Search results matching tags 'networking', 'internet explorer', and 'Windows Vista'

NEW Bigger Discount on TechNet Plus Subscriptions!

KevinRemde — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Whenever I present a live TechNet Event, I ask my audience to raise their hands if they are a TechNet subscriber. Usually about 1/3 of the audience raises their hand. Considering that this is typically a Microsoft-friendly audience, I'm a little shocked that there aren't more hands going up. The TechNet Subscription is such a great resource for IT Pros, for these reasons:

Downloadable (or delivered, if you subscribe to the disks-delivered-to-you-monthly subscription), full-version software licensed for evaluation purposes; which includes Microsoft operating systems, servers, and Office System software; all the software that IT Pros care about. Yes, these are for evaluation, testing, and training only; but they don't time-out. You can install these into a training lab, test lab, or use Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Hyper-V, or even your own downloaded evaluation copy of the latest beta or CTP or Release Candidate software! Use it to build a virtually networked playground, and play with (er.. “evaluate”, if your boss is watching) all the latest and greatest tools and technologies.
You get early access to beta versions and release candidates of new Microsoft products.
A Technical Information Library containing the articles, security updates, service packs, utilities and more - all in one convenient location.
Access to Online Concierge Chat service for live help from a Microsoft Online Assistant - to help you get the most out of your subscription.
Yearly subscription to TechNet Magazine (I love this magazine!)
Two (2) technical support incidents and a 20% discount on additional phone support incidents you purchase. (HINT: the savings here alone justifies the subscription cost)
Twelve free eLearning courses per year to keep your skills up to date. Just for TechNet Subscribers. (Good idea to watch the TechNet Plus Blog for details)
Unlimited Managed Newsgroup Support. Post your technical questions in over 100 public newsgroups and receive a response from an expert by next business day. It's like another free avenue into direct technical support from Microsoft!

For all of those reasons (Heck, for any ONE of those reasons), a TechNet Plus subscription is worth the yearly investment.

"Cool, Kevin. But how do I save $$$s?"

For new subscriptions, from now until December 30, 2009, you can save ~~25%~~ 28% on any version of a TechNet Plus subscription.

"Is this worldwide, or U.S. only, or what?"

This is for residents of North America. So, if you're in the U.S. or Canada, this is for you.

“Why new subscriptions only? Why not a discount renewals?”

Renewals are already automatically discounted, even more than you get with this code. Besides.. we’re honestly trying to promote TechNet Subscriptions to those who haven’t yet benefited from it. We’re pretty confident that if you try it, you’ll see enough value in it to renew your subscription.

Write down or copy this promotion code to your clipboard: TMSAM08 (That's zero-eight. Not the letter O.)

Then GOTO the TechNet Subscription Center (CLICK HERE), and use the code to get your savings.

Chiuso per ferie: 08 agosto – 24 agosto 2009

g_malusardi — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Giorgio

Windows vs Walls

Keith Combs — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT

The Glass is 10% Full

Keith Combs — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 08:00:00 GMT

Do you ever look to the past to see what the future holds? You should. I cut my computer teeth long before most people. My computer heritage goes back to my diapers. Dear Dad was a career IBMer and I was playing with IBM Selectric typewriters and dictaphones long before most people had ever seen Lotus 1-2-3. During a recent discussion with Rodney Clark, a rising Microsoft executive and the leader of my org, I found out he and I have very similar roots in that regard. His Dad was also a career IBMer. We both have technology in our genes.

The passion for technology was ingrained in me at a very early age. Hugh MacLeod talks about the rebirth of Microsoft in "The Microsoft Question" blog post and why he keeps an eye on us. He makes a lot of good points and gives the "Scoble Effect" a lot of credit. I think the core for a lot of the rebirth he describes is passion.

Have you ever seen Steve Ballmer on stage talking to Microsoft employees at our annual sales and technical pilgrimage? Talk about passion. His passion is strong enough to focus the troops in a direction, for months. When you watch the channel9.msdn.com videos produced by Scoble, Charles and Rory, you see passionate Microsoft people.

Successful companies hire passionate people. Passion also means not resting on your laurels.

