Bill Gates spoke in Tokyo last week, touting the immense sales of the Windows Vista operating system.

Gates stated that Vista, since releasing in 2006, has sold more than 140 million copies.

He stated that Windows Vista is right on par with where the success of Windows XP was during its life.

Gates called the sales rate of Windows Vista a "very rapid sales rate."

Microsoft has been taking a lot of heat for Windows Vista due to the fact that many people have not wanted to upgrade from Windows XP to the next-gen operating system.

Things apparently are not going badly at all though for Vista in terms of sales.  Microsoft, it seems, may not be so prone to rush out Windows 7, the follow-up to Vista after all.

Microsoft has given advanced notification of four security patches in this month's Patch Tuesday on 13 May.

The update will include fixes for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office, Windows and OneCare.

Three of the vulnerabilities have been rated 'critical', Microsoft's highest security level. A fourth was rated 'moderate'.

Two of the critical flaws lie in Microsoft Office. Versions affected include Office XP, 2000, 2003 and 2007. The 2004 and 2008 versions of Office for the Mac will receive patches for critical flaws.

The third critical fix will be applied to a flaw in Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. Barring a last-minute addition, Vista and Server 2008 will not be affected by the update.

The lone 'moderate' fix will apply to security products Windows Live Onecare, Windows Defender, Microsoft Antigen, Forefront Security and Standalone System Sweeper.

Following a conflict between the Windows updates and a piece of software that caused Microsoft to suspend download of service packs for Vista and XP, the company has developed a temporary solution and resumed downloads.

It was, perhaps, a little embarrassing, when Microsoft discovered that the much-touted service packs it had developed for Windows XP and Vista caused a conflict with a piece of software for some customers. Not just any software, but something the company had developed itself, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS).
 
It was bad enough that they had to suspend downloads of the service packs (SP3 for XP, SP1 for Vista). But on Tuesday the Redmond giant announced that it was resuming downloads, having come up with a filter that stops Dynamic RMS-equipped machines from downloading either update.
 
Microsoft admits that by itself the filter doesn’t constitute a fix to the problem, and urged anyone with Dynamic RMS who’d downloaded the service pack to contact the company. In a statement the company said,
"A fix for this issue is currently in testing at Microsoft and with customers, and we hope to make it publicly available this month. Until then, Microsoft is advising Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers to not install either service pack."
Service Pack 1 for Vista is now once again an automatic update, with SP3 for XP a Web download.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday that the sales pace of the new Windows Vista operating system has been "rapid" and the software company has sold 140 million copies globally so far.

"That's a very rapid sales rate," Gates said at a news conference, adding that he told Microsoft's Japanese partners about the sales figure during his trip here.

Despite Gates' bullish comments, the introduction of Vista hasn't exactly been smooth. The new operating system has received lukewarm reviews, and around 160,000 people have signed an online petition asking the company to continue selling its predecessor Windows XP until the next version of Windows is released.

Vista was launched for consumers in January, and the XP is set to be pulled off store shelves by June 30.

However, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said last month in Belgium that the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling XP soon, according to the Associated Press.

Gates said Microsoft is "hard at work" at developing the operating system to follow Vista, code-named Windows 7. He said that historically, the company has unveiled new systems every three years, but declined to say when the new software might come out this time around.

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Microsoft's network access control client in Vista and now in Windows X has a lot of IT executives excited, according to an informal poll of about 250 attendees of an Interop Las Vegas NAC seminar who are actively considering deploying the access technology.

About a third of them say they would use the NAC support in the Microsoft client software rather than pay more and deal with deploying and maintaining a client with more features that they have to pay extra for. Microsoft calls its NAC technology Network Access Protection (NAP)

Slightly fewer said they would pay extra and deal with the additional work needed to deploy a better client. About a fifth of the group didn't respond to the call for a show of hands when asked by the session's instructor, Joel Snyder a partner in Opus One consultancy and a member of Network World Lab Alliance.

Many vendors make gear compatible with Microsoft NAP, including Cisco and vendors that follow the standards set by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG).

But NAP didn't escape unscathed by a panel during the Interop NAC session. Participants noted that in order to support non-Microsoft machines, customers have to deal with third-party vendors that make software that can report the status of Linux, Unix and Macintosh machines to NAP servers.

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Several users running Windows Vista with SP1 installed who recently downloaded an audio driver for through Windows Update say the update disables their machines' audio functionality.
The update for IDT (Formerly Sigmatel)'s high definition sound and is called "IDT High Def Codec," according to several users on a Dell customer forum, who claim that installing the update results in a "Code 10" Error after rebooting, as well as the loss of audio.

"Should you see this update appear, *do not* install it," warned 'Chris B', a Dell Digital Life Liason, in a Thursday forum post.

Sigmatel drivers were on the list of problematic device drivers that caused Microsoft in February to delay the public release of Vista SP1. When Microsoft did release Vista SP1 through Windows Update in March, the vendor blocked users with these drivers on their PCs from downloading the update.

