Microsoft will release a fully supported version of its Windows Live OneCare software tomorrow, marking the software giant's entry into the security software market. OneCare will be available for download as of May 31 on Microsoft's Web site, a day earlier than expected. By Thursday, the software is expected to be widely available in U.S. retail stores, said Microsoft's Samantha McManus, a business strategy manager with Windows Live OneCare.
A security feature used in the open-source world is now helping to harden Windows Vista against buffer overrun exploits. Microsoft has quietly fitted the feature, called ALSR (Address Space Layout Randomization) in Windows Vista Beta 2 as part of a larger plan to make it more difficult to automate attacks against the operating system.
"Not only is it in Beta 2, it's on by default too," said Michael Howard, senior security program manager at Microsoft in a blog entry announcing the news.
Microsoft will complete its entry into the desktop security market next week with the general release of its Windows Live OneCare antivirus software.
OneCare, which also includes backup and PC tuning software, has been available for free in beta form since last November, but as of Thursday customers will be able to purchase the final, supported product, according to sources familiar with Microsoft's plans.
Windows Vista will contain a Microsoft-embedded benchmark, known as WinSAT (Windows System Assessment Tool.) WinSAT serves several purposes:
* It's a tool for OEM system providers to help enable them to meet Windows Vista logo requirements
* WinSAT runs during the Vista setup procedure, to determine if the system is capable of running the Aero 3D user interface and compositing system.
* Users can run it as a rough guide to performance of Vista on their system, as well use it for a system diagnostic
MICROSOFT SAYS its upcoming revamp of its Office product will be so easy to use, customers may begin to use more than twenty percent of its functions.
Up until now, Volish research suggests that people use only about twenty percent of the features crammed into the apps they use. Quite why they buy it, then, is anyone’s guess.
If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo.
The software maker detailed the new image format on Wednesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle. Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP, Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo said in a presentation.
Microsoft is advising people to run its Word application in "safe mode" to help guard against a Trojan program that surfaced recently, although security experts on Wednesday said there still appears little cause for alarm.
"The good news is that it doesn't seem to be very widespread," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with U.K. antivirus company Sophos PLC. "There have been very, very few reports."
It's still a tight squeeze, but Jim Allchin says there's reason to have hope that Microsoft may yet meet its latest deadline to ship Vista. That said, he knows better than to relax.
Allchin, who's guided many Windows releases in years past, plans to retire once Vista ships. In an interview, he said there are still plenty of things he'd like to see before the operating system is released, including better performance and more application compatibility.
Windows Vista moved a big step closer to completion this week as Microsoft formally released Beta 2 of its next-generation flagship operating system.
Microsoft on Monday in the United States updated its plans for new virtualisation software and said it will expand its lineup through an acquisition. The company will begin testing its hypervisor software, developed under the code name Viridian, by year's end, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools business, told ZDNet Australia sister site CNET News.com. The software will ship within six months of Longhorn Server, the next major release of the company's server operating system, due in the second half of next year.
