Microsoft

A new study by Forrester Research shows that businesses that had been thinking of making a quick move to Microsoft Windows Vista seem to be doing an about-face and delaying deployment. In a report issued this week, Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray ... said "IT managers are finding themselves pulling back their initial Windows Vista deployment plans." Forrester did note that it's not like most businesses are really going to skip over Vista. "For the vast majority of businesses, Windows Vista is a matter of when and how, not if. This is thanks in large part to Microsoft's dominance in the corporate ... (view more)

Microsoft has revamped Hotmail once again, this time providing more storage and a slew of new features. Free accounts will now have a 5 GB storage limit, a large increase from the previous 2 GB limit. Paid subscribers will see their storage limits ... upped from 4 GB to 10 GB. (Source: betanews.com ) The added storage puts Hotmail ahead of Google, which offers 2.8 GB of storage, but still behind Yahoo's unlimited storage. (Source: windowsitpro.com ) Additional features include vacation replies and the ability to disable the 'Today' screen. Further, Microsoft responded to consumer comments and ... (view more)

Apple has just released iWork 2008. New additions, such as a spreadsheet called "Numbers", are impressive but the real excitement is over iWork's ability to handle the Open XML file format. This particular format is native to Microsoft's Office 2007 ... application suite. Until now, no application has been more important for the long-term survival of Mac than Microsoft Office. However, Apple's new iWork may change this fact. Why is Microsoft no longer the only drug that can keep Mac healthy? Quick answer: the Redmond-based company contracted its own illness; Microsoft faced problems in ... (view more)

Want a dirt-cheap version of Windows Vista? Move to China. Microsoft has posted an extremely low price for the new operating system in that country, with hopes of drastically improving sales. The Chinese will see a price reduction North Americans, ... for now, can only dream of. Vista Home Basic there will plummet from over 1,500 renminibi to just 499 renminibi ($66 USD). Home Premium will similarly drop, from 1,800 renminibi to 800 renminibi. That means Home Basic and Premium will drop 67% and 50%, respectively. For the record, China's Vista price is now less than a third of that charged to ... (view more)

Not feeling secure in your Microsoft software? Well, the company appears ready to make at least nine steps towards giving you some comfort while using Windows, Office, and development program Virtual Basic. Security updates are nothing new for ... Microsoft, which typically releases similar patches on a monthly basis. However, this update is a bit special given its size and the number of applications it seeks to improve. Patches are a mix of critical and not-so critical. Windows XP and Vista will receive security improvements addressing both minor and major holes (not outlined by Microsoft), ... (view more)

Microsoft Windows XP will be used to handle vital functions of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and has already been installed on most of the PCs delivered by Lenovo for the event. Microsoft's poster boy Windows Vista will only be used on PCs set up in ... Internet lounges for athletes to use, contrary to a Microsoft sponsored report earlier this year. (Source: InfoWorld.com ) Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo, said the Olympic games require mature, stable technologies during a briefing in Beijing. Due to the size and importance of the Olympics, it's not the place to try new technologies, especially ... (view more)

Discovering that the brand new laptop you've purchased has only a trial edition of Microsoft Word is a bummer. Discovering that Microsoft Works, the cookie-cutter full-version alternative, will feature advertisements in the future only compounds the ... frustration. Announced last Wednesday, Microsoft's new initiative to bombard poor Works users with ads will first run in a test program. There's no concrete date for the new and exciting Works SE 9, although Melissa Stern, a senior Microsoft product manager, says customers can expect to find it on new computers within the next few months. So, why ... (view more)

When Microsoft shipped Windows Vista, one new feature that was introduced was a firewall that monitored both inbound and outbound traffic. What Microsoft failed to mention about the firewall is the fact that monitoring outbound traffic is disabled ... by default. Microsoft claims it was disabled because administrators wanted more control over it. Even more interesting is the fact that you can't enable outbound filtering through the Windows Security Center in Windows Vista. The user is required to manually configure the firewall if you want to filter that outbound traffic. To do this in Windows ... (view more)

Microsoft recently boasted that its Windows Vista operating system, software that has been called into question a thousand times over by our Bill Lindner , has crossed the 60 million sales plateau. Even more impressive may be future estimates by the ... company, who foresee more Windows PCs in the world than cars by the end of fiscal 2008. Such a bold, and to some degree irrelevant statement could only be made by CEO Steve Ballmer. He made the mind-blowing analysis very appropriately during a recent "analyst day" in Redmond. Microsoft has continued to parade a list of achievements for its ... (view more)

A few months ago, Microsoft's attempt to multiply its presence on the web was planned through an acquisition of competitor Yahoo. That never panned out, but in its wake now arises what could be an ever more effective plot: partnership with Digg. For ... those who are unaware of Digg, it's a news aggregator where actual users vote on the most "diggable" articles on the web. Any Internet writer, including yours truly, knows a story's clicks can explode if just a few hundred Digg users recommend it to their peers. Thus, for both web publishers and readers, Digg is an enormously influential resource ... (view more)