Microsoft | featured news

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't afford to be wrong about Windows 8. On Thursday in New York, Microsoft unveiled a dramatic overhaul of its ubiquitous Windows operating system. It will go on sale Friday, fused into more than 1,000 PCs and other devices. If it flops, the failure will reinforce perceptions that Microsoft is falling behind competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon as its stranglehold on personal computers becomes less relevant in an era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

The European Union's executive arm formally accused Microsoft on Wednesday of failing to comply with a binding agreement to give customers a choice among Internet browsers....

When Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) unveiled the Surface tablet in June, it pulled back the curtain on nearly three years of secret development. This Friday, buyers will finally be able to get their hands on the $499 tablet.

The release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system is a week away, and consumers are in for a shock. Windows, used in one form or another for a generation, is getting a completely different look that will force users to learn new ways to get things done.

Microsoft is on the verge of releasing Windows 8, its biggest software product in years — and the company's lackluster financial results on Thursday underscored how badly the company needs it to deliver.

At 9:00 this morning, Pacific time, Microsoft’s future goes on sale. The first Surface tablet, Microsoft’s dramatic foray into the hardware business, is available for pre-order starting today. It will be available for purchase in stores starting Oct. 26. With its release, Microsoft instantly becomes the third major player in the tablet market, a market where it is taking a fundamentally different approach than its rivals, Apple and Google.

After past disappointments, Microsoft has paired its latest digital music offering with the Xbox and Windows as part of a broad set of bets to regain ground it has lost to Apple and other competitors.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker re-teams with Tim Miller, visual effects lead from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Video games these days are big Hollywood productions. A team of more than 200 people at Microsoft’s 343 Industries studio has been developing Halo 4 over the past four years. The new game, which launches Nov. 6, is being complemented by a full transmedia entertainment plan.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen helped revolutionize the world with personal computers. Now he's betting a half-billion dollars that he can do something even more radical: draw a circuit diagram of human consciousness.

Technology giants Microsoft Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co used offshore units to shield billions of dollars from U.S. taxes by taking advantage of loopholes and stretching the limits of the tax code, a U.S. Senate panel said on Thursday.