Microsoft has invested in security company Finjan Software and licensed its patents that cover ways to protect systems against previously unknown security threats.
The deal, announced Wednesday, gives Microsoft a minority share in the privately held, San Jose, Calif.-based company. It enables the software giant to use ideas developed by Finjan in future products, said Nick Sears, president of Finjan in the United States.
"It covers a broad range of patents that Finjan has developed and acquired in the last nine years in the security space," Sears said. Financial details of the deal are not being disclosed.
Microsoft is readying changes to its certification programs that are expected to take effect with the release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 in November.
At the recent Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, a manager in the Microsoft Learning group outlined tweaks to Microsoft's certification programs for developers and database engineers that will give technologists specific credentials around what have been more general certifications.
Microsoft made its mark in the video-game business with a gun-toting cyborg hero who takes on an advancing swarm of aliens. But a lesser-known unit of the company's game division is distinguishing itself with puzzles, arcade classics and online cards.
And it's turning a profit.
Microsoft Casual Games Group is the new name for the segment of the company involved in games for Microsoft's MSN service, the Xbox Live Arcade, simple Windows games, and games that can be played over instant-messaging software. The group also is working on games for smaller devices, such as mobile phones.
Microsoft introduced a second beta version of its business intelligence package for servers on Tuesday. Dubbed Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, the test version of the product, formerly code-named Maestro, is being made available for free download at the company's Web site.
Company officials cited the BI offering, due out sometime this fall, as an important piece of the software maker's Information Worker effort, which is aimed at arming people with more effective productivity tools.
Opening a new chapter in its rivalry with Google, Microsoft on Tuesday sued the search giant and a former Microsoft executive that Google had tapped to run its China operations.
The suit was filed in a Washington state court against Google and Kai-Fu Lee, who until Monday was the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division.
"Accepting such a position with a direct Microsoft competitor like Google violates the narrow non-competition promise Lee made when he was hired as an executive," Microsoft said in its lawsuit, which was seen by CNET News.com. "Google is fully aware of Lee's promises to Microsoft, but has chosen to ignore them, and has encouraged Lee to violate them."
Microsoft plans to integrate rootkit detection technology from its Strider Ghostbuster research project into future versions of the Windows AntiSpyware application, Ziff Davis Internet News has learned.
Strider Ghostbuster, a prototype tool developed by Microsoft's Cybersecurity and Systems Management Research Group, provides a straightforward way to detect Windows rootkits by comparing scan results between a clean system and one that may potentially be compromised.
Details of Microsoft's plans remain scarce, but sources say the company has grown increasingly worried about the threat from stealth rootkits.
Microsoft has begun beta testing a new MSN Shopping portal, which serves as a price comparison engine for different online shops. The revamped site boasts 60 times the number of stores and five times the number of items, along with millions of new featured offers.
Although Microsoft is utilizing PriceGrabber.com for most of its shopping results, the company has increased the number of merchants it works with directly. The decision to work with a third party revolved around merchant ratings and reviews, Microsoft says, as the company did not want to start with a clean slate.
Microsoft officials are considering developing a new server product targeted at midsize businesses, a rapidly growing segment of IT that often must rely on products and technologies designed for much larger organizations.
The new version of Windows under consideration would be a bundle similar to Windows Small Business Server 2003, which includes Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Exchange Server 2003 and several other technologies. However, Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., is leaving much of the decision about what to include in the bundle up to its customers.
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates said Monday that there is a shortage of qualified computer science engineers for hire in the U.S., a problem that is reflective of the decline of interest in this course of study in this country.
Speaking at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, Gates said that while his company finds many suitable engineering candidates for employment in India and China, it has a harder time recruiting qualified individuals in the U.S.
As Microsoft inches closer to the first beta release of Internet Explorer 7, the company's development advisors have been advising Web site developers and managers to run certain tests now to prevent problems when the beta version does appear.
Although Microsoft is not releasing a specific date for the beta version, the company has stated that the browser will appear this summer, and that developers should be getting ready.
At this point, Microsoft has given limited information on what will be included in the initial beta test, beyond stating that it will include features such as tabs and "developer platform advancements."