News


Microsoft Works to Sharpen its Small Business Focus

Microsoft has always tried to nab every sale it can, but it hasn’t always been great about servicing the SMB channels, particularly channels for small businesses. That’s changing, according to senior Microsoft officials, or at the least, the company is renewing its emphasis on those smaller customers.

Microsoft Buys Alacris

Microsoft this week acquired certificate management and identity assurance software provider, Alacris Inc. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

IT Weekly Roundup, Sept. 16

From the business wires this week: a beta desktop virtualization software, an e-mail storage software suite and a KVM-over-IP device for remote management of servers.

Report: Microsoft in Talks to Buy Stake in AOL

Microsoft is in talks with Time Warner about buying a stake in the media giant's AOL unit, according to reports in the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal Thursday.

Six Benefits Enhanced or Added to Software Assurance

Microsoft volume licensing customers who sign up for Software Assurance will get Windows "Eiger," Virtual PC Express and Windows Vista Enterprise Edition among other new benefits. Most of the benefits start in March.

Windows Sidebar Makes a Comeback

Microsoft's on-again, off-again Windows Sidebar feature, a prominent new interface element that could make it into the Windows Vista desktop, is definitely on again.

Partners Step Up for Katrina Relief Effort

Microsoft has been pushing the idea of partners helping other partners for some time now, as has the IAMCP.

Version 2 Posted of Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4

Microsoft on Tuesday posted version 2 of the Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 less than three months after originally releasing the security-focused update. The new version addresses four serious problems with the original Update Rollup but does not fix several issues with prominent third-party software.

Microsoft, Google Both Claim Victory with Judge’s Ruling

Tuesday’s highly-anticipated ruling by the judge hearing Microsoft’s ongoing lawsuit against Google was a bittersweet irony with both sides declaring victory. The suit itself will grind on until trial early next year, however.

NuView Aims to Speed File Restores

NuView will ship in the next month a new product aimed at providing fast, on-demand file restoration following a failure or for routine maintenance.

Database Mirroring Not Ready for Production When SQL Server 2005 Ships

When SQL Server 2005 is released to manufacturing in the next few months, Microsoft will take the exceptional step of designating one of its high-profile features as being intended for evaluation only.

'Monad' Beta Widely Available

Microsoft posted a second beta of its "Monad" shell, the interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology that appears to be on a separate timetable from the Windows Vista release.

Microsoft Handing Out Vista CTP at PDC, More CTPs on the Way

Microsoft is distributing a Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista to attendees at its Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles this week. The September Vista CTP, loaded with new features, comes fast on the heels of Windows Vista Beta 1.

Office 12 to Sport a New UI

Microsoft showed off Office 12 publicly for the first time on Tuesday, featuring user interface changes that the company describes as the "biggest, most visible change to the way the core Office applications work since the introduction of the toolbar in 1997."

Sun to Ship New x86 Servers

Sun Microsystems introduced three new AMD Opteron x64-based servers this week – servers it says begin a new generation of 64-bit x86, multi-core systems. To round out the offering, the company announced four new storage products as well.

Microsoft Cancels Only Security Patch Planned for September

Due to quality concerns, Microsoft cancelled the release of a critical security bulletin for Windows that was supposed to be posted on Tuesday.

Microsoft's Near-Term Storage Strategy

When it comes to storage, Microsoft has several important enhancements in its product lineup. One is the Windows Server 2003 R2 release, which will bring a number of new storage features to the server OS. The other is a brand new product for backup and restore that launches at the end of this month.

WinFS' Groove Factor

Whenever Microsoft talked about WinFS in the past, the emphasis was on the technology's usefulness for search and file navigation.

Microsoft Still Quiet on Server Piece of WinFS

After acknowledging the need for a server-side piece of WinFS a year ago, Microsoft is quiet about it for now.

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