It will still sell more copies than OS X Tiger, but what a waste of time. This week, representatives of Dell and HP, the world's two largest PC makers, downplayed the effects of the European Union's (EU's) requirement that Microsoft ship special N versions of XP that don't include Windows Media Player (WMP). Dell says it won't offer the products on its PCs. HP said that it will offer XP Home Edition N and XP Professional Edition N but that it expects little demand from customers. HP noted that because the N versions cost the same as the XP versions that include WMP, consumers have little incentive to consider the products. Well, duh.
Microsoft is aiming to boost the security of its flagship operating system for computer servers this week with the release of a major update nearly two years in the making.
The company says the free update, Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, goes beyond the sorts of improvements typically included in such releases to address the underlying security of the operating system and add new security features.
It's part of the company's ongoing push to make its software less vulnerable to worms, viruses and other online threats -- many of which target flaws in Windows and other Microsoft programs. Questions of security also play a big role in the competition between Windows and the open-source Linux operating system in the market for computer servers.
Microsoft has filed 117 lawsuits against people who it charges created phishing Web sites designed to look like pages hosted by the software giant.
The suits, filed Thursday in Seattle in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, are being brought against operators of Web sites that feature trademarked logos or images used by Microsoft on its official Web pages and products. The "John Doe" suits do not identify the individuals involved.
During Intel's launch of the "Truland" computing platform this week, a Microsoft executive laid out a roadmap of products that will be x64 and multi-core enabled this year and next.
The lineup provides a snapshot of Microsoft's ever-changing server roadmap. The PowerPoint slide shown by Andy Lees, corporate vice president for server and tools, included several minor surprises such as 2006 versions of Host Integration Server and Virtual Server and a 2006 delivery date for Exchange Server 12.
The race to build more-powerful Web-based applications could accelerate with the addition of software that lets Windows developers create Flash applications without knowing Flash.
Xamlon, based in La Jolla, Calif., will release next week its preview version of Xamlon Pro Flash Edition, software that converts applications created with Windows programming languages and development tools into applications that run in Macromedia's Flash animation player.
Microsoft is developing analytical tools to help international law enforcement agencies track and fight cybercrime.
Microsoft unveiled the tools development program at the kickoff on Wednesday of three days of technical training for Australian law enforcement agencies. The Forensic Computing and Computer Investigations Workshops are designed to help investigators fight crimes such phishing, online child exploitation and money laundering.
Greg Stone, the national technology officer at Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, said the event was part of a global effort to help agencies understand the technologies used to attack businesses, government agencies and citizens. The next step for Microsoft, according to Stone, will be to further develop internal analytical tools to make investigators' tasks easier.
Even though it will be five years after Windows XP's debut, Microsoft could still face a tough sell when it releases Longhorn next year. With past updates, users had clamored for more stability and security, but analysts say people are pretty happy with Windows XP.
"Microsoft for the very first time is going to be faced with the challenge of being the player whose (operating system) is 'good enough'" as is, said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.
As part of its growing antipiracy program, Microsoft plans to require customers that want to download a local language add-on to Windows to first verify that their copy of the operating system is legitimate. Over the coming months, Microsoft will require all customers wishing to download one of 22 "Language Interface Packs" to first authenticate their copy of Windows.
The move is the latest expansion of a broad program in which Windows users are asked to verify their copy of Windows before downloading various add-ons.
The next version of Microsoft's Exchange Server--software used to manage e-mail, contact lists and calendars--will arrive in 2006, according to a company executive.
Andy Lees, corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft's server and tools business, revealed the ship date Tuesday. Previously, the Redmond, Wash.-based software company had said the software would arrive in 2006 or 2007. The software, currently called Exchange Server 12, will incorporate new features to handle voice mail and faxes.
Microsoft has launched a video download service that offers daily television programming, entertainment clips, and other digital content for viewing on Windows Mobile-based devices, it says.
The MSN Video Downloads service draws on content from Microsoft partners such as CinemaNow, MSNBC.com, and TiVo, allowing subscribers to watch video on their smart phones, Pocket PCs, and Portable Media Centers.
The service was previewed in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, showing how users can download specially formatted content to their PCs and then transfer it to devices running Windows Mobile software.