Windows 7 Starter Edition limits netbook designs

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 200 • 2009-06-04 • Circulation: over 400,000

Table of contents

Bonus: It’s our 200th issue! Get our bonus to celebrate
Introduction: I can’t believe we’ve put out 200 newsletters
Top Story: Windows 7 Starter Edition limits netbook designs
Known Issues: Problems confirmed with Vista Service Pack 2
Wacky Web Week: Here’s looking at you, Steven Seagal
LangaList Plus: Yes or no to firewall request to act as server?
Best Software: Why you need to validate your downloads
Insider Tricks: Stop your ISP from tracking your Net usage

Bonus

It’s our 200th issue! Get our bonus to celebrate

We’ve published 200 e-mail newsletters, and we’re not slowing down. To celebrate, we’re giving away a revised edition of Spam-Proof Your E-Mail Address, 3rd Edition. My 32-page PDF e-book explains tricks anyone can use to reduce 97% of the spam that an e-mail address would otherwise attract. The e-book sells for $9.95, but all subscribers can download it completely free, now through July 1, as part of our festivities. To get yours, simply use the link below, update your preferences page with current information, and a download page will appear. Enjoy! —Brian Livingston, editorial director

All subscribers: Set your preferences and download your bonus

Introduction

I can’t believe we’ve put out 200 newsletters

By Brian Livingston

Numerous Windows geeks and I have brought you a lot of secrets since I first started publishing an e-mail newsletter called “Brian’s Buzz on Windows” back in February 2003.

After switching to, ahem, a better name (Windows Secrets) — and merging the old newsletter with Woody Leonhard’s in 2004, Fred Langa’s in 2006, and Gizmo Richards’s in 2008 — we’ve put out 200 newsletters, and now we’re celebrating by giving away for free my $9.95 antispam e-book, newly revised.

Actually, “revised” is stretching it. Spam-Proof Your E-Mail Address, 3rd Edition (photo, left) has been tweaked to bring some references up-to-date and add a new color cover. But there’s just a single important change to the book’s recommendations: one very useful free service bounced around among Web sites, and the service’s new name and URL needed to be edited in throughout.

As most Windows Secrets readers know by now, spammers use “harvester bots” to scrape e-mail addresses from Web sites. My e-book, based on studies by nonprofit research organizations, shows you how easy it is to protect your e-mail address inside images and encoded scripts whenever you really need to post your contact information.

The most useful free service I know of for encoding e-mail addresses into Web-friendly (but not harvester-friendly) scripts is Hivelogic’s Enkoder Form. I want all readers to have Enkoder’s new URL:

http://hivelogic.com/enkoder/form

From now through July 1, every Windows Secrets subscriber can download my revised e-book for free. To get yours, simply use the following link to visit your preferences page, make sure the information there is up-to-date, and a download link will subsequently appear:

All subscribers: Set your preferences and download your bonus

Thanks for your support — we promise to keep digging up more secrets for you in the years to come.

MS uses patch channel to install Firefox add-on

It’s been widely blogged that Microsoft can silently add an extension to Firefox when users install .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and certain other updates. Readers asked us about this last week because of a May 29 article by Brian Krebs of the Washington Post.

I enjoy Krebs’s writing, but in this case he was apologizing for telling his readers earlier this year to install the .NET service pack. He didn’t realize until later that Microsoft’s Assistant 1.0 extension exposes Firefox to any .NET security holes that may be discovered. Even worse, Microsoft wrote the add-in in such a way that its Uninstall button was grayed out and unusable in Firefox.

WS contributing editor Susan Bradley warned our paying subscribers on Feb. 5 and Feb. 12 not to install .NET 3.5 SP1 (and explained, if need be, how to uninstall it). I tip my hat to her excellent advice.

No holes currently affect the latest .NET software, according to Secunia.com’s .NET Framework 3.x advisory and Assistant 1.x advisory. But the security firm published in 2006, 2007, and 2008 four security warnings about flaws in the earlier .NET Framework 2.x. The most severe hole was rated “highly critical.” A weakness that’s currently undiscovered in .NET Framework 3.x might be exploited in the future.

The extension that MS adds to Firefox implements a technology called ClickOnce. It allows .NET apps to be downloaded and executed within browsers other than Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, this technology can also allow hacked Web sites to infect PCs.

Many Windows Secrets readers use Firefox because it suffers from fewer security holes than IE — and most people don’t need .NET features — so I’m publishing in my free column today the following steps to remove Assistant 1.0 from Firefox:

Step 1. Check whether the .NET Framework Assistant is installed. You may or may not have Assistant 1.0, even if you installed .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, so check this first. In Firefox, pull down the Tools menu and select Add-ons. In the Add-ons dialog box that appears (as shown in Figure 1), if you don’t see .NET Framework Assistant, the add-on is not installed. In that case, you don’t need to do anything further (except close the dialog box).

