Microsoft Support & Discussions

There’s new evidence — courtesy of the Microsoft India Web site — that Microsoft is planning another Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this year and it will be in Seattle again. View the full article

A handful of former Softies who worked on the Microsoft Internet Explorer team have launched a company that is tackling the IE 6 migration problem faced by many businesses. View the full article

Supersite While I was hoping to move directly from the Windows Home Server 2011 "Vail" Beta to the final version, the Beta has expired. So I've temporarily migrated to the Release Candidate, taking 2.6 TB of data along for the ride. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro By the time you read this, Microsoft will have released its latest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, to an adoring public. IE 9 is a truly advanced browser, with useful and exciting new features for end users that place a special emphasis on the websites they visit. Businesses, however, might feel a bit let down by IE 9 overall, because it doesn't address the IE 6 compatibility issues. ... View the full article

Supersite Homefront for the Xbox 360 offers a stunning but short single player campaign and team-oriented multiplayer action that should satisfy those frustrated with the frenetic Call of Duty games. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro Microsoft announced the global availability of IE 9, its next-generation web browser for Windows 7 and Vista. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro A Bloomberg report claims that Microsoft has ceased developing new Zune hardware because of "tepid demand," citing a single person familiar with the decision. ... View the full article

In a move that surprised me, Microsoft launched IE9 at the SXSW show by playing up th ties between Windows and IE9. View the full article

Supersite The Beta version of Windows Home Server 2011 ("Vail"), which I'm still using to store all my important home and work data, is now set to expire tomorrow, March 15, 2011. Yikes! ... View the full article

Supersite Internet Explorer 9 is faster, more secure, more standards compliant, and more efficient than any previous IE version, and if you're using Windows 7, it offers the best OS integration features around. It's available today. Should you switch? ... View the full article

When Microsoft brass say “three screens and the cloud,” do they mean PC-TV-phone? Or Xbox-TV-phone? Or is it really four screens and the cloud we’re talking about (PC, Xbox, TV, phone) — with Windows (or Xbox) as the “alpha” screen? View the full article

Bing’s been in the news for the past couple of days — but not because of U.S. search share gains or the team’s plans for “Matchbox.” View the full article

Windows IT Pro After weeks of silence, Microsoft last week confirmed that its first real software update for Windows Phone 7, codenamed No Donuts (or just NoDo) was delayed from its most recent release date, March 7, to the second half of March. But the company denied that its inability to ship NoDo would impact the schedule for Windows Phone 7's first major update, called Mango and due by the end of 2011. ... View the full article

Supersite In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss Windows 7 and SSD drives, Internet Explorer 9's launch date, the (latest) Windows Phone 7 fiasco, Kinect beats out iPad as the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history, HP's dual-boot plans, Apple's small business ventures, Microsoft's $1 billion payment to Nokia, fun with Xbox LIVE Avatars, and more. ... View the full article

Supersite Apple's iPad 2 is an evolutionary update over the original iPad, with only minor functional changes. It also happens to be the clear market leader in this category, and the best slate-type device on the market. ... View the full article

Supersite I trust IGN for video game reviews, and the IGN app for Windows Phone provides them where you often need them, on the go, so you can check on a particular game before making the purchase in a store. ... View the full article

Nokia filed on March 11 a form 20-F with the Securities and Exchange Commission which mentions a number of new tidbits about Nokia’s smartphone-centric partnership with Microsoft. View the full article

Windows IT Pro An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including some serious controversy surrounding Microsoft's continued delay of the first (real) Windows Phone software update, the results of the Pwn2Own conference, Yahoo! finally patches IMAP and cuts Windows Phone users a break, Microsoft updates App-V and MED-V, South By Southwest is pointless so deal with it, Bing Gains on Google again, and Chrome reaches version 10. ... View the full article

Earlier this week, Microsoft’s French public relations site acknowledged that Microsoft had decided to delay the first major Windows Phone 7 update. On March 10, the WP7 team confirmed that “NoDo” delay, and elaborated on the reasons. View the full article

Supersite Microsoft provides an update about Windows Thin PC, App-V 4.6 SP1, and MED-V 2.0. ... View the full article

Microsoft is making available to its volume-license customers with Software Assurance new releases of a number of virtualization tools as of March 10. View the full article

Windows IT Pro Microsoft announced Wednesday that it would officially launch its next web browser next week. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro The first minor Windows Phone update has been delayed yet again, leaving the platform's remaining fans wondering how Microsoft could so thoroughly bungle what should be a very simple process. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro There's a weird new battle brewing between Apple and Microsoft, and it has nothing to do with PC vs. Mac, iPod vs. Zune, or iPad vs. some mythical PC tablet that's never going to ship. ... View the full article

Microsoft has posted to its Codeplex repository site a test build of Python Tools for Visual Studio, a free, open-source plug-in for VS 2010. View the full article