As Microsoft begins to beta test version 5 of Windows Messenger, which is aimed at business communication, the company is also prepping a major upgrade to MSN Messenger sporting more consumer oriented features. MSN Messenger 6 brings an overhauled user interface that matches the new MSN browser. New gaming functionality enables users to play Zone.com games such as checkers and double solitaire from within the Messenger client.
"MSN delivers innovative technology such as Shared Browsing with MSN Messenger today, and it will raise the bar further with exciting new services when we unveil our next version this summer," said Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN.
A new mass-mailing e-mail worm, which feigns a Microsoft.com origin, is spreading rapidly. Antivirus vendors say it can also spread via a local area network and can install spyware on a victim's PC. The Palyh, or Mankx, worm appears to come from support@microsoft.com, a forged address. It contains a file which, upon execution, self-propagates using e-mail addresses from files stored on the targeted system, but which can also spread to other Windows machines on a local area network (LAN). Although the file has a .pi or .pif extension, it is an .exe file. And because Windows processes files according to their internal structure than their extension, Windows runs the file as soon as the person double-clicks on it.
Copper River salmon aren't the only carefully handled, rich creatures flown to Seattle in early May. It's also time for Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' CEO Summit, an annual event that brings more than 100 corporate leaders to Redmond to discuss technology trends with Gates and each other. Those attending spend most of their time at Microsoft's on-campus conference center, but they also dine at the Gates mansion in Medina, where Copper River salmon have been on the menu in years past.
Microsoft threw its weight behind SCO Group's battle against Linux Monday by declaring that it would license Unix technology from SCO in order to "ensure intellectual property compliance across all Microsoft solutions." Microsoft's license covers a patent and source code from Unix.
SCO claims that the Linux kernel holds Unix intellectual property owned by SCO. The company has moved to hold IBM responsible, unleashing a $1 billion lawsuit against the company for misappropriation of trade secrets (though not copyright infringement, to date). Still, the company has conceded that some of the alleged Unix code in the Linux kernel predates IBM's involvement with the operating platform, and has warned commercial Linux users that they may be held liable for using it.
Much of Longhorn's most significant improvements will be in its basic design and inner workings. Microsoft is also developing a new security technology, code-named Palladium, which is widely expected to be a part of Longhorn. Palladium will allow Microsoft to secure information passing through software and, more significantly, hardware. For example, Microsoft could encrypt keyboard strokes passing through the cable connecting the keyboard and the PC, making it difficult to find out a secret password or eavesdrop on sensitive information.
A new file system allowing the operating system to store data more efficiently will also be a core part of Longhorn's design, Microsoft has said. That system, based on database technology, is aimed at facilitating storage of different types of files, which are automatically categorized, and also making it easier to manage files without using folders. The new file system will also make it easier to store and retrieve data in different locations, such as on a server or another computer in a different location.
Expanding its push into midsize companies, Microsoft has given one of its distributors that is focused on that market exclusive rights to resell special versions of some of its server software products. Distributor Avnet Hall-Mark, a unit of Avnet, is the only company in Microsoft's OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) distributor channel authorized to sell OEM versions of Application Center 2000, BizTalk Server 2002, SQL Server 2000 and the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA), Microsoft said.
The OEM versions come with tools that system builders use to install the products, and they must be sold installed on a server. The OEM versions offer certain "cost advantages" to the distributor and its VAR (value added reseller) partners compared to other versions of the products, an Avnet official said, although he declined to elaborate.
Microsoft's readying its next big Visual Studio release that (at least for now) is expected in 2004. Now that Microsoft has got its "Everett" release of Visual Studio .Net out the door, what's next for its integrated developer-tool suite? "Whidbey" is the code name for the release of Visual Studio that's expected to ship in 2004. Microsoft - and sources close to the company - have offered a few hints where it's going with the next major upgrade to the suite.
Whidbey will be joined at the hip with "Yukon," the next version of SQL Server, Microsoft execs have acknowledged. While Yukon feasibly could ship without Whidbey, or Whidbey without Yukon, Microsoft's plan is to roll the two out in tandem, the way it rolled out Visual Studio .Net 2003 alongside Windows Server 2003.
Who will emerge as the king of the desktop OS jungle: Apple's Panther or Microsoft's Longhorn?
Sorry, Linux desktop fans: When it comes to desktop operating systems, it's currently a two-way race between Windows and the Mac OS. While Microsoft's market share dwarfs Apple's, the GUI diehards have keep each other busy for nearly two decades-and end users have regularly reaped the benefits of that competition, thanks to upgrades designed to top the competition's features and performance.
This week, the cross-platform debate's been hot and heavy. Is Microsoft racing to catch up to Panther, the Mac OS X upgrade due to roll out at June's Worldwide Developers Conference? Should Apple be running scared after Microsoft's demos of its Longhorn OS at last week's Windows Hardware Engineering conference?
If you need to change the product key on either a single or multiple Windows XP machines, here are some pointers. For most Windows XP installs, you'll never need to worry about the validity of the product key assigned to your copy of the OS. However, software does tend to get installed without authorisation, even in the most carefully managed shops, and so from time to time you may need to reset the XP product key. For example, perhaps a user installed a pirated copy of XP but now wants to go legal.
According to Web usage researcher WebSideStory, Windows XP is now being used by more than one-third of Internet users worldwide, making it by far the most popular operating system in use on the Web. As of early May, Windows XP had a global Web usage share of nearly 35 percent, about 10 percentage points higher than the next most popular version, Windows 98, according to WebSideStory. However, the firm notes that Windows 98 reached this usage percentage in one-third the time, "Windows XP's slower adoption rate on the Web may reflect a downshift in consumer's willingness to upgrade operating systems since the launch of Windows 98," said Geoff Johnston, the vice president of product marketing for HitBox StatMarket.