After 5 years at Microsoft I have decided to leave.  An opportunity came by that allows me to get back into operations and (hopefully) drive some positive change.

The hardest part of this decision has been discussion account transition with my clients and co-workers, many of whom I now call friends. I will miss stealing your great ideas (and calling them mine) almost as much as you will miss listening to my rants about technology.

For those that care, you can follow my (new) rants and contact me here:  http://robsealock.squarespace.com/  or track me down on  http://www.linkedin.com.

Calgary IT is a very small place so I suspect I'll be seeing many of you around town.

rob sealock

Updated to reflect the “3 concurrent programs” for “Starter Edition”

Today, the System Center team is excited to share with you our plan to release System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3.  This new release of the ConfigMgr is packed with some extremely cool features, which over the coming months we plan to share with you in different ways. 

Recent shifts in the world economy have brought new focus on IT departments, and also to technology investment.  Organizations are being pressured to do more with less, while at the same time manage an increasing range of working scenarios, mobility requirements, and business demands.  Through all of this, they need to maintain security levels, answer compliance challenges and address the growing Green IT landscape.

As organizations look to reduce financial costs and environmental impacts, power management is proving to be a successful approach. The payback for power management is clear – when a PC is using less power it translates directly into reduced operational costs – either directly through reduced energy consumption or from a growing number of electrical companies that offer rebates to companies that can prove enforcement of centralized power management policies. In addition, continuous PC power management pays environmental dividends measured in terms like Kwh, or CO2 emissions savings.

Forrester estimates that more than 90% of firms are implementing or considering PC power management. Despite the advanced capabilities provided in Windows Vista and Windows 7, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that no more than 10% of all enterprise PCs in use have their power management capabilities turned on today. Without centralized management power management simply doesn’t happen.  Through research with our customers, partners, and industry experts, it became clear that System Center needed to deliver this capability in the box, with ‘R3’ as the release vehicle.  

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3

There are a few areas of focus for ConfigMgr R3, with the main engineering effort concentrating on Power Management.  Here are the goals for this feature:

Power Management
The goal of this capability is to enable Configuration Manager to further reduce the operational costs of IT by providing basic power management features native to the product.  Our approach is based on 3 primary areas:

A. Help the organization plan a power strategy by monitoring current power state and consumptions and reporting on machine utilization trends, current power settings and current energy consumption

B. Enable the Administrator to easily create, deploy and enforce specific power settings using the existing ConfigMgr infrastructure 
   −Ability to set peak and non-peak schedules
   −Ability to remediate settings if changed
   −Ability to opt out machines from power policy

C. Provide the business meaningful report formats that are relevant to Power Management

Here is a quick video of some of the sample reports we plan to release.  These are a ‘mockup’ and do not represent final calculations, views, values etc. 

An effective approach to power management needs to maximize power policy deployment while minimizing the impact to the end-user. System Center Configuration Manager helps customers further reduce their operational costs by adding new in box capability to their ConfigMgr infrastructure, and by seamlessly enabling power management client agent services to their existing Collection landscape.

In addition to power management, ConfigMgr R3 will provide customers with enhanced scale and performance support above current numbers.  In addition, further capabilities – in time for your Window 7 deployments – around Operating System Deployment will be enabled.

Configuration Manager 2007 R3 will release as a beta at the end of October 2009, with a targeted release of late Q1 calendar 2010.  Continued blogging and product news, Twitter updates, interviews with key people on the project, and some videos and demos of the new code in action will be releasing over the coming months.

Configuration Manager 2007 R3 TAP Nominations now Open
Product feedback is very important to the success of any product.  The nomination survey for ConfigMgr 2007 R3 TAP is now open.  You can access this nomination survey here.

Look to the following resources in the coming months for more information on our plans:
System Center homepage
Configuration Manager homepage

Just giving you a heads up that Exchange 2007 Sp2 was released yesterday (version 08.02.0176.002).  Below is some information regarding this release. 

Exchange 2007 SP2 Download

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs. For an overview of the new features that are available in Exchange Server 2007 SP2, see "What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP2" (not live at the time of this email).

