Microsoft - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• New zero-day attack doubles concern for IE users

  Microsoft today warned of a serious security vulnerability in a Spreadsheet ActiveX control that could allow for a drive-by-download attack against vulnerable PCs.

• Is Office 2010 Really The Best Microsoft Can Do?

  From what's been reported so far, I don't see much to like about Office 2010. The discussion thus far has lacked a single "killer feature" that makes me want to plunk down a few hundred dollars for an Office that seems only a teensy bit better than what I am already using.

• Microsoft Office 2010: A Simple FAQ

  Microsoft is expanding its horizons with its newly revealed Office 2010 software suite. The updated Office will be available in two separate formats: a traditional PC-based edition and a completely Web-based version. Both products are expected to be released in the first half of 2010.

• Microsoft Office 2010 is unlikely to excite CIOs

  Microsoft is preparing to show off Office 2010 this week at its Professional Developers Conference. The vendor must feel that it is running out of features to add to the hugely successful bucket of desktop applications, or angles to pitch for it.

• Microsoft Office 2010: Helpful new collaboration features

  With Microsoft Office 2010, due to ship in mid-2010 and being released to testers as a Technical Preview today, Redmond will push themes including collaboration and improved productivity.

• Survey: Majority of IT execs have no plans for Windows 7

  Microsoft has announced that businesses can get Windows 7 a month and a half before the general release date of Oct. 22, but a new survey suggests that many of them may not want it.

• Google Chrome OS: Five big obstacles in the Windows war

  Google announced yesterday that it has an open-source operating system for PCs in development that shares the same name as the company's browser: Chrome.

• Windows 7 in Pictures: 10 Cool Desktop Features

  Since the general beta release, Windows 7 has been through the testing ringer and has come out with mostly high marks for its speed, flexibility, user interface (UI) and networking features.

• Windows 7: The Five Most Talked-About Features

  Windows 7 is proving a divisive subject even in its infancy. One example: Last week, reviews from CIO.com's sister sites, Computerworld and InfoWorld, offered radically different opinions about what Microsoft has in store for the successor of Windows Vista, expected to ship in early 2010.

• Who is in the Cloud?

  Salesforce.com may have made the early headlines, but it has since been joined by a plethora of software-as-a-services companies selling almost any service that can be hosted in a data centre.

• Bing filters out sensitive results for Chinese searches

  Microsoft's Bing search engine filters out some sensitive results from searches made in simplified Chinese, the script used to write the language in China, searches revealed Thursday.

• How far will Microsoft go with cloud?

  As the Enterprise 2.0 conference unfolds in Boston this week, the whole software industry will be observing Microsoft's shift to online services, as it responds to the cloud computing model championed by competitors like Salesforce.com, Google and start-up social software vendors.

• Microsoft: Windows 7 built on user feedback

  With the release to manufacturing date for Windows 7 just weeks away, Microsoft has hit the promotion trail claiming it has returned to the fundamentals.

• Microsoft SharePoint vs. Enterprise 2.0 Start-ups

  This week represents an important inflection point for the Enterprise 2.0 market, a set of software vendors that sell social networking technologies to businesses. Analysts say the number of competitors will consolidate in the coming year as Microsoft captures greater market share. The start-ups that will survive must carve out a longterm place for themselves by building applications that are far more innovative and cheaper than those of the incumbent software giant.

• The woman behind Microsoft's in your face ad strategy

  It's hard to miss Microsoft's myriad ad campaigns on television and the Web right now.