Someone has dedicated the past year of their life to searching for a very simple thing: the actual place where a Windows XP wallpaper was shot. New York resident Nick Tosches took one look at "Autumn", and knew he wanted to find the place where Microsoft photographers got the picture. He searched long and hard, calling Microsoft PR's, inn owners, and local farmers. He eventually found the background "just west of Toronto in the Burlington suburb of Kilbride". In regards to his search, Tosches says "It was insane. Something that would appear very simple at first probably turned out to be one of the most difficult searches of my life." The picture of the actual Windows XP background is below.

Microsoft has been ordered to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent after losing a patent dispute regarding the MP3 audio technology used by Windows. The enormous fine comes after a verdict by a federal jury in San Diego ruled that the company should compensate for damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. Microsoft claims that it licensed MP3 technology from Fraunhofer in a $16 million deal, and also claims that the patent may not cover overseas Windows sales, arguing they should be excluded from the damages. Alcatel-Lucent previously sued Dell and Gateway during 2003 in similar cases.

For those who run multiple operating systems, Microsoft has released its latest version of Virtual PC, which allows users to quickly switch from one OS to another by simply clicking the mouse. Although Microsoft once charged for this software, it is now free to everyone, although it doesn't work on home versions of Windows (ie. not XP Home or Vista Home Basic/Premium). It is capable of running a number of different operating systems, although some Linux distributions can be complicated to setup. It works with both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and can be downloaded here.

The CEO of Micrsoft, Steve Balmer, admits that predicted Vista sales were 'overly optimistic'. When faced with the current Vista sales, he blames them on a high amount of pirated copies being cracked in developing nations such as Russia and China. In response to this, Balmer promises that WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) will get much tougher to combat the recent piracy. It seems that Mr.Balmer does not think that there are possible issues with Windows Vista preventing people from buying it, let alone pirating it. A lack of driver support, a lack of advantages over Windows XP, and a hate of WGA all could be reasons people are not buying Windows Vista. An increase of WGA may very well shoot back in Microsoft's face.

Digital Rights Management, the technology that prevents people who download music from sharing it, is soon going to find its way onto mobiles. PlayReady, as it is known, is a new DRM which allows for subscription, rental, pay-per-view and the mysterious "super-distribution." Although is has been written by Microsoft, it will not only work with Microsoft's own media formations but other standards including AAC and H.264. PlayReady is backwards compatible with Windows Media DRM 10, so it should allow any mobile devices that use it to play music they've already downloaded using services such as Napster. There isn't any information about whether Microsoft intends to license PlayReady to other vendors yet, or whether it will be seen on desktops or not.

Windows users saw a five year gap between the release of Windows XP and its new successor, Windows Vista. However, according to one of Microsoft's vice presidents, Ben Fathi, the next operating system could ship as early and 2009. "You can think roughly two, two and a half years is a reasonable time frame that our partners can depend on and can work with," he said. "That's a good timeframe for refresh." To put that time period into perspective, two and a half years is about the same length of time as there was between XP service pack two and the launch of Vista.

Whether or not this thing comes with a 65nm CPU is unclear. However, it will come with a bunch of other features that the 'Zephyr' was rumored to have. Australian retailers should have, by the time that the PS3 is available to PAL territories, a $750 AUD black Xbox360. This Xbox360 will have an HDMI port, a 120GB hard drive, and a shiny black controller. It may be possible to get just the hard drive as an add on for existing Xbox360's later. The device will ship for $749 AUD ($585/£299/€449).

The Register's interpretation of how this black Xbox360 may look:

Microsoft and Old Spice teamed up, and are going to give Xbox Live gamers rewards for, well, playing their Xbox360. If you register for the program by February 12th, you are eligible for a wide variety of awards. To register for the program you need to "Have a valid Windows Live ID linked to your Xbox Live Gamertag; Be a legal resident of the United States (future contests will be available on a global scale) and be at least 13 years old." The awards are divided into three tiers, depending on how seriously you take gaming (Microsoft calls it your "gamerscore").

