Keep XP fresh until Windows 7 arrives

Steal our links — no, really, we mean it

By Brian Livingston

This week, we’ve made it easier for you to send your friends and associates links to all the topics we publish.

You can even send your buddies — who aren’t Windows Secrets subscribers at all — links to some of our paid content.

The last section of our e-mail newsletter is now called Permalinks. Every link in this section opens a browser window focused on a different article. If you select a subtopic of an article, the browser scrolls down to that subtopic. (A copy of this week’s e-mail is posted on its own May 15, 2008, page.)

The Permalinks section was previously known as the Index. Links in the old Index section merely scrolled to the appropriate location within that week’s newsletter.

Our permalinks no longer scroll in that way. More of our readers wanted an easy way to link to the permanent location of an article or subtopic on the Web. To scroll down to an article, use the links in the Contents section of the e-mail newsletter.

Back on Mar. 20, 2008, we began allowing subscribers with free subscriptions — and Web surfers with no subscription at all — to see summaries of our paid content. That means you can copy a paid-article link and send it to whomever you like. If they’re not a paying subscriber, and the summary doesn’t provide enough info for them, they can see the paid content immediately by signing up right on the page.

The Permalink icons at the end of each major article in the e-mail newsletter do the same thing as the links in our Permalinks section.

The Permalinks section isn’t a gigantic change, but just one attempt to make linking a bit simpler for you. My thanks to program director Brent Scheffler and our new program manager, Tony Johnston, for automating this feature.

Welcome a writer who’s read all over

Our newest contributing editor, Scott Spanbauer, begins a regular column of paid content today. He’ll be submitting columns two or three times each month, filling the space formerly occupied by editor-at-large Fred Langa, who retired on May 1. (Fred has big shoes to fill, but I believe Scott’s up to the task.)

As a freelance writer, Scott (photo, left) frequently contributes to Business 2.0, CIO, Forbes ASAP, and Fortune Small Business. He’s contributed chapters to PC Bible, 2nd Edition and That’s Entertainment, A Parent’s Guide to Educational Software (both 1995) and was technical editor of Jim Aspinwall’s PC Hacks (2005). He’s also written one tome himself, The No B.S. Guide to Windows 95 (1996), a book effort that he recently told me was “more than enough.”

Scott has also been involved with PC World in one capacity or another since 1987: assistant editor, editor, senior associate editor, and currently contributing editor. He began writing the magazine’s monthly Bugs & Fixes column in 1994 and then switched to writing its Internet Tips column in January 2000.

Scott’s column, Best Software, will concentrate on reviews of freeware, shareware, trialware, and commercial programs. I hope you like the new material.

Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and the co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books.

Keep XP fresh until Windows 7 arrives

By Scott Dunn When Windows XP was released, wireless routers were rare, few cell phones supported e-mail, and YouTube was just a gleam in some PayPal employees’ eyes. But like a fabled perpetual motion machine, XP keeps on going and going — and if you follow some simple guidelines, the OS will keep running in top condition until Vista’s successor is ready in 2010.

XP is an operating system with serious legs

Microsoft may not have planned it this way, but XP could end up rivaling NT and 2000 as the version of Windows with the longest lifespan. According to recent news reports, Dell, Lenovo, and other computer manufacturers will continue to sell new PCs running Windows XP well past Microsoft’s June 30 cutoff date.

PC vendors will do so by invoking a downgrade plan that lets them ship a system with Windows XP installed as long as the customer is also paying for an upgrade to Vista Business or Ultimate editions, either of which is included in each box.

Of course, computer manufacturers aren’t the only ones looking for ways to extend XP’s usefulness. One pundit has predicted that Microsoft itself is going to fast-track Windows 7 to get customers to leapfrog over the unpopular Vista and go directly from XP to the next version. In fact, according to the technology site Ars Technica, one major American corporation, General Motors, is considering doing just that.

Eight simple rules for keeping XP rejuvenated

If you’re one of the many people who plan to stick with XP as long as possible, you need to take a few relatively painless steps to keep that aging OS perky. Here are my eight rules for extending XP’s usefulness to 2010 and beyond.

Rule 1: The latest ain’t always the greatest. As a rule, older operating systems were designed to work with older software. Unless you need some utterly indispensible feature found only in the latest Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office 2007, stick to the preceding releases. Not only will the senior apps run faster, most of the kinks and bugs have already been worked out of them.

