Microsoft's Development on Codename: "Windows 8"

The new look of Microsoft's next operating system...

Microsoft Corp displayed a version of its next operating system at the All Things Digital technology conference in late May. This emphasizes touchscreen features , which are optimized for tablet computers.

The world's biggest software company is expected to release the new system, what’s known as Windows 8, in 18 months time since it is trying to catch up with the success of Apple's iPad that was released on the market more than a year ago.

In an exhibition at the D9 conference held in Palos Verdes, California, a Microsoft executive presented an opening page that is similar to Microsoft's most recent phone software, with live “tiles” that are controllable by pressing and swiping the screen.

Steven Sinofsky, head of Microsoft's Windows unit, said that the product did not have a name until now, but he did not also mention the exact date of its availability.

“The release date is a ‘Defense Department secret’,” Sinofsky joked, adding that it is not going to be this autumn.

Microsoft usually aims for 24 to 36 months between major Windows versions, assuming that the release date for the next Windows is in between October 2011 and October 2012.

Sinofsky, who mentioned that Microsoft was not out of the game in tablets, guaranteed more details at a developers' conference that is going to be held in September.

He did say Microsoft is working to combine Internet telephone service Skype into the new system, following its agreement to buy the company last month.

The exhibition shows Microsoft is progressing toward the new operating system that should guarantee to run on a variety of hardware devices from desktop PCs to laptops and tablets, with both touchscreen as well as mouse and keyboard commands.

Five months back, Sinofsky displayed a crude version of the new Windows system working on ARM Holdings chips – which work better on mobile devices because of their low power requirements – at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

That indicated a change in importance for Microsoft toward mobile devices, even though the new Windows will still run on chips made by their traditional partner, Intel Corp.

Heads Up for Windows x64 and Mac OS Users

The latest malware is now on the loose, threatening both Microsoft's Windows x64 and Apple's Mac operating systems. This is composed of a 64-bit rootkit that works on 64-bit versions of Windows with a rogue antivirus for Mac computers.

According to Kaspersky Lab Expert, Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, the threat executes a downloader to download fake antivirus programs, including one for Mac. The downloader will also run under Windows, the fake Mac antivirus is also downloaded, but it will not be executed.


Zakorzhevsky also mentioned that this may show those behind the fake antivirus for Mac are distributing it by all possible means, without knowing what they are going to install on target computers.

"Interestingly, one link leads to Hoax.OSX.Defma.f which we recently wrote about. Most importantly, the rootkit tries to run it... under Windows! It appears that the developers of the latest rogue AV program for MacOS are actively distributing it via intermediaries, who don’t really understand what it is they are supposed to install on users’ computers,"


– as mentioned on Zakorzhevsky's blog post.


Zakorzhevsky said that the rogue program is downloaded and installed with the BlackHole Exploit Kit, exploiting the weak points in Java as well as in Adobe PDF reader software.


Both drivers are basic rootkits with high functionality. One is a 32-bit while the other a 64-bit driver.


The 64-bit driver is signed using a so-called testing digital signature that executes Windows Vista and 7 if it is booted in "TESTSIGNING" mode. A "TESTSIGNING" mode lets drivers and applications being developed by software developers to launch in Windows.

Where's the "Panic Button" when you need it..?

"Cybercriminals also use this loophole: they execute the command ‘bcdedit.exe –set TESTSIGNING ON’ that enables them to launch their driver without an authorized signature," Zakorzhevsky noted.


When the driver is loaded successfully and runs on the system, the rootkit halts the execution of drivers belonging to anti-rootkit and antivirus products.