Critic says Windows 7 users should block the optional KB971033 update, which would periodically 'phone home' to re-validate the copy of the OS

The update to Windows Activation Technologies (WAT), the anti-counterfeit program formerly known as Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), has been slammed by critics, including the Internet advocate who blasted Microsoft in 2006 over the daily "phone home" habits of WGA running on Windows XP.

Users whose PCs have already downloaded and installed the WAT update can uninstall it from the Control Panel. The uninstall option is also new for Microsoft's anti-piracy software; in the past, once installed, WGA updates could not be removed.

The pre-release versions of Windows 7 will go through two phases on their way to expiration. The operating systems will not cut off testers at once, but, instead, transition into a pre-expiration period where the platform will start shutting down at two-hour intervals. Only at the end of the first phase on the road to expiration will Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 and Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100 actually switch off, leaving testers in the dark. The first one to go will be, of course, Windows 7 Beta. Microsoft has, in fact, already started sending out emails to all participants in the Customer Technology Preview program warning of the imminent expiration of Build 7000

IDG News Service - If you haven't changed the default password on your home router, you may be in for an unwanted visit from Chuck Norris -- the Chuck Norris botnet, that is.

Discovered by Czech researchers, the botnet has been spreading by taking advantage of poorly configured routers and DSL modems, according to Jan Vykopal, the head of the network security department with Masaryk University's Institute of Computer Science in Brno, Czech Republic.