If your hardware and software work fine as is, don’t bother upgrading any drivers, either. At the same time, driver upgrades often smooth out minor problems that you’ve just grown used to.

One way to check for out-of-date device drivers is to use the online scanner from Driver Updates. (Note that using this service requires running an ActiveX component in Internet Explorer.)

Should you discover that one of your drivers is out of date, go to the manufacturer’s site to find and download the latest version available (but skip any beta releases). Remember to back up your system before installing the new driver in case it causes problems.

Rule 2: Make an exception for security. Set Rule 1 aside when it comes to your security software and services. Update your virus and spyware definitions frequently. Get the latest security updates for your browser and for QuickTime, Flash, and other media players as well. Some of the dangers of unpatched software are explained in the April 17 Top Story.

Rule 3: Stay young and beautiful. The last exception to Rule 1 is to make a cautious investment in a handful of utilities that improve and modernize XP. You’ll find a number of free and low-cost programs that approximate or even duplicate Vista’s best new features without having to invest in a whole new operating system.

For a guide to applications that give XP handy features of Vista’s Business edition, see my July 12, 2007, column. To read about ways to add features from Vista Enterprise or Ultimate editions to XP, check out my July 19, 2007, column.

Rule 4: Shop carefully for new hardware. If your XP system needs a processor, memory, or other hardware upgrade to keep it from bogging down on your applications, there is no reason why you can’t swap out an aging component or add some RAM.

However, since some new components are designed with Vista in mind, make sure the products you buy work as advertised under XP. Check the manufacturers’ site for XP driver downloads before you make your purchase, and look for online reviews that mention the products’ XP compatibility.

Rule 5: Don’t let startup stuff slow you down. It seems like every program you install these days wants to start along with Windows. These auto-start apps are usually represented by an icon in your system tray (the area near your clock). Even if your system has oodles of memory, these little doodads can slow you down without offering any real value.

An excellent tool for finding what gizmos are starting up each time you log into Windows is Autoruns, available from Microsoft (originally from Sysinternals). Simply uncheck the item to disable it from starting, or select an entry and delete it to effect a more permanent removal.

If you can’t figure out what a particular startup app does, right-click its entry in the Autoruns window and choose Search Online. This performs a Google search (rather than a Live search, which you might expect). Scour the results to find out whether the program has a legitimate reason for needing to run all the time.

If the Web search isn’t helpful in rooting out a program’s purpose, check the list of common startup applications maintained by Paul Collins to figure out what’s getting started with Windows.

Finally, the free version of WinPatrol can warn you whenever a program attempts to add an item to your startup list.

Clear the clutter from XP’s many cubbyholes

Rule 6: Save on disk space. A problem that plagues nearly all aging systems is the pack-rat syndrome. Just using a PC day to day causes an ever-increasing amount of data to be stored in ever-shrinking disk space. These tips will help you recover some of that precious drive capacity.

• Eliminate hibernation files. XP’s hibernation feature stores everything currently in RAM onto your hard disk, which allows you to return to your session more quickly after a period of inactivity. Unfortunately, hibernation needs about the same amount of disk space as your current amount of RAM (for example, 1GB of disk space if you have 1GB of RAM).

  If you don’t use XP’s hibernate feature very often, you can save the space occupied by the hiberfil.sys file: choose Start, Run; type powercfg.cpl; click the Hibernate tab; uncheck Enable hibernation; and click OK.

• Don’t let iTunes make you hear double. If you use Windows Media Player to rip CDs to your computer in the Windows Media Audio (.wma) format and then decide to give iTunes a try, beware! iTunes will convert those songs into its Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, resulting in duplicate files for every song iTunes manages. To avoid that, use a single music format (such as .mp3) that all media players can handle.
• Store stuff online. Another way to save on disk space is to transfer files to an online storage service. You may already store your e-mail and photos online. Yahoo’s Flickr service lets you store as many photos as you like, but unless you upgrade to a paid account, you’ll never be able to see more than the last 100.

  Google’s Picasa Web albums provide 1GB of free storage. And if you’re willing to pay, you can get a whole lot more storage space than that.

  Of course, you don’t need to limit yourself to mail and photos. A number of sites offer free or low-cost online storage. For example, Mozy gives you 2GB of free storage through its MozyHome service. MozyPro accounts start at U.S. $4.50 per gigabyte per month.