Release Notes:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ee7829a3-0ae8-44de-822c-908cd1034523&displaylang=en

Active Directory Schema Changes:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221142.aspx

Customer Benefits

Key new features of Exchange Server 2007 SP2 unveiled today include:

• Enhanced Auditing – New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the activities occurring on their Exchange servers. It allows the right balance of granularity, performance, and easy access to audited events via a dedicated audit log repository. This simplifies the auditing process and makes review of audited events easier by segregating audited events in a dedicated location.

• Exchange Volume Snapshot Backup Functionality – A new backup plug-in has been added to the product that will enable customers to create Exchange backups when a backup is invoked through the Windows Server 2008 Backup tool. Exchange Server 2007 didn’t have this capability on Windows Server 2008 and additional solutions were required to perform this task.

• Dynamic Active Directory Schema Update and Validation – The dynamic AD schema update and validation feature allows for future schema updates to be dynamic deployed as well as proactively preventing conflicts whenever a new property is added to the AD schema. Once this capability is deployed it will enable easier management of future schema updates and will prevent support issues when adding properties that don’t exist in the AD schema.

• Public Folder Quota Management – SP2 enables a consistent way to manage quotas by improving the current PowerShell cmdlets to perform quota management tasks.

• Centralized Organizational Settings – SP2 introduces new PowerShell option that enable centralized management of many of the Exchange organization settings.

• Named Properties cmdlets – SP2 enables Exchange administrators to monitor their named property usage per database.

• New User Interface for Managing Diagnostic Logging– SP2 enables Exchange administrators to easily configure and manage diagnostic logging from within the Exchange Management Console.

 Overview

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is the recommended process and toolset to automate desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits:

• Unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance. 
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.  

MDT 2010 includes new features like flexible driver management, optimized user interface workflow, and access to distribution shares from any location to simplify deployment and make your job easier. Deploy faster and easier with MDT 2010.

New in MDT 2010

Improvements in MDT 2010 will allow you to:

• Access deployment shares from anywhere on the network and replicate files and settings across organizational boundaries or sites.
• Organize and manage drivers, operating systems, applications, packages, and task sequences with an improved UI.
• Automate UI functionality using the Windows PowerShell^TM command line interface.

Get the Download

To download the Release Candidate of the MDT 2010, click here.

https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=12463&SiteID=14

TechEd DVD’s: 

There aren’t any being published this year.  They’ve moved to putting all the content online and having subscribers to the online content for those that didn’t pay to go to Teched.

The main site is here:  http://www.msteched.com/online/home.aspx

Information about the subscription offering is here:  http://www.msteched.com/online/about.aspx

For those who haven’t seen this tool from Office Labs it is pretty handy.  It works with Office 2010 as well.

http://officelabs.com/projects/forgottenattachmentdetector/Pages/default.aspx

UPDATE:  2:20pm MST 8/18/2009 

 now live at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c6d27da1-ba2c-4570-a491-c0d7b39ede8b&displaylang=en

It is now public and can be downloaded from the following URL:

Ø  Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RC today

Because I've been asked 1 million times (no exageration)

August 7, 2009

Volume License customers with an existing Software Assurance license will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English via the Volume License Service Center. The rest of the languages for Windows 7 RTM should be available within a couple of weeks after that. For more information you should checkout the Windows Team blog posting.

August 11, 2009

Customers will need to install the appropriate update on their existing KMS host and then install the new KMS host key for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and activate.  Once activated, the KMS host will be able to activate all products (depending on the KMS key that is used). KMS for Windows Sever 2003 v1.2 (the updates for KMS to support W7/R2) is expected to be posted to the download center. The follow links currently connect to v1.1, but will be updated when v1.2 is complete.

Key Management Service 1.1 (x86) for Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Later

Key Management Service 1.1 (x64) for Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Later

Note: Although the KMS update for Windows Server 2003 will not be available until after the release of Windows 7, the systems will silently attempt activations for 30 days.  Provided that the KMS update is applied to Win2K3 within that time frame, this should be transparent to the end users.  Also note that Windows 7 Enterprise / Professional can act as a KMS host right out of the box with no update needed. 

August 14, 2009

IT Professionals with TechNet Subscriptions and Developers with MSDN Subscriptions will be able to download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM in English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish. For more information you should checkout the Windows Server blog posting.

