What Security Features you would get with Windows 10?

Microsoft has tried to offer holistic security with Windows 10 and it seems users
won’t need to install any special app or switch modes to protect their precious data.
Read on

- Ashok Pandey

Windows 10 made a lot of noise across the
globe even before they announced the
technical preview. With lots of improvements,
Microsoft added security in the new
OS to secure you from various new age threats. As cyber
attacks are on rise around the globe, Microsoft has taken
a step to prevent its users from most of the vulnerabilities.
It has actively addressed the modern security threats with
advancements to strengthen identity protection and access
control, information protection, and threat resistance.
Multifactor authentication
The all-new Win 10 has the next generation of protection
as it comes with built-in multifactor authentication. This
scheme is based on the open standards from the FIDO
Alliance that eliminates the additional security hardware
peripherals like smartcards and tokens. When you enroll,
it converts the device into one of two factors that are
required for authentication. The device’s credential is a
cryptographically generated key pair (private and public
keys) generated by Windows itself, or issued from an
existing PKI infrastructure (e.g., Microsoft Certificate
Services or a third party Certificate Authority) and stored on
a digital certificate.
This solution effectively reduces the viability of phishing
attacks as an attacker would require user’s PIN or biometric
information as well as physical access to their device.
This also prevents users when breaches occur in password
databases.
Data loss prevention
Microsoft enhances data protection with BitLocker that lets
you encrypt the entire disk. This was first seen in Windows
Vista, and now becomes a vital option since most of the
people are using mobile devices in the workplace as well.
The improved prevention enables users to define which
apps have access to the data as well as prevent data from
being copied or accessed without the correct security
profile, regardless of whether it is in transit or located on
another device. Windows offer this data loss prevention by
using containers and corporate and personal data separation
at the application and file level, automatically encrypting
information as it arrives on the device. So there is no
need to add any special app or switch modes to protect
your precious data.
Application access controls
In the current technological age, companies and employees
are moving to BYOD environments, which entail several
risks. Windows 10 addresses the issue and offers secure
access to network resources in the BYOD environment. It
enables admin to restrict access to particular apps which
are not allowed. Also, admin can restrict access, based on
ports and IP addresses. Additionally, admin can configure
devices, so only trustworthy apps can be installed on them,
including apps self-signed by the enterprise, from approved
software vendors, or apps from the Windows Store.
Microsoft has addressed three key points in the new
OS and reduced the need of any third party app or device.
It also includes Windows Defender, though most of the
businesses will want to run a dedicated antivirus and antimalware.
Windows 10 comes with essential plus additional
security features that will surely grab the attention of enterprises
and individual users.

Is Your Hardware Compatible With Windows 10?

Microsoft is providing Windows 10 as a free upgrade for Windows 7 or 8 machines
but before upgrading you need to check your existing hardware for compatibility

Raj Kumar Maurya
Windows 10 upgrade is available for all
existing windows 7 and Windows 8
machines as Microsoft announced that
Windows 10 upgrade is a full version and
the size of the upgrade is 3 GB. To get all the advantages of
this free offer, you must upgrade your PC within one year
of availability. The upgrade offer is valid only for qualified
Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices you own. But there
are some hardware or software requirements which
differ from device to device. If you are running Windows
8 on your device then Windows 10 is being delivered as
recommended update and it should run smoothly but for
Windows 7 devices it is optional. So, here’s a checklist:
Is Windows 10 upgrade beneficial to you?
The Windows 10 Operating system is definitely beneficial
for your existing Windows system as it features the return
of the start menu for Win 8 particularly for regular desktop
and non-touch screen users. The full-screen Windows 8
start screen never made sense when used with mouse
and keyboard. The Windows 10 start menu incorporated
Live tiles which make it more intuitive and simple to use. It
allows virtual desktops that pretend you are using multiple
monitors. It’s immensely useful if you work with many
applications at once but have limited screen space. You
also get Cortana,
Bing search on
the desktop,
new browser,
all Windows 8
features and
also some other
features which
you only get in
Windows 10.
Hardware
Requirements for
Windows 10
For the final version
of Windows 10
hardware requirements have yet to be confirmed, but
the preview version will have exactly the same hardware
requirements as Windows 8. However, Windows 10
installer will also automatically check whether your system
is suitable for the new OS or not.
Here are the hardware requirements for Windows 10
Technical Preview (TP):
• Processor: 1 GHz or faster
• RAM: 1 GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Free hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device
with WDDM driver
If you are still not sure about your hardware specs
you can use Microsoft’s Windows Compatibility Center
which help you find out whether you can upgrade your
system or not. Basically, it is a tool which provides
information on whether your current system is suitable
for Win 10 or not. Presently, this tool is intended only for
those who are interested in an upgrade to Windows 8.1,
but if your computer can run Windows 8.1 then it should
also run Windows 10.
Please note that efore running this tool be sure that
all hardware peripherals like printer, scanner, gaming
consoles etc are also connected to your computer as
Win10 compatibility with all these devices will also be
verified. However, if your hardware is not connected
with your PC then you should check the website of the
device manufacturer to confirm whether your devices
are compatible with Windows 10 or not.
Is Windows 10 compatible with your
existing software?
Before upgrading it is important to check your software
compatibility because that can avoid an expensive
mistake. Even if Windows 10 is made available to you
as a free upgrade, you wouldn’t want to waste time
downloading and creating backups. If your hardware is
compatible but the software which is most important for
your work is not then it worthless for you.
Windows 10 is a big leap for Windows 7 users
but if you depend on traditional Windows desktop
application, you shouldn’t have to worry. Don’t think
the big leap would not let you run you applications
on Windows 10. If an application ran on Windows
7, it should also run on windows 10. Yes, it can run
traditional Window desktop application as it is very
similar to Windows 8 and Windows 7.There is no
big application security model or driver architecture
changes which were huge, if you move from Win XP t
o Vista or Win XP to Win 7. Yes, Windows 10 includes a
whole new application model, but traditional Windows
desktop applications run side-by-side with those new
applications.
Compatibility Modes
Compatibility mode options in Windows 7 that trick
applications into thinking that they are running the
older versions of Windows. Many older applications will
run fine in Windows 10 using this mode but still there
is an uncertainty. Windows 10 will automatically enable
this option if it detects an app needs them but you
can manually select it by right-clicking an application’s
.exe file or shortcut and in properties select the
compatibility tab.

