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Microsoft Previews New ‘Katmai’ SQL Server
Microsoft's Katmai -- the codename for Redmond's next version of SQL Server -- is clearly being designed with the multiplatform world in mind; Katmai will enable developers to "create new applications that can store and consume any type of data." Microsoft said the goal of Katmai is to go beyond traditional relational database technology.
On Wednesday, Microsoft previewed the next generation of SQL Server at the first Microsoft Business Intelligence conference in Seattle, Washington. Katmai, as the new version is codenamed, will be a data-management and analysis platform that enhances the company's flagship SQL Server product and ties in with key Microsoft business tools.
The new SQL Server is scheduled for delivery in 2008, with updates geared toward improving the platform's ability to handle what Microsoft called "the data explosion" as well as the next generation of data-driven applications.
According to Microsoft, Katmai will be a scalable platform replete with advanced security technology, and will come with tools to reduce management time and cost. Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Data and Storage Platform Division, said in a statement that Katmai takes "the next step on our data platform vision" to provide a platform for all companies, "regardless of size or budget."
Full story: NewsFactor
Microsoft to Kick Vista’s E-Mail App to the Curb
Windows Live Mail will replace Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Vista in the coming weeks.
As it rolled out its revamped Windows Live Hotmail Monday, Microsoft Corp. also promised it would deliver replacements for the Outlook Express and Windows Mail desktop clients along with new software to integrate Web mail with the corporate Outlook program.
Windows Live Mail will replace Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Vista in "the coming weeks," said Microsoft. The program, which will handle POP, IMAP and Windows Live Hotmail accounts, was characterized as a faster, more robust version of Windows Live Mail desktop beta, which has been in testing for Windows XP. The beta will be retired.
Full story:
PC World
Vista betas, RCs can’t install patches
Eight bugs remain a risk as countdown to OS expiration continues.
Microsoft Corp. confirmed yesterday that users still running prerelease copies of Windows Vista do not receive security updates via Windows Update, including the critical patches for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that were released Tuesday.
The no-updates policy had already been spelled out to users who installed the beta and two release candidates (RC) last year, said Microsoft. A company spokeswoman pointed to an August entry on the Vista security team's blog that said updates for the beta would cease when RC1 appeared, and updates for RC1 (and the follow-on RC2) would stop once the final code was sent to manufacturing.
"Microsoft no longer provides service or support for the prerelease versions," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "This would include [security] updates."
Full story :
ComputerWorld
Microsoft has released seven 7 bulletins, 19 flaws, all critical
Microsoft has just released seven advisories — all rated critical — with patches for at least 19 vulnerabilities affecting the Windows operating system, the widely deployed Office productivity suite and the dominant Internet Explorer browser.
Microsoft has just released seven advisories — all rated critical — with patches for at least 19 vulnerabilities affecting the Windows operating system, the widely deployed Office productivity suite and the dominant Internet Explorer browser.
Six of the 19 vulnerabilities affect Windows Vista. The batch of updates includes a promised fix for the Windows DNS RPC vulnerability that was being used in zero-day attacks last month. There are patches for 7 different vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution attacks against Word, Excel and Office.
Users of Microsoft Exchange are also urged to pay attention to one of the critical bulletins, which cover 4 different flaws. A cumulative IE update addresses five six potentially dangerous bugs. There are the five six that apply to IE 7 on Windows Vista. The last bulletin in this month's batch apples to CAPICOM (Cryptographic API Component Object Model) and could also put users at risk of complete system hijack attacks.
Full story:
ZD Net
Microsoft releases a new tool to isolate Office 2003 zero-day exploits
Microsoft plans to ship a file conversion tool to give Office 2003 users a chance to protect against exploits rigged into .doc, .xls, .ppt documents.
The tool, called MOICE (Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment), is a direct response to the nonstop zero-day attacks that use rigged Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents to plant call-home Trojans on government and corporate networks.
Microsoft has already built new protection mechanisms into the Office 2007 software suite but customers running older versions of Office are at the highest risk. The statistics are telling: Since January 2006, Microsoft has shipped 20 bulletins covering code-execution holes in Office 2003. Over that same period, only 2 bulletins were shipped for Office 2007.
Full story:
ZD Net
Messy Vista Express upgrades get back on track
Overcoming early problems, the majority of users who requested a free upgrade to Windows Vista through Microsoft's Vista Express Upgrade should have received their software by now.
Dell on Thursday said that it had fulfilled 80 per cent of the update requests. A spokesperson for Moduslink told vnunet.com that it had shipped Vista DVDs to the "major majority" of the people who filed a request. Moduslink handles the upgrades for a series of computer makers including Acer, HP and Lenovo.
The Vista Express upgrade programme offers a free or discounted upgrade to people who purchased a new computer after 26 October. The upgrade promotion was designed to prevent a lull in new system sales as consumers and businesses awaited the launch of Vista. Order had to be filed no later than 15 March.
Full story: Vnunet.com
Microsoft Launches Windows Live Hotmail Worldwide
Built from the ground up, the new Windows Live Hotmail is now safer, more powerful and available virtually anywhere.
May 6, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. announced that Windows Live™ Hotmail®, the successor to MSN® Hotmail, is launching globally in 36 languages. The most significant upgrade for Hotmail since it pioneered the webmail industry in 1996, the new service has been built to be a vast improvement over the previous Hotmail offering, having incorporated input from more than 20 million beta testers.
