BlogMS - Official Microsoft Team Blogs : News Summary

Summary of articles from new blogs added to directory on the 28th September

Daniel Good — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:12:04 GMT

Following the update and addition of 10 new blogs to the Microsoft Team Blogs Directory on the 28th September please find a summary of articles published between 1st August 2009 and 28th September 2009.

Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (13-16 July) - News Summary

Daniel Good — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:21:00 GMT

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is an annual gathering where Microsoft Corp.’s partner community will network and build connections, share best practices, and learn new skills and techniques. At WPC09 — July 13–16 in New Orleans — Microsoft shared its strategies and visions for addressing the challenging economy, saving customers money, and helping partners and customers compete confidently. Steve Ballmer, Stephen Elop, Kevin Turner, Allison Watson and many other executives will share their vision for the company and kick off a year of product launches like no other in Microsoft history.

The blog post references the press releases and features stories from the conference. For further information visit the Microsoft PressPass Virtual Press Room where you can find additional resources including Videos, Transcripts, Executive Bios, Analyst Reports, White Papers, Fact Sheets and Case Studies.

Press Releases

Microsoft Recognizes Outstanding Partners' Achievements July 14, 2009
Microsoft Charts New Paths for Partners With Software Plus Services July 14, 2009
Microsoft Unveils Windows Azure Platform Business Model, Bringing New Revenue Opportunities to Partners Worldwide July 14, 2009
Microsoft Announces Go-To Market Program for Hosting Providers July 14, 2009
Microsoft Debuts New Partner Opportunities at Global Conference July 13, 2009
Microsoft Debuts Community-Centric Partner Network July 13, 2009
Microsoft Office 2010 Hits Major Milestone and Enters Technical Preview July 13, 2009
Microsoft Announces First Major Milestone in the Banking Industry Architecture Network alliance July 13, 2009
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Passes 1 Million User Mark and Expands xRM Initiative July 13, 2009
Microsoft Announces 2009 Partner of the Year Awards Finalists and Winners June 24, 2009

Feature Stories:

Microsoft Streamlines Its Licensing Structure July 14, 2009
Microsoft Partners Head to New Orleans for WPC09 July 13, 2009
Microsoft Surface Partner Program Offers "QuickStart" to Creating Microsoft Surface Applications July 13, 2009
Priming the Pump: Expanding Services Ready Program Widens the Pipeline for Partners July 13, 2009
Microsoft Equips Microsoft Dynamics Partners to Seize Vertical Opportunities July 13, 2009
Microsoft Primes Partners for Success at Worldwide Partner Conference July 6, 2009
Technology Can Help Build Success for Smaller Companies May 26, 2009
Jumping Into the Cloud – Advice for CIOs May 20, 2009

Microsoft Unveils Windows Azure Platform Business Model

Daniel Good — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:21:00 GMT

Today, during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 an important announcement was made about the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform.

The article on the Windows Azure blog provides details of the commercial pricing model and availability of the Windows Azure platform. The Microsoft Press Pass article describes the future opportunities for Microsoft partners.

Listen to Doug Hauger, General Manager for Windows Azure at Microsoft Corp., share details of the business and channel model and pricing for Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and .NET Services at WPC09.

Visit the Microsoft Windows Azure Website for general information, if you are a developer visit the Azure Services Platform Developer Center (on MSDN), or visit the Windows Azure Team Blogs for detailed insight.

Windows Azure - this team blog has been added to the Microsoft Team Blogs Directory
.NET Services
SQL Azure Database
Live Services
Cloud Computing Tools

The following list summarises the recent articles since the beginning of the year on this important development from Microsoft:

Software and Web Development Cloud Computing

Azure Cloud Computing Tools  Website | RSS Feed
Windows Azure FastCGI Project Template  - 12-Jul-2009
Now Available: May 2009 CTP of the Windows Azure Tools and SDK  - 28-May-2009
Adding an https endpoint to a Windows Azure Web Role  - 12-May-2009
Using the Web Platform Installer to install Pre-reqs for the Windows Azure Tools/SDK  - 21-Apr-2009
Windows Azure Service Packages Revealed  - 16-Apr-2009
Azure Mix '09 Videos  - 22-Mar-2009
Just released - Windows Azure Tools and SDK March 2009 CTP  - 18-Mar-2009
Hotfix for VS Crash with ASP.Net MVC in a Windows Azure Cloud Service Project  - 28-Feb-2009
Upcoming Azure Services Platform Webcasts  - 24-Feb-2009
Deploy a Service Package from the Cloud  - 13-Feb-2009
Windows Azure "How Do I" Videos  - 12-Feb-2009
Using an existing Web App as a Windows Azure Web Role  - 06-Feb-2009
Packaging up files for the cloud  - 28-Jan-2009
Silverlight Debugging in a Windows Azure Web Role  - 17-Jan-2009
January 2009 CTP of the Windows Azure Tools and SDK Released  - 15-Jan-2009

Azure dotNET Services  Website | RSS Feed
Microsoft .NET Services July 2009 CTP Release  - 07-Jul-2009
.NET Services July 2009 CTP Breaking Changes Announcement and Scheduled Maintenance  - 30-Jun-2009
.NET Services June 18th 2009 QFE Pre-Announcement and Scheduled Maintenance  - 12-Jun-2009
Upcoming Important Changes to Microsoft .NET Workflow Service  - 12-Jun-2009
.Net Services: Microsoft’s Key to Cloud Security and Java Interoperability  - 30-Apr-2009
.NET Services March 2009 CTP Is Released  - 01-Apr-2009

Azure SQL Data Services  Website | RSS Feed
Start with SQL Express?  - 13-Jul-2009
SQL Azure - Same great platform, just a better aligned name  - 10-Jul-2009
TSQL Support in SQL Data Services  - 07-Jul-2009
Exchange Hosted Archive - A True Testament of Scalability  - 08-Jun-2009
One more TechEd Video - The New Face of Microsoft SQL Data Services  - 08-Jun-2009
Scaling Out with SQL Data Services  - 27-May-2009
The Role of a DBA with SQL Data Services  - 23-May-2009
Provisioning an SDS Database  - 21-May-2009
Accessing SDS from C# and Java  - 30-Mar-2009
Accessing SDS From PHP  - 27-Mar-2009
Mix ’09 Update #2  - 20-Mar-2009
Accessing the New Relational SDS with REST  - 20-Mar-2009
Update from MIX ‘09  - 19-Mar-2009
First round of Questions and Answers  - 12-Mar-2009
SDS @ Mix09  - 11-Mar-2009
The no spin details on the new SDS features  - 10-Mar-2009
Interview posted of Nigel Ellis and Niraj Nagrani from PDC 08  - 25-Feb-2009
SQL Data Services – What’s with the silence?  - 24-Feb-2009