  Many sites, including ElephantDrive, Omnidrive, and Box, provide only 1GB of free storage. Each service offers larger storage options at varying prices.

  Finally, IBackup has economy plans that charge only $1 per gigabyte per month (and less for annual rates). By comparison, the popular Data Deposit Box charges $2 monthly for each gigabyte you use.

• Offload files to a new drive. Even if you’ve purchased a new hard drive to expand your storage space, you may still be running out of room on your Windows drive. Fortunately, you can move your virtual memory paging file, Internet Explorer cache files, My Documents, and other system files to another drive or partition. For step-by-step information, see my column from the Feb. 28 issue.

Rule 7: Keep it clean. It makes no sense to hang onto useless junk files that Windows uses for its own purposes. Fortunately, Windows’ own Disk Cleanup tool can clear out this system clutter. For details on how to customize Disk Cleanup for maximum efficiency, see Fred Langa’s Mar. 13 column in the paid portion of the newsletter.

Disk Cleanup also removes the outdated restore points created by System Restore that you no longer need. In the Disk Cleanup window, click the More Options tab. Under System Restore, click Clean up and confirm that you want to delete all but the current restore point.

Unfortunately, Disk Cleanup misses certain temp files. To make a little batch file that clears these folders, open Notepad and type the following:

del /s /q “C:Documents and SettingsyournameLocal SettingsTemp*.*”

Replace yourname with the name of the account you’ve logged into and adjust the drive letter or path as needed. Save the file with a .cmd or .bat extension (for example, killtemp.bat) and put the file or a shortcut to it in your Startup group (Start, All Programs, Startup). This way, it will run each time you log in to your Windows account.

Rule 8. Do your chores. Joan Rivers described my attitude to PC maintenance when she said, “I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes, and six months later you have to start all over again.”

Odious as PC housekeeping can be, get into the disk-maintenance habit: make backups, defrag your hard disks, and check them for errors. Fortunately, you can use XP’s Scheduled Tasks utility (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks) to automate or partially automate these chores by setting the program to give you a gentle reminder.

Did I leave something out? Let me know your favorite “rejuvenation rules” for XP — or Vista, for that matter — using the Windows Secrets contact page.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.

Windows rocks! The OS plays a Who classic

The next time someone tells you Windows is no fun, point them to this video of the OS’s version of a classic by one of the greatest rock bands of all times. The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” (also known as “Teenage Wasteland”) never sounded so… mechanical. This compilation is — you guessed it — made entirely with Windows sounds and effects. Let’s hope Pete Townshend isn’t a Mac user! Play the video

One online notetaker outshines the competition

By Scott Spanbauer Whether you just need to do a little brainstorming or you’re creating a multimedia scrapbook, one free notebook service makes collecting and sharing ideas a snap. Or keep things super-simple by recording your thoughts in plain text via two other useful Web apps.

When a sticky note just won’t cut it

Even though I’d been using computers since just after the dawn of time, I still relied on a Post-It note or the back of an envelope whenever I needed to jot down an appointment, a phone number, a shopping list, or an idea for a future column.

My paper habit left my desk awash in drying, discolored scraps containing the crucial threads of information that stitch my life together. One stiff breeze and my career was out the window — literally.

Since I switched to recording my day-to-day data on one of the Web’s free notetaking services, not only is my desk clear but my scribbled phone numbers, appointments, and to-do lists are available to me wherever and whenever there’s a Web connection.

There’s something to like about each of my three favorite online notetakers, though they couldn’t be more different. If you’re the graphical type, Zoho Notebook lets you create charts and other diagrams. You can collect images and audio and video clips for use in your scrapbook. Then share your creations with anyone via e-mail or publish them on a Web page.

As you can imagine, Google Notebook’s claim to fame is its no-nonsense interface. However, the only way to paste images into your notes is via a Firefox add-on, and even then you’re limited to thumbnails linking back to the original image.

For the “War Games” look, try BigHugeLabs.com’s Writer: The Internet Typewriter, which mimics the look of the green-phosphor CRT displays of the 1980s. The service’s distraction-free interface is a welcome departure from the feature-creep we’ve grown accustomed to. Still, you’ll likely find more formatting options on a typewriter.

Note that while these online notetakers do support rudimentary text formatting, they are not full-fledged word processors. If you’re looking for a great online replacement for Microsoft Word, head instead to Zoho Writer, ThinkFree, or Google Docs.

