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.

Microsoft Corp. plans to release a major update to its Windows Live OneCare security suite next week, according to online retailer Amazon.com. Amazon has already begun accepting orders for OneCare 2.0, which it says will ship next Thursday. Microsoft has been beta testing OneCare 2.0 since July. The software, which can be run on up to three PCs, has new tools for backing up, monitoring and managing home networks. It also has new features to speed up the performance of systems that use the software. Its suggested retail price is US$49.95, but Amazon is offering it for $42.99. OneCare is sold on a subscription basis, so these prices would cover a one-year subscription.

A man who claims Microsoft improperly allowed his underage son to use his debit card to subscribe to the company's Xbox Live gaming service and automatically renewed the subscription without authorization is suing the software maker for consumer fraud. In a class action suit, Georgia resident Francisco Garcia claims that in October 2005 his son, Silvario, used his debit card to buy a $49.99, one-year subscription to Xbox Live. The service lets Xbox owners play games like Halo 3 against each other over the Internet. A year later, Garcia claims, Microsoft automatically billed him for an additional year of Xbox Live without his knowledge or consent. He contends that the charge sent his checking account into overdraft, and that his bank slapped him with a $35.00 penalty. By accepting a subscription from a minor and automatically renewing it without consent, Microsoft "fraudulently induced a contractual relationship for Xbox Live services," Garcia claims in his suit. Microsoft has asked the federal court to dismiss the case, claiming it has paperwork that proves Silvario Garcia misrepresented his age when he subscribed to Xbox Live by falsely stating that he was at least 18 years old.

DailyTech has made inquiries about what other big developers and Microsoft itself think of DirectX 10.1. Expected to be rolled out with Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1, "DX10.1 is an incremental update that won't affect any games or gamers in the near future." said senior global director of Microsoft games on Windows, Kevin Unangst. Microsoft isn't the only developer downplaying DirectX 10.1. Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, states, "We pride ourselves on being the first to adopt any important new technology that can improve our games so you would expect us to get with DX10.1 right away but we've looked at it and there's just nothing in it important enough to make it needed. So we have no plans to use it at all, not even in the future." NVIDIA also has a response for AMD's DirectX 10.1 support, a feature of AMD's new HD 3800 series that the company has been rather vocal about. NVIDIA's latest guidance describes DirectX 10.1 as "a minor extension of DirectX 10 that makes a few optional features in DirectX 10 mandatory". NVIDIA's corporate roadmap details plans to include DirectX 10.1 in its ninth-generation GPU architecture, codenamed D9. However, the first D9 processors will not debut until next year.

Microsoft already lets users to download retro games via Xbox LIVE Arcade, but the company is now planning to expand on its game downloads by offering users the ability to download full games from the original Xbox. With the release if the Xbox 360's next software update, which is planned for 2nd December, Microsoft will allow gamers to download from an initial selection of half a dozen Xbox games, with the first wave of titles being Burnout 3, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Fable, Indigo Prophecy and, of course, Halo: Combat Evolved. The pricing is expected to be 1200 Microsoft Points per game, which works out at about $15, and although no details about content protection were released, Microsoft is likely to prevent users sharing games between more than one account. Microsoft intends to gradually make more games available for download, although any Xbox 360 owners who are interested in this and only have a 20GB hard drive may want to invest in bigger storage.

At Microsoft TechEd IT Forum 2007, Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of Infrastructure Server Marketing at Microsoft Corp., updated an audience of more than 5,000 IT professionals on the development of Windows Server 2008 and a new virtualization offering. As Microsoft nears the final stages of Windows Server 2008 development and the Feb. 27, 2008, worldwide launch event, Kelly announced detailed packaging, pricing and licensing information for Windows Server 2008.

This week, the software giant announced its commercial Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program, a part of its Genuine Software Initiative. This program is tailored to the needs of large refurbishers that wish to work with Microsoft to deliver genuine Windows software licenses on systems they refurbish and resell. It also aims to reduce pirating of Windows. Microsoft estimates that, in 2004, 20 million refurbished PCs were sold. Today, the company projects that number is closer to 28 million. Two large refurbishers have been initially selected to participate in MAR: Columbus, Ohio-based Redemtech and Austin, Texas-based TechTurn. Find out more about MAR here.

Daniel A. Reed will join Microsoft Research as director of Scalable and Multicore Computing, reporting to Senior Vice President of Research Rick Rashid. Reed is an expert in high-performance computing, multicore architectures and scientific applications, as well as a leader in U.S. information technology research policy.

In a bid to make the Xbox 360 more family-friendly than the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft is adding parental controls to the Xbox 360 Dashboard sometime in early December. This "family timer" feature will allow parents (or whoever knows the master password) to control exactly how much time gamers can spend, you know, gaming. The timer, to its credit, will give gamers warning a few minutes before the alloted time period is up, at which point the console simply shuts off. This will make running for save-points much more interesting indeed.

In related news, enforcing strict controls on when children can play video games may cause more problems than it's worth. A recent random-selection poll conducted by Microsoft of 800 families found that 45% of families create tension in the home by putting restrictions on digital content, and punishing children by barring them from their video games can lead to disturbing murder plots in extreme cases.

Microsoft fired Chief Information Officer Stuart Scott on Friday after two years with the company, saying he violated company policies. The software maker did not specify which policies.

We can confirm that Stuart Scott was terminated after an investigation for violation of company policies,

a Microsoft representative said in an e-mailed statement. Microsoft said that two executives - General Manager Shahla Aly and Corporate Vice President Alain Crozier - will assume Scott's responsibilities until a replacement is identified. Microsoft declined to comment further on Scott's departure.

