Thanks for visiting the blog.

I am moving to a new role in Microsoft in the United States.

As a result this blog is being put on hold.

You can find all the latest news from Microsoft Ireland here.

Thanks

Tom Murphy

From the PressPass interview with Windows General Manager Mike Ybarra:

Ybarra: With Windows 7 there will be two primary editions: Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Professional. We think those two SKUs will meet most customers’ needs.

Windows 7 Home Premium is the recommended choice for consumers. It gives them a full-function PC experience and a visually rich environment in everything from the way they experience entertainment to the way they connect their devices.

Windows 7 Professional is the recommended choice for small businesses and for people who work at home but have to operate in an IT-managed or business environment where security and productivity are critical. For those running Windows Vista Business, it will be a very logical move to Windows 7 Professional.

There will also be a Windows 7 Home Basic version only available in emerging markets, Windows 7 Enterprise for large corporate customers and Windows 7 Ultimate which will include all the features of every edition.

Additional feature from PressPass:

• Windows 7 Wins on NetBooks

From the Windows 7 Team blog:

The shutdown of general availability for the Windows 7 Beta will occur in 3 phases over the course of the next few weeks:

• Starting January 27th, the Windows 7 page will be updated with a warning that time is running out on downloading the Windows 7 Beta and that we will be limiting downloads shortly. People will be encouraged to register and start the download of the Windows 7 Beta sooner rather than later.
• February 10th, new downloads of the Windows 7 Beta will no longer be available. People who have already started their Windows 7 Beta download and have not yet finished will still be able to finish their download and are encouraged to do so.

You can find out more information here and you can download the Windows 7 beta (until February 10th 2009) from here.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) has selected Microsoft Silverlight technology to enable live and on-demand video streaming of the official inauguration swearing-in ceremony on the PIC Web site at https://www.pic2009.org. As part of its efforts to hold the most open and accessible inauguration in history, on Saturday, Jan. 17, the PIC will also stream video of a Baltimore event on the Whistle Stop Tour that will take President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia.
		Meanwhile, CNN is going to use Microsoft Photosynth to record the inauguration for posterity.  It’s asking anyone attending to send them a photo which they’ll then input into Photosynth to create 3D experience of the inauguration.

• You can find out more about how Siliverlight will be used by the Presidential Inauguration Committee here.
• More information on Microsoft Silverlight
• More information on Microsoft Photosynth

The survey is exclusively for 14 – 18 year old respondents.

You can take the survey here.

Microsoft will not collect or use any personal information and will use the responses to the survey for statistical purposes only to create a small report on the topic.

You can find out more about Windows 7 here.

You can also watch some introductory videos

If you’re interested in Windows 7 or have already downloaded the beta, check out the Windows Experience blog.

Updated Information:

The security update for Internet Explorer has been released.  The update will help protect customers from malicious attacks. Like a vaccine developed to fight a virus, this “security update” will protect your computer only if you install it.  If you have turned on Automatic Updates, your computer will install the security update automatically.  If you don’t use Automatic Updates, please go to https://update.microsoft.com. 

The Microsoft Security Response Centre continues to monitor the threat landscape while working, and sharing information with, partners around the globe through the Microsoft Active Protections Program to help protect our customers.

Microsoft strongly recommends that consumers find out how to protect their PC by visiting:  https://www.microsoft.ie/protect/

It’s important that consumers:

• Keep anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date
• Turn on their computer’s firewall
• Ensure that their PC is up-to-date with the latest software updates
• Turn on Windows Update to ensure that software is patched automatically

Microsoft has published an advisory with detailed information which customers can access at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx

The Microsoft Security Response Centre continues to monitor the threat landscape while working, and sharing information with, partners around the globe through the Microsoft Active Protections Program to help protect our customers.

Microsoft strongly recommends that consumers find out how to protect their PC by visiting:  https://www.microsoft.ie/protect/

It’s important that consumers:

• Keep anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date
• Turn on their computer’s firewall
• Ensure that their PC is up-to-date with the latest software updates
• Turn on Windows Update to ensure that software is patched automatically

Microsoft has published an advisory with detailed information which customers can access at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx

It’s a free download.

If you’d like a whole range of tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook visit the Outlook Team Blog.

Microsoft’s John Vassallo commented:

“In April 2008, the Article 29 Working Party issued an Opinion regarding steps that search providers needed to take to improve consumer privacy protection. The Article 29 Working Party is named after the part of Directive 95/46/EC relating to personal data protection and represents all European national data protection authorities. Specifically, the Working Party requested that companies reduce the amount of time they retain search data prior to anonymisation to six months and that companies adopt strong anonymisation methods.

Today, Microsoft has announced that we are prepared to meet the Article 29 Working Party’s search anonymisation guidelines, but believe it is imperative that all search companies adopt the same standard to truly protect people’s privacy. We’ve evaluated the multiple uses of search data and believe that we can, in time, move to a six month timeframe while retaining our strong method of anonymisation.

We are prepared to make this change and applaud the Working Party for its leadership on industry standards and look forward to continuing a productive dialogue with them and other key stakeholders on how to make industry standards a reality.”

You can read an in-depth interview with John Vassallo and Peter Cullen on Microsoft’s response to the Article 29 Working Party’s Opinion on search privacy here.