This morning Microsoft and Yahoo have announced a 10 year deal in which MS will have access to Yahoo’s search technology (and presumably incorporate some of it into Bing) and Yahoo will take over as the main advertisement provider for Bing.  There were talks a few months back between the two companies in which it was speculated that Microsoft would purchase Yahoo, but that deal fell through.

In case you’re not familiar with Bing, it is Microsoft’s new search engine (which they call a “decision engine”), which has replaced their former Live search engine.  This is MS’ attempt to better compete with Google.  In case you need some instruction on Bing, CollegeHumor.com made an “educational” video: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1915736.

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As of 8:30 CDT (9:30 EST) WPC 2009 has started.  Steve Ballmer is expected to give his keynote speech tomorrow sometime, during which, Windows 7 is expected to be announced as finally gone RTM.  Also, more information is expected to be released regarding Office 2010, which is expected to release during the first half of 2010.  A few months back the Office 2010 Technical Preview was leaked on the web.  Those that have tested it (including myself) have all been very satisfied with it.  To the average user, it doesn’t appear to be too much of an improvement over Office 2007, but one of the most anticipated “features”, if you will, is a 64-bit version.  This will provide performance improvements for users with 64-bit processors (and that are running 64-bit OS’s).

A recently discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer has the potential for an attacker to take remote control of an exploited machine.  This vulnerability lies within ActiveX video controls.  Microsoft recommends disabling ActiveX support (or at least use ActiveX controls with caution).  This only effects XP & 2003 users (possibly 2000, I’m not sure) using IE 6 & 7.  If you haven’t already, download and upgrade to IE8.

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In case you were not aware, Microsoft has been working on a new free antivirus program to replace their OneCare security product.  This program was codenamed “Morro” but has recently been announced as “Microsoft Security Essentials”.  While the public beta was limited to 75,000 people, the installer was quickly mirrored elsewhere, so here is a link to Softpedia’s page for it.  I’m using it on a few PCs and I’m thoroughly impressed.  Give it a shot, especially if your current A/V subscription is expired.