'Tis the season to be jolly. This must have been the mentality the coders of a Santa Claus instant-messaging bot adopted when creating it. However, it would seem that one of the coders was getting a little too jolly. A hardworking man from The Register walked in on his pubescent nieces discussing oral sex with "northpole@live.com", the address of the Santa Claus bot. Disturbed and appalled, the man led a journalistic expedition, and tried to find the cause of the tirade and isolate the language. After playing a certain pizza game, the Santa Claus impersonator was very quick to begin discussing oral sex with the man from The Register, and promptly proceeded to call him a "Dirty Bastard". On an entirely different occasion, when you tell Santa you want some "cake", he will respond "You don't need drugs when you're high on life!"

When The Register brought this to Microsoft's attention, the men at Redmond were very prompt in changing the words that the robo Santa said, and in lieu of more complaints, has decided to pull the bot altogether. They profusely apologized to the nieces that were jaded by the perverted Santa, and are doing an internal investigation to find out more about it.

Despite Microsoft initially blaming disappointing sales figures on software pirates, the company's Vice President of Windows Product Marketing, Michael Sievert, has now claimed that the piracy rate for Windows Vista is actually half that of XP. In an interview, he said:

While piracy rates are hard to measure precisely, we're seeing indications from internal metrics, like WGA validation failures, that the Windows Vista piracy rate is less than half that of Windows XP today.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is putting this down to the fact that Vista is harder to counterfeit. However, some analysts are suggesting that it may be linked to the fact that even pirates expect a stable operating system, and perhaps they choose to use Windows XP over Vista for reasons such as that rather than because they lack the means to pirate it. Of course, another explanation could be that software pirates have actually found a way to counterfeit Windows without being detected, which would also account for the lower rate of WGA validation failures.

Although the Windows Server operating systems aren't primarily intended for gaming, some gamers prefer to run them due to lower resource usage and, arguably, better security. Such people, and perhaps some others, will be pleased to hear that Microsoft has launched a public beta of Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate, where users automatically receive a 30-day trial and will need to register for a product key to continue using the software up to June 30th next year. You can download Windows Server 2008 and register for a product key here.

It seems work on Windows Vista's first service pack is almost complete, with Microsoft planning to make the Release Candidate (RC) version publicly available next week via Microsoft's Download Center. Microsoft commented that "the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability" and listed the following changes which have been made since the beta release:

• The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
• The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
• Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
• Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
• We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

The final version of Vista SP1 is on target to be released during the first quarter of 2008 - roughly a year after the operating system was publicly launched.

Upon hearing that nearly 75% of all Blu-ray drives people own are built in to the PS3, Microsoft decided that the Xbox360 was a great way to promote the adoption of HD-DVD. However, if the player costs too much, nobody will go for it. And so, Microsoft lowered the price of the HD-DVD add-in drive to $129USD. You can nab one for yourself at Amazon and Toys R Us, if you're looking for a low-cost HD-DVD player. The drive can also be plugged into any PC and work just like it would on the Xbox360.

While Microsoft is working very hard to make a good service pack for Windows Vista, it's not the only thing they're working on. Microsoft is reportedly working hard on Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2007. Due for release on this month's "Patch Tuesday", or December 11th, the service pack was created mainly based on consumer feedback. While Microsoft is mostly very "tight-lipped" about what exactly is going to be in the service pack, there are a couple confirmed features:

• Improved support for VSTO v3
• Better Object Model documentation for coding
• Improved support for .NET v3.5
• PowerPoint animated text has been upgraded
• Compatibility issues with previous Office file formats have been corrected
• Changes have been made to DirectX video overlay

AMD has revealed that Microsoft will not be releasing several versions of DirectX this time round, as was the case with DirectX 9, instead it will focus on DirectX 11 after the 10.1 update for DirectX 10 is released. With DirectX 9, Microsoft released major updates a number of times to allow for different shader models (2.0, 2.0a, 2.0b and 3.0). However, Microsoft looks set to encourage graphics companies like ATI and NVIDIA to focus on increasing performance rather than adding more features for the next few years, at least until the launch of DirectX 11. This could potentially pave the way for NVIDIA and ATI to work on multi-GPU graphics cards without the need to keep adding functionality. Microsoft will almost certainly continue to provide minor updates for DirectX, just with no major changes integrated.

