Mary Jo

Updated: Stephen Toulouse, a program manager on Microsoft’s Security Response Center team, has shifted responsibilities to focus on Vista security. Toulouse blogged on September 9 about his new role, which he will occupy for “the next couple months,” during the Vista pre- and post-ship period. Speaking of security, eWEEK notes it’s the three-year anniversary of […]

Microsoft Max, the photo-handling application that the Redmondians built in order to showcase Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), is getting more interesting. The newest Max build, released over the weekend, includes the ability to add RSS and ATOM feeds, allowing photos to be viewed in newspaper-style format. Curiously, the newest Max build does not support Windows […]

Looks like Microsoft’s YouTube competitor may not become one of Microsoft’s Live services, after all. The technology Microsoft watchers were expecting to be christened as “Windows Live Video” is actually operating in internal beta form under the name “MSN Soapbox,” according to the LiveSide.Net folks. Warhol, which Softies have been promising for months, will include […]

Microsoft is making noises about delaying the launch of Windows Vista in Europe in order not to run afoul of government regulators there. Microsoft officials say they have insufficient guidance as to what EU officials are expecting the company to do regarding some of the new features it is bundling into Vista. We say: It’s […]

Microsoft is consolidating more of its products under the “Dynamics” brand name. Microsoft already relabeled its four different ERP/financial suites as “Dynamics.” Ditto with its CRM offering. Come January 2007, Microsoft also is going to rebrand its Retail Management System product as “Microsoft Dynamics RMS.”

Window (yes, that is her real name) Snyder, a former Microsoft security strategist, has joined Mozilla to lead its security offensive. Snyder was involved in development of Windows XP SP2 and is credited with seeding the idea for Microsoft’s internal “Blue Hat” security briefings. Most recently, she was founder an dprincipal of Matasano Security, one […]

Microsoft has opened the Windows Vista floodgates a bit further. Now, anyone who was part of the Vista Customer Preview Program (CPP) Beta 2 trial is free to download the Release Candidate (RC) 1 bits. Microsoft’s ultimate goal, company officials have said, is to make RC1 available to more than five million testers. Microsoft is […]

class=”ArticleBody”> How to Sell a Vista Upgrade to Your Boss: We asked how companies are planning to cost-justify an upgrade to Vista. Microsoft Watch readers answered. The Contrary View: Why You Shouldn’t Advocate a Vista Upgrade: Not surprisingly, not everyone is jumping joyfully over Vista’s imminent arrival. Readers share some of their Vista qualms and […]

Microsoft has put the finishing touches on the 1.0 release of the IronPython dynamic programming language. Microsoft made the final IronPython implementation available on its CodePlex code repository. The IronPython code can be downloaded here.

Microsoft and Cisco rolled out on September 6 a joint architecture providing interop between Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) and Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC). NAP, which is built into Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn,” provides quarantining for security purposes. Cisco’s NAC is a set of solutions and technologies built into Cisco’s networking infrastructure.

How much will Vista cost? If you saw the Vista price list leaked last week by Amazon.com, you already know. The official Vista prices, which Microsoft made public on September 5, are the same as what ran on Amazon’s site. So what about the January 30, 2007, availability dates, also leaked by Amazon? Microsoft won’t […]

Microsoft’s Expression Web Designer – now known simply as Expression Web (UGH! Why not just Expression Sparkle?) – has moved from Community Technology Preview (CTP) to full-fledged beta status. Microsoft is planning to release the final version of Expression Web within 90 days of Vista, company officials said earlier this summer. That would mean, to […]