MINNEAPOLIS — July 8, 2005 — For the next three days, Microsoft Corp. will demonstrate its commitment to delivering innovation to its partners and customers, as evidenced by an unparalleled wave of solutions scheduled to come from the company in the next year. The event, the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2005, is being attended by more than 6,500 industry partners. Throughout the conference, Microsoft will demonstrate the business value partners can realize by embracing the Microsoft® platform, taking a holistic view of the company’s software stack and using it as a foundation for creating vertical, horizontal or other value-added solutions that deliver great benefits to customers of all sizes and geographies.

Beta 1 of Longhorn is still on track for this summer, Microsoft corporate VP of developer and platform evangelism told attendees of Microsoft's worldwide partner conference during a Friday morning keynote address. Sanjay Parthasarathy reiterated that Longhorn Beta 1, which will not include the new user interface bits, is due this summer. Beta 2, which will showcase the new interface, is due out some time in the first part of 2006.

On 12 July 2005 Microsoft is planning to release: • 2 Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The greatest aggregate, maximum severity rating for these bulletin is Critical. Some of these updates will require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). • 1 Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Office. The greatest aggregate, maximum severity rating for this bulletin is Critical. These updates may require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).

To Microsoft, the small/mid-size business (SMB) segment is no longer a single entity. Here at the company's annual worldwide partner conference this week, Microsoft is planning to announce new programs aimed at what its officials now claim are two very different and distinct types of businesses.

The company's Information Worker unit is dabbling with search and other potential future products in its incubator. Microsoft's Information Worker unit is looking how to grow its Office franchise via a number of potential new products taking root in its "Greenhouse" incubator. The Greenhouse team builds prototypes of potential applications and technologies and then seeks wider, corporate backing and financing for these initiatives. Those that aren't seen as viable are dropped.

We just had a short chat with Steve Ballmer in his office (we filmed the interview today, July 7, at 1:30 p.m.)

Microsoft's recent announcement that it will add "direct-push" technology to its Exchange-based mobile email system has been widely welcomed. But the acclaim is not universal and some argue that it won't really be a push technology - though that view is still speculation. And there are good reasons for believing it may be too little too late to win converts from arch-rival RIM's BlackBerrys, and vendors of other alternatives.

MINNEAPOLIS – July 7, 2005 – As Microsoft embarks upon its annual premier partner event, the Windows Server System group rolls out a new promotion demonstrating Microsoft’s commitment to meet the diverse needs of one the fastest-growing sectors of the IT market - midsize businesses. The offering is designed to enable midsize businesses to upgrade older systems with simplified IT infrastructure management, reduced costs and complexity, and improved security. The three-day Worldwide Partner Conference brings together many of Microsoft’s more than 300,000 partner organizations to explore a wide range of IT products and services, including ways partners reach out to small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) and midsize firms (50 –1,000 employees) to help them benefit from technology, while saving time, reducing costs and building their businesses.

Microsoft is almost ready with the first Longhorn beta and IT expert Paul Thurrott announces on his site that we are to expect it at the end of this month. Microsoft initially planned the launch of this beta for June 30, but preferred to postpone it until the end of July. The team behind Longhorn is already working on build 5200 post beta 1, which will be the core of beta 2 announced for November. The developers have told Thurrott that Longhorn beta 1 will be one of the most stable beta versions ever launched by Microsoft, but unfortunately it won’t have many of the features promised for Longhorn.

Microsoft has created a fix for a glitch in its Tablet PC operating system that has been causing some laptops to lose performance over time.

On Tuesday, Microsoft posted a patch to its Web site designed to prevent the problem, known as a memory leak. The problem had cropped up in the latest version of the Tablet PC operating system. The problem was linked to the program that allowed for electronic-pen input. If left open for a long period of time, the program gradually took over the bulk of a laptop's memory, eventually forcing a user to reboot the system. Microsoft acknowledged the memory leak issue in February and said then it was hoping a fix would be available soon.