August 19, 2009

Volume License customers, with an existing Software Assurance license, can download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM via the Volume License Service Center.

August 25, 2009

The KMS update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is expected to be available via Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services.  Service Pack 2 will need to be installed on the KMS host systems as a prerequisite.  KB968912 will eventually cover this release, and it will be published on or before the release of this update.

September 1, 2009

Volume License customers without a SA license will be able to purchase Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 through Volume Licensing as we announced last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

Finally, the prescriptive guidance has been updated on TechNet and IT Springboard.

Most of the above information came from the following blog, so please check it for updated information:

http://blogs.technet.com/hied_west_blog/archive/2009/07/27/windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-availability-kms-updates.aspx

 All subject to change w/o someone tell me about it...

rs

Our Windows Team Blog has announce  the availability of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP mode Release Candidate. RC is an important milestone in our path to final delivery of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.

You can download the RC bits from Windows Virtual PC website.

Note: Beta to RC upgrade is not supported. You need to uninstall the Beta version of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP mode before installing the RC bits. Please read the install and setup instructions carefully before you install the RC bits.

The Release Notes contains important information for this release.

Bookmark Windows Virtual PC Engineering Blogs for further information on Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode

Thank you, for testing and giving us feedback during Windows Virtual PC Beta. Your inputs have helped us in achieving this important milestone. This release includes many fixes to improve functionality, reliability & robustness of the product some of the key changes made based on Beta feedback include:

·         Manage USB devices with virtual applications: You can attach and detach USB devices while running virtual applications. The USB device management UI can be easily accessed form the right click context menu of the Virtual Applications icon, on task bar.

·         Jump list for virtual applications: Right clicking on the virtual application icon, on Windows 7 taskbar, displays a jump list that allows one to easily launch virtual applications from the taskbar.

·         Drive share settings: You can select the host computer drives that you would like to share with the virtual machine; in the virtual machine settings.

·         Windows XP Mode tutorial: A tutorial that introduces the user to Windows XP Mode features is displayed during Windows XP Mode Setup.

·         Faster Windows XP Mode setup: Improvements have been done to reduce the setup time for Windows XP Mode.

·         Compact differencing disks: You can now compact the differencing virtual hard disk to reduce the size occupied on the disk.

·         Support for optional components install in XP Mode: Windows XP optional components can be installed in Windows XP Mode.

Choose destination location for XP Mode files: You can choose the destination folder to store all virtual machine files for Windows XP Mode during XP Mode setup.

Update: x64 link corrected to

http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/F/D/9FD8E857-EE64-48E2-89EC-EF120913FB2D/Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu 

From the App-V group... 

Today, we announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6 Beta.  At TechEd EMEA we announced our commitment to ship the next version of App-V in H1 2010.  In March of this year, as part of the MDOP 2009 launch, we indicated that the development of App-V 4.6 was underway.  Today, we have reached a major milestone and are a step closer to our goal.

This will be the first version of App-V to support both x64 and x86 Windows platforms.  The primary focus of this release is to enable App-V to take advantage of 64-bit Windows platforms including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.  We’ve also made some improvements in the App-V Sequencer such as simplifying the workflow for creating virtual applications and adding the ability to sequence true 64-bit applications, a first to market!  For customers running Windows XP or Windows Vista, you can also use App-V 4.6 Beta and take advantage of the support for Office 2010, 64-bit platform support and additional features in the release.

Customers who want to get familiar App-V 4.6 Beta can register and download via Microsoft Connect.  As always, we want to hear from you.  We build great products by including feedback from our customers, so go ahead, test App-V 4.6 and give us feedback via Connect.  

http://www.osnews.com/story/21887/Linus_Microsoft_Hatred_Is_a_Disease_

Great artical.

rs

Yes this is all over the place but I'm posting as well.  Just finished the install of RTM.

When will Windows 7 RTM be available for download?

For Business Customers:

If you are a Volume License (VL) customer with an existing Software Assurance (SA) license you will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 7th via the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). The rest of the languages for Windows 7 RTM should be available within a couple of weeks after that.

Volume License customers without a SA license will be able to purchase Windows 7 through Volume Licensing on September 1st as we announced last week at WPC09. Mark these dates on your calendar and start making your deployment plans!

