Will Microsoft Prevail With Kinect Drivers for the PC?

Will Microsoft Manage Kinect for the PC

Microsoft is now fully (and apparently transparently) behind the development of Windows drivers for the Kinect. The question is whether Microsoft is ahead of the Kinect-for-PC development? At the most recent CES, Microsoft left the impression that it will be giving away the Kinect drivers and relying on the sales of the Kinect device to generate revenue.

Of course there are a few rules to content with, one of the most notable being that open source drivers and the Xbox version of the Kinect can’t be used for commercial projects. Developers may also be limited to projects that run on Windows 7 and/or Windows 8. Noncommercial projects may only use the Windows software developer kit to write code for the company’s Kinect for Windows hardware.

Do all of these restrictions add up to too much Microsoft muddling in the Kinect soup? Initially, Microsoft wanted to limit Kinect development to the Xbox. With the release of open source drivers, Microsoft lost some of the control over development for the Kinect, though not necessarily development for the Xbox. Following the release of the Prime Sense drivers, Microsoft has reasserted its control over the development of PC applications for the Kinect following an open source model for the drivers.

It’s hard to know where Kinect for the PC development will be in a year, but it’s safe to say that the Kinect’s appeal extends beyond game applications. Developers expect to produce applications related to art, medicine, the military, automobiles, manufacturing and more. While some analysts think that Microsoft has repositioned itself ahead of the pack on Kinect PC development, I’m more skeptical.

Microsoft didn’t have a plan beyond the Xbox for the Kinect. Only begrudgingly did it extend the drivers to the PC, and only after this did the real potential for the hardware come into sharper focus for the company. Despite Microsoft’s efforts to control the direction of the Kinect for the PC, I think the open source development of applications and eventually the introduction of the next-generation of depth-sensing controller hardware will allow for the development of genuinely “open” applications. That doesn’t mean “open source” development, but rather development that can – but isn’t required to – develop according to Microsoft’s rules.
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Windows Driver Updates Gone Bad

Updating Drivers Is A Necessary Step

Updating drivers isn’t always an automatic process. In fact, there are several holes in what appears to be an “automated” update regimen that may leave users without the most current version of a driver, or with a driver version that doesn’t work the way it should.

First, most drivers you use on your Windows computer come from someplace other than Microsoft. Some – but not all – manufacturers use the Windows update to distribute driver updates. There are – to say the least – several noticeable absences. (Think Dell.) If your driver updates aren’t delivered to your computer, and you have no reliable mechanism to find out about driver updates, you could find yourself several revisions behind.

This usually crops up after a Windows update has been applied and some of your drivers no longer work, or do things you’re not expecting. If you find yourself in this situation, the best thing to do is verify – by going back to the manufacturer’s support site, if necessary – that you have the most current version of the hardware driver that supports your errant device.

Of course, going straight to the source will help ensure that you get the driver you’re looking for, but many users don’t know exactly what system they have or what driver they need. Download and install the right driver and everything is fine. Download and install the wrong driver, and well – let’s just say that things could get interesting.

If you’ve picked up a driver update from Windows Update and your hardware devices stop working as advertised, Windows may have delivered the wrong update to your computer. As I said, I think the manufacturers (and Microsoft) try hard to make sure this doesn’t happen, but occasionally it does happen. Again, the solution is to go back to the driver source and select, download and install the correct driver.

I’ve said it before. I’m not really a fan of doing dull maintenance work on my computer, and downloading drivers falls into the “dull maintenance work” category. I use a driver maintenance program called Driver Detective to manage all of the Windows drivers on my computer.

Driver Detective takes the guesswork out of driver maintenance and also helps to ensure that I get the most recent driver updates as soon as they become available. Check out Driver Detective for your driver maintenance needs.

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Windows Driver Maintenance Sometimes Requires More

Automatic Installation Doesn’t Always Provide Good Results

If you maintain your drivers on your own – that is, you personally download the drivers and go through the installation routine – you may find yourself in a tight spot on occasion. There are times when it is either desirable or necessary to roll back a driver installation – that is, go back to the older version you had been using. If you don’t know how to roll back your driver upgrade/update, you can spend a lot of fruitless and frustrating hours dealing with your non-functional or semi-functional computer, bricked hardware or unexpected system crashes.