Know your enemies. If Microsoft were to jot down the names of companies that could unseat it, the list would be awfully short. And the hit men gunning for Microsoft would need to be sharpshooters -- because knocking off Mr. Softy is a long shot. So who could challenge the software king? Apple Computer? Apple has class and momentum, but it's still way behind in market share. Oracle? You have to admire Larry Ellison's spunk, but bravado alone won't topple Microsoft as the world's leading software giant. What about Google? Sure, you've never seen Microsoft and Google duke it out, I gather. Ellison and Steve Jobs have no problem dissing Microsoft in public, and an attack by a kinder, gentler Google would surely be a case of friendly fire. Right?

Microsoft is rumored to be acquiring a spyware company called Claria (known for its spyware product, Gator). They have since updated Windows' antispyware app so that it advises users to ignore Gator spyware.

Chad has posted his review of Microsoft's Jade Empire for Xbox. Here is an excerpt:

One of the most anticipate games of this year is an RPG from Bioware, developers of Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic - the 2003 Game of the Year*. Many loved that game and have been impatiently waiting to see what they would develop next. BioWare created a martial-arts themed action RPG set against a gorgeous China backdrop. Interested to see if Jade Empire is as good as Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR)? Read on to find out.

The Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Calendar Views Add-in makes it easy for you to view your Outlook Calendar appointments through a filter that is based on Outlook labels and categories. For example, you can create a view that shows you only the appointments on your calendar that are labeled Must Attend, or are categorized as Important. You add filters by using the Calendar Views toolbar, which opens in your Outlook Calendar after you install the add-in. Note: This add-in is for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 only.

As a Microsoft Hive.net site sponsor, we were able to bring you these Hive.net desktop backgrounds first! Here we have provided two backgrounds in two different resolutions, 800 by 600 and 1280 by 1024. Check them out!

The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor is a tool used by Database developers and administrators to analyze SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 database servers in preparation for upgrading to SQL Server 2005. The Upgrade Advisor will allow users to analyze the configuration of their existing database services and database applications. As a result of this analysis, Upgrade Advisor will provide reports that identify deprecated features and necessary configuration changes that will impact their Database upgrade process. Upgrade Advisor will also provide links to documentation that describe these changes and necessary steps to complete the process.

The Live Meeting Add-In Pack RC consists of three distinct add-ins: the Live Meeting Add-in for Outlook, the Office Collaboration Add-in, and the Live Meeting add-in for Instant Messaging, each which offer unique features.

An issue has been identified with your Windows-based system that may cause network connectivity between clients and servers to fail. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system places great emphasis on locking down PCs to prevent unauthorised access to hardware and software, the software giant revealed today. According to Detlef Echert, Microsoft's chief security advisor in Europe, there are several key elements designed to boost security in its next OS.

On June 29th, 2005, France Telecom and Microsoft announced a strategic deal to co-develop innovative products and technologies that enable customers to benefit from the new opportunities of the digital world through innovative convergent services.

As part of this partnership, Didier Lombard, Chairman and CEO France Telecom and Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft Corporation are presenting the first two initiatives in this strategic partnership.

First, France Telecom and Microsoft will cooperate on a next-generation service platform to enable the aggregation and delivery of a wide variety of services, including voice, video and data.

Digital convergence brings many new opportunities for users to utilize multiple devices across many different networks. There is a need for next-generation service platforms, for triple play and beyond, in order to evolve from side-by-side services, and provide users with a much richer experience, giving the liberty to combine TV, voice over IP (VoIP), instant messaging (IM), presence, content, and many other services simultaneously and with great flexibility.

Today at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Microsoft Corp.’s annual flagship European technical education conference for developers and IT professionals, Sybari Software Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, announced general availability of the Sybari Antigen management pack for Microsoft® Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. The management pack provides critical performance and availability data through the MOM 2005 console for Sybari’s Antigen for Microsoft Exchange and Antigen for SMTP Gateways, and enables IT administrators to rapidly identify and manage potential threats to the security of their network.

“Our customers have told us that they want a way to centrally manage and monitor server performance, availability and security, so we are excited to offer customers closer integration between Sybari Antigen and MOM 2005,” said Joe Licari, vice president of product management for Sybari. “Now corporations can extend their use of MOM 2005 and Antigen to better ensure that critical servers and applications are available and secure.”

