Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's highly-anticipated address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011 was focused on one major theme: catching up in the tablet market. But he also took time to discuss other big products entering the new year, ... Microsoft Kinect for the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7. There's been a lot of talk in recent months about how Windows is going to fit into a very Apple-dominated tablet universe. Since its release last spring, the iPad has completely monopolized this market, with most Windows-based contenders, such as the ExoPC , are suffering from poor design and ... (view more)

Despite being available exclusively in beta form, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) has been downloaded more than 20 million times, Microsoft reports. It comes as one set of figures puts the browser behind Mozilla Firefox among European users for the very ... first time. Internet Explorer 9 Download Remains At Strong Pace It's tough to know exactly how many people have downloaded the IE9 beta, as the figure Microsoft gives may well include multiple downloads by the same user. But it's likely that the figure runs into many millions of people, which suggests that the audience goes beyond web developers ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed that a zero-day vulnerability exists in Windows XP, Vista, as well as Server 2003 and Server 2008. The bug, which first emerged in mid-December 2010, has evolved since the exploit was posted publicly. The bug was first ... discussed on December 15 at a security conference in South Korea. Since no one had yet exploited the vulnerability, there was not significant cause for concern. That's changed now that researcher Joshua Drake has released an exploit module via open-source penetration testing project, Metasploit. Exploit Opens Door to Total System Takeover Metasploit has ... (view more)

For the past few days, Microsoft's Windows Live support forums have been lit up by complaints of frustrated users who recently encountered emptied email inboxes, sent, and deleted folders upon accessing their Hotmail accounts. Microsoft on Sunday ... admitted many of its Hotmail accounts had been inexplicably wiped clean , and many experts speculated that the accounts were unlikely to be repair. Microsoft has since announced that the majority of email accounts have been restored to normal working order, but user complaints continue to be filed online forums. (Source: eweek.com ) Contacts Spammed ... (view more)

Users of Microsoft's Hotmail email service weren't welcomed by holiday greetings from their friends this past weekend. In fact, they didn't get any messages at all. Recent reports state that many users of the service found their entire email history ... deleted without warning. The deletions don't appear to be a few select cases. Instead, a significant number of Hotmail users complained of the issue on Microsoft's Windows Live support web forum. Those affected by the problem are reporting that their "Sent," "Deleted," and "Inbox" folders have been completely wiped out. Entire Hotmail Accounts ... (view more)

Update 2010/12/28: The Windows 7 Discount Link is further down the page in a box similar to this one. You may continue reading the article to find out more about this offer, or click here to access the Windows 7 discount though Amazon.com now . ... Non-USA users, please read this page . Microsoft's popular Windows 7 Family Pack deal finally appears to be nearing the end, approximately 1 month later than last year's offering. On the product's web site, Amazon.com a definitive message stating that "This product is available for a limited time and will be available to purchase until December 31, or ... (view more)

Microsoft is reportedly working on a brand new edition of Windows specially designed specifically for tablet devices. The goal would be to overcome battery life problems with existing portable Windows machines. The key to the new edition would be ... how it interacts with the processor. The CPU (or "processor") is the the chip in any computing device that carries out calculations and processes information. There are two main types of processors in common use for portable devices: Intel's x86 architecture and the ARM chip. The two chips are very different inside, which means that the ... (view more)

Yesterday we reported on a new critical flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) that allows hackers to circumvent the operating system and take control of MS Windows. In most instances, a Trojan is deployed on affected systems and spyware is ... installed. The flaw affects users of Windows XP through Windows 7. Microsoft recently acknowledged the vulnerability's existence, and has provided a limited workaround for the issue. Internet Explorer Flaw "Not Serious Enough" to Warrant Emergency Patch The Internet Explorer flaw was discovered earlier this month by a French security company ... (view more)

A new Internet Explorer (IE) security vulnerability has been found. The flaw, which is related to Internet Explorer's HTML engine, allows hackers to infiltrate systems running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. The issue was first discovered early in ... December by French security company Vupen . The company says this flaw could be exploited with the processing of a CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets) file intended for use by web designers. Rigged Website Key to Attack Those running Internet Explorer could find themselves under attack if they're (knowingly or unknowingly) directed to a specially- ... (view more)

Microsoft has released its second edition of its popular security software package, Security Essentials. Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 2.0 features a new scanning engine, integration with Windows Firewall, plus network traffic monitoring. ... Microsoft Security Essentials: Free, Decent Software The original MSE was released last year for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, as a successor to Microsoft's less-than-successful Live OneCare. Up that point most free antivirus programs had done little more than detect security threats before petitioning users for a costly upgrade in order to fix them ... (view more)