs to be properly tested, which usually involves picking one or two choice non-critical departments and migrating them immediately to see what if any incompatibilities and problems occur.  Once this testing process is finished, normally after a couple of months, the deployment plan for sometimes hundreds of thousands of workers can begin and, as any IT Systems Administrator will tell you, that is a massive planning job.  It’s difficult in small companies as well because the same process needs to be observed to minimise any downtime that might result from problems arising in the deployment process.

Windows XP is already out of mainstream support which means there are no more service packs or upgrades available.  Extended support ends in April 2014.  After this time there will be no more bug fixes, no more patches and no more security updates.  You can be certain then that when this happens virus and malware writers will target the platform like never before.

The question arises then if Microsoft should continue support if so many people find XP as comfortable as an old shoe, and much more compatible with their older software than Windows 7?  Microsoft have already extended the support life cycle for Windows XP and it’s very unlikely that it would ever be extended again.  In fact I’d simply say that it will never happen.

So where does this leave businesses and home users who need to upgrade?  My advice is simply not to wait any longer.  This problem isn’t going away and unlike the millennium bug of twelve years ago, is a very real threat to businesses everywhere.  It’s not just their own systems too that can be compromised but all of the sensitive data they contain, much of which is about the general public.

Microsoft have many deployment tools that can help ease the burden of a migration and third-parties offer free virtualization environments that can help you keep older software running for a while longer.  If you have bespoke software that you need to use however that will not run, or not run properly under Windows 7 this needs to be addressed urgently.  The problems associated with XP software and Internet Explorer applications have been highlighted for years now.  Everybody knew the end of life was coming and too many businesses seem to be simply ignoring it because XP has always been here, and they expect that it always will.  They simply aren’t looking at the bigger picture of security, data protection, hacking and the associated fines that accompany these, some of which can be extremely hefty indeed.

But what will these companies do?  Will they wait until Microsoft report there’s just 600 days left?  500 days?  300 days even?  After all, can a company physically manage the process in under a year?  It’s good that Microsoft are actively highlighting the problem, but bad that many people are taking it as a marketing exercise to try and sell more copies of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Office 2010.  It really isn’t that at all.  It’s a serious issue, it’s not going away and it needs to be dealt with quickly.

Even though this is true, this will not work with Windows 7 Home version. You will need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate for this to work. The computer used in this demonstration is a Gateway that does support Hardware Virtualization, but for the sake of this demonstration, the new version was installed. This article will clearly detail the procedure to install XP mode in Windows 7. The PC used in this demonstration uses Windows 7 64-bit version.
The first step is to go to the Microsoft XP Mode website. There are three downloads that you will need to install. The third actually does not have to be installed if you are using SP1. The three downloads are Windows XP Mode, Windows Virtual PC and the Windows XP Mode Update. The links are found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
Click on this link and this page will open. Only part of the screen is shown:

You do not have to e-mail the instructions, but you may want to print them. The instructions are given in this article. Click on Step 2, Windows XP Mode and run the download. It will take a few minutes to complete. Double-click on the downloaded file and you will be prompted to run the program. Click Run. The setup will begin. Click Next to continue. The installation will commence.

It takes awhile, so be patient. Next, you will have to agree to the licensing terms by clicking “I Accept”.

The updates will be installed. It is possible that the update will not install and you will be shown a message to that effect. If this is the case, attempt the above steps a second time and it will probably work. After the installation is complete, you will have to restart your computer.

Once your computer restarts, the updates will be configured. Now go to Step 3, Windows Virtual PC. Start the download and again be patient. It takes about 8 minutes to complete. You will be prompted again for the License Agreement. Click Next to accept and start the installation.

Create your user credentials password. If you are the Administrator, use your Administrator password. Turn on Automatic Updates for XP in the Setup window. The setup will share drives on the computer with XP Mode. This makes file sharing easy. If you wish to modify this, click “How do I change drive sharing options?” Instructions are given. The following series of windows will present as the XP Windows Virtual PC is formatted:

Once this is complete, you can find the XP Mode in the Start menu. Select All Programs and scroll to Windows Virtual PC. Click on that and you will see Windows XP Mode. Now, click on that. You will see that it is loading settings. There you have it! A fully functional XP mode in Windows 7 is now available as needed. This is great to have if you need to use files or applications that are incompatible with Windows 7 but compatible with XP, which happens frequently for many users.

