Buying a Windows OS used to be so simple. A new version appeared, most people agreed it was better than the last one and you'd get a copy for your next PC. Job done.
But Windows Vista changed all that. Despite many years of availability, Vista's poor reception means that computer manufacturers are still selling new systems with XP. It's also common for laptops to be downgraded from Vista to XP, with battery life reportedly improving as a result.
Microsoft might have been feeling like the little Dutch boy over the last month, plugging holes with regular patches and with rare out-of-cycle fixes in an attempt to prevent attackers from pouring through.
WINDOWS 7 versions on the TechNet and MSDN download sites no longer carry the "RC" designation.
While the software will not go on general sale until October 22, it means that the full version of Windows 7 is now available to hundreds of thousands of potential punters.
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is looking into reports of a potential bug in the final version of Windows 7. However, Microsoft's top Windows executive said in a blog posting that the issue appears to be neither widespread, nor the "showstopper" that some are claiming it to be.
Microsoft today said it would deliver nine security updates next Tuesday, all but one affecting Windows. Five are pegged "critical," the company's highest threat rating.
One researcher speculated that most of the updates will tackle bugs introduced when a Microsoft programmer added an extra "&" character to a vital code library.
Yahoo went public on August 4 with more details about terms of its search deal with Microsoft in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
There are a couple of particulars I found interesting, especially when comparing Yahoo’s 8-K filing to the Yahoo-Microsoft costs slide that Microsoft erroneously included in a Financial Analyst Meeting slide deck last week. According to Yahoo’s filing, if and when the Microsoft-Yahoo deal gains regulatory approval:
It appears that Microsoft’s glowing track record with Windows 7 is about to come to an abrupt and unceremonious end. According to various Web sources, the RTM build 7600.16385 includes a potentially fatal bug that, once triggered, could bring down the entire OS in a matter of seconds.
While many company watchers continue to fret over what Microsoft will and won’t do to make money in the search/online advertising space, there are other less sexy Microsoft business units plodding successfully along with relatively little public notice.
Bing’s share of the U.S. search market grew another percentage point in July, bringing its total to 9.41 percent according to data from StatCounter. At the same time Google’s share slipped to 77.54 percent, down by nearly a point, while Yahoo saw a slight decline from 11.04 to 10.95. Taking into account the ten-year deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, however, the two come out with 20.36 percent.
Alex Kochis, Microsoft's director of Genuine Windows, posted a blog late Thursday addressing the "leak of a special product key" of Windows 7 RTM (release to manufacturers). This confirmed the rumor on Tuesday that an ISO file of Windows 7 RTM sent to Lenovo that contains a master key--a number used to verify the authenticity of the software--was leaked to the Internet.
