February 5th, 2010

Windows 7 battery update: Still no conclusive findings

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:56 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Battery, Microsoft Corp., Laptop Computer, Engineering, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft and its PC maker partners are continuing to look into battery problems which some Windows 7 users have said they’ve been experiencing. So far, there’s nothing new to report, Microsoft officials said on Friday, February 5, but their investigation is continuing.

Update: On February 8, Microsoft issued a new statement, via the WIndows Engineering 7 blog. Bottom line: Microsoft says it’s the batteries, not Win7, at fault for the growing number of alleged battery-related Windows 7 problems.

It’s still unclear exactly what is going on — whether there’s a problem with the PC batteries themselves or there is something that could be fixed via a software update/patch. Reports about what’s happening are all over the map: Some are claiming they are getting less battery life with Windows 7 than Vista or XP. Others are saying they are getting false reports that their batteries are faulty. There are a variety of battery-related complaints, some dating back to before the final release of Windows 7, in the Microsoft TechNet forums.

Given the relatively small number of reports of problems (seeing that Microsoft has sold 60 million copies of Windows 7 to date), is this just a case of normal hardware failure?  From the TechNet forums, problems seem to be occurring across a variety of vendors’ systems, and aren’t just isolated to a single type of PC.

One source I spoke with this week, who asked not to be identified, threw cold water on the idea that Windows 7 itself could be destroying PC batteries.”There’s no way a Windows 7 interaction with the BIOS would cause any temporary or permanent battery damage,” the source said.

One of Microsoft’s Gold reseller partners told me he received a puzzling response when he contacted HP about 30 HP NC6400 laptops, purchased two years ago, which are experiencing battery-related issues.

“I escalated this with HP this past week and they were ignorant of the issue (still waiting for resolution and callbacks),” said Scott Hill, CIO of RightSize IT. “One recommendation was to roll back to Vista (never again), another was to roll back a laptop to XP to verify if the battery was good (loss of productivity), and the final one was to replace all my laptops with a Win 7 compatible laptop (over a $60,000 investment).

There’s no one “throat to choke,” Hill said. If this is a driver problem, is it a Microsoft issue or an HP one?

“HP states that the drivers (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, or ACPI) are Microsoft supplied so they are pointing to them, ” Hill said. “Further, I noticed in the Device Manager that I have one Unknown Driver – “ACPI\HPQ0004”. What drives me nuts is that this has occurred across all platforms at the same time – what is the possibility that 30 LION batteries in 30 laptops having the same condition? The only consistent variable is the ACPI drivers from Microsoft.”

Hill continued: “We show 100% charge using the ‘Balanced Power Plan’ and after about 10 minutes it reaches 92% then falls to 7% in less than a minute and shuts down the laptops – when previously with XP we were getting three to four hours per charge. What’s worse, is that we lost the utilities we used to have to calibrate and discharge the batteries to avoid battery memory issues. I think there is a bug in the ACPI in cycling the batteries through the charging, etc.”

If others have reported problems to Microsoft or their PC providers and have open helpdesk tickets, I’d be interested to hear what you’re hearing back….

February 3rd, 2010

Windows veteran Mike Nash to leave Microsoft

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:57 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Team, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

A couple of weeks after Windows Senior Vice President Bill Veghte decided to leave Microsoft, another Windows marketing veteran is doing the same.

Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President of Windows Platform Strategy, will be leaving the company in February. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed his departure when I asked. From the e-mailed statement:

“We can confirm that Mike Nash is leaving Microsoft in a couple weeks. In his 19 years, Mike made an impact in number of key roles at the company. We appreciate his service and wish him well.”

Update: Nash will be joining Amazon.com to work on the Kindle, I hear. I’ve asked to see whether Nash will be replaced. No word back yet on that one…. Microsoft officials declined to comment (at least for now) on when and if that will happen.

