Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft says it has sprung into action in response to allegations of prison-like conditions in a Chinese factory run by one of its manufacturing partners. The company says it has a team of investigators en route to investigate the charges of the National Labor Committee, a global labor watchdog. In a report issued this week, […]

Adobe may control a majority of the online streaming media and animation market with Flash, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from slowing the pace of development of its rival Silverlight software. This week, Microsoft is set to unveil the latest version of Silverlight, promising a handful of improvements designed to give it a leg up […]

Outsourcing has become something of a bad word in many parts of the economy, viewed as sending American jobs overseas by cheapskate companies. But Microsoft isn’t sending any jobs overseas with its outsourcing agreement with Infosys. Instead, the company is consolidating from a number of outsourcing partners to just one firm, one that’s been around […]

PC administrators are going to have their hands full this month dealing with a litany of patches Microsoft issued to address vulnerabilities in its Windows systems. In its monthly Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft has issued a total of 11 fixes, deeming five “critical.” Together, the patches address a total of 9 vulnerabilities that merited the […]

In one of its bigger Patch Tuesday releases, Microsoft plans to issue fixes for 25 vulnerabilities next week. Of those, five are deemed critical. All told, Microsoft will release 11 security bulletins in its monthly patch cycle. eSecurity Planet digs into the release, which always has administrators scrambling to make sure their systems are up […]

IT organizations are only too familiar with the various security threats that have arisen or grown in prominence the past several years, from malware and viruses to botnets and hacking attacks. But as eSecurity Planet reports, a recent survey reveals an imbalance, slanted in favor of compliance, in how funds are being spent to secure […]

With each passing month, it seems that the browser market becomes a little more competitive. Net Applications, a Web analytics firm, found that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dropped a little more market share last month, while competitors Mozilla and Google were happy to see their share grow. Datamation takes a look at the latest developments in […]

Microsoft has some good news for consumers who buy a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed and look to upgrade to a higher-end version of the operating system. The company has said that participating retailers are to begin offering discounted pricing for Windows 7 Anytime Updates. Datamation takes a look at the promotion. In a […]

You can’t win ’em all, even if you’re Microsoft. The software giant has suffered another setback in its effort to convince a court to overturn a patent-infringement verdict against the company at the hands of i4i, a tiny Toronto firm that is asserting its patent on a “custom XML” editor. Microsoft was hit with $290 […]

Apple defied the critics by making its chain of branded retail stores a smashing success. Microsoft joined the party much later and only has two company stores to date. But as Datamation reports, the company is getting ready to expand its retail presence which could eventually be a significant part of Microsoft’s marketing and sales […]

Fresh off of a major milestone, Microsoft and Ford are tightening their partnership as they look to technology to help motorists keep track of how much energy their hybrid electric cars are using in an effort to ease the load on the grid. This comes just a week after Ford announced the sale of its […]

As the world’s largest software company, Microsoft is a big target and, guilty or not, has had to weather its share of lawsuits over the years. Datamation has the story of one case, Microsoft versus Novell, that dates back years, but it may have reached an apparent resolution this week. One of Microsoft’s longest running […]