Paving the way for its Office Web Apps rollout, Microsoft is adding SharePoint Online to the services it offers students and academics as part of its Live@edu offering.

Microsoft said on Thursday it will issue six patches next week for 15 vulnerabilities, including three critical bulletins affecting Windows and two important Office-related bulletins.

Affected software includes Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, 2007 Microsoft Office System, Office 2004 for Mac, and Office 2008 for Mac, the company said in an advisory.

November's Patch Tuesday is a contrast to the record number of fixes issued last month--13 bulletins for 34 vulnerabilities.

The deadline for official comment on Microsoft’s latest rendition of the browser-ballot — the screen the company has proposed to download to PC users in order to appease antitrust regulators handling the Opera vs. Microsoft antitrust case — is next week. (It should be November 10, if the one-month comment deadline the European Commission set for itself is still in place.)

Initial sales of Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system, were "fantastic" in Japan and helped spur PC sales in the country, CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday.

"We've had a great response here in Japan," he said at a Tokyo news conference. "Certainly we've seen initial sales be fantastic. The first ten days were bigger than the first ten days of XP or Vista or any other Windows launch that we have done."

You’re steering with your left hand while your right is punching car-stereo buttons in eager search of that amazing new Lady Gaga song. Your mobile phone rings, and as you adjust your headset—hands-free, naturally—the driver in front of you slams on his brakes …

Sound familiar? For drivers, such a scenario is almost commonplace. These days, the automobile is tricked out with all sorts of conveniences, designed to make driving a comfortable, media-rich experience. But there is a cognitive price to pay in operating these devices while keeping sufficient concentration on the road.

Does it have to be that way, though? Researchers from Microsoft Research Redmond aim to find out.

After notifying customers and partners that Exchange Server 2007 wouldn’t be able to run on Windows Server 2008 R2, the latest version of WIndows Server, the Exchange team has reversed its decision.

Has Apple decided that among its top potential customers for switching to a Mac are Windows 7 pirates? Based on ads that Apple is buying on Google that might be the case --- search for "download Windows 7" and you'll see an Apple ad urging PC users to switch to the Mac. But search for "buy Windows 7" and you'll see no such ad.

A researcher at Sophos reports putting Windows 7's User Account Control feature to the test and finding the technology failed to block numerous pieces of malware. Microsoft, however, stresses that UAC is only one part of Windows 7's security.

Among the 800 or so employees laid off by Microsoft today: Don Dodge, Microsoft’s Director of Business Development for the Emerging Business Team, reporting to VP Dan’l Lewin. Don writes about the change on his personal blog.

All layoffs suck, but letting Don go is a huge mistake for Microsoft. He nearly singlehandedly defends the Microsoft brand in a fairly anti-Microsoft developer and user community. For many people in the startup community, Don is the face of Microsoft. He travels constantly, speaking at events whenever he’s asked, and makes a big effort to give young startups the attention they deserve. This is a guy who gives a heck of a lot more to the community than he ever takes back.

Microsoft is working on a set of free open-source content-management application and set of reusable components for it that is codenamed “Orchard.”

The company is slated to share details about its plans for Orchard at TechEd Europe next week.

Mary Jo Foley: When Microsoft announced in January that the company was cutting 5,000 jobs, it wasn’t clear how many waves it would take to realize that count. It looks like the cuts aren’t done yet, based on an initial report of November 4 layoffs by TechFlash and a follow-up by PaidContent.

It took a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally making good on some of the ideas officials had for making the company’s MSN home page more viable. Back in 2007, former Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Online Services Group Steve Berkowitz said Microsoft’s goal was to integrate more social-networking tools and pre-programmed content into the MSN home page. On November 4, Microsoft made public a preview of a new MSN home page that integrates Facebook and Twitter. (And Windows Live, too, the Softies note, usually as an afterthought.) The revamped MSN home page — which execs say is the most sweeping face-lift the MSN.com site has had in close to a decade — looks less cluttered and easier to navigate. It’s also faster to load and has lost a lot of the “blue links” that dominate the current MSN.com page. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s Bing search technology is deeply integrated into the new design.

