Reading the news from MajorGeeks just now, I found this link to Microsoft's warning issued this past week about the possible dangers of using our Sidebar and its Gadgets in Windows 7. These by the way also work in Windows 8, at least in its preview version. You can read this whole article (above) here. I can't help noting that when Windows Vista and Windows 7 were being promoted, this Sidebar feature and its cute little Gadgets were being promoted as a handy and visually attractive addition to the program.
I also can't help noting that we didn't hear anything about these vulnerabilities until after the release of Windows 8 and the complaints it received about those fancy Apps tiles all over the Start page, which, for desktop users, adds a step or two to the procedure for getting to the information we seek. So I have to wonder if this is a legitimate concern, and if so, why it has taken years to become sufficiently troublesome to warrant a security advisory and ban on use.
Or is this Microsoft's way of forcing us into using a new feature of Windows 8 that we aren't finding as convenient as we'd like it to be? Do we have a legitimate vulnerability here, or are we being slyly manipulated by Microsoft, who are obviously running into resistance to their newest operating system and its obvious tilt towards mobile and tablet users and away from the 91.5% of us who use our Windows on desktops around the world?
I've been using and enjoying these sidebar gadgets in Windows 7 and more recently Windows 8 ever since the first beta of Windows 7 hit the web back in January of 2009, and I have never had a security problem with any of them.
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