.NET framework assistant 1.0

Figure 1. The Uninstall button is grayed out and unusable due to the way Microsoft implemented the original version of Assistant 1.0.

Step 2. Remove or disable the add-on. If you do find the extension, I recommend that you remove it to reduce your vulnerability to possible security flaws. Choose one of the options shown below.

• Best option: Install the Microsoft fix. On May 6, with little publicity, Microsoft posted an update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Installing this update enables Firefox’s Uninstall button for the add-on. To install the official update, visit Microsoft’s download page.

• Another option: Temporarily disable the extension. Using the Add-ons dialog box to disable the extension prevents it from running and protects Firefox from potential security flaws. You might disable the extension instead of uninstalling it if your company insists that you use Firefox to run a .NET app, but you don’t wish to be vulnerable when visiting random Web sites. To disable Assistant 1.0 (or any Firefox extension), pull down Firefox’s Tools menu and select Add-ons. In the Add-ons dialog box that appears, select the unwanted extension and click the Disable button. Close the dialog box.

• Not recommended: Edit the Registry. Before Microsoft’s official patch was released, several sites published a procedure to manually delete entries from the Windows Registry to disable the Firefox extension. I don’t recommend this, because it’s easier and safer to use the options shown above. But if you need the full details, .NET Framework product unit manager Brad Abrams posted the Registry procedure in an MSDN blog entry.

Step 3. Install the third-party extension FFClickOnce, but only if necessary. If you really need ClickOnce functionality in Firefox, consider installing FFClickOnce, a Mozilla-approved extension developed by James Dobson. This third-party extension poses some of the same risks as Microsoft’s add-on. But at least Dobson’s extension prevents downloaded apps from running without first making the user click OK twice. For more info, see Dobson’s SoftwarePunk site and the extension’s Mozilla Add-ons page.

That’s it. More information on .NET problems — and what to install and not install — will appear in future columns by Susan and our other contributors.

Write 50 words and enter to win 1,000 pages

From April 16 to May 6, Windows Secrets offered subscribers an exclusive bonus: a free download of “The Final Chapter,” the thrilling conclusion to Stealing the Network, a book that hadn’t yet shipped. The new hardcover volume is a collection of four previous books describing fictional high-tech security capers.

Now its publisher, Syngress (an imprint of Elsevier), is promising to send copies of the 1,000-page book — complete with a DVD of author interviews — free to 10 lucky Windows Secrets readers.

If you were one of the thousands who downloaded “The Final Chapter” and you’d like the whole book for free, e-mail a 50-word review of the chapter to info (at) syngress.com. The publisher will display some of the reviews on its site and select 10 winners at random to receive the hardcover collector’s edition. (By entering the contest, you agree to allow Syngress to e-mail you.)

If you’d simply like to buy the collection, Syngress is also offering Windows Secrets readers a 20% discount — a U.S. $18 savings off the $90 list price. Enter the promotional code secrets at ElsevierDirect.com. (At the site, you may select one of nine fulfillment centers around the world.) Or use the company’s special Stealing the Network link, and the promotional code will be entered for you. Offer expires July 15, 2009.

Here’s an even-better price break: anyone can get approximately 37% off the list price — a $33 savings — at Amazon.com. More info: United States / Canada / Elsewhere.

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

Top Story

Windows 7 Starter Edition limits netbook designs

By Woody Leonhard

Last week, Microsoft dropped its plan to enforce a three-concurrent-app limit on Windows 7 Starter Edition — the version of the new OS that will be preinstalled only on small PCs, such as netbooks.

Microsoft is still expected, however, to restrict netbook hardware configurations that are eligible for Starter Edition pricing, which means your choices for cheap netbooks may be hobbled — at least in the near term.

When Microsoft first unveiled the various versions of Windows 7 in February, the Windows Team blog explained the editions as follows:

“Windows 7 Starter: Something that our OEM partners asked for is to have an offering for folks that will do very limited things with their PCs and for PCs with limited hardware capabilities. Windows 7 Starter allows only up to three applications to run at once. This is something that will be offered only through OEM partners.”

Windows 7 Release Candidate spelunkers soon discovered that Starter Edition differs from Home Premium in a number of key ways: there’s no Aero Glass, no Media Center, no DVD burning or playback, no Snipping Tool or Sticky Notes, and no Fast User Switching, among other restrictions.