So back to my original question... Do you look back? Should successful companies and people look back? I think they should. It's especially refreshing to look back at the progress that's been made over the past 15-20 years. Just look at Windows. See the history of Windows at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryDesktop.mspx. While you are at it, take a look at the Internet Explorer history. Some would say IE helped Microsoft rise from the ashes.

When I rewind, I think about Windows 3.x and the integration work I used to do with the Novell Netware 3.x of that era. Anyone remember Network Courier or Microsoft Mail? I still remember running my first COBOL compile with Microfocus COBOL on a personal computer. I was in heaven. Sure beats a 3270 emulator and CA Abendaide.

Last week I was in Las Vegas. We had just announced Microsoft Office 2007 had RTM'd and I knew the Windows Vista announcement would be coming soon. I am totally energized about all of this and had an absolute blast demonstrating the products. I was also working with some other Microsoft veterans of plus ten years. All of the veterans were super stoked. New products will do that.

Interesting enough, almost as soon as we announced the Windows Vista RTM, my brain had already placed the check mark next to Windows Vista and was on to what's next... Exchange Server 2007, Longhorn Server, Virtualization management, network management, etc.

Are great companies reborn? Or do they hire passionate people who want to change the world? Are passionate people ever satisfied? Is Microsoft done? What else is left to do? I think the answer is obvious...

The glass is 10% full.

Watching the TechED 2006 action poolside

Keith Combs — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Get your frozen margarita, dual core laptop and favorite rubber ducky and head to the pool. Might as well since this year you’ll be able to watch and listen to the festivities on the http://VirtualTechEd.com website. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the show, seminars and “social” events are actually broadcast.

I would recommend tuning into the opening keynote on 6/11 at 7pm EST. We’ll have Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Chris Capossela showing off some kewl stuff. Maybe they’ll do some of those kewl virtualization demos, or something fascinating from Windows Vista. It sure would be kewl if they did a BDD of Halo 3 to 1000 workstations and waiting TechEd gamers. Now that my friends is business desktop deployment. Time to get down to business fragging.

And yes, this is a current shot of the homepage at virtualteched.com from my patio. The laptop is on battery so the brightness is a bit low and obviously the exposure is set for the background, not the black Lenovo Thinkpad T60 in the foreground. The picture doesn’t do the pool justice but as you’ll recall, it’s big enough for a few of your friends. Sorry, you can’t see the “refreshments” just to the left of the laptop. Gotta go work on on some important business.

Got a phat internet connection? Download Windows Vista Beta 2 now!!!

Keith Combs — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:00:00 GMT

So I missed the date by a few hours, but you can help us bring the internet to it’s knees by downloading Windows Vista Beta 2 today!!! Ok, depending on your connection, maybe not today but hopefully shortly there after. After the download is complete burn the .iso image to DVD and you’ll have a shiny new operating system to test.

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx and decide if you want to order the DVD kit or download the bits right now.

As you can see, this is a rather large download so you’ll need to be patient with it. It might make more sense for you to simply order the DVD. The price will vary by region but to give you an idea, it’s $6 for the DVD, $4 for shipping and some taxes for me here in sunny 100 degree Texas. That’s slightly over $10 if you want to conserve bandwidth.

UPDATE: Well, we’ll hardly bring the internet to its knees when we get these. I was going through the process of trying the download for myself (so I could share your pain), and I got the lovely message to the right (click the thumb for better detail).

You can’t really read it, but it has bad news. I basically says our data center is a bit busy right now.

Now I’m really going to try to download the whole thing to see how long it takes. With my 15meg connection, it should take about an hour. Place yer bets.

Windows Vista Beta 2 download registration

Keith Combs — Sat, 27 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Well I got all excited… I was poking around on the MSDN developer site and noticed they have this enticing link to become a member of the Windows Vista Beta program called the Windows Vista Beta Experience. The link takes you to a site where you can pick your country. Of course I looked for the country of Texas and to my horror it wasn’t listed. So I picked the United States and ended up at http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/enus/. On that page they have a registration link that takes you to http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/enus/register.aspx.

