Making good on a promise made last week from Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer to simplify security-patch deployment for companies, Microsoft Corp. this week released a consolidated Windows XP update that brings together 22 critical updates into one downloadable package. The new release, known as Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows XP, was posted on the Redmond, Washington, company's Windowsupdate.com Web site and includes almost 9M bytes of security fixes for machines running the operating system.
Previews of Microsoft's forthcoming server-stack software reveal a company brooding over improving its security. At the company's Professional Developers Conference next week in Los Angeles, developers will get an in-depth technical review of the next iteration of Windows, Longhorn. Microsoft is expected to focus attention on Longhorn's underlying graphics and Aero, the new user interface.
At the conference, Microsoft will also deliver early beta code of Yukon, its next-generation database; Whidbey, the upcoming version of Visual Studio; and a sneak peek at Indigo, a Web services development framework under construction.
Wireless technologies were bolstered on several fronts last week as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell detailed plans to inject products with Bluetooth and WLAN, and wireless services providers aligned to add hot spots. Microsoft announced WPS (Wireless Provisioning Services), which aims to help users connect to WLAN hot spots more easily and securely. WPS consists of server software used by telecommunication providers on the back end, and client software on mobile devices.
HP enhanced a raft of upgraded products - iPaqs, a Tablet PC, notebooks, and mobile workstations - by arming them with Bluetooth and WLAN support.
Microsoft keeps delivering or promising new SKUs of Windows Server 2003. After the original six versions the company launched on April 24, Microsoft has delivered or announced an additional seven splits of the server operating system.
Three of them emerged on Wednesday in the form of an announcement of forthcoming 64-bit operating systems, two for AMD's 64-bit architecture and an additional SKU for Intel's Itanium architecture. Those three operating systems entered the beta testing stage Wednesday and are supposed to become generally available in the second half of 2004.
Saying that online safety is now its customers' primary concern, Microsoft will offer McAfee virus scan and firewall products to U.S. customers of its upcoming MSN Premium broadband Internet subscription service. The software giant said Friday that it sealed a deal with intrusion prevention provider Network Associates Inc. to include the company's McAfee VirusScan and Personal Firewall Plus products with the MSN Premium service due out later this year.
With its Office Live Communications Server 2003 ready to launch next week, Microsoft is prepping a series of new features to extend presence capabilities, add interoperability among enterprises and build in conferencing to the real-time collaboration platform.
Speaking at the Instant Messaging Planet Fall 2003 Conference and Expo here, Gurdeep Singh Pall, Microsoft's general manager of real time collaboration, said that while the initial focus for Live Communications Server 2003 is on corporate instant messaging and presence, it will serve as a platform for the broader convergence of real-time communications.
A fight over an obscure content-protection patent could wind up alleviating one of Microsoft's biggest legal headaches, according to digital rights management company Macrovision, a newcomer to the tussle.
Macrovision is sparring with rival InterTrust Technologies over patents each holds on similar digital rights management technologies--similar enough that the United States Patent and Trademark Office agreed several weeks ago to decide whether the two companies' patents actually refer to the same thing, and whether just one company should hold the rights.
Microsoft will file a dossier on Friday answering European Commission charges of abusing its dominance in personal computer systems, sources familiar with the dossier said on Thursday. The Commission asked Microsoft to comment on the allegations, and also on two possible remedies.
First, Microsoft could sell a version of Windows without its own media players. Alternatively, Microsoft was invited to comment on being forced to carry a second, alternative media player to help preserve competition.
The Commission also said Microsoft had made its Windows operating system less than fully compatible with low-end servers, used for access to files and printers. It proposed that Microsoft provide protocols to rivals to permit them to make fully compatible servers in order to preserve competition. The Commission has also said it plans to fine Microsoft for its past violations.
Responding to pressure from users to release a packaged update for Windows XP as the delivery date for Service Pack 2 has fallen to mid-2004, Microsoft on Wednesday posted a rollup package of updates for the client operating system.
Update Rollup 1 for Windows XP is "a cumulative set of hotfixes, security patches, critical updates, and updates that are packaged together for easy deployment," according to Microsoft's Knowledge Base article for the rollup. That definition used to apply to service packs, but Microsoft has bigger plans for Windows XP SP2, which is supposed to enhance the security profile of the operating system among other feature improvements.
Microsoft at its Professional Developers Conference 2003 event in Los Angeles in two weeks will shed light on "Indigo," which is the company's upcoming Web services applications framework. The company also will discuss the planned "Yukon" release of SQL Server and the upcoming "Whidbey" releases of ASP.Net and Visual Studio.
Indigo is described on the Microsoft PDC Web site as a programming model and framework for building connected applications and Web services. The technology is built on top of Microsoft's WS protocols, which are a suite of specifications that the company claims will power the next phase of the Internet.