A new build for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system could be released to developers as early as next week if a Twitter message from a previously reliable source has its facts straight. The Twitter page for "@MSFTtm" claims that Microsoft will release a Community Technical Preview (or CTP for short) for Windows 8 next week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference. The conference is scheduled to be held on July 11-14.   While there's no concrete proof that Microsoft will indeed re

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has claimed that the company’s next-generation of Windows “will be pretty important.”     Ballmer made his remarks at an Imagine Cup 2011 event in New York on Friday. The software giant brought together some of the brainiest students to showcase their work and efforts to solve real world problems using technology. Ballmer praised the various groups of students who are participating in the event. Over 300,000 students registered for the Imagine Cup 2011 and the wi

The software giant will unveil the SDK at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles next week. Microsoft’s latest Surface SDK will now run on WPF 4.0, XNA 4.0 and Windows 7. Surface developers will now be able to target physical Surface hardware and Windows 7 touch PCs with a single SDK. The Microsoft Surface team call this “write once – touch anywhere” and it may explain the company’s plans for Windows 8.     Developers will be able to query the hardware capabilities of eac

After the end of business on Monday I received the following in an email from Microsoft: "We appreciate your feedback and enthusiasm throughout the Windows Thin PC Community Technology Preview. Today, we are happy to announce that Windows Thin PC has been released to manufacturing (RTM), and will be available for our SA customers to download starting July 1, 2011." Anandtech published a brief but concise review of Windows Thin PC but here's a quick summary of my experience of this 32-bit only OS

REDMOND, Wash. – June 1, 2011 – Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.   The demo showed some of the ways we’ve reimagined the interface for a new generation of touch-cent

Bloomberg is adding fuel to the rumor fires claiming that Microsoft may show off the tablet version of Windows 8 next week at the AllThingsD conference. If and when that happens, here’s what to watch for.     Steven Sinofsky, the President of Microsoft’s Windows client division, is slated to take the stage during the three-day confab, which kicks off on May 29. Ever since Sinofsky’s appearance at the show was confirmed earlier this week, there’s been talk that he’d show off an updated versi

The rumors were right. Microsoft announced on May 10 that it bought Skype, an Internet communications maker, for $8.5 billion.   Instead of trying to mash Skype into an existing Microsoft business division, the company has decided to create a new, separate Skype business division, with Skype CEO Tony Bates as the newly minted President. Bates will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.   In its press release announcing the deal, Microsoft played up the potential synergies between Sk

Microsoft plans to have a quiet Patch Tuesday this month: Just two bulletins covering security vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system and Office productivity suite.   According to an advance notice from Redmond, the Windows update will be rated “critical” because of the risk of remote code execution attacks. This patch only affects Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.     The Microsoft Office patch will carry an “important” rating and will also c