In an interview with French online magazine Lepoint.Fr, translated by VG247, Mr. Delmas said: “We’re in an industry that talks a lot, that likes to tell stories. I am not convinced things will happen this year. Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished.”

“The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year. E3 is still premature. What’s certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012.”

Mr. Delmas claimed Microsoft won’t be making any moves to counter Nintendo as they officially announce Wii U at E3, then launch the system at Christmas.

“We’re not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers. Nintendo has put itself in a different cycle, they’re advancing at their own pace.”

Sony says that they will be last to announce plans for a next generation console.

The company posted $20.89 billion in revenue (a 5 percent overall increase) during the second quarter of their fiscal year. Of that revenue $4.74 billion came from the Windows division, $4.24 billion came from the Entertainment & Devices division (a 15% increase), and $6.28 billion came from the Business division (which is responsible for Office).

The Windows division accounted for 6 percent less of Microsoft’s than it did a year ago, accounting for 22.7% of the company’s total sales. This is the lowest it has been since Q3 2009 — a half-year interregnum between the end of Vista’s reign and weeks before the launch of Windows 7 — when it was 20.3%.

“We delivered solid financial results, even as we prepare for a launch year that will accelerate many of our key products and services,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO. “Coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re seeing very positive reviews for our new phones and PCs, and a strong response to our new Metro style design that will unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets, and television in 2012.”

“Microsoft’s Windows division continued to slide,” said Allan Krans, an analyst with Technology Business Research, to Computerworld.” This marked the fifth consecutive quarter of incremental or negative revenue growth for the division.”

In an earnings call to investors Microsoft says that shifting consumer buying behaviors, from PCs to “competing form factors” (read: tablet-culture), is responsible for the decline in Windows revenues.

Surendra Verma, a development manager on Microsoft’s storage and file system team, said ReFS will maintain “a high degree of compatibility with a subset of NTFS features that are widely adopted while deprecating others”.

Mr. Verma went on to state that ReFS will incorporate some of the codebase from NTFS, albeit with a newly architected engine that implements on-disk structures like the Master File Table to represent files and directories.

This new file system will compete directly against Sun/Oracle’s ZFS, which promises similar resilience through use of storage pools.

In an MSDN blog post announcing the new file system, Steven Sinofsky, the President of Microsoft’s Windows Division, explained that ReFS was developed with some key goals in mind: maintain a high degree of compatibility with NTFS; verification and auto correction of all data; optimization of extreme-scale systems; end to end resiliency architecture with the storage spaces feature; data striping for performance and redundancy for fault tolerance.

ReFS has largely been billed as the ‘killer app’ of the server iteration of the operating system as file system’s promised resilience should be able to fend off ‘bit-rot’ — an ever-present fear of enterprise users.

Microsoft’s last attempt at a file system, the ill-fated WinFS, was ditched during Windows Vista’s protracted development cycle. With the WinFS project cancelled, end-users have been stuck using FAT32, and its sucsessor NTFS, for nearly two decades.

Mr. Verma, however, outlined a possible roadmap where end-users might have a refresh of their file system saying, “We will implement ReFS in a staged evolution of the feature: first as a storage system for Windows Server, then as storage for clients, and then ultimately as a boot volume.”

Traditionally, Microsoft has always had the keynote at CES though in late 2011 the company announced that this CES would be their last. Microsoft’s head spokesperson, Frank Shaw noted, “our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.”

According to French-language gaming site Xboxygen, Microsoft will announce the first details of the Xbox 720 at CES but leave the grand launch for the gaming focused Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) later this year. Xboxygen’s apparently reliable source claims that the new Xbox will have an eight core CPU and a 2GB graphics card provided by AMD.

Ballmer’s keynote begins at 6:30pm Pacific Time. Check Hardware Canucks later in the evening for our coverage and analysis.

To many, the highlight of the case was the June 7, 2000 ruling by Judge Thomas Jackson that ordered the company to break up. This wasn’t an era of “too big to fail”; it was a time of “too big to stay together”. Though eventually a federal appeals court overturned this ruling a year after.  The Department of Justice and Microsoft settled in November of 2001, and the company agreed to make sure Windows was compatible with non-Microsoft software, and to untie its browser from the OS.

The antitrust provisions outlined in this case finally expired on May 12, 2011, and the technology sector is now a very different place. Microsoft is no longer the market hegemon it once was, having been usurped by IBM and former competitor Apple. Netscape, who accused Microsoft of anti competitive behavior by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, no longer exists and has had its remnants swallowed up by the non-for-profit Mozilla foundation.

Since Microsoft is living in a post-antitrust world right now the company has decided once again to tie their browser to Windows. In the Windows 8 developer preview, which was made available to developers earlier this year, Internet Explorer 10 is deeply integrated into the fabric of the OS as well as the ‘Metro’ user interface and many have reported that the web browser is impossible to remove.

