News


Microsoft Lining up Products for x64, Multi-core Support

During Intel's launch of the "Truland" computing platform this week, a Microsoft executive laid out a roadmap of products that will be x64 and multi-core enabled this year and next.

Windows Server 2003 SP1 Released to Manufacturing

Microsoft on Wednesday night released to manufacturing the long-awaited Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. The company also released to manufacturing the x64 editions of Windows Server and Windows XP.

Microsoft Agrees to Changes to Windows XP Edition N

A day after publicly accepting the European Commission's suggestion for naming the European version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, Microsoft announced some further measures to comply with commission requirements.

Intel Debuts Key Parts of Its 64-bit Xeon Strategy

Intel on Tuesday launched its "Truland" platform, which represents the first time the chip giant has offered x86-based 64-bit extensions for the Intel Xeon processor MP chips designed for four-way and larger servers.

Report: Major Privacy Technology Coming in Longhorn

Microsoft is working on a technology for Windows Longhorn called "Info-cards" that is designed to return control of personal data, such as credit cards and Social Security numbers, to users, according to a report published this week.

Indigo, Avalon Previews Available to All Comers

Over the weekend, Microsoft posted the "Indigo" and "Avalon" community technology previews for free to anyone with the bandwidth to download them.

Opinion: Old Attack Exposes Microsoft Shortcomings

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 were both found to be vulnerable to a very old form of Denial of Service attack known as a "Land" attack. The attack involves sending a packet to a machine with the source host/port the same as the destination host/port. This results in the system attempting to reply to itself, causing it to lock up.

European Windows Called 'Windows XP Home Edition N'

Microsoft and the European Commission settled on names for the version of Windows XP stripped of the Windows Media Player-- Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional Edition N.

IDC Lowers PC Growth Forecast for 2005

Market research house IDC lowered its PC growth forecast this week for 2005 from the low double digits to the high single digits.

Microsoft Expands Board, Announces Quarterly Dividend

Microsoft on Wednesday added retired J.P. Morgan Chase chief financial officer Dina Dublon to its board of directors and announced a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share.

Microsoft Pumps Out the Server Goodies

Microsoft is talking up a number of goodies for server infrastructure customers this month. They include a new version of the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool, new customer guidance on isolating servers and domains for security and a new version of the iSCSI Software Initiator.

Startup Offers Clustered Exchange Server With Managed Maintenance

A small Redmond, Wash.-based startup is shipping a new twist on outsourcing and turnkey solutions – a cluster of Exchange 2003 servers in a single box, replete with subscription-based third-party management, monitoring and maintenance. And, no, that’s not a cutesy turn of phrase referring to Microsoft.

Dell Rolls Out Two New High-Performance Multiprocessor Servers

Dell Wednesday rolled out two new high-performance, four-processor servers targeted at database processing and other enterprise-level data center uses. The company also announced the Data Center Environment Assessment, a service aimed at helping customers analyze their current data centers in order to appropriately design for air flow and power requirements of more demanding server environments.

IBM to Ship Eval Copies of VMware With Blades

IBM and VMware announced Wednesday that the computer giant will ship six-month trial versions of VMware’s virtualization products with its blade servers.

Microsoft to Cut Visual Studio Prices for 2005 Versions

Microsoft this week unveiled pricing for its Visual Studio 2005 family of integrated development environment products.

MapPoint Gets New Fleet Edition

Microsoft created new packaging for its MapPoint application and location Web service tailored to organizations managing fleets of vehicles.

Opinion: The No-Spin Zone

In this week's SecurityWatch column, Russ Cooper tackles physical security issues surrounding Bank of America's "loss" of computer backup tapes, the hacking vulnerability inherent in leftover FTP servers and issues raised by a recent Bagle variant.

New Name, Release Candidate for WUS

Microsoft renamed and put out a release candidate for Windows Update Services on Tuesday.

Microsoft Updates .NET Security Bulletin

Users encountered problems after applying a Feb. 8 patch.

IBM Buys Data Integration Firm for $1.1B

IBM announced this week it is buying data integration software firm Ascential for approximately $1.1 billion in cash.