14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been a pretty though week for the Redmond-based technology giant, especially because hackers have found a new bug in Internet Explorer 8 and older versions that would allow them to take control of a vulnerable system.
On Monday, for example, Microsoft made the first move to patch this bug with a “Fix it” solution that’s supposed to assist users into configuring their browsers to stay on the safe side. Microsoft said it has received reports concerning a small number of attacks, so there’s nothing to worry about for the time being.
On Tuesday, figures provided Net Applications demonstrated that Internet Explorer is still the number one browser in the world, even though some other reports suggested that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox both have many more users than Microsoft’s in-house browser.
The software giant continued its marketing blitz to promote Windows 8 on Wednesday with two brand new ads for the operating system, both showing some essential features integrated into the software.
The company announced a new deal with the United States Department of Defense on Thursday, saying that 75 percent of the Army’s computers would run Microsoft software. A few hours later, Windows XP was officially crowned 2012’s operating system of the year, while some sources familiar with the matter told us that the Surface with Windows 8 Pro could be released on January 29.
Microsoft has already confirmed that the Surface Pro would be launched in early 2013, so this new date seems very likely.
Finally, on Friday, Microsoft announced that 2013’s Patch Tuesday cycle would come with critical fixes for Windows 7 and Windows 8, while Internet Explorer received a new wave of attacks, as the company was still working on a patch.
What’s more, it has emerged that Microsoft won’t fix the flaw on Patch Tuesday, even though a security company said it has managed to bypass the “Fix it” tool released earlier this week.