In previous iterations of Internet Explorer and Windows, Microsoft had provided instructions on how to uninstall the browser from the OS. With Windows 8, Microsoft has only provided a method for “turning on” or “turning off” the browser. This “on or off” functionality is not inherently new, as it also existed in Windows 7, albeit it was also possible to completely remove the browser from the OS.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Hardware Canucks that, “IE is an integral part of Windows, and that pattern hasn’t changed with Windows 8 and IE10. And while we believe that the best way to experience the Web is to use IE on Windows, customers will still have the option to use other browsers. This includes the ability to “turn off” Internet Explorer, a feature we originally introduced with Windows 7”

While the issue of Microsoft again tying its browser to the OS is interesting considering this behavior once lead to an anti-trust case, the technology world is a very different place now and this sort of behavior almost constitutes a type of normality.

Take Apple’s iPad, for instance. On the device that is largely eroding the PC market, it is impossible to unbundle the installed Safari browser from the OS, as it is with the mail application.

What Microsoft was admonished for doing in United States v. Microsoft is simply the norm now, but there are no players that are dominant enough yet to warrant an anti trust case. Who knows? Perhaps in a weird twist of fate we’ll see United States v. Apple in the near future?

These updates will patch vulnerabilities found in Windows (from XP to 7), Internet Explorer, Office, Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Silverlight. 9 of these updates are ranked critical, while the other seven are flagged as important.

On the same day that Microsoft plans to release this bigger than normal collection of patches, Adobe will release security updates for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat as part of its quarterly patching cycle.

The Microsoft updates will be released on Tuesday, June 14, at 10AM Pacific.

Finally moving out of beta, Microsoft will begin shipping select Office 2010 retail packages world wide; these include Office Home and Student 2010, Office Home and Business 2010 and Office Professional 2010. The wide variety of consumer available office packages have been slimmed down to these simple three after Office 2007 caused confusion with more than 8 available bundles. The listed USD MSRP for the retail software is $149, $279 and $499 respectively.

One of the more notable additions is the launch of a new Office 2010 Web App portal. This will now allow users to use limited versions of popular Office 2010 programs online and completely free. The online program access has much of the same basic functions as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

The new Office suite builds on the major redesign of the software that came with Office 2007, and adds plenty of new features to embrace the enormous change in technology over the past three years. Check out the Office 2010 website for a full list of changes.

Consumers who purchased Microsoft Office 2007 after March 5th, 2010 will be eligible to receive a free upgrade to the comparable verison of Office 2010 by following Microsoft’s instructions here.

At this year’s E3, the company has finally given consumers the hard launch date, just in time for Christmas November 4th 2010, and provided the official shelf name; Kinect for Xbox360 (Kinect).

The device operates as a controller for the Xbox 360 by recognizing and translating  gestures, actions, spoken commands and objects that are done in front of the device’s sensor. No more bulky controller where you swing a sword or fly a plane by pushing a button; your body and its movements are now all you need.

Along with this announcement, Microsoft also released information on 15 gaming titles that will be able to utilize the Kinect controller upon launch, including its new Kinect Sports and a Star Wars title expected in 2011.

The company did not announce an MSRP for Kinect, however, Gamestop appears to have jumped the gun and begun advertising pre-orders for the standalone unit at $149 USD, the Arcade bundle at $299 USD and an Elite bundle for $399.

For more details on Kinect for the Xbox 360, click the product page link below.

A B.C. Provincial Supreme Court judge has approved a lawsuit to be classified as class action against Microsoft Canada that alleges anti-competitive practices and could seek more than $1 billion in damages.

The plaintiffs, Pro-Sys Consultants, are launching the lawsuit – mimicking that of many similar cases in the U.S.A – claiming that the Redmond giant started its unfair practices in the 80′s when it began setting up computers with its own OS to dominate the market and drive competitors out of business. They argue that once it had little competition, Microsoft raised licensing fees, forcing users to pay more due to the artificially inflated price.

The initial scope of the suit will only include B.C residents who purchased a license for Microsoft operating systems or bought a computer with a Microsoft OS pre-installed since January 1994, however the plaintiff’s may work with lawyers in other provinces to seek approval in their courts.

Alas all good things must come to an end, although reputed to be the saviour of operating systems throughout the tough Vista years XP’s service life will be coming to a close. Announced as of July 13th, 2010 XP SP2 will no longer be supported by Microsoft (Along with a few other Key Products).  This will probably be the warning sign that SP3 will more than likely follow suit, though this is just speculation.

Moving forward Microsoft looks to have quite the successful launch with Windows 7 and that may very well come to be the new XP to most of the OS veterans out there today. It will mark a sad day however for many people the day XP no longer is valid for new games, nor supported by any Drivers and Chipsets. It was in its own right the Operating System that could, and although it had its quirks it will always hold a special place for those who valued its interface and abilities.

The latest installment of Microsoft’s successful Office Suite, Office 2010, received its first public debut today with the first Beta release being available for download.

The unveiling which was announced at Microsoft’s Professional Developers conference the other day, also includes Office Mobile 2010 , SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 and Office Web Apps.

The Office suite expands on the complete redesign it received with Office 2007, and one of the largest additions is that of the Outlook Social Connector which looks to bring together all of your social needs. It includes features such as communication history, business collaboration, and social network feeds working directly with Windows Live and Sharepoint 2010.

Fore more info and to test out the new Office 2010 head over to:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

Windows 7 was ushered in only two weeks ago, amidst much fanfare and great anticipation that Microsoft would finally be able to right all its Vista wrongs.

