WinInsider

The European Union's antitrust chief said yesterday that he has set a date for deciding the long-running case against the Microsoft, but that a settlement remains possible.

"Until the moment that a decision is taken, nothing is impossible," EU Commissioner Mario Monti said after a European Parliament hearing. Monti said he had set a date for the decision, but wouldn't make it public. He also declined to say whether he had informed Microsoft.

The European Commission is set to allow Microsoft to choose how to solve EU competition concerns to avoid breaching the software giant's intellectual property (IP) rights, a source familiar with the high-profile case said on Tuesday. This would be a more favorable decision for Microsoft than having to follow to the letter obligations drawn up by the EU.

The EU executive fears the Court of First Instance, which rules on EU cases, may suspend any remedy against Microsoft if it suspects there is a breach of intellectual property rights. "In order not to touch on IP rights the Commission would delegate the remedies to Microsoft," the source told Reuters.

A trio of bounties Microsoft placed on the heads of virus writers has generated a variety of investigative leads, but still no arrests, a top security official from the software giant said on Tuesday.

In November, Microsoft created a $5 million fund to pay ordinary computer users for tips leading to the arrest and prosecution of the creators of computer viruses and worms that use its ubiquitous Windows operating system to wreak havoc online.

Microsoft issued three separate $250,000 bounties for information on the whereabouts of the SoBig, Blaster and MyDoom virus authors over the past three months.

Microsoft and computer security vendor RSA Security said on Tuesday that they would jointly release a new authentication technology using RSA's SecurID tokens to provide better password protection into Windows operating systems.

RSA Security, known for its SecurID products that authenticate users logging into networks, said that the new offering would make it easier for businesses to protect their networks by providing tighter security at the point at which users enter their computer desktop.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that Openwave a maker of software for cell phones, would begin offering a feature allowing mobile phone users to access Hotmail and MSN Messenger while on the go. The world's largest software maker said that it had joined with Openwave to jointly develop software to be featured on the smaller company's latest version of specialized software for cell phones.

Microsoft has been developing software for mobile phones and devices for the past several years, pitting it against companies such as Symbian and Finland's Nokia, but has chiefly marketing its software to handset makers and operators as a high-end business tool.

Microsoft later this year will seek to distance itself from Java rivals with tools designed to streamline how Windows-based business software is built and used. Around the middle of the year, the company will introduce a test version of a new tool, code-named Whitehorse, that it says can help programmers design and create more reliable Windows applications in a shorter amount of time than with current tools, Prashant Sridharan, lead product manager in Microsoft's developer division.

Microsoft is set to release a trial version Monday of its first major update to InfoPath, the new electronic forms application released last year as part of the Office family.

The beta version of Service Pack 1 (SP1) will include several significant new features, said Microsoft product manager Bobby Moore, along with the typical performance enhancements and bug fixes included in a service pack. The final version of the InfoPath update will be included in the release of SP1 for Office 2003, set for late June.

The update will include significant changes for developers, Moore said, including new scripting support for Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net and Visual Basic environments. The new version also will enhance support for use of custom dialects, or schemas, of XML (Extensible Markup Language), the basic language behind InfoPath and other e-forms products. "In the past, there was difficulty handling some complex schemas," Moore said.

Speeches by Bill Gates, assessing the state of the tech industry and touting Microsoft's products, have become standard fare at splashy events such as Comdex and the Consumer Electronics Show. But the Microsoft chairman's keynote address at a major convention Tuesday morning promises to be decidedly different.

Gates is scheduled to speak for the first time at the RSA Conference, a computer security show that starts today at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The annual show is one of the most important and biggest events in the computer-security world. This year, it's expected to draw more than 10,000 people involved in security -- from cryptographers and e-commerce experts to academics and government officials.

A key Microsoft partner executive on Friday touted new initiatives to recruit and support ISVs in its continuing effort to promote the company as the ISV's best friend.

Microsoft plans to step up not only technology enablement of its ISV partners but also go-to-market efforts in order to recruit new ISVs and keep existing partners happy, said Mark Young, general manager of .NET ISVs in the platform strategy and partner group, speaking at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, Calif.

Microsoft on Friday denied that it illegally used its desktop computer operating system to hurt digital media rivals, responding to civil antitrust charges brought by archrival RealNetworks. In a 31-page legal filing, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant argued that RealNetworks has suffered no injury as a result of its conduct, which it defended as "permissible competitive activity." Microsoft added that there is little evidence of slackening competition in the digital media market, citing evidence that competing products from RealNetworks and others continue to share widespread usage with its own Windows Media Player.