For IT Professionals:

There are a few ways you can get Windows 7 RTM. IT Professionals with TechNet Subscriptions will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English on August 6th and remaining languages by October 1st.

IT Professionals at companies with Volume Licensing see above on how you can get Windows 7 RTM.

We have quite a bit of resources for IT Professionals to use to become experts on Windows 7 and to aid in their deployments. Those resources can be found at the Springboard Series.

For Developers:

Developers with MSDN Subscriptions will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English on August 6th and remaining languages by October 1st.

To help developers who are developing applications for Windows 7 or updating existing applications to take advantage of new Windows 7 features, check out the Windows 7 for Developers Blog. Also, be sure to check out the Windows 7 Developers Guide on MSDN. Oh and there are also some fantastic videos on Channel 9 too!

Read here for more information

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/21/when-will-you-get-windows-7-rtm.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Password Checker does not collect, store, or transmit information beyond the computer that you use to access Password Checker. The image works on your computer desktop until you navigate away from the page.

The security of the passwords entered into Password Checker is similar to the security of the password you enter when you log into Windows. The password is checked and validated on your computer, but is not sent over the Internet.

Microsoft has a Virtualization Support Wizard on the internet that can help them determine if a virtualization configuration is supported without calling Microsoft support.

·        The URL of the Wizard is http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvpwizard.htm

rs

971878  Steps to enable Exchange 2007 store tracing for calendar issues

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;971878

971435  Steps to enable Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 Calendar Store tracing

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;971435

970920  Using Process Explorer to List dlls Running Under the Outlook.exe Process

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970920

Master Doc (old) 

Working with support to troubleshoot the Outlook calendar in an Exchange environment

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc891495.aspx

Personalization   

We made a number of changes to Personalization for the RC. One of the most visible changes is the addition of prominent theme names to our gallery. Another prominent change is the updated Desktop Background images themselves, which have received a lot of praise and discussion in the press.

To learn more about the creative process that delivered these images, you can read the article A Little Bit of Personality on the Engineering Windows 7 Blog.

Windows Explorer and Libraries   

We heard you! Beta feedback resulted in RC modifications.

Restored familiar Explorer entry points:

·        ÿ (WinKey) + E (lands you in Windows Explorer)

·        Start Menu ‘Users Name’ (lands you in the User folder)

Performance improvements:

·        Searching for files and folders in Windows Explorer

·        Viewing HomeGroup, remote Libraries and network locations

·        Within Common File Dialog scenarios

Other top enhancements from Beta Feedback:

·        Ctrl+Shift+N to create new folder

·        Updated Library header to improve usability and discoverability of controls

·        Copy Engine improvements around error reporting and cancel

·        Automatic re-indexing of files from new file handlers

·        Multi-touch Zoom to change view modes

Fit ‘n Finish:

“Arrange by” updates

·        Changing the grouping in Folder view is now persisted

·        Pictures Library:  Month and Day views now group together pictures and video taken on the same date

·        Music Library:  Artist and Genre views now show thumbnails for up to three unique albums

·        Video Library:  New Length view that lets users easily identify short clips vs longer movies

Content view mode updates

·        Consistent presentation of properties and labels

·        Snippets, snippets, snippets

·        Polished layouts

FAT32 support

·        RC libraries will now support non-removable FAT32 and NTFS hard disk drives

User Access Control

Several changes to User Account Control have been made for Windows 7 – a new two-color icon, more informative prompts, certificate inspection options and a streamlined download experience in IE8:

However, the change you will probably notice first is that  Administrator users can make changes to Windows set- tings without encountering any UAC prompts. This is the default setting, but if you desire more or less notifications can choose from four “levels” of prompting from the new UAC control panel.  These options allow fine-grained control of when and how UAC prompts are presented.  More details of these changes can be found in the Engineering Windows 7 Blog articles here and here.

Desktop Experience   

Increased pinning flexibility with Jump List

For organizing, scaling and identifying, the taskbar is designed to hold files, folders and links in a program’s Jump List. Items can only be pinned to the Jump List of programs registered to handle that file type. Based on feedback we’ve received we now allow one to pin items to a Jump List belonging to a program that isn’t registered to handle that file type. Better yet, pinning the item in most cases will create a new registration so that launching it from the Jump List will always open the file with that specific program. For example, one can pin an .HTML file to Notepad’s Jump List and when clicked on from the menu, the file will always open in Notepad even though IE by default handles the file type.

