Microsoft

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit claiming an online software operator breached nine of its patents. The general reaction thus far is that the case has much to do about trying to deter a business competitor, rather than protecting genuine innovation. ... The case is against Salesforce.com, a company which offers customer management services: its slogan is that it is "the enterprise cloud-computing company", an idea borne out by its phone number, 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE. Most of Salesforce's products are based on marketing campaigns and tracking sales leads, putting it directly in competition with Microsoft ... (view more)

An independent software company is offering a program it says will smooth the process of upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 7. But there are questions about whether or not it breaches Microsoft licensing conditions. The package, called Desktop ... Upgrade to Windows, comes from Parallels. The firm specializes in virtualization software, most notably a package allowing Mac users to run Windows, which can be particularly useful for those making the leap from a PC to a Mac. The software aims to deal with two major upgrading headaches: one is that, with the exception of moving from one edition of ... (view more)

A new security flaw in Microsoft's very popular Windows 7 operating system (OS) could open users up to a remote code execution and denial-of-service attack, Microsoft said in a security advisory on Tuesday evening. The vulnerability affects only ... 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. The flaw affects the Canonical Display Driver, or CDD.DLL, used in the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) and DirectX drawing. The vulnerability is tied to the graphics system's desktop composition process. (Source: zdnet.com ) Microsoft: Remote Code Attack "Unlikely" Luckily, it ... (view more)

The curse of Windows Vista may have finally come to an end. Recently, Microsoft not only regained their lost customer satisfaction rating, but also managed to attain their highest rating to date, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index ... (ACSI) survey. All signs are pointing to Windows 7 as being the reason for the happy Microsoft customers. Vista Customer Satisfaction Rate Low Microsoft had much to lose with the release of Windows 7, especially since Vista was considered by many to be a marketing flop. The reaction to Vista became so negative that many credit it as the reason ... (view more)

Google has dismissed Microsoft's claims that Google Docs is a failure, and says to use that the argument simply highlights Microsoft's proprietary tactics. The dispute comes as both sides step up their online cloud computing battle . Microsoft is in ... the midst of releasing its free online-only edition of its forthcoming Office 2010. Meanwhile, Google already has online document editing via its Google Docs service (plus the paid professional version Google Apps), and is heavily promoting that as an alternative to Office 2010. Microsoft: Google Docs Falls Short Indeed, it even said using Google ... (view more)

Microsoft isn't afraid it might jinx itself with bold sales predictions for its upcoming Office 2010 . In a recent interview, one company representative said they expect Office 2010 to be the most rapidly-adopted Office software yet. Why the bold ... predictions? Well, you can forgive Microsoft for being a bit arrogant -- after all, Windows 7 has virtually flown off shelves, to the point where it's nabbed the number two position in the world amongst currently-used operating systems, just behind Windows XP. At least one Microsoft executive thinks all that Win7 love is bound to spread to the ... (view more)

Microsoft is set to launch their latest software suite, Microsoft Office 2010, which is slated to be released next month. (Source: wikipedia.org ) In an effort to compete with Google's 'Google Docs' software, however, Microsoft is releasing an ... alternative version of Microsoft Office, called Office Web Apps . The Office Web Apps version is available to the public at no charge, but will be supported by advertisements instead of a per-user license fee. Google Docs, Google Apps, compared to MS Office Google Docs is essentially a stripped-down version of a web-based word processing, spreadsheet ... (view more)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has refused to confirm reports that it has cancelled work on a Windows-based tablet computer. In addition, its website still includes promotional material for the device, known as the Slate. Rumors suggested the firm encountered ... several problems with the device: Windows 7 apparently ran slowly and didn't convert well to a touch screen interface, while the Slate's Intel processor soaked up too much power, which could have made a practical battery life difficult to achieve. However, several analysts have noted that posts on an HP blog which deal with the device are still ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed earlier reports that Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will not run on XP . That's prompted speculation that the company may be using the browser as a way to encourage users to upgrade to Windows 7. Some sources speculated that a ... future update to either the browser or operating system might alter the lack of support for Microsoft's current #1 operating system (OS). But this week Microsoft's Giorgio Sardo confirmed IE9 will never run on Windows XP. Going by the statistics, it seems an odd decision to not have the browser on XP. Even though Windows XP is nine years old and has ... (view more)

Just five weeks after it was forced to release an emergency patch for a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft may again have to consider yet another out-of-schedule fix for an unaddressed problem with its software. In the meantime, the ... upcoming May Patch Tuesday (due next week) addresses just two "critical" issues. Microsoft typically releases a batch of fixes for various software issues and security threats affecting its products on the second Tuesday of every month. In past months, the number of fixes offered have ranged from high to low: in March, the number of vulnerabilities ... (view more)