Windows

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    The Windows Blog

  • Fishbowl for Facebook Using the Windows 7 Taskbar for Extra Spice

    Yochay Kiriaty
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm
    During Wednesday’s keynote, Brian Goldfarb demoed an amazing Silverlight 4 client for Facebook. Beyond its amazing looks, this Silverlight 4 demo provides a full and complete desktop client application for Windows (and Mac). SilverFace is built on top of Silverlight 4 – also announced during the keynote. If you want a cool Facebook client application to work on from your Windows desktop, you should take a look at the Fishbowl for Facebook PreviewFishbowl is a great WPF application that you can install and enjoy as a user, and at the same time it is…

  • The Windows Platform, Silverlight 4, and Facebook

    Brandon LeBlanc
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm
    Last week, we announced the availability of the Facebook SDK for .NET developers. The SDK supports coding for both Silverlight and the Windows Platform (WPF, etc.). Yesterday, Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform, took the stage for his part of the Day 2 Keynote at PDC09 where he announced Silverlight 4. During the keynote, an out-of-browser Silverlight 4 application called SilverFace was demonstrated. SilverFace was developed using the Facebook SDK we announced last week. SilverFace lets you do all kinds of things on Facebook directly from your…

  • Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers

    Mark Pendergrast
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:13 am
    The Windows Home Server Team is pleased to announce that Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24th, 2009. Power Pack 3 will be made available to existing users via Windows Update. Users need to have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server. Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server. As we’ve communicated in a past post, Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with…

  • New Windows API Code Pack Version

    Yochay Kiriaty
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:02 pm
    I am glad to announce that today we shipped a new version of the Windows API Code Pack – version 1.0.1. This is not a major version with a lot of new features, but rather a minor version focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, adding demos and few features updates (new wrappers…) But before we dive into this new version of the Windows Code Pack let’s better understand what this Windows API Code Pack is all about. Windows 7 offers new features like the taskbar, libraries, and the Sensor and Location platform, to name a few. These features enable new scenarios and create new…

  • ASUS Announces TS Mini Home Server

    Mark Pendergrast
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:19 pm
    Hot off the presses, we’re extremely pleased to report that our newest OEM, ASUS, has just announced that they’ll soon be introducing a new Home Server to the market here in the US – and in other markets across the globe. Their TS Mini Home Server, powered by a 1.66 GhZ Intel Atom chipset and running Windows Home Server, will come in two configurations: 500GB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $349 MSRP 1 TB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $529 MSRP   The form factor is pretty sleek and comes packed with 6 USB ports and an eSata port for additional external storage options. In…
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    Reviews Tom's Hardware US

  • Asus' G51J: Affordable Core i7 Mobile Gaming?

    19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Mobility and gaming have been at odds for a long time, but Asus thinks its G51J could be the solution. With Intel Core i7 Mobile CPU technology and Nvidia’s recent GeForce GTX-260M, is this mid-sized, mid-priced notebook too good to be true at ~$1,500? Nvidia - Intel Core i7 - GeForce - Central processing unit - Asus

  • Tuning Cool'n'Quiet: Maximize Power And Performance, Part 2

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    In Part 1, we showed you how to optimize the settings of your Cool'n'Quiet-equipped processor and what sort of power benefits you could expect as a result. Now it's time to run the benchmarks and see how our optimized settings actually perform. benchmark - Performance and Capacity - Hardware - Business - Graphics processing unit

  • ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB: The World's Fastest Graphics Card

    17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Despite the successful launches of its Radeon HD 5870, 5850, 5770, and 5750 DirectX 11-class graphics cards, there was one title ATI still couldn't claim: the world's fastest discrete board. ATI circles back to take that title with a dual-GPU stunner. DirectX - Radeon - ATI Technologies - Graphics processing unit - ATI Radeon HD

  • GeForce GT 240: Low Power, High Performance, Sub-$100

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    While the GeForce G 210 and GT 220 lacked inspiring performance, this newest model boasts enough of a punch to make us sit up and take notice. We have a detailed look at the first Nvidia graphics card to be paired with GDDR5 memory, its GeForce GT 240. Nvidia - Video card - GeForce - GDDR5 - Hardware

  • Tuning Cool'n'Quiet: Maximize Power And Performance, Part 1

    15 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Think your Athlon or Phenom processor is already tuned to deliver the best balance between performance and power consumption? Think again. We show you how to tweak Cool'n'Quiet for even more aggressive speed at maximum efficiency using several AMD CPUs. Advanced Micro Devices - Central processing unit - AMD Phenom - Hardware - Athlon
 
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    Bink.nu

  • Windows Home Server Power Pack 3: November 24

    Steven Bink
    21 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am
    We are announcing that the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24 2009. Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update. Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing features like backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers.

  • Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

    Steven Bink
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pm
    Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534) Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP2 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP2 customers. For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB971534. This update rollup does not apply to Exchange Server 2007 Release To Manufacturing (RTM) or Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For a list of update rollups applicable to Exchange Server 2007 RTM or Exchange…

  • Windows 8 2012

    Steven Bink
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:17 pm
      With Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 release Client and Server are in sync again, this was the case back in NT 3.1 in 1994, NT 3.51 in 1995, NT4 in 1996 and Windows 2000 in 2000. With Codename Whistler Windows XP (NT5.1) and .NET server (later named 2003, NT5.2) release went out of sync. Windows Vista (NT6.0) and Windows Server 2008 (NT6.0) the kernel got back in sync (not the release). Windows 7 which is actually NT 6.1, so codename Windows 8 is NT 7 :-).   If the next release goes according to plan we will have a new release of Windows client and server somewhere in 2012…

  • Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V (Beta)

    Steven Bink
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pm
    The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V enables Office 2010 client products to be sequenced and deployed with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V is required for sequencing and deploying Office 2010 client products with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). This kit includes the components required for Office license activation. This product must be installed on the App-V sequencing station prior to monitoring the Office 2010 client installation. This product must also be installed on the client machines to which…

  • Office Mobile 2010 - BETA

    Steven Bink
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am
    Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 brings the powerful Microsoft Office 2010 tools you use every day at work, home, or school, to the screen of your Windows phone with rich interfaces especially designed for small devices. By installing this application, you agree that:* This Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 Beta will be disabled on April 5th, 2010.* Prior versions of Microsoft Office Mobile that were installed after the phone was purchased will be uninstalled. You will need to re-install that software according to the instructions of your original purchase. If Microsoft Office Mobile came…
 
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    Mary Jo Foley

  • Office Starter 2010 private beta, with 'Office to GO,' goes to testers

    Mary Jo Foley
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am
    Microsoft released a bunch of public betas of various Office 2010 products this week. But it also released another one under non-disclosure to a select group of testers: Office Starter 2010. Microsoft made the code for Office Starter 2010 available to select testers via its Connect Web site late this week.

  • Will Microsoft's Silverlight dampen the appeal of Google's Chrome OS?

    Mary Jo Foley
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:40 am
    I'm not one of those ready to write Windows an RIP certificate now that Google has finally taken (some of) the wraps off its Chrome OS. In fact, after reading through industry watchers' questions and Google's answers about it, I'm thinking that Chrome OS may not look quite so appealing by the time it rolls out in late 2010. Here's why.

  • Microsoft still working on an Adobe Lightroom competitor, but with a social twist

    Mary Jo Foley
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am
    It's been almost two years since I first got tips about Microsoft "SmartFlow," a product which allegedly was going to be a competitor with Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom post-production software for professional photographers. I had thought that incubation project may have been quietly eliminated somewhere along the way. But it's still alive and is in a new group with a new twist.

  • Pivot: Microsoft's experiment to 'view the Web as a web'

    Mary Jo Foley
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pm
    Microsoft's Live Labs -- its Research and MSN mash-up -- fielded a new test project on November 18 known as "Pivot." Pivot (not to be confused with Microsoft's recently renamed PowerPivot) is meant to combine search, browsing and recommendations to create a more unified Web experience, according to a description on the Live Labs Web site.

  • Microsoft shares a few tidbits on IE9 and (lots) more on Silverlight 4

    Mary Jo Foley
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am
    Microsoft shared some information about what's coming in Internet Explorer 9 and Silverlight 4 during its November 18 Professional Developers Conference (PDC) keynotes.
 