Microsoft offers many ways to buy Windows 7. You can buy the operating system preinstalled on a new PC, upgrade an existing PC using a shrink-wrapped retail package, purchase an upgrade online, or build a PC from scratch and install Windows yourself. In each of these cases, you can also take your pick of multiple Windows editions The price you pay will vary, depending on the edition and the sales channel. There are different license agreements associated with each such combination. Those license agreements are contracts that give you specific rights and also include specific limitations.

Microsoft faces increasing competitive pressure from its Web-based rival, Google Apps, as it prepares to make Exchange 2010 generally available on Nov. 9. Microsoft promises an online version of Exchange 2010 will follow sometime next year. While there are examples of businesses moving to online productivity suites, plenty of businesses say that they are still uncomfortable with having important company e-mails living on someone else's servers and prefer to keep e-mail system managment on premises.

I have to say that Microsoft have surprised me this time round, not only have they created a device that I would like to get my hands on due to its sumptuous looks, it has had decent reviews, sold out (though from what I’m told, not many Zune’s were actually available anyway) and improved the software on it no end. What really surprises me is that they don’t seem to have entirely worked out why the original Zune was a such a huge flop – to me one of the main reasons was the lack of any attempt to sell it on an international level, along with a lack of any decent updates to firmware for an entire year, and right off the bat they have failed to correct this major mistake with the Zune HD.

Reason for Revision: V2.0 (November 2, 2009): Revised to announce the availability of a hotfix to address application compatibility issues. Customers who have already applied this update may install the hotfix from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 976749. Also corrected the log file names, spuninst folder names, and registry key values for Microsoft Windows 2000.

As you have surely noticed, the MSDN site got a serious overhaul. We released a whole new look, updated the Dev Center layout and experience, and capped it off with the new MSDN logo signifying how the future of development is today.

Visual Studio 2010 is a very significant release. Tons of new features. Significant improvements in many, many areas. This is big. And we’re really simplifying the product line like many of you asked us to. A key announcement that you need to know about is what we’re calling the “Ultimate Offer”—making sure that every MSDN subscriber gets equal or greater value (in many cases, a lot greater) as we transition subscriptions into the new and simplified Visual Studio 2010 product lineup.

As you can see, it really pays to have MSDN Premium—that’s how you can get our most powerful and advanced tools when Visual Studio 2010 releases. This is a serious upgrade.

As you can see above, most subscribers will get Team Foundation Server as part of their subscription. No, not Workgroup Edition with a 5-user limit. The full version. TFS 2010 offers two set up choices: Basic and Advanced. Basic is quick and ideal for replacing Visual SourceSafe. Advanced provides all the power of TFS for source control, builds, work-item tracking, reporting, testing, and more. Up until now, TFS had to be purchased separately so this is a big new benefit. Start using the Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 2 now, you’re really going to like it. And when it releases, you’re covered for the full version.

Likening its organizational plan to a museum featuring different galleries of interest, the Microsoft-backed CodePlex Foundation for open source projects this week is talking up its project submission guidelines, which were released last week.

Guidelines include allowing commercial sponsorship of project "galleries," with the foundation focused on being "commercial-friendly."

Aiming to stay relevant, Microsoft on Monday is introducing a new look for its MSN.com home page.

Although MSN gets far less attention than the company's Bing or Windows Live efforts, the home page remains an important economic engine for Microsoft's online business, as well as a significant source of search traffic for Bing.

Although Microsoft leaders have spent years promoting tablet computers with only marginal success, excitement around the form factor is finally building, thanks to technology advancements, a Microsoft executive said.

"Bill and I and others at Microsoft have long been proponents of the tablet-based computer," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer, referring to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. "We've worked at it diligently now for well over a decade."

