Microsoft

Microsoft wraps up Vista update

Microsoft has wrapped up work on the second service pack update to Windows Vista, the company announced late Tuesday.

The update provides, among other things support for Bluetooth 2.1, an updated Windows search technology and the ability to natively record data to Blu-ray discs.

In a blog posting, the company said the update should be publicly available later this quarter. Microsoft is also ending a blocker tool that prevented computers from downloading Vista Service Pack 1, so those customers who had been using the tool will now see Vista SP1 offered via Windows Update.

The update has been in … Read more

Microsoft tightens Windows 7 security for USB drives

In the wake of the Conficker worm spreading via removable storage devices among other methods, Microsoft said on Tuesday it is making a change to the way Windows 7 handles USB drives.

As a result of the change, most USB drives will not be able to automatically launch a program using a Windows feature known as AutoRun, Microsoft said in a post on its Security Research & Defense Blog.

So, if an infected USB drive is inserted on a machine then the AutoRun task will not be displayed, Microsoft said.

Fixed removable media, such as CDs and DVDs will still … Read more

More on Windows 7's 'XP Mode'

Microsoft on Tuesday offered up a few more details on its once-secretive project to use virtualization to offer an "XP Mode" for Windows 7.

As noted on Friday, Microsoft is using its Virtual PC technology to allow Windows 7 users to run programs that work in Windows XP but not in Windows Vista. On Tuesday, it noted some more of the fine print regarding the product.

As far as technical requirements, XP Mode needs a beefier system than that required to just run Windows 7 or XP alone, including at least 2GB of memory and a system that … Read more

Report: Verizon, Microsoft working on 'Pink' phone

Updated 12:40 p.m. PDT with Microsoft comment.

Verizon executives sure seem busy this week: in addition to reported discussions with Apple over next-generation mobile devices, they're also supposedly talking to Microsoft about a smartphone.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Microsoft and Verizon are talking about launching "a touch-screen multimedia cell phone on the carrier's network early next year." The phone is supposedly based on the "Pink" software that had been rumored earlier this year as a combination of Windows Mobile and Zune software. Microsoft would likely get somebody else (HTC … Read more

Meet Vine, Microsoft's superhero software

With a new product called Vine, Microsoft is tackling the issue that, in the Digital Age, contact management is no longer static--where you are and what you're doing at a given moment can matter just as much as what your cell phone number is. But instead of focusing on roving business travelers, Vine's slant is community management and emergency preparedness. It's in a private beta test right now.

Here's how it works. You download a "dashboard" application, and then you log in with your Windows Live account. Its interface takes the form of a … Read more

'Linux Defenders' aim at Microsoft patents

A Linux advocacy group on Tuesday said it is publicly seeking invention data that could help overturn three Microsoft patents that the software maker has charged are infringed by some implementations of the Linux kernel.

The Open Invention Network said it is looking for examples of so-called prior art that could help invalidate three file management patents that Microsoft used in its suit against GPS maker TomTom. Although TomTom and Microsoft settled, the suit raised the specter that Microsoft might pursue other Linux-related companies.

OIN encouraged those with examples of earlier work in the areas covered by Microsoft's patents … Read more

Office 2007 adds Open Document support

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is releasing the second service pack update for Office 2007. The collection of minor updates is available for download.

The service pack includes a collection of stability and performance updates as well as support for more file formats including Open Document Format (ODF) and Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Microsoft had said last May that it would add support for the additional file formats.

The company had said to expect the service pack to arrive sometime between February and April.

In addition to the performance and stability tweaks, Microsoft added a few minor feature … Read more

Analyst changes tune on a Microsoft-Yahoo deal

Updated 10:30 a.m. PDT with comment relating to Yahoo's new management.

Throughout 2008's on-again, off-again talks between Yahoo and Microsoft, many financial analysts declared the belief that some sort of deal--either Microsoft acquiring Yahoo outright or later just its search business--was a matter of when, not if. One report released Tuesday, though, shows at least one change of view.

Jim Friedland of Cowen & Co. said the relative financial results of Yahoo and of Microsoft's online-services business (OSB) gives Microsoft a bad bargaining position. Specifically, he said operating revenue from advertising dropped 16 percent annually … Read more

Google CEO, Microsoft exec on Obama tech board

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie are among computing industry leaders who President Barack Obama named to a technology advisory panel Monday.

The executives are among the members of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council's three co-chairmen are John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, a Human Genome Project leader and director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, chief executive of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former head of the National Institutes of Health.

Schmidt already had close ties with the Obama camp. He was an adviser to the Obama campaign, campaigned for Obama, and is a member of the Transition Economic Advisory Board.

In related news, Obama announced in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that he wants to devote 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product to research and development.

Here's the White House's full list of board membership:

• Rosina Bierbaum, a widely-recognized expert in climate-change science and ecology, is Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. Her PhD is in evolutionary biology and ecology. She served as Associate Director for Environment in OSTP in the Clinton Administration, as well as Acting Director of OSTP in 2000-2001. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• Christine Cassel is President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and previously served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Oregon Health & Science University. A member of the US Institute of Medicine, she is a leading expert in geriatric medicine and quality of care.

• Christopher Chyba is Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences. His scientific work focuses on solar system exploration and his security-related research emphasizes nuclear and biological weapons policy, proliferation, and terrorism. He served on the White House staff from 1993 to 1995 at the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy and was awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship (2001) for his work in both planetary science and international security. … Read more