Microsoft is adding a "Windows XP Mode" to Windows 7

Now Windows 7 gets built in XP mode..
Microsoft is adding a "Windows XP Mode" to Windows 7, in a move to encourage users to make the switch to the software vendor's forthcoming operating system.

The firm has built its XP mode into Windows 7 by using the Windows Virtual PC technology Microsoft acquired in 2003, to make the OS compatible to run apps designed for Vista's predecessor.
Redmond was keen to emphasise in a blog post late on Friday that it's hoping to woo small businesses to move to Windows 7 by bigging up the XP mode feature.

"Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7," said Microsoft. "Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC."

Users can install apps directly into the virtualised XP environment. The applications are then published to the Windows 7 desktop and they can be run from within that OS.

Microsoft said it will release a beta of Windows XP mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate "soon" but wasn't more specific about when the test builds will land.

When Microsoft released Vista over two years ago, many businesses and individuals complained about compatibility snafus with applications that simply wouldn't work within the new OS

Microsoft: Lots to turn off in Windows 7

Microsoft will expand the list of "features" that can be disabled when the Windows 7 Release Candidate becomes available, including the ability to turn off Internet Explorer 8.
The next version of Windows is giving Microsoft Corp. watchers a peek at how the software maker plans to keep European antitrust regulators from marring a crucial software launch.

Windows 7, the successor to the much-maligned Vista, isn't expected to reach consumers until next year, but more than a million people are already testing early versions. A pair of bloggers tinkering with settings stumbled upon one they hadn't seen before: The ability to "turn off" Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft lost a long-running battle with EU antitrust regulators in 2007 over the way it bundled media player software into the Windows operating system. The dust had barely settled when a similar claim was filed, this time over Internet Explorer's place inside Windows. Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian competitor, claimed the practice gives Microsoft's browser an unfair advantage.

In a preliminary decision in January, the EU agreed. Since then, makers of the open-source browser Firefox and Google Inc., which entered the browser market six months ago, have offered to provide more evidence that Microsoft is stifling competition.

In the media player dispute, the EU heavily fined Microsoft and forced it to sell a version of Windows without the offending program installed. This time, Microsoft appears to be offering the check-box solution as a way to head off a similar ending.

The company declined to comment Friday on the connection between the check boxes and the EU's preliminary decision. But in a recent quarterly filing, it said the European Commission may order PC makers to install multiple browsers on new PCs and force Microsoft to disable parts of its own Internet Explorer if people chose a competing browser.

The check boxes, which were described on Microsoft enthusiast blogs http://www.aeroxp.org and http://www.chris123nt.com, also give Windows 7 users a way to disable the media player and hard-drive search programs, among other components, both of which have drawn scrutiny from regulators.

After Windows Vista landed with a thud, Microsoft needs a hit, said Michael Cherry, an analyst for the research group Directions on Microsoft. Beyond appeasing the EU, he said he didn't see much use for the Internet Explorer check box.

Internet pioneer Yahoo! is open to selling its Web search business

Internet company's chief financial says any deal needs to be done for the right reasons.

Internet pioneer Yahoo! is open to selling its Web search business or entering into a partnership with another company, but doing a deal would be hard.
Microsoft has expressed interest in Yahoo!’s search business and made a bid for the Sunnyvale, California-based firm last year but Jorgensen did not mention the US sofware giant as a potential partner.
He stressed the difficulties of doing a deal.
“What people don’t quite appreciate is the complexity of the business, and how these businesses are intertwined,” he said. “For example at a data center, we don’t parse between search or non-search.
“It’s extremely difficult to draw a line down the middle of the organisation and split it in two pieces,” Jorgensen said. “It doesn’t say we couldn’t do it, we certainly could, but we want to do it for the right reasons and the right economics.”
Yahoo! rejected a takeover bid by Microsoft last year but Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has said the software giant remains interested in a search partnership with Yahoo!
Speculation of such a deal has been revived with the departure of Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang, who opposed the Microsoft bid, and his replacement by new CEO Carol Bartz.
Hilary Schneider, another Yahoo! executive, said that with Bartz’ arrival “it’s really clear there’s a new sheriff in town, and it’s a sheriff with a consumer outlook.”
Google is the overwhelming market leader for Internet search with a market share of more than 63% in January according to research firm comScore, followed by Yahoo! with 21% and Microsoft with 8.5%


The search business is deeply intertwined with Yahoo's other online products and properties, and so any deal, whether a partnership or a sale, would be done for the right reasons and the right economics.