Microsoft has released yet another poor VGA performance patch. The Symptoms: in some scenarios, games and benchmarks perform more poorly than expected on a Windows Vista-based computer. This issue occurs when the games and the benchmarks use multiple display adapters in a Linked Display Adapter (LDA) configuration. A graphics processing unit (GPU) or part of a GPU link may incur a small scheduling latency on a new Direct Memory Access (DMA) packet. This is true if the DMA packet is submitted to the GPU that has previously run out of work and if another GPU in the linked configuration is very busy. In some scenarios, significant starvation of one or more GPUs in the linked configuration reduces the expected performance of an application. Dated December 3, 2007 more information for the hotfix including download link can be found here.

It's no secret that the Windows Genuine Advantage software, which is designed to protect legitimate users and stop piracy, does quite a lot of flagging and hindering legitimate users. While piracy of Windows Vista happens about half as often as piracy of Windows XP, you hear a lot more about Windows Vista WGA hacks that extend the grace period by several days/years. And so, Microsoft is going to change WGA so that there is less unjust flagging of legitimate users, and more pirate-catching. The new WGA will first fix the aforementioned grace period hack. Please click "Read full story" to see the exact methodology behind the fix. Another main thing that Microsoft aims to do is eliminate the Vista OEM hack, which tricks Windows into thinking it is being installed on a legitimate OEM system.

Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director at Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, following his recent report putting Windows Vista ahead of Linux and Mac OS X for security, has now placed Internet Explorer ahead of the open source Firefox browser in a long-term comparative study. According to his analysis, fewer security vulnerabilities needed fixing in Internet Explorer than in the competition. Jones explains in his report Browser Vulnerability Analysis (PDF), that Mozilla has fixed 199 security vulnerabilities since November 2004, when Firefox first appeared, of which 75 were critical, 100 medium and 24 of low importance. Over the same period, a total of 87 security vulnerabilities were fixed in Internet Explorer, of which 54 were critical, 28 medium and 5 of low importance. He also notes that security updates are currently only being released for version 2.0 of Firefox, while Microsoft provides full support for earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

As promised, Microsoft is bringing some early gifts to your Xbox 360 just prior to the holiday season. Beginning at 02:00 a.m. PST on December 4th, the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update will be available for all connected Xbox 360 consoles free of charge, bringing an array of new features and enhancements to the leading gaming and entertainment system. Among the key new enhancements are the previously announced Xbox Originals game download service, Family Timer parental control feature, DivX support and expanded social networking experiences. Xbox 360 owners can also look forward to enhanced navigation, profile and video features and Xbox LIVE Arcade Hits.

Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) has several nifty new features, and a few performance tweaks. Anyone hoping to get their hands on said features and performance tweaks will be able to do that in a week or two. Next week, select beta testers (most likely the same ones that got a copy of Vista SP1 Beta code) will be able to play with Vista SP1 RC1. In the second week of December, Microsoft is most likely going to start a public beta program, much like the public beta program that Vista originally had. The current build is 17051, and Microsoft hopes to have a final Vista SP1 build out by early 2008.

The latest edition of Greenpeace's quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics published yesterday, revealed that Nintendo, Microsoft and Philips completely fail to show any environmental credentials when it comes to e-waste. The Guide ranks companies according to their policies and practices on toxic chemicals and takeback. Along with mobile phone and personal computer companies, the latest report adds the biggest makers of TVs and games consoles. Old TVs are a large part of e-waste and the games console market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics according to Greenpeace.

