Microsoft - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Internet Explorer 9: A visual tour

  IE 9's main browser window takes minimalism to a new level.

• First look: Internet Explorer 9 beta makes waves

  One of the best ways to see what's changed with the ninth and newest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer is to tune into beautyoftheweb.com and watch the words, images, and DIVs bounce around, luring the world into pretty images and information that can't sit still. "Tune in" is the appropriate verb because the experience is closer to consuming television than what the Web was once supposed to be, an endless library filled with serious knowledge that might come from an underground physics bunker in the mountains.

• Going Google

  It is 8pm midweek and three senior executives at Altium are working on a document they need first thing the next day — a presentation to staff about behavioural change. The program manager is editing text; the company president is asking questions about the program; and CIO, Alan Perkins, is answering his president’s questions.

• Has the mouse outlived its usefulness?

  A German retailer has prematurely posted (and very quickly taken down) details and product shots of the upcoming Microsoft Arc Touch mouse. The Microsoft peripheral is innovative more in its form than its function, but along with the Apple Magic Trackpad it hints at a future where the mouse may no longer have a role.

• Getting Ready For Internet Explorer 9

  After four platform previews aimed at demonstrating the power of the underlying Internet Explorer 9 engine to developers, Microsoft is ready to unveil a public beta of the on September 15. Many organizations are still struggling with the decision to move from IE6 to IE8, so what should businesses expect from the new Microsoft browser?

• 11 free Linux apps your business needs now

  Despite the wealth of free applications out there, many small business owners continue to spend an inordinate amount of their all-too-scarce resources on software.

• Microsoft, get back to work!

  Steve Ballmer assured analysts and the world that Microsoft is hard at work developing a Windows 7-based tablet to compete with devices like the Apple iPad.

• 8 amazing things you'll do with Windows 8

  Windows 8 is still a couple of years away, but Microsoft is already telling partners what to expect in the next generation operating system. Luckily for the public, Microsoft planning documents shared with HP and other OEM partners were leaked this week, providing a wholly unexpected Windows 8 sneak preview.

• Windows 7 Migration: Five Real Challenges & Lessons Learned

  Windows 7 momentum is slowly but surely spilling over into the corporate world as long-frozen tech budgets begin to thaw and new PCs are purchased.

• Asus tablet: Hello Android, bye Windows?

  Beyond Apple's iPad, the tablet computer market is a murky place inhabited largely by vaporware.

• SharePoint 2010: Three Ways Sony Is Using It

  Sony Electronics, the division of Sony Corporation that designs and develops the company's cameras, computers, TVs and other devices, is making a broad move to SharePoint 2010 to improve search, social networking and document sharing.

• Desktop Virtualization: Top Vendors Still Miss the Mark

  Desktop virtualization has a predicted growth curve that leaves much of the PC and IT services industries smiling: Yet none of the technologies or service providers promising to offer hosted virtual desktops are ready to step into key roles in enterprise IT infrastructures, according the same well-respected analysts who set the server virtualization market on its ear with a similar conclusion last year.

• 5 virtual desktop pitfalls

  Most <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/010710-cios-tweet.html">CIOs</a> have started considering virtual desktop infrastructure and other types of <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/021909-desktop-virtualization-faq.html">desktop virtualization</a>, but only a minority has reached the deployment stage. (See related story, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/040110-destop-virtualization-windows7.html">"As Windows 7 gains steam, VDI set to rise"</a>.) Virtual desktops can potentially provide more flexibility for users, make it easier to apply patches and reduce IT help desk calls, but there are still numerous problems that keep desktop pros up at night. Here are five pitfalls to watch out for.

• Inside MS Cloud Model for Productivity Apps

  Enterprises of all shapes and sizes are catching on to the value in moving e-mail and other productivity apps to the cloud where they can be delivered and managed by vendors like Microsoft, Google or Cisco.

• MS Round-Up: Ballmer on Cloud 9, Office 2010 Upgrades, More

  The big news this week out of Redmondland was CEO Steve Ballmer's Cloud Manifesto at the University of Washington. Big Steve was explicit in his remarks: Microsoft is betting its future on cloud computing.