Microsoft finally retires Autorun

After a decade of abuse, Autorun is finally being retired in older versions of Windows, according to The Register.

On Tuesday, Microsoft began pushing an update that changes the way Windows Server 2008 and earlier versions of the operating system respond when USB thumb drives and other portable media are plugged in.

Until now, those versions dutifully executed code embedded in autorun files without first prompting the user. The default behaviour provided a convenient way to propagate malware such as Conficker, which hijacked the feature to spread itself each time an infected drive was inserted.

Fujitsu and Oracle are promising Unix servers with 15 times today's processing power by 2015 in a joint development deal, says The Inquirer.

The two companies have unveiled a roadmap for getting Sparc Enterprise M-series servers to achieve such dramatically improved processing capabilities.

The first of these M-series servers, which won't be at the level of 15X processing power, will go on sale in 2012. As part of the engineering cooperation, Oracle and Fujitsu are looking to optimise their respective products to run Oracle software in mission critical environments.

ARM CEO Warren East says the company's chances in the server market are not harmed even with the absence of 64-bit extensions for its CPU designs.

As stated a PC World article, although some server applications benefit from 64-bit processors, ARM can still address a sizeable chunk of the server market with its current 32-bit designs.

In fact, ARM's Cortex-A15 is a 32-bit design that can extend to 40 bits, and ARM is considering 64-bit addressing in future processors after that.