Live Framework  Website | RSS Feed
Notifications and Subscriptions  - 16-Apr-2009
New Live Framework Samples  - 20-Mar-2009
Live Framework Updated!  - 11-Mar-2009
Start Programming with the Live Framework in 5 Minutes  - 02-Mar-2009
Live Framework Tools January CTP  - 02-Feb-2009
Delegated Authentication, Part II: Managing Tokens  - 12-Jan-2009

Live Services Developer News  Website | RSS Feed
Photobucket builds a rich and social visual search with Windows Live Messenger  - 23-Jun-2009
Windows Live Messenger Hackathon in San Francisco: May 27th!  - 19-May-2009
The Social Web and Windows Live  - 21-Apr-2009
Windows Live Users Can Now Easily Sign Up for Sites Using RPX  - 03-Apr-2009
MIX 09 Roundup: 8 Sessions on Live Services Available Now  - 23-Mar-2009
Reach your people everywhere, in real time!  - 18-Mar-2009
Live Framework Update Released  - 12-Mar-2009
Two Web Controls Being Retired, New Stuff on the Way  - 16-Feb-2009
Making the Internet a Safer Place  - 11-Feb-2009
Live Framework Tools January CTP Released  - 02-Feb-2009
Windows Live Messenger IM Control Module for Drupal CMS  - 27-Jan-2009
Live Mesh Awarded Best Technology Innovation Crunchie   - 10-Jan-2009

Windows Azure  Website | RSS Feed
Changes to Alerts, Analytics, and Windows Live ID Integration  - 29-May-2009
New Windows Azure Storage Features – May 2009  - 28-May-2009
May CTP of Windows Azure SDK Released, Including Visual Studio 2010 Support  - 28-May-2009
CTP of the PHP SDK for Windows Azure Released  - 16-May-2009
Windows Azure Geo-location Live  - 30-Apr-2009
New Azure Training Kit Available  - 10-Apr-2009
Application Accessibility Restored  - 03-Apr-2009
Windows Azure Delivers New CTP Capabilities  - 18-Mar-2009
Using 3rd Party Programming Languages via FastCGI  - 18-Mar-2009
Hosting Roles Under .NET Full Trust  - 18-Mar-2009
Geo Location Enables Developers To Choose Data Centers and Group Applications & Storage  - 18-Mar-2009
The Windows Azure Malfunction This Weekend  - 18-Mar-2009
SQL Data Services announces plans to accelerate core relational database features   - 11-Mar-2009
Moving to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) starting this Sunday  - 07-Mar-2009

Internet Search Engine: What happened to Live.com and what is Bing.com?

Daniel Good — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:26:00 GMT

Wednesday 3rd June marks a whole new Internet Search experience, following Microsoft´s announcement of the a new and improved Internet Search Engine available worldwide- http://www.bing.com

Here is an extract from the press release: "Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Bing, a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions. Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business."

You can read the full press release here, or watch the press release video below. You can get started right away by searching for what you need to know on https://www.bing.com or visit http://www.discoverbing.com/ were you can learn more about the new service including:

Product Tour
Behind Bing
Decision Engine
Bing Mobile

The following official blogs will also give you more insight and detail, these will be added to the BlogMS Team Blogs Directory and weekly updates in the next few days.:

Microsoft News Summary 15th December to 28th December

Daniel Good — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:33:00 GMT

281 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 15^th December and 28^th December. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary.

General News

· Windows 7 Engineering: Continuing our discussion on performance

Software Releases – Released to Manufacturing (RTM) / Released to Web (RTW)

· Patterns and Practices: Unity Application Block for Silverlight

· Azure Live Services: DeepEarth Released on CodePlex - 23-Dec-2008

Software Releases – Service Packs (SP) / Cumulative Updates (CU) / Other Updates

· Office Outlook: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 is here! - 16-Dec-2008

· SysInternals: Updates: Autoruns v9.37, AccessChk v4.23 - 19-Dec-2008

· Intelligent Application Gateway 2007 Service Pack 2 is now available! - 19-Dec-2008

· Cumulative Update #11 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

· SQL Server 2005 SP3 - Released

· Cumulative Update #1 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3

· Service Pack 1 for Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 – Service Pack 1 is now available

Software Releases – Alphas / Betas / Community Technology Previews (CTP) / Release Candidate (RC) / Research Projects

· BizTalk Adapter Pack v2 CTP

· Initial customer feedback on BizTalk Server 2009 BETA

· Dynamics CRM: An early look at CRM “5”

· Microsoft Application Threat Modelling: Announcing CAT.NET CTP & Anti-XSS v3 BETA - 15-Dec-2008

· Commerce Server December 2008 CTP now available from the Microsoft Connect site

· Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3, also check out: CTP2 to CTP3 Conversion Guide

· Patterns and Practices Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Application Architecture Guide 2.0

· Live Writer: Windows Live Writer 2009: Release Candidate

Key Dates for your diary – Microsoft Conferences

· Enterprise Search: Microsoft Presents FAST forward 09: Engage Your User

Microsoft News Summary 1st December to 14th December

Daniel Good — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:00:00 GMT

416 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 1^st December and 14^th December. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary: Apologies for the delay in posting this – December has been a VERY busy month.

General News

· Microsoft Operations Framework: Companion Guides: IT Compliance & Software + Services

· Solution Accelerator Assessment and Planning: Top 10 Microsoft Tools in 2008 - Solutions that Help You Save IT Costs!