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    Win Beta

  • Microsoft's problematic lack of nightly builds for IE

    Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds—or at least something fairly frequent—of Internet Explorers. Ars talks to Microsoft's general manager for Internet Explorer, who says the IE9 development cycle will look much the same as previous versions. We don't think that's a great idea... View Full Article: Ars Technica

  • Ballmer: it "matters" that Apple has gained share

    Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer today warned at a yearly shareholders' meeting that the company needed to improve the standing of Windows in the future. The executive was emphatic that Microsoft was still in a comfortable position with "96 out of 100" choosing Windows worldwide but acknowledged that Apple had cut into Microsoft's share in the past year. He downplayed the amount, labeling it a "a couple of tenths of a percent" but added that even the claimed amount was significant and worth fighting for. View Full Article: Electronista

  • Microsoft Windows chief decries standards grandstanding

    Microsoft will be compliant with industry standards in Internet Explorer 9 such as HTML 5, but Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division, decried the habit of vendors getting ahead of the process. "We are not trying to market things that are not there for developers to use yet," said Sinofsky during an interview with Network World. "Whether they are in IE or not, saying you are standards based but then saying you are the most HTML 5 compliant browser does not make sense because the standard is not [complete] yet. There is a little bit of a time warp going on." View…

  • Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th

    The Windows Home Server Team is pleased to announce that Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24th, 2009. Power Pack 3 will be made available to existing users via Windows Update. Users need to have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server. Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server. View Full Article: Windows Team Blog

  • National Security Agency beefed Win 7 defenses

    The National Security Agency helped Microsoft harden Windows 7 against attacks and is providing similar assistance to Apple, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat too, an agency official said. The admission came in prepared remarks delivered Tuesday by Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's information assurance director, at a hearing before the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. View Full Article: The Register
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    Computerworld Blogs

  • Google Chrome release: Microsoft comes out a winner

    Preston Gralla
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pm
    No doubt they're breathing a big sigh of relief at Microsoft right now, after the world has had a first look at the Google Chrome operating system. Chrome represents absolutely no threat to Windows for the foreseeable future, just at a time when Microsoft is vulnerable. read more

  • Virtually no benefit

    Sharky
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:08 am
    After applying some updates to a Windows 2003 virtual server, this pilot fish comes in the next morning to find the server unresponsive. Then it happens again a few days later -- and soon it's happening every morning. read more

  • Bank Trojan users arrested for ZeuS/Zbot hack

    IT Blogwatch
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am
    A man and a woman have been arrested in England, for allegedly spreading banking malware. They were charged with using the ZeuS (or Zbot) Trojan to steal bank passwords. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers cheer the Brits for cracking down. read more

  • Five ways to improve Microsoft Office 2010

    Preston Gralla
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:17 am
    I've just put the beta of Microsoft Office 2010 through its paces for a Computerworld review, and while there's plenty to like, there's plenty that should be made better as well. Here are five ways it can be improved. read more

  • Office 2010 roundup: beta download, release date, etc., etc...

    IT Blogwatch
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:04 am
    It's time to download the beta of Microsoft Office 2010. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers put it through its paces and play "guess the release date". (MSFT) read more
 
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    Ed Bott's Windows Expertise

  • Where’s the extra driver info on Windows Update?

    Ed Bott
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:25 am
    During the beta cycle for Windows 7, I noticed an interesting detail in Windows Update. If you’re offered a new driver file via Windows Update (or if you’re looking at the history of previously installed updates), there’s a link that offers to provide additional information about the driver. Here’s a recent example from an HP Pavilion Elite system: The Winqual subdomain points to Microsoft’s Windows Quality Online Services site. The driver ID at the end of the URL is, presumably, a unique identifier tied to that driver. (I checked some other drivers, and they have different ID…

  • Office 2010 Beta now available

    Ed Bott
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:26 am
    I’ve written about Office 2010 previously at ZDNet. Today, Microsoft officially released a public beta of Office 2010, with many of the features that were incomplete in the technical preview release enabled and some new features available as well. I’ve been running Office 2010 for several months for daily use and have been very impressed. If you’re comfortable with beta software and understand the risks, I recommend giving it a try. But please, please don’t try this on a mission-critical PC! I’ll have an in-depth look at the beta the week after Thanksgiving. (For…

  • Windows 7 information for IT pros

    Ed Bott
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am
    If you’re an IT professional considering a move to Windows 7, I recommend a visit to IT Expert Voice: IT Expert Voice is a resource for IT professionals who are concerned primarily with making technology work in their organizations, and in particular with deploying Windows 7 in a sane and trouble-free manner. The site, which is sponsored by Dell, aims to provide credible and useful information that helps you make good decisions. Our underlying assumption is that you are seriously considering a migration to Windows 7; we’re here to help you learn what you need to know for it to happen…

  • New CableCARD tools loosen the grip of DRM

    Ed Bott
    8 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am
    As I noted on Friday, Microsoft has finally released the tool needed to make any Windows 7 PC capable of using a digital cable tuner. They also released the required firmware for ATI CableCARD tuners via Windows Update. The Windows Media Center Team Blog has a full write-up on the Digital Cable Advisor tool and how it works, complete with screenshots. I have two completely separate Windows 7 systems here that use ATI cable tuners. One system has a single tuner, the other has two tuners. In addition, each system has one or more over-the-air (OTA) and/or analog cable tuners. As of last night, I…

