Stuart J. Johnston

When Microsoft agreed to add a feature to its Windows Update service offering users the option to choose browsers other than its default Internet Explorer, European regulators felt it would go a long way toward addressing the anti-competitive concerns expressed by Microsoft’s smaller rivals, particularly the Norwegian firm Opera. It looks like they may have […]

If you want to lay any claim to innovation, your patent portfolio is the benchmark by which you will be measured. In that regard, Microsoft has set a very high bar. For the third year in a row, Microsoft has been awarded more software patents than any other firm. But where’s Big Blue in all […]

Microsoft has once again found itself facing the business end of a patent infringement lawsuit — this time, one targeting Windows 7 and Windows Sever 2008. The plaintiff is VirnetX, who readers may remember from a previous patent infringement suit it filed against the software giant — a separate case that actually saw Microsoft dealt […]

Microsoft’s gearing up to hit the road in a 100-city whistle stop tour to promote its latest virtualization push, and Citrix is going along for the ride. The two companies have come forward with details about their new partnership, which is taking direct aim at VMware with new licensing offers designed to lower the barriers […]

Details are finally emerging on the first Service Pack updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, with Microsoft releasing its first hints on the two OSes’ next steps. This far, however, information remains scant on Windows 7 SP1, while Microsoft is being more forthcoming about what’s being worked up for the next incarnation […]

Botnets have long been a thorn in many PC users side. eSecurityPlanet reports on how Microsoft took on a major botnet threat that was being used to spread spam and malware. The article includes Microsoft’s assessment of the botnet’s impact after the takedown operation, revealing some of the problems in tackling such a distributed beast. […]

Windows 7 users don’t have to leave Windows XP behind thanks to the Virtual PC feature available in some versions of the new operating system. That can be a great help to users that need to run certain apps in XP mode, but according to a story in eSecurity Planet, a security firm has identified […]

Corporate IT usually likes to take its time when it comes to deploying new operating systems, but a new survey finds growing interest in moving to Microsoft Windows 7 as soon as possible — even before the first Service Pack debuts. That’s a change from earlier efforts at taking the pulse of IT buyers around […]

The competition among search engine vendors is measured in single digit gains, but after a while, those gains add up, and they have value. Traffic translates to ad rates, and ad rates are everything for these sites. Nielsen Company found in February that Bing continued to gnaw away at the share held by Yahoo and […]

Lots of telecommuters say they’re more productive working remotely, but their employers are less certain that’s the case and it shows in the lack of widespread, formal support for telework. Despite high costs for maintaining acres of office cubicles and the attendant facilities expenses, many U.S. companies are still skeptical that employees can […]

Despite advances in technology that make virtual offices a reality and blur the need for people to come into the office, most firms are still reluctant to let their employees work from home. Chalk it up to old ways of thinking running smack into new workplace and home life realities. Datamation explains. Despite high costs […]

Microsoft’s most recent Patch Tuesday brought some unwelcome news when security researchers quickly found a practical way to exploit a zero-day flaw in the Internet Explorer browser. Now, Microsoft says it has a temporary workaround, and that a permanent patch will be forthcoming. eSecurity Planet has the story on Microsoft’s plans to secure Internet Explorer […]