'Windows XP Embedded With SP2,' Microsoft's latest embedded operating-system update, goes gold. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced it had released to manufacturing the version of its Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) for embedded devices.
Called "Windows XP Embedded With SP2," the new release contains many of the same features and security fixes as the full Windows XP SP2 product that Microsoft delivered on August 6. The embedded version includes a new Windows Firewall component, Bluetooth support, generic device drivers, and support for Software Update Services and System Management Server distribution.
Security is perhaps the final frontier for developers as they build applications for the modern enterprise. But with its newest development platforms, Microsoft said it is enabling developers to address security early in the design and development process. The Redmond, Wash., company will put new security features into Visual Studio 2005. PreFast, for example, is a static code analysis tool for the Visual Studio Team System, expected to be available next year, officials said. Microsoft uses the technology in developing applications it sells commercially.
Other new tools include PreFix, for defect detection, and FXCop, a code analysis tool that checks .Net-managed code assemblies for conformance to Microsoft's .Net Framework design guidelines.
A Microsoft employee has created an application that pulls statistics from the online-multiplayer version of the game into an elaborate spreadsheet. The spreadsheet automatically collects and crunches individual player stats in ways not otherwise possible -- letting players see statistics including average kills, deaths and ranking over time. It also does advanced analysis to assess a player's performance in various ways against other competitors and across different types of "Halo 2" games.
Unisys, Oracle and Microsoft are expanding a joint engineering program to boost the performance of Oracle's software running on Windows, the companies plan to announce Monday at Oracle's annual trade show.
Oracle's software, including its flagship database and its higher-level business software, are available for Unix, Linux and Windows, but the Windows versions have been something of a second priority, said Tom Manter, program director for enterprise database applications at Unisys. The companies now hope to turn that around.
BetaNews has learned that Microsoft is developing a new consumer-oriented subscription service called Microsoft Office Outlook Live (MOOL) that is built on top of MSN Platform technologies.
According to several sources close to Microsoft who requested anonymity, MOOL leverages and extends existing MSN back-end platform infrastructure; services that are available in MSN Premium, such as MSN Outlook Connector; as well as MSN Hotmail integration.
Microsoft on Friday released its second Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2005 and rolled out a new, free tool to manage SQL Server 2000 and MSDE 2000. This second preview edition, which is an interim release wedged between major beta builds of the upcoming SQL Server upgrade, introduces 64-bit support for SQl Server 2005 Analysis Services and Integration Services. The SQL Server 2005 database engine already includes 64-bit support.
Kirsten Ward, lead product manager for SQL Server, said that the release is in answer to customers' growing use of Microsoft's business intelligence tools, not only in 32-bit environments but in 64-bit environments. The CTP is available to all MSDN and Betaplace subscribers.
Microsoft has filed seven lawsuits against senders of bulk e-mail for failing to label sexually explicit messages as required by the federal Can-Spam Act, the company said Thursday.
The lawsuits also allege that the defendants, who have yet to be named, violated Washington state laws and provisions of Can-Spam that prohibit the use of zombie PCs--computers being controlled without the PC owners' knowledge--to route spam e-mail messages. Microsoft's suits also allege that the defendants failed to offer unsubscribe options and working return addresses.
Microsoft is fighting to hold onto a multi-million dollar deal with the municipal government of Beijing. On Nov. 17, Microsoft beat domestic software developers to snag a $3.6 million, three-year software licensing deal with the Beijing municipal government. But the deal also drew the ire of local software vendors, as well as government officials who said that Beijing ignored a January 1, 2003, Chinese procurement law. On Nov. 30, Beijing canceled the order.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the reports to internetnews.com. "We're still in talks with Beijing," he said.
In a written statement, Microsoft applauded Beijing's efforts to move all of its users onto licensed software and said it would hang in there during negotiations. At issue is how the Government Procurement Law defines foreign companies. According to Xinhua, Beijing's purchase was made through Microsoft's local reseller, Beijing Centre Electronic Technology.
The company that helped push word-processing and graphical computing into the mainstream wants to do the same thing with weblogs.
Microsof's MSN Internet division last night introduced a preliminary version of MSN Spaces, a new service that includes a tool for publishing weblogs, online journals commonly known as blogs. The tool is less flexible than many existing blog-publishing services, but it's meant to be easier to use.
The service isn't likely to appeal to hard-core bloggers, and some analysts have mixed feelings about its prospects. But MSN executives say the approach should boost the interest in weblog publishing well beyond techies and enthusiasts to a much broader base of users.
Factory revenues for Windows servers and Unix servers were "essentially equal" in IDC's market share report for the third quarter, marking a potential turning point for the Windows server market.
Windows servers grew revenues by 13.3 percent over the comparable quarter in 2003 to hit $3.9 billion. Unix server revenues fell 2.3 percent compared to the year-ago quarter to $4.0 billion.
"Quarterly revenue of $3.9 billion for Windows servers represented 33.9 percent of overall factory revenue, essentially equal in size to the Unix market," IDC said in a statement.