Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client update helps you use the new
Terminal Services features. These features are introduced in Windows
Vista and in the Microsoft Windows Server Code Name “
Longhorn" operating system from a computer that is either running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Download the Terminal Services Client 6.0 update for Windows Server 2003 (KB925876) package now.
Download the Terminal Services Client 6.0 update for Windows Server 2003, x64-based versions (KB925876) package now.
Download the Terminal Services Client 6.0 update for Windows XP (KB925876) package now.
Download the Terminal Services Client 6.0 update for Windows XP, x64-based versions (KB925876) package now.
Windows
Vista from Microsoft takes a lot of resources, we all know that. So here is the tool for easy removal of unwanted components and bootable ISO creation in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking. This tool doesn't use any kind of hacking, all files and registry entries are in their original form and protected as they would be if you install the full version only without the components you select for the removal.
It configures the installation directly, before the installation, meaning you'll have to remake the ISO and reinstall it. This method is much cleaner, not to mention easier and more logical than doing it after installation on every reinstall.
Download:
vLite v0.6 Beta (Freeware)
Homepage:
vLite
Windows Vista includes some important changes from earlier Windows operating systems in regards to
Group Policy (GP). This article introduces you to how ADM files evolved into multi-lingual files by the use of XML (
ADMX/
ADML files) and the Central Store with all its glory.
This article covers Administrative Templates and the Central Store in Windows Vista Group Policy.
How Multiple Local Group Policy Objects (MLGPO) can make any stand-alone, or kiosk administrator happy.
When a user on a corporate network needs to access some resource off of another computer, the user usually specifies the remote system’s
NetBIOS name when establishing the connection. This technique works well on corporate networks because the Active Directory mandates the existence of a
DNS server. This means that users can attach to a remote system by using its NetBIOS name and Windows will query the DNS server in order to determine the IP addresses associated with the host record matching the computer’s name. That’s great for corporate networks, but name resolution has always been a problem for ad-hoc networks at home networks. In most cases, it is either impossible or impractical to add a DNS server to a home network or to an ad-hoc network. This makes name resolution impossible. Windows
Vista in
Longhorn Server will change this with the new technology called link local multicast name resolution.(
continue at source)
NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) -
Carolyn Kepcher, who helped Donald Trump fire corporate wannabes on "The Apprentice" television show, took a new role on Tuesday -- helping Microsoft find the best small-business idea in America. "It takes a big idea to create a big business," Kepcher said. "And I've seen some ideas before."
The winner of the
Redmond, Washington-based company's "Ultimate Challenge" contest will get $100,000 in seed money, a storefront or other space in Manhattan for a year rent-free, and software to help get their business started. Kepcher and fellow judges -- maternity wear entrepreneur Liz Lange and Chris Caposella, a Microsoft vice president -- began hearing ideas on Tuesday in a computer-equipped recreational vehicle parked in Midtown Manhattan. Dozens of people waited in line for a chance to make their pitch.
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Following golden November, new Microsoft software is steadily being released to MSDN and TechNet. The latest releases include a number of the highly-anticipated Office Server products -
Office Project Server 2007, Office Groove Server 2007, and Office Forms Server 2007.
These first public releases were made available on the MSDN and TechNet servers between 6 and 7pm on the 28th of November (UTC). English, German and Japanese versions of each are immediately available. German and Japanese Language Packs for Office 2007 client applications are also now available.
Microsoft wants you to
experience the Zen of Vista & Office together. So, if you watch three webcasts each for Windows Vista and Office 2007 within 30 days of registering, 6-8 weeks later you'll get shiny new DVD cases at your front door. Only one free copy of each product per person. Microsoft created this video to explain it. Well, it doesn't really explain it. But I don't think Microsoft wanted you to see it. Or did they? I think they beat the joke to death. Anyways, there are currently a bunch more webcasts for Vista than for Office, but I expect that to change here pretty soon. Anyways, if you haven't scored a free copy from MSDN, TechNet, or Connect yet, here's your chance. The whole Zen logo is kind of a neat idea. I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't used it more often. Then again, they still haven't shown off a lot of Launch stuff yet.
UPDATE: For anyone that doesn't think it's real, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist (read: employee) sent an e-mail about it. MSDN did something very similar a while back with their MSDN webcasts series. It's legit. They promise! (more)
A blogger called Brajeshwar has posted what looks like a complete set of wallpapers from Windows Vista. Whether they're all really from Vista or not, they're all gorgeous and, if you like greens and nature themes, are well worth the download. You can
browse the set on Flickr or
download zipped packs on Brajeshwar's blog. You can go forth and decorate, or you can check out a small sampling after the jump.
Windows Vista wallpapers
Arlindo Alves writes: Last week I read a blogpost on how to slow down the animations in Vista. Basically you have to add a registry key and
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\ add the Dword key
AnimationsShiftkey with value
1 and log off and log back on. Once you have logged on again you can slow down the animations by using the shift key. I recorded a screencast where you can see what the effect is of pressing the shift key:
Zune devices are packaged in Spartan, Apple-like boxes that don't utilize the Microsoft name or logo, unless you look at the small bottom side (likewise, the Zune Web site and advertisements downplay the Microsoft name in startling ways, given the company's name recognition). There was a joke video that made the rounds earlier this year, showing what iPod packaging would look like if Microsoft marketed the device (the video was made, ironically, by a Microsoft employee) and clearly the Zune team was aware of the problem. So the Zune packaging doesn't look anything like a Microsoft product. In fact, it looks exactly like an Apple product. Exactly. Like. An. Apple. Product.
In a nice (and, yes, Apple-like) touch, the Zune packaging provides a nice reveal moment via a pull-out drawer that extends out of the brown outer shell, exposing the "Welcome to the social" tagline I obviously love so much. This drawer provides access to the Zune device itself, which can be extracted with a nice (Apple-like) cloth pull-tab. On either side of the device, two small compartments flip open to reveal nicely wrapped and packaged accessories, including painfully cheap headphones (with old-school foam ear bud covers like a 2001-era iPod) and the USB sync cable (which introduces yet another proprietary dock connector on the Zune side of the equation). Aside from the 'phones, everything is pretty high quality: All the components are wrapped up nicely, and the sync cable has nice plastic protectors on either end. The vibe is one of (Apple-like) substance. You feel like someone really cared when they put the whole thing together. If you've never seen an iPod, you'll be super impressed.(
continue at source)
Did you know that you can direct the slideshow Sidebar gadget to cycle through images in those same dynamic search folders?
You can point the Slideshow
gadget at a
Search Folder. You can do this by simply putting a search folder inside of an actual folder and pointing the gadget at the actual folder.
Here are the steps:
1) Create an actual folder
2) Perform a search of pictures
3) Save search to created folder
4) Point the Slideshow gadget at the created folder
5) Make sure “Include subfolders” is checked
Obviously, the procedure for installing and configuring a
core server is different for each of the supported roles. There is no way that I have the space to walk you through deploying the various roles. Even so, I want to guide you through the process of deploying a core server up to the point that it is ready to be assigned a role.
The Setup process begins when you insert your
Longhorn Server installation CD and boot the server. Click Setup and you will be prompted as to whether you want to perform a normal installation or a core installation (I forget the exact wording that is used by Windows Setup). After doing so, you must simply enter your product key and wait for the installation to complete. You now have a core server.
When logged in, there will be two command prompt windows open. If you happen to accidentally close these windows, you can press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to access the Task Manager and then run CMD.EXE to open a new Command Prompt window.
Even though you technically have a core server when the Setup process completes, the server is absolutely useless until you do some basic configuration. For example, you must still set the Administrator’s password, set an IP address (assuming that the server needs a static IP address), join a domain, activate the server, and configure the firewall.(
continue at source)
Are you thinking of upgrading to Windows
Longhorn Server. This will give you an idea of what's involved in updating the domain and the forest in terms of the schema. If you have a domain with Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 with
Active Directory installed on it, and are planning to install a Windows "Longhorn" Server domain controller to the network domain, you will need to update the
schema on the current domain controllers before it'll work. If you are going to perform an unattended installation, you'll have to do this on the domain controllers before you actually install Windows "Longhorn" Server and Active Directory. You can do this by updating the schema on the domain controllers that either host the schema master or infrastructure master. If you are not going to install Windows "Longhorn" Server, please do not update the schema for the sake of it.(
continue at source)
LiveSide last week mentioned the naming confusion of Windows Live’s online mapping system - which was previously being called Windows Live Local. With the last update, it was listed as “Maps” in the Windows Live Search toolbar. Is it in the process of becoming the well-suggested Windows Live Maps?
Well today while visiting Microsoft.com I caught this little advertisement for “Live Search Maps”
(see picture on the right). So perhaps it won’t be simply “
Windows Live Maps” but “Windows Live Search Maps” instead? I agree with LiveSide’s assessment of the naming confusion - pick a name and go with it and stick with it. For Windows Live to be successful, its time to stop messing around with product names and what-not. By messing with the product names you only confuse your potential users who then decide to go elsewhere to a more “established” service.
Tarquel at
MSFN writes:
Yesterday, users deploying what seemed to be a newer version of IE7 with their WSUS server, ran into problems. The update, despite no indication of it being a Spanish version, was either automatically approved to be installed or ready to be approved when admin's of WSUS servers came to work after the syncronisation.
When the update went out to users - if it was being installed interactively, it would pop-up a spanish message [most likely relating to the version of windows not being in spanish]. In the situation where it would install without user interaction such as during shutdown, the user would find that when they came to their computer, it would be stuck installing this update [of course, this would be because the error message had appeared, but with no way of clicking the OK button] and the only way out would be to power down the computer.