· Microsoft Data Centers - Environment Software Enabled Earth: Microsoft details "Generation 4" data centers, Microsoft's Generation 4 Data Center Vision - the Architects' Perspective

· Microsoft Continues Innovation in BizTalk Server Product Family

· Live Mesh Turns Car into Mobile Computing Platform

· Microsoft Partnership with RSA for Information Protection - 04-Dec-2008

· Microsoft Online Services: Microsoft Online Services Setup, On-boarding, and Administration, Now Available for Purchase by Businesses of All Sizes! Introducing Microsoft Online Services..., Watch a Demo about the Benefits and Experience of Using Microsoft Online Services

Software Releases – Released to Manufacturing (RTM) / Released to Web (RTW)

· TechNet Magazine: Utility Spotlight: SyncToy 2.0 - 02-Dec-2008

· adCenter for Advertisers: Microsoft Advertising: Insights Podcast - Fall '08 Microsoft adCenter Release Overview - 08-Dec-2008

· Microsoft Deployment Toolkit: A new version is coming soon! - 03-Dec-2008

· Windows Presentation Foundation WPF SDK: TestApi Released! - 09-Dec-2008

· Live Sky Drive: SkyDrive: 25 GB of free online storage - 03-Dec-2008

· Live Photo and Video: Our new Photos web service is LIVE! - 03-Dec-2008

· Live Spaces: The next version of Windows Live has shipped! - 03-Dec-2008 Answers to frequently asked questions about the latest version of Windows Live - 05-Dec-2008

· Photosynth: New Feature Updates from Photosynth - 11-Dec-2008

Software Releases – Service Packs (SP) / Cumulative Updates (CU) / Other Updates

· SysInternals: Updates: Process Monitor v2.03, Autoruns v9.36, Disk Usage v1.33, Process Explorer v11.31 - 11-Dec-2008

· ProClarity 6.3 SP2 is now available - 02-Dec-2008

· PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP2 Now Available - 09-Dec-2008

· Patterns and Practices: Just Released - Community Technology Preview (CTP) of ESB Guidance 2.0 - 12-Dec-2008

Software Releases – Alphas / Betas / Community Technology Previews (CTP) / Release Candidate (RC) / Research Projects

· BizTalk Server: BizTalk Server 2009 Beta and RFID Mobile GA - 08-Dec-2008

· Windows Vista: Announcing the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Customer Preview Program (CPP) - 02-Dec-2008

· MIX The Next Web Now: Our First Labs Project: A Microformats Toolkit Called "Oomph" - 05-Dec-2008

· Microsoft Live Labs: Seadragon Goes Mobile - 13-Dec-2008

· Microsoft Research Downloads: Microsoft Image Composite Editor 64bit - 03-Dec-2008

· Microsoft Research Downloads: Infer.NET 2.2 Beta - 05-Dec-2008

· XML: MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 3 Beta - 03-Dec-2008

· Live Mesh: Expanded Live Mesh for Mobile CTP - 09-Dec-2008

Key Dates for your diary – Microsoft Conferences

· Storage: IFS Plugfest registrations open - 11-Dec-2008

Microsoft News Summary 17th November to 30th November

Daniel Good — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:21:26 GMT

349 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 17^th November and 30^th November. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary.

General News

· Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) 4.0 Companion Guides: These new are intended to assist Customers and partners easily apply the principles of Core MOF to specific scenarios, challenges, and opportunities. In the initial release these target varying audiences spread across the Manage Layer, the Plan Phase and the Operate Phase. Read More...

· Bluehat Security Briefings (v8): BlueHat is a by-invitation-only Microsoft security conference aimed at bringing Microsoft security professionals and external security researchers together in a relaxed environment to promote the sharing of ideas and social networking. The content from the sessions held on October 16-17, 2008 have been shared on TechNet. Read More... or Visit the TechNet Site.

· New ‘Free of Charge’ Consumer Security Offering: Code-named “Morro,” a new streamlined security solution will be available in the second half of 2009. It will provide comprehensive protection from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. As part of Microsoft’s move to focus on this simplified offering, the company also announced today that it will discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009. Read the official press announcement or More on the team blog...

· Geo-Replication with Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008: Microsoft.com Operations (MSCOM) verified that the combination of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 are great for enabling database geo-replication, thanks to a 100X gain in performance. The experiment provided sufficient evidence to motivate a more ambitious proof-of-concept case study with MSDN. Read More...

· Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Out of Beta and Ready for Purchase: Microsoft announced availability of Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online for businesses of all sizes in the United States. Read the official press announcement..., For further information on adoption consider the Solution Accelerator Guide

· New Release of Windows Live coming soon: Expect improvements and enhancements to the Live Home page, Spaces, Events, and SkyDrive, as well as a completely new web services including Windows Live Groups, Photos, and a new Profile page coming soon. Read WindowsLive.Com

· New Xbox Experience ushers in a new era of entertainment: A partnership between Netflix and with other movie studios throughout the world, the New Xbox Experience isn’t the only thing that will look great on your TV. Netflix is taking the first step by instantly streaming movies and TV episodes in high definition with the introduction of approximately 300 choices in HD via Xbox 360, Read the official press announcement.

· Microsoft Zune – Music Subscription Model: The Zune Pass subscription service currently gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month. Following the announcement subscribers will also get to select 10 tracks per month to keep and add them to their permanent collection (an estimated $10 value). Read the official press announcement.

· Internet Explorer Life after Beta 2: The Product Team have released information about what happens next following the release of Internet Explorer 8.0 BETA 2. Read More...

Software Releases – Released to Manufacturing (RTM) / Released to Web (RTW)

· Microsoft Online Services: Exchange Online: Availability to businesses of all sizes in the United States.

· Microsoft Online Services: SharePoint Online: Availability to businesses of all sizes in the United States.

· Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008

· Windows Home Server: Windows Home Server Toolkit Version 1.1

· TechEd: The New Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT) Available for Download

· Dynamics NAV: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Ships!. For further information read the official press announcement.

· [RTM News!] Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0 Now Available:

· Microsoft Application Threat Modelling: SDL Threat Modelling Tool Now Available!