Heaven knows why, but Starter Edition users can’t even change the desktop background (wallpaper).

UPDATE 2009-11-19: In the Nov. 19 Top Story, Woody Leonhard explains how to change the desktop wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter Edition for netbooks.

In addition — as promised on the Windows Team blog — the Release Candidate Starter Edition was going to limit you to a maximum of three applications running simultaneously.

That three-app restriction went over like a lead-filled balloon in a microburst.

Windows 7 Starter Edition’s planned three-concurrent-app limit drew brickbats from many corners. In practice, the three-app restriction didn’t really mean much. Many programs didn’t count toward the limit of three. Some apps — such as installers — counted against the limit but really shouldn’t have.

Microsoft never did articulate in simple, declarative sentences precisely which programs were included in the three-application limit. Ed Bott has a thorough accounting of the vagaries of the three-app rule on his ZDNet blog.

In the end, common sense ruled, and Microsoft dropped the three-simultaneous-app limit, as the Windows Team blog described on May 29. Hooray for this ounce of sanity!

SE is ultra-cheap, but netbooks don’t need it

Windows 7 embodies Microsoft’s Great Hope to lock up the netbook software market. With Linux nipping at its heels, Microsoft desperately needs a cheap, hobbled version of Windows 7 to nail down the lowest-end PC models.

From a marketing point of view, Microsoft is caught between a rock and a hard place. The ‘Softies have to endow Starter Edition with enough glitz to get you to buy it preinstalled on netbooks, but at the same time the company wants to leave a bunch of feature carrots dangling on a software stick to get you to pay more for Windows 7 Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate.

Don’t be fooled: Windows 7 Home Premium works very well on most netbooks — the machines don’t need Starter Edition. I’ve been running Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus Eee PC 1000H since the earliest days of the beta, and Win7 works great.

Despite what you may have read, Microsoft didn’t devise Starter Edition to run on smaller, less-well-endowed computers. Rather, the company needed something cheaper than Home Premium to sell to the ultra-low-cost crowd. Keep that fact in mind while you sift through the marketing hype.

Win7 Starter Edition’s hardware restrictions

Microsoft offers PC manufacturers a price break on copies of Windows XP that are preinstalled on netbooks. The company doesn’t offer any breaks at all on copies of Windows XP that are sold on more-powerful laptops — in fact, those larger notebook PCs always include a license for Windows Vista, even if they ship with Windows XP.

Although the details are highly confidential, it appears that Microsoft will enforce a similar restriction on sales of Windows 7 Starter Edition. According to the TechARP site, Microsoft will sell copies of Starter Edition to PC manufacturers only for installation on netbooks with limited processing ability. That’s defined as those using a single-core processor, running slower than 2GHz, consuming fewer than 15 watts, having less than 1GB of system memory, and using screens 10.2 inches or smaller.

If you work for a hardware manufacturer that’s gearing up to produce large numbers of netbooks with 11-inch screens for sale during the 2009 holiday season, your summer vacation plans may have just gone out the window.

An April 20 Wall Street Journal article (paid sub required) states: “People familiar with the matter say Microsoft takes in less than $15 per netbook for Windows XP once marketing rebates are taken into account — far less than the estimated $50 to $60 the company receives for PCs running Windows Vista.”

If that same differential of $35 to $45 holds true for Windows 7 Starter and Home Premium, you can bet netbook manufacturers are going to keep their low-cost offerings within Microsoft’s limits.

Microsoft’s Win7 Starter Edition requirements may change at any point. But as long as they’re in effect, Microsoft has forced hardware manufacturers to tone down their products running the low-cost version of the OS.

That doesn’t prevent netbook manufacturers from making bigger screens, using faster chips, or offering more system memory. However, those who offer better netbook configurations won’t be able to include Starter Edition as part of the package. Instead, they’ll have to ship their netbooks with Linux or a different — considerably more-expensive — edition of Windows 7.

Controversies swirl around Win7 Starter Edition

Some people see conspiracies behind every Microsoft move, and the Starter Edition hardware throttling is no exception. Certainly, by restricting Starter Edition to netbooks with screens smaller than 10.2 inches, companies planning to build netbooks with larger screens will face higher prices and, probably, lower margins.

As explained in a DigiTimes article (paid sub required), some people see the netbook hardware upgrades as a competitive advantage for Intel over up-and-coming chip makers such as Via. You can insert your favorite Intel-Microsoft conspiracy theory here.

In his InformationWeek blog, Dave Methvin — who’s been covering Windows as long as I have, meaning since the last Ice Age — has this to say about Microsoft’s Starter Edition hardware limitations:

“Microsoft crosses the line by attempting to contractually limit OEMs on the hardware that Starter can use. That shouldn’t be Microsoft’s decision. If Starter is good enough for netbooks, then it should be available to OEMs for whatever hardware that can run Windows 7.”

