Posted: Sep. 24, 2007

[The articles below were posted between Aug. 27, 2007 and Sep. 24, 2007 and appear in the October 2007 hardcopy edition of Update.]

Windows & Mobile

Free! Windows Server, Service Packs Due in 2008

Windows Server 2008 and the first Vista service pack will emerge in early 2008, and Microsoft has updated other scheduling information for Windows as well

AD Changes in Windows Server 2008

Changes to Active Directory in Windows Server 2008 will help larger organizations with distributed offices or federated services and improve administration

Windows Genuine Advantage Outage

A Windows Genuine Advantage failure results in customers losing access to key Vista features, but Microsoft claims there was no outage and that no customers experienced reduced functionality

Corporate and Legal

Free! EU Appeal Fails and Other Legal News

The European Court of First Instance has dismissed nearly every part of Microsoft's appeal of a 2004 antitrust ruling, increasing the chances of new antitrust and unfair competition complaints

Business Applications & Services

Web Conferencing in Communications Server 2007

Communications Server 2007 includes features that organizations can use to provide Web conferencing services in-house, but doing so could be more troublesome than outsourcing

Office 2003 Security Tightened

Most organizations running Office 2003 will want to deploy the SP3 service pack, which closes serious security holes and fixes other bugs

RoundTable Enhances Web Conferences

RoundTable mimics videoconferencing equipment at a fraction of the cost, but some key features require Microsoft's Live Meeting 2007 client and subscription service or Communications Server 2007

Group Chat Software Acquired

Parlano, a vendor of discussion software, has agreed to be acquired by Microsoft

Office XML Loses Initial ISO Vote

Office 2007 XML file formats failed to gain fast-track approval from the ISO/IEC, a key international standards body, but the standardization process continues

Application Platform

BizTalk Server 2006 R2

BizTalk Server 2006 R2, released in Sept. 2007, delivers new Electronic Data Interchange capabilities, enables item tracking with Radio Frequency ID tags, and exploits important new workflow and messaging APIs

Silverlight Goes Linux

Silverlight, Microsoft's platform for interactive Web applications, will be supported for Linux clients by a browser plug-in known as Moonlight

SharePoint Tools Updated

A new tool and documentation help developers connect the SharePoint Server 2007 Business Data Catalog to internal applications and databases

Consumer and Small Business

Understanding Microsoft's Advertising Business

Building a technology platform for the advertising industry is Microsoft's latest ambition, but the company will have to integrate or reconcile many conflicting business lines while going head to head with Google

Live ID Offered to Web Sites

With a new SDK, Microsoft is once again offering its online authentication service—formerly Passport, now Windows Live ID—for use by third-party Web sites

Sales, Marketing, and Services

Larger Sales, Services Roles for Consulting

Technical consultants and architects will play a larger role in Microsoft's sales efforts, and new 'service lines' will incorporate prepackaged consulting and deployment offerings

Executives Promote Cisco Collaboration

Cisco and Microsoft pledge to keep their engineering teams working together to assure interoperability between Microsoft's software and Cisco's hardware, but the sales rivalry is still in place

Sun to Ship Windows Server

Sun Microsystems will begin offering x86 servers with Windows Server preinstalled