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Vista Code Not All New, Not All Secure

Versions of Windows have always suffered and benefited from the use of old code. The benefit is backward compatibility. The suffering comes from a failure to move fully forward, slow performance and security holes.

After Trustworthy Computing, many of us thought that Vista would be different. And in most cases it is. But not every hunk of code is new and that leaves pieces of Vista vulnerable.

I learned all this from Redmondmag.com contributor Steve Swoyer, who explains that old code from Windows 2000 led to the recently reported mouse cursor vulnerability.

Software may never be perfect, but I still applaud the lengths Redmond went to lock down Vista. Then again, only time will tell just how hacker-proof the new OS will be.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 03, 2007


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