· Office Communicator: Communicator goes Mobile

· Popfly: New Release…

Software Releases – Service Packs (SP) / Cumulative Updates (CU) / Other Updates

Windows Embedded: Service Pack 3 for Windows XP Embedded Now Available for Download!
SQL Release Services: Cumulative Update #2 for SQL Server 2008 RTM

Microsoft Exchange: Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 SP1 is now released

Software Releases – Alphas / Betas / Community Technology Previews (CTP) / Release Candidate (RC) / Research Projects

Windows SideShow: Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework 3.0 Beta now available

Office Labs: StickySorter: A Tool for Organizing Information
Microsoft Research Downloads: Microsoft Image Composite Editor
Commerce Server: Commerce Server 2007 code name "Mojave" November 2008 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is available for Download from the Microsoft Connect Site.
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Beta Now Available!
System Center Service Manager Beta 1 Now Available for Download

XML: MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 3 Beta Coming Soon!

Key Dates for your diary – Microsoft Conferences

TechEd for IT Professionals and Developers: http://www.microsoft.com/techedonline/
WinHEC Windows Hardware Engineering Conference: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/
Worldwide Events: http://www.microsoft.com/events
Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference: January 26-30, 2009: Redmond, WA
Mix09 – The Next Generation Web Now: March 18^th-20^th, 2009: Las Vegas
Microsoft Management Summit 2009: April 27-May 1, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada
Microsoft BlueHat v9 Security Briefings: October 22-23, 2009, Microsoft HQ, Redmond
Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2009: November 17–20, 2009, Los Angeles, CA

Microsoft News Summary 3rd November to 16th November

Daniel Good — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:56:00 GMT

477 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 3rd November and 16th November. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary.

General News

Microsoft Security Intelligence Report: Security management is an important subject for everyone. Every six-months the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) is released. It provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted software. Read the official press announcement, or the BlogMS article.
Ramp Up program (www.MyRampUp.com) has just launched a brand-new learning track for Sharepoint to complement the existing tracks including Visual Studio 2008, Aspiring Developer, Java Developer, Visual Basic 6.0 Developer, Visual Studio 2002/2003 Developer: Whether you’re just starting your software development career or a seasoned professional wanting to build your skills on the latest Microsoft technology, Ramp Up bridges the gaps you want to close. Read More…
Professional Developers Conference PDC Content: Did you miss the opportunity to attend the PDC in November. If so, don’t worry you can now get access to all the presentations and keynote speechs. Read More...
TechEd Global Pressroom: TechEd is Microsoft’s premier worldwide conference on technical education for IT professionals and developers. The TechEd Global Virtual Pressroom features press materials, event information, videos of keynote speeches and more for TechEd events throughout the year. Read More...
Microsoft Bizspark: Following on from the successful DreamSpark Program for students, Microsoft announced the Bizspark Program. It provides easy access to software, support and market visibility with no upfront costs gives startup companies the boost they need, when they need it most, Read the official press announcement, or the BlogMS article.
Microsoft Online Store: Microsoft Store offers Microsoft’s entire consumer catalog, including desktop software, the Xbox console and its related game titles, the Microsoft Zune, and all of the company’s hardware, including mice, keyboards, web cameras, and joysticks. Along with a fast, secure buying experience, customers will enjoy an easy-to-use interface and useful product comparisons. Read more… or Visit the store.

Software Releases – Released to Manufacturing (RTM) / Released to Web (RTW)

Windows Mobile: Silverlight 2 for Mobile: Read More...
Windows Mobile: Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile 6: Read More...
Dynamics CRM Accelerators: Read More...
Windows Small Business Server 2008: Read the official press announcement or the team blog for further information.
Windows Essential Business Server 2008: Read the official press announcement or the team blog for further information.
Microsoft Live Services:Read the official press announcement or the team blog for further information.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2: Read More...
App-V 4.5 (formally SoftGrid) Resource Kit Tools:Read More...

Software Releases – Updates and Service Packs (SP)

Forefront Product Suite: Announcing IAG Service Pack 2, further information about this Service Pack and how it supports Dynamics CRM can be found here: IAG SP2: Securely Publishing Dynamics CRM 4.0

SysInternals: Updates: ZoomIt v2.2, AccessChk v4.22

System Center: What is new in DPM 2007 Service Pack 1 -- check out this EDGE video

Windows Server Division: URL Rewriter RTW and More IIS Extension Updates

Software Releases – Alphas / Betas / Community Technology Previews (CTP) / Release Candidate (RC)

Dynamics CRM: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: Windows Services Connector

adCenter API for Developers: Announcing the new Live Search API, version 2.0 beta

adCenter for Advertisers: The adCenter Add-in Beta for Excel 2007: help build out your keyword lists

Microsoft Connected Information Security Group: An Update on Some Upcoming Free Tools

The Security Development Lifecycle: SDL Announcements at TechEd EMEA

Project Astoria Next Generation Data Programmability: Alpha preview of Project Codename "Astoria Offline" coming soon

Visual Studio: Visual Studio 2010 CTP is available!

Live Framework CTP: Live Framework: New Team Blog, Downloads

Identity Lifecycle Manager: Identity Lifecycle Manager “2” (ILM) Release Candidate

System Center: Operations Manager 2007 R2 Beta Announced

Key Dates for your diary – Microsoft Conferences

Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference: January 26-30, 2009: Redmond, WA
Mix09 – The Next Generation Web Now: March 18^th-20^th, 2009: Las Vegas
TechEd North America 2009 – IT Professionals and Developers: May 11^th-15^th, 2009: Los Angeles, CA
Microsoft Management Summit 2009: April 27-May 1, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada
Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2009: November 17–20, 2009, Los Angeles, CA

Microsoft News Summary 20th October to 2nd November

Daniel Good — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:43:00 GMT

545 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 20^th October and 2^nd November – it’s been a very busy two weeks for Microsoft. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary.

General News

· Windows 7 officially unveiled: Microsoft announced at the PDC2008 details of the next version of Windows which will officially be named Windows 7. Read More... Details were also released about the next version of Windows Embedded which will be based on the Windows 7 product. Read More...

· Windows Mobile Developers: Windows Mobile is extensible and well suited for developing business applications. The Windows Mobile Developer Portal has been updated check out the new site. Read More...