This is good news for security experts worldwide, good news for end users (at least when it comes to security) and good news for Microsoft’s bottom line as many people will be forced to upgrade to Windows 7 (it should be noted that while support may end the products will still work after this date).  It’s very bad news though for malware writers and criminals, and bad news for businesses who have been delaying recoding older programs and web portals to work with newer operating systems and browsers.

It raises some important questions for Windows 7 users though that, at least so far, Microsoft aren’t answering.  This is what will happen with support for XP Mode within Windows 7 itself?

The copy of Windows XP Professional contained within this Windows 7 add-on is unlikely to be maintained beyond this date, though Microsoft have said nothing to calm the nerves of individuals and businesses who may be concerned that they’ll end up with a horribly insecure component sitting at the heart of their otherwise very secure new Windows installation.

The company could use this as leverage to get businesses and individuals to move to Windows 8 by the time its first service pack comes out, which would probably be at the end of 2013, only a few months before XP support officially ends.  It’s not good news for Windows 7 users though and, more concernedly, while there’s been talk of a Windows 7 mode in Windows 8, there’s no information yet on what might happen to XP Mode itself and if there will be any native XP app support in the company’s next generation desktop OS.

All we know is that the clock is ticking and 40% of all PCs worldwide are still running Windows XP.  This of course means that Microsoft will need to spend a considerable amount of money and effort in the next year informing people who may be completely oblivious to the impending date, of the end of XP support.  Many of these people will live in the developing world and will not have the money to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, even if they’re ageing computers will run it.

Microsoft will need to offer cash incentives to all XP users if they are to wean people away in the form of discounts on Windows 7.  This could prove counter-productive however if it means so many people move to Windows 7 that sales of Windows 8 will be sluggish.  Will the company then delay any marketing until Windows 8 is out or approaching release, or will they simply not alert people at all?

Whichever way this goes it’s not good news for Microsoft.  They’ve supported XP long beyond its intended shelf-life, it will be thirteen years when support finally ends compared to Apple who only support operating systems for five years, and this extended period of support could come back to bite the company in a big way.

If you are currently still using Windows XP there are some cheap ways to get Windows 7.  The Family pack (where available) offers excellent value and students with a .ac email address can get significant discounts too.  Some subscription models like TechNet and the Microsoft Action Pack offer excellent value for small businesses.  If you can afford it though, by far the cheapest way to obtain a copy of Windows 7 is with a new PC.

But what about the system requirements of the service? We know that iTunes is needed to use iCloud. The latest iTunes 10.3 is compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and newer versions and editions of the Microsoft operating system.

When you look at the iCloud website on the other hand, you will notice different requirements at the bottom of the page:

Features are subject to change. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices. See www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/ for more information. Some features of iCloud require iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac computer with OS X Lion or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Outlook 2007 or 2010 recommended). Some music features of iCloud are available in beta now in the U.S. only and require iOS 4.3.3 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3. Download iTunes 10.3 free.

Notice the part about Windows compatibility of the service? Apple explicitly mentions Windows Vista and Windows 7 as the only two Microsoft operating systems supported by iCloud. While that does not necessarily mean that Windows XP users cannot use iCloud at all, it at least means that Apple will not answer support requests for the unsupported operating system.

Windows XP users: Have you signed up for the iCloud service yet? What’s your experience with the service?

Security interested users find lots of information in the report, including the most dominant threats and trends.

You will find information about infection rates for Microsoft operating systems somewhere in the middle of the report.
When you look at the average infection rate per thousand computers, you will notice that infection rates for more recently released operating systems are lower than for earlier ones.

Windows XP SP3 is showing an average infection rate of 15.9 computers per thousand. This figure drops to 7.5 on the most recent Vista version and 3.8 for Windows 7. The 64-bit editions of Vista and Windows 7 fare even better with 5.3 and 2.5 infections per thousand computers respectively.

