Misrepresentation

The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a lower TCO than Linux and lists a variety of studies in order to prove its case.^[112] Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs than Windows Server.^[113] Another study by the Yankee Group claims that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs a significant fraction (a quarter to a third) of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, even for large enterprises, and that the other major reasons for a switch away from Windows servers were the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and a chance to escape the Microsoft "lock-in".^[114]

In 2004, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK warned Microsoft that an ad from the campaign which claimed that "Linux was ... 10 times more expensive than Windows Server 2003", was "misleading", as the hardware chosen for the Linux server was needlessly expensive.^[115] The ASA's complaint was that "the measurements for Linux were performed on an IBM zSeries [mainframe], which was more expensive and did not perform as well as other IBM series." The comparison was to Windows Server 2003 running on two 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs.^[116]

David Meyer writing on Zdnet.com pointed out that, "Microsoft has a long history of applying for, and being granted patents for, inventions that many argue--and can sometimes demonstrate--were based on earlier work carried out by others, or based on a common, self-evident idea."^[117] This was in response to its 2008 patent application for the ability to progress in page-up or page-down increments with a single keystroke — a method that has been pervasive for decades.^[118]

Freedom and privacy

Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of companies that seek to implement an initiative called Trusted Computing (computing in which a computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well), TCPA is decried by critics as it allows software developers and platform controllers to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and over how computers behave.^{[105][106]:23[107][108]}

“ Large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies), together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you.”

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation^[109]

Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Digital Rights Management is a technology that allows content providers to impose restrictions on the methods by which digital media is used on consumer hardware; and subsequently, detractors contend that such technology may infringe on fair use and other rights, especially given that it restricts legal activities such as re-mixing or reproduction of material for use in slide shows or the resale of the goods by the customer.^[110][111]

Anti-competitive

Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry.^[101] The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.^[102] These and other tactics have resulted in lawsuits brought by companies and governments, and billions of dollars in rulings against Microsoft.^{[103][13][45]} In January 2009, Opera Software ASA filed a complaint to the European Commission stating that Microsoft's inclusion of Internet Explorer with Windows-based personal computers is a violation of European competition laws.^[104]

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a United States-based multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.^[8] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

The company was founded to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Its products have all achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. One commentator notes that Microsoft's original mission was "a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software."^[9] Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.^[8] The company's initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the company's stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.^[10][11][12]

Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism, including monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying. The U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against Microsoft for various antitrust violations

1975–1984: Founding

Following the launch of the Altair 8800, William Henry Gates III, (known as Bill Gates) called the creators of the new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system. After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.^[15] Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").^[15] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.^[15] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.^[15]

Among pre-IBM-PC products were the software package TASC (The AppleSoft Compiler), which compiled a BASIC program into Apple machine language, and the hardware Microsoft Softcard, an add-on Z80 processor card for the Apple II and compatible computers which allowed the use of the CP/M operating system instead of Applesoft and Apple DOS. In 1980, Microsoft entered the operating system business with its own version of Unix, called Xenix, which it licensed to various computer vendors.

DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its first real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, and by aggressively marketing MS-DOS to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.

4. Select Field Size
5. Enter the number of characters you want this field to have

Formatting a field to look a specific way (HINT: You do not need to assign a field a specific set of characters if you do this)

• Example) Formatting Phone Number w/ Area Code (xxx) xxx-xxxx
1. Switch to Design View
2. Select the field you want to format
3. At the bottom select the General Tab
4. Select Input Mask Box and click on the ... button at the right.
5. Select Phone Number option
   
6. Click on Next
7. Leave !(999) 000-0000 the way it is. This is a default.
8. Click Next
9. Select which option you want it to look like
10. Click Next
11. Click Finish

Selecting a value from a dropdown box with a set of values that you assign to it. This saves you from typing it in each time

• Example)Choosing a city that is either Auburn, Bay City, Flint, Midland, or Saginaw
1. Switch to Design View
2. Select the field you want to alter (City)
3. At the bottom select the Lookup Tab
4. In the Display Control box, select Combo Box
5. Under Row Source Type, select Value List
6. Under Row Source, enter the values how you want them displayed, separated by a comma. (Auburn, Bay City, Flint, Midland, Saginaw)
   • NOTE:This will not alphabetize them for you, so you will have to do that yourself. It should look something like this:
     
7. Select in the datasheet view and you should see the change when you go to the city field.
   

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Relationships

After you've set up multiple tables in your Microsoft Access database, you need a way of telling Access how to bring that information back together again. The first step in this process is to define relationships between your tables. After you've done that, you can create queries, forms, and reports to display information from several tables at once.

A relationship works by matching data in key fields - usually a field with the same name in both tables. In most cases, these matching fields are the primary key from one table, which provides a unique identifier for each record, and a foreign key in the other table. For example, teachers can be associated with the students they're responsible for by creating a relationship between the teacher's table and the student's table using the TeacherID fields.

Having met the criteria above, follow these steps for creating relationships between tables.

