Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz » Early adopters uncover Vista flaws

December 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Early adopters uncover Vista flaws

TAGS: OS

Not to pick on Microsoft (heaven knows it is so easy) but the latest flaws found in Vista as published in the New York Times, "Flaws are Detected in Microsoft's Vista" remind me once again that most software companies use the public as its final beta test site.

Especially with a program as large as Vista, millions of lines of code, I suppose it is very difficult to find all the bugs unless you have millions of people pounding on it.

It reminds me of the robot arm GE uses to test how many times you can open and close a refrigerator door before it falls off its hinges. The robot just keeps slamming away, simulating the general public, especially in football season, opening and closing the fridge door. Too bad Microsoft doesn't use robots.

So, as reported in the Times, a Russian programmer found a flaw that allows a hacker to increase a user's rights and privileges on a company's OS.

Coupled with flaws in IE 7, the Times article says, "it would make it possible to alter files and potentially permanently infect a target computer."

Other flaws have been found by Determina, a company whose business is based on finding flaws in programs and reporting them to the ISV.

While the public becomes the final beta site most major corporations have gotten wise to the ploy and usually wait at least a year before they install a new Microsoft OS. They need to make sure all the bugs, or at least the most obvious ones, have been patched and eliminated.

Unfortunately, once the OS is available to the public it will be pre-installed on the PC unless you ask otherwise, in which case there would probably be an additional charge.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on December 26, 2006 10:08 AM

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