Microsoft

Windows 8 Microsoft wants to be inspired by Apple

2011-12-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

It is the blogger Francisco Martin holds the scoop of the day. Member of the MVP program at Microsoft, Martin has obtained documents "top secret" on Windows 8, and he has published the most important information. First, the objective is to provide an operating system that starts from the hip. "We need users to access their emails or access the scores of the matches as quickly as possible. It has to be instant, "it said on one of the pages of the document.

For this, the computer might be able to boot via a face recognition and detection. The person stands in front of the screen and the PC opens its session. A system that reminds Kinect (formerly Project Natal). Other developments: the optimal management of external hardware. Want to integrate Microsoft default drivers for the latest standards Bluetooth and USB. In this case, the standard 3.0. The goal is really any device connected to a PC with Windows 8 is functional in the second.

Note that since this blogger has made these revelations, its site, hosted at Live.com, is now suspended ...
However News.com, has posted the same documents, on which we can see this sentence from one of the slides:
"Apple is a brand known for its high product quality and simplicity. 'It works just'. People are willing to pay for it. "
This inspiration is taken to the extreme by creating a Windows Store to download paid applications, or not likely to work on any device with Windows 8.

Microsoft declined to comment on these revelations.

Windows 8 by mid-2012 Roadmap of Microsoft

2011-12-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

A road map showing some of the phases of development of the future operating system Microsoft has confirmed the revelation made last October by the company itself. Windows 8 is scheduled to arrive in a little over a year, in 2012.

The document shows the progress of the second part of the design of Windows 8 began in September and ends this week. It includes some design, integration, and bug fixes to make way for finalizing the third phase of development called "Milestone 3" (M3).

If the third phase M3, which begins Feb. 28 takes as much time as the previous one, we might see a beta of Windows 8 arrive in the fourth quarter of this year.

Approached to the new Windows 8 concern the compatibility with touch pads, a new interface, an anti-piracy or impetus for PC games.

Windows 8 compatible with Windows PC Windows 7 and Vista

2011-12-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

One question that comes up most often during the release of a new system for Windows hardware compatibility: my computer is there enough power to run the latest OS Microsoft?

Users who are already running Windows 7 and hope to adopt Windows 8 can already rest assured it will be yes. Microsoft has raised this point during the "Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference" which brought together the partners of the company last week in Los Angeles.

Tami Reller, vice president, Microsoft talked about the importance of maintaining a system requirements identical to Windows 7 or even reduce the requirements over time: "Windows 8 will be able to run on many machines as it will the same or lower system requirements. "

Computers running Windows Vista might also be involved since the configuration was identical with that already required under Seven. The essential elements are:
- A 1 GHz processor
- 1 gigabyte of RAM (2 GB for 64-bit)
- 16 GB of free disk space (20 GB for 64-bit)
- A DirectX 9 compatible graphics card

The good news is however to be taken with caution as there is to know the compatibility of the software drivers for the many components and peripherals. Microsoft will probably advise a software upgrade as was the case with Windows 7, for the most impatient, it was not until the arrival of the first beta versions of Windows 8.

Windows 8 two environments on a single system

2011-12-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Some time ago you would have thought that Windows Phone 7, the system for smartphones Microsoft, would naturally take place in the shelves and that Windows 8 is intended for the PC but it is not. We know that Windows 8 will be reserved for the system to personal computers and touch pads.

By unveiling this week the arrival of the ribbon in Windows Explorer 8, Microsoft has caused confusion among users who kept in mind the first images of Windows 8 approaching the interface Metro.

The details were not long in coming through the blog dedicated to Windows 8 on which Microsoft has decided to communicate. These are two very different environments of Windows 8 will be proposed, one adapted to the tablets or tactile surfaces and one for the PC.

The two interfaces will be available both on PC tablets and the user can switch to one or the other depending on their preferences and the equipment used.

Windows 8 update in 11 clicks

2011-12-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Moving from Windows 7 to Windows 8 will require exactly 11 clicks. This is what Microsoft promises a long article on his blog dedicated to its next operating system.

Supporting figures, it is explained that the upgrade to Windows 8 would save 82% of clicks (and thus information screens). In time, we would thus 21 minutes for installation against 32 minutes to go from Windows XP to Windows 7. And yet, 42 minutes, it was for the simple upgrade since the choice of the user, it could wait ... 9:00! Now it will not exceed 52 minutes to save its configuration, and update Windows.

Another important change is the removal of the stage had to enter the long activation code. To do this, Microsoft will promote the "dematerialization" of the update with the download of an ISO image including a unique pre-built code.