32-bit Windows 7 computer systems are four times less likely to be infected with malicious software than Windows XP systems, and two times less likely than Windows Vista systems.

Comparison is even more favorable if you compare 64-bit editions. The 64-bit edition of Windows 7 is 6 times less likely to be infected than Windows XP.

Microsoft tries to explain the lower infection rate on 64-bit editions two-fold. One of the reasons may be that more tech savvy users pick the 64-bit edition of an operating system, the second that the Kernel Patch Protection feature of 64-bit Windows editions may contribute to that discrepancy as well.

Infection trends confirm that 32-bit editions of Windows 7 have consistently had the lowest infection rates of all Windows 32-bit client operating systems.

Trojans, worms, adware, password stealers and other potentially unwanted software made up the bulk of infections world wide. Microsoft found significant location differences.

• The United States and the United Kingdom, two predominantly English-speaking locations that also share a number of other cultural similarities, have similar threat mixes in most categories. Exceptions include Adware, which is more common in the UK, and Worms, which are more common in the US.
• Brazil has an unusually high concentration of Password Stealers & Monitoring Tools, primarily because of the prevalence of Win32/Bancos, which targets customers of Brazilian banks.
• China has a relatively high concentration of Miscellaneous Potentially Unwanted Software, Exploits, Backdoors, and spyware, and a relatively low concentration of Worms and Adware. China routinely exhibits a threat mix that is much different than those of other large countries and regions. Two of the most common threats in China, Win32/BaiduSobar and Win32/Sogou, are Chinese-language potentially unwanted software families that are uncommon elsewhere. The most common families in China also include a pair of exploits, JS/CVE-2010-0806 and
  JS/ShellCode, that were less prevalent elsewhere.
• Adware dominates in France, led by Win32/ClickPotato.
• Worms and Backdoors are unusually common in Spain. The top six families detected in Spain in 2010 were worm
• The threat mix in Russia resembles that of the world as a whole, with the exception of an unusually low concentration of Adware, perhaps because of the highly language-dependent nature of online advertising.
• In Germany, Trojan Downloaders & Droppers are nearly twice as common as in the rest of the world, led by Win32/Renos.
• Korea has a large concentration of viruses, led by Win32/Parite, and worms. Viruses and worms have long been unusually common in Korea perhaps because of the popularity of public Internet gaming centers the where viruses are easily transmitted between computers and removable volumes.

Running a specific Windows operating system version does not necessarily mean that you will have a higher chance of infection, as that chance depends on the individual user. Experienced computer users can reduce the chance of infection significantly, both by expertise and experience, and security software that they have deployed on their system.

Still, if you are looking for an operating system for your parents, you may want to pick Windows 7 over a previous system.

There were perfectly legitimate technical reasons for not offering a direct upgrade path. The underlying technologies in Windows XP and Windows 7 are very different and it was clear to testers early on that many software packages would need to be reinstalled. This didn’t help Microsoft however as all copies of Windows, and they’re still doing this for reasons I can’t fathom, store the user’s files and folders on the same partition or physical hard disk as the copy of Windows. These ‘shell user folders’ have become significantly easier to move in recent years but even so most users would never be aware of how they can do this.

Thus, the vast majority of Windows users are left with their files and folders sitting in the same physical location as Windows and then facing, potentially, the cost of an external hard disk to move them. That is of course assuming they even know how to perform an operation such as this.

The Windows Easy Transfer program supplied on the Windows 7 installation DVD could perform this task for you, but even that wasn’t obvious to find for most users and thus the upgrade path from XP to Windows 7 was problematic at best.

Windows XP is ten years old now and will be even older by the time Windows 8 arrives. It could easily be argued that any computer running Windows XP would need to be replaced by now. There are three problems with this. The first assumes that XP is running on a ten year old computer. New computers that were on sale in 2009 were still being shipped with XP and this hardware would be more than capable of running the new OS when it arrives. The second is the assumption that older hardware still won’t be able to run the new OS. We’ve yet to see any real-world performance information but we have now seen a copy of Windows running on an ARM processor at only 1GHz. That’s not more than half the processor speed of the earliest netbook. It’s reasonable to assume then that Windows 8 will run happily, if perhaps a bit slowly, on ageing hardware and that an upgrade to Windows 8 should work for some people.

