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Archive Updates January 99 — May 99 Brought to you absolutely free by the award-winning authors Lee Hudspeth and T. J. Lee... May 28, 1999 -- Microsoft has released a patch that fixes two serious security flaws in IE4 and IE5. This patch fixes a flaw in IE5 which lets Web sites you bookmark include a custom icon next to the bookmark entry (FAVICON.ICO). A nefariously constructed ICO file could execute malicious code on a user's computer. The second flaw involves an ActiveX control distributed with IE4 and IE5 even though it is not used by either program. Click here for more information and to download the patch. As the Office 2000 debut nears (June 6th) more reviews are starting to appear. Click here for PCWorld's take on the latest suite from Redmond. While we don't want to be alarmists, there is word of a new Trojan horse program being sent via email spam as a screensaver that opens the infected machine as a remote client system over the Internet giving the hacker unlimited access to the local machine. As always, be very wary about running any program you get via email. Remember Melissa? Click here for one report on this new backdoor Trojan. Speaking of Melissa there's a strain of Melissa that renames infected Word documents to have an RTF extension. Real RTF documents do not contain macros so maybe users will be lulled into a false sense of security. Don't be fooled. Click here for more details. May 26, 1999 -- Okay, listen up cause we thought everyone knew this: When you start entering numbers in any spreadsheet product longer than 16 digits you're not going to get precise results. We wrote all about this in The Underground Guide to Microsoft Excel page 64 and thought it was old news way back then. Well, Bugnet seems to have just discovered that spreadsheets only track precision to 15 digits and is warning everyone. Click here for details. Microsoft has a free demo available of a 147MB Office add-on called VizAct 2000. Now you can make all your Office documents as interactive and annoying as all the Web pages you visit (can you say HTML?). $149.00 with availability sometime this summer. The demo expires 7/31/99. Click here for details. May 25, 1999 -- If you're wondering what goodies will be in the soon-to-be-released Windows 98 Second Edition, click here to see the MS features list. If you're still on the fence about whether or not you should upgrade to Microsoft Office 2000 click here to see which new features have corporate America planning on upgrading. Microsoft has released Small Business Server 4.5. Click here for more information and to order the MS Small Business Server 4.5 evaluation kit. May 20, 1999 -- If you actually encountered the CIH virus you'll want to check out Steve Gibson's fix for systems damaged by CIH. Click here for more information. May 19, 1999 -- For those of you out there today (yeah, I couldn't get tickets to Phantom Menance either) be aware that an Excel virus called Russian New Year is making the rounds. This malware uses the Excel CALL function which was the topic of discussion back in December 98. From the December 8, 1998 Annoyance Update "Microsoft has posted a patch to Excel 97 (SR-2 required) that disables the CALL function when used within Excel worksheet formulas. CALL lets you fire off other applications and DLLs from within formulas and macros." Click here for the MS Patch that disables the CALL function. Bugnet points out that Outlook 98 has the wrong date noted for Memorial Day. Outlook thinks it's May 24th instead of May 31st. Click here for details on how to fix the problem. May 17, 1999 -- Microsoft is offering a 60-day trial version of MapPoint 2000, the business mapping and analysis companion to Microsoft Office. Click here for details. What's with Microsoft and Y2K? Cringley goes to Redmond to find out. A great article on what MS is doing about Y2K and where they're hiding this information. Click here for the scoop. In non-Office news... Amazon.com is about to embark on a jihad offering 50% discounts on best-selling books, a move expected to touch off a price war in the online book biz. Click here for more. Forget about car salesmen, showroom models, high pressure "closers", and all the other stuff that goes with car shopping at a dealer lot. Michael Dell is backing CarsDirect.com, a new internet venture that by passes car showrooms and salesmen. Click here for details. May 13, 1999 -- Wondering if Office 2000 is worth the upgrade cost? Check out PC Magazine's Top Ten Office 2000 features. Click here for details. May 12, 1999 -- PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. has released PRIME for Excel 97. This Excel add-in set includes 10 productivity boosting utilities including the indispensible PRIME Workbar and Folder Now plus nearly a dozen Quick Click buttons. Click here to download. Microsoft has released their new BackOffice Server 4.5. Click here for details. May 10, 1999 -- Microsoft has released a patch that corrects a potential vunerability in Excel 97's virus warning feature. When you hear the fear-mongers rail about MS not fixing this sooner keep in mind that no one has ever reported being adversely affected by this. Click here for more information and to download the patch. Requires SR-2. Microsoft is now promoting 3rd party add-in utilities for Office applications. These utilities are free and have passed an established set of software testing requirements. Click here to see the Word 97 add-ins. Click here for the Excel 97 add-ins. May 7, 1999 -- Beyond.com is taking early bird orders for Microsoft Office 2000 and promises to have your copy "on your doorstep June 10, 1999". Click here to order your copy today. Speaking of Microsoft, they just bought the digital set-top box market for its Windows CE operating system for 5 Billion dollars... (can't you just see Dr. Evil sticking his pinky in his teeth?). Actually, MS just bought into AT&T for the $5 Billion but AT&T doesn't have to use Windows CE. Sure. Click here for details. May 5, 1999 -- Since Windows 2000 is so late to market and because there's upgrade gold in those interim releases Microsoft has released