Microsoft offers many ways to buy Windows 7. You can buy the operating system preinstalled on a new PC, upgrade an existing PC using a shrink-wrapped retail package, purchase an upgrade online, or build a PC from scratch and install Windows yourself. In each of these cases, you can also take your pick of multiple Windows editions The price you pay will vary, depending on the edition and the sales channel. There are different license agreements associated with each such combination. Those license agreements are contracts that give you specific rights and also include specific limitations.

Microsoft issued "Fix it"-style patch on Tuesday for a Windows 7 upgrade problem that results in a system hang.

The problem, for Vista users upgrading to Windows 7, is that the installer program never completes the upgrade. Instead, some users get a system hang after 62 percent of the upgrade has been completed.

Microsoft officials have shared details about two of the three different versions of Office 2010 that are in development: The Office 2010 client and the Office Web Apps. Next week, at the TechEd Europe conference in Berlin, they finally are slated to show and tell more about the third: Office Mobile 2010.

Red Hat is rolling out its Enterprise Virtualization for Servers platform, which is aimed at heterogeneous server environments and cloud computing deployments. Red Hat officials said the platform—which includes a standalone hypervisor and management software—offers users better performance at a lower cost than competing products from VMware and Microsoft. A management solution for virtualized desktop environments will be available in early 2010, they said.

I realize that the news that it’s okay to have duplicate machine SIDs comes as a surprise to many, especially since changing SIDs on imaged systems has been a fundamental principal of image deployment since Windows NT’s inception. This blog post debunks the myth with facts by first describing the machine SID, explaining how Windows uses SIDs, and then showing that - with one exception - Windows never exposes a machine SID outside its computer, proving that it’s okay to have systems with the same machine SID.

During a community address at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Community Summit, Microsoft Corp.’s Ted Kummert, senior vice president of the Business Platform Division, announced the upcoming delivery of the November community technology preview (CTP) of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. Microsoft also announced two new editions providing a high level of scalable solutions: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse (formerly project code-named “Madison”). To help customers continue to realize greater value with SQL Server 2008, Kummert also noted that Microsoft is delivering data warehouse appliances with multiple hardware partners, announcing IBM Corp. as the newest partner. IBM will offer three hardware configurations as a part of SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse 2.0. HP, Bull and Dell Inc. also announced new configurations for version 2.0.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1, like every other browser, makes a claim to being "faster." We took Firefox and all the other latest browsers, put them on Windows 7, and ran them through our human-measured speed tests to vet the bragging.

Building on the innovation described in the Dynamic Business vision recently discussed at Convergence 2009 Europe, Microsoft Corp. today introduced the November 2009 service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, the third service update delivered in 18 months. The service update offers new features at no additional cost to customers, including free mobile access, enhanced data import, customizable views and simplified pricing. Microsoft also announced that customers that switch from Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand products can get Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online free for six months, in addition to their free 30-day trial.

A Microsoft executive whose pointed comments on Windows 7 upgrades have irked Microsoft bloggers has apologized. Well, in a roundabout sort of way, that is.

Microsoft’s Live Labs — its MSN-Microsoft Research “mash-up” — is closing another of its incubation projects.

The latest to go is ThumbTack. ThumbTack is/was a bookmarking service (somewhat akin to Google’s Chrome bookmark sync).

Windows 7 may be out, but Microsoft is of course still hard at work improving the operating system. Rumor has it that SP1 for Windows 7 will come sooner than it did for Windows Vista.

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, as well as its suite of business services (known as the Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and is refunding the difference to existing hosting customers.

The infatuation never ends. Microsoft is letting it be known that it still feels a part of any new user interface technology will have to include speech recognition. Zig Serafin of Microsoft tells us: "Voice is the new touch. It's the natural evolution from keyboards and touch screens. Today, speech is rapidly becoming an expected part of our everyday experience across a variety of devices."

