Microsoft Urges Users to Shut Down Windows Gadgets or Risk Attack

[ICIT2LOL]

Hiyya Littlejay
Well I am glad that someone is with me as one does get fed up with vulnerabilities with stuff like Adobe and such eh?

Yeah mate I have also used Ubuntu in the past when fixing very dead Windows machines and by that I mean getting the info off the hard drive when the owner has forgotten the login password for example. Just a simple job to get the data on to an external and then back to the Windows reinstall, after wiping the original install.

Mind you it sometimes can be quite tedious to sort through what they want to keep but hey better than losing the lot

 

[maxseven]

Is there no end to all of this security vulnerabilities in some of the major applications and Windows in particular?

I believe that "there is no end" myself, particularly as there seem to be more & more individuals wanting attention i.e. their "15 minutes of fame" even if it does end-up being "15 minutes of shame" e.g. an interview from their prison cell by Steve Kroft for 60 Minutes.

I've not had any real security problem for years but am still paranoid about it--recently I re-installed WinPatrol PLUS where I already have Comodo CIS installed, owing to BillP's blog about Stuxnet-style vulnerabilities.

I think we can't be too careful.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Is there no end to all of this security vulnerabilities in some of the major applications and Windows in particular?

I believe that "there is no end" myself, particularly as there seem to be more & more individuals wanting attention i.e. their "15 minutes of fame" even if it does end-up being "15 minutes of shame" e.g. an interview from their prison cell by Steve Kroft for 60 Minutes.

I've not had any real security problem for years but am still paranoid about it--recently I re-installed WinPatrol PLUS where I already have Comodo CIS installed, owing to BillP's blog about Stuxnet-style vulnerabilities.

I think we can't be too careful.

Yeah I am with you max my Kaspersky picks up vulnerabilities in Adobe and Java all the time. I have also tried out Comodo on the tester and usually install it for friends who cannot afford paid for stuff and in fact if I was not so sold on KIS I would have CIS myself.

 

[Petey7]

Thank you, Gladson, but I think I found the answer I was looking for on Microsofts website.

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?
An attacker would have to convince a user to install and enable a vulnerable Gadget.

Seeing as I don't even use gadgets (or any one that does), I don't thinks its as urgent as implied. But maybe I'm missing something.

 

[LittleJay]

Hiyya Littlejay
Well I am glad that someone is with me as one does get fed up with vulnerabilities with stuff like Adobe and such eh?

Yeah mate I have also used Ubuntu in the past when fixing very dead Windows machines and by that I mean getting the info off the hard drive when the owner has forgotten the login password for example. Just a simple job to get the data on to an external and then back to the Windows reinstall, after wiping the original install.

Mind you it sometimes can be quite tedious to sort through what they want to keep but hey better than losing the lot

I use Puppy Linux for the same purpose myself. I like it because it boots up a lot quicker than Ubuntu from live cd.

 

[mrdemon]

Gadgets , Gadgets you say. I've heard of these, Came out in Vista (biggest Pile of OS i ever seen) with in the Oh and let me QUOTE HERE... "Side Bar" and for the Novices out there had to "Put up with it" as they had no idea on how to stop this from loading so Thus making quite alot of people use them. Windows 7 Hey Freedom, put them ****ers where you like We don't care any more, Windows 8 Oh shit some thing is not right here, OK STOP using them now we don't trust you Novices.

Hassle and more hassle. Nothing but Hassle. So MS is telling the "END USER" too STOP using something that was built into 2 OS's that we PAID for and are now stopping support for it as they have let it get out of control and can't be arsed too FIX.
​

TELL YOU WHAT MS. STOP MAKING OS's AND SORT OUT THE SHIT YOU STARTED.
​

 

[FallshirmjAEger]

Gadgets , Gadgets you say. I've heard of these, Came out in Vista (biggest Pile of OS i ever seen) with in the Oh and let me QUOTE HERE... "Side Bar" and for the Novices out there had to "Put up with it" as they had no idea on how to stop this from loading so Thus making quite alot of people use them. Windows 7 Hey Freedom, put them ****ers where you like We don't care any more, Windows 8 Oh shit some thing is not right here, OK STOP using them now we don't trust you Novices.

Hassle and more hassle. Nothing but Hassle. So MS is telling the "END USER" too STOP using something that was built into 2 OS's that we PAID for and are now stopping support for it as they have let it get out of control and can't be arsed too FIX.​

TELL YOU WHAT MS. STOP MAKING OS's AND SORT OUT THE SHIT YOU STARTED.​

This is just MS's way to convice people that dropping gadget support in Win8 is a good idea.

If you cast your minds back a month or two, MS killed of the windows gadget gallery site which caused a lot of complaints, so they need to come up with a good scaremonger tactic so people won't be so bothered when the kill the platform off entirely.

I've been using gadgets for ages & my O/S hasn't exploded yet.

 

[dlk7107]

Are gadgets a security threat?

PCWorld Daily News dated 7/11/2012 states "Microsoft urges users to shut down Windows gadgets". Is this really a serious threat?

 

[fseal]

Not unless you choose to install a gadget you download from a website given to you in an email with a title of "MAKE MONEY FAST! I SHOW YOU HOW!!%!&#"

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum well now I have dropped my gadgets and I hate getting rid of the weather and my Kaspersky one - I tried that Rainmeter and well id that isn't the most confusing app I've tried I'll eat my socks.

