Microsoft Corporation has decided to redesign the CHKDSK software to make the process faster and less hassle free. The software giant is rolling out a new NTFS health model for Windows 8 with a redesigned CHKDSK tool for disk corruption detection and fixing.

The CHKDSK tool has been with us for a long time but as disk sizes have become bigger, its function has become more difficult.

“We’ve all experienced the frustration that can be caused by an unexpected CHKDSK that pops up while restarting a computer at home or a server at the office. Beyond the surprise, there’s the interruption while waiting for the process to complete and Windows to be available. With Windows 8, we provide quick resolution to these problems when they arise, putting the user in control and making systems more available and more scalable,” commented Microsoft in a blog post.

According to Microsoft, “In Windows 8, we have made the detection and correction of the file system errors more transparent and less intrusive. We believe these changes will be a welcome enhancement for you and we look forward to hearing your feedback.”

If it works as claimed, the new NTFS health model will be a welcome change, indeed.

Software giant Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will be redesigning its search engine Bing by integrating the insights from user’s Facebook friends into Bing results. This will be the biggest revamp of the search engine since it was launched three years ago.

The redesigned version of Bing will be released in the coming weeks and is anticipated to be widely available in the United States in first week of June.

“Increasingly, the Web is about much more than simply finding information by navigating a topically organized graph of links,” commented Qi Lu, Microsoft online services division president.

“We’re evolving search in a way that recognizes new user paradigms like the growth of the social graph, and will empower people with the broad knowledge of the Web alongside the help of their friends.”

According to Microsoft, the new version of Bing will feature a ‘social sidebar’ that will list Facebook friends who may know something about a query topic.

Microsoft Corporation, the biggest software company in the world, has announced that from July 1 the company will go ‘carbon neutral’.

The shift results from three years of internal discussions within the company to improve Microsoft’s carbon footprint and environmental performance. The company will roll out the new changes, including a new accounting system, across its operations in over 100 countries.

According to chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard, the software giant will establish a series of new ‘internal carbon fees’ for all its units that could raise as much as US $10 million annually. The main objective is to save money for Microsoft, which is a major consumer of power and runs data centers in many countries.

All Microsoft employees, whether they work in data centers, software development laboratories, administrative buildings, or are traveling for the company, will be affected by the new carbon accounting rules. The carbon pricing and charge-back model will push the company to increase its overall energy efficiency and use more renewable energy resources instead of conventional fossil fuels. For carbon emissions that cannot be eliminated through efficiency measures, Microsoft promises to purchase renewable energy credits and carbon offsets.

Mozilla, the maker of Firefox web browser, has accused the software giant Microsoft Corporation of hindering its ability to distribute the software on some devices being designed keeping in mind the next version of the Windows operating system named Windows 8.

According to a tech portal, while Windows 8 desktop and laptop consumers are unaffected, the ban would affect users of Windows 8 on ARM devices, making up most of the tablet market.

“They’re trying to make a new version of their operating system which denies their users choice, competition, and innovation,” commented Harvey Anderson, Mozilla’s general counsel. “Making IE the only browser on that platform is a complete return to the digital dark ages when there was only one browser on the Windows platform.” Anderson has detailed his concerns in a blog post.

It is not for the first time that Microsoft will be entangled into a browser trouble, as the software giant was found guilty of squeezing out Netscape and other browsers in the 1990s.

Microsoft wheeled out a total of seven new security bulletins for May’s Patch Tuesday to fix multiple dangerous security flaws that expose billions of Windows users to remote code execution attacks. Four of the bulletins are rated as ‘Important’, and the other three are ‘Critical’, but two in particular are getting the most attention: MS12-034 and MS12-029.

Overall the Patch Tuesday batch for May 2012 covers at least 23 documented vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.

The software giant is urging Windows users to pay special attention to MS12-034, a ‘critical’ bulletin that patches 10 distinct security gaps. Three of these vulnerabilities have already been publicly disclosed, and Microsoft expects to see a working exploit code released within 30 days. The vulnerable code in the MS12-034 bulletin is related to the Duqu malware that was used to infiltrate high-profile targets in Iran.