Record your thoughts in graphs and charts

If your notetaking goes beyond simple text and Web clips, prepare to be astounded by Zoho Notebook’s seemingly endless capabilities. With Zoho, notes are a multimedia affair: draw diagrams and flow charts using vector-based symbols, lines, and color fills, all of which can be edited. Of course, you can also enter, edit, and format text.

Figure 1: Zoho Notebook offers the best features in the category of notetaking apps.

Zoho Notebook lets you create scrapbooks containing images, audio, and video scoured from the Web. You can also record sound and pictures on the spot using a Flash plug-in. The service lets you embed RSS feeds in your notes. You can also upload files to the service and import documents from Zoho’s other online applications.

Other features allow you to share your notebooks, individual notebook pages, or individual objects with anybody via e-mail. Or publish them to Zoho’s Web server with just a click or two. In fact, you can use the service to collect, annotate, share, and publish almost any information that can be viewed on a computer. How accommodating can you get?

Simple text notes, but images need not apply

Interface simplicity is the watchword at Google, and Google Notebook is no exception. Your main page contains one or more notebooks listed on the left, each of which contains one or more notes; section headers are optional.

You can edit and format your text, change notebook titles, insert e-mail and links, and collapse and expand your notes. Although you can’t paste images or other media types into your notebooks, a Web-clipping extension for Firefox lets you copy chunks of pages into a separate bookmarks area, after which thumbnails of the linked images appear.

I’m a big fan of Gmail’s labels, but I haven’t yet mastered the use of labels to organize Google Notebook. The trick is undoubtedly to create lots of short notes within a notebook. This way, tags apply to just the most relevant text in the notebook.

In real life, I often give my wrinkled handwritten notes to someone else to make sense of. In the same way, Google Notebook lets you share individual notebooks with others and invite them to collaborate.

Selectric flashback: take notes like it’s 1979

Sometimes to get my ideas down, I need to minimize distractions. BigHugeLabs.com’s Writer: The Internet Typewriter does away with standard Web-interface complexities in favor of an utterly retro green-on-black, text-only display that takes me right back to my days in front of the original IBM PC.

If green’s not your thing, choose to view amber, white, or gray text in your choice of three — count ’em — three fonts. Writer’s few menu commands dim automatically after a few seconds, leaving just the text you’re typing in view.

You don’t even have to log in to the service. Just start tapping the keys. Your note will be waiting for you when you return — as long as you connect from the same computer and don’t clear the cookies out of your browser.

If you want to access your notes from any Web link, Writer lets you create an account and log in to create, view, and edit your notes from any PC.

Though it purposely eschews most text-formatting options, Writer does offer a few Web whistles and bells. For example, you can download individual documents in .txt or .pdf format. You can also e-mail notes or post them to your blog with a single click. But as far as features go, that’s all, folks!

Scott Spanbauer writes frequently for PC World, Business 2.0, CIO, Forbes ASAP, and Fortune Small Business. He has contributed to several books and was technical reviewer of Jim Aspinwall’s PC Hacks.

More vulnerabilities found in Internet Explorer

By Mark Joseph Edwards There are no patches for two recently discovered Internet Explorer 7 security bugs, but you can defend against them. One of the exploits causes secure information to remain cached, and the other may make Javascript unsafe.

Internet Explorer might cache sensitive data

By default, Internet Explorer 7 doesn’t cache Web pages accessed via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections. However, Bill Knox of MITRE discovered that, in some cases, IE 7 might indeed cache sensitive data transmitted via SSL that it should delete automatically when the page closes.

Microsoft is aware of the problem but has no patch available. We’ll probably see a patch for the SSL glitch from the company sooner or later.

In the meantime, the workaround cited on CERT’s page is to delete the browser cache. According to CERT, the cache in question resides in the following directory, where yourname is your user name:

yournameAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet FilesLow

To delete the cache, follow these steps:

Step 1. From IE’s Tools menu, select Internet Options.
Step 2. Choose the General tab.
Step 3. In the Browsing History section, click the Delete button.
Step 4. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete files button.
Step 5. Click Yes.

After you clear the cache, select the Temporary Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer and make sure the folder is empty.

Note that according to CERT, you can also protect yourself by encrypting the cache folder. However, this raises the question of whether an automated method could be used to retrieve the cache even if it’s encrypted. I recommend that you delete the cache instead, and don’t forget to empty your Recycle Bin afterward!

