Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” Program

I’ve often followed the advice of Groucho Marx when he said, “I’d never be a member of club who would have me as a member”. One exception to this rule is a group of highly specialized technical experts known as Microsoft® Most Valuable Professionals. Last year I was honored to receive MVP recognition for my work in the field of computer security.

I’m proud to announce that today I received notification of my newest Microsoft® MVP Award. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and knowing other MVP’s from around the world. I can tell you it’s a great feeling to be considered one of their peers.

Microsoft describes MVP’s on their website

"We seek to recognize the best and brightest from technology communities around the world with the Microsoft® Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award.

These exceptional community leaders come from a wide range of backgrounds. They are teachers, artists, doctors, engineers, as well as technologists, who actively share their high-quality, real-world technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft.

With the MVP Award, we thank these inspiring individuals for representing the voice of thousands in the community through the powerful and independent feedback they give us, and for helping our customers maximize the potential of their software."

I’m sure I’m not alone today in getting my notification so I’d also like to congratulate all the other hard working, caring MVP’s who received their award. Good Job!

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The BillP WinPatrol Story

I was asked recently about my history in the computer industry so I thought today was a good day to share some personal information. I’m sure many of my readers will be surprised by some of the fun projects I’ve been involved with. If you’re interested, I created self indulgent and gratuitous post but it’s all part of the BillP WinPatrol Story. I don’t have enough to write a book but here’s a summary of some highlights.

I have had the good fortune to pick some real winners but I’ve also been extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time. When I graduated from college my first job was programming employee payroll for Schenectady County, NY in a language called COBOL. After work, I discovered the bliss of a “personal” computer, the Commodore Vic-20 which would eventually change my life.

The more interesting part of the story begins in 1985 at a Commodore trade show when I was introduced to Marc Seriff and Steve Case. We shared a vision of a large online service that would be easy enough, even our mothers could use it. I joined their company in Virginia which at the time was known as Quantum Computer Services. It was later renamed America Online.

I was one of the 30-35 employees original AOL employees, half of which were devoted to customer service. In the book, “Stealing Time” the author includes the true story of my first week when I was given a hammer and screw driver so I could put my desk together. During my time at AOL I managed the software development and user experience for our C64 service; Q-Link, AppleLink Personal Edition for the Apple II and Mac, PC-Link and Promenade for the PC and lastly the prototype of our first version of Windows based software. I left in the early 90's but continued to work as a consultant for many years.


My main interests at the time and role with AOL was creating synergy between content on TV and the online world. ABC and CBS both hired me to help get their content online. One of my applications was used to take closed captioning from news events and stream it to a specialized AOL rooms. I was the first to create a tool that over layed online content to a live broadcast via something called a Chyron machine. One of our big events was a live simul-chat with Michael Jackson and AOL members. MTV was the first to adopt the technology for video chats and called it MTV’s Yak Chat.


In the winter of 1995-96 I was invited to Redmond to work on a secret joint Microsoft/Gateway project called the Information Highway PC.  This was a large screen TV/PC  combining the TV and Internet with content provided by a satellite link from DirecTV. This was the same time Microsoft was trying to conquer the online world with their first version of MSN. It was before they realized the key was just to own the browser and not the portal.  Meanwhile AOL had declared war on Microsoft so some of my friends were a little suspicious but my focus was completely on the TV/PC and not MSN.   

Our project was a little ahead of its time and our group was gobbled up so I headed back home to upstate NY. It wasn’t long before Gateway asked me to be part of their own PC/TV initiative called the Gateway Destination. This 30 and 36 in PC/TV was still a little ahead of its time. This was before cheap memory, fast hard drives and lighter flat screen monitors. Nobody really wanted to share a single PC/TV device in their living room.


In 1997 my old friends at ABC asked me come to Maryland part time and help in the creation of a joint venture between games developer MicroProse and Capital Cities/ABC. Our goal was the creation of ABC Sports themed games(Indy Racing and Monday Night Football).  

Soon afterwards came an exciting merger of Walt Disney Co and ABC. I joined Disney’s Buena Vista Internet Group and worked with a brilliant team of innovators to launch ABC's Enhanced TV.
My role was to quickly put together PrimeTime Player™ the first game which combined real-time game play on the Internet in sync with broadcasts of Sunday/Monday Night Football as well as College Bowl games.

In the midst of my fun and exciting projects in 1997 I was caught off guard by a password surfing program. This annoyed me but not as much as when AOL support suggested the only solution was to reformat my entire hard drive. That’s when I created my own personal project called WinPatrol.  This program was originally designed to help my family and friends prevent programs from taking over their computers.