"It's extremely difficult to draw a line down the middle of the organization and split it into two pieces," Jorgensen told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference.

He did not mention specifically Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, Fortune 500), which has repeatedly said it was interested in doing a search deal with Yahoo to compete against market leader Google Inc. (GOOG, Fortune 500)

The comments come as Yahoo is rumored to be on the brink of undertaking a major corporate reorganization under Chief Executive Carol Bartz, who took the reins in January.

Yahoo rebuffed a $47.5 billion acquisition bid from Microsoft last year, and saw a deal to form a search advertising partnership with Google fall apart amid antitrust concerns.

Bartz has said she did not join the company to sell it, nor did she have a preconceived notion of doing a search deal, but that "everything is on the table."

Yahoo's stock (YHOO, Fortune 500) was up 2% or 27 cents, at $12.75 in after-market trade, after closing down 27 cents in the Nasdaq session.

Microsoft unveiled a new mobile phone strategy.

The software giant announced that at the Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona, Spain, the company and its key mobile partners were unveiling new smartphones with upgraded Microsoft software.
The next generation of phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft's new version of operating system for handsets, which is expected to be available in the later half this year

Microsoft wants to create software buzz on mobiles
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's mobile phone strategy: sell a lot of devices.

Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows that it's the hardware that gets people to buy a mobile phone.

"The thing that people buzz about is the actual thing they go and buy, which is the phone, which comes from one of our partners," Ballmer said in an interview Monday.

Microsoft aims to change that with its new effort unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: to persuade consumers to buy smart phones - the fastest-growing segment of the handset market - because they are running Microsoft operating system.

The new software will be Microsoft 6.5 in the series _ but will be marketed to consumers simply as Microsoft Phone, with a new user interface and a new browser. Windows also is launching two new services, one that allows users to synch their text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web and an on-line applications store that will bring together the 20,000 applications developed for Microsoft-based phones.

"It is important for us that we have a strong presence and position on the phone," Ballmer said.

More than 20 million devices carrying Microsoft's operating system were sold in 2008. Ballmer said he expects to grow the market share, but he declined to make forecasts.

"The most important thing we'll do is we're going to work with the guys who build phones that are exciting ... that are hot and tell the story of their Windows phone," Ballmer said. "The Windows phone from HTC, the line of Windows phones from Samsung, from LG, really getting with the partner and telling the story of the partner and their device."

To that end, key partners HTC, LG Electronics and Orange also unveiled new Windows phones based on the new Windows operating system in Barcelona. LG said it will dramatically increase the number of phones it offers running Windows, making it the primary operating system for its smart phones. LG said its volume of Windows phones would increase 10 times this year.

Telecoms operators _ notably Vodafone _ have signaled that they want fewer, not more operating platforms.

But Ballmer thinks Windows Mobile is better positioned than the other operating systems because it can run on phones for a range of prices _ from the $600 smart phone to the $250 model.

"Many phones times a small amount of money, hopefully is enough to make this all make sense," Ballmer said in an interview on the sidelines of the four-day GSMA's World Mobile Congress, where Microsoft unveiled a new mobile phone strategy.

The company that best-known for its PC software, but which has been playing in the mobile field for the last seven years, wants to persuade consumers to buy smart phones — the fastest-growing segment of the handset market — because they are running Microsoft operating system.

That may seem counterintuitive. Even Ballmer knows that hardware — not software — is what creates consumer excitement, something in shorter supply as the world economic downturn has dramatically cut consumer confidence.

"The thing that people buzz about is the actual thing they go and buy, which is the phone, which comes from one of our partners," Ballmer said in an interview Monday.

