This post was written by Jeff Johnston
Microsoft has announced survey findings from the Xbox 360 Holiday Entertainment Survey along with the launch of some weird tools. With the Xbox Holiday Value Finder you can very visually compare the Xbox value with a dinner out and other things. The Xbox 360 Holiday Gift Influencer is a new tool that allows you to answer a series of questions and then receive a customized letter that you can provide to the gift-giver in your life to prove why you need an Xbox 360 console.
The latest version of Microsoft Inc.’s application virtualization technology has reached release candidate status and is now ready. Microsoft had acquired the technology through its takeover of Softricity and its SoftGrid application in 2006. With the new 4.5 version of SoftGrid, Microsoft has decided to change things up a bit and call the product Microsoft Application Virtualization, rather than sticking with its original name.
Microsoft is to launch a free anti-virus product to replace its OneCare software. Morro is a new consumer security offering focused on core anti-malware protection that will secure against malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojans. The company claimed that it needed to ‘address the growing need for a PC security solution tailored to the demands of emerging markets, smaller PC form factors and rapid increases in the incidence of malware’. The company will discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009.
Microsoft Inc. has released the file format converters that allow Office 2004 for Mac to read the Open XML file formats that were introduced in Office 2007 for Windows. The converters were originally due to be available close to the launch of Office 2007, but have been delayed several times. The converters are now available for download, along with some other updates for both Office 2004 and Office 2008.
Microsoft has released two security updates for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Office 2003 and later. The patch described in Bulletin MS08-069 closes three holes in Microsoft’s XML Core Services 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0. Microsoft has rated one of the errors as critical. The cause of vulnerability is a memory error that occurs when XML code is being parsed. It allows code to be injected and executed. This rating only applies to MSXML version 3.0, but in the other versions Microsoft still rates the threat as high.
Software giant Microsoft Inc. is to stop selling its XP operating system to retailers and computer makers this week. The move, which will see retailers and computer makers having to buy the newer Windows Vista operating system for any new stock they order, comes despite protests from some PC users who prefer the older XP. Existing computer hardware stocks running XP will be unaffected, and smaller retail outlets will still be able to sell XP until January.
On ChannelWeb, Joseph F. Kovar has quoted solution providers as saying that there is little chance that Microsoft Inc.’s imminent release of Hyper-V server virtualization technology will pose a challenge to VMware and other server virtualization vendors for the next couple of years. However, the solution providers said that customer acceptance of the new Microsoft technology combined with how Microsoft advances technology has the potential to impact VMware and others over time.
Microsoft Corporation has reported that its own ActiveX browser plug-in technology has brought Windows Vista (the operating system which is lesser prone to infection) under threat. During the past six months, most of the browser attacks against Vista leveraged bugs in ActiveX controls of third-party companies. ActiveX is Microsoft’s technology to create add-ins for Internet Explorer. George Stathakopoulos, the general manager of Microsoft’s product security and security engineering group, has defended ActiveX but accepted that it was not possible to monitor its technology.