MS Security Essentials

Anti-malware testing group AV-Comparatives.org not only gave Microsoft Security Essentials a top rating for malware removal, but now theyve given it their best ranking in their performance test as well.AV-Comparatives.org ran a series of real-world tests running through common scenarios like downloading, extracting, copying, and encoding files, installing and launching applications, and they also ran through an automated testing suite as well. Once the dust had settled, it became clear that not only is MSE one of only three products that both blocks and removes malware well, but its also very light on system resources.Out of all the products tested, Microsoft Security Essentials was the best-performing free antivirus solution, and one of only two that received “very fast” on each of the real-world tests, earning it their top award: an “advanced+” ranking. Weve been telling you for a while that you dont need to pay for Windows security, and now with MSE ranked alongside the top paid apps in both malware removal and performance, you might want to consider making the switch.Hit the AV-Comparatives link for the full report in PDF form, or check out the PC Mag story for the overview—if you can deal with some irritating in-text ads.

via Lifehacker

Microhoo!

A Microsoft and Yahoo search deal, announced in July, will face an in-depth antitrust review from the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft has confirmed.

The DOJ requested additional information about the deal earlier this week, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said. Microsoft expected the DOJ to look into the agreement and conduct a “thorough review,” he added.

“When we announced the agreement, we said we were hopeful it would close by early next year,” Evans said. (continue reading…)

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has always been known to be a bit overzealous when taking the stage, and usually his antics lead to some not so positive publicity for the company he represents.  His latest stunt may not take the cake as the most ridiculous thing he has ever done, but it certainly deserves some attention.

Yesterday Microsoft held a private company meeting at Seattle’s Safeco Field and while Ballmer was taking the stage, an employee decided to snap a picture with, you guessed it, an iPhone.  According to TechFlash via Engadget, Ballmer snatched the iPhone from his employee’s hands and began making “funny comments,” which were apparently met by boos and jeers from other Microsoft employees.  The fun didn’t stop there, however, as Ballmer took the show a step further and pretended to stomp on the competing device and then simply walked away from it.  Later during the presentation Ballmer let the Apple-loving employee know that he hadn’t forgotten about him by making further comments.

Of course, all of this was done in good fun, although we’re not sure how much fun said Apple-loving employee had while Ballmer manhandled his iPhone.  Let this be a lesson to all of you Microsoft employees out there: do not, I repeat, do not let Steve Ballmer see your iPhone.  No good can come of it.  Also, don’t forget, if you ever have the chance to enter the Gates’ home, you probably shouldn’t whip out your iPhone either.

via App Advice

Are they serious?

Not sure when this started occurring exactly, but Yahoo is apparently now letting Firefox users know that they’d be better off switching to the “new, safer Internet Explorer 8″. Apart from this tweet sent out yesterday, we haven’t noticed anyone noticing, so we suspect it’s fresh and a direct result of the recent Yahoo and Microsoft love-fest.

How ironic. About a year ago, following a failed acquisition attempt by Microsoft, Yahoo ran a very different recommendation from their front page, advising Internet Explorer users to switch to the “NEW safer, faster Firefox 3″ instead.

Apparently, Yahoo recommends browsers based on what their latest business alliances are.

Maybe they should just develop and market their own browser and rid the confusion?

via techcrunch.com

Windows 7 Home Premium

While Microsoft’s Windows 7 will go on sale in just about two months, there is still a little time to get a free copy of the operating system.

Well, at least a free test copy of Windows 7, anyway. Users have until Thursday to download the “release candidate” version of the software–the final test version of the operating system. It’s a good option for those who have a spare machine to try out the software or for Mac users looking to experiment with running Windows either in virtualization software or via Boot Camp.

Microsoft has provided free, unlimited downloads of the release candidate version, but plans to halt distribution after Thursday.

“After that date, you will still be able to register your product and get registration keys but, the media will no longer be available for download,” Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog posting this week.

Even for those that get the software, the free ride only lasts so long. The release candidate will only work through early next year. The software will expire entirely on June 1 and, starting March 1, it will begin shutting down every two hours to remind users that the end is nigh.

As for the software itself, although it is not the final version, I used the release candidate for months and found it to be quite stable and reliable. For those who are looking to ultimately use the software, though, I recommend just biting the bullet and upgrading to the final release.

Folks will also want to remember that to move from the release candidate to the final version requires a clean installation of the operating system, meaning backing up one’s data, reinstalling Windows 7, and then restoring the data and reinstalling any applications.

Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) today shared details about the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac, announcing that a new application, Outlook for Mac, will replace Entourage for Mac. MacBU is providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers. For current Entourage users, Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is available today, providing performance and reliability improvements and enabling users to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories. These updates demonstrate the team’s commitment to meet Mac users’ productivity needs and to improve the overall Office experience. MacBU also announced a simplified SKU lineup to help make product selection more intuitive for customers. The new lineup introduces Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition in addition to the current offering of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition.