Both the working version dated 1st Nov 06 and the new faulty version dated 21st Nov 06 have now become expired [for XP only so far - the newer 2003 version remains and I haven't personally used it as I installed the original version] so be sure to decine just the newer version if you can, as if you have already approved the update for installation and declined its predecessor [or have just declined the older version], you will have to wait for a new version to surface.
First things first - if you're running Windows XP and you've never heard of
ClearType, you need to check it out. Head to Microsoft's ClearType Tuner web page to see what it's all about, and try it for yourself. For those of you that know and love ClearType, here's a little utility to help you love it just a little bit more.
Although I find that 98% of the time I want ClearType running, there are the occasional times when I'd like to turn it off - just for a second. It's sort of a hassle, since you can either go back to the Microsoft ClearType Tuner website I pointed to before, or navigate through your system's
Display Settings to the Effects button on the Appearance tab to turn it on or off. If you find that you want to do this on a fairly regular basis, you might want to try QuickType, a little utility that sits in your system tray and allows you to turn ClearType on or off at will.
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Yep, you read right. Not sure if this was out there before, but ZDNET UK caught Bob Muglia at the TechEd IT Forum in Spain, and they talked for a bit... 64 bits to be exact.
We will ship "
Longhorn" in the second half of next year, and we will ship a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. That will be the last time we ship a 32-bit version. From that point, the next release, which will be roughly two years later, that product will only be available as 64-bit.
Muglia also revealed that the Hypervisor, codenamed "Viridian", can only be managed on 64-bit versions of "Longhorn" Server, but will be able to run 32-bit "child" partitions.
There are two distinct parts of the
Hypervisor, the management partition and the guests, The guests can be 32-bit or 64-bit, but the software it runs on will be 64-bit, so technically it will be 64-bit.
I think Microsoft enjoys the fact that they can control the adoption of 64-bit much more effectively in the server space than they can on the client. Part of the issue is memory... servers are memory hogs. Most home computers can't justify the need gor 8GB of RAM... at least not yet anyways. But servers quite often need more and more memory, and the only way around that is 64-bit. I wonder if Microsoft will take the same position with "
Vienna" ..
James Senior writes: Robert came across the new Games for Windows website - the new place to find out about all things related to Gaming on the
Windows platform. They're trying to empahsise the following reasons why playing games on Windows is the best place you can do it:
1) Quality. Games for Windows branded titles undergo extensive testing, and not just by the publisher. Microsoft also invests in quality checking each title to ensure they meet performance and reliability standards.
2) Compatibility. Games for Windows branded titles work on Windows XP and Windows Vista PCs, including both 32 and 64 bit editions. Games for Windows titles that support controllers are also compatible with the Microsoft XBOX 360 controller for Windows, including the XBOX 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. They even support widescreen resolutions and more.
3) Safety. You can be confident that any title carrying the Games for Windows brand will support the new parental controls and family settings features in Windows Vista.
4) Easy to Play. Games for Windows branded titles are easy to install, find and remove, especially in Windows Vista. Every Games for Windows title appears in the new Windows Vista Games Explorer (no more hunting around the start menu for that game you just installed). And Games for Windows branded titles all offer some form of “easy install”, putting you in the game more quickly.
I'm really excited about the cross platform games coming in the future where you will be able to play the same game on XBox 360 and Windows Vista! The multiplayer games will be superb! If you have any doubt what can be achieved on the Windows Vista platform from a gaming perspective check out this post which shows off what the future is looking like.
When you install Exchange 2007 for the first time, you need to extend the AD schema (usually by running setup.com /PrepareSchema, or just setup /ps if you’re lazy like me). Make sure you do this in the same AD site as the schema master, otherwise you will get the following error:
Setup needs to contact the Active Directory schema master but this computer is not in the same Active Directory site as the schema master (XXX).
(XXX being the AD site)
So how do you find out which actual server is the schema master? Well, I’m glad you asked. First make sure you have the appropriate permissions, then run the following command:
regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll
This will enable you to add a snap-in to MMC called “Active Directory Schema”. You can then right-click, view Operations Master, and either find out which server is the current Schema Master or transfer the role to another server.
Mark Williams writes:
Whenever we release a service pack or - in this case - a new operating system the FIRST question we on the Group Policy team receive is "OK, that's great but where can I get a list of all the new policy settings". Well, I am pleased to say that we have just released the
Group Policy Settings Reference Spreadsheet for Windows Vista. As has been our approach with the spreadsheet earlier versions, it includes all policy settings ever released plus the new ones (in this case, those new policy settings delivered as part of Windows Vista).
We've taken the spreadsheet still further this time around. As well as the regular list of details about each policy setting (name, explain text, registry key, etc) you will also find three new columns:
Reboot Required: A "Yes" in this column means Windows requires a restart before it applies the described policy setting
Logoff Required: A "Yes" in this column means Windows requires the user to log off and log on again before it applies the described policy setting.
Active Directory Schema or Domain Requirements: A "Yes" in this column means you extend your Active Directory Schema before deploying this policy setting
Finally, the spreadsheet goes beyond Administrative Templates policy settings and now includes security policy settings too (as implemented by the security extension).
Download:
Windows Vista Policy Settings Spreadsheet
The Windows Start Menu's new shut down default is "sleep" - however, you may want to change this for whatever reason. To change it:
Click on Start, and then click on Control Panel.
Click on "System and Maintenance".
Click on "Power Options".
Select a power management plan and then click on "Change Plan Settings".
Click on "Change advanced power settings".
In the Power Options dialog that appears, expand "Power Buttons and Lid", and then expand "Start menu power button".
Click on "Setting" and then choose the function you want the button to perform - "Sleep", "Hibernate", or "Shut down".
Click on OK.
Close the "Edit Plan Settings" Control Panel window.
If you were testing Vista on the same network with a Windows XP machiene you may have wondered why the XP computer did not show up in your “Network Map” in the Network Control Centre. Well the simple reason is that Windows XP couldn’t / wouldn’t respond to the LLTD Call made by Windows Vista over your network. (LLTD enables device discovery via the data-link layer and determines the topology of a network ((802.3 Ethernet & 802.11)).
So in reply to this Microsoft have released the
Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) responder for Windows XP computers. This in turn will allow you to see a graphical view of your network layout. To download the LLTD Responder
click HERE or visit the
KB Article. I am unsure weather the LLTD Protocol is built into Windows Server as I have not tested it. However if it is not there is not Patch for it as of yet.
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) delivers on Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative and illustrates Microsoft's commitment to continually create software products with enhanced security, increased reliability, and simplified administration. Windows Server 2003 SP2 builds upon the impressive track record of the award-winning Windows Server 2003 operating system by introducing numerous refinements in addition to supplying cumulative system updates. Deploying SP2 will help enterprises across all industries and segments enhance security, increase reliability, and simplify administration through guided attack surface reduction.
SP2 update applies to:
• Windows Server 2003 All Editions (32-bit x86)
• Windows Server 2003 Itanium-based Editions
• Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions
• Windows Server 2003 R2 Editions
• Windows Server 2003 Storage Server R2 Edition
• Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition
• Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Servers R2 Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Visit the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate website (including download information)
For me one major thing missing in Windows Vista was the ability to use Nero, since yesterday Nero announced that the newest Nero 7 update will work with windows Vista
Having rapidly addressed the latest developmental changes to Microsoft's highly-anticipated new operating system through the RC1 and RC2 phases, Nero now offers its Windows Vista-ready software to consumers online at www.nero.com. Current Nero 7 customers will also be able to download this version free of charge at the company's website.
A free tool that converts Adobe/Macromedia
Flash files to
XAML
Michael Swanson writes: In my spare time, I've been working on a tool that converts Adobe/Macromedia Flash (.SWF) files to XAML. Unlike my
Adobe Illustrator to XAML export plug-in that was implemented in native code, this tool is a fully managed code application (managed code rocks!). The current version of the tool allows you to directly open a SWF file and browse through its frames one by one. When you've found a frame that you like, you can either export a XAML file or copy the XAML to the clipboard for easy pasting into your tool of choice. The conversion isn't perfect, and there are many areas for improvement. For common cases, however, it should do the trick.
Sidebar by default will use settings and gadgets that have been installed to your user profile. Many folks use multiple computers and don’t have easy methods of duplicating their user profiles between computers. Even on domain joined computers and accounts with roaming profiles, gadgets don’t roam. Additionally, some folks use shared computers with profiles that get wiped out every night. For most of these scenarios, Sidebar users typically only have access to the standard Vista gadgets and any shared gadgets the system administrator has installed. Fear not, roaming users, Sidebar does have support for carrying your gadgets and settings with you!
USB storage keys are pretty cheap these days, and they have plenty of room for storing
gadgets. We can copy our gadgets and settings to this USB key, edit the settings file to make it drive-letter independent, and use a simple batch file to execute Sidebar in such a way that our gadgets and settings are loaded from the USB key instead of from the user profile.(
continue at source)
Sean Alexander writes:
A friend in the Windows Vista team sent me pictures of a cool new PC for
Windows Vista they just did with Dell for a promotion.
This hot-rod took the fastest Dell Media Center PC on the planet, then added a tricked out paint job by mondo paint mod shop Colorware to commemorate Windows Vista release to manufacturing. As the picture hints at, the finished result is top-notch automotive-quality paint that appears lit from within.
Henrik Walther has written a series of postings on MsExchange.org on how to Install, Configure and Test an
Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) Based Mailbox Server.