Those users who have their computer systems set up to receive Microsoft’s software patches automatically do not need to perform any action. The fixes will be installed on their computers automatically. If you wish to download the updated manually, visit Microsoft Update or Windows Update sites.

To compete with the likes of Google’s and other cloud businesses, Microsoft has announced the launch of its Windows Azure Media Services.

Based on the software giant’s Windows Azure cloud platform, the Windows Azure Media Services enable content providers and other media companies to deliver their rich content, namely video, as an on-demand service to customers on multiple devices ranging from desktops and laptops to game consoles and tablets.

The firms can store the large capacity files within Microsoft’s cloud and then use the platform to develop delivery models suitable for the users accessing the content.

Windows Azure Media Services is held up by three pillars that define the platform – partner-extensible, richly programmable and automatically scalable. These three features are what the Redmond-based software giant hopes will define Media Services and tempt users away from the other already established services.

This is a big step for Microsoft, but only time will tell if it brings success to them in the end.

Microsoft has begun testing a new payment model that has been a hit with smartphones to see how it will boost the sales of its XBOX 360 videogame consoles. The software giant is offering 4GB consoles bundled with Kinect voice-and-gesture sensing controllers at select Microsoft stores in the United States for just US $99.

The catch is that the buyers have to sign up for a two-year contract to the XBOX Live Gold online service for games, films, music and play. The monthly subscription fee was US $15, bringing the total cost to about US $460 over time.

During the third-quarter of 2012, Microsoft witnessed that the sales of the XBOX 360 have dropped nearly 50% on a year-on-year basis. This might be the reason why the Redmond-based software giant has been rumored to be reducing the XBOX 360’s price to US $99 to ensure steady sales until the next-generation version is due for release.

The Microsoft XBOX 720 is anticipated to be launched in 2014, with a possible announcement at next year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, which is also known as E3.

Software giant Microsoft Corporation has announced its plans to omit the DVD playback from Windows 8. Instead of this Microsoft will be focusing on improving video streaming abilities by making it easier to access services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.

Citing a global decline in the sales of physical media, Microsoft is investing in a future without discs, and is hoping to keep costs down by removing DVD licensing fees. However, those interested in having access to their collection of DVDs do have options, as Microsoft claims that third-party DVD software will be readily available to fill the void where Windows Media Player once was.

The decision to scrap DVD playback was announced in the latest Windows 8 blog post, in which Microsoft said:

“Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support. For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray.”

The decision to remove DVD support proves that Microsoft is committed to making Windows 8 an OS that can fit the needs of tablets as well as traditional PCs.

A German court has banned Microsoft Corporation from selling its popular gaming console XBOX and operating system Windows 7 in the German market. The court ruled that the software giant has infringed Motorola Mobility’s patents in making its XBOX gaming consoles.

Judge Holger Kircher said that Microsoft has breached an agreement with Motorola, which is in the process of being bought by Google, by applying certain video-compression software in products including Windows 7 and the XBOX 360 videogame console.

A U.S. judge last week found a similar ruling saying that Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility’s patents. According to an industry expert, the patents in question date back to 1992 and 1994, and relate to the H.264 video compression standard that is used by 80% of all digital videos. These patents are industry-essential and must be licensed on a ’fair and reasonable’ basis because they can be important in making other products.

Motorola demanded US $4 billion in annual royalties, but Microsoft refused to agree. Click here to know in detail about the court ruling.

Software giant Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will be releasing seven security updates next week – three of them critical – to patch 23 bugs in Windows Server, Microsoft Office and its Silverlight and .Net development platforms. The remaining four updates that are categorized as important will deal with Microsoft Office and all versions of Windows operating system.

With seven bulletins released in April, the total number of security updates released by Microsoft in 2012 rises to 35, compared to the 36 issued by the same point last year. Interestingly, Microsoft’s release schedule has been far more consistent than in the past years. From January through May 2012, the total number of Patch Tuesday bulletins issued in a single month has dipped as low as six and risen only as high as nine. In the same period last year, those totals ranged from two in both January and May to 12 in February and 17 in April.

According to industry experts, this trend shows a sign of stability in Microsoft research and makes the jobs of systems administrators much easier.

Click here to go through the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for May 2012 in detail.