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We're still not sure when we'll see Nokia's Lumia 900 (signs currently point to March), but if you want to ensure you'll be among the first to have it, you can pre-order the handset now at Microsoft's retail stores. We reached out to Microsoft, and it confirmed that $25 will secure Nokia's latest Windows Phone handset for you, but there wasn't any new info on how much the phone will cost in full when launch day comes around.

Microsoft announced it had partnered with Cloud.com to support Hyper-V with OpenStack in October 2010. This was not long after the land-rush of companies clamoring to announce their support for OpenStack in the wake of its unveiling at OSCON 2010. It appears, though, that the folks in Redmond have lost interest in giving its customers support for using Windows Server Hyper-V to deploy OpenStack.

Microsoft's next generation of Office, codenamed Office 15, will receive interface tweaks to make it more touch friendly on Windows 8, including a radial menu system, but won't be rebuilt as full "Metro style" apps using the new WinRT programming model. That's the word according to our sources, who say that the core Office applications will be flatter, feature more white space, and use fewer lines in an effort to focus on content, but that the look will literally be window dressing — Office 15 apps will still be traditional Windows apps underneath.

The transition to a plug-in free Web is happening today. Any site that uses plug-ins needs to understand what their customers experience when browsing plug-in free. Lots of Web browsing today happens on devices that simply don’t support plug-ins. Even browsers that do support plug-ins offer many ways to run plug-in free. Metro style IE runs plug-in free to improve battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.

It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system. If you haven’t started planning to migrate your Windows XP PCs to a modern OS, or if your migration plan have stalled here are some great tools to help you. First of all, start by downloading the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). It removes the need for disc imaging, migrates your data in place during deployment, and (best of all) it’s free.

Windows 8 on ARM is coming along nicely, thank you, according to a couple of sources with whom CNET spoke.

The Russian man accused by Microsoft of being behind the Kelihos botnet attack insists he is "absolutely not guilty".

Students from Croatia, Ecuador, Jordan and the United States receive funding and other support in the first year of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Grants program.