Yet people love it - ok it has some nice "skins" but hells bells trying to work out how just to get the weather up takes a Phd in physics for heavens sakes!:banghead:

 

[lehnerus2000]

Rainmeter

Hum well now I have dropped my gadgets and I hate getting rid of the weather and my Kaspersky one - I tried that Rainmeter and well id that isn't the most confusing app I've tried I'll eat my socks.

Yet people love it - ok it has some nice "skins" but hells bells trying to work out how just to get the weather up takes a Phd in physics for heavens sakes!:banghead:

I accidentally deleted my Rainmeter setup, when I swapped from the W7 betas to the real thing.

I was able to create my own CPU, RAM and Network meters, but I didn't manage to get the weather to work (I didn't spend much time trying though).

Probably the best bet would be to download some skins, see if you can get the weather working in one of them and then copy the config file.

My old setup:

​

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yeah ok mate I just don't like the idea of losing the pic of my grandson as my desktop wallpaper but I'll give it a go

 

[windude99]

Honestly, all of the software on all of my computers has atleast 1 vulnerability. Every piece of software that has ever existed can be hacked in some way. I'm not going to shut off gadgets because of this little thing that won't ever affect me. I have up to date antivirus and I am careful with what I download, so Microsoft, I'm NOT turning off my gadgets no matter how much you want me to.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Honestly, all of the software on all of my computers has atleast 1 vulnerability. Every piece of software that has ever existed can be hacked in some way. I'm not going to shut off gadgets because of this little thing that won't ever affect me. I have up to date antivirus and I am careful with what I download, so Microsoft, I'm NOT turning off my gadgets no matter how much you want me to.

Hum windude I am sort of with you as I just cannot fathom out this Raimmeter stuff and the gadgets were so simple - I might just put them back.

As you say so rightly everything shows up some sort of vulnerability as my Kaspersky reports attest to, and who's to say the Raineter isn't vulnerable for that matter?

Plus I get to keeping my boy

 

[Skylais]

Win8 sucks

I like to use gadgets like cpu meter, gpu meter, and network meter. They are really good gadgets. I never download any others except those because those are the only gadgets I see useful.

Exactly and all those useful gadgets are from trusted sources, believe it or not Microsoft we users aren't quite as stupid as you seem to think.

It's should be quite obvious to all of us that installing ANYTHING from an untrusted source is obviously not very smart. If the gadget function has vulnerabilities then they should be fixed by Microsoft rather than abandoning a very popular feature that millions are already using.

Msoft please stop trying to tell us what to do. We aren't dummies like you seem to think.

And if you even think of removing this feature from Windows 8 RTM I can guarantee you that I will never purchase Windows 8, NOT EVER! And I will make sure that all of my clients and friends also won't.

I've had Enough of this foolishness from Microsoft.

Windows 8 is horrible, i will not use or allow my family and most of my friends to use it. Sadly my mom wants the surface tablet because it does a bit more than most tablets, which is understandable. Windows 8 i tried and hated it, worst os ever:devil:

 

[lehnerus2000]

Yeah ok mate I just don't like the idea of losing the pic of my grandson as my desktop wallpaper but I'll give it a go

Only the "dials" are part of Rainmeter in my picture.
The "dials" were my second attempt (the first one just used simple bars).

It shouldn't affect your wallpaper.
If you make your own layout, you can position the meters anywhere you like.

If you wanted to, you should be able to use your grandson's picture as part of your Rainmeter skin.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yeah ok mate I just don't like the idea of losing the pic of my grandson as my desktop wallpaper but I'll give it a go

Only the "dials" are part of Rainmeter in my picture.
The "dials" were my second attempt (the first one just used simple bars).

It shouldn't affect your wallpaper.
If you make your own layout, you can position the meters anywhere you like.

If you wanted to, you should be able to use your grandson's picture as part of your Rainmeter skin.

Ok lehnerus I'll give it another try then - perhaps I am doing something wrong setting it up.

 

[PwnFrnzy]

So what's next? Having Aero enabled allows attackers to compromise your system as well?
I've used gadgets for awhile and I ain't gonna stop. I'd use Rainmeter, but Rainmeter won't tell me the temperatures of my hardware.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Ok lehnerus I'll give it another try then - perhaps I am doing something wrong setting it up.

The instructions aren't very clear.
Don't you hate tutorials that sound like marketing blurbs?

I managed to get a Weather skin working.
The key bits of info came from:

• Windows 7 Forums (http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/15632-rainmeter-weather-help-3.html)
• My friend's knowledge of Regular Expressions.

So what's next? Having Aero enabled allows attackers to compromise your system as well?
I've used gadgets for awhile and I ain't gonna stop. I'd use Rainmeter, but Rainmeter won't tell me the temperatures of my hardware.

It should work as it comes with CoreTemp.dll now (I had problems last time I tried it, in 2010).

I've just reinstalled Rainmeter and rebuilt my old skin, so I'll see if I can figure it out.

 

[arkhi]

It should be noted that Gadgets still works on Windows 8. While you may not find a way to open gadgets, opening a .gadget file will cause the said gadget to pin on your desktop.