I soon specialized in small utilities and created a number of useful programs for my friends at Gateway and new friends at Epson America. Both were pleased with my Ink Monitor program which detected when your ink was low and immediately connected users to an online store for ink purchase.

As the threat of spyware grew the distribution of WinPatrol expanded and soon became my prime focus. WinPatrol grew from word of mouth and slowly developed its own cult following. In winter of 2002 I first launched the premium version, WinPatrol PLUS. Since 2004 WinPatrol and internet safety has become my passion.

As a member of the security community I’ve had the honor to work with volunteers who spend countless hours helping users decipher hijack logs. I’ve as the pleasure of sharing data with AntiSpyware crusaders who pour over millions of bytes of captured data proving how reputable companies were encouraging invasive adware popups. I’ve reverse engineered malware attacks tracing their roots to countries whose governments turn a blind eye to criminal activities. I’ve been threaten, received cease & desist orders from lawyers and offered big bucks to join the dark side.

I’m now happy to write and share my experience with others. I hope that my insights into the ever changing consumer technology industry may be valuable to others and encourage their thoughts and imagination. I don’t expect everyone to agree with everything I write, but I continue to consider myself lucky if I can spark new innovative thoughts from my readers.

On the personal note, I’m married with four grown children and four grand kids. Tomorrow, I’ll be celebrating my 54^th birthday and in the BillP WinPatrol tradition I’ll be offering something special for Fans of WinPatrol.

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Remove "Downadup" aka Win32/Conficker Infection

Today, Microsoft notified a number of security experts about a known vulnerability and exploitation of Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE). Even though Microsoft provided a fix for this vulnerability in October 2008, they say reports of the exploit are on the rise.

In October, Microsoft warned users of a critical Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067.

Executive Summary

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Server service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this vulnerability could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.

This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and rated Important for all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Unfortunately, there seems to be too many unprotected users out in the real world. Microsoft provided details on this infection at its Malware Protection Center.

The following system changes may indicate the presence of this malware:

• The following services are disabled or fail to run:
  
  Windows Update Service
  Background Intelligent Transfer Service
  Windows Defender
  Windows Error Reporting Services
  
  

• Some accounts may be locked out due to the following registry modification, which may flood the network with connections:
  
  HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
  "TcpNumConnections" = "0x00FFFFFE"
  
  
• Users may not be able to connect to websites or online services that contain following strings:
  virus, spyware, malware, rootkit, defender, microsoft, symantec, norton, mcafee, trendmicro, sophos, panda, etrust, networkassociates, computerassociates, f-secure, kaspersky, jotti, f-prot, nod32, eset, grisoft, drweb, centralcommand, ahnlab, esafe, avast, avira, quickheal, comodo, clamav, ewido, fortinet, gdata, hacksoft, hauri, ikarus, k7computing, norman, pctools, prevx, rising, securecomputing, sunbelt, emsisoft, arcabit, cpsecure, spamhaus, castlecops, threatexpert, wilderssecurity, windowsupdate
  
  Hmmm, should I feel bad that WinPatrol isn’t included in this list?

I recommend, as does Microsoft to keep your system updated with necessary security patches and updates. At the very least you should download the Microsoft Malicious Software Remove Tool. 

 

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Meet Me in Los Angeles at PDC

I haven’t posted this week since I’ve been getting ready for a trip out to this years Microsoft Professional Developers Conference.

I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new ones. I’m bringing along a couple dozen 1 GB WinPatrol Flash wristbands so if you spot me please say hello and introduce yourself.

The first 20 people who ask will receive a free 1 GB WinPatrol Flash wristband.

While I expect to be wearing our popular WinPatrol PLUS sports shirts I can also be identified with my always present BillP smile.

Bill Pytlovany working hard at BillP Studios home office.
(Photo courtesy of Temerc)

I’ll be reporting live from L.A. so expect some Windows 7 and other news in this blog next week. Microsoft is trying hard to get the kind of coverage you typically see with Apple events. The keynote speeches will be streamed live and number of “All-Star” bloggers have joined together to cover the event. Click for more info.

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Unboxing Most Valuable Professional Kit

As I mentioned recently I've had the honor of receiving a Microsoft MVP(Most Valuable Professional) award for 2009. Today DHL delivered some fun stuff to make me really feel special.

