News


Microsoft Expands Mainframe Migration Alliance

The Mainframe Migration Alliance, Microsoft's coalition of the willing for moving customers from mainframes to Windows servers, got some new members and an official Web site on Tuesday.

Microsoft Releases Best Practices Tool for Exchange

About a year after releasing Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft rolled out a free, automated best practice tool to help IT get the most out of the e-mail server and its two predecessors -- Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5.

EMC Combines Storage Stack for Exchange

Over the last few years, EMC has found itself controlling a number of the assets that medium-sized businesses might need to consolidate and manage their Microsoft Exchange-based storage.

Exchange 2003 at One Year: a Migration Progress Report

Microsoft formally launched Exchange Server 2003 about a year ago. The company is holding off until next month to formally announce how much momentum the incremental upgrade to Exchange 2000 Server has built up in that time. Several analyst firms that track messaging closely, however, think they have a pretty good idea how migrations are going.

Microsoft Updates Volume Licensing Programs

Microsoft made some minor changes to its volume licensing programs this week as it launched a new centralized Web site for licensing information.

Oracle, Dell Partner on 10g for Windows

Dell and Oracle this week began jointly promoting a packaged offering of Oracle's low-end Standard Edition One version of its 10g database on Dell hardware and running Windows Server 2003. Previously Dell and Oracle only offered the packaged deal on the Red Hat Linux operating system.

Exploit Code Circulating for JPEG Flaw

The seriousness of an already critical flaw in the way a Microsoft component processes JPEG files got ratcheted up a notch this week as exploit code began circulating.

Fix Available for Windows XP SP2 Problem

Microsoft has issued a formal fix for a problem in Windows XP Service Pack 2 that resulted in error messages for programs that attempt to use loopback addresses other than 127.0.0.1.

Users Enjoying Breather Between Windows XP and Longhorn

It’s never taken Microsoft longer than three years (give or take a few months) to deliver a new version of its business-class operating system. And when Redmond ships its Longhorn operating environment sometime in 2006, more or less than three years will have elapsed since the software giant delivered Windows Server 2003.

Reed to Retire from Microsoft Board

William G. Reed Jr. will retire from the Microsoft board of directors after 17 years. The board has decided not to replace Reed, reducing the size of the Microsoft board from 10 members to nine.

Government Source Code Review Program Expanded to Office

Microsoft expanded its controversial Government Security Program to allow governments that Microsoft trusts to review the source code of Microsoft Office.

Visual Studio 2005 Gets New Edition

Microsoft this month continued the shuffle of its Visual Studio developer suite packages prior to their planned release next year.

Symantec to Buy Security Firm @stake

Security giant Symantec is buying digital security company @stake for an undisclosed sum in a deal that is expected to close in October.

Microsoft Developing Backup and Recovery Server

Microsoft on Monday unveiled backup and recovery software for Windows file servers that will provide continuous backup of incremental changes to files and rapid recovery from disk-based storage.

Microsoft and Sendo Settle Lawsuits

Microsoft and Sendo reached a settlement in the lawsuit and countersuit that arose after the companies' mobile phone partnership fell apart in late 2002.

Microsoft Board Declares Dividend

The Microsoft Board of Directors on Wednesday declared a regular quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share that will be payable Dec. 2.

SP1 Released for Systems Management Server 2003

Microsoft posted the first service pack for Systems Management Server 2003. While the company characterizes the service pack as a "relatively small update" to SMS 2003, which came out in November, SP1 is important to Microsoft's larger management roadmap.

Kit to Help Integrate Project Server with SAP

Microsoft planned to release a kit on Wednesday to help systems integrators build hooks from SAP implementations into Microsoft's Office Project Server 2003.

Virtual Server Evaluation Edition Available

Microsoft this week released a 180-day evaluation edition of Virtual Server 2005, its first-generation product for running several virtualized server environments on one physical machine. General availability of Virtual Server 2005 is set for mid-October.

Problem with the Way Microsoft Opens JPEG Files Affects Dozens of Products

A remote attacker could take complete control over computers running many versions of Microsoft software by inserting malicious code in a JPEG image that executes through an unchecked buffer when the image is processed, Microsoft acknowledged on Tuesday.