Welcome to TechNet Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

October 2006 - Posts

Vista Express Upgrade

Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 4:59 PM by James Senior
Buy a Vista-capable PC today and get an upgrade when Vista hits the shelves in the new year. The manufacturers currently taking part in this offer are: Dell Fujitsu Lenovo HP Medion NEC Sony Toshiba (website not ready yet) From the looks of it they are Read More...
4 Comments
Filed under:

Screencasts on Microsoft.com

Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:05 PM by James Senior
The friendly chaps over at the Microsoft.com UK Partner site have provided me with space on their streaming server which means that you can watch the screencasts I've produced in glorious high quality rather than compressed on Soapbox . I've also gone Read More...
0 Comments

Windows Vista Sounds

Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 12:43 PM by James Senior
The user experience is a high priority for Windows Vista, and part of that "experience" are the sounds that come with the operating system. It's incredible the amount of work that goes in to capturing that perfect sound to represent different events in Read More...
139 Comments

How to detect Vista and Longhorn with WMI Filters

Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 11:38 AM by James Senior
This ones for the IT admins out there. When applying Group Policy Objects (GPOs) in active directory using WMI Filters, you can figure out whether a computer is running Vista or Longhorn Server by using the following queries: For Vista SELECT Version, Read More...
4 Comments

Background Problem to be fixed in RTM

Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:47 AM by James Senior
Talk about last minute, but the guys over on the Shell Team managed to get the problem with setting background images working properly and push a bug fix into the RTM code - looks like I need to download and install another build!!! Maybe I should just Read More...
0 Comments

Competition: Win a Vista Lanyard!

Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 5:49 PM by James Senior
Be the envy of all your colleagues when you turn up to meetings with this fantastic Windows Vista Lanyard! It'll be the perfect way to keep your ID badge and/or ReadyBoost USB Pen handy wherever and whenever you need it! These lanyards are seriously sought Read More...
5 Comments

Vista Deployment Screencast

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 4:15 PM by James Senior
The latest screencast insallment is on Vista deployment; to give it the proper name - Business Desktop Deployment (BDD). So what's behind the acronym? Well, BDD provides one solution with which businesses can plan, build and deploy Windows Vista to their Read More...
2 Comments

Tablet Input Panel Screencast

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 1:19 PM by James Senior
Now in high definition (relative to Soapbox): Tablet Input Panel Screencast (9.2 MB WMV) Technorati tags: Vista , Screencast Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Bitlockered

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:34 PM by James Senior
I'm currently preparing a Bitlocker screencast for your viewing pleasure and recently noticed one of the side effects of applying Bitlocker on your drive. Well it's not really a side-effect it's just proof that it works! I was running another build on Read More...
0 Comments

Vista User Access Control - FAQ

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:20 PM by James Senior
There have been lots of questions on UAC (User Access Control) coming in to me over the past couple of months, so I thought I would put together a FAQ on UAC: If I was to run all users as administrators, what is the difference with these two configurations: Read More...
0 Comments

Vista Screencasts - now in high quality

Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 11:57 AM by James Senior
Soapbox is great, but it does process videos when they upload and much of the quality is lost when this happnes. I've fed this problem back to the Soapbox team but in the meantime, I've had requests to post higher quality movies which I'm going to start Read More...
0 Comments

Innovate On Windows Vista

Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:56 PM by James Senior
I've been talking recently about the cool stuff you can do when developing applications on Windows Vista and if this has struck a chord with you, I'd recommend your next step is to check out the Innovate on portal for Vista. To assist you in developing Read More...
0 Comments

Screencast: Next Generation Applications on Vista

Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2:27 PM by James Senior
Software vendors are already busy developing their range of next generation applications based upon beta versions of Vista so that they are ready to launch them at the same time as Vista. So what new stuff will you see with Vista based applications? Well Read More...
4 Comments

Developers found making up hip-hop tunes with Office 2007

Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 1:38 PM by James Senior
The Office 2007 platform is nearly ready and as such, it would be rude not to show the developer community how to create new Office code that connects to existing business applications. In all the companies I've worked for tools like Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint Read More...
1 Comments

Zune Battery Life

Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 10:03 AM by James Senior
I saw a post on Zune Insider that talked about the battery life of the Zune player and it got me thinking about how the numbers stack up against the competition. So I pointed IE7 over to Apple's iPod website and Creative's Zen website and took a look Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under:

Live Meeting Hotfix for Vista

Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 9:06 AM by James Senior
I know my team have been having some issues when running Live Meeting on Vista so I just wanted to post about this hotfix for the console that will allow you to view live meetings on Vista. The issue was that in some more locked-down IT environments the Read More...
1 Comments