There are few things which work properly in your
previous Windows may not work on Windows 10. It might
be a problem for you if your application requires an old
driver or hardware to run. If an application interfaces with
Windows XP-era hardware devices or the manufacturer
has never provided a driver that works on Windows
7 then you are likely in trouble. If you depend on 16-
bit applications, be sure you install a 32-bit version of
Windows 10. This is similar to Windows 7, which wouldn’t
run on a 64-bit version of Win 7.
How to find out application compatibility
Any applications or hardware devices that won’t work
properly on Windows 10 can’t be found out by Upgrade
Advisor application “Get Windows 10” which is offered
by Microsoft that scans your system and informs you if
it finds any application or hardware incompatibility. This
application has been rolled out to Windows 7 and windows
8.1 users via Windows Update. When your system gets this
update an icon will show the icon in your system tray. If
you are using some special application for some business
purposes or anything else irreplaceable, you should contact
the developer or software company that produces them
and ask them whether the application is compatible with
Windows 10 or not.

Windows Media center built into
Windows 7 and available as a paid
download for Windows 8 is no longer
available in Windows 10 as it removes
these built-in features. Some traditional
games which are available in previous
Windows version like Hearts, Solitaire,
and Minesweeper are no longer
available. Desktop gadgets and DVD
playback are also gone but this increases
your Windows security

Are Syrian refugees still welcome?

Europe mustn’t respond to terrorism
by closing its borders to migrants, said
Michel Claise in La Libre Belgique
(Belgium). News that at least one,
and possibly two, of the eight terrorists
who rampaged through Paris
earlier this month, killing 130 people,
may have entered Europe through
Greece by posing as Syrian refugees
has prompted panicked xenophobia
on social media. Far-right agitators
are shrieking that all refugees must
be barred, “as if they could all be
terrorists exploiting migration to
enter Europe on the sly.” The idea
is ridiculous. The hundreds of thousands
of migrants who are making the perilous journey across
the Mediterranean to Europe are escaping war and devastation,
and many are fleeing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—the
very group that perpetrated the Paris attacks. In fact, most of the
ISIS terrorists who struck the French capital were homegrown
extremists from Belgium and France, European jihadists whose
barbarity helped create this tide of refugees.
To scapegoat the refugees would be a betrayal of European values,
said Philip Jones in the Irish Examiner (Ireland). Of course
we’re afraid. Paris traumatized us all. But it’s precisely in our
time of fear that we must “stand resolute as one indelible, united
European citizenry.” If we let this tragedy “change how we treat
other people, in particular those who are suffering,” then we will
have conceded the fight to the terrorists. France, at least, is leading
the way. In the wake of the attacks, French President François
Hollande actually raised the number
of Syrian refugees his country has
pledged to accept from 24,000 to
30,000. “Our country has the duty
to respect this commitment,” he said.
“France must remain itself.”
Yet we can’t pretend the migration
wave poses no threat, said Berthold
Kohler in the Frankfurter All ge meine
Zeitung (Germany). It’s true that
most of the terrorists who attacked
Paris were Europeans, raised in the
Muslim neighborhoods of European
cities, in a kind of “parallel world”
where jihadist sympathies reign. But
that’s precisely the problem. The hundreds of thousands of Muslims
now arriving on our shores will live, most likely, in those
same neighborhoods, and surely “not all of them are pacifists.”
The pool of potential radicals will be much larger. In Germany,
the government says it plans training and education programs to
integrate the new arrivals and indoctrinate them with German
values. But what guarantee is there that such a program will
work any better than past efforts in France or Belgium, where
integration has clearly failed?
Take care that such suspicions do not become self-fulfilling,
said Helmut Müller in the Salzburger Nachrichten (Austria). If
Muslim migrants “meet with rejection and are marginalized in
the countries they are resettled in,” they will be “all the more
susceptible to the message of the radical Islamists.” Integrating
these new arrivals is Europe’s greatest challenge—and its duty.