Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

Windows 7 XP Mode

Software 1 Comment
Reading Time: 3 minutes

I will be writing a review of Windows 7 in due course, but here is a preview of a key feature that will interest many readers.

Windows XP Mode
Windows XP Mode is aimed at small business users who wish to run their Windows XP-era applications on their Windows 7 desktop. They might have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista owing to an incompatibility with their old programs or the simple reason of “Windows XP does the job.” However, as they buy new computers later this year or by January 2010, they might find a copy of Windows 7 included with the purchase, or they may have other compelling reasons to upgrade.

An exciting optional feature that was kept under wraps until recently was Windows XP Mode (XPM). This feature will work in certain editions but is an additional download.

Key Facts

  • Windows XPM is included with Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise customers.
  • Windows XPM combines Windows Virtual PC and a pre-installed virtual Windows XP environment to enable users to run many older applications.
  • Windows Virtual PC enables users to launch virtual applications from the Windows 7 Start menu.
  • Windows Virtual PC includes support for USB devices and is based on a new code base that includes multi-threading support.
  • Windows XPM is pre-configured with the Windows XP firewall and can apply updates automatically from Windows Update. It is not pre-configured with anti-virus or anti-malware software, which need to be sourced separately.

IT Professionals
Windows XPM is not recommended for corporate deployments. Wait for Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation (MED-V) Version 2.0, which will be released as a beta 90 days after the general availability (GA) of Windows 7.

  • MED-V v1 is currently available for Windows Vista and it enables Virtual PC deployment in larger organisations. It provides centralised management, policy-based provisioning and virtual image delivery.
  • MED-V v1 builds on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to help enterprises with their upgrade to Windows Vista when applications are not yet compatible.
  • MED-V v2 will add support for Windows 7 (both 32 bit and 64bit) and Windows Virtual PC.

Windows XPM is for SMBs
Windows XPM stand-alone is intended for small and medium business (SMB) users who can install their XP applications themselves and who might not have IT Professional staff. Each PC has its own virtual Windows XP environment that is controlled and managed by the user.

Windows XPM is best suited for older business and productivity applications such as accounting, inventory and similar software. These applications tend to conform to the basic Windows Application Programming Interface (API ).

Windows XPM not for Consumers
Windows XP Mode does not have 100 percent compatibility with all Windows XP software. It is not aimed at home users because many consumer programs require extensive use of hardware interfaces such as 3-D graphics, audio, and TV tuners that do not work well under virtualisation today.

In Use
After installation, XP Mode is available from the Windows 7 Start menu. It displays a regular Windows XP desktop and you can install your old software from there just as you would on a Windows XP machine. Thereafter, those programs appear just below the Windows XPM menu item.

Requirements
Of course, there’s always a catch. Not all CPUs will support Windows XPM. You need hardware-based virtualisation (go and check your CPU specs now). Intel and AMD have CPUs that have this feature but don’t assume all recently purchased CPUs support hardware virtualisation. See these sites for more information.

My PC is about six months old and has a Core 2 Quad processor – the Q6600 chip. I checked this Intel page to confirm that I’ll be able to test this feature when I get my hands on it:

The next thing to check is for BIOS support on your motherboard. I have an Asus P5K SE/EPU and its user guide mentions Vanderpool support is enabled by default (you can turn it off). Vanderpool was the code name for Intel Virtualisation.

While Windows XPM isn’t for everyone, it will certainly address the need of some businesses that need to run legacy applications.

Categories in Outlook 2007

Ash Other Software No Comments
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tags in Outlook 2k7My email client is Outlook 2007. I received an email from Feedblitz and noticed something new. There were keywords/tags visible above the From: line. As this notification was for this blog, I recognised them as the tags I had used in those posts.

message optionsUpon examining the full headers via the Options dialog, I noticed this extra line:

Keywords: XPM, Software, Anti Virus, Windows 7, firefox, Social Media, Windows XP Mode, SEO, twitter, obama, Affiliate Marketing

Moreover, the Options dialog itself displays the same words but you can see a Categories drop-down. I chose the “Clear all Categories” in the drop-down, and they were erased from the email, even though I later chose not to save changes.
I can’t find an explanation (too many common keywords in the search term) online and have asked a few friends. Going back over earlier emails from Feedblitz, I noticed they too showed these Categories. I recall reading that Microsoft Word Categories become Keywords in Outlook but can’t find the reference. Anyone have any clues?

Windows 7 to include Virtual Windows XP

Software No Comments
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Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott have revealed on the Supersite Blog a new Windows 7 application compatibility feature called Windows XP Mode.This has been confirmed on the Windows Team Blog.

Many businesses have not upgraded to Windows Vista, partly because of compatibility concerns for their legacy applications. Windows 7 (Enterprise, Professional and Ultimate editions only) will ship with a licensed copy of Windows XP with SP3. You can install a legacy app within this XP environment.

There is a catch.

Of course, there’s always a catch. Not all CPUs will support this mode. You need hardware-based virtualisation (go and check your CPU specs now). Intel and AMD have CPUs that have this feature but don’t assume all recently purchased CPUs support hardware virtualization.