Objective: to convince the 450 million users with a computer can upgrade to Windows 8 to perform this update. Microsoft and therefore includes all those who remained in XP and Vista when configuring their computers have allowed them to move to Windows 7.

Windows 8 the first public beta in February

2011-12-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

The beginning of 2012 should be placed under the sign of the public beta at Microsoft. While the first test version of Office 15 is expected for the CES in early January, the Windows 8 could follow in time, that is to say in February.

In any case, this assertion TheNextWeb site, citing sources "close to Microsoft." The timing seems logical anyway knowing that the replacement for Windows 7 is expected on computers and shelves in the fall of 2012. With a first public beta in February and a second in April why not, we can expect a RTM (Release To Manufacturer) in June or July. A release candidate could also be intercalated between or beta (s) and RTM.

It is not known however if this beta test is open to all, but it is not clear Microsoft, which made for Windows 7, go back to Windows 8. The last eight Developers Preview of Windows, which dates from September, was still incomplete at the office. Microsoft has the cut out before proposing its new operating system for wiping plaster the general public. (EP)

New and updated features

2011-01-29T07:42:00.001-08:00

Windows XP introduced several new features to the Windows line, including:

GDI+ graphics subsystem
Start Menu and Taskbar improvements
A number of new features in Windows Explorer
Faster start-up, logon and logoff and hibernation sequences.
The ability to discard a newer device driver in favor of the previous one (known as driver rollback), should a driver upgrade not produce desirable results.
A new, arguably more user-friendly interface, including the framework for developing themes for the desktop environment
Fast user switching, which allows a user to save the current state and open applications of their desktop and allow another user to log on without losing that information
The ClearType font rendering mechanism, which is designed to improve text readability on liquid crystal display (LCD) and similar monitors
Remote Desktop functionality, which allows users to connect to a computer running Windows XP Pro from across a network or the Internet and access their applications, files, printers, and devices.
Support for most DSL modems and IEEE 802.11 connections, as well as networking over FireWire, and Bluetooth.
Improved application compatibility compared to Windows 2000

User interface

2011-01-29T07:36:00.002-08:00

Windows XP featured a new task-based graphical user interface. The Start menu and Taskbar were updated and many visual effects were added, including:

A translucent blue selection rectangle in Explorer
Drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
Task-based sidebars in Explorer windows ("common tasks")
The ability to group the taskbar buttons of the windows of one application into one button
The ability to lock the taskbar and other toolbars to prevent accidental changes
The highlighting of recently added programs on the Start menu
Shadows under menus (Windows 2000 had shadows under mouse pointers, but not menus)

Windows XP analyzed the performance impact of visual effects and uses this to determine whether to enable them, so as to prevent the new functionality from consuming excessive additional processing overhead. Users can further customize these settings.^[17] Some effects, such as alpha compositing (transparency and fading), are handled entirely by many newer video cards. However, if the video card is not capable of hardware alpha blending, performance can be substantially hurt, and Microsoft recommends the feature should be turned off manually.^[18] Windows XP added the ability for Windows to use "Visual Styles" to change the user interface. However, visual styles must be cryptographically signed by Microsoft to run. Luna is the name of the new visual style that ships with Windows XP, and is enabled by default for machines with more than 64 MiB of RAM. Luna refers only to one particular visual style, not to all of the new user interface features of Windows XP as a whole. Some users "patch" the uxtheme.dll file that restricts the ability to use visual styles, created by the general public or the user, on Windows XP.^[19]

In addition to the included Windows XP themes, there is one previously unreleased theme with a dark blue taskbar and window bars similar to Windows Vista titled "Royale Noir" available for download, albeit unofficially.^[20] Microsoft officially released a modified version of this theme as the "Zune" theme, to celebrate the launch of its Zune portable media player in November 2006. The differences are only visual with a new glassy look along with a black taskbar instead of dark blue and an orange start button instead of green.^[21] Additionally, the Media Center "Energy Blue" theme, which was included in the Media Center editions, is also available to download for use on all Windows XP editions.^[22]

The default wallpaper, Bliss, is a BMP photograph of a landscape in the Napa Valley outside Napa, California,^[23] with rolling green hills and a blue sky with stratocumulus and cirrus clouds.

The Windows 2000 "classic" interface can be used instead if preferred. Several third party utilities exist that provide hundreds of different visual styles.