The issue underscores the spotty OEM experience that has plagued Vista since its launch, and Microsoft and Dell share equal amounts of blame in this case, according to Susan Bradley, a Microsoft Small Business Specialist partner in Fresno, Calif.

A spokesperson for Dell Computer, Round Rock, Texas, said Dell is looking into the matter, but didn't offer an explanation for the issue. Microsoft couldn't be reached for comment.

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In the 15 months since Windows Vista had its mainstream launch, Microsoft says it's made progress on a number of key metrics: things like application compatibility, availability of drivers, performance, reliability, and battery life.

But there is one area where the company has struggled to gain ground: how Vista is perceived.

"There's certainly a perceptual gap there," Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said in an interview Thursday. He pointed to Microsoft research that shows that 86 percent of those actually using Vista would recommend it to a friend.

"The perception of Vista is a lot better for the people that have used Windows Vista than (for) the ones who haven't," Nash said. "At some level, a little seeing is believing."
In terms of absolute sales, Vista has done well. More than 140 million computers have been sold with the operating system. But looking at that figure alone ignores the continued lackluster response that Vista gets from media and analysts, as well as the continued demand from businesses for the operating system's predecessor, Windows XP.

Microsoft is going on the PR offensive this week, with Nash trying to make the case to the press that Vista is getting a bad rap.

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The User Account Control feature in Windows Vista has been known to drive normally level-headed people over the edge with frustration. If you find it annoying, you might be tempted to turn it off. According to Microsoft research, somewhere between 12 and 16 percent of all Windows Vista users do exactly that. But before you take such a radical step, it helps to understand what UAC is actually doing on your behalf and how you can tone down its hard edges without sacrificing its protection.

The biggest misconception I hear about UAC is that it’s just another silly “Are you sure?” dialog box that users will quickly learn to ignore. That’s only one small part of the overall UAC system. The point of UAC is to allow you to run as a standard user, something that is nearly impossible in Windows XP and earlier Windows versions. In fact, with UAC enabled (the default setting) every user account in Windows Vista runs as a standard user. When you try to do something that requires administrative privileges, you see a UAC consent dialog box. If you’re an administrator, you simply have to click Continue when prompted. If you’re running as a standard user, you have to provide the user name and password of a member of the Administrators group.

UAC has four major benefits:

On a shared computer, you can set up standard user accounts for users who don’t have the experience or training to make smart decisions about installing software or making system changes. As a result, they won’t be able to do any damage if a malicious website fools them into trying to install a piece of spyware or a Trojan.
As an administrator, you get a warning before a piece of software attempts to make a change that can adversely affect the system. In Windows XP, clicking OK to a single malicious installer program could install a dozen programs in the background, with no warning to you. In Vista with UAC, you’ll have to give consent to each installation (and presumably will say No, early and often.

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Some Microsoft channel partners say the software giant's recent blunt public statements about Windows Vista are putting them in difficult positions with their customers and undermining their efforts to sell the operating system.
In the past month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has referred to Vista as "a work in progress" and hinted that Microsoft might extend the June 30 deadline for Windows XP. Earlier this month at the RSA conference in San Francisco, David Cross, a product unit manager at Microsoft, said the User Account Control feature in Vista was designed "to annoy users."

These public comments couldn't come at a worse time for solution providers who've been dutifully chipping away at the market's calcified disdain for Vista, which is fueled by negative feedback both from organizations that have deployed the OS and organizations on the sidelines parroting the 'Vista sucks' meme.

Brian Williams, president of Advantech NW, a Gresham, Ore.-based solution provider, says Vista, when configured and deployed correctly, is actually a solid OS. "We've completed our deployment to Vista internally, and we're finding that we can support it in controlled environments and that it does work right," he said.

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Microsoft announced another stellar quarter on Thursday at least in terms of breaking its old record for revenues in the third fiscal quarter of 2008, which ended on March 31.

However, the quarterly tap dance that the company's CFO typically performs for financial analysts didn't impress many of them this time around. One of the reasons: lower sales of Windows clients.

In fact, revenues were indeed up, but not by much the company brought in $14.45 billion for the quarter compared to $14.4 billion a year earlier. Earnings actually were down from a year earlier at $4.41 billion versus $6.89 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2007 an unusual reversal of fortunes.

Microsoft's stock closed down $1.58 in after hours trading at $30.22 on Thursday night, a loss of 4.97 percent, and then slipped further to $29.83 in Friday trading.

There were many drivers for Microsoft's disappointing sales and earnings report, among them the $1.42 billion fine that the company paid to the European Commission (EC) during the quarter. One of the most noticeable, however, was the drop in revenue from Windows "client" sales a line item that includes sales of both Windows XP and Vista.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2008, the client group brought in $4.025 billion, down from $5.274 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Microsoft officials largely ascribed the revenue decline to the revenue "bump" that the company received in last year's third quarter when Vista and Office 2007 launched.

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