MOM 2005 and MOM 2005 management packs are key deliverables of Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative, a commitment from Microsoft and industry partners to help IT customers capture and use knowledge to design more manageable systems and automate ongoing operations.

I have some screenshots of Compute Cluster Edition! The beta will start in September, it will be only released for Windows 2003 64bit edition, which is logical because when it is released nearly all servers you can buy at that time will be 64bit, also this edition is for high performance computing so it is obvious users will use 64bit.

New deals with open source vendors to push interoperability

Microsoft has detailed plans to make Active Directory more interoperable with devices running operating systems other than Windows. The plans, unveiled at this year's TechEd in Amsterdam, centre on new tools developed after the company struck a deal with the EU requiring it to open up its software. Redmond has also made a commitment to work more closely with partners to develop the architecture for more interoperable web services.

Announces partnership with Alien Technology...

Microsoft is planning to make RFID applications and tag-readers compatible with Windows. According to Scott Woodgate, group product manager of business processes for Microsoft, the company is trying to integrate RFID programs with the operating system and make the majority of devices work with plug-and-play functionality. Woodgate told silicon.com: "RFID has not been widely adopted because of the cost of devices and implementation of management. One of the things we're doing is working on standards-based and non-standards-based RFID readers. There's a whole host of them out there and they'll work on Windows as plug-and-play devices."

December launch for long-awaited software

Microsoft is to release a new version of its CRM software by the end of this year. The new version will include a special edition for small businesses, a subscription-based licence for hosting services, and support for more languages. The software will come with two new modules: one to automate the management of direct marketing campaigns, and one to manage complex personnel and resource scheduling requests, the company said. The new version is a great leap forward in at least one other respect, as the company is moving directly from the existing version 1.2 and numbering the new version 3.0. Customers have had a long wait: the last release was in December 2003 and that still had gaps in areas like synchronisation and data de-duplication that have frustrated customers

Microsoft has promised to dramatically cut the amount of coding developers will need to carry out with the forthcoming version of Visual Studio. Andrew Lees, corporate vice president of server tools at Microsoft, said during his keynote address at the TechEd conference in Amsterdam that Visual Studio 2005 would cut the amount of new code by up to 70 per cent by automating processes.

Paul Flessner, former in-the-trenches IT guy and now senior vice president for server applications at Microsoft, wants to run the data centre. His opening punch comes in November with the release of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and the beta for BizTalk 2006. Flessner recently talked about what lies ahead for Microsoft.

The debate over total cost of ownership (TCO) between Windows vs. Linux rages on with Microsoft having published the results of a study performed by Wipro Technologies at the behest of Redmond to find out which system offers a lower cost on security. While Linux advocates are quick to point out that the vast majority of malware is written with Microsoft in mind and that alone makes Linux more secure and therefore less costly, the study does provide some interesting points.

Once thought unthinkable, Sun may eventually offer Microsoft's operating systems on its servers if customers ask for it. This is according to comments made last week by operating platform vice president Tom Goguen. Currently, the company has no such deal with Microsoft; however, the two companies have taken great strides to work out their differences. "It depends on what our customers tell us to do," Goguen says. If enough customers want the operating system preinstalled on Sun servers, the company would persue a licensing deal with the company. Microsoft officials would not comment on such a deal.

Thanks Chris. Often criticized for the sheer number of digital imaging products that it offers, Microsoft has faced a bit of resistance to its Digital Image Suite product line, which offers consumer-oriented digital photo editing, management, and sharing functionality across three applications. That's a shame, because the last few versions of this application suite have been fantastic, and I've been moving away from Adobe's PhotoShop products as I've come to be more familiar with the Microsoft offerings, which are often superior as well as less expensive. In this review, I'd like to examine the latest version, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, see how it compares to Adobe's consumer-oriented photo editing solution, PhotoShop Elements 3.0, and take a look at all its new features.

After five years of guiding generics for the Microsoft® .NET Framework into Visual Studio® 2005, I've turned my attention to attempting to achieve a synthesis between type-safe, scalable, math-oriented scripting and programming for .NET. I believe the industry needs to do more for scientists and mathematicians, where the demand for this kind of language is great. Scientists love their scripting languages, which they use to drive tools such as MatLab and Mathematica to great effect, but they also need languages that scale with high performance. Math-oriented programming is also big business, from the modern trading floors that depend on trained mathematicians modeling financial products to the Xbox® games with their machine learning AI algorithms. At the moment, the gap between scientific scripts and applications seems too large.