My PC is about six months old and has a Core 2 Quad processor – the Q6600 chip. I checked this Intel page to confirm that I’ll be able to test this feature when I get my hands on it:

The next thing to check is for BIOS support on your motherboard. I have an Asus P5K SE/EPU and its user guide mentions Vanderpool support is enabled by default (you can turn it off). Vanderpool was the code name for Intel Virtualization.

Looks like I’m all set. Roll on, Windows 7.

Firefox 3.0.9 crashes when view source – solution

Software No Comments
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I installed Firefox 3.0.9 because it fixes some security vulnerabilities. Next I got on with my usual snooping, i.e. View Source. Crash! No matter what site I looked at, it crashed. Luckily, someone had posted a solution at Google Groups and it is simple.

The problem lies with the HTML Validator add-on. It has been updated to version 0.8.5.6. Update your copy at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249

Beware of MS Antispyware 2009

Anti Virus SEO No Comments
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A few people are getting sucked into installing MS Antispyware 2009. They go to some site and get a popup offering to install this program. Think about it. Normal websites don’t offer antispyware programs through a popup.

What’s wrong with this program? It contains a virus and the victim actually consents to install it. Sean-Paul Correll has provided an excellent video and a write-up at the PandaLabs Blog about this menace.

What is different about this exploit is the use of hundreds of SEO pages targeting major brands such as Ford and Nissan – search for some specific model or a car part and you will find links (mostly in Poland – .pl) that include dangerous infections as reported by Norton Internet Security.


Targeted Blackhat SEO Attack against Ford Motor Co. from Panda Security on Vimeo.

The following Google search “site:.pl nissan” has a few normal results at the top of the page, but then you get dozens of weird subdomains such as (don’t go there):

  • 347.aw.lubomogo.az.pl
  • 666.oo.mrfehz.wroclaw.pl
  • 872.zw.owncav.warszawa.pl

All of them are marked noarchive, hence you won’t see a Cached link. Most of these are doorway pages to p0rn sites but some also include infectious content.

Reputable sites infected by viruses

Anti Virus No Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I can’t remember getting spam from a suburban motor vehicle dealer, at least not from one based in Dubai (I am in Australia). Western Auto LLC part of the Western Group wants to sell me Chinese-made Foton brand 3 Ton Pickups with free insurance and registration.

The sender used the IP address 91.73.188.181, which is allocated to Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company in Dubai, probably their ISP. So it’s a genuine email probably sent from their office. A sentence in the spam email caught my eye:

Western Auto LLC is part of the renowned ETA Ascon group (www.etaascon.com) of companies, a diversified conglomerate, belonging to the Al Ghurair group of Dubai.

ETA Ascon

I have removed the link for the above site but when I clicked it to check out the parent company, Norton Internet Security 2009 flashed a warning. (See image on the right)

65 pages on the ETA Star Group site are infected! An example of a problem page is:

Threat Name: Downloader
Location: http://www.etaascon.com/ascon/article_display.asp?cat_id=92&sub_cat_id=153&art_id=155

The link “Downloader” above tells us that this is a “low-risk” threat because it merely “connects to the Internet and downloads other Trojan horses or components.” I did not explore the site but it is troubling that a corporate site has been infected in this manner.

While searching for this site in Google, the results page displays the same warning symbol next to ETA Star Group and also further down the page next to Business.Maktoob.com (do not go there). The latter has only six infected pages but they are more ominous:

I decided to explore other sites in Google and Norton Internet Security found a few infections:

  • Dubaicityguide.com – 1 drive-by download
  • Drypen.in – 4 drive-by downloads
  • Visakha.in – 3 drive-by downloads
  • Syscontech.in – 3 drive-by downloads (also marked “This site may harm your computer”)
  • YRU.ac.th – 1 phishing attack
  • Dopa.go.th – 1 W97M.Babals virus (also marked “This site may harm your computer”)

I noticed that some of the above sites run the Windows operating system, so it would be easy to infect the web server compared to a Java or PHP based web server. I used the site: operator in Google to sample random TLDs, e.g. site:.th for Thai sites.

Intrigued, I checked out the Western hemisphere and found fewer infected sites:

  • WDR.de – 1 Bloodhound.Exploit.105 virus
  • Smart60.ru – 4 HTTP Malicious Toolkit Variant Activity
  • DSE.nl – 1 Trojan Horse

A curiouser exception at the USA DOJ is:

  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service – 1 virus in a PDF document

Possibly some of the above assessments by Norton Internet Security 2009 are false positives, but it appears that the viruses and other nasty infections have no respect for nationalities or size of organisations. I should point out that these random checks revealed just one or two sites for every 100-200 search results, so there isn’t an epidemic out there. I am thankful for the software alert that stopped me from checking out the company behind the spam email that started this post.

I will write a review of Norton Internet Security 2009 soon.

Australian SEO Forum rejects my application

SEO 5 Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

I recently discovered the Australian SEO forum and registered. They approve manually and today I received the following email:

Unfortunately your registration at Australian SEO Forum did not meet our membership requirements. Therefore your registration was deleted.

Sorry,
Australian SEO Forum

I don’t recall ever being rejected by any forum. Have you? Anyway, it seems that the forum is up for sale. If you buy it, please let me know and the new membership requirements, so that I may try to register once again.

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