Why? Sometimes a new driver update doesn’t work as advertised, or it “breaks” something else you need or want on your computer. In either of these cases, getting your computer back to the condition it was in before the update is the only way to reclaim your lost functions or rid yourself of troublesome software.

If you believe Microsoft, most system crashes are the result of bad third-party drivers. Whether that’s true or not makes little difference when your system has crashed for the umpteenth time and you’re simply trying to get your system back together. If you find yourself in the position of having installed a new driver, and then you experience system crashes, instabilities, or your attached hardware no longer works properly, you may want to roll back the suspect driver to an earlier version. To do this, you’ll need the Device Manager.

Access the Device Manager through the Run box under the Start menu by entering “Device Manager” and press Enter. The Device Manager manages all devices connected to your computer, so you’ll need to find the “category” your suspect driver falls into. Double-click on the suspect to open the Properties dialog box. Under the Driver tab, you’ll find a button labeled “Roll back driver.” This option should uninstall the suspect driver and reinstall the next most-recent version.

If this seems like a lot of work, it is. That’s why I recommend Driver Detective as an alternative to maintaining your drivers manually. Driver Detective will seek out, download, install and maintain a copy of the current driver, as well as historical drivers that enable you to roll back to an earlier version. If your current driver becomes corrupted, Driver Detective has everything on hand to reinstall a fresh copy of the driver automatically. Download a copy today and see for yourself what a difference Driver Detective can make.

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Patch Tuesday Nails Kernel Mode Driver Exploit

Duqu Shares Some Traits of Stuxnet

In the months that it was in the wild, Duqu was widely distributed throughout Europe and the United States. The vulnerability was particularly troublesome because it will allow a malefactor to gain administrative access to an infected computer, and will allow the installation and execution of software, administrative tasks like account creation and the compromise of user data.

The Patch Tuesday delivery contained 13 updates for various flaws. Originally, Microsoft planned to roll out 14 patches, but one was pulled back to address some compatibility issues. With Tuesday’s rollout, Microsoft has delivered 99 updates so far in 2011. The company hasn’t necessarily closed the books on updates, though. Microsoft often issues a minor “Patch Tuesday” on the fourth Tuesday of the month, which this year falls on December 27.

In addition to putting the brakes on Duqu, Microsoft addressed 18 other known vulnerabilities in 12 patches. Those vulnerabilities included critical or important holes in Active X, Windows Media Player/Windows Media Center, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Active Directory and Internet Explorer that could potentially allow the execution of code by a remote user. Microsoft also fixed “important” vulnerabilities in Office, the client/server runtime system and the Windows kernel that could allow a malicious user to gain additional privileges.

Microsoft also took the opportunity to release a new version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, presumably equipped to do battle with Duqu. The worm was officially discovered on September 1 by researchers at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Despite the Star Wars-esque sounding name, the Budapest researchers named the worm based on files the malware creates, which are prefixed with the characters “-DQ.”

Despite extensive research, Duqu’s purpose isn’t known. The worm bears a strong resemblance to Stuxnet, and was originally mistaken for Stuxnet by some Internet security firms. Like Stuxnet, Duqu makes use of stolen signed security certificates and also appears to uninstall itself after 36 days of active infection. Attacking servers have been found in Germany, Belgium and China, but security experts are still unsure of Duqu’s intended targets.

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Upcoming Intel Driver Release Will Add Trim Support

Not The First Time Trim Support Has Been Announced

Keep in mind that this isn’t an official announcement for Trim support, and also keep in mind that we were led to believe that Trim support would be introduced in 2009. With that having been said, getting real Trim support could make life a lot less complicated for users who rely on RAID 0 storage schemes for data.

Home users aren’t likely to be impacted at all by the addition of Trim support, but enterprise users will welcome the ability to include SSD in RAID storage arrays. SSDs offer some big advantages over their traditional counterparts in terms of space, cost and reliability, but not being able to make efficient use of space has been a serious downer.

