In-Depth Features


Microsoft Plays the Underdog Role in CRM

A dominant player in many categories of enterprise software, Microsoft is the scrappy little guy in a CRM market filled with big-name vendors. But the company is looking to scare its more established competitors by offering IT a set of enhanced applications.

Microsoft Looks for Management Dominance with System Center 2012

Microsoft is opening its management suite, already hugely popular in Microsoft shops, to handle third-party applications. The company hopes its huge customer base and the newfound flexibility of System Center will put the hurt on a raft of smaller competitors in the application-management market.

Q&A: Microsoft's Jared Spataro Talks First 10 Years of SharePoint

Microsoft's SharePoint director of product management talks with us about how the platform has evolved and what's in store for the future.

Top 4 Mistakes Sony Made with Its Network Outage

Sony is showing competing technology companies how not to handle an outage.

Top 19 Third-party Execs To Keep an Eye On

Check out who we think are the top leaders in the IT world (that aren't located in Redmond).

The Cloud vs. IT: Is Your Job in Jeopardy?

Everyone is pushing the cloud. But there's a raging debate as to whether the cloud is good or bad for IT. We talked to readers and analysts and other industry experts to find out what the cloud may really mean for your future, plus other implications of this emerging technology.

How-To: Performance Tuning Tips for a Windows Virtualized Environment

Virtualization has brought the lost art of performance tuning back into the datacenter. Here's how to tune your VMs and hypervisor, and optimize CPU resources and memory to get the most out of your virtual servers.

A Hyper-V Admin's Guide to VMware

IT professionals who work with Hyper-V on a regular basis might feel lost in a VMware environment, but some key similarities between the two offerings can provide a welcome sense of familiarity.

Top 7 Work-Related Windows Phone 7 Apps

So far, useful apps are hard to come by on Windows Phone 7 devices. But that doesn't mean there aren't any. Check out what apps we think are worth your time in the operating system's infancy.

10 Most Outrageous Steve Ballmer Performances: A Video Round-Up

Check out these videos highlighting Microsoft CEO's larger-than-life personality.

Unified Communications: Windows IT Pros Speak Out on Bringing It All Together

How hard is it to execute UC? Our readers who've done it share their take and offer tips for others trying to bring together voice with Microsoft Exchange, Office, OCS, Lync and more.

Q&A: Unified Communications Guru Joe Schurman

This Microsoft MVP talks all aspects of UC, from Microsoft's offerings like Lync to those of its competitors, plus cost considerations, team organization and more.

The Disappearing Windows Server GUI: The PowerShell Takeover

Knowing Windows PowerShell is no longer a bonus for IT professionals who work with Windows Server -- it's a requirement. As Windows PowerShell becomes more prominent, the Windows Server GUI is fading away.

Will Microsoft Reshape Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence has long been the domain of big companies with lots of resources. Microsoft wants to change that, but it faces a daunting task.

7 Amazing Microsoft Kinect Hacks

Microsoft's addon for the Xbox 360 isn't just for games. Check out what happens when the hardware falls into a modder's hands.

Microsoft's Answers to Questions About VDI, Windows ThinPC and Licensing

Microsoft ran an online Q&A on Thursday, answering questions about virtual desktop infrastructure, its new Windows Thin PC, plus general licensing questions.

Social Networking Compliance: A Guide for IT Teams

Social media has opened a whole new can of worms for companies, just as they were getting e-mail under control. Despite the challenges, it's possible to get social networking applications under control, too.

'Execudus' in Redmond: Top Microsoft Execs Get Out

Microsoft has famously lost -- or ousted -- eight top executives since 2008, including luminaries Ray Ozzie and Jeff Raikes. The change of leadership might have questionable long-term effects, but isn't likely to change much in Redmond for the time being. Here's why.

Random IT Fun: Who We'd Cast for a Microsoft Movie

From a young Bill Gates and crew to competing CEOs like Apple's Steve Jobs and VMware's Paul Maritz, here's our picks for the tech casting couch.

DFS Best Practices: How To Ditch Windows File Replication Service

It's time to ditch File Replication Service and move completely to Distributed File System.

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