Windows XP

2011-01-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

Windows XP is an operating system that was produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. It was first released in August 2001, and is the most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience."^[3]

Windows XP was the successor to both Windows 2000 and Windows Me, and was the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel andarchitecture. Windows XP was released for retail sale on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006, according to an estimate in that month by an IDC analyst.^[4] It was succeeded by Windows Vista, which was released to volume license customers on November 8, 2006, and worldwide to the general public on January 30, 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell Windows XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009.^[5]^[6] XP may continue to be available as these sources run through their inventory or by purchasing Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Pro, Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Business, and thendowngrading to Windows XP.^[7]^[8]

The most common editions of the operating system were Windows XP Home Edition, which was targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which offered additional features such as support for Windows Server domains and two physical processors, and was targeted at power users, business and enterprise clients. Windows XP Media Center Edition has additional multimedia features enhancing the ability to record and watch TV shows, view DVD movies, and listen to music. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition was designed to run stylus applications built using the Tablet PCplatform.

Windows XP was eventually released for two additional architectures, Windows XP 64-bit Edition for IA-64 (Itanium) processors and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for x86-64. There is alsoWindows XP Embedded, a component version of the Windows XP Professional, and editions for specific markets such as Windows XP Starter Edition. By mid 2009, a manufacturer revealed the first Windows XP powered cellular telephone.^[9]

The NT-based versions of Windows, which are programmed in C, C++, and assembly,^[10] are known for their improved stability and efficiency over the 9x versions of Microsoft Windows.^[11]^[12] Windows XP presented a significantly redesigned graphical user interface, a change Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. A new software management facility calledSide-by-Side Assembly was introduced to ameliorate the "DLL hell" that plagues 9x versions of Windows.^[13]^[14] It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat illegal copying. Windows XP had also been criticized by some users for security vulnerabilities, tight integration of applications such as Internet Explorer 6 and Windows Media Player, and for aspects of its default user interface. Later versions with Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3, and Internet Explorer 8 addressed some of these concerns.

During development, the project was codenamed "Whistler", after Whistler, British Columbia, as many Microsoft employees skied at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort.^[15]

According to web analytics data generated by W3Schools, as of December 2010, Windows XP is the most widely used operating system for accessing the Internet in the world with a 47.2% market share, having peaked at 76.1% in January 2007.

Supported operating systems

2011-01-29T07:35:00.003-08:00

Microsoft supports Office for the Windows and Mac platforms. Beginning with Mac Office 4.2, the Mac and Windows versions of Office share the same file format. Consequently, any Mac with Office 4.2 or later can read documents created with Office 4.2 for Windows or later, and vice-versa. Visual Basic for Applications support was dropped in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac^[51] but was restored in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.^[3]

There were efforts in the mid 1990s to port Office to RISC processors such as NEC / MIPS and IBM / PowerPC, but they met problems such as memory access being hampered by data structure alignment requirements. Microsoft Word 97 & Excel 97 however did ship for the DEC Alpha platform. Difficulties in porting Office may have been a factor in discontinuing Windows NT on non-Intel platforms.^{[citation needed]}

There is no mention of support for other operating systems, although Microsoft Office Mobile, which supports the more popular features of Microsoft Office, is available for Windows Mobile and is planned to soon be available for Symbian OS.

Crossover for Linux, by CodeWeavers, makes it possible to run Microsoft Office on the Linux platform. Doing so, however, requires a license for Microsoft Office for Windows, as well as a license for Crossover for Linux. Crossover is a computer code translation layer.

Extensibility

2011-01-29T07:35:00.001-08:00

A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-ins (plug-ins) that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. The type of add-ins supported differ by Office versions:

Office 97 onwards (standard Windows DLLs i.e. Word WLLs and Excel XLLs)
Office 2000 onwards (COM add-ins)^[48]
Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)^[49]
Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins - VSTO solutions)

File formats and metadata

2011-01-29T07:34:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007 used proprietary file formats. This forced users who share data to adopt the same software platform.^[42] In 2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available for download and granted any possible patents rights for use or implementations of those binary format for free under the Open Specification Promise.^[43] Previously, Microsoft had supplied such documentation freely but only on request.

Starting with Office 2007, the default file format has been a version of Office Open XML, not directly the same as the one which has been standardized and published by Ecma International and by ISO/IEC. Microsoft has granted patent rights to the formats technology under the Open Specification Promise^[44] and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000^[45] and Office 2004 for the Mac. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Mac platform (iWork '08) and Linux (OpenOffice.org 3.0). In addition, Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 supports the OpenDocument Format (ODF) for opening and saving documents.

