Lots of News
So, it’s been a busy few weeks out in Redmond (and Las Vegas), so I thought that I would consolidate and pass along a list of the most recent updates in Microsoft-land. If nothing else, read the info at the bottom and have a little fun.
First and foremost, the Windows 7 Release Candidate has been released to the public! Head over here for some instructions and download links. It should be available for another two months, at least, so there’s no rush – though I encourage you to give it a whirl. If you have any systems still running the Win7 Beta, then note that they expire on July 1st, so you’ll want to upgrade or rebuild with the RC before then (otherwise you’ll have to deal with some really irritating ‘shutdown every 2 hours’ behavior).
While on the topic of Windows 7, I want to call attention to a recent post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. Solid State Drives represent the biggest development in hardware in years (in my humble opinion). If you’re looking to get some more life out of existing hardware (particularly laptops), then SSD’s will give those old systems a new lease on life. Replacing a traditional spinning disk with one of the more modern consumer\enterprise SSD’s (think Intel’s X25-M or OCZ Vertex) and users will think that they have a new machine. Windows 7 is the first Windows OS designed specifically to accommodate and leverage SSD’s, and the blog post describes all that we’ve done to optimize that experience. With XP and Vista, you’ll find that a lot of tweaking and tinkering was necessary for SSD’s – 7 is out-of-the-box ready for them.
XP Mode, one of the most talked about new features of Windows 7, has also gone to beta. In order to use it, you’ll have to install the Windows 7 RC, then Windows Virtual PC, then XP Mode. I’ve started using it myself so that I can tinker with an early build of Office 2010 but still have 2007 available if I get myself into trouble. It works as advertised!
While Windows 7 is the one getting most of the press, Windows Server 2008 R2 has also gone to Release Candidate. There are lots of great enhancements to Terminal Services (now called Remote Desktop Services), Hyper-V (like Live Migration!), power savings, and more! Go to the site linked above for more information on the new features, or just give me a shout. Along with Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V Server R2 is in RC, as well. For all of the virtualization freaks out there (and I mean that in the most positive light), I also wanted to mention a new site that we’ve created, comparing & contrasting VMWare and Hyper-V. Head over here – there’s a lot of misinformation out in the blogosphere regarding features, costs, and the like, and we want to make sure that the story is clear. We (and I) feel very strongly that our server virtualization platform is the best in the business, and want to make sure that you do, too –( legitimately, of course, without any Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt spread by our competitors).
Windows Vista and Server 2008 Service Pack 2 have both Released to Manufacturing – they are available now on the MVLS site, as well as to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers. Expect to see them posted to the public website later this month. Head here for details on the enhancements in the service packs. Note that while this is labeled SP2 for Windows Server 2008, it is the first released SP for 2008. It shipped *with* SP1 – the details on this versioning decision, if you’re curious, can be read about here.
Office 2007 Service Pack 2 was also released last week. If you've either already deployed Office, or are in the planning & testing process, you'll want to check it out.
The Exchange Server 2010 beta was released several weeks back. Lots of very cool new features, such as voice mail transcriptions, MailTips, better archiving features and storage performance, Conversation View, and more!
Our annual Microsoft Management Summit was held in Las Vegas last week, with some significant announcements. It should come as no surprise that, on the heels of our Business Productivity Online Suite release (Exchange, OCS, and Sharepoint in the cloud – hosted and managed by Microsoft), we are extending our management and security platforms in a similar fashion. You will see System Center and Forefront steadily becoming onsite or hosted offerings, headlined by an upcoming solution titled System Center Online Desktop Manager. Service Manager (IT service management) will be hitting preview and beta soon, with the final product due some time in 2010. We’ve been talking about it for a while now, so it’s great to see it coming to fruition. For full details on the key MMS announcements, read the Press Releases here and here. The keynotes are available for on-demand viewing here.
We published a new website recently called Talking about Windows. It represents an effort on our part to give IT Pros an inside look at Windows 7, from the perspective of both Microsoft engineers and IT Pros who have been involved in early adoption of Windows7 . I encourage everyone to have a look and watch a few of the videos when you have a moment.
Lastly, for a bit of fun, we have released Server Quest 2, a deviation for IT Pros who are looking a few moments of levity (and a not-too-serious look at datacenter\cubicle life in IT). Note that we use the term ‘geek’ with great endearment. It reminds me of the old Sierra games that I played back in my much younger days (like King’s Quest). Note that you need Silverlight to play (but you have that installed already, right?) Take a peek!
