A number of Microsoft enthusiasts this week received invitations to a "limited technical beta program" for Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Beta 1. According to the invitation, Microsoft is planning to make IE 8 Beta 1 available to the general public, as well. But before that happens, an invitation-only tet program will be conducted. The invitation describes IE 8 Beta 1 being focused on developers. Microsoft officials have said they plan to show off IE 8 at Microsoft's Mix '08 conference in early March in Las Vegas. Officials also have said they are planning to add a developer-selectable "super-standards" mode to IE 8 that would enable the browser to qualify as more standards-compliant. Microsoft still has not offered a final-delivery target date for IE 8. Microsoft released IE 7 in 2006. Microsoft officials have said they are shooting to deliver more frequent, regular builds of IE. The full text of the note Microsoft sent to IE 8 beta invitees can be see here.

Microsoft has published a list of programs that are currently incompatible with Windows Vista SP1 "Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1."

Windows Vista SP1 Incompatible Programs

Microsoft apparently didn't get the memo about HD-DVD being dead until late this week. Microsoft announced that the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 is no longer being manufactured. Those that have already been manufactured and haven't been sold yet will most likely be sold at a discounted price until they're all gone. Despite the fact that they are no longer making an HD-DVD add-on, Microsoft will still provide a full warranty for the thing. They will also provide as much support for the device as if HD-DVD didn't die earlier this week.

One day, a dude working for Microsoft checked his G Mail account, and then checked his Live account. He noticed that he could shove a lot more stuff on his G Mail account than he could his Live account. To be precise, Live used to hold 1GB of digital goodies, while G-Mail can hold 6.4GB. And so, this dude brought this issue to the dudes in charge of developing and maintaining Windows Live, and bumped up Skydrive storage to 5GB. This move will make several dudes who subscribe to Windows Live quite happy, and makes Live more competent with the likes of Yahoo, AOL and of course G Mail. Live Skydrive storage is officially out of beta, and available in several countries around the globe.

Face it, the Windows XP code is reliable, practical, useful, secure and cost-effective. Most people, especially those in the business sector, simply don't see the need to upgrade to Windows Vista. It's no news that Windows XP Service Pack 3 is coming out soon. However, Microsoft may not have considered the effect XP SP3 may have on Vista sales. If a lot of users adopt XP SP3, they may be even less tempted to move on to Windows Vista, which is ultimately what Microsoft would like their customers to do. However, Microsoft may find that XP SP3 doesn't have any effect on Vista sales at all. After all, those who want Windows Vista will upgrade to Windows Vista, no matter what XP offers. Those who want to stick with XP will stick with XP, and may not even upgrade to the latest service pack.

So, it turns out that Microsoft was developing a new version of Windows Live Messenger, released it, and is trying to get everyone on the upgrade bandwagon. While everyone running the previous/beta versions of Windows Live Messenger will be getting pretty prompts, it seems that there is a small problem. Anyone running a 64-bit operating environment, whether or not you're running XP or Vista, cannot upgrade to the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. In fact, it almost seems like Microsoft has dumped an x64 version of Windows Live Messenger altogether. The most recent version available for x64 customers is 8.1, while the current version is 8.5.

Microsoft had a rather clever idea. Why not use the worm virus for a useful purpose, such as updating Windows? Microsoft, for a while, was researching a way to make the worm code more efficient, and was going to put it to good use. That way, important security updates could spread just as quickly as viruses, if not quicker, considering that Microsoft's best were in the study. However, this idea was received about as well as the Giants victory in Super Bowl XLII. Some people cheered, but most people cried foul. Using a worm to spread things like Windows Updates would be a massive invasion of privacy, does not allow a user to say no to an update and would totally bungle up any attempt to uninstall or interrupt installation. What's worse is what would happen if a bad guy got their hands on the enhanced worm code.

Microsoft, upon hearing what users thought of a worm-based security patch, decided against using it. If the new worm they've developed will have any benevolent use, we certainly haven't heard of it yet.

Today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2008, Microsoft Corp. provided an exciting glimpse at what promises to be another landmark year for games and online entertainment on the Xbox 360 platform and officially announced the launch of "Gears of War 2," exclusively for Xbox 360 this November.

Microsoft has now made the second release candidate of Windows XP's third service pack available to the public, which can be obtained via Windows update after downloading a registry patch from Microsoft. You can download the registry patch here [38KB], but before you do so it is recommended that you remove any previous beta or release candidate version of SP3 from your system. The RTM version of the service pack should become available during the first half of 2008.