The last point with this is that we have just been through a worldwide economic downturn and it’s entirely possible that many people will have bought cheap new computers without an operating system and simply had their existing copy of XP moved over to it. These computers would be more than capable of running Windows 7 or Windows 8, but the cost of moving to Windows 7 might have been too much for some people. Let’s not forget that XP has always been fairly forgiving when moving a licence from one computer to another.

So already we have a multitude of scenarios in which people might still be happily running Windows XP by the time Windows 8 is released late next year. So what do we expect Microsoft to do to support these people?

One interesting snippet came from a Windows 8 installer leak where the OS is seen to offer to keep the users files and, optionally, programs, during the install. Now I’ve already said that it would be difficult if not impossible to transfer existing installed programs to a new copy of Windows 8, but the ability to retain a users files would significantly ease the pain for many XP users. This scenario has not been tested yet though and isn’t feature complete anyway, so we’ll have to wait and see.

There is another alternative though and it’s one that I’m keen to see Microsoft try. There has long been speculation that XP Mode, which is an optional virtual machine running a fully-licenced copy of XP for Windows 7 Professional and above, would be built into the next version of Windows. The reasons and benefits for this are many. The operating system is smaller and lighter (Windows 8 can install apparently in as little as ten minutes) and more secure requiring fewer patches. Most patches and updates are for older legacy components. Stripping these out would make the OS much more secure.

There will be people then who perhaps either don’t have the original installers for some software, or that have software that won’t run on editions of Windows newer than XP. If XP Mode then can install a clean VM copy of Windows XP on your computer, and is built on the old Microsoft Virtual PC technology, could the Windows 8 installer create a virtual machine of an existing Windows XP setup and allow the user access to this through the in-built VM?

We’ll have some time to wait before we get an answer to this and, sadly, that answer could very well be that Microsoft won’t even bother. The company made clear with Windows 7 that upgrading from XP simply wasn’t possible. At the time Windows 7 launched however you still needed a processor that would support virtual machines in order to get XP Mode to work. Not long after Windows 7 shipped Microsoft made changes to the XP Mode program that allowed it to run on any processor. It’s not too much of a stretch then to believe that such a feature could work and be built into the Windows 8 installer, if Microsoft felt so inclined as to be helpful.

Personally I’m not too hopeful that any of this will actually happen, which is a pity because the world desperately needs to move people away from the insecure Windows XP and all the problems that come with it, such as people still using Internet Explorer 6, which is a security nightmare. None of us, regardless of what operating system we use, can rest safe from botnet and other virus attacks for as long as so many vulnerable computers still exist in the world. For many then, Microsoft taking the lead and properly helping people to move away simply can’t come soon enough.

It is probably a good idea to test if IPv6 is already available on the operating system. An easy option to find out is the ipconfig command which displays network information in a command line window. To run the command press Windows-R, type cmd and hit enter. This opens the Windows command prompt. Now use the command ipconfig to find out if IPv6 is available on the computer. Please note that the following screenshot is showing ipconfig on Windows 7.

If you do not see an entry IPv6 Address in the listing it is not enabled and needs to be installed. The easiest way to install the IPv6 protocol under Windows XP is from the command prompt. Enter the following commands separately and press return after each of them:

• netsh
• interface
• ipv6
• install

This installs IPv6 under Windows XP. It is also possible to install the protocol under the network settings options of the Control Panel. Right-click on the appropriate network adapter and select Preferences from the selection. Now select Install on the screen and then Protocol from the available options. Locate Microsoft TCP/IP Version 6, a click on OK installs the selected protocol.

1. Open Network Connections
2. Right-click any local area connection, and then click Properties.
3. Click Install.
4. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, click Protocol, and then click Add.
5. In the Select Network Protocol dialog box, click Microsoft TCP/IP version 6, and then click OK.
6. Click Close to save changes to your network connection.

You can check again with the ipconfig command to make sure that the IPv6 protocol was installed successfully on the operating system.

Windows XP users on the other hand do not have that representation in Windows Explorer.

