To celebrate the launch of Windows 7, and to meet other Windows enthusiasts in their cities, several MVPs in India have collaborated with popular Windows portal (also run by few MVPs in India) – MeraWindows – and hosted launch parties in ten cities across India and also Dhaka, Bangladesh for the end-user community at large.

The parties in different cities are spread over next two weeks. There is no charge to attend these community events, however, to manage logistics, free pre-registration is required. Head to http://launch.merawindows.com for specific details on individual cities, or follow the link below.

• Mumbai
• Pilani
• Delhi
• Pune
• Chennai
• Trivandrum
• Kolkata
• Mysore
• Siliguri
• Bangalore
• Dhaka
  

Windows 7 is here… and our MVPs have been pretty excited about it since we first saw the latest generation of Windows on our horizon. These MVPs have shared their excitement with the community, and also their feedback with the product teams at Microsoft.

So, here we are, with an assortment of Windows 7 bloggers amongst our rockstar MVPs. These include news, tips, tricks, tweaks, thoughts, downloads, and more!

• Ramesh  Srinivasan
• Anand C Khanse
• Vishal  Gupta
• Ramesh  Kumar
• Ajay  Pathak
• Nirmal  TV
• Ashish  Mohta
• Manan  Kakkar
• Vijay Raj
• Vasudev  Gurumurthy
  

After the stupendous success of Ultimate Windows Tweaker, The Windows Club – a popular Windows portal run by Windows Desktop Experience MVP, Anand Khanse from Pune, India - keeps releasing small, but useful utility applications for Windows.

Windows Access Panel

Access Panel for Windows 7 and Windows Vista is a freeware portable application. While you can use Control Panel to change settings which control nearly everything about how Windows looks and works, in some cases to access these very controls , or the in-built Windows programs, requires you to engage in multiple clicks or know their names.

That's where this small utility can help you. Windows Access Panel is meant to minimize your trouble in accessing such programs.

Prevent v1.0

Prevent is a freeware app which runs on all versions of Windows. If you do not want anyone deleting or renaming, or in general, messing around with your data, then Prevent might help you.

Fix IE Utility v1.0

Fix IE Utility is another freeware portable utility that re-registers all the concerned .dll and .ocx files required for the smooth operation of Internet Explorer.

The utility is useful if you face any problems while running IE, maybe after recovering from a malware attack. Fix IE Utility has been tested on IE 7 and IE 8, on Windows Vista as well as Windows 7.

UPDATE:

TWC recently also released Fix MSE Utility v 1.0. This freeware portable utility will restore all registry values and service settings of Microsoft Security Essentials to known good defaults.

We’re almost there! Windows 7 would be available worldwide on October 22. Attend live webcasts from Windows Desktop Experience MVPs and deep dive into a unique learning experience, targeted specifically for home and office users.

And that’s not all! Attend the webcasts, and you could win a Microsoft Arc Mouse every day! We’ll even help you win it ;)

23-Oct-09
2:00pm - 4:30pm
Play To: Windows 7
Abhishek Kant & Other Experts

26-Oct-09
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Performance: New dimensions
Shantanu Kaushik

27-Oct-09
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Networking: Internet and Home Networking
Allen B Tuladhar and Ramesh K

28-Oct-09
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Localization: Setting up Windows 7 to work in Hindi
Ravishankar Shrivastava

29-Oct-09
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Entertainment: Windows Media Centre
Soumitra Sengupta

30-Oct-09
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Essentials: Windows Live
Manan Kakkar

These webcasts are also available at the India Webcasts page. The listed schedule is based on India time, but ofcourse the event is on the Web and available worldwide.

Amit Bansal, a SQL Server MVP from India, is a professional consultant, trainer, speaker & writer on SQL Server (Database Platform & Business Intelligence). He speaks at major summits and conferences of Microsoft worldwide including TechED, MCT Summits, MSDN & TechNet conferences.

Amit is hosting a Webcasts series - SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence – with three Webcasts  spread over a week. Register for the online sessions for free, and spread the word to your network.

Create a cube

November 9, 2009 | 1500 – 1630 | Add to Calendar

Whether you are a Database Developer or a Database Administrator, it is high time that you climb the ladder and know what multidimensional data is all about. In this webcast, Amit Bansal will show how to create a simple cube using SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services. You will learn the basics of Data warehousing, OLAP database and cube development.

Extract data from the cube

November 11, 2009 | 1500 – 1630 | Add to Calendar

In this webcast, you will learn how to extract multidimensional data from the cube, once the cube is ready. Amit Bansal will show you various tools and techniques to extract data from the cube using Excel 2007, SQL Server Reporting Services & MDX scripting.

Learn MDX scripting

November 13, 2009 | 1500 – 1630 | Add to Calendar

Everyone wants to learn MDX scripting. Start here !!! In this webcast, Amit Bansal will teach you the basics of MDX scripting. You shall get a very strong conceptual understanding of MDX scripting and will be able to write basic MDX queries using SQL Server 2008 Management Studio.

You can also register at the Microsoft India Webcasts page.