Microsoft DreamSpark will provide, free of charge, professional level development programs for students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Within the next six months the program will be expanded to students in Australia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and many more countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Microsoft plans to include High School students in the program around third quarter 2008. Why is Microsoft doing this? Joe Wilson, Microsoft's Senior Director of Academic Initiatives, had this to say.

"We believe students can do amazing things with technology if given access to the right tools. This is a way to make sure that they have what they need to test the boundaries of what today's technology can do and also prepare for a great career at the same time. The added benefit to industry is that we're addressing one of the toughest challenges confronting employers today: attracting and developing qualified IT professionals. We're trying to help close this gap by giving students globally the opportunity to get the tools they'll need after they graduate and jump-start their careers to land that first job."

While Microsoft may initially have nothing to gain from the program, over the long-term it may have a significant effect. Students who use Microsoft's programs while in school will inevitably become more familiar with Microsoft's programs than with software from competitors. When students eventually enter the workforce they will most likely wish to continue using the software they are most familiar with and will have their companies purchase Microsoft software for them.

It would seem as though despite $1 billion of R&D against such an event, a Microsoft Xbox 360 failed in front of a live audience. The infamous Red Ring of Death (RRoD) popped up in the middle of a Microsoft XNA demo. Microsoft XNA, when it works, is a very powerful and easy to use tool that can be used to develop video games. If you follow the source link, you can catch a video of the prominently displayed Xbox 360. The Game Developers Conference is currently happening in San Francisco. Hopefully, Microsoft can get a new Xbox 360 to show off Microsoft XNA. Until then, Microsoft is not going to enjoy the ridicule of several thousand developers, and many times more gamers.

Microsoft's PR team sent out this statement regarding the recent developments in the HD DVD camp and rumors that there will be a Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on drive in the near future:

We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace. As we've long stated, we believe it is games that sell consoles and Xbox 360 continues to have the largest next-gen games library with the most exclusives and best selling games in the industry. We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.

It seems that Yahoo isn't the only one suffering from the failed buy-out of Yahoo by the hand of Microsoft. Sir William Gates III is reported as having lost over $3 billion USD from his personal fortune in Microsoft stock just from trying to buy Yahoo. However, Gates' fortune is just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google bosses Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, and Dell founder Michael Dell all are watching their fortunes and stock values plummet "like a team of free falling elephants." Even Steve Jobs, who should be swimming in the pool of wealth his entertainment gadgets have given him, is instead watching in horror as his share price looses a whopping 40% value in the stock market. Jobs, personally, has lost over $400 million in the past six weeks.

Microsoft is seeing shortages of its Xbox 360 video game console in the United States, as the company failed to anticipate strong post-holiday demand, an executive said on Wednesday. "We are really running short of product here in the United States," Jeff Bell, head of global marketing for Microsoft's games business, said in an interview. "You could say we misjudged demand. We're literally out of stock in many stores. We think this will have an impact on our sales," Bell said. "It may cause the overall industry number to be down a little bit." Microsoft sold nearly 1.3 million Xbox 360 consoles in the United States in December, when the entire video games industry gets a boost from holiday shopping. The Xbox 360 competes with Nintendo's Wii console, as well as Sony's PlayStation 3.

A few days ago, in an interview, Xbox chief Don Mattrick made a confounding proclamation. The proclamation said something along the lines of "GTA IV multiplayer will be Xbox360 exclusive" (please see source link for full version). After several raised eyebrows, Microsoft clarified that this was just a slip of tongue. Instead of Grand Theft Auto IV only having a multiplayer mode in the Xbox360 version, there will instead be some exclusive content only available to Xbox360 gamers. Rockstar took this one step further, and confirmed that Sony has a little something up their sleeve for PS3 gamers as well.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the results of a new survey that found teenagers between seventh and 10th grades are less likely to illegally download content from the Internet when they know the laws for downloading and sharing content online.

About half of those teens, however, said they were not familiar with these laws, and only 11 percent of them clearly understood the current rules for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software. Teens who were familiar with downloading rules credited their parents, TV or stories in magazines and newspapers, and Web sites - more so than their schools - as resources for information about illegal downloading.

