Microsoft on Tuesday began testing Microsoft Update, which it says will help users keep up with the latest versions of Windows, Office and other programs.
The free program, which is slated to be in final form later this year, lets users of the Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems download all updates automatically or manually choose which patches to get.
In a February speech at the RSA Conference 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had promised that a beta version of the program would launch this month.
How about a nice game of Parcheesi?
That may be the only choice for gamers, as Microsoft on Monday confirmed a retail shortage of its Xbox video game console, the latest piece of game hardware to thwart shoppers.
Many major retailers are fresh out of Xbox consoles, with no indication of when they'll be back in stock. CompUSA's Web site shows the basic $150 Xbox package out of stock at all stores in metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles and Northern California.
Amazon.com also is out of stock, while specialty retailers EB Games and GameStop only have used consoles or new ones in "bundles" that require the purchase of expensive add-ons. Bundles are also the rule for the online arm of retail giant Wal-Mart.
Microsoft Monday announced that the much-anticipated next version of its developer tools suite will ship in the second half of 2005 in several versions, with the Microsoft Developer Network as its primary delivery mechanism.
Prashant Sridharan, Microsoft's senior product manager for Visual Studio Team System, said Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005, code-named Whidbey, will ship by the end of 2005 and that SQL Server 2005, code-named Yukon, will ship simultaneously. Microsoft had earlier said the product would ship this summer, after a series of prior delays.
Microsoft and IBM aren't ending their longtime business rivalry. They are, however, putting it on ice.
Hockey teams from the two tech icons will compete for the first time in a game this afternoon at Seattle's KeyArena. The setting is an annual charity fund-raising event, but make no mistake -- there will also be some serious corporate pride on the line.
Members of both teams were reluctant to talk any trash during a joint practice session and scrimmage yesterday at Castle Ice Arena in Renton. After all, the companies have been partners ever since Microsoft supplied the first operating system for the IBM personal computer, and they remain allies in related areas today.
Although attendees of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2005 in April will be the lucky recipients of the first public Longhorn build in the 5xxx series, we'll have to wait until this fall before we see the debut of Longhorn's futuristic Aero UI. In an otherwise innocuous blog posting this week, Longhorn evangelist Robert Scoble suggested that the software giant will include Aero, along with a few other surprises, in the prerelease Longhorn build that the company will hand out at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in September. It must have been a long year for Scoble. Microsoft last shipped a public prerelease Longhorn build almost a year ago and has been quietly retuning the product while it concentrated on such things as Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2003 SP1. With those products completed--Windows 2003 SP1 will be finalized within 10 days--the company is finally starting to take on Longhorn full force. It's time to take Scoble out of hibernation.
The head of Microsoft's tools division said Friday that support for its Visual Basic 6 toolset would not be ending, addressing what had been a growing concern among some in the developer community.
"Support is, however, transitioning, consistent with the roadmap that we disclosed in 2002," said Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the server and tools business for Microsoft.
"We are moving to extended support, and that means we are entering a paid support period," Rudder said during an online chat with over a hundred developers.
The European Commission has shot down Microsoft's proposal for opening up its workgroup server software protocols after receiving complaints over the licensing terms, the company said Friday.
The Commission sent a letter to the software maker Thursday night rejecting its plan to charge as much as $600 per server to license protocols that would allow competitors to build server programs that work well with PCs running Windows, according to a source close to the case.
The regulator's rejection of the proposal was in part prompted by complaints from the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe), which sent a letter to the Commission outlining its concerns with the licensing terms. FSF Europe, which has been admitted as an official intervenor in the antitrust case, argued that the per-server licensing proposal went against the idea that the protocols could be used to develop free software because there is no way of knowing how many servers will be using it.
Microsoft may have started shipping its cheaper version of Windows in Asia, but getting support for its low-cost computing vision is still very much a work in progress.
The software giant first launched Windows XP Starter Edition, a localized version of the full-fledged Windows operating system with reduced features, in Thailand last October. The cut-rate version debuted in Malaysia and Indonesia in February.
The product has received the initial backing of more than 15 local system builders and multinational computer makers in these three countries.
A Louisiana man who launched an e-mail virus that reprogrammed some
computers to dial the 911 emergency phone number has been sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution to
Microsoft, authorities said.
A U.S. federal judge sentenced David Jeansonne, 44, to six months in prison and another six months of home arrest, after he admitted in February to sending the malicious e-mails to 18 subscribers of Microsoft's WebTV in 2002, according to Luke Macaulay, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.
Five allies of Microsoft and four of the European Commission won the right on Tuesday to intervene in the software giant's antitrust case before a European Union court in Luxembourg.
The European Commission decided nearly a year ago that Microsoft competed unfairly against competitors, fined it $662 million (497 million euros) and ordered it to offer a stripped-down version of Windows and share some protocols with rival makers of servers.
Those on each side include companies and lobbying groups from Europe and the United States, many of whom appeared at an earlier hearing in the case to determine whether remedies against the company should be suspended until the case was complete.