In his most recent job, Nash was responsible for pieces of Windows business strategy, ecosystem engagement, consumer security, Internet Explorer, and emerging markets, according to his bio on Microsoft’s Web site. He rejoined the Windows team, after a six-month sabbatical, in 2007.

Nash also was the first product manager on the original Windows NT marketing team; the Corporate Vice President of the Security Technology Unit; and a driver of a number of Microsoft acquisitions in the security space.

With Nash’s departure, all of the top Windows marketing leaders who were part of the Windows Business Group created under Veghte three years ago — Mike Sievert, Will Poole, Joe Peterson and Nash — are now gone from the company. With Windows 8 starting to ramp up and Windows President Steven Sinofsky continuing to surround himself with an inner circle of leaders of his own choosing (many of whom were part of the Office division), the changing of the guards isn’t too surprising,…

February 3rd, 2010

Microsoft, PC makers investigating mounting reports of Windows 7 battery problems

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:30 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Battery, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Engineering, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft investigating reports of battery-expiration problems about which a number of Windows 7 users are complaining.

On TechNet, there’s a growing thread of complaints about the battery issues. In some cases, users said Windows 7 appears to be draining their batteries too quickly, especially in the case of netbooks. Other users said Windows 7 was providing them with warnings that their batteries were in danger of expiring or damaged, even when they were fully charged and fine. It’s unclear whether it is only users upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 who are being affected, or whether the problem also is hitting those with brand-new Windows 7 PCs.

The complaints about problems with Windows 7 and batteries predate the release to manufacturing of the operating system last summer. But some in the TechNet forum claim Windows 7 beta and Release Candidate (RC) builds didn’t experience these problems, but the final RTM version did.

On February 2, Microsoft officials said they were looking into the reports in conjunction with PC makers. Here’s the company’s official statement on the issue:

“We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners. The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed. We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available.”

Speaking of Windows 7 RC, if you’re still running it, you’re going to start getting warnings about its expiration, starting on February 15. Over the next couple of months, Microsoft will increase the warnings, with final and complete expiration of the RC slated for June 1.

January 14th, 2010

Windows veteran Veghte quits Microsoft

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:12 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client, Windows server

Tags: Job, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows 7, Sales Strategy, Software, Sales, Mary Jo Foley

After spending the last several months considering other available jobs at Microsoft, Windows veteran Bill Veghte has decided to look for a job outside the company where he has worked the past 20 years, he announced on January 14.

Until last summer, Veghte was Senior Vice president for the Windows business, and was responsible for the business strategy/planning, sales and marketing across Windows, Internet Explorer and Windows Live properties and shared responsibility for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) sales. In July, when Steven Sinofsky was appointed President of the Windows division, Veghte said he was going to look for a new role inside the company.

(Tami Reller, the Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Windows and Windows Live, is handling many of those duties these days.)

Veghte (with whom I spoke briefly by phone today) said he had been looking for a new job at Microsoft doing something new. That would be challenging, given he’s done everything from field sales, to working on CE, Office and Windows Server. In the end, after meeting with CEO Steve Ballmer, he decided to leave the company and seek a position elsewhere. He said he currently doesn’t have a job and is open to considering a variety of opportunities.

(I did ask if Veghte was one of the Microsoft layoff casualties and was told he was not.)

In his note about Veghte to employees, Ballmer had this to say:

“Bill has indicated a desire to run a business in a more end-to-end fashion and continue to explore new areas in the broad technology, communications, and services sectors.  I want to thank Bill for his important contributions to Microsoft over nearly two decades and wish him the very best in his new endeavors.”

In his own resignation note, Veghte told a story about how he came to join Microsoft. From that note:

“20 years ago I sent my resume west and got a rejection letter. I knew all about Asian culture but little of computers and software.

“I tried again. Got an interview, flew out, crashed the rental car on the 520 bridge, spent 4 hours in the ER, put on a neck brace, and went to the interviews.”

He got the job: To help market Windows 3.0. Most recently, he was marketing Windows 7. Veghte said over the last few months he felt as though he had made good on his Windows 7 commitments and was satisfied with how the product was doing.