Link-printing vulnerability found in IE 7 and 8

Aviv Raff has discovered a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 and 8. IE contains a feature that allows you to print a table of links for a given Web page. Unfortunately, this feature does not operate in the Internet Zone, which is locked down reasonably well.

Instead, link printing operates in the Local Intranet Zone, which gives the feature far more leeway to alter your system than it would have if it were confined in the Internet Zone.

As a result, a bad guy can include malicious links in a Web page that will cause IE to run arbitrary programs. Raff provides a working example that uses ActiveX to launch a command shell, which in turn launches Windows Calculator. However, any number of more dangerous programs could be launched instead of Calculator. Therein resides the risk.

There’s no patch available yet, but Microsoft is aware of the problem. To protect your system, don’t use IE’s Print Table of Links feature.

Windows LocalSystem bug endangers servers

Microsoft released an advisory that discusses a vulnerability in Windows XP SP2, Vista, and Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Microsoft hasn’t indicated yet whether Windows XP SP3 is at risk from this error.

The vulnerability might allow bad guys to access your PC or network in the context of the LocalSystem account. This all-powerful account can be used to inflict untold amounts of damage. The problem is especially worrisome for people who run IIS and SQL Server.

There’s currently no patch available for the problem. Fortunately, Microsoft claims that there are no active exploits in circulation. Nevertheless, you need to protect your systems.

Microsoft offers a list of workarounds that help you defend against this bug. Follow the steps described in Microsoft’s advisory very carefully, particularly those in the Suggested Actions section.

Secunia enhances software updater for networks

In last week’s column, I recommended that you use Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector to help keep your system secure. The free program identifies the software on your PC that needs to be patched or updated to a newer version. Software Inspector is also a free online tool.

For businesses, Secunia offers a network-enabled version called Network Software Inspector (NSI), which costs 20 euros (about U.S. $30) per host, per year. NSI has distinct advantages over Software Inspector for anyone managing more than a handful of computers on a network. For example, the program can track scanning history and system changes since the latest scan.

Secunia recently released NSI 2.0, which features an updated interface that makes the program easier to use.

Readers respond to top-antivirus ratings

In my May 1 column, I wrote about the top antivirus solutions as reported by Virus Bulletin.

Arnold J. Kohn wrote to ask whether ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7 uses the Kaspersky antivirus engine that he relies on. Kaspersky was highly rated by Virus Bulletin. Arnold, it’s true: the Kaspersky antivirus engine is used in ZoneAlarm Security 7.

Mike Ribotto wrote to ask why AVG Anti-Virus wasn’t mentioned in the article. Rick Kirchoff added this:

• “I noticed that AVG didn’t even make your list. Is that because AVG won’t sponsor you?”

As the article stated, the top antivirus solutions were determined by Virus Bulletin, not by Windows Secrets. We aren’t affiliated with Virus Bulletin in any way — we simply relied on the service’s long-standing expertise.

Mark Joseph Edwards is a senior contributing editor of Windows IT Pro magazine and regularly writes for its Security Matters blog. He’s a network engineer, freelance writer, and the author of Internet Security with Windows NT.

XP Service Pack 3 crashes HP's AMD-based PCs

By Susan Bradley Microsoft’s latest — and last — service pack for Windows XP causes some systems that use AMD chipsets to reboot over and over again. The solution involves booting into Safe Mode or using the Recovery Console to disable a problematic driver.

Prevent XP from rebooting after a failure

It isn’t unusual for your system to reboot after you apply a service pack, but some HP PCs reboot constantly following the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

The culprit turns out to be a bad image prepared by HP to install the OS on computers that use AMD chips. One of HP’s Media Center Edition images includes information for both AMD processors and Intel chips.

The duplicate information triggers a rebooting cycle after the installation of XP SP3, as reported by Microsoft security expert and MVP Dr. Jesper Johansson. Specifically, the intelppm.sys driver that’s present on the AMD systems causes a reboot cycle or a stop error after XP SP3 is installed.

As Dr. Johansson states, you may need to disable the setting that automatically restarts your PC following a failure. To do this, press F8 during the restart and choose the option Disable automatic restart on system failure.

(You can also prevent automatic restarts on system failures by changing a setting in Windows. To do this, right-click My Computer; choose Properties, Advanced; select the Settings button under Startup and Recovery; uncheck Automatically restart under System failure; and click OK twice.)

