Microsoft announced last week that Windows 8 will not be a distribution channel for third-party application updates. The statement doesn’t change the current arrangement for (read: Windows driver updates ) in its regular “Patch Tuesday” loads. Some users had been hoping that Microsoft would tackle the responsibility of delivering application updates through a single, uniform updater tool, provided by Microsoft through the OS. Microsoft put the kibosh on that, saying that application updating is just too darned complicated.

Change Means That Third-Parties Are On Their Own For Distributions

This doesn’t change things for Windows driver updates, however, not all third-party manufacturers update their drivers through the Windows Update feature. The change in policy for Windows 8 means that users will have to remain on duty when it comes to keeping their Windows applications up-to-date.

In terms of device drivers, the status quo doesn’t guarantee that users have the latest device drivers, and that’s going to continue in Windows 8. Right now, the experience of updating device drivers is a mixed bag. With some third parties participating in Windows Update and others doing their own thing, users need to keep track of what’s being updated regularly and what isn’t.

For busy users, or for those who are not technically savvy, a better approach to driver maintenance is using a driver management utility like Driver Detective. Driver Detective determines – based on your computer system – what driver updates you need and downloads them right to your computer. The updates are installed and a backup copy of the current driver is stored locally, in case something happens to the active copy. You can also roll back to an older version of the driver if a new driver update doesn’t behave the way you think it should.

You don’t have to remember to check for updates. Driver Detective does that for you. You also don’t have to keep track of a lot of hardware configuration information, because Driver Detective does that, too! This is ideal for manufactures that use multiple third party component options within a single model. Driver Detective determines what your system needs – not based on the model number of your computer – but based on the components actually installed in your system. If you update a video card, add a different mouse, or attach a new peripheral device, Driver Detective can track and maintain those devices, too.

Driver Detective is one of the best driver management utilities available today. Millions of users have already downloaded it and rely on it to keep their computer systems up to date. Download your copy today and say goodbye to outdated device driver problems!

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It’s hard to believe, but your Windows device drivers can have a profound effect on the battery performance of your laptop computer. How? As it turns out, the decision to enable or disable power management features at the device driver level can significantly improve or diminish your battery life.

Laptops Are Meant To Use Low Power

Laptops are meant to use low power, and that sometimes means making adjustments to the way devices consume power. When you do a driver install and you just do the default configuration, (as most users do – because it’s the “safest” installation, right?) most often, you’re guaranteeing that your battery life will be short. Why? In the absence of any other configuration, the default firmware initialization for most devices calls for the highest available power. If all of your laptop devices use high power, your battery life will definitely suffer. Select devices in high power mode can reduce your battery life by as much as 25%!

The default configuration can’t possibly take into account what your actual power usage needs are, so it assumes the worst and makes as much power as possible available to a device. On a desktop computer, power management is generally not a consideration. On a laptop, where the manufacturers have already made compromises on the chipsets, the maximum memory capacity and the processor speed, these concessions must extend through to your devices as well.

If you’re not in a situation where you need your wireless mouse, or your network card, you can manage the power consumption of these devices much more effectively, and ensure that you have enough battery life to get your work done.

Doing power management via the device driver also means having the most recent device driver loaded. Manufacturers often tweak their driver-level power management capabilities, and the only way to take advantage of this is to make sure you have the most recent device driver for your computer.

With Windows, you can’t always be certain that Microsoft will pass through device driver updates to you. That has nothing to do with Microsoft; some third-party developers don’t give their driver updates to Microsoft. For those devices, it’s up to you to go out and get the latest driver updates – or at least check regularly for them.

That’s why I recommend Driver Detective. Driver Detective takes the guesswork out of device driver maintenance. It’s highly reliable and helps to ensure that you’ll always have the drivers your computer needs.

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A Windows kernel driver vulnerability got no love from Microsoft on Patch Tuesday this week. Microsoft did fix a host of important vulnerabilities, but the Duqu hack was as yet untouched in a permanent way. That’s not to say that Microsoft has done nothing about Duqu. If you were paying attention to your updates last week, you’ll know that Microsoft zinged out a little stinger designed to help vulnerable systems dodge the Duqu bullet. The little fix simply eliminates access to T2EMBED.DLL, a dynamic linked library used to display True Type fonts.