While consumers are still deciding if it is in fact the messiah OS, reports from Wzor – a website which eerily seemed to be able to provide nearly every early beta release – indicate that developers have been plugging away at Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

Microsoft obviously is tight lipped, but rumour states that we could be seeing a public beta testing for SP1 as early as January 2010. The service pack will undergo two beta releases and two RC versions before hitting RTM in summer 2010 and becoming an official end user update in the fall.

While bug reports are likely flying in on a daily basis, yet the question must be ask; what exactly does Microsoft intend to offer this shortly after release, that couldn’t be accomplished with the usual regular updates?

So now that Windows 7 has been officially released, users have had some time to fiddle and play around, did it live up to the hype? Are you happy with the new OS or if you have yet to upgrade whats holding you back?

Microsoft Security Essentials, independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company’s global security response team and is built on the same award-winning core security technology found in the company’s security solutions for businesses. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and will be available for download directly from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

“Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software but we know that too many are either unwilling or unable to pay for it, and so end up unprotected,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft. “With Microsoft Security Essentials, consumers can get high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use — and it won’t get in their way.”

Making Microsoft Security Essentials broadly available as a free consumer download for genuine Windows-based PCs is part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to provide a more trustworthy computing experience for all customers. By making Microsoft Security Essentials easy to get and easy to use, Microsoft hopes to encourage broader adoption of anti-virus protection across the consumer audience, which in turn will help increase security across the entire Windows ecosystem. For business customers, Microsoft continues to offer Forefront Client Security, providing centralized, comprehensive management and reporting capabilities.

Maximum Security, Minimum Resource Requirements

Microsoft Security Essentials is designed to run quietly in the background alerting users only when there is an action for them to take. It also limits CPU and memory usage, resulting in less impact on the tasks consumers perform every day such as opening documents or browser windows or loading search results, even on older or less powerful PCs. Microsoft Security Essentials uses real-time protection to help prevent PCs from becoming infected, and it is the first Microsoft security product to make use of the company’s new Dynamic Signature Service, a technology that helps ensure users stay protected by the most current virus definitions available without having to wait for the next scheduled download.

“Microsoft is focused on the challenges that prevent consumers from running up-to-date anti-virus software today, particularly in emerging markets where there is a growing prevalence of malware,” said Jon Crotty, security analyst at IDC. “With Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft is helping to reduce some of the barriers that constrain consumers from running AV.”

Microsoft Security Essentials will be available for Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 including Windows XP mode on both x32 and x64 PCs.

Source: Microsoft

Wow, this is just to good to pass up! Microsoft has been known to pull the odd PR stunt (think Jerry Seinfeild and more recently, the racial ad debacle ) however, their latest campaign to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 by encouraging people to have a house party for its release, really takes the cake.

Yes you heard right, Microsoft is setting up to promote the upcoming release of Windows 7 on October 22nd, by throwing House Parties across 12 nations and is inviting you to host it! For this, hosts will receive a “Signature Edition” of Windows Ultimate 7, along with a Windows 7 Party Pack.

Microsoft  has set out a few guidelines for the party, and enlisted the help of professional party planners “House Party” to help you set up for the event. Organizers must choose a theme; PhotoPalooza, Media Mania, Setting up with Ease, or Family Friendly Fun. People are encouraged to upload photos and videos of the event and share organizational tips or ideas for the party with other hosts.

The Parties will be held in the United States and Canada along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and Australia.

For more details or to sign up to be a host or attend a party check out the website: http://houseparty.com/windows7

So….who wants to host?

As reported earlier this week,

The EU was insistent that including IE with Windows by the Redmond Corporation had been violating user’s rights in all of their past operating systems and wanted to see multiple options included in all of Microsoft’s currently supported operating systems; it appears that the Commission will have their way. 

In a recently released  report outlining the proposal, Microsoft has included the follow statement:

“Microsoft will distribute a Ballot Screen software update to users within the EEA of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Client PC Operating Systems, by means of Windows Update as described hereafter: A software update enabling the Ballot Screen to be displayed will be made available to all current and future users of Windows XP and Windows Vista who receive updates from Windows Update.

“For Windows XP and Windows Vista users the Ballot Screen update will first be made available between 3 and 6 months after the adoption of the Commission’s decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. For Windows 7, the Ballot Screen update will first be made available to users by the date of the general commercial release of Windows 7, or within two weeks of the adoption of the Commission’s decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003, whichever comes later. For Windows Client PC Operating Systems after Windows 7, the Ballot Screen update will first be made available at the general commercial release date of such an operating system.”

What specific browsers  available via the ballot system is still yet to be released, there are some general guidelines in the report. Up to 10 competing browsers, that have more than .5% of the European market share will be included. This could see  the return of the Netscape browser, and inclusion of Apple’s Safari PC version. Opera clearly expects to be included as they were the original source that brought the IE scandal to the EU’s attention. The company also adamantly states that they oppose the use of logo’s in the ballot system, as it gives IE an unfair advantage due to its familiarity.

The Commission has yet to official accept the offer, but as far as one can tell, the submitted plan is exactly what they were looking for and should help Microsoft avoid another billion dollar fine.

The full proposal can be downloaded here 

As reported back in June 2009, the EU is pursing an investigation

As a result Microsoft chose to completely eliminate IE from their upcoming release of Windows 7 in Europe.  Upon release, this is guaranteed to leave untold numbers of consumers struggling to figure out exactly how they are supposed to get on the Internet, or install a competitor’s browser, something the EU is greatly encouraging through its investigation.

