News


Microsoft Products Get Security Certified

Microsoft recently took another small step in its Trustworthy Computing initiative by obtaining security certification for a number of updated products.

Microsoft RTMs Communicator Web Access

Microsoft finished development this week on the Web access component of its Office Communicator client.

Whale To Bundle ISA 2004

Microsoft and Whale Communications announced a partnership that enables Whale to sell an integrated solution that combines Microsoft’s Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 with the smaller firm’s Intelligent Application Gateway product.

Microsoft Ships Exchange '12' Beta

Role-based administration is a major feature in the beta, which is limited to about 1,400 testers.

Newly Patched IE Flaw Already Being Exploited

Attackers are already exploiting a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Internet Explorer that Microsoft released a patch for Tuesday.

VMware's Secure Browser Appliance

VMware made a splash in November when it released the free VMware Player, which lets users run pre-built VMware virtual machine configurations on client PCs. Now the company has taken its efforts a step further, teaming with Mozilla and Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu Linux) to create a pre-built virtual machine for the Firefox Web browser.

Visual FoxPro 9 Service Pack 1 Ships

Microsoft shipped at the end of last week Service Pack 1 for Visual FoxPro 9.0, a quiet update that fixes 200 or so bugs but that adds no new features to the revered database development tool.

Firefox Gradually Gaining Against IE

All of the noise and attention surrounding the release last month of Firefox 1.5 appears to have helped the alternative Web browser’s market share, even if those gains are still only in fractions of percentage points.

It’s a Xen Thing

XenSource announced this week that it is shipping version 3.0 of its Xen system virtualization environment built on the open source Xen hypervisor.

Developer Exams Waiting in the Wings

Wave of new developer and IT exams in beta testing during December.

Two Windows Security Bulletins Coming Next Week

Microsoft plans to post two security bulletins for Windows next Tuesday, and at least one of them addresses a critical vulnerability.

ISVs Jump on Microsoft CRM Opportunity

It's critical for Microsoft to demonstrate strong partner support for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 launch this week.

FullArmor Extends Policy Compliance

FullArmor is shipping PolicyPortal, a Web services-based tool designed to automatically enforce Active Directory Group Policy settings on computers that are disconnected from the directory, either temporarily or permanently.

South Korea Orders Microsoft to Sell Stripped Windows

Microsoft officials plan to appeal an antitrust ruling against the company by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission.

Free Microsoft Add-in Aims To Help Small Retailers

Microsoft is shipping a free software add-in designed to enable retailers to transfer point-of-sale data, such as transactions and purchase orders, directly into their financial management software.

New Beta of IE7 for XP Coming in Q1

Microsoft plans to ship the second beta test version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP early next year.

Windows Server 2003 R2 RTMs

Windows Server 2003 R2 reached its final development milestone on Tuesday when Microsoft released the product to manufacturing. The minor update to Windows Server 2003 will be generally available within 60 days.

Microsoft Ships CRM 3.0 on Schedule

Microsoft is shipping the second of its “Project Green” – now renamed Microsoft Dynamics – products on schedule, this one its CRM package.

IBM Reinforces Commitment to OpenDoc

While IBM has previously endorsed the OpenDocument standard, this week it decided to put its money where its public relations message resides and announced that the next version of its Workplace Managed Client will support the format.

Virtual Server R2 Enterprise Edition Price Cut

To encourage new virtualization scenarios in Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft will sell the new OS with a half-price version of its server virtualization tool.