January 11th, 2010

Are slates going hurt Microsoft's bottom line any more than netbooks?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:27 am

Categories: Apple, Channel, Corporate strategy, Google, Linux, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Systems integrators, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Slate, Microsoft Corp., Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Microsoft Windows, Hardware, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Are all slates tablets? Are all tablets netbooks? Does the distinction between slates, tablets, netbooks, smartbooks and e-readers matter to anyone — or do anything beyond confuse customers more than they are already)?

The real question in all this, for Microsoft watcher, customers and partners, is whether slates will ding the profits of the Windows client business any more or less than netbooks have.

As Microsoft officials make sure to point out, netbooks can run any version of Windows 7. So can the soon-to-be-released slates from HP, Pegatron, Archos and other Microsoft partners, I’d assume. (Microsoft officials said last week the HP slate that Ballmer showed, but which seemed to be non-existent at the show, was running Windows 7, and will include a customized interface created by HP.)

It’s up to PC makers which version of Windows 7 they preload on new machines and devices. Many netbooks are preloading the cheapest, lowest end version of Windows 7, Starter Edition. Microsoft gets less per copy for Starter from its OEMs than it does for Premium or Ultimate or any of the other SKUs. (It’s unclear exactly how much less.)

Netbooks have been a double-edged sword for Microsoft. The robust sales of netbooks helped keep the bottom from completely falling out of the Windows business in 2009. But the growth of netbooks also cut into Windows’ profits. Microsoft ended up offering Windows XP to netbook makers at the firesale price of about $15 per copy, according to many estimates, in part to convince PC makers not to preload Linux on those machines. Microsoft’s argument: Even though Linux, at $0 per copy, is cheaper than Windows at $15 per copy, there will be far fewer support calls from customers accustomed to Windows than those unfamiliar with Linux. And there are a lot more Windows apps than netbook apps. So why not just go with Windows?

What’s going to happen with slates, the multi-touch-optimized successors to the stylus/digital-ink-dependent tablet PCs? Will Microsoft have to cut the price of Windows 7 that it offers PC makers so as to keep them from doing a Dell, which provided a quick glimpse of an Android-based, 5-inch handheld at CES? Or from coming out with a Chrome OS/ARM-based slate later in 2010? Competition is good for Microsoft’s partners: It provides them with a new bargaining chip to be used when negotiating the price per copy of Windows with Microsoft.

On the TechFlash blog last week, Todd Bishop quizzed Tammi Reller, the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live business unit, about the potential impact of slates. Not surprisingly, Reller said Microsoft is envisioning slates the same way it does netbooks: As a PC companion, not a replacement.

While the “companion not a replacement” motto is a good one for Microsoft, I’m not sure it reflects reality. For some consumers, netbooks are a second or third PC; for many who bought the devices at the holidays, netbooks were purchased as a replacement for aging desktop/laptop PCs. If slates are nothing more than fancy e-readers that can also play music, they might be supplemental. But if they are full-fledged computing devices (as the rumored Apple iSlate supposedly is), with souped-up media-consumption capabilities, they may become PC replacements.

What’s your prediction? Will the new class of slates/tablets or whatever you call them help or hurt Microsoft, in terms of Windows revenues/sales?

January 11th, 2010

Microsoft makes it legal to rent Windows, Office worldwide

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:14 am

Categories: Anti-piracy, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Office, Office 2007, Resellers, System builders, Systems integrators, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Operating Systems, Software, Office Suites, Mary Jo Foley

For the past few years, Microsoft has been conducting experiments in various countries as to how and whether “renting” software could become a viable business model. The answer seemingly must have been yes, since Microsoft quietly added rental SKUs, as of January 1, to the list of license types available to customers worldwide.

Though some industry watchers consider Microsoft’s various annuity licensing options — like Software Assurance, via which users pay for the right to use Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products, in chunks over a period of three years — to be “rental” programs, they technically aren’t. Under the newly introduced rental program, a customer would pay a flat fee to use Windows or Office 2007 (Standard or Professional versions) for a year.