· Office Live – Office in a Web Browser: Microsoft announced details at the PDC2008 about the next version of Microsoft Office which will be available in the Cloud and through a web-browser. Read More.... You can also read the official press announcement.

· Security Runtime Engine: The Microsoft Connected Information Security Group provided a sneak preview of the Security Runtime Engine which helps developers secure legacy .NET applications where Cross site scripting and SQL injection are some of the most common vulnerabilities found.. Read More...

· Windows Powershell in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7: Details have been released to confirm that PowerShell will be installed by default in the next versions of Windows. Read More... A separate article discusses the 574 reasons why the product group is optimistic about Powershell Read More...

· Application Readiness for Terminal Services: A new white paper has been released to help customers prepare for application compatibility problems to support deployment to Terminal Services. Read More...

· Microsoft CRITICAL Security Alert MS08-067: Microsoft strongly recommends you immediately deploy this critical security hotfix MS08-067. Code that exploits the vulnerabilities has been detected on the internet. Read More... Please note a number of questions have been raised regarding support for older unsupported products, the lifecycle team have provided some additional guidance. Read More...

· Windows Azure Services Platform: Microsoft announced at the PDC2008 details of the next phase of Software + Services and Cloud Computing. Read More...

· Windows Server 2008 R2: Details of the next release were announced at PDC2008 which includes 64-bit only support, virtualisation enhancements (including live migration), streamlined management, enhancements to the Web platform – IIS, and improvements in clustering and capabilities for enterprise storage. Read More... In addition in the next version Terminal Services will be renamed Remote Desktop Services. Read More...

· Windows Live ID Becomes an OpenID Provider: Beginning today, Windows Live™ ID is publicly committing to support the OpenID digital identity framework for interoperability with third-party sites. Read More...

Software Releases

· SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack: Nine additional features since the original release that increases your investment in the SQL Server 2008 platform. Read More...

· Windows Embedded Standard 2009: The next generation of Windows XP Embedded has arrived. Windows Embedded is an operating system in componentized form, helping device makers to easily create smart connected devices requiring rich applications, services, and end-user experiences. Read More... For further details about the new features - Read More...

· Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008: You can now manage over 90% of your virtual machines including those under Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005, and yes, VMware ESX! Read More...

· Windows File Server Migration Toolkit (FSMT) 1.1: This version allows customers to migrate and consolidate shared folders from Microsoft Windows servers to a server running Windows Server 2003, Windows Storage Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Storage Server 2008. Read More...

· Systems Center Operations Manager – Management Pack for SQL Updated: The latest management has been released with new support for SQL 2008. Read More...

· App-V (formally SoftGrid) Best Practices Analyzer: As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to common engineering criteria the App-V team have released a best practices analyzer. Read More...

· Office 2007 Service Pack 2 – coming soon: The Office Sustained Engineering group announced that Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office can be expected between February and April 2009: Read More...

· System Center Online Asset Inventory Service: Microsoft Asset Inventory Service delivers an intelligent and comprehensive view of your company's desktop software environment. It is offered as part of the MDOP suite of products. Read More…

· Enterprise Library 4.1 for Visual Studio: The Microsoft Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Application blocks are a type of guidance, provided as source code that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on enterprise development projects Read more…

· Unity Application Block 1.2: The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container with optional support for instance and type interception. Read More…

· XNA Game Studio 3.0: Our ultimate goal with XNA Game Studio 3.0 is to continue to provide easy-to-use, approachable tools for hobbyists, academics and indie game developers capable of producing the best games to be shared with the world on Xbox 360, Windows PC and Zune. Read More…

Software Release –Updates and Service Packs

· SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 – Cumulative Update #10: The latest cumulative update has now been released. Read More...

· XPS Essentials Pack for Windows XP SP3: The XPS essentials pack has been updated to support Windows XP Service Pack 3. Read More...

· URL Scan Version 3.1: This is a security tool that restricts the types of HTTP requests that Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 will process. Read More...

· Forefront Intelligent Application Gateway IAG Service Pack 2: Service Pack 2 focuses on virtualization, interoperability and application intelligence. Read More…

Software Releases – Community Technical Previews (CTP) and Betas

· Biztalk: Adapter Pack v2 - CTP4

· Windows Vista: Service Pack 2 Beta

· Windows Server 2008: Service Pack 2 Beta

· Commerce Server (code name Mojave): Community Technology Preview (CTP) is available for Download

· SQL Server 2005: SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 CTP Release

· Web Deployment: The Web Deployment Tool Beta 2

· Visual Studio: Visual Studio 2010 CTP released

· Live Mesh: Welcome to Beta, Live Mesh and Windows Mobile

Key Dates for your Diary Microsoft Conferences

TechEd EMEA 2008 – Developers: 10^th-14^th November, 2008: Barcelona Spain
PASS Community Summit: Professional Association for SQL Server: November 18^th-21^st, 2008: Seattle, WA
Mix09 – The Next Generation Web Now: March 18^th-20^th, 2009: Las Vegas
TechEd North America 2009 – IT Professionals and Developers: May 11^th-15^th, 2009: Los Angeles, CA
Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2009: November 17–20, 2009, Los Angeles, CA

Microsoft News Summary 6th-19th October 2008

Daniel Good — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:42:00 GMT

421 articles were published across 196 Microsoft Team blogs between the 06^th October-2008 and 19^th October-2008. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and dates for your diary.

