Flash memory stick makers are showing off USB drives at Computex that have been certified to work with Windows Vista's ReadyBoot and ReadyBoost functions, which improve boot-up times and the software start-up speeds in PCs.
The certification has been done to ensure users know exactly which flash devices they can use for the function, although it's not necessary. Windows Vista can scan any USB flash device and determine on its own if the device is fast enough and has the correct capacity to work with ReadyBoot and ReadyBoost.
The next "Patch Tuesday" will also be "Upgrade Tuesday" for admins, as Microsoft releases Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 through Automatic Updates.
SP2 has been out since March 13, which was also a Patch Tuesday. Patch Tuesday is when Microsoft releases security patches for all its products. It's always the second Tuesday of each month. This is the first time, however, it will automatically be pushed to users.
That doesn't mean it will be automatically installed, however. Admins will still have to go through the standard process of accepting the End-User License Agreement and go through the Welcome screen before installation begins, according to a notice on the Windows Server Division blog. Admins also have the option of blocking the update through a toolkit specifically released for blocking the SP2 update.
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and one of the world's wealthiest individuals, introduced Harvard graduates June 7 to a new "Creative Capitalism," and encouraged them to build a concept of reward and profit that encourages governments and businesses to do the right thing.
Gates, in a prepared address at Harvard's 356th Commencement, focused on the inequities of the world and challenged students to find new ways that would encourage business leaders and governments to apply the wealth of discoveries and technology at our disposal to the people and places it fails to reach.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Microsoft have announced a partnership to set up PC refurbishment centers in Africa.
These centers are designed to help address the hardware, software and training needs of entrepreneurs with small and midsize businesses, with the ultimate goal of producing a refurbishment model that can be used as a best practice across Africa.
The project is a joint initiative to help bridge the gap between large corporations disposing of their used computers and entrepreneurs in Africa who can use these PCs to help grow their operations.
Microsoft inked another cross-licensing patent agreement Wednesday, this time with South Korea's LG Electronics, covering the company's Linux-based embedded devices.
As part of the deal, LG, one of the world's largest electronics companies, can use undefined "patented Microsoft technology" in its products, including Linux-based devices.
The agreement also covers intellectual property contained in other hardware and software products, such as game consoles.
LG is a manufacturer of CDMA, GSM, and 3G handsets; IP phones; plasma TVs; optical storage products; PDAs; notebook computers; DVD players; and home theater systems, among other electronic products.
Microsoft usually tries to wow Xbox 360 video gamers with the latest, greatest thing. The company's newest weapon is 27 years old: Pac-Man.
Microsoft, trying to gobble up older gamers who grew up dodging Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde to a "wakka wakka wakka" soundtrack, on Tuesday unveiled the first new Pac-Man mazes since 1981. The company will sell them as part of "Pac-Man Championship Edition" for the Xbox 360, Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft has trailed Nintendo Co.'s Wii console in U.S. sales for the past four months as Wii lures more of the younger and older gamers that elude Microsoft's Xbox 360. Many of the Xbox 360's current customers weren't born when helping Pac-Man snag Power Pellets and fruit at the local arcade was the rage.
Microsoft's subscription-based desktop management program is adding another branch to its tree, in the form of error monitoring to help with crashes.
Windows Vista senior product manager Alex Heaton, on the Vista Team blog, announced today that System Center Desktop Error Monitoring has been added to the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. Error monitoring gives IT admins a central way to gather and analyze data when an application or OS hangs or crashes "so they can more quickly identify and resolve problems," he wrote.
Microsoft this week released a preview of a new software development kit for use with the Open XML standards native to Office 2007.
The company said the SDK is meant to streamline development chores for coders creating Office Business Applications. It contains instructional articles and sample code regarding a number of tasks, including programmatic document creation; tweaking document properties; and working with custom XML within documents. The release coincided with the start of Microsoft's Tech Ed conference in Orlando, Fla.
Microsoft released tools to help companies deploy Windows Vista, acknowledging that there are deployment and application-compatibility pains enterprise IT managers face when updating business desktops to the new OS.
The company unveiled the new tools, Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs and Virtual Hard Drive Test Drive, at the TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando Tuesday. The first helps IT administrators set encryption policies for laptops in an enterprise using the encrypting file system and new Bitlocker features of Windows Vista, said Stella Chernyak, a Vista product manager at Microsoft. The second is a file that can be downloaded from the Internet that allows enterprises to run a virtual version of Vista on PCs for a 30-day evaluation period to see how it will interact with other applications in their systems.
Word that Microsoft had a crack team of developers in Silicon Valley working on a cutting-edge search project is news to the company's head of search and advertising.
"When they get it done, I hope they'll send me a link to it so I'll know about it," Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of Microsoft's search and advertising platform group, jokingly said late on Monday at the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle.
He was responding to a question about a rumor making the rounds online that a team of engineers at Microsoft's Mountain View office is working on a new search engine to replace its existing one.