Advantage International announced the release of P2P Calendar Synchronizer v3.1.0, an Exchange/Outlook add-in that specializes in calendar replication and synchronization for Outlook 2000-2003. P2P Calendar Synchronizer (P2P) works with three Outlook calendar folders: private (mailbox/local), public (group/global) and PST (personal) off the Exchange Server. P2P is written in Microsoft’s .NET framework and offers features such as the capability to replicate calendar appointments in one of nine directions, 2-way synchronization of edits/deletions, works with any language of Microsoft Windows, and is compatible with any Outlook-based PDA or Smartphone.

In a move that could rankle privacy advocates, Microsoft said Monday that it is adding the PC equivalent of a flight data recorder to the next version of Windows, in an effort to better understand and prevent computer crashes. The tool will build on the existing Watson error-reporting tool in Windows but will provide Microsoft with much deeper information, including what programs were running at the time of the error and even the contents of documents that were being created. Businesses will also choose whether they want their own technology managers to receive such data when an employee’s machine crashes.

Microsoft finally told Web developers what they’ve wanted to hear for years, promising support for graphics and style sheet standards. In a blog entry posted Friday, a member of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer development team said the company plans to support key elements of W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendations for PNG (Portable Network Graphics), an image format, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet), a Web page styling standard.

America’s current patent system is seriously flawed and must be repaired by Congress soon, some large software companies are warning. Microsoft wants patent law rewritten to make it easier to challenge patents after they’re granted and to curb what it views as abusive litigation.

Microsoft and Germany’s SAP are joining forces to develop and market software to link SAP’s business management systems more closely with Microsoft’s Office suite, according to an SAP representative. The joint effort–code-named Mendocino–represents the first time the software giants have created a new product together, SAP spokesman Bill Wohl said.

Microsoft has named Chris Liddell, a former International Paper executive, as its new chief financial officer. Liddell fills a role vacated by John Connors, who announced in January that he would step down as Microsoft’s CFO to join Ignition Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm. Connors left Microsoft last month. The new executive will join Microsoft on May 9.

Anonymizer today announced that its online identity protection products now protect against pharming, the most sophisticated Internet attack. Statistics from SANS Internet Storm Center show that at least 1,300 sites were compromised through pharming attacks in early March. Anonymizer’s online identity protection solutions proactively defend users against pharming attacks by routing all customer Internet traffic through Anonymizer’s protected DNS servers, which are secured against all known instances of pharming attacks. In addition, Anonymizer solutions intercept all browser requests before returning the page to the end user. Due to the fact that the user’s host file is never accessed, people using Anonymizer are protected from these vicious attacks.

Trend Micro apologized Monday for distributing a faulty software update that caused IT workers around the world to spend the weekend fixing their systems. The Japan-based antivirus company has promised to compensate customers whose computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2 were disabled by the update. The company said the update was only available for 90 minutes, but IT workers are angry.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates gave computer makers a brief look at Longhorn on Monday, showing among other things the improved searching and printing capabilities, but acknowledged that many of its key features will not be evident until much later test versions of the new Windows. Many of the features that Gates showed, however, are not reflected in the updated "developer preview" version that was given to attendees at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. A fraction of the new features will make it into an initial beta version this summer, but many may not show up until a subsequent beta. Microsoft wouldn’t say when that beta version will arrive, but Gates said the company is still focused on trying to release the final version of Longhorn in time to make it on PCs sold for the holiday season in 2006.

Unpatched computers continue to represent the IT world’s biggest security problem, keeping threats that target software vulnerabilities at the top of McAfee’s latest industry analysis. In its report covering security threats during the first quarter, McAfee’s Anti-virus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team (AVERT) said Monday that more than 1,000 new attacks aimed at software vulnerabilities emerged in the first three months of this year. The total amounts to a roughly 6 percent increase, compared with the same period last year. McAfee also noted that it received word of more than 200,000 vulnerability-oriented attacks during the first quarter.