Neowin.net UPDATED "All IP protection technologies will be cracked at some point; it's just a matter of time," Allen Nieman, Product Manager of Activation at Microsoft, told BetaNews in an interview last May. But this week Nieman's concession became a reality as a key generator capable of creating unique, valid installation and activation codes for Windows XP came to light.

While patches and cracks for Windows Product Activation have existed since the release of Windows XP, would-be pirates were forced to physically modify system files and risk invalidating their operating system with updates. If it desired, Microsoft has the ability to instantly void such cracks or leaked keys with service packs or security patches.

Saw that over @ NeoWin Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the revolutionary new development tool that will enable you to rapidly build next generation applications that can target any Internet device and integrate with any platform. Experience it firsthand ? when you attend a complementary launch event coming to a city near you. This comprehensive development tool is the most sophisticated, productivity-enhancing development toolset ever created. After four years in development and 2.5 million betas distributed, Visual Studio .NET will enable developers and software architects like you to: ... Read more by using the above link.

On Wednesday we reported about the Microsoft Security Bulletin 2002-06: Unchecked Buffer in SNMP Service Could Enable Arbitrary Code to be Run. Microsoft now has readied two of a series of patches adressing the issue in Windows 2K & XP: Windows 2000 patch Windows XP patch Patches for other platforms are under development and will be available shortly.

TheInquirer.net THANKS, AS USUAL to our readers who have come up with an answer to the "data invalid" problem that dogs people installing and swapping out cards with Windows XP.

This is not for the casual, the faint of heart, or for your grandma unless she happens to be Carly Fiorina.

Not can we guarantee it works, although several people swear by it after swearing at it (XP).

As we reported earlier Microsoft was to fix a security hole in their Windows Messenger software. Apparently this hole has been plugged because the new version 0076 has just been released. It comes for all Windows OS versions. Grab the latest release here.

Hmm, at least I would not have been able to explain that to somebody asking me for it. But Ars Technica has jumped into the niche and written a neat article about what .NET is, about what to expect from it's performance and how it will work out it the scale of the .NET framework. Here is a snip: .NET is a "software platform". It's a language-neutral environment for writing programs that can easily and securely interoperate. Rather than targetting a particular hardware/OS combination, programs will instead target ".NET", and will run wherever .NET is implemented.
.NET is also the collective name given to various bits of software built upon the .NET platform. These will be both products (Visual Studio.NET and Windows.NET Server, for instance) and services (like Passport, HailStorm, and so on). I recommend reading this well researched article cause one day or another we all will have to face .NET just like it happened with Windows XP.
I was just checking our logs and quite surprised that more than 88% of our readers already use Windows XP. Read the .NET article @ Ars Technica

And again Microsoft has a fix availble for all happy Win XP users. Looks like "the bughunters" have some hands full to do. This update resolves an issue with PCI devices with power management support. When the PCI device changes power states, Windows does not wait the appropriate amount of time and the device driver ends up being unloaded. This issue is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q311542. Download now to resolve this issue. Read more...

Two different programs, that can activate Windows XP without Microsofts blessing are circulating. The Patch made by the group Sad Team consists of a 700 KByte EXE-file that contains an Installer.

To activate both Home and Professional versions of Windows XP, the Patch must be run in "Safe Mode", After rebooting, windows is completely activated.

Microsoft has identified another security related issue within their Windows Operating Systems. Impact of vulnerability: Denial of Service, potentially run code of attacker?s choice.
Maximum Severity Rating: Moderate
Recommendation: Disable SNMP service if running; apply patch when available.
Affected Software: Microsoft Windows 95 Microsoft Windows 98 Microsoft Windows 98SE Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server, Terminal Server Edition Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows XP Read more...

