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News

• Microsoft security exec talks of bugs and threats

  As corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing (TwC) at Microsoft, Scott Charney is among those at the helm of the company's long-standing efforts to improve the security of its products. In an interview with Computerworld, Charney — a former federal prosecutor of computer crimes and an assistant district attorney in Bronx, New York, before that — talked about TwC, the changing threat environment and what security fears keep him awake at night.

• Ruling renews hope for developers

  Microsoft's defeat in a European appeals court on Monday has left open-source developers hopeful about the future — although still dissatisfied with the company's compliance with a 3-year-old antitrust ruling.

• Microsoft unveils app to manage virtual machines

  Microsoft has released its first software designed specifically to manage virtual machines on a network, and has tweaked licensing for its system-management products to take virtualisation into account.

• MS traffic monitoring service gets driven through licensing roundabout

  In an unusual twist, the very first company to license technology from Microsoft Research is now licensing it back to Microsoft.

• Redmond's real motive for pushing Open XML

  I don’t mind a little cynicism — it’s a natural and only mildly toxic by-product of paying attention. So recently, when Microsoft’s Office Open XML file format was rejected as an international standard, I wasn’t bothered that Microsoft said it was “extremely delighted” by the result.

• Vendors strike back at over-eager Web 2.0 users

  As Web 2.0 technologies continue seeping into business systems, a new generation of corporate users is starting to gain access to the collaboration capabilities they are demanding from IT, according to attendees at the Office 2.0 conference. But before use of the tools spreads too far, they noted, companies must strike a balance between the Web 2.0 wants of users and the needs of corporate IT.

• Microsoft and Siemens sign in-car IT deal

  Microsoft’s in-car technology is getting a boost via a deal with Germany’s Siemens VDO Automotive division, which has agreed to collaborate on a next-generation communications and entertainment system.

• Microsoft puts final touches on Configuration Manager

  Microsoft has announced that development is complete on its System Centre Configuration Manager 2007, a cornerstone in its model for managed IT systems. It will ship in November.

• Microsoft executive discusses virtualisation

  Mike Neil, Microsoft’s general manager of virtualisation, is on the big stage with a hot technology. The lights are on him as he prepares for next year’s delivery of Windows Server virtualisation, which first was a feature and now is an add-on to Windows Server 2008.

• Microsoft takes another try at single sign-on

  Microsoft has released a software development kit for a service that enables users who log in through one website to be authenticated on many others.

• Microsoft sets launch date for Unified Communications

  Microsoft will release Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007 and Office Live Meeting via a public webcast October 16, which will be co-hosted by Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes.

• US organisation edging to Microsoft's Open XML support

  In a reversal, the American representative to the ISO standards body is now tentatively supporting the approval of Microsoft's Office Open XML document format as an open standard this year.

• Daylight-saving ‘pain’ on way, says Microsoft

  No, it’s not Y2K all over again, but the looming change to New Zealand’s daylight saving time (DST) will have profound implications for IT managers, Microsoft warns.

• Tech Ed: Kiwibank not ready for Vista

  Hardware constraints are preventing Kiwibank from upgrading to the Windows Vista operating system, according to the bank’s enterprise architecture manager, Bohdan Szymanik.

• Adobe, Microsoft sued

  A Texas-based company has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Adobe Systems for allegedly infringing on two patents for technologies that display content in a web browser.