Microsoft Rebuts OneCare Accusations
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Although OneCare does modify Windows' patch options, Microsoft says users are warned during install.
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Software giant says users are responsible for the modifications that generated claims of unauthorized patch installs.
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US software giant Microsoft Corp has sued a group of &quot;spammers&quot; who it accuses of sending unsolicited e-mails promoting pornography to millions of its customers, documents showed.
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Microsoft is downplaying claims that several new vulnerabilities in Windows XP SP2 were discovered by Finjan Software, but it is looking into the claims anyway.
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Several California cities and counties, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have sued Microsoft Corporation, accusing the software giant of illegally charging inflated prices for its products because of monopoly control of the personal computer
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Genuine Advantage not proven Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage is being updated today, in what the company claims is response to customer feedback.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft released a beta version of its next-generation Windows Live OneCare 2.0 desktop security and management package on July 11, touting a number of improvements made to the product, including the ability to monitor multiple PCs on a local network. Available for free download on the company's Web site, the combined software and service offering -- which is aimed specifically at consumers and small businesses -- also adds new functionality for backing-up data and protecting against malware attacks. Introduced roughly six months after the launch of Microsoft's OneCare 1.5 release in January 2007, the beta -- which like its predecessors includes firewall, AV (anti-virus), backup, and anti-spyware programs -- boasts security improvements, including new tools for locking-down wireless networks and an automated, self-adjusting firewall. Among the new management features being introduced in the product are support for the sharing of printers among multiple computers, a start time optimizer for speeding computer boot cycles, and an online backup system for photos and other images. As part of the service portion of the offering, Microsoft said it has added more proactive system fixes and end-user configuration suggestions to the package along with monthly reports on important computer events or recommended upgrades. The centralized backup feature claims the ability for users to configure and monitor automated storage controls for all PCs covered under a lone OneCare subscription -- which can cover up to three machines -- in a single network location. The newest iteration of the package also adds support for 64-bit PC systems. Microsoft, whose security software product business remains in its early stages, is the third major company to release a new version of its consumer endpoint protection tools in the last month alone as both McAfee and Symantec have also revamped their competing applications. The software giant gave no indication as to when it might push OneCare 2.0 from beta into production but said it is actively seeking feedback from users who decide to try out the package. Since its initial launch in May 2006 OneCare has drawn mixed reviews from end users and security researchers. While many experts have said that the product's pricing -- $49.95 for protection and management of up to three PCs for one year -- has drawn the interest of many consumers, the product has fared poorly against its rivals in some head-to-head bake-offs. In such a comparison study published in March 2007 by researchers at AV-Comparatives -- a project based in Austria and overseen by security researcher Andreas Clementi -- OneCare performed poorly next to similar products made by Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, BitDefender, Fortinet, F-Secure, and several other anti-virus providers. According to the report, OneCare ranked last among the products tested in detecting Windows viruses, worms, macros, scripts, and other OS threats, detecting 91 percent of the threats. In stopping systems intrusion through backdoors, Trojan viruses and other malware attacks, OneCare also ranked last out of 13 vendors with 79.6 percent detection. Despite any perceived shortcomings in OneCare, at least one industry analyst said that Microsoft has had a significant impact on the consumer AV landscape for its relatively short run on the market, specifically around pricing. By offering coverage for multiple PCs for much less than it would have cost using older products from market leaders Symantec and McAfee, Microsoft has forced those companies and others to drop their own pricing and changed consumer perceptions about the cost of AV tools, said Natalie Lambert, analyst for Forrester Research. "The market is dramatically changing, and Microsoft is part of reason for that," Lambert said. "If you look at demand, consumers are not willing to pay for security software as they were in the past, they've found ways to get these programs for free, and Microsoft started some of that activity by driving prices down." In terms of functionality, Lambert said that OneCare 2.0 appears to have pulled Microsoft closer to some of its rivals, although she does not believe that most consumers are ready to use all of the tools, such as centralized backup for multiple PCs. Instead of buying off-the-shelf AV products as they may have done in years past, the analyst said that consumers are increasingly using programs bundled for free in their PCs or signing up for services offered by their ISPs, many of which are offered at no charge. "Partnerships are more essential than ever before in this market," she said. "Winning this space will come down to who has the most and best partnerships in the future; consumers want full functionality, but they don't want to pay for it, and the vendors will need to get money from someplace, and it will be from the PC manufacturers and ISPs."
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Company says U.K. Internet service provider selling a 'streaming' version of Office is infringing on Microsoft license regulations.
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Although Microsoft had planned to release a patch today for a OneCare flaw that eats Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail files, user complaints prompted it to actually put out the fix on Sunday.