Nintendo has the dubious honour of being the first company to score 0/10 in the guide. Microsoft did little better, scoring only 2.7. Philips is the lowest TV-maker scoring only 2.

Windows Vista could be hit by more than 40 security vulnerabilities next year, as its market share increases to the point where hackers start to take notice, according to a McAfee analyst. "Most of the current malware has ignored Vista," said Craig Schmugar, a threat researcher at McAfee's Avert Lab, but that's not because the operating system has been secure. Concisely, we reported on Monday that Windows Vista nears 8% market share which means hackers will soon start to write more and more malicious software for the DX10 OS as it becomes more popular.

As Vista gains in adoption, it then impacts malware authors and forces them to focus attention on finding vulnerabilities, or to alter their social engineering techniques to accommodate it

Schmugar said.

On November 20, 1985, Microsoft unveiled Windows 1.0, and it began seeing mass-adoption by users this week. While Microsoft seems content with just letting the anniversary of the landmark operating system pass away, Windows lasting this long says plenty about it's quality and power. While some people love it, and others hate it, for various reasons, Windows has been growing ever since that week in 1985. The words Bill Gates said as he pushed Windows 1.0 out of factories are quite fitting for the anniversary:

Windows provides unprecedented power to users today and a foundation for hardware and software advancements of the next few years. It is unique software designed for the serious PC user, who places high value on the productivity that a personal computer can bring.

As a bit of nostalgia, the original version of Windows was $99USD, just like the Nintendo 64 and original Sony Playstation. Windows 1.0 also introduced Microsoft Write and Microsoft Paint to the computing scene.

Despite of widespread critics among certain groups of end-users, Microsoft Windows Vista operating system (OS) captured additional part of the market in October, whereas other operating systems from Microsoft reduced their installed base. At the same time, platforms from Apple reduced the shares of the market they command. In September the share of Windows Vista-based personal computers used to browse the Internet was close to 8%, 7.91% to be precise, up insignificantly, according to data collected by Net Applications, a provider of Web tools. The shares of Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems decreased to 3.16% and 79.07%. The share of systems based on Mac OS decreased to 6.55% in October, down from 6.61% a month before. Other operating systems, namely outdated Windows versions, Linux OSes and so on, which have been losing market share for many months now, are now used in 3.31% of devices that are browsing online.

We've been hearing about the latest service packs from Microsoft for some time, but until recently, there have been no mentions as to how either performs. An independent researcher took test versions of both Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 and pitted them against each other. What he found was astounding, to say the least. Vista SP1 at most points was no faster than the release version, and in some cases was twice as slow. However, XP SP3 was able to claim a very hefty performance boost from Vista SP1, and even XP SP2. If the beta performance carries over to the final versions, Microsoft will be making quite a pretty penny off of XP SP3, considering the massive performance gains seen at this time. Have a look at this very telling benchmark chart (Officebench, in seconds, less time is better).

Despite some PlayStation3 success in Japan, the Nintendo Wii is selling extraordinarily strong all around the world. While Nintendo hasn't been able to keep up with Wii demand since the console was released, they continue to make insane amounts of profit. After selling 200,000 units in Australia in just 50 weeks, analysts in the country declared that the Wii is the fastest selling console to ever hit Australia. Even the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, which both were met with extreme fanfare, took at least 55 weeks to reach the 200,000 mark in Australia. Sony refuses to let Nintendo take this title without a fight, as their PlayStation2 continues trucking along to its seventh birthday. Sony announced that they will continue to sell the PS2 throughout all of 2008, and possibly 2009. It is priced competitively, at $199AUD, for Christmas. Microsoft also is working hard to compete with Wii sales, by pricing the Xbox360 at the same price as the Wii ($399AUD). Time will tell if the Wii really is just a fad/gimmick, or if it really has something going for it.

