20Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft is turning off push notifications for Windows Phone 7.5 and 8.0

Computer PC Tips - bits and bytes, Microsoft Development
Microsoft is turning off push notifications for Windows Phone 7.5 and 8.0 Microsoft has announced that it is ending the push notification service on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 starting February 20th, 2018. The company says that since both of those platforms have reached the end of their support, these services are now able to be discontinued. Turning off push notifications means that devices running Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8.0 will no longer receive notifications, live tiles will no longer update, and the "find my phone" feature will no longer function. Those still using Windows Phone 7.5 or Windows Phone 8.0 will likely want to switch to something newer. Windows Phone code was written in C++ back in 2010 and was used by the New York City Police…
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17Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft Surface Pro Celebrate 5 years of Surface with $200 savings

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft Surface Pro Celebrate 5 years of Surface with $200 savings Microsoft is having a huge sale for a pretty good replacement for your tablet or notebook, the surface pro. The benefits of the surface pro are: Up to 13.5 hours of video playback which is dependent on usage. Less than 2 pounds. Up to 16 GB of memory There are 3 different modes that a user can have which are Laptop where you pop in the special keyboard and write up your documents or do whatever you need to do prior to a meeting. Studio Mode which with the Surface pen can highlight sections or write notes.  Finally Tablet Mode which you can put on your lap to watch a presentation or movie. OneNote is a digital notebook for…
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16Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft releases new driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro and Microsoft Build

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft releases new driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro Microsoft released new driver and firmware updates for Surface Pro (Model 1796), Surface Pro with LTE Advanced (Model 1807) and Surface Book devices with Windows 10 Version 1703 (Creators Update) or above. These firmware updates improve system stability and on Surface Book devices provide improved battery reliability. Find the full change log from Microsoft below. Surface Pro (Model 1796): Surface System Aggregator Firmware (v233.2099.256.0) improves system stability. Surface Pro with LTE Advanced (Model 1807): Surface System Aggregator Firmware (v233.2102.1.0) improves system stability. Surface Book: Surface Embedded Controller Firmware (v90.2098.256.0) improves system stability. Surface Integration (v1.1.339.1) improves battery reliability. Microsoft has also released a new version of the Surface Dock Updater (v2.12.136.0) for IT professionals. This update includes fixes for external display stability…
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16Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft Outlook could be affected by the Spectre-Meltdown bug

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft Outlook could be affected by the Spectre-Meltdown bug The February updates address security flaws in Internet Explorer, Edge, Microsoft's ChakraCore JavaScript engine, Windows, and Office. Two worrying bugs fixed this month affected Outlook. One, a memory-corruption flaw, identified as CVE-2018-0852, could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code.   Microsoft says exploitation of this flaw is "less likely" and that an attacker would need to trick a victim into opening a file or visiting an attack site. However, it also notes that an attack vector is the Preview Pane. The second Outlook bug that could be worth patching immediately is elevation of privilege vulnerability CVE-2018-0850, which stems from Outlook insufficiently validating the formatting of incoming messages before processing them. An attacker could send a specially crafted email that forces Outlook…
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15Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Skype nasty security bug without a massive code rewrite

Microsoft Development, Software Events
Skype nasty security bug without a massive code rewrite There is a major flaw or simply a bug within the Skype application during the update process.  The security of your system can allow an attacker to gain system-level privileges to a vulnerable computer. You can review the comments by clicking this link Skype's home-grown updater allows escalation of privilege to SYSTEM In simple terms the bug can allow an unprivileged user to the full SYSTEM level rights thus granting them access to every corner of the operating system.   Microsoft, which owns the voice and video-calling service, said it will not fix the flaw any time soon since the bug would require too much work and man-time. Possible turning off Skype updates Bug located by security Kanthak Security researcher Stefan Kanthak found…
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