In the official Windows Live blog, Microsoft’s Chris Jones informed that the Hotmail problems have now been fixed. Since 30 December, more than 17,000 customers did not have access to their messages.
It appears that Microsoft is going to release the final version of its free security solution Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 on December 17, 2010. The update brings a set of new features that aim at protecting your computer even better.
On December 14, 2010, the Windows Live team has introduced a new subdomain of Live.com, featuring plug-ins for Windows Live Essentials. For example, you can find extensions for Windows Live Writer or Photo Gallery. These additional programs add new features to the applications.
Fake security updates for Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 3 are currently spreading as malware on the web. The malware programmers use spam e-mails to spread their work. What you would really install upon downloading these “updates” is a trojan horse.
Dutch Microsoft managers have talked about the Windows 8 roadmap. They also mentioned details about the release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
The next version of Microsoft Office, codenamed Office 15, might get its own App Store. This is what a current job description reveals. According to the current release cycle, Office 15 will ship in fall 2012 the earliest.
Next service to close: Windows Live Alerts 
On September 30, 2010, Microsoft is discontinuing the web syndication service Windows Live Alerts.
As of October 11, 2010, Microsoft is discontinuing its emergency notification and communication tool Vine. This is what the Vine team has announced in an e-mail sent to all beta testers.
As promised and much anticipated, Microsoft has started the beta phase for Internet Explorer 9 during their Beauty of the Web special event.
The first Internet Explorer 9 beta will launch on September 15, 2010. This is what Microsoft announced in the official Internet Explorer blog. Invitations for a special event have been sent out to a selected group of web publishers, bloggers, designers and magazine editors.
