Microsoft is set to automatically update Internet Explorer to the latest version on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 starting 2012 which will occur for those who have enabled Automatic Updates within Windows Update, the software giant said.

The move echoes a trend began with Google's Chrome, which automatically updates itself by default: other browsers including Firefox and Opera prompt before updating. Google Chrome's update strategy is why a previous version loses market share quickly when a new version comes out.

For Windows XP, the move means the update will deliver Interner Explorer 8, while Vista and Windows 7 browsers will get the latest version of IE9. Those who have specifically declined IE8 or IE9 in the past are opted-out.

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The software giant Microsoft has released the latest build of the Windows Defender Offline beta, a version of Windows' anti-spyware feature which is meant to be executed from a DVD or USB flash drive before Windows even starts up.

Windows Defender is included with Windows and has agents that can be run periodically, or at all times on a running system. Because it runs inside Windows, though, it is limited in what it can do.

This is what Windows Defender Offline is supposed to fix. It has been designed to scan your system for more elusive malware such as rootkits, or viruses that aren't constantly running processes and only act at startup or at unpredictable times. To do this, it needs to be installed on a piece of removable media so the user's Windows system can then be booted after Windows Defender Offline runs.

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Microsoft reminded everyone with some stats on its cloud computing progress and updates to Office 365 and SkyDrive. However, beneath today's announcements there are signs of drought, with only a small number of enterprises embracing Microsoft's cloud.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company is enhancing both services and has broadened availability, 22 more countries includes Argentina, Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan — for Office 365. SkyDrive gets a modern makeover, including HTML5 enhancements that are in line with broader Microsoft development objectives for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.

But Microsoft isn't a cloud company like Google, which profits from what it and third-parties sell around services like search. Microsoft sells software. Think of Microsoft's cloud quite literally — rain falling to the earth and evaporating into the sky. Office 365 and SkyDrive depend at least in some way on desktop software, which utility they extend to the cloud and return to users.

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According to the browser usage share data released by Net Applications, Google Chrome continues to grab Internet Explorer market share in October. Google Chrome gained share for the 12th consecutive month. Since November 2010, IE share fell 7.72 points, while Chrome gained 8.05.

Looking more recently, Chrome gained 1.42 points, while Internet Explorer lost 1.76 points September to October. Firefox actually edged up 0.03 points, ending four months of consecutive losses. Apple's Safari eeked up 0.41 points. Usage share for each in October:

* Internet Explorer: 52.63 percent
* Firefox: 22.51 percent
* Chrome: 17.62 percent
* Safari: 5.43 percent
* Opera: 1.56 percen
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On Wednesday, Microsoft rolled out the community technology preview of Project Roslyn, a new type of compiler which was first debuted at BUILD earlier this year, the company executive overseeing the C# programming language announced.

"This project is about revising what compilers do," said Anders Hejlsberg in a talk at Microsoft's Build conference. "[It] is about opening the compiler and making all that information available so [the developer] can harness all of this knowledge," he said.

Based on the Mono Project, Roslyn is designed to be a more open compiler that allows developers access and utilize the data that it is generating on the Visual Basic and C# code it is compiling. It resembles a model developed by Miguel de Icaza's Mono Project, in which the information the compiler generates about a program can be reused as a library.

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Microsoft hardware has unveiled a new series of mice that are colorful, funky and works of atrt.

The artists that worked on the mice are Kirra Jamison, Matt Moore, Linn Olofsdotter, Mike Perry and Jonny Wan, and each one of the mice has the artist’s signature subtly adorning the bottom side of the mouse.

Dubbed the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 Studio Series - Artist Edition, the six mice revealed have their own design which is sure to impress users.

Each such mouse costs $29.95 and will be available as of next month.

Microsoft has broadened the capabilities of its Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) to allow administrators to troubleshoot ill-behaving desktop Windows computers from afar.

The new version allows IT pros to use the DaRT features to both diagnose and repair PC without having to physically be there.

DaRT is a collection of administrator tools for fixing faulty desktop Windows computers. It offers a set of commands for repairing computers that cannot be booted up. It has a crash analyzer that can pinpoint where a problem occurs. It also offers the ability to restore the system to its last working state.

With this release, administrators can have the user boot directly into DaRT, instead of booting into their normal Windows session.

BrandFinance, a brand valuation consulting firm has rated Google as the world’s most valuable brand name.

Google’s brand was determined as being worth $44.2 billion, up a whopping 23 percent from 2010. The company was the only one to receive a AAA+ brand rating.

The second place is Microsoft, which is there easily because it’s the largest software maker in the world. The Windows maker climbed up from number five to be second to Google.

IBM took 4th, Vodafone took 5th, Apple took 8th and AT&T rose to 10th. Apple made a huge leap to eighth place, up from 20th last year.

"The rise of the technology brands has been expected for some time, although Nokia’s fall shows that it is tough to stay at the forefront of such a dynamic industry," BrandFinance CEO David Haigh said in a statement.

Wal-Mart was last year’s winner but fell to 3rd in 2011.

Microsoft has pushed back the release date of the Windows Phone 7 update that adds new functionality. The update had originally been destined to reach users in the first two weeks of March.

"We have the next update waiting in the wings. It delivers copy and paste, better Marketplace search, and other key improvements," said Eric Hautala, Microsoft General Manager of Customer Experience Engineering, in a post on the Windows Phone blog. "But I believe it’s important that we learn all we can from the February update. So I’ve decided to take some extra time to ensure the update process meets our standards, your standards, and the standards of our partners. As a result, our plan is to start delivering the copy-and-paste update in the latter half of March."

Even with the changes, Hautala adds the “short pause” does not change the launch time frame of the much larger update, Microsoft promised it would add features like multitasking, Twitter integration and an HTML5-based version of Internet Explorer Mobile. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft has launched a deathwatch website to urge users who are still on the 10-year old Internet Explorer 6 browser to just stop.

“It’s time to say goodbye,” wrote Microsoft on a website dedicated to the cause. Although Microsoft reported statistics from web analytics firm Net Applications that worldwide usage of IE6 stands at 12 percent at present, the company said it wants to drop the browser’s share to less than 1 percent, and it is asking everyone to help spread the word.

The deathwatch website details Net Applications’ usage share numbers for IE6 in 43 countries, including the U.S., China, Japan, Germany and Russia. China leads usage of IE6 at 34.5 percent, followed by South Korea at 24.8 percent, India at 12.3 percent and Taiwan at 10.7 percent. The U.S. accounts for just 2.9 percent.

The website has links to reasons why users should upgrade, documentation for corporate networks that need to migrate to a new browser and banners that webmasters can embed in their sites, alerting users that they should upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »