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Articles and Topics pertaining to Microsoft and it's productsR.I.P. :: Yahoo! Search
Posted on :: Aug 24
Last week Yahoo! began transitioning certain back-end functions for its Search product over to Microsoft's search platform. The transition is now complete. If you follow the world of SEO closely, welcome to a two-horse race.
Microsoft delivers MySQL-to-SQL database migration tool
Posted on :: Aug 13
Windows 7 SP1 :: Not out until 2011???
Posted on :: Jul 22
Many of the Microsoft watchers and customers I know have been expecting Microsoft to ship the first service pack (SP) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 before the end of 2010.
Five Steps to Becoming Bing-ready
Posted on :: Jul 20
E-commerce merchants have waited more than a year to find out how the Microsoft-Yahoo! search alliance will affect their search marketing efforts and their businesses overall. The answers are not all going to come right away but with the merger now upon us, the wait is essentially over. Yahoo! is slated to start serving organic search results from the Microsoft Bing engine next month, and the company’s paid search ads will be migrating to Microsoft’s adCenter shortly thereafter.
The new partnership is expected to command about 30 percent of the search market currently dominated by Google, and data indicates that this percentage of users will be statistically closer to purchase than Google’s much larger share. That’s more than enough reason for e-commerce merchants not to ignore this significant change in the search landscape, and we have put together a list of five things to do to ensure that your business is ready for the start of this new era.
Internet Explorer 9
Posted on :: Jun 7
Microsoft today announced further details of their forthcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser, along with the first platform preview for developers, at their MIX Conference 2010.
Amongst the announcements comes increased support for CSS3, with support promised for CSS3 Selectors, Namespaces, Colors, Values, Backgrounds & Borders and Fonts, along with increased support for HTML5 and improvements in JavaScript performance.Finally, the End for IE 6
Posted on :: Jun 3
The most recent data from analytics firm StatCounter indicates that Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft’s outdated but resilient Web browser, may finally be on the way out.
Google dumps Windows
Posted on :: Jun 1
It comes as no surprise that Google would want its employees to use its products, including the forthcoming Chrome OS. But months before the operating system is released publicly, the company has reportedly started pulling the plug on internal use of Windows computers. going so far as to require special permission to use Microsoft’s OS.
Should Designers & Developers be held liable for Internet Explorer Design Bugs?
Posted on :: Nov 23
This is a question I'm posing to the wild Development Community becasue it seems more and more prevelant that Designers and Developers alike are being held accountable for Bugs and lack-of-interoperability especially when designing an developing Websites that are Standards-Compliant and are 'Web 2.0' compatible.
Internet Explorer, and its inefficient JS engine, is off in its own little world and forces web developers, designers, and programmers to make special exceptions when it comes to CSS and JS. Although its improved a little with the advent of its latest 8 version IE is slowly falling behind and yet people continue to use it because it comes with Windows...Google Chrome OS will give Microsoft a run for their money
Posted on :: Nov 20
The new operating system is designed for netbooks — those mini computers that you can buy for as low as $150. In a demonstration today, Google showed how fast the new operating system is — booting in somewhere between 5 and 6 seconds — and explained their vision to the world.
Google isn’t looking to replace all computers or operating systems — they are looking to make something that will work very well for most people. They are targeting those who want fast, hassle free, zero worry, web capable computing.
In a 3 minute YouTube video, Google explains how their operating system is different from traditional computers — and they do it very well. The concept explained in the video is easy enough for anyone to understand and “buy”, and that’s part of the reason why I think Microsoft should be worried.
Netbooks are typically “companion” devices — they are typically purchased to supplement existing computers. Google Chrome OS is all these computers should need.
It’s going to be a really long time before Microsoft can ever create a version of Windows that cold boots in 5 seconds, gives users 100% security, is free, and has the entire open source community behind them.
Microsoft Already Planning Windows 8?
Posted on :: Sep 28
With the news that Microsoft are bringing out a touch-screen tablet which could rival that of Apple’s alleged tablet device, it made me consider what is next for future operating systems.
Some would argue that Windows 7 was designed in and around touch capabilities, as the operating system finally included multi-touch technology which Microsoft had perfected since the “Longhorn” days.
With the Ribbon being integrated into most common programs and the operating system being designed for finger-input, you can tell Microsoft has made a significant push on the touch-screen user.
Bearing this in mind, could the next wave of operating systems - “Windows 8? specifically, expected to be released in 2011 which by then anything could go, be based on a touch-only interface?
Windows 7 XP Mode
Posted on :: Aug 5
On August 4, Microsoft is making available to any and all interested testers the Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows 7’s XP Mode add-on.
XP Mode is aimed primarily at small/mid-size business users (SMBs), and is designed to allow them to run legacy Windows XP applications on Windows 7 using virtualization technologies.
