Never let it be said that the UK TechNet team would let an occasion go unmarked, and this year’s Halloween is no exception. We’ve come up with a frighteningly fabulous competition idea, and you can get the kids involved in this one, too.
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We’ve got five copies of the Microsoft Windows 7 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant to give away in return for some photographic evidence of your amazing pumpkin carving talents. We’d like you to send us a snap of your techy pumpkin designs – the more elaborate, the better. Throw out the challenge to your kids, wives, husbands or even any particularly creative pets, then send a photo to me with your name and address. We’ll pick our favourite five and publish them on the blog in time for the next TechNet Flash.
This is fun, so naturally we must balance it out with something quite boring – here’s that thing. Terms and conditions below.
1. ELIGIBILITY: This competition is open to any TechNet Flash subscribers who reside in the UK and who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Employees of Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising or promotion agencies are not eligible, nor are members of these employees’ families (defined as parents, children, siblings, spouse and life partners).
2. TO ENTER: To enter send your entry via email to i-racoll@microsoft.com. Entries will not be returned. A completed entry is to send a photo of your techy pumpkin carving as featured in the TechNet newsletter on 14 October 2010. The best five entries will win the prize. Only one entry per person will be accepted. Incomplete, damaged, defaced or illegible entries may be deemed invalid at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Entry constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. Microsoft reserves the right to disqualify anyone in breach of these Terms and Conditions.
3. TIMING: This competition runs from 8am GMT 14 October The closing date of this competition is 5pm GMT 1 November 2010. Completed entries must reach Microsoft no later than the closing date.
4. USE OF DATA: Personal data which you provide when you enter this competition will not be used for future Microsoft UK marketing activity.
5. SELECTION OF WINNER: The five winners will be picked by three judges and notified by email on 26 October 2010 at Microsoft campus. The winners may be required to become involved in further publicity or advertising and consent to their pumpkin photo being published on the TechNet blog.
6. PRIZE: The prize is one copy of the Microsoft Windows 7 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant with an estimated retail price of £17.00. Prize as stated and non- transferable. No cash or other alternatives available. Microsoft reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. The prize will be sent no later than 27 October 2010. Prize may be considered a taxable benefit and the winner will be directly responsible for accounting for any tax liability arising on their prize.
7. WINNERS LIST: The winner consents to their surname being made publicly available. The winner’s surname will be available for a period of 3 weeks after the closing date by emailing i-racoll@microsoft.com
8. OTHER: No correspondence will be entered into regarding either this competition or these Terms and Conditions. In the unlikely event of a dispute, Microsoft’s decision shall be final. Microsoft reserves the right to amend, modify, cancel or withdraw this competition at any time without notice.
9. Microsoft cannot guarantee the performance of any third party and shall not be liable for any act or default by a third party. Participants in this promotion agree that Microsoft will have no liability whatsoever for any injuries, losses, costs, damage or disappointment of any kind resulting in whole or in part, directly or indirectly from acceptance, misuse or use of a prize, or from participation in this promotion. Nothing in this clause shall limit Microsoft’s liability in respect of death or personal injury arising out of its own negligence or arising out of fraud.
Promoter: Microsoft Limited, Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG, England
It is recognised throughout IT circles that every PC should have some form of virus, malware and firewall protection. While most companies have a managed anti-virus, malware and firewall solution deployed, home users are often not protected. Buying a PC with a trial subscription, many home users either think they are protected or never get around to purchasing a paid for version after the subscription has expired.
To address the issue of protecting home PC’s Microsoft provides a free download of Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft Security Essentials is a real time protection service for home PC uses from viruses and other malicious code. It offers a very simplistic user interface and notifies the user if they are protected with red and green icons in notification area. Updates and Scanning can be scheduled to run automatically or run manually - and that’s about as technical as it gets.
Complimenting Microsoft Security Essentials is the inbuilt Windows Desktop firewall, which can help in preventing hackers or from gaining access to a home users PC. The Windows firewall can also, in the unlikely event that the anti-virus did not detect the virus or malware, stop your computer from proliferation of the malicious software to other computers.
The anti-virus software is now free, the Windows Firewall has been there for some time, so there is now no excuse not to have a PC that is protected for free – IT Pro’s just need to spread the message.
Also due to the phenomenal success of the Microsoft Security Essentials product, it was recently announced that Microsoft Security Essentials is now available to the Small Business Market, for companies with up to 10 PCs. If a company has more than 10 PCs then it may be more beneficial to look at a managed solution such as the Microsoft Forefront Suite, which offers centralised management and reporting.
To see how Security Essentials and Forefront products work together, take a look at this short film by Andrew Fryer.
Mark Parris
MVP-DS, Microsoft Certified Master: 2008 Directory, MCT,MCITP:EA:SA,MCSE
Here’s one for the tool box.
Just launched, Microsoft Advisory Services provides short-term advice and guidance for problems not covered by Problem Resolution Services ,as well as requests for consultative assistance for design, development, and deployment issues. There are 141 scenarios providing self-help guidance, and if you need further support, you can agree a one-off service agreement at a fixed hourly rate.
This 60 day hosted trial of Microsoft Exchange and Lync 2010 enables you to access the complete suite of Unified Messaging, IM/Presence, Conferencing and Desktop sharing an Enterprise Voice. You’ll be able to see peers setup in the same trial environment and you can also federate with other OCS users within or outside the company.
The title tells the story here – watch Steve Ballmer talk about Microsoft’s cloud vision at the London School of Economics last week.
Whether you’re starting with the basics, or you’re looking for tools to help you get started, this Windows Azure resources page will throw up a few gems. Explore whitepapers, learning snacks and case studies, and check out this special introductory offer.
You can also find out everything you need to know about SQL Azure and get a free trial here.
You can’t say fairer than that.
Of course we know you check the blog on a daily if not hourly basis, but just in case you missed anything due to some emergency or other, here’s the weekly wrap up. Enjoy – see you next week.
Listen up! Join John Baker and Theresa Burch, Director of Product Management, as they discuss Microsoft Security Essentials - a new offering that extends Microsoft’s security platform to consumers and small businesses. Come and see why people are calling Security Essentials the easy-to-use, “install and forget” solution for worry-free protection from viruses, spyware and other malicious software.
Simon May, all-round good egg, has just written a great post which asks you what’s concerning you about moving apps to Azure. Simon’s going to have an audience with some of the Azure product folks during the next few weeks, so he’ll get the chance to put your questions direct to them. Your comments are already flooding in – add yours to Simon’s list here.
Well, I did promise we’d have a bit of fun this week, and here it is. The UK TechNet team is having a Twitter moment. Every other week we’ll choose a topic, and we’ll tweet about that topic in eight words, using hashtag #techin8. This week’s topic is IE9 and HTML5.
Here are a few examples of your work so far:
IE9 lets me control who sees my searches
IE9 - Pin your favourite web apps, with jump lists!
Much much better than previous versions of IE
So what can you come up with?