Users running pirated or counterfeit copies of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 can now download Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft announced Thursday.

From the moment it released IE7 almost a year ago, Microsoft has restricted the browser to users who can prove they own a legitimate copy of the operating system. Before Microsoft allows the browser to download, it runs the user's PC through a Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation test, a prime part of XP's antipiracy software.

When it instituted the requirement in 2006, Microsoft said rights to IE7 was one of the rewards for being legal. It changed its mind Thursday, saying the move is in users' best interest.

"Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we're updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users," said Steve Reynolds, an IE program manager in a posting to a Microsoft company blog. "With today's 'Installation and Availability Update,' Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users."

Microsoft has consistently touted IE7 as a more secure browser, and post-launch patch counts back that up. In the past 11 months, IE6 for Windows XP SP2 has been patched for 22 vulnerabilities, 20 of them rated critical. IE7 for XP SP2, however, has been patched only 13 times; 10 of those fixes were ranked critical. In fact, when Microsoft announced that IE7 would not be offered to users running illegal copies of XP, some analysts questioned the company's commitment to security.

Windows Server 2008 is on its way. With the first release candidate in the pipeline, it shouldn't be long before release to manufacturing and general availability.

With such a long development time (it's the first new Windows Server OS since 2003,) the show stopping new features have been well publicized: Most IT pros are familiar with at least some of the details of Server Core, PowerShell and Windows Server Virtualization (codenamed Viridian). But Windows 2008 includes a lot more than those headliners.

To that end, we're presenting the most overlooked features of Windows 2008. We spoke with Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for Windows Server, to help us build our list. These items haven't garnered the same kind of press attention, hype and word-of-mouth as the others, but they're nonetheless important -- maybe very important -- to your network.

The Print Management Console (PMC). This was originally released with Windows Server 2003 R2. But unlike the R2 release, it's a native function in Windows 2008, and available to everyone. PMC is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which lets an admin see every printer in an entire organization, from one console. In addition, you can use Group Policy to map printers to specific user groups, so that the Accounting folks won't be hogging printers that Engineering needs.

Auditpol. This is a verbose logging tool that allows you to configure, create, back up and restore audit policies on any computer in your organization. In these days of regulatory compliance, auditing is more important than ever, and Auditpol may eliminate the need for a third-party auditing program. It includes a greatly expanded list of auditing counters from the simple tools available in Windows 2003, and hundreds of different categories that let you "create a paper trail of what's going on inside your OS," Ralston says.

Windows Remote Shell (WinRS). To connect to a command prompt on a remote computer in Windows 2003, an admin needed to use Terminal Services. TS worked well but wasn't scalable, requiring a connection to a console on each remote computer. WinRS makes secure connections to as many remote computers as necessary, all from a single console. That could be a significant time-saver for admins.

Event forwarding. This benefit is available to organizations that run Vista on their desktops. Event forwarding aggregates and forwards logs of chosen computers back to a central console, making management much more efficient. Say you're an admin and you start getting calls from users who are seeing the dreaded "Event 51" pop up on their screens, indicating a logon problem. Instead of employing sneakernet technology -- running from machine to machine to comb through security events or other problems -- you simply "subscribe" Vista computers through your console, and they send whatever information you ask for right to your door.

Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS). In Windows 2003, this was known as Windows Rights Management Services. It was available in Windows 2003, but only as an add-on product for purchase. It's built into Windows 2008, and includes some upgrades. AD RMS assists in the creation of rights-protected files, licensing rights-protected information, and checking to make sure that only authorized users have access to rights-protected data. Some of the enhancements for Windows 2008 include the ability to administer AD RMS through the MMC, and delegate AD RMS tasks through "administrative roles."

Filling a gap in its strategy to make sure its business customers are paying for each installed copy of Windows XP, Microsoft yesterday announced the Get Genuine Windows Agreement (GGWA).

GGWA is aimed at increasing Windows XP licensing compliance among businesses. Microsoft apparently believes that some customers misunderstood their agreements, and were installing full copies of XP on corporate computers, which is illegal, rather than upgrading the OS, which the license allows.

Mis-licensing appears to be a common occurrence, according to a Q&A on Microsoft's Website with Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative.

So does "leaking" of license keys, as Hartje explained. "Microsoft issues a unique key to customers who enter into volume licensing contracts. When a company's license key leaks, it can be used to facilitate counterfeiting by "unlocking" the software repeatedly by unauthorized users who did not pay for it."

Microsoft is offering two flavors of GGWA for different-sized companies: GGWA for Small and Medium Organizations, and GGWA for Large Organizations. The Small and Medium Organization contract requires at least five licenses, and is available through Microsoft channel partners. The Large Organization agreement is available directly from Microsoft or through Large Account Resellers (LARs).

Redmond sees GGWA as an amnesty program, and companies who don't take license compliance seriously should note that it won't be tolerated indefinitely. "These purchases are intended to be a onetime catch-up for the unlicensed situation," Hartje said in the Q&A.

Software piracy should be less of an issue with Windows Vista and the forthcoming Windows Server 2008, Hartje said. Both products come with the baked-in Software Protection Platform (SPP). SPP includes anti-piracy technologies and tamper-resistant features that should protect not only Microsoft, but its customers from loading illegal copies of Windows on its computers.

GGWA is the latest addition to Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, which began a year and a half ago to reign in illegal software. The first effort from the initiative was the Get Genuine Kit (GGK), which sparked controversy and an accusation that the company used the Windows Genuine Advantage feature to spy on customers. GGK is meant chiefly for home users and some small businesses.

