Windows 7 Half-Price Sale Starts Friday Submitted Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 04:16 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) informationweek.com -- Consumers who pre-order a copy of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system will receive more than 50% off the retail price for a limited time starting Friday.
The full version of Windows 7 Home Premium is priced at $199, with an upgrade from Vista or XP costing $119. The full version of Windows 7 Professional is $299, with upgrades going for $199. Windows 7 Ultimate is priced at $319, with the upgrade version at $219.
But U.S. shoppers who pre-order between June 26th and July 11th will receive discounts of 50% or more, Microsoft said. For instance, Windows 7 Home Premium will sell for $49 during the discount period, while Windows 7 Professional will sell for $99. Participating retailers include Best Buy and Amazon, as well as Microsoft's own online store.
. See the complete story here.Will Bing bury Microsoft? Submitted Monday, June 22, 2009 @ 03:07 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) Google company information - ( Google News ) blogs.computerworld.com -- Microsoft still suffers from Google envy: Steve Ballmer appears ready to make a bet of up to $11 billion that Microsoft's new search engine Bing can overtake its Internet competitor. At best, the bet is a long shot, and throwing away that amount of money could well do Microsoft irreparable harm. See the complete story here.Microsoft will soon unveil free anti-virus software Submitted Wednesday, June 10, 2009 @ 01:50 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) Symantec company information - ( Symantec News ) reuters.com -- Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for PCs that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.
A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date. See the complete story here.Zune HD is official, heading your way this Fall Submitted Tuesday, June 02, 2009 @ 05:32 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) engadget.com -- That's right folks, the Zune HD is real, and it's coming this Fall. Microsoft officially announced the next iteration in their Zune line today, making it less of a tripped out pipe dream, and more of a totally tubular reality. The specs, which look exactly like that leak we saw, go like this: 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output (utilizing a new dock -- not on-board), and... not much more right now. Microsoft is doing away with the famed squircle in favor a full multitouch device, and they seemed to indicate that some new touch-friendly apps and games would be headed our way, though they were fairly mum when it came to details. The device will boast an IE-based, customized browser, but little else was said in the way of software. See the complete story here.Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension Submitted Tuesday, June 02, 2009 @ 05:21 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) Firefox company information - ( Firefox News ) voices.washingtonpost.com -- A routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component installed on tens of millions of computers has quietly installed an extra add-on for an untold number of users surfing the Web with Mozilla's Firefox Web browser.
Earlier this year, Microsoft shipped a bundle of updates known as a "service pack" for a programming platform called the Microsoft .NET Framework, which Microsoft and plenty of third-party developers use to run a variety of interactive programs on Windows. See the complete story here.Confirmed: Windows 7 Launches October 22 Submitted Tuesday, June 02, 2009 @ 05:06 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) pcworld.com -- It's official: Windows 7 will make its debut on October 22. Microsoft confirmed the late-October launch date with PC World, details of which leaked out earlier today. See the complete story here.Microsoft Relaunching Search Service as Bing Submitted Friday, May 29, 2009 @ 02:18 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) Google company information - ( Google News ) pcworld.com -- At the All Things D conference on Thursday, Microsoft unveiled the latest re-branding of its search engine. Forget Live Search--that's so three months ago. Now Bing is in! Launching in a couple of weeks, Bing hopes to make searching a little more useful and, judging from this video demo (warning: video contains Steve Ballmer), it looks a bit like the love-child of Google and WolframAlpha. See the complete story here.New Windows netbooks may harbor malware Submitted Wednesday, May 27, 2009 @ 10:33 AM news.idg.no -- Kaspersky Labs is warning users to scan brand new systems for malware before connecting them to the Internet after discovering attack code on a just-out-of-the-box Windows XP netbook.
After discovering attack code on a brand new Windows XP netbook, antivirus vendor Kaspersky Labs warned users yesterday that they should scan virgin systems for malware before connecting them to the Internet. See the complete story here.Vista Service Pack 2 Now Ready for Download Submitted Tuesday, May 26, 2009 @ 06:21 PM pcworld.com -- Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is now available for download. The Vista SP2 update includes new support for recording Blu-ray discs straight from the Vista OS, updated support for Bluetooth v2.1, and bug fixes that address slow shutdowns and mysterious crashes. See the complete story here.3,000 jobs go at Microsoft Submitted Wednesday, May 06, 2009 @ 07:05 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) tgdaily.com -- Software giant Microsoft laid off 3,000 people today - part of its plan to cut costs.
