The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was updated today. The update brings improved performance and standards compliance, and in tandem with the new release, Microsoft is providing new demos and standard conformance tests.

Microsoft's particular emphasis with the new release is the "same markup." Microsoft wants developers to use the same markup for every browser, putting an end to the browser-specific workarounds that continue to be a headache for Web developers. This manifests in a few different ways.

Microsoft has announced that it intends to phase out its support newsgroups. The company currently has more than 2,000 public newsgroups used for tech support and developer dicussion, but in recent years has been migrating to a more commonplace, Web-based discussion forum platform. On top of these newsgroups, there are a further 2,200 private newsgroups used for beta discussion, MVP communities, and other closed communities.

The closure of the newsgroups will begin next month and will start with the least trafficked newsgroups, with users redirected to the relevant support forums.

The rationale that Microsoft gives is that the NNTP newsgroup platform is old and unsupported. Though the newsgroups did include official Microsoft representatives, they were unmoderated, and frequent victims of spam and virus attacks. Further, Microsoft's own newsgroup servers only had a 90-day retention policy, meaning that valuable answers ended up being purged. The forums, in contrast, are a platform that Microsoft actively develops. They are more accessible, especially since they show up in Web search results, and they offer additional functionality like answer acceptance and voting. These features, Microsoft believes, make them a better solution for online support.

The company says that newsgroup usage has dropped by half in the last year, while the online forums are seeing sizeable growth. This makes the decision to end the newsgroups unsurprising. Nonetheless, as an occasional user of the newsgroups since their introduction in 1996, and a fan of their old-fashioned, plain-text, threaded interface, I'm a little sad to see their demise.

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Remember back when Firefox hit version 1.0 and over 90 percent of the Internet used Internet Explorer? As of April, fewer than 6 out of 10 people now use Internet Explorer. The browser trends that we've noted over the past several months are continuing with no sign of alteration: IE continues to slip, Firefox and Opera are fairly static, Safari is very slowly moving forward, and Chrome is pushing ahead at breakneck speeds.

During April, only Internet Explorer and Opera failed to show positive growth.

Let's look back at this week in Microsoft news:

Windows Home Server version 2 hits public beta: Windows Home Server 2 has entered public beta. The new version offers new media streaming features, better backup capabilities, and a more robust storage system. 

ActiveSync, SSL coming to Hotmail: Details of the new Hotmail features rolling out later this year in Wave 4 have arrived. On top of a bunch of new UI features, Wave 4 will bring ActiveSync to Hotmail users, and full SSL support.

Microsoft has put its stake in the ground and committed to supporting H.264 in Internet Explorer 9. That the next browser version would support H.264 HTML5 video was no surprise (though the current Platform Preview doesn't include it, it was shown off at MIX10), but this is the first time that Microsoft has provided a rationale for its decision. More significantly, this is the first time the company has confirmed that H.264 will be the only video codec supported.

H.264 certainly has some advantages. It's standardized, resulting in wide support in both software and hardware. This also provies a migration path of sorts from Adobe Flash; the same H.264 video file can be played both in Flash and via the native browser support, which allows site owners to target both HTML5 and Flash users with a single codec. But the biggest advantage cited by Microsoft was intellectual property: the IP behind H.264 can be licensed through a program managed by MPEG LA. Other codecs—the blog post named no names, but Theora is obviously the most widespread alternative for HTML5 video—may have source availability, but they can't offer the same clear IP rights situation.

More information is being revealed about the next iteration of Microsoft's Live-branded products. We know when the new programs are going to start rolling out, we know that Windows XP won't be supported, and we know a lot about the features of the next Windows Live Messenger.

Now Windows Live Hotmail is in the spotlight. The web front-end gets a load of new bells and whistles, but two new features stand out in particular.

Following in the footsteps of Google's Gmail, Hotmail Wave 4 will offer full-session SSL. Presently, logging in to Hotmail uses HTTPS to protect user credentials from attack, but e-mail itself is delivered over unsecured HTTP. Gmail switched to using HTTPS for the entire session—both logging in and reading/sending mail—by default in January (previously, it was an opt-in feature).

In Wave 4, Hotmail is following suit, offering HTTPS encryption for mail access as well as authentication. With the most valuable part of a mailbox often being the mail itself, not the credentials used to access it, this is a welcome change.

The other big news is Hotmail will offer ActiveSync support. ActiveSync is used by Exchange to provide push mail and other facilities to smartphones. By adding ActiveSync to Hotmail, Microsoft is extending these features to 300 million smartphones, giving Hotmail-using consumers the full seamless sync experience on their phones.

This does still leave Hotmail stuck behind proprietary protocols, in contrast to the IMAP available to Gmail. IMAP, like ActiveSync, supports push mail and mailbox syncing. The upside to ActiveSync is that it works for more than just mail; providing synchronization of contacts and calendars.

Taken together, these new features make for a compelling update for Hotmail users. Live Wave 4 should rolling out in June.

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Monday saw the release of the eighth edition of Microsoft's Security Intelligence Report, a sizable examination of malware trends and software vulnerability data, covering the second half of 2009. The 248-page report makes interesting reading, and paints a detailed picture of the malware patterns seen around the world. It also contains information on the efficacy of various strategies to mitigate the malware problem.

The report, the first to include Windows 7 in its analysis, makes interesting reading. It shows that the security improvements that Microsoft has made in Windows Vista and Windows 7 appear to be working well, and that even though users are now tending to update the core operating system, applications (both first- and third-party) are often lagging behind, remaining unpatched for years.