Internet Explorer 10 is available worldwide in 95 languages for download today. We will begin auto updating Windows 7 customers to IE10 in the weeks ahead, starting today with customers running the IE10 Release Preview. With this final release, IE10 brings the same leading standards support, with improved performance, security, privacy, reliability that consumers enjoy on Windows 8, to Windows 7 customers. MORE

This past week, System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 was made available. This was an important step for our Cloud OS vision.

The Cloud OS provides a consistent platform for infrastructure, apps, and data that can reside in any datacenter—be it a private datacenter, a service provider’s datacenter, or in Windows Azure. There has been a major engineering focus on enabling highly scalable and efficient datacenters and, as a result, hosting service providers will see many benefits from this entire release wave of products. Here, I want to reflect on three key innovations that you should find most compelling. MORE...

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 includes Server Manager, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, consoles, Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers, and command-line tools for managing roles and features that run on Windows Server 2012. In limited cases, the tools can be used to manage roles and features that are running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008. Some of the tools work for managing roles and features on Windows Server 2003. MORE

Document quarantine refers to a scenario where you want to identify, protect, and take further action on data that matches certain conditions. This means preventing certain types of sensitive files from being stored on files shares where they would be accessible to large numbers of employees.

Let’s assume the sensitive files are those that contain personally identifiable information (PII). After discussing the pros and cons of various approaches and the expected outcome of each, we came up with the following desired behaviors for the quarantine solution:  MORE

Like all the technology we work with, The Cloud is always evolving and improving. Windows Server 2012 is Microsoft's first cloud-focused Operating System and has many features to integrate with, leverage and blur the line between Cloud-based resources, local resources and those in between.

One of the most exciting Azure feature – and the focus of this post – is the Windows Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) service. This is something you can use today – this afternoon. MORE

Earlier this year we announced partnerships with key players in the Apache Hadoop community to ensure customers have all the necessary solutions to connect with, manage and analyze big data. Today we’re excited to provide an update on how we’re working to broaden adoption of Hadoop with the simplicity and manageability of Windows.

First, we’re releasing new previews of our Hadoop-based solutions for Windows Server and Windows Azure, now called Microsoft HDInsight Server for Windows and Windows Azure HDInsight Service. Today, customers can access the first community technology preview of Microsoft HDInsight Server and a new preview of Windows Azure HDInsight Service at Microsoft.com/BigData. Both of these new previews make it easier to configure and deploy Hadoop on the Windows platform, and enable customers to apply rich business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPivot for Excel and Power View to pull actionable insights from big data. MORE

Windows Server 2012 Essentials (formerly Windows Small Business Server Essentials) is a flexible, affordable, and easy-to-use server solution designed and priced for small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices that helps them reduce costs and be more productive. Windows Server 2012 Essentials is an ideal first server, and it can also be used as the primary server in a multi-server environment for small businesses.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials enables small businesses to protect, centralize, organize and access their applications and information from almost anywhere using virtually any device. MORE

Everyone loves a great deal, and free is about as good as it gets. So why not take advantage of some free training resources from Microsoft in the form of virtual labs?  It’s a great way to learn all about Microsoft technologies without having to buy hardware in order to set up and train yourself.  Let us do the hard stuff so you can focus on learning. The server team just posted four new virtual labs we wanted to bring to your attention: MORE

Microsoft’s Private Cloud is built on the industry leading foundation of Windows Server and System Center. The System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) update enables System Center to run on and manage the final version of Windows Server 2012, released earlier this week. System Center 2012 SP1 brings System Center manageability to many new capabilities in Windows Server 2012 as well as a range of other improvements.  You can read about the System Center 2012 SP1 on the product overview page.

The beta of System Center 2012 (SP1) is now available for download on the Microsoft Download Center.  This blog post focuses on some of the new capabilities for Datacenter and Cloud in System Center 2012 SP1. MORE

Three weeks ago the Exchange Server team announced the RTM of Exchange Server 2013 on their team blog.  Since that time the team has been working diligently to get the product ready for general availability via the various channels.  We’re happy to say Exchange Server 2013 is now generally available.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 enables you to maintain control, increase user productivity, and keep your organization safe. MORE

Windows Server 2012 is generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. Additionally, there is great news for organizations that are looking for a way to migrate virtual machines hosted on VMware vSphere to the Hyper-V host in Windows Server 2012.  The production (RTW) version of the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) and the Beta version of the VMware console plugin version are both available to download. MVMC is one resource available as part of the Switch to Hyper-V program announced at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference earlier this year. The Switch to Hyper-V program helps partners and customers go beyond virtualization to true cloud computing by providing guidance, resources, and tools that take the risk out of virtual migrations, reduce the time and effort required, and define best practices. MORE

It seems we hit a nerve by announcing our planned In-Memory OLTP technology, aka Project ‘Hekaton’, to be shipped as part of the next major release of SQL Server. We’ve noticed the market has also been calling out Oracle on its use of the phrase ‘In-Memory’, so it wasn’t unexpected to see a rant from Bob Evans, Oracle’s SVP of Communications, on the topic.