Desktop icon and gadget view options

Windows 7 makes gadgets far easier to manage, view and access by building them directly into the desktop. In Beta it was impossible to separate desktop icons from gadgets under the View setting available by right-clicking on the desktop. We made a change to afford independent control to each so that one can opt to hide just your gadgets or just your desktop icons.

Windows Flip (ALT + TAB) with Aero Peek

We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback about Aero Peek and how it helps customers switch windows with increased confidence. We decided to make this change since we heard many requests for it. One can still quickly flip between and cycle through running windows using the ALT+TAB keys, but when more window information is needed Aero Peek will appear.  This is triggered by a time delay as you pause while keyboarding through running windows.

ÿ (WinKey) + <#> keyboard shortcut

Clicking ÿ (WinKey) + <#> (where <#> corresponds to an item’s order in Quick Launch) in Vista would simply launch the item. As part of our unification of Quick Launch with the task band in Windows 7, we now beef up the shortcut so it can both launch and switch.

For example, if IE wasn’t running in the Fig above, then Windows Logo + 2 will launch the program (as it did in Vista). If IE is running with a single window, the same shortcut will now switch to the program. The magic really begins when IE is running with several windows or tabs—holding down the Windows Logo and tapping the 2 key repeatedly will actually cycle through the open IE items off the taskbar (with Aero Peek, of course). Letting go simply switches to the corresponding window. Think of this as per-program ALT +TAB shortcut for the first 10 items on the taskbar. If you need a new instance for IE, simply use SHIFT + Windows Logo + <#>. A program’s Jump List may also be accessed via ALT+ Windows Logo + <#>. Finally, you can even flip back to the last active window of a program by using CTRL+ Windows Logo + <#> (this also works by holding CTRL with a mouse click on a taskbar button). Keyboard aficionados rejoice!

Task Bar “Open With”

Quick Launch always supported the ability to drop a file onto a pinned program and have it open with that program. The new taskbar on the other hand, always treats a drop as a pin command. Drop a program and the program is pinned. Drop a file and the file will be pinned under its respective program’s Jump List and that program automatically gets pinned to the taskbar.

It was important for us to keep drag/drop consistent. We believe that for most cases people will open files through the desktop by just double-clicking them or from the Jump List and the default program will open. However, there are some scenarios when a customer wants to open a certain file type with another program. We heard this feedback and decided to revive “Open With” drag/drop on the taskbar with a keyboard modifier. One can hold down SHIFT and drop the file on the desired program.

Windows 7 Device Experience   

In Windows 7 we introduced several new features to improve how users discover and use devices that are connected to their PC. These new features are supported by system and platform enhancements that define how device makers present their devices and related applications and services within the Windows user interface.

Devices and Printers Folder

In the Windows 7 Control Panel, there is a new experience known as the Devices and Printers folder through which users can see all the devices that are connected to their PC. The devices represented are the ones the user sees, that are connected via USB, or paired via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless interfaces.  As a general rule, internal PC devices or device functions will not be exposed via Devices and Printers. Through a new set of XML schemas supported in Windows 7, device makers can customize how the device is described and presented within this view. Devices and Printers may be easily accessed and discovered by users via the Windows 7 Start menu.

Device Stage™

Device Stage provides a new way for users to interact with their Windows 7 logoed cell phones, cameras, printers, and portable media players. It includes a visual interface that makes it easy for customers to find and use applications and services for their devices in the supported categories. Building on the Devices and Printers XML schema, device makers can easily specify rich branding and customization of the interface including custom tasks and links to services. In addition Device makers can easily update their custom Device Stage experiences by submitting updated XML to the Windows Metadata Information Service hosted by Microsoft.

Here’s how it works: When a user connects a Device Stage device, the Device Stage can be accessed by double clicking the image of the  supported device from within the Devices and Printers folder. Portable devices that use Device Stage, will also automatically appear on the taskbar whenever the device is connected. Think of this as a multifunction replacement for AutoPlay. The Device Stage user interface follows the model of any shell view in Windows, and Device Stage devices appear on the taskbar whenever the Device Stage is open. In this way, users can interact with devices in the same manner as they would an application, with access to the enhanced taskbar functionality including Aero peek and jump list features.

