Microsoft And Consumers - Taking Action Against Global Software Piracy
Dec 3, 2009
Today, Microsoft announced a surge of over 150,000 voluntary reports in the past two years from people who unknowingly purchased counterfeit software that often included viruses or other malware. More than double the amount of previous records, this increase reflects growing concern for the harm caused by counterfeit software and Microsoft’s efforts to give people a voice in the fight against software counterfeiting. In addition, Microsoft highlights Consumer Action Day, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in more than 70 countries to help protect consumers and increase awareness of the risks of counterfeit software. Learn more on Microsoft’s PressPass site.
Quote: REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 28, 2009 — Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Corp.’s new no-cost, core anti-malware service that helps protect consumers against viruses, spyware and other malicious software, will be available tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 29. Microsoft Security Essentials, independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company’s global security response team and is built on the same award-winning core security technology found in the company’s security solutions for businesses. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and will be available for download directly from Microsoft at {url}
Chinese Pirates Angry Over Microsoft’s Blackout Anti-Piracy ToolWritten by Alex Castle 10/23/08 at 03:21:17 PM. Never ones to shy away from an uphill battle, Microsoft has recently been taking new steps to combat software piracy in China. They’ve launched a program, euphemistically called “Windows Genuine Advantage,” which blacks out users' screens if it discovers that they’re running pirated Microsoft software. In China, a country where a large majority of computers are running pirated software, this move has, predictably, caused quite an uproar. Read more at the Source: Chinese Pirates Angry Over Microsoft's™ Blackout Anti-Piracy Tool | Maximum PC
If you can remember back a few weeks, Steve Ballmer went on record saying that Microsoft would consider extending the life of Windows XP if enough people asked for it. Afterall, many people don't want to upgrade to Windows Vista because they are perfectly content with XP. The problem was there was no way to ask for it. Sure, you could sign one of the many online petitions, but Microsoft considers those "non-official complaints" and the rest of us simply consider them silly.
Well, word has been passed down to the tech support teams (and then on to Neowin) that they are to begin logging any calls that come in for the sole purpose of requesting an extension to the retail life of Windows XP. The calls will be logged and, if enough complaints are filed, Microsoft will consider giving XP some more time (no pinky promises, though). If you wish to file an official petition yourself, you can simply call the Windows XP Home Edition support numbers for your country and let the operator know that you wish to file an official complaint. Because we're so nice and want to save you the trouble, here are the numbers for a majority of Neowin's visitors
I have been using Windows Mail with my ATT/SBC Global account for well over a year. I get this message when I try to send/receive (and ATT cannot help me):
An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'pop.att.yahoo.com', Server:
I started noticing about just 2 days ago. whenever i am playing a movie or any audio file, its not clear because the cpu is being used completely 100% most of the time. I checked the task manager and found out that svchost.exe is taking up most of the memory and cpu! any solutions so that i can fix this, i dont think i can end process svchost since it runs some important applications on windows.
I regularly install windows vista updates. It is taking too much space. Installing 400MB of updates wiped off 3GB from my C drive. let me know about the resolution for the same.
I have just set up my two Vista systems and would like to know what the rest of you get as far as your CPU and RAM% are concerned. On my small Benq joybook it hovers at 55%cpu and 50%ram. On my Dragon it hovers at 2%cpu and 55% ram at idle.
So, I just tried using the Windows-native compression to zip a VIDEO_TS folder 4.35GB in size. The first attempt stalled on the last file with "10 Seconds" remaining, so I canceled it. After a system restart I tried again, this time receiving a "Low Disk Space" error. I found this odd since at my last check the system disk had over 8GB free and a zipped 4.35GB folder can't possibly exceed that. So I did a Disk Cleanup, which freed roughly 2.5GB of space, including temp files; this left 5.8GB free, still down from my initial free space. I tried once more, and received the same "Low Disk Space" error. Now the system disk shows 3.23GB free, yet there is nothing I can eliminate with Disk Cleanup.
So, after three failed ZIP attempts, my system disk is missing ~4.5GB of disk space. I have to assume this is due to Windows not cleaning up its temporary files after each failed attempt. Does anyone know where Windows keeps such temp files so I can purge them? Also, is there any way to change where Windows compiles ZIPs like you can with Special Folders?