The Commission’s persistence has only served to cause more hardship on user’s rather than alleviating the burden of being forced to use IE to download a competing browser (or avoiding Microsoft brainwashing). However, this morning Micrsoft’s lawyer’s relayed an announcement that the two parties may have found common ground. Microsoft forward a proposal that may see “full” versions of Windows 7 on store shelves in the near future that include a “ballot” style system of  popular browsers for users and OEM’s to choose when installing the OS. 

Brad Smith, General Counsel fo Microsoft states: 

As the European Commission has just announced in a statement, Microsoft has made a new proposal in an effort to address competition law issues related to Internet Explorer and interoperability.

Under our new proposal, among other things, European consumers who buy a new Windows PC with Internet Explorer set as their default browser would be shown a ‘ballot screen’ from which they could, if they wished, easily install competing browsers from the Web.  If this proposal is ultimately accepted, Microsoft will ship Windows in Europe with the full functionality available in the rest of the world.  As requested by the Commission, we will be publishing our proposal in full here on our web site as soon as possible. 

While the Commission solicits public comment and considers this proposal, we are committed to ensuring that we are in full compliance with European law and our obligations under the 2007 Court of First Instance ruling.

As we said June 11th, we currently are providing PC manufacturers in Europe with E versions of Windows 7, which we believe are fully compliant with European law.  PCs manufacturers building machines for the European market will continue to be required to ship E versions of Windows 7 until such time that the Commission fully reviews our proposals and determines whether they satisfy our obligations under European law.  If the Commission approves this new proposal, Microsoft will begin work at that time to begin implementation of it with PC manufacturers.

As the European Commission announced, Microsoft’s proposal also includes a public undertaking designed to promote interoperability between third party products and a number of Microsoft products, including Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange, and SharePoint.

Like the Internet Explorer proposal, the interoperability measures we are offering involve significant change by Microsoft.  They build on the Interoperability Principles announced by Microsoft in February 2008, which were also based on extensive discussions with the Commission, and they include new steps including enforceable warranty commitments. 

We believe that if ultimately accepted, this proposal will fully address the European competition law issues relating to the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows and interoperability with our high-volume products.  This would mark a big step forward in addressing a decade of legal issues and would be good news for European consumers and our partners in the industry.

Microsoft is currently offering only the “E” versions (no IE) in European regions, but have them priced at “upgrade” levels, which are far below regular retail. When (or if) the browser ballot version is released – likely in early 2010 – it will be offered as a “full version” commanding the retail price tag. The “E” version is full functional and can be purchased with the usual upgrade requirements (purchasing a full system) , not a bad way to save money if you have a source to easily obtain your browser from.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

Microsoft will make the announcement on its Windows Team and Windows Server Blogs later today. More information about today’s news is available via the following links:

• Windows Team Blog
• Windows Server Blog
• Partner Web sites, http://readyset7.com and http://talkingaboutwindows.com/Default.aspx
• Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for businesses

After years of  being belittled by the amusing (though quickly tiresome) Apple Mac Ads, Microsoft announced last year they would launch a $300 million dollar campaign to air commercials of their own.

If you are unfamiliar with the ad wars between Microsoft and Apple, we suggest hopping out from your rock and popping over to Youtube for a quick search of “Get a Mac” or “Laptop Hunter” before continuing.

It started off with Jerry Seinfeld being paid enormous dollars to confuse and mystify the viewers with topics completely unrelated to Microsoft or its Windows products at all – apparently an ineffective strategy. However, the Redmond company seems to have hit their stride with the recent “Laptop Hunter” campaign that take seemingly ordinary folks off the street (read as: paid actors) looking for a good deal on a laptop to meet their needs.

“You Find It, You Keep It” is the theme, which has the “hunters” combing shelves looking at multiple laptops in their budget with a variety of different options. They inevitably end up in the Mac section only to discover, that while the Mac’s look pretty, they costs much more than their already size-able budget will allow, and specs lower than many of the comparable PC’s.

While Apple’s ads directly attack Microsoft’s operating system with the usual 6 basic stereotypes; virus’s, not meant for creative people, slow and restricting, virus’s, confusing to operate, more virus’s, Microsoft has taken a more tactful approach and attempted to show consumers the true value of a computer with stigma, labels and shiny metal. 

At its Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, Microsoft CFO, Kevin Turner, reportedly receive a call recently from Apple’s legal department, apparently upset about the “Laptop Hunter” ads.

An excerpt from notes on Turner’s speech read:

And so we’ve been running these PC value ads. Just giving people saying, hey, what are you looking to spend? “Oh, I’m looking to spend less than $1,000.” Well we’ll give you $1,000. Go in and look and see what you can buy. And they come out and they just show them. Those are completely unscripted commercials. 

 

And you know why I know they’re working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, “Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.” They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I’ve ever taken in business. 

I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, “Is this a joke? Who are you?” Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we’re just going to keep running them and running them and running them. 

Apple’s claims are not without merit – they have in fact lowered the price of some models, so that their most basic and cheapest MacBook with 13″ LCD, 2.13GHz CPU with 2GB Memory now starts at $999 – we just don’t know if having the cheapest option a dollar under one grand  really qualifies as “good value” or a “budget system”.

