Microsoft Windows Forum

Let me warn you I'm in a bit of an ornery mood today. So when I learned Microsoft is coming out with a refresh of Hotmail this week, you can understand I was less than enthused. Every time Microsoft refreshes a product, the technology press gets all excited about it …

People who are unhappy with the progress of the military actions in Iran and Afghanistan finally have something to blame: PowerPoint. “PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said in an [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?emc=eta1"]article [/URL]in the [I]New York Times[/I] this week. The article …

Microsoft Internet Explorer is losing market share, says a new study from research organisation NetApplications. It's shrunk to 60% of the world market for browsers. This has a number of implications. First the financial. Browsers make money by selling links - you know that little box at the top right …

In quick succession, HP and Microsoft reportedly killed off two iPad wannabes this week. With HP's purchase of Palm and its WebOS, it meant that [URL="http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/29/hewlett-packard-to-kill-windows-7-tablet-project/"]the Windows 7 tablet[/URL] that Steve Ballmer showed off at CES in January (and which you can see here in [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2010/04/hp-video-shows-ipad-wannabe-teaser.html"]this video[/URL]) is suddenly shelfware. …

Developers Brad Lassey, Alex Pakhotin, Vladimir Vukićević and Michael Wu this week unveiled what they're calling a pre-alpha version of the Fennec browser, better known as Firefox for Google's Android mobile operating system. You can [url=http://bit.ly/fennec-android]download the code[/url], which as of last week had been tested only on Motorola Droid …

On the heels of my idea from yesterday, "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story274873.html"]A New Social Media? Instantaneous Messaging[/URL]" (Yes, I realize that it should be "Medium" not Media--so sue me), I've decided to grace you with another idea that I've had for some time: Drag and Drop Messaging. This idea, that you'd think would …

That's cool. According to Google Mail software engineer Manu Cornet, you can now add nested labels to your Gmail. Posting to the official [URL="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-in-labs-nested-labels-and-message.html"]GMail blog[/URL] Cornet says that labels are more flexible than folders as "a given email can have several labels but can't be in several folders at the …

Albert Einstein once said of himself, "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants." [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_(computer_engineer)"]Ed Roberts[/URL] was one of those giants to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for our computing technology. You probably have never heard of …

About a year [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220410.html"]ago[/URL], three girls fought charges of child pornography -- of themselves -- for refusing to attend 10-hour class on pornography and sexual violence after they were arrested for taking pictures of themselves [I]en deshabille[/I]. Now, the district court not only barred the district attorney from initiating any …

With the annual Pwn2Own hacking event due to kick off tomorrow, Mozilla has confirmed that Firefox 3.6 has an unpatched critical vulnerability. The fact that Pwn2Own competitors will not be able to exploit this vulnerability to claim the Firefox hacking prize will be of no interest to the millions of …

Microsoft's decision not to support Windows XP users with the next version of its browser, IE9, will raise a few eyebrows. I can't speak for the position in the US, but over here in the UK very few corporates migrated to Vista, and it's the corporate engine that drives IT …

The MIX10 Microsoft Developer Conference is always good for a laugh or two, but just who was rolling on the floor after the IE9 preview code was revealed? Certainly Microsoft is deadly serious about Internet Explorer: The Next Generation. So serious that it has apparently created a new development team …

With all the coverage of last week's Windows 7 launch, it was easy to overlook news of the forthcoming release of SharePoint Server 2010, the next edition of Redmond's collaboration platform. A public beta is expected next month, which according a speech given by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week …

The issue of teens taking naked pictures of themselves with their cell phones and sending them to other teens has been an issue of increasing [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220134.html"]concern[/URL], with teens being [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220410.html"]slapped [/URL]with child pornography charges, simply by virtue of the fact that the subject of the picture was under 18 -- …

Mark Shuttleworth, founder and financial backer of [URL="http://www.ubuntu.com"]Ubuntu[/URL], urges the Linux Community to "build a better desktop than Apple." Shuttleworth made this statement this week at OSCON (O'Reilly's Open Source Convention). He added that interoperability with Windows is of very high importance. Sounds easy enough. Let me get right on …

Google has today launched a new Beta version of the [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/03/22/google-chrome-stands-alone-at-pwn2own/"]Chrome browser[/URL], adding brand new privacy controls into the mix. You have to admit it's great timing, what with Microsoft this week making the 'browser ballot' screen available in European version of Windows giving users the option to [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story253418.html"]switch from …

