14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Microsoft announced that the company plans to release the final version of OneCare Live before summer and to charge about $50 a year for the product. Windows OneCare Live will represent Microsoft's big entry into the antivirus market, currently led by Symantec and McAfee. The giant made a big step for creating an antivirus solution two years ago, when they bought Romanian antivirus software developer GeCad Software. OneCare will be delivered as a security suite, including antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall software with back-up features and several tune-up tools for Windows PCs. The software was announced last year in May and the beta version for testers was already available in July. After plans for Microsoft's antivirus software were made public, the other producers prepared for giant's product release. Symantec wants to introduce a security application, code-named Genesis, that will be sold on a subscription-only basis and has many of the same features as OneCare. In a recent research note, it is shown that Microsoft is targeting consumers, especially those who do not run security or have let their current product expire. It believes 70 percent of consumers fall into that category.
Also, on Monday, Microsoft lost a patent lawsuit, which means one in four businesses will have to update Microsoft Office. The update comes from a 2005 verdict in a California patent claim brought by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Armando Amado. Microsoft was ordered to pay $8.9 million in damages for infringing on a patent Amado created while he was a graduate student at Stanford. The patent was awarded for program designed to link spreadsheet data between multiple Microsoft applications. Last week, Microsoft sent e-mails for alerting corporate users that updates must be applied for any new deployment of Office 2003 and Office XP. The e-mail sent was the following: "It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office XP Professional and Microsoft Access 2002 infringe a third-party patent. As a result, Microsoft must make available a revised version of these products with the allegedly infringing code replaced."
On Tuesday, Microsoft warned of two security issues that could put some Windows users at risk of attack and said it is investigating a third possible vulnerability. The first problem is related to how Internet Explorer handle malformed Windows Meta File images on the Windows Millennium Edition and Windows 2000 operating systems. The flaw exists only in IE 5.01 with Service Pack 4 on Windows 2000 and IE 5.5 with Service Pack 2 on Windows ME. Users could be attacked simply by viewing a malicious image on a Web site, in an e-mail or in an image viewer, Microsoft said. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of the affected system," Microsoft said in a security advisory. In a second security advisory, Microsoft warned of a problem which will grant access controls in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The problem exists only in versions that do not have the latest service packs installed, the company said. The giant sustains that "the access control issue could be exploited by a user with low privileges to run programs and commands that normally require a higher privilege level." Microsoft is also investigating a potential vulnerability in its HTML Help Workshop, a part of the HTML Help Software Development Kit version 1.4. Recently, company Secunia released an alert saying that the flaw could give an attacker full control over a computer. The entire alert can be found here http://secunia.com/advisories/18740/
On Wednesday, Microsoft launched a date contest for developers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for indicating the correct release date for the next-generation operating system, Windows Vista. The contest, which requires registration to play, will let people choose dates and then follows up the choice with a short video before the user has to confirm the selection. Choosing November 30 gets a comic response from a character in the video that the date is too soon and December 1, however, gets the response that the date is too late. "We expect Windows Vista to be broadly available in all channels - as retail, full-packaged product and on new PCs - in the second half of 2006," the company said in a statement sent by email. The contest can be found here https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/launchcontest/default.aspx Microsoft plans to release Windows Vista Beta 2 for businesses this quarter, and for consumers in the second quarter with enhanced security and better performance.
Also, on Wednesday, Microsoft made a step closer to a fine of up to 2 million euros daily as EU Commission denies giant another delay. "We have confirmed the deadline of February 15 on the basis that nearly eight weeks should be sufficient for Microsoft to reply to a comparatively short statement of objections," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told Reuters. Microsoft Europe's associate general counsel, Horacio Gutierrez, said earlier that the Commission "cannot unilaterally take away a fundamental right of defense." As a reply to Microsoft's statement Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said: "In contrast to Microsoft's claims, the hearing officer considers that Microsoft's rights of defense have been properly safeguarded".
On Thursday, the giant announced the decision to develop a series of new security products, including the DynaComm i:filter, which the company has acquired from FutureSoft. The other products will include Microsoft Client Protection, Microsoft Antigen Select Beta, and the Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006 Beta. DynaComm will help companies manage their employees' access to the Web, while Client Protection defends laptops, desktops and servers from such threats as spyware and rootkits. Antigen Select Beta is an e-mail security system that will help blocking spam, viruses and worms. These application come after Microsoft's announcement earlier this month that it plans to ship Windows OneCare Live, the company's first product into the antivirus market.
On 9th, the giant announced a public beta of its next-generation ISA 2006 firewall as well as early customer betas of business products Microsoft Client Protection and Microsoft Antigen for Exchange. Also on Thursday, Microsoft made public that they acquired a Web filtering product from FutureSoft called DynaComm i:filter. ISA 2006 will offer new support for SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services, LDAP-based and smart-card authentication, vendor support for multifactor authentication and Radius servers, Microsoft said. Microsoft Client Protection is a business software that combines antivirus, antispyware and AntiMalware. "The software is easy to manage and offers customers management and reporting capabilities. The long-awaited business offering, which incorporates the GeCAD antivirus engine, will be available for public beta testing in the third quarter", the giant sustained.
On Friday, Microsoft said that it plans to spend $1 billion over the next three years to expand its headquarters outside of Seattle. Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and chief counsel, said new software such as the next versions of its Windows operating system, its Office business application and its push into Web-based services require more space. "This reflects our confidence in the future. The software industry is a very fast-paced industry and if anything, we have seen the pace of change accelerate.", Smith said.
Also, on Friday, Chairman Bill Gates, said that Microsoft and its hardware partners will continue to develop new digital media devices aimed at challenging the dominance of Apple Computers. "I don't think what's out on the market today is the final answer. Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years." The Microsoft founder praised Apple's iTunes music store and said the software giant was talking with hardware partners to create media devices that can be less expensive and easier to connect and can handle images and video better.
