Microsoft Windows, the operating system that rose to dominance of the home and business PC market turns 25 years old today. Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985, and at first didn't catch on as well as Microsoft had hoped. Two years later Microsoft would release Windows 2.0, and then Windows 3.1 which got the ball rolling.     Windows 1.0 started as a graphical user interface for MS-DOS back in September 1981 and at the time named "Interface Manager." Bill Gates would later on pres

Windows "Microsoft has updated the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit to include Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. As has been the case with previous service packs, soon after SP1 hits the RTM milestone, it will first go out on Windows Update, and then eventually Microsoft will push it out via Automatic Updates."   Users who don't want SP1 will be able to simply disable AU. Many businesses, however, prefer to keep AU on, but block the service pack so they can first t

Users of Twitter will no doubt have noticed quite a few tweets about SCCM 2012     The new name for what we know as vNext has been released, System Center Configuration Manager 2012. This was announced today during the session MGT202 at TechEd:Europe in Berlin. So that's it, it's official, Microsoft have announced it at Teched.   R.I.P vNext and welcome to   System Center Configuration Manager 2012     Not only has the name been revealed but TAP nominations for beta 2 are underway.

Microsoft has taken the big step of distributing its free anti-virus software via the company’s Windows Update system.   Microsoft introduced Security Essentials, its free anti-virus software, in September 2009. Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is designed to work on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and protects end users against virus threats and spy ware. MSE is Microsoft’s free anti-virus and anti-spyware product that replaced Microsoft’s paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service which was w

German publication n-TV.de reports that O2 has sold out of HTC HD7’s amid strong demand for Windows Phone 7 handsets.     Sales so far are said to be in the 5-digit area, with at least 80,000 handsets rumoured, and the carrier is now waiting for further shipments of the handset.   The high demand is not just confined to the HTC HD7 either. Vodafone Germany, who will be carrying the HTC Mozart and the Samsung Omnia 7 reports pre-orders are “exceeding expectations”, and were ordering increa

Microsoft’s first quarter handily topped expectations as the company continued to ride an upgrade cycle for Windows 7 and Office.   The company reported fiscal first quarter net income of $5.41 billion, or 62 cents a share, on revenue of $16.2 billion, up 25 percent from a year ago. The year-ago figure includes deferred revenue though so revenue growth was more like 13 percent. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 55 cents a share on revenue of $15.8 billion.   Nevertheless, the software gi

Last week, we saw the re-emergence of another new trojan that is disguising itself as Microsoft’s no-cost antimalware program Microsoft Security Essentials. This imposter is known in the technical world of antimalware combat as "Win32/FakePAV". FakePAV is a rogue that displays messages that imitate Microsoft Security Essentials threat reports in order to entice the user into downloading and paying for a rogue security scanner. The rogue persistently terminates numerous processes such as Windows

Windows Phone 7 looks great     At first I thought the name was OK. Now I realize it's really not. Android is an operating system, and the collective name for phones running Android is hence "Android phones". Windows Phone 7 is an operating system, so the phones are... Windows Phone 7 phones? Eeew. Some have suggested that they're just "Windows phones", but that's silly too; it could just as well apply to Windows Mobile phones, and in any case, they're not running Windows. OK, I know behind