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Microsoft spent hundreds of millions to shift gears, staff up a new Windows Phone team, create new and more locked-down smartphone reference designs and launch/advertise the new Windows Phone 7s. It seems the one thing that money hasn’t been able to buy the Redmondians is sufficient supply. View the full article

The November update to my Microsoft Codename Tracker chart is done and ready for download — and it’s chock full of new codenames from Microsoft’s Server & Tools business unit (among others). View the full article

A year after Windows 7 arrived, the business deployment picture is looking a lot rosier than it did a year after Vista's release. Here are some of the major trends Microsoft is seeing around Windows 7 business adoption. View the full article

Welcome to the community.

Just over a month after suing Motorola over smartphone patents, Microsoft is suing Motorola again. This time, the complaint is focused on wireless and video coding patents that are used by the Xbox team. View the full article

Microsoft is making available for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers on November 9 the first test version of its next-generation SQL Server release, code-named “Denali.” View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities in Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG). The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if a user visits an affected Web site using a specially crafted URL. However, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit such a Web site. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs view, change, or delete data or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View the full article

Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and four privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The most severe vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens or previews a specially crafted RTF e-mail message. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View the full article

On November 8, Microsoft took the wraps off a new version of Windows Storage Server, which is the product codenamed “Breckenridge.” View the full article

In this week's mailbag, copying an Xbox 360 game to the console's hard drive, Kinect camera quality, Windows Phone 7 and device maker/wireless carrier online stores, a Google Calendar application for Windows, Zune on Android or iPhone, and a major limitation of the Zune Music service on the Xbox 360. View the full article

Microsoft is teaming with a handful of server vendors to provide validated private-cloud stacks, consisting of a variety of hardware, plus Microsoft virtualization and management software. View the full article

Microsoft is making available for download the Release Candidate (RC) test build of its Forefront Endpoint Protection client software. View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and Paul discuss Kinect for Xbox 360, IE 9 winning a key HTML 5 compatibility test, Hotmail opening up to non-Live domains, Microsoft's secret plan for Silverlight, and smart phone market share. View the full article

Microsoft is on to something with its Kinect motion sensor add-on for the Xbox 360: This fun and innovative device brings family-friendly fun to the living room, and gives you a decent workout in the process. Dedicated gamer or not, you're going to want one. View the full article

Facebook is one of the best looking and most useful Windows Phone 7 apps yet: It retains the branding and look and feel of Facebook while utilizing unique Windows Phone 7 user experience features. View the full article

Using the system imaging functionality in Windows Backup and a system repair disc, it's possible to replace the hard drive in your PC with one that is bigger, while not losing any crucial data, settings, or installed applications. View the full article

Watch for more consumer announcements from Microsoft next week, alongside some IT-focused news coming out of TechEd Berlin. This week, Microsoft made headlines around open-sourcing F#, moving Seadragon Ajax to a new home and surveying Azure users on another possible new pricing model. View the full article

It's another overdue update to "What I Use." New this month: The Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7, my favorite Windows phone apps, a new hybrid hard drive for the laptop, the Kinect add-on and games for Xbox 360, a new version of Adobe PhotoShop Elements, an HD PVR, a DroboPro, and a color laser printer. View the full article

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That is a good trick. It's the first thing on turn on after a new install.

On November 4, Microsoft began selling its Kinect sensors for Xbox at retail. Gamers — and those with a hidden inner gamer just waiting to break free without a controller — your star ship has arrived. But what about those of us who don’t care about gaming? View the full article

The Kinect motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox 360 arrived today, and the Thurrott kids are quite happy about it. Here are some hardware pics. View the full article

Welcome to the community.

A problem with the Microsoft SmartScreen malware-thwarting technology in Internet Explorer 8 rendered countless users unable to access all kinds of sites throughout the day on November 4. View the full article