Microsoft announced yesterday in a company blog that Windows 7 Starter Edition will no longer have a restriction on how many programs it can run at the same time. It is, “based on the feedback we’ve received from partners and customers asking us to enable a richer small notebook PC experience with Windows 7 Starter,” said Microsoft.

The features that are not included in the Starter Edition include a more advanced user interface and multi-monitor support.

Analysts believe that the three-application limit was originally made to minimize the amount of netbooks sales compared to desktop and notebook PCs.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Sophos has posted a blog article about a malware that tries to stop piracy by destroying all mp3 files on an infected computer.

If the computer is infected, a message box will show before users can log on which says “Stop piracy Musician Affairs, Do not Use MP3 again (quasi quasi-an) huahahahahaha!” which is loosely translated from an Indonesian language. The message appears because the malware modifies some registry entries related to WinLogon.

The file comes with a Winamp icon which looks like a regular mp3 file notes Prashant Kumar, the author of the article.

Source: Sophos

PCMAG.com has posted an article about about Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 7’s touch capabilities. The company announced Microsoft Touch Pack which will include three games and three applications for Windows Surface.

The Touch Pack needs a computer with Windows 7 and it also needs to be capable of multi-touch.

“You should start to see these applications showing up on some touch PCs around the time Windows 7 is made broadly available. After general availability of Windows 7, we will look at making the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 even more broadly available based on feedback from customers and partners.” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Source: PCMAG.com

Microsoft announced that it has incorrectly stated the start date for bi-hourly Windows 7 beta shutdowns.

“The Windows 7 Beta does expire on August 1, 2009; unfortunately the date for when bi-hourly shutdowns will begin for the Windows 7 Beta was incorrect. Bi-hourly shutdowns for the Windows 7 Beta will begin July 1, 2009. We apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this may have caused,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc of Microsoft.

The company suggested users should upgrade to “non-expired” copies such as Windows Vista and Windows 7 RC.

Source: PCMAG.com

SmartSniff is a small, freeware and portable application that allows you to capture TCP/IP packets that pass through your network adapter. You can view the TCP/IP conversations that go through your network in both ASCII mode or as a hex dump.

We have featured other packet sniffers here before such as Wireshark. Wireshark portable was even featured in our Computer Repair Utility Kit. However, both these versions needed to install the WinPcap capture driver first in order to work. Smartsniff captures data using the Raw sockets method which means this application is a truly portable packet sniffer as it doesnt need to install anything. Of course, using the raw method does have some limitations and problems such as it not working correctly on XP Service Pack 1, but other than that its a

For those of you who haven’t experimented with packet sniffing before and may be wondering why you would want to do this as a technician. Packet sniffing allows you to see what a system is sending out so you could see if there is a virus on the system sending out data to its home base, and if so, what it is sending. You can use it to capture unencrypted passwords leaving the computer (in case you or your client forgot the password but its still in the application in the **** form). You could also use it to see what legitimate applications are up to such as which update server they are using or what information they are sending back to base.
nice small, portable packet sniffer.
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Over the last few years I have been helping my clients with their Apple Macs. It has been mostly simple stuff like unboxing the Mac and setting it up, entering their email settings, migrating data and the occasional hard drive/RAM upgrade or replacement. I didn’t venture too far beyond that because I wasn’t confident with my Macs skills and didn’t want to learn on a clients computer. I have years and years of experience repairing PC’s and rarely come across a PC I cannot fix, but my Mac knowledge was limited.

I can see that Apple’s computer market share has greatly increased recently (thanks to Vista I assume) so I thought that I should look into it further and I bought myself a 13′ Aluminum Macbook. I have spent the last few months learning both the operating system/hardware sides and how to fix it. I still have a long way to go myself, but I would like to share some of it with other technicians so here are some resources for repairing Apple Macs.
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RussianMac, a new Russian hackintosh supplier has found a way to install and run Mac OS X on a netbook without breaking hackintosh installations.

“We have designed and implemented a special method to make the computers fully compatible with Mac OS X.” According to the article at Register Hardware, the company guarantees that components such as webcam and Bluetooth will work.

The article notes that the company may only be offering its products to buyers in Russia.

Source: Register Hardware

A malware has been found on a new M&A Companion Touch netbook. The likely scenario is explained in the article at Slashdot.

“Installed along with the worm was a rootkit and a password stealer that harvests log-in credentials for online games such as World of Warcraft. … To ensure that a new PC is malware-free, [Kaspersky] recommended that before users connect the machine to the Internet, they install security software, update it by retrieving the latest definition file on another computer, and transferring that update to the new system, then running a full antivirus scan.”

Source: Slashdot

An article about phishing scam that involves the iPhone and eBay was posted at Sophos a couple of days ago.

The message is short. It is from someone who wants to buy an iPhone. It contains a link to a fake UK eBay page.

The page is designed to steal information from the visitor. Rowland of Sophos notes that online users should always take precautions on this kind of emails. Also, they should not click on the embedded weblink to an online store or a website of a bank.

Source: Sophos

Sophos has reported on their blog recently about a baby malware via an ecard.

An image is included in the email which shows an animated baby’s head, tilting left and right. A message is written on top of his head but it is not written in English.

The translated message in the email is:
“Available in 5 days
Someone sent you a Special Card Secret!
I will tell you a secret:
I love you!
See the message that person left for you!
Click Here!!!”

Source: Sophos