Vista123 News

Users that have failed to upgrade to the latest iteration of the Microsoft instant messaging client will have little choice moving on.

My name is Crissy House and I am the Windows Server Operations Manager here at Microsoft.   I handle a lot of our customer and partner questions and wanted to provide an update on upcoming support lifecycle changes for Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 and help clarify some misperceptions of a Service Pack 3 for Windows Server 2003.

Seven years ago, the browser wars seemed all but ended. AOL bought out Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer dominated the market, and the era of browser-based exploits began.

At an overwhelmingly popular session during Microsoft TechEd Australia 2009 this week, Reed Shaffner from the Office team provided among other things a brief but satisfying peek at the latest Office Web Apps experience that has yet to be opened up for public beta testing. Here’s a couple photos and notes on what he showed off.

Microsoft is backporting a range of features from Windows 7 to Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 installed. Now, don’t expect Windows 7’s Windows Aero or multi-touch Natural User Interface, but there are details in which Vista SP2 will be on par with the latest iteration of the Windows client scheduled for general availability on October 22nd, 2009.

Microsoft is beginning to backport Windows 7 features to Windows Vista, and as an integral part of the process, the company is also upgrading Vista’s graphics technology to the level of Windows 7.

Looking back, quad-core processors have had quite the run already. Intel's first quad-core CPU, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 was released almost three years ago, with the much more popular Q6600 following up months later at a rather steep $850. As you may recall it was quite the luxury then to have one of these at your disposal.

Despite the infamous logo and hot red lid, Acer's Congo-based Ferrari One "ultrathin notebook" (read: netbook) managed to blend in rather well among a number of other laptops (at least 15, by our count) on display at AMD's VISION event yesterday.

According to Microsoft, listening to the community is a key aspect of catalyzing the evolution of user experiences built around its products and a critical element of providing support.

Microsoft has kicked up a notch the level of control of codecs parsing, with a focus on Windows Vista and Windows XP. Essentially, the Redmond-based company has worked to enhance the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) of Windows releases, preceding Windows 7.