The MVP kit includes a lapel pin, certificate, badge and a nice crystal statue.  The only thing missing was a MVP t-shirt.

Thank you Microsoft

 

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Congrats Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals

Today, Microsoft provided the award of MVP (Most Valuable Professional) to number of bright and outstanding individuals who devote their time to help others. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Microsoft MVP’s and today I’ve been given the honor to join them.

Microsoft notified me this morning that I’ve been selected as a Microsoft MVP.

The Microsoft MVP Award Program recognizes and thanks outstanding members of technical communities for their community participation and willingness to help others. The MVP Award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world expertise with technology users. The MVP Award celebrates the most active community members from around the world who provide invaluable online and offline expertise that enriches the community experience and makes a difference in technical communities that feature Microsoft products.

While I had been approached by Microsoft to see if I was interested, the award was still a little bit of a surprise.  It’s no secret that I haven’t spent much time promoting Windows Vista and I have been slightly critical of the auto update process.  I’m impressed and humbled that the folks at Microsoft honored me with this title.  I promise to continue speaking out when I can offer some constructive criticism but I’m still thrilled to be included in a group of exceptional professions.

I would especially like to thank those MVP’s who nominated me and helped Microsoft think I was worthy. It’s been a decade since I worked out at the Redmond campus so I look forward to next years MVP Global Summit and meeting my fellow MVP’s.

 

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Things Microsoft Did That Made Me Happy

I was very surprised recently when someone suggested I hate Microsoft. They had read my comments about Vista and auto updates and actually thought I might be a closet Mac lover. I don’t currently have a Macintosh but I have in the past.

I’ve spent a portion of my career working on products in both Cupertino and Redmond and still cherish my old project t-shirts. I’ve been a Windows programmer since Windows 3.0 beta so I’ve seen some great ideas come from Microsoft and I haven’t been shy of pointing out the bad ones. Over the years Microsoft has done many things that made me very happy so today, on the day of big Apple news, I’ll tell you a few of my favorites.

Standard Cut/Copy/Paste
You might say Microsoft stole the standard Copy/Copy/Paste standard from Apple but it’s not like Microsoft didn’t already have it implemented. They just made the decision to follow a reasonable standard. DOS was using some weird horrible combination of Insert/Delete and other keys that nobody could ever remember. Apple used the “Open Apple” key plus X-C-V for cut-copy-paste. Windows went with Ctrl X-C-V. Microsoft didn’t have to change but they did.

My Documents
I’m sure I’ve made fun of the My Documents and other “My” folders but it solves a serious problem. One of the biggest issue new users have always had was “Where did I save that file?”. Putting all the documents in one folder may get crowded but for novice users it’s a lot easier to find and is so much better than saving everything to the desktop.

Visual Basic
Anyone with a desire to be a programmer was suddenly able to create professional looking applications with just a little instruction. Professional programmers were able to create programs in a day that normally required months. I still use Visual Basic when I need a quick utility to process data.

Admitting Failures
You might not think so but Microsoft has an admirable history of giving up on bad ideas and admitting they were wrong. In the time I spent working at Microsoft I saw a number of projects killed. Examples include, an online replacement for HTML code named “Blackbird”, a video on demand service code named “Iceberg”, WinPad Handheld PC, the predecessor to Windows CE/Mobile and one that actually made it to market, “Microsoft Bob”.

International Localization
Microsoft made key decisions to launch Windows world-wide and make sure localized versions were available. While the US is still trying to figure out the metric system at least we have a standard operation system used globally. I can’t even begin to stress how important this is and how much it’s probably taken for granted.

So, what did Microsoft do to make you happy?

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Windows XP Service Pack 3 Update Delayed

I guess having SP3 available to a limited but large audience helped Microsoft flush out a few more bugs before its official release.

While Service Pack 3 was due to be deployed today, Microsoft decided to wait until they could block some systems they don’t want updated. They’re not making any changes to SP3, they’re just going to block those system which they’ve determined are incompatible.

Specifically, if you’re running “Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS)” you shouldn’t upgrade to Service Pack 3. Microsoft also acknowledged problems with Vista Service Pack 1 and Dynamics Retail Management Systems.

If you’re one of those people who have already found and installed XP SP3 or Vista SP1, you don’t need to worry unless your system is using the Dynamics Retail Management System. If you plan on upgrading using Windows Update or the Microsoft Download Center no date has been given for public release.

Again, no fixes or changes are being made to Service Pack 3. The changes will be made to the Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center so that incompatible systems can be blocked.

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Who is Responsible for URL Security?