Expect Duqu Fix Soon

What exactly is Duqu? It’s a computer worm that is thought to be related to last year’s Stuxnet. In fact, Duqu is somewhat like Stuxnet in that it is a zero-day vulnerability – meaning that malefactors discovered and exploited the flaw before Microsoft knew about it. An infected Microsoft Word .doc file that contains the malicious code delivers Duqu. Duqu accesses the vulnerable library and gains access to kernel mode operations. This enables the worm to run arbitrary code that can install other programs, create new user accounts and access or change stored data. Microsoft has said that it is actively seeking a permanent fix to the Duqu exploit. Duqu also uses a stolen digital certificate pinched from C-Media in Taiwan.

Another exploit Microsoft did fix on Patch Tuesday involved TrueType fonts, but wasn’t related to Duqu. The patch for this potential DOS attack does not change the Duqu vulnerability at all. This particular vulnerability would have limited ability to affect users, and would require some significant effort on the part of the user in order to be successful.

Patch Tuesday did clean up four vulnerabilities that Microsoft says could have supported an exploit that would run arbitrary code on a vulnerable computer. In addition, Microsoft repaired a few “theoretical” problems that had the potential to put network users at some level of risk. The new patches change the way Windows handles and tracks UDP packets, but Microsoft stressed that these driver vulnerabilities were never actually exploited. The company also cast some doubt on whether the vulnerabilities could lead to an exploit.

Most of the vulnerabilities repaired in the Patch Tuesday release were aimed at the newer versions of Windows, including Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Keep an eye out for a fix for Duqu. While Microsoft does tend to reserve updates for Patch Tuesday, they usually offer a low-key Patch Tuesday on the fourth Tuesday of the month, and they always reserve the right to send out-of-band updates whenever the risk justifies an instant update.

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If you’re anxious to see a lot of new Kinect applications for Windows PCs, hang on because the Kinect software developer kit (SDK) should be available in the first quarter of 2012. That means plenty of new Kinect applications will be in the pipeline next year. Drivers for Kinect were released last year, but that doesn’t mean the controller system could be used with PCs. This next installment of the Kinect SDK will provide software developers with the PC drivers needed to make Kinect available to non-game platform applications.

Kinect May Not Be Just For Fun

Microsoft isn’t positioning Kinect strictly as a game controller. With the new PC SDK, Kinect could be integrated into other commercial or business applications. When Microsoft released the SDK for Kinect last year, about 200 companies agreed to participate in a pilot that enables them to test out Kinect for Windows. The companies participating in the pilot run the gamut from game manufacturers to educational publishers to automobile manufacturers.

It’s clear that Microsoft plans to leverage its connection to the gaming world in Windows 8, and Kinect will play a big part in that. Kinect has been on the market for exactly one year, and in its first year on store shelves, it set a record for being the fastest-selling electronic device ever. Other electronics have sold more units, but if Microsoft wants to challenge gaming kingpins like Nintendo and Sony, it will need to broaden the base of support for the Kinect and Kinect-compatible devices.

Microsoft has already announced that its Xbox Live system will be integrated into Windows 8. That move will allow users to access gaming, movies, music and other content via Xbox Live. The company has been drumming up interest in Xbox Live and its Windows 8 integration via venues like the company’s Build 2011 conference.

The availability of PC drivers for the Kinect will open up a number of possibilities for new applications. Educational publishers have been moving their materials on-line for quite some time. Many new textbook series have online editions, but whether and how the publishers can integrate Kinect into their lessons remains to be seen. It also makes one wonder what the controller could possibly be doing in an automobile! Hands-free controls for some devices – like radios and cell-phones come immediately to mind.

Regardless, 2012 should be a year of new creative Kinect-enhanced applications!

Photo Credit: Creative Tools, via Flickr