Microsoft has teamed up with OpenX Technologies to more successfully go after Google, whose online advertising products dominate the industry.

In an analysis of the top security threats during the first half of 2009, Microsoft's findings show the importance of having sound guidelines governing thumb drives and connecting to corporate networks from machines outside the enterprise. According to Microsoft, both Conficker and another notorious worm took advantage of poor policies around USB devices to spread.

The trash talk in the Microsoft vs. VMware feud once reached Reggie Miller vs. Spike Lee heights. The two companies rarely passed up the opportunity to disparage, make fun of or even spread lies about each other.

If you don't like the idea of paying for antivirus software, or if you're running Windows 7 without antivirus software, you should probably give Microsoft's own Security Essentials package a try. It's free to registered users of Windows 7 -- and earlier versions of Windows -- and it generally gets high marks in the areas that matter most.

While Paul Thurrott was playing with the official Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, creating a bootable USB stick for his netbook upgrade, he ran into an interesting snag with certain discs. The tool, when directed to use an ISO dumped via ImgBurn, would error out. Everything was to UDF spec, so what was going on here?

If you compare Windows Vista and Windows 7 you see lots of similarities. So many that most Windows 7 users who have been using Windows Vista in the past might be hard pressed to name ten new features of the operating system. Most of them would probably start with obvious changes like the new Windows 7 Taskbar but after that? Many of the new features are “under-the-hood” features that most users will never come in contact with. And then there are features that modern hardware and software are not taking advantage of yet, like multi-touch or DirectX 11.

Starting November 16, Microsoft is ending distribution and sales of its Microsoft Office Accounting product. Company officials began notifying customers of the decision on October 30. All Microsoft Office Accounting products in the UK and North America are affected by the decision, including Office Accounting Express, Office Accounting Standard, Office Accounting Professional, Office Accounting Professional Plus, Office Accounting 3-user and Small Business Accounting

This download helps you evaluate the new features of Windows Server 2008 R2. You’ll have the opportunity to try new and improved features and functionality of Windows Server 2008 R2 free for 180 days. Windows Server 2008 R2 builds on the award-winning foundation of Windows Server 2008, expanding existing technology and adding new features to enable IT professionals to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructures. New virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows 7 integration help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and efficiently managed data center. Powerful tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.5, updated Server Manager and Hyper-V platforms and Windows PowerShell version 2.0 combine to give customers greater control, increased efficiency and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before. To find out more about Windows Server 2008 R2, please visit the product homepage. Please note that this product is available for evaluation purposes only and should not be used in a production environment. This is a preconfigured virtual machine set contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, or the R2 versions of these products is required to use this virtual machine. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.

This Microsoft website lists all the software available on a trial basis by Microsoft.

Microsoft baked a number of support technologies directly into its new operating system so it can self-diagnose and repair problems.

Microsoft made available on October 30 an update to its Bing search engine for mobile browsers that includes support for high-resolution touch devices.

Now that Windows 7 has been available for over a week, some users are diving into the new operating system. They're learning all about the new and improved Taskbar. They're checking out some of the new design tweaks. But it's the silent protection in the background that might be providing the most value to those users. Windows 7 is packed with security features that Microsoft no doubt hopes will help it earn the moniker of safest Windows release in recent memory. This slide show highlights some of the top security features in Windows 7, so you can be aware of how you can keep yourself safe in the Windows ecosystem.

Microsoft Corp. pours more money into software security than any other major vendor both because it has to and because it can. Yet for all the investments in security, the number of vulnerabilities discovered in the company's products has increased over the years, prompting questions over whether the company has reached the limits of its ability to debug software.

Microsoft's Office Web Apps allow access to browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. However, testing of the platform’s technical preview by eWEEK found that documents from older versions of Office, once uploaded to Web Apps, could not be edited online. This could present issues for users wanting to access the technical preview on machines with aging software.

Starting November 16, Microsoft is ending distribution and sales of its Microsoft Office Accounting product. Company officials began notifying customers of the decision on October 30.

