Unified physical and virtual IT management for midsized businesses
We’re very happy to announce that the Release Candidate of Essentials 2010 is now available.
The download package is in 4 self-extracting files which need to be unpacked to the same folder (e.g. c:\Essentials). The total download size is about 5GB.
Once you have downloaded the RC and extracted the installation image, double click on the SetupSCE.exe and install.
Note 1: If you currently have the Beta of Essentials 2010 installed you will need to uninstall the Beta before installing the RC.
Note 2: If you currently use Essentials 2007 you will not be able to upgrade to Essentials 2010 RC.
Based on your feedback, the following new functionality is included in the RC:
For information on known issues in the release candidate, please refer to the release notes.
Updated documentation for the RC:
We have two goals for the release candidate that we need your help with:
You can give us feedback on the release candidate in the Essentials 2010 Forum.
Essentials 2010 simplifies software distribution, including easy distribution for common applications such as Microsoft Office. Essentials also provides support for
The Essentials team and the Office team have partnered to provide you with the simplest possible deployment experience. The Office team has provided both a guide to deployment options for Office 2010 that includes Essentials 2010 and a blog post containing the detailed steps for deploying Office 2010 (Beta) using System Center Essentials 2010.
The Office 2010 documentation containing deployment options for Office that include Essentials 2010:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624360(office.14).aspx
Office Resource toolkit team posted a detailed blog entry on how to “Use System Center Essentials 2010 (Beta) to Deploy Office 2010 (Beta):“
http://blogs.technet.com/office_resource_kit/archive/2009/12/14/use-system-center-essentials-2010-beta-to-deploy-office-2010-beta.aspx
We hope you’re enjoying evaluating the release candidate of Essentials 2010 and look forward to reviewing your feedback in the Forums.
For people in the US we have a free gift – a Zune HD 32 - for the first 20 people who use the virtualization functionality in the release candidate of Essentials 2010 and give us feedback.
The promotion runs from 19 January 2010 to 9 February 2010, while supplies last.
* Offer good only in the 50 United States (includes D. of C.) to those employed in the field of IT Administration, Operations or Management who are registered on Connect.microsoft.com. Offer good only to the first 20 people who respond. Limit one gift per person and per company. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. This offer ends on 9 February 2010 while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Any gift returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for shipment of your gift. Due to government gift and ethics laws, government employees (including military and employees of public education institutions) are not eligible to participate.