Windows 98 Second Edition to manufacturing. Street price should be around $90 bucks, upgrades for current Win98 users will be $19.95, plus shipping and handling, for the new fixes and features only on a CD -- a package called Windows 98 Second Edition Updates. Click here for more. Service Pack 5 for Windows NT 4.0 is now available. Click here for details and to download. May 4, 1999 -- Microsoft Office 2000 was awarded the Best Productivity Software at Spring Comdex. Click here for all the hype. Meanwhile... the Gartner Group warns against early Windows 2000 deployment citing reliability and cost issues. Click here for details. AnchorDesk Technical Director Jon DeKeles has reported a security problem with IE5 whereby anyone gaining access to your computer can visit sites that require your login and password. Click here for details and don't let just anyone have access to your computer. Duh. May 3, 1999 -- While we all hold our breath waiting for Office 2000, you might want to check out RealJukebox, the free software, released in beta today, from RealNetworks, which lets you find and download MP3 music files. Click here for more. From TNPC comes this tip: If you missed out on the free Microsoft Encarta offer, pick up the free World Book 1999 Multimedia Encyclopedia (free after rebate expires 5/31/99). April 30, 1999 -- If you use Microsoft Money in conjunction with Checkfree's electronic billing and payment services you need to be aware that Checkfree encountered computer problems last Monday that were still not resolved as of yesterday. This problem also affects users of Intuit's Quicken as well as those that electronically access and bank at the 21 banks that use the CheckFree's transaction processing systems, including Wells Fargo and First Union. Click here for more details. In general news... a New Jersey teenager used his parents eBay account to run up just over 3 million dollars in purchases. Do you let your kids surf the net unsupervised? Just asking. Click here for details. April 28, 1999 -- It was announced today that the PC/Computing cover-story article Undocumented Internet Secrets (published in the November 1998 issue) won the prestigious "Ellie" National Magazine Award in the Special Interest category. Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee were co-authors of this feature article along with Leslie Ayers, Michael Banks, and Christine Grech Wendin. Get the rational perspective on the recent CIH virus scare (did your computer self destruct last Monday?) from Rob Rosenberger on his Virus Myths Web site. April 27, 1999 -- While Microsoft is selling Beta 3 of Windows 2000 to all comers, and Compaq, Dell, and Micron are fixing to ship PCs with Windows 2000 Beta 3 pre-installed, Redmond says this version isn't intended to be used as a full-time operating system because it's beta software. Go figure. Click here for more. If the Melissa scare, well... scared you, check out the TNPC Special Report: Containing Those Pesky Macro Viruses. April 21, 1999 -- Microsoft has an updated MSHTML.DLL available that fixes three separate security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 4 and the new IE 5. Click here for details and to get the patch. There is a separate patch that eliminates a vulnerability in an ActiveX control that is distributed in IE5 and is downloadable for IE4. Click here for details and to get this patch. April 20, 1999 -- You say your life is dull, there's no danger, no excitement? Is that what's bothering you, Bunky? Well, march right over and order your copy of Windows 2000 Beta 3 right now! Yes, you too can pay $59.95US so you can beta test Microsoft's latest operating system destined to replace Windows 98 (well, after a few more versions of 98 have pumped cash into Redmond's coffers that is). Click here to get yours. At Spring Comdex the David vs. Goliath scenario was Linux vs. Windows as Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds delivered back to back keynotes. Click here for details. April 19, 1999 -- Microsoft has released their Internet Explorer 5 Evaluation and Deployment Kit (EDK), which includes IE5, various evaluation resources, a complete Internet Explorer 5 deployment guide, case studies, and the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 5, which helps administrators create and deploy a custom browser across a network or via Web download. Click here for more. BugNet reports conflicts between VirusScan 4.0.2 Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Outlook 98. Click here for details and to get the patch. The current issue of The Naked PC (#2.8) has a great article on where to find the best Windows NT resources on the Web. Click here for more. April 16, 1999 -- Microsoft runs benchmarks that show NT is faster than Linux but it appears that the testing company Mindcraft cooked the books. NT was tuned for best performance but Linux was somewhat less than optimized. Click here for the full story. Meanwhile Windows 2000 Beta 3 has slipped a week. Click here for more. IE5 lets a Web site know whenever you bookmark a page on that site. Privacy advocates are uneasy with this feature that cannot be turned off. Click here for details. April 15, 1999 -- Outlook Express 5 is the email client bundled with the new IE5. Problem is that Bugnet has reported that a bug in Outlook Express 5 interferes with Outlook Express' ability to determine which messages have previously been downloaded where you've instructed OE to delete messages from the POP3 server once you got them. This results in multiple copies of the same message being downloaded over and over and causing the bug to be called 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'. Click here for details. Desperate to try out Windows 2000? Soon you can buy a copy of Beta 3 from a Microsoft Solution Providers near you. Price will be $59.95. Click here for details. April 13, 1999 -- That new PC you're planning on buying this summer may come with a beta operating system installed on it. Microsoft is encouraging PC makers to install Windows 2000 Beta 3 on computers like it was the final release. Overconfidence or desperation to garner market share? Click here for