Microsoft Takes Another Crack At Retail

The software giant's stores are expected to sell laptops, mobile devices, software, Zune media players, and the Xbox 360 gaming console.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is preparing to open new retail stores in Mission Viejo, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona, the company said this week. Both will be in malls, and the California store will be near a store run by Microsoft's archrival Apple, which has been selling iPhones so fast it can barely keep up with demand.

Microsoft's stores are expected to sell laptops and maybe mobile devices, software, Zune media players and the Xbox 360 and are intended to make customers associate Microsoft with entertainment rather than software for businesses.

The last time the company tried this strategy, it flopped. In 1999, Microsoft opened "microsoftSF," an 8,500-square-foot store in San Francisco's Metreon, an upscale shopping center and entertainment complex by Moscone Center.

San Francisco was then at the heart of the dot-com bubble, and Moscone was host to many big technology conferences (including Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference) . The microsoftSF shop was divided into 12 "lifestyle areas" so customers could see how computers and software could be used for work and play. Two years later, the store closed.

Apple, on the other hand, now has over 250 retail locations, including one in San Francisco's high end shopping district around Union Square.

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Microsoft Offers to Add Rival Browsers to Settle Case

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, offered to include rival Web browsers in the Windows operating system to settle a European Union antitrust case.

Microsoft accepted a key European Commission demand that it give consumers a choice of browsers through a so-called ballot screen, the commission said in a statement today in Brussels. The company also offered to resolve a second antitrust case over word-processing and spreadsheet software.

“Microsoft is basically capitulating,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington-based Directions on Microsoft. “Microsoft was able to absorb fines and be more aggressive with their legal strategy when business was good, but when you’re looking at ongoing fines in a downturn, it makes more sense to settle.”

Yesterday, Microsoft reported sales for the quarter ended June 30 that fell 17 percent to $13.1 billion, more than $1 billion short of the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The Redmond, Washington-based company, which has been fined 1.68 billion euros ($2.39 billion) in previous EU antitrust cases, would avoid another penalty if it reaches a settlement.

The ballot screen would allow consumers who buy new personal computers to set a default browser from a range of software makers. Microsoft rivals and consumer groups will have an opportunity to offer comments on the proposed settlement before the EU makes a final decision.

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Microsoft Ties Dynamics CRM to Twitter

Microsoft has integrated its Dynamics CRM (customer relationship management) software with Twitter, in just the latest move by an enterprise software company to latch onto the wildly popular micro-blogging service.

The social-networking accelerator -- part of three new add-on modules Microsoft is releasing for Dynamics CRM -- culls and catalogs relevant Twitter messages, such as a discussion about the Dynamics user's company, and provides various analytic tools.

The integration, announced Thursday, is also meant to help Dynamics users boost their sales databases. Twitter usernames can be converted into a Dynamics CRM customer record or sales lead, to which more data, such as a phone number, can be added over time.

So far the accelerator is only compatible with Twitter, but Microsoft is planning to connect with other social networks as well.

Microsoft's move to connect with Twitter follows a similar announcement made in March by rival CRM vendor Salesforce.com. And an entire software company, CoTweet was formed around the goal of tapping Twitter's potential for CRM.

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Microsoft’s anti- virus software passes litmus test

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), Microsoft's security software, has passed the anti-virus test. The software launched Wednesday on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, succeeded in preliminary malware detection testing where it was used to clear AV-Test's "WildList" collection of 3,194 common viruses, bots, and worms.

AV-Test coordinator Andreas Marx stated, “All files were properly detected and treated by the product.” He further added, “several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet."

AV-Comparabives.org, an antivirus testing lab said it would test MSE in August this year and release the results within a month.

Beta program filled up

Microsoft had made available free beta of its software. Within 24 hours after its launch, Microsoft succeeded in achieving 75,000 downloads of its free antivirus product. It has now stopped offering the downloads.

