Microsoft Support & Discussions

Just blocks from the New York City GooglePlex and Apple’s flagship West Village store, Microsoft and partners will be launching Windows Phone 7 on October 11. I’ll be there with my ZDNet blogging colleagues. What do you want to know? View the full article

In this week's mailbag, how to remove Windows XP from a dual-boot with Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 doesn't load add-ons in pinned web sites, 64-bit IE 9 and pinned web sites, a TechNet Standard subscription service scale-back, GOG.com goes dark, and Ed Bott's guide to installing iTunes 10 without the bloat. View the full article

The first of the baselines included in the Security Compliance Manager Baseline Beta Review Program is now available for download. The Windows Server 2008 R2 Security Baseline is a new addition to the security baselines released earlier this year that can be used in combination with the Security Compliance Manager tool. The security baseline for Windows Server 2008 R2 provides you with free Microsoft-recommended solutions to meet today's security challenges. In combination with best-practice guidance and the Security Compliance Manager tool, the baseline is designed to help you plan, deploy, and monitor the security of Windows Server 2008 R2. This release also includes…

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and Paul discuss next week's Windows Phone 7 announcement and November US release, the first Xbox Live games on Windows Phone (and a junky AT and T test app), Google vs. Oracle vs. HTC vs. Motorola vs. Apple vs. Microsoft vs. everyone else, WD TV Live vs. Roku Player vs. Apple TV, more Digital Media Core content, 60 million ThinkPads, Facebook updates. Plus a special appearance by Walt Mosspuppet! View the full article

In Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft has combined the functionality of the old address bar and search box into a single new control called the One Box. View the full article

Microsoft is folding its Live Labs team into Bing, company officials said on October 8. Almost lmost all of the 70 or so Live Labs members are moving over within the next month. The one notable exception: Technical Fellow and Live Labs leader Gary Flake. View the full article

A “surprise” employee-only Town Hall meeting on benefits, the departure of a 24-year veteran Microsoft Technical Fellow and other tidbits round out this week in Microsoft news. View the full article

Sometimes it’s cheaper to head off a potential problem than fight — a stance the old Microsoft regime would repudiate, but one that the current one increasingly has been pursuing. On October 7, Microsoft did just that, by licensing 74 mobile-related patents from Acacia. View the full article

Western Digital's WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player offers support for Windows 7's Play To feature, but falls short in a few key areas. View the full article

I’m seeing folks leap to the conclusion that Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer met with Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen to talk about Microsoft buying Adobe. Do you see this happening? I sure don’t. View the full article

This month, in anticipation of the late October ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networking, Microsoft has posted its whitepaper on Microsoft Research’s HomeOS and “HomeStore,” an accompanying app store that researchers are patterning after the iPhone app store. View the full article

Package management is a hot topic in the Microsoft world, lately. On October 6, it got even hotter, with Microsoft’s announcement of a first developer preview of NuPack. View the full article

Microsoft made its first official acquisition announcement of 2010 on October 6, when company officials said they had bought long-time Microsoft partner and application-performance-monitoring vendor AviCode View the full article

I’ve heard recurring rumors that Microsoft might develop its own optional “shell” for slate makers that would make Windows 7 touch-centric than touch-additive. But maybe Microsoft is simply going to encourage its OEM partners to use the Windows Media Center interface, or at least elements of it, to create more touch-friendly Windows slate interfaces. View the full article

It’s that time again: Time to share the latest on Microsoft’s many, morphing codenames. The latest update to my Microsoft Codename Tracker chart is done and ready for download. View the full article

After spending some time with the Windows SBS "7" preview, I'm conflicted about Microsoft's small business strategy. This is a decent upgrade for existing SBS customers, but it doesn't do anything to help them migrate to the cloud. View the full article

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is on a European tour this week, and a number of news outlets are reporting that Ballmer has said again — for at least the third time this year — that there will be Windows 7 slates out in time for holiday 2010. Don’t get too excited about Generation 1, however. View the full article

In this week's mailbag, how I browse the web without bookmarks, some not-so-good news about Audible support on Windows Phone, Windows Live Mesh storage may not be tied to SkyDrive, which Windows Phone I plan to get, Vail/Aurora release date speculation, and whether I hate Nokia. View the full article

IBM has introduced a new hosted e-mail offering, LotusLive Notes, that it is pricing at $5 per user per month — the same price Microsoft charges for Exchange Online. View the full article

If you've got videos in Windows Media Video (WMV) or other formats and would like them to be more broadly compatible with your software, portable devices, and set-top boxes, you should consider converting them to H.264/MP4. Fortunately, it's a simple and relatively painless process. View the full article

Microsoft researchers seem intent on keeping hope alive on the Courier front with the Manual Deskerity project. There is a new white paper out about the project, which will be presented at a conference in New York City this week. View the full article

Microsoft’s launch of Windows Phone 7 is a week away. On October 11, CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T CEO and President of Mobility and Consumer, Ralph de la Vega, are kicking off officially the WP7 rolout in New York City. Microsoft is rushing to fill the Windows Phone 7 pipeline with apps so that the new Windows Phone Marketplace will be ready this month, as well. View the full article

Here we go again. Every so often, the debate resurfaces as to whether Microsoft could or should be better off if the company were broken into two or three mini-Microsofts. View the full article