Microsoft is set to deliver in June the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) patching tool and the Microsoft Update (MU) software patching service, a company executive said Tuesday.
Both MU and WSUS were originally due in the first half of 2004, but were delayed several times. Microsoft has blamed the delays partly on work it had to do on Windows XP Service Pack 2, a security-focused upgrade to Windows XP released last August. Most recently the company has said it would deliver MU and WSUS in the first half of 2005, a target it expects to make.
Microsoft is working on two thin client versions of Windows XP to offer a lower cost operating system alternative for users of server-centric computing, people familiar with the company's plans said.
The Windows XP-based thin clients will cost less than Windows XP Professional Edition, but offer the same management features and availability of a broad array of hardware drivers. The operating systems are being designed to run on low-end PCs that could be used for simple tasks such as data entry and as a way to access server-based applications, these people said.
RealNetworks has released a security patch aimed at plugging a flaw in its multimedia software that could allow hackers to run their own code on people's computers.
The flaw, rated a "highly critical" risk by security company Secunia, affects most recent consumer versions of the RealPlayer media player software, for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Also at risk are some, but not the most recent, versions of the software for Linux. The flaw exists in some RealOne Player versions too, RealNetworks said.
Do you have any idea where you saved your last file? Both Microsoft and Apple Computer are betting the answer is no. And as a result their newest operating systems bear uncannily like-minded search tools.
In the next version of Windows, still in its early stages of development, and in the soon-to-be released new version of Mac OS X, users won't have to know where a file is stored. Instead, both operating systems will have a search window in which people need only start typing what they remember--who created the file, what it's called, or even words within the document itself. Results begin appearing instantly, and the early matches are ruled out as a user continues entering information.
As part of an effort to expand its presence on x86-based platforms, Sun Microsystems later this year plans to deliver front-line support for customers running Windows on Sun systems.
Sun doesn't expect to bundle Windows on its systems itself. Instead, Sun sees that as an opportunity for channel partners, which are better able to support those customers once the company rolls out new systems designed with Windows in mind.
Microsoft on Wednesday released a public beta of Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, a new disk-based backup and recovery server for Windows file servers that was previously called Data Protection Server. Microsoft unveiled the new member of its server family in September. The company intends the product to fill what it says is a gap in disk-to-disk backup products left by technologies based on a disk-to-tape legacy.
Early adopters have been able to handle up to 40 file servers on a single DPM server, although mileage varies. "It depends on the amount of data you're protecting and the frequency of churn of that data," Matheson said.
Microsoft plans to take a hard-charge at the burgeoning market for computer virtualization, including offering greater Linux compatibility, its chief executive said today.
Amid jokes about cooperating with rivals such as Sun Microsystems, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company would make serious investments in, and open up, its Virtual Server 2005 product to run on non-Windows machines.
This includes Linux, he said during his keynote address Wednesday at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas. To prove the point, Microsoft official Bill Anderson demonstrated how Red Hat Linux could run on Virtual Server 2005.
On the two-year anniversary of the launch of its Dynamic Systems Initiative, Microsoft set out an aggressive road map for the next two years to take its manageability forward.
Among the coming developments are new versions of both Microsoft Operations Manager and Systems Management Server.
MOM Version 3, due in the next two years, will move to model-based management to allow for more service-oriented monitoring rather than element monitoring, said Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Enterprise Management Division, in his keynote address at the Microsoft Management Summit here Tuesday morning.
Microsoft's corporate messaging and communication technologies are expanding from the personal computer to hand-held devices -- and not just those using the company's own underlying software.
The company has reached an agreement with rival Research in Motion Inc. to let its popular BlackBerry device work in conjunction with Microsoft's Live Communications Server. Under the arrangement, RIM will offer a BlackBerry program to let corporate users send instant messages and check on the availability of others through Microsoft's server software.
Microsoft on Monday released a software update to its Windows Rights Management Services technology that it claims will make it easier for companies to guard access to documents and e-mail on corporate networks.
The Redmond, Wash., software company's RMS SP1, which was first announced at the RSA security conference in February, includes a new "server lockbox" that makes it easier for companies to extend RMS protection to data managed by server applications, as well as support for networks that do not have an active Internet connection, Microsoft officials said.