The new software will be Windows Mobile 6.5 in the series — but will be marketed to consumers simply as Windows Phone — will include a new user interface and a new browser. Windows also is launching two new services, one that allows users to synch their text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web and an applications store that will bring together the 20,000 applications that have been developed for Microsoft-based phones.

"It is important for us that we have a strong presence and position on the phone," Ballmer said. While the mobile business is relatively small part of Microsoft's business, it

More than 20 million devices carrying Microsoft's operating system were sold in 2008. Ballmer said he expects to grow the market share, but he declined to make forecasts. Microsoft doesn't say how much it sells the software for, but analysts at the GSMA put it in the ballpark of $5 to $7 per handset.

"The most important thing we'll do is we're going to work with the guys who build phones that are exciting ... that are hot and tell the story of their Windows phone," Ballmer said. "The windows phone from HTC, the line of Windows phones from Samsung, from LG, really getting with the partner and telling the story of the partner and their device."

To that end, key partners HTC, LG Electronics and Orange also unveiled new Windows phones based on the new Windows operating system in Barcelona. LG said it will dramatically increase the number of phones it offers running Windows, making it the primary operating system for its smart phones. LG said its volume of windows phones would increase 10 times this year.

Telecoms operators — notably Vodafone — have signaled that they want fewer not more operating platforms.

But Ballmer thinks Windows Mobile is better positioned than the other operating systems because it can run on phones for a range of prices — from the upper $600 smart phone to the $250 model.

IDC Analyst Francisco Jeronimo said while Microsoft's numbers are pretty good, the battle for operating system (OS) dominance is still wide hope. The big industry players in the increasingly key smart phone market are Google's Android, Nokia's Symbian — which has opened up to outsiders through the Symbian Foundation — the Linux-based open-source software being developed by the LiMo consortium and Palm OS.

"Definitely, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile will be top OS in terms of smart phones. The challenge now for Microsoft is: No one wants to pay for an OS when they have Symbian and Android for free. What is the point?"

While 20 million devices last year shipped with Microsoft's OS, Nokia shipped 17 million smart phones to western Europe alone, along with 59 million traditional devices. While the big manufacturers seem to be waiting to make their Android announcements during the second half of the year, Jeronimo said Google's open-source software is sure to be a big player in two or three years.

"Microsoft are the ones challenged now," Jeronimo said. "My question is how long will they continue with a proprietary system?"

Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis for Los Angeles-based market research group Interpret LLC, didn't discount the importance of actual sales. But he said the software maker still needs to build buzz among consumers, rather than relying on the device's reputation as a workhorse that synchs up well with Microsoft's Exchange server.

"I think what they're doing now is reminding the market that these devices are the intersection between business and consumer, personal and work life," Gartenberg said.

Microsoft patent makes smart phones like more then pc

'Smart system' includes cradle that allows smart phone to connect to peripherals, networks, through a USB connection.

Microsoft Corp. has patented smart phone-docking technology that would allow the devices to connect to peripherals and networks similar to the way PCs do.

According to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft has patented a "smart system" that includes a smart-phone cradle that allows the device to interface to peripherals, networks and large video displays through a USB connection.

Some of the peripherals the cradle would allow the smart phone to link up to include printers, TV screens, cameras, external storage devices and speakers, according to the patent, which Microsoft acquired Jan. 22.

For years Microsoft executives -- particularly Chairman Bill Gates, who is no longer on full-time duty at the company -- have discussed publicly how PCs and smart devices are reaching an intersection, and how PC technology will be available in smaller devices.

The patent filing reflects this notion. "The cell phone is rapidly evolving into a smart communications device that can provide sufficient computing power and functionality to drive a wide variety of peripherals as well as access network services," according to the filing. "A major impediment to taking advantage of this evolving technology in the cell phone, for example, is the inability to connect the phone to peripheral devices and systems."

Apple Inc.'s iPhone, introduced in mid-2007, was probably the first and best example of the intersection between PCs and smart phones; it's more like a mini-PC than a mobile phone. With devices based on the Windows Mobile operating system that third parties sell, Microsoft also offers a similar hybrid of PC and smart phone.