To disable the problematic driver via XP’s Recovery Console or Safe Mode, follow these steps:

• Using Recovery Console. From the command prompt, type disable intelppm and press Enter.
• Using Safe Mode. Type sc config intelppm start= disabled and press Enter. (The space after the equals sign is required.)
• Using a recovery disk. If you use a Windows recovery disk such as WinPE, follow the instructions provided by Dr. Johansson to edit the Registry.

Note that you should not disable intelppm.sys on Intel-based PCs, because doing so prevents the system from booting.

Another problem encountered by some people following installation of XP SP3 involves USB mice. One solution is to use a PS2 converter to attach the USB mouse to a PS2 port rather than a USB port.

Microsoft’s support line for XP SP3 headaches

If you encounter problems installing XP SP3, Microsoft provides free toll-free support at 1-866-234-6020. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, you may have to pay for the service call; review Microsoft’s international support numbers for more information.

There have been unconfirmed reports of XP SP3 problems related to Cisco VPN clients, faulty video drivers, and various stop errors, typically with code 0x00000024. There also appears to be an SP3-related issue with certain AMD computers using ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboards, as reported in Dr. Johansson’s blog.

Fortunately, for anyone experiencing difficulties with the service pack, it’s easy to uninstall, as described in KB article 950249.

More prudent to wait before installing XP SP3

You may wonder whether you even need XP SP3. Most of the service pack’s networking features are used only by business systems, not by the average consumer PC.

Someday, Microsoft will support only XP SP3 and will drop support for XP SP2. However, that day is likely many months from now. I don’t blame you if you choose to hold back a bit before installing SP3.

I haven’t had any problems with XP SP3 in my own testing, but my office’s PCs are built with standard components, and they run few consumer software titles.

Figure 1: Microsoft exhorts users to download XP Service Pack 3.

Bottom line: even though Microsoft wants XP users to install SP3 right away (as stated in the pop-up shown in Figure 1), you need only click “show additional patches” to bypass installing SP3 for now.

XP Service Pack 3 locks in Internet Explorer 7

When you install XP SP3 on a system that has IE 7, you will not be able to remove that version of the browser without first uninstalling the service pack.

This prohibition is by design, as documented in Microsoft’s IE blog. If you want to upgrade an XP system that has SP2 and IE 6, install XP SP3 first, and then upgrade to IE 7. This will allow you to remove IE 7, if necessary.

951937
Vista and XP service packs affect databases

Both Vista SP1 and XP SP3 were pulled soon after their initial release due to problems relating to Microsoft Retail Management Software. KB 951937 documents the issue and describes a hotfix for the problem.

The Neat Receipts program reportedly will not install on XP SP3, as per posts on the company’s support forum.

Both of these issues showcase that when databases are involved, it’s best to wait a while before installing any new service packs.

MS08-026 (951207), MS08-027 (951208), and MS08-028 (950749)
Patches available for Microsoft Office bugs

Three patches for Microsoft Office were released this month, and Microsoft recommends that two of them be installed together. I haven’t encountered any problems installing all three patches on the Office 2007 network in my organization.

Install MS08-026 (KB 951207) and MS08-028 (KB 950749) together to prevent certain databases from being opened and edited in Microsoft Word versions 2000 to 2007, and in Outlook 2007.

In addition, files with malicious content could be opened in Microsoft Publisher. MS08-027 (KB 950749) patches an issue in Publisher where malicious files could be used in an attack to gain control of a system.

In general, it’s wise not to open files that come from sources you don’t trust or that you were not expecting.

MS08-029 (952044)
Important update for Microsoft antivirus apps

Antivirus definitions are updated frequently, and we think nothing of it. However, a recent Microsoft security patch plugs a hole in the company’s antivirus software that makes the programs vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack.

The malware protection engine used in Microsoft’s OneCare, Antigen, Forefront, and Windows Defender security products is the source of the DOS vulnerability. In the case of Windows Defender, the virus-definition update also patches the antivirus engine.

If you use Windows Defender, click the down arrow next to the question-mark icon and choose About Windows Defender. Confirm that the “Engine version” has been updated to 1.1.3520.0 or above.

If the engine hasn’t been updated, visit the Microsoft Update site to download and install the latest Windows patches.

The Patch Watch column reveals problems with patches for Windows and major Windows applications. Susan Bradley recently received an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award from Microsoft for her knowledge in the areas of Small Business Server and network security. She’s also a partner in a California CPA firm.