I’ve been running Windows 7 since Beta stages and as soon as the product was finished most people in Microsoft moved from Vista. Are you interested in understanding how Microsoft deployed Windows 7 to around 100.000 people worldwide? On Microsoft IT Showcase you find many examples of how we internally are using our own technology. There are white papers, videos, web casts etc and one of the recent web casts (now available on demand) are Deploying Microsoft Windows 7.

Once again, Catherine Eibner organized a WIT Lunch at TechEd. The focus of the lunch was to recognize and award women that are supporting other women in their community.

The award was called Women in IT Community Contributor of the Year 2010 and we had some great finalists, many of them involved in mentoring, Girl Geek Dinners or supporting young women. Read more about them and the winner at Catherine’s blog

Later this year we will release the first Service Pack to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Already now you can try out the first public Beta to see what the Service Pack will bring. Remember that this Beta is not supported by Microsoft so don’t install this on your production machine :-)

Read more about requirements and download the Beta here

On July 14th and 15th, Gorgeous Geeks will participate in a conference in Kuala Lumpur focusing on Work Life Balance. The keynote will be made by the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development and speakers also include Alecia from Gorgeous Geeks together with male and female speakers from various organizations and industries. More information about agenda and how to register here

Are you a woman? Are you technical? Do you want to know what it’s really like to work for Microsoft? Then you should tune in to our web cast on May 25th where women from our Services organization talks about three of the different roles we offer for those of you passionate about technology and working with customers. The session on May 25th is at 8 pm Singapore time and we also do three more sessions for other times zones.

Read more about the event and register here. The event is of course open for men as well :-)

Starting June 4th, our evangelism team in Australia will do a series of online events around IT Pro and Cloud and what it all means. It’s at 1 pm Australia time and if you can’t attend live they will be available for download afterwards.

Windows Azure and the IT Pro Discussion
Friday 4 June 2010 1:00 PM Australia (East)
Speaker – Greg Willis, Architect Evangelist Microsoft Australia

Windows Intune - Simplifying how businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services and Windows 7
Friday 11 June 2010 1:00 PM Australia (East)
Speaker – John Pritchard, Technology Specialist Microsoft Australia

Microsoft Online services – the underlying technology and roadmap
Friday 18 June 2010 1:00 PM Australia (East)
Speaker – Lee Hickin, Senior Technology Specialist Microsoft Australia

Starting the Private Cloud Journey with the Dynamic Infrastructure Toolkit for System Centre
Friday 25 June 2010 1:00 PM Australia (East)
Speaker – Gareth James, Senior Consultant Microsoft Australia

Find more details about each session here

On Friday we announced that Office 2010 has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM), which means it’s ready and you will be able to get your hands on it soon! You can learn more about Office 2010, Sharepoint 2010 and the other products in this suite at the Office Productivity site. From May 12th (13th Asia time) you can tune in to the online Launch Event

I found a great resource on Cloud Services, explaining all the different choices you have around Private Cloud, Public Cloud, SaaS, Iaas etc. Make sure you’re up to speed on all this by downloading this brochure. You can also watch videos, web casts and read what this means for you as an IT Pro on our Cloud Services web

Ayala Corporation is one of the most renowned holding companies in the Philippines and they recently finished off a project consolidating physical servers by 60% by implementing Hyper-V and System Center.

In 2008 they had issues with too many servers which was both costly and time consuming to manage. They used dedicated servers for each of its applications and also had one server replicating each production serve for backup purposes. They started looking at virtualization as a possible solution and compared Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 with VMware ESX. They found that the features where comparable but not the cost.

“At the onset of our proof of concept, the Hyper-V solution cost only one-tenth of VMware,” the Systems and Operations Manager says. “Even after VMware cut its cost to be more competitive, we were still able to realize a more cost-effective solution with Microsoft by using the Windows Server 2008 Datacenter edition.”

Read the full case study here and learn more about their findings and benefits.

On the Microsoft Virtualization web you find detailed information about our solution with Hyper-V, System Center etc. You can also find more case studies, guides on how to compare with other vendors and product downloads and demos.

Have you heard of Microsoft IT Showcase? This is a set of content (articles, videos and web casts) that shows how we internally plan , deploys and manages our infrastructure. Some of the latest ones that could be of interest are:

Security Monitoring on the Microsoft Enterprise Network: The Microsoft Enterprise Network is one of the world's largest and most prominent networks. Learn how Microsoft monitors the security of its network and responds to malware and suspected intrusions or policy violations.

Virtualization Moves Data Center Functionality to the Branch Office: Do WAN access issues and costs keep you from providing the datacenter services in branch offices that benefit your corporate users? Learn how Microsoft IT uses Windows Server 2008 R2 and virtualization to deliver datacenter functionality to branch offices. Services at the branch office level include file and print management, offline folder redirection, operating systems and application distribution, and patch management. This has significantly improved service availability, lowered management costs, and reduced servers.

The Showcase team also have their own topic area on TechNet EDGE , take the chance to watch and comment on videos.

While on the topic of Exchange Server 2010 in my previous post, I came across a case study from Malaysia that I recommend you to have a look at. The Plastic Centre Group provides packaging solutions for everything from soap and personal care, to cooking oil, household, agriculture and lubricants.

They have around 90 people working in the sales office and they were previously using an open source application on Linux Server for their email solution. They experienced issues around storage and the lack of spam filter resulted in each person spending on average 30 minutes (!!!) per day cleaning their inboxes from spam.

