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Windows IT Pro As part of its regular monthly release cycle, Microsoft on Tuesday issued 12 security updates that address 22 vulnerabilities across various products, including Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office. But two of the fixes are getting particular attention, including one that addresses a recently-revealed IE flaw. ... View the full article

A source of mine passed on to me some information that seems to come from Microsoft’s own scorecarding system from the end of 2010 that detailed some high priority areas for Microsoft’s sales and marketing folks. Exchange and SharePoint both figure prominently. View the full article

As word swirls of an imminent Microsoft management shake-up around the Server and Tools Business, I’ve been wondering about what’s happening on the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) side of the Microsoft house. View the full article

Supersite Today: A trip to Colorado this week, a Verizon 4 iPhone 4 proves my earlier point about David Pogue, a new Kindle firmware, and the passing of DEC co-founder Ken Olsen. ... View the full article

Supersite You may be unaware of the sheer amount of documentation that is available out there, all aimed at helping new and existing developers wrap their minds around the unique capabilities in Windows Phone. Microsoft new mobile platform is also an ideal way to learn programming skills, since it is a simple and new and features a modern and logical SDK. Here are some resources that will help you get started with Windows Phone software development. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro Microsoft is seeking to essentially combine the user experience models for traditional Windows client OSs with Windows Phone in Windows 8, providing a single OS solution that will run across the widest possible array of device types. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro According to market-share numbers from IHS Screen Digest, Apple's dominant iTunes Store lost major market share for digital video content in 2010 to rivals, primarily to Microsoft's Zune Marketplace. ... View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of these operating systems. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if a local, authenticated attacker installs a malicious service on a domain-joined computer. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves five privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logged on locally and ran a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit these vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logged on locally and ran a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit these vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS) in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of these operating systems. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a user's system and starts a specially crafted application that continues running after the attacker logs off in order to obtain the logon credentials of subsequent users. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the JScript and VBScript scripting engines. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a user visited a specially crafted Web site. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Visio. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Visio file. An attacker who successfully exploited either of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Windows OpenType Compact Font Format (CFF) driver. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views content rendered in a specially crafted CFF font. In all cases, an attacker would have no way to force users to view the specially crafted content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit a Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows Shell graphics processor. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted thumbnail image. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Active Directory. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if an attacker sent a specially crafted packet to an affected Active Directory server. The attacker must have valid local administrator privileges on the domain-joined computer in order to exploit this vulnerability. View the full article

Windows IT Pro Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to shake up his management team by adding senior executives with engineering backgrounds instead of business management skills. ... View the full article

At the start of calendar 2011, there were reports that Microsoft was losing two of its key merger and acquisition specialists. But it turns out one of the two is sticking around, after all. View the full article

Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting report citing those infamous “people in the know,” claiming that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is readying a management shakeup which will “place more senior product executives who have a strong engineering background.” View the full article

Brad Lovering, a former Microsoft Technical Fellow who left the company in October 2010, has a new gig. Lovering is opening the Seattle office for San Francisco-based Splunk, a company that indexes real-time and historical IT data. View the full article

You must have browsed to that folder to find a desktop background. You might have to do a registry edit to reset the default.

Windows IT Pro If you still thought software piracy was a minor issue, consider this accusation: Microsoft late last week said that the drug cartel called La Familia was selling counterfeit copies of the software giant's products on the streets of Mexico. ... View the full article

Supersite In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Tom Merritt and I discuss the sort-of resolution of the Windows Phone data leak controversy, the Colorado servers release candidates, Google vs. Microsoft on search copying charges, IE and 8 usage up in January. Plus, we have a special guest: Microsoft chief technology strategist, who discusses the Microsoft Signature program and the company's retail store strategy. ... View the full article

Supersite This week's Windows Phone 7 app of the week, Flickr, is a no-brainer for digital photo fans. It provides a great way to upload and manage photos while you're on the go. ... View the full article