Good business? Stiffed customers? Predatory monopolistic practices?

One thing’s for sure: we’re in for an interesting ride with Starter Edition. Stay tuned!

Woody Leonhard‘s latest books — Windows Vista All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies and Windows Vista Timesaving Techniques For Dummies — explore what you need to know about Vista in a way that won’t put you to sleep. He and Ed Bott also wrote the encyclopedic Special Edition Using Office 2007.

Known Issues

Problems confirmed with Vista Service Pack 2

By Dennis O’Reilly

Some early adopters have encountered installation glitches and software conflicts when attempting to apply Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista.

As with nearly all service packs, there’s no rush to install Vista SP2 — and when you do apply it, be ready with a full system backup, just in case.

In the May 28 Patch Watch column (paid content), Susan Bradley recommended that you hold off on installing Vista SP2. Microsoft hasn’t yet begun to push out the service pack via its Automatic Updates service, but some people who chose to apply SP2 now wish they’d waited. Among them is Ted Myers:

“I have a 64-bit Sony Vaio with Vista Home Premium. I have it up-to-date with all patches. (I do have the Genuine tool installed, which has not caused problems to date.) Vista Service Pack 2 was downloaded and installed.

“Perhaps the problem was due to an AV program still running — or something else — but after the PC rebooted and began loading replacement files in DOS, it got hung up on 5367 of 81,000+ files. This happened repeatedly. My PC would no longer boot. It attempted the update several times, hanging up on the same file. This was a file involved with AMD security, which is strange since I have an Intel-based system.

“I was finally able to run a low-level System Restore, and System Restore did indeed do what it was supposed to do. A PC novice would be totally lost going through the hoops I went through to restore my system. Today I will make an up-to-date ghost copy of my hard drive — my backup is a few months old. I run a part-time business on this PC. My backup of my business record was a month old — what a mistake that was! It’s now up-to-date as well.

“Please inform your subscribers to beware of Vista Service Pack 2. Both of my PCs have Vista — the second is the Ultimate version (desktop). I am holding off on installing Service Pack 2 on both until you folks tell me it’s safe to try again.”

As Susan reminds us repeatedly, you rarely need to hurry to install a service pack, which is usually nothing more than a collection of previous updates. Most importantly, always back up your system before applying a service pack and be ready to roll back your PC if you encounter any post-update problems.

IE 8 causes Microsoft Money print failure

Susan’s column also described some of the glitches occurring with Internet Explorer 8, including conflicts with third-party firewalls and an inability to print information from Web pages. Brad Clarkson discovered a different IE 8 glitch when he attempted to use another Microsoft application:

“In addition to breaking Web sites, IE 8 also breaks other Microsoft products. The Home and Business editions of Microsoft Money will no longer print business invoices. There are no error messages. It doesn’t matter what printer is used. The printing process will appear to complete normally. However, the page the printer spits out will be blank.

“I can confirm the problem exists in the 2007 version [of Microsoft Money]. I understand versions from 2003 to 2007 are affected. After Googling the problem, {I find] the only current fix seems to be to roll back to IE 7.”

If you run into problems with IE 8, Microsoft describes in Knowledge Base article 957700 how to uninstall the new version and reinstall IE 7.

Reader sends kudos for informative newsletter

When the PC industry was young, dozens of print magazines sprang up to help us make sense of these convoluted machines. The medium may have changed, but the goal remains the same, as a reader named Bud points out:

“Folks, you’ve outdone yourself again! An excellent and very informative newsletter. Having a snail-mail subscription to a PC magazine that has as part of its marque ‘In Plain English,’ today’s commentaries — as always — have done the same.

“The [May 28] article about Microsoft’s WGA and the recommendations of downloading and using autoruns.exe helped me to understand the functions and use of that utility, especially since I already had it in my utilities toolbox but didn’t fully understand its use. Today, after reading that article, I ran the software and voilà, it all made sense and was much easier to comprehend and use.

“The article on the various third-party update software is another great example of teaching all of us ‘non-geek’ PC users. Since I’ve been using and learning about PCs and their good, bad, and ugly qualities, you folks have gone a long way in helping me out of a long-time period of being a novice. Many, many thanks!”

Thank you for reading, Bud. That’s why we’re here.

Readers Ted, Brad, and Bud will each receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we printed. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.

The Known Issues column brings you readers’ comments on our recent articles. Dennis O’Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.