more. April 12, 1999 -- Hey waitaminute! The hardcore Star Wars fans camping out in front of the Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood so they can be first in line to see the new SW movie, Phantom Menace opening May 19th may not be as crazy as you think. Sure living in a tent is not the Ritz, but they rotate their time spent in line with other SW fans, Dell Computer has supplied free laptop computers; DVD Express supplies free players and movies so those on line can watch the latest DVD flicks all day; and local restaurants are providing free meals. Oh, and they have free ADSL Internet access to boot. Now this may not have anything to do with Microsoft or Office but for some reason we find it very annoying! Click here for details. April 9, 1999 -- Not wanting to be eclipsed by Al Gore (see April 8 Annoyance Update) Microsoft has been using the term open source in the same breath as Windows 2000 but industry pundits are not buying it. Click here for more. InfoWorld says Office 2000 is worth the upgrade. Click here for details. At the same time PCWeek thinks that Office 2000's adoption of HTML as a native file format will make users more susceptible to virus/worms like Melissa. Click here for details. April 8, 1999 -- The foot-in-mouth award has to go again to Presidential candidate Al Gore who claimed that his reelection Web site was open source. San Jose Mercury News' Dan Gillmor said this was "a transcendently clumsy attempt to co-opt a newly popular buzzword and turn it to political advantage." Sheesh! You'd expect more from the guy that invented the Internet. Click here for details. April 7, 1999 -- If you're worried about what type of stuff Word is storing in your documents (besides your document), check out this Microsoft Knowledge Base article How to Minimize Metadata in Word Documents. Microsoft has now released an update to IE5. The new and improved IE5a (aka 5.00.2314.1003) fixes some minor glitches in the original release. The IE5a version will be the one found in Office 2000. If you downloaded IE5 before the new version was released there is no way to update the version you have short of downloading IE5 all over again and reinstalling. Ouch! Discussing the upcoming incremental Windows 98 release, Microsoft tied to clarify its position by saying that Win98 bug fixes will be free (downloadable over the Internet) but that if you want it on a CD it'll cost, well, a Windows product manager clarified by saying he didn't imagine it selling for more than $30. Of course the CD will have a number of feature enhancements like advanced support for Universal Serial Bus, a copy of Internet Explorer 5.0, and a technology called Internet Connection Sharing, which eases the process of home networking. Click here for more details. None of this should be confused, however, with the full version of Windows 98 Second Edition which will be priced at approximately $89 and be available through the retail, reseller and OEM channels this fall. Click here for more on the retail version. Now, is that clear or what? April 5, 1999 -- Microsoft has released an update to the Windows 98 Registration Wizard that removes the hardware ID number that the old Wizard creates and sends to Microsoft without the user's permission. (See the March 9th Annoyance Update). Click here for details and information on how to get the patch. Check out Rob Rosenberger's great commentary on the Melissa virus hype and how some are trying to capitalize on it. Click here for Rob's article. TNPC issue #2.7 is out. Click here to find out more about our free email newsletter. April 1, 1999 -- Microsoft has released two new free tools for checking Y2K compliance with MS products. Click here to get these new tools. October 6th is now the target date for the release of Windows 2000. Click here for details. (No, that's not an April Fools joke.) March 31, 1999 -- Microsoft has posted a new advisory on the Melissa virus and the Papa variant. Worth reading. Click here for the details. March 29, 1999 -- If you downloaded a branded version of IE5, i.e., one that has been branded with icons and pointers to some company's Web site there's a site that purports to have all the unbranding tools you need to restore IE5 to the Microsoft defaults. Click here to check it out (we've not tried it so use good judgement). If you wind up getting infected by Melissa or one of its variants click here for what to do. From TNPC comes this hot tip... you can still get Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99 for the amazing, incredible, low, low price of FREE! That's right, absolutely free! Really. Free. Click here and get your copy now. March 29, 1999 -- A reminder, don't open files attached to emails. Save them to disk and use a viewer (like the Quick View viewer that comes with Windows) to review them. This cuts your chances of getting infected with the Melissa virus (or the reported Excel varient dubbed Pappa) to nil. Please try not to add to the hype and hysteria of Melissa by forwarding every article about it to everyone you know on the planet. It's been the topic of discussion on every news channel (TV and radio), newsletter, and magazine site around. People know. And, er, clogging up email servers with email is what Melissa is all about after all. Click here for the official FBI warning on Melissa. Click here to read about the first reported copycat Melissa virus dubbed Pappa. Click here for official Microsoft reponse. Looks like June 10th is the official retail release date for Microsoft's Office 2000. Mark your calendars. Click here for more information. March 27, 1999 -- YAVA! Yes, it is yet-another-virus-alert. The infection agent is again a Microsoft Word document attached to an email. So if you get an email with a Word document attached save it to disk and use a viewer NOT WORD to read it. Opening the document in Word will infect your system if the attachment contains what has been named the Melissa virus. What is worse is that Melissa emails itself to the first 50 Contacts in your Outlook address book. If you use Outlook you can unwittingly infect a bunch of people if you trigger this virus. Keep in mind that while Outlook is