My Webcast Picks for the next Month

Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 5:45 PM by James Senior
Developer Webcasts .NET 3.0 Series: Windows Presentation Foundation Overview Monday, October 23, 2006 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada) .NET 3.0 Series: Cardspace Overview Monday, October 30, 2006 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada) MSDN Webcast: Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Small Business Support Packages and Free Trial

Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 5:18 PM by James Senior
There's a week left to take advantage of the free technical support trial for small businesses in the UK. This entitles you to 45 days of free network, server configuration or software deployment support for you and your business. On an ongoing basis Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

View on Vista - Windows Meeting Space

Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 5:59 PM by James Senior
I've been wanting to post this screencast for a while now - because it shows off one of the killer features in Vista - Windows Meeting Space. Imagine the scenario; you've sat down for a coffee in your favourite caffeine outlet and you're meeting with Read More...
4 Comments

Software Developers Innovate on Office 2007 System

Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 4:56 PM by James Senior
Are your apps ready to take advantage of the Office 2007 System? If not then you need to get started, because the last thing you want is to be left behind. We've put together a website so that you can better understand the opportunity and leverage the Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: , ,

3 Minute View on Vista - Sidebar and Gadgets

Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 2:33 PM by James Senior
The Sidebar in Vista is a dock for small, lightweight applications that provide useful information at the user's fingertips. There's a growing community creating all kinds of gadgets from Virtual Earth maps to eBay searches - all these are downloadable Read More...
1 Comments

Exchange 2007 Virtual Labs

Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 9:12 AM by James Senior
Exchange Server 2007 Virtual Labs These labs will walk you through administration in Exchange Server 2007 by exploring the Exchange Management Console and Shell, enforcing compliance and retention policies, and you'll see how mobile devices interact with Read More...
0 Comments

3 Minute View on Vista - ReadyDrive

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 5:17 PM by James Senior
Windows Vista introduces a number of new technologies , among them one called Windows ReadyDrive that works in conjunction with new hybrid hard drive technology to improve the performance of your PC. Windows ReadyDrive makes use of non-volatile flash Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under: ,

UK Vista & Office 2007 Events

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 1:35 PM by James Senior
Envisioning Session (Vista & Office 2007) Date: 1 st November Audience: Senior BDM / TDM Purpose: talk about opportunities technology brings to partners. Registration URL: Nov 1: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032313066&Culture=en-GB Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: , , ,

Royal Mail Postage Calculator Gadget

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:50 AM by James Senior
Gadgets for the sidebar are coming out thick and fast - just check out the Windows Live Gallery where you can download gadgets for the SideBar in Vista or for your Windows Live Homepage. My latest find is the postage calculator for the Royal Mail in the Read More...
0 Comments

DirectX 10 - Next generation graphics

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:30 AM by James Senior
Here's a video on Soapbox which shows off the graphics capabilities of DirectX 10 - pretty cool stuff! Video: Directx10 Microsoft Gaming Courtesy of Ben, my grad colleague in France! Read More...
3 Comments

Download IE7 Today

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:57 AM by James Senior
IE7 is now available for download on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It's a big jump from IE6 with security, usability, standardisation and RSS integration all being focus areas for improvements. Of course, if you're using Vista you'll already be Read More...
0 Comments

TechNet Beta Central - One stop shop for your beta needs

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:50 AM by James Senior
This is a great location where you can get all the betas for Microsoft products in one place. Currently on the menu: Exchange 2007 Office 2007 Vista Coming soon: Microsoft Forefront Client Security Go there: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/beta/betacentral.msp Read More...
0 Comments

Vista Kernal Patch Protection and Security Center FAQ

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:43 AM by James Senior
Kernel Patch Protection · Kernel Patch Protection was developed to protect the kernel from unauthorized access and modifications to the kernel that result in customers having a less reliable, secure and stable computing experience. · In the area of security, Read More...
0 Comments

Swiss Cheese vs Oracle

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:37 AM by James Senior
"Oracle is years behind Microsoft and other companies on security," said Cesar Cerrudo, CEO at information security services company Argeniss in Argentina. "I think Oracle is an amateur when it comes to security right now." Oracle patched 101 security Read More...
0 Comments

UK Vista Hands on Labs - places going quickly

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 9:11 AM by James Senior
Windows Vista Certification Lab , Reading, 09/11/2006, Ltd B3-3-H Normandy (12) Int, http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032314123&Culture=en-GB As a participant in Microsoft’s Windows Vista Early Adoption Programs we would Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Give Microsoft feedback on the Windows User Interface

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 8:32 AM by James Senior
I just got an email from corp asking me for feedback on the Windows User Interface. It asked me to see what friends, family and colleagues thought about it. I'd thought it would be good to get your input too! Here are the questions they asked: We need Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under: ,

Security Center in Vista can be disabled

Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 8:19 AM by James Senior
We released some code on Monday that will allow Vista's Security Center to be disabled and be replaced by third party security management control panels. It's what Symantec and McAfee have been asking for. All's fair in love and war, especially when you Read More...
2 Comments
Filed under: ,

Vista Deployment - What is Imaging?

Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:51 PM by James Senior
Having just been on some rather good training about Vista deployment I wanted to put together a quick post highlighting some of the areas where deployment has been completely re-engineered in Vista. It's best to start with some explanations about the Read More...
0 Comments

Quick Start for Microsoft Search

Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:19 AM by James Senior
Following on from my post about the 13 billion dollar opportunity here's an annoucement about two training courses that are on the horizon each aimed at two different types of audiences: Technical and Marketing. Go Techy Go! The technical session explores Read More...
0 Comments

Vista Development Webcasts

Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:18 AM by James Senior
Designing Application Installations for User Account Control with Windows Installer 4.0 in Windows Vista Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 10:00 A.M. Pacific time. (6pm GMT) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5629810 An In-Depth Look at Mobility Features in Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: , ,

Vista and Longhorn Server: Better Together

Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 4:51 PM by James Senior
So hopefully you are all familiar with Windows Vista but what you might not have heard about is the next Windows Server platform which is looming in the background. This is code-named "Longhorn Server" and is just about to hit Beta 3 with a release to Read More...
1 Comments

Things to do before you.... install IE7

Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:32 PM by James Senior
David Overton kindly pointed out a little quirk in the installation of the imminent release of IE7 on XP that you might want to adhere to when you go upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Internet Explorer. Your anti-malware applications, with Read More...
0 Comments

Microsoft BI platform revenue grows 35.9%

Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:55 AM by James Senior
In 2005, the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform witnessed growth of 35.9% highlighting the massive uptake amongst our partners of our compelling technologies in this area. Partners and customers are starting to take advantage of the amazing SQL Read More...
0 Comments

Windows Live OneCare UK public beta

Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8:17 AM by James Senior
OneCare is our new anti-virus offering which aims to hit a sweet spot between the more pricey end of the market (Norton, McAfee etc) and those which offer it free - but maybe without the reliability, support or extensive virus definition list. The application Read More...
0 Comments

Scoble Discovers Soapbox

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 6:15 PM by James Senior
It seems that Scoble has come across Soapbox which is Microsoft's "answer to YouTube". I'm signed up and now uploading my screencasts to my account for the masses to enjoy! ;-) His post made me chuckle after he had previously talked about how he compared Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

UK Virtualisation Event!

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 5:41 PM by James Senior
21 November 2006, West Yorkshire: Virtualisation Unplugged This interactive session will focus on how you can use Microsoft's virtualisation products to solve real-life problems. We will explore the capabilities and scenarios surrounding these products Read More...
0 Comments

UK SQL Server Events

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 5:40 PM by James Senior
07 November 2006, Edinburgh and 27 November, London: Enhance Your Business's Reporting Capability: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services SQL Server 2005 has a wealth of reporting services that can provide true business intelligence. This Read More...
0 Comments

UK Exchange Event!

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 5:38 PM by James Senior
17 October 2006, Reading, and 08 November, Manchester: Overview of Exchange 2007: what's new? Find out about the new features of Exchange Server 2007. We will demonstrate how you can have more control while giving your organisation the "anywhere access" Read More...
0 Comments

UK Windows Vista Events

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 5:38 PM by James Senior
11 October 2006, Edinburgh, and 19 October, Manchester: What's New in Administering Vista In this session we will examine Group Policy functionality improvements that have been made with Windows Vista. We'll describe the new and updated features and how Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: , ,

Views on Vista - Pen Flicks

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 4:57 PM by James Senior
As a tablet PC user, you've got to love Vista. The handwriting recognition is fantastic - it recognises my (dreadful) handwriting out of the box - with no training. The Tablet Input Panel is superb, especially with contextual mode where it's always available Read More...
1 Comments

View on Vista: Reliability Monitor

Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 10:17 AM by James Senior
Video: Views On Vista - Reliability Monitor Here's the latest screencast which is on Reliability Monitor in Windows Vista. Reliability Monitor provides an easy way for support technicians to quickly isolate problems with users computers by monitoring Read More...
2 Comments