  • At last, the CableCARD tuner has been liberated

    Ed Bott
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pm
    Mike Garcen at Missing Remote just noticed that the long-awaited ATI CableCARD tuner update is finally available. I have two CableCARD-tuner-equipped systems here, one of which checked Windows Update this morning at 10:27 and found nothing. But when I checked manually just now, here’s what I found: On my system, the firmware update completed without incident. I’ll be recording some shows tonight and checking to see whether the DRM rules really have been relaxed. Update: Strangely, when you finish installing the update you are not told to restart the computer. But as I discovered through…
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    IEBlog

  • An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

    ieblog
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am
    We’re just about a month after the Windows 7 launch, and wanted to show an early look at some of the work underway on Internet Explorer 9.  At the PDC today, in addition to demonstrating some of the progress on performance and interoperable standards, we showed how IE and Windows will make the power of PC hardware available to web developers in the browser. Specifically, we demonstrated hardware-accelerated rendering of all graphics and text in web pages, something that other browsers don’t do today. Web site developers will see performance gains and other benefits without having to…

  • My Favorite IE Add-on: Mouse Gestures by Ralph Hare

    ieblog
    13 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    I spend a lot of time dealing with problems users encounter when using Internet Explorer. As a result, when I write about add-ons, I’m usually talking about misbehaving code that is wrecking the browser. However, it’s not all doom-and-gloom out there, and I’m delighted to share my favorite browser add-on with you. I first came across Ralph Hare’s work when perusing the IE add-on sample code at CodeProject. Ralph and I both liked mouse gestures and wished that Internet Explorer offered them. For those of you who have never used mouse gestures, basically, they allow you to trigger…

  • Participating at W3C’s TPAC 2009

    ieblog
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:54 pm
    This week the W3C holds its annual Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee meeting (TPAC 2009). There will be about a dozen people from the IE team participating and this is a valuable opportunity to continue working together with other W3C members on the next generation of web standards. High quality specifications that improve interoperability between browsers are important. Our goal is to help ensure these new standards work well for web developers and will work well in future versions of IE. We will participate in a number of browser related working group meetings including…

  • Now Available: IEAK8 can create custom Internet Explorer 8 packages in 19 additional languages

    ieblog
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:49 pm
    We are pleased to announce that the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) 8 now supports creating custom Internet Explorer 8 packages in a total of 43 languages. IEAK8 can be downloaded from http://ieak.microsoft.com. Custom Internet Explorer 8 packages can be created in the following platform and language combinations: Windows XP SP2 or SP3 x86: Total languages: Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hong Kong Chinese, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian,…

  • IE October 2009 Security Update Now Available

    ieblog
    13 Oct 2009 | 12:50 pm
    The IE Cumulative Security Update for October 2009 is now available via Windows Update or Microsoft Update. This update addresses three privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability. The security update addresses these vulnerabilities by modifying the way that Internet Explorer processes data stream headers, validates arguments, and handles objects in memory. For detailed information on the contents of this update, please see the following documentation: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-054 Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 974455 This security update is rated…
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    istartedsomething

  • Internet Explorer 9, a free upgrade for the web

    Long Zheng
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:03 pm
    It shocks me as a devoted Firefox user to say this, but Internet Explorer 9 could very well leapfrog the competition in the race of next-generation of web browsers in 2010 thanks to a groundbreaking platform-wide implementation of a hardware-accelerated renderer that I think is quite literally “a free upgrade for the web”. What makes IE9’s implementation of hardware-acceleration so compelling is that it has major real-world benefits and its completely transparent to both end-user and developers. Using the new capabilities in Direct2D instead of GDI, IE9 is able to rendering…

  • Ribbon Hero, coming to help you rock with the Ribbon

    Long Zheng
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm
    In my casual scavenging of trademark applications at the USPTO, a new trademark filed this week has revealed an interesting new project from Microsoft that aims to help people familiarize themselves with the Ribbon user interface with a game inspired by the “Hero” franchise. No, I’m not kidding. Trademark serial number 77872539 for “Ribbon Hero” is classified as a “computer software for training users to use business application software; and computer game software for use in computer user training”. In detail, it will… providing online training…

  • Live from Microsoft PDC09: Keynote 2

    Long Zheng
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:38 am
    It’s day two of the three day Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2009 and keynoting today is Scott Guthrie, Kurt DelBene and Steven Sinofsky where the focus is said to be all things Silverlight, Internet Explorer, Windows and Office. Join Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and I in our not-too-technical liveblog commentary below. You can also tune in the live video stream and recording after the event at the PDC website. Microsoft PDC09 Keynote 2 Disclosure: I am attending PDC09 as a guest of Microsoft Australia.