You benefit from several advantages when you choose to install the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server role in a
Cluster Continuous Replication setup in your organization. The primary reason here is that you no longer have a single point of failure, when talking about the Mailbox/Public Folder databases. Should the database on one node crash, an automatic fail over to the other node containing the secondary database is completed. This also means you no longer need to use a shared storage system in the CCR setup, as is the case with Exchange 2007 Single Copy Clusters as well as cluster setup in previous versions of Exchange.
Policies in Exchange are designed to enable flexible administration of large numbers of Exchange objects. A policy is a collection of configuration settings that can be applied to one or more Exchange objects of the same class. This blog post gives an overview of
Exchange 2007 policies: E-mail Address Policy (EAP), Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy, Unified Messaging (UM) mailbox policy, and managed folder mailbox policy. Policies available in
Exchange 2003 that are removed or changed in Exchange 2007 are also covered.(
continue at source)
Some of you might have noticed that after installing the Windows 2003 Administrator pack on Windows Vista RTM some of the tools won't work correctly. The reason is that though
Microsoft added a shim to make the install proceed without needing to modify the MSI anymore the install fails to register several DLL's (adprop.dll and dsadmin.dll) to correct this do the following:
1. Close any of the snap-ins you tried to use.
2. Copy all text between [start copy here] and [end copy here] and save as FIXADMINPACK.CMD
3. Run the script with elevated credentials to register all ADMINPACK DLLs. No restart required.
4. Restart the previously failing ADMINPACK snap-ins and they should behave normally.
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The releases just keep coming... today it's Network Monitor (
NetMon) 3.0. NetMon is a much needed upgrade over the version included with Windows, and even the 'enhanced' version that has shipped with Microsoft Systems Management Server (
SMS) for quite some time. The final version number is 3.0.372 and weighs in at 2.5MB. Head on over to Connect and grab your copy - or wait for it to show up on the regular downloads site soon. And, yes - it works on Vista RTM! Here's a screen shot of NetMon 3.0 using a capture filter (shows DNS queries only):
Microsoft released a bunch documentation on the UI licensing. Gist of the news: Third parties can use portions of the Office 2007 user interface, the "ribbon," in their own products. Microsoft has lots to gain from the
licensing program. The more software that looks and feels like Office 2007, the better for Microsoft and its customers. The company and its development partners have invested loads of money and resources around the familiarity of the Office interface. Office 2007 sports a new interface, and it's an ugly duckling. The new UI is sure to be a swan some day, when people get used to the changes and see the benefits of the task-oriented approach.
For now, Office 2007 and its ribbon means change, and change isn't often welcomed by risk-adverse IT organizations. Too bad, because I'm a huge fan of the ribbon. Microsoft should incorporate the ribbon in more products, starting with Windows.
Office 2007 and Windows Vista UIs are defined by their incongruities, rather than their synergies. Products that look and feel like Office will help Microsoft spur version 2007 adoption and build out a broader development ecosystem. The latter is important to all kinds of developers, although Microsoft has its favorites (everybody has some)--typically third-parties building applications on top of Office and those working within IT organizations.
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Mobile Review has a review of the upcoming new version of Windows Mobile:
Today we are getting our readers to know the new mobile operating system by Microsoft codenamed “Windows Mobile Crossbow”. The most probable title for the commercial edition, though, is “Windows Mobile 6.0”, but it is the thing to remain veiled until an official announcement is made. Beginning from the previous version of Windows Mobile, the company has put into practice a new approach to indexing, so that now codenames are replaced by numbers, like “5.0”, “6.0” etc. Interestingly, the second digit in the index hasn’t been called for up until now, in other words, we haven’t seen Windows Mobile 5.2 or 5.3 yet, since all intermediate updates and patch-works have been introduced within various versions of AKU (Adaptation Kit Update) update packs.
(more)
Click here to read the review and see more screenshots..
Buried in a Knowledge Base article that Microsoft published to the Web on November 14 are details of Microsoft’s plans to combat Office 2007
piracy via new Office Genuine Advantage lockdowns. When asked last month whether Microsoft was planning to punish alleged
Office 2007 pirates by crippling the functionality of their software in the same way that Microsoft is doing with Vista via reduced-functionality mode, Microsoft officials were noncommittal.
But now Microsoft’s intentions are clear: Just as it is doing with
Vista, Microsoft plans to incorporate what basically amounts to a “kill switch” into Office 2007. Office 2007 users who can’t or won’t pass
activation muster within a set time period will be moved into “reduced-functionality mode,” according to Microsoft’s
Knowledge Base article. “When a program runs in reduced-functionality mode, many commands are unavailable (dimmed). Therefore, you cannot access those functionalities,” the article explains.
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Ed Bott writes:
For more than a decade, some variation of this screen has been part of the Windows Disk Defragmenter utility. Well, no more. The colorful progress window has been banished in Windows
Vista. The Disk Defragmenter runs in the background, and the only interface available is the one to change the time it runs or to manually start or stop a defrag. I remember people who actually used to sit and watch the Windows 95
Defrag progress window, in which little boxes of different colors were shifted around. We’ve come a long way.
Windows Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover, aka FxVisor, allows you to either remove or enable the explorer shortcut overlay arrow that is added to all shortcuts. Currently there is no native way to remove the shortcut overlay arrow or to even customize it in Windows Vista, so we have written the Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover utility to enable you to do just that.
(more)
Download:
Windows Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover 1.0
A new research report contends that by failing to offer onboard encryption for e-mail files stored on
Windows Mobile devices, Microsoft may be putting itself at a competitive disadvantage and leaving users vulnerable to data loss. According to the latest report published by J. Gold Associates, a Northborough, Mass.-based wireless research firm, Microsoft's decision not to offer file encryption capabilities on its Windows Mobile platform reflects poorly on the technology compared to other popular wireless systems.
Unlike the
push e-mail systems offered by rival mobile software makers including Good Technology, Research In Motion and Sybase, Microsoft's wireless messaging technology doesn't include data protection beyond simple passwords, researchers said. While the omission won't likely affect consumer adoption of Windows Mobile devices, which are so-called smart phones that offer more PC-like functions than most of today's popular handhelds, enterprises may choose to adopt other platforms based on the lack of more comprehensive security features, said Jack Gold, principal analyst with J. Gold Associates.
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Zack Whittaker writes: "I want to apologise in advance - it’s not all that special. I’ll link to the
screenshot and then I’ll explain some things from my point of view. Here’s the nitty gritty about it:
This image is not a fake. It came directly from a source in Microsoft from the Windows Server Business or something-or-other team earlier on this evening.
The build number and memory available to Windows are identifyable parts of which can be traced back to the source of the leak. So for his/her protection, it’s been concealed, but trust me - the build number really is very irrellevant.
The wallpaper is one of those from Windows Vista RTM - I noticed it, you probably have to.
I don’t think it has Windows Aero with transparency… whether it’s compatible or not, or whether it’s turned off is anyone’s guess.
It’s based on Windows Server “Longhorn” but “Centro” is all for mid-sized organisations, so they’ll be some changes.
The desktop version says “Windows Server 2008″ in it - I’ve been told that this is pre-empting the release of Windows Server “Longhorn” in the second half of 2007 meaning that it’ll be 2008 rather than 2007 in the title. Also this desktop version best reflects the actual product - it’s Windows Server 2008 / Longhorn with “Centro” on top of it.
Is it just me who thinks the image in the About Windows box is naff? I think it’s dreadful - I’ll be submitting it as a bug once the first build is released to testers.
Windows Server “Centro” will be available for testers within the next month to two-months on Microsoft Connect. Let me know what you think of the first look of “Centro”… even though there really isn’t much to look at!
Screenshot:
Windows Server "Centro"
Jim McBee writes: "I figured Exchange12Rocks was pretty common knowledge, but talking to a few Exchange techies this past week, I guess it is not. It is time for thoroughly useless trivia. Allow me to explain."
When you install the first
Exchange 2007 server in to your organization, a new adminsitrative group and a new routing group are created. All Exchange 2007 servers are installed in this administrative group. It is created for backwards compatibility. The administrative and routing groups are named:
CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)
CN=Exchange Routing Group (DWBGZMFD01QNBJR)
You might be tempted to think that these are
GUIDs or randomly generated character strings, but they are not. They are simple "shift" replacement ciphers (similar to a Ceaser cipher). Take
FYDIBOHF23SPDLT as an example. Shift each letter "up" one letter in the alphabet. You get EXCHANGE12ROCKS. Now, take DWBGZMFD01QNBJR. Shift each letter "down" one letter in the alphabet. You (once again) get EXCHANGE12ROCKS. We knew that already.
It looks like Microsoft was prepared for a leak of their upcoming OS, and has officially stated that they can easily render the pirated copies useless:
"The copies available for download are not final code and users should avoid unauthorized copies which could be incomplete or tampered. This unauthorized download relies on the use of pre-RTM [release-to-manufacture] activation keys that will be blocked using Microsoft's Software Protection Platform. Consequently, these downloads will be of limited value," the statement said.
Jim Allchin writes:
Now that Windows Vista has released to manufacturing, you might think that there is no opportunity for the product to get better before you get to use it. Pre-Internet and before Windows Update, that was generally the case. But things are different today. With Windows Update, as new device drivers are available or issues are found and corrected, the product will simply get better and better over time.