Device makers with compatible devices who do not participate in Windows 7 with a custom Device Stage experience, may opt their devices into the new user experience model described above. In this case, there is no partner branding or tasks, but all of the built-in Windows tasks are supported, as well as integration with the Windows 7 taskbar,  jump lists, the Devices and Printers folder, and AutoPlay as applicable. This option is available for document devices (Print/Fax/Scan) and portable devices (Digital Camera/Portable Media Player/Mobile Phone). For RC, there are over 5000 supported printers and portable devices that support at least a baseline Device Stage experience.

Based on industry feedback, Device Stage now also supports the “My Computer” as a device class for logoed system, and logoed HID based devices such as keyboards and mice. These device classes will not support a baseline experience. Participation from PC and device makers in these classes is ramping up and we should see some of the experiences emerging as new Windows 7 PC’s are launched

Federated Search & Windows Explorer   

Federated Search in RC is even better than before. Search MSW, SharePoint or other locations right from Windows Explorer, where you can see your results with hit highlighting and drag file results straight to your desktop Check out the gallery of Search Connectors. You can even Bing right from Windows 7!

Windows 7 Display and Projection

Windows 7 offers a new and quick way for you to connect to a projector or external display. Next time you want to give a presentation using your laptop, simply plug in the projector cable and then use the Win+P key as shown below to start and stop projection. You can also use the Display Control Panel to connect to a projector or configure multiple monitors.

Instructions on how to use the new Projection UI and Display Control Panel in Windows 7:

1.    Hold the Windows key (ÿ) and press P. This will launch the new Projection UI:

2.    Tapping the P key or using the left or right arrow keys will allow you to select your desired projection state:

a.     Computer Only
My desktop is only shown on my laptop screen.

b.    Duplicate
My desktop is mirrored on my laptop screen and the projector.

c.     Extend
My desktop extends onto the external screen.

d.    Projector Only
My desktop is only shown on the projector.

3.    Press enter to confirm your selection. Your computer will adjust the displays according to your selection.

4.    You may also launch the new UI by searching for the “Connect to a Projector” task.

Tip  keyword searches such as “project” and “connect” will also surface this task.

5.    For users who use multiple monitors, be sure to check out the new Display Control Panel which allows you to configure your multi-monitor setup, adjust resolution and change monitor orientation.
 
Tip  You can easily access the Display Control Panel with a right-click on the desktop, then selecting Screen resolution.

6.    Click Apply to save your new settings.

Useful Links

·        What is the Azure Services Platform?

·        Why Use the Azure Services Platform?

·        Wiki - Windows Azure Platform

·        Windows Azure

·        Windows Azure- Blog

·        Azure for Developers

Official downloads

• Windows Azure SDK
• Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
• Microsoft .NET Services SDK
• Microsoft SQL Data Services SDK
• Java SDK for .NET Services
• Ruby SDK for .NET Services
• Azure Services Training Kit - April Update

Resources:

Azure Videos

·        A Lap Around the Azure Services Platform

·        Inside Windows Azure ,

·        Windows Azure for Developers

·        Inside SQL Services

·        How Do I: Get Started With .NET Services

·        How Do I: Harness the Microsoft .NET Service Bus?

·        Inside .NET Services

·        Architecture of the .NET Services

·        Access Control In .NET Services

·        .NET Services: Messaging Services - Protocols, Protection, and How We Scale

·        .NET Services: Orchestrating Services and Business Processes Using Cloud-Based Workflow

·        .NET Services: Access Control Service Drilldown

·        .NET Services: Connectivity, Messaging, Events, and Discovery with the Service Bus

·        .NET Services: Logging, Diagnosing, and Troubleshooting Applications Running Live in the Cloud

