Microsoft has just released a Getting started with Microsoft Office 2010 guide that gives customers an overview of the Microsoft Office 2010 suite and how to get started with Office 2010. The book’s core audience is mainly IT personal, help desk, deployment staff and consultants even though it contains valuable information for end users as [...]

An unpatched bug in the Windows XP Help and Support system is being increasingly attacked by  virus and malware writers, as reported by the BBC. Microsoft has reported it’s seen more than 10,000 PCs hit by the attack so far and it’s still not been able to find a fix for the problem.

It was only released a week ago, but already 1 million people have downloaded Microsoft’s new Windows Live Messenger software for the iPhone.  This has got to make it one of, if not the, fastest moving software in the iPhone app store. In a statement for Microsoft, Michael Chang, Group Product manager for Windows Live [...]

The war of the webmail is raging on with the continued roll out of Microsoft’s new Hotmail service.  Now Google is coming back with new features to it’s own GMail service, the first of which was quietly announced over the weekend. The company has added a one-click preview for the world’s most common file format, [...]

Installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1 seems, on the face of it, much less hassle than with service packs for previous editions of Windows as I discovered today while testing the beta. Here are a selection of screenshots of the service pack, the easy install process and the end result.

Since Windows 7 was launched on October 22nd last year Microsoft has now sold a very impressive 150 Million copies of it and they’re shouting from the rafters.  In a post on the Windows Team Blog they’ve rather triumphantly said… I have a couple of things to tell you about today. First off, we are [...]

I’ve long been a subscriber to Microsoft’s Action Pack which is for small businesses.  You get 10 licences for Windows and Office plus a Windows Server licence or two for £220 a year.  Plus the software never expires. Many people say that subscription software is the way we’re all going but I’ve been making significant [...]

The Internet Fraud Alert System is a partnership between Microsoft and the US National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) backed up by organizations and companies like Accuity, American Bankers Association, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, eBay and PayPal. The system addresses a problem that security researchers and companies have faced in the past. Security researchers [...]

You know what it’s like when you’re sitting on really great news for several months but you can’t tell anyone?   This is even worse writing for gHacks every day knowing I’m sitting on a great nugget  :} Well after a long period of frustration I can now officially announce that I’ve been signed by Microsoft Press to write [...]

The prime choice for most users who wanted to manage documents online was up until recently Google Docs with its advanced set of features. Microsoft yesterday launched the Office Web Apps on SkyDrive service which might put a serious dent into Google’s domination. Office Web Apps on SkyDrive has been made available for users in [...]

I have been working with the Bing search engine for the last couple of days after switching to it from Google Search. It still takes time to get used to this new search engine after using Google for the last decade or so almost exclusively. I really do not want to say to much about [...]

Windows 7 has been gaining market share ever since it has been released in October 2009. The latest operating system market share trends, courtesy of NetMarketshare, has seen another strong month for Microsoft’s latest operating system which managed to gain another percentage mainly at the expense of its predecessor Windows Vista but also the market [...]

Apple is gearing up for the launch of the next iPhone, widely expected in the next couple of months.  Now though rumours are circulating that Microsoft and Apple are in talks to replace Google as the phone’s default search engine with Bing. TechCrunch are reporting “Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions [...]

Apple’s share price has now risen to the point where the company’s value pushes it above long-time rival Microsoft.  After some choppy trading on Wednesday the company’s value topped $222bm (£154bn) the BBC reports. Microsoft finished the day valued at $219bn.  It’s not all bad new for Microsoft though as they still have much higher [...]

The Microsoft Download Manager has been designed to provide Internet users with a faster and more reliable way of downloading files from the Internet. It has specifically designed for downloads from Microsoft pages on the Internet but can be used for every http based download. It becomes obvious right after startup that this download manager [...]

Should you make the switch to Microsoft Office 2010? If you are not sure yet you could download the latest version of Microsoft Office Professional Plus to evaluate it for 60 days. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 is the top of the line edition of Office 2010. It is the only edition that contains all [...]