Note: This post is more technical in nature than most.

There’s has been a big debate this summer over who should fix a possible security flaw outlined in Security Advisory 943521. Most examples use of malformed “mailto” tags to show how Windows passes along info to the function ShellExecute based on registered url handlers.

In the past, Microsoft has voiced its opinion that it should be the applications responsibility to verify any URL before it’s passed to Windows. Many have encouraged Microsoft to somehow create a global fix with a security patch in Windows.

This was a case where I was on Microsoft’s side of the argument. Of course my reason was selfish because I fear any changes could break the functionality of WinPatrol PLUS requests. This week Microsoft announced it would look at a fix on their end.

“Our plan is to revise our URI handling code within ShellExecute() to be more strict”. For the tech savvy, here’s what happens.

“With IE6 installed, ShellExecute() passes the URI to IE which accepts it and inside IE determines it to be invalid. Navigation then fails harmlessly. With Internet Explorer 7 installed, the flow is a bit different. IE7 began to do more validation up front to reject malformed URI's. When this malformed URI with a % was rejected by IE7, ShellExecute() tries to “fix up” the URI to be usable. During this process, the URI is not safely handled. IE7 rejects the URI, and on Windows Vista ShellExecute() gracefully rejects the URI. That’s not the case on the older versions of Windows like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 when IE7 is installed.

The % is a very special character. It can be used to hide and embed potentially dangerous code. It can also be used to represent characters which in my case, I want to pass in the parameters of an url. For instance, %20 represents a space character which is safer for me to send and easy to parse on our server. It’s also used so I can pass & and ? characters within the parameters of my URL request.

Microsoft has not announced a time frame for any fix so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one and my fingers crossed. I’m guessing I won’t be the only one affected by a major change in how ShellExecute handles an Url. If you read my previous post “Windows Versions Are Like SnowFlakes” you’ll see why these changes scare me.

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Rumors About Google, NBC, Microsoft

Ever since I started to Blog I’ve been the recipient of plenty of news tips and rumors. Most are easy to spot as some kind of hoax or as viral marketing. Some are so juicy I really want to write about them but without verification I’d rather not look like a jackass.

Occasionally I get tipped off and it turns out to be true. It wasn’t long ago that someone told me that the security company Webroot had made a deal with IAC to distribute the Ask.com toolbar with their Spy Sweeper program. I considered that one to be really stupid yet it turned out to be true!

Sometimes the rumors are almost true. Earlier this year I had a reliable source tell me that Microsoft was working on various plans for ad supported software. One idea included the sponsorship of Windows Updates. Can you imagine who many people would view the ad? The next week I almost panicked when Microsoft announced they would be acquiring advertising firm aQuantive Inc. Luckily for all of us the tip wasn’t true. (Yet)

This week I received another fun tip. A friend with General Electric informed me that Google was in talks with GE to purchase NBC Universal. Immediately, I had memories of AOL’s purchase of Time Warner. Googles net worth on paper could actually make the deal possible. I wouldn’t bet on this one but it’s still so fun to imagine so I included it in today’s post. I’ll probably wait until I hear it from Jay Leno before I believe it.

Thanks to all. Keep ‘em coming.

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Disney, Microsoft and NASA

When I was new to software development I thought about what companies would really be cool to work for. It seemed fantastic if I could someday get a job at Disney, Microsoft or NASA. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized it’s all about the project and not necessarily the company. Fortunately, over the years I did have opportunities to do really fun projects while working for both Disney(ABC’s Enhanced TV) and Microsoft(Information Highway PC).

I never did any work for NASA although we do have 30 WinPatrol’s licensed at one of their sites in Georgia. Growing up in the 1960’s I’m still a big fan of NASA but lately they’ve really been getting a bad rap.

I thought we had just gotten over the jokes about astronauts in diapers when more scandal has hit the news. Reports this week are that on more than one occasion an astronaut was intoxicated before blasting off. I don’t know how drunk he or she was but somehow this didn’t shock me. I might need a little help before I sat on the top of a huge cylinder of rocket fuel about to be ignited. It’s kinda like the accusations in Paul McCartney’s divorce that he drank and smoked pot. Hello? Was this a surprise to anyone?

The really scary news from NASA is that a worker intentionally sabotaged equipment that was suppose to be sent to International Space Station on the next Space Shuttle mission. Wires were cut in a computer designed to report stress measurements on the space station structure.

I’m too old to start a new career with NASA but I’ll still be cheering for them every time they go into outer space.

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