Updates 2012-03-13

Hi, Folks!

Microsoft released 6 updates this week for Windows, RDP, DNS, VS and Expression. This includes security updates, and a reboot is required. Visit Windows Update immediately to install these updates (12mb-45mb).
http://update.microsoft.com/

Apple released updates for iTunes, iOS, Safari, GarageBand, iPhoto, and Aperture, as well as for OSX and various drivers. This includes security updates. Use the Apple Updater to get the most current releases.

Adobe Flash Player 11.1.102.63 is a security update. Download both of these, close all browsers, then install. Even if you think you “just updated”, you did *not* get this one. Install these updates!
https://12pd.com/click?flashie
https://12pd.com/click?flash
This security update affects OSX, too, so if you’re running a Mac go get the update here:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

Sick of doing it yourself?

We recenty re-designed the pricing structure to help reduce costs for single-computer homes. You can now get a monthly SaferPC update subscription for as low as $30/month! (Yes, all existing subscribers get the new rate, too.) Click, call or email for more details:
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com

Looking for an upgrade?

‘Tis the season! We’re coming up on April 15th, which is typically the second-best in-store sale period of the year…second only to Black Friday. The difference is that tax season they actually have the items in stock. This is a good time to replace your WinXP or Vista computer with a Windows 7 one…or you can wait until October and get on with Windows 8. Around August OEM vendors will start providing a certificate with new computers that provides a free upgrade to Windows 8 when it’s released.

Recently several of our clients have been asking about what they should do for a replacement laptop, as theirs are either on it’s last leg or just aren’t sufficient to cope with the hardware requirements for newer software. You can see my recommendations on Amazon here:
https://12pd.com/click?nicelaptops
To further filter that, I also recommend against getting Dell or Toshiba, as they commonly have overheating problems.

Important Notes

Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.

Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.

It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need.

Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.

Driver Updates

If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.

iOS 5.1 is a security update. Use iTunes to install the updated version (700mb-810mb).

AMD Catalyst 12.2 adds newer hardware support, improved performance, more stable video output, and various bug fixes. This is not a security update.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/auto_detect.aspx

nVidia 296.10 adds newer hardware support, improved performance, and various bug fixes. This is not a security update.
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

BullZip PDF Printer 8.2.0.1394 is a major update. This version adds support for Win8, optional Ghostscript Commercial build support, and various other improvements and fixes. This is not a security update.
http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php#download

Browser Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Firefox 10.0.2 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.

Safari 5.1.4 does not include a changelog, so it should be treated as a security update. Use the Apple Updater to get the current version.

SeaMonkey 2.7.2 is a security udpate. Use Help, About to install the most current version.

Email Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Thunderbird 10.0.2 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.

OutlookAttachView 2.15 adds tray icon support. This is not a security update.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_attachment.html

Internet Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Trillian for Mac 1.2.40 incorporates a number of optimizations and bugfixes, including significant upgrades to the Twitter engine. Get the update from:
http://trillian.im/get/mac

uTorrent 3.1.3 Build 26837 fixes a command-line parsing bug and several other bugs. This is not a security update.
http://www.utorrent.com/

WinSCP 4.3.7 corrects a handful of bugs and upgrades the SSL layer. This is not a security update.
http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Skype 5.8.0.158 is a minor bugfix release. This is not a security update. Use Help, Check for Updates to get the most current version.

Yahoo Messenger 11.5.0.192 does not include a changelog, so it should be treated as a security update. If you use the Yahoo Messenger client, get the update here:
http://messenger.yahoo.com/download/

Connectify 3.3.0.23104 adds drag-and-drop wifi file transfer, connectify peering, and simplifies the interface. This is not a security update.
http://connectify.me/download/

Codec Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Win7 Codec Package 3.5.6 updates included codecs. To install the update, you must uninstall and reinstall the application. This is not a security update.
http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html

Vista Codec Package 6.2.6 updates included codecs. To install the update, you must uninstall and reinstall the application. This version works for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. This is not a security update.
http://shark007.net/vistacodecpackage.html

Win x64 Codec Support 3.5.6 updates included codecs and improves Win8 compatibility. This update applies only to 64-bit computers, and requires either the Win7 Codec Package or the Windows Vista Codec package. This is not a security update.
http://shark007.net/x64components.html

Media Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

iTunes 10.6 is a security update. Use the Apple Updater to get the most current version.

CDBurnerXP 4.4.0.2971 improves stability, track printing and adds refresh by interval option to disc checking. This is not a security update.
http://cdburnerxp.se/

Picasa 3.9.2.539 does not include a changelog, so should be treated as a security update. Use Help, Check for Updates to get the most current version.