The solution was to move to Exchange Server 2010 and Outlook 2007 and from start to finish the implementation took 60 days, that includes both software and hardware changes.

“Two of the main reasons we are switching to Microsoft are the huge support structure that a company like Microsoft can offer, and the ease of use of its solutions” comments Sng, adding that he had spent more than a year learning the Linux system when he first joined the Plastic Centre Group.

Read the full case study here to understand their cost savings and increase in both productivity and mobility.

Last month a series of webcasts covering Exchange Server 2010 was kicked off. Some of them, like “Introducing Exchange Server 2010” is now available on demand and some is still scheduled to happen throughout February and March. Check out the full list on the Exchange Web.

On this site you also find “How Do I?” videos, short demos showing a specific scenario, like 3 parts around Migrating from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010.

Download the Eval version of Exchange 2010 now and experience the product yourself.

On March 1st, the Release Candidate of Windows 7 will start to shut down every two hours until the expiration date June 1st. If you’re still not ready to move to a released version of Windows 7 you can install the 90-day trial. We recommend a clean install to replace the Release Candidate.

Check of the Windows Blog for more information on how to move from Windows 7 RC, together with technical resources on deployment.

Referring to my blog post a few days ago, a Security update for this vulnerability in IE6 is now released. More information about Bulletin MS10-002 here and you can also watch a on-demand web cast here

If you’re still running IE6 it’s definitely time to upgrade. Last week some exploits targeting Internet Explorer 6 were made public and we also released a Security Advisor describing this; Microsoft Security Advisor 979352. Later versions of IE are not effected because of the improved security features. Here is an official statement from us:

Microsoft is aware of public exploit code released that impacts customers using Internet Explorer 6. Customers using Internet Explorer 8 are not affected by currently known attacks and exploits due to the improved security protections in IE8. We recommend that all customers immediately upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.  Customers should also consider applying the workarounds and mitigations provided in the Security Advisory.

Internet Explorer 8 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/ie

Microsoft teams are continuing to work around the clock on an update and we will take appropriate action to protect customers when the update has met the quality bar for broad distribution. That may include releasing the update out-of-band.

More information including the Microsoft Security Advisory 979352 and enhanced security features available in Internet Explorer 8 are available at: Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog.

You also find some information comparing how this affects browsers and platform in this blog post.

I just found out about a great resource for all of you planning Deployment projects; Jay Paloma’s “Video Series: Deploying Windows 7 from Windows XP”. Jay has recorded 7 videos covering WinPE, WAIK, MDT and other tools that you should use for your deployment to be smooth. You’ll find it all on his blog

I came across a new Security blog from Malaysia, Cyber Defend, that covers security on the web (at least in the posts so far). I especially liked the post called “How to chose a good anti-virus?” where the blogger lists a few points to consider, both for end users and enterprises. Definitely worth a read….

Do you want to know what applications are compatible with Windows 7, which ones are not and which ones you need updates for? You can now download a list with the products that have met the Windows 7 Logo Program testing. Since this changes constantly, you can always get the latest information on the Windows 7 Compatibility Center

Are you, like me, also hooked on Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc? With Outlook Social Connector in Office 2010 you have the possibility to get data from social networks displayed in Outlook. You can just click on the name of any of your contacts to display a summary of your communication history with that person plus data from external Social networking sites.

Now at Beta stage we have already partnered with LinkedIn on this and with our public SDK, any Social networking site can got this going. I assume we will have a lot of more partnerships at launch.

More information on how to develop an OSC provider can be found at the Outlook Blog, here you can also see a short video demo.

Download the Office 2010 Beta today and try this for yourself.

Check out more videos from Asia on my new I Love Windows 7 blog

On Monday and Thursday next week, my colleague from Australia, Jeff Alexander, will do two Live Meetings covering Windows 7’s core platform security improvements, securing anywhere access, data protection, and protecting desktop users. He describes it like this: “We will be discussing User Account Control improvements, enhanced auditing, Network Access Protection (NAP), Firewall improvements, Applocker, Bitlocker and Bitlocker to go enhancements, Direct Access, Internet Explorer 8 security improvements, and EFS enhancements.”

The first one is on Monday, November 23rd at 11 am Singapore time (GMT+8), register for it here

The second one is on Thursday, November 26th at 1 pm Singapore time (GMT+8), register for it here

The Beta of Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 will become publicly available tomorrow but if you have a TechNet Plus Subscription you can download it now!

Yesterday at TechEd Berlin we announced that Exchange Server 2010 has reached RTM status! Learn more about Exchange 2010 at the Exchange website, here you can also download a Trial version, watch a Web Cast or do a Virtual Lab. Exchange Server is also a part of our New Efficiency Virtual Launch

To read what others has to say, check of our News and Reviews

Now you can finally get your hand on your own copy of Windows 7. There has been Launch activities going on around the world and soon they will come to you.

Until then, you can download a 90-Day Trial version, attend the Virtual Launch Events or check out all the Windows 7 content on TechNet EDGE

Are you keen on learning more about the Security Enhancements in IE8? My colleague, Ed Quek, will do a live web cast tomorrow (October 21st) 12 pm Singapore time, talking about what we have done to make our latest browser more secure.

To attend you can register here and you will receive an email with the link for the Live Meeting.

See you all virtually tomorrow!