“Windows XP and Office 2003 were great software releases for their time, but the technology environment has shifted,” says Stella Chernyak, a Microsoft marketing director.

“We don’t recommend waiting [for the next editions of Windows], not only is it important for companies to complete deployment before support runs out, by upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010 today they can gain substantial results while laying the foundation for future versions.”

Microsoft has previously urged XP users to upgrade the operating system, and their PC’s too. In June 2011, a Microsoft manager said it was “time to move on” from Windows XP, while earlier that year an executive on the Internet Explorer team belittled XP as “lowest common denominator” when he explained why the OS wouldn’t run the then-new IE9.

Windows XP losing ground

In the last 12 months, XP has lost nearly 10% of it’s marketplace share, according to an internet usage measurement company. Not surprisingly, Microsoft wants XP users to upgrade to Windows 7 now.

On their website Microsoft was blunt about XP’s ticking clock. “If your organisation has not started the migration to a modern PC, you are late,” Microsoft said, citing data that claimed OS migration programs in businesses take between 18 and 32 months to complete. “We don’t recommend waiting [for the next editions of Windows], not only is it important for companies to complete deployment before support runs out, by upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010 today they can gain substantial results while laying the foundation for future versions.” said a Microsoft spokesperson

More information on the impending demise of Windows XP can be found here

Trojans are infections that can expose a computers control to hackers.

Apple issued patches to help prevent the installation of the infection last week. The two security updates were released eight weeks after Java’s developer Oracle issued a fix for other computer systems. On their website they claim that have fixed a Java security flaw for the effected systems (OS X v10.7 and Mac OS X v10.6). They also suggested that users with earlier versions of the OS should disable Java in their browsers.

Apple has always promoted that Macs are largely free from viruses/malware due to the fact almost all malicious software is designed to exploit computers running on Microsoft Window, but clearly they are still vulnerable to Mac oriented attacks.

Ainslot.L acts as a banker Trojan, stealing log-in information related to banks. It also scans the computer looking for and removing other bots so that it becomes the only bot on the system.

It spreads in a fake email purporting to come from UK clothing company CULT. The message informs users that they have placed an order on CULT’s online store and the invoice amount will be charged to their credit card. The text includes a link to view the order, which actually downloads the bot onto the computer.

The malware infection removes other bots from the infected system, leaving the entire system to it’s mercy… One to watch out for!

Microsoft hasn’t announced a date Windows 8 will be released to manufacturing although it’s widely thought to be around the October time frame. There’s still plenty that could push the date back given the ambitious nature of Windows 8, with an entirely new UI and built-in Store, compared to earlier releases.

Assuming Microsoft follows the strategy as previous public betas, the Windows 8 “consumer preview” will probably not expire until the final version is nearing release.  More details will become available as we get closer to the release date.

Apple will no doubt be appealing against the decision, with their argument being that Motorolla had refused to license the patent on “acceptable terms” and that the module was declared to be an industrial patent in 2005.

Next year will bring many new things to our lives, challenges, achievements and new technologies to master.   Mobile phones will become ever more powerful and computers in general will be more ubiquitous than ever before, making their ways into our living rooms, kitchens and even our bedrooms.  With companies like Microsoft looking to revolutionise our use of computers by implementing control using hand gestures and voice activation, based on technology used in the awesome Kinect controller for the XBOX 360, this could be a huge step forward in computer interaction.  Exciting times ahead.

Tablet computers will become even more popular because of their convenience and speed of use, and a new player will emerge in the market, as Google look to launch their own branded tablet in direct competition with the iPad, hoping to offer consumers a cost effective user friendly experience.  Bring it on!

Keep an eye on this blog next year as I will be starting a series of screencasts which will have all sorts of computer related hints, tips and techniques.

Enjoy the festive period, see you next year!

In the future this blog section will be filled with:

• The latest news
• Tutorials in both text and video format
• And  some of my general rantings about all things computers.

Stick with my for the time being as I can only do all these things when I have the time to do it, but I do intend to put at least one tutorial in here per month.

Thanks for visiting, it means a lot to me.