Beyond Binary

Bill Gates confirmed that Microsoft will call its next browser Internet Explorer 8, though Microsoft isn't sharing much else, such as the obvious questions: When will it arrive and what features will it have?

The confirmation came during his speech at the "Mix and Mash" conference taking place this week in Redmond, Wash. In a posting on the IE blog, Microsoft general manager Dean Hachamovitch jokes about some of the names Microsoft ruled out, such as "IE 7+1" and "IEVIII."

But, seriously, folks don't care about the name. They care about … Read more

Microsoft said Wednesday that it is working to develop a version of XP that can run on computers without a hard drive, including the XO computer from One Laptop Per Child.

In a statement, Microsoft said that it will start "limited field trials" of XP running on the OLPC computer in January. If all goes well, Microsoft said it could have XP running on the XO by the second half of next year. However, it cautioned folks in North America, particularly those taking part in the Give One, Get One program, that it has no plans to offer … Read more

Microsoft on Tuesday said that it has reached the "release candidate" with the first service pack for Windows Vista, with plans to make the test software available publicly next week.

It is releasing the test code this week to the 15,000 or so people who have been beta testing SP1 already, and will also make it available on Thursday to those in the MSDN and TechNet developer programs.

"We feel really good and we look forward to receiving feedback from our larger set of testers," said David Zipkin, a senior product manager on the Windows … Read more

Microsoft has reached another milestone on the road to the release of Windows Server 2008.

On Wednesday, the company made available the Release Candidate 1 version of the software and promised the final version will be ready in time for the product's February 27 launch. Microsoft plans to launch the product, along with SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, at an event in Los Angeles.

The event is themed "Heroes happen here" and is planned as a love fest celebrating all the work done by the IT crowd. The software maker also said it will spend … Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--George Stathakopoulos is not one to mince words--or pause between them.

Whether extolling the virtues of Nikon cameras, explaining why Greek olive oil is the best in the world, or talking security, Stathakopoulos has plenty to say and is in quite a hurry to say it all.

A couple of years back, the Microsoft general manager was slated to give a security chat in Japan to a group of engineers, developers, and partners.

As he was rehearsing his speech, one of his Japanese colleagues implored him to slow down. "You speak so fast," Stathakopoulos was told. &… Read more

For many of the security researchers who trek to Microsoft's twice-yearly Blue Hat conference, one of the big highlights doesn't happen until after the event itself ends. The Limo Races--a scavenger hunt through Seattle that teams Microsoft security folks with outside researchers--have become a Blue Hat tradition.

Blue Hat itself, and the Limo Races, are part of a broad effort by Microsoft to forge closer relationships with the security community. The role of those relationships in Microsoft's security strategy is the topic of Day 2 of my special report: "Securing Microsoft: A long road." Monday, … Read more

Microsoft said Monday that it's seeing piracy rates for Windows Vista that are half those of Windows XP.

Now cynical me wanted to write this up as "even pirates prefer XP two to one over Vista," but that wouldn't be fair. In reality, the decline in piracy rates is largely due to the fact that Vista is much tougher to counterfeit than XP.

"Piracy rates are lower because it's harder," Microsoft Vice President Mike Sievert said in an interview Monday.

There are a variety of reasons for that, including the fact that businesses … Read more

Microsoft said Monday that it has expanded its testing of Windows XP Service Pack 3, to include subscribers of its MSDN and TechNet programs. Last month, Microsoft made available a test version of XP Service Pack 3 to a group of about 15,000 testers.

The update is significant in that it is the largest change in some time to Microsoft's most-used operating system. However, the XP update is largely a collection of previously issued bug fixes and security updates.

A public beta is scheduled for some later date, with a goal of having it released in final form … Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--Tired of having to fight for a free conference room, Microsoft's security chief, Mike Nash, decided in early 2005 that the company needed a dedicated "war room" where his team could handle emergency responses.

And while he was at it, why not have two? That way, the folks working on fixing a security crisis could have a little breathing room from those drafting the public and customer communications around the issue.

"They were tired of the communications people hearing of things that were half-baked," Nash said.

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) was … Read more