I was trying to do a system restore – I went through the normal steps, (may be that was a mistake to start with) clicked on “restore to an earlier date" and selected 24 Aug. 30 hours later the restore is still running –the green line is still going across the bottom of the screen. Not sure what to do now – If I pull the plug on the PC what will or might happen? I have a HP Pavillion Elite M9351 with Vista Ultimate 64
I installed the lastest Vista Updates (8) yesterday (6/11) and I have noticed a significant performance degradation including it now taking about 15-120 minutes for my computer to start up. Has anyone else experienced this?
When I want to reply to an email and it is the first email of the day that I reply to , I hit the reply button and it taking over 60 seconds for the cursor to appear in the memo area.
Whenever I download a huge setup file (such as a game or game demo 500MB or more) UAC takes a long time and the system becomes unresponsive. How can I fix this?
I'm looking for a free utility that will show me at a quick glance which folders are taking up most of the room on my hard drive. I have a 146gb hard drive almost full and I can't tell for the life of me what is taking up so much space. Can anyone recommend something that works for both Vista and XP?
This all started when I recently had some malwares/viruses roaming around my laptop one day. I had managed to get rid of it all but it left my Direct Console 2.0 useless (I have an ASUS G-50V, Vista Premium 64-bit). I've tried reinstalling it and it just wouldn't load, no error message or anything (it did show up on taskmanager but no window appeared).
So trying to find a solution on google I ended up installing .net Framework 4.0. However, after restarting i started getting a ton of error messages about files in the Program Files folder, and then I realized it had just completely disappeared (rather, all the files inside disappeared). First the error messages said the folder was "corrupt and unreadable."
I navigated to the folder and tried clicking it, which then another error message popped up saying "Access is denied." I tried almost every solution I found on google, changing ownership and such, but I still cannot open the folder. Moreover, I cannot repair or uninstall any program that is or has been in the Program Files which I'm assuming has to do with the permission issues. I noticed this when I ran the setup for Direct Console 2.0 and tried to repair it, only giving me an error saying "The Installer has insufficient privileges to modify this file: C:Program Files (x86)ASUSOvClk.dll." But this also makes no sense to me as this is the x86 program files folder, which I can access.
I checked both of the folders and TrustedInstaller has ownership to both of them.
*Edit - I just checked the ASUS folder inside my Program Files (x86) where the only group assigned to it for security is "Everyone" and it had no access whatsoever.
I would like to know if there is any possible way to fix this and if the files inside the folder are still there as this is very frustrating to deal with. Most of my ASUS programs were in the Program Files, including the hotkey manager is really useful to me. Thanks a lot.
In case you need to know:
As for the what I did to deal with malwares and viruses I mentioned before, I did install Malwarebytes on another computer with updated definitions and loaded it on a flash drive here, removing whatever malwares it found. Even after this though (and this has been a consistent problem), mbam.exe would disappear after installing Malwarebytes regularly on my own laptop.
Thinking there was some virus or other malware laying around that it didn't pick up, I downloaded and installed AVG. I updated it and full scanned, which found more viruses and did fix the issue of mbam.exe disappearing after install. At this point I installed Malwarebytes again, updated, and scanned again, finding 1 or 2 trojans and I think at this point there shouldn't be any viruses/malwares causing issues, but of course I could be wrong.
So basically it takes 4 hours to install it completely. It used to take 45 minutes to install. I've install it maybe 10 times as I have been switching to Windows and Linux back and forth on the same computer. Is there a way to get another one or fix it? I don't know if anyone can help me with this but I thought I could try.
For some reason, my laptop has installed 6 different versions of vista on it. On my C: drive they're called windows.old.5 or windows.old.4 etc. They are taking up half the space on my hard drive! Any time I try to delete them it tells me that i need permission to perform this action, but I am the only person who uses the laptop as it is mine. What can I do? I have looked at other threatds with this problem, I have made myself administrator, tried taking ownership over the files, and they still won't delete.
From time to time this appears on my E-mail "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action.Create an association in the Set Associations control panel"
I recently bought a back up drive, but its default action - when I double click it -isn't 'open'. How can I change this? also, how do I change what comes up in the right-click menu for it?
