Random Microsoft Goodness: BCM, Vista SP1, Anytime Upgrade And Patch Tuesday

Ars Technica has just exploded with lots of Microsoft news. Here are a few articles of interest that have appeared on the site in the last 24 hours.

BCM And Office: BCM, or Business Contact Manager, is a very cool and very good part of the Office 03 and 07 suite of programs. Looks like it was so cool that MS is sharing it with others who may not be into MS Office Suites in general.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/02/07/microsoft-offers-outlook-without-office

Vista SP1: The article below mulls over which of the last few releases in beta ended up being the official RTM, released to manufacturing, version that we will see online in the next few weeks.. that is if you haven’t done it through P2P.. ahem.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/02/08/microsoft-acknowledges-vista-sp1-rtm-sp1-rc-refresh-2

Anyteim Upgrade: One of the really neat components that Vista offers is the ability to upgrade yourself up to a higher level of Vista bliss. Of course one of the most confusing components of Vista is this “Anytime Upgrade” system. One year into Vista’s life span shows that MS recognizes this issue and they have now done something about the problem. Don’t read the link below if you thought that the solution is to make upgrading cheaper. SPOILER: Prices to upgrade are still the same.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/02/08/microsoft-scraps-digital-product-keys

Patch Tuesday: 12 updates for various products are coming. Learn more about them in the link below.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/02/08/microsoft-patch-tuesday-for-february-2008