Microsoft News Tracker

From Paul Thurott’s WinInfo Short Takes:

Windows Vista December CTP: Build 5276

The December Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Vista will be build 5276, plus or minus one build, I was told today. Beta testers, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers, and TechNet members can expect to see the December CTP in a week or 10 days. It includes many new features compared with the previous CTP in October, but it isn’t the feature-complete version of Vista that Microsoft promised to deliver in December. Microsoft will deliver that version internally this month, but testers won’t see a feature-complete CTP until January or February.

Microsoft Cuts Vista UI to Two Display Modes

Speaking of Vista, you might recall that Microsoft had originally planned to deliver three versions of the new UI, called Aero Glass, Aero Express, and Aero To Go. Those plans have been revised. Now, Microsoft will offer two modes only, called Windows Vista Aero (which includes the glass effects) and Windows Vista Basic, which is roughly like the Windows XP display. However, the capabilities of the three previous modes are still there: Vista Aero is the equivalent of Aero Glass, and you can get the equivalent of Aero Express by turning off the translucency effects while running Vista Aero. The best news? Contrary to rumors, you’ll need only a 64MB video card with 3-D capabilities to run Vista Aero on a typical PC (higher resolution displays will require more video RAM).

Renee Boucher Ferguson at eWeek:

As SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. hammer out the 1.0 version of Mendocino, their combined development project to offer mySAP process functionality in Microsoft Office for a seamless working environment between the two platforms, they’re also pounding out the second iteration.

Mendocino 1.0, expected in July of next year, will hone in on four scenarios—budget monitoring, time management, leave management, and organizational management—that expose process logic and workflow from mySAP applications to Office. That means users can, for example, use the cost center management scenario to access employee files, see pay information and issue pay raises, using SAP workflow that is exposed in Office.

Version 1.0 will ship this month to 40 customers and 10 partners for an aggressive ramp-up program. An additional 50 customers will be added in April.

The joint development teams from Microsoft and SAP will look to those users to help define new joint scenarios and delineate a development platform for version 2.0.

Expected on the market about a year after the release of Version 1.0—so around July, 2007—2.0 will continue to add scenarios around time management and employee self service. But it will also look to add a line of business scenarios, like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SRM (Supplier Relationship Management).

More by following the link. Unlike so many tech industry alliances, this one seems to be productive.

Peter Rojas at engadget:

Alright, so Ryan and I are kicking it here in Seattle at Mobius, Microsoft’s invite-only conference about Windows Mobile and mobile devices (don’t worry, we paid our own way, we don’t accept junkets). Not a ton of news or product announcements, but we did just get a sneak peek at Photon, the codename for the next version of Windows Mobile.
…
The new OS is still “years” away, but the one thing they would confirm is that they’re finally going to unify the Smartphone and Pocket PC platforms, something they were supposedly going to do with Windows Mobile 5.0.

There are other reports on Photon from Michael Gartenberg and from msmobiles which also included:

Please note: Windows Mobile PHOTON still is years away (or so claims Microsoft in order not to hinder sales of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices) and before PHOTON there will be Windows Mobile CROSSBOW released probably as Windows Mobile 5.0 Second Edition.

I ordinarily don’t mention Patch Tuesday because like death and taxes it seems inevitable, only monthly. But since there seems to be a backlog of nasty stuff, it’s worth taking note of what is coming next Tuesday. Ryan Naraine has the story at eWeek:

Microsoft Corp. has announced plans to ship two security bulletins on Patch Tuesday next week, and security analysts say it’s a safe bet that one will cover critical flaws in the Internet Explorer browser.

As part of its advance notice mechanism, Microsoft said at least one of the two bulletins will be rated “critical,” but details are being withheld until Dec. 13.

“I’d be shocked if they didn’t issue a fix for IE,” said Marc Maiffret, co-founder and chief hacking officer at eEye Digital security, a research company that regularly reports software flaws to Microsoft.

Maiffret noted that at least one unpatched IE flaw was being exploited by malicious hackers to plant backdoors on vulnerable machines; he argued that Microsoft should act responsibly and ship an IE update.

Even after Patch Tuesday, Maiffret said that several dangerous Windows flaws will remain unpatched.

More by following the link and the Microsoft Advance Notification Bulletin is available here.

Related: Google Desktop Tweaked to Avoid IE Flaw which works around a prominent instance of one of the flaws.

Jeremy Kirk at InfoWorld:

Two trade groups representing several of Microsoft’s competitors have asked to participate in the company’s second appeal of the European Commission’s March 2004 antitrust decision.

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) is asking to become an intervener in the case before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, said Thomas Vinje, an antitrust lawyer with Clifford Chance, who represents the group. ECIS counts IBM, Oracle, Nokia, RealNetworks, and Red Hat as members.

The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) has also requested to join. As interveners, the trade groups would be able to access case files and make written comments on the hearings.

Vinje said it could take the court several months to decide on the group’s requests.

This is actually the second appeal and it relates to the licensing of Microsoft software protocols as the rest of the article describes.