After a trickle of updates and "betas", Microsoft Corp. is ready to start promoting its official package of free desktop programs for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and sharing photos. The programs are "essentially a free upgrade for Windows," said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live at Microsoft. The package includes Windows Live Mail client, which should replace the old and integrated Outlook Express. The package also includes Windows Live Photo Gallery, Live Writer for writing blog posts, and the Live Messenger instant-messaging software. The applications aren't much different from test versions previously available.

U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it will invest $500 million in a new Dublin-based European data center, which will be completed by Summer 2009. The 51,000 square-meter center, which will add only about 20 jobs by virtue of being largely self-automated, will deliver Windows Live services and store data for its online services businesses such as Window Live and MSN. In addition to the $500 million in construction, there will be "an additional substantial investment" to kit out the center with the latest available server technology.

AMD today announced it is demonstrating platforms based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, including features designed to help Microsoft Windows application developers optimize their software applications through tools in upcoming software products from Microsoft Corp. The technology demonstrations at the conference in Barcelona, Spain show new integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.

The Japanese sales figures for last month's console sales are in, and there's some good news for the PS3. Sony's console is now just over 63,000 units behind the Wii compared to almost 175,000 units in August (the figures for September weren't announced), which is a considerably smaller gap. The bad news for both consoles is that sales figures have plummeted from 245,653 units for the Wii and 81,541 units for the PS3 in August to just 110,415 units and 47,183 units respectively. It was better news for Microsoft, which saw its Xbox 360 sales figures rise from 11,288 units to 18,717 units over the same time period, although it still lags behind both other companies. The PS3's and 360's sales would have been helped slightly by both consoles experiencing a price drop during October, and the PS3 is expected to do well in November with the introduction of the new 40GB PS3 in Japan, along pre-Christmas sales affecting figures.

Microsoft has decided to be a little generous this month and is offering all Xbox LIVE Silver members the chance to trial four free days of Xbox LIVE Gold, from 23rd to 26th November, as part of an event being called Xtival. Silver members will have full access to complete Gold functionality, with Microsoft promising a number of bonuses including competitions and exclusive downloads. Current Xbox LIVE Gold members are also being promised a treat, although Microsoft is yet to announce any specific details. This should give all Xbox 360 owners in Europe the chance to trial Xbox LIVE Gold if they're undecided about whether it's worth paying for or not.

In most cases, selling extended warranties on products that probably aren't going to die anyways has been an enormous profit-maker for retailers worldwide. However, the Xbox360 has unfortunately done the exact opposite. For whatever reason, the Xbox360 is notorious for failing. And so, to curb the deficit that the Xbox360 is causing Gamestop, Gamestop is no longer offering extended warranties on the Xbox360, instead relying on Microsoft to do that.

Microsoft earlier this year announced plans to re-design the Xbox360, in an effort to reduce alarming failure rates.

Software giant Microsoft is making progress in creating a modified version of its Windows operating system designed to run on the XO laptop built by the One Laptop Per Child project. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole said:

We're spending a nontrivial amount of money on it. We remain hopeful with our progress to date, we still have significant work ahead to finalize our analysis and testing processes. At the end of the day, there's no guarantees.

The OLPC project intends to start producing its laptop next month, which is designed for elementary school children in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The laptops were originally designed to run Linux, however Microsoft hopes to develop a cut-down version of Windows in order to install it on the XO, with the biggest issues being reducing the power consumption and the space required by the operating system in order for it to run efficiently.

Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $13.76 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, a 27% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.92 billion, $4.29 billion and $0.45, respectively.

"This fiscal year is off to an outstanding start with the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "Operating income growth of over 30% also reflects our ability to translate revenue into profits while making strategic investments for the future."

Microsoft's automatic updates system has once again found itself in the limelight following an issue with Windows Desktop Search 3.01 which has slowed thousands of computers and is causing havoc for IT technicians around the world. Despite client computers being configured only to update currently installed software, numerous blogs have reported that the Desktop Search software is installing itself and then hogging resources by loading an indexer, resulting in client computers slowing to a crawl and file servers struggling with the increased load. A Microsoft spokeswoman says the company is looking into reports, but IT administrators won't be too impressed with Windows Update at the moment as this comes just weeks after news that the update services secretly downloads and installs updates even on computers with automatic update disabled.

Microsoft has just released the November update for DirectX 9.0c. At present only the end-user web installer is available, but this is the version which should suit most techPowerUp! readers best anyway. Although it's only a minor update, everyone should update to prevent any potential problems in new games and to ensure full compatibility with future drivers. The download is between 10KB and 212.6MB depending on how up-to-date your current version of DirectX is and it is for all versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Download here.

Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc. Under the expanded strategic alliance, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.

Microsoft Corp. today released research showing an acceleration in the number of security attacks designed to steal personal information or trick people into providing it through social engineering. Microsoft's most recent Security Intelligence Report, a comprehensive analysis of the threat landscape, shows that attackers are increasingly targeting personal information to make a profit and are threatening to impact people's privacy. The report found that during the first half of 2007, 31.6 million phishing scams were detected, an increase of more than 150 percent over the previous six months. The study also shows a 500 percent increase in trojan downloaders and droppers, malicious code used to install files such as trojans, password stealers, keyboard loggers and other malware on users' systems.

Just in time for the holiday seacon, Microsoft Corp. today released the long rumored new Xbox 360 Arcade console. Available in stores beginning today for $279.99, Xbox 360 Arcade console is the first Xbox 360 console to include five family-friendly games, a wireless controller, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connection to enable high-definition output if desired, and 256 MB of memory useful for storing games and entertainment content. The Xbox 360 Arcade console includes five best-selling games: PAC-MAN Championship Edition (NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.), UNO (Carbonated Games), Luxor 2 (MumboJumbo), Boom Boom Rocket (Electronic Arts Inc.) and Feeding Frenzy (Sprout Games).