Microsoft woke up this morning to headlines saying it had announced the first quarterly loss in its history.

However, this news is old hat as Microsoft announced over two weeks ago its massive write off for aQuantive an online advertising network which was designed to boost revenue from online search results. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out like that and the overall online services unit bought for $6.3 billion in 2007 to compete with rival Google, lost $500 million dollars per quarter.

But every cloud has a silver lining, as the lesser, headline grabbing results from Microsoft showed the 'Server and Tools' Department was UP 13% and the Entertainment Division which includes XBOX was UP again at 20%. No doubt these undeniably good results inspired the market, as Microsoft shares rose 2.4 % to $31.39 in after-hours trading following announcement of the results.

Looking at the whole picture then, even with the massive write offs, shares are up and analysts are happy with Microsoft's trading in the quarter. The 13 % drop in Windows and Windows Live sales should also be turned around when Microsoft launches new products Windows 8 OS and Windows Phone 8 in October this year. And also in the pipeline Microsoft is also readying the next versions of Windows Server and an upgrade to Office that will integrate Skype software and could bundle access to Yammer. So all in all, lots, of new things on the horizon to make life just a little bit easier.

Written and presented by Ann Salter