Microsoft has just added the security updates for April 2010 to Windows Update from where every Windows user can download and install them on their operating system. A total of eleven security bulletins have been released that update the Windows operating system as well as other Microsoft software like Microsoft Office. The updates fix security [...]

Microsoft has published the whitepaper “Enhancing the performance of Windows Internet Explorer 8″ recently which provides information about Internet Explorer 8 performance issues and how they can be rectified. The company is addressing five general issues that from their experience and statistics affect Internet Explorer 8 performance the most. The whitepaper concludes with two advanced [...]

IT professionals, system administrators and end users have several options to find out if a software program is compatible with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 7. They can install the operating system on a single computer to perform individual compatibility tests, take a look at Microsoft’s Windows 7 Compatibility Center or download the Windows 7 [...]

The Windows 7 operating system is for the most part a stable and reliable operating system. It is that stable that several companies decided to make the switch to it without waiting for the release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Many companies and system administrators waited until the first service pack was released before [...]

Microsoft yesterday released security patches for Windows and Office products on their monthly Patch Tuesday. A total of two security bulletins have been released by Microsoft that patch flaws in Microsoft Excel, Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft Producer 2003. The severity of both security bulletins has been rated as important. Attackers can exploit the issues [...]

There are two types of Office users: Those who know everything – or nearly everything – about the program and those that do not. The latter group usually has to look really hard, consult an online help, book or colleague if they have to do something in Microsoft Office that they have not done before [...]

Microsoft decided that a design change was overdue for the MSN webpage which had not had a major redesign done in the past ten years. The new MSN homepage went live in November of last year and many users criticized it. The main point of criticism was the to bright color scheme on the MSN [...]

Microsoft plans to release the final version of Microsoft Office 2010 on June 15 and is – as always – offering free upgrades for users who happen to purchase the previous version of the Office suite shortly before that release. In a blog post over at Technet Microsoft announced that the free upgrade period starts [...]

Microsoft and Adobe have released their regular security updates today. Microsoft has only released one patch for most of its operating system. The patch fixes a vulnerability in the embedded OpenType font engine that could allow remote code execution. The rating of this vulnerability is low for all operating systems but Microsoft Windows 2000 Service [...]

Microsoft Office 2010 is currently offered as a beta version for anyone interested. We have published Microsoft Office 2010 download details and information about the various editions in the past but the prices to buy Microsoft Office 2010 were not revealed by Microsoft back then. A Technet article published at the official Microsoft Office blog [...]

Microsoft’s recent strategy change in regards to product launches – or to be more precise – to public relations during product development has made available beta versions of popular Microsoft software like Microsoft Office 2010 or Windows 7 to a worldwide audience. One of the latest betas available for download is Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft’s [...]

Microsoft recently lost a patent infringement case in the United States with the court’s ruling in favor of software development company tiny i4i. Many websites and blogs proclaimed after the court’s ruling that Microsoft would have to stop selling Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office in the beginning of January. Experts on the other hand knew [...]

It is a little bit more than six months until Microsoft releases the next version of their popular Office suite Office 2010. Interested users have already the chance to test a beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 which has been available for some time now. Microsoft has released a free e-book a few days ago [...]

Wikipedia is a popular online encyclopedia that can be a good starting point for researching a specific topic. What Wikipedia sorely needs is a better search engine. Microsoft Powerset is a search engine technology that is powering Microsoft’s own search engine Bing. The Powerset website however is currently being used to demonstrate the Powerset technology [...]

Have you ever asked yourself how you did end up with the email account that you are currently using? Chance is that you have at least one account at one of the three most popular web based email service providers Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Windows Live Hotmail. This question might have become insignificant in recent [...]

Most tech savvy computer users who visited a technology news website yesterday noticed that Microsoft has released a public beta version of their upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 software product. The beta has been made available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of several Windows operating systems. What some do not know is that the beta release [...]

The beta of Microsoft’s upcoming Office suite Microsoft Office 2010 has been finished and already been made available to MSDN and Technet subscribers. This leaves the general public who is also highly interested in this new beta with second row seats for now although it is rumored that public Office 2010 beta downloads will be [...]