Ok, we are finally through the “experience” and down to the meat of the issue. I started going down this path to see if we’ve actually offered Windows Vista Beta 2 for download. Just below the download button is the following statement:

“The Windows Vista Beta is not yet available. The Beta Experience newsletter will inform you about the availability of the Windows Vista Beta.”

The download capability is expected to happen around June 5, 2006. Signup and we’ll see.

I ended up also clicking on the ORDER button and purchased a copy of the Office 2007 Beta kit. $4.95 plus $2 shipping brought my USD total with taxes to $7.52. Of course I could get this for free internally (and already have), but I also like to see what type of process we are using with our customers. It indicated 2–3 weeks for delivery.

UPDATE: I received my Office System shipment yesterday (6/2/2006). Pretty fast eh?

When I find that you can download Windows Vista Beta 2, I’ll let you know. I have also pinged the TechNet team to see if TechNet subscribers have a way. No promises, but I’m working on it.

Cheers

It's back !!! - The Book of Windows Vista - download now

Keith Combs — Wed, 24 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT

As you’ll recall, I posted a preliminary version of the Windows Vista Product Guide (also known as “The Book of Windows Vista”) a few weeks ago. It was in .xps form and initial feedback was very good. However, in order to view and print the must have information, you needed to install WinFX. XPS is the XML Paper Specification. Well, we got some good critical feedback and guess what, we listened.

Now, you can download this puppy in Microsoft word or XPS format. Careful though, it’s not your daddies download. It’s 60MB of rich knowledge transfer. It’s a comprehensive view of the feature set in Windows Vista. There are consumer oriented chapters. There are chapters devoted to the IT Pro feature set.

You’ll need to decide if you are going be eco friendly or not. Use it in “digital” form or send it to your trusty duplex printer. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy this guide as you take your journeys to the wonderful world that is Windows Vista.

It’s my understanding this will also be printed and sold in a hard back format. I think it would make a nice edition in my library. Maybe I can get Brian or Jim to autograph one for me. Now that would really be kewl.

UPDATE 5/25/2006: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bbc16ebf-4823-4a12-afe1-5b40b2ad3725&DisplayLang=en contains the links to the .xps and .doc versions.

Enjoy my friends!!!

Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC) - love it?

Keith Combs — Thu, 18 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT

There has been a raging debate inside and outside of Microsoft about the new security feature in Windows Vista called UAC. UAC stands for User Account Control. The debate has raged mostly about the effectiveness of the feature. Do a search on www.live.com for vista uac and you’ll see what I mean. The mainstream press has even decided this topic is worthy of “debate”.

By effectiveness, I mean that most of the negative articles mention that your are prompted so often for elevation consent, that you become a drone hitting the enter key without really looking closely at why you are being prompted.

Let’s get one thing straight about the feature set… you can control this. In the snip I have posted, you can see the policies that are available that control the behavior of this feature.

The policies can be set and controlled locally via secpol.msc, or via a Windows Active Directory Group Policy. In the snip above, you can see I took a harsh stance on the policies for my machine. I’m currently running a Windows Vista Beta 2 release candidate and have been running with these policies for over three weeks.

Keep in mind Windows Vista is in development. You get to tell us what is the right balance of security and control. Windows Vista Beta 2 is almost ready. Install it and try it for yourself. Post feedback to the UAC blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/archive/2006/01/22/516066.aspx where they’ve outlined the settings and their meanings.

See the Step-By-Step at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/0d75f774-8514-4c9e-ac08-4c21f5c6c2d9.mspx

See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uacppr.mspx for more information.

See the Application Compatibility article at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/deploy/appcompat/acshims.mspx. This is a very nice resource and you should devote some time to reading that article (recently updated).

Feed Your Habit

Keith Combs — Thu, 18 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Somebody has been doing some very nice work on microsoft.com. Take a close look at http://www.microsoft.com/rss/default.aspx. We’re starting to get our act togethor on the plethora of content you can suck into your machine via RSS.

We have all kinds of nice little categories for developers, IT Pros (the most stressful job in the world), home users, etc.

And of course, you’ll find this blog sprinkled across some of those categories.

What I didn’t see was a category for podcasts and screencasts. Ok, nobody is perfect. Enjoy!!!