Let’s take a look at several aspects of using operating systems and examine the various strengths and weaknesses of each OS.

After releasing its largest-ever group of security patches two weeks awindows patchgo, Microsoft has done a little cleaning up.

In the midst of all the Windows 7 hoopla last week, Microsoft released its first quarter fiscal 2010 10-Q. In that document was mention of a number of the pending lawsuits against the company that are due to see some action during Microsoft’s fiscal 2010.

Microsoft is getting its Azure ducks before it removes the beta tag from its cloud service in mid-November.

Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and lead author of the just-published (and hot-selling) Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages), has created a short e-book called “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.”

You can download the e-book in XPS format here and in PDF format here. Enjoy!

Windows 7 is now broadly available to the public, and to celebrate this launch Microsoft Hardware is offering deals on some of its innovative products that help make everyday tasks faster and easier with the new operating system. Consumers all over the world are celebrating the availability of Windows 7 by hosting their own launch parties from Oct. 22 through today, and party hosts have been able to receive virtual coupon books to share with their guests, which are filled with exciting offers on several products. These offers are now available to people who didn’t host a party so everyone has the opportunity to take advantage of the deals.

Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it's legal. That's the message Eric Ligman, global partner experience lead in Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, is sending this week to bloggers who claim to have found a way to circumvent Microsoft's rules and perform a clean install of Windows 7 using upgrade media.

Starting in 2012, users of certain GPS devices will no longer get traffic updates, weather reports and other data because Microsoft is discontinuing its MSN Direct service.

Mary Jo Foley: For more than a year now, Microsoft has been pulling certain features out of Windows and making them available as free “rich” services. The suite of these services is known as Windows Live Essentials (WLE) and includes Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, Messenger and Mail.

For routine computing issues, it’s not always convenient to call a customer support line and talk to a technology professional.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the software could fix itself, or at least point to the problem and suggest how you can fix it?

Increasingly, it can. And with the launch last week of Windows 7, Microsoft customers are finding a whole new world when it comes to getting software support at their fingertips.

A Philadelphia developer has rooted out an unfinished feature of Windows 7 that turns any laptop into a wireless access point, allowing other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share the connection without special software.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s latest web browser. Unlike previous versions, Internet Explorer 8 renders content in the most standards-compliant way possible. This means that web pages will be displayed in Internet Explorer 8’s standards mode by default. Through product feedback channels, our users have indicated that, during the beta period, some websites may not have been compatible with Internet Explorer 8 in its default, standards-based mode. As a result, these domains have been added to a list of sites that, for the short-term, are most likely to be displayed better in Compatibility View. All Internet Explorer 8 users are given the choice to use this list, and the subset that chooses to do so will see each listed domain automatically displayed in Compatibility View, without additional user interaction or notice. The sites on this list have high traffic volume (in their regions), and having a compatible website ensures a significant number of Internet Explorer 8 users will have a great experience. This list will be periodically updated and automatically downloaded to Internet Explorer 8 users who have opted-in to use Compatibility View updates from Microsoft. For more information on Compatibility View list updates, please see - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960321.

This toolkit series provides IT professionals with an end-to-end solution to help them plan, deploy, and monitor security baselines of Windows® operating systems and 2007 Microsoft® Office applications. The series was updated to include new security baselines for Windows® 7, BitLocker™ Drive Encryption, and Windows® Internet Explorer® 8.

The TechNet Magazine Team would like to thank you, our valued reader, for the loyalty and trust you have placed in TechNet Magazine. It is a distinct pleasure to deliver content that we consistently hear makes your jobs easier and has helped you grow in your IT careers. The November 2009 issue of TechNet Magazine will be its last in printed form. However, we are very excited about what the future holds. Be assured the magazine will continue to thrive on the Web.