The job losses will be spread equally between the USA and other geographies, but Microsoft has also committed to re-hiring as soon as the economic meltdown eases. See the complete story here.Windows 7 brings Microsoft to its knees Submitted Friday, May 01, 2009 @ 09:22 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) channelregister.co.uk -- Desperate beta testers brought down Microsoft's Windows 7 download page yesterday for about two hours.
Only Microsoft Developer Network members and TechNet members were offered keys, but Microsoft still had to make some changes to keep the site up and running. The MSDN blog said "systems are having trouble keeping up" and thanked people for their patience. See the complete story here.Microsoft Windows HTTP Services Multiple Vulnerabilities Submitted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 @ 04:14 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) secunia.com -- Some vulnerabilities have been reported in Microsoft Windows, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct spoofing attacks or compromise a user's system.
1) An integer underflow error in Windows HTTP Services can be exploited to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted parameter returned by a malicious web server.
2) An error in Windows HTTP Services while validating the distinguished name of a certificate can be exploited to spoof a valid certificate.
Successful exploitation requires the ability to perform DNS spoofing attacks.
3) An error in Windows HTTP Services can be exploited to reflect NTLM credentials and execute arbitrary code by tricking a user into connecting to a malicious web server. See the complete story here.Microsoft killing free XP support next week Submitted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 @ 11:10 AM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) theregister.co.uk -- Microsoft will drop free support for handful of aging products next week, including consumer versions of Windows XP and Office 2003.
On April 14, the Redmond giant ends "mainstream" support for Office 2003 in addition to Windows XP Home and Professional. This means the software will no longer include no-charge incident support, warranty claims, design changes, and bug fixes not related to security. See the complete story here.Microsoft to patch Excel hole, seven others Submitted Thursday, April 09, 2009 @ 02:52 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) news.cnet.com -- Microsoft on Tuesday said next week's Patch Tuesday would include eight patches, five of them critical, including one addressing a vulnerability in Excel.
A company representative declined to confirm whether the patch for its spreadsheet software addresses a vulnerability that has seen "zero-day attacks" which target unpatched security holes. But given the fact that both that Excel vulnerability and the Excel patch slated for Tuesday affect Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007, as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for the Mac, it could be the same weakness. See the complete story here.Report: Microsoft relaxes Windows downgrade rules Submitted Thursday, April 09, 2009 @ 02:39 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) computerworld.com -- Microsoft Corp. has relaxed its "downgrade" rules and will let computer makers continue to sell PCs preinstalled with the aged Windows XP for as long as six months after it launches Windows 7, according to a report published Wednesday. See the complete story here.Microsoft Must Pay $388 Million To Settle Patent Claim Submitted Thursday, April 09, 2009 @ 02:37 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) informationweek.com -- Microsoft has been hit with one of the largest patent awards on record, as a jury on Thursday ordered the software maker to pay $388 million to a security vendor that claims Redmond misappropriated its technology. See the complete story here.Microsoft killing free XP support next week Submitted Thursday, April 09, 2009 @ 12:07 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) theregister.co.uk -- Microsoft will drop free support for handful of aging products next week, including consumer versions of Windows XP and Office 2003.
On April 14, the Redmond giant ends "mainstream" support for Office 2003 in addition to Windows XP Home and Professional. This means the software will no longer include no-charge incident support, warranty claims, design changes, and bug fixes not related to security. See the complete story here.Nanotouch technology shrinks touch-screen displays Submitted Wednesday, April 08, 2009 @ 12:14 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) computerworld.com -- Touch screens can only get so small before the user's fingers start to block most of the information on them, but a technology called nanotouch that's being developed by Microsoft Research and the Hasso Plattner Institut in Germany is designed to allow a touch-screen device to be controlled from its backside, preventing fingers from occluding the screen. See the complete story here.Spam overwhelms e-mail messages Submitted Wednesday, April 08, 2009 @ 12:10 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) news.bbc.co.uk -- More than 97% of all e-mails sent over the net are unwanted, according to a Microsoft security report.
The e-mails are dominated by spam adverts for drugs, and general product pitches and often have malicious attachments. See the complete story here.Microsoft helps keep Koobface virus off Facebook Submitted Thursday, April 02, 2009 @ 06:07 PM Microsoft company information - ( Microsoft News ) news.cnet.com -- Microsoft is working with Facebook to keep the persistent Koobface virus off the popular social-networking site, the companies said on Thursday.
"In working with Facebook, we were able to add detection of Koobface to our Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), which checks computers running Windows software to detect and remove viruses," Jeff Williams, a principal group program manager for the MRST, wrote in a guest post on the Facebook Blog. See the complete story here.