The changes, according to Intel, will be released in the 11.5 version of Intel’s Alpha Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver. The next release is version 11.0, so Trim support is still on the horizon. The ability to support RAID 0 is the first step toward extending support to RAID 1 and RAID 5 setups.
Windows 7 already supports Trim for SSDs, but that support doesn’t extend to RAID arrays. In other words, Trim works on single SSDs in Windows 7, but not in storage arrays. Intel hasn’t provided a timetable for the release of its version 11.5 RST drivers, but the support will be welcome whenever it comes.

Currently, without Trim support, the performance of SSD arrays over time seriously degrades as storage disks become filled with data. Without the ability to identify disk blocks that can be wiped and re-used, the user effectively has no way to defragment an SSD RAID array. Any user who has worked on a badly fragmented drive will immediately understand the implications of that!

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PC Kinect SDK and Drivers Available in 2012

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!

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Kernel Mode Drivers Can Get Hacked

Kernel Mode Hacks Can Be Dangerous

Because kernel mode drivers work so closely with protected parts of the operating system, they’re definitely high on the list of targets for hackers. Kernel mode hacks can support rootkits that can give unrestricted access to third parties. Once the system has been compromised in this way, the computer can be used for just about any purpose including serving as part of a botnet. A compromised computer also vulnerable to information theft such as email, login and password information, and financial data.

Beyond rootkits, other hacks like keystroke loggers rely on kernel mode access to intercept sensitive information. Keystroke loggers are a favorite tool of hackers who want to steal information without necessarily disturbing other operations on the computer. Undetected access is probably the most fearsome outcome of a kernel mode hack because computer security can be compromised for a long period of time. Sensitive data, including access privileges, proprietary information and financial information can be accessed, stolen or changed. With unauthorized access, other tools, including rootkits and “back door” tools can be loaded on a compromised computer, where further damage can be done.

Registry hacks pose another serious problem. Anytime information can be entered into the registry, the security and performance of the computer can be compromised. In addition, critical functions that operate at the kernel level – in that privileged environment – can be taken over by third parties, or malicious software either in a way that is obvious or unobvious to the user.

Microsoft recently announced that it would not support WebGL, for example, because the requirements for supporting that approach to accelerated streaming video would compromise its kernel security. Certain other browsers – Firefox, Chrome and to some extent, Safari support WebGL and OpenGL. The biggest danger at the moment is that Firefox and Chrome come with support for this service turned on by default. Other browers that support the graphics acceleration come with the support, but it must be turned on by users. WebGL increases the speed and quality of video playback, but in accommodating the time-sensitive need for video data transfer, allowing access to the kernel can also open up serious vulnerabilities.

In short, the best way to protect yourself from kernel-mode hacks is to keep your system updated. Apply any critical security patches as soon as they come out. Part of the reason for this, as I discussed last week, is that malefactors tend to reverse engineer patches to discover vulnerabilities that they did not previously recognize. Patched systems aren’t vulnerable, but many users simply don’t patch their system in a timely way. By releasing hacks based on newly discovered vulnerabilities, hackers can gain access to systems that have not yet been patched.

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Kernel v User Level Windows Drivers

IE9 Still Vulnerable

My reason for bringing this up is to underscore the importance of having up-to-date drivers and up-to-date applications installed on your system. IE9 has a few patches that were released last week to correct some kernel-level vulnerabilities. Unpatched systems will remain vulnerable to these potentially serious hacks.

It’s important to note that when Microsoft releases a patch, bad actors reverse engineer the patch to detect flaws that they can take advantage of. Patched systems are closed, but guess what? There are still plenty of unpatched systems that can be manipulated. Generally, you have less than a month between the time Microsoft releases a patch and the time hacks designed to take advantage of the problem appear.

That’s not a hard-and-fast rule; that’s just an approximation. Really juicy hacks can appear within days or even hours of a patch release – if Microsoft has gotten to the bug before hackers have. If the hackers have gotten there first, Microsoft is in the “reaction” position and your systems are vulnerable until a patch is released.

The problem can be especially critical when the vulnerability involves kernel mode drivers – the drivers that operate at the very core of the operating system. They have the most access, the most power and the fewest restrictions, so a kernel mode driver hack is prized by the bad actors and feared by users and developers alike.

