Microsoft launched the beta test of its new Forefront Client Security product that aims to help protect business desktops, laptops and server operating systems from viruses, spyware and other threats at its IT Forum conference in Barcelona, Spain on Tuesday.
Besides the client beta, the company also launched two server security products, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, which are currently in public beta and will be available in December.
Microsoft says it has formed a coalition with more than 20 companies, including some of its competitors, to focus on issues of "interoperability," trying to make their different programs and systems work more smoothly together.
The company was due to announce the "Interop Vendor Alliance" early today. Microsoft said the alliance will provide a venue for collaboration among the companies and for communication with customers. Among other things, they will conduct tests to determine the interoperability of systems in different situations.
Eighty-six percent of IT decision makers say they plan to adopt Windows Vista, and 20 percent say they will move to the new operating system within the next year, according to a new tracking poll sponsored by CDW
Other results from the survey of 761 IT decision makers show that 51 percent say at least half of their existing hardware will need to be upgraded or replaced in order to run Vista. Still, only 14 percent say they are postponing hardware purchases or IT decisions in anticipation of Vista?s release.
Microsoft has selected a former executive of Deutsche Telekom AG and computer veteran to head its German operations.
Achim Berg will take over as general manager of Microsoft Deutschland GmbH on Feb. 1, 2007, the German subsidiary said Tuesday.
Berg will succeed interim general manager Klaus Holse Andersen, who took over the German operations after former Chief Executive
Officer Jürgen Gallmann resigned last month over differences with the U.S. headquarters.
Berg will report to Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International.
Microsoft has slowly begun shipping automatic updates of Internet Explorer 7 to all users of the English language version of the browser.
Microsoft had rolled out automatic updates of the new browser to beta testers, beginning shortly after IE 7's October 18 launch, but it had been telling the rest of IE 6 users to be ready for these updates, effective November 1.
In fact, these automatic updates started going out a few days ago, said Gary Schare, a director of product management with the Internet Explorer team. On last Wednesday, "we began a very slow distribution through automatic updates, throttled way down so a very few users would see it," Schare said.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has aggressively sought to change the image that its products have poor security. The company
says that Windows Vista, which has been released to manufacturing, will be its most secure operating system to date, representing a top-down change in how its programmers develop code with
security in mind.
Stephen Toulouse, senior product manager for the Security Technology Unit, spoke with IDG News Service about how Microsofts
security teams approach problems with software and the current threat landscape. An edited transcript of that interview follows.
Microsoft chief lawyer Brad Smith said Tuesday that the company expects to hear back from a European court as early as December on its appeal of the landmark antitrust ruling there.
"We expect to get that decision really in the next several months," Smith said during a question-and-answer session at the company's shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Wash. "Most people think it will probably come some time between December and March or April."
The European Union's antitrust regulators slapped Microsoft with a $600 million fine in March 2004, but the software maker has been pursuing an appeal of the case with Europe's Court of First Instance.
Microsoft will try to move from the kids' table at the enterprise management feast to the grown-ups' table when it launches the private beta of its new help desk offering and announces its participation in the Configuration Management Database Federation Working Group at the TechEd: IT Forum in Barcelona, Spain.
Microsoft's new System Center help desk offeringcode-named Service Desk and to be unveiled Nov. 14includes a CMDB, signaling the software maker's entry into an emerging market dominated by the Big Four enterprise management providers. In addition, Microsoft, backed by CMDBF Working Group members IBM and BMC Software, hopes to have the group adopt its SML. SML provides a language for defining models of data center resources such as servers, networking gear and storage.
Just days after Microsoft released the Windows Vista code to manufacturing, the operating system was leaked to the Web. The final version of the Redmond, Wash. developer's Office 2007 has also been posted to the Internet.
Pirated copies of Windows Vista RTM have been spreading on Web sites, peer-to-peer networks, and through the Usenet community. One site, TheHotfix.net, alerted its members that the Vista RTM could be downloaded from BitTorrent download sites.
According to reports on message forums, pre-RTM product registration keys do not work for the newest version of Vista. But pirates were confident that "cracks" would be forthcoming that would activate the OS. "It will be easy to authenticate," claimed someone identified as "Jordan M" on a HotFix.net thread.
Microsoft will sell licenses for its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 productivity suite through CompUSA stores Nov. 30, two months before the products go on sale at other retailers.
The world's largest software company said Monday that customers will be able to buy licensing agreements to run Windows Vista Business and Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 on five or more personal computers.
The move will put small businesses on the same footing as larger rivals, who also will be able to buy the new operating system and business software ahead of the general release scheduled for Jan. 30.