With any luck, further pursuit of the matter could make for some very entertaining war ads to fill up the spots between TV  segments and may encourage some viewers to put down the PVR remote for a few seconds

The views expressed or implied in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions HardwareCanucks or its staff

Many were thrilled to hear last week that the RTM was set to debut this week, however Brandon LeBlanc of the Windows 7 team has set the record straight.

We are close, but have not yet signed off on Windows 7. When we RTM you will most certainly hear it here. As we’ve said all along, we will RTM Windows 7 when it’s ready. As previously stated, we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July.

So without giving away an official date, excited users should look forward to seeing the release in the weeks following the mid-month hump.

The RTM or “release to manufacturing” is the last stage of development in an operating system, and is nearly identical to the retail shipped version. The RTM will not be available to the general public for free, or as an upgrade to the RC2 version. It slated to be released only to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, as well as Volume License customers. 

Users using the RC2 versions of Windows 7 may continue to do so until June 1st 2010, however it should be noted, that those who purchase the full retail version will have to perform a clean install of the operating system, and will not be able to upgrade directly.

Microsoft only recently announced that the official public launch date for the OS be October 22nd.

Key features of the Enterprise edition are:

• DirectAccess
  Give mobile users seamless access to corporate networks without a need to VPN.

• BranchCache
  Decrease time branch office users spend waiting to download files across the network.

• Enterprise Search Scopes
  Find information on network locations including SharePoint sites with a simple user interface.

• BitLocker & BitLocker To Go
  Help protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys.

• AppLocker
  Specify what software is allowed to run on user’s PCs through centrally managed, but flexible, Group Policies.

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Optimisations
  Improved user experience for VDI with multimon and microphone support. Plus the ability to reuse virtual machine (VHD) images to boot a physical PC.

• Multi Lingual User Interface 
• Create a single operating system (OS) image for deployment to users worldwide.

With the release client already on thousands of potential customers computers, the official release date set and the box art revealed, the only secret left for Windows 7 was going to be the pricing. Well, this morning, Microsoft is taken off the veil.

To top it all off, Microsoft has announced some pretty spiffy pre order pricing, available for the next 2-3 weeks. The pricing is shown as both “Upgrade” for users upgrading from accepted prior versions of Windows, and the “Retail” price for those purchasing for a new installation straight off the shelf

*prices is USD. Vista Retail Pricing taken from www.newegg.com

From June 26th – July 11th, Microsoft will be running promotions on the upgrade version of Windows 7 through their store, available to residents of Canada and the USA. It will feature Home Premium at $49 or Professional at $99. Visit the Microsoft Store for more details

Windows 7 Home Premium should offer the necessary tools for a majority of consumers, with Pro/Bus featuring a few extra tidbits for Networking and Backup, and Ultimate boating unique features such as the BitLocker security software and Multi language support. Microsoft has listed a handy and simple comparison tool on their website, found here

Microsoft also announced, that due to their recent decision to only offer retail, fresh installation editions of their branded “E” versions in Europe, (due to the European Commision’s medling) that pricing for retail “E” copies in affected EU countries would be the same as the unavailable upgrade versions.

The last remaining mystery, is the question of cost for OEM copies of the operating system. Microsoft has traditionally released cheaper versions of the OS, that mimick the retail versions without the fancy packaging and official Microsoft technical support. They generally can only be purchased by users buying computers from authorized retailers, but consumers often find a way to toss the software in with computer hardware purchases.

Recently, we reported the story on Microsoft’s plan to release free, anti-virus software, speculating that it would be codenamed “Morro”, well, the day has come, Tuesday June 26, 2009. Mark it on your calendars and get out the party hats.

Contrary to our initial report though, the release name for the software will be  ”Microsoft Security Essentials”, however it is still intended to completely replace the paid LiveOneCare service, and will be completely free, no strings attached. The software will only be released in beta form for now, so bugs are expected.

The software works like most traditional anti-virus programs; matching information on downloads and programs against signatures of known malaware. Microsoft claims it will be publishing virus signatures three times  daily, and users can update their client through the Windows Update. Unfortunately it is unknown as to whether or not the program will be able to update definitions independently, meaning users may have to set Windows Update to update automatically, and consequently download other listed OS updates, if they wish to “set it and forget it”. Failing that, regular manual updates may be required if a user wants to weed out only the virus definitions.

Security Essentials is not intended to revolutionize or replace existing virus software on a users PC. “We’re targeting people who aren’t protected already” states Alan Packer, the manage of Microsoft’s anti-malware team. Their focus is on the unprotected, and those who are unhappy with their current bloated and resource hungry anti-virus. Security Essentials is lightweight, and attempts to reduce system usage by running when the PC is idle. It has also been tuned to conserve memory usage.

Update: June 23rd, 2009: MSE has been released on Beta and can be downloaded here

In the never ending saga of Microsoft vs the European Union, new developments have been announced regarding Microsoft’s latest attempts to smooth things over in it’s European market, unfortunately the EU isn’t still is not happy and is adamant about continuing its pursuit for cash…err, justice.

