Microsoft has announced that it will release Service Pack 1 containing updates and fixes for the new Windows Vista operating system in the first part of 2008, putting a date to a milestone that many companies look for when upgrading Microsoft products.

The company, consistent with earlier announcements, is planning on releasing a beta version of the SP1 for Vista in a few weeks to a limited number of users in somewhat of a cautious manner.

“A small group of testers has been putting a preview of the SP1 Beta through its paces to help prepare for broader release. We made the choice to start with a very small group of testers because we think it’s better for both our customers and for Microsoft to keep the beta program small at the start.”, wrote Nick White, a Microsoft product manager.

The Vista …

Keyspan has announced the release of the RF Remote for Windows Vista. The remote is used to run the Vista media player for watching TV, movies, photos or listening to music or the radio on both Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. The real “key” in this remote from Keyspan is the “RF” part, however.

The RF remote uses radio frequency signals to control the Vista media player which is unlike most remote controls that use infrared (IR). The RF remote control does not require a line of sight to operate and the signal can go through walls and furniture. This gives you more flexibility in designing your home entertainment system since you can place your PC with the USB-connected RF receiver inside a cabinet or in a closet and out of the way and …

At the annual Microsoft fninancial analysts meeting in Redmond last Thursday Kevin Turner, Microsoft COO, stated that the company has shipped over 60 million copies of its new Vista operating system since its release. Since the Vista global launch at the end of January Microsoft says it had shipped 20 million copies in the first week and 40 million in the first 100 days.

“By our math, we eclipsed the entire installed base of Apple in the first five weeks that this product shipped,” Turner said.

Microsoft had a bit of a rough start just getting Vista out the door, taking over 5 years to bring it to market releasing it to business users last November and then to the general public in January. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer stated about a month after the launch that sales expectations for the OS were possibly …

Information, or “misinformation” as Microsoft is calling it, was passed around the net earlier this month that Microsoft would be releasing the first service pack for Windows Vista sometime earlier this week. Well, the week is almost out and we’ve seen no SP1 show up anywhere, and now Microsoft has released a statement regarding the issue:

“There will be a Windows Vista service pack and our current expectation is that a beta will be made available sometime this year. Service packs are part of the traditional software lifecycle — they’re something we do for all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, and providing early test builds is a standard practice that helps us incorporate customer feedback and improve the overall quality of the product.

Service packs are just one example of

…

Yesterday among a number of other announcements Steve Jobs unveiled the release of the Safari web browser for Windows as a public beta version. The browser had previously only been available for the Mac. If you were one of the likely thousands like me that downloaded the browser to try out on a Windows box, you may want to be careful with it for a little longer.

Within only a few hours, (some within a few minutes) of its release as many as six bugs were found in the browser were found and reported by independent researchers. The flaws included memory corruption errors and denial of service crash’s. All three of the reports were on Windows based versions of the Safari browser, but it was neither confirmed nor denied if these same flaws existed in the …

Microsoft had recently launched a beta version of its web-based email client MSN Hotmail, called Windows Live Hotmail beta. The new Live Hotmail starts rolling out of beta today where users can sign up for a new Hotmail account, and existing uses can choose to upgrade their current MSN Hotmail account by clicking an upgrade button in the upper left of their screen once they are logged in.

The Live Hotmail has the most significant improvements in the Hotmail client since it launched in 1996, boasting a safer and more user-friendly experience than previous versions. One of the biggest improvements in the expansion of supported languages, as Live Hotmail is launching worldwide and supporting 36 different languages.

One of the most significant features for us was the return of remote HTTP access from the Microsoft Outlook client. MSN …

You may want to set a side a little time for some updates and rebooting on Tuesday, February 13th. Microsoft has 12 security updates scheduled in their monthly security bulletin communication that list out various Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft software products.

Eight of the security bulletins scheduled to be released Tuesday affect Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office with seven of them having severity rating of ‘Critical’ with the rest rated as ‘Important’. The remaining four bulletins range from ‘Important’ to ‘Critical’ and will affect Windows with Visual Studio, Step-by-Step Interactive Training, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) and multiple security applications that run on Windows including OneCare, Antigen, and Wiindows Defender among others.

Along with these high-security updates, Microsoft will be releasing another update to the Malicious Software Removal Tool and 10 additional non-security related high-priority updates.

These security updates from Microsoft are a common …

An novel security hole presented itself last week with the new version of Windows Vista released by Microsoft to customers around the world.

George Ou, and online blogger, reported on Tuesday through ZD Net that he was able to access the Start Menu on Vista and could potentially run programs through voice command audio files played through the system speakers. This type of functionality could allow a hacker to run programs, delete files and any number of other harmful processes accessible through the voice command functionality of Windows Vista.

Microsoft has attempted to downplay the issue slightly, and has addressed the Speech Recognition Issue on their Security Response Center blog. “While we are taking the reports seriously and investigating them accordingly I am confident in saying that there is little if any need to worry about the effects of this issue on your …

The consumer versions of Microsoft Windows Vista are finally available today around the world. Vista is available both at retail outlets and, in a first, via download. Microsoft’s tag line for Vista is The “Wow” starts now. And most consumers will be “Wowed” by the ridiculous number of different versions to choose from. Do you want Home Basic, Business, Home Premium or Ultimate? Good question. Most of the decision depends on knowing what you want to do. Unfortunately the technology experts in every family will end up answering many questions about Vista and most of them will not be happy about it. How many of them will answer, “Buy a Mac,” remains to be seen.

New Windows releases have been an event ever since Microsoft hired the Rolling Stones to perform for the Windows 95 release. …

Customers with business accounts have had Windows Vista available to them for almost two months, and the launch to general consumers is just a few days away, scheduled for the 30th of January.

Even with the limited exposure the new OS has had, there have already been reported issues with drivers, some anti-virus software and Quickbooks to name a few. To help with this, Microsoft has created a page to help you get ready for Windows Vista, walking users through the different editions of Vista, a product guide, and upgrade information. An upgrade advisor is available, which is a tool that can be downloaded to run on your PC to help identify compatible and non-compatible device and software issues. Be sure when you run it to have any devices that you want …

Microsoft may again be a victim of its own success. Many companies in South Korea rely on ActiveX, a technology built into Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, that enables users to run arbitrary applications in their browser. However, IE7 (Internet Explorer 7) breaks some of the functionality that companies rely on to run their ActiveX plugins in user’s browsers. Because of this the South Korean government through its various ministries has advised users to be cautious about upgrading.

So why has South Korea taken a shine to the ActiveX technology that many American companies have shied away from because of its proprietary nature? The answer lies in encryption. The US maintains a very strict export policy in regards to certain technology. Back in the nineties, US …

Microsoft has announced that it will extend its free support period for Windows XP. The Redmond Washington software giant had originally planned to discontinue free support in January of 2009. Microsoft said the support period applied specifically to the Home edition of Windows XP.

Windows 98 and ME just ended their supported life in July of 2006. Microsoft has a history of extending the support life of products based on customer demand. Windows 98 support was supposed to end in January of 2004. Microsoft decided to extend the support period by about two years due to the popularity of the operating system.

In the industry support contracts are often a major factor for IT management deciding to upgrade software. Microsoft may use the initial support date announcement to spur adaption of its latest …