      Windows Azure PDC 2008

·        A Lap Around Windows Azure

·        Deploying Your First Windows Azure Application

·        Windows Azure Storage

·        Windows Azure Tables

·        Windows Azure Fabric

·        Under the Hood of the Windows Azure Fabric

 White Papers

ü  Introducing the Azure™ Services Platform

ü  Introducing Windows Azure

ü  Windows Azure Table – Programming Table Storage

ü  Windows Azure Blob – Programming Blob Storage

ü  Windows Azure Queue - Programming Queue Storage

ü  An Introduction to Microsoft .NET Services for Developers

ü  A Developer’s Guide to the Microsoft® .NET Access Control Service

ü  A Developer’s Guide to the Microsoft® .NET Service Bus

ü  A Developer’s Guide to the Microsoft® .NET Workflow Service

Azure Services Management Tools

Microsoft Data Platform Vision

SQL Server 2008 delivers a rich set of integrated services that enable you to do more with your data such as query, search, synchronize, report, and analyze.

Useful Links

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Overview

Ø  SQL Server 2008 R2

Ø  What’s New in SQL Server 2008

Ø  Why upgrade to SQL 2008?

Ø  SQL Server Blogs

Ø  SQL Server Forums on MSDN

Ø  SQL Server TechCenter on TechNet

Ø  SQL Server Developer Center on MSDN

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Downloads

Resources:

How-to guides for your upgrade to SQL 2008:

Ø  SQL Server 2000 to 2008 Upgrade Whitepaper

Ø  SQL Server 2005 to 2008 Upgrade Whitepaper

Ø  Version and Edition Upgrades

Ø  Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades

Ø  Migrating to SQL Server 2008

Ø  Upgrading to SQL Server 2008

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Upgrade How-to Topics

Ø  Getting Assistance with SQL Server 2008

Ø  Check Parameters for the System Configuration Checker

Ø  Resources for Upgrading to SQL Server 2008

Ø  Assessment & Migration Tools

Solutions to Address your specific needs: 

Ø  Business Intelligence

Ø  Data Warehousing

Ø  OLTP

Ø  Application Development

Ø  Server Consolidation

Ø  Hosting Solutions

Ø  Solutions for the Web

Ø  Virtualization

Training and Certification - Learning Resources:

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Learning Portal

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Books Online

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Learning Resources

Best Practices

ü  Best Practices for Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2008

ü  SQL Server - Best Practices

ü  SQL Server Best Practices - Implementation of Database Object Schemas

ü  SQL Server 2008 – Integration Services

ü  Replication Security Best Practices

ü  Best Practices for Using Native XML Web Services

ü  Best Practices for Replication Administration

White Papers

General:

Ø  Introducing Microsoft’s Platform for Complex Event Processing

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Sustainability

Ø  Auditing in SQL Server 2008

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Product Overview

Ø  Running SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008

Ø  Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008 Whitepaper

Ø  Geo-Replication Performance Gains with SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Licensing Overview

Ø  Server Consolidation with SQL Server 2008

Switching to SQL Server 2008:

Ø  A Competitive Review of Sybase ASE

Ø  Why SQL Server May Be More Suitable for You than Oracle RAC

Ø  Practical SQL Server 2008 for Oracle Professionals

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Compared to Oracle Database 11g

Ø  SQL Server Integration Services with Oracle Database 10g

Online Transaction Processing/Data Management:

Ø  Online Transaction Processing in SQL Server 2008

Ø  Enterprise Policy Management Framework with SQL Server 2008

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Performance and Scale

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Security Overview for Database Administrators

Ø  SQL Server 2008 Manageability

Ø  Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data and Backup Compression

Ø  Database Encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

Ø  Protecting SQL Server with System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing:

Ø  An Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

Ø  Connectivity Options for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Integration Services

Ø  Introduction to New Data Warehouse Scalability Features in SQL Server 2008

Ø  Predictive Analysis with SQL Server 2008

Ø  Predictive Analysis for the Retail Industry 

Application Development/Data Programmability

Ø  Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Data Platform Development

Ø  SQL Server 2008: Delivering Location Intelligence with Spatial Data

Ø  Managing Unstructured Data with SQL Server 2008

Ø  What's New for XML in SQL Server 2008

:  http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/06/25/service-pack-2-update.aspx

Service Pack 2 Update.

The public update for the Service Pack 2 expiration date issue is now available for download. 

The update can be applied before or after Service Pack 2 installation.  If the update is applied prior to installing Service Pack 2 it will prevent the expiration date from being improperly activated during installation of Service Pack 2, if it is applied after Service Pack 2 it will remove the expiration date incorrectly set during installation of Service Pack 2.

