General News

• Virtualization TechCenter: The new and updated Virtualization TechCenter Web Site in now available in eight languages.   On this site you will find essential information to support your virtualization strategy using a variety of Microsoft technologies including: Hyper-V, Application Virtualization, Virtual Machine Manager and Virtualization on Windows Server.  Read more...
   
• Windows 7:  The Microsoft product group for Windows 7 are ready to announce some details of the latest operating system!    Attendees of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) (5-7^th November) and Professional Developers Conference (PDC) (27-30^th Oct) look set to receive early beta copies of the product.     Not many details are available yet, but be sure to keep an eye on the PDC Blog, Vista Blog or Engineering Windows 7 Blog.
   
• SQL Server 2008 is the Value Leader According to Latest Benchmarks:  The Microsoft Press Team announced details of new results which rank Microsoft SQL Server 2008 No. 1 for price/performance, offering customers the lowest total cost of ownership for an enterprise-class database.  Benchmarks results from the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC).  Read More...
   
• SQL Server 2008 Experience Online:  Microsoft has a new site SQL Server Experience with more than 500 short videos in 11 different languages.  The web site helps Microsoft’s global customers and partners learn more about SQL Server 2008,  Read More... 
   
• SQL PASS 2008 Conference: Beween the 18-21st November in Seattle, WA (right in Microsoft’s backyard) the SQL Pass 2008 Conference will be held.   There will be up to 300 SQL Server developers attending the conference and also the SQLCAT – SQL Server Customer Advisory Team.  If you want a chance to meet the team you may wish to attend the conference.  Read More...
   
• Architecture with “Oslo”: ”Oslo” is the codename for Microsoft’s forthcoming modelling platform. Modelling is used across a wide range of domains and allows more people to participate in application design and allows developers to write applications at a much higher level of abstraction.  Read More...
    
• Microsoft Virtualization: VMworld came to a successful close and the Microsoft product team build up a buzz about Microsoft Virtualization the Microsoft story, distributing 3,800 cards in <90 minutes, 25+ articles/blogs, 15,000+ visits and 175,000+ hits to www.VMwareCostsWayTooMuch.com in 7 days, and multiple tough questions on TCO to Paul Maritz.   The Case Studies speak for themselves.  Read More...

Software Releases 

• Windows Vista Ultimate Extras – Released:  Three new applications for Windows Vista Ultimate customers: Microsoft ® Tinker (TM), Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker and Windows DreamScene (TM) Content Pack #.   Read More... 
   
• New Online Food Website – Now Online:  Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, and MSN today announced the launch of Delish.com (http://www.delish.com), a new online food destination. Delish.com, also available at http://www.msn.delish.com, features thousands of quick and easy food and cocktail recipes from Hearst Magazines and other sources, as well as fan blogs on the most popular food television shows, and the latest on food events and festivals worldwide.  Read More... 
   
• Word2007 Redaction Tool - Released:  This open-source tool is unsupported by Microsoft, however advanced users and IT Professionals may wish to review it.   The tool enables the process of removing specific parts of text which you don’t want to appear in the final document.   Read More...
   
• Windows Server 2008 HPC Server (HPCS) - Released:  Windows HPC Server 2008 can efficiently scale to thousands of processing cores and provides a comprehensive set of deployment, administration, and monitoring tools that are easy to deploy, manage, and integrate with your existing infrastructure.  Read More...
   
• SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Update #1 – Released: You can find more information in the KB Article 956717 to take your SQL Server to build 10.00.1763.00.   Read More...
   
• System Center Essentials Technology Adoption Program (TAP):  The goal of the TAP program enables customers and Microsoft to build a mutually beneficial and long term relationship to build the next version of the System Center Essentials product.   If you are interesting in joining the TAP Read More...
   
• Windows Live Messenger BETA – Released: The next version of the popular Windows Live Messenger is now available, get the BETA version here.   What's new?  A new improved and cleaner User Interface, pictures of people right in your contact list, the ability to search for people and the web, new categories feature and much more.  Read More...
    
• Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0 – Released: The next version of Virtual Earth is now available with new features included, enhanced mobile support, better international support and more detail for more countries around the word, the platform infrastructure with new geocoding and parsing improvements, and a richer user experience and more intuitive functionality.  Read More... 
   
• Silverlight 2.0 RC0 – Released:  The release candidate of Silverlight will give developers the chance to convert their sites from Beta 2 before the final release is announced.  Read More...