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Microsoft Windows and Windows Vista and most updated news, reviews and analysis of Microsoft Windows software products and operating systems for PCs and laptops, Servers, Office and business tools. eWEEK Windows coverage includes updates, news and reviews on installing, updating, maintaining, hosting and protecting, Microsoft Windows, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows NT, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2007, Microsoft Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server, Exchange Server 2007, Windows Mobile, Windows Defender and Microsoft Forefront. Also updates on Microsoft Windows Service packs, malware and virus news, downloads, patches and services.
Top Windows News
Microsoft's Windows 7 sold well in its first few days of release, according to an analyst report, but declining revenues and suggestions of a slow-paced tech refresh suggest that Microsoft could face at least a few more quarters of stagnant revenues as it seeks to recover from the massive economic recession. This week saw Microsoft cut 800 more jobs from its payrolls, as it continues to consolidate and trim costs in an effort to streamline.
New Slideshow
Now that users have their hands on Windows 7, it's time to secure it. They could always use solutions from Microsoft, like Security Essentials, but in many cases, third-party applications do a much better job of ensuring a system is kept secure.
Third-party security apps for Windows 7 can be free or paid. In either case, users can find effective security applications to keep their data more secure. However, it's important to remember that some apps are more effective than others and that in no way can all of these applications keep the user's data totally secure. But the first step is to find the security app that works best for the user’s needs. This eWEEK slide show looks at ten third-party applications that will make Windows 7 more secure.
News
Microsoft and the European Commission may be close to a deal on packaging Internet Explorer 8 with Windows 7, with Redmond agreeing to offer users an automatic "ballot screen" from which they can choose a rival browser. Such an agreement would alleviate the Commission’s antitrust concerns, but Google, Opera and Mozilla plan on asking the regulatory body for as-yet-unannounced changes to the agreement.
News
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience in Tokyo that the Microsoft-Yahoo agreement over search-and-advertising could expand beyond the U.S. into worldwide markets. Although the deal is currently under evaluation by the U.S. Department of Justice, neither Microsoft nor Yahoo have publicly expressed concerns about whether it will successfully close in early 2010.
News
A report from NPD Group indicates that sales of Windows 7 boxed software exceeded those of Windows Vista during the respective operating systems' first days of release, although the research company suggests that low-cost presales may have lowered Microsoft's gross revenue from Windows 7 immediately following the launch. A separate report from Net Applications indicates that Windows 7 is being rapidly adopted by the overall PC market, although its gross market share remains low.
News
Microsoft is releasing six security bulletins next week as part of Patch Tuesday. Three of the bulletins address Windows security issues Microsoft has rated "critical."
Review
PC Week's (now eWEEK's) birth year—1984—was a busy one for technology. One platform that began to take shape at that time was focused not on hardware or software but on licensing. Richard Stallman quit his job at MIT to start the GNU project, an effort to produce a clone of the Unix operating system to be distributed under a license that would ensure users' freedom to run, modify and redistribute the software. The open-source model has since driven much innovation in enterprise technology.
News
A researcher at Sophos reports putting Windows 7's User Account Control feature to the test and finding the technology failed to block numerous pieces of malware. Microsoft, however, stresses that UAC is only one part of Windows 7's security.
News
Microsoft confirms plans to cut another 800 employees from its worldwide payroll, as part of its longer-term plan to eliminate 5,000 positions. With its revenues hammered by the recent economic recession, Microsoft eliminated the employees as part of a larger program to streamline its operations. Added to the total number of layoffs occurring throughout 2009, the new job cuts likely exceed the originally predicted 5,000-employee job-cut total.
News
Microsoft rolls out a revamped MSN homepage incorporating social networking features such as Facebook and Twitter feeds, and putting its Bing search engine at the interface's front and center. Microsoft's revamp follows Yahoo's own homepage revision in September, as both companies seek to compete more heartily against Google in the search and advertising space.
News
NEWS ANALYSIS: Although Google is enjoying some of the best performance it has ever had, the company can't succeed in a vacuum. It's still facing off against Microsoft. And the longer that battle rages, the more Google should be concerned.
News
Microsoft cuts the prices of its Business Productivity Suite and offers new features for its Dynamics CRM Online at no extra cost, as it seeks to block cloud-based competition from Google, Oracle and other companies. Although Microsoft has traditionally offered many business and consumer applications as on-premises software, it has been making aggressive moves into the cloud in order to match the moves of many of its longtime rivals.
News
At the PASS conference, Microsoft announces two new premium editions of SQL Server 2008 R2. The upcoming editions are SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse.
News
Microsoft will debut an online video series, Health Tech Today, starting on Nov. 10. The upcoming show will focus on how health and information technology intersect. Microsoft's cloud-based repository for patient information, HealthVault, is just one of the health care IT-related applications and products that companies ranging from Google and Intel to Oracle have been pushing into the public sphere.
News
Microsoft has touch-optimized its Bing mobile site, allowing owners of the iPhone, Zune HD, Verizon Imagio and other devices to navigate the search engine via their multitouch screens. Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest version of its smartphone operating system, also includes touch-screen functionality. The increased popularity of devices such as the iPhone has made touch screens a vital component to consider for developers of mobile software.
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A move to Windows 7 was driven less by the new operating system's features and more by the 64-bit performance promise, but unexpected issues forced unwanted compromises.
With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 comes an update to the company's Web platform, Internet Information Services. Like R2, IIS 7.5 isn't a massive upgrade, but it does provide some welcome administration improvements. In addition, the new version seems to acknowledge that Microsoft may have made IIS a little too Apache-like in previous iterations.
Windows 7 is a relatively modest improvement over Windows Vista in terms of performance, features and security. But, with an aging XP unable to take advantage of the latest hardware and networking technologies, the time is coming for most enterprises to consider a Windows client upgrade. eWEEK Labs put Windows 7 RTM through its paces and found some compelling usability improvements, features that will work best (or only) with Windows Server 2008 R2 and some mixed security messages.
With this R2 release of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V gains the ability to shift virtual machines from one host to another without interruption. This version of Windows Server is also the first in a decade to be released in tandem with a new Windows client (in this case, Windows 7). As such, Windows Server 2008 R2 includes many features that make it and Windows 7 "better together."
eWEEK Labs' first take on the 64-bit-only Windows Server 2008 R2 RC shows that the update takes major steps forward, especially in the area of virtualization. However, moving existing Windows Server 2008 systems to the newest version will not be easy.
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