I wanted to give you an update on the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 release timelines.

The following dates are 99% firm, but please remember the Windows product teams always reserve the right to make last minute changes.

Finally, the prescriptive guidance has been updated on TechNet and IT Springboard, so mark these dates on your calendar and start making your deployment plans!

August 7, 2009

Volume License customers with an existing Software Assurance license will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English via the Microsoft Volume License Service (MVLS) website. Specifically look for the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition image in the “Software Assurance” benefits section of the site. For more information checkout the Windows Team blog posting.

August 11, 2009

Windows Server 2003 KMS Update & New KMS Host Key will need to be installed on the existing KMS host for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to activate. Once activated, the KMS host will be able to activate all products (depending on the KMS key that is used).

Microsoft Support Article 968915 has detailed information on installing the Key Management Service (KMS) 1.2 for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and for later versions of Windows Server 2003. KMS 1.2 provides support for the following KMS client installations:

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)

According to the Volume Activation Planning Guide, the KMS service does not require a dedicated server. The KMS service can be co-hosted with other services, such as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain controllers and read-only domain controllers (RODCs). KMS hosts can also run on physical computers or virtual machines that are running any supported Windows operating system, including Windows Server 2003. Although a KMS host that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 can activate any Windows operating system that supports Volume Activation, a KMS host that is running Windows 7 can activate only computers running Windows 7 and Windows Vista clients. A single KMS host can support unlimited numbers of KMS clients; however, Microsoft recommends deploying a minimum of two KMS hosts for failover. Most organizations can use as few as two KMS hosts for their entire infrastructure. Each KMS key can be installed on up to six KMS hosts, which can be physical computers or virtual machines. After activating a KMS host, the same host can be reactivated up to nine more times with the same key.

Additionally, the following KMS updates are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download the Update for Windows Server 2003 x86 Edition package now.

Download the Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition package now.

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

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.

Hopefully, by now you have checked out Microsoft’s new web search/decision engine, Bing.com.  In short, Bing is a decision engine that goes beyond what people have come to think of as search — it will help people use the Web to accomplish more complicated decision-based tasks, rather than simply navigating the Web.  If you’d like more information on what can be done with Bing, you can view the Product Tour Video.

Since the release early this week, there has been some news about perceived content filtering problems with Bing and I’d like to provide you some information to cut through all the hyperbole and get to the facts.   The fact is, Bing uses the same query string parameter content filter override that all major search providers’ use and this functionality will ensure that the content filtering settings you select for Bing are always enforced.  Microsoft recently did a blog post on this and related topics.

Here is some more information that should help to clear up any misperceptions about the ability to block objectionable content on Bing.

Most content filtering software works by appending a query string parameter to the outbound request to enforce content control.  This method works with all major search engines, including Bing, however this capability in Bing is unpublicized and thus not well known and sometimes unimplemented by content control vendors.  As a result, content control vendors often recommend blocking all access to Bing.com.  Microsoft is conducting outreach to the content control vendors to inform them of our safe search enforcement capabilities.

How does safe search work for Bing?

1. The default setting is set to “Moderate” which automatically blocks access to all adult image and video content. Users can change their setting to “Strict” if they choose. Bing’s “Strict” safe search setting is the most rigorous of the major search engines.

2. The setting is maintained in a client side cookie.  A user must proactively change their safe search settings from STRICT or MODERATE to OFF in order to access adult content.

3. Admins can always override the users client side setting by appending the parameter “&adlt=strict” to all queries to the bing.com domain.  This will set the safe search setting to “Strict” and block all adult content, including text results. 

Some examples (so everyone doesn’t have to search for adult content to prove it)

1. If in Bing you set safe search to OFF and search for “<insert adult search term>” the result is…unfiltered content relevant to the search terms.

2. If in Bing you set safe search to STRICT and search for “<insert adult search term>” the result is, no results.  There is an option for the user to change their safe search setting, but this can be override by the query string parameter as shown in scenario #3.

3. If in Bing you set safe search to OFF and search for “<insert adult search term>”, with the added query string parameter”&adlt=strict” you get no results, the same as scenario #1.

Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM (Release to Manufacture) code is on track to be available to Microsoft partners sometime in the 2^nd half of July.

Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 “General Availability” date of October 22, 2009.

For more information on these great new products check out these team blogs.

