Posted: Jun. 18, 2007

[The articles below were posted between May 28, 2007 and Jun. 18, 2007 and appear in the July 2007 hardcopy edition of Update. One or more are available below for free to non-subscribers.]

Windows & Mobile

Free! Windows Media Platform Less Strategic

Instead of promoting the Windows Media Platform as its single platform for encoding and copy-protecting digital audio, Microsoft is taking a market-driven approach

End of 32-Bit Windows Servers in Sight

Windows Server 2008's successors will be 64-bit only, but the future of the client OS and Itanium support remains unclear

Surface Computing Product Announced

A forthcoming hardware product, Microsoft Surface, features a display that responds to human gestures and recognizes and interacts with objects placed on it

Sales, Marketing, and Services

Free! Managed Services Strategy Broadens

The managed services marketplace will get a significant competitor as Microsoft spells out plans to provide services to its entire base of business customers

Business Applications & Services

FRx Subsidiary to Be Absorbed

The subsidiary responsible for the FRx financial reporting and Forecaster budgeting applications will be dissolved in June 2007 and merged with the group responsible for the forthcoming PerformancePoint Server 2007

SharePoint Records Management Certified

SharePoint Server 2007 now complies with the U.S. Department of Defense 5015.2 standard for records-management applications, which could make the product a more attractive platform for records-management solutions

Security Tool Scrubs Office Files

A new utility can scrub many security vulnerabilities from Office files, letting administrators automatically block some recent attacks on the products

Systems Management and Security

Free Patching Solution Becoming Platform

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 is a relatively minor but highly advisable upgrade for WSUS 2.0 users, and it introduces new capabilities that are used by other Microsoft and third-party management products

Acquisition Signals Move into Enterprise Systems Management

Microsoft's acquisition of Engyro, coupled with its licensing of EMC network-device management technology, indicates Microsoft is getting serious about managing heterogeneous IT environments

Application Platform

RFID Software Planned

Radio frequency ID (RFID) tag-tracking software bundled with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 could make the technology more usable on Windows

SQL Server 2008 Preview Available

A SQL Server 2008 preview debuts support for policy-based management and new business intelligence features, but does not include planned features aimed at database developers working in .NET programming languages

Web Servers on Windows Server Core

Windows Server 2008's Server Core mode will include a Web server role along with the previously announced roles, although it will not support ASP.NET—Microsoft's most popular Web server technology

Developer Conference Cancelled

The cancellation of an Oct. 2007 Professional Developer Conference (PDC) suggests that Microsoft is having difficulties reconciling its various Live offerings into a unified platform

Office XML SDK

Applications that process Office 2007 files could become easier to develop with a planned SDK

Consumer and Small Business

Home Server Partners Added

Windows Home Server, a forthcoming software platform for backing up data on networked home computers, has garnered some new partners and will be made available to system builders

Digital Image Suite Cancelled

Now that Microsoft has bundled most of the features of Digital Image Suite into Vista's built-in Windows Photo Gallery, it has discontinued the stand-alone product

SharedView Expands Collaboration Portfolio

SharedView is a free collaboration solution that provides small groups of users with application and file sharing over the Internet, but it overlaps with at least three other Microsoft products

Corporate and Legal

Linux Agreements Signed

Recent deals with Linux distributors Linspire and Xandros are part of a campaign to draw attention to the uncertain intellectual property pedigree of open source software, although customers may benefit from improved interoperability

Raikes Gains Server Business

Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studio are among the products recently added to the responsibilities of President Jeff Raikes