Channel Insider Staff

Microsoft Corp. made available to beta testers on Wednesday two slightly different test versions of Internet Explorer 7.0, the next version of the company’s Web browser. Microsoft included IE 7.0 bits in the Beta 1 build of Windows Vista that the company began distributing, via download, to beta testers on Wednesday. It also released a […]

While Vista Beta 1 is stealing most of the headlines this week, Microsoft also is delivering simultaneously on Wednesday to a select group of private testers the first beta of its Longhorn Server product. Microsoft has not yet decided on a final name for the next version of its Windows Server operating system (other than […]

In preparing for the imminent Beta 1 release of Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7.0, Microsoft posted to the Web new information about new features expected in the pending product releases. Microsoft made available on Tuesday two separate privacy notices, providing information about data that Microsoft intends to collect during the beta testing process. Those […]

Microsoft has decided on an official name for Longhorn: Windows Vista. That’s according to sources close to the company who requested anonymity. They said Microsoft unveiled the name Thursday in Atlanta at the company’s internal sales event, known as the Microsoft Global Sales Briefing, or MGB. Word of Longhorn’s new name began leaking to the […]

The dust has largely settled following Apple Computer Inc.’s announcement that it would use Intel Corp. microprocessors in its Macintosh computers—a shift that will start in some models by mid-2006 and will include all Macs by the end of 2007—but resellers are still trying to analyze the impact the big switch will have for their […]

MINNEAPOLIS—Microsoft may love its partners. But that isn’t stopping the company from continuing to encroach on areas that have traditionally been its partners’ turf. At the final day of Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference here on Sunday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off his morning keynote with repeated shouts of “I love you, partners!” But shortly […]

I had been wondering how Microsoft’s vertical partner efforts were going. Now I know: Badly. Very badly. Bad enough that One Microsoft—its direct-sales vertical sales force—

MINNEAPOLIS—The easiest question that Microsoft senior VP Doug Burgum fielded during an open Q&A session with channel partners on Thursday: What is the difference between a bison and a buffalo? After that one—which North Dakota native Burgum handled with ease—the questions got a lot tougher, as MBS (Microsoft Business Solutions) partners at the worldwide partner […]

MINNEAPOLIS — To Microsoft, the small/mid-size business (SMB) segment is no longer a single entity. Here at the company’s annual worldwide partner conference this week, Microsoft is planning to announce new programs aimed at what its officials now claim are two very different and distinct types of businesses. Microsoft is now targeting mid-size customers with […]

From Microsoft Watch: It’s time again for Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference. This year, it’s Minneapolis that will do the hosting honors. The Microsoft brass are slated to explain to the more than 6,000 partners in attendance Microsoft’s evolving vertical sales push, as well as its new small-business- and mid-market-focused partner programs for fiscal 2006. […]

While Microsoft is expected to use this week’s Worldwide Partner Conference to flesh out its vertical sales push, company brass also are going to detail the small-business and mid-market initiatives that Microsoft will launch in the coming year. Microsoft’s annual partner conference kicks off on Thursday in Minneapolis. More than 6,000 resellers, OEMs, systems integrators, […]

Skype users can now download a free plug-in from Dialcom that will enable video conferencing using the Skype P2P engine, reports Faultline, in an article posted on The Register. The Spontania Video4skype, allows any users with a webcam connected to their PCs and a Skype account and broadband internet access, to make video-calls using the […]