While we worked hard to get a comprehensive set of drivers on the DVD prior to release-to-manufacturing (RTM), the magic of Windows Update and Automatic Updates makes this "frozen in time" distribution problem basically a non-issue. For Windows Vista we are excited to have over 19,500 device drivers on the Windows Vista DVD (in contrast to just 10,000 for Windows XP when it shipped). The number of device drivers is really a small way of looking at it, since each driver can usually support numerous actual different device models. Indeed, sometimes a single driver can support hundreds of different models, as often is the case with video drivers. But, what is even more significant is that at the RTM for Windows Vista, we already had an additional 11,700 device drivers on Windows Update compared to just 2,000 for Windows XP when it RTM’d in 2001. And while we will have significantly more drivers online by official availability, we will continue to add more drivers even after the launch. Because of the improvements in Automatic Updates for Windows Vista, users that choose the recommended setting for Automatic Updates will have the latest drivers installed and available when they add a new device.
continue at source
Virtual PC Guy writes:
For a while now we've been telling people that in order to access the Virtual Server web site when it is running on Windows Vista they need to run IE "as administrator". Needless to say most people are not happy with this. Luckily, last night I stumbled across the way to use the Virtual Server web site without running IE "as administrator". There are two steps involved:
1. Explicitly grant your user account administrative privilege for Virtual Server.
To do this select Server Properties from the Virtual Server section of the navigation pane on the Virtual Server web site (you will need to run IE "as administrator" in order to do this). Then select Virtual Server security, Add entry, and create a new entry for your user account with full control. You need to do this because the UAC feature of Windows Vista stops Virtual Server from being able to detect that you're a member of the administrators group, unless you're running IE "as administrator".
2. Add the Virtual Server web site to your trusted websites.
To do this to rest the Alt key while running Internet Explorer, open the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Then change to the Security tab and select the Trusted sites icon. Click on the Sites button and add the URL for your Virtual Server web site to the trusted sites.
You should now be able to open up the Virtual Server administrative website using the icon in the start menu, without needing to run the process "as administrator".
In the "Introducing System Center v1" session on TechEd: IT Forum, they showed a live demo. Based on an incident, a change request was prepared. When submitted, the change manager got an email and used the Outlook voting buttons to respond. After that, a SMS software package was prepared. Very cool! Here are screenshots from the session:
Service Desk v1: Incident
Service Desk v1: Change Request
Service Desk v1: Approval Email
Service Desk v1: SMS package
If you wanna know more, Stefan has some nice information on his
weblog
On TechEd: IT Forum 2006, Barry Shilmover showed
Engyro's new product, which integrates with Operations Manager 2007. At the RTM release, it will support Solaris, HP-UX and AIX. SuSe and RedHat support is currently in Beta. During the session, this screenshot was showed:
In fact, this is really cool, because you can now add those non-Windows platform components to your Line Of Business diagram. In the case of the session, it was there so that you can monitor your SAP environment fully integrated with
Operations Manager 2007.
In an encouraging act of collaboration, Google,
Yahoo and Microsoft announced tonight that they will all begin using the same Sitemaps protocol to index sites around the web. Now based at
Sitemaps.org, the system instructs web masters on how to install an XML file on their servers that all three engines can use to track updates to pages. This should make it easier to get your pages indexed in a simple and standardized way. People who use
Google Sitemaps don’t need to change anything, those maps will now be indexed by Yahoo and
Microsoft.
The protocol is offered under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License, so it can be used by any search engine, derivative variations using the same license can be created and it can be used for commercial purposes.
Any time competitors agree on open standards, that’s an enabler of further innovation and something to celebrate. It’s also great to see Creative Commons receiving all the more validation.
Long Zheng writes:
Windows SideShow is one of those features that has been implemented in Windows Vista since day one, but no one ever finds interesting or talks about. I’m speculating the cause of that is the lack of SideShow-compatible devices on the market. Although I’m sure thats a tiny problem, right? No loving review samples to go around.
Everyone’s impression of Windows SideShow is most likely a reminiscence of the
Channel9 video which featured a demo on the faux standard SideShow demo device, the
ASUS W5Fe prototype. Or perhaps the glassy
digital picture frame. Ever since, everyone’s imagination has probably been confined only to a bulky looking PDA glued to the back of a laptop or executive-priced picture frames. But that’s where you’re wrong.(
continue at source)
Note: Robert McLaw goes a step further by showing
his idea's of Windows Sideshow, check them out.
Vanaf vandaag is
Internet Explorer versie 7 beschikbaar in de Nederlandse taal. Met Internet Explorer 7 kunnen dagelijkse taken gemakkelijker worden uitgevoerd. Daarnaast biedt het programma dynamische beveiliging en is het ontwikkelingsplatform en de beheerbaarheid verbeterd. Verbeteringen voor eindgebruikers zijn onder andere een gestroomlijnde interface, browsen met tabbladen, afdrukvoordelen, uitgebreide zoekfunctionaliteit, directe feeds (RSS), dynamische beveiliging en nog veel meer.
Download Internet Explorer voor Windows XP SP2
Download Internet Explorer voor Windows Server SP1
Windows Powershell 1.0 English (XP & W2003)
Windows Powershell 1.0 Localized Languages (XP & W2003)
Click on the screenshot for a full version:
In the Virtualization session on IT Forum, Microsoft told more details on their virtualization strategy. For one thing, there will be support for "Live Migration" where VM's can be moved to other hosts without any user downtime. Just like ESX has with their vMotion technology. Hypervisor will be released within 180 days after Longhorn Server RTM's. Other great features include the ability to hot add extra processors or memory (if your hardware supports it). It also has x64 VM guest support and easy migration of current Virtual Server VM's. Finally, there will also be support for native clustering of the virtual machines to provide high availability.
Screenshots:
Hypervisor: MMC |
Hypervisor: x64 VM |
Hypervisor: hot add extra RAM
Just announced at the
IT Forum 2006 Keynote, and now available as a public beta on MS Downloads:
Microsoft® Forefront™ Client Security provides unified malware protection for business desktops, laptops and server operating systems that is easy to manage and control. By delivering simplified administration through central management and providing critical visibility into threats and vulnerabilities, Microsoft
Forefront Client Security helps protect your business with confidence and efficiency.
Microsoft Forefront Client Security (Public Beta)
Did you know that every time you log onto Gmail you're getting
infected? Okay, okay, you're probably not, but Microsoft's
Windows Live OneCare thinks otherwise. Many OneCare users are reporting that every time they access Gmail, they are confronted by an alert telling them that the page is infected with the BAT/BWG.A virus. Unless Google has really ramped up its world domination schedule, it's almost certainly a false positive, and though calling its competitors' products viruses is certainly the kind of thing we like to pin on Microsoft, it's more than likely a coincidence. Whether Microsoft will be remedying the trouble in their definitions or Google will be tweaking Gmail's code to ditch the false positive remains to be seen.
We've taken some pictures of slides on the Keynote presentation of IT Forum 2006:
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Bob Muglia
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Exchange 2007
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Interop Alliance
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Sold out, 4500 people!
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: OS Services Virtualization
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Powershell RTM
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Search previewing
IT Forum 2006 Keynote: Configuration Manager 2007
So, the keynote has just ended. Bob Muglia talked about the "people ready" strategy. There were demos about Windows Live Search in Vista with some neat preview functionality. They also showed some nice new Exchange 2007 features and new functionality in Office System 2007. Bob mentioned that they will include Forefront Security for Exchange on the DVD. There was a demo about the new journaling features of Exchange 2007, including where they showed that you can journal to Sharepoint. Microsoft also announced that Powershell has RTM'd. Bob told that there will be OS Services Virtualization for the next major release after Longhorn Server, which allows services like for instance NT Logon to virtualize. There was a cool demo showing that the Longhorn Server virtualization layer will allow you to hot add extra memory! Microsoft also announced what they call the InterOp Vendor Alliance, where companies focus on allowing their software to work together.
While browsing the internet i found this interesting Wikipedia topic covering the next version of Windows codenamed "
Vienna"
Windows "Vienna" (formerly known as Blackcomb) is Microsoft's codename for a future version of Microsoft Windows, originally announced in February 2000, but has since been subject to major delays and rescheduling.
Read more at the Windows "Vienna" topic on Wikipedia
Celebrating the U.S. launch of the new
Zune™ digital media player and music service, Microsoft Corp. has worked with a number of cutting-edge artists to stage free concerts in public parks and plazas in urban centers across the country. Today at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle at the first of these Zune concerts, Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates took the stage to share his excitement for this next step Microsoft is taking in music and entertainment.
Gates outlined the Zune vision to create new ways for people to connect, discover and share music and entertainment experiences. He was joined onstage by John Richards, morning show host of popular community radio station KEXP, to showcase the new Zune-to-Zune wireless sharing feature. Richards wirelessly sent the inaugural song to Gates, who then surprised the crowd by giving away his Zune device to a member of the audience. Building on the “Hello from Seattle” greeting printed on the back of every Zune device, Richards created a playlist to celebrate Seattle music in honor of the Zune launch. The complete KEXP “Hello from Seattle” playlist will be available on Zune Marketplace for consumers to download.
“We wanted to bring Zune to life with a celebration of live music, shared between artists and fans across the country, and really make today all about embracing the social aspect of music,” said Bryan Lee, corporate vice president of the Entertainment Busines at Microsoft. “Zune is all about changing the game to make music more social, and at launch we are just scratching the surface of how wireless technology is going to enable social interaction in the future.”
As many of you know, there will be a change next year in the transition dates for US
daylight saving time. I won't go into all the gory details here, but if you want them follow this link
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx This site will be updated to provide all the latest information about daylight saving time, including updates from Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time, as well as links to KB articles when they are available.