Microsoft also released a Zune music and video player to compete with Apple's iPod, but the device has garnered only lukewarm customer interest, leaving the future of the product uncertain. Rumors swirled that Microsoft would unveil a combination Zune/Windows Mobile device to rival iPhone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, but that did not happen.

Microsoft did not immediately comment on the patent Friday. The company doesn't typically comment on technologies it patents, which may or may not end up as products or as a part of products Microsoft sells.

Downadup worm replicates itself at astonishing speed!

Call it Conficker, Downadup or Kido - the fact is the nasty worm is spreading at a very rapid speed! There is no checking the pace at which it is infecting PCs; and with already more than 9 million victims, including corporate networks worldwide, the worm is still going strong!
The Downadup worm made its first appearance two months back, exploiting a critical Windows flaw in the way the Server Service handles RPC requests. A blended threat, the malware relies upon many attack vectors - from brute-force password guessing to hitching rides on USB sticks - for replicating itself to spread throughout a network.
The unique rate of speed at which the worm replicates has perplexed experts. Security researcher, Derek Brown, of TippingPoint's DVLabs Team, said: "The notion of using multiple attack vectors is not terribly new. The unique thing about this worm is the speed at which it has spread and I think that's a result of the big size of the Microsoft vulnerability."
Experts also opine that though the Downadup malware got started because of the Microsoft flaw, it later proliferated quickly through the unpatched Windows operating systems of the users.
Though the malicious worm knows no land barriers, the hardest hit countries, as per Symantec Security Response, are China and Argentina. According to the Symantec vice president, Alfred Huger, China accounts for almost 29 percent of the infections tracked, Argentina was next in line with over 11 percent infections.

more.....

Computer worm called 'authentic risk

If you’ve never heard the words “Conficker” or “Downadup,” wait a few hours.

They’re rapidly becoming household words for personal computer owners.
Various major newspapers and television news shows reported Friday morning that the latest computer worm might now infect as many as 10 million computers worldwide.
According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the worm is so virulent because it seems to “mutate” and launch “brute force attacks” that relentlessly try thousands of letter and number combinations in codes to steal personal passwords and login information.
Because most computer users choose passwords that they can remember easily, the words might also be something the worm can guess easily. Once in control of a computer the worm can launch spam, phishing attacks, shut down the Internet with massive traffic or access bank records.
According to F-Secure, an antivirus software company, the Conficker worm is spreading at a rate of 1 million new machines a day. It can be spread by USB stick also.
F-Secure has updated its Downadup removal tool, and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued Alert TA09-020A, which describes how to disable AutoRun on Microsoft Windows systems in order to help prevent the spread of Conficker/Downadup via USB drives.
According to Symantec, the top infected countries in order of infection are: China, 28.7 percent; Argentina, 11.3 percent; Taiwan, 6.7 percent; Brazil, 6.2 percent; India, 5.8 percent; Chile, 5.2 percent; Russia, 5 percent; Malaysia, 2.8 percent; Columbia, 2.1 percent; and Mexico, 1.9 percent.
Philip Templeton of PT Technologies in Athens said everyone should keep his or her virus protection and software updates current.
“I have seen in the last four to six months more people getting viruses,” said Templeton. “But no matter what antivirus software you buy, nothing is 100 percent. Make sure your Windows Firewall is on, and it doesn’t hurt to change passwords periodically. I usually advise to make this a quarterly chore.”

Windows 7 beta to be offered through Feb. 10

Hints at weaker-than-expected demand since Jan. 10 launch

Microsoft announced Friday night that computer enthusiasts will have a while longer to get their hands on the beta version of Windows 7.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said that the test version of the operating system will be available for download through February 10. Previously, Microsoft had said that the OS would only be open through late this month.

We are at a point where we have more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs, so we are beginning to plan the end of general availability for Windows 7 Beta," Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said in the blog posting. "Because enthusiasm continues to be so high for the Windows 7 Beta and we don't want anyone to miss out, we will keep the Beta downloads open through February 10th."
Those who start the download process before February 10 will have until February 12 to finish the task.
The deadline applies to the general public, while members of Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN developer programs will continue to have access to the code, LeBlanc said.
CEO Steve Ballmer announced the beta of Windows 7 during his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 7. After a slight hiccup, Microsoft made the code available on January 10.

