Microsoft giving away free any-virut

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Microsoft is poised to start giving away security software.

The company is reportedly trialling free anti-virus software internally and said the beta version would be released "soon".

Called Morro, the software will tackle viruses but lack the broader range of utilities, such as parental locks, found in paid-for security suites.

Morro will be Microsoft's second venture in the highly competitive security market.

Microsoft's first attempt revolved around the Windows Live OneCare service that did not succeed in turning many customers away from rivals such as Symantec and McAfee.

Microsoft plans to discontinue Live OneCare once the Morro software is ready.

No specific date has been given for when Morro will be released, but in the past Microsoft has said it would be out by the end of 2009 at the latest.

Microsoft said Morro would tackle viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Janice Chaffin, Symantec's president of consumer products, said customers wanted more than just basic protection.

"A full internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected," she said.

Security software for home PCs typically cost around £30-40 and often allow users to install protections on more than one computer.

Other companies, such as AVG and Alwil already produce and distribute free anti-virus products.

Fake help

In its latest update, Microsoft added code that detects and deletes the widespread Internet Antivirus Pro family of fake security software programs.

Such programs, also known as scareware, have been proving more popular with hi-tech criminals in recent months.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimated that there were 9,287 bogus anti-malware program in circulation in December 2008 - a rise of 225% since January 2008.

The US government has moved to shut down some companies peddling the programs that falsely claim to find malicious software on PCs and then charge for the non-existent threats to be removed.

In addition, the Internet Antivirus Pro software displays fake Windows security messages to try and trick people into thinking the product is legitimate. The software also contains a password stealer that watches where people go online and grabs login data.

Source: bbc.com

No IE onboard Windows 7 in Europe

Microsoft said it would be easy to install its browser European buyers of Windows 7 will have to download and install a web browser for themselves. Bowing to European competition rules, Microsoft Windows 7 will ship without Internet Explorer. The company said it would make it easy for PC makers and users to get at and install the web browsing program. In response the European Commission expressed scepticism over the move and whether it would allay accusations of Microsoft abusing its market position. Abusive behaviour "We're committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world," Dave Heiner, Microsoft deputy general counsel, said in a statement, "but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product. "We believe that this new approach, while not our first choice, is the best path forward given the ongoing legal case in Europe." In response the European Commission said "it would also have to consider whether this initial step of technical separation of IE from Windows could be negated by other actions by Microsoft". In early 2008, Microsoft was fined 899m euros (£765m) by the European Commission for anti-competitive behaviour over bundling in the media player and browser into Windows. In January 2009, Brussels reached a "preliminary view" that Microsoft was denting the chance for true competition by bundling its browser software in with its operating system. Microsoft is due to defend itself against the charges in a hearing. If Microsoft fails to convince the Commission that it is not harming competition could mean more fines and enforced changes to the way it does business. "We're committed to launching Windows 7 on time in Europe, so we need to address the legal realities in Europe, including the risk of large fines," said Mr Heiner. Windows 7 is due to be released worldwide on 22 October. "In terms of potential remedies, if the Commission were to find that Microsoft had committed an abuse, the Commission has suggested that consumers should be offered a choice of browser not that Windows should be supplied without a browser at all," said the Commission in a statement responding to Microsoft's announcement. It said Microsoft's approach of offering the program to computer manufacturers "may potentially be more positive" in terms of remedying its alleged abusive behaviour. It added that if Microsoft were found to be abusing its position, the commission would have to work out if the uncoupling of IE offset that behavior.

Source: bbc.com

Microsoft sets Windows 7 launch for Oct. 22

It will offer some kind of discount or free upgrade to Vista PC buyers

By Gregg Keizer

June 2, 2009 03:27 PM ET


Computerworld - Microsoft will put Windows 7 on store shelves and computer makers will have systems ready to sell with Vista's successor on Oct. 22, the company confirmed today.

Microsoft will also offer discounted or free upgrades to Windows 7 to users who buy PCs in the months leading up to the operating system's launch in a program dubbed "Windows Upgrade Option," a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. Although the name is new, the program had been reported as early as January, when a usually-reliable Web site leaked information about the deal, including its July 1 kick-off.