The new rental rights specifics are explained further on Microsoft’s Partner site:

“Windows desktop operating system and Microsoft Office system licenses do not permit renting, leasing, or outsourcing the software to a third party. As a result, many organizations that rent, lease, or outsource desktop PCs to third parties (such as Internet cafés, hotel and airport kiosks, business service centers, and office equipment leasing companies) are not compliant with Microsoft license requirements.

“Rental Rights are a simple way for organizations to get a waiver of these licensing restrictions through a one-time license transaction valid for the term of the underlying software license or life of the PC.”

According to the partner site, the new rental rights SKUs are now on the Microsoft Product List for volume licensees. The additive licenses are available to those with Microsoft Open licenses, Microsoft Select/Select Plus and government licenses. In other words, a customer must buy stand-alone licenses of Windows and Office in order to “rent” the software. The new license modifies the licensing terms, rather than replacing the underlying Windows and Office copies. The new license also bans the rental of virtual machines running Windows or Office, according to Microsoft’s Partner site.

Directions on Microsoft analyst Paul DeGroot said he considered the worldwide availability of licensing rights to be a big deal.

“Microsoft has not allowed customers to rent software on their computers (it is forbidden in the End User License Agreement), but they began experimenting with this in some high-piracy, low-income markets last year. Suddenly on January 1, the geographic restrictions are gone, and rental prices are on the US price list,” he said.

The new rental option “could give a boost to Internet cafes, companies renting rather than buying computers, etc.,” DeGroot said. “It also could be good for seasonal businesses who could rent additional PCs for a short time, then send them back.”

To attract interest in the new rental program, Microsoft is offering a promotion (through the end of June 2010), via which a rental version of Office Professional is available for $58 (regularly $83 via volume discount pricing). Office Standard (rental) is available for $45 per copy (as opposed to $64 per copy regularly.) Windows is available for $23 per copy (as opposed to $32 per copy), DeGroot noted.

“Those sound quite attractive, considering they are one-time (not annual) prices, and rental outfits can spread the cost across a lot of customers,” DeGroot said. “Prices may also be different in other geographies.”

DeGroot said the new licensing offer could be another way for Microsoft to try to convince users of older and illegal versions of its software to upgrade.

Making software available under a rental license “suggests that Microsoft sees this as something that small companies or — who knows, even big ones — would want to do. It’s also another way to try to reduce the drag from ‘good enough,’ particularly for Office, since you can’t rent licenses for earlier versions of Office (even though customers under volume license agreements can still purchase older versions, as far back as Windows XP).” It’s worth noting that in emerging markets and some outfits with Internet cafes and kiosks, the older versions may be the only ones that will run on older hardware in use, DeGroot noted.

The new rental program also is another way Microsoft is trying to reduce piracy, DeGroot said.

“To use the rental license, you must have a licensed, Pro version. This is a bit quaint — pirates in the third world have been renting any version of Windows and any version of Office for years, and the cost of legal Windows Pro licenses as well as even more costly Office licenses that you need to buy before you can even buy the rental license add-ons will put the shop using legal licenses at a severe price disadvantage to the shop renting pirated versions, but hope springs eternal….”

Microsoft has been testing Office rental programs for more than two years. The company has been testing an Office “pay-as-you-go” rental program for a pre-paid version of Office Professional in India, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Egypt, South Africa and Romania.

In related news, some Microsoft volume licensees still seem to be having problems accessing Microsoft’s newly redesigned Volume Licensing Service Center. (The Register reported VLSC access problems back in December, 2009.)  On January 11, Microsoft officials publicly acknowledged and apologized for the problem via the company’s SMB Community blog, attributing the difficulties to a new registration system. Microsoft is advising those who are still having access problems to try a list of informational Web sites (supplied in the aforementioned blog post) or contact the company directly.

