Mary Jo

From Microsoft Watch: Microsoft is turning up the Genuine Advantage heat in the coming months on a couple of fronts. The company is planning to require Genuine Advantage validation of certain “premium” components that are integrated into Windows Vista. It also is planning to target PC makers and systems builders with its anti-piracy message and […]

Podcast lovers and Microsoft techies need no introduction to the .Net Rocks radio show. This week’s episode, featuring yours truly and my colleague, eWEEK tools reporter Darryl Taft, is less geeky than the usual .Net Rocks episodes. But we do manage to touch on everything from Microsoft morals, to Microsoft morale.

Even if Microsoft opts not to delay Windows Vista further, it still needs to appease some of its Software Assurance customers who didn’t get their Vista and Office 2007 upgrades before their contracts expired (due to previous Windows and Office slips). Microsoft is planning to offer these Software Assurance users some kind of payback, officials […]

Microsoft released a plethora of patches on August 8 – including seven critical Windows fixes – during its monthly Patch Day patch dump. Microsoft also released patches for vulnerabilities in other products, too, including Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and PowerPoint.

To date, with its Genuine Advantage anti-piracy programs, Microsoft has targeted consumers. Windows and Office users have been required to validate their products as “genuine” before being able to obtain many downloads and add-ons. Come this fall, however, the Redmond software maker is planning to turn up the Genuine Advantage heat in two ways: By […]

Niall Kennedy, a high-profile hire from Technorati who joined Microsoft in April 2006 as Program Manager for syndication with the Windows Live team, has quit. And quit with a bang. From Kennedy’s “Leaving Microsoft” post: “Windows Live is under some heavy change, reorganization, pullback, and general paralysis and unfortunately my ability to perform, hire, and […]

As noted during last month’s major MySpace outage, MySpace is a major Microsoft customer. In spite of (or maybe because of) that fact, MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media selected Google to be MySpace’s search provider. The multiyear search and advertising deal, which also covers some other Fox interactive properties, is worth an estimated $900 million. […]

If Microsoft and its PC partners have their way, Windows Vista PCs will be recognizable by more than just their boot-up screens. Microsoft is encouraging PC makers to think different (maybe even Think Different, a la the Mac) when designing Vista hardware and is distributing an industrial-design kit that provides suggestions for doing so. Over […]

After months of hedging, Microsoft is finally acknowledging what many had expected: It plans to discontinue support for Virtual PC on Macs. Microsoft is attributing its decision to the expected lengthy porting process in moving from PowerPC- to Intel-based Mac hardware. Indirectly, the Softies acknowledged that competition from VMware and Parallels played into Microsoft’s decision, […]

Looks like calls for Microsoft to add another beta to the Windows Vista timeline are falling on deaf ears. Microsoft has begun testing internally Vista Release Candidate (RC) 1 builds and will likely issue one more interim test build, designated RC1, to a group of selected testers before the actual RC1 ships, according to Neowin. […]