Until today, Microsoft had been coy about naming a release date for Windows 7, although it edged toward a timetable last month. Both Bill Veghte, the senior vice president who runs the Windows Business unit, and Steven Sinofsky, the senior vice president of the Windows engineering group, said then that Windows 7 was on track for the holiday selling season, and would make the final milestone -- called "release to manufacturing," or RTM -- in mid-August. Today, however, other company spokespersons said Microsoft is shooting for RTM by the end of July.

Details on the Windows Upgrade Option were not immediately available, but analysts have assumed that it would resemble Vista Express Upgrade, a program that gave people who purchased Windows XP PCs between Oct. 26, 2006, and March 15, 2007, free or inexpensive upgrades to Vista.

Vendors were allowed to set the price, if any, of the XP-to-Vista upgrades, and it's believed that they will have the same flexibility for Windows 7.

This isn't the first time that October has been named as the likely ship date for Microsoft's new OS. In an interview last month, an Acer executive based in the U.K. said "October 23 is the date that Windows 7 will be available." The executive, Bobby Watkins, the managing director of Acer's U.K. operations, also confirmed that customers who bought a Vista-powered computer from the company in the 30 days leading up to Oct. 23 would receive a free upgrade to Windows 7.

Also last month, Computerworld used Sinofsky's mid-August RTM date to predict that Windows 7 would go on sale sometime between Oct. 11 and Nov. 4, based on the actual timetables of Windows XP and Vista, respectively.



Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133847

Microsoft Finishes Windows Mobile 6.5

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217500707


The upgrade includes an improved desktop-like browser as well as support for Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the company's answer to the Apple App Store.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has finished the next version of Windows Mobile, which is expected to ship without all the intended user-interface capabilities.

Microsoft announced that version 6.5 of the smartphone operating system was completed in a Twitter update posted May 14 by the development team. By "complete" the company means it has been released to manufacturing.

Among the new features for Windows Mobile are a finger-gesture-driven user interface for menus, e-mails, and phone. There are also direct links to voice mail, e-mail, etc., from the lock screen. The mobile operating system now also has an improved desktop-like browser as well as support for Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the company's answer to the Apple App Store.

The 6.5 update also includes widget support, Office 2007 file format support, and an integrated My Phone service to back up your data to an online account.

In video posted by Microsoft before the announcement, senior project manager Loke Uei Tan said the team ran out of time and couldn't complete the interface as planned.

"We only spend what, eight months, nine months, to build 6.5 from ground up and it's actually an amazing engineering feat," Tan said. "But, in order to do that, we had to do some prioritization and we had to cut certain features."

Microsoft later posted a new video that focused on a number of the new features and UI improvements, apparently to play down the capabilities that didn't make it to the OS.

Windows Mobile 6.5 appears to be a stopgap measure, since Windows Mobile 7 may be a ways away, according to industry observers. Microsoft has not said when it would ship version 7.

Windows Mobile 7 is seen as Microsoft's attempt to get the mobile platform more competitive with consumers. Because of the success of Apple's iPhone, Windows Mobile is seen as user unfriendly in comparison. Windows Mobile 6.1, the current version, still requires a stylus for its touch screen devices to hit the small icons and app controls or to easily navigate the menus.

Hackers taking advantage of Windows 7: Microsoft

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Microsoft said Thursday that cybercriminals are already hawking booby-trapped versions of just-released Windows 7 operating system software. — AFP/File Photo

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft said Thursday that cybercriminals are already hawking booby-trapped versions of just-released Windows 7 operating system software.

‘It’s so important for customers to get their copies of Windows from a trusted source,’ Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, said in an interview posted at the company's official website.

‘In the last few days we’ve seen reports of illegitimate distributions of the release candidate of our latest Windows operating system, Windows 7, being offered in a way that is designed to infect a customer’s PC with malware.’ A nearly-final version of Windows 7 made its world debut on Tuesday, giving people a chance to tell Microsoft what they love or hate about the new-generation operating system.

Microsoft is making Windows 7 Release Candidate available as it puts finishing touches on the operating system that will replace Vista.

The US software colossus has touted anti-piracy protections it built into Windows 7 to thwart the spread of illegal copies of the operating system.

Windows 7 anti-piracy guards build on technology built into Vista, according to Williams. For example, pop-up boxes will warn people when unauthorized copies of software are spied on computers.

