The public release of Windows 7 is approaching fast. Debates and discussions have been raging on the security improvements in the new platform, and some potential problems have also emerged. In this white paper, we run through the most significant changes and additions, and look at what they might mean to users and administrators.
by Chester Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor, Sophos
Can Windows 7 succeed where Vista didn’t?
The much-heralded Windows Vista had a mediocre reception on its initial release, and never really took off despite great efforts from Microsoft to encourage hardware vendors to use it. Many businesses, wary of numerous issues, opted to stick to the tried and trusted XP until the new platform stabilized with service packs and upgrades.
But Microsoft took a different course – it rushed to create a replacement platform.
The upgrades included with Vista focused on visuals and certain speed improvements. But the platform introduced a number of new or improved security features, most notable of which was the User Account Control (UAC) system, which was designed to prevent unauthorized execution of code. UAC was widely criticized for its intrusive popups, and its reliance on the understanding of a largely untrained user base that is more likely to ignore or disable the alerts than to take the time to decipher their meaning.
Some other minor additions, such as encryption software BitLocker and the Address Space Randomization system, provided a little extra security, while some items such as the one-way firewall and the Security Center remained largely unchanged.
With Windows 7, Microsoft showed that it is paying attention to its critics and has attempted to deal with a number of these issues.
Some of the changes are largely cosmetic, with further upgrades to the desktop look and feel that continue the direction taken by Vista, following the lead of a certain rival operating system with a far better reputation for glossy visual appeal and user-friendly design.
Under the hood, there are new additions and serious
by Chester Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor, Sophos
Can Windows 7 succeed where Vista didn’t?
The much-heralded Windows Vista had a mediocre reception on its initial release, and never really took off despite great efforts from Microsoft to encourage hardware vendors to use it. Many businesses, wary of numerous issues, opted to stick to the tried and trusted XP until the new platform stabilized with service packs and upgrades.
But Microsoft took a different course – it rushed to create a replacement platform.
The upgrades included with Vista focused on visuals and certain speed improvements. But the platform introduced a number of new or improved security features, most notable of which was the User Account Control (UAC) system, which was designed to prevent unauthorized execution of code. UAC was widely criticized for its intrusive popups, and its reliance on the understanding of a largely untrained user base that is more likely to ignore or disable the alerts than to take the time to decipher their meaning.
Some other minor additions, such as encryption software BitLocker and the Address Space Randomization system, provided a little extra security, while some items such as the one-way firewall and the Security Center remained largely unchanged.
With Windows 7, Microsoft showed that it is paying attention to its critics and has attempted to deal with a number of these issues.
Some of the changes are largely cosmetic, with further upgrades to the desktop look and feel that continue the direction taken by Vista, following the lead of a certain rival operating system with a far better reputation for glossy visual appeal and user-friendly design.
Under the hood, there are new additions and serious
The latest version of Windows Live Messenger has a brand new feature: Facebook integration, which allows you to fully interact with Facebook without having to access it from a browser. You can do absolutely anything you want to, in terms of interaction with the service and your friends. This article will cover how to connect to Facebook from Windows Live Messenger, how to see your friends' status messages and other activities and how to add comments to their updates.
Sometimes important Windows 7 system files can get corrupted or become missing, due to unexpected events like a sudden power drop or some hardware or software malfunctions. One of the tools which can help in such cases is System File Checker (SFC). This is a command-line system tool that scans the integrity of Windows 7 system files and replaces the damaged or missing system files. In this article you will learn how to use this utility from the Command Prompt to solve your problems.
After we wrote about how to pin any folder to the taskbar, I decided to search the Internet for a way to make custom Jump Lists. Fortunately I managed to find an application that can do this, called Jumplist-Launcher. This is a free tool, created by 
In a previous article we talked about the requirements and installation procedure of Windows XP Mode. Now it is time to show you how to actually work with it. I will start with where to find Windows XP Mode, continue with how to use it's interface and finish with how to run an Windows XP application directly from Windows 7. Also, I'll be showing how to work with USB devices in Windows XP Mode. 
This episode of our Windows 7 networking series is about how to troubleshoot networking problems. With the help of the network and Internet troubleshooting wizards, anyone can identify the root cause of any networking issue and fix it in minutes. In this tutorial I will show how to start the network and Internet troubleshooting wizards and how to work with them so that you understand what's wrong with your network and how to fix things.
In all our tutorials about Windows 7 networking you will see that we mention the Network and Sharing Center. This panel is the entrance point to any networking task. Therefore, in this article I will show you what is the Network and Sharing Center, how to launch it and which are the main tasks you can do starting from here.
When getting infected with a virus, one of the most common things that can happen is for the Windows Task Manager to be disabled. In such a scenario, every time you try to launch it, you will receive a message saying that the 'Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator'. In this case, the first thing you should do is to install a good antivirus solution and disinfect your PC. If you need recommendations on good security solutions, check our 'Security for Everyone' series. After you disinfect your PC, you can enable your Task Manager again by using a free tool called TaskMgrED, developed by one of our team members. In this article you will find out how this tool works and also receive the download link.
I will continue our 
In the coming weeks we will start writing a long series of articles about networking in Windows 7. We will try to be as complete as possible so that you can use these articles to answer all your questions about this topic. In order to make sure we don't miss out on anything important we would like to get your feedback. Please take a look on the things we plan to talk about and add your opinions and suggestions. Your feedback is highly appreciated.
