Microsoft

A note on a Microsoft blog aimed at Enterprise IT professionals says the Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) blocking tool will expire on April 28, 2009 and the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) blocking tool will expire on May 19, 2009. (Source: technet.com ) ... The blocking tools, released in December 2007, prevent service packs from reaching PCs via the Windows Update service, and are used primarily by corporations that have not yet tested or approved the newest upgrades. (Source: computerworld.com ) Microsoft issues those tools on a regular basis when they roll out major updates to its operating system ... (view more)

A new analysis claims that over 90% of the Windows security vulnerabilities reported last year were made worse by users logged in with administrative privileges -- an issue Microsoft has been hotly debating recently. BeyondTrust Corp. (BTC), a ... software development company specializing in enterprise rights management, has indicated that the act of giving users administrative rights may leave systems more open to risk. The report issued by BTC was prepared by assessing security vulnerability bulletins released by Microsoft in 2008, and identifying specific "mitigating factors" (those that could ... (view more)

Now that the news of Windows 7 beta is starting to wind down, more details about Microsoft's next operating system are starting to become available. Juicy news on the wire this morning includes word that Windows 7 will ship in several different ... versions, much like its much-maligned predecessor. One of the big complaints against Windows Vista, released to the wider public in 2007, was that it came in too many different packages. The system was confusing for many, particularly those roped into buying Vista Home Basic , a skeletal version of the operating system that offered only a fraction of ... (view more)

With the next big Microsoft operating system already looming in the form of a Windows 7 beta, many home and business users are beginning to look past Windows Vista. However, a controversial new report from Computerworld suggests that the fat lady ... may not have yet belted out her final note. In a recent article, Computerworld columnist Eric Lai suggested that at least two significant segments in the tech population have begun to adopt the maligned 2007 operating system . Lai cites a survey last month by Valve Corporation, which found that more than one-third of gamers playing online are using ... (view more)

Government antitrust attorneys are reportedly still receiving complaints from hardware makers and other companies about Microsoft business practices, even as the software giant has stepped up its efforts to cooperate with those state and federal ... authorities overseeing its antitrust consent decree. In a recent court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and numerous other states said complaints were received from several companies that manufacture and sell a variety of products that work with Windows. The department has been enforcing the consent decree for more than six years. (Source ... (view more)

Despite the upcoming release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) , it appears that Microsoft is still losing market share to its competitors at Apple and Mozilla. (Source: computerworld.com ) Web metrics firm Net Applications released a new ... market share analysis Sunday, placing Microsoft at 67.6% -- the lowest market share percentage for the company since 2005. This 0.6 point drop follows an unfortunate trend for Microsoft, who has lost approximately 8 percentage points in the last year. While nowhere near as devastating as the drastic drops of November and December 2008, it seems that ... (view more)

Documents unsealed by a federal court in the "Vista Capable" lawsuit reportedly reveal that Microsoft would have to come up with as much as $8.5 billion to settle accounts with customers affected by its 2006 "Vista Capable" marketing debacle. Keith ... Leffler, a University of Washington economist and expert witness for the plaintiffs, estimates that it would cost a minimum of $3.92 billion to as much as $8.52 billion to upgrade the 19.4 million PCs that were sold as Vista Capable to hardware capable of running premium versions of Windows Vista. (Source: computerworld.com ) Leffler said in a ... (view more)

After flirting with open source development for some time, Microsoft has made another step towards real commitment with the release of source code for Web Sandbox, a program used to test and secure web site content. (Source: zdnet.com ) The Sandbox ... source code will be released under the Apache 2.0 license, an open source license agreement allowing the content creator to maintain copyright while permitting others to develop the product for their own use. Microsoft has gradually been increasing their involvement with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) since 2008 when they agreed to fund ... (view more)

An early release of Microsoft's uber-popular web browser Internet Explorer version 8 (IE8) is now available for download. The Redmond-based company boasts that it's the safest and most secure browser ever constructed, and has included several new ... features meant to protect users against even the most innovative hacker attacks. As expected, Microsoft has simply added yet another digit to its browser, dubbing this one simple "IE8". There are a number of good reasons to invest precious download minutes in Internet Explorer 8; at the top of the list is a special new feature meant to protect ... (view more)