World's biggest software company to preserve the jobs of Americans to the lead of foreigners working on visas.

Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off up to 5000 employees within the 18 months.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote a lengthy letter to all Microsoft employees and e-mailed it to them. In the letter he insists that although the company is financially strong, the profits aren't up to what's been expected so 5,000 jobs have to be cut within 18 months, with 1,400 jobs to be eliminated immediately.

US senator asks Microsoft about job cuts, visas

A U.S. senator has asked Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) about its plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs, urging the world's biggest software company to preserve the jobs of Americans ahead of foreigners working on visas.
"I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan," Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a Jan. 22 letter.
Microsoft shocked investors on Thursday when it released quarterly results that missed Wall Street expectations, announced up to 5,000 layoffs and said it would no longer give forecasts for the rest of the fiscal year.
The company has been a champion of expanding the H-1B visa program, a temporary visa program that lets American companies and universities hire foreign workers in a category considered by the government to be a "specialty occupation."
Microsoft employs thousands of workers through the program, according to Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company has not yet received the letter, but it would respond to Grassley directly.
The letter asked Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to provide a breakdown of the jobs to be eliminated, and how many of those are individuals with H-1B visas and how many are Americans. Grassley also wants to know what the breakdown will be when the layoffs are complete.
"Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times," Grassley said in the letter, copies of which were provided by his office on Friday.

Erick Schonfeld has reported on TechCrunch.com that to date, Apple has sold 17 million iPhones but even with numbers like that, Apple is not beyond the reach of the faltering economy. Recently, Apple had to lay off 174 folks from its Elk Grove, Calif., campus, according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, which had its first-ever layoffs last summer.
What interests me is that somewhere there is somebody who takes delight in the news of the employment lost by others. Just read the Soundoff forums for this paper and you'll notice a regular influx of non-well wishers who are thrilled at the thought of no more P-I and don't mind being rather mean about it. I've read scores of "ha-ha on you left-wing freaks" type sentiment and quite scathing remarks directed at the upper management of this newspaper and, frankly, I find it to be rather un-American at this time in history. No doubt there are people doing the secret snicker because Microsoft is laying off and although Ballmer makes my scalp twitch, I will temper my animosity with a huge dose of sympathy for the newly laid-off subexecutives of Microsoft.

Microsoft earnings slump; 5,000 jobs eliminated
Software giant's shares plunge to 11-year low on surprise news.

Microsoft Corp. rattled investors early Thursday by releasing a disappointing quarterly earnings report and announcing that it will lay off as many as 5,000 workers, a startling development for a company that has taken pride in avoiding such sweeping job cuts even during the lowest points of its roughly 33-year history.

Revenue grew slightly to $16.6 billion from $16.4 billion last year. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $17.08 billion.
"We are certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said during a conference call with analysts. "The economy is resetting to a lower level of business and consumer spending."
Shares of Microsoft fell sharply lower, responding to the disappointing financial results, as well as to the abrupt timing of their release. Microsoft had not been expected to post its numbers until after the market's close. The stock fell nearly 12% lower Thursday to close at $17.58, its lowest level since Jan. 1998.
"It's mostly the shock of the early release," analyst Robert Breza of RBC Capital Markets said of the sell-off.
A company representative said news of the results and layoffs were released early so that affected employees could be briefed "face to face" by their managers. An email from Ballmer to employees announcing the cuts was sent out at roughly 6 a.m. in Redmond, Wash., where Microsoft is based.

'The economy is resetting

to a lower level of

business and consumer

spending.'
— Steve Ballmer, Microsoft.

Microsoft :The company's new Web site, HealthVault, is it trusted

New day new technology new service, security , trust
Microsoft has long been labeled an enemy of the people--the company you didn't even trust with your PC's serial number. Now the new Microsoft, led by philanthropist Bill Gates, hopes you will entrust your medical records with it.

