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Departments: Microsoft-K-State software contract runs to 2012

Posted on by Kathy Leonard

The Microsoft Select Agreement between Microsoft and Kansas State University has been completed. It runs for three years, and will expire June 30, 2012. There are no changes to the agreement that expired June 30 — department orders are still placed through SHI International, pricing should remain the same, etc.

While the contract was being completed, SHI was unable to fulfill department orders for Microsoft products. They are now filling those pending orders.

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Microsoft releases important security patch

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

At noon today (Tuesday, July 28), Microsoft releases a rare “out-of-band” security patch that includes a critical security patch to Internet Explorer and a patch for Visual Studio. Due to the security risk, details of patches are typically not disclosed until the patch is released, so we cannot yet assess the risk to K-State. However, the fact that Microsoft issued this patch before the regular second-Tuesday-of-the-month patch release implies a serious threat. Thus, K-Staters are encouraged to apply the patch when it becomes available. For most people, this will happen automatically.

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Apply today’s Microsoft security patches ASAP

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

Since today (July 14) is the second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft is releasing its usual monthly security patches for the Windows operating system and select Microsoft applications. While it is always important to apply these and other security patches as soon as possible, it’s particularly important this month because at least two of the six patches fix vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited.

One of the patches fixes a critical vulnerability in the Microsoft Video ActiveX Control that has often been in the security news in the past week. Nearly 1,000 websites in China are known to be infected with a malicious script that exploits this vulnerability. Continue reading “Apply today’s Microsoft security patches ASAP” →

Status of state contract for Microsoft products

Posted on by Kathy Leonard

The Microsoft Select Agreement expired June 30. Negotiations are under way, and the contract should be completed in the next few weeks. SHI, the Large Account Reseller for State Contract 07359, will continue as the vendor for Microsoft products.

Microsoft orders placed with SHI will be held until the new contract is in place. Questions may be directed to Kathy Leonard, IT licensing specialist (kantink@k-state.edu, 785-532-4926).

Simplify Internet browsing by using tabs

Posted on by IT editors

During the course of any web-browsing session, you may end up with several telescoping treks into many different sites. An alternative to opening 20 windows is to use browser tabs instead.

Browser tabs are supported in every major browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari). Think of a tab like adding a new page to the current window that can have a completely different website loaded in it.

For example, here’s a screenshot of my current tabs in Firefox:

Screenshot of Firefox tabs
Screenshot of Firefox tabs


Not only do browser tabs simplify your browsing experience, they can also save system resources and time. For instance, if you frequent a website that is slow to load, you can flip to a different tab and read that webpage while the other one loads.
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Use caution when considering Internet Explorer 8

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

On March 19, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), its next-generation web browser. While it has several useful security features, people should talk to their IT support staff before switching to IE8 since it has not been thoroughly tested with K-State enterprise applications like iSIS and K-State Online.

Recalling the application incompatibilities experienced when IE7 replaced IE6; proceed  cautiously with plans to upgrade to IE8. Microsoft did try to deal with the IE6-to-IE7 fiasco this time by including a “Compatibility View” in IE8 that should correctly display pages incompatible with IE8, but again this needs to be tested thoroughly.

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