the only email client that broadcasts messages with an infected document attached, any email client can receive a virus laden message. Click here for details. March 26, 1999 -- Microsoft announced that there have been over 1 million downloads of IE5 in the first five days of its availability. It then admitted to inflating the download numbers for IE4 when it was released. Draw your own conclusions. Click here for more details on CNET. March 24, 1999 -- BugNet reports that at least one major company has stopped installing IE5 because it destroys the ability to use Windows point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP). Click here for details. Check out Lockergnome for the IE5 Easter Eggs and some information on problems IE5 is having with the Eudora email client. Click here for details. March 24, 1999 -- BugNet reports there's a problem if you install a Diamond video driver subsequent to installing IE5. IE5 needs its own version of COMCTL32.DLL which Diamond replaces. Install IE5, then install a Diamond video driver upgrade and your system may not restart. Click here for details and the workaround. Speaking of IE5... if you download this freebie be aware it's approximately 70 megabytes to download and 110 megabytes installed. If you download IE5 from a site other than Microsoft's you'll most likely get a branded version where there's a company name in the title bar and custom toolbars that point you back to the site you downloaded from. March 22, 1999 -- Office 2000 is still on track for general availability the first week in June, IE5 downloads are bringing servers to their knees, and Saturday was the first day of spring. In other news... Our PRIME for Word and Excel 2000 utilities have been reviewed by Computer Currents. Click here to read more (see the last item on the page). Click here to download the PRIME Utilities. Microsoft is willing to talk to the DOJ about a settlement as long as the Feds don't try to prevent MS's ability to "add features to [their] products and innovate". Click here to read about in on CNET. PC Week continues their series on Microsoft this focusing on how the trial may be affecting the Redmond Rangers corporate culture. Click here for details. March 19, 1999 -- The first problems with Internet Explorer 5.0 are surfacing. IE5 has a number of problems with Visual Studio 6.0, Microsoft's suite of Windows development tools. Click here for more. If you've jumped on the IE5 bandwagon already you should be aware that there are a number of tweakers and customized stuff already available for the new browser version. Click here to access a number of add-on goodies for IE5. March 18, 1999 -- Internet Explorer 5.0 is now available. Download it here for free although you might want to wait a week to see if any last minute bugs surface. March 17, 1999 -- Internet Explorer 5.0 is due to be released tomorrow. Should you jump on it or wait? Read Paul Thurrott's excellent review of IE5 on the Windows 2000 Supersite. Click here. March 16, 1999 -- Redmond has released the Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch, which prevents Office 97 applications from inserting a unique identifier number into Office documents (as well as standalone versions of Word 97, Excel 97, or PowerPoint 97). To remove these unique identifier numbers from existing Office documents you need to get the Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool. Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool If you're planning to stick with Office 95 on into the year 2000, you need to get the Microsoft Office 95 Year 2000 Update. Click here to get this important update. Paul Thurrott at WinInfo (www.wugnet.com/wininfo) has pointed out to us that the next version of Windows 98 OEM Service Release (OSR) will most likely be renamed Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) fueling rumors that this update (which will include the upcoming IE5 along with bug fixes and patches) will find its way into the retail channels. This gives the Second Edition the look and feel of a major OS update making it look like MS is backpedaling from it's stated position of moving from Win98 directly to Win2000. According to CNET Microsoft has has sent out the latest beta version of Office 2000 to technical testers. Click here for details. March 15, 1999 -- Microsoft has made a patch available to fix the "screen saver" security hole which lets a user gain administrator security privileges under Windows NT. Click here for the official word from Microsoft on how to get this patch. Cringley points out that the accepted wisdom in major IT shops is to freeze all new software deployment 6 months prior to the Y2K event. This provides for 3 months of testing and the last 3 months of 1999 to fix the last minute problems. The main point of his column this week is that this puts Windows 2000 in a very tough position if it doesn't ship RSN (real soon now). Click here for more. March 12, 1999 -- Microsoft porting Office to Linux? Rumors that the Redmond Rangers are doing just that are the topic of this article on ZDNet. For real? Unlikely but the graphic of the Linux penguin sitting on the Office logo is pretty funny. I like the odds of Al Gore inventing the Internet better <g>. A safety warning on BugNet announced that Iomega has recalled 60,000 external power supplies included with external Jaz drives. This affects new external 2GB drives and remanufactured external 1GB drives. The housing can come apart on the power supply presenting a safety hazard. Click here for details. Meanwhile, Iomega announced plans to reduced the street price of its external Zip 100MB SCSI and parallel port drives to $99.95. Click here for more. A massive re-org at Microsoft is expected to be announced next week and many pundits are saying that this is a pre-emptive strike on the part of the Redmondians to make a DOJ decision to breakup Microsoft more difficult. Click here for more. PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. makers of add-on utilities for Microsoft Word and Excel have been named a "good guy" company and awarded the Software Vendors' Hall of Fame by Jesse Berst and ZDNet AnchorDesk. Click here for more. March 11, 1999 -- (snicker, chortle) Okay, okay, this has nothing to do with Microsoft Office but there's no way to let it slide by without comment. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer the Presidental hopeful Al Gore said, (and we quote) "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Hee hee, bet you never knew that Al created the Internet... all this time I thought Bill Gates did. Click here for fun details. Silliness aside Microsoft confirmed that by running a hacker program a user can gain administrator rights on Windows NT. This security hole affects all versions of Windows NT including two beta versions of Windows 2000. MS is scrambling for a fix. Click here for details. Microsoft cares about your privacy! Yusuf Mehdi, the MS Director of Windows Marketing, will tell you so in an open letter on the Microsoft site wherein he explains that while Windows and Office is tracking you and everything you do it was all designed "with user privacy in mind". And while Redmond is "still investigating the issue" they're going to: Modify the Windows 98 Registration Wizard, be providing a software tool to delete hardware registration information in the Registry, purge any hardware ID information MS has inadvertently gathered, issue a patch to Office 97 that prevents the insertion of a unique identifier number in all new Office documents, and come up with a utility to remove the unique identifier from previously created Office 97 documents. Aha (and clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of you). Click here and see for yourself. If you've been following the Intel Pentium III processor ID controversy over the serial number branding of processor chips you'll be interested to know that Intel has apparently included this feature in some Pentium II chips that unsuspecting users may have in their computers. Click here for details. March 10, 1999 -- Windows 2000 is to favor reliability at the expense of application compatibility. Applications may require rewriting to work properly under Windows 2000. Click here for more information. You can download a minor patch for Microsoft Outlook that will prevent data loss should your system crash during the archive process. Click here to download the patch. March 9, 1999 -- Katie bar the door! Look for the huge flap over the Microsoft Windows 98 GUID scandal to continue (see Annoyance Update March 8, 1999). You can bet that Microsoft will be crucified over rigging Win98 to send it information about your computer even when you checked the box that said not to. And you should definitely stop creating ranson notes in Microsoft Word 'cause someone might track the doc back to your system. D'oh! Short term is everyone will beat their chests and show you how Microsoft actually did the evil deed (as if you care or want to know). Long term is the FTC will reexamine if industry self-regulation on privacy matters is going to work or if the FEDs should step in. Click here for more. Meanwhile, Netscape has released Communicator version 4.51, which fixes some security holes for frame-spoofing and window-spoofing, and a problem with caching metatags in a way that could have exposed private information in shared computing environments. Hey, does anybody know of anyone on the planet actually running afoul of one of these browser security holes? Click here for details. March 8, 1999 -- More hoo-hah over privacy issues! Here's the deal in a nutshell according to an article on CNET. If your computer has a network card in it Windows 98 generates a thingy called a GUID number that is unique to your computer. Office applications do the same thing and they stick this number in all documents created on that machine. Windows 98 sends this GUID to Microsoft as part of the online registration process. So Redmond can determine whose machine a given document was created on using which application if it wanted to. Pandemonium reigns because of the implied threat to everyone's privacy (yawn!). To help calm everyone Microsoft is taking a "Huh?" "Really?" "It must be a bug" "I don't think we even keep that information" stance which has convinced everyone that it's another part in the Redmondians plot to conquer the world. Although MS has said that if this is happening, which they're not admitting is happening, they'll fix it in the next Windows 98 Service Release. Click here for more. Meanwhile Microsoft says the next beta of Windows 2000 will be solid and go a long way towards fixing the problems in earlier betas. Click here for details. ZDNet has posted the second article in its ongoing series on how Microsoft is struggling in its battle with the DOJ. In this installment they looks at how Redmond's partners are starting to kick up their heels a bit. Interesting reading. Slicker front ends that emulate the Mac and Windows OS are starting to appear for Linux. Click here for more. March 5, 1999 -- In a report circulated to government lawyers the Software and Information Industries Association (formerly the Software Protection Agency) has called for the breakup of Microsoft should the court return a verdict against Redmond in their battle with the DOJ. Click here for more details. As we've been saying for a long time, the software industry is trying to change the model for selling software to one similar to that of the magazine industry where you'll pay an ongoing monthly or annual payment for your software. Now a New Jersey consumer privacy watchdog company, Junkbusters, says that court documents released in the MS vs. DOJ case show that Microsoft has considered switching to an annuity model for licensing Windows. Click here for more information. IBM Inside? in a deal reportedly worth 16 billion bucks IBM will be supplying Dell Computer with components such as hard drives, SRAM, networking equipment and display technology. March 4, 1999 -- If you're exchanging documents with someone using Star Office from Star Division Corporation (or if you're actually running Star Office yourself on Linux or Windows) you should be aware that Star Division has released the StarOffice 5.0 FilterUpdate which provides for more seamless conversion to and from Microsoft Office