Microsoft is working on a new reparations strategy, known internally as a customer incentive program, for those customers with volume licensing programs who will be negatively affected by the delay in the release of Windows Vista and Office 2007. Most enterprises buy volume licensing agreements from Microsoft, along with Software Assurance, which guarantees them the rights to all upgrades for any product covered by the agreement while it is in force. But even if Microsoft sticks to its current timetable for the delivery of Vista and Office 2007, the delays mean that some customers who bought Software Assurance and who would have qualified for those upgrades if they had shipped as originally expected will not get them before their contracts expire.

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 baking more Genuine Advantage checks directly into Windows Vista, and by taking aim at PC makers, system builders, Internet cafes and other sources of potentially pirated software.

Microsoft has decided not to move forward with a version of Virtual PC for the Intel-based Macintosh, and will also be discontinuing support of Visual Basic scripting in the next version of Office for Mac, the company said. As Virtual PC for Mac was originally developed on the PowerPC platform, the amount of time that it would take to bring it to Intel would be roughly equivalent to creating the product from scratch, Scott Erickson, director of product management and marketing for Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit, told eWEEK Aug. 7.

Microsoft wants PC buyers to recognize a machine running its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system from afar. The software giant has already set out the minimum hardware requirements for a PC to run the operating system. Now it’s begun sharing ideas on how to design a Vista PC as part of what it calls the Vista Industrial Design Toolkit. The kit, which has been distributed to about 70 different companies, offers PC and peripherals manufacturers as well as product design firms a number of ideas on ways to shape PCs and related hardware to complement the operating system’s new features.

A survey into the habits of 142 UK office workers conducted by Finjan, the global provider of best-of-breed proactive Web security solutions, has uncovered that although they know the security risk to their employers caused by clicking on Web-links or opening attachments from unknown sources, they simply can’t help themselves. Of those questioned 93 per cent said that they knew that links, attachments, pop boxes and web pages could have spyware or other forms of malicious code embedded within them. However, 86 per cent admitted that they opened attachments and clicked on links without being sure if it was safe to do so.

AOL blamed an internal "screw-up" for the embarrassing release of detailed keyword search data for roughly 658,000 anonymized users. AOL’s mea culpa comes in the midst of a firestorm of criticism from privacy advocates that the information–which amounts to about 20 million search queries–could be traced back to AOL users. Already struggling to repair its image with users, the data spillage is another black eye for the Internet division of Time Warner.

Which will come first, the Vista or the Leopard? That is the question that was on the minds of many after Apple Computer at its developer conference announced Monday that the new version of the Mac OS X operating system will arrive next spring. Microsoft has said it plans to release Windows Vista in January. However, it has hedged somewhat, and many analysts believe the update won’t arrive until later in the year. Apple CEO Steve Jobs first talked about Leopard at last year’s developer conference, saying it would arrive in late 2006 or early 2007.

Remember the LSD–or Last Stage of Delirium–hacking group? Back in 2003, the group of four Polish security researchers discovered the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) interface vulnerability that would later be used to unleash the Blaster worm, but because of distrust over Microsoft’s willingness to address software flaws at the time, LSD members had to be coaxed into sharing their findings. Today, LSD is on Microsoft’s payroll, working on what is being hailed as the "largest ever penetration test" of an operating system coming out of Redmond. According to John Lambert, senior group manager in Microsoft’s SWI (Secure Windows Initiative), LSD members are part of an "internal team of hackers" conducting simulated attacks against Windows Vista.

Quantum Art, developer of content management and Web publishing software, announced a combined release of QP7.4, its content application server, and a Microsoft Visual Studio integration module. By using QP7’s rapid application development platform in concert with Visual Studio, ..NET developers now have a unique framework for building content management-enabled Web applications. Out of the box, QP7.4 now addresses solution architecture, code management and performance optimization in .NET web application development, offering a productive and intuitive environment for complex Web application development.

As developers and administrators, we often see our mail systems as never-ending lists of action items, user complaints, hand-holding, and ongoing maintenance. Sometimes we forget that our email systems can also be very special.

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