Microsoft Support & Discussions

Google's Android smart phone OS is lacking in two areas--its online apps marketplace and digital media acquistion and syncing--but is otherwise dramatically superior to the iPhone. It's no wonder that Android has already surpassed the Apple offering. View the full article

Back in February of this year, word was that 24-year Microsoft veteran Brian Arbogast had decided to leave the company — right around the time that Terry Myerson took control of Windows Phone Engineering, including both software and services. It turns out Arbogast has flown the coop, as of August, after a multi-month sabbatical. 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

Microsoft execs have made little, if any, official mention of what the company is doing to bring its CRM and ERP products in line with its Microsoft-hosted service offerings. There is a grander plan, however. Here’s what’s coming. View the full article

Microsoft is closing the beta of its Windows Intune management service to new participants, officials said on September 20. But the company is asking customers and partners who want automated notification of coming milestone releases to sign up to receive word of what’s coming next. View the full article

There’s some odd reorg-related news coming out of Microsoft today, September 20. The company is announcing that it is moving its Embedded business into the Server and Tools unit. View the full article

Microsoft has announced immediate availability of Windows High Performance Computing (HPC) Server 2008 R2, its top-of-the line Windows Server operating system, as of September 20. View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I talk Windows Phone with special guest Brandon Watson, and find time to also discuss the Internet Explorer 9 beta, Microsoft and Russia, Halo: Reach, and Bing. View the full article

In this first look at the new features in Internet Explorer 9, I highlight its ability to pin web sites to the Windows 7 taskbar, just as you can with native Windows applications. View the full article

The latest entry in the Halo series is the best yet, with an epic storyline, amazing graphics and presentation, stellar gameplay, and all of the expected multiplayer niceties. This is Halo done right. View the full article

Lots of changes to my daily-use technology this month, including two smart phones--a prototype Windows Phone and a DROID X--three new iPods, two new Kindle 3s, a new digital camera (a GPS-equipped Panasonic), IE 9 Beta as the new default web browser, the reemergence of the Zune PC software, VLC Media Player, two Optiplex servers based on "Vail" and "Aurora," and over 12 TB of server storage. View the full article

If IE 9 is designed to blur the lines between Web sites and Web apps, does that imply that Microsoft is counting on content developers to do with IE what the company did with Windows — namely, to build apps that work better in Microsoft’s environment than anywhere else? View the full article

The August comScore numbers are out, with that firm claiming that Microsoft and Yahoo now have a collective 28.5 percent of U.S. search share, compared to Google with 65.4 percent. View the full article

Verizon and Sprint won’t be offering Windows Phone 7 CDMA models until 2011. That’s not welcome news. What’s worse, however, if News.com’s paraphrase is on the money, is that Microsoft already is working on a “major rewrite” of the Windows Phone operating system. View the full article

If Microsoft and its phone partners really do end up delivering the first Windows Phone 7 devices in October in Europe and November in the U.S., Microsoft is sure cutting it close in getting the final version of the development tools for those devices in the hands of coders. View the full article

On September 15, Microsoft made the first public beta of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 available for download. Microsoft has fielded four developer test builds of IE 9 since March. From my sources, I hear there are likely a couple more betas of IE 9 in the pipeline before the final version launches, possibly in April 2011 [...] View the full article

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 public beta is full of happy surprises: It's wicked fast, with incredible integration features, stellar web standards support, and a clean, simple, and beautiful new user interface. View the full article

Microsoft user interface researcher Bill Buxton told the Globe and Mail that he expects Microsoft to be offering three years from now a tablet device that will be like a slimmed-down mini Surface. That sounds all well and good… except for the three years part. And the Windows part …. View the full article

Microsoft may be limiting (severely) attendance at its upcoming Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Redmond, but it is adding 65 regional “mini” PDC events in the U.S. and other countries worldwide to compensate. View the full article

Current cloud computing and mobile trends aren't just the next logical step in an ongoing evolution, they're sweeping revolutions that will forever transform the way we access and consume computing resources. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. All supported editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not affected by the vulnerability. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS). The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an authenticated attacker sent specially crafted Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) messages to a listening LSASS server. In order to successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have a member account within the target Windows domain. However, the attacker does not need to have a workstation joined to the Windows domain. View the full article