Starting with its record fine of approx $800 million USD  in 2004, the EU has seemed to have found its primary cash cow, rather target, rather….. well to be truthful, there really is no pleasant way to word it. After handing down an astonishing $1.4 Billion fine last year in 2008 (for failing to comply quickly enough with the their 2004 decision) the Commission announced in January of 2009, that they would yet again be investigating Microsoft’s perceived unfair monopoly in only offering its own Internet Explorer browser on Microsoft’s Windows Operating Systems. As with Windows Media Player, which in compliance with the 2004 ruling was removed from specially labelled “N” versions of Windows – Microsoft announced they would would be completely removing  IE from “E” versions in Europe for the upcoming release of Windows 7, and store shelves will only feature “N” and “E” versions of the Windows software, with no options for a regular edition.

Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Microsoft, Dave Heiner write, ”We’re committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world, but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product.”

“Given the pending legal proceeding, we’ve decided that instead of including Internet Explorer in Windows 7 in Europe, we will offer it separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users.”

 ”Microsoft will not offer for distribution in the European territory the Windows 7 product versions that contain IE, which are intended for distribution in the rest of the world,” reported Microsoft  to its OEM partners “This will apply to both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products.” 

How Microsoft exactly plans to dump IE and allow OEM’s and end users to choose their browser is unknown. The EU has suggested a ballot selection system, which would have the major browsers included for a user to select during the install process. Though potentially, Microsoft could opt to include no browser at all, letting OEMs determine the software they wish to ship, and leaving end users hanging; having to obtain a suitable browser themselves via telekinetics or however else one expects to download a browser, without using a browser.

Microsoft had hoped this would help to stave off further investigation, and possibly fines, showing that they are committed to working with the EU to find a suitable solution. 

Unfortunately the EU isn’t about to let this money tree just die. In a statement released after Microsoft’s announcement, the Commission said they were sticking to their guns and would still be pursuing charges, asserting that Microsoft has been acting unfairly since 1995 when IE was first introduced into the operating system.  Even if the the Commission gets their way and forces Microsoft to bundle competing browsers with the OS in a ballot system, it is likely the investigation and inevitable “trial” will continue.

“At the level of both computer manufacturers and retail sales, the Commission’s statement of objections (SO) suggested that consumers should be provided with a genuine choice of browsers. Given that over 95 percent of consumers acquire Windows pre-installed on a PC, it is particularly important to ensure consumer choice through the computer manufacturer channel.”

It will be interesting to see Microsoft’s final response come release day, October 22nd 2009. If the browser bundle does make it through – what type of hits will IE take in the European markets?  Will it cause confusion amongst a large majority of consumers who may have never heard or used of these competing browsers? And will Microsoft be investigated again if they decide to put IE at the top of the ballot box, or having it selected by default; using their position as the operating system’s developer to unfairly direct users towards their own product.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions HardwareCanucks or its staff

While the words “free” and “Microsoft” aren’t exactly synonymous, the Redmond WA, company is looking at turning over a new leaf as it hopes to infiltrate your system with one more piece of its software – all for free.

LiveOne Care never really caught on, whether it was the $50 USD price tag, or the fact that it seemed to mimic that free “protection service” you can get from most ISPs (which you should also avoid at all costs), the fact of the matter is that there is plenty of great AV and system protection software available to users these days.  You don’t have to go to far to find quality free offerings, and if you are willing to pony up the cash, there are some widely acclaimed European companies who are considered the best in the biz for under $30/year

Recently a  company spokesperson confirmed that they are in fact, currently setting up for a Beta release of an anti virus program, codenamed “Morro” which should hit their website for download in the near future. The service is said to improve where most other free anti virus programs fail and primarily focusing on low usage of system resources. It it also said to protect against other nuisances such as spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Microsoft discontinued their LiveOne Care service this past November after it unquestionably flopped. LiveOne Care was a paid service, versus the now free service, it brings up the question as to where the revenue will come from. Traditionally most freeware anti virus solutions are subsidized through ads included with the installation, limits on service which are released with a paid subscription or other “catches”.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of impact this freeware software has on other anti-virus developers – not just competiting freeware – but paid services as well. With over 90% of computers running the Microsoft OS, they have a very large audience to directly offer this program to through such avenues as Windows Update.

• Question!  (- Source: Dwight Schrute)
• If you read this far and weren’t scared off by the word “free” – What anti virus software do you currently use?

Well, just in case you were concerned with how pretty your new Windows 7 packaging was going to be, Microsoft has listed the product on its online store, devoid of the most important detail – price.

They say don’t judge a book by its cover (how did you not see this analogy coming?). Well the same could be said for software. How many can recall seeing an absolutely stunning graphical depiction of a game on store shelves, whith screenshots of the pre-rendered cinematic on the back, only to then buy, install, play, and be sorely disappointed. Microsoft’s Vista  had a pretty spiffy retail box, guess we didn’t learn from our gaming experiences. Hopefully with Windows 7 the opposite will be true with the simple, and almost boring box art housing a redeeming OS.

Microsoft’s Web Store has put a little teaser up, listing Window’s 7 with an image of the box art as well as a short list of new and improved features. It is listed as “Coming Soon” which as earlier reported, will be October 22, 2009, but offers no hints as to pricing. The art also only features 3 different versions of the OS; Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate – not the planned  six reiterations. Though this time round, consumers should have an easier choice with only Home Premium and Professional being marketing for regular consumers, and the others specifically targeted for certain consumer groups.