Microsoft this time seems to be dead serious to compete at all levels with the seemingly almighty guys at Google and especially their search engine. Several key services over at Bing were updated today including the already reviewed Bing Maps service. But Bing Maps was but one service that got updated. Microsoft has also updated [...]

Bing Maps has been updated today with several new features and a new look and feel. Most notably in this regard are a new button bar with each button loading a specific feature of Bing Maps. Microsoft has also added some new colors to Bing Maps but those are only the obvious changes to the [...]

One of Microsoft’s public relations and customer service strategies in recent times seems to center around the popular messaging service Twitter. Microsoft did include Twitter in the Windows 7 promotion and there are other official Microsoft services and divisions on Twitter that make use of this new way of communicating. One of the latest divisions [...]

Real time search has become a buzzword this year. With Twitter increasing its popularity search engines like Bing or Google Search are aiming to make their search results real time or at least closer to that. We have seen some attempts already. Google for instance has included new time based filters for their search results [...]

Microsoft has released its latest operating system Windows 7 in selected countries today with other countries to follow down the road. Many say that Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been, an optimized operating system that combines the looks of today with interesting new features and less bloat. The similarities between Windows Vista [...]

With the release of Windows 7 right around the corner Microsoft has released a free ebook called “Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine”. The contents of the ebook are divided into chapters that have been taken from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and from Technet articles. The [...]

If you have recently opened your Firefox web browser you might have noticed a notification from the web browser that the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin was disabled to protect the user and the web browser. Many users who received the message were a bit puzzled as they did not install the plugin in first place. [...]

Federated search is one of new features of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. The feature integrates the possibility to search external data sources from within Windows Explorer in the same way a local or remote search is performed. Federated search in Windows 7 is enabled through the Open Search standard with a good dozen connectors [...]

Microsoft has started making cuts in Windows Vista but especially their soon to be released operating system Windows 7. Programs like the email client Outlook Express, Windows Movie Maker or Windows Photo Gallery have been detached from the operating system and are now available as separate downloads for users who want to use them. Many [...]

In my most recent article “Five ways to ease the migration from Windows to Linux” I examined how you can help new users make the migration from Windows to Linux easier. Most know the very philosophies behind both of those operating systems are very different. Because of that, many often need a bit of hand-holding in order [...]

Microsoft has published all security patches for today’s Patch Day a few minutes ago. The patches are available via Windows Update, Microsoft Update and the individual security bulletins that describe the nature of each security patch in detail. Windows users are encouraged to update their operating system and software programs as soon as possible to [...]

Tomorrow is a day that could force many system administrators into overtime as both Microsoft and Adobe plan to release security patches for several of their products. Microsoft alone plans to release 13 security patches and updates for various Microsoft operating system, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products. The patch day is also the first [...]

The Microsoft Bing development team is trying to distinguish their search engine from Google by adding new features to their search engine. The latest feature that the team is developing goes by the name Bing & Ping. It has been designed to offer Bing users better options to share search results. This feature resembles the [...]

Microsoft WebsiteSpark is a new program by Microsoft that is offering small web development companies the opportunity to join the program for free to receive web development software and server software coupled with support, training and business opportunities. Web design companies with less than 10 members are eligible to join the program for up to [...]

Microsoft’s introduction of its Bing search engine has revived search engine competition it seems. Bing did receive some praise since its introduction, and Google has since then reacted by offering search engine users a preview of their upcoming search engine technologies in the form of the sandboxed search engine Caffeine, and a limited test run [...]

It seems that Microsoft is trying to explore some new ways of promoting their upcoming operating system Windows 7. Other methods of promoting Windows 7 are slowly coming to light next to the official launch parties that are hosted by Microsoft in various cities throughout the world. One of the – rather unusual – strategies [...]

Working with multiple open documents in Microsoft Office applications like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel is not as comfortable as it can be. The documents are all placed in the same interface with no straightforward way to switch between documents easily (the keyboard shortcut Alt Number will do the trick but one has to know [...]