  • Live from Microsoft PDC09: Keynote 1

    Long Zheng
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am
    It’s the the first day of Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference 2009 is just getting underway and to kick things off is a keynote by Ray Ozzie – Chief Software Architect & Bob Muglia – President of Server and Tools. The focus of this keynote is believed to be the best thing since sliced bread, cloud computing. Join Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and I in our always-quirky liveblog commentary below. You can also tune in the live video stream and recording after the event at the PDC website. Microsoft PDC09…

  • The new 2010 Office.com online portal enters beta

    Long Zheng
    13 Nov 2009 | 6:28 am
    As the public Microsoft Office 2010 beta approaches, the Office online companion website set to take center stage on Microsoft’s recently acquired Office.com has also undergone a radical redesign. In my opinion, the Office online site has long been under-appreciated by both novice and power-users alike for its vast library of additional content including but not limited to a great selection of high-resolution stock photographs, most likely due to its complexity and corporate-centric feel. Although still in beta, the new site is already addressing such problems by prominently featuring…
 
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    Microsoft Download Center

  • October 2009 CTP

    Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 code name "R2" - October 2009 CTP is the fourth pre-release build of the next version of Commerce Server. Please note that this pre-release build is not feature complete.

  • Host Integration Server 2009 BPA

    This download is the Version 1.0 release of Host Integration Server 2009 and BizTalk Adapters for Host Systems 2.0 Best Practices Analyzer.

  • Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

    Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

  • VMM 2008 R2 Documentation

    This download provides technical documentation for VMM 2008 R2.

  • ILMerge

    ILMerge is a utility for merging multiple .NET assemblies into a single .NET assembly. It works on executables and DLLs alike and comes with several options for controlling the processing and format of the output. See the accompanying documentation for details.
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    Within Windows

  • Microsoft Live Labs Pivot available to handful, code giveaway

    Rafael
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 pm
    While the read on the site may be a bit verbose, the video does a great job at summarizing what Pivot is: “A brand new technology [...] that enables you to see massive amounts of visual information at one time.” I haven’t had a chance to dig deep into Pivot, but the visualization capabilities look awesome. Video follows. If you’re interested in playing with/testing Pivot, ensure you follow me (@WithinRafael) on Twitter. I’ll be giving away codes this weekend and throughout the following week. [See post to watch Flash video] Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial…

  • PDC 2009 (Day 2): Keynote Liveblog #2

    Rafael
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am
    Microsoft PDC09 Keynote 2 Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: 37aa860d8f0e41a3973e635ea261c6fa (74.125.44.136) )

  • PDC 2009 (Day 1): Windows Ribbon Technical Deep Dive

    Rafael
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:07 pm
    After our keynote live blog (numero uno), myself, Tom Warren, Long Zheng and Andrew Lyle ran a few doors down to the Windows Ribbon Technical Deep Dive. It started out okay but quickly deteriorated after about 15 minutes. Why? Well it didn’t help that the speaker started implementing mass amounts of code via custom macros. The real downer, however, was the actual code itself. Why isn’t there a tighter wrapper for easier implementation? With third-parties wanting to emulate current Ribbon-based software out there, I don’t see an immediate need for the level of granularity they demo’ed.

  • PDC 2009 (Day 1): Keynote Liveblog #1

    Rafael
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am
    Microsoft PDC09 Keynote 1 Webcam chat at Ustream Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: 37aa860d8f0e41a3973e635ea261c6fa (74.125.44.136) )

  • PDC 2009 (Day 0): Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp

    Rafael
    16 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am
    After a quick (and ungodly expensive) breakfast in the morning, Tom Warren, Long Zheng, Paul Thurrott, Stephen Chapman, et al, made a run (almost literally) to the already-started Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp with Mark Russinovich and gang. Paul and I ran to the front and managed to somehow snag seats right next to Mark Russinovich! Sweet. Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital…
 
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    Microsoft Security Bulletins

  • MS09-065 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Remote Code Execution (969947)

    10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves several privately reported vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user viewed content rendered in a specially crafted Embedded OpenType (EOT) font. In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker would have to host a Web site that contains specially crafted embedded fonts that are used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content…

  • MS09-067 - Important: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (972652)

    10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves several privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

  • MS09-068 - Important: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (976307)

    10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

  • MS09-066 - Important: Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Denial of Service (973309)

    10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Bulletin Severity Rating:Important - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Active Directory directory service, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS). The vulnerability could allow denial of service if stack space was exhausted during execution of certain types of LDAP or LDAPS requests. This vulnerability only affects domain controllers and systems configured to run ADAM or AD LDS.

