Microsoft has released an early preview copy of its new operating system, Windows 7.

When Vista launched in January 2007, many complained that it ran slowly and failed to work at all with some programs and devices. Corporate customers have been slow to switch from Windows XP to Vista, although Microsoft said that the operating system had an unfair press, and that it enjoyed record sales. Despite this Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP so PC makers can continue selling it to those that do not want to upgrade. Windows 7 desktop Visually, Windows 7 has a lot in common with Windows Vista Windows Vista took more than five years to develop but Windows 7 is likely to arrive within a couple of years. Microsoft's VP, Steven Sinofsky, described Windows 7 as an ‘exciting new version’ and claimed it would deliver a more personalised experience.

Microsoft launches Office Accounting 2008

Microsoft has kicked off an agressive push into the UK small business accountancy market with Office Accounting 2008, a move which could threaten Sage's dominant market position.

Office Accounting 2008, which has been available in the US for two years, comes in two flavours, an express version which is a free download but offers limited functionality, and a pro version for £149.95 which can be configured for multiple machines and users.

The software is clearly aimed at the first time user, offering a basic set of accounting tools which allow customers to manage budgets, create invoices, track cash flow, and generate purchase and after sales orders.

A wizard shows customers how to import data from existing Excel spreadsheets, while a resource centre links to online information and advice, including RSS industry feeds, accountancy firm websites and newsgroups.

Google Chrome is a free open-source web browser developed by Google.

When Google decided to make a browser, they wanted to completely rethink the browser, as browsing now is very different from browsing the early simple text web pages, now we email, shop, pay bills, and run other large application in our browsers.

What is new?

Google Chrome is an early beta version, and at the moment, for Windows only, but it has some new smart features. Google Chrome is running each tab isolated from another, which prevents one tab to crash another, and is also more secure, and better for the memory; when a tab is closed it's memory use is eliminated. Google added a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, which will make large application perform better. The start page offers new functionality, a bit like Opera, with your nine most visited web pages, a list of recently visited pages, your favorite search engines and more. Because it is an open source project, new features will be added, and other browser developers can adopt what they find useful, in their browser.

Microsoft releases beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft Corp released on Wednesday a second test version of Internet Explorer 8, delivering a feature-complete upgrade to the world's most widely used Web browser. The world's largest software maker said the latest version -- beta 2 -- of Internet Explorer, which has a market share of about 75 per cent, comes with new features to enhance privacy, ease-of-use, and security. Microsoft first released a test -- or beta 1 -- version of IE 8 in March, but that was aimed at letting Web developers take a first look at the new browser. This latest version is aimed at a broader consumer audience.

The company would not disclose when it planned to officially launch IE 8 nor how many people are expected to download the test version of the new browser. It released Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006. Microsoft has pledged to deliver more regular updates of Internet Explorer, whose lead has been chipped away by Mozilla's Firefox browser. The latest version of Internet Explorer replicates features found in Firefox 3, the latest version of that Web browser, including a ‘smart’ address bar that remembers and redirects user to website addresses they have visited before.

Internet Explorer 8 also offers a mode called ‘InPrivate Browsing,’ which ensures that history, temporary Internet files and cookies are not recorded on a user's PC. There is also a security feature that allows a user to block content coming from third-parties trying to track and aggregate the user's online behavior. Microsoft also updated already announced features such as ‘Activities,’ which allows a user to use information found on one page, such as an address, in conjunction with an online service such as mapping without leaving the original site.