Microsoft is reportedly considering offering Windows 7 on USB thumb drives to allow netbook owners to upgrade their machines.

Windows has, until now, only been distributed on DVDs or via download. However, netbooks don’t come with optical drives and downloading an operating system is a frankly painful experience.

The Windows 7 ISO weighs in at 2.3GB, which would take several hours to download on an average broadband connection and potentially do serious damage to a customer’s broadband data cap.

Consequently, the company is exploring alternative means of distributing the OS, including USB flash drives

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that prices for the Windows 7 computer operating system are largely in line with those for Vista, and that consumers who buy PCs before the new system goes on sale in October will get free upgrades.

To drum up demand among people who aren’t in the market for a new PC, Microsoft also said it is taking limited pre-orders for Windows 7, selling some for as little as $50.

Microsoft will sell the standard home-user version of its new Windows 7 operating system for 8 percent less than the comparable version of its Vista system, as the global downturn hits spending on technology.

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s first new operating system in almost three years. With Vista, Microsoft made under-the-hood technical changes that left other software companies and device makers scrambling to make their products work with new computers. Many didn’t work at Vista’s January 2007 launch; people also complained the new system was sluggish.

Microsoft is promising a smoother launch for Windows 7, in part because it’s not a radical departure from Vista.

People who have tested near-final versions say Windows 7 boots and runs faster and spends less time nagging the user with alerts and pop-up windows than Vista does. It also tries to make it easier for people to navigate to frequently used Web sites, documents and tasks.

Countering pressure from European regulators, Microsoft Corp plans to ship the newest version of its Windows operating system in Europe without its Internet Explorer web browser.

The abrupt reversal comes shortly before the European Commission is due to rule on antitrust charges brought against Microsoft in January, claiming that the world’s largest software company abuses its dominant position by bundling its Internet Explorer browser, shielding it from head-to-head competition with rival products.

Until now, Microsoft has claimed that the browser was an integral part of the operating system and should not be pulled out, but it now plans to do that for a European version of Windows 7, due to be rolled out later this year.

“Given the pending legal proceeding, we’ve decided that instead of including Internet Explorer in Windows 7 in Europe, we will offer it separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users,” said Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner in a blog post on the company’s website on Thursday.

Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world’s biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would “soon” make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

Microsoft has said it will provide protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Microsoft has taken aim at a rogue antivirus program called Internet Antivirus Pro.

The company’s latest update to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, (MSRT) released Tuesday, adds detection for this dubious program, which masquerades as security software.

Like all of these rogue antivirus products, Internet Antivirus Pro tries to trick victims into installing the software. It pops up a fake warning message and then pretends to scan the victim’s computer. But instead of scanning for malicious software, Internet Antivirus downloads password-stealing software that looks for FTP user names and passwords, presumably so that its creators can install their software on Web servers.

Internet Antivirus installs a browser component that displays fake messages, and it also pops up a fake Windows Security Center, Microsoft said in a blog posting Tuesday.

Microsoft Corp issued software to fix a record 31 security flaws in its programs, and Adobe Systems Inc warned that glitches in its products could let hackers take control of a user’s PC.

Microsoft released patches on Tuesday that repair vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer, as well as key pieces of software that businesses use in their data centers.

Adobe said in a security bulletin on its website that Reader and Acrobat users should update their software to the newest versions. Additional software is available if those releases are not compatible with a customer’s PC.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday its new Windows 7 operating system will be generally available on October 22, well ahead of its original schedule and in time for the holiday shopping season.

The new operating system, which will replace the unpopular Vista, was originally planned for roll-out at the beginning of next year, but Microsoft confirmed last month that it would hit the market in time for the year’s busiest buying period.

Microsoft introduced a prototype camera Monday that can be used as a controller for the Xbox 360. Codenamed “Project Natal,” the camera eliminates the need for a handheld input device - instead, the gizmo can track a player’s full body movement, recognize their face and voice, scan images of real items and respond to both physical and vocal commands.