• Level 1 (Gamers who have an annual gamerscore between 0-4,999 at time of entry): Game Picture, Dashboard theme, Contra for Xbox LIVE Arcade
• Level 2 (5,000-9,999 annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 100 Microsoft Points and a contest T-shirt
• Level 3 (10,000+ annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 200 Microsoft Points, contest T-shirt and Fusion Frenzy 2 In addition, Old Spice will give Level 1 and 2 the gift of experience by upgrading their Rewards Level for 2007.

Microsoft has decided that they will not bother with closing the vista upgrade loophole, where the user does not actually need a copy of XP installed. According to TheINQ "People without a licensed copy of XP that use this workaround are violating the terms of use agreed to when they purchased the upgrade version of Windows Vista," a spokesvole told vnunet.com. Another quote the inquirer article reads "As such, we believe only a very small percentage of people will take the time to implement this workaround, and we encourage all customers to follow our official guidelines for upgrading to Windows Vista."

The vista upgrade version is about two-thirds of the retail price.

Recently, Romanian president Traian Basescu met with Bill Gates. He then proceeded to tell him how his country's IT business would be nothing if it weren't for pirated Windows software. He claimed that Romania's pirated Windows really helped the younger generation get into computers, which in turn accelerated IT development. Pirated copies of Windows also helped encourage creativity with computers. Basescu claimed that if it weren't for this piracy 10 years ago, he and Bill Gates wouldn't be the good friends they are now. Bill Gates got rather quiet, as he certainly doesn't like supporting piracy of his own software. Romania introduced anti-piracy legislation 10 years ago, but there are very few arrests being made considering that an estimated 70% of the country's software is pirated.

On Jan. 30 the most significant product launch in Microsoft Corp.'s history culminates in the release to consumers of the Windows Vista operating system and Microsoft Office 2007. Starting tomorrow, these two flagship products will be available in more than 70 countries, in 19 languages (with 99 languages anticipated by the end of the year), and at more than 39,000 retail stores and online. The launch marks the achievement of an unprecedented collaboration between Microsoft and its customers and partners, and ushers in an era in which personal computing is easier, safer and more enjoyable than ever before.

Microsoft, back in May, began promoting it's new "Windows Media Photo" standard, which has been since renamed HD Photo. Microsoft is very clear with it's ambitions: They want to replace JPEG as the primary format for pictures. While some would argue that overtaking JPEG as the most popular picture format is a bit overzealous, Microsoft has two figurative ace-in-the-hole's. The first is that Microsoft will be shipping it with Windows Vista. That means that people who use Windows Vista will be able to see HD Photo, regardless of the photo viewer. This isn't exactly the kind of thing you need to switch people to a picture format. So Adobe systems will patch Photoshop CS3 after it is released to support HD Photo. This will allow users to save their pictures in HD Photo. CNET editors call these methods "pervasive", but they could very well be effective. The picture below shows what the difference is between JPEG and HD Photo when talking about compression. The less color in the picture, the less distortion there is, so ideally a perfect compression would be pitch black.

The Windows Server code-named "Longhorn" is the successor to Windows Server 2003. Numerous sources suggest that the Operating System will be name Windows Server 2007 or 2008, depending on its release date. The Longhorn server beta program will be launching within the next few weeks. Microsoft is allowing public preregistration for beta testing of the upcomming "longhorn" server operating system. Allegedly Microsoft will have it available for download within the next week or so.


You can register on this page.

Although the Zune is still unavailable in Europe, Microsoft is already planning its next addition to the portable media range with a flash-based version of the Zune. Whilst the standard Zune is going head-to-head with the iPod Video, this new version is likely to be fighting against the iPod Nano, although it has a few extra features. This new Zune will be "a truly WiFi enabled device" which could be suggesting wireless downloads and maybe even improved music sharing. Prices aren't available yet but expect this for Q4 2007.

Microsoft has teamed up with Razer once again to introduce the new Microsoft Reclusa Gaming Keyboard. Build for hardcore gamers this keyboard features blue LED keys backlighting, Hyperesponse technology for maximum key response, 5 different gaming profiles, and two built-in gold-plated USB ports. Gamers will also be able to improve their efficiency with 12 custom-programmable buttons that include two 360 degree jog-dials and two bumper buttons conveniently located on each side of the keyboard for faster control and optimized gameplay. Microsoft Reclusa will be widely available in March 2007 for an estimated retail price of $69.95 (U.S.). For complete information on Microsoft Reclusa Gaming Keyboard, please click here.

