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Thread ID: 74271	2006-11-16 23:32:00	Vista Software Protection Platform	SurferJoe46 (51)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
499833	2006-11-16 23:32:00	The [Vista] Software Protection Platform rolls up activation, validation, and tamper-proofing into an integrated subsystem . A key module is Code Integrity verification, which is defined in this first look by Microsoft's Chris Corio: "Code Integrity (CI) protects Windows Vista by verifying that system binaries haven’t been tampered with by malicious code and by ensuring that there are no unsigned drivers running in kernel mode on the system . CI starts as Windows starts up . The boot loader checks the integrity of the kernel, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), and the boot-start drivers . After these binaries have been verified, the system starts and the memory manager calls CI to verify any binaries that are loaded into the kernel’s memory space . The binaries are verified by looking up their signatures in the system catalogs . Aside from the kernel memory space, CI verifies binaries loaded into a protected process and system installed dynamic libraries that implement core cryptographic functions . " Right now, I have about 8 or 10 unsigned devices with programs running in XP-Pro, so is this going to affect me should I (if I do, that is) upgrade to Vista? Imagining here that M$ is going to try across the board DRM's and global snooping into existing Windows systems, and I see this as only a beginning to the harassment via Mr . Bill . Having read, and I cannot remember where, that XP will no longer be supported after Jan '07 or was it '08 . . . makes me kinda angry, especially since SP-3 is scheduled to come out after the "XP users can drop-dead" cutoff . This is not the same as the cut-off for SP-1 and SP-2, as the cut-off for SP-2 is stated by inferrence as below: "Microsoft initially planned to end support for Windows XP SP1 on Sept . 17, two years after Windows XP SP2 was released . However, earlier this year, Microsoft shifted the final support date for XP SP1 to Oct . 10 . Microsoft typically provides [B]12 months of support for service packs but will extend that support period for products it thinks customers need extra help and time to install . For typical consumer products, Microsoft provides five years of mainstream support . Business customers and developers typically get 10 years of support -- five of mainstream support and five of what is called extended support . " I heard it a little different . . trying to squeeze everybody off XP to Vista by necessity because of a vastly accelerated cut-off date . We saw the WDRMs thing get shot down around about 4 months ago with the hue and clamor of the EU complaints and lawsuits . I wonder how many people are going to be exorcised to "L" systems when it all hits the fan . The native drums at M$ are restless for forced capitulation, methinks . I intend to be one of the rats swimming off a s(t)inking ship .	SurferJoe46 (51)
499834	2006-11-17 00:44:00	Microsoft will be running a certain risk, as well as banking profits, when it stops support for XP - whenever that turns out to be. Many people who don't want to pay for Vista will decide it's time to try out Firefox, for instance - or maybe get a stronger nudge towards Linux. It will be swings & roundabout for M/S, but good marketing advice may be to cut the XP users off as soon as possible? That's because alternative browsers are getting better faster than M/S is. So the longer they wait, the stronger competition they face. Not that you'd ever hear that from Mr Gates & Co...	Laura (43)
499835	2006-11-17 02:49:00	Having read, and I cannot remember where, that XP will no longer be supported after Jan '07 or was it '08...makes me kinda angry, Why? Who cares? DOS isn't supported. WIn98 isn't supported. What does MS support mean anyway? Do they come out and fix it when it crashes? No. Do the look after the housekeeping tasks on your PC? No. Does tons of other companies make products to protect you against the huge security holes in Windows? Yes. So why fret.	pctek (84)
