I've been waiting for a long time to write this.  Last year I posted about the Vista Backup team being available for a Live Meeting and chat with customers .  I received a large number of comments to that post with people talking about their...

I was honoured to be invited to come along to the Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner today in beautiful Sonning on the banks of the Thames.  Today I'm going to be talking, well actually more demoing the following things. My goal with the 25 mins I was...

The more partners I talk to the more they tell me that customers are showing hunger for information on our Application Virtualization technology aka Softgrid.  One of the common questions I'm hearing is how do you "sequence" which means...

I'm at a Microsoft Partner office today where the team are talking to customers about Windows Vista.  There was a customer on the phone earlier who said he didn't want to upgrade to Vista because of the following myths: “I can’t manage...

Found an interesting quote from IT Pro today : For customers who do switch to Vista, there are fewer issues than with XP; fewer users are calling Microsoft or the OEMs for Vista support compared to the first 90 days of XP and the call volume is decreasing...

What is Live Meeting? Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a hosted Web conferencing service that connects and engages audiences in online meetings, training, and events through a reliable, enterprise-class hosted service. With meeting attendees participating...

I received a question today on whether you can run Forefront for Exhchange on SBS 2003.  Turns out it's tested: “Whilst Microsoft haven’t yet made any public statements about the Forefront server Products – we can confirm that Microsoft...

Loving this video.  It captures the essence of Virtual Earth and all you can do on this world leading platform.

Yesterday we launched Windows Server 2008 - congrats to the whole team!  Now you have the opportunity to find out all about it at a TechNet event at venues up and down the UK.  Here are the details: TechNet 2008 Launch Roadshow Following the...

Spotted this little gem on the Enterprise Networking Group at Microsoft which shows off the combined power of Windows Server 2008's NAP (Network Access Protection) and Forefront Client Security - very nice!  Get more details here: http://blogs.technet...

  Today was admin day. This morning I started with around 200 emails that needed actioning. With under an hour to go until the weekend I've promised myself to clear my inbox - I've never seen my inbox this empty it feels great! 

The Partner Readiness team is pleased to announce the release of the Windows Live Platform Services course. This 1.5 day deep dive covers the core technical aspects of Windows Live Platform Services including: Overview of Windows Live Silverlight Streaming...

Upgrade Your MCSA or MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 Certification (Worldwide) If you are currently an MCSA or MCSE on Windows Server 2003, you are eligible for a special opportunity to transfer your skills to Windows Server 2008 before...

  Today I had the pleasure to talk at the Realcomm Europe conference in London.  Realcomm is the main conference for everyone in the property industry and talks about how you can apply technology in this particular industry.  Talking about...

Bill Gates has just announced free developer, designer and server products for Students.  DreamSpark allows students to download Visual Studio, Expression, XNA Game Studio and Windows Server for free.  Here's the Channel 8 interview with Bill...

Take advantage of these limited time Launch offers from the Microsoft Readiness Team: Windows Server 2008 Accelerated Learning Course - 6 Days Technical Training Windows Server 2008 Upgrade Skills & Certification. Academic, strategic and hands-on...

What's the beef here then?  Well in a nutshell Diskless PCs and Vista Enterprise Centralised Desktop open up new methods for IT departments to roll out and manage their desktop estate.  These new methods introduce different benefits so allow...

Microsoft Office Live Small Business is the award-winning, easy-to-use suite of Web-based software and services designed to help small businesses affordably take, promote and manage their businesses online. Used by nearly 600,000 customers worldwide,...

Listen to a recording of the January 25, 2008 Small Business IT Radio show on BlogTalk Radio and learn about EBS 2008, its capabilities, and the numerous partner opportunities it presents.  Arlin Sorensen, President, Heartland Technologies and Stuart...

Chris has got info on new product demos featuring System Center and Business Intelligence: The Microsoft Partner Demo Showcase download has been extended to include Deep Dive/Product virtual environments which are available to ALL Microsoft partners,...

Last week - what a week! I was up and down the country doing events and speaking to customers and partners about a vast range of Microsoft software and solutions.  I also turned up at the Royal Lancaster hotel very early to help setup Microsoft Surface...

At the completion of this 2 day training, you will leave with knowledge, tools, and hands on experience to deploy and configure System Center products such as Operations Manager 2007 confidently and predictably. The content covered in the boot camp is...

Day 1: · Intro · System Center / Microsoft Management strategy System Center Configuration Manager: Overview & Deployment · Introduction · What’s new · Prerequisites · Typical Deployment · Deploying Site Systems...

Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Wednesday, March 5 th . The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark...

I'm off tomorrow to California for a few weeks of holiday and also off to Mix 08 in Vegas next week.  If you're in the Bay area or the valley and want to meet up for a coffee then drop me a note at james@microsoft.com . I'll be checking in with the...