Microsoft and Bungie have received both good and bad press from Halo 3. On the one hand, they claim record sales and profits. On the other, a sizable portion of the disks were faulty anyways. Thanks to a trivial packaging mistake, most of the "Legendary edition" disks came loose and scratched themselves during shipping. Even when the Halo 3 disks arrived in one piece, there was a certain chance that the game would not even load correctly, which Microsoft was well aware of. This inability to load correctly causes Xbox360s to "crash, freeze or lock up". That's the case that Californian gamer Randy Nunez is making against Microsoft. His class-action lawsuit seeks $5 million USD, and claims that Microsoft should have recalled Halo 3 after they knew about the crashing, freezing, and locking-up that Halo 3 would cause. What could really win this case in favor of Nunez is the fact that quite a few gamers get disk read error messages in the middle of a Halo 3 battle.

Microsoft's Windows Home Server officially launched earlier this month, is already preparing to be updated. Microsoft says that the new update is "part of the ongoing process of continually enhancing the customer experience with Windows Home Server." The update includes a few feature additions for Windows Home Server. Currently, users who login to their server when away from their home network - through an external URL like https://yourname.homeserver.com - are greeted with a security warning. The November 27 update will now provide users with a trusted SSL certificate for their Windows Home Severs. The SSL certification was provided with the help of Windows Live Domains and GoDaddy. Other new features include a "Delete All" button to remove home computer backups. Microsoft has also taken steps to make the Shared Folders and Server Storage aspects of Windows Home Server more robust and user friendly.

It's no secret that Microsoft's anti-piracy campaign, WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage), is a lot like strict gun laws: they make sure that only criminals have an easy time of things. While legitimate users are accused of piracy and have to re-activate Windows every time they upgrade their graphics card, pirated versions of Windows, completely cracked, lack all forms of WGA software. In light of this, Microsoft did a study of their WGA software. An analysis of the study results found a couple things that would make WGA much more trustworthy, easy to work with, and less frustrating. Microsoft has already repaired the WGA validation servers that caused such a fuss back in August, and is adding quite a few backup servers. Microsoft also added 24/7 technical support via phone and internet for anyone with a problem. In the future, Microsoft plans to unleash a "get genuine" campaign. If anyone discovers that their version of Windows is pirated, and wants to go legitimate, the "get genuine" software will give these people an easy way to get a legitimate copy of Windows installed and running.

To the delight of gamers and science-fiction (sci-fi) fans alike, the wait is finally over as "Mass Effect," an award-winning action role-playing game (RPG) described by Game Informer Magazine as "One of the greatest science fiction stories ever told," hits retail shelves today, with a continued rollout to retailers worldwide planned.

Microsoft late last week released an updated test version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to about 15,000 beta testers. The update, the third such service pack for the six-year-old operating system is due out in final form in the first half of next year. The company said before its final release it expects to issue a public test version of the service pack, though it did not provide more specificity than at "a later date."

"We are targeting (the first half of) 2008 for the release of XP SP3," Microsoft said, "though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority."

Beginning December 11, three new multiplayer maps will be available for players of Bungie's Halo 3 (X360). Titled the Heroic Map Pack, its three maps - Foundry, Rat's Nest, and Standoff - will be downloadable from the online Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Microsoft describes Standoff as "ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types" due to its symmetrical layout and boulder-filled battlefield. Rat's Nest is said to be "an indoor vehicle paradise" best suited for big team battles, whereas Foundry is "the ultimate Forge map" as players can manipulate and replace every object object within it to create their own custom arena.

Microsoft has signed off on Visual Studio 2008 and is expected to release it early next week-on November 19th. Earlier this month Microsoft committed to ship Visual Studio 2008, formerly code-named Orcas, by the end of November. The company is making good on that commitment and is expected to have Visual Studio RTM (release to manufacturing) on Nov. 19, according to sources and Microsoft blogs. The tool-set will be available on the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network). "Visual Studio 2008 is anticipated out early next week, with availability for subscribers," the MSDN blog said in a late-night post on Nov. 16. Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 enable developers at all levels to rapidly create connected applications for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, mobile devices and the Web. Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System is also expected to ship by the end of November.