Windows Vista | featured news

Microsoft Corp. put a new edition of Windows on sale Thursday, hoping for a fresh start after a bad reception for the previous version of the software that runs most of the world's personal computers.

Microsoft Corp. issued a record number of security patches for its software Tuesday as part of its regular monthly update. The software maker plugged 34 holes and designated most of them "critical," Microsoft's most severe rating. Among them are fixes for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and even Windows 7, which doesn't go on sale to consumers until Oct. 22 but has been in use by early testers and software developers.

Walt Mossberg calls Windows 7 a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use -- Microsoft's best operating system yet.

Microsoft is happy to avoid the naysaying it saw with the last operating system. However, all that happy Windows 7 talk has made it harder to convince businesses to move to Vista.

Microsoft Corp. has delivered a preliminary release candidate for Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to testers and is again on track to offer another public preview next month, according to several ...