Microsoft is investigating a new public report of a vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer. We have not been made aware of any attacks attempting to use the reported vulnerability or customer impact at this time, but we are aggressively investigating the public report. Microsoft has completed the initial investigation and recommends disabling Javaprxy.dll in Internet Explorer. For more information, including links to an available download, please see “Disable the Javaprxy.dll COM object from running in Internet Explorer” in the Workarounds section. At the completion of the overall investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers, which may include providing additional mitigation or workaround guidance through this Security Advisory, and a security update through our monthly release process or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on the results of the investigation and customer needs.

The Microsoft SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is a set of 8 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services reports that work with a sample database of information extracted from a SharePoint Portal Server environment. This database can be populated from your own SharePoint Portal Server environment using the downloadable Data Extraction Program (DEP). The DEP will read the SharePoint Portal Server data via the object model. You also can use the sample reports as templates for designing new reports.

Microsoft Money 2006 makes it easy to stay on top of your finances. You get all your finances, all in one place. Money 2006 works with your checking, credit card and brokerage accounts. Money also helps you understand spending, manage your bills and organize for tax time. Download a free trial today so you can spend less time worrying about your money and more time enjoying it. Note, this is a US only download.

Release Notes

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. won another skirmish in what promises to become another protracted war in the courts action against Intel. The company has won a motion to serve document preservation subpoenas against computer makers, retailers, distributors and small system builders almost immediately after filing the motion Friday (July 1) as part of its claim that Intel coerced such companies to use its x86 processors rather than AMD's.

Use of such documentary evidence is expected to play a key role as AMD attempts to prove its antitrust suit in the District Court of Delaware.

The motion sought a judicial order permitting AMD to "preserve relevant evidence that is in the possession of specified third-parties." The company said its lawyers will now "engage in discussions with 30 third-parties in an effort to implement the order so as to preserve evidence while imposing on them as little an administrative burden as possible."

Alex Barnett:

From the press release at the Web Standards Project (WaSP):

"Today Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0, currently in beta, create XHTML 1.0 transitional markup by default and provide real-time standards and browser markup validation. Developers can validate to XHTML Strict, Transitional and Frameset Document Type Definitions (DTDs), as well as validate their applications against a variety of other standards and browsers including IE6, Mozilla, FireFox, and Opera. Microsoft's Web development tools in Visual Studio 2005 also allow developers to create documents that conform to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)."

What about IE? In response to a comment asking if IE team was considered part of the Task Force, Molly Holzshlag replies:

"Yes, we are talking with IE developers.

No, I can’t make any predictions regarding IE’s future. Microsoft will have to comment on that.

However, I will say that all the developers we’re talking with both inside the TF and as an extension of the TF are very, very interested, open to our suggestions and commentary, and it is overall in my estimation a really cool experience to be working with Microsoft as opposed to against them."

The Foreign Office signed an agreement with Microsoft on Wednesday to supply the software platform for Future Firecrest, their proprietary platform.

An FCO spokesperson said, "We considered an open source solution but in the end decided that choosing Windows would be more cost effective. We already run Firecrest on Windows, and decided to upgrade. Our focus is on evolution rather than revolution — we are trying to keep pace with technology, but are by no means revolutionary."

The FCO are only now upgrading from their current Windows NT4 based system. Windows NT4 became obsolete on 1 January 2005, when Microsoft ended support. Neither the FCO or Microsoft would say what they are upgrading to.

Today at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Microsoft Corp. continued to disclose details surrounding the launch of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and BizTalk® Server 2006. As part of his keynote address, Andy Lees, corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions, announced that these products would launch on Monday, Nov. 7 in San Francisco.

As part of the announcement, Microsoft revealed that throughout November there would be more than 90 launch events spanning 50 countries. The worldwide launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 offers significant advancements in interoperability, developer productivity and mission-critical support. The launch furthers Microsoft’s commitment to delivering the next-generation platform for connected systems to advance business decision-making through greater insight, visibility and alignment across software development and business processes.

