Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Every piece of software released by Microsoft has an expiration date. Known as the End of Life event, this is when Microsoft ceases to support the software. It’s imperative that you stay on top of EOL dates for the sake of your company’s operations and data security. Take for example the dozens of software titles that expired just this past April.

The hype train keeps chugging along for Windows 10, and it’s obvious why. It’s a great operating system that’s changing the way that businesses handle their daily tasks. But is Windows 10 doing as well as it lets on? According to desktop operating system usage statistics from NetMarketShare, Windows 10’s adoption rate has significantly slowed down in recent months, while more people continue to take advantage of Windows 7 and 8.x. Why?

Microsoft and Apple have been going at it for decades. Not only have these two tech monsters been at it in the lab, they’ve been each other’s prime competition throughout the advents of the personal computer, the graphic user interface, and the smartphone. Today they continue to make devices that deliberately (or not) seem more like counterpunches to the other than pure innovation.

The newly-released Windows 10 operating system has been well received by the tech community. Yet, no OS is perfect and you shouldn’t blindly upgrade just because you’ve heard good things about it. Before upgrading to Windows 10, be sure to take into consideration these four shortcomings.

We’re counting down the days until the release of Windows 10 on July 29th. The Microsoft hype train is in full gear and the world has high expectations for the new OS. This begs the question, “Should your business upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible?”

Designed to meet the changing needs of computer users is Sway, a new addition to the family of Microsoft Office apps. Sway is a cross-platform content aggregation tool allowing users to easily develop and share web-based presentations that are rich in both pictures and text. How can a tool like Sway help your business?

Are you a master of making brilliant Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows to augment your presentations? You’re not the only one; it’s widely known as one of the best mediums to create a compelling, professional slideshow. It’s used in classrooms, training sessions, and much more. However, there’s one profession where PowerPoint’s effectiveness is questionable: A prosecutor in a court case.

Twelve years after its release, Microsoft has scheduled to end mainstream support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14, 2015. This move essentially pulls the plug on the popular operating system, leaving any business using the server OS after its end-of-support date vulnerable. If your organization is still running this outdated OS, you need to update ASAP.

Have you ever been working in Microsoft Word and needed to go back and check an edit you made, but you didn’t remember what you did, or where in the document you did it? Going back and reviewing your edits in Word is easy using the little-known Go Back command.

Windows 10, the next big name in Microsoft’s family of Windows operating systems, is expected to arrive sometime in 2015. On January 21st, 2015, we were shown a glimpse of what to expect from the new operating system, as well as a preliminary look at the in-development browser, Spartan, and several slick new pieces of consumer technology.

Microsoft has already unveiled their latest project in the form of an entirely new Windows operating system, Windows 10. More recently, a new Microsoft web browser code-named “Spartan” is making tech headlines, which may be released alongside the new operating system.

Before Microsoft officially releases Windows 10, beta versions are first given to select business leaders like CIOs. This is a standard practice for software manufacturers because it helps them to work out real-world bugs before publicly releasing their product. What do CIOs think of the Windows 10 technical preview? Inquiring business minds want to know.

A while back we discussed the POODLE vulnerability found in SSL 3.0 SSL encryption technology. This vulnerability is found in all operating systems, as it is found within the web browser’s abilities to process SSL encryption. Thankfully, major companies are stepping up to tackle the issue, and Microsoft has released a basic solution to fix the vulnerability in Internet Explorer.

The POODLE vulnerability itself is used to obtain information encrypted with SSL technology by analyzing web traffic. This technique is used to steal information such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or other private information. In non-tech speak, SSL (Secure Socket Layers) is an encryption protocol used to keep data safe on the web through security certificates. This method of encryption has long since been replaced by the more secure protocol TLS (Transport Layer Security), but several systems will revert back to their old SSL certificates in the event something has gone wrong with their TLS. TLS isn’t vulnerable to this issue, so in theory, a hacker could force their way into a network, exploiting the traffic coming in and out of the network for any worthwhile information.

