Hasta La Gadget!

Google has been aggressive about keeping Google Apps owners on the same (web) page. The company’s cloud platform typically won’t acknowledge any browser more than one version out of date, and it’s about to put that rapid upgrade strategy to the test by dropping support for Internet Explorer 8. On November 15th, shortly after IE10 arrives in sync with Windows 8, Google will leave IE8 web app users to fend for themselves — and, by extension, Windows XP users without an alternative browser. While the cutoff doesn’t amount to a full-fledged block, Google Apps users still stuck in 2009 will be reminded that they’re on their own until they upgrade. Is it the end of the world for web apps on older PCs? No, but it’s clear that their days are numbered.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Google Apps to shed support for Internet Explorer 8, your Windows XP machine won’t cut it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome turned 21 last week, and in that new version, Google’s made playing Flash videos in its browser even safer… for Windows users, anyway. This latest release puts Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in for Windows in a sandbox, much as Chrome 20 did for Linux. This sandbox is “as strong” as Chrome’s extremely robust native version — even in Windows XP — which means that Flash-borne malware can’t hurt Microsofties. Securing the Flash Player plug-in is the result of two years of work, and was made possible by a new plug-in architecture Google co-developed with Adobe. In addition to the security benefits, the architecture has also brought performance improvements by way of a 20 percent decrease in Flash crashes and GPU acceleration for smoother scrolling and faster Flash rendering. And, while the immediate good news is for Windows users, Google has assured us that a port for OS X is in the works, and it hopes to ship that Mac version soon.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Google Chrome for Windows gets more secure Flash player, gives users a browsing sandbox safety net originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Customers were not happy after security firm Symantec made a recent update to its antivirus software, causing some Windows-based PCs to crash repeatedly, showing a dreadful “blue screen of death” in many cases. The company released a statement on its website saying it received a number of reports with machines running Windows XP that were continuing to show the blue screen after rebooting.

It was discovered that the issue had been limited to machines running any combination of Windows XP, the latest Sonar antivirus software version, the 18 Sonar signature set from the July 11 revision and software from third parties. “The root cause of the issue was an incompatibility due to a three way interaction between some third party software that implements a file system driver using kernel stack based file objects – typical of encryption drivers, the SONAR signature and the Windows XP Cache manager,” Symantec said.

Enraged customers said they were forced to remove the software manually and disable their machines. Someone had said on the discussion boards that Symantec would compensate customers for the inconvenience, but the company recently responded to the problem saying that it would not be providing compensation packages. Symantec said it was working hard on a solution and providing technical support to customers, including directly reaching out to customers who had posted about the issue on the discussion boards.

[via Reuters]

Symantec antivirus update causes Windows XP machines to crash is written by Elise Moreau & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Microsoft has been promising a cheap-and-cheerful upgrade path to Windows 8 for those who buy new PCs. But what about that five-year-old PC in the basement? If the historically well-connected Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet is right, the upgrade path will go further back — much further. Although upgraders will still want Windows 7 if they need to carry over absolutely everything, tipsters claim that settings can transfer from releases as old as Windows Vista SP1. Those with truly ancient PCs (we’re looking at you, corporate customers) can even bring over personal files from an OS as dated as Windows XP SP3. Like we saw last time around, some of the 7-to-8 upgrade rules are a bit Byzantine — 7 Professional users can’t step down to the non-Pro Windows 8 release, for example, and it’s equally verboten to change language editions or move from 32- to 64-bit code without a full-scale reinstallation. The extra-long olive branch will be slightly unusual for Microsoft if it’s confirmed, but then the company is also trying to move along a user base that in some cases has clung to XP for more than a decade. Redmond is no doubt eager to get rid of our dependency issues.

Microsoft reportedly plans Windows 8 upgrades all the way from XP, wants us to just let go of the past originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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