“It is an exciting time for the MacBU with updates to our current products and the first public announcement about the next version of Office for Mac. For several years we have focused on providing the best Microsoft Exchange client for the Mac, and the Web Services Edition delivers that today for Entourage users,” said Eric Wilfrid, general manager for the MacBU at Microsoft. “Outlook for Mac will bring features our customers have long requested — such as Information Rights Management — that make working across platforms even easier. I think people will see that this move to Outlook for Mac is more than just a name change.”

via Microsoft

Tux

There’s no avoiding it, if you’re using a computer (or just about anything else) the operating system needs to be maintained. This article addresses Linux maintenance issues and techniques, along with things you would expect to deal with, coming from a Windows background.

Read the full guide on Linux.com

Google has a giant target on its back. Microsoft has been on a spending and deal-making spree to grow Bing, recently signing a huge search deal with Yahoo. And with Bing starting to steal some market share from Google, it’s proving to be a formidable opponent. Oh, and now you can’t count out Facebook either, which just launched a new realtime search engine.

Google’s not taking any of this lying down. Secretly, they’ve been working on a new project: the next generation of Google Search. This isn’t just some minor upgrade, but an entire new infrastructure for the world’s largest search engine. In other words: it’s a new version of Google.

The project’s still under construction, but Google’s now confident enough in the new version of its search engine that it has released the development version for public consumption. While you won’t see too many differences immediately, let us assure you: it’s a completely upgraded Google search.

Google specifically states that its goal for the new version of Google Search is to improve its indexing speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness. Here’s what they wrote:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

via Mashable

Microsoft and Google have seen their rivalry kicked up a notch in recent weeks. First, Google announced Chrome OS, the company’s first operating system. Then Microsoft announced the new version of Office with major cloud app support. Then Microsoft announced its deal to take over Yahoo’s search business. Starting today, Google is back on the offensive, with a major promotional campaign to get the word out about organizations switching to Google apps for their daily computing needs.

The campaign, called “Going Google,” has a very clear target: Microsoft Office. A series of advertisements [disclosure: including on this blog] will begin touting how and why some 3,000 organizations are signing up to use Google apps each day. But the crown jewels of this campaign will be billboards on four major U.S. highways that will give a new message about Google apps everyday for a month.

The billboards will be placed on the 101 in San Francisco, the West Side Hwy in New York, the Ike in Chicago, and Mass Pike in Boston. Google says that the vinyl being used to create these new messages each day will be recycled or reused into either computer bags or shopping bags.

Google says that so far over 1.75 million businesses, schools and organizations have signed up to use the various combinations of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and the other Google apps. But that is of course a drop in the bucket compared to the number of companies that use Microsoft Office and its other enterprise solutions. Now, Google is clearly trying to be proactive in telling people why its solution is better before Office goes online in a big way with the 2010 version.

Google is also attempting to use the viral message platform of choice these days to spread the “Going Google” message: Twitter. At the bottom of its blog post on the matter, Google urges people that use its apps to “Tweet your story” and provides a link to auto-populate a tweet with the #gonegoogle hashtag. You can also follow the GoogleAtWork Twitter account to follow the Gone Google stories.

It has also set up a site to “Spead the word” about Going Google. This is similar to what Mozilla has long been doing to promote Firefox — and it’s worked to the tune of over a billion downloads. The site has a range of options for letting your company or organization know that you want it to “Go Google,” including things like fliers and pre-populated emails to send out.

And Google is also promising to give away “goodies” each week in August to users who have Gone Google and fill out a Google Doc describing their experience.

Will any of this work? Who knows. But I know that I can’t wait to see how Microsoft responds in this back-and-forth war. “Stay With Office” blimps, perhaps?

via TechCrunch

Linus Torvalds

Last week, Microsoft contributed Hyper-V drivers to the Linux kernel in order to improve the performance of running virtualized Linux guests in a Windows host environment. Furthermore, Microsoft opened its Linux Hyper-V drivers under the GPL. There was a lot of controversy within the OSS community about Microsoft’s motives and opinions varied tremendously. Some thought Microsoft was finally changing its ways and others suggested the whole thing was all a marketing ploy to sell more licenses of the Hyper-V virtualization solution.

Nevertheless, one person’s opinion on the matter is worth quoting. Linus Torvalds, the man who initiated the development of the Linux kernel, hasn’t yet looked at the code but did give an interesting statement to Linux Mag:

I’m a big believer in “technology over politics”. I don’t care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don’t have to worry about licensing etc issues. I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out. There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more. I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about exclusion and hatred.

via arstechnica.com