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The head of Microsoft's Research division explains how future applications will be much more personal.

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Bank One, the nation's sixth-biggest bank holding company, has struck a $30 million deal to use Microsoft products and services, giving a boost to the software giant's emerging Internet services and business products, the companies said Friday. The three-year deal calls for Bank One to use Microsoft's .Net technology to build services that could, for example, deliver account billing or investment data to customers over a variety of devices, executives said. Bank One also will promote Microsoft's Great Plains software for small businesses as well as its bCentral Web site that offers Internet-based services for small companies, they said.

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Microsoft has won a patent for an anti-piracy operating system. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the patent Tuesday. Analysts said the significance of the patent was unclear, given the complexities of intellectual property law. But some downplayed the patent's importance, noting that many of the claims appear related to technology from rival InterTrust Technologies--a company that has sued Microsoft for patent infringement over its so-called digital rights management software.

Microsoft named two compliance officers Thursday in anticipation of concluding its antitrust settlement with the Justice Department and nine of 18 states. Odell Guyton, 46, a former federal prosecutor, will become Microsoft's director of compliance, overseeing the company's compliance assurance program, as required under the proposed consent decree. Guyton most recently served as a compliance officer at University of Pennsylvania. He was a prosecutor for 12 years, five of them as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Justice Department. David Dadoun, 37, a former Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcement lawyer, will serve as internal antitrust compliance officer to administer the company's antitrust compliance program.

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A security hole in software from Sun Microsystems Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. could allow malicious hackers to take control of powerful servers running in many corporations and universities, security experts said on Wednesday. Internet Security Systems Inc. researchers have uncovered evidence in Internet chat rooms that hackers have already started developing tools to take advantage of the vulnerability, said Dan Ingevaldson, a team leader at ISS' X-Force research and development lab.

As a special thank-you to customers of the Windows XP operating system, Microsoft Corp. today announced the new Windows Media Bonus Pack for Windows XP, available immediately for free* via download through WindowsMedia.com. This special edition bonus pack offers fans of the digital media features in Microsoft® Windows XP a collection of cool utilities, Powertoys, striking visualizations, new "skins," sound effects and tools to further enhance the digital media experience.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that its award-winning SOAP-based enterprise application integration (EAI), B2B and business process automation server, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000, has surpassed 800 customers in the product's first year. This milestone makes BizTalk one of the fastest-growing integration servers on the market and puts it head and shoulders above other niche integration vendors that are struggling with economic viability.

Microsoft on Thursday released the first major collection of bug fixes for its Office XP business software. The 17MB update, Service Pack 1, is supposed to enhance Office XP's performance, security and stability, while fixing a wide range of glitches, Microsoft said. The download for system administrators, which includes additional tools, is 40MB. The service pack also consolidates other separately released enhancements and fixes, such as Outlook 2002 security updates. Microsoft regularly releases consolidated bug-fix updates for its products. Office 2000, for example, is currently at Service Pack 2. Microsoft issued the second major update to Windows 2000 in May.

Microsoft on Thursday said a technology standards body has endorsed programming tools key to expanding the appeal of the company's .Net Web services plan. Microsoft said the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), an international technology standards organization, has ratified Microsoft's C# (pronounced "see sharp"), a Java-like programming language, along with a component of its .Net Web services framework called the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). That means that C# and the CLI are now officially standards administered by ECMA. But Microsoft will retain control over who gets to license the technology and how it will be distributed, a company spokesman said.