The free software Vista Drive Status changes this by enabling storage information under Windows XP as well.

Vista Drive Icon, changes the drive icons shown in Windows “My Computer”, to a nearly Vista drive icon, showing the drive’s free space with a smooth colored horizontal bar.

The application is a run and forget type of software. All users need to do is to download it from the developer’s website and run the installer to activate the feature. It is then visible under My Computer in Windows Explorer.

The program adds a storage bar beneath each of the computer’s partitions. Blue indicates used space on the drive, white free storage space and red a hard drive that is almost at its capacity.

The program can be uninstalled at any time to undo the changes to Windows Explorer and the Windows XP operating system.

The application can be downloaded from its official Sourceforge page. (via)

Windows XP is still the top operating system with a market share between 51% (Statcounter) and 57% (Hitslink). That’s a comfortable lead as it is still twice as much as the market share of Windows 7 which the services see between 24% and 19%.

A closer look at the past year reveals tendencies. Windows XP loses between 1% and 2% market share per month, while Windows gains about the same amount each month.

Windows Vista, the successor of Windows XP and predecessor of Windows 7, dropped as well from a market share between 22% and 17% to between 16% and 12%.

Windows 7 managed to surpass the highest market share of Windows Vista in one year’s time, and it is likely that recent trends will continue. Windows XP and Vista will continue to lose market share to Windows 7. Linux and Mac OS did not really change in that time. Only Statcounter sees a 1% increase of Mac OS.

Lets take a look at the browser market share as well. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the browser with the highest market share. Statcounter recorded a drop below 50% to 48% in November while Hitslink sees the browser at 58% in November 2010 followed by Mozilla firefox with a market share between 22% and 31%, Google Chrome between 9% and 13%, Safari between 4% and 5% and the Opera browser at 2%.

Firefox does not seem to be able to get any more market share, as it is showing a constant share in the last twelve months. The only two browsers showing movement at all are Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (downwards) and Google Chrome (upwards).

These high capacity hard drives will work fine for users running Windows Vista, Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 operating system. Windows XP users will however notice that they cannot use all of the space of the hard drive. Why? Because the operating system cannot address disk space beyond the 2 Terabyte limit. That’s roughly one third of space that cannot be used.

An alternative is an advanced partitioning scheme like GUID Partition Table (GPT) which can support 3TB volumes. The problem however is that GPT is not supported by Windows XP.

Paragon however came up with a solution. They basically create a specially signed driver to make Windows XP compatible with the GPT partitioning scheme. With this in place, Windows XP users can utilize the full storage of 3TB hard drives.

There are a few limitations though, but the solution nevertheless is the only available one to use all 3 Terabytes of hard drive space on Windows XP. The major limitation of this method is that the 3TB hard drive cannot be the system partition. The full 3 Terabytes are only available if the hard drive is installed as a secondary drive. Other limitations include incompatibility with RAID setups and external 3TB hard drives.

After installation and reboot of the system the GPT partitioning scheme needs to be created on the 3 Terabyte drive. This is done by clicking on Hard Disk in the menubar and selecting Convert to GPT hard disk from the context menu.

Full access to all 3 Terabytes is provided afterwards. It is then possible to use Windows tools to manage the hard drive, or the Paragon GPT Disk Manager. The disk manager offers options to partition the hard drive among other features.

Paragon GPT Loader Download and Compatibility

Paragon GTP Loader is currently available free of charge as part of Paragon’s Early Adopter program. The program has been developed for Windows XP, and users of other Microsoft operating systems have no benefit of running the software (as their systems support 3TB drives). The Paragon GTP Loader download link will be sent to the email address used in the registration for the early adopters program. The same email contains a link to the product guide in pdf format.

A total of five different Virtual PC images are offered, to give the web developer options to test websites in the following constellations:

• Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista SP2
• Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows Vista SP2

The images are available as separate downloads from Microsoft Download. The Windows XP images have a size between 490 and 580 Megabytes, the Windows Vista images between 1990 and 2100 Megabytes. A version of Windows Virtual PC is required to run the virtual operating systems on the computer.

The XP and Vista images have different expiration dates:

Windows XP Images
These images were last updated on October 13, 2010, and expire on January 11, 2011.