Microsoft provides the ability to remove metadata from Office documents. This was in response to highly publicized incidents where sensitive data about a document was leaked via its metadata.^[46] Metadata removal was first available in 2004, when Microsoft released a tool called Remove Hidden Data Add-in for Office 2003/XP for this purpose^[47] It was directly integrated into Office 2007 in a feature called the Document Inspector.

Server applications

2011-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

Microsoft SharePoint Server — collaboration server
- Excel Services
- InfoPath Forms Services
Microsoft Lync Server (formerly Office Communications Server and Live Communications Server) — real time communications server
Microsoft Office Forms Server — allows InfoPath forms to be accessed and filled out using any browser. Office Forms Server is a standalone server installation of InfoPath Forms Services.
Microsoft Office Groove Server — centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office Groove in the enterprise
Microsoft Office Project Server — project management server
Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server — allows creation of a project portfolio, including workflows, hosted centrally
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server — allows customers to monitor, analyze, and plan their business

Microsoft PowerPoint

2011-01-29T07:32:00.003-08:00

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation program for Windows and Mac. It is used to create slideshows, composed of text, graphics, movies and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and navigated through by the presenter or printed out on transparencies or slides.

Other desktop applications (Windows version only)

Microsoft Access — database manager
Microsoft InfoPath — an application to design rich XML-based forms
Microsoft OneNote — note-taking software for use with both tablet and conventional PCs
Microsoft Project — project management software to keep track of events and to create network charts and Gantt charts (not bundled in any Office suite)
Microsoft Publisher — desktop publishing software mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletters, and postcards.
Microsoft SharePoint Workspace (formerly known as Groove) — a proprietary peer-to-peer collaboration software leveled at businesses
Microsoft Visio — diagram and flowcharting software (not bundled in any Office suite)
Microsoft Office InterConnect — business-relationship database available only in Japan
Microsoft Office Picture Manager — basic photo management software (similar to Google's Picasa or Adobe's Photoshop Elements), replaced Microsoft Photo Editor

The following applications are no longer branded as part of Microsoft Office:

Microsoft SharePoint Designer — a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web design program for customizing SharePoint applications, it replaces Microsoft FrontPage (not bundled in any Office suite)
Microsoft Lync — Integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real time (known as Microsoft Office Communicator in Office 2007, bundled with Professional Plus and Enterprise editions.

Microsoft Excel

2011-01-29T07:32:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program which originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-3, but eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Mac in 1985, and the first Windows version (numbered 2.05 to line up with the Mac and bundled with a standalone Windows run-time environment) in November 1987.

[edit]Outlook/Entourage

Main articles: Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is a personal information manager and e-mail communication software. The replacement for Windows Messaging, Microsoft Mail and Schedule+ starting in Office 97, it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book.

On the Mac, Microsoft offered several versions of Outlook in the late 1990s, but only for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. In Office 2001, it introduced an alternative application with a slightly different feature set called Microsoft Entourage. It reintroduced Outlook in Office 2011, replacing Entourage.

Word

2011-01-29T07:28:00.003-08:00

Microsoft Word is a word processor and was previously considered to be the main program in Office. Its proprietary DOC format is considered a de facto standard, although Word 2007 can also use a new XML-based, Microsoft Office-optimized format called .DOCX which has been standardized by Ecma International as Office Open XML and its SP2 update will support ODF and PDF.^[38] Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was for the MS-DOS operating system and had the distinction of introducing the mouse to a broad population. Word 1.0 could be purchased with a bundled mouse, though none was required. Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add closer WYSIWYG features into its package. Word for Mac was released in 1985. Word for Mac was the first graphical version of Microsoft Word. Despite its bugginess, It became one of the most popular Mac applications.

Microsoft Windows versions

2011-01-29T07:28:00.001-08:00

The Microsoft Office for Windows^[4] started in October 1990 as a bundle of three applications designed for Microsoft Windows 3.0: Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.0, and Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 2.0.^[5]

The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.5 updated the suite with Microsoft Excel 3.0.^[6]

The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.6^[7] added Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 to the bundle.^[8]

The Microsoft Office for Windows 3.0,^[9] released in August 1992,^[10] contained Word 2.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail 3.0. It was the first version of Office to be also released on CD-ROM.^[11] In 1993, The Microsoft Office Professional^[12] was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.1.^[13]

In 1994, Microsoft Office 4.0 was released containing Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail. Word was called Word 6.0 as there were already Macintosh versions of Word 3, 4 and 5 (Excel and PowerPoint were already numbered the same as the Macintosh versions).

