Who wants to be a programmer? Microsoft is hoping everyday folks will take the challenge by using its non-professional programming tools, and other vendors are following suit. Microsoft is poised to tap the nascent market for development tools to enable non-professionals to create applications, having established a team specifically built for this push and planning several initiatives, including a new Web site strictly for beginners.

Windows XP Service Pack 3, which Microsoft officials said in January to expect in the latter half of 2007, now has slipped into 2008. Microsoft delivered the last service pack update for XP, Windows XP SP2 in August of 2004. And that’s not all that’s slipping: Windows Server 2003 SP 2, until recently due out in the second half of 2006, is now slated for Q1 2007. Microsoft released SP1 for Windows Server 2003 in March, 2005. The latest bad news on the Windows SP front comes directly from Microsoft, via its own Windows Service Pack roadmap page. The new XP service pack dates are listed as "preliminary." The Windows Server 2003 SP2 date is not.

Opera Software has released a security update, 9.02, of its open-source browser. The new version is designed to address vulnerabilities in its earlier Opera 9 releases that could allow an abnormally large link to create a buffer overflow and crash a user’s system.

KeyStone Learning Systems and Project Management Practice announced their latest instructor-based video courseware title ##"Microsoft Project 2007 Core Essentials,"## scheduled for public release October 21st, 2006 at the International Project Management Institute Congress. This training course will assist users in optimizing the use of Microsoft Office Project 2007 or Project 2003 to significantly increase their productivity in managing project workload.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 on Wednesday, the first major upgrade to its Web browser since 2001 with new features aimed at preventing online fraud and improving ease of use. Microsoft’s IE remains the most widely-used software to surf the Web, but the long gap between major releases allowed for the emergence of the company’s most formidable browser competitor since it vanquished the once-dominant Netscape.

For the first time in a long time, eWeek Labs can say that Microsoft has significantly improved its flagship browser, closing the gap between IE and its rivals. During tests, eWeek found IE 7 to be a major upgrade over recent versions of IE–and one that finally adds many of the features and capabilities that Web users have come to expect from current-generation Web browsers such as Firefox and Opera.

More than one in eight U.S. adults finds it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time and about one in 11 tries to hide his or her online habit, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California found one in 8 adults admitted they needed to spend less time online, saying this showed "problematic Internet use" is present in a sizable portion of the population.

Microsoft has failed to keep its part of a new bargain to cooperate with security software companies, falling short of commitments to the EU, two of the firms, McAfee and Symantec, said on Wednesday. Microsoft has had a long-running legal battle with Brussels over its software and last week promised the European Union’s executive Commission it would alter its new Vista operating system to enable rival firms to develop ancillary software. Vista is due to be delivered next month to corporate users but California-based McAfee and Symantec said Microsoft had failed to carry out its public pledge to make changes.

Microsoft is upping the partner ante as it prepares to release Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 over the next few months. To help get partner applications built to run on, and take advantage of, these three products, the software maker is rolling out two new partner initiatives: the International ISV Assistance Program and the ISV Telesales Service.

IE7 is available now. Good luck, everyone!