Microsoft

Microsoft recently lost its latest battle to have a $290 million decision over copyrighted Word XML functionality overturned. In a move to overcome another decision made against it earlier this year, the software giant has paid $200 million to ... VirnetX to keep that company quiet over its own patented technology. Back in March, a Tyler, Texas jury found that Microsoft had infringed on a copyright owned by VirnetX. The patent involved virtual private network (or VPN) technology used in Microsoft's Windows XP and Vista operating systems. The Redmond-based firm was ordered to pay a hefty $105.7 ... (view more)

Microsoft's road back into the good graces of techies worldwide has been a long and trying one. Most of the struggles came after 2007's launch of Windows Vista, a highly-touted and highly-disappointing operating system (OS). Four years later, ... Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted that Vista "was just not executed well." Microsoft Annual CEO Summit Ballmer made the statement on Wednesday at Microsoft's annual CEO Summit. The charismatic, bold executive spoke for about thirty minutes on Microsoft and his role as the software giant's Chief Executive Officer. As part of his speech, Ballmer ... (view more)

Microsoft recently unveiled a whole new look for its very popular online email service, Hotmail. Heading the list of new features is "Sweep," which automatically prioritizes emails into categories. The Hotmail update is just one part of Microsoft's ... plan to improve all of its Windows Live products over the next several months. Designated Emails Marked with Priority The new Sweep feature automatically designates certain kinds of emails low priority. Think of it like a weekly Best Buy or grocery store flyer; you signed on to the mailing list, but these emails certainly aren't as important as ... (view more)

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit claiming an online software operator breached nine of its patents. The general reaction thus far is that the case has much to do about trying to deter a business competitor, rather than protecting genuine innovation. ... The case is against Salesforce.com, a company which offers customer management services: its slogan is that it is "the enterprise cloud-computing company", an idea borne out by its phone number, 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE. Most of Salesforce's products are based on marketing campaigns and tracking sales leads, putting it directly in competition with Microsoft ... (view more)

An independent software company is offering a program it says will smooth the process of upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 7. But there are questions about whether or not it breaches Microsoft licensing conditions. The package, called Desktop ... Upgrade to Windows, comes from Parallels. The firm specializes in virtualization software, most notably a package allowing Mac users to run Windows, which can be particularly useful for those making the leap from a PC to a Mac. The software aims to deal with two major upgrading headaches: one is that, with the exception of moving from one edition of ... (view more)

A new security flaw in Microsoft's very popular Windows 7 operating system (OS) could open users up to a remote code execution and denial-of-service attack, Microsoft said in a security advisory on Tuesday evening. The vulnerability affects only ... 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. The flaw affects the Canonical Display Driver, or CDD.DLL, used in the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) and DirectX drawing. The vulnerability is tied to the graphics system's desktop composition process. (Source: zdnet.com ) Microsoft: Remote Code Attack "Unlikely" Luckily, it ... (view more)

The curse of Windows Vista may have finally come to an end. Recently, Microsoft not only regained their lost customer satisfaction rating, but also managed to attain their highest rating to date, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index ... (ACSI) survey. All signs are pointing to Windows 7 as being the reason for the happy Microsoft customers. Vista Customer Satisfaction Rate Low Microsoft had much to lose with the release of Windows 7, especially since Vista was considered by many to be a marketing flop. The reaction to Vista became so negative that many credit it as the reason ... (view more)

Google has dismissed Microsoft's claims that Google Docs is a failure, and says to use that the argument simply highlights Microsoft's proprietary tactics. The dispute comes as both sides step up their online cloud computing battle . Microsoft is in ... the midst of releasing its free online-only edition of its forthcoming Office 2010. Meanwhile, Google already has online document editing via its Google Docs service (plus the paid professional version Google Apps), and is heavily promoting that as an alternative to Office 2010. Microsoft: Google Docs Falls Short Indeed, it even said using Google ... (view more)

Microsoft isn't afraid it might jinx itself with bold sales predictions for its upcoming Office 2010 . In a recent interview, one company representative said they expect Office 2010 to be the most rapidly-adopted Office software yet. Why the bold ... predictions? Well, you can forgive Microsoft for being a bit arrogant -- after all, Windows 7 has virtually flown off shelves, to the point where it's nabbed the number two position in the world amongst currently-used operating systems, just behind Windows XP. At least one Microsoft executive thinks all that Win7 love is bound to spread to the ... (view more)

Microsoft is set to launch their latest software suite, Microsoft Office 2010, which is slated to be released next month. (Source: wikipedia.org ) In an effort to compete with Google's 'Google Docs' software, however, Microsoft is releasing an ... alternative version of Microsoft Office, called Office Web Apps . The Office Web Apps version is available to the public at no charge, but will be supported by advertisements instead of a per-user license fee. Google Docs, Google Apps, compared to MS Office Google Docs is essentially a stripped-down version of a web-based word processing, spreadsheet ... (view more)