Microsoft has unveiled a ‘platform preview’ of its next-generation Web browser, Internet Explorer 9. It doesn’t have an address bar and certain navigation and security features, so it is an incomplete browser as of now.

The previews have been downloaded over 2.5 million times, Microsoft said in a blog post. This means that though the shares of Internet Explorer are down since past few years, there are still high expectations that the organization will recuperate soon.

Causing danger to the future of both the clouds, the patent-infringement lawsuits have been settled between, Microsoft and the San Francisco-based, Salesforce. com.

This prolonged legal affair was causing threat to the reputation of both the Companies and was turning into a symbolic battle with time.

Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, said that each Company would receive permits for other's patents. The financial terms have however not been divulged and Salesforce. com, it is being said will pay Microsoft the amount.

Microsoft’s motion control system Kinect has been priced too high, a survey by Groupola. com said.

Groupola. com questioned around 2000 gamers about their motion control plans, and found a whopping 77 per cent of the respondents with Xbox 360 saying the Kinect’s price tag of £130 is too much to buy the upcoming device.

Sixty-four per cent of the PlayStation 3 owners said they were planning on purchasing Sony’s Move Starter Kit that cost around £50, while just 23 per cent of Xbox 360 owners said they intended to purchase Kinect.

Microsoft, the IT giant has initiated the UK Tour for Kinect motion control system for the Xbox console at venues such as theme parks and events across the UK, in order to get acquainted before one opts to buy the device.

For the residents of London they can hop in to the Kinect Galleries in Covent Garden in order to have an insight of the on goings of the events.

It has already opened for public, and Electricpig.co.uk reports that one can easily book a slot of demo on Facebook.

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing now has something new to deliver to its users, a new contest known as the, ‘King of Bing Maps’. This new contest is sure to give, Google Maps a tough competition.

One of the most appealing things about the Maps is its ability to calculate the taxi fair. Suppose, you are a college student and you have to go for an interview. But the problem is that you don’t know how much that would cost you. With Bing Map’s you can now get to know the taxi fair just by a simple click.

Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7 is seeing a growth of 0.76, while Vista on the other hand witnessed a downfall of 0.34%.

Windows 7's market share in just 10 months is reportedly said to have outshined Vista.

While Apple, in spite of the huge sales of iPad and iPod touch continues to contribute in the market with just 5.06% of its share, Linux too has a 0.93 share. Despite all the upcoming operating systems, Windows XP persists to rein the OS market with an enormous 61.87% market share.

On Monday, Microsoft had given an emergency patch against the vulnerability of Windows shortcut link (.LNK), aka Windows Shell. It was anticipated that the Company might also release the same fix for the users of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) also. But, Microsoft Spokesman Christopher Budd clearly announced soon that there’ll be no security update for XP SP2.

Following the complaints about Vista, which was released in 2007, Microsoft has finally decided to come up with something better. The effort proved to be successful, and the Company was again up with the Windows 7 in September last.

But the latest update is that Windows 7 has reportedly outshined Windows Vista in less than a year. While Windows Vista stands at 14.34, Windows 7 has made its mark by holding around 14.46% of the market shares.

The operating system market still continues to be dominated by Microsoft, with 61.9%of the shares for Windows XP.

Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be providing an upgrade for the upcoming version of Office for Mac 2011. It will mean that it will repeat the same thing it did by not providing any upgrade for the Windows Office 2010.

The lowest edition of the latest version of the software will also be without a dedicated e-mail client and this decision is also similar to the Windows Office.

It is the first time that Microsoft has released an emergency patch so close to Patch Tuesday, as quipped by Jason Miller, Data and Security Team Leader at Patch Management Firm, Shavlik Technologies. Just eight days before its next Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has issued an emergency patch for Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs.

Microsoft on Monday released an emergency fix for a critical Windows vulnerability that could be exploited by hackers to spread virus to take control of computers.

The concerned vulnerability could let remote code execution in case the icon of a specially crafted shortcut is displayed. The successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow the attacker to gain the same user rights as the local user.

It has been reported that the usage of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has grown for two consecutive months and Internet Explorer 8 once again stands first in the race of fastest growing web browser.

The gains made by IE are equivalent to the cost of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and both of them lost their usage share in the month of July.

While announcing its triumph on blog post, Microsoft's Ryan Gavin wrote that the overall share of Internet Explorer has increased by 0.42% in July worldwide, where as Firefox’s usage share is decreased by 0.90% and Chrome lost 0.08%.

The IT giant has joined hands with Blue Line innovation to spread its reach with Hohm energy monitoring services.

The company through a blog post stated that the deal will cater to the joining of Blue Line Power Cost Monitor and at the same time will offer Wireless Gateway to the system, that helps connect users monitor their household energy’s usage being offered through their computer.

Microsoft is planning to release emergency patch for Windows vulnerability on Monday. Attackers are exploiting Windows by making use of “highly virulent strain" of malware. Though, the Company has scheduled to release security patches on Aug. 10, but Microsoft will be publishing the patch, keeping in view the gravity of the flaw.

The "out of band" release will set the fault right. The Company shared that this will consequently result in Windows incorrectly parsing shortcuts in a particular way that the malicious code is executed.

Microsoft has confirmed that it is working on a new tablet computer and it may soon be launched by one of its hardware partners. It claims that it will not take a lot of time to launch the new tablet.

Experts feel that Microsoft is behind Apple and Google. Apple’s iPad has already proved to be a big success and is selling like hotcakes in the market. Android powered tablets are also expected to be launched by the end of the year.