windows Vista

Microsoft said on Thursday it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows.

Spam has become a major concern and many a times, there's more of spam than legitimate mail coming into a user's mailbox. Sorting and deleting all this spam from the inbox takes a toll on productive time. To evade spam, there are plenty of paid and free anti-spam software available. But if you are using Vista on your desktop or laptop then you don't have to go for third party software. It offers you a mail client that is designed to protect users from bulk spam mail. Here we will show you how to configure Windows Mail in Vista to block incoming spam. Vista Windows mail also comes with an option that detects phishing mails and protects users from getting 'phished.' You can even define your own list of banned email IDs, in case Vista is not able to detect spam coming in from them.

• Open Windows Mail, configure your account, click on 'Tools' and junk email options. Select the level of protection: No Automatic Filtering, Low, High, and Safe List Only
• To block phishing attacks, configure Windows Mail by clicking Tools> Junk e-mail options. Select 'phishing' and tick 'Protect My Inbox from messages with potential Phishing Links'
• Sometimes, legitimate mails get blocked and sent to junk folder. To avoid this right-click on the legitimate mail and select junk E-Mail>add Sender to Safe Senders' list
• To set a block list of your own from Junk mail option go to Block Senders tab and add all the email IDs that you want to block on your Windows mail

Microsoft Corp. confirmed that it has fixed a bug in its online file-storage and -sharing service, Windows Live FolderShare, after users reported that the service was deleting files without user authorization.

Microsoft sent an e-mail to users Friday alerting them that it has fixed a bug that may have "accidentally moved" user files from their original folders into the FolderShare Trash folder, and that users should not delete files in Trash until they ensure that they were meant to be deleted. It also advised users how to retrieve deleted files from the Trash folder.

Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would disable the two primary methods used by software pirates to illegally copy Windows Vista software in the next major update of the operating system.

The world's largest software maker loses billions of dollars to software piracy every year. Microsoft said new features built into Vista are reducing piracy levels by half compared with its previous operating system, Windows XP.

Microsoft plans to improve that one step farther still with changes built into Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the first major update to the operating system, which is due out in the first quarter of 2008.

The company plans to close a loophole that let pirates mimic activation used by some computer manufacturers to install Vista. Microsoft also will clamp down on a method of extending a "grace period" time between installation and activation.

According to trade group Business Software Alliance, about 35 percent of the world's consumer software is pirated. Windows, which sits on more than 90 percent of the world's computers, accounts for the bulk of those pirated copies.

Many software pirates sell illegally copied versions on auction sites and some small computer manufacturers install pirated versions of Vista on PCs sold to unknowing victims.

Microsoft said it would also change how it deals with pirated versions of Vista, whose users will now get recurring notifications that their version of software is fraudulent with a link to buy a genuine copy. Currently, Microsoft shuts down features in Vista when it finds a pirated copy.

If a user of pirated software wants to purchase a genuine copy of Windows from Microsoft, they can do so for $89 for the Home Basic version or $119 for the Home Premium version.

Reducing piracy is considered one major way for the $51 billion software maker to spur growth in its dominant software franchises. The company said improvements in reducing piracy helped to spur a 25 percent rise in Windows sales in the September quarter.

Microsoft declined to estimate the financial impact of its new measures. The company had sold 88 million Vista licenses as of the end of September.

The flaw in Windows 2000's random number generator uncovered by Israeli researchers is a vulnerability -- but not a security vulnerability, Microsoft Corp. said late last week, as it left users wondering if newer versions of the operating system shared the same problem.

In a paper published earlier this month, Benny Pinkas of the University of Haifa and two Hebrew University graduate students, Zvi Gutterman and Leo Dorrendorf, described how attackers could exploit a weakness in Windows' pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) to predict encryption keys generated by the operating system and its applications.

Rajeev Mittal, Group Director-Small and Medium Enterprise, Microsoft India elaborates on the various offerings from Microsoft to Indian SMBs.
Excerpts:

CIOL: A brief note on the Microsoft's offerings to the SMB market. Of the various products, which of them have the highest reach among SMBs?
Rajeev Mittal: The unique value proposition of Microsoft's products lies not only in their familiarity and ease of use, but also in their ability to customize easily and cater to specific needs of different business verticals or segments. While the last mile of customization is delivered through our extensive partner network in India, Microsoft also offers products tailored for the small and medium businesses (SMBs), which is an important segment for us.

Mid market segment products include:

• 2007 Microsoft Office System - helps organizations work efficiently and effectively with a new set of powerful tools for creating, managing, analyzing and sharing information.