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Microsoft to Launch Free Anti-Virus Software

Microsoft Corp. is giving consumers a helping hand when it comes to anti-virus software.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company said it will soon release free anti-virus software to users this month. The Microsoft (News - Alert) Security Essentials service, dubbed under the code name Morro, will reportedly offer protection from several types of malicious software, including viruses, spyware, trojans and rootkits. If the software scanner detects a suspicious file that is not yet registered as malware, the program alerts Microsoft researchers for further investigation,Reuters ( News - Alert) reported.

A beta version of the product will be available for download on its Web site on June 23. The company said it plans to offer a final version this fall, Reuters said.

“This is good news for consumers. It's bad news for competitors," Roger Kay, a PC industry analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, told Reuters.

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Microsoft to Unveil Free Anti-Virus Software

BOSTON (Reuters) Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

Symantec shares fell 0.5 percent on Nasdaq and McAfee fell 1.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, while Microsoft was up 2.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index was down 0.47 percent.

Investors are closely monitoring the free service, code-named Morro after Brazil's Morro de Sao Paolo beach, amid concern it could hurt sales of products from Symantec and McAfee, which generate billions of dollars of revenue a year protecting Windows PCs from attacks by hackers.

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"It's a long-term competitive threat," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, though he added that the near-term impact was minimal.

Microsoft unveils its first online management service

Initial version of desktop service will focus on software updates, security issues

Microsoft Corp. has unveiled System Center Online Desktop Manager, the first online service built around its management tools.

The initial version will provide desktop management capabilities that are focused on software updates, protection from spyware and malware, monitoring, group policy and configuration management, asset management, update management and remote assistance. Microsoft plans to update the service on a regular cycle.

The company demonstrated the service during the Wednesday keynote at the Microsoft Management Summit. (See the first pictures of the Online Desktop Manager interface shown at MMS here, here, here and here.)

The online service is built on the same underlying technology that powers Windows Update, which last month updated 650 million PCs around the world.

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Windows Embedded adopts software + services, Server version

Microsoft has announced a new software + services strategy, which includes an MSDN subscription and an update system, as well as a new product: Windows Embedded Server.

Microsoft has made a slew of Windows Embedded announcements this week, all of which are targeted at the developers and companies who work with embedded products. The software giant started moving towards a software-plus-services strategy by offering developers a new MSDN subscription and an update system, as well as adding Windows Embedded Server to its line of products. I had a chance to chat with John Doyle, Group Product Manager of Windows Embedded, to try to make heads and tails of the changes.

Windows Embedded Server, which is based on the Microsoft Windows Server core operating system, is a new product that enables OEMs to design, build, and deploy server appliances that have smaller footprints, robust networking, and support for large storage. According to Doyle, the release is part of Microsoft's goal to help companies wanting to transition from building just the device to building a system solution. In areas like industrial automation, it allows companies to get data about how their machines are doing, mine it appropriately, and then make decisions to prevent systems from failing. Microsoft believes the addition will translate into new revenue channels for Windows Embedded partners and OEMs. They will be able to effectively offer services to manufacturing companies for analyzing data that is gathered.

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Microsoft reveals 36 changes to Windows 7

But blogger who criticized company for ignoring testers calls the list 'silly'

icrosoft Corp. today revealed some of the changes it has made to Windows 7 since it issued a public beta more than a month ago.

In a long post to the company's "Engineering Windows 7" blog, senior program manager Chaitanya Sareen touted three dozen improvements and modifications to the new operating system that developers have slipped into the under-construction "release candidate," which Microsoft executives have said will be the next milestone on the road to final code.

Sareen did not disclose any new information about a timetable for wrapping up the release candidate (RC), however.

Among the changes Sareen highlighted were 10 affecting the Window 7 desktop, four to the operating system's new touch-sensitive features, another four to the Control Panel and eight to Windows Media Player.

Many of the changes are so minor that they may be difficult to spot. One tweak, for example, increases the number of times that notification windows -- such as those of an incoming instant message -- flash to get the user's attention. Microsoft upped the number of flashes from three in the beta to seven in the release candidate.

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Microsoft among several software vendors providing sustainability tools

Here's an annotated version of today's print story on software vendors adding tools to track energy and environmental data to their business software:

With businesses scrambling to reduce their energy use -- both to save costs and limit their carbon footprint -- Microsoft and other software vendors are building tools that make tracking environmental data easier.

Today, Microsoft is releasing a free add-on to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for midsized businesses.

"ERP systems are really good at giving you the financial numbers, but where they fall short is with the environment or social issues," said Jennifer Pollard, a senior Microsoft product manager.


The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard is designed for use by a facilities manager, environmental- compliance officer or anyone in the company with the responsibility of tracking energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

It displays graphs of direct energy usage, such as coal, oil or natural gas burned on site, and indirect usage -- energy purchased from a utility. The information can be used to track efficiency programs or evaluate improvements, such as shifting from oil heat to electric.

Sole Technology, a Lake Forest, Calif., sports apparel and footwear company, has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020.

George Bock, vice president of IT, said the company already uses Microsoft's Dynamics ERP software, and the addition of the environmental dashboard is "a perfect blend for us."

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Microsoft's '08 Mistakes: The Software Giant's Big Errors

As the year winds down, financial analysts are predicting that Microsoft will pre-announce negative earnings for the first time since 2000 because of a flat PC market. But all things considered, 2008 was a pretty good year for the software giant.

Windows is still used on 90% of computers and Internet Explorer on 70%. Despite growing Web-based competition, Microsoft Office saw 20% growth in Q1 of fiscal 2009 and the company's server and tools division grew by 23% in Q1 2009.

On top of that, research from NPD Group this week shows that November retail sales for Macs fell 1% year over year while Windows PC sales grew 7%.

Under new cloud-minded chief software architect Ray Ozzie, Microsoft has been adapting to a changing Web 2.0 world. Cloud computing operating system Windows Azure, Windows Live, Live Mesh and Office Web Apps are a few examples of Microsoft's focused attempts to stay innovative.

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Microsoft: more software threats but fewer flaws

BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Microsoft found software makers and security vendors made significant inroads in protecting their customers from malicious threats in the first half of 2008, according to its Security Intelligence Report (MSIR) released on Monday.

Based on data from hundreds of millions of computers around the globe, the report is an in-depth look at the overall software security threat environment, Microsoft said.

MSIR revealed that reports of vulnerabilities have gone down. However, the actual threat posed by cyber criminals and malware continued to grow.

"The boost in malware just goes to show that vulnerabilities and malware/exploits do not follow a direct relationship, despite the fact that malware and exploits are based on security vulnerabilities. Tracking the number of reported vulnerabilities shows the efforts of the security community to thwart attacks. Tracking the malware and exploits shows the efforts of hackers and cyber criminals," Chris Rodriguez, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, told media.

MSIR revealed that reports of vulnerabilities have gone down. However, the actual threat posed by cyber criminals and malware continued to grow.

"The boost in malware just goes to show that vulnerabilities and malware/exploits do not follow a direct relationship, despite the fact that malware and exploits are based on security vulnerabilities. Tracking the number of reported vulnerabilities shows the efforts of the security community to thwart attacks. Tracking the malware and exploits shows the efforts of hackers and cyber criminals," Chris Rodriguez, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, told media.

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When will Microsoft regain its identity?

Remember the days when everyone knew that Microsoft was a software company? The company's focus was placed squarely on Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office, and no one even considered the possibility of it becoming an online firm or providing any other service outside of the software industry.

But now, everything is different.

Instead of focusing all its attention on the software space, Microsoft has decided that it needs to split its attention into different markets in order to stay successful in the industry. Now, it's not only a software company, but it runs a video game business, and has consistently tried to cement itself in the online space. And even in that online space, it can't decide if it wants to focus all its time on Live Mesh, search, or advertising.

Microsoft focusing its attention in other markets isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, it's one of the most important and prominent companies in tech and to think that it shouldn't expand outside software is ludicrous. But the main problem I have with Microsoft's identity problem is that it doesn't know how to focus.

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Microsoft outlines ALM plans

Company also touts pillars of Visual Studio 2010, which will include the previously standalone Team System 2008 Database Edition.