Windows Server Blog

Windows Team Blog

Microsoft has just released a great new search service called Bing.

Here’s some cool things you can try:

BETTER RESULTS

• Get hard to find information, like customer service numbers, with authoritative results.
• Save time with a 5 day weather forecast for your location.
• Find instant real time traffic for your area.

ORGANIZED RESULTS

• Categorized search results with the Explorer Pane and Quick Tabs help you find relevant information more quickly.

ACCOMPLISH KEY TASKS

• Simplify shopping online, compare and read reviews with Opinion Ranking, and save with cashback.
• Simplify airline travel and find out if now is the right time to buy your ticket.

Right now is the perfect time to begin to enhance your skills on business intelligence with Microsoft Business Intelligence technology by checking out the new training resources, including an offer for a free licensed copy of SQL Server 2008 with training, a free eBook “Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008”, and a 35% discount on books from MS Press on the Microsoft Office system including SharePoint.

There is significant momentum behind IT infrastructure and application platform Optimization that Microsoft partners often evangelize to help institutions be successful in their administration and deployment challenges.  To support this effort Microsoft maintains a partner resource site that anyone can access if they know where to look.  Check out “Microsoft Optimization Partner Resources”. 

There you will find an overview of the optimization  models, industry specific information, and training.  Microsoft also publishes several analysis whitepapers as well like IDC’s Optimizing Infrastructure whitepaper titled “The Relationship Between IT Labor Costs and Best Practices for Managing the Windows Desktop”

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the next version of the Windows Server operating system from Microsoft. Building on the features and capabilities of the current Windows Server 2008 release version, Windows Server 2008 R2 allows you to create organization solutions that are easier to plan, deploy, and manage than previous versions of Windows Server.

Developing upon the increased security, reliability, and performance provided by Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 extends connectivity and control to local and remote resources. This means your organizations can benefit from reduced costs and increased efficiencies gained through enhanced management and control over resources across the enterprise.

Download the Release Candidate

This webcast provides best practices for the usage of Hyper-V virtualization as a platform for SAP installations. While virtualization is an important technology for increasing flexibility and improving the cost structure of SAP landscapes, the requirements in performance and availability of SAP applications typically depend on appropriate information for planning, sizing and design of SAP infrastructures.  The presentation will cover the aspects of performance and sizing, infrastructure design (like storage, network, and high availability), operational aspects and monitoring and licensing questions of SAP Web Application Server on Hyper-V. Based on the provided information, attendees can plan infrastructures for SAP on Hyper-V and assess the technologies for running SAP applications in a virtualized environment.

Hyper-V and SAP Implementation Best Practices

The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides customers with the latest updates to the 2007 Office suite. Today’s download includes two types of fixes:

• Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack.
• All of the Public Updates, Security Updates, Cumulative Updates, and Hot Fixes released through February 2009.

In addition to general product fixes, this includes improvements in stability, performance, and security. You can find out more information in Knowledge Base Article 953195, where product-specific changes are described. Technical details about the 2007 Microsoft Office System Service Pack 2 (SP2) releases are published in 970357.

Before installing this service pack, you are strongly encouraged to read 953195, which describes some big improvements introduced by SP2, and also calls out some important information that you should be aware of before installing.

Supported Operating Systems:

• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• Windows XP Service Pack 3

Service Pack 2 will update the following:

• Microsoft Office Basic 2007
• Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
• Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
• Microsoft Office Small Business Management 2007
• Microsoft Office Standard 2007
• Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
• Microsoft Office Access 2007
• Microsoft Office Excel 2007
• Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
• Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
• Microsoft Office Word 2007
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
• Microsoft Office Groove 2007

If you attempt to install this update and get a message saying that the update failed, please refer to Knowledge Base Article 968173. It describes a set of requirements and other issues that may cause the installation to fail, and gives instructions on how to fix them.

If you have other Office products installed, please be sure to update them as well. A full list of SP2 releases for Office products is available in the Knowledge Base Article 968170.

Service Pack 2 is the first service pack to support uninstall of client patches through both the command line and the use of the Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool. The Service Pack Uninstall Tool is available as a separate download. For more information about this tool, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 954914.

Administrators working in managed environments can find complete resources for deploying Office updates in an organization on the 2007 Office Resource Kit site. And for more details about what is included in the service pack; you are urged to read Knowledge Base Article 953195.