1. In the database window view, at the top, click on Tools ---> Relationships
2. Select the Tables you want to link together, by clicking on them and selecting the Add Button
3. Drag the primary key of the Parent table (Teacher in this case), and drop it into the same field in the Child table (Student in this case.)
   
4. Select Enforce Referential Integrity
   
   • When the Cascade Update Related Fields check box is set, changing a primary key value in the primary table automatically updates the matching value in all related records.
   • When the Cascade Delete Related Records check box is set, deleting a record in the primary table deletes any related records in the related table
5. Click Create and Save the Relationship

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Forms

A form is nothing more than a graphical representation of a table. You can add, update, delete records in your table by using a form. NOTE: Although a form can be named different from a table, they both still manipulate the same information and the same exact data. Hence, if you change a record in a form, it will be changed in the table also.

A form is very good to use when you have numerous fields in a table. This way you can see all the fields in one screen, whereas if you were in the table view (datasheet) you would have to keep scrolling to get the field you desire.

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Create a Form using the Wizard

It is a very good idea to create a form using the wizard, unless you are an advanced user and know what you are doing. Microsoft Access does a very good job of creating a form using the wizard. The following steps are needed to create a basic form:

1. Switch to the Database Window. You can do this by pressing F11 on the keyboard.
2. Click on the Forms button under Objects on the left side of screen
3. Double click on Create Form Using Wizard
4. On the next screen select the fields you want to view on your form. Most of the time you would select all of them.
5. Click Next
6. Select the layout you wish
7. Click Next
8. Select the style you desire...HINT: if you plan on printing your form, I suggest you use a light background to save on printer toner and ink
9. Click Next
10. Give you form a name, and select Open the Form and enter information
11. Select Finish
12. You should see your form. To adjust the design of your form, simply hit the design button (same as with the tables), and adjust your form accordingly

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Reports

A report is an effective way to present your data in a printed format. Because you have control over the size and appearance of everything on a report, you can display the information the way you want to see it.

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Create a Report using the Wizard

As with the Form, it is a very good idea to create a report using the wizard, unless you are an advanced user. Microsoft Access does a very good job using the wizard to create reports.

1. Switch to the Database Window. You can do this by pressing F11 on the keyboard.
2. Click on the Reports button under Objects on the left side of screen
3. Double click on Create Report Using Wizard
4. On the next screen select the fields you want to view on your form. Most of the time you would select all of them.
5. Click Next
6. Select if you would like to group your files. Keep repeating this step for as many groupings as you would like.
7. Click Next
8. Select the layout and the paper orientation you desire
9. Click Next
10. Select the style you desire...HINT: if you plan on printing your report, I suggest you use a light background to save on printer toner and ink
11. Click Next
12. Give you report a name, and select Preview the Report
13. Select Finish
14. You should see your report. To adjust the design of your report, simply hit the design button (same as with the tables), and adjust your report accordingly

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Creating Mail Merge Labels using a Wizard

Microsoft Access lets you create Mailing Labels for your database that you have. To do this do the following:

1. Switch to the Database Window. You can do this by pressing F11 on the keyboard.
2. Click on the Reports button under Objects on the left side of screen
3. Click on New
   
4. Select Label Wizard and the table you would like to get your information from.
   
5. Click OK
6. Select the layout of your labels
7. Click Next
8. Select the font size and color you want on each label
9. Click Next
10. Select how you want your label to look
11. Click Next
12. Select how you want your labels sorted
13. Give your label report a name and preview it

Entering Data Manipulating Data

• Adding a new row
  • Simply drop down to a new line and enter the information
• Updating a record
• Simply select the record and field you want to update, and change its data with what you want
• Deleting a record
  • Simply select the entire row and hit the Delete Key on the keyboard

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Advanced Table Features w/Microsoft Access

• Assigning a field a specific set of characters
  • Example) Making a Social Security Number only allows 9 characters.
  1. Switch to Design View
  2. Select the field you want to alter
  3. At the bottom select the General Tab

Create a Table from scratch in Design view

1. If you haven't already done so, switch to the Database Window You can press F11 to switch to the Database window from any other window.

Create a Table from scratch in Design view Double-Click on "Create table in Design view".
(DESIGN VIEW)

Define each of the fields in your table.

Primary Key

• One or more fields (columns) whose value or values uniquely identify each record in a table. A primary key does not allow Null values and must always have a unique value. A primary key is used to relate a table to foreign keys in other tables.
• NOTE: You do not have to define a primary key, but it's usually a good idea. If you don't define a primary key, Microsoft Access asks you if you would like to create one when you save the table.
• For our tutorial, make the Soc Sec # field the primary key, meaning that every student has a social security number and no 2 are the same.
  • To do this, simply select the Soc Sec # field and select the primary key button
    
  • After you do this, Save the table

Switching Views
To switch views form the datasheet (spreadsheet view) and the design view, simply click the button in the top-left hand corner of the Access program.

Datasheet View	Design View
Displays the view, which allows you to enter raw data into your database table.	Displays the view, which allows you to enter fields, data-types, and descriptions into your database table.

Microsoft Access Description

• Microsoft Access is a powerful program to create and manage your databases. It has many built in features to assist you in constructing and viewing your information. Access is much more involved and is a more genuine database application than other programs such as Microsoft Works.
  