Under the banner of democratizing application lifecycle management, Microsoft is unveiling on Monday the next major release of its Visual Studio Team System platform,

Visual Studio Team System 2010, which has been codenamed "Rosario," focuses on collaboration between the different persons involved in the software development process. The company also is revealing "pillars" of Visual Studio 2010, which is the next version of the company’s development environment, and the accompanying .Net Framework 4.0 programming model. Visual Studio 2010 recently had been referred to as Visual Studio 10.

In ALM, integration of roles is key for the 2010 release.

"As we think about the challenge around democratizing ALM, there's a few different roles inside of the application lifecycle that we feel incumbent to do a better job of integrating so we can enable a collaboration between those roles," said Dave Mendlen, director of developer marketing at Microsoft.

These roles include lead developer, architect, architect/lead developer in one role, general purpose developer, database developer, and tester. "Our plan is to try to break down the walls between these roles," Mendlen said.

Visual Studio Team System has featured role-based products for testers, architects, developers and database developers. With the 2010 edition, Microsoft is recognizing a blurring of roles between developer and database developer and thus is eliminating the database-specific product, which has been called Team System 2008 Database Edition.

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Microsoft becomes high priest of secure software development

Historically, Microsoft was bashed for security holes in its software that led to worm outbreaks on desktops and servers around the globe and other problems. In 2002, the company saw the light and launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative, elevating security to the top priority, and began designing and building products with security in mind.

Six years later, the company's conversion seems to have worked with vulnerabilities dropping by about half from Windows XP to Windows Vista by 90 percent between SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

But the environment has changed--Web applications have eclipsed desktop applications as people move more and more of their computing online. Now, 60 percent of new vulnerabilities are in Web apps, and only 14 percent of them are from the top five independent software vendors, like Microsoft and its ilk, according to research from IBM's X-Force.

Microsoft has gone from being the vendor responsible for the greatest proportion of vulnerabilities to being third, with 2.5 percent share, the research shows. The lion's share of the vulnerabilities come from start-ups racing to get their products to market. And 70 percent of them are doing the security testing and review after they release the product, Microsoft said.

So now Microsoft is trying to convert others to the cause, offering free tools that outside developers can use to assess their software development security practices and analyze their software designs to look for security weaknesses and threats.

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Microsoft Seeks Secure Software Development

Company will introduce SDL Threat Modeling Tool 3.0, an evolution of the Trustworthy Computing initiative.


Microsoft wants to take what it has learned about secure software development in-house and share its insights with others.

The company on Tuesday will offer up guidance and a tool based on Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), a security assurance process unveiled in 2004 and serving as an evolution of the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative. Deliverables include Microsoft SDL Threat Modeling Tool 3.0, for structured analysis of security and privacy issues; Microsoft SDL Optimization Model, for assessing security, and Microsoft SDL Pro Network, offering security guidance and SDL best practices. All will be available in November.

"What we're doing [what is] called SDL for the development ecosystem," said Steve Lipner, Microsoft senior director of security engineering strategy, during a meeting at InfoWorld' San Francisco offices last week.

Analyst data, Lipner said, has shown that 10 percent of organizations test for security during the implementation phase of software, 20 percent test during the verification phase, and 70 percent wait until the software already is in use. "What that means is that basically, you're putting it out there hoping nobody will break into it," he said.

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Microsoft Brings The Heat To Software Pirates

In the latest salvo of its ongoing war against software piracy, Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) late Monday announced the filing of 21 lawsuits in federal court in 14 states against resellers who it claims have been illegally distributing its software.

Sharon Cates, an antipiracy attorney at Microsoft, says many of the resellers targeted have been using a tactic known as hard disk loading, which involves taking a single piece of software and loading on multiple PCs, and then selling those PCs to unwitting customers.

In this scenario, not only do customers run the legal risks involved with using unlicensed software, they also lose out on upgrade rights, access to technical support, and key security protections, Cates said. Hard disk loading also leads to Microsoft's honest channel partners being undercut by unscrupulous resellers, she added.

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