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT was released in 1994 for i386, Alpha, ^[14] MIPS and PowerPC ^[15] architectures, containing Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 (both 32-bit,^[16] PowerPoint 4.0 (16-bit), and Microsoft Office Manager 4.2 (the precursor to the Office Shortcut Bar).

Microsoft Office 4.3 was released as the last 16-bit version, containing Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0. Office 4.3 (plus Access 2.0 in the Pro version) is the last version to support Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5. Windows NT 3.51 was supported up to and including Office 97.

Microsoft Office 95 was released in August 1995. Again, the version numbers were altered to create parity across the suite — every program was called version 7.0 meaning all but Word missed out versions. It was designed as a fully 32-bit version to match Windows 95. Office 95 was available in two versions, Office 95 Standard and Office 95 Professional. The standard version consisted of Word 7.0, Excel 7.0, PowerPoint 7.0, and Schedule+ 7.0. The professional edition contained all of the items in the standard version plus Access 7.0. If the professional version was purchased in CD-ROM form, it also included Bookshelf.

Microsoft Office 97 (Office 8.0), a major milestone release which included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced command bars, a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design. Office 97 also featured Natural Language Systems and grammar checking. Office 97 was the first version of Office to include the Office Assistant.

Microsoft Office 2000 (Office 9.0) introduced adaptive menus, where little-used options were hidden from the user. It also introduced a new security feature, built around digital signatures, to diminish the threat of macro viruses. Office 2000 automatically trusts macros (written in VBA 6) that were digitally signed from authors who have been previously designated as trusted. Office 2000 is the last version to support Windows 95.

Microsoft Office XP (Office 10.0 or Office 2002) was released in conjunction with Windows XP, and was a major upgrade with numerous enhancements and changes over Office 2000. Office XP introduced the Safe Mode feature, which allows applications such as Outlook to boot when it might otherwise fail. Safe Mode enables Office to detect and either repair or bypass the source of the problem, such as a corrupted registry or a faulty add-in. Smart tag is a technology introduced with Office XP. Some smart tags operate based on user activity, such as helping with typing errors. These smart tags are supplied with the products, and are not programmable. For developers, though, there is the ability to create custom smart tags. In Office XP, custom smart tags could work only in Word and Excel. Microsoft Office XP includes integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities, as well as handwriting recognition. Office XP is the last version to support Windows 98, ME and NT 4.0. It was the first version to require Product Activation as an anti-piracy measure, which attracted widespread controversy.^[17]

Microsoft Office 2003 (Office 11.0) was released in 2003. It featured a new logo. Two new applications made their debut in Office 2003: Microsoft InfoPath and OneNote. It is the first version to use Windows XP style icons. Outlook 2003 provides improved functionality in many areas, including Kerberos authentication, RPC over HTTP, Cached Exchange Mode, and an improved junk mail filter. 2003 is the last Office version to support Windows 2000.

Microsoft Office 2007 (Office 12.0) was released in 2007. Office 2007's new features include a new graphical user interface called the Fluent User Interface,^[18] replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception with a tabbed toolbar, known as the Ribbon; new XML-based file formats called Office Open XML; and the inclusion of Groove, a collaborative software application.^[19]

Microsoft Office 2010 (Office 14.0) was finalized on April 15, 2010, and was made available to consumers on June 15, 2010.^[20] Office 2010 was given the version number 14.0, to avoid the version number 13.0 due to superstition relating to the numberthirteen.^[21] The main features of Office 2010 include the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view and a navigation pane. Microsoft Office 2010 also features a new logo, which is similar to the 2007 logo, except in gold, and with a slightly modified shape.^[22]

Microsoft Office 15 will be released most likely in 2013.

[edit]Macintosh versions

Prior to packaging its various office-type Macintosh software applications into Office, Microsoft released Mac versions of Word 1.0 in 1984, the first year of the Macintosh computer; Excel 1.0 in 1985; and PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987.^[23] Microsoft does not include its Access database application in Office for Mac.

