Microsoft has released the MSDN Community Distribution CD for August 2007

Windows Connected reports that Microsoft has released a technical preview of Office 2007 SP1 to members of the Microsoft Office Product Evaluation TAP.

Microsoft has released the August 2007 update of the Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter

InfoWorld reports that Microsoft is increasing the storage limit for its Web-based e-mail service

InfoWorld reports that Microsoft have lost a key vote in its quest to develop an alternative to the Open Document Format standard

Microsoft updated their Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 Step-by-Step Guides

Microsoft released an updated version of Windows Script for Windows XP and Windows 2000

TechReviewSource.com posted a review on Windows Home Server

ComputerWorld posted 10 things you should know about Microsoft's Silverlight

Microsoft released the August 2007 Community Technology Preview of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SDK

Microsoft has released a community preview of "Acropolis", a set of components and tools intended to make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client applications for Microsoft Windows on the .NET Framework

Microsoft has published a Web Service Security Guide

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs. You can grab it at Microsoft's site.

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

We recently published an article comparing framerate performance in XP versus Vista on NVIDIA hardware. Our readership wanted to see what ATI could do with the same task so that we could see if Vista was really to blame for what we saw.

[H]ardOCP

Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Windows Defender no longer supports Windows 2000 as mainstream support ended in June 2005. This is the most current release of Windows Defender.

It's clear, Microsoft decided to start banning Xbox360 with modified firmwares today (both Hitachi-LG and Toshiba-Samsung drives). While it's the same release date as Halo3 beta, it seems that people who didn't download Halo3 also get banned. They probably detect backup discs (and not the modified firmware) when you play 'em online (not confirmed yet).

Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 will be focused on security, said Joshua Edwards, a technical product manager for Office at Microsoft. "We're trying to take what we learned from building Office 2007 and bring as much as we can to Office 2003," Edwards said in an interview with CNET. Microsoft hasn't yet set a release date for the Office 2003 update, which like other service packs will be available as a free upgrade. Also, there are no details of what will be in the update, other than that Microsoft is "backporting" work it did for Office 2007.

ZDNet has more.

Microsoft Windows Server code name "Longhorn" is the next generation of the Windows Server operating system that helps information technology (IT) professionals maximize control over their infrastructure while providing unprecedented availability and management capabilities, leading to a significantly more secure, reliable, and robust server environment than ever before. Windows Server "Longhorn" delivers new value to organizations by ensuring all users regardless of location are able to get the full complement of services from the network.

On May 31, 2007, pre-release versions of Windows Vista will expire. If you are running a pre-release version of Windows Vista (Beta 2, RC1, or RC2) you will begin to receive notifications about the upcoming expiration on May 18, 2007. To avoid work disruption and the loss of data, it is strongly recommended that PC users running any of these pre-release versions of Windows Vista migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista prior to May 31.