Microsoft this week announced the latest beta of its free antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).

The release is called a "beta" yet again, even though it was a beta back on June 23, 2009 and Sept. 29, 2009. The security software only works on "genuine" Windows systems and can be downloaded at the Microsoft Connect portal here (it requires a password sign-up).

The MSE beta has a new feature that sweeps the network called the... [Read More]

OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 was released on June 4 and a new master workspace was branched off for the upcoming 3.3 on June 5. The code in this branch will be stabilized and later become the product release that will find its way onto your desktops.

With the feature and UI freeze of June 24, only fixes will go into this new OOO330 release code branch. New features will be merged into the DEV300 development code line as 3.3 is readied for release.
On July 19 the first developmental... [Read More]

With Firefox 4 emerging as a public beta this week, it’s time to take a closer look at the next version of Mozilla’s Web browser. I spent some time with this pre-release version to see how it compares to its predecessor.

At launch, Firefox 4 looks very much like Firefox 3—which came as something of a surprise to me, after reading about the browser’s new interface featuring tabs on top and an easy way to switch tabs from the URL bar.

As it turns out, these interface... [Read More]

Although still early in the process, newly leaked documents about Windows 8 offer some keen insight into where Microsoft wants to head with the next version of the operating system.

One thing that is made abundantly clear is that Microsoft has been paying attention to Apple. In the documents, which appear to come from an April meeting with computer makers, Microsoft... [Read More]

Microsoft this week released Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3, which lets IT pros run the mail server on Windows Server 2008 R2.

The new service pack was released on Sunday, but was announced yesterday, and can be downloaded here. Microsoft took time to deliver this service pack because it entailed making a lot of coding changes to Exchange 2007, the company explained late last year. Microsoft promised back then that it would deliver SP3 in the second half of this year, so this... [Read More]