IE6-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE6 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011
IE7-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE7 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011
IE8-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE8 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011

Windows Vista
Due to the size of the Vista VHD, it is split across several files, you’ll need to download all files for that version of the Internet Explorer and uncompress them to the same directory to unpack the VHD file. This VHD only has SP1, and should be updated to ensure it has the latest service packs and security updates.

IE7-VIS1.exe+IE7-VIS2.rar+IE7-VIS3.rar contain a Vista Image with IE7 VHD file. Expires 90 days after first run.
IE8-VIS1.exe+IE8-VIS2.rar+IE8-VIS3.rar+IE8-VIS4.rar contain a Vista Image with IE8 VHD file. Expires 90 days after first run.

The virtual PC images are created by double-clicking the files to create the VHD file. They then need to be loaded as a new VPC image in Virtual PC.

All five different Virtual PC images are available for download at Microsoft Download. Web developers find another option to Use Multiple Internet Explorer Versions Simultaneously in a previous guide that we have published.

Some XP SP2 users may have been puzzled by the lack of support, considering that they were able to download July’s Patch Day patches just fine. What has changed between those two patch releases?

The extended support phase of Windows XP SP2 has ended on July 13. This means that Microsoft will not produce security patches, or other updates, for the operating system from that day on.

The first security patch that SP2 users missed arrived unfortunately less than a month after the support period ended.

Windows XP SP2 users will not receive the upcoming massive amount of security patches of this August’s Patch Day, nor will they receive future patches or updates which leaves the operating system vulnerable to attacks.

Windows XP SP2 users basically have two choices. They can update their system to Service Pack 3, an option that probably has the least consequences of them all, or upgrade to a newer operating system. Windows XP SP3 is available directly from Microsoft.

Staying with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and doing nothing is not really a choice, considering the security implications.

StatCounter, the W3Schools OS platform statistics and NetMarketShare have recorded a steady rise of Windows 7 ever since its introduction in October 2009.

Overall numbers differ because of the different data sets used in the calculation of the operating system market share.

Statcounter for instance recorded a Windows 7 market share of 19.86%, while NetMarketshare one of 14.46% and W3Schools of 19.8%. Vista’s market share respectively has been calculated to be 19.18%, 14.34% and 11.7%.

statcounter

netmarketshare

w3schools

It took Windows 7 less than a year to surpass Windows Vista, an operating system with a two and a half year head start. That’s not as surprising as it may sounds though, as Microsoft seems to be selling More Than 7 Copies Of Windows 7 A Second, resulting in more than 150 million Windows 7 copies sold in June 2010.

What may be surprising to some users is the steady decline of the Windows XP operating system, and the more or less stable market share of Windows Vista.

According to StatCounter, Windows XP dropped from an all-time high market share of 69.95% in July 2009 to 54.13% in August 2010. Netmarketshare saw a drop from 71.51% in September 2009 to 61.87% in July 2010, W3Schools a drop from 65.3% in October 2009 to 54.6% in June 2010.

Vista on the other hand did not drop that much. StatCounter recorded the market share of the Os with 22.71% in June 2009, and 19.18% in August 2010.

Netmarketshare similarly saw a drop from 18.62% in September 2009 to 14.34% in July 2010, while W3schools saw a drop from 18.6% to 11.7% in that period.

Windows XP is losing between 1-2% every month, while Windows 7 is gaining the same percentage in the same period. It will still be interesting to see if Windows 7 can keep up the momentum. Many experts believe that the market share will increase faster with the release of the first Windows 7 service pack, which is expected to be released in the beginning of 2011.

Windows XP is losing more absolute market share than Windows Vista. It is likely that Windows XP users who have waited a long time to migrate to another operating system pick Windows 7, Windows Vista users on the other hand sit on a relatively new operating system and computer, and are less likely the migrate yet.

StatCounter stats for individual continents show interesting trends as well.
Windows XP has dropped to 36% in July, while both Vista and Windows 7 gained market share and sit at 28% and 22%. Stats are similar in Europe, with Vista again in front of Windows 7 market share wise. Windows XP dropped to 46% over the last 12 months, Vista increased its market share to 24% and Windows 7 its to 22%.