Microsoft also debuted 10 exclusive new games and several additions to the Xbox Live online service at their flashy Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference at University of Southern California’s Galen Center.

Heard the rumors that the much-maligned Windows 7 Starter Edition would be able to run more than three concurrent applications? Today, the Windows team made it official: ‘Based on the feedback we’ve received from partners and customers asking us to enable a richer small notebook PC experience with Windows 7 Starter, we’ve decided to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included. We believe these changes will make Windows 7 Starter an even more attractive option for customers who want a small notebook PC for very basic tasks, like browsing the web, checking email and personal productivity.’

After a lengthy development cycle that included delays and furious testing, Microsoft has finally given the public Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (final build is 6.0.6002.18005). You can download the installer from the Microsoft Download Center: 32-bit (348.3MB), 64-bit (577.4MB), and IA64 (450.4MB). There’s also an ISO image (1376.8MB) that contains these installers. The installers will work on English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish versions of either Vista or Server 2008. Other language versions will arrive later. Those interested in slipstreamed versions of Vista and Server 2008 with SP2 will need to get an MSDN or TechNet subscription.

If you have any beta versions of SP2 installed, they must be uninstalled prior to installing the final version. To do this, use the Control Panel applet called Programs and Features, select View installed updates, and then under Windows look for KB948465. SP2’s main requirement (assuming no incompatible drivers are detected) is that SP1 is already installed. During the beta phase, it was speculated that this is because SP2 is not yet finalized, but the truth is that SP1 is a prerequisite even now.

OffiSync, founded by former Microsoft Office marketing manager Oudi Antebi, now VP of marketing and strategy at business intelligence company Panorama Software, combines Office and Google Docs with a new toolbar in Office that lets customers OPEN and save Google Apps documents and collaborate on them or define collaborators from within Microsoft Word.

Roger Boyce, CEO of Evident Software, discusses application virtualization. As companies take many servers and make them look like one, Evident provides unique insights into the operation of those new app fabrics. InformationWeek s John Foley speaks with David Selinger, the CEO and Co-Founder of Richrelevance. Richrelevance is a SF based startup that makes a next generation recommendation engine. SocialCast takes many of the social network tools from the consumer world and makes them available in an on-demand service for the enterprise.
SocialCast takes many of the social network tools from the consumer world and makes them available in an on-demand service for the enterprise.
There are any number of reasons people might be slow to jump on the Google Apps bandwagon, including one big one in particular: It s just not Microsoft Office.

Most consumers and companies already have Office installed, and many companies have enterprise licenses that entitle them to free upgrades and additional perks. But Google Apps has fewer features than Office, and it could take a bit of training to turn newbie employees into power users.

Of course, the fact that it isn t Microsoft Office is also a reason Google Apps has gotten traction. Google Apps brings a few important features that Microsoft Office doesn t yet offer, including free Web-based editing and file storage, real-time and asynchronous collaboration, and more granular file search than is available in Windows.

Antebi says he now hears a familiar refrain when he talks to people about OffiSync: I have never used Google Docs because I didn t want it to replace Office, but now I might use it because it just makes Office better.

The 8-MB download plug-in also allows users to manage their Google Docs file libraries as if they were local file stores. Users can search from within the OPEN and save document dialogues built into OffiSync and send e-mail notifications to collaborators. Antebi plans to offer two versions, one for individuals and a paid version for enterprises that includes management and deployment features.

A new, unpatched vulnerability exists in one of Microsoft’s server products, the company warned late Monday.

In a technical bulletin, the company said it is looking into “public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).”

The company said that a flaw exists in a certain type of Web serving operation.

“An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that the WebDAV extension for IIS handles HTTP requests,” Microsoft said. “An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a specially crafted anonymous HTTP request to gain access to a location that typically requires authentication.”

Microsoft said it is not aware of attacks using the vulnerability. The company said it may provide an update as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday or, depending on the severity, could provide a fix outside of its monthly patching schedule.