Windows Live Hotmail will deliver a safer, more powerful and productive e-mail experience than previous versions with flexible access via the Web, on a mobile phone or with an e-mail client. Microsoft also announced that later this month Windows Live Hotmail customers will be able to access their Windows Live Hotmail e-mail and contacts for free* using Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003 or Office Outlook 2007 via the new Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta.
Full story: Microsoft PressPass
Windows Live Hotmail to Debut Monday
Microsoft will release a revamped version of its popular online e-mail service. Microsoft Corporation on Monday will finally bring its completely revamped version of its popular online e-mail service out of beta and into full release.
According to sources familiar with the company's plans, Microsoft has been quietly rolling out version 1 of Windows Live Hotmail in smaller international markets such as Belgium and the Netherlands to test the new system. Monday's rollout give U.S. users and the other estimated 250 million Hotmail subscribers around the world access to the application, sources said.
Full story: PC World
Microsoft to patch zero-day DNS flaw
Microsoft on Tuesday plans to release seven security bulletins, including a fix for a zero-day flaw in Windows that is already being used in cyberattacks. The bulletins, part of Microsoft's monthly patch cycle, are slated to provide fixes for an undisclosed number of security vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Exchange and BizTalk, Microsoft said on its Web site Thursday. The issue affecting BizTalk also relates to "Capicom," a developer component to add cryptography to applications.
Each of the four product families is scheduled to get at least one "critical" update, Microsoft's highest severity rating, the company said. Microsoft plans to release two bulletins related to issues in Windows and three related to Office, with one remaining for both Exchange and BizTalk, it said.
Full story: C|Net
Microsoft drops hints about Internet Explorer 8
At the Mix'07 conference in Las Vegas—Microsoft's annual event for web designers and developers—the spotlight has largely been on Microsoft's Silverlight platform, formerly known as Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere. Silverlight is a set of tools for developing rich, Flash-like web applications. Less talk has focused around the web browser that will provide the primary user interface for all this new technology. On the Internet Explorer blog, Chris Wilson hinted at some of the things that might be coming in IE 8, while declining to give specific details.
While details may be lacking, the structure of the conferences planned for Mix'07 gives a few hints. Improvements in RSS, CSS, and AJAX support are all being given high priority. It is also widely speculated that IE 8 will include support for microformats, small tags embedded in HTML code that can be interpreted in various ways by software, such as calendar events or contact information. Microformat support is scheduled for Firefox 3, so IE 8 will have to include them in order to keep up. The new version may also include more options for user interface customization, as that was one of the biggest criticisms of IE 7, and one which the developers often blamed on lack of.
Full story: Ars Technica
Microsoft: Malware Signatures to be Rolled Into Online Updates
At a conference for its business customers in Los Angeles this morning, Microsoft Senior Vice President for Server and Tools Bob Muglia revealed that, as part of the company's upgrade of Systems Management Server to become "Systems Center Configuration Manager," the company will begin deploying malware signatures - perhaps on an as-discovered basis - as part of its online updates and patches sent to Windows Server customers.
The revelation came as the company unveiled two new product lines: Forefront for enterprise-oriented security tools, and System Center, which will not only envelop the old SMS but also Microsoft Operations Manager as well. MOM, as she was affectionately known, will now be called System Center Operations Manager; and through this common console, as product manager Kuleen Bharadwaj demonstrated, administrators will be able to poll Microsoft's network for Forefront support as often as policy may dictate, not just for patches but also for virus, adware, and other malware signatures as well.
Full story: BetaNews
Office 2003 to get security upgrade
Microsoft plans to make some of the security improvements and features it built into Office 2007 available for Office 2003, a company representative said Thursday.
Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 will be focused on security, said Joshua Edwards, a technical product manager for Office at Microsoft. "We're trying to take what we learned from building Office 2007 and bring as much as we can to Office 2003," Edwards said in an interview with CNET News.com.
Microsoft hasn't yet set a release date for the Office 2003 update, which like other service packs will be available as a free upgrade. Also, there are no details of what will be in the update, other than that Microsoft is "backporting" work it did for Office 2007.
Full story: ZD Net
June 1 is D-Day for those still running Vista betas
On April 24, Microsoft sent out a reminder to testers still running pre-release versions of Windows Vista that they need to update to final versions of the product (or regress to a legal copy of XP) or run afoul of Microsoft's licensing restrictions.
A note sent to press by Microsoft's Vista PR team noted that May 31 is the last day users can legally run beta versions of Vista. The full text of the note:
"On May 31, 2007, the pre-release versions of Windows Vista will expire. Participants in the Customer Preview Program who are still using a pre-release version of Windows Vista Ultimate will be affected by this expiration; however, we expect most beta users will have moved to a full version of Windows by this time. In the case of customers who are still using the pre-release version, Microsoft will send notifications about the expiration. These notifications will start today, April 24th, so that customers will have ample time to back up data and migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista.
"For more information about the upcoming beta expiration, visit the CPP website: http://www.windowsvista.com/preview.mspx. "
Full story: ZD Net
Researcher to demonstrate Vista attacks
Joanna Rutkowska, a security researcher known for picking apart the security mechanisms built into Windows, is to demonstrate new ways for hackers to invade Windows Vista, including rootkit techniques and ways to defeat BitLocker drive encryption.
Rutkowska recently announced she will be running a training session called "Understanding Stealth Malware" during the Black Hat Briefings and Training event in Las Vegas, which runs from 28 July to 2 August. The training session, which will be co-presented by researcher Alex Tereshkin, promises to demonstrate new rootkits developed for Vista, ways of defeating hardware-based forensics systems, and other techniques.
Full story: ComputerWorld