After suffering embarrassing security exploits over the past several years, Microsoft is trying a new tactic: inviting some of the world’s best-known computer experts to try to poke holes in Vista, the next generation of its Windows operating system. Microsoft made a test version of Vista available to about 3,000 security professionals Thursday as it detailed the steps it has taken to fortify the product against attacks that can compromise bank account numbers and other sensitive information.

Microsoft’s launch of its Windows Live Spaces blogging/social-networking platform has not been a smooth one. Customers of Microsoft’s successor to MSN Spaces are reporting a variety of performance, publishing, rendering and browser-compatibility issues since Microsoft rolled out the final version of Windows Live Spaces. Windows Live Spaces Program Manager Greg Phipps acknowledged on the Space Craft Live Spaces blog that the Spaces team "disappointed a bunch of you with the issues we had in our rollout last night."

With beta testing under way for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, which also is designed for Windows XP x64 edition, Microsoft is providing a bit more details about the impending upgrade. Windows Server program manager Ward Ralston says SP2 will be much less painful than SP1. Now that the groundwork has been laid with SP1, Microsoft is planning a more conventional service pack for SP2. It will consist of all security updates, all individual hotfixes released to customers and fixes to reduce top customer support issues.

BitRock announced the release of LAPPStack, an easy to install distribution of Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP, Python, and supporting libraries. Its user-friendly installer, developed with BitRock’s InstallBuilder tool, allows users to quickly install and configure LAPPStack across a wide range of Linux platforms. LAPPStack 1.0 is licensed under the terms of the Apache License 2.0, and is free for download. It allows users to take advantage of the stability, low cost and high performance of the LAPP Web development platform (Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, and PHP/Python) without the hassle of integrating, configuring, and supporting their own build. LAPPStack provides an integrated package that can be used by both commercial and open source projects for rapid, consistent deployments in both development and production environments.

The next Windows chief, Steven Sinofsky, is beginning to make his presence felt in Microsoft’s Windows organization, even before Windows Vista is out the door. On Aug. 1, Microsoft announced internally to its employees some of the changes that it is making to the Windows organization. Among the most sweeping of these is the reassignment of Brian Valentine, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Core Operating System Division.

AOL said Thursday it expects to drop as many as 5,000 employees, or a quarter of its global work force, within six months as the company restructures its business to draw more online advertising dollars. The announcement came a day after the Time Warner unit said it would no longer charge high-speed Internet customers for email and other services in hopes of preventing their defection to rivals like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft, which long have offered free, ad-supported email.

Simplicato has launched Backaway 3.0 the latest version of their email archiving solution. Backaway 3.0 is now available to anyone who is faced with SOX, NASD, NYSE or HIPAA based email archive and retention compliance issues. It is designed to be user friendly, easy to use and simple to manage. Backaway 3.0 provides more search capabilities than other solutions currently on the market. Administrators can search across multiple mailboxes and across both the Inbox and outbox. The improved Web interface is easy to use and includes user management and notification options.

A code execution vulnerability in software products sold by Internet security vendor McAfee could put millions at risk of computer takeover attacks, according to a warning from eEye Digital Security. The flaw affects fully patched versions of all McAfee consumer security products, including the company’s flagship McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006. eEye Chief Hacking Officer Marc Maiffret said his company is withholding technical details on the vulnerability until McAfee completes work on a patch.

Virus writers in Austria have reportedly developed malicious code that targets Windows PowerShell, the command line interface shell and scripting language product being developed by Microsoft. Security company McAfee warned this week that it had detected the worm, called MSH/Cibyz. MSH/Cibyz is designed to spread using the Kazaa file-sharing network, and the worm runs in PowerShell, which is due to ship in the second half of this year. PowerShell, formerly known as Monad, will underpin future Microsoft products such as Exchange Server 2007.

Microsoft announced executive changes within its Platform and Services Division on Tuesday, with longtime top Windows engineer and executive Brian Valentine set to take on a new role once Vista is commercially available. The software giant said it is restructuring the group to sharpen its technology vision and bolster its response to customers. The changes come amid worries about delays in getting Vista out the door. The next version of Windows is now slated for release in early 2007.