The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is ditching XP and giving Vista a miss in favour of desktop refresh to Windows 7 to help the agency improve staff collaboration.

The clock is ticking on the demise of some downgrade rights for Windows 7, an analyst said Thursday.

The Vista Kernal Patch Protection feature, known as PatchGuard, is intended by Microsoft to prevent modifying system structures for purpose of intercepting system calls, said Bruce McCorkendale, Symantec's distinguished engineer.

Windows 7 has broken the 4% market share barrier in less than three weeks, a mark that took Windows Vista five months to reach, a Web metrics company said today.

For most people who are considering moving to Windows 7, October 22 is D-Day. On that date Microsoft's newest operating system lands on store shelves, both as a shrinkwrapped upgrade and preinstalled on new PCs. For some folks, though, D-Day has already arrived. Microsoft has issued the final RTM (release to manufacturing) version of Windows 7 to large companies that buy Windows via volume licenses, as well as to IT pros who belong to its Technet service. The Windows Vista era is officially drawing to a close--although you could argue that it never really quite started--and the Windows 7 one is under way.

Windows 7 momentum is slowly but surely spilling over into the corporate world as long-frozen tech budgets begin to thaw and new PCs are purchased.

With the release to manufacturing date for Windows 7 just weeks away, Microsoft has hit the promotion trail claiming it has returned to the fundamentals.

Will IT go for Windows 7 in the next year? A new survey shows Windows 7 rollouts may proceed much slower than Microsoft would like. Plus, IT managers say they're more open to Mac and Linux alternatives.