According to information obtained by Newsbytes, hackers recently discovered a way to skip the validation form and go directly to any user's "secret question" prompt. From there, the intruder is only one step away from resetting the user's password. Normally, if Hotmail users forget their password they must fill out a Web form that requires their e-mail address, state, zip code and country. Users who enter the correct information are then prompted for the answer to the "secret question" they selected when signing up for the service.

Following the report of trustworthy computing - a security focused company directive brought to life my M$ chairman Bill Gates himself - Microsoft has now taken action to set things right with their software products. According to USA Today all Microsoft personnel has been redirected to tracking flaws in current program code. In numbers this means 7,000 programmers have been directed to scour Windows code for bugs and security holes. The company immediately began cycling Windows programmers and managers through two days of training based on the book Writing Secure Code by Microsoft security specialists Michael Howard and David Leblanc. reports USA Today. I guess Windows Update will have some for us geeks soon.

Saw that over @ Heise.de:
In the new January version of the "Product Use Rights (PUR) " from Microsoft there is a small sentence shown, which looks a bit like a trojan horse... Here is what Heise say:
Read More...

Microsoft just released their latest Security Bulletin MS02-05: The "11 February 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer" update eliminates all known security vulnerabilities affecting Internet Explorer 6, as well as six new vulnerabilities, and is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-005. Download now to protect your computer from these vulnerabilities, the most serious of which could allow an attacker to run code on your computer. This update applies to: Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2. Internet Explorer 5.5 SP1. Internet Explorer 5.01 SP2 on Windows 2000 only. Read more...

Neowin.net Register an account for MSN messenger, make some contact email addresses, leave the account for 31 days. On a different machine (to ensure there's no cache), go to the sign up section of MSN messenger, sign up again, using the same screen name. You'll be able to see the previous user's contact list.

None of the contacts will have been alerted to the fact that the new username actully belong to an entirely different person, so they'll still be sending messages, and if the new user is a haxor, (s)he'll be replying just as if (s)he's the original user.

I alerted Microsoft on monday, and have received no reply. So there. Safer computing with M$? Thought so...

Important Product Key Information
Microsoft Project 2002 Professional Beta 3
If you are unable to install the Microsoft Project 2002 Professional Beta 3 using the product key attached to your CD sleeve, please type in the following Product Key:
G3B9H-X2382-9HTRD-XKDQV-VYPF8
We apologize for the inconvenience.

The german site WindowsBeta.de has some screenshots about the Microsoft Windows.NET Enterprise Server Build 3604 PreRC1. So head over by using the above link and have a look.

Neowin.net 3604 has been released to testers as a Pre RC1 build. This is the first build released since Beta 3 and Microsoft are calling it "non beta quality" which could mean that RC1 is very close to release. The build has been confirmed as "3604" has been submitted to the bug reporting tool that everyone can access. Details below:

ibelite.com The recent privacy stuff-up in Messenger "pales in comparison to what can be done if you use MSN Messenger through unpatched IE vulnerabilities," security researchers Tom Gilder and Thor Larholm have discovered. Among the fun and games one can have with a vulnerable Messenger user are such sports as impersonating the victim and sending spoof messages and spoof e-mail memos to his contacts, and scouring his local drive for interesting files to share around. In other words, you can do anything with the victim's Messenger client that the owner can do.

According to CNet Microsoft readies for the release of a patch to eliminate a security flaw in Windows Messenger. The issue resided in the ability that allowed any Web site to grab a visitor's IM nickname and buddy list. The release of the patch is scheduled sometime "early next week". "In order to implement the fix, customers will have to upgrade to the next version of MSN messenger," a representative for Microsoft said on Friday. Check with the MSN Messenger site from time to time. Microsoft also promised that users will receive an automated info as soon as they fire up the software. Read more...

This update resolves two common issues with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q314862. The first issue causes BITS to stay in ?Pending Start? state for 2 minutes after the machine boots. The second issue causes BITS not to work in certain cases where the machine has been upgraded from Win98/WinMe to Windows XP. Download now to resolve these issues.