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A false positive in company's antivirus products leads to quarantine or deletion of some Windows users' copies of explorer.exe.
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Microsoft has won the first round against security researchers digging for flaws in its Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), dismissing claims by German consultants to have identified vulnerabilities.
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Microsoft Corp. has filed 26 lawsuits accusing U.S. companies of selling pirated software, the latest move in its ramped-up efforts to boost sales by cracking down on illegal copies.
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Microsoft's consumer security software changes the AU (Automatic Updates) settings in Windows XP and Vista without telling users or getting their approval, a researcher said Thursday -- behavior that may explain recent reports of patches being installed and systems rebooting without permission.When Microsoft responded to new charges of silent changes last week, however, it denied that AU settings were ever altered without user approval, and it didn't mention OneCare as a possible culprit.Scott Dunn, an editor at the "Windows Secrets" newsletter, reported Thursday morning that OneCare silently changes AU settings as it installs. No matter what AU setting the user selected previously, OneCare's installer quietly changes it to the fully automatic option."Some security products have turned on AU in the past," said Dunn, who also tested several other current consumer suites, including Symantec's Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security, McAfee's Internet Security Suite, and Check Point Software's ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. "But OneCare was the only guilty party."OneCare's willful way with AU may be an explanation for the reports two weeks ago of machines downloading and installing the Oct. 9 set of security fixes even though their owners had explicitly instructed Windows to ignore all downloads or notify them before they were installed.Several days later, after it wrapped up an investigation, Microsoft said AU settings were never changed without user consent, and it blamed absent-minded users for making modifications and then forgetting that they had."I find this surprising and very disturbing," said Dunn. "If they're going to change [AU] settings, they should let you know."Four options, down to one In both Windows XP and Vista, users can select from four options in AU: Download and install all updates automatically; download files but do not install them without user consent; check for but neither download nor install without permission; and disable Automatic Updates entirely.OneCare, sold for $49.95 and offered as a free 90-day trial, sets AU to the first, and all-automatic, setting, said Dunn, on both operating systems. "It does that even if Automatic Updates is completely disabled," he added. If users later uninstall OneCare -- for instance, after a trial has expired -- the software does not return the machine to the earlier settings; they must be reset by the user."Worse, OneCare silently turns on [Windows] services that have been disabled by the user," Dunn said, referring to the two services that some users, frustrated at earlier incidents in which Windows retrieved and installed patches without permission, have manually turned off: Automatic Updates and Background Intelligent Transfer Service. The services can be switched off manually using the Windows services.msc utility. Normally, once disabled, they remain that way until the user manually turns them back on.ComputerWorld confirmed Dunn's account of OneCare's AU changes by installing the security suite on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.At no time during installation, said Dunn, does OneCare tell the user that the software will modify Windows' settings or provide an opt-in dialog. Nor do the various online documents -- including Microsoft's privacy statement and an addendum for OneCare -- that are offered up early during the process contain any information about the changes. "It turns out there's a brief mention of it buried deep in one of the OneCare help files," said Dunn. "But that's not the same as telling users upfront."The help file (select "What does Windows Live Update do to help manage and maintain my computer's software updates?" to view the pertinent section) acknowledges that OneCare makes changes without bothering to ask. "When you first install Windows Live OneCare, setup automatically enlists your computer in Microsoft Update and changes your computer's settings to download and install updates automatically using Automatic Updates," it reads.Who's 'forgetful' now? Although Microsoft was not immediately available for comment this morning, it made it clear last week that reports of unauthorized updates, and even PC reboots, could not be blamed on its software."I want to stress that the Windows Update client does not change AU settings without users' consent," said Nate Clinton, a program manager with the Microsoft Update team in a company blog entry a week ago. He went on to list five possible explanations; all require the user to take action or accept one option from several offered.Earlier, a Microsoft spokeswoman had been more blunt. "It may be more a case of someone clicking to change their AU settings but not realizing/remembering doing so," she said last Tuesday. She also called out OneCare's installation as one such possible moment and claimed that the security suite offered users the option of changing AU settings. It does not."This is just one more example of Microsoft having the attitude that we know better than you do, that you should just stop asking questions and let us do what we want," said Dunn.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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Microsoft said over the weekend that an issue with its Windows Genuine Advantage validation systems -- which were causing verified systems to fail and lose access to features -- had been fixed.
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Several California cities and counties, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, sued Microsoft Corp. on Friday, accusing the software giant of illegally charging inflated prices for its products because of monopoly control of the personal computer operating system market.
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Microsoft says the scripting platform, called Shell, is not final.
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Just one month after a BetaNews report led Windows chief Jim Allchin to explain his comments on Vista not needing antivirus software, an e-mail to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer made public in court has him once again explaining his words.