Thanks to a teenage Firefox aficionado from Tasmania, Australia, you can make your Firefox 3.5 or 3.6 look like mock-ups we've seen for Firefox 3.7 and Firefox 4.0.

To get a peek at one potential future for Firefox, install the Strata40 theme and the experimental StrataBuddy add-on. Like one of those classic Superman comics that had Supermen from across time teaming up to defeat a dastardly villain, the add-on provides the interface tweaks while the theme gives Firefox the look you're looking for. Several other add-ons are also recommended to complete the experience: AppTabs, which is similar to FaviconizeTab and lets you shrink a tab down to its favicon; Fission, which merges the progress meter into the address bar; and Tab Progress Bar, which sticks a progress meter in each tab. Users should note that the key feature in Tab Progress Bar is also available as one of many in Tab Mix Plus, and that the two add-ons are incompatible with each other.

When you install Strata40 and StrataBuddy, you'll need to go into the StrataBuddy options to activate key features. These include the Style and Background Style choices under the Strata tab, the tab style under Tabs, and the font and progress meter changes under Miscellaneous.

Other add-ons recommended by SpewBoy on his Strata40 Mozilla page include Download Statusbar, Omnibar, and Hide Menubar.

While I've been using Download Statusbar for several years, I prefer to minimize the number of add-ons I'm running. The Omnibar and Hide Menubar features can be easily enacted by removing your search box and hiding the Menubar. I also hide the Statusbar, and use URL Tooltip to reveal links when I mouse over them. I prefer to use Personal Menu, as well, for providing an extra level of customization to what used to be the Menubar.

Personal preferences aside, this is an excellent visual tweak to make Firefox 3.5 and the impending Firefox 3.6 free up screen real estate and feel a bit more futuristic. On a related note, Firefox evangelist Mike Beltzner said in an interview today that he expects Firefox 3.6, currently available as a release candidate, to be finished by the end of January.

Microsoft patched a critical hole in Windows 2000 on Tuesday that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if a user viewed a maliciously crafted Embedded OpenType font in Internet Explorer, Office PowerPoint, or Word.

The security bulletin is rated "low" severity for Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008 operating systems, according to the Microsoft advisory, which gave credit for discovering the vulnerability to a Google researcher.

According to Microsoft's Exploitability Index, the hole is rated "2" which means "inconsistent exploit code likely" while "exploitation of systems running Windows XP and later operating systems is unlikely." More technical details are available on Microsoft's Security Research and Defense blog.

However, security experts said a patch for a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat that Adobe Systems released on Tuesday was even more important than the Microsoft bulletin. The hole was discovered in mid-December and is being exploited by attacks in the wild to deliver Trojan horse programs that install backdoor access on computers.

"Unlike most months, what the bulletin administrators should look at first is the Adobe patch when it is released later today," said Jason Miller, data and security team leader at Shavlik Technologies. "This bulletin will patch vulnerabilities that are currently in the wild affecting users."

Adobe also released a beta test version of a new automatic updater for Reader and Acrobat on Tuesday, according to the Adobe Reader blog. Reader was found to be one of the buggiest programs in 2009.

Meanwhile, Microsoft also issued an advisory for holes in the Adobe Flash Player 6.0 that shipped with Windows XP and updated its Malicious Software Removal Tool to include the Win32/Rimecud worm that spreads through removable drives, Instant Messenger and peer-to-peer shared folders.

In addition, Microsoft re-released an Active Template Library bulletin to add Windows Embedded CE 6.0 to the affected products list. This re-release affects only developers and original equipment manufacturers building applications on top of the mobile platform.

"One of the outstanding bugs that wasn't patched this month is an SMB [Server Message Block] denial-of-service attack vulnerability that has been open since mid-November," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle. "Since Microsoft has left the bug open for this long it's now clear that the threat isn't as serious as many people believed."

Finally, Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update on Tuesday, containing 24 fixes for seven products, including the application server and database engine. "The majority of the holes are remotely exploitable without authentication," notes Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer at Qualys.

Updated 5:20 p.m. PST with Adobe and Oracle releasing the updates.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Like many people who work for a company that's located hundreds of miles from their home, I rely on remote-access programs, specifically the Remote Desktop Connection utility built into Windows. I recently encountered a relatively common bug in the program: in the midst of a remote session, I lost the ability to copy and paste.

Closing and restarting the remote connection fixed the problem temporarily. A more permanent solution is described by Pinal Dave on the SQL Authority blog. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and click Start Task Manager. Choose the Processes tab, select rdpclip.exe, click End Process, and close Task Manager. Restart the process by clicking Start > Run (just Start in Vista and Win7), typing rdpclip.exe, and pressing Enter.

Malware, apps may block browser copy/past functions
The inability to copy and paste text and images in your browser may indicate the presence of malware or some other program that has locked the Clipboard. The Mozillazine knowledge base points the finger at a particular Registry value: AppInit_DLLs, which is located at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.

The Mozillazine article instructs you to delete that Registry key, but only after you attempt to decipher the key's value to discern the name of the program that installed the key. Two of the most likely culprits, according to the article, are the pushow (pop-up show) and New.net malware.

Whenever you suspect your PC may be infected, run Malwarebytes' free Anti-Malware utility to detect and remove the infection. Last September, I described how I used the program to disinfect our family PC.

Create a shortcut that empties the Clipboard
The fastest way to erase the contents of the Clipboard is to copy anything else, even a blank space. But you can also create a shortcut that empties the Clipboard automatically. In Vista and Windows 7, right-click the desktop or any convenient folder and choose New > Shortcut. Type the following command in the shortcut location box:

cmd /c "echo off | clip"

Click Next, give the shortcut a name, and click Finish. Now right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, assign a keystroke combination to the shortcut (if you wish), choose Minimized in the Run drop-down menu, and click OK.

If you'd like to extend your Clipboard's capabilities, you'll find dozens of free and commercial Clipboard enhancers described at Download.com, but my favorite for working with text is the free ClipClipper from Currach Software.

The program lets you edit and save the contents of the Clipboard and place your saved Clipboard items into categories, but only some of the text's formatting is preserved, and the utility doesn't accommodate images at all. If you're willing to spend $19.99, BegemotSoft's Clipdiary creates a record of all the text and graphics you place in the Clipboard.

Originally posted at Workers' Edge