Microsoft Support & Discussions

We thought we would follow up the previous post with an FAQ which is based on the comments and discussions, so Bernardo put this together so things are in one place. Some of these might be introductory for some but since the comments covered a lot of topics, it seemed reasonable to start at the beginning. --Steven What are the codecs needed to play DVD? A codec is software that is used to compress or decompress a digital media file, such as a song or video. MPEG-2 is widely used as the format of digital television signals that are broadcast by terrestrial (over-the-air), cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems, and DVD Video. Dolby Digital is the widely used …

Microsoft’s Office 365 hosted app bundle is FISMA-certified, making it potentially more appealing to U.S. government customers. Source: All About Microsoft

If you saw our recent post on the [/b] Video Audio Decoders H.264 VC-1/WMV MP4 Pt 2 DD+ (non-disk) AAC WMA MP3 PCM Format container AVI MPEG-2 TS MP4 ASF M4A ASF MP3 WAV In the process of building a robust platform…

Xamarin chief Miguel de Icaza answers five questions about XobotOS, the skunkworks project to port Android to C#. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is inviting Windows Phone developers to a developer conference in late June. Could both the Tango and Apollo operating systems be on the agenda? Source: All About Microsoft

Windows Live was first announced on November 1st, 2005, and in our press release we described it as “a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all of the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web.” Since that time, we’ve been hard at work building software and services that deliver that promise, a foundation that we could rely on as we designed new versions of Windows as well as other Microsoft products. We’ve received lots of feedback about features and ways we could improve the software and services. And we’ve also received s…

A Barnes & Noble filing about deliverables coming as a result of its new Microsoft partnership is chock-full of references to Windows Phone. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft and startup Twilio are offering developers a way to incorporate voice and text messaging into their Windows Azure-hosted apps. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft has redesigned its Bing results page to make it less cluttered. Source: All About Microsoft

Fast and fluid animations bring apps to life. In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you will notice that animations are an integral part of the user experience. When you log in to your PC, the items in the Start menu animate in. When you launch an immersive app or zoom into the Start menu, the experience is enriched with a smooth animation. Animations can tell the user what happened as a result of a specific action. This visual feedback instills user confidence in the app’s responsiveness. Even a simple addition or deletion of an item in a list can be made fluid, modern, and informative using a subtle animation (as seen in Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. [/b] Dow…

Has Microsoft already begun making changes to Skype’s P2P infrastructure? According to one report, Microsoft has begun moving in some Microsoft-hosted Linux boxes. Source: All About Microsoft

After a couple of years wrangling in and out of court, the Department of the Interior has decided to go with Google, not Microsoft, for a multi-year, multimillion-dollar hosted e-mail contract. Source: All About Microsoft

The open-source-focused Outercurve Foundation now has a second major backer, in addition to Microsoft. Source: All About Microsoft

Office Live Small Business users hustling to move your e-mail before Microsoft starts shutting down the service on May 1: Your calls for help aren’t falling on totally deaf ears. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft’s DevLabs has delivered a new incubation — a set of libraries for C++ developers interested in consuming and implementing RESTful services. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble aren’t talking product roadmaps (yet), but there are some clues indicating a Windows-powered e-reader/tablet from the pair could be coming. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble just became unlikely allies, settling a patent dispute and forming a new subsidiary in one fell swoop. Source: All About Microsoft

Business users: How does a 10.1-inch slate running Windows 8 Pro with eight to ten hours of battery life sound to you? Source: All About Microsoft

A new iteration of the Redis on Windows in-memory database technology is now available in GitHub. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft publicly says Bing is a core strategic asset for the company. But privately, could the Softies be exploring ways to offload it? Source: All About Microsoft

The patched version of the latest set of updates for Microsoft’s Office for Mac 2011 is available for download. Source: All About Microsoft

Severity Rating: Critical Revision Note: V2.0 (April 26, 2012): Added Service Pack 1 versions of SQL Server 2008 R2 to the Affected Software and added an entry to the update FAQ to explain which SQL Server 2000 update to use based on version ranges. These are informational changes only. There were no changes to the security update files or detection logic. For a complete list of changes, see the entry to the section, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to This Security Update. Summary: This security update resolves a privately disclosed vulnerability in Windows common controls. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user visits a website containin…

Microsoft’s streaming music-service complement to the current Zune Music platform may get its debut at the E3 conference in June, according to a new report. Source: All About Microsoft

Add another patent-licensee to the pool of Android/Chrome-based device makers Microsoft is convincing to pay for its IP. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft has released a new version of its Security Essentials software for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs. Source: All About Microsoft