Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) this week will begin a coupon program for personal computer buyers to upgrade to the new Vista operating system when it premiers next year in an effort to avoid a drop-off in PC sales over the holidays and ahead of the software’s release.

Microsoft said on Tuesday the upgrade program will begin on October 26 for its much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 software suite.

The program allows customers who buy a PC running Windows XP to still be able to upgrade to Windows Vista when the new operating system becomes available in early 2007. A similar program is in place for Office 2007, also due out early next year to consumers.

Most large PC manufacturers, including industry leaders Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. will participate in the upgrade program, although upgrade offers may vary depending on the company.

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News source: Washington Post

Microsoft officials obviously believe Windows Vista is ready, given that it is set to release it to manufacturing within weeks, if not days. But what do some of its toughest testers think?

With millions kicking Windows Vista’s tires, just about anyone and everyone is a Vista tester these days. But there is a group – more of the crème-de-la-crème – who’ve been getting access to regular, sometimes weekly, builds and giving Microsoft constant Vista feedback throughout the development process. Many of these testers are Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), authors of Vista books and operators of blogs and Web sites that dissect (and sometimes skewer) Vista on a regular basis.

Typically, they’re not the easiest crowd to please. And while most agree that Microsoft has come an incredibly long way since Vista Beta 2 and Release Candidate (RC) 1, they also are not 100-percent convinced the Vista rollout will be a smooth one.

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News source: All About Microsoft

Windows XP Service Pack (SP 3), which Microsoft officials said in January to expect in the latter half of 2007, now has slipped into 2008.

Microsoft delivered the last service pack update for XP, Windows XP SP2 (which was actually more of a whole new version of Windows than it was a typical service pack) in August of 2004.

And that’s not all that’s slipping: Windows Server 2003 SP 2, until recently due out in the second half of 2006, is now slated for Q1 2007. Microsoft released SP1 for Windows Server 2003 in March, 2005.

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News source: All About Microsoft

China will blacklist the producers and distributors of spy software, or spyware, in a bid to safeguard Internet safety, Wednesday People’s Daily reported.

“The blacklist will be published regularly,” the Internet Society of China (ISC), an influential professional organization in China’s information industry, reportedly announced at a seminar on Tuesday.

The ISC would set up a team focusing on defining spyware, which would be responsible for reviewing, writing and publishing the blacklist.

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News source: CCTV.com

A survey of over 600 UK respondents showed that young men are significantly more likely to be infected with spyware than their female counterparts. Young males aged 18 to 29 are at the highest risk of being infected with spyware according to new research conducted by Webroot Software.

The likelihood of infection was increased by the risky online behaviour of young males, such as opening instant messages (66%), downloading files (65%) and visiting adult entertainment sites (56%). Young women, however, reported that their web browsing is limited to much safer activities, with over 91% stating they had never visited an adult entertainment site and 61% had never clicked on pop-up ads.

This survey follows the recent State of Spyware report issued by Webroot that found Britain to have the highest spyware infection rate within the EU. With an average of 30.5 pieces of spyware detected on every consumer PC and 89% of consumer PCs infected with some form of spyware, this is clearly a major threat to every user.

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News source: SecurityPark.net

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers’ online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year.

“Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms,” Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

“All too often, we find that before we can catch these offenders, Internet service providers have unwittingly deleted the very records that would help us identify these offenders and protect future victims,” Mueller said. “We must find a balance between the legitimate need for privacy and law enforcement’s clear need for access.”

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News source: News.com

Some 18 months after Bill Gates pledged to revamp Internet Explorer, Microsoft is ready with the final version of Internet Explorer 7. The new Web browser, which has been in testing for months, is now available for download from Microsoft’s Web site.

On the feature side, Microsoft is playing catch-up in many areas. It has added support for Web standards, RSS Web feeds and tabbed browsing. The new browser also offers protection against phishing sites–malicious Web sites designed to trick users into handing over their personal information.

Download: Internet Explorer 7
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News source: News.com

Electronic Arts today announced that Battlefield 2142 has shipped to retailers in North America and Europe for the PC. After ripping open the box, but before putting the disc into their systems, gamers may notice a slip of paper with a disclaimer written on it. CGW Podcast read the disclaimer on air, which we have transcribed below:

“The software may incorporate technology developed by IGA Worldwide, the advertising technology. The purpose of the advertising technology is to deliver in-game ads when you use the software while connected to the Internet. When you use the software while connected to the Internet, the advertising technology may record your IP address and other anonymous information. That advertising data is temporarily used by IGA to enable the presentation and measurement of in-game ads and other in-game object which are uploaded temporarily to the your PC or game console, and change during online gameplay. The advertising technology does not collect personal or identifiable information about you.”

Essentially, the in-game advertisement system in Battlefield 2142 utilizes methods that most spyware use. By analyzing your computing and browsing habits, EA/IGA uses that data to provide targeted ads. It is unknown if spyware scanners detect and classify Battlefield 2142 as malicious.

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News source: DailyTech

The United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, a study suggested.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, said their telephone survey indicated more than one in eight US residents showed at least one sign of “problematic Internet use.”

The findings backed those of previous, less rigorous studies, according to the Stanford researchers.

Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored the way alcoholics use booze, according to the study’s lead author, Elias Aboujaoude.

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News source: Yahoo! News

It’s official: The problem of worms and viruses is “solved”–at least according to Symantec chairman and CEO John Thompson. The more relevant security threats today are phishing and fraud, as well as organized crime’s interest in stealing and reselling personal information, Thompson says. Not that Symantec will stop cashing checks made out to it for antivirus software. But the company’s “Security 2.0” strategy, detailed for the first time last week, tackles broader threats beyond its popular Norton PC security line, including database, E-mail, and identity-theft protection.

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News source: InformationWeek