After taking a lot of flak for Windows Vista, Microsoft has recently released beta versions of two of its most popular products-Windows and Internet Explorer-in an attempt to recover lost ground.

the past few years have not been easy for Microsoft. The company that’s been synonymous with operating systems on computers has had to take a fair deal of flak from critics, users and has even been at the receiving end of a European Union (EU) adverse judgement. Added to that are the woes of the ongoing recession. And on the mobile front, its OS, Windows Mobile, is struggling against newcomers like the mobile versions of Mac OS and Google’s Android (very rashly dismissed as a ‘press release’ by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer). Perhaps it would be fair to say that the Redmond giant is not short of challenges at the moment.

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Microsoft_1The Vista albatross
There are many who feel that Microsoft’s problems began with Windows Vista. Launched a couple of years ago amidst a lot of hype, the OS has become a burden to the company. While tech experts might point to flaws in the structure of the OS and its security issues, the biggest reason for its relative lack of success (Microsoft will roll out reams of information to claim that it is in fact a huge success) is that the operating system was a pain to use for mainstream users who were more than content with its predecessor, Windows XP.

Redemption through Win 7 and IE 8?
But if there is one thing we know about Microsoft, it is that for such a big company, it moves incredibly fast to address problems. The immensely successful Windows XP had in fact come hot on the heels of the less-than-impressive Windows Me and had promptly made people forget the problems posed by the latter. In what seems to be a similar move, the company has released betas of its next version of Windows, Windows 7 and its browser, Internet Explorer (IE) 8. While we have given neither product a really extended trial yet, the little we have seen of both seems to indicate that they are significant improvements over their predecessors.

The improvement in Windows 7, in particular, is stark. While the dazzling exterior of Vista has been maintained (and some might even say, made to look better), resource hoggers such as the Windows Taskbar have been removed. Microsoft has also added its Ribbon interface (seen in Office 2007) to its staple Paint and Word Pad applications, making them much more user-friendly. Those concerned about security might like the Action Center, which displays a number of security and maintenance features in a single menu-saving time and making them far simpler to manage. While its system requirements seem to be on the same lines as Vista’s on paper, a number of people have told me that it actually runs perfectly well on systems that struggled with Vista.

IE 8 is equally impressive in terms of features and functions, but is likely to face an uphill task in the face of competition from the likes of Opera, Firefox, Safari and now, Google’s Chrome, all of which update versions far more frequently than Microsoft does. Our brief look at IE 8 showed it to be a capable browser, if a trifle too stacked with features, resulting in making it less than intuitive to use. But it allows you to do pretty much everything that every other browser lets you do, from smoothly accessing your favourites to easy bookmarking. And there are some features that others do not have, such as Accelerators (which let you get stacks of information without having to key in URLs) and Web Slices (that allow you to get regular updates from specific sites without your having to go to them). Also, the fact that it will come bundled with Windows 7 (no, we have no intention of stirring up that controversy here) means that it will have a fair degree of popularity among users, who will use it as their default Internet browsing option.

But the real challenge for Microsoft will be to convince users to move up not just from Vista but from XP. How it does this is going to be interesting. We are sure the overall approach will be a lot more subtle than Steve Ballmer’s warning that users expect the latest operating systems in their work environment, and might be dissatisfied if asked to work on older systems. Whatever happens, 2009 is going to be an interesting year for Microsoft, with the company also readying a new version of its Windows Mobile OS, version 6.5. Will these products get the Redmond giant back on track? Or will they accelerate its (perceived, we hasten to add) decline?