OK, this is a European story mainly but I do believe it'll be of value to the American readership here (which I assume is the majority). Basically thanks to pressure from the European Union, on Tuesday Microsoft made it clear to all European users that they could choose between web …

I have [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220053.html"]written before[/URL] about child geeks, such as M. Lavinashree from Pakistan who passed her Microsoft Certified Professional exam at the age nine. At the time of writing she was busy studying for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer exams. However, I think I may have stumbled on an even …

Yesterday was Microsoft's big day. Windows 7 was released. Did you go buy your copy already? Are you waiting? Whether you have or haven't doesn't really matter but I'm going to give you my five reasons why you [B]should[/B] switch to Windows 7 and five more why you [B]shouldn't[/B]. Both …

I realized last week that somehow inexplicably, Microsoft has become the underdog. Want proof? The US Justice Department *and* the EU approved the search deal with Yahoo! That the United States approved the deal is not really news because Justice has rarely met a deal it didn't like no matter …

The 'So what...' award of the year has to go to Microsoft which has announced that as of this year they'll be able to choose which browser they use. According to reports on the [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8524019.stm"]BBC[/URL], they'll be able to download and upgrade/crossgrade to Firefox, Chrome, whatever they want. Well...duh. This …

There has been [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/01/13/no-crisis-in-it-security-budgets/"]much speculation[/URL] regarding job losses at Microsoft of late, and now the truth is out. Thankfully the scale of the damage is not as great as at first feared, and nowhere near the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3757.html"]15,000 job losses[/URL] talked about recently. It would seem that 1400 jobs are to …

It doesn't take a search genius to go and find [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story253418.html"]plenty of reports[/URL] of how Internet Explorer is, how can I put this nicely, [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/11/22/ie-6-and-7-hit-by-hack-attack-code/"]not exactly the safest bet[/URL] if you are looking for the most secure browsing experience. Quite apart from anything else it has the biggest market share …

We seem to have reached one of those pivotal moments that come along every so often where the big three--Google, Microsoft and Apple-are fighting particularly hard to gain a dominant position. Of course, this is a constant battle, but for some reason it feels more acute to me lately. Maybe …

Office 2010 awaits us later this year, and I've been wondering what it could possibly offer customers that would compel us to buy or upgrade to this software. Office software in general progressed about as far as most of us needed it to go somewhere in the 90s. Since then …

I ask because according to the latest data, there would seem to be an increasing number of working pirates around these days. The trouble is that they can be hard to spot as they do not tend to go for the Captain Jack look nor sport a long beard, come …

I suppose it had to happen. [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] was rumoured to be launching a 'slate' computer so others including [URL="http://www.hp.com"]HP[/URL] have done so too. All of which leaves me a bit bemused. You see, I don't really know what these slate computers are for. Let's be straightforward. The first touch-sensitive laptops …

I think we can safely say that Windows Vista was a flop. The only one that doesn't seem to know it is Microsoft. Or does it? This week at [url=http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/default.mspx]WinHEC[/url], the company introduced a series of capabilities in [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7]Windows 7[/url] that it says will "make it easier for hardware partners …

The concept of a soldier with a battery powered radio hiding in the bushes and reporting back to base for enemy troop position information is, other than in the movies, long gone. Heck, even the days of email and email attachments being sent via satellite modem to provide this kind …

Does anyone know just what is happening with Microsoft Windows Mobile devices? It would appear that many users with Windows Mobile powered mobile phones have been getting SMS text messages dated 2016. The first reports came as folk started to receive Happy New Year messages from family and friends on …

As is to be expected as we fast approach the official launch of [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4050.html"]Windows 7[/URL], more changes from the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3766.html"]Beta version[/URL] to [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23795/53/"]Release Code[/URL] functionality have been [URL="http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/03/13/a-few-more-changes-from-beta-to-rc.aspx"]confirmed[/URL] by Microsoft. Although the Windows 7 team were at pains to point out that the latest update list is by no means …

Last post of the year from me and I've decided to ask five questions that could have some bearing on the areas I cover in this space in the next year. If you read me regularly, you know I write a lot about Google, Apple and Microsoft. I'm also fond …

Yesterday, the [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2009/tc20091222_416170.htm"]Federal Appeals Court ruled[/URL] in what appears at first blush to be a shocking decision, that Microsoft must stop selling Word 2007 by January 11, 2010. But a closer look at the decision suggests that this isn't as big a deal as it first seems. Sure, Microsoft has …

Teens who take revealing pictures of themselves to send to other teens are getting more than embarrassment: They're getting a criminal record as a sex offender. The problem of revealing teen pictures has been getting a great deal of attention lately, with a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3651.html"]recent survey[/URL] finding that 36 percent of …