Wacky Web Week

Here’s looking at you, Steven Seagal

By Katy Abby

Over a few short years, Andy Samberg has risen to fame as Saturday Night Live’s veritable King of Digital Shorts. Songs such as “Lazy Sunday,” “I’m on a Boat,” and “Like a Boss” — as well as some more-crassly-named shorts that I’ll refrain from repeating here — have become instant classics, dominating YouTube and breathing new life into the SNL franchise.

Before you trek off to the theater to ogle the latest summer action flick, take a look at the newest addition to Andy’s repertoire. This explosive short, which originally aired on Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards, features Samberg in cahoots with Will Ferrell and television prodigy J.J. Abrams. Play the video

LangaList Plus

Yes or no to firewall request to act as server?

By Fred Langa

It’s not always easy to tell whether a program really needs the rights and privileges of a server.

When your firewall alerts you that an application wants to act as a server, you have two simple ways to determine the correct response.

Find out why a program wants server status

Maurice Carson ran into one of those all-too-common, half-explained firewall queries:

“What about programs wanting to ‘act as a server’? I have ZoneAlarm as a firewall, and many programs want to act as a server. Why?”

First, let’s define the jargon. A “server” is a program that responds to a request from another program to open a connection, send or receive a file or data, launch a program, or perform some other task. A “client” is a program that makes such a request.

Technically, client and server programs can reside on the same machine. Security risks come into play when the client and server are on separate networked machines. Some programs are both clients and servers, while others — known as “standalone applications” — are neither.

ZoneAlarm and other security tools are especially suspicious of any program that wants to act as a server, because letting other PCs request data or services from your system is obviously risky. The firewall has no way of knowing whether the request to act as a server is legitimate, so it punts the decision to a human — you.

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Best Software

Why you need to validate your downloads

By Ian “Gizmo” Richards

One of the most common ways of getting a malware infection is by downloading and installing a seemingly legitimate program that has actually been tampered with.

You can seriously reduce the risk of this kind of infection by using a free checksum program that makes it easy to validate files before you open them.

Using checksums to validate downloadable files

The idea of using a checksum calculated from a set of data to validate the accuracy of that data is not restricted to file downloading; it is commonplace. Take, for example, your credit card.

Whenever you give someone your credit card number, it’s important that they get it exactly right. However, there’s always a chance that you or the person recording your card number will make a mistake. To guard against these transcription errors, credit card companies have built in a simple checking mechanism to ensure the validity of the card number.

The last number on your credit card is not part of your account number but is a check digit. If you apply a standard formula to all the other numbers on the card, you should end up with a number corresponding to the check digit. If you don’t, something is wrong.

An example of such a formula would be to add up all the numbers on the card and then compare the last digit of the result to the check digit. So if your numbers added up to 72, the check digit should be 2.

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Insider Tricks

Stop your ISP from tracking your Net usage

By Becky Waring

Alarmingly, ISPs now have the tools to log, analyze, and respond to every bit of data you send and receive.

Proxy services can’t prevent ISPs from snooping, but encryption can — although you need to know about some significant limitations.

Confidential business data may need protection

Last year, Charter Communications, a major U.S.-based Internet service provider, started using the data it was collecting regarding its clients’ online behavior in order to target specific ads to users. Rumblings from Congress helped kill that plan, and NebuAd — the company Charter was working with on the project — recently closed its doors.

While both Congress and the FCC — as described by the Cable360.net site — are considering Internet privacy regulations, no laws yet exist in the U.S. to adequately protect against similar schemes.

Meanwhile, another targeted-advertising firm named Phorm is doing good business in the U.K. and claims to have been assured by the British government that its service is legal.

According to a recent Associated Press story, Phorm has “struck partnerships with three access providers reaching 70% of Britain’s broadband market — BT Group PLC, Virgin Media Inc., and Carphone Warehouse Group PLC’s TalkTalk … BT has completed its trial of Phorm’s ad-targeting service and expects to deploy it this year.” Phorm claims to ask for the consumer’s explicit approval to receive targeted ads.

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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets is a continuation of four merged publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch in 2004, the LangaList in 2006, and the Support Alert Newsletter in 2008.

Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com, 1218 Third Ave., Suite 1515, Seattle, WA 98101 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine).

Editor in chief: Tracey Capen. Senior editors: Fred Langa, Woody Leonhard. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Program director: Tony Johnston. Contributing editors: Yardena Arar, Susan Bradley, Scott Dunn, Michael Lasky, Scott Mace, Ryan Russell, Lincoln Spector, Robert Vamosi, Becky Waring. Product manager: Andy Boyd. Advertising director: Eric Gilley.

Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, Support Alert, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

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