The two continents where adoption rates are not as steep are Africa and Asia. Windows XP has a market share of over 70% in both continents.

Oh, and just for the laughs, Mac OS has a market share of 100% in Antarctica, at least for now.. [source: Statcounter, W3Schools, NetMarketShare]

Microsoft is aware of limited targeted attacks that exploit the vulnerability. These attacks use specially crafted links on web pages or email messages with the hcp:// prefix instead of http://.

The HCP protocol is used to execute links in the Help and Support Center. The threat is caused by the Windows Help and Support Center not properly validating links that use the HCP protcol.

Attackers who successfully exploit the vulnerability could take complete control of the system if the user is logged in with administrative privileges. The vulnerability can only be exploited if the user clicks on a prepared link.

Microsoft has created a Fix-It script that can be used to protect Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems from the vulnerability.

The script disables the threat by unregistering the HCP protocol on the target system.

A manual workaround was also posted

• 1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK
• 2. Locate and then click the following registry key:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HCP
• 3.Click the File menu and select Export
• 4.In the Export Registry File dialog box, enter HCP_Procotol_Backup.reg and click Save. Note This will create a backup of this registry key in the My Documents folder by default.
• 5. Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete the registry key. When prompted to delete the registry key via the Confirm Key Delete dialog box, click Yes.

Using a Managed Deployment Script

• 1. Create a backup copy of the registry keys by using a managed deployment script that contains the following commands:Regedit.exe /e HCP_Protocol_Backup.reg

  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HCP

• 2. Next, save the following to a file with a .REG extension, such as Disable_HCP_Protocol.reg:Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

  [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HCP]

• 3. Run the above registry script on the target machine with the following command from an elevated command prompt: Regedit.exe /s Disable_HCP_Protocol.reg

Disabling the HCP protocol will break all links, be they local or remote, that use the HCP procotol.

Windows 7 started with a market share of 2.15% in October and managed to gain more than 10% in the following seven months. Windows Vista at the same time declined from 18% to 15% while Windows XP dropped from 70% to 62% in that time period.

Windows 7 will surpass Windows Vista if current trends continue in less than three months time.

But Windows Vista is not Microsoft’s prime target in the market share race. Windows XP is still going strong with its market share of 62.5%. It would take more than two years, assuming current trends continue, before Windows 7 would surpass Windows XP as the operating system with the biggest market share.

It has to be noted that usage share statistics depend on the tracking methods used. The operating system statistics over at W3c paint a different picture as they see Windows 7 in the lead over Vista by about 6%.

Current releases of Windows Live will continue to be supported on XP and the web based services of Windows Live Wave 4 will also be supported. Only the desktop applications won’t be supported anymore.

Windows XP is nearly 10 years old and simply doesn’t provide the same level of platform support for graphics, and we recognized early in our work on Wave 4 that we could do much more in our software on a modern graphics platform. As a result our new version of Essentials will require the new graphics platform and controls that are only available on Windows 7 or Windows Vista and therefore will only run on these platforms.

Windows Live Wave 4 is on the other hand not the only Microsoft software that will not be made available for Windows XP. Microsoft’s upcoming Internet browser Internet Explorer 9 will also lack Windows XP support.

Windows XP users on the other hand have many solid alternatives at hand that they can use without difficulties. But so do Windows 98 users.

Windows XP is currently dominating the operating system market with a market share of about 60% followed by Vista with roughly 16% and Windows 7 with 10%. The trend on the other hand shows a decline of about 10% in the last ten months.

The reason for this is to give their users an option to use the Windows XP mode to run software that is not running on Windows 7. Windows XP Mode required a processor with hardware virtualization support when it was introduced which meant that some computer users were not able to make use of it.

Users can find out if their PC is supporting hardware virtualization by downloading Microsoft’s Hardware Assisted Virtualization Tool.

Microsoft announced that they had removed the hardware virtualization requirement of Windows XP Mode two days ago and that they would make a patch available so that ever Windows 7 user with the right edition could make use of Windows XP Mode in the operating system.