  This tutorial will help you get started with Microsoft Access and may solve some of your problems, but it is a very good idea to use the Help Files that come with Microsoft Access, or go to Microsoft's web site located at http://microsoft.com/office/access/default.htm for further assistance.
  
  First of all you need to understand how Microsoft Access breaks down a database. Some keywords involved in this process are: Database File, Table, Record, Field, Data-type. Here is the Hierarchy that Microsoft Access uses in breaking down a database.

Database File: This is your main file that encompasses the entire database and that is saved to your hard-drive or floppy disk.
Example) StudentDatabase.mdb Table:A table is a collection of data about a specific topic. There can be multiple tables in a database.
Example #1) Students
Example #2) Teachers Field:Fields are the different categories within a Table. Tables usually contain multiple fields.
Example #1) Student LastName
Example #2) Student FirstName Datatypes:Datatypes ar

e the properties of each field. A field only has 1 datatype.
FieldName) Student LastName
Datatype) Text

This tutorial will help you get started with Microsoft Access and may solve some of your problems, but it is a very good idea to use the Help Files that come with Microsoft Access (or any program you use for that matter), or go to Microsoft's web site located at http://microsoft.com/office/access/default.htm for further assistance.

Starting Microsoft Access

• Two Ways


1. Double click on the Microsoft Access icon on the desktop.

1. Click on Start --> Programs --> Microsoft Access

Creating New, and Opening Existing Databases
he above picture gives you the option to:

• Create a New Database from s
cratch
• Use the wizard to create a New Database
• Open an existing databas
  e

• The white box gives you the most recent databases you have used. If you do not see the one you had created, choose the More Files option and hit OK. Otherwise choose the database you had previously used and click OK.

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Create a database using the Database Wizard

1. When Microsoft Access first starts up, a dialog box is automatically displayed with options to create a new database or open an existing one. If this dialog box is displayed,

   click Access Database Wizards, pages, and projects and then click OK.
   
   If you have already opened a database or closed the dialog box that displays when Microsoft Access starts up, click New Database on the toolbar.

2. On the Databases tab, double-click the icon for the kind of database you want to create.

3. Specify a name and location for the database.

4. Click Create to start defining your new database

Create a database without using the Database Wizard

1. When Microsoft Access first starts up, a dialog box is automatically displayed with options to create a new database or open an existing one. If this dialog box is displayed, click Blank Access Database, and then click OK.
   
   If you have already opened a database or closed the dialog box that displays when Microsoft Access starts up, click New Database on the toolbar, and then double-click the Blank Database icon on the General tab.

4. Specify a name and location for the database and click Create. (Below is the screen that shows up following this step)

Tables

A table is a collection of data about a specific topic, such as students or contacts. Using a separate table for each topic means that you store that data only once, which makes your database more efficient, and reduces data-entry errors.

Microsoft Office 2000

The Microsoft Office System delivers a powerful collection of integrated programs, servers, services, tools, and technologies that can help developers build robust business solutions to streamline processes and connect people to information and to one another.

If you are new to Office development, and want to learn more about the possibilities offered by the Microsoft Office System to develop solutions, explore this set of helpful links to get you up to speed.

· Access 2000

· Excel 2000

· FrontPage 2000

· FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions

· Office 2000

· Office 2000

· Outlook 2000

· Project 2000

· Visio 2000

· Word 2000

Related Library Sections

· Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

· Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System Reference

Microsoft Office Developer Center

· Microsoft Office Developer Center

· Understanding Office Development

· How To Center

· SDK Documentation

· Interactive Developer Map

· 2007 Microsoft Office System for Architects

· Microsoft Office Business Applications

· Microsoft Visual Studio Developer Center

· Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Center

Additional Resources

· Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center

· MSDN Evaluation Center

· Microsoft Learning Portal

· MSDN Magazine

· Microsoft Office Online

· Microsoft Office Products

· Microsoft Office TechCenter

· MSDN Virtual Labs

The Microsoft Office System delivers a powerful collection of integrated programs, servers, services, tools, and technologies that can help developers build robust business solutions to streamline processes and connect people to information and to one another.

If you are new to Office development, and want to learn more about the possibilities offered by the Microsoft Office System to develop solutions, explore this set of helpful links to get you up to speed.

· Access 2000

· Excel 2000

· FrontPage 2000

· FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions

· Office 2000

· Office 2000

· Outlook 2000

· Project 2000

· Visio 2000

· Word 2000

Related Library Sections

· Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

· Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System Reference

Microsoft Office Developer Center

· Microsoft Office Developer Center

· Understanding Office Development

· How To Center

· SDK Documentation

· Interactive Developer Map

· 2007 Microsoft Office System for Architects

· Microsoft Office Business Applications

· Microsoft Visual Studio Developer Center

· Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Center

Additional Resources

· Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center

· MSDN Evaluation Center

· Microsoft Learning Portal

· MSDN Magazine

· Microsoft Office Online

· Microsoft Office Products

· Microsoft Office TechCenter

· MSDN Virtual Labs