Windows Vista

Companies that rely on unlicensed copies of Windows are more likely to experience system failures and lose customer data, Microsoft said yesterday, citing a company-sponsored report.

G.ho.st, a startup that offers a hosted operating system, has accused Microsoft of violating a company trademark with its prominent use of the phrase "no walls" in its recently unveiled US$300 million Windows marketing and advertising campaign.

In many ways, Apple is already a giant. Its US$118 billion market cap, which briefly surpassed Google's this year, is larger than that of Hewlett-Packard Co. Its sales, which are nearly $31 billion a year, have grown almost 40 percent annually the past five years. And, then there's its mindshare with the general public.

Microsoft's US$300 million advertising campaign for Windows starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched last week night with an extra-long television commercial almost entirely devoid of any talk of Windows, Microsoft, or anything, really.

For the past two-plus years, Microsoft has stood by while Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" TV commercials treated Windows Vista like a punching bag.

Windows Web sites worth a look

Vista, thy name is bloat!

Open source and cloud computing alternatives can replace Office in some circumstances

Despite an outpouring of demand -- including more than 210,000 people who signed InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition, Microsoft held firm and Monday discontinued sales of XP in most cases. So, we bid adieu to Windows XP.

Windows Vista has been slow to catch on in business. Could Windows Server 2008 ride to the rescue? The new server operating system shares the same code base as Windows Vista and includes some features that are optimized to work with Vista.

Microsoft's Ben Fathi has a new job now that Vista has shipped, but the man who led the company's Security Technology Unit is still focused on keeping the bad guys away from your PC.

Microsoft finally rolled its Vista operating system out the door billing it as its most secure operating system ever, but what are the security features that will really matter to enterprise users?

Microsoft Tuesday released draft application programming interfaces designed to give independent security vendors a way to get around a kernel patch protection technology in Windows Vista. Known as PatchGuard, the Vista technology has been at the center of a simmering dispute between Microsoft and several security vendors who claim that PatchGuard hampers the ability of their products to deliver key security capabilities such as host-based intrusion detection. The technology has also been part of broader antitrust concerns in the European Union that Microsoft has been forced to respond to. Ben Fathi Microsoft's vice president for the Windows core operating system, talked about the draft APIs and the company's rationale for releasing them. Excerpts from that interview follow:

Symantec and McAfee say that a Microsoft technology called Patch Guard -- which blocks access to the 64-bit Vista kernel -- will make it harder for third-party security vendors to deliver certain features in their products.

Microsoft has kindly extended its XP "downgrade" program for OEMs by another six months. Rather than appreciating the extension, some people have chosen to mock Microsoft and call for the curtain to close on Windows Vista once and for all.

It was a decision heralded by industry media types and praised by blogging heads around the Internet. Steve Sinofsky, the legendary show-runner for Microsoft Office, would take over the Windows reins from the departing Jim Allchin.

Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Siegfried and Roy, Gates and Seinfeld. Years from now, they will be remembered as the some of the great comic duos of all time.

Last week I suggested that the IT world, particularly when it comes to marketing, is crazy, and I cited as evidence Microsoft's recently announced US$10 million plan to use comedian Jerry Seinfeld to hawk Vista.

We all have them. Those favorite tools and utilities that help make our Windows environment just a little bit more comfortable. For me, the following eight utilities aren't so much conveniences as they are life preservers for my sanity. Each one has become an integral part of my day to day, Windows Workstation 2008 experience, to the point where the thought of life without them leaves me contemplating a nice stroll out an 18th story window. Simply put, they're must-haves -- for me and, frankly, for any sane IT professional dealing with Windows on a daily basis.

Overall, we can't say that we don't like the Vista Ultimate code that was released to manufacturing by Microsoft Wednesday and will subsequently be available for corporate volume customers by the end of the month. After all, from our testing we can confirm that it contains vastly improved graphics, offers very flexible installation options, and gives administrators stronger control over the operating systems security settings.