The patches have now been made available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7. Once installed they remove the requirement of hardware virtualization which gets rid of error messages like “Unable to start Windows Virtual PC because hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled” and “Cannot start Windows Virtual PC Host Process. Check the System event log for more details” which users experienced previously.

A genuine validation check is performed before the download becomes available.

Update for Windows 7 (KB977206)
Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB977206)

Install this update to remove the prerequisites required to run Windows Virtual PC and XP mode

Have you been making use of the Windows XP Mode in Windows 7? If so how was your experience?

Microsoft addressed the issue shortly after reports began to appear and revealed that the issues were linked to the patch MS10-015. The company did however mention at this time that it was not clear yet if the patch was the cause for the problems.

While that has not been ruled out completely the most likely cause for the BSOD after installing the updates is malware that is active on the affected computer systems.

Patrick W. Barnes found that malware was the cause of the BSOD. He first linked the infection to the Microsoft patch mentioned above by installing and uninstalling it with the help of the Windows Recovery Console.

Once the update is applied and the system rebooted, Windows will bluescreen at boot. When booted to Safe Mode, the system will freeze. Removing the update from the Windows Recovery Console or using live media will get the system booting again, at least until the update is reapplied.

He then discovered that the computer system was infected with the TDSS rootkit which infects the atapi.sys file in the operating system. The rootkit is very hard to spot and some security suites have failed until today to discover it and repair the system.

Cleaning TDSS from the computer system resulted in the computer system booting normally even after applying the security patch issued by Microsoft.

I have found that the root cause is an infection of %System32\drivers\atapi.sys, and that replacing this file with a clean version will get the system booting normally.

Microsoft’s Jerry Bryant has since then confirmed in a Twitter message that malware is one cause and that removing the malware will make the system boot normally. He did not want to rule out other causes at that time though.

Kaspersky has created a software called TDSS Killer which we reviewed a month ago that can be used to clean the affected operating system from the TDSS rootkit.

Patrick posted repair instructions in his blog post and mentioned the atapi.sys infection may not be the only cause of the blue screen.

An atapi.sys infection may not be the only cause of this blue screen. While it does seem to be the most common cause, other infected drivers or drivers that make incorrect references to the updated kernel bits may also cause blue screens after this update is applied. Make sure you scan any computer with up-to-date antivirus software that can detect rootkits and check for updated drivers for your computer before applying this update.

Windows users who are experiencing the blue screen of death after installing the patch should scan their computer system with an antivirus software that can detect rootkits.

Tinker is available at the Windows Live Marketplace which means that only users with a valid Windows Live account and an installed copy of Games for Windows Live can download the game for free. The good news – besides that the game is offered for free – is the fact that it is available not only for Windows 7 users but also for Windows XP and Windows vista users.

The not so good news is that Microsoft wants additional information before the game can be downloaded including the user’s name and address. A download of the Games for Windows live client is required before the download of the game can be started. The client can be downloaded directly at the Microsoft website. A Windows Live account can be created from within the program’s interface after the installation if that should be necessary.

Tinker itself has a size of 59 Megabytes and seems to be identical with the version that was released back then for Windows Vista Ultimate users. It will be interesting to see how Windows Vista Ultimate users react on the release of on of their exclusives. Everyone else will likely be very happy that this game is released for free.

The search option in the Windows XP start menu for instance will still use the basic Windows search functionality instead of that of the newly installed search tool. Enter Reroute XP Search, a lightweight software program that offers the functionality to change the default Windows XP search tool to another tool of the user’s choosing.

All the portable program does is to change the link in the Windows XP start menu so that it points to the third party search software instead of the default Windows XP search tool. It will not change the search functionality of the classic XP start menu.

All it takes to change the link is to run the Reroute XP Search application to browse for another search tool on the computer system. A click on the Apply button will change the link to the selected search tool (it apparently is also possible to select any software, even those that are not search related).

The program comes with a Restore Default button in case the settings need to be reverted again at a later time. Most users who have installed third party search programs are probably using hotkeys instead to open the search interfaces. It can still make sense to change the link in the start menu as well as there are definitely users out there who do not use hotkeys at all. Reroute XP Search is available at the developer’s website. via Technix.