The update is applicable to all of the products that this issue affected (see the list in the KB linked below).

Installation instructions and download links for x86 and x64 are available in this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971620

The direct download link for x86 is: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/5/2F51AB71-1325-49D2-9CB9-18DEC4780E99/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

And for x64: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/B/5BBD34A9-C528-42B0-8A5F-9A8997B25C32/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x64-glb.exe

We will be updating the existing Service Pack 2 download package with a new package that includes this fix within the next 4-6 weeks.

Thank you for your patience.

============================================================================================

Previous Post URL is;

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/21/attention-important-information-on-service-pack-2.aspx

Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2

We take product quality seriously and make every effort to avoid and resolve issues that adversely impact our customers.  Unfortunately, we have recently discovered a bug with Service Pack 2 (SP2) that affects all customers that have deployed it for SharePoint Server 2007.

During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.

We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration.  For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

We want to assure our customers that this issue does not impact data integrity or their SharePoint deployment in any other way.

For your convenience, below are some answers to questions that you may have and we will update this blog post with a link to the hotfix as soon as it’s available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.

Jeff Teper
Corporate Vice President
SharePoint.

Q&A

Which products are affected by this?
Applying Service Pack 2 to any of the following products will result in this issue: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Project Server 2007, Form Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not affected by this issue.

What can I do to fix it?
To work around this issue customers will need to re-enter their Product ID numbers (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration.  Please see this KB article for detailed steps. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs) 

Customers can also wait for the hotfix (available for free from http://support.microsoft.com) to resolve this issue.

Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.

Note: For Search Server 2008 Express the only way to resolve this issue is to apply the hotfix.

What is Microsoft doing to fix it?
Microsoft is working on a hotfix and public update for the product. We will update this blog post with details and a link to the hotfix as soon as it is available.

Do I need to update all of the servers in my farm?
No. The Product ID number only needs to be entered once.

What if I haven’t installed SP2 yet but want to? What should I do?
You can continue to plan for and install Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2007 with the additional step of re-entering your Product ID number after the installation is complete by following the instructions in this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

Does this issue impact anything else?
The issue only activates the product expiration date. The activation of the expiration date does not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes, at which point SharePoint will be inaccessible for end-users. This issue does not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code.

I can’t find/don’t know my original PID, where can I find it?
Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.

From http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/07/01/537.aspx published July 1st.

"Federation is an important goal for the Office Communications Server team and we are excited to announce several changes to public IM federation between Office Communications Server and public IM networks, effective July 1, 2009:

·        The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.

·        Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)

·        With Windows Live federation, customers will be able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

We will continue to work with our partners to enable more options that allow you to communicate seamlessly with customers, partners, friends and family on different networks. For more information on public IM connectivity with Office Communications Server, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/public-im-connectivity.aspx."

In an effort to maximize our reach with these proactive announcements, we're also duplicating our posts via the UC Team's Twitter account: http://twitter.com/ucteam

Exchange CXP team has released Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB 968012) to the download center. The release of the rollup via Microsoft Update will happen on May 26.

As in the previous rollups, we have done a mix of product improvements (aka Critical Design Change Requests) and bug fixes. A few key ones which I would like to call out are as follows.

1)      KB 969690 - We have fixed the bug introduced in Update Rollup 7 which caused the sender of the Delivery Status Notification (DSN) to be unresolved.

2)      Disable kernel mode authentication in Windows Server 2008 for CAS servers – As documented here, it was required to manually take the additional step to configure the CAS servers running Windows Server 2008 to disable kernel mode authentication. Starting this rollup, the installer will configure this for you.

3)      X-Header promotion to named properties– Change to the way X-headers are promoted to named properties. More on this in Jason’s blog post Named Properties, X-Headers, and You.

4)      KB 961606 – We have fixed a bug where Outlook Web Access (OWA) users may find that the font size of plain text messages is extremely small when running certain third-party Web browsers instead of Internet Explorer.

KB 968012 has more details about this release and a complete list of all fixes included in this rollup.

This announcement will also be posted on

·        Exchange Team Blog

·        Exchange Software Updates Technet forum

From the release notes: 60 fixes included in this RU.

rs