Kernel-mode drivers are most likely to control very time-sensitive data manipulation. Video is a good example. The video display on the computer has to be able to change instantly, without any perceptible time delays. Most video systems, therefore, run kernel-mode drivers. If a kernel-mode driver crashes, the whole operating system can go down with it.

User-level drivers, on the other hand, are forced to go through a number of security levels to get their requests fulfilled. They pass their requests to more privileged parts of the operating system and eventually, the kernel reacts to their request.

User level drivers are slow, but the good part about them is that their overall influence on the system is limited. If a user-level driver crashes, the rest of the system is unimpacted.

Next week, I’ll wrap up the discussion on kernel mode drivers and share some famous (or infamous) kernel mode hacks.

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Service Pack Won't Load? Check Your Drivers

Drivers Can Cause Installation Failures

When this kind of failure happens, you can roll back the OS to its previous state easily enough, but how do you solve the problem of updating when the SP won’t load? There are several prime suspects when you get this kind of error, but one of the most common reason for service pack installation failures is the drivers loaded onto the computer.

A good prophylactic step is to review all of your Windows drivers. Remove the drivers you’re no longer using and update all drivers you are using to their active revision level. Drivers – either those too old or those unused – can interfere with operating system updates and installations for important things like service packs.

The importance of driver maintenance can’t be understated here because it can make the difference between working on a more safe, more secure and more stable OS and working on an OS that’s vulnerable to third-party attack or chronic instability.

If you can’t bear the thought of doing regular driver maintenance, and your Windows OS doesn’t seem to find all of the driver updates you need, consider a different approach to driver management. Driver Detective is a driver management software program that can maintain and monitor your system drivers for you, leaving you available to take care of more important matters.

Driver Detective has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times and has received excellent reviews from users and professionals alike. Driver Detective will download and install new driver software, remove old drivers, and maintain a local backup copy of the current driver revision. Driver Detective will save time and effort over the long run because you won’t waste your time on fruitless installations, troubleshooting and rollbacks.

Driver Detective will find and apply new updates automatically, so you don’t even need to go out looking for updates. When an update for a driver your system uses is made available, Driver Detective will find it, download it, install it, back it up and archive the old driver. You can also roll back to the older driver version if you need to. Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this!

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Graphics Drivers Hold Up Intel's Windows 7 Certification

Thinner Notebooks Kept Waiting

Netbook manufacturers that planned to Cedar Trail, will need to wait until the chipset achieves Microsoft’s Windows 7 certification, which may not occur until October or later. The new netbook chipsets are reportedly smaller and more efficient. The change in design will allow manufacturers to jettison the cooling fan, and offer a battery life of about 10 hours.

The Atom, Intel’s netbook and mobile device platform, was first introduced in 2008. The newest version of the chipset will offer Blu-Ray support, Fast Boot, HDMI and DisplayPort output options, Intel Wireless Music and Wireless Display, PC Sync and more. The new chipset could make netbooks (as well as other platforms) much more attractive and versatile.

There’s no indication that the delay in certification will cause delays for Intel’s next chipset release, the Medfield, which offers a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, or the Clover Trail chip, which is expected in the second half of 2012. The Medfield is currently expected to hit the market in the first half of 2012.

For such a media-intensive chip, the failure of the graphics drivers to pass certification requirements is significant. Intel will no doubt redouble its efforts to bring the chipset to market before the end of 2011. How problematic the certification delay is remains to be seen.

Netbooks were an almost instant hit when they were first introduced to the market, but consumers have turned their attentions to tablet computers. The delay of an updated Cedar Trail netbook platform by sixty days may not put a significant dent in sales or consumer interest in new netbook products.

The Atom, however, is designed to support mobile devices, and its absence or delay could put a crimp in the plans of a wide range of mobile device manufacturers. The delay could mean reduced holiday availability of new mobile devices, something both manufacturers and retailers would prefer not to miss. Nonetheless, Windows 7 certification is exceptionally important for Microsoft, since the company is pinning future OS development on the Vista/Windows 7 platform.

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