As a TechNet Plus Subscriber, you have received a printed copy of TechNet Magazine and moving forward you will still have access to all of its great content, as the magazine will retain its place as a key part of the TechNet online community. Many of the features and columns you have enjoyed over the years will continue to be published online. We’ll be enriching the online magazine in many ways, including more frequent posting of articles, more videos in an enhanced video player, and more direct communication with our readers, enabling you to make comments on articles and to submit your own tips and best practices. Check www.technetmagazine.com in the coming months as these features become available.

So, although TechNet Magazine will no longer appear in print after the November 2009 issue, our mission will remain laser-focused on helping IT professionals use Microsoft technology to do their jobs better. We are confident that you will find great value in this new direction, and will like our coverage even better as we explore new ways to bring you the content you’ve come to rely on and make the most of your feedback through new opportunities to interact online. -- The TechNet Magazine Team

On October 26, Microsoft officials announced they were planning to open up the Outlook Personal Folders .PST file format and making it freely (and safely) licensable. What no one has said so far is why is Microsoft doing this now and who will likely benefit from the move.

Users remained stymied today by endless reboots after trying to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7, according to messages posted on Microsoft's support forum.

Mozilla’s flagship Firefox browser is vulnerable to at least 11 “critical” vulnerabilities that expose users to drive-by download attacks that require no user interaction beyond normal browsing. The open-source group shipped Firefox 3.5.4 with patches for the vulnerabilities, which range from code execution risk to the theft of information in the browser’s form history. One of the critical issues affect media libraries introduced in Firefox 3.5 when audio and video capabilities were added.

"The usability and performance challenges of RDP are discussed in the corridors of IT departments everywhere. Now a nifty new software plug-in called Ericom Blaze lets you deliver a 10x-25x faster, superior RDP experience and graphics-rich content, reducing complaints to IT. As a software-based RDP acceleration and compression product, Ericom Blaze provides a superior end-user experience over WAN and congested LANs. Delivering higher frame rates and reducing screen freezes and choppiness, Ericom Blaze accelerates RDP performance by up to 25x, while significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption over low-bandwidth/high latency connections."

Andre has just posted his review of Mobile Net Switch 3.78. Here is an excerpt:

I had the opportunity to check out the latest version Mobile Net Switch version 3.78 which is an upgrade to a powerful solution that allows you to easily maintain profiles between multiple networks and easily switch between them. The benefits of this are you don’t have to reconfigure your network settings for each location: browser settings, printer settings, IP addressing, Wireless settings can all be available to you anytime you move between existing networks.

HP decided to celebrate the 10 years of HP Superdome and market it through the HP Superdome Tech day with independent bloggers by inviting them to their Cupertino office in California on October 5th. Among those present were Shane Pitman from TechVirtuoso, David Adams from OSNews, David Douthitt from Unix Administratosphere, Andy McCaskey from SDRNews and Ben Rockwood of Cuddletech. The Tech Day was structured around the release of 3rd generation of HP Superdomes and to explain the features and benefits of the gigantic super-machine. There was a long list of HP panelists who were present at the event to help us get more information about the product. The day started with a short welcome from the VP of BCS marketing – Lorraine Bartlett and then an introduction to the HP Superdome range (Past, present and future) by Jeff Kyle who is the BCS Server Marketing Manager. For those who are uninitiated to the Superdome, here’s a quick link - http://h20341.www2.hp.com/integrity/w1/en/high-end/integrity-high-end-servers.html. The Superdome is HP’s reply to the mainframes; in particular the latest Superdome is the ammunition against the Z10 range of mainframes. It is the high end of HP Integrity servers which can run either the Itanium or the PA RISC architecture. Gigantic yet very simple machines, which I will explain in detail later.

Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, was officially released to the world this morning. By providing a consistent management interface across the various flavors of Windows, we are making our platform that much more attractive to deploy.

We have updated our Windows 7 FAQ, which now has well over 100 questions relating on every Windows 7 imaginable. This FAQ is still a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions for questions let us know.