‘With Windows Vista, we made significant strides in reducing the threat pirated copies posed to customers, our partners and Microsoft software, and we anticipate we'll do even better with Windows 7,’ Williams said.

Microsoft decried software piracy as a pervasive problem that costs the world economy more than 45 billion dollars annually and exposes users to risks of identity theft, system crashes, and data loss.

Williams said Microsoft research shows that as many as a third of the company's customers worldwide may be running counterfeit copies of Windows.

‘We see many cases of customers who wanted to buy genuine software and believed they did, only to find out later that they were victims of software piracy,’ Williams said.

Windows operating systems are used in about 90 percent of the world's computers, according to industry figures.

Microsoft preps Windows 7 release

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A release candidate of Windows 7, the next major release of the world's most popular operating system, goes public in trial form in the next week.

Microsoft is hoping it can avoid the negative press that surrounded the launch of Vista, the last major Windows release, almost three years ago.

Windows 7 has been designed to be compatible with Vista so users do not have to invest in new hardware.

A commercial release of Windows 7 is expected in the next nine months.

A test version of Windows 7 will be available to developers from Thursday, while the public can try it out from 5 May.

John Curran, Microsoft UK's director, Windows Client Group, told BBC News that "shortfalls" in the Vista release had caused problems for some users.

"There were challenges on hardware and application compatibility with Vista in the first couple of months - and that has left a little bit of an aftertaste for a segment of people."

When Vista was launched many users expressed frustration that the operating system did not work with all types of existing hardware and peripherals, or programs used commonly on PCs.

And a Vista compatibility programme for hardware proved to be confusing and, in some cases, somewhat misleading.

Mr Curran said Microsoft had "learned lessons" and had been working with partner developers to ensure the same mistakes would not be repeated.

Windows 7 will also have "comparable system requirements" to Vista, which should mean that if your PC is capable of running Vista it will also run the new version.

Negative

Mr Curran said Vista had proved to be a success for Microsoft, despite the negative press that surrounds the operating system.

"Vista is the fastest selling operating system of all time and, in percentage terms, enterprise moved to Vista faster than it did to XP [an earlier version of Windows]," he said.

He said satisfaction surveys for Vista showed 90% of people were either satisfied or very satisfied and 85-90% would recommend it to a friend.

The exact timing will be based on quality John Curran, Microsoft

Microsoft embarked on a major advertising and marketing mission to improve the image of Vista after the muted reaction around its "The Wow starts now" campaign.

While Vista was released five months after the release candidate was made available, Mr Curran said Windows 7 would only be released when it is ready.

Bottom line

"Obviously in these times everybody is keeping an eye on the bottom line, but we are certainly taking a longer-term perspective here and always have done with Windows franchise.

"The timeline stated all along is that we are targeting Windows 7 within three years of of the launch of Vista and that would be the end of January 2010.

"We feel quite confident we are on trajectory that will deliver on that promise. But the exact timing will be based on quality."

Windows 7 promises a major usability improvement on Vista, and a simplification of security measures which caused frustration for many users.

Mr Curran said Windows 7 would build on the security improvements in Vista, which have seen a fall in the number of malware attacks and critical vulnerabilities identified.

Many beta testers of Windows 7 have reported that it is faster than Vista, especially in terms of start-up and shutdown sequence of the computer.

Mr Curran said that the Microsoft Windows team had been poring over every aspect of the operating system to make improvements.

"We were able to shave 400 milliseconds off the shutdown time by slightly trimming the WAV file shutdown music.

"It's indicative of really the level and detail and scrutiny on Windows 7."

A version of Windows 7 will also be available for netbooks, but with some caveats.

The Windows 7 Starter Edition will have limitations on how many applications can be used concurrently on a machine in order to preserve performance.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8026736.stm

Microsoft and Verizon Plot an iPhone Rival

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Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Wireless are in talks to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier's network early next year, in an ambitious effort to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPhone, according to people familiar with the matter.

The discussions are a gambit by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to energize a mobile business that has lost buzz among consumers and software developers to Apple's iPhone and Google Inc.'s Android.

Microsoft is a major player in software for cellphones, but it is working hard to develop a new device that will rival Apple's.

To read this report in full in The Wall Street Journal, see:
online.wsj.com/article/SB124093915558664239.html