Microsoft - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• A Microsoft layoff? It's had 8 (small) ones in 7 years

  In the past decade, Microsoft's steady, uninterrupted sales growth has been matched by only one thing: its steady hiring.

• Windows 7 beta: your complete resource center to the OS

  Microsoft Windows 7 beta is now available for public download. We've compiled all the information you need to understand what's different with the Windows 7 beta and decide whether it's the right option for you.

• Windows 7 beta: Should you try it?

  Microsoft is busily promoting Windows 7, its next operating system and successor to the much-maligned Vista.

• Windows 7 public beta: first impressions

  On Thursday at CES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the public availability of the Windows 7 beta release. At PC World we've been running our own evaluations of the forthcoming replacement to Microsoft's much-derided Windows Vista for some time now, and we just couldn't wait to take this new version for a spin. Here's one editor's take on the latest Windows 7 user experience.

• How to get your mitts on the Windows 7 beta

  Late Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled the public beta for Windows 7, the follow-on and follow-up to Vista, which from all signs the company is trying to forget as fast as possible.

• Vista SP2: six things you need to know

  Windows Vista Service Pack 2 has been released as a public beta version.

• The Microsoft-Novell Linux deal: Two years later

  Two years ago this month, Microsoft forged its controversial partnership with Novell that, among other things, had the two companies agreeing not to sue each other over intellectual property issues, in part to protect Suse Linux users over any patent litigation from Microsoft.

• In pictures: What's new in Windows 7?

  Windows 7 — Microsoft's long-waited successor to Windows Vista — is expected to ship in 2010, if not earlier. Until now, the software giant has remained tight-lipped on the features in the new OS.

• Social networking behind the firewall

  Microsoft calls it TownSquare. Deloitte hosts D Street. IBM has its Beehive, and Best Buy its BlueShirt Nation.

• How to run a legal copy of Vista for 120 days without activation

  Microsoft's Windows Vista can be used for as long as 120 days without agreeing to its product activation antipiracy software, the company confirmed Friday. That's four times longer than the 30 days the company has widely used as the maximum time span the operating system can be used before it shuts down.