document formats including, according to the Press Release, the yet to be released Microsoft Office 2000. StarOffice 5.0 is available free for the downloading www.stardivision.com. Click here for more details. March 3, 1999 -- Look to the sky! Look to the sky! Oops, sorry, too many late night sci-fi flicks. Look forward to Microsoft's upcoming Windows 98 Service Pack 1, which is currently in its second beta version. This Windows 98 service pack will add the upcoming IE5 to your system, a new version of DUN, and support for USB modems. No firm date on when this service pack will ship but our advice is let someone else be the early adopter and wait to see if any new bugs are introduced. Click here for details. March 1, 1999 -- The guys that bring you the Annoyance Update page have a hardware review in PC/Computing's March issue Digital Office section titled Home Networks That Don't Hurt. Lee and I are regular contributors to PC/Computing and give you the straight scoop on networking your computers with solutions that don't require you string any cables. Click here for more. ZDNet says things look bad for Microsoft in their court battle with the DOJ and speculates on what may happen if/when MS loses in court and on appeal. Interesting reading. February 26, 1999 -- You can order a copy of IE5 on CD-ROM for $6.95 (in the U.S. and Canada) now although IE5 is not slated to ship until March 18th. Click here to order in Microsoft's Reserve Your Copy Early program. February 25, 1999 -- This afternoon at 4:00PM PST (7:00PM EST, Midnight GMT) you can join Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee (the authors of "Outlook Annoyances") and the staff of CompuServe's Exchange Forum for a live chat to discuss the most pleasing and annoying features of Microsoft Outlook. Join us on CompuServe's Exchange Forum (GO EXCHANGE). A CompuServe membership is not required to attend the chat. Event Location: http://go.compuserve.com/exchange Microsoft Office 2000 slips to a June release date. O2K is now anticipated to hit store shelves on June 4th. Click here for more. Speaking of Microsoft products... Microsoft has quietly opened an online store. Click here for the story or click here to visit the Redmond Rangers' online emporium. February 24, 1999 -- Microsoft has announced that Ford Motor Company and Shell Services International have committed to adopt Office 2000 and will deploy the suite in more than 30 countries worldwide. Click here for more information. February 23, 1999 -- There's a story on CNN Interactive that casts some doubt on corporate Windows NT applications being able to run on Windows 2000. One analyst claims that W2K is 80% new code compared to NT making it in effect a new operating system altogether. MS claims that old apps will run but to take advantage of any of W2K's new features they'll have to be rewritten. Click here for details. Speaking of Windows NT... Microsoft has posted a fix for what it calls the Windows NT "KnownDLLs List" Vulnerability. This bug "could allow a user to gain administrative privileges on the computer the user is interactively logged onto." Fun stuff. Click here for details. There's also a patch available for an obscure Win98 bug called the Taskpads Scripting Vulnerability. If you've installed the Win98 or BackOffice Resource Kit you might be subject to this browser related bug. Click here for details. February 22, 1999 -- BugNet has reported a problem with Seagate Backup Exec that can cause the backup program to delete Visual Basic "class" files on the system being backed up. Click here for details. On March 18th Microsoft will release Internet Explorer 5.0 for Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 3.1, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. IE5 will be free for the downloading but will not appear on the Macintosh platform until sometime this summer. Click here for details. The Naked PC newsletter, Volume 2 Issue 4, has been posted to the TNPC site. If you have not yet subscribed to this free email newsletter click here and take a look. As ANDOVER.NET said in its review, "this is a truly top-end, award-winning newsletter, written by a large bunch of intelligent contributors, that covers all sorts of neat 'puter stuff. Maybe the cute name brings 'em in the first time, but it's the content that keeps 'em coming back for more." February 19, 1999 -- Worried about users being slow to adopt Office 2000 Microsoft has come up with the Office 2000 Discover the Possibilities Kit which includes training and reference products, as well as three CDs filled with sample versions of the Office 2000 applications. You pay the shipping. Click here for more information or to order a Kit. The Naked PC newsletter, a free e-mail newsletter published by same guys that bring you the Annoyance Update page, has been reviewed by ANDOVER.NET. Click here read ANDOVER's review and to find out why you should be a subscriber to TNPC. Another window spoofing bug has been discovered, which in effect, can be used to trick Netscape Navigator into thinking that it's on a trusted site thereby working around current security settings. Netscape says it will have a patch available shortly. As with most of these browser pet tricks no one has reported actually being a victim of this bug. Click here for details. And for those of you keeping count, there's only 316 more days til Y2K. February 16, 1999 -- Our colleague at PC/Computing, Jesse Berst, has written about Microsoft's posturing on Java and their possible dropping of Visual J++. Click here for the straight scoop from Jesse. The March issue of PC/Computing magazine is on newsstands now! In this month's Digital Office section read Home Networks that Don't Hurt by Lee Hudspeth and T. J. Lee for a review of Intelogis PassPort and Tut Systems HomeRun easy home networking technology. February 15, 1999 -- Turning to Microsoft Excel, PRIME Consulting has released a beta version of their award winning utility set for Microsoft's premire spreadsheet application. Created by the authors of Excel 97 Annoyances. Click here for more information. And check out the Web based tour of the PRIME Workbar utility. February 12, 1999 -- PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. has released Beta 2 of their add-on utility pack for Microsoft Word 2000. This Beta contains 2 new utilities in addition to the PRIME Workbar, which is an amazingly useful Word add-on. Check it out. A 20-year-old software developer has created a way around Internet Explorer 4.0 as well as 5.0's content filtering feature called Content Advisor. Click here for more information. February 11, 1999 -- From Paul Thurrott comes the announcement that World Wide Windows (a Web site based magazine dedicated to all things Windows) has debuted with their first site issue. Click here to visit the WWWindows site. The entire Annoyance Update staff wishes them well on their endeavor. February 10, 1999 -- Let me explain, no, no, that would take too long, let me sum up... Bill G. just sold half a billion dollars in MS stock; Redmond has abandoned plans to push consumers directly from Windows 98 to the Windows NT kernel (aka Windows 2000); never trust 'Softies bearing video tapes; Moshe Dunie is out - Brad Silverberg is in (welcome back Brad!); it's not a bug it's just an incredible simulation; the last time there was a shake up like this Atlantis sank into the sea; a 56k modem is faster than a 28k modem; watch for minor Windows 98 upgrade releases; Windows 2000 contains 35 million lines of code and requires 64MB to 128MB of memory to run; and a partridge in a pear tree. Click here to read Mary Jo Foley's outstanding article on the current Microsoft shake up. February 9, 1999 -- If you've installed Windows NT Service Pack 4 you should be aware that Microsoft has issued a fix for a security hold caused by SP4. Click here for more information. Yet another Word macro virus has been found, called W97M.Footprint it deletes the footers of open documents as well as their macros. Check with your virus software vendor for updates that can deal with this newcomer. Click here for more information. Windows 2000 is having problems running current Windows NT applications fueling speculation that more delays may be in W2K's future. Click here for more information. February 4, 1999 -- Backpedaling? NOT! According to an exclusive in Paul Thurrott's WinInfo newsletter (http://www.wugnet.com/wininfo) the story reported by various news publications that there would a "Windows 2000 Personal Edition," based on the Windows 98 kernel rather than the Windows NT kernel (see Annoyance Update February 2) is false. According to Paul, "There isn't going to be any Windows 2000 Consumer Edition." The confusion is apparently being caused by Microsoft continuing to work on updates to Windows 98 in the form of service packs and bug fixes. According to WinInfo "the product [Windows 98] has another 2-3 years of active development ahead of it." Hmmm, sounds like MS is worried about users being slow to upgrade to Windows 2000 (read buy a copy) and is looking to keep an alternative source of cash flow available. It will be interesting to see what they charge for these updates/service packs call them what you will. Windows 3.1 certainly did not have a years of active development in any significent sense once Windows 95 was released. February 3, 1999 -- Rob Rosenberger has a great opinion piece on the recently revealed Word Template security bug (a fix is already available - see Annoyance Update January 20, 1999). Rob has a rational outlook on all the security hype in computerdom. Click here to read Rob's great article. Microsoft has made available Date Fix Wizard, Date Migration Wizard, and Date Watch Wizard add-ins for Excel 97 to smooth some Y2K migration issues. Click here for details and to download. The Microsoft Office 2000 Deployment Conference takes place March 29-31 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is a three-day event with dozens of technical sessions, a product expo, hands-on training, and an "Ask the Experts" area. Click here for more information. February 2, 1999 -- Backpedaling from the long held position that Windows 98 was the last gasp of the Windows line and that future versions of Windows beyond 98 would be Windows NT (hastily renamed Windows 2000), Microsoft has said that there may be another iteration of good old Windows classic in the works. Rumor has it that this next version, dubbed "Windows 2000 Personal Edition", could be in beta soon. Could this be due to the constant delays associated with Windows NT5/Windows 2000? Click here for more details. Users of Windows NT 4 will have to implement Service Pack 4 in order to be Y2K compliant according to Microsoft. SP4 covers over 650 bug fixes, 28 memory leaks, some new features and all the patches found in the previous 3 service packs. Click here for details. January 29, 1999 -- From Paul Thurrott's excellent WinInfo newsletter (http://www.wugnet.com/wininfo) comes the inside scoop that IE 5 will be released in mid-March. Speaking of browsers... new security bugs have been reported in both IE and Opera. One minor buglet in IE is that visited URLs are being stored in a hidden file even if the cache and history is flushed. Been surfing anywhere you'd just as soon not have a record of? A more serious security hole has been found in IE, again involving frames. Click here for details. Microsoft Money 99, Money 99 Plus Update and Money 99 Plus were all pulled off the German market due to a Euro bug that prevents scripts in these programs from being able to access German bank servers. Click here for more. January 27, 1999 -- Only four days left to pay Microsoft for the privilege of beta testing Office 2000. The "$19.95 and you're in the beta" program ends January 31st. Click here for more. If you've been having trouble getting a domain name registered with the InterNic you are not alone. There's a reported massive slowdown troubling Network Solutions (the company that runs the InterNic). Click here for more information. January 26, 1999 -- Microsoft has released the "official" system requirements for Office 2000 (rumored to be available in early April). Figure over 600 megabytes for a full install with all the bells and whistles! Click here for details. Compaq Computer has announced it will spin off AltaVista into a wholly