Key Dates for your Diary (Microsoft Conferences)

TechEd China - October 30 – October 31, 2008: Guangzhou
PDC – Professional Developers Conference – October 27^th – 30^th, 2008: Los Angeles, CA
WinHEC - Windows Hardware Engineering Conference – November 4^th – 7^th, 2008: Los Angeles, CA
TechEd China - November 3 – November 4, 2008: Shanghai
TechEd China - November 6 – November 8, 2008: Beijing
TechEd EMEA 2008 – IT Professionals: 3^rd-7^th November, 2008: Barcelona Spain

TechEd EMEA 2008 – Developers: 10^th-14^th November, 2008: Barcelona Spain
PASS Community Summit: Professional Association for SQL Server: November 18^th-21^st, 2008: Seattle, WA
Mix09 – The Next Generation Web Now: March 18^th-20^th, 2009: Las Vegas
TechEd North America 2009 – IT Professionals and Developers: May 11^th-15^th, 2009: Los Angeles, CA

General News

Introducing Windows 7: The Windows Product Group has confirmed that the next version of Windows will be called Windows 7. Shortly more details will be released at the PDC and at WinHEC and over the coming weeks. Read More... If you would like to learn more about engineering Windows 7 check out the team blog.
Microsoft Learning has had an offer in market since August 5^th called Second Shot. You can ‘take a certification exam, if you fail, you get a second chance for free.’ On the 15^th October Microsoft announced an additional reward on top of Second Shot. It provides value for customers who not only fail, but also PASS their certification exam. It’s a limited time offer and available worldwide. Read More...
Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): In the second blog entry on VDI, the deployment guys explain the benefits that using Citrix Xendesktop as the connection broker can bring. As explained in the first blog Microsoft does not provide a broker but partners with companies including Citrix, Quest and several other companies. Read More... If you missed the first article you can find it here.
Argentina Daylight Savings Changes – Guidance: The Argentinean government has announced new start and end dates for the Daylight Saving Time in Argentina for the period of 2008-2009. Read More...
Introducing SecurityNow: A look of at the proof of concept that the Connected Information Security Group is working on. Read More...
SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (CAT): This specialist team within Microsoft works within the product group. They have recently re-vamped their SQLCAT website which provides essential resources including technical notes, whitepapers and the toolbox. Visit the website...
Upcoming Support Transitions for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003: Customers have only 1½ years to migrate from Windows Server 2000 and Windows 2000 Professional which reaches the end of extended support on the 13^th July 2010. Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will also transition from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase on July 13, 2010. Read More...

Software Releases

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2: Microsoft demonstrated the new release for the first time before an audience of telecom and IT professionals at the VoiceCon tradeshow in Amsterdam. Customers will be able to purchase the release, currently in private beta testing, beginning in February 2009. Read More... Watch the video from Stephen Elop – Microsoft Business Division President.
SysInternals: Whether you’re an IT Pro or a developer, you’ll find Sysinternals utilities to help you manage, troubleshoot and diagnose your Windows systems and applications. Recent updates: Autoruns v9.35, Process Monitor v2.01, DebugView v4.76, AccessChk v4.21 Read More...
The Windows Small Business Server 2008 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) examines a server that is running Windows® Small Business Server 2008 (Windows SBS 2008) and presents a list of information and errors that administrators should review. This is a free tool. Read More...
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Reporting Services Report Builder 2.0: SQL Server 2008 Report Builder 2.0 provides an intuitive report authoring environment for business and power users. It supports the full capabilities of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. The download provides a stand-alone installer for Report Builder 2.0. Read More...
App-V 4.5 for Terminal Services Release: Application Virtualization 4.5 (App-V) for Terminal Services (formerly SoftGrid) will be available on the Volume Licensing Pricelist and for download on VLSC as of November 1, 2008. App-V 4.5 is the first version available that supports both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Read More...

Microsoft News Summary w/e 5th October 2008

Daniel Good — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:26:00 GMT

There were 194 articles from the Microsoft Team Blogs and feeds last week. Here is my summary of interesting announcements and software releases:

General News

· MDOP 2008 R2 components including Asset inventory Service 1.5: The MDOP 2008 R2 is now available for download, the AIS Service is going to be available in November. AIS 1.0 has been available to MDOP customers since November 2007, and many of our customers using the current version are anticipating the added license reconciliation feature that will be delivered with version 1.5. Read More...

· Mark Russinovich talks Vista performance: Last week Mark Russinovich and a group of industry experts got together to talk about Windows Vista performance challenges, common misconfigurations, and tips on how to fix them. From boot times and applets to disk performance and battery life, find out how to optimize Windows Vista and what you can do to improve overall system performance. You can watch the recording of the show. Read More...

· Visual Studio 10 and .NET Framework 4..0: Reveals extensive enhancements for simplified application life-cycle management, provides sneak peek at all key focus areas for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 Read More...

· Microsoft PDC: Windows 7, Cloud Computing Live Mesh and more: Microsoft PDC2008 (Professional Developers Conference) will be in Los Angeles, October 27 - 30. Microsoft will unveil it's vision for cloud computing and building applications that seamlessly bridge the gaps between PC, Web, and phone. Windows 7, the next version of Windows, will be a big focus with 21 different sessions that drill down into the details. Read More...

· Daylight Savings Time Updates for Brazil, Egypt, Mauritius.

Software Releases

· Updates of SysInternals Tools: Process Monitor v2.0, ZoomIt v2.11, Sigcheck v1.54, Contig v1.55 | A new Mark's Blog post: The Case of the Sloooow System | New Vista Springboard webcast. Read More...

Microsoft News Summary w/e 28th September 2008

Daniel Good — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:37:00 GMT

There were 218 articles from the Microsoft Team Blogs and feeds last week. Here is my summary of interesting announcements and software releases:

General News

Virtualization TechCenter: The new and updated Virtualization TechCenter Web Site in now available in eight languages. On this site you will find essential information to support your virtualization strategy using a variety of Microsoft technologies including: Hyper-V, Application Virtualization, Virtual Machine Manager and Virtualization on Windows Server. Read more...
Windows 7: The Microsoft product group for Windows 7 are ready to announce some details of the latest operating system! Attendees of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) (5-7^th November) and Professional Developers Conference (PDC) (27-30^th Oct) look set to receive early beta copies of the product. Not many details are available yet, but be sure to keep an eye on the PDC Blog, Vista Blog or Engineering Windows 7 Blog.
SQL Server 2008 is the Value Leader According to Latest Benchmarks: The Microsoft Press Team announced details of new results which rank Microsoft SQL Server 2008 No. 1 for price/performance, offering customers the lowest total cost of ownership for an enterprise-class database. Benchmarks results from the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). Read More...
SQL Server 2008 Experience Online: Microsoft has a new site SQL Server Experience with more than 500 short videos in 11 different languages. The web site helps Microsoft’s global customers and partners learn more about SQL Server 2008, Read More...
SQL PASS 2008 Conference: Beween the 18-21st November in Seattle, WA (right in Microsoft’s backyard) the SQL Pass 2008 Conference will be held. There will be up to 300 SQL Server developers attending the conference and also the SQLCAT – SQL Server Customer Advisory Team. If you want a chance to meet the team you may wish to attend the conference. Read More...
Architecture with “Oslo”: ”Oslo” is the codename for Microsoft’s forthcoming modelling platform. Modelling is used across a wide range of domains and allows more people to participate in application design and allows developers to write applications at a much higher level of abstraction. Read More...
Microsoft Virtualization: VMworld came to a successful close and the Microsoft product team build up a buzz about Microsoft Virtualization the Microsoft story, distributing 3,800 cards in <90 minutes, 25+ articles/blogs, 15,000+ visits and 175,000+ hits to www.VMwareCostsWayTooMuch.com in 7 days, and multiple tough questions on TCO to Paul Maritz. The Case Studies speak for themselves. Read More...