LAS VEGAS - Jan. 7, 2007 - Speaking at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach showed how the company is delivering a new generation of connected experiences that are inspired by the universal desire to create community and share interests and passions with friends and family.

Gates and Bach announced several new products and services that include new Windows Vista -inspired PCs, never-before-seen Windows Vista features, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)-enabled Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and a new partnership with Ford Motor Co. that will extend digital experiences to the car. The company also unveiled Microsoft Windows Home Server, which provides a central place to help store, protect and access all the digital content in the home.

Microsoft is continuing to develop its latest console, this time with an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) update. Microsoft itself will not be providing the content that is available, this responsibility will instead fall upon existing providers, with AT&T rumoured to be one of these. Websites first started to report this last Saturday, but it has only just been confirmed by Microsoft, and they have not yet announced which providers will to be used. If the company chooses to allow users to record the content or uses video on demand, the rumoured 120GB hard drive now seems all the more likely. The Xbox 360 was already capable of streaming high definition video from a PC, but the console will now be capable of HD TV programmes directly through a broadband connection.

Microsoft has officially sold 10.4 million Xbox360 consoles to retail stores, which is over 400,000 consoles more than they expected to sell. Microsoft is expected to announce this tomorrow night, along with their plans for "IPTV", or Internet Protocol TeleVision. Whether or not Microsoft plans on becoming a provider of IPTV, only time will tell. However, the plans for IPTV coincide very nicely with the new Xbox 360 "Zephyr", which has a 120GB hard drive for storing all that television, and an HDMI port for acting like a set top box.

Microsoft has sponsored a study into its latest operating system and the new Aero theme, which has come to the conclusion that it doesn't slow PCs. Apparently the new interface "had little or no negative impact on Vista's performance". Matt Ayers, a program manager at Microsoft, wrote "We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficient as possible, and it really paid off," continuing "You can run Aero without guilt!" Many people have criticised the resource-hungry Windows Vista which has put some gamers off using it, and this report may make people sceptical as to why Microsoft recommends a noticeably more powerful system when running the Aero interface. Although the report comes to this conclusion, it does not appear to contain any benchmarks related to gaming or 3D applications.

Microsoft has recently been competing with search giants such as Google for advertising money. And so, like what Google does in Gmail accounts, Microsoft is adding 'behavioral targeting', or personalized ads, to it's advertising campaign. What that means is that Microsoft will report their users' search habits, sorted by demographics, to advertisers. The advertisers can then use this data to create advertisements based on what the demographics search for. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo also use personalized advertising.

In order to equal its rivals, Microsoft has decided to extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 from a mere 90 days to a more satisfactory one year, the general standard for most electrical appliances nowadays. The company has also decided to refund the cost of any repairs done in the last twelve months, which should be done automatically over the next ten weeks.

On November 15th, we reported that the Microsoft Zune music player was not Vista-ready. Microsoft has patched the Zune installer so that it will not only allow installs on Windows Vista, but add a performance increase for people who do so. Microsoft also patched various security issues in the installer they refused to elaborate on. You can download the updated software here.

New firmware for Microsoft's Zune player has been released. Apparently, it does not add any new features, but it has improved stability and performance. For devices being upgraded from Zune firmware version 1.0, this update includes the enhancements provided in Zune firmware version 1.1. Click here if you don't know how to update your Zune firmware.

According to a number of bloggers, the boss of Microsoft himself, Bill Gates, has said that DRM (Digital Rights Management) "Is not where it should be." Microsoft itself uses DRM to protect music, with it being used by online services such as Napster and the Zune Store. His recommendation is to "buy a CD and rip it", which will allow users more freedom in moving their music between computers and MP3 players. Gates is reported to have said this to a group of invited bloggers at Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle.

Microsoft Website gets a faceliftIf you take a look at www.microsoft.com you will notice that the site now has a new layout, giving it a more modern and fresh look (old shown on the left, new on the right). Pages based on a similar template have been appearing for newer software such as Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista for some time now, but Microsoft have only now transferred it to their main page. They seem to be aiming for a simpler design to make navigation easier for the average user. If you want to read the frequently asked questions about the new site take a look here.