The Exchange team, along with Windows and Office have been giving this a lot of attention. We will be providing, free of charge, a solution for
Exchange products in mainstream support. This solution will consist of changes in CDO to support these new dates as well as rebasing tool for calendar items that are already existent in users calendars. This rebasing tool is a server side tool. There will also be a client side tool available from Outlook. For products that are no longer under Mainstream support, these non-security updates will only be offered to customers that have an Extended Hotfix Agreement. For more information on the current support status of your Microsoft products and the Support Lifecycle Policy, please visit
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
It can’t be denied that clustering is expensive when compared to the alternative (ie buying a single server with redundant everything and plenty of RAID). Not only do you have to buy more than one server, but if you’re in a Windows world you need the Enterprise version of
Windows server – which has a hefty price tag compared to the Standard edition. And what about the benefits? Well, in a server with redundant disks, PSUs and fans, and with a decent architecture that can even swap out duff RAM, the main thing you’re gaining is protection against the server motherboard going a bit Pete Tong. Which isn’t all that common.
Something else I discovered is that the difference between
clustering and
replication is widely misunderstood. Clustering is often taken as synonymous with the act of having two servers with copies of all the programs and data, with replication turned on so that server B keeps a copy of server A’s world (and potentially vice versa) such that one machine can take over in the event of the other failing. This isn’t, in fact, what you do if you’re using Clustering Services under Windows – it’s just data replication. (
continue at source)
Now that Windows Vista is done (and is already being pirated and cracked), Windows watchers' thoughts are turning to
Longhorn Server. So it's fair to ask what the final name of Microsoft's successor to Windows Server 2003 will be.
When Microsoft announced that Vista would be the final name of the Windows client release (formerly code-named "Longhorn") officials were quick to caution that no one should assume that the complementary server software would be known as "
Vista Server." (
continue at source)
Anyone out there still remember
Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/e), Microsoft's so-called Flash killer?
Last time Microsoft discussed the WPF/e technology publicly was in March, at the Mix '06 conference. (I hear there was a demo of WPF/e as part of the MSN Soapbox demo at the recent Streaming Media West confab, but have seen few details on how Microsoft's Flash killer will fit in with Microsoft's YouTube killer.)
Given that WPF/e is a subset of WPF, which last week went gold, as part of the .Net Framework 3.0 release, isn't it high time for a WPF/e update? In fact, it sounds like a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test release of WPF/e is right around the corner, based on a November 12 post by Microsoft blogger Joe Stegman, the lead program manager for WPF/e. (
continue at source)
Well, no more postings today. I'm off travelling to Barcelona to attend TechEd:
IT Forum 2006. I will meet my fellow co-workers from
C2ICT at Schiphol this afternoon. Lots of great opportunities this week, including me attending the Operations Manager focus group to discuss OpsMgr 2007 R2! On thursday, I will present my session at
Speaker Idol. Stop by the Community Lounge to hear it. Tomorrow, I will do a live coverage of the opening keynote, along with some pictures. Watch this space the coming days as I will try to update you with the latest news from the event. Wanna meet up? Send me an email:
maarten [at] goet.net.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende may get booted out of office in national elections this month, but he can lay claim to being the first person in the world to get an authorized fresh Windows Live Mail account, Microsoft said on Friday. Although the Redmond, Wash.-based company moved the Hotmail successor out of beta Thursday in The Netherlands, Microsoft won't have the final version in the United States and elsewhere until next year, later than it had planned.
The Netherlands has almost 16.5 million residents, a third of whom have a Hotmail account, according to Richard Sim, product planner for Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Mail is replacing Hotmail. About 10,000 Netherlands residents signed up for accounts within hours of the launch, he said.
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Mark has a
good post on what's new in VLK management under volume activation 2.0 (VA 2.0) for Windows Vista. If you check the
FAQ, you probably won't find anything too unexpected. Depending on your environment there's going to be a few options here... for disconnected environments - or environments that don't have internet access on an on-going basis (manufacturing?), it looks like MAK and MAK independent activation will be the common model.
For more traditional and/or corporate IT departmens (and SBSers alike), MAK plus MAK Proxy activation, or likely KMS activation (for managed environments with more than 25 machines) are going to be the common approach. The short of it - read the
FAQ. If you thought TS-licensing was inconvenient, then I don't imagine you'll be a fan of VA 2.0. On the other hand, after VA 1.0 we all should have seen the writing on the walls. VA 2.0 is just the next evolution of the service.
André Nogueira writes:
Yep, the Office Professional 2007, Office Professional Plus 2007 and Office Ultimate 2007 product keys can now be requested on the “Product Keys” section of your MSDN Subscriber downloads. I posted a screenshot of what I see on the Product Keys section of MSDN. Now we just have to wait for the ISO!
UPDATE: The files
are available on MSDN!
Long Zheng writes: "A lot of people have asked for an in-depth comparison between the many consumer edition of Windows Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate. And of course, I tell them, “Don’t look at me, I don’t have a clue.” But someone has to know, and who better to know than Microsoft."
"Windows Vista ships with a new tool called “
Windows Anytime Upgrade“, which enables on-the-fly upgrades to higher-tiered versions of Windows Vista with the ease of a simple online transaction. In this tool, is also a “comparison matrix” chart which helps Microsoft to tease you about all the features you’re missing out on because you’re too cheap to buy Ultimate. But of course, this chart might also help some understand and value the differences between the three editions of Windows
Vista."
Click image to view full-sized chart. (231KB)
Andrew Dugdell writes: "I've already blogged about the VHD testdrive, so now it's time to take it for a spin. I used Virtual PC, because most people I know prefer Virtual PC to Virtual Server when doing "this sort of thing". Maybe it's a drag-n-drop thing? Anyway, with that in mind, this is what I found from my quick test drive:"
Once downloaded and run, the VPC extracts to 2.7 Gb
Firing up in Virtual PC gives you the warning "The hardware standard is not recognized". Click ok and everything will work ok
When you turn the VPC on for the first time the image comes out of SysPrep
The default timezone of course if US time
The Username and Password (Evaluation1) are in the ReadMe (more)
Jason Clarke writes: "This, to me, is a breath of fresh air. Microsoft has a
freely available screensaver that mimics the much maligned
Blue Screen of Death error screen that Windows gives when it crashes in a big bad way. While other prank screensavers have been made that are similar, this one is unique in that all of the identifiable text on the screen is pulled from the system's actual values - so the BSOD looks as legitimate as it possibly can. It even gives the option in the screensaver's configuration to fake disk activity, so that it appears as if a real dump is happening."
"It's no surprise to learn that this download originated with
SysInternals, a company that made quite the name for itself developing tools to get to the bottom of what is actually going on inside Windows. Microsoft recognized their value, and snatched them up - so the brand is now known as Windows SysInternals. Obviously, we can't condone this, but for all sorts of fun you could install this screensaver on a friend's machine, then watch when they become ever more frustrated that their machine keeps "crashing". Am I mean for thinking that's funny? I guess I am."
Windows Connected writes:
If you are lucky enough to have a Volume Licensing account with Microsoft, feel free to go download all the Office 2007 System RTM bits. That means Office 2007 Enterprise, Sharepoint and related server releases, as well as Visio, etcetera.
As a follow-up to my
previous post, you've probably noticed that the RTM bits for Office 2007 and Vista aren't on
MSDN yet, although Office 2007 and Windows Vista will be released on MSDN 7 days after its RTM. Jabez Gan has an update on the dates:
Office 2007 will be released on MSDN on 12th Nov 06
Windows Vista will be released on MSDN on 17th Nov 06
On a side note, Microsoft's
Licensing Site, the
Certified Partner site and MSDN’s Download site will be having downtime from Friday to Sunday Nov 12th 4PM; till Saturday Nov 11th 10AM; from 7PM till 9PM Friday Nov 10th respectively. Guess they are getting the required servers and bandwidth ready for ROCK-AND-ROLL!
UPDATE: Kevin Remde has
more details.
Exchange Server 2007 will be released to manufacturing in December and be available to customers within a number of days after that, Microsoft officials have confirmed. The formal announcement of Exchange 2007's
RTM date was made in David Lemson's keynote on November 7 at the Exchange Connections conference.
Lemson is the product unit manager for Exchange, and his keynote was blogged by Exchange MVP Paul Robichaux. This means that the product will not be immediately available to Microsoft's business customers at the company's Vista, Office 2007 and
Exchange 2007 launch event on November 30. Lemson said that Microsoft has over 80,000 production mailboxes deployed on Exchange 2007, while Ferris Research says many of Microsoft's closely managed Customer Technology Adoption Program (CTAP) participants have also deployed a portion of their production infrastructures.
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Justin Incarnato writes:
We were kicking around the idea of having an RSS feed for the MP catalog. You can subscribe to the feed using the link below.
MOM Management Pack Catalog RSS feed
UPDATE: Stefan has more information
and comments on this.
This is the application that blew me away at Microsoft's annual sales conference in July. The demo was absolutely stunning and the technology behind it is mind-blowing. I've been playing around with the internal release for the last couple of months and now it's gone public. So what is Photosynth?
- The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.
- In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.
With every new version of
Windows comes another round of "Will it Work?", the game where consumers get to guess whether or not the computer or peripheral they've got their eye on is compatible with the new OS. As usual, Microsoft has issued a set of special logos that manufacturers can put on their products to tell us what will work. If only it were that simple. This time around there are two logos: "Certified for Windows Vista" and "Works with Windows Vista."
Can you guess which means what? Seeing both next to eachother, you've probably guessed that "Certified" is better than just "Works," and you'd be right. "Certified" products "have met explicit standards of reliability and quality, and have been tested and proven to deliver a superior experience with a PC running Windows
Vista." Products with the "Works with Windows Vista" seal, on the other hand, simply "meet baseline standards of functionality." In other words, they work, but, uh, maybe not much more.
You can read more about the
Windows Vista certification program at Microsoft's web site.