“The launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 will truly be a global launch. We will kick off the availability of these products in San Francisco and carry it through Europe and the rest of the world in the following days and weeks,” Lees said. “These products mark a new generation of platforms for connected systems, and are not only designed to work better together, but will enable customers to better connect with existing systems, trading partners, customers and employees.”

REDMOND, Wash. — July 5, 2005 — The report card is in, and kids aren’t the only ones feeling overwhelmed when it comes to calculus homework and history reports. According to a recent independent survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp. in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, 71 percent of parents with 12- to 18-year-olds consider themselves unprepared to help their children with homework, citing insufficient knowledge and a lack of resources as the primary areas of frustration.1 Perhaps this is why more than half of the parents interviewed said homework is a source of tension in their household. Based on consumer feedback and extensive research, Microsoft today introduced Microsoft® Student 2006, a comprehensive, subject-specific productivity software product designed to help middle- and high-school students efficiently complete high-quality homework assignments and achieve academic success.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, and MINNEAPOLIS — July 5, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it will preview the upcoming release of its customer relationship management solution, Microsoft® CRM 3.0, in timing with the Microsoft Tech•Ed 2005 Europe conference and the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2005 in the United States. Microsoft CRM 3.0 will provide a complete suite of powerful marketing, sales and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience based on Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook®. Extensive new configuration, customization and integration capabilities will make it easier for customers and partners to deploy highly tailored solutions that help drive measurable business results and offer a low total cost of ownership (TCO). Microsoft CRM 3.0 is designed to address the three key challenges that determine the success or failure of most CRM initiatives: user adoption, business fit and total cost of ownership.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 5, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Microsoft® Money 2006 Premium, providing the tools and information that consumers need to take the convenience of online banking to the next level. The new software includes features that make it easier to see more than just account balances, understand spending, budget, manage and reduce debt, and pay multiple bills — all in one place.

At this week's Worldwide Partner Conference, the Redmond vendor is slated to detail both its vertical sales push, as well as its new small-business and mid-market campaigns. While Microsoft is expected to use this week's Worldwide Partner Conference to flesh out its vertical sales push, company brass also are going to detail the small-business and mid-market initiatives that Microsoft will launch in the coming year. Microsoft's annual partner conference kicks off on Thursday in Minneapolis. More than 6,000 resellers, OEMs, systems integrators, software specialists and other kinds of partners are slated to attend.

Will it shift policy in time for Longhorn?

Sun appearing to be warming to the idea of selling Windows on its servers. Tom Goguen, Sun's vice president of operating platform marketing, said on Friday that while Sun currently has no definite plan to strike a deal with Microsoft, the vendor will consider it if customers and partners think it's a good idea. "It depends on what our customers tell us to do," Goguen said. "If we find enough customers that say we want you to have that type of relationship with Microsoft, [we will]." This is a significant shift from Sun's usual line. Sun has certified Windows on its hardware based on x86 AMD processors. However John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's Network Systems Group, said in April that Sun has no need to actually sell Windows because many customers already purchase the OS on their own and can get Windows support on Sun hardware through channel partners.

Developers using Microsoft's popular Visual Studio .Net software engineering suite were today offered a plug-in that allows them to code web applications for Linux. Referred to as Grasshopper, the freely available Visual MainWin for J2EE Developer Edition is designed to link Visual Studio development to Linux and J2EE server deployments. Grasshopper was designed by Mainsoft and is claimed to be the first Visual Studio-based IDE for Linux.

Microsoft Corp. will preview the upcoming release of its customer relationship management solution, Microsoft CRM 3.0, during the in timing with the Microsoft Tech•Ed 2005 Europe conference and the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2005 in the United States. Microsoft CRM 3.0 will provide a complete suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience based on Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft CRM 3.0 is designed to address the three key challenges that determine the success or failure of most CRM initiatives: user adoption, business fit and total cost of ownership.