VLC 2.0.0 is a major update, adding dozens of new features, vastly improved performance and stability and enhanced support for newer hardware. If you’re not absolutely thrilled about whatever media player you’re using now, give VLC a chance. This is not a security update.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Game Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Minecraft and Minecraft Server 1.2.3 add a number of new features, mobs, behaviors, increased map height limit, and corrects various bugs. This is not a security update. Use the Minecraft update option to get the latest version. For the server version, get the update from:
http://www.minecraft.net/download

Office Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

TaskCoach 1.3.9 is a minor bugfix release. This is not a security update.
http://www.taskcoach.org/

Kindle for PC 1.9.0 Build 38364 does not include a changelog, so should be treated as a security update.
http://www.amazon.com/kindleforpc

Security Software Updates

One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.

Avast! Home Edition 7.0.1426 improves performance, stability, Outlook compatibility, and other bugfixes. This is a security update.
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

SuperAntiSpyware 5.0.1146 improves performance, detection libraries, and various other bugfixes. This should be treated as a security update.
http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

Utility Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

RoboForm 7.7.4 fixes several bugs, addresses performance issues and increases overall responsiveness. This is not a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?rf

Goodsync 9.1.2 adds Real Time Sync (on file change), and various bugfixes. This is not a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?goodsync

Hamachi 2.1.0.166 fixes various stability bugs. This is not a security update.
http://help.logmein.com/SelfServiceDownloads

Process Explorer 15.13 adds additional process prioritization options and includes a bug fix for restoring user-entered process comments. This is not a security update.
http://sysinternals.com/

WakeMeOnLan 1.27 improves wakeup command-line option and adds start as hidden option. This is not a security update.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wake_on_lan.html

CCleaner 3.16.1666 provides various improvements and bugfixes. This is not a security update.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

CPU-Z Installer 1.60 adds newer hardware support. This is not a security update.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Cygwin 1.7.11-1 is a minor bugfix release. This is not a security update.
http://cygwin.com/

USBDeview 2.05 corrects the speed test error details and adds a new feature to submit results to the Nirsoft website.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Developer Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

MySQL 5.5.21 corrects a number of bugs, including a significant error in a recent date-handling change, as well as InnoDB and replication changes. This should be treated as a security update.
http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

MySQL ConnectorNet 6.5.4 improves compatibility with .NET. This is not a security update.
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/

TortoiseSVN 1.7.6 corrects a number of bugs, inluding stability and a potentially devastating accidental data-delete issue. This should be treated as a security update.
http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads

Virtual Machine Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

VirtualBox 4.1.10-76795 and VirtualBox Extension Pack correct a number of bugs, including stability and reliability issues. This is not a security update.
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Web Package Updates

These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.

phpMyAdmin 3.4.10.1 is a security update.
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/news.php

Adminer 3.3.4 corrects a number of bugs including key behaviors, AJAX-browser consistency and platform-specific SQL issues. This is not a security update.
http://www.adminer.org/en/

Hotfix available for ColdFusion 9.0.1, 9.0, 8.0.1 and 8.0 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX. This is a security update.
http://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/kb/coldfusion-security-hotfix.html

OpenCart 1.5.2.1 is a bugfix release, correcting dozens of issues with stability, reliability and consistency. This should be treated as a security update.
http://www.opencart.com/

PHP 5.4.0 is a major update of the PHP engine, incorporating a built-in webserver in CLI mode, cleaner code, improved performance and reduced memory requirements and new language features including traits, shortened arrays and more. This version implements major changes that remove register globals, magic quote, and safe mode, as well as ‘continue $var’ behavior, and provides a number of bugfixes. This should be treated as a security update.
http://php.net/releases/5_4_0.php

Movable Type 5.13 is a security update.
http://www.movabletype.org/download.html

DotNetNuke 06.01.04 is a bugfix release. This is a security update.
http://dotnetnuke.codeplex.com/

Skipfish 2.05b provides a number of stability bugfixes. This is not a security update.
http://code.google.com/p/skipfish/

WURFL 2.3.1 updates device details. This is not a security update.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wurfl/

Zemanta 1.1.0 provides several minor changes and optimizations, now uses WP_Http for all networking, and adds Featured Images support. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zemanta/

Multisite Plugin Manager 3.1.1 adds Pro Sites support. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/multisite-plugin-manager/

Simple Facebook Connect 1.3 corrects stability, reliability and sync issues, as well as an issue related to FB auth tokens. This should be treated as a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-facebook-connect/

WPtouch 1.9.39 corrects admin style bug, and adds file and image optimizations. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/

BuddyStream 2.5.07 fixes FB video imports, adds core functionality to check for existing content and removes time filter to ensure all items are imported from FB. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddystream/

Conditional Widgets 1.5 fixes a conditional check bug and improves WP_DEBUG support.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/conditional-widgets/

Contact Form 7 3.1.1 adds Nonce support, improves cached forms behavior, and updates libraries. This should be treated as a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Front-end Editor 2.2.1 updates libraries, and adds type management. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/front-end-editor/

Really Simple CAPTCHA 1.5 reverts to plain text answer files with hashed values as a performance improvement. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/really-simple-captcha/

PressWork 1.0.4.2 provides improved loop handling, post content functions, footer controls, font preview and a number of bug fixes. This is not a security update.
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/presswork/

That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/

 

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