Microsoft will demonstrate its long-awaited next-generation search technology, code-named Kumo, next week. For the past two months, Microsoft has been running an internal test of the search technology. However, some of the design changes that are part of that update are now in limited public testing.
On Friday, bloggers Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera posted about a new technology Microsoft is readying for Windows 7 users that is designed to allow them to run legacy Windows XP apps via PC virtualization technology. Microsoft admitted later that the existence of this feature in a Windows Business blog post.
After April 14, the company will provide "extended" support for another five years until April 8, 2014. However, extended support only includes free security fixes along with paid per-incident support as well as support contracts.
Microsoft already has pushed via Auto Update the final version of Internet Explorer 8 to customers who had installed the beta version of its latest browser. Starting next week, the company plans to begin delivering IE 8 via Automatic Update to users with older versions of IE installed.
Downgrade rights have long been a part of the Windows license for certain versions, particularly for businesses. That said, the option gained notoriety with Windows Vista. With Vista, the downgrade right was not only marketed by computer makers, but, once Microsoft stopped selling XP, some PC makers sold Vista machines that were "pre-downgraded" to Windows XP.
Microsoft has added a feature to Live Search designed to give users up-to-the-minute information linked to a particular search query to help make searches more interactive for users. The company has enabled a new Active Answers feature for "flight status" queries, although it will expand the feature to include other search queries later
After years of losing market share to Firefox and other rivals, Microsoft is hoping to convince people, many of whom use old versions of Internet Explorer, to give the company a new look. Part of that marketing push is a light-hearted video on the history of the Internet that also shows off some of the new features of Internet Explorer 8, including its private browsing mode and so-called "accelerators" that let users take action without leaving the Web page they are on.
At next week's MIX09 conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft officials plan show off the latest and greatest technologies and products for designers and website developers. Near the top of the list will be the first public demonstration of Silverlight 3.0, Microsoft's streaming media technology.
When Windows Mobile 6.1 came out last year, there wasn’t much there for touch screen phones. However, 6.1 made the non-touch smartphone 1000 times more user friendly with the sliding panels and fluid Home screen. 6.5 brings touchability and ease of use to touch screen devices.
Microsoft announced that their new approcach to planning and building Windows doesn't have the capacity to continue to deliver features outside the regular release cycle. While their core development team is focused on building the next release, their sustained engineering team is focused on updates to existing features. As a result they don't plan to create Ultimate Extras.