Microsoft has noted that some features are added to Office for Mac before they appear in Windows versions, such as Office for Mac 2001's Office Project Gallery and PowerPoint Movie feature, which allows users to save presentations as QuickTime movies.^[24]^[25] However, Microsoft Office for Mac has been long criticized for its lack of support of Unicode and right-to-left languages, notably Arabic and Hebrew.^[26]^[27]

The Microsoft Office was introduced for Macintosh in 1989, before Office was released for Windows.^[28] It included Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37.^[23]^[29] It was originally a limited-time promotion but later became a regular product. With the release of Office on CD-ROM later that year, Microsoft became the first major Mac publisher to put its applications on CD-ROM.^[30]

Microsoft Office 1.5 for Mac was released in 1991 and included the updated Excel 3.0, the first application to support Apple’s System 7 operating system.^[23]

Microsoft Office 3.0 for Mac was released in 1992. It included Word 5.0, Excel 4.0, and PowerPoint 3.0. Excel 4.0 was the first application to support the new AppleScript.^[23]

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Mac was released in 1994. (Version 4.0 was skipped to synchronize version numbers with Office for Windows.) Version 4.2 included Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0, and Mail 3.2.^[31] It was the first Office suite for the Power Macintosh.^[23] Its user interface was identical to Office 4.2 for Windows,^[32] leading many customers to comment that it wasn't Mac-like enough.^[24] The final release for Mac 68K was Office 4.2.1, which updated Word to version 6.0.1, somewhat improving its performance.

Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition was unveiled at MacWorld Expo/San Francisco in 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer 4.0 web browser and Outlook Express, an Internet e-mail client and usenet newsgroup reader.^[33] Office 98 was re-engineered by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit to satisfy customers' desire for software they felt was more Mac-like.^[24] It included drag–and-drop installation, self-repairing applications and Quick Thesaurus, before such features were available in Office for Windows. It also was the first version to support QuickTime movies.^[24]

Microsoft Office 2001, launched in 2000, was the last Office suite for the classic Mac OS; it required Mac OS 8, although version 8.5 or later was recommended. Office 2001 introduced Entourage, an e-mail client that included information management tools such as a calendar, an address book, task lists and notes.^[25]

Microsoft Office v. X was released in 2001 for the new Mac OS X platform.^[34]

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released in 2004.^[35]

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was released in 2008. It was the first Office for Mac suite that was a universal binary, running natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, and it supported Office Open XML file formats first introduced in Office 2007 for Windows.^[23] Five months after it was released, Microsoft said that Office 2008 was "selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years" and affirmed "its commitment to future products for the Mac."^[36]

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 was released on October 26, 2010,^[3] and features a Mac version of Outlook to replace the Entourage email client. This Mac version of Outlook is intended to make the Mac version of Office work better with Microsoft's Exchange server and with those using Office for Windows.^[37] Office 2011 includes a Mac-based Ribbon similar to Office for Windows.

News Press Release Microsoft Research Collaborates With Wikipedia to Enhance Multilingual Content

2011-01-29T07:27:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Research today announced the launch of the beta version of WikiBhasha, a multilingual content creation tool for Wikipedia. The WikiBhasha tool enables contributors to Wikipedia to find content from other Wikipedia articles, translate the content into other languages, and then either compose new articles or enhance existing articles in multilingual Wikipedias. The WikiBhasha beta is available as an open source MediaWiki extension, under the Apache License 2.0 at http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/WikiBhasha, and as a user gadget in Wikipedia. The tool is also available as an installable bookmarklet at http://www.wikibhasha.org, which is hosted on the Windows Azure platform from Microsoft Corp. The name WikiBhasha derives from the well-known term “wiki,” denoting collaboration, and “bhasha,” which means “language” in Hindi and Sanskrit.

WikiBhasha will support content creation in more than 30 languages. The beta version of WikiBhasha will enable easy content creation in non-English Wikipedias by leveraging the large volume of English Wikipedia content as the source of information. Initially, the Wikimedia Foundation and Microsoft Research will also work closely with the Wikipedia user communities focusing on content creation in Arabic, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

“We’re always happy to see work on improving multilingual collaboration between wikis,” said Danese Cooper, CTO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Microsoft Research is doing some interesting work with WikiBhasha, and we’re very pleased that it chose to share its client code in open source as well.”

By making it easier for the Wikipedia community to create multilingual content, Wikipedia and Microsoft Research hope to inspire a new wave of multilingual content creation.

“The WikiBhasha beta holds the promise of enabling easy creation of content in multiple languages, and also of generating a large body of parallel language data for researchers to work on to further machine translation technology,” said P. Anandan, managing director, Microsoft Research India. “Creating quality content in multiple languages can be greatly improved and accelerated with the active participation of the Wikipedia communities.”