owned subsidiary, the AltaVista Company, which it plans to take public. Click here for more information. January 25, 1999 -- Microsoft has a patch to fix a security hole in the Forms 2.0 ActiveX control. This control is distributed in any application that includes Visual Basic for Applications 5.0. This glitch lets evil Web sites read any text that may be on the local machine's Clipboard. Click here to find out more and download the patch. Making a sea-change in how it prices some of its key server applications Microsoft is shifting from a "per-seat" licensing model to a "concurrent" licensing plan. This can represent big savings for some sites. Click here for more information. January 20, 1999 -- Our friend and Annoyance Series co-author Woody Leonhard alerted us to yet another Web security patch available from Microsoft. This patch protects Word 97 so evil Web site operators can't put up a page that causes Internet Explorer to trigger Word in the background on the local machine and then proceed to wreak havoc by exectuing macro code without warning the user that anything is going on. Click here to read the Microsoft security bulletin on this fix and click here to download the patch. Keep in mind that there have been no reports of this security hole acutally being exploited by anyone but better to be safe than sorry and the fix is free. January 20, 1999 -- Microsoft is offering a free upgrade to anyone buying Office 97 between January 1 and July 31, 1999 to Office 2000 when it is released for only the cost of shipping and handling. It's not clear if this is because MS is worried about slow adoption of Office 2000 by corporate IS managers or not. Click here for more information. January 18, 1999 -- PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. has just released a version of their add-on utilities for Microsoft Word 2000. If you are participating in the Microsoft beta of Office 2000 you can download the PRIME for Word 2000 utilities. Get the free 30-day evaluation version or purchase the PRIME for Word 2000 beta for only $12.95 (nearly 50% off the regular price of $24.95) and get a free upgrade to the final product once Office 2000 ships. Click here for more information. January 16, 1999 -- Microsoft is slipping the anticipated ship date for Windows 5, er, Windows 2000 till late 1999. Hmmm, maybe Microsoft should put out a version of Office that runs on Linux during the interim? Speaking of Linux, PC Week reports that Compaq will announce a deal with Red Hat Software to deliver servers with Linux preinstalled. Compaq will not only ship Linux servers but will provide support. Click here for more. Meanwhile, Panda Software (which sells the S.O.S. Virus Service protection package) says that they have the fix for a Word macro virus that affects Office 2000. That's right, they have the fix or a virus that infects a product that has not been released yet. (Does it bother anyone that we have an anti-virus industry that makes its dough by there being a constant influx of new viruses?) Once again Microsoft Word is the target of a virus that Panda calls "W2000M/PSD" which resets Word 9.0's macro protection to its most unsecured setting. Click here for more details. January 14, 1999 -- Iomega is buying what's left of SyQuest despite poor 4th quarter earnings (SyQuest having filed for bankruptcy). Click here for details. The Euro is a reality and Microsoft wants you to know how to deal with this new currancy symbol within Office. Click here for the latest on the Euro from Microsoft. January 13, 1999 -- The Windows April Fools bug has been confirmed by Microsoft. This obscure buglet causes Windows to adjust to daylight savings time a week late. The problem occurs because April 1, 2001 falls on a Sunday (how's that for obscure?), so you don't have to worry for two years or more. Click here for details. In totally unrelated news, Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball grossed a cool $3 million bucks. How does anyone know that the guy who caught it didn't swap it for a $10 ball at the gift shop and now has the money and the actual home run ball on his shelf in the den? January 11, 1999 -- PC Week is predicting that corporate managers may pass on a quick upgrade to Office 2000. Citing a lack of compelling features and more pressing problems like Y2K several IT executives said they're in no hurry to move ot O2K. Click here for more information. Is MSN for sale? Microsoft discussed selling MSN to AT&T but is reporting that the discussion has been put on the "back burner." Guess AT&T didn't pony up enough hard cash to keep the deal on the front burner. Click here for details. If you want to see the future of your kids toys check out the latest from the 1998 Toy Fair where Microsoft is planning to be the only friend you children will ever need. Creepy! January 08, 1999 -- PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. released version 1.1 of their PRIME 97 for Word 97 utilities today. Version 1.0 was named one of the Top Ten Office Add-ins by PC World magazine and version 1.1 boasts 3 new utilities and numerous improvements and speed enhancements. Free upgrade for registered users. Click here for more information. January 06, 1999 -- Yesterday Microsoft announced pricing for its various Office 2000 products. Click here for details. A footnote in computer history, Hayes, the one-time premiere modem maker has announced it is closing its doors. Click here for the details. As of the first of the year, Eileen Wharmby, steps down as Webmaster of the WOPR site. Ken Mocabee has taken over the site and while Eileen will be sorely missed and we here at the Annoyances page wish Ken good luck as the new Webmaster. January 04, 1999 -- It's a new year and how better to kick it off than with yet another IE bug fix. BugNet reports that MS has posted a fix for what is called the "Frame Spoofing Vulnerability" (does anyone know anybody that has ever been harmed by one of these browser bugs?). Click here for details. Meanwhile, Cringely has some interesting insights on the coming Y2K deadline (only 361 more days for those of you who are counting). Click here to read all about it. Return to Top