A California man has filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft that charges the company with violating spyware laws with its Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy features. Filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson on June 26, the suit claims that Microsoft failed to properly disclose all the details of WGA when the technology, meant to help stop the widespread pirating of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, was upgraded in April. The updated version of the WGA tool included two separate components, WGA Validation and WGA Notifications, which, respectively, promised to determine whether a copy of Windows is pirated or not and alert users who Microsoft believes are running illegal copies of its software. However, WGA’s notification aspect was discovered to have been "phoning home" to Microsoft’s servers on a daily basis, touching off a wave of controversy among those who believe the feature could be used by Microsoft to keep tabs on people using its software.

Will Microsoft soon be charged $2.5 million a day for allegedly flouting the European Union’s demand to provide documentation about Windows’ inner workings? Microsoft officials are preparing for that scenario, according to an email update from a member of Microsoft’s legal department. The Microsoft-EU case will heat up during the next few weeks, starting on June 30, when Microsoft is set to deliver more of the networking-protocol information the European Commission stipulated that the company provide as part of its antitrust-compliance terms.

Microsoft said Thursday that it is making another slight delay to the planned arrival time for Office 2007, citing performance concerns with recent test versions. The software maker now plans to finish the code for the revamped Office suite by the end of the year, rather than in October, the date it set in March. The company said in March that it would wait to start selling Office until January, to coincide with the launch of Windows Vista. Now, though, it says Office may not be ready for store shelves until "early 2007."

Microsoft wants to reframe Windows for mobile devices. The software giant has formed a new Windows Client Mobility Marketing Team within its Windows Client Product Marketing Group and charged it with devising new marketing methods, finding new partnerships and researching more mobile-friendly features for future Windows upgrades. While small, the group’s existence signals a shift in thinking and emphasis toward mobile computing at the software giant.

A new Internet Explorer beta shows that Microsoft is trying to put its browser security woes behind it. The software maker released the third and last beta version of IE 7 on Thursday, getting closer to final delivery by the end of 2006. That will be the first major update to the popular Web browser in five years, and much of the focus for the new version is on security.

A security researcher with expertise in rootkits has built a working prototype of new technology that is capable of creating malware that remains "100 percent undetectable," even on Windows Vista x64 systems. Joanna Rutkowska, a stealth malware researcher at Singapore-based IT security firm COSEINC, says the new Blue Pill concept uses AMD’s SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology to create an ultra-thin hypervisor that takes complete control of the underlying operating system.

Microsoft and Unisys have secured a deal to build the second generation of the Schengen Information System and Visa Information System, which will allow law enforcement agencies within the European Union to share data. The platform will connect individual systems from 27 countries–the 25 in the European Union, plus Iceland and Norway–to the central SIS and VIS system hosted by the EU itself. The system currently connects 13 EU member states, plus Iceland and Norway.

Microsoft on Wednesday shuffled around several more executives as part of its ongoing restructuring of the company. In the most significant of the shifts, senior vice president Orlando Ayala will move from his role overseeing sales to small and midsize companies into a new position overseeing emerging market efforts, reporting to Chief Operating Office Kevin Turner. Eduardo Rosini, who headed Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific unit, will take over Ayala’s role as head of the small and midsize unit, which also oversees Microsoft’s partner network.

The U.S. government has 45 days to upgrade its security standards for protecting the data it holds on millions of U.S. citizens. The Office of Management and Budget, which operates under the White House, sent a "Memorandum for the Heads of Departments and Agencies" on June 23 requesting the implementation of new security standards and practices concerning data.

Microsoft late Tuesday updated a critical security patch to address the network connection trouble some people had with the first version of the fix. The first patch, delivered in security bulletin MS06-025, was one of the dozen released by Microsoft on this month’s Patch Tuesday. It repairs two high-risk security flaws in a Windows routing and remote access component that could allow an attacker to commandeer a vulnerable PC. However, the fix can interfere with certain dial-up networking connections.