America Online on Thursday confirmed that a bug in its new Netscape 8 Web browser was breaking certain XML configurations in Microsoft's IE.
The issue first surfaced on Microsoft's Internet Explorer Weblog, where chief IE developer Dave Massy recommended that users completely uninstall Netscape as a possible workaround.
AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein insists the bug only affects "a very small percentage of IE users" who visit pages using XML technology.
"We are actively working on a fix, and we hope to deploy an automatic patch to users that will address it next week," Weinstein told Ziff Davis Internet News.
Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Microsoft Business Network but plans to roll its EDI-like functionality into business applications, the company confirmed Thursday.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant last month had announced its plan to shut down MBN on the network's newsgroup site. Though MBN will cease to operate, the company insisted that it's not dead. Instead, Microsoft aims to expand the network's functionality into future versions of its business management applications, including Axapta 4.0.
Microsoft is beefing up its antispam efforts by offering new data services that Internet service providers can use to determine how much e-mail traffic they are generating to MSN Hotmail, how that e-mail is affected by MSN Hotmail spam filtering and what percentage has been marked as spam by customers.
Both services are designed to complement industry efforts -- such as the use of e-mail authentication mechanisms like the Sender ID Framework -- to help reduce spam, phishing scams and viruses, according to the company.
Microsoft is collaborating with security software provider Saflink to target the U.S. travel industry with a secure traveler program, Saflink announced Thursday.
The companies have been working together over the past 10 months to develop capabilities for the program and are almost ready to approach government bodies with their proposal, the security firm said.
The initiative, which is intended to be a privatized version of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Registered Traveler program, aims to use enterprise software from Microsoft and biometric security tools to screen and verify the identity of travelers.
The confusion over Wi-Fi security certification and interoperability has moved into a new gear, with Microsoft shipping a Windows XP update that is not fully compliant with the latest wireless security specification.
Microsoft's update, released earlier this month, promised support for WPA2, aka Wi-Fi Protected Access 2, the newest wireless security specification approved by the IEEE.
However, security researchers quickly discovered that the update fell well short of full WPA2 compliance, a situation that adds to the confusing state of the WLAN market.
Following confusion surrounding its Windows x64 Advancement Program, which offers a free upgrade from the standard 32-bit version of Windows XP to the recent 64-bit release, Microsoft has clarified the language on its Web site. All users, whether they purchased or built their PCs, are now eligible for the 64-bit upgrade.
Microsoft previously had said publicly that any Windows XP user with an x64-supported processor, such as an Athlon 64, may trade in their license for the x64 Edition of Windows XP. But the company's Web site for the program said the offer applied only to purchased PCs with an OEM copy of Windows XP.
Microsoft updated its server software platform for speech-enabled applications this week with an R2 version of Microsoft Speech Server 2004.
The key new features of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2 are support for all-in-one server configurations and support for U.S. Spanish and Canadian French speakers at no extra cost in the original version designed for U.S. English speakers.
The new version also enjoys expanded telephony boards coverage and VoIP support from industry partners including Aculab, Brooktrout Inc., Eicon Networks and Vail Systems Inc.
Microsoft is launching an initiative to deliver technologies specifically tailored to the oil and gas industry, making the second gesture in as many days that it is increasing its focus on vertical markets.
The software maker's energy sector initiative, called Peak Performance, was unveiled at the Global Energy Forum in Houston on Wednesday, a day after it began shipping a version of its Windows XP Embedded operating system aimed at the retail and hospitality industry. That product represents the first time Microsoft has customized an operating system for a particular market.
Microsoft is looking for a few good men and women, and, ultimately, applications that can help the company check for compatibility between the current version of the .NET Framework and the version coming in Visual Studio 2005.
The software giant is in recruiting mode, looking for independent software vendors, enterprise customers, developers, end users and others who would like to have their .Net applications tested for compatibility with the upcoming version of the .Net Framework.
At issue is the notion of breaking applications. Microsoft has identified situations where applications written to the .Net Framework 1.1 break when run against the .NET Framework 2.0.
Researcher Debasis Mohanty outlined what he said was a technique to trick Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage validation check in a posting to the Full Disclosure security mailing list on Monday. WGA is a software tool that verifies whether a particular copy of the operating system is properly licensed.
Using a secondary Microsoft validation tool called "GenuineCheck.exe," it may be possible for people to trick the checking mechanism, Mohanty said in the posting. They could then download and run supposedly restricted software from Microsoft's Download Center on a PC running a pirated version of Windows, Mohanty wrote.