Keep in mind you will only be able to get this gorgeous beauty of a box if you buy retail, which, if following the prior MS marketing schemes, will be roughly double the cost of an OEM license.

It has been less than a month since the first official Release Candidate for Windows 7 was opened for public consumption, now it appears the all new operating system will be set to make its debut on October 22 2009.

Microsoft Corp. announced the date the latest version of the Windows operating system, Windows 7, will be in general commercial availability: Oct. 22 according to sources from the Wall Street Journal.

The milestone comes amid intense pressure on the world’s largest software maker to reverse its perceived missteps with Windows 7′s predecessor, Vista, and as evidence mounts that computer makers are increasingly considering alternatives to its ubiquitous operating system.

“We feel confident that we will deliver Windows 7 with our partners on Oct. 22,” Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Microsoft’s Windows business, said.

While the date confirms Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft will be able to get the latest version of its most important product onto retailer’s shelves and into manufacturer’s computers by the all-important holiday season, it also means the company will miss some opportunity to get the product into the hands of school children and students going back to school in the fall.

Windows generated around one-third of Microsoft’s $60 billion in 2008 sales and is on more than 90% of the world’s personal computers. Microsoft has been under unusual pressure to deliver a smooth launch for Windows 7 to avoid some of the glitches which affected its predecessor, Windows Vista.

Vista’s launch, in late 2007, was dogged by compatibility problems with other software applications and components, and many corporate customers avoided the product, saying it required costly hardware upgrades, preferring to rely on an earlier version of the operating system, Windows XP.

With Windows 7, Microsoft also needs to address another growing challenge, the growth of the so-called “netbook” computer. Sales of these small, low-cost machines, designed for lightweight computing, have soared over the past two years, appealing to cash-strapped consumers, and Microsoft has been less successful in persuading the computer manufacturers to bundle Windows with the machines than it has with the larger desktop and laptop makers.

This week at a computer show in Taiwan, Acer Inc. (2353.TW), the world’s third-largest computer maker by revenue, said it will launch a low-cost computer that runs on Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating system.

While Microsoft’s Windows is still expected to ship on the overwhelming majority of low-cost netbooks, Acer’s move is seen by some analysts as prefiguring a trend towards building computers which rely less on proprietary software operating systems, posing a particular challenge for Microsoft.

Veghte said that notwithstanding Acer’s experiment with Google, Microsoft’s hardware partners were “betting heavily on Windows 7.”

There is little doubt that Google, king of search engines, has become genericized with internet searching, and rightfully so – given its dominance and populatiry with over 80% of web browsing users. Microsoft’s MSN Search/Live Search has  been the 3rd wheel in the search game  since a little after the turn of the century, when Googling spread like wild fire. Since then Microsoft’s attempts have dropped from over 30% market share, to stuggling to hold on to a mere 5%. However, in the recent year, Microsoft has made many changes in an attempt keep itself in the ring and is poised to try and take second seed – given the slowly dying Yahoo. They have introduced a “cashback” promotion, which quite literally, pays you to search and shop using Live Search, and have annouced plans to revolutionize the search engine as we know it, with an engine codenamed “Kumo”

Apperently though, the name “Kumo” just didn’t capture the emotions Microsoft was looking for in a search engine name, one could almost say it is to serious. Arguabley you need a name that sounds slightly silly and incorperates a double “O” somewhere (Google/Yahoo). According to Advertising Age, MS is set to rename its new search engine to “Bing”.  Silly, yes,  ”oo”, no and you can’t quite see yourself “Binging” it, but along with the new name, the report claims Microsoft is doing what they do best, and flinging money at the issue, with a $80-$100 million dollar ad campaign. 

Unlike Microsoft’s recent rebuttle TV Ad’s, which take calculated jab’s at Apple products, Microsoft ad campaign offers  users an advanced world of internet searching, offering to solve the their web problems.

“If you grab the average user off the street and ask them, ‘Does search suck?’ I think they’d say no. They don’t know what else can be done,” said Shashi Seth, a former Google executive who is now chief revenue officer at Cooliris. “They think search does a pretty good job, and if you could prove otherwise with a product that’s differentiated, people will sit up and take notice.”

Either way, with Yahoo market share sinking close to 3% in the past year and other search engines making up a combined total of less than 4% Microsoft is in a ripe position to take a good chunk of pie if they can develop something that offers a unique and attractive experience – otherwise one can easily expect Google to continue it’s upward trend and inevitably… take over the world

With all the talk surrounding Microsoft’s upcoming savior OS, Windows 7, much of the chatter regarding the development of Windows Vista has fallen to the wayside, forgotten that over %23 of the computer population is still running Windows Vista, and with support for XP dying out in 2010 it is poised to become runner up for at least a few years. As such, Microsoft has obviously continued the development and last year (2008), rolled out a beta of Service Pack 2 for users, and today it has been finally been released for full public adoption. The update hasn’t yet been rolled out onto Windows Update, but is available for direct download for both 32 and 64-bit (Links Here)

SP1 is considered a prerequisite, in order to install the SP2 update and it is currently available in 5 languages, including English and French versions (more coming soon). Download sizes are roughly 348MB for the 32-bit and 544 for 64-bit for the standalone installers and contain the updates for both Vista and Server 2008, the upcoming Windows Update package is expect to run 43MB (x86) and 60MB (x64) for Vista and 47/90MB for Server 08.

