Microsoft

Microsoft plans to stop selling Microsoft Money, its venerable, but not market-leading personal finance program, CNET News has learned.

The software maker has been notifying financial institutions and plans to announce the move to customers over the next 24 hours via a posting on its Web site and a notification in the software. Although Microsoft will stop selling the product at the end of June, it plans to support it through January 2011.

After that point, people can continue to use the product, but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card … Read more

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is spinning out as a separate business a two year-old effort that licenses its software protection technologies to other companies.

In the past two years, Microsoft has signed up 120 companies to use the software activation and licensing technologies, including its own eHome unit. But it decided creating an independent company was the way to go.

The new venture, dubbed InishTech, will be based in Ireland. Microsoft will retain a stake in the company as well as an observer seat on its board of directors. Microsoft also plans to be a customer of the … Read more

Apple and Microsoft are fighting for the mindshare of consumers as both companies prepare to roll out upgrades to their operating systems later this year.

Apple on Monday showed Worldwide Developers Conference attendees Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X. Apple has been very open about the fact that Snow Leopard is meant to be an under-the-hood maintenance release, focusing on performance enhancements to the operating system.

Windows 7 is essentially Microsoft's maintenance release for Vista, that according to many accounts was a failure for the company. Putting aside all of the back and forth between … Read more

Microsoft is getting a bit of a Bing-related bump, according to some early figures from market researcher ComScore.

According to ComScore, Microsoft upped its search share to 11.1 percent last week, as compared to 9.1 percent the prior week. Some of that gain came from the fact that more people were using Microsoft.

Microsoft's engine had 15.5 percent daily penetration, as opposed to 13.8 percent in the prior week.

Earlier data also showed Microsoft off to a solid start with its revamped search engine. Of course, the real issue is whether Microsoft can make the … Read more

Updated 10:50 a.m. PDT: Added pricing information.

SAN FRANCISCO--While Microsoft is trying to position Windows 7 as an exciting new version of the operating system, Apple on Monday tried to characterize it as the same old Windows.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference here, Apple's Bertrand Serlet said the underpinnings of Windows 7 include the same complexities that have been in the past versions of the operating system.

"That's Windows 7," he said. "Fundamentally, it's just another version of Windows Vista."

Serlet tried to draw a contrast between … Read more

Microsoft's top Windows business executive said Monday that for all his excitement about Windows 7, he doubts the release of the operating system will lead to a significant spike in PC sales.

"History would tell us that generally as you ship a Windows release into the market...the bump is very modest," Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte said in a "fireside chat" at the UBS Global Technology and Services Conference. "You will see a little bit, but it is modest."

Veghte announced last week that Microsoft plans to ship Windows 7 on Oct. 22. … Read more

The first retail sales of Windows 7 will take place in New Zealand and Australia on 22 October, Microsoft confirmed this week.

Windows 7 will hit first New Zealand, then Australia, due to the countries' placement with respect to the International Date Line. Microsoft announced last week that its new operating system would hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs from October 22.

"Our understanding at this time is that the availability of Windows 7 will 'follow the sun' on Thursday October 22," a Microsoft spokesperson said late this week. "As such, we're … Read more

Engadget brightened up a slow news day on Friday with a leaked memo from Best Buy that offers a number of Windows 7 details.

Most notable is the fact that the memo puts a date on when people can start buying Vista-based machines and qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. According to the memo, June 26 is the magic date--and I'm hearing that date is correct.

The memo also says that on June 26, Best Buy will start preselling upgrade versions of Windows 7 Home Premium for $49 and Windows 7 Professional for $99 via its Web … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Ray Ozzie tends to see things much like a Seattle meteorologist--always cloudy.

Making a trip to sunny Silicon Valley, Ozzie addressed Silicon Valley's Churchill Club, outlining the transformational role that cloud computing will play.

As he discussed that vision, moderator Steven Levy asked if Microsoft itself was sufficiently cloudy when he had arrived.

"The Hailstorm had passed," Ozzie quipped, making a reference to Microsoft's widely panned first attempt to offer cloud services.

In seriousness, though, Ozzie said that Microsoft wasn't really cloud-focused when he joined the company, following Microsoft's purchase of … Read more