499836	2006-11-17 03:29:00	Why? Who cares? DOS isn't supported . WIn98 isn't supported . What does MS support mean anyway? Do they come out and fix it when it crashes? No . Do the look after the housekeeping tasks on your PC? No . Does tons of other companies make products to protect you against the huge security holes in Windows? Yes . So why fret . You're missing the broadest point . All the US Govt runs on XP, as do all the Veterans' Services, the US Post Office, most parcel delivery services, (FedEx, UPS, Global . . etc), about 98% of private industries and Wall Street Brokers for example . If support is removed, it means a giant retooling and systems update for Vista . This is set up to cause a great amount of financial harm . Crap rolls downhill, and this fallout is going to hit everyone in the form of decreased services at higher rates for the lowest peons . . . like me . Then the ball rolls to your court . . . The US is unfortunately capable of causing great pain to smaller and less-monied countries too . Prices will increase for everything that is traded and sold overseas . Taxes on imports (embargos) will have to be turned up to compensate for loss of trade and loss of taxable base . Inflation will kick in and then everyone suffers . Thanks Mr . Bill . He won't be affected, as he's the third-largest country in the world as far as money goes .	SurferJoe46 (51)
499837	2006-11-17 10:32:00	Firstly, MS is going to continue selling XP for 12 months after vista is released (www.microsoft.com), so the chances they cut support for XP are pretty slim, and this CNet article backs up that suggestion: news.com.com Secondly, and I'm not to sure where i read this, WinInfo I think, but x64 versions of Vista will require all driver to be signed by MS, which may sound stupid, but poor drivers are the most common reason for poor performance, blue screens and other system failures.	imarubberducky (7230)
499838	2006-11-17 11:07:00	SurferJoe46, you can get all the updates for XP etc from here: www.autopatcher.com	zqwerty (97)
499839	2006-11-17 22:33:00	Thanks for that link zqwerty. Excellent and now bookmarked.	Breezzee (2913)
499840	2006-11-18 16:25:00	SurferJoe46, you can get all the updates for XP etc from here: . autopatcher . com/order/" target="_blank">www . autopatcher . com There are a few sites offereing the same service . . . but that's not quite the same as when there are no new updates for "new found" defects when the support dies . Are there going to be third-party people working on XP when it is so? These other sites are just mouthing the same updates M$ has written, not something newer or different-er . What's the current situation with 98? Again, are there any third-party software repairs out there? OK . . I found one . . . but I rather think it was a compilation of previous 98 repairs that also gave 98 users a new intro screen, mostly green, and slipstreamed the stuff M$ had already made in several packages . . . only now they came on a single download, clumped together from a single third-party-er, using M$'s existing stuff . I am not insinuating that people aren't running 98 successfully, as that is surely not the case . With the modal complications and layered attributes that exist in all, well at least up to the new Windows Vista implementations, there was always an argument that a problem that existed in 95 or 3 . 1 had been migrated all the way up to XP where it became very much more apparant . Without ongoing investment in time and attention to things that run amok in Windows ever since day one, I think losing M$'s hands on this support is going to be felt very nastily . XP was released and touted as the most secure platform yet . . . . it is still hole-y . The very foundation of Windows even in the early years was rife with security flukes . . . as we all know . . . and we need future and further support to make it stay healthy, in a relative way . . . trying to keep the nasties out . Cut and run is not a nice thing for M$ to do . . they created this baby, they oughtta see it to the grave at a healthy old age, not as a teenager . Abandoning all users up to XP and just concentrating on the new child isn't fair .	SurferJoe46 (51)
499841	2006-11-19 03:18:00	You're missing the broadest point . All the US Govt runs on XP, as do all the Veterans' Services, the US Post Office, most parcel delivery services, (FedEx, UPS, Global . . etc), about 98% of private industries and Wall Street Brokers for example . If support is removed, it means a giant retooling and systems update for Vista . No you are . What does MS "support" consist of? I have worked for companies that still had old O/Ss on various PCs etc . Windows 2000 had just come out and they still had laptops with DOS on them . Why? Because they were old laptops and wouldn't run a newer O/S anyay, they didn't need to spend money on flash new laptops as the old ones were perfectly fine for the purposes they were being used for . Once the hardware died, they got new laptops for sales staff and such and their old ones were passed down the line . Which meant they might be upgraded to Win3 . 1 or Win95 . . . . No-one in the IT dept or anywhere else fretted over the fact that MS didn't "support" it anymore . Never saw an MS person come out and fix any problems on any PCs anyway - have you?	pctek (84)
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