Stuart J. Johnston

If you’re thinking about upgrading your computers to Windows 7, knowing what you’re up against will save you time and aggravation. InternetNews.com reports on a tech support company that flagged the top 10 problems their customers ran into during the upgrade process. Remember, forewarned is forearmed. Got the urge to upgrade from Windows XP or […]

If you’re contemplating an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010, you have just about seven months to save your pennies. Stuart Johnston at InternetNews.com reports on the productivity software’s delivery details. Microsoft has quietly announced it plans to ship the next major release of its productivity applications suite — Office 2010 — right on time, in […]

It’s the end of a calculating era for Microsoft as it plans to discontinue its line of Office Accounting software. Stuart Johnston at Internetnews.com looks at the options available for existing customers. Microsoft quietly announced Friday that it plans to kill off its Office Accounting products, beginning Nov. 16. “After evaluating the product over the […]

Always looking for unserved or underserved markets, Microsoft unveiled a Windows Server offering on Wednesday that aims to provide very small businesses with an entry-level server. Dubbed Windows Server 2008 Foundation, the server offering, which targets small businesses that have 15 or fewer users, will be available through PC OEMs beginning in April, the company […]

Microsoft confirmed Friday it is going to provide a common location for users to connect with Office Live services and Windows Live. Microsoft has, until now, focused on providing Office Live services – principally Office Live Small Business and Office Live Workspace – that target small business users. Those services are currently in beta test. […]

Dozens of major companies are announcing layoffs, while PC sales finished 2008 up only marginally. Even Microsoft is rumored to be looking at its first ever layoffs. Yet, according to a new survey, many small businesses are still optimistic about 2009 and are looking to expand their businesses’ presence on the Web. Released Wednesday, the […]

Click on the graphic for a larger view of Live Services Microsoft says its long-awaited ‘Wave 3’ of Windows Live Services will begin to be delivered worldwide over the next few weeks. The release aims to provide Windows Live users with a set of updated as well as new services, with the intention to provide […]

Microsoft announced this week at its Worldwide Partners Conference 2008 in Houston it will ship the first release of its server bundle for mid-sized businesses as well as the next version of its small business server bundle on November 12. That puts both Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 and Windows Small Business Server (SBS) […]

Microsoft has announced that it is shipping a preview version of one of its upcoming server bundles for small- and medium-sized businesses and also disclosed pricing for the products, which includes a sizable increase for the small business package. Interested parties can now download and evaluate Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 Release Candidate 0 […]

A week after Microsoft reneged on publicly releasing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) due to compatibility issues with one of the company’s small and medium business products, the update for XP is finally available to the public at large. Microsoft was set to broadly release XP SP3 via its public download sites last week […]

If you can’t beat ’em – surround ’em. That may be the crux of Microsoft’s emerging strategy for combating emerging software-as-a-service (SaaS) competitors. Although Microsoft executives continue to criticize Office competitors such as OpenOffice.org, Sun’s StarOffice, and Google Docs as inadequate for most users’ needs, the company is not beyond changing directions when it sees […]

Attention Microsoft customers waiting to try out the company’s hosted CRM offering: The wait is over. The software giant is now delivering its Dynamics CRM Online service, a Microsoft-hosted version of the company’s Dynamics CRM 4 customer relationship management software. Dynamics CRM Online, which Microsoft first demonstrated in July at its Worldwide Partner Conference, was […]