According to the Microsoft security advisory, hackers exploit a man-in-the-middle attack to take advantage of this vulnerability:

In a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack, an attacker could downgrade an encrypted TLS session forcing clients to use SSL 3.0 and then force the browser to execute malicious code. This code sends several requests to a target HTTPS website, where cookies are sent automatically if a previous authenticated session exists. This is a required condition in order to exploit this vulnerability. The attacker could then intercept this HTTPS traffic, and by exploiting a weakness in the CBC block cipher in SSL 3.0, could decrypt portions of the encrypted traffic (e.g. authentication cookies).

Due to the nature of POODLE as a design flaw, it’s not something that can easily be patched. Therefore, most experts are saying that you’re better off disabling SSL 3.0 for their web browsers. Most servers don’t rely on SSL 3.0 anymore, which makes it obsolete. In fact, most major browsers are looking to disable SSL 3.0 completely within the next few months. Firefox is fixing the issue with the November upgrade, while Google is working to disable SSL 3.0 on all of its products. This makes the vulnerability obsolete for two of the biggest browsers, but what about Internet Explorer?

Turns out Microsoft has a way to fix that one, too. Microsoft has released a Fix It tool, which can help users disable SSL 3.0 without navigating through their Control Panel. Just click here for the tool on their official website. Otherwise, you must disable SSL 3.0 and enable TLS 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. Follow these steps to do so:

In the Internet Explorer Tools menu (or your PC’s Control Panel), click Internet Options.

In the Internet Options window, click the Advanced tab.

Scroll down to the Security section. Notice there are checkboxes next to the available SSL and TLS options. Uncheck Use SSL 3.0, and check the following: TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.2. Be sure to check all of the TLS versions. Failing to do so could result in connection errors.

Finally, click OK, exit, and restart Internet Explorer. This allows Internet Explorer to refuse a connection with any servers which only support SSL, which ensures that the web traffic isn’t vulnerable to the POODLE vulnerability.

Business Solutions & Software Group believes that quality security is key to a minimal-risk online environment. This fix isn’t a viable replacement for the latest security updates and patches, so you will want to ensure that you are always running the most up-to-date versions of your software, applications, and especially your operating system.

Business Solutions & Software Group can apply all of these patches for your business’s systems so you don’t have to. Call us today at (954) 575-3992 to learn more.

What we expected to be Windows 9 has been gradually revealed through leaks over the past several weeks, but Microsoft has thrown a curveball into the mix with Windows 10. The latest information, revealed during a public Microsoft Windows event, has gone into much detail concerning the nature of the newest incarnation of Windows, including its focus on enterprise and cloud-centric policy.

If there's one thing that you can learn from today's marketing trends, it's that visual content sells. Images and videos are a powerful marketing tool that should be taken advantage of at all costs, but an infographic can also help you keep a balance between content and visuals. If you can master the art of the infographic, your business will soar high above your competitors.

Of all the computer company rivalries going on, one of the largest and most well known is Apple vs. Microsoft. The storied competition between these two software giants has driven innovation forward for more than thirty years. Today, the frontlines of this battle take place between the two company's mobile divisions, and now there's a third major competitor in the mix.

What would the world look like if everybody spoke one language? We think a lot of conflicts would be resolved and our civilization would advance to the place where we're more like Star Trek and less like a train wreck. Thanks to new technologies like Skype Translator, the language barrier may soon be a thing of the past!

The Surface Pro 3 is the latest major release from Microsoft. It's an impressive piece of tech with a 12-inch screen and a Core i3 processor for the base model. Microsoft hopes that the Surface Pro 3 will dethrone Apple's iPad from its title as "King of the Tablets." However, the two devices may be too different for the Surface Pro 3 to even compete.

Smartphones that have been running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system have been manufactured for over a year and a half, and in that time, Android has wrestled the title of "most popular mobile OS" away from Apple's iOS. Windows Phone 8 devices currently sit third, making up just over 3% of all the world's mobile phones. Despite its place in the market, the world's largest software company will release the first major update to their Windows 8 Phone platform in the upcoming months, and early users are saying they're really hitting the mark.

Lately, there's been a string of computer security issues making the news, like the vulnerability found within Internet Explorer, the Heartbleed bug, and the host of issues associated with the recently-expired Windows XP. Is it possible that the security patches issued by Microsoft are making the problem worse for users of older systems like Windows XP?