Windows makes it easy to quickly download files to iPods and other portable storage devices--a little too easy in the minds of many IT managers. In the next version of Windows, Microsoft will give big companies an easy way to block use of such devices, while making it easier for consumers to connect their home systems to them, a company representative told CNET News.com.
Much has been made of the security risks posed by portable storage devices known as USB keys, or flash drives, music players like the iPod, and other small gadgets that can store vast amounts of data. Some fear that such tiny devices can be used to quickly copy sensitive data off business PC hard drives, or to introduce malicious software onto corporate networks.
Microsoft clued in hardware makers at the semiannual Intel Developer Forum here to the company's Windows Longhorn developer to-do list for connectivity and drivers. The initiatives will entail a major overhaul of Windows' device driver technology for both programmers and users.
During a Tuesday session on forthcoming driver issues, Microsoft focused on a range of programming and user interfaces, including the first major rewrites to several key features introduced with Windows 95, such as WDM (Windows Driver Model) and PnP (Plug & Play) protocol.
Microsoft is doubling the number of months that corporate customers can block automatic delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The company on Tuesday altered its policy for preventing automatic download of SP2 through Automatic Update or Windows Update, two services for automatically downloading important Windows updates to PCs via the Internet. Corporate customers now have about eight months--or until the middle of April--to prepare for the security-related update, which may require testing for compatibility with other business applications before installation.
Microsoft is set to introduce a new line of keyboards and mice Wednesday, including models with built-in fingerprint readers. Unlike most current implementations of biometrics, the new keyboard, mouse and standalone fingerprint reader use the technology not for security but convenience. The accompanying software memorizes the passwords Web surfers have to remember to get around the Web and automatically supplies the right password, once the fingerprint reader verifies who's there.
This week, the Delahaye Index rated Microsoft as having the best reputation among the largest US companies. The rating, which covers the second quarter of 2004, came thanks to favorable reactions to Microsoft's strong revenue growth, financial management, and innovative products, according to Delahaye Medialink, the company that conducts the Delahaye Index.
"The Delahaye Index is driven by two catalysts for corporate reputation-building: Business performance, as reflected in the quality of news, and visibility, as reflected in the volume of news coverage," said Delahaye Medialink CEO Mark Weiner.
Microsoft is giving users more time to prepare for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) by doubling the time a special registry key will prevent PCs from automatically downloading and installing the mammoth update. Faced with concerns from IT professionals, Microsoft last month made available a tool that allows users to set a Windows registry key that instructs the system to skip downloading and installing SP2 for 120 days, but still download other critical updates. Microsoft has now doubled that period to 240 days, Microsoft told select customers in an e-mail message on Tuesday.
Let's say you're an executive at Apple Computer. Microsoft comes to you and says, "Look, we're coming out with this new music store called MSN Music, and we'd really like to make it work with the iPod. We know that you're disabling support for Windows Media Audio in the iPod before you ship it to customers, but we'll give you a good deal on WMA licensing--maybe even make it free--if you just let iPod users listen to WMA music on their devices and optionally purchase music from MSN Music." But you deny the request for perfectly valid competitive reasons. OK, fine. When a reporter later asks you about MSN Music, what's your response? How do you frame this answer after you just refused to work with Microsoft? Naturally, you blast the company for not being compatible with the iPod. In an interview with ZDNet this week, Apple Vice President of Applications Eddie Cue said--and yes, I'm serious--that MSN Music's "biggest problem may be that its downloaded songs can not play on the iPod."
Microsoft has filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warning that 2005 could be challenging, as Linux continues to steal business and PC sales remain sluggish.
"For fiscal 2005, we believe industrywide factors such as PC unit growth and the success of noncommercial software could significantly affect our results of operations and financial condition. PC unit growth was very strong in fiscal 2004, increasing approximately 13 percent from fiscal 2003. We do not expect similar growth to occur in fiscal 2005," the filing stated.
For years, software developers have offered applications to the world in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser through the company's powerful proprietary API (application programming interface) called ActiveX. The technology starts up external applications, or "plug-ins," within a Web page.
But a tool that can run good software in a browser can also run bad software, and as a result ActiveX has been implicated in a wide array of security scenarios, most recently in the surreptitious installation of adware, spyware and worse.
Even though Microsoft's much-anticipated Longhorn has been stripped of its unified file system and some of its other key Longhorn technologies will be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the next Windows release will still be worth the upgrade, according to Microsoft.
Although it is too early for specifics, Sullivan said Longhorn should be a better performing, more stable, and more secure operating system because it will be based on the Windows Server 2003 SP1 (Service Pack 1) code base. Microsoft will also include tools to ease desktop deployment, management, and diagnostics, making it simple to spot and fix problems, he said.