I just received this update from the Forefront Security Blog.

Forefront Security for Office Communication Server (FSOCS) provides fast and effective protection against IM-based malware for OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2 environments by including multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners. FSOCS also helps reduce corporate liability by blocking instant messages containing inappropriate content. This release includes:

• 64bit support
• Support for OCS 2007 R2
• Support for OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition server roles
• Integration with OCS 2007 Access Edge role to protect corporate IM from external public IM threats
• Localization in 11 languages

Like other Forefront server security products, FSOCS provides superior detection of the latest threats when compared to single engine solutions by using our multiple engine scanning technology. FSOCS has also been featured in a few of the OCS 2007 R2 virtual launch sessions that you should check out. Lastly, we are making available some new content including a new demo walk though, case studies, and a datasheet.

Each year we host IT Pros from universities all around the country (and the world) in Redmond for a three day conference.  This is organized by a committee from the Windows Higher Education (HIED) listsrv hosted by Stanford University and has a focus on NOT being a sales event, rather a chance for administrators in higher education to interface directly with product teams in Redmond and listen in on technical presentations regarding infrastructure focused solutions.

Even if you are not a subscriber of the listsrv but you are a technical resource from a college or university, you are welcome to join us!  If you are curious about the technical focus, see the agenda posted to the HIED wiki.  You must be willing to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement form as some of the content is “next version” planning information.  The official invite details are below.  Hope to see you there!

Background

Working in conjunction with Windows-Higher Education listsrv representatives, Microsoft Education is pleased to host the 5^th Windows Higher Education Conference at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington, March 30^th – April 1^st,  2009.

Conference Goals

As has always been the case for this event, it is NOT a sales or marketing event.  Attendees generally have deep technical background in both Microsoft as well as UNIX/Linux operating systems.  Presentation responsibilities are being split by Microsoft and customer attendees and focus the following primary goals:

• Provide highly relevant product and solution discussion as well as tips and tricks for better evaluating, deploying, integrating, administering, supporting and simplifying Microsoft solutions in the higher education environment
• Illicit product input and feedback to ensure product teams understand the needs of the HED customer base
• Learn of unique challenges and successes of Microsoft product deployment from customer presentation sessions
• Provide an informal venue to discuss additional issues and topics
• Increase the trust and confidence of customer attendees in deploying and supporting Microsoft solutions
• Provide Microsoft product teams an opportunity to talk to a focused and strategic group of knowledgeable Higher Education customers

Event Logistics

• Dates: March 30^th – April 1^st, 2009
• Location: Microsoft Campus, Building 37
• Presentations: Mix of Microsoft and Customer presentations: 300-400 level technical drill down (60-90 minutes each)
• Cost 150$
• Registration Page

I know of some institutions have implemented the Windows XP SP3 Windows Update “Service Pack Blocker Tool”. This tool was meant to delay the automatic Windows Update distribution of Windows XP Service Pack 3 for a one year period.  I just want to give everyone a heads up that the expiration of this “delay mechanism” is near, so you may test and verify Windows XP SP3 in your environments.

The Service Pack Blocker Tool temporarily prevented the installation of a service pack through Windows Update, typically for one year after general availability of the service pack.  The upcoming expiration dates for the Service Pack Blocker Tool for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 are:

• Windows Vista SP1, April 28, 2009

• Windows XP SP3, May 19, 2009

After April 28th, Windows Vista SP1 will be delivered via Windows Update.  And after May 19th, Windows XP SP3 will also be delivered via Windows Update. 

For more information on the Service Pack Blocker Tool, please see this blog posting by the Windows product group.

This is an announcement for Higher Education Administrators and Managers in the West Region of the United States.

At Microsoft, we believe that, by taking a proactive approach, you can not only sustain your institution through these trying times, but also make progress toward achieving your institution’s objectives.

It doesn’t always require major new investments to improve your IT infrastructure and efficiency – from the server room to your workstations. Join us and find out how you can take steps to reduce IT and organizational costs and enable your people to work smarter—by leveraging the products you already license. Here is a sample of what our event will include.

April 7, 2009
9:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
Microsoft Southwest District Office
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1800
Irvine, CA 92614

Please mark your calendar and contact your account manager to join Microsoft for this special day-long symposium to examine ways to reduce costs and drive greater efficiencies for your institution.

Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s general manager for U.S. public-sector education, said during his appearance at the Educause Conference in Orlando, Florida, “We want people to have the best of both worlds,” he continued, “Flexibility is key. We want scientists to be able to start a Word document in a shared workspace with colleagues in a cloud, and then get on an airplane, where they don’t have access to the Web, and finish it on a laptop.”

Several education trade publications published articles following his appearance

Microsoft extends Office apps to web browsers – repost of John Fontana / Network World article, 10/28/08

eSchool News

Microsoft on Oct. 28 introduced Office Web applications, saying it finally would open its Office suite to access via a web browser in the next release of the software, reports the New York Times--something Google has been doing for years. The company made the announcement at its annual Professional Developers Conference, where it repeatedly has said all its software eventually would be offered as a service.

Microsoft plans 'cloud' operating system – repost of John Markoff / New York Times article, 10/28/08

eSchool News

Looking for growth in new markets where it is increasingly being bypassed, Microsoft said Oct. 27 that late next year it would begin offering a new "cloud" operating system that would manage the relationship between software inside the computer and on the web, where data and services are becoming increasingly centralized, reports the New York Times.

Beginning With Microsoft Live@Edu, Education Institutions Expect Innovation and Cost Savings – Brick O’Neil, 10/28/08

451 Press

Higher education institutions are seeking new ways of enhancing the IT investments they have already made and new reasons to consolidate their systems to ensure maximum savings and efficiencies. New cloud technologies enable convenient access to central applications and provide consolidation (and cost reduction) benefits. With hosted services and storage, for instance, customers are finding new savings. Schools are already seeing benefits with Microsoft Live@edu, a suite of messaging, mobile, and collaboration and productivity services that enables virtual campuses, where students and educators can benefit from the free flow of information and ideas within each learning community.

Microsoft Tells (and Sells) Colleges: Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground - Josh Fischman, 10-30-2008

Chronicle of Higher Education

Cloud computing is very much in the air here at the Educause educational-technology meeting. Everyone is talking about the benefits of using software kept someplace on the Web, rather than on your desktop. Everyone, that is, but Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s general manager for U.S. public-sector education. “We want people to have the best of both worlds,” he said over lunch here. “Flexibility is key. We want scientists to be able to start a Word document in a shared workspace with colleagues in a cloud, and then get on an airplane, where they don’t have access to the Web, and finish it on a laptop.”

PDC: Microsoft Calls New Cloud Computing OS a 'Turning Point' for Company – Kathleen Richards, 10/30/08

Campus Technology

At its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week, Microsoft is unveiling the end-to-end vision for its Software plus Services platform. On Monday, key executives and partners gave a two-and-a-half-hour keynote on what Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie termed the "back-end" infrastructure for the company's emerging cloud platform.

In the coming weeks there are some great training opportunities.

Netdesk, one of the Northwest's leading Microsoft technical training companies, is reviving their FIRST LOOK events. Your staff get a first look at new technologies from one of their top instructors at these free 3-hour presentations. These Netdesk events are free, but space is limited. You can RSVP by clicking on the REGISTER link for the event you want.

Also in November, join Netdesk for a FAB LAB on Hyper-V. In this free, 3-hour event, you choose the labs you want to try. You’ll be running Windows Server 2008 in a virtual lab environment configured with Hyper-V on Netdesk’s top of the line hardware (quad core with 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SATA2 hard drives, NVIDIA GPU, all running on Windows Server 2008 64-bit OS). You’ll see how Hyper-V reduces costs, increases hardware utilization, optimizes network infrastructure, and improves server availability.

In Oregon your Business Development Manager is Kate Chan (503-821-1809), in Washington contact Nick Lewis (206-224-7631).

I always like to mention when Mindsharp is holding classes in the Northwest, because they specialize in SharePoint training.

Mindsharp is hosting a public SharePoint Training event in Seattle on December 1-5; and offering the following sessions:

• 5-day MOSS Administrator
• 5-day WSS 3.0 Developer
• 5-day 2007 SharePoint Designer
• 3-day 2007 SharePoint Power User

Also, the next SharePoint Best Practices Conference planned which is taking place in San Diego, CA on February 2-4.

If you are interested or have questions please contact Kristian McKenzie, Director of Business Development (952-230-6509).