Archive for the ‘Windows OS’ Category

I can’t remember if I posted this on any of my sites yet.

Microsoft Corp. is expected to announce a major revamp of its phone software Monday, in an attempt to regain momentum in a crucial market where it’s been overshadowed.

CEO Steve Ballmer will be speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the world’s largest cell phone trade show, and analysts expect him to reveal Windows Mobile 7. The software could be in phones by late this year.

One question. Microsoft still writes phone software? Wow. Didn’t see that coming.

I’m as suspicious of Microsoft as the next guy, but spyware? Really?

A judge dismissed a lawsuit that was filed against Microsoft over its much-criticized Windows Genuine Advantage program in 2006.

The judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on Thursday dismissed the case with prejudice, leaving each party to pay its own lawyer fees. In a statement, Microsoft said it was pleased the case was “resolved successfully.” It did not say whether it agreed to any kind of settlement arrangement.

The suit essentially characterized WGA as spyware, charging Microsoft with failing to describe the tool’s functions before downloading it onto the plaintiffs’ computers. WGA was designed to determine whether a user’s version of Windows was pirated. It sent regular information back to Microsoft about user’s hardware and software and warned users of piracy violations.

It’s time to find some cheap health insurance for Windows Mobile.

The iPhone has leapfrogged Windows Mobile to jump into the number two position for smartphone platforms in the United States. That news could be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back for the floundering Windows Mobile operating system.

The latest ComScore report shows that Windows Mobile market share is stagnant for the year. After climbing to 7 million users in May, Windows Mobile market share dropped precipitously to 6.6 million in July, then scratched its way back to 7.1 million in October–most likely due to the release of Windows Mobile 6.5.

At this rate, within a year or so Windows Mobile won’t be around to bring the blue screen of death to the device in your pocket.

Microsoft is having a pretty hard time killing off Windows XP. Once upon a time, you could reliably count on Microsoft to release a new version of DOS and then Windows every few years. The new versions typically offered significant improvements in speed and stability as well as new features. But a funny thing happened with Windows XP. Many users found it was good enough for daily use — even 8 years after the operating system was launched.

If these companies would make products people like to use (such as Windows XP) and stop trying to stuff money into their cash drawer, they might realize there’s more money in making reliable products than garbage to upgrade every couple of years.

Will May 5th, 2009 be forever known as Blue Tuesday?

Ok gang, it looks like we may finally have an honest-to-goodness release date for the Windows 7 RC: May 5, 2009.

A page has been posted on Microsoft’s partner portal which tells MSDN and Technet subscribers that they can download the RC now, though that doesn’t appear to be true just yet. Clicking through to the downloads page still only displays the Windows 7 Beta downloads.

True or false? Will Microsoft make the deadline or should we just send all of their marketing people to drug rehab instead? Then again, if they release it, and it really works, maybe the President will invite them to a winner’s dinner at the White House…

Get this. When Windows 7 is released, users will be able to downgrade back to XP or Vista, but those who purchase Windows 7 won’t be able to upgrade from XP to Windows 7.

Windows XP is turning out to be the operating system that will not die. Microsoft had planned to phase out the OS a while back, but extended its life because Windows Vista is too resource-heavy to run on low powered computers like netbooks, which are taking the world by storm right now. You can’t walk into a store and buy a retail copy of Windows XP anymore, but you can purchase a netbook with the operating system, and under some circumstances you can purchase a computer that normally ships with Windows Vista and have it downgraded to XP for no additional cost.

Weird. Microsoft is so weird. It’s almost as if you need membership cards to understand their way of thinking.

Heads up people.

Microsoft will end official free support for Windows XP Home Edition and Microsoft Office 2003 on April 14th. That doesn’t mean the help center on your computer will stop working, but you won’t be able to get free answers to your questions from Microsoft anymore. You will be able to pay for extended support for both products through 2014.

This goes for people using desktop systems as well as a notebook computer. I am not sure that I have ever met anyone that actually uses the Help Center on Windows XP, but heck, I bet they’re upset now.

Fresh out the door, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 are complaining of glitches one day after the IE8 final build was made available at noon Eastern time on Thursday. Dozens of posters are complaining about printing from Web sites, search functions, and disappearing images.

The browser, which was supposed to make navigating a Web site easier and faster by adding a new favorites bar, address bar, and tabs bar, is instead making the user experience not so easy.

And this surprises who? Anyone, who’s anyone, especially anyone who enjoys the wine of the month knows that this is just another typical Microsoft release.

Developers just got used to all the quirks of IE7 and now they have IE8 on their hands. Wonderful.

Microsoft publicly launched Internet Explorer 8 on Thursday, the latest version of its market-dominating Web browser.

The application, an integral part of Microsoft’s eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system, could be downloaded from Microsoft’s Web site beginning at 9 a.m. Pacific time, free for people using licensed Microsoft operating systems.

IE8, as it is commonly referred to, has been in public beta testing for about a year, but Thursday’s launch marks its full public rollout.

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) released three updates in its Patch Tuesday report, plugging a total of eight security holes, including a critical image flaw that allowed hackers to launch malicious attacks remotely.

Altogether, the March patch bundle addressed critical vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel and errors ranked “important” in the DNS and WINS servers and Secure Channel that could enable hackers to commit identity theft by redirecting users to spoofed Web sites.

However, the March patch bundle did not include a fix for an actively exploited Microsoft Office Excel vulnerability that allowed hackers to launch malware attacks via infected spreadsheet files.

Why is there always one thing Microsoft forgets to fix?