Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft knows a thing or two about smartphones. Years before Apple and Google got in the game, Microsoft was supplying its mobile operating system software and applications to leading phone makers. But experience doesn’t always translate into success. Research-In Motion’s BlackBerry line, the Apple iPhone and the new generation of Android-based devices have thumped Microsoft […]

The latest edition of Microsoft’s productivity suite comes with a litany of new features, and the software giant cautions that IT managers need to keep pace. In that spirit, Microsoft is rolling out three new Office 2010 certifications, dubbed Microsoft Office Specialist. Within that category, Microsoft is offering three levels of certification: specialist, expert and […]

Microsoft is touting another milestone for its Windows Live Messenger IM client. The iPhone app for the service, launched just five days ago, has already garnered more than 1 million downloads, the company said. That comes on the heels of word from Microsoft that its IM client had signed up more than 300 million users, […]

ServerWatch reports that Microsoft has done developers a big favor by merging IIS 7.x with ASP.NET, thus combining Microsoft’s Web server with its Web application development framework. This will make it easier to build apps and make life a little easier for developers, since the only version of IIS that runs on Windows XP, up […]

It seems everywhere you look, Microsoft is getting hammered in the media. Late to the cloud. Wedded to an outdated PC model. Fighting a losing battle in search. Enough with the criticism, says Frank Shaw, the company’s vice president of corporate communications. Shaw, a self-proclaimed words guy, stepped out of his medium to offer a […]

It’s getting harder and harder to keep secrets these days. Microsoft’s Windows 8, the next major step forward for the company’s operating system, may have lost some of its mystique thanks to leaked slides that were apparently intended only to be seen by PC makers. But the leak, if it is to be believed, delivered […]

Just a few days after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff proclaimed that you know you’ve arrived when Microsoft sues you, he decided turnabout is fair play. Salesforce responded to Microsoft’s patent infringement suit with one of its own. So what is Salesforce, a much younger and newer company than Microsoft, claiming? eCRM Guide takes a look. […]

The release of the first service pack for a new Microsoft operating system is always a telling event. At that point, IT managers have a chance to kick the tires and decide whether the new OS is really worth the investment of upgrading the enterprise. For Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (SP1) isn’t due out […]

For IT buyers, the ultimate metric of success is the ROI. That is, how soon can buyers expect their investments to pay for themselves through associated productivity increases or other gains? For Microsoft’s Windows 7, the break-even point could come sooner than normal, according to new research from IDC. The analyst firm projects that SMBs […]

With the browser wars already entering a new phase, Microsoft is busily prepping the next edition of Internet Explorer. So far, that’s meant that it’s signaled its support for H.264 — along with archrival Apple’s Safari browser, as it turns out. In its most recent developer release, Microsoft is laying out more of its IE9 […]

Windows XP has had an extraordinarily long lifespan as far as desktop operating systems go, although it’s not because it was a technological wonder. It’s durability — nine years and counting — is attributable to Windows Vista being late and then not very good. As a result, Microsoft dragged out support for the OS a […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has signed off on VirnetX’s patents for VPN technology, declaring them valid after a fight with software giant Microsoft. The two companies had warred over whether Microsoft’s Windows and Office products had infringed on VirnetX’s intellectual property. Now, a courtroom loss and a settlement later, Microsoft is now a […]