Software Releases

Windows Vista Ultimate Extras – Released: Three new applications for Windows Vista Ultimate customers: Microsoft ® Tinker (TM), Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker and Windows DreamScene (TM) Content Pack #. Read More...
New Online Food Website – Now Online: Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, and MSN today announced the launch of Delish.com (http://www.delish.com), a new online food destination. Delish.com, also available at http://www.msn.delish.com, features thousands of quick and easy food and cocktail recipes from Hearst Magazines and other sources, as well as fan blogs on the most popular food television shows, and the latest on food events and festivals worldwide. Read More...
Word2007 Redaction Tool - Released: This open-source tool is unsupported by Microsoft, however advanced users and IT Professionals may wish to review it. The tool enables the process of removing specific parts of text which you don’t want to appear in the final document. Read More...
Windows Server 2008 HPC Server (HPCS) - Released: Windows HPC Server 2008 can efficiently scale to thousands of processing cores and provides a comprehensive set of deployment, administration, and monitoring tools that are easy to deploy, manage, and integrate with your existing infrastructure. Read More...
SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Update #1 – Released: You can find more information in the KB Article 956717 to take your SQL Server to build 10.00.1763.00. Read More...
System Center Essentials Technology Adoption Program (TAP): The goal of the TAP program enables customers and Microsoft to build a mutually beneficial and long term relationship to build the next version of the System Center Essentials product. If you are interesting in joining the TAP Read More...
Windows Live Messenger BETA – Released: The next version of the popular Windows Live Messenger is now available, get the BETA version here. What's new? A new improved and cleaner User Interface, pictures of people right in your contact list, the ability to search for people and the web, new categories feature and much more. Read More...
Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0 – Released: The next version of Virtual Earth is now available with new features included, enhanced mobile support, better international support and more detail for more countries around the word, the platform infrastructure with new geocoding and parsing improvements, and a richer user experience and more intuitive functionality. Read More...
Silverlight 2.0 RC0 – Released: The release candidate of Silverlight will give developers the chance to convert their sites from Beta 2 before the final release is announced. Read More...

Microsoft News Summary w/e 21st September 2008

Daniel Good — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:04:00 GMT

There were 214 articles from the Microsoft Team Blogs and feeds last week. Here is my summary of interesting announcements and software releases:

General News

· Windows: Life without Walls and “I’m a PC”: If you wondered what was next for the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld television ads, the next phase of the brand is here “Windows vs. Walls”. The official press announcement from Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group explains our philosophy: “At the core, Windows is about enabling each one of us, as individuals, to live our lives without walls … I want to work when I want to work, I want to play when I want to play. I want to communicate and share with friends and family and co-workers”. If you like the campaign you can get the Life without Walls Desktop background. Read More...

· Windows Home Server (WHS) solution for consumers just gets better. The product team held the first annual Windows Home Server Platform Extensibility Day for 30+ developers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and hardware partners. The focus was to familiarize them about how to develop applications and services using the Software Development Kit, available publicly on MSDN. Read more...

· BlueHat Security Briefings v8 is will be held on October 15th, 16th and 17th. Day one focuses on emerging security threats and state of the art hacking tools and techniques. Day two covers Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) – a whole day’s content focused on the full lifecycle of security engineering – with a progression from design, to implementation, to verification. Read More...

· The Growing Case for Virtualization: The 14,000 IT professionals, developers and technology providers attended the VMworld 2008 virtualization conference to understand that virtualization has matured into a priority for many enterprises because it allows businesses to reduce their IT costs and be more nimble in responding to changing IT needs. Read More...

· Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), The SDL was created back in 2004, significantly improving the security, privacy and reliability of the company’s software. Now, Microsoft is working to share what it’s learned as part of the company’s commitment to create a more trusted computing experience for everyone. The official press announcement describes the plans and find out more on the SDL Team Blog. Read more...

Software Releases

· Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 (MDOP) for Software Assurance Released. In an Optimized Desktop, a partnership is established in which IT can constructively maintain control over the desktop infrastructure, without getting in the way of the users they’re supporting. With MDOP 2008 R2 and Windows Vista, you get a solution that’s greater than the sum of its parts…a “1+1=3” scenario where IT is controlled and managed, users are empowered and productive, and the pace of business accelerates. Read more…

· Microsoft Showcases Windows HPC Server 2008: The high performance computing offering provides enhanced productivity, performance and scalability; proves to be a valuable tool to analyze risk and provide a lever for growth in a turbulent economic environment. Read More...

· Network Monitor 3.2 Released: The team has added many of the requests we heard from our customers, while simultaneously fixing bugs and stabilizing the product. Read More...

· New Version of Windows Live Released: New beta versions of Windows Live Photo Gallery and the completely brand new Windows Live Movie Maker will be available for free at http://download.live.com! In addition to Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, this beta release includes significant updates to all of the Windows Live software applications for your Windows PC, including Messenger, Mail, Writer, Toolbar and Family Safety. Read More...

· Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2 Released: The latest version has been released for download with some newly added features and improvements in performance. You can read about Microsoft Professional Photography Website, or more on the team blog. Read More...

· Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009 Released: Enhanced trip-planning software makes road trip planning and travel even easier for consumers. Read the Official Press Announcement of visit the website.