Update: As reader “Rich From Bechtle” noted in the comments, the VLSC access problems aren’t over yet for a number of Microsoft users. His blog post on the matter contains plenty of complaints from Microsoft customers who were stymied by the VLSC problems throughout the holidays and beyond.

January 7th, 2010

Are there really 800,000 Windows 7 apps?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:20 pm

Categories: .Net Framework, App Compatibility, Corporate strategy, Development tools, Vista, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii"), Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: App, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may not have shared many (any?) new tidbits about Microsoft futures, but he did whip through a lot of stats during his Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote on January 6. One of those stats only caught my attention this morning, when I saw a couple of folks tweet it.

Ballmer said during his keynote last night that there are now “over 800,000 new unique Windows 7 applications” that are building on its new features and capabilities. Wow, I thought: Where are all these apps? Did Ballmer include in his count custom, line-of-business Windows apps that early Windows 7 adopters are fixing so they can work with Windows 7? Or was there some secret cache of touch-enabled, Jump-List-friendly programs I had somehow overlooked? Were independent software vendors waiting in the wings to roll out a bunch of new, secret Windows 7 wares that no one knew about?

Nope. Alas, it turns out Ballmer may have added a “7″ some embellishment to his claim that wasn’t supposed to be there. There are over 800,000 Windows 7-compatible apps out there, a Microsoft spokesperson clarified today, not 800,000 Windows-7-optimized apps.

Update: A spokesperson sent me this clarification after my post went live:

“There are 800,000 Windows 7 apps since beta and over 4,000,000 Windows apps. The number of customized Win7 business apps (i.e. a business creates an in house app for Win7) that are part of those totals are not publicly available as a breakout.”

Microsoft is regularly updating its list of applications that are and aren’t compatible with Windows 7 — a list that is frequently updated. But the vast majority of these are XP and/or Vista apps that don’t break or only somewhat break Windows 7. They aren’t a whole new breed of app that is designed to spur folks to go out and buy Windows 7.

Come to think of it, that’s one interesting difference between Windows 7 and older versions of Windows. While the Windows team really did go the extra mile to make sure that ISVs and hardware makers would try to make sure their apps/devices/systems worked with Windows 7 before the product launched, I didn’t hear Microsoft trying to recuit developers to create new kinds of apps that would show off Windows 7 and create demand for it. I guess there are a few touch apps (yay Betty Crocker!) that fall into this category. (Even that Kitchen Assistant app works with XP and Vista, as well, however.)

But it will be interesting, especially once .Net 4 (with its new workflow capabilities and more) materializes, whether any kind of new class of compelling “Windows 7 or later” apps emerges.

Meanwhile, are there any Windows-7-specific apps you’ve seen that might spur users to upgrade? If not, is the idea that local/client-based apps will drive operating system sales on its way out?

January 4th, 2010

Microsoft offers Windows XP, Office XP users 50 percent discount to encourage upgrades

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:41 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Office, Office 2007, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, System builders, Systems integrators, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Office Suites, Software, Operating Systems, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials are well aware that its biggest Windows 7 and Office 2010 competitors are its own previous product iterations (Windows XP and Office XP/2003). To try and wean users away from older, “good-enough” releases, Microsoft is introducing a new licensing promotion.

The revamped “Up to Date Discount” program is targeted at small/mid-size business (SMB) customers running older versions of Windows and Office. Between January 1 and June 30 of this year, Microsoft is enabling users running Windows XP or Vista (on the operating system side) and Office XP, Office 2003 or Office 2007 (on the productivity suite side) to receive a discount of 50 percent on the cost of their licenses for Windows 7 and Office 2007 (or Office 2010, once it is released by June 2010).

The 50% discount calculations “are based on estimated retail prices and reseller prices may vary,” Microsoft officials acknowledge. But the Softies say U.S. customers who sign up for the program “would be paying $35.00 for a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and/or $91.00 for Office 2007 Professional Plus in year 1, plus receiving all of the Software Assurance benefits (such as an automatic upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches, Office Home Use Rights, and much more) for that price.”