The company's new Web site, HealthVault, aims to be a central repository for consumers to store their personal health data so that they can share it more easily with doctors and other medical professionals. The idea has become a sort of medical care holy grail: Current recordkeeping is a mishmash of files. Chronic care patients can wind up taking multiple medications prescribed by doctors who may be unaware of one another. Care of critically ill patients gets mismanaged because doctors can't find the right records.

But can Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) solve this? Microsoft, the company whose personal computer software is regularly attacked by hackers, the company reprimanded by governments for its aggressive monopolistic behavior?

"Those are the same questions I asked," says Peter Neupert, the Microsoft vice president in charge of the company's health group. This is Neupert's second stint at Microsoft: He left in 1998 to start Drugstore.com, which went public a year later. He has since served on presidential commissions on health care. But he wanted to do more than just analyze the problems, and convinced Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer two years ago take him back. "I told him I had this passion and wanted to go back to work. I finally persuaded him it was a good idea."

Neupert figured health care could only be solved by a brand big enough to be recognized around the world. Given the complexity and scale of the health care problems, "even to move the needle takes something like a Microsoft, a company with patience, with an ability to get partners, build infrastructure and, quite frankly, financial strength," Neupert says. "Who are mom and dad going to feel comfortable sharing private data with? The government? No. The insurance industry? Statistics say 87% of consumers don't trust their health plan. Some under-funded no-name organization?" Worldwide, Microsoft is one of the best-known brands, he notes. "I think we have a pretty good shot."

He has lots of competition. In particular, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) has been exploring a health care initiative. That program slowed recently when the executive leading the program left Google. Insurance companies, including Aetna (nyse: AET - news - people ), UnitedHealth Group (nyse: UNH - news - people ) and WellPoint (nyse: WLP - news - people ), also have medical recordkeeping systems under way.

There is no shortage of skeptics for a dozen reasons. "The concept behind it is dead on track, but it won't work very well" without a better way to integrate data from local doctors, predicts medical data guru Brent James, vice president for research at Utah's Intermountain Healthcare. The bottleneck, he says, is that there is no universal way to get blood test results, imaging scans and other basic data from thousands of local doctors and labs onto the Web.

"The intercommunications don't exist to get the data from where they now live into this central format and back out again to the physicians and nurses who would use them," James says.

Neupert agrees. "Hospitals, data devices, pharmacies, labs--we need to connect them all because the current situation is just too fragmented and siloed." As a starting point for pulling together data, Microsoft says it is working with 40 partners, including the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Mayo Clinic, Johnson & Johnson and the American Heart Association, to provide content and applications for the sites. It also is working with device companies on applications that will allow readings to move directly from a range of diagnostic instruments--such as blood pressure cuffs and diabetic glucose monitors--to HealthVault.

Microsoft argues that HealthVault can avoid the countless security problems that have afflicted its operating systems. "It's an apples and oranges comparison," he asserts. "It's a lot easier for us to manage a service for reliability, security and privacy than it is to manage hundreds of millions of distributed personal computers." Microsoft is working with two hacker organizations to test the security of its system.

Although HealthVault will be free for consumers, this is no philanthropic effort. Microsoft hopes HealthVault will translate into more search revenues through targeted health-related ads. The site includes an improved online search that uses a machine-learning algorithm to help consumers search through articles on health issues by breaking broad topics into concrete subcategories.

"By providing a great health search experience, we will actually improve the search loyalty of Microsoft overall," says Sean Nolan, the Microsoft programmer who designed the site. He admits though that moving into the medical record arena "is a huge crazy challenge." Among other issues, Microsoft will have to tiptoe the line between assuring people their information is private--and serving up advertisements relevant to the health problems they have.

James says Microsoft's move into health care is reminiscent of dot-com companies who tried to develop medical records in the 1990s and stalled because they didn't control the data. "It is the same old great idea but the devil is in the details," he says. At least Microsoft has lots of money and technical expertise, he says.

Neupert says the potential "life-saving benefits" of a good electronic records system are worth the business risks. He ticks off what Microsoft needs to make the system real: Sign up medical partners who can start providing patient data, put privacy principles in place, work with hackers to test the system and so on. It's a long list.

The one virtue that even its critics concede to Microsoft is patience. It will need it.