Any email that I receive that has a link in it will not go to the link. I get an error mesage that says the file does not have a program associated with it for performing the action. It says I need to "create an association in the Set Association control panel." Other times I get a pop up that says "application not found". I can't provide any more info than that. I don't know where to find the "association control panel" and when I call Windstream, my email provider, they tell me it's my computer that's screwed up and transfer me to India where I get to converse with a nice gentleman for thirty minutes and who still can't understand what I'm saying. I losing patience.
i recently bought a sweex bluetooth usb adapter and was woundering if i could connect my wireless controller to it. i read on the pack that the bluetooth is at 2.400ghz - 2.480ghz and that the controller is 2.4ghz radio frequency technology. will this work, or is the controller not bluetooth??
Under Windows XP I could associate different programs to do different actions on each file type, e.g. open, print, edit etc. These actions would appear on the context (right click) menu for files of that type. Now I want to change HTML files to edit with my own editor rather than with Word as they do now. All I can find however are settings to change the default program to open files with. Any one know how I can change the edit action in Vista?
I have vista business running on an asus laptop. I’ve been trying to connect my HTC Touch mobile phone with the laptop and have been having problem with Windows mobile centre (error msg “ This action is only valid for products that are currently installed). I attempted to run the Windows mobile handbook & keep getting the error "The getting started disc requires Adobe Flash player version 8.0 or later…". I have installed the latest version of flash (v10), have uninstalled it (via adobe’s recommended process), reinstalled, executed FlashUtil10b as administrator, checkd activex & plugin settings (as per adobe site settings), but to no avail. I have also tried to install the active synch (predecessor to Windows mobile) and again, the error msg regarding flash player 8.0 or later required.
Computer Club member's Windows Vista Home Premium. The message above says it all. No .exe file will run. I have drilled down to winword.exe, and double clicked. I have clicked icons on the desktop. I have clicked programs on the start menu. In safe mode, I have downloaded a new version of Windows Installer, when Run is clicked the subject message appears.
When using Window Explorer, no .exe file has an icon associated with it! When I open Programs & Features in the Control Panel. Programs cannot be removed as the subject message appears.
i try to open an email attachment I get the following message This file does not have a programme assosiated with it for performing this action. Create an assosiation in the Set Assosiation control panel. Please could someone helpas I have no idea what to do to overcome the problem also could you break it down to its simplest form as I have only the basic knowledge of computers.
I was using Microsoft Outlook Express as my mail client. Then Microsoft advised users to update to Windows Mail since they no longer supported Outlook Express..so I did. Now Microsoft is directing users to install Microsoft LIVE Mail? What is the difference between Microsoft Mail (which I am running) and Microsoft LIVE Mail....and, why would a user run LIVE over MAIL?
"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create and association in the Set Associations control panel" I have been having a problem with my computer for several days now. Opening all programs causes me to recieve this error message. I have to use right click + Run as Administrator to use any of my programs. I have done some forum surfing and tried several recommended techniques for correcting this problem but to no avail. I downloaded the exefix_vista reg file but the very same problem prevents me from merging it (I even tried fixing the reg extension but that failed aswell). I have run the sfc/scannow in command propmt but that came up empty. I would have fresh installed but I am away from home and do not have the means to reinstall vista. I apologize if this post seems in any way redundant but my forum searches have failed me. HELP! PLEASE!
im trying to install drivers for action replay ds because without them it doesnt work on vista 64 bit. when i clicked the link to download it, i got an error that said "there was a problem with the request", but it still downloaded it. then when i extracted and opened the file and clicked the windows installer to install the drivers i get the error message "not enough storage to process this command". i tried running it as administrator and messing around with the IRPStackSize (changed the value about 5 times and nothing happened.) what else could possibly be wrong?
I have Vista Home Premium, I am trying to add a Maxtor Shared Stroage II 320 GB Hard drive that is networked connected. I have installed the supplied software. The drive is up and running. I can access the drive but anytime I try to Move, Copy or send any file to the drive I get the following: "Destination Folder Access Denied, You need permission to perform this action." I have been on the phone with Seagate for hours, they have never seen this before. I have shut off my firewall, USC, Antivirus but no help.