· Zune Version 3 Software Released: Zune, Microsoft end-to-end music and entertainment service, today released a free software update that will bring new features to every Zune portable media player. Get the download, or read more on the Official Press Announcement or Featured Story.

· Outlook Connector Beta 2 Released – an add-in that puts your Windows Live Hotmail data in Outlook. While Beta 2 does not introduce new features, it provides several improvements aimed at making synchronization with e-mail, contacts, and the free Windows Live Calendar Beta service more robust. Read more...

· Advanced Group Policy Management 3.0 Released: Available as part of the MDOP suite the latest version adds new features including Full x64 support, Windows Vistsa SP1 and Windows Server 2008, Customizable permissions, More robust change tracking, Purge historical data, group policy preferences support, UI improvements and Localization. Read More..

· Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) Released: For midsize businesses, EBS is the best way to buy this software – Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, System Center Essentials (SCE), Forefront Security for Exchange and Forefront Threat Management Gateway. Whether it’s the integration and pre-configuration to best practices that’s baked-in; the vastly simplified and accelerated setup and migration, with a minimum of configuration needed; the defense-in-depth security included in the box. Read More... (The essential business server team blog will be added to the directory next week)

· Two New Extensions for Windows Server 2008 Internet Information Server 7.0 Released: IIS 7.0 can be extended and customized in many different ways. URL Rewriter, a rules-based engine it allows you to rewrite your Web application URLs to be more user-friendly and search engine-friendly. Web Playlists, which allows media publishers and site managers to more directly control how media files are delivered to an end user, including limiting the ability to skip past or through specific playlist entries. Read More...

News Summary - w/e 14th September 2008

Daniel Good — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:46:00 GMT

There were 594 articles from the Microsoft Team Blogs and feeds in the past three weeks. Here is my summary of interesting announcements:

The Microsoft Shared Source Initiative (SSI) was expanded with Reference Source Code. The SSI initiative provides technologies, programs and licenses to customers, partners, developers, academics and governments worldwide to share Microsoft source code. Reference source code for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 has now been made available. Read more…
Microsoft Solution Accelerators for Desktop, Server, Virtualization, Security, IT Governance and Compliance, and Collaboration support customers in adopting Microsoft products and technologies. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) available since February 2008 has been adopted by customers and partners as a de facto standard for IT Assessment and planning of IT migration projects. Read more…
The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance includes a suite of five products to help customers reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the Windows desktop. Read more… (The MDOP Team Blog will be included into the team blogs directory in the next couple of days).
The New Windows Consumer Campaign: Have you heard of the latest buzz about the Microsoft consumer ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Read more…
Are you ready for the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)? The Deployment Guys Blog has started the first in a series of posts to explain VDI and get into the technical detail. Simply put VDI is the provision of a full desktop Operating System (OS) provided remotely. Read more…
Have you been online to see the Microsoft Office Live Workspaces yet? A fantastic milestone has been reached in just six months with over one million people collaborating online at Office Live Workspàces. To find out more read the press announcement or on the team blog. Read more
Microsoft officially launched a number of virtualization products including Windows Server 2008, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and Microsoft Application Virtualization 2008 and the new Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. The press announcement provides the full details or you can find out further insight on the Environment Software Enabled Earth Blog. Read more…
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (App-V) released to manufacturing (RTM). The product represents a huge step forward and is an expansion of SoftGrid 4.2 which was released in 2007 and the new name for SoftGrid. It provides new capabilities designed to help IT support large-scale virtualization across many sites, new localization capabilities, compliance with Microsoft´s Trustworthy Computing Initiative and integration with Microsoft System Center Management products and Windows Update. Read more…
Microsoft Research announced the release of AutoCollage 2008 which allows you to automatically create a collage of all your favorite holiday photos at the click of a button. Read more…
The SQL Server team announced the first Release Candidate (RC) of the Report Builder 2.0 (RC1) for SQL Server Reporting Services. The new release provides a number of new enhancements including wizards, an updated ribbon, query designer for Microsoft SQL Server data sources and support for using server resources such as shared data resources. Read more...
Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0 Beta 2 was released at the end of August and has a number of cool new features including: Search suggestions, InPrivate Browsing, Accelerators, SmartScreen Filter, Compatibility View and Web Slices. If you are an IT Professional, website administrator or website developer be sure to read the information on the readiness toolkit to ensure you are ready for the new release. The Internet Explorer team blog has a number of articles about the new features and capabilities. Read more…

Hot News Summary - w/e 24th August 2008

Daniel Good — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:52:00 GMT

There were 169 articles from the Microsoft Team Blogs last week, here is my personal 'Hot News Summary' of interesting announcements:

· Microsoft introduces world-wide availability of Microsoft Services Premier Ultimate: For a fixed price, Premier Ultimate combines a “road map to IT health” — leveraging Microsoft’s expertise through pre-agreed proactive services with problem resolution support. Read More. You can learn more about Microsoft Premier here.

· Microsoft announced changes to the licensing and support model for Virtualization. Read the official announcement here. BlogMS also posted some useful information here.

· Microsoft announced the release of Photosynth: This new application transforms the way you view regular digitial photos by transforming them into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experiences. Read the Official Announcement, or more detail on the Live Labs Blog.

· New Sysinternals Desktop Tool: A new tool which allows you to create up to four virtual desktops and use a tray interface or hokeys to preview or switch easily between desktops. Read More. You can learn more about the full suite of Sysinternal tools here.

· URLSCAN 3.0 for Internet Information Services (IIS): In June this year Microsoft announced a beta version of this tool to help mitigate SQL injection attacks. The final version has now been released. Read More.

· Windows Small Business Server 2008 Released to Manufacturing (RTM): This product provides many features used by larger companies, such as e-mail, internet connectivity, internal websites, remote access and support for mobile devices, file and print sharing, backup and restore – all at one affordable price. Read More.

· System Center 2007 Cross-Platform Monitoring Pack – Beta 1 Refresh Released: This management pack allows companies to manage/monitor other non-Microsoft platforms including Solaris, HP-UX, Red Hat, SUSE, and now (with this beta refresh) AIX. Read More.

· Office Labs releases Prototype E-Mail Prioritizer: This is an unsupported add-in which you could try. This has been designed and developed to help people manage high-volumes of e-mail. Read More