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Microsoft says its coding practices and its corporate management structure both comply with an international application security standard to encourage secure software development.

Enterasys Networks, the Salem, N.H., maker of networking and security products, found coordinating collaboration among staff, suppliers and partners was cumbersome using Microsoft's SharePoint so went looking for a simpler way that wound up saving money by boosting efficiency.

Microsoft figures customers will be more likely to switch from Android smartphones to Windows 8 phones if it makes it easier to find the same or similar apps for their new phone as were on their old phones.

Microsoft is adding to its Azure cloud service offerings and lowering prices in order to attract customers who may already have chosen another service provider, experts say, but it might not be enough.

Microsoft is pushing Azure cloud service to the 5,000 attendees at its management conference this week, encouraging them to take advantage of the system now for specific tasks but to keep in mind that it fits into a full-blown hybrid-cloud framework that may become more attractive to them over time.

One beef against Microsoft's Surface devices is that they have less usable disk space than the advertised disk size would indicate, but there is a relatively easy way to free up as much 7GB of disk space: Create a USB recovery drive and delete the Windows 8 recovery partition from the hard drive.

Avaya is pushing a new range of unified communications products, but is finding that managed services are becoming more popular among its customers who would rather turn over complex UC transitions to someone else for a predictable monthly fee, says the company's CEO Kevin Kennedy.

IT pros with skills in Microsoft Dynamics project management and architecture can look forward to healthy raises this year, according to a survey of more than 10,000 respondents worldwide.

The Chinese version of Skype contains spyware that searches for blacklisted words and phrases, blocks instant messages that contain them, copies them to servers and captures the rest of IM chats that have been flagged in this way, according to researchers.

The top complaint about Windows 8 is that Microsoft got rid of the Start Menu and even the Start Button, and innovators have stepped in to provide a wealth of ways to restore it.

The final numbers are in showing that PC makers shipped fewer machines last year than in 2011, and Windows 8 is among several factors being blamed by IDC for the decline, which is expected to continue this year.