Microsoft

A vulnerability in as-yet unpatched Microsoft software poses a more severe threat to Internet Explorer 6 users than those on the next version of the browser, security vendor Symantec has warned.

The flaw in Microsoft's Access database software came to light just as Microsoft issued its patches for the month on July 8. The problem is within the Snapshot Viewer ActiveX control, which allows someone to see an Access report without launching the software.

OK, it's not perfect. But Windows Vista on a new PC is perfectly serviceable for many users. In some ways, in fact, Vista is a better operating system than Windows XP. Unfortunately, XP's heir apparent is also the most derided and discounted Microsoft operating system since Windows Me.

Microsoft has put out a call for more Internet Explorer (IE) 8 beta testers via the IE Blog this week. The next beta of IE 8 is due some time in August. Microsoft officials said recently to expect the final version of IE 8 to be released to the Web later this year.

In a July 30 posting on the IE blog, Microsoft solicited additional testers for the upcoming beta, which is going to be targeted at users (as opposed to developers, who were the target of Beta 1 of IE 8, which Microsoft released in March).

Do you think Microsoft Security is improving? This is a tender spot for most IT executives. Patch management is a pain in the ! When Microsoft gets the patch wrong, your systems suffer and your users blame you. But Microsoft is also the victim here -- the hackers are the perpetrators. As we all know it pays to build yourself a giant botnet and Windows is the platform of choice because of the sheer number of machines out there.

A redesign of the Live.com home page may not be quite what analysts had in mind last week when they asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about how the software giant plans to streamline its online presence.

Starting Wednesday, visitors in the U.S. are being shown a new Live.com page -- although they may not notice it's new. The page looks mostly the same as before, except it now features a background photo that apparently will change periodically.

Well as of today the new “XBox Experience” Fall Dashboard has been leaked on the web and I had a chance to crack at it. There is a strange problem which I have been working hard at trying to crack but seems almost impossible without modded Xbox 360. You have to burn the “Update” to a CD-R or DVD...

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday defended Microsoft's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) need to make heavy investments in its Internet businesses but said the company was "done," for now, with pursuing Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

"There's nothing under discussion between the two of us," Ballmer told investors of how six months of various talks had reached an impasse earlier in July. "We had a set of principles, we talked about them, it didn't work out," he said. "Fine, we're done. We can move on."

A Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) official said Friday that the company has agreed to provide monetary and technical support to the Apache Software Foundation, an open source effort that promotes community-built tools and services.

Microsoft is seeking to get five million Lotus Notes customers to make the switch to Microsoft's collaboration tools in its fiscal 2009 year, according to Kevin Turner, COO for the software giant.

The blogosphere is awash with talk about the possible overall weakness of the Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. For its part, Microsoft's released a DNS fix in its patch slate for July, but Redmond seems to have problems just getting it to end users. Moreover, some users of the DNS fix have experienced additional difficulties.

So far, since Microsoft's DNS fix was issued on July 10, there have been two separate problems associated with its installation.