With TechEd: Developers going on this week and TechEd: IT Forum running next week, Microsoft opened up the website on Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2007. You can now
register for this event in San Diego, from March 26-30. On the
Content Overview page Microsoft revealed the final naming for some products:
... In addition during the event there will be early looks at two additional products due to ship at the end of the year:
System Center Data Protection Manager 2008
System Center “Service Desk”
So it seams that DPM v2 has been renamed to 2008. Also, on the page they mention Virtual Machine Manager 2007. No word on the final naming of "Service Desk", though.
Has all the
Release-To-Manufacturing news left you urging to install Windows Vista? Studies conducted by the Hanso Foundation show these kinds of urges are normal and you can do all sorts of things to satisfy these urges. But the best way, as recommended by Long Zheng; a mysterious but recognized professional, is to watch this screencast showing you exactly how Vista installs in under 3 minutes.
Note: This video has been edited for your enjoyment. This does not accurately reflect Vista’s installation time.
If you're an
MSDN subscriber, you should see an alert on your Subscriber Home page...
MSDN Subscriber Downloads Service Outage Notification
MSDN Subscriber Downloads will be unavailable from 7:00PM to 9:00PM Pacific time on Friday, November 10, 2006, for planned maintenance and upgrades. Both downloads and product keys will be unavailable, though downloads already in progress will not be interrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Does that mean that Vista & Office will be on MSDN after 9PM PST on Friday? Hard to say with any certainty... but I don't think it's coincidence that they scheduled maintenance in the
RTM + 7 day window.
Today I noticed the
"WinXP SP2 IE6 VPC Image" was added to Microsoft downloads. The image is a
290 Meg download, and extracts to just over 1 Gig. The image itself is:
Windows XP SP2 with IE6
latest production release of the VM Additions (13.552)
Includes the IE7 readiness Toolkit
From what I understand (briefly firing up the VM) it is designed to give a fully operational toolset to developers to test websites:
Use this toolkit to evaluate what's new in Internet Explorer 7 and find information and tools to help you test the compatibility of your sites, extensions, and applications with Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft is eager to give you a head start and ensure that the transition to Internet Explorer 7 is seamless for you and your audience.
Windows XP IE7 Readiness Toolkit VPC Image
Hot off the
OneCare blog is news that Windows Live OneCare 1.5 will be available to the public on January 30th 2007, the same day as Windows Vista launches to the masses. New features currently include:
Windows Vista support
International versions (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK, US.)
Backup to network drive
Backup to other devices, including Apple iPod, Sony 1 GB Pro Duo memory stick, 1 GB Compact Flash Card. Other devices are supported.
Read more
If you aren't already on the
OneCare 1.5 Beta, you can still
signup for it at ideas.live.com.
Today sees a small but valuable Windows Live Spaces update that tweaks and fixes the existing version to improve both performance and usability. Key changes include:
Improved customisations menu, providing access to a built-in color changer (previously TweakUI powertoy), and the ability to customise the font and tagline of your Space
Module enhancements - Windows Media Player module has moved from being a powertoy to a module in its own right, and some default modules can now be hidden
Music list improvements - Album Art and Amazon integration (country dependent)
A "What's new list" providing an overview of your contacts recently updated Spaces
Fixes to improve overall performance
For developers, the update sees a preference store for gadgets, allowing users to Get and Save preferences for the gadgets on their Spaces. This is something
Donavon wrote about previously, prompting a wave of comments from other gadget developers. I expect the
developers blog will have more information on how you can use these soon. If you haven't started playing around and developing your own gadget, now is the time!
(more)
Yes, after 5 long years of development, Windows Vista has finally been completed and has now been Released To Manufacturing (RTM). Windows Vista is Microsoft's latest version of Windows and is the successor to Windows XP. The big milestone was announced this morning in Redmond at around 11AM PDT (7PM GMT) via
Microsoft PressPass.
From the sleek new "Aero" interface to the new system sounds (Which remain mostly unheard besides the Startup sound) Windows Vista definitely brings a breakthrough user experience. As shown on the Windows Vista Home Page, Vista is scheduled to be released to the general public on January 30th, 2007. However, MSDN and TechNet Subscribers will have it available to them within 7 days from today.
Windows Vista RTM Video
ISAServer.org has an excellent four part tutorial on using LDAP to pre-authenticate Outlook Web Access. You can find them here:
LDAP Pre-authentication with ISA 2006 Firewalls (Part 1)
LDAP Pre-authentication with ISA 2006 Firewalls (Part 2)
LDAP Pre-authentication with ISA 2006 Firewalls (Part 3)
LDAP Pre-authentication with ISA 2006 Firewalls (Part 4)
This is an excellent feature of ISA Server 2006 because it allows scenarios whereby ISA Server cannot be the edge firewall for whatever reason and is placed in the DMZ instead. LDAP allows for
ISA Server to authentcate against Active Directory without the server being a member of the domain. However, ...
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Microsoft has some great binary patching tools. In my simple tests they're over twice as size efficient as zip files, and in some cases 10x more efficient.
It took me about 2 hours of searching around to find them, so I wanted to pass it on. I started off with diff/patch, but they didn't handle binary files well. I searched around and found various commercial tools. Eventually I stumbled across "Binary Delta Compression" and found these guys.
Background:
It's called the Delta Compression API, and it specifically uses knowledge of PE files to improve the compression techniques. It's part of the windows installer technologies.
Windows has 2 key dlls here:
- mspatchc.dll - creates a patch (delta) file. This dll is in the Platform SDK .
- mspatcha.dll - applies a patch (delta) file. This is in the system32 directory.
These dlls both expose APIs which are declared in patchapi.h and documented in the Delta Compression API on msdn.
The Platform SDK includes very convenient command line tools (apatch.exe, mpatch.exe) to use the APIs.
Patching has some advantages:
- smaller than releasing the new dll.
- the patch is only useful if the audience has the original dll. So you can freely release the patch without worry about piracy.
Windows PowerShell week has started. If you haven't signed up for the webcasts, you should run, not walk to the
signup page. Completed casts are available on-demand - for example, yesterday's
Day 1 intro cast, and
QnA transcript. Be sure to also check out this guide:
Translating VBScript to Windows PowerShell Guide
According to
Mary Jo Foley the day has finally come: Windows Vista is going gold. Foley mentions:
"The public announcement that Windows
Vista has been released to manufacturing is going to happen tomorrow, November 8, around 11 a.m. PST, sources close to the company are saying."
Once the RTM has been announced the build should appear on MSDN at the same time according to Microsoft's
press release of yesterday.
We all know that no one really wants to import. We want to look at our pictures, enjoy them, share them, maybe even edit and organize them -- but not import them. Importing is just a means to an end, and in
Vista we focused on getting you to that end as quickly and painlessly as possible. You’ll see a lot of changes from XP but don’t let that scare you off. The first change you’ll notice is there is no longer a step to select your photos. Before you decide that’s a bad thing read on about how duplicate detection prevents importing multiple times, how waiting to delete your photos until you are in the Gallery might save you from deleting a salvageable photo, and more.
Microsoft has stated from the very beginning that Windows
Vista and
Longhorn Server are going to be designed to be the most secure versions of Windows ever to be released. One way that Microsoft is delivering on this promise is by greatly extending the capabilities of group policies. I have not heard an official count of how many new
group policy object settings are available in Longhorn and Vista, but I can tell you from my own experience that the number has got to be huge.
If you have done much work with Group Policies in
Windows Server 2003, then you know that group policies are stored in the .ADM file format. In Windows Vista and Longhorn Server, this file format has been replaced by .
ADMX file format. The .ADMX file format it is based on XML, whereas .ADM files used their own proprietary file format.
This article explains how Microsoft has replaced the ADM file format with the ADMX file format in Longhorn Server and Windows Vista. (
continue at source)
The SysInternals tools -- including Process Explorer, Regmon, Filemon, and many more -- are now available here on microsoft.com. A couple of major highlights include Process Monitor, a new tool that supersedes Regmon and Filemon, and the SysInternals Suite, which combines the whole set of SysInternals tools into a single download package.
In addition, check out Mark's new TechNet blog, and the SysInternals blog.
URLs:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx
http://blogs.technet.com/MarkRussinovich/
http://blogs.technet.com/sysinternals/
PALO ALTO, Calif. – November 6, 2006 – XenSource, Inc., the leader in infrastructure virtualization solutions based on the open source Xen™ hypervisor, today announced XenEnterprise for Windows and Linux, the market's first commercially-packaged Xen
virtualization solution supporting both Microsoft Windows® and Linux guests. XenEnterprise includes the latest version of the Xen hypervisor, Xen 3.0.3, which has been developed collaboratively by the Xen ecosystem. XenEnterprise now delivers the performance, security and openness of the Xen
hypervisor for x86 server virtualization of multiple operating systems, including Windows and Linux, and is delivered in a form factor that emphasizes ease of use, simple deployment of the Xen hypervisor and guest virtual servers, and the ability to install and manage multiple guests on the same server. With a comprehensive management and monitoring console, XenEnterprise comes at an affordable price tag to encourage rapid adoption of Xen server virtualization.
“For Windows and Linux IT professionals XenEnterprise delivers virtualization for Windows and Linux today in a high performance, easy to use, affordable and supported commercial product,” said John Bara, vice president of marketing at XenSource. “Unlike competing products, we don't believe the cost of the virtualization software should exceed the cost of the server. XenEnterprise is the fastest and easiest way to deploy the market leading Xen™ hypervisor for Windows and Linux.” (Continue at source).
One of the major unanswered questions about Windows Vista is what exactly Vista's Ultimate Extras will be. Ultimate Extras is supposed to be this worth addition to Windows Vista Ultimate that gives buyers of the big edition some bonuses that justify the more expensive product, but Microsoft has given no indication what should be expected, and why we should be excited about Ultimate Extras.