As you’d expect, there are lots of caveats. First,customers get the 50 percent discount only for the first year of their Open Value Subscription (OVS) payment. (OVS is a Microsoft licensing program, introduced last year for SMBs, which allows users to pay for software licenses over time and includes many of the same provisions as Microsoft’s Software Assurance licensing program.) The new deal applies only to those customers using the Professional versions of Windows and/or the Professional versions of Office.

The new promotion, which Eric Ligman, Global Partner Experience Lead with Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group, announced via the Microsoft SMB Community Blog on January 1, goes beyond the current Up-to-Date Discount offer. Before the new so-called “N-2″ update to the program was put in place, Windows XP users and Office XP users were ineligible for the discount. But Microsoft is now offering users of the older Windows and Office releases coverage if they’re willing to sign up for the Open Volume Subscription plan.

Meanwhile, speaking of new Microsoft licensing promotions, Microsoft is introducing “version 4.0″ of another SMB promotional licensing offer, known as “The Big Easy,” according to Ligman.

Starting January 3, SMB customers can increase dollars available for them to spend with Microsoft partners  “by purchasing multiple qualifying product groups, adding Software Assurance to their orders and/or acquiring advanced, premium or Enterprise editions of the MIcrosoft Solutions.” To qualify, customers need to buy products through their Microsoft partners between January 3 and March 31 via the Microsoft Open License, Open Value and/or Open Value Subscription programs.

Products included under the program include Dynamics CRM, Office Communications Server, SharePoint Server, SQL Server, Systems Center and Windows Server, among others.

December 16th, 2009

Just in time for Christmas: How to install, reinstall and uninstall Windows

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:06 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, Development tools, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Blog, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., JIT, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

If you’re one of those who’ve bought a Windows 7 PC or a copy of the new operating system as a gift, Microsoft’s new Web site dedicated to how to install, reinstall and/or uninstall Windows might be a handy resource to have at your fingertips.

The new site has links to performing all three tasks for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. While terms like “custom install” may not scare off techies, they likely mean little to average consumers playing amateur sysadmin at home over the holidays. (My ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott has done his best to help simplify the upgrade questions Windows users have encountered as they have started the move to Windows 7, but there’s still room for more demystification around the steps needed to get Windows 7 up and running.)

On a related note, here are a few other Windows-related links of potential interest that I’ve collected so far this week:

Microsoft is offering PC makers an OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) for its free security suite, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Earlier this year, when I asked Microsoft officials whether they expected much OEM demand for MSE, they dowplayed the idea. PC makers get a kickback from security vendors who preload trial versions of their security software on new PCs, so why would they want to preload a free product for which Microsoft wasn’t going to pay them? I guess there’s been PC maker interest, after all — at least enough interest to release an OPK for MSE — which is slated to arrive on December 22.

On December 15, Microsoft also released MSE in 17 additional markets bringing the total number of available markets to 56, company officials said. The newest countries where MSE is available for free download (if you can prove you have a Genuine copy of Windows) are: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. MSE also is available now in Russian and Romanian, in addition to the nine other languages it already supported.

Microsoft has launched a new Windows 7 Test Drive site, aimed at developers who may not have Windows 7 installed on their development environments. The new site offers devs a virtual environment experience, highlightingf Windows 7 features of interest to developers (as opposed to end users). From a new post on the Windows Developer blog:

“The idea behind the Test Drive lab is to create a very low barrier-to-entry development experience for Windows 7. It is a free tool for you to use whenever you want and requires no special software installation (besides a single ActiveX). All you need is a Windows Live ID, a few clear hours, and a visit to the Windows 7 Test Drive for Developers to take a guided tour of Windows 7.”

