Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials 2011, is ready for prime time. Microsoft announced Thursday it's consumer focused suite of free applications, has moved from testing mode (beta) to the final release. The productivity suite is Microsoft's flagship bundle of Web-based productivity apps for managing and sharing images online, editing video, and sharing documents and files between PCs.
Microsoft has made another case for upgrading to Windows 7: The company has released the latest version of its free downloadable collection of software and enhancements for the consumer editions of Windows.
I have had fun the past few months traveling the country and sharing my "2011: A Return to a Growth Agenda" stump speech with CIOs and senior IT executives. I've also had the opportunity to talk with many of you in preparation for appearances on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." You've had some interesting things to say about budgetary issues that I'd like to share as many of you are finalizing your 2011 budgets.
Microsoft has apparently changed its mind about whether Internet Explorer 9 will require a yet-to-be-released update to Windows 7.
Call it Microsoft's Windows 7 "halo" effect.
Nearly a year after its launch, Windows 7 has accomplished what Microsoft and its PC manufacturing partners had hoped it would: Make users forget about its much-maligned predecessor Vista.
It's a little ironic that the main focus of yesterday's Internet Explorer 9 beta launch event in San Francisco was to de-emphasize the browser itself.
It's not a Y2K-style crisis, but there's only a four-year window until Microsoft Corp. ends support for Windows XP. The need to migrate from XP to Windows 7 "will create an extra budgetary and resource burden on companies from 2011 to 2012," according to recent report by Gartner Inc.
Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac OS X is coming soon, and it brings with it an array of improvements and new features that make it more possible than ever to straddle the line between Windows and Mac on the same hardware. Parallels provides a virtual environment enabling Windows 7 to run from within Mac OS X.
Every time a virus like the current "Here You Have" worm comes around, people shake their heads, wring their hands and wonder how "computer security" can be improved.
Microsoft is reportedly spending $500 million to launch its Windows Phone 7, and maybe the product needs it. But does that mean it will be a flop or success? For Microsoft, the price tag doesn't seem to make a difference.
When CEO Steve Ballmer gave a quick peek at an HP Slate running Windows 7 at CES in January, Microsoft seemed prepared for battle against the iPad, which, at the time, had not even been announced yet.
Microsoft says that it has more than 300,000 downloads of beta tools for developers creating applications for its Windows Phone 7 app store, which is set to compete with the app-laden marketplaces for the iPhone and Android phones.
As it turns out, Windows Vista really wasn't all that slow; and no, your PC probably won't fry if you open it up without wearing a wrist strap. Thanks in large part to the Internet, the tech world is teeming with lies, half-truths, and misinformation. We've dug up some of the Web's most notorious nuggets of conventional wisdom to see which hold up to scrutiny and which are merely urban legends.
Microsoft on Thursday announced it will release a public beta of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) on Sept. 15, a little less than five weeks from now.