Barenuckle Boxing: Microsoft vs Adobe

Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 5:20 PM by James Senior
I love a good cat fight and the MSDN team have just come out with this new comparison of features between Dreamweaver 8 (in the green corner) and Visual Studio 2005 (in the red corner) . It was only recently that Microsoft openly admitted that the new Read More...
0 Comments

EVO Roadshow Teaser

Posted Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:12 PM by James Senior
Tickets are selling out fast for the EVO Roadshow - so make sure you get yours quick! On the tour we're going to be be getting in front of thousands of partners and speaking about the opportunity that Exchange Vista and Office is bringing to the market Read More...
1 Comments

Score a Touchdown with your EVO app!

Posted Monday, October 09, 2006 1:27 PM by James Senior
Ok, so here's the deal. I'm looking for software that is written for Exchange 2007, Vista or Office 2007 (or a combination of these - better together right?). You've had these products in beta for what is now a technological eternity (cue comments about Read More...
0 Comments

Windows Vista RC2

Posted Monday, October 09, 2006 11:41 AM by James Senior
The newest, publically available version of Vista has just hit the download servers. With only days until launch to manufacturing and volume licensing customers, RC2 will provide the most stable and true picture as to the state of its readiness for release Read More...
5 Comments

Clever stuff with Offline Files in Windows Vista

Posted Thursday, October 05, 2006 4:39 PM by James Senior
Offline Files for Dummies One of the more subtle changes in Windows Vista is the way the operating system manages Offline Files. Offline files, for those who don't know is the ability to work with files that reside on a networked server even though the Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Developing on Vista and Windows Workflow Foundation

Posted Wednesday, October 04, 2006 4:27 PM by James Senior
The number of ISVs who are exploring the potential of developing on the Vista platform is growing all the time. One of the ISVs who have been using Windows Workflow Foundation since the very first betas is K2 who have created an advanced workflow engine Read More...
0 Comments

UK Partner Site features Business Intelligence Solution Selling

Posted Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:30 PM by James Senior
I was perusing the UK Partner website earlier and they've come up with some great content on selling Business Intelligence solutions broken down into the following sections: News and BI updates Business Intelligence technologies Business Intelligence Read More...
0 Comments

ReadyBoost & Removable Device Group policy - working in harmony

Posted Tuesday, October 03, 2006 4:25 PM by James Senior
Vista comes with a raft of new security features many of which can be configured via the wonders of group policy. There are exactly 32 new settings that control the way in which removable storage can be configured - 16 in user config and 16 in system Read More...
1 Comments

Forefront Security Overview Video

Posted Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:14 PM by James Senior
I heard about this new product a little while back and didn't really where it fitted in with all the other security stuff we're coming out with these days. This video which is available via the UK partner site helped me understand how it works and why Read More...
0 Comments

Office 2007 Development Webcasts

Posted Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:12 PM by James Senior
Get your developers tooled up with the skills they need to take advantage of the huge opportunity with developing on the Office 2007 system. If you find it difficult to take your developers off key projects, why not get them looking at our webcasts on Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Bitlocker Recovery FAQ

Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 6:17 PM by James Senior
How is the recovery process fulfilled? Does recovery use passwords or tokens and what happens if these are lost? Recovery is via a recovery key (48 digit key) which needs to have been saved/printed when the workstation was set up. If the computer is in Read More...
1 Comments

The Microsoft Home

Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 1:18 PM by James Senior
In January I was fortunate enough to visit the Microsoft Home, a fully kitted-out home representing what life will be like in the not-so-distant future. Inside was a great splice of technology and everyday living, and it was amazing to see what a rich Read More...
2 Comments

Search: The 13 billion dollar question

Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 1:11 PM by James Senior
The explosion of the information age has resulted in an incredible opportunity around search for partners and Microsoft. There's so much information out there both for businesses and consumers that at present most of it remains undiscovered; remaining Read More...
3 Comments

EVO Roadshow!!!

Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 11:30 AM by James Senior
Exchange, Vista and Office (EVO) are around the corner and this launch represents a huge opportunity for partners in the UK (and across the world). Soon, my team will be embarking on a UK tour where we will talk about what EVO is all about and how it Read More...
3 Comments

EC Vista Christmas List

Posted Monday, October 02, 2006 9:52 AM by James Senior
I bit my tongue when I heard about the security inquiry that the EC were doing on Vista, but today I read in the FT this morning that they are now looking into Encryption and Handwriting recognition too. So I'm goint to start a letter to Father Christmas Read More...
0 Comments
 
Page view tracker