I read this article over at Softpedia.com. I may be completely off base here, but why would cursors, animated cursors, or icons ever need anything more than user mode access?

It never fails to amaze me how vulnerable we are with some software because it was architected incorrectly and insecurely to begin with.

I just recently became aware of some issues with some software installation packages at work. There were so many problems with these packages that I couldn't name them all. Were these problems something that needed be solved individually? No. They were all caused by taking a snap shot of an application install rather than using the vendors MSI file and applying minor changes via an MST.

There is only one fix, in my mind, to the myriad of problems in these packages. Scrap them completely and rebuild them the proper way using the vendor provided package. From an architectural perspective its the only thing that makes sense. Trying to fix all the little problems, caused by the big problem never works.

If zero day exploits like this are still possible in Vista, it seems to me that Vista must still not be fixing the big problem of security.

So I say SOLVE THE BIG PROBLEM. What is the big problem? Microsoft is the big problem. I solved it by not purchasing or using any Microsoft products in my house. I use Linux. Linux started on the right track architecturally and it has continued on that same path.

Come join me in using Linux and stop hiding in fear from simple mouse cursors in Windows!