Microsoft

While developing Windows 7, Microsoft ran many different performance tests to make sure the operating system was an improvement over its predecessors. One of the tests focused on upgrade performance: Microsoft wanted to make sure that an upgrade from Vista SP1 to Windows 7 was within a five percent threshold faster than an upgrade from Vista SP1 to Vista SP1. Microsoft gave three reasons for using the Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrade as a baseline instead of Windows XP to Vista:

Microsoft's free replacement to OneCare has arrived, and it's a most unfortunately named product if you have a bit of a northern accent.

Codenamed Morro, its proper title is Microsoft Security Essentials, and apparently it's all the same underneath as the big product, but this one is free. It does all the stuff you would expect - antivirus, antispyware, scan-on-demand, plus real-time protection too.

If the Tweets coming out of Microsoft’s annual company meeting are on point, the 2.0 release of Microsoft’s Bing search engine is coming this fall, and possibly as soon as next week.

Today, September 10, is the day that about 20,000 or so Softies have descended on Safeco Field in downtown Seattle for their annual pep rally and set of product demos.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is investigating reports of a zero-day vulnerability affecting Windows 7 and Vista.

The flaw in Windows 7 could allow an attack which would cause a critical system error, or "blue screen of death," according to researcher Laurent Gaffie. Gaffie wrote in his blog that the flaw lies in a Server Message Block 2 (SMB2) driver.

Microsoft on Tuesday delivered five patches to address eight Windows vulnerabilities as part of the software giant's monthly security update.

The release resolves a mismash of client- and server-side issues, but the five bulletins all have one thing in common: They are rated "critical," meaning the vulnerabilities could result in remote code execution.

Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information that could be traced back to individual users.

Microsoft says it has evidence hackers are exploiting an unpatched bug in its server software which it announced last week. The firm says a patch is on the way, but it appears unlikely to be part of this week’s Patch Tuesday update.

The bug was officially announced last week along with details of a workaround. At that stage there were no signs of hackers taking advantage. Now, perhaps inevitably, there have been “limited attacks that use this exploit code.”

Today, Microsoft will be releasing five critical security bulletins for September's Patch Tuesday. Unfortunately, Microsoft has confirmed that it does not include a fix for a serious Internet Information Services vulnerability that we reported on earlier. For now, organizations running effected versions of IIS are still stuck with work-around fixes as work on a patch continues at Microsoft.

Microsoft is hoping that a new crop of phones this fall will help the company in its quest to stay relevant in the cell phone market. The software maker said that the first phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 will launch worldwide on October 6 and will include phones running on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.

The new crop of phones will also be the first that Microsoft will sell under the "Windows Phone" brand, an effort to tap into the marketing power of its flagship desktop operating system.

Microsoft confirmed Thursday the software giant is laying off 27 employees from its Redmond and Bellevue offices, effective Nov. 1.

The Seattle Times first reported the layoffs, a notice of which was sent to the Washington State Employment Security Department. Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the layoffs for seattlepi.com.