• Windows Server 2003 R2 - helps businesses to increase effectiveness of computing operations while reducing IT costs. New features simplify and improve branch server management, storage management, and identity and access management.
• Exchange Server 2007 - designed to meet the messaging and collaboration needs of SMBs. It may also be appropriate for specific server roles or branch offices.
• SQL Server 2005 - An affordable option for both small and medium-sized organizations that includes the core functionality needed for non-critical e-commerce, data warehousing, and line-of-business solutions. It is optimized to run on win32, x64, and Itanium-based servers
• Microsoft Forefront for Exchange Server- includes multiple scan engines from industry-leading security firms integrated in a single solution to help businesses protect their Exchange messaging environments from viruses, worms, and spam

  Microsoft offers the following additional products catering to the unique requirements of small businesses

• Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 - a complete and affordable network solution that provides small businesses with many of the features used by large companies in a single package. It keeps data more secure and protects business information, while maximizing employee productivity and enhancing customer communications.
• Windows Vista Business - the first Windows operating system designed specifically to meet the needs of small and mid market businesses. It helps businesses work more effectively, stay connected (both in and out of the office), and better protect key information.
• Microsoft Dynamics - Microsoft's line of business management solutions is a solution that has been built grounds up for SMB customers and helps streamline financial, customer relationship and supply chain management. The Dynamics range offers the broadest product line-up for this segment including CRM, financial management (also called ERP), SCM and vertical solutions that offer customers great technology solutions that are integrated with Microsoft's productivity and platform applications.

CIOL: What percentage of growth has Microsoft witnessed in marketing its products to the SMB segment?
RM: Microsoft has been one of the first companies to start focusing on SMBs and developing solutions for them. This focused approach towards the SMB segment over the past five years is paying us rich dividends due to our deep understanding of the needs of this fast growing and rapidly evolving market. Today the SMB segment contributes a significant portion of our revenues and is one of the fastest growing divisions for Microsoft in India.

CIOL: What are the factors that are driving customers to deploy your products?
RM: Microsoft's success with its customers is the result of our deep understanding of the needs of the small and mid-size businesses, and based on this understanding the development of best of breed products, ranging from the Microsoft Operating System to ERP solutions. Moreover we also offer products and solutions which have been specially designed for the SMB segment. These include Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 and Vista that has been launched recently. It offers several editions for different customer segments. Moreover Microsoft products bring to the table ease of use, familiarity as well as a lower total cost of ownership.

Our products are taken to discerning customers through our 3,500 strong partner network. They enable the last mile of both horizontal as well as vertical functionality and deliver the final customer experience. Our partners work with customers to ensure that from among the wide options available from Microsoft they adopt the technology/ solutions most suited to their business to make them globally competitive

CIOL: In your view, how is the scene as regards IT implementation among SMBs, who were hitherto refraining from spending on IT infrastructure?
RM: According to a recent AMI Partners report, IT penetration among the SMBs was very low and their IT spend in the past have been less than two per cent of their turnover. But now as they align businesses to global needs, they are looking at IT solutions for an array of applications. SMBs are increasingly viewing IT as an essential strategic tool for their business instead of just another technology investment.
We have also recently announced the availability of our Dynamics Suite of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications as a subscription service, which allows businesses to use these solutions without the need to install it within the company's own premise on a pay as you go model. Microsoft believes that this new offering will allow a much larger set of SMBs in India to adopt and benefit from ERP services.

CIOL: Any new products in the pipeline targeted exclusively at the SMBs?
RM: Microsoft aims to bring the best of breed products to its consumers. In this regard we hope to bring out the next version of the Small Business Server in the next few months for our customers. We have also brought our ERP solutions as a hosted service especially for our SMB customers and hope to be able to make more of our solutions available as a hosted service in the near future.

CIOL: Elaborate on Microsoft's business strategies and expansion plans with regard to SMBs?
RM: Along with the innovative products that Microsoft brings to its customers, we are also constantly striving to look at ways in which we can best reach out to our customers. In this regard Microsoft has recently expanded its presence to five more cities and hoping to add one more.
The cities include Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Indore, Chandigarh and Kochi with Coimbatore being in the pipeline. With its direct presence, Microsoft will enable the SMBs in the region to easily access a complete portfolio of its products and services and enhanced support from both Microsoft and its partners.

Microsoft has launched a program called project VIKAS to help the Indian SME sector address its 'soft' challenges and gear up to effectively face global competition. It is hoped that this program will not only enhance efficiency and competitiveness, but make the job sector more vibrant and foster growth in the local software ecosystem.

We also have a small business portal www.merabusiness.com or Microsoft.com/India/SMB which offers latest information to consumers on the portfolio of products available for SMBs along with information on latest technology advice and IT adoption to assist consumers with business decisions and information on contact points of partners across the country.