The release candidate of XP Mode will work on the Windows 7 Release Candidate and the final Windows 7 RTM bits. The XP Mode RC is avaiable for download from Microsoft’s Web site and consists of two components: A 5 MB Virtual PC file and a 450 MB copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3.
The final version of XP Mode will be available to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate users on or around October 22, the day that Microsoft plans to make Windows 7 generally available. XP Mode, unlike some of Microsoft’s other virtualization offerings, does not require users to have a Software Assurance (SA) annuity license in order to get the bits.
The Ultimate Windows 7 Upgrade FAQ
Posted on :: Jul 24
Microsoft has done an exceptional job of designing Windows 7, but a terrible job of communicating how it will be sold. As Microsoft dribbles out details of the Windows 7 release schedule and product lineup, including pricing and upgrade offers, I’ve been deluged with questions from readers about whether they qualify for a Windows 7 upgrade and, if so, what’s the simplest, most cost-effective way to acquire it.
Before I dive into the Q&A section, it’s worth taking a second to clear up the source of much of the confusion I’m encountering. In the often bewildering world of Windows licensing, the word upgrade has two separate and distinct meanings. The first refers to the license that you purchase, which in turn allows you to run Windows on a specific PC. The second refers to a mode of setup, where you keep installed programs and personal data files while replacing the underlying operating system.
Confused? Let’s see if I can untangle things.
The Scarlet V: What's a Vista business user to do?
Posted on :: Jul 24
Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing and is obviously the operating system that Microsoft and its partners will be pushing for the next two-plus years. If you’re one of those business users who is in the midst of deploying Vista, what should you do?
Up until fairly recently, Microsoft was telling users to continue going forward with their Vista deployments if they’d already begun them, and to just skip Vista and go straight to Windows 7 if they were just starting them.
But in May, around the time Microsoft delivered the near-final Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows 7, Windows execs stopped saying much at all about Vista. In fact, it was like pulling teeth to get them to talk about Vista Service Pack (SP) 2, in terms of discussing features, fixes and/or availability. At the company’s recent Worldwide Partner Conference, the message was clear: As of May, any marketing campaigns that had been using the word “Vista” should be switched to refer to “Windows.”
Where does that leave big shops that bought into Vista? Are they deigned to be ridiculed and abandonned like Hester Prynne, forced to don a scarlet “A” (or, in this case, “V”)?Is Microsoft's GPL2 support really a big deal?
Posted on :: Jul 22
Microsoft’s decison to release 20,000 lines of device driver code under GPLv2 is viewed as a big deal but not that surprising given the context.
After all, the only technology Microsoft fears more than Linux is VMware’s bare-metal virtualization platform. The release of the three device drivers under GPL2 this week — which will better allow application workloads running in Linux virtual machines on Windows to access storage devices– is designed for one reason and one reason only: to advance Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor.
The code, also known as the Linux Integration Components, has been deployed for some time in Novell’s SUSE Linux 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.X. following agreements Microsoft signed with the two leading Linux companies.
The announcement this week — Microsoft’s first support of the GPL2 — will more widely release the code under the leading open source license so that other Linux distributors and potentially Linux itself can incorporate these device drivers, which offer support for iSCSI and network storage devices.
Microsoft’s director of open source said today’s announcement is a big step for Windows-Linux interoperability. It is — but it is only for Linux Virtual Machines on Windows, not physical Linux servers and Linux desktops.
Microsoft unleashes 20,000 lines of Linux code
Posted on :: Jul 21
Microsoft is releasing three Microsoft-developed Linux drivers to the Linux community for possible inclusion in the Linux source tree.
This is the first time Microsoft has made Microsoft-developed code available directly to the Linux community. The Redmondians have released various pieces of code under different open-source licenses over the past few years, but this is the first time Microsoft has released Linux code and the first time the company has used the GPL license to release code, I believe. (Anyone know otherwise?) My ZDNet blogging colleague Jason Perlow says Microsoft previously released part of the Linux Integration Components under the GPL, so this isn’t technically the first-ever GPL’d code from the Softies.
Microsoft made the Linux driver announcement on July 20, the opening day of the O’Reilly OSCON open-source conference.
(The driver news also comes a week after Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told Microsoft reseller partners that Microsoft has competed really well against “the fraudulent perception of free” that is at the core of many Linux vendors’ sales pitches. Not all of Microsoft management is onboard with this newfangled licensing world….)
SEO (or is it DEO?) for Microsoft Bing
Posted on :: Jul 20
While it remains to be seen if this latest search entry will wrestle any significant market share from Google, it’s a good idea to get familiar with Bing.com, from an SEO perspective.
Bing is branded as a “decision engine,” enabling users to make better choices by drilling deeper through search results filtering. The jury is still out on whether it produces what it’s advertising, but if Bing can provide a positive search experience, it might just eat away at Google’s search dominance. Even if its impact is far less groundbreaking, Bing will be a significant source of traffic, making it worthy of attention.How good is Microsoft's free antivirus software?
Posted on :: Jun 19
Microsoft has officially unveiled its long-awaited consumer antivirus offering. Formerly code-named “Morro,” it’s now been christened Microsoft Security Essentials, and it will enter public beta testing next week. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or above), Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you’ll be able to download and install the software at no additional charge. No subscription is required for ongoing definition updates, either. The final release is scheduled for this fall.
The public beta will be limited to 75,000 downloads, Microsoft says, and the targets are global. The initial beta release is limited to the United States, Israel (where a core development team is based), and Brazil. Next month, the beta will open up for users in China. It’s no coincidence that Microsoft is rolling out early in Brazil and China, which are large-scale vectors of malware infections because of the sheer number of Windows users running without antivirus protection. According to Microsoft, barriers to adoption of paid security software are especially high in developing markets, where internet access is slower and credit cards are unavailable to a large percentage of the population.
Should Windows 7 be a free upgrade to all Vista Ultimate users?
Posted on :: May 14
Should Microsoft make Windows 7 available as a free upgrade to all Vista Ultimate users? Analyst Michael Cherry thinks this is what Microsoft should do.
So, why should Microsoft extend this generous offer to Vista Ultimate users? According to Cherry the reason is because the company failed to deliver on its promise to provide those running Vista Ultimate with the Ultimate Extras that were promised.
Is IE8 really fat and slow?
Posted on :: May 1
Since IE8 shipped last week, I’ve been following reviews and user feedback closely. A lot of the reactions to Microsoft’s new browser come down to personal preference: Some people like the usability-oriented tweaks Microsoft made, others think the browser is too busy or cluttered. It’s hard to argue with opinions.
But two criticisms have come up repeatedly that can be measured empirically, so I thought I would do that here. One is the burning question of whether IE8 is faster or slower than its competitors; the other is whether it makes reasonable use of system resources. In this post, I explain why some people are seeing performance issues (and share an obscure system tweak that might just cure IE8 performance and stability problems). I also take a closer look at why some browsers use more memory than others.
Microsoft to follow Apple with its own family of retail stores
Posted on :: Jan 10
Microsoft is planning to launch a number of new Microsoft-branded retail stores, according to a company press release issued late in the day on February 12.
The press release announced the appointment of David Porter, a new Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Retail Stores. Formerly with Dreamworks Animation and Wal-mart, Porter starts his new job at Microsoft on February 16.
There’s no word so far on when or where Microsoft is planning to launch the first of its new retail outlets. But the company is planning to use them to showcase Windows 7, Windows Mobile and Windows Live. According to the press release:
Vista or Windows 7? Just get rid of XP, Microsoft tells users
Posted on :: Dec 2
This blog post isn't mine in any way and is from ZDnet.com. I htought it was intesting, and decided to post it here.
Microsoft’s latest Windows deployment guidance for business users has morphed from the overly simplistic “Don’t wait for Windows 7.”
The company’s new corporate advice is more nuanced and more dependent on where users are currently in their deployment cycles. But the bottom-line message is whether you decide to go with Vista or wait for Windows 7 is less important than getting off Windows XP.
Windows 7 FAQ
Posted on :: Dec 2
With Windows Vista finally behind us, it's time to turn our attention to the next Windows client release, Windows 7. (Microsoft had used other code-names, like "Vienna" and "Windows Seven," to describe this product in the past.)
Clearly, what's needed is a central location for accurate information about Windows 7. This is it.
Windows 7 Theme for Vista
Posted on :: Dec 2
XP, Vista, Win 7: The brewing of a perfect storm
Posted on :: Nov 17
Whenever Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, there’s always some period of uncertainty when customers face the choice of moving to the current release or waiting for the new product. This year, however, that transition period is especially uneasy.
Windows 7 is — by all accounts (except from the Microsoft honchos) — due out later this year and is looking faster, smaller and more stable than any Windows release out there. Windows Vista is here, but not a user favorite (to put it mildly). And eight-year-old Windows XP is still the dominant version of Windows out there.
SQL Server 2008 RC0 Express on Vista
Posted on :: Nov 17
I wanted to get Express installed on my machine and so I downloaded the RC0 (of Express with Advanced Services) and ran it.
BTW there is is this Akamai download manager behind all of the RC0 downloads which you have to allow to run to get the download to start. If all is well you should have this download client running (and let me know if this is giving you grief):
SQL Server 2005 on Windows Vista
Posted on :: Nov 17
I've seen this issue pop up a few times so I thought I'd share a few quick tips / tricks to getting SQL Server 2005 to work on Vista.
If you see an error saying "Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is either not installed or is disabled.", but you're sure you did in fact install IIS7, you are not alone. There are several required IIS components for SQL Server to install properly on Vista and if you don't have the complete set you will see this error.