The WikiBhasha beta is a browser-based tool that works on Wikipedia sites. It features an intuitive and simple user interface (UI) layer that stays on the target-language Wikipedia for the entire content creation process. This UI layer integrates content discovery with linguistic and collaborative services, focusing the user primarily on content creation in the target Wikipedia. A simple three-step process guides the user in the content discovery and sourcing from English Wikipedia articles, composing a local-language Wikipedia article and publishing it in the target Wikipedia. Although a typical session may be to enhance a target-language Wikipedia article, new articles may also be created following a similar process. The WikiBhasha beta currently works on Windows Internet Explorer (7.0 and 8.0) on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, and on Firefox (3.5 or above) on Linux Fedora (11 and 12), Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

WikiBhasha, which is supported by Microsoft’s Machine Translation system and Microsoft’s Collaborative Translations Framework, was conceptualized by the Multilingual Systems Group at Microsoft Research India. The Multilingual Systems Group explores multilingual and cross-language technologies that work seamlessly across languages, and in creation of resources for aiding computational linguistics research. The tool was developed in collaboration with the Natural Language Processing Group in Microsoft Research Redmond.

A video tutorial that familiarizes users with the rich functionalities offered by the beta of WikiBhasha can be found at http://www.wikibhasha.org.

About Microsoft Research

Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Researchers focus on more than 55 areas of computing and collaborate with leading academic, government and industry researchers to advance the state of the art. Microsoft Research has expanded over the years to eight locations worldwide and a number of collaborative projects that bring together the best minds in computer science to advance a research agenda based on their unique talents and interests.

Microsoft Research has locations in Redmond, Wash.; Cambridge, Mass.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India, and also conducts research at the Cairo Microsoft Innovation Center in Egypt; European Microsoft Innovation Centre in Aachen, Germany; and the eXtreme Computing Group in Redmond. Microsoft Research collaborates openly with colleges and universities worldwide to enhance the teaching and learning experience, inspire technological innovation, and broadly advance the field of computer science. More information can be found athttp://www.research.microsoft.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Environment

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Microsoft is ranked on the 17th place in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks 18 electronics manufacturers according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.^[74] Microsoft’s timeline for phasing out BFRs and phthalates in all products is 2012 but its commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. As yet (January 2011) it has no products that are completely free from PVC and BFRs.^[75]

Microsoft's main U.S. campus received a silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2008, and it installed over 2,000 solar panels on top of its buildings in its Silicon Valley campus, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy needed by the facilities in April 2005.^[76]

Microsoft makes use of alternative forms of transit. It created one of the worlds largest private bus systems, the "Connector", to transport people from outside the company; for on-campus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a large fleet of hybrid cars to save fuel. The company also subsidises regional public transport as an incentive.^[76]^[77] In February 2010 however, Microsoft took a stance against adding additional public transport and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to a bridge connecting Redmond to Seattle; the company did not want to delay the construction any further.

Corporate affairs

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The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of June 2010 are: Steve Ballmer, Dina Dublon, Bill Gates (chairman), Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, Maria Klawe, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, and Helmut Panke.^[62] Board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting using a majority vote system. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.^[63]

Five year history graph of (NYSE:MSFT) stock on September 29, 2009.^[64]

When Microsoft went public and launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 1986, the opening stock price was $21; after the trading day, the price closed at $27.75. As of July 2010, with the company's nine stock splits, any IPO shares would be multiplied by 288; if one was to buy the IPO today given the splits and other factors, it would cost about 9 cents.^[65]^[66]^[67] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around $119 ($60.928 adjusting for splits).^[68] The company began to offer a dividend on January 16, 2003, starting at eight cents per share for the fiscal year followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year, switching from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005 with eight cents a share per quarter and a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.^[68]^[69] Though the company had subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock remained steady for years.

One of Microsoft's business tactics, described by an executive as "embrace, extend and extinguish," initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.^[71] Various companies and governments sue Microsoft over this set of tactics, resulting in billions of dollars in rulings against the company. Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it believes customers want.

Entertainment and Devices Division

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The Entertainment and Devices Division produces the Windows CE OS for embedded systems and Windows Phone 7 for smartphones.^[50] Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE forhandheld devices, eventually developing into the Windows Mobile OS and now, Windows Phone 7. Windows CE is designed for devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The division also produces computer games that run on Windows PCs and other systems including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series as well as a line of reference works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta, and houses the Macintosh Business Unit which produces Mac OS software including Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division designs, markets, and manufactures consumer electronics including the Xbox 360 game console, the handheld Zune media player, and the television-based Internet appliance MSN TV. Microsoft also marketspersonal computer hardware including mice, keyboards, and various game controllers such as joysticks and gamepads.

Business Division

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The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010, the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a relational database program), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), and Publisher (desktop publishing software). A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote. The division also develops enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for companies under the Microsoft Dynamics brand. These include: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. They are targeted at varying company types and countries, and limited to organizations with under 7,500 employees.^[49] Also included under the Dynamics brand is the customer relationship management software Microsoft Dynamics CRM, part of the Azure Services Platform.

Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division

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The company's Client division produces the flagship Windows OS line such as Windows 7; it also produces the Windows Live family of products and services. Server and Tools produces the server versions of Windows, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a set of development tools called Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, a web application framework, and Systems Management Server, a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include: Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system, Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features, Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management.

Microsoft provides IT consulting ("Microsoft Consulting Services") and produces a set of certification programs handled by the Server and Tools division designed to recognize individuals who have a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator"). Microsoft Press, which publishes books, is also managed by the division. The Online Services Business division handles the online service MSN and the search engine Bing. As of December 2009, the company also possesses an 18% ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC without any editorial control; however, the division develops the channel's website, msnbc.com, in a joint venture with the channel's co-owner, NBC Universal.

Vista and Cloud computing

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Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, focused on features, security, and a redesigned user interface dubbed Aero.^[39]^[40] Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time, featured a "Ribbon" user interface which was a significant departure from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007.^[41] The European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about itsworkgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved".^[42]

Bill Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008 while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on key projects.^[43] Azure Services Platform, the company's entry into the cloud computing market for Windows, launched on October 27, 2008.^[44] On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October 22, 2009 the first retail Microsoft Store opened in Scottsdale, Arizona; the same day the first store opened Windows 7 was officially released to the public. Windows 7's focus was on refining Vista with ease of use features and performance enhancements, rather than a large reworking of Windows.

Internet and the 32-bit era

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Following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995 Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web.^[22] The company released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, featuring pre-emptive multitasking, a completely new user interface with a novel start button, and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it provided the Win32 API.^[23]^[24] Windows 95 came bundled with the online service MSN, and for OEMs Internet Explorer, a web browser. Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail Windows 95 boxes because the boxes were printed before the team finished the web browser, and instead was included in the Windows 95 Plus! pack.^[25] Branching out into new markets in 1996, Microsoft and NBC Universal created a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC.^[26] Microsoft created Windows CE 1.0, a new OS designed for devices with low memory and other constraints, such as personal digital assistants.^[27] In October 1997, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court, stating that Microsoft violated an agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.^[28]

Bill Gates handed over the CEO position on January 13, 2000 to Steve Ballmer, an old college friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, creating a new position for himself as Chief Software Architect.^[4]^[29] Various companies including Microsoft formed the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance in October 1999 to, among other things, increase security and protect intellectual property through identifying changes in hardware and software. Critics decry the alliance as a way enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and over how computers behave, a form of digital rights management; for example the scenario where a computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well.^[30]^[31] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,^[32] calling the company an "abusive monopoly";^[33] it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004.^[12] On October 25, 2001 Microsoft released Windows XP, unifying the mainstream and NT lines under the NT codebase.^[34] The company released the Xbox later that year, entering the game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.^[35] In March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of €497 million ($613 million) and to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.

Windows and Office

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While jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20.^[11] Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public;^[12] the ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.^[13] Due to the partnership with IBM, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion; it marked the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the U.S. Government.^[14] Microsoft announced the release of its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987;^[15] meanwhile, the company was at work on a 32-bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993 with a new modular kernel and the Win32 application programming interface (API), making porting from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated.^[16]

Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office, in 1990. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.^[17] On May 22 Microsoft launchedWindows 3.0 with a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor.^[18] Both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas.^[19]^[20] Novell, a Word competitor from 1984–1986, filed a lawsuit years later claiming that Microsoft left part of its APIs undocumented in order to gain a competitive advantage.

Marketing

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In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do independent studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found Windows easier to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO). This spurred a wave of related studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs a fraction of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, although companies surveyed noted the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about being locked into using Microsoft products.Another study, released by theOSDL, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply outdated and one-sided" and their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux was lower due to Linux administrators managing more servers on average and other reasons.

As part of the "Get the Facts" campaign Microsoft highlighted the .NET trading platform that it had developed in partnership with Accenture for the London Stock Exchange, claiming that it provided "five nines" reliability. After suffering extended downtime and unreliability^[82]^[83] the LSE announced in 2009 that it was planning to drop its Microsoft solution and switch to a Linux based one in 2010.

Microsoft adopted the so-called "Pac-Man Logo", designed by Scott Baker, in 1987. Baker stated "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed."Dave Norris ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded. Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?". During the private MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) conference in 2010, Microsoft unveiled the company's next tagline, "Be What's Next.", as well as a new logo scheduled for use sometime in the future