Here on the Microsoft Server & Tools team that develops SQL Server, we’re working towards shipping products in a way that delivers maximum benefits to the customer. We don’t want to have dozens of add-ons to do something the product, in this case the database, should just do. In-Memory OLTP, aka ‘Hekaton’, is just one example of this. MORE

Today is another exciting day for Developers and IT Professionals as we mark a new milestone for the Visual Studio and Windows product families.  Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) phase and will soon be available for download.  The new platform supports application development, deployment and management on a variety of devices and screen sizes.  From smartphones to highly scalable cloud solutions, Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are ready to support your business and entertainment needs. MORE

For small and mid-sized businesses, the expanded capabilities of Windows Server 2012 provide significant benefits that far outweigh the investment, keeping the focus on growth. If you’re assessing whether to switch to a Windows Server system or upgrade from an older version, chances are you just want your IT to do more, and do it more efficiently. MORE

The ALM Summit is underway and Microsoft has a host of announcements. For starters, Team Foundation Server now supports hosting Git repositories (starting today). And Visual Studio will support Git. Brian Harry has a post that discusses the changes affecting Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio, and Git in more depth. You might also want to check out the post "Getting Started with Git in Visual Studio and Team Foundation Service."

In addition, the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 was also made available today and Brian Harry has another blog post outlining some of the key improvements you'll find in this update. MORE...

Tuesday's focus at TechEd North America is Windows 8, as Antoine Leblond, Microsoft corporate vice president of Windows Web Services, showed a wide range of applications and Visual Studio demos. Speaking to an audience in Orlando, Leblond and the Windows 8 Team introduced the first details about programming Windows 8 applications for ARM devices using familiar and proven Visual Studio tools. Get a start on your Windows 8 exploration with Steven Sinofsky's “Building Windows 8” blog: Building Windows for the ARM processor architecture. Then, dig into Jason Zander's posting for more on Visual Studio's role in ARM development.

In late July, we released SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP3, the first public Community Technology Preview (CTP) for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1, which contained compatibility features for SQL Server 2012 to support self-service BI capabilities in Office and SharePoint 2013 Preview. Today, we are excited to release SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4 which contains additional supportability improvements that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. The following highlights a few key enhancements in CTP4: MORE

The Microsoft SQL Server product team has released SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012 (SSDT BI), which is designed to help you develop and deploy SQL Server Business intelligence projects more easily. Available online immediately, the download includes: • Visual Studio 2012 integrated shell (if you don’t have Visual Studio 2012 on your machine) and • Project templates for Analysis services projects, Reporting services projects, and Integration services projects. MORE

From time to time Microsoft VP, Frank Shaw, likes to do a blog post that has some numbers to indicate the scope of what we do at Microsoft.  We thought you might enjoy a few numbers around our Cloud services.  If the graphic above is too small, go ahead and click it and the full sized version will be fetched. MORE

Skype and Messenger are coming together. Millions of Messenger users will be able to reach their Messenger friends on Skype. By updating to Skype, Messenger users can instant message and video call their Messenger friends.

This effort started with the release of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows a few weeks ago, which allows you to sign into Skype using a Microsoft account. Now Messenger users just need to update to the latest version of Skype, sign in using a Microsoft account, and their Messenger contacts will be there. MORE

Time is money. We’ve all heard that saying. Getting trained is hard and many
people don’t have the time to take off from work and go to a training class. 
Some of those classes can be quite costly at well.  How would you like to get
some free training on Microsoft products and technologies?  Microsoft
Virtual Academy (MVA) to the rescue. MORE

Microsoft entered new territory Monday evening, announcing the Surface family of tablet computers. The first devices, which feature 10.6-inch 16:9 HD screens and a unique 3 mm-thick touch-sensitive cover that provides a full keyboard, will be "comparable [to] ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PCs" -- thin, light and high-performance, in short -- according to the press announcement. It will be available in Windows 8 and Windows RT versions, sporting front- and rear-facing cameras, Office 365 and the recently unveiled Windows 8 apps. Steven Sinofsky talks about the development of the People, Mail and Calendar apps on the Building Windows 8 Blog. There are plenty of developer and IT angles to explore, so stay tuned for blog postings from the teams contributing to this, dare we say it, revolutionary device.

Modern software systems rarely operate in an unconnected closed environment.  Today’s systems might be connected to partners and customers through a variety devices and networks.  To support these systems, we need the ability to identify users of the software, data and systems.

A week or so ago we introduced some of the concepts through the work of Kim Cameron and John Shewchuk.  They describe the social enterprise and the facilities needed to support distributed identity management.  A healthy debate ensued but it doesn’t stop there.  MORE

It’s fascinating to watch how quickly PowerShell has been embraced by the community.  It is a language and technology beloved by developers and information technology professionals. The Scripting Guys are a driving force behind this community engagement and you really need to take notice of their amazing work.

Each month The Scripting Guys blog pumps out a bunch of technical articles on PowerShell.  You might see several articles per day and these aren’t mere marketing articles.  The articles you see are technical articles on how to use PowerShell with Microsoft products and cover security, management, reporting and other interesting areas. MORE

We are excited to announce Visual Studio 2012 Update 1, is now available.  You can install it either from the download page (see "Visual Studio 2012 Update 1" under the "Additional software" section) or via the Extensions and Updates dialog in Visual Studio 2012.

With this and future updates, we’re striving to ensure that developers and development teams always have the best solution for building modern applications and for managing the modern application lifecycle.  This approach to delivering updates, integrated directly into the IDE, should make it much easier for developers to keep the Visual Studio client up-to-date. MORE