That hasn't stopped there from being a ton of speculation, but is looks like we have the first semi-concrete information on Ultimate Extras, via some tidbits Paul Thurrott let drop in his "Long Road to Windows Vista" series. The short: Ultimate Extras replaces Microsoft Plus! There will be no Plus! pack for Windows Vista, Ultimate Extras is it, and Extras will, at a minimum, contain what users typically expect from Plus!, like added games, utilities, screensavers, Media Player add-ons (like skins and visualizations), digital media programs, and the like.
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Savvy Windows Vista users have been asking tough questions about some of the design decisions we made for the File Backup feature in Windows Vista. We created this
FAQ to explain our decisions. We don’t expect everyone to agree with us, and we are taking into consideration the feedback we’ve received from beta testers for future releases. Check back often for new questions and answers.
So what is the Windows Mobile Device Center?
Well firstly it's the Synchronisation client for Windows Vista.
Activesync is not compatible with Windows Vista...
It's been in Public Beta since early October and is scheduled to ship with Vista later this year.
It's compatible with Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 5.0 and future releases of Windows Mobile devices.
In terms of the key features it's been designed for easy device setup and management as well as having an intuitive user interface.
You can connect to WMDC via Bluetooth and USB but not WiFi (this was removed from Activesync sometime ago due to security concerns from customers - I know msmobiles.com is always very vocal about this)
So why as an Enterprise should be excited about Windows Mobile Device Center? There are three reasons:
1) It's integrated into
Vista so no deployment.
2) It's updated via Windows Update - so no need to redeploy later releases.
3) It can be enabled/disabled via
Group Policy!
(
continue at source)
Find out whether your existing applications will be compatible with your new Windows Operating System. The
Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit and additional Application Compatibility resources are designed to help minimize the risks associated with deployments of Windows Operating Systems.
Download the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.0, RC1
With the Launch of Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server there are a host of new security measures which limit a user or computers ability to connect unless they meet a strict guidelines. Network Access Protection (
NAP) is a policy enforcement platform built into the Microsoft Windows
Vista and Windows Server code name "
Longhorn" operating systems that allows you to better protect network assets by enforcing compliance with system health requirements. With Network Access Protection, you can create customized health policies to validate computer health before allowing access or communication, automatically update compliant computers to ensure ongoing compliance, and optionally confine noncompliant computers to a restricted network until they become compliant.
Network Access Protection includes an application programming interface (API) set for developers and vendors to create complete solutions for health policy validation, network access limitation, and ongoing health compliance. (
continue at source)
Link-local Multicast Name Resolution (
LLMNR) is a new protocol that provides an additional method to resolve the names of neighboring computers. LLMNR is especially useful for networks that do not have a Domain Name System (
DNS) server. LLMNR uses a simple exchange of request and reply messages to resolve computer names to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) or IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses. This article describes the implementation of LLMNR in Microsoft® Windows
Vista™ and Windows Server® Code Name "
Longhorn". (
continue at source)
As the final runup to Vista RTM continues,
Microsoft has announced at the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX) has RTMed and is available on Microsoft Downloads. This is a significant milestone for the Developer Division, and delivers on some of the promise of Windows Vista programmability on earlier platforms. Includes:
Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows CardSpace
.NET Framework 3.0:
x86 Redistributable |
x64 Redistributable
IMPORTANT: If you have installed previous pre-release versions of the .NET Framework 3.0, such as Beta 2, RC1 or Community Technical Preview (CTP) builds, then you must uninstall these versions using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel before installing this final release version.
Jim Allchin blogs about using Windows Vista’s enhanced Remote Assistance tool to help his family while at work. Remote Assistance in
Vista has been enhanced to work better through NAT Firewalls - something XP’s Remote Assistance tool had issues with. They’ve also changed Remote Assistance in Vista to require less bandwidth so it works faster.
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"It's in the bag!" It's the first one out of the starting blocks - with Vista and Exchange 2007 shortly to follow suit. Office 2007 was the first bits of Beta software I installed this year and I've grown completely dependant on it. It's a really great tool to use and runs like a dream on Vista.
Don't take my word for it, take Office 2007 for a test drive:
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx
Check out the press release here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-062007OfficeRTMPR.mspx
Check out the website here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/HA101748901033.aspx
Microsoft just posted this in Download Center: pre-configured VHD images allowing you to quickly evaluate Windows Server 2003 R2, Exchange Server 2007, Live Communications Server 2005, ISA Server 2006 and SQL Server 2005. Get them here:
Windows Server 2003 R2 VHD
Exchange 2007 VHD
ISA Server 2006 VHD
SQL Server 2005 VHD
These are all evaluation versions that will expire in 30 days. You need Virtual Server 2005 R2 to test these. Get it
here.
Byron Hinson at Activewin writes:
"Microsoft
Office 2007 will get Released To Manufacturing (RTM) at 9:00 EST on
Monday, 8th November. That's about all we can tell you right now. At a guess it will show up on MSDN and such like on Wednesday night."
Paul Thurrott writes:
My sources at the software giant confirmed this weekend that Microsoft is set to finalize Windows
Vista as early as Monday and release the product to manufacturing. The final build number is expected to be 6000.16386.061101-2205, I'm told. (Readers may recall that WinInfo broke the news that Microsoft would iterate Vista to build 6000 for the final release way back on August 25.)
In its quest to finalize Windows Vista,
Microsoft has faced two hurdles in recent days, one technical and one a bit more unusual. The proposed final build was marred by a few late breaking bugs, which the company expects to squash over the weekend. Meanwhile, a power outage in the Windows build lab Friday night prevented Microsoft from creating a new Vista build that night.
Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Access is a tool for migrating databases from Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server 2005. SSMA for Access converts Access database objects to SQL Server database objects, loads those objects into SQL Server, and then migrates data from Access to SQL Server. SSMA for Access supports Access 97 - Access 2003 databases.
SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access
Zack Whittaker writes: "As most of you know, I’ve been working on VistaBase for some time now, collecting articles and information into a database which is commonly known as a “knowledge base”. This is got to the point where I was bored and wanted a bit of a marketing boost, so I came up with the VistaBase Demonstrations.
These are basically screencasts, videos if you will, of me playing around on my mega fast new computer with Windows
Vista, Windows
Internet Explorer 7 and of course, Windows Server “
Longhorn”. As far as I can see, this is one of the biggest collection of screencasts available under one domain on the Internet, and certainly the largest (even though there’s only a few) collection of screencasts for Windows Server “Longhorn”.
VistaBase: Vista & Longhorn Screencasts
Mark Dea writes: "Hot of the heels of the first video, I am pleased to say we have another that concentrates more on Office Roundtable. Roundtable is a cracking device which enables people to video conference from a room of their choice rather than forcing people to go to a specific room." The video is called "A Tale of two meeting rooms".
As you know, the Operations Manager team has released the Webconsole RC1 for Operations Manager 2007 today. There are some great new features like: Forms Based Authentication (think OWA). It also is able to display much more information that it's 2005 version. You are now able to view Diagrams, Product Knowledge and much more, making it good alternative to the full graphical console. One of my personal favorites is the fact that now there are RSS feeds for Alerts, to which you can subscribe:
If you're running Operations Manager 2007 RC1, just download the WebConsole from the Microsoft Connect website and check it out yourself. It has some limitations in this release candidate: diagram collapse and expand doesn't work and I'm getting an "application not found /" error after clicking around a bit, but otherwise everything is just ok. Check out these three screenshots to get an impression:
Webconsole: RSS |
Webconsole: State View |
Webconsole: Diagram View
Unified Communications encompasses a lot of technologies and more importantly looks to solve a number of issues that people experience every minute of every day, problem is we are so used to dealing with these problems that we dont realise they are there. Technologies like Live Communications Server 2005,
Exchange 2007 and the forthcoming Office Communications Server 2007 have hundreds of features inside that can solve the 'communications chaos' and its hard for the team at Microsoft to remember them all and even tougher for customer to take them all in at once, what's the solution then?
Taking the idea that 'a picture paints a thousand words', Peter De Zoete has put together a video to show how Microsoft
Unified Communications technologies work together to solve communication problems. Its a brilliant video, showing very well technologies that are either out now or will be within the next twelve months! I am told there are more to come so stay tuned!
James Senior writes: "Having completed my migration from Exchange 2003 to 2007, I now have access to lots of new cool features in
Outlook 2007. The first thing to check was the out-of-office assistant which has been updated so that you can enter rich text and make your auto-responders look nice, rather than the bland, plain text ones in Exchange 2007. So I went and created a new out of office message which looks like this:"
Another benefit is a much easier way to book meetings with colleagues. I wanted to discuss some highly confidential Vista secrets with my colleague Matt so I created a meeting request as I was accustomed to in Outlook and lo-and-behold I was presented with a much nicer way of finding times where we were both free.
(Continue at Source)
In a twist on phishing, cybercrooks are hijacking instant-messaging accounts to lure people to their information-thieving Web sites. Traditional
phishing scams send out spam e-mail that contain links to fraudulent Web sites. These sites try to trick people into giving up sensitive information, such as credit card details, Social Security numbers or login credentials for online services.
In a tactic that includes an arsenal of online weapons, scammers are now also commandeering IM accounts to spread their bait. The barrage of attacks used includes account hijacking, phishing and SPIM, or
spam via instant messaging. On Friday, for example, a Yahoo employee found that scammers had used her account. They sent her Yahoo Messenger contacts a link to a phishing site. The miscreants had gotten hold of her login credentials, probably through another scam that she had fallen for, the company said. The link led to a site hosted on
Geocities, Yahoo's free Web space service. The fraudulent site looked just like a Yahoo Photos Web site and asked visitors for their Yahoo login information. Yahoo took the scam site down on Friday morning.