Oh dear, now I do not believe that was meant to happen. It appears that users of Office 2003 who also protect their documents with the Microsoft Rights Management Service (RMS) have found them so well protected that nobody can open them - not even the person who created the …

Everyone has their predictions for the new year but do they often prognosticate using an animated video? The folks over at [URL="http://www.rpath.com"]rPath[/URL] created a clever [URL="http://www.rpath.com/corp/predictions"]video[/URL] animation depicting their reasonable and humorous predictions for 2010. rPath might be best known for its [URL="http://www.rpath.org/ui"]online virtual appliance builder[/URL]. You can also [URL="http://www.rpath.com/corp/free-rbuilder"]download …

Writing at the official Windows Experience blog, Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc refers to the latest NPD Retail Tracking Service data which shows that as of the February 2009 the Windows share of the US netbook market is a staggering 96 percent. That's up from less than 10 percent of US unit …

Even Microsoft is sometimes faced with the decision of whether to "buy or build." This time it chose to buy. With the acquisition of Opalis Software announced yesterday, Redmond in one stroke takes a major leap in data center process automation. And it couldn't have come at a better time. …

There is no doubt that the current server market environment is the worse it has ever been, but a new report from IDC suggests that the worse may be over as the market posts sequential quarterly revenue growth for the first time since 2008. The [URL="http://www.idctracker.com"]IDC EMEA Quarterly Server Tracker[/URL] …

This is a bit off topic, but times are tough and money is money. There's an opportunity to earn between US$10 and $20 an hour working for the [U.S. Census Bureau](http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/) for the 2010 population count. And after seeing number of hits that "[Craigslist: Developer's Jobs and Other Jobs](http://www.daniweb.com/news/story232973.html)" generated, …

I've done a bit of research on Windows 7 Enterprise to discover some of its new features and to uncover its secrets. From what I've seen so far, [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL] has provided some interesting Linux-esque features that might accidentally boost Linux adoption as a side effect. The two primary features to …

[URL="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_lip.html"]Andrew Lippman[/URL], who is the Founding Associate Director at the [URL="http://www.media.mit.edu/?page_id=13"]MIT Media Lab[/URL] suggested at a talk last week that we were on the edge of a new third cloud where assistance becomes as important as access. The first cloud was the internet itself. The second cloud provided the services …

Microsoft on Tuesday is set to release six security updates, three of which it has deemed critical and apply only to versions of Windows other than Windows 7. Microsoft released advance notice of its [url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS09-nov.mspx]Security Bulletin for November[/url], on Nov. 5. The bulletin itself will be released on Tuesday along …

There was a good analysis [URL="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/microsoft-google-and-the-bear/"]in the NYT yesterday[/URL] regarding the Google Android strategy, which according to author Saul Hansell, is intended not to make money for Google, but to block Microsoft from getting traction in the mobile space. Given that Google is giving Android away, it's a theory that …

Some people like to get their free Microsoft products by adopting the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4255.html"]eye patch and a parrot approach[/URL] via sites such as The Pirate Bay. Some of us, however, rather like the idea of getting Windows 7 totally free, totally legally, and direct from Microsoft for good measure. Yes, I …

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this week to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., according to an [URL="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/city-council-votes-to-adopt-google-email-system-for-30000-city-employees.html"]article[/URL] in the Los Angeles [I]Times[/I]. The contract is worth $7.25 million and covers 30,000 employees. In June, Washington, D.C. made a similar decision, signing a contract worth almost …

It's supposed to be Windows 7's big week, but other news just seems to keep getting in the way. And it's not just competitors like the news coming out of Apple this week, it's big announcements coming from inside Microsoft too. You would think that Microsoft could at least keep …

Some Twitter postings just demand you read them two or three times to take in what is being said in 140 characters. One such posting was made today by Mozilla CEO John Lilly which simply said: "Firefox user growth has been amazing last 8 weeks or so. +30M or so …

So I'm helping host an event for [URL="http://www.google.com"]Google[/URL] yesterday - called Atmosphere, it was based in London and had about 300 CIOs present. I was lucky enough to be chairing a couple of panel discussions (and will put YouTube links in here if anyone's interested in what CIOs from Amazon, …

The [URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/home?os=nonwin7"]Microsoft Windows 7[/URL] launch is all but upon us and I can't say I'm sorry. Not that I'm directly affected as a Mac user but Vista is now almost officially acknowledged as a flop and it'll be good to see Microsoft back in the game properly, in terms of …