Microsoft last week released the beta of a new photo-sharing sample application that takes advantage of core components of the upcoming Windows Vista platform to deliver a unique user experience.
Hillel Cooperman, product unit manager of the technology code-named Max, demonstrated the application during the opening keynotes of Microsoft's PDC in Los Angeles last week.
The demonstration followed presentations by Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates and by Jim Allchin, group vice president of platforms at Microsoft. Cooperman later gave a private demo of the software for eWEEK.
Microsoft on Monday introduced the final version of a new security tool for locking down computers that operate in shared environments. The Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP enables administrators to restrict users from changing system settings and running unauthorized software.
The toolkit, which is specifically designed for Internet cafes, school computer labs and libraries, can also keep out viruses and spyware by resetting a hard drive to a "clean" state each day. By removing advanced features, the desktop is also simplified to improve the end-user experience, Microsoft says.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced a broad reorganization of the company into three large product groups in an effort to improve decision-making at the Redmond company.
Under the new alignment, the company is reducing the number of business units from seven. The three broad product groups each will be headed by executives with the title of president.
Microsoft also announced that Windows chief Jim Allchin will retire at the end of 2006, after the upcoming Windows Vista operating system goes on sale.
Mozilla Web browsers are potentially more vulnerable to attack than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a Symantec report.
Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report Volume VIII contains data for the first six months of this year that may contradict this perception.
According to the report, 25 vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities were disclosed for the Mozilla browsers during the first half of 2005, "the most of any browser studied," the report's authors stated. Eighteen of these flaws were classified as high severity.
Office 12 is Office like you have never seen before.
With the update, due in the second half of 2006, Microsoft is planning its biggest-ever redesign of its productivity suite, starting with a new user interface. The company hopes to bring an end to the days of clicking on three menus and two dialog boxes just to format a document. In their place, Microsoft has added a ribbon at the top of most documents that aims to offer the most likely menu choices.
The radical revamp could help the company as it seeks to stave off competition from OpenOffice and others, but it also risks alienating those who like things the way they are.
Businesses that want the Enterprise Edition of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system will have to sign up for its Software Assurance licensing program, the company announced today.
Software Assurance, introduced in 2001, encourages customers to pay an annual fee to use Microsoft's software rather than buying outright licenses. The annual fee includes software upgrades plus other support services.
The program has been controversial; it met with considerable resistance after some analysts said customers would end up paying more under Software Assurance than under the previous licensing plan.
Microsoft Monday filed eight antipiracy lawsuits in five states against companies that allegedly are distributing counterfeit versions of its software or copies that infringe on Microsoft trademarks or copyrights.
The software giant filed suits against BWT Industry Technology Service, dba Computer Max in Arizona; Data Day USA, MicroCity4Less.com and Winvtech Solutions Inc. in California; Global Computing Inc. in Illinois; Ion Technologies in Minnesota; and Compustar and Chips & Techs in New York.
Microsoft announced the acquisition of smart card technology provider Alacris. Alacris makes software that provides an infrastructure to deploy and manage digital certificates, smart cards and USB authentication tokens. In July, Alacris released idNexus for Microsoft 3.0, the latest version of a two-year-old product designed for managing digital certificates and smart cards within the Windows environment.
The new version lets admins issue temporary cards and maintains a complete history of the cards, so that they can be re-used. Applet management supports the Global Platform 2.1 specification, so that customers can extend them with other compliant products.
Stop the presses. Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), the newest of the next-generation Windows infrastructure pillars, is running early. WWF, Microsoft's combined human- and machine-level workflow subsystem, was expected to debut as part of Longhorn Server in 2007, at the earliest, Microsoft officials said this past spring.
In the past, workflow was a product (in the form of BizTalk Server), and able to facilitate system-workflow interactions only, said Woodgate. But with WWF, workflow becomes a platform that can handle both human- and system-level workflow, Woodgate said.
Q: This morning, you were speaking about some of the tough problems that software hasn't solved--speech recognition, security, presence. What's holding us back from solving those problems?
Gates: The pace of software innovation today is as fast as it has ever been. In speech recognition, over the past decade, the error rates have come down, down, down, down. Now, we haven't hit that magic threshold where speech recognition is better than the keyboard. It's hard to pick a date where it will be. We totally believe speech recognition will go mainstream somewhere over the next decade. When you use your phone, speech will be your primary input technique. At your desktop, it will be a mix of speech, keyboard and pen.