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Microsoft's event for IT Professionals, TechEd: IT Forum 2006, will be held in Barcelona this year.
From 14 through 17 November, the Centre Convencions Internacional (CCIB) in Barcelona will be filled with 4000 IT Professionals. On the
IT Forum website, Microsoft has added a new section called
The Virtual Side. The Virtual Side offers those who can't attend the event, an opportunity to share in the action. Watch interviews with top experts, listen to podcasts, learn from featured sessions and much more.
Techlog will do live coverage of the event. We have priority seating at the Keynote where
Bob Muglia will deliver his speech about "Enabling the People-Ready Business" and will try to deliver you with the latest information, on-site photo coverage and work closely with other bloggers like
Steven Bink and
Stefan Stranger to get you the hottest news! For those of you who will also be attending, come and watch my live session on Thursday 16th. It will be at the
Speaker Idol theater in the Community Lounge. On 12:30 CET I will battle with Andy Malone and Peter Kall to make it to the finals!
Nick White writes:
I’m very pleased to let you know you this morning (or afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are when you read this) that the Windows division has revised the retail license terms for Windows Vista in a significant way. Namely, the terms regarding license-to-device assignment of the retail product (including Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate) now read as follows:
You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use. You may not do so to share this license between devices.
You can find the newly-revised retail license terms here, as I’m sure you’ll want to read them for yourself.
There's a saying that goes something like, "Love, sex and politics makes strange bedfellows." Well it's time to add technology - and more specifically virtualization - to that list. Today's headline says it all:
Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support. Here's an excerpt:
Under the business collaboration agreement, the companies will pursue a variety of joint marketing activities to promote the adoption of the technologies they are collaborating on. In addition, Microsoft will purchase a quantity of coupons from Novell that entitle the recipient to a one-year subscription for maintenance and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Microsoft will annually make available approximately 70,000 of these coupons to customers, with a mix of priority and standard support services. By providing its customers with these coupons, Microsoft is enabling companies to benefit from the use of the new software solutions developed through the collaborative research effort, as well as a version of Linux that is covered with respect to Microsoft’s intellectual property rights.
For context, according to IDC’s forecasts, for 2006-2009, 70k coupons per year represents 0.2% (two-tenths of one percent) of total server OS shipments. This equates to less than 1.5% of total forecasted Linux server OS shipments during that period. I can already hear the reverberations coming out of Raleigh, NC and Palo Alto, CA. I can't wait to hear what
Diane Greene has to say next week at VMworld.
The Operations Manager team announced 2 days ago:
"We are happy to announce Operations Manager RC1 is now available for download. This release marks an important milestone for this development cycle in preperation for product launch early next year. Key improvements in RC1 include: improved install process, major usability improvements made to the UI, updated Management Packs and new Active Directory MP, ability to Gateway and certificate manage non-trusted devices, support for more deployment topologies including multiple management servers and improved stability.
Today, the team announced the availability of the WebConsole and the Audit Reports:
"We have posted the Web Console package to the connect site for download. This web based console is designed to provide easy web based access to the core monitoring data collected by OpsMgr. It now supports the main view types supported by the console including State and Diagram views and has the ability to launch tasks! In addition, we have posted a package that includes 18 reports for the Audit Collection Services (ACS) feature of OpsMgr 2007."
OpsMgr 2007 RC1 WebConsole and the Audit Reports
Take a look at how the Windows Vista packaging will open up to reveal the media inside. Also, it is our first peak at what the Windows Vista discs will actually look like.
I like what they’ve done with the disc. The design on the disc is unique and fresh. Microsoft has adopted pretty much the same looking holographic CD/DVD’s since Windows 2000 and its nice to see it be given a fresh new look - which seems to be a reoccurring theme with the Windows Vista packaging in general.
Ina Fried at CNET has the story:
Microsoft plans to mark the business launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 with an event in New York on Nov. 30.
Microsoft also plans to launch
Exchange 2007 at the “New Day for Business” event, to be held at the Nasdaq stock exchange and starring CEO
Steve Ballmer. “This event will mark the business availability of three major releases from Microsoft,” the software maker said in an invitation e-mailed to a set of journalists on Wednesday.
They sure couldn’t cut the promise of
Vista in November much closer. As for my informal poll asking “Will
Windows Vista Launch in November,” the results currently are:
Yes: 75 votes (60%)
No: 36 votes (29%)
What’s Windows Vista?: 15 votes (12%)
Looks like the Delphi method comes through, although to be completely precise, it’s not over until Steve Ballmer arrives at the NASDAQ podium and says the magic words.
Long Zheng writes: "If you were to explain to someone the features and benefits of Windows Vista, you’d probably start off with Aero, new Shell, Search, Sidebar, security, Media Center and all the other goodies listed on this
wiki, but would you mention to them, “Dynamic multi-dimensional scrolling”? What the hell is that?"
"Have a look at the scrolling experience in XP (left) and Vista (right). Excuse the quality and large file size, but I think this is the best way of showing it. Pretty neat heh? It’s not one those things you’ll probably never notice, but once you’ve used it, you can’t go back. This ‘feature’ is currently reviewed for a
patent, and as described in the application, “the automatic dynamic scrolling alleviates the effort and stress related to requiring a user to manually scroll a view in two dimensions in a tree control.”
Hats off to Lyon Wong, Cornelis Van Dok , Colin Anthony and Stephan Hoefnagels. Is it a feature? No. Is it worth mentioning? No. Is it a selling point? No. Does it deliver a great experience? Yes. The point I’m trying to make is, you can’t appreciate an experience until you use it. No matter how many feature lists you read, how many screenshots you see, how many screencasts you watch, you’re not going to get the full picture. Try it, experience it, then judge it. But I’ve got to admit, the list of experience enhancing ‘features’ in Vista is not as long as the list of experience-prohibiting flaws. But maybe the next Windows will be better."
The Windows
Vista journey is about to reach the end of the beginning, with the official launch date of November 30 announced for the simultaneous launch of
Office 2007 and the business version of Windows Vista.
A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that the planned release dates for Vista and Office are indeed November 30 after all, fulfilling Microsoft’s promise of delivering Vista in 2006.
That said, the general consumer versions of Vista are still planned for a January 2007 release, with the rumoured date of January 30 said to be on the verge of confirmation over the next few days.
The November 30 date will be a worldwide release, meaning Australians, New Zealanders and other countries in the same time zone will be able to get access to the software several hours before our North American brethren.
Ms announced the launch of the
Live Search Box, to bring the power of search to your Web site or blog through a cool
widget.
When the user enters a query, the search box dynamically builds a floating div on your page to display the search results. You can customize the query in the first tab to search your site, your macro or anything else, while the second tab will return general web search results. The floating div will position itself appropriately, whether you decide to place the box on the left, right, top, or bottom of your Web site.
Check it out on
search.live.com/siteowner.
One of the things that has appeared with
Vista in a domain is that the selection box that you would normally use to be able to log onto the machine locally is no longer appearing on the login screen.
So .. how do I log onto a Vista box that is joined onto the domain using a local acount?
If I wanted to logon with a local user account called Kyle I would type into the account name box: .\kyle - this then logs on using a local account rather than a domain account.
Whether you enable Microsoft Windows Terminal Services for end-users or enable
remote desktop connectivity on a Windows Server 2003 for administrative purposes, security issues may arise depending on how you have configured your server. However, with the introduction of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, you now have the opportunity to establish a secure Remote Desktop Protocol (
RDP) connection to your server using
TLS/SSL based authentication.(
continue at source)
There has just been an announcement detailed on the
Microsoft PressPass and also the
http://port25.technet.com sites, providing details on the Technical Collaboration between Microsoft and Zend Technologies.
This collaboration, announced at the Zend/PHP Conference in San Jose, aims to enhance the experience of running the PHP scripting language on not only current generation Windows Server, but also 'Longhorn' Server, released next year. The result of this collaboration really will allow customers to utilise the power of the Windows Server Platform, through richer functionality, better integration and hence, improved performance and increased reliability.
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Over at the Windows Vista Team Blog they're showing off some renders of the
new retail packaging that Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be shipping in. Is this news? Well... no. But the packages are pretty and clearly show the direction Windows is going in, i.e. away from
this and toward
this.
Says Microsoft's Nick White: "Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that's designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation." Microsoft intends to extend the same style to the rest of its product lines in the coming year.
Microsoft has
released a beta version of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 over at Live.com. It's not an enormous update, but it does add a few nice features to the IM client. Among them are a "Roaming Identity," meaning you can (optionally) have your display picture and personal message follow you wherever you login, an improved emoticon, background, and display picture menu that shows you recently-used emoticons, etc. up top, an SMS phone book that lets you associate phone numbers with you contacts and send them SMS messages easily, a "report abuse" function, and support for Vista's Presentation Mode that keeps IMs from interrupting you when you're in the middle of a presentation.
There are a couple other minor new features like an improved Contact Card, a Sign Out option on the Status menu and a new contact emoticon. Windows Live Messenger is a
free download from Microsoft.
There have been a couple of minor changes to the New Virtual Machine Wizard in Virtual PC 2007 to help address usability issues that have been identified. The first change is to the operating system configuration page. I have never liked this page myself, as you select an operating system and have Virtual PC perform a number of unknown actions as a result. With Virtual PC 2007 you are now informed of what the result of your operating system selection will be:
One other minor change is that you can specify a custom virtual hard disk size if you choose to create a new virtual hard disk as part of the New Virtual Machine Wizard.