The San Jose Mercury News web site is reporting that at next week's Game Developers Conference a number of companies, including those that are normally fierce rivals, will be announcing a new effort to promote PC gaming. According to the article, which uses unnamed sources, the group will be called the PC Gaming Alliance and will involve a joint effort between companies like Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD as well as a number of computer companies. The story states that the PC Gaming Alliance "will keep the PC competitive with game consoles to attract key game developers" and adds that it "will coordinate and expand those efforts to improve the experience of playing games on computers." The original story is found here, while the time when we'll see if this is all true is February 18-22, 2008 in San Francisco, or the date when GDC starts.

As promised Microsoft today rolled out 11 security updates that patch 17 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Internet Information Server (IIS) and several other components and technologies. That's Microsoft's biggest patch update in a year, with six of the 11 fixes ranked as "critical" and the other five ranked "important". Check the full Microsoft Security Bulletin summary for February 2008 here or start the Automatic Update feature.

Microsoft has officially responded to Yahoo!'s rejection of its proposed $44.6 billion takeover bid with the following statement:

It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.

We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.

A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.

The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

It's becoming very apparent now that Yahoo has issued a press release refusing Microsoft's rather high bid for the company that there's more to the idea of a Yahoo acquisition than just a shift in management. The shareholders for Yahoo are simply livid over the fact that Yahoo is planning on going forward without Microsoft. Shareholders are already pretty angry over the fact that Yahoo has lost 40% stock value since last year. Microsoft, at this point, can do two things. They can up the bid, and risk making their own shareholders unsure. Or, they can leave Yahoo to suffer, and "spear-head an attack to oust Yahoo's board". Yahoo, however, is not without it's own options. Yahoo is expected to release a statement regarding exactly why they rejected Microsoft's offer. While some would claim the refusal was due to a personal spat between a few board members, Yahoo's investment banker confirms that Microsoft really didn't offer enough money. If Yahoo had accepted a $31-per-share buyout, Yahoo could very well have infuriated shareholders even more, and been accused of malfeasance.

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today said the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft's unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!'s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.

Microsoft has decided to end Windows Anytime Upgrade, the company's online method for upgrading basic Windows Vista distributions to the Premium and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista.

In an effort to streamline the Windows Anytime Upgrade experience for our customers and open the program to additional markets worldwide, Microsoft and its partners have decided to end digital product key distribution on February 20, 2008.

All digital keys purchased through February 20, 2008 will remain valid for upgrade. For additional information, please visit Windows Anytime Upgrade Home.

Yahoo's board of directors plans to reject Microsoft's acquisition offer, according to the Wall Street Journal. The board believes that the current offer "massively undervalues" the company. Quoting sources "familiar with the situation", the WSJ said that board would not be accepting an offer below 40 USD per share, which would bring the purchase price closer to 57 billion USD, and would require Microsoft to account for certain risks, if regulators do not approve the deal. Yahoo's stock closed Friday trading at 29.20 USD. If accurate, the board apparently is generally willing to agree to the sale of the company. The two companies are likely to be heading into a gambling phase to find out if they can agree on a price. It is unclear at this time whether Microsoft is willing to increase its offer to the level of Yahoo's expectations. When Microsoft announced its intention to take over Yahoo, CEO Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft had been in "on and off" acquisition talks with Yahoo for about 18 months. He said that he "thought long and hard about" purchasing Yahoo and believes in a Yahoo that is integrated into Microsoft "more than ever." He considered the 44.6 billion USD as an offer that Yahoo should "seriously think about".

Apparently, the Microsoft Zune 80s (which is red for Valentine's Day) is immensely popular. Unfortunately, Microsoft can't keep up. Upon hearing this, Microsoft decided that they did not want the bad press of not keeping a promise. And so, if you're not getting your red Zune by Valentine's Day (assuming you've already ordered one), Microsoft promises you all your money back, and a pink Zune as soon as they can get one to you, free of charge. If you qualify for the free Zune, you will most likely get an E-mail or phone call from Microsoft.

Following the announcement earlier this week that Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) had been shipped to manufacturing, Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that it seeded another build of Windows XP SP3 to a closed set of testers. "Yesterday, we released Windows XP SP3 RC 2 to private beta testers," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "This release catches the build up on previously released hot fixes and responds to critical feedback from previous betas." Despite the new SP3 release, the final ship date continues to be unknown. Although some reports indicate February 24th or March 23rd as final SP3 release dates, Microsoft continues to claim: "We are targeting 1H [first-half] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM, though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority," The next major milestone for Windows XP after SP3 ships is June 30, when the nearly 7-year-old operating system is slated to fall off the reseller and retail availability list.