Microsoft adds the Windows Live engineering blog to its Windows Team blog uber-site. It was ages ago that Microsoft moved the Windows Live organization in with the Windows one, both under Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky. But it took until December 15 for the Windows Live team to start a new blog that melds all the different Windows Live blogs into one. The “Inside Windows Live” blog will focus on the behind-the-scenes engineering stories of various Windows Live products, like Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, the Windows Live Essentials suite and other Live software/services. Seems like a good time for such a blog to go live, given Windows Live Wave 4 is expected in 2010….

The new blog will discuss new features, share customer usage stories, provide updates on service interruptions and more. The first post on the new site is from Corporate Vice President Chris Jones, who says: “Over the next few months you will also see this site become integrated with Windows Live ID, giving you even more ways to interact with us on Windows Live.”

December 16th, 2009

Microsoft's browser bundling battle is over (for this decade, at least)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:40 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Internet Explorer, Legal, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Web Browser, Web Browsers, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft started this past decade in the midst of a fight over whether Internet Explorer (IE) was part of Windows (in U.S. antitrust courts in the U.S. Department of Justice vs. Microsoft case). The company ended it the same way in the European Union — but deciding this time to settle rather than fight.

On December 16, the European Commission announced it had agreed to Microsoft’s concessions in the Opera vs. Microsoft case. By agreeing to offer Windows users a ballot screen of browser choices, the Softies were able to avoid fines or other EC-imposed remedies. The outcome: European PC users running XP, Vista and/or Windows 7 will be getting ballot screens, listing a total of 12 browser choices, one of which will be IE.  (The top five — IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera — will be listed more prominently than the other seven, AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser.)

Here’s Microsoft’s statement and documentation outlining its browser commitments, as well as what it’s proposing to do to ease interoperability between Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint, Exchange and third-party products — another arena the EC has been investigating.

From a December 16 blog post by Mozilla Foundation Chair Mitchell Baker, it sounds like Microsoft also will be eliminating any pop-up Windows which might redirect users to IE and away from alternatives. Mozilla also was against Microsoft listing the top five ballot entries alphabetically by vendor; I’m not sure so far whether that concession ended up as part of the final settlement. Update: Yes, it looks like that concession is part of the ballot, as the browser order is being generated randomly. Here’s a sample of the final ballot screen:

Microsoft originally fought hard against the browser ballot — to the point where the company almost went so far as to create a whole new Windows 7 SKU (Windows 7E) that wouldn’t provide a way for users to get on the Internet and choose a browser. Happily, someone, somewhere at the company put the brakes on that idea before it went too far. Microsoft didn’t need a costly, drawn-out battle that might mar the reputation of Windows 7 on its hands. As hard as it might have been for executives accustomed to battling, this time Microsoft decided it was better to switch than fight.

Many readers of this blog have been vocal critics of the browser ballot. Who doesn’t know you have a choice of browsers and how to download them from the Web, many of you have asked. As I’ve said before: Tech savvy readers like yourselves know this, but many average consumers do not. They don’t know IE is a browser and many don’t know there are other choices or which companies offer them. That’s why I’ve been a fan of the idea of a browser ballot since it was first proposed. Instead of allowing Microsoft to sit on its laurels and make occasional enhancements to its browser whenever the spirit moves it, a ballot fosters more competition — and, I’d argue — better browsers from Microsoft and others.

So Microsoft’s browser-bundling troubles are over. For this decade. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft enmeshed in yet another browser-bundling suit in the coming decade, perhaps with Google as one of the behind-the-scenes instigators. That said, given that Google is bundling its own Chrome browser into its Chrome OS, it might have a pretty flimsy case….

If I were CEO Steve Ballmer, the last ten years would make me rethink whether bundling IE with Windows is worth the continued legal risks. I’d be inclined to make a browser ballot the default on Windows PCs everywhere, not just Europe. Yes, decoupling IE from Windows would be a risky strategy, given IE’s overall market share is continuing to erode (it’s at 62 percent or so in Europe, according to some figures) and with more and more developers vetoing IE because it isn’t WebKit-based and not compliant enough with emerging Web standards.

But if Microsoft really does believe IE is the fastest and most secure browser out there, why not give users a true choice?