Microsoft

Mail servers running on the new version of Microsoft Exchange will encrypt Internet traffic using open standards, a Microsoft executive said. "If two customers are running E12, it will automatically create a secure connection", said Kim Akers, Microsoft Exchange group senior director. Exchange 12 or E12 is the code name for the next version, and is slated for late 2006.

The feature will be based on the Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) public key encryption and X.509 digital certificate standards.

Bill Hilf is the techie behind Microsoft's Linux listening post. He also is a key player in Microsoft's evolving strategy to reach out to the open-source community.

On the popular reality TV show, contestants are advised to "outwit," "outplay" and "outlast" their opponents. Microsoft is aiming to do all three, though it may well succeed if it only manages the last of those tasks.

Microsoft is to begin testing of its 'Longhorn' release of Windows. The company has slated Beta 1 to appear 30 June. To help with the testing Microsoft is recruiting a team of bloggers who will not only get to see the secret build but will also act as a PR megaphone for the Windows community at large.
The bloggers are to be dubbed 'Team 99'.`

Microsoft was already months into A massive project aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2003. He was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google. Why, he wondered, were the qualifications for so many of them identical to Microsoft job specs?

Microsoft is offering a new incentive to get Windows users to turn in vendors selling allegedly counterfeit products: It is offering to replace their pirated Windows copies for free.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox gaming console will be more of a digital entertainment hub than its predecessor, making it even more of a PC hybrid than ever, Bill Gates said.

The console, code-named Xenon, is due to be previewed in a half-hour MTV special later this month. Gates was vague on Xenon's specific features but said the company's consoles would be evolving to include improved communications tools for making multiplayer online gaming more convivial.

As part of its growing antipiracy campaign, Microsoft is testing a program that offers free licensed versions of Windows XP Professional to some customers whose copies are found to be bogus.

Online criminals turned their attention to antivirus software and media players like Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes in the first three months of 2005 as they sought new ways to take control of users' computers, according to a survey released on Monday.

While hackers continued to poke new holes in Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) popular Windows operating system, they increasingly exploited flaws in software made by other companies as well, the nonprofit SANS Institute found.

Microsoft Corp., one of the earliest companies to extend benefits to gay employees, now finds itself in the crosshairs of angry activists for rescinding support for gay rights legislation in its home state.

Critics say the world's No. 1 software maker caved to pressure from an NFL linebacker-turned-local pastor who had threatened to launch a nationwide boycott, and tried to tiptoe away from a bill it had previously supported.

Last week, the measure failed in Washington state's Senate by a single vote.