Microsoft has created a site to gauge the declining market share for Internet Explorer 6.0. With Internet Explorer still holding 12% of market share, it is time to give this aged, unsecure web browser the kick. If you or your IT manager are still insisting on Internet Explorer 6, it’s time to upgrade. Even the developer is telling you it’s time to put it down. In the words of the 80’s hair band Europe: It’s the final countdown!

10 years ago a
browser was born.

Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we’re in 2011, in an era of modern web standards, it’s time to say goodbye.

This website is dedicated to watching Internet Explorer 6 usage drop to less than 1% worldwide, so more websites can choose to drop support for Internet Explorer 6, saving hours of work for web developers.

A few screenshots of a build of Windows 8 UI have been released by Win7China. Apparently, Microsoft knows that these leaks happen and have a wallpaper with the saying “shhh… let’s not leak our hard work”. Great advice, but like most advice is wasn’t taken. The site WinRumors have confirmed that these screenshots are in fact the real deal.

Microsoft appears to be planning Windows Live integration straight into the Windows shell for its next-generation of Windows. The software giant has also provided several wallpapers with a “ssh…lets’ not leak our hard work” written on them. WinRumors has independently confirmed that the screenshots are genuine. The shots come from an early Milestone 2 build of Windows 8, tagged 7910.0.winmain_win8m2.110111.

Bing has launched a new way to search for deals in your area: Bing Deals. Challenging Groupon and other deal sites, Bing has launched the mobile (m.bing.com) and the desktop version of Bing Deals. If you are looking for a great deal in your area, check this out.

Instead of creating our own program, we’ve partnered with The Dealmap, to launch Bing deals. Bing’s mission is to help you cut through the clutter of the Web to make decisions more quickly – whether that’s through our own innovations or by teaming up with industry experts. The Dealmap is a leading source for people to find and share the best local deals, so naturally it made sense for us to team up with them to bring you the best experience.

The new Windows UI might contain some ideas from the Linux and Mac desktop. Using what they would call an “Advanced Desktop Mode”, it would allow multiple virtual desktops, among other things. As usual, Windows 8 isn’t released yet, so it is all still rumors. But, it’s always fun to entertain these rumors to see if they do become reality.

While put forward as a collaboration with academics to improve Windows 8, it’s not yet known how many if any of Manduva’s features will reach the shipping version. Microsoft has only just finished Milestone 2 and still has at least one more milestone before it reaches a beta that would show the largely complete interface. The proposal nonetheless implies that Microsoft is planning to continue the back-and-forth use of ideas between itself and rivals.

Look out Google, your match has come. Bing has surpassed Yahoo to take the number two space in the search engine empire. Ok, so Google doesn’t have much to worry about, still holding nearly 90% of overall searches. But, in the short time that Bing has been around, it has been grabbing search engine traffic away from other giants. Yahoo used to be #1, back in the day when Excite was a big contender. The Internet has seen some giants come and go in a relatively short amount of time. Lets just hope these giants can keep innovating and keeping the results relevant and reliable.

Let’s take a look at the hard numbers. In February, Bing nabbed 4.37% of the global share, just ahead Yahoo! at 3.93%. They both still pale in comparison to Google’s whopping 89.94% share of the pie, but it is interesting to see Bing growing. All of those TV product placements must be helping.

A man has taken it upon himself to install Windows 1.0, and work his way up the upgrade paths to the newest Windows: 7. He has is all documented on YouTube. Check it out.

According to WinRumors, the first Windows 8 Milestone 3 build has been compiled. This is some great news, and perhaps a beta build is likely sometime this year. Although Microsoft looks to be concentrating on the ARM and Tablets for an initial release of Windows 8, I’m sure a x64 version isn’t too far behind.

The company signed off on its final M2 build before compiling M3 this week. Microsoft’s internal Windows 8 roadmap states that the company planned to begin M3 builds on February 28. The company compiled build 6.2.7956.0.winmain_win8m3.110228-1701 on Monday according to Canouna over at MDL. Microsoft began compiling Milestone 1 builds of Windows 8 in early August 2010. The software giant finalized the M1 build in early December after four months of development. M2 builds began in early December and were finalized in late February. Milestone 3 development is expected to last until early June. The current schedule could mean we’ll see a Windows 8 beta during September at PDC.

Although I didn’t have any problems with the new and improved Microsoft Answers, quite a few other people noticed very slow loading and other issues. The managers made the techies stay overtime and get everything worked out. Hopefully, everything is back up to normal.

“Since we launched at 7 am this morning, we have seen extremely poor load time on the site. The entire dev team is still in the office working on this issue. We are narrowing the issue down, but still do not have it resolved.”

Yesterday I said they would be coming soon. Today, they are launched. The new MSTechPages.com forums. Registration is quick and easy. This is a work in progress, please leave any and all comments, suggestions and recommendations in the appropriate forum. Have fun, ask questions, answer questions!