With this update, there is the typical packaging of security and bug fixes released since SP1, as well as a few new hardware functions, such as native Blu Ray writing, support for Bluetooth 2.1,  improved Wi-Fi performance when returning from sleep mode and support for 64-bit VIA CPU’s. All in all, nothing near critical as was Service Pack 1, but it is a relatively small and easy roll on update for to combine the numerous fixes within the past year or so since SP1

Download:

32-Bit Standalone

64-bit Standalone

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Release Notes/Notable Changes

Consumers are taking their notebook and netbook PCs everywhere these days and can now work or play wherever they go with three new Microsoft BlueTrack Technology products: the Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000 featuring Microsoft’s first nano transceiver, the full-sized ambidextrous Wireless Mouse 5000, and the sleek mouse and keyboard combo Wireless Desktop 3000. With these new products consumers can work with confidence on more surfaces than ever— from a granite kitchen countertop to the living room carpet.1 Microsoft Hardware continues to deliver technology innovations that meet consumer needs — from optical technology one decade ago to BlueTrack Technology today.

“Microsoft Hardware has always been at the forefront of innovation — from the creation of optical technology 10 years ago to the launch of the world’s first Bluetooth desktop in 2002, and now with BlueTrack Technology,” said Debbie Uttecht, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. “We firmly believe BlueTrack Technology gives you the ability to work virtually anywhere your PC does and will be the tracking technology of the future. We are excited to extend it down our product line.”

Award-Winning BlueTrack Technology

Tech savvy consumers want the latest and greatest technology available, and that is exactly what Microsoft’s proprietary BlueTrack Technology delivers. Unveiled last fall, the technology works on more surfaces than both optical and laser mice,2 including smooth and shiny surfaces such as granite and marble. In addition, the technology enables reliable mouse tracking even on difficult surfaces such as carpet. The success of BlueTrack Technology has already been noted around the industry. The technology has received awards including the Popular Science Best of What’s New award and the CNET Editors’ Choice Award.

Go Anywhere

The first new mouse to join the award-winning BlueTrack Technology family is perfect for using on the go. Featuring a sleek, ambidextrous design with chrome accents, the Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000 introduces Microsoft’s first nano transceiver. Sticking out only 0.8 centimeters from the USB port, the transceiver can easily remain plugged into the computer or be stored conveniently right in the mouse. The other new mouse launched today, the Wireless Mouse 5000, is also ambidextrous, providing full-sized comfort in either hand with a snap-in transceiver that lets consumers take it on the road.

Keyboards Go Blue

The first desktop to feature BlueTrack Technology — the Wireless Desktop 3000 — will turn heads with its stylish design. Paired with the Wireless Mouse 5000, the keyboard’s compact footprint, reliable 2.4 GHz wireless technology, and plug-and-play minitransceiver make it a great notebook PC companion. The keyboard also features quiet touch keys, a thin-profile design and a soft-touch palm rest. This keyboard will also be available in a stand-alone version, called the Wireless Keyboard 3000.

Buy.com BlueTrack Contest

BlueTrack Technology has opened the door for devices that work on all types of new tracking surfaces, and consumers now have the opportunity to win these new products and more with the Buy.com BlueTrack Contest, which runs today through June 2. Five random entries will win a Microsoft Blue Prize Pack, which includes the Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000, the Wireless Desktop 3000, a Marine Blue Arc Mouse and a Cool Blue LifeCam VX-5000. More information on the contest and prizes can be found at http://www.buy.com/specialty_store_5/microsoft-bluetrack-drawing/67208.html.

Availability

The Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000, Wireless Mouse 5000, Wireless Desktop 3000 and Wireless Keyboard 3000 will be available in June for the estimated retail prices of $49.95, $39.95, $69.95 and $39.95, respectively.3All products will be backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty from Microsoft. More detailed information about BlueTrack is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

About Microsoft Hardware

For more than 25 years, the Hardware Group has employed innovative engineering, cutting-edge industrial design and extensive usability testing to create products of exceptional quality and durability that enhance the software experience and strengthen the connection between consumers and their PC. Microsoft Hardware leads the industry in ergonomic engineering, industrial design and hardware/software compatibility, offering consumers an easier, more convenient and more enjoyable computing experience. In 2008, the Hardware Group debuted the world’s most advanced tracking technology — BlueTrack Technology — allowing consumers to track on more surfaces than optical and laser mice. More information about the Hardware Group is available at http://www.mshardwareguide.com.

As the rumoured Fall ’09 debut grows closer and with the release of a free, practicaly fully functional release candidate – Microsoft’s Windows 7 is creating a lot of buzz – especially given the promising preliminary results. However, even though the release candidate is free, and will remain so until June 2010, Microsoft does intend to actually sell the operating system and so the question of price has been inevitably dredged up. Microsoft’s OS prices have sat at roughly the same price level for both XP and Vista releases, eventually dropping after full market saturation. However, in a recent interview with CNET, the marketing director for Dell, expressed concerned about what he claims, is a higher than normal release price for Windows 7