The announcement of the GGWA is Microsoft's second this month that relates to software piracy. On Monday, Microsoft detailed its Software Licensing and Protections Services (SLP Services) 2008 program. SLP Services protects Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) by making code developed on the .NET Framework much harder to crack and reverse-engineer, and enabling ISVs to granularly create and control SKUs.

In the latest sign of what appears to be growing trouble for Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to keep its forerunner, Windows XP, in sales and OEM channels for another five months.

Microsoft announced the move on its Website Thursday. XP, scheduled to be taken off shelves and out of OEMs' hands next January, got a reprieve until June 30, 2008. By that time, Vista will have been out for almost 18 months.

Microsoft tried to put the best face possible on the news. Mike Nash, vice president of Windows Product Management, said in a press release that customer feedback drove the decision.

"Although our research with customers before and since launch has reaffirmed our belief that the previous plan to offer Windows XP through Jan 2008 would address the needs of most customers, we did get clear feedback that there was a set of customers who needed a bit more time. Feedback from our OEM partners and from customers is that the June 30, 2008 date will address those needs," Nash stated in the release.

Nash continued to tout Vista's license sales, but for the first time publicly, Microsoft admitted that things are not going as hoped. "With more than 60 million licenses sold as of this summer, Windows Vista is on track to be the fastest-selling operating system in Microsoft's history. And while many large businesses are moving incredibly fast to Windows Vista ... we are committed to helping customers of all sizes with the transition. Some need more time, and we understand and respect that," Nash said in the statement.

The "60 million" license figure is one Microsoft has trotted out repeatedly to show Vista's popularity. In May, Chairman Bill Gates announced that 40 million licenses had been sold, followed by the 60 million figure by Microsoft COO Kevin Turner in July. Despite the license sales figures, though, evidence continues to mount that there is broad dissatisfaction with Vista, dissatisfaction reflected in the continued -- and perhaps increasing -- growth of XP, a six-year-old OS.

For instance, in July Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said that the company changed its revenue forecast from its desktop OSes in Fiscal Year 2008, revising Vista's revenue down from 85 percent to 78 percent, and XP's revenue up from 15 percent to 22 percent.

There were warning signs in the sales channel even before that. Last April, Dell decided to re-offer XP on six different laptop and desktop computer models, citing customer demand. Then in August, Fujitsu said it will begin including an XP disc with laptops and desktops.

Market research firms noticed the problems. Several prominent ones, including Gartner, In-Stat and NPD, reported on the relative softness of Vista sales. In a late June press release, Gartner analyst George Shiffler stated that "The release of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system at the end of January has, so far, failed to stimulate the market in the way many hoped."

Another ominous sign came in August, when Microsoft announced it was running out of XP product keys due to continuing strong sales. Following on the heels of that was the recent news that over the summer, Redmond quietly made process changes that made it easier to downgrade from Vista to XP. Some of the world's biggest OEMs, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo, are taking advantage of the program.

Microsoft is also continuing to improve XP, announcing at the end of July that it's working on XP SP3, for release sometime in the first half of 2008. The company has yet to update that timetable.

Meanwhile, Vista continues to suffer from a poor perception industry-wide, at least some of which is justified. In the beginning, much of it had to do with application compatibility. Just 650 applications enjoyed "Works with Vista" or "Certified for Vista" recognition upon release. Although the situation has improved markedly since its launch, there are still numerous complaints about hardware and specialized business application compatibility.

Add to that problems with User Account Control (UAC), a security technology that assaulted users with endless pop-up boxes asking for permission to do basic tasks, and increased hardware requirements to make use of the Aero graphical interface, and the reasons behind Vista's sluggish sales become clearer. Combined with the familiarity users have with XP, and that OSe's stability and broad compatibility, it may not be so surprising after all that Microsoft is looking for ways to extend XP's freshness date.

Microsoft today rolled out a new service for its Office suite that adds online collaboration features but still requires documents to be created and edited on the desktop.

Dubbed Office Live Workspace, it provides a Web-based location to store and share documents, giving access to anyone with an Internet hookup. Office Live Workspace works with Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

The initial rollout is a beta program in English with limited availability. It will be free to start with, but Microsoft said it may eventually support the offering with advertising, and could add additional features or services for a charge. Microsoft didn't announce when it's expected to be released publicly.

PC and Mac users can access documents stored on Office Live Workspace, which supports both the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Users will need a Windows Live ID and password. Antivirus protection will be provided via Microsoft's Forefront Client Security.

While Microsoft didn't give a size limit on an Office Live Workspace account, it did say there is enough storage to store more than 1,000 documents, "based on the average file size and use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint by students, work, and home users."

Office Live Workspace doesn't allow documents to be created or edited through a browser, marking a divergent path from one of its main competitors, Google Docs. Google Docs, an online-only service, is created specifically to be used over the Internet, with no software to load on a user's computer. It is also free, although a premium service, Google Apps Premiere Edition (GAPE), is available for $50 per user, per year.

Office Live Workspace is the latest salvo in the Office document wars Microsoft is fighting on a number of fronts. Competitors are trying to cut in on one of Redmond's primary cash cows, and Google Docs recently scored a direct hit when Capgemini, a large consulting firm, announced it would recommend GAPE to its corporate customers.

Microsoft is also scrapping to gain standards approval for the format of its Office 2007 documents, Open XML. That would help Office get more acceptance throughout Europe. There, however, Microsoft is fighting uphill, and its initial attempt was recently shot down.

But with the beta launch of Office Live Workspace, Microsoft has taken some of the battle onto its rivals' territory.