Stuart J. Johnston

Now that Microsoft has released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 9, the browser wars are heating up again. And, as in any war, there are going to be casualties. In this case, Windows XP is taking the hit. As Datamation reports, Microsoft announced that, for a number of reasons, its latest browser won’t […]

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 is ready for its close-up. The software giant released the public beta version of the popular browser this week at a gala event in San Francisco, showing off a host of improvements to the user interface. Among the upgrades are a new JavaScript engine and a streamlined design meant to accentuate […]

Microsoft’s long march to gain a greater share of the search engine market, took a small step forward this week when Nielsen reported that the software giant’s Bing search engine slightly eclipsed Yahoo’s share of the U.S. search market in August. But while Bing and Yahoo slug it out, their main rival, Google, continues to […]

Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday update includes a number of fixes — but perhaps most notably, one that aims to yet again shut the door on Stuxnet, an incredibly complex and persistent bit of malware. The company last wrangled with Stuxnet early last month, when Microsoft released a rare out-of-band patch to block off one of […]

Microsoft on Monday moved swiftly to address what a New York Times report said was a case of Russian authorities cracking down on dissenting groups in the name of fighting software piracy. While Microsoft has certainly made it clear that protecting its intellectual property rights is a key concern, the company also said it “unequivocally […]

Enterprises are increasingly migrating to an IP-based unified communications infrastructure, and for years, Microsoft has made efforts to be at the forefront of that shift with its Office Communications Server. Now, with the latest version of the product — which merges tools for VoIP, instant messaging and collaboration — approaching the release stage, Microsoft is […]

Microsoft has confirmed that it will release the public beta version of Small Business Server 7 before the end of September, keeping in line with its earlier projection that the beta would drop “by the end of summer.” That release will only slightly trail the debut of two related servers from Microsoft, and promises small […]

Is Nokia’s gain Microsoft’s loss? In the near term, it would seem so, though industry analysts say that Microsoft has a strong group of talent that could step up to fill the void. Elop resigned his position of president of Microsoft’s Business Division last week to take over as Nokia’s new CEO, replacing company veteran […]

Microsoft is betting on a big holiday season, fueled in large part by the release of a bumper crop of smartphones running Windows Phone 7, the next iteration of its mobile operating system. Microsoft has said the Windows Phone 7 devices will hit the market in the fall, but it hasn’t said precisely when. Now, […]

Microsoft is giving IT departments the heads-up to expect a total of nine patches that shore up 13 different vulnerabilities when it releases its next batch of security fixes next week. As eSecurity Planet reports, four of the nine new patches are of the “critical” variety. Three of the critical patches fix holes in systems […]

The market for security software started to heat up last month following Intel’s surprising $7.7 billion acquisition of McAfee. But there’s always activity on the IT security front, as new security threats emerge and companies scramble to act both reactively and proactively. In the last few years Microsoft has greatly increased its investment in the […]

How eager is Microsoft to convince users to convince users to abandon its aging Internet Explorer 6 in favor of IE8? The software giant is committed enough to place an ad on its Bing search engine directing users to a promotional site that entices users to upgrade. Meanwhile, while Microsoft is aggressively promoting its IE8 […]