Byron has just posted his review of the AMD Athlong 64 4000+ processor. Here is an excerpt:

With the introduction of the AMD Athlon 64 processor, AMD provides customers a solution that can address their current and future computing needs. As the first desktop PC processor to run on the AMD64 platform, the AMD Athlon 64 processor helps ensure superior performance on today’s software with complete readiness for the coming wave of 64-bit computing. With AMD64 technology, customers can embrace the new capabilities of 64-bit computing on their own terms and achieve compatibility with existing software and operating systems.

The Live Meeting 2005 Web Parts integrate Live Meeting with SharePoint (both Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server) to aggregate information together within a single portal so that teams can interact more effectively. By integrating with Live Meeting Portal, users can seamlessly view their upcoming Live Meetings or recently made recordings without having to log-in or remember any passwords. Not only do the web parts provide a view into Live Meeting from SharePoint, but they also allow a user to conveniently publish meetings and recording into a shared event calendar, so that team members can interact more effectively by having everything in one place.

IntelliSense code snippets allow developers to easily create and distribute their own customized code libraries. Using the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment and the power of IntelliSense, inserting these commonly used pieces of code is an effective way to enhance your productivity. The sample IntelliSense code snippets for Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System Beta 2 contained in this download provide a jump start for implementation of common Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 solution development tasks in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. The snippets facilitate development of general Microsoft Office environment manipulation including data importing/export, collaboration, and integration with Excel and Word controls.

The patterns & practices Enterprise Library is a library of Application Blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Application Blocks are a type of guidance, provided as source code, that can be used as-is, extended or modified by developers for use on enterprise development projects. The June 2005 release of Enterprise Library is a minor update of the original version released in January 2005. Enterprise Library features new and updated versions of application blocks that were previously available as stand-alone blocks. All blocks included in Enterprise Library have been updated with a particular focus on consistency, extensibility, ease of use and integration.

In response to direct customer need for a streamlined method of identifying common security misconfigurations, Microsoft has developed the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). Version 2.0 of MBSA includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems. MBSA runs on Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows XP systems and will scan for common security misconfigurations in the following products: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0, and 6.0, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01 and later, and Office 2000, 2002 and 2003. MBSA also scans for missing security updates, update rollups and service packs published to Microsoft Update.

But IBM claims pertaining to alleged harm done by Microsoft to IBM's server hardware and software business are not part of the deal. On Friday, Microsoft and IBM said they had settled many of the outstanding antitrust issues between the two companies raised during the United States Department of Justice vs. Microsoft antitrust case during the mid-1990s.

Longhorn, by the features WFS: Cut .NET Framework: Cut MONAD: Cut Integrated Search: Cut Avalon: Who knows? Indigo: Who knows? IE7: You can repaint a Kia, lower it down, put rims on it and think you are cool, but at the end of the day it is still a Kia.

The Microsoft Smart Client Application Promotion is a unique opportunity for independent software vendors (ISVs) that create "Smart Client Applications"—software programs that use the latest Microsoft Windows runtime technologies and meet certain requirements—to be eligible for promotion and distribution opportunities from Microsoft. If you are an ISV and promoting and distributing your application is your top priority, read on.

Identity Integration Feature Pack 1a for Microsoft® Windows Server™ Active Directory® manages identities and coordinates user details across Microsoft Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, and Exchange Server 2003 implementations. Using Identity Integration Feature Pack, you can combine identity information for a given user or resource into a single, logical view. Identity Integration Feature Pack 1a also automates the provisioning of new and updated identity data, eliminating time-consuming, repetitive administration and the need to manually add, delete, or update identity information, groups, and user accounts.

The Sample Code Generator (XSDObjectGen) tool takes an XSD schema as input and generates sample code showing how to mark up C# and VB.Net classes so that when serialized with the XML serializer, the resulting XML will be valid according to the original schema.

The Live Meeting 2005 Web Parts integrate Live Meeting with SharePoint (both Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server) to aggregate information together within a single portal so that teams can interact more effectively. By integrating with Live Meeting Portal, users can seamlessly view their upcoming Live Meetings or recently made recordings without having to log-in or remember any passwords. Not only do the web parts provide a view into Live Meeting from SharePoint, but they also allow a user to conveniently publish meetings and recording into a shared event calendar, so that team members can interact more effectively by having everything in one place.