All the emphasis right now is on Windows XP SP2 -- and rightly so. But there's another Windows service pack just around the bend, and if early indications are accurate, Windows Server 2003 SP1 shows how far Microsoft has come in terms of OS security.
There are many changes in SP1, currently scheduled for release in the first half of next year. They include the biggest security enhancement, the Security Configuration Wizard (SCW). The SCW will be able to determine what role a particular server plays on a network, and turn off all non-essential services on that box, considerably tightening up its security.
Microsoft is expected to play up Live Communications Server 2005, due out this month, as a key piece of its quest to conquer the telephony market. LCS 2005, code-named "Vienna," went to beta this summer. Microsoft announced it had delivered to testers the near-final "release candidate" beta in mid-September. Microsoft is expected to launch the final release later this month.
Microsoft officials have described LCS 2005 as "a next-generation enterprise instant messaging (IM) and presence-awareness server."
But Microsoft also will use LCS 2005 as a way to gain a toehold in the voice-over-IP (VOIP) space, according to sources claiming familiarity with the company's plans.
After winding its way across the Internet, Windows XP Service Pack 2 is headed to retail shelves. Microsoft last week started the process of swapping out all of the boxed copies of Windows XP with the updated version, with a triangle in the upper corner touting SP2 and its security enhancements. Retailer OfficeMax is among those promoting the change, advertising that it will have XP SP2 on sale starting Wednesday.
Microsoft is releasing an update of its enterprise resource planning package for midsize project-, service- and distribution-oriented organizations this month. In Microsoft Solomon 6.0, the company focused on improving the product's usability, efficiencies and self-service options. Microsoft claims major enhancements to several areas of core functionality, including project management, accounting, analytics and reporting.
Part of the Microsoft Business Solutions portfolio, Solomon 6.0 will carry an estimated retail price tag of $4,500 for a single-user package.
The public preview of MSN's upcoming search engine is back, this time with a Web index about five times fatter and reworked relevancy algorithms.
Microsoft's Internet division launched the second preview on Monday for the United States and plans to expand it to a total of 29 markets in 12 languages by Thursday, an MSN official confirmed.
MSN's latest search preview follows a two-month test that went offline in August. The latest preview incorporates feedback from the earlier alpha test as well as expands the index to more than 5 billion Web documents, said Justin Osmer, an MSN product manager, in a statement.
A ship sponsored by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize on Monday as the first privately built craft to fly into suborbital space two times in two weeks.
The X Prize, modeled after the early 20th century prizes that helped launch the commercial aviation industry, is intended to seed the space tourism industry. As part of the tourism theme, the prize required the winning ship to haul a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to the edge of space and repeat the achievement in two weeks. More than 20 teams from seven countries were competing for the X Prize.
Having made itself comfortable on home and office PCs around the globe, Microsoft has now set its sights on mobile entertainment, releasing its new Portable Media Center software platform. The PMC software, created to power a burgeoning class of handheld music and video devices, is already available on one shipping unit, the $499 Creative Zen Portable Media Center. Devices using it can play audio and video (including TV shows and movies), and can display still images. Samsung and IRiver have promised to deliver their own similarly priced PMC units in time for the holidays. The software is based on Microsoft's Windows CE 5 mobile operating system, and offers digital media technologies found in the Windows XP OS and in XP Media Center Edition.
With the next generation of Media Center PCs, you'll be able to have your TV and record it too. For the first time, Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition is supporting multiple tuners, meaning that consumers will be able to watch one channel while recording another or record two stations at once, CNET News.com has learned. The feature is one of several improvements Microsoft has made with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, an update that the company plans to announce next week.
Leaving no doubt of Microsoft 's determination to win the markets and minds of European governments, the company unveiled results of a survey Tuesday claiming that software is the main driver of IT job creation and revenue in the region. According to a Microsoft-sponsored study conducted by researcher IDC, the software business accounts for roughly half of all IT-related jobs in the 19 countries within EMEA surveyed, and generates half of IT tax revenue. The survey results were released at the opening of the company's Capital Executive Partner summit in Lisbon, and were aimed at underscoring the economic impact that the software industry has in Europe at a time when Microsoft is currently waging an appeal against the European Commission's landmark anticompetition ruling against it.
After a series of delays, Microsoft has started to ship a version of Virtual PC that is compatible with Apple Computer Inc.'s G5-based systems. Virtual PC 7 is a complete emulation of standard PC hardware, and is capable of running any application compatible with the Pentium processor, allowing users to run a full version of Windows and Windows applications in a virtual machine on their Macs.
Virtual PC 7 also offers easier installation, automatic printing to the Mac's default printer with no additional setup, and significantly increased graphics speed, Erickson said.