  • MS09-064 - Critical: Vulnerability in License Logging Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution (974783)

    10 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 2000. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted network message to a computer running the License Logging Server. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of the system. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect networks from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.
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    MSDN Blogs

  • PDC - Phone Company CRM & Azure Demo

    girishr
    21 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pm
    Here is the full video of the “Phone Company” demo that shows the integration of Dynamics CRM “5”, AppFabric Service Bus and Windows Azure.

  • TestApi v0.4 Released!

    ivom
    21 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm
    I am happy to announce that we have just released version 0.4 of TestApi – the testing API library - on Codeplex. Version 0.4 contains the following additions and modifications: An improved Combinatorial Variation Generation API with added support for parameter value weights and tags (for “negative” variations); A new Memory Leak Detection API allowing capture, comparison and serialization / de-serialization of memory snapshots of a running process; A new Object Comparison API allowing comparison of arbitrary .NET objects, using arbitrary object comparison strategies; A new Text String…

  • SQL Azure talks are now available online

    jcurrier
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm
    Hey all, My, "SQL Azure: Under the hood" talk is available for viewing now here.  During the talk, I referred to GopalK's earlier under the hood talk in mine so I've attached a link to this here for those that are interested. You can also find some of the other talks for SQL Azure here as well: Development Best Practices and Patterns for Using Microsoft SQL Azure Databases  SQL Azure Database: Present and Future Scaling out Web Applications with Microsoft SQL Azure Databases The Future of Database Development with SQL Azure Hope you find them interesting --Jeff--

  • Pigeon Impossible

    stevecla01
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm
    Lucas Martell is the creator of Pigeon Impossible. It’s an amazing story…   "When the project started, it was mostly an excuse to learn 3D animation, but by the end of the project I had spent so much time reworking and polishing the story that I just wanted people to laugh." It became a 5 year labour of love to create 6 minutes of brilliance. Click play and enjoy Pigeon Impossible.

  • Private Class ResumoPDC

    Otavio Pecego Coelho
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm
    1 semana de férias + 1 semana de PDC + rede lenta no hotel = -posts Então não devo ter notícias novas para vocês. Waldemir, Condé, Giovanni e Rogério falaram boa parte das novidades. Vou ficar com o que ficou de mais importante na minha memória: 1) , é claro, a entrada do Azure no ar para valer em fevereiro; 2) Tudo que tem de novo nesta última versão do Azure: a) A API de monitoração (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazuremmc ) onde você pode agora pegar o Log do IIS, eventos do Windows, iniciar/remover instâncias de roles do Azure, enfim, tudo para você começar a…
 
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    Within Windows

  • Microsoft Live Labs Pivot available to handful, code giveaway

    Rafael
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 pm
    While the read on the site may be a bit verbose, the video does a great job at summarizing what Pivot is: “A brand new technology [...] that enables you to see massive amounts of visual information at one time.” I haven’t had a chance to dig deep into Pivot, but the visualization capabilities look awesome. Video follows. If you’re interested in playing with/testing Pivot, ensure you follow me (@WithinRafael) on Twitter. I’ll be giving away codes this weekend and throughout the following week. [See post to watch Flash video] Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial…

  • PDC 2009 (Day 2): Keynote Liveblog #2

    Rafael
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am
    Microsoft PDC09 Keynote 2 Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: 37aa860d8f0e41a3973e635ea261c6fa (74.125.44.136) )

  • PDC 2009 (Day 1): Windows Ribbon Technical Deep Dive

    Rafael
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:07 pm
    After our keynote live blog (numero uno), myself, Tom Warren, Long Zheng and Andrew Lyle ran a few doors down to the Windows Ribbon Technical Deep Dive. It started out okay but quickly deteriorated after about 15 minutes. Why? Well it didn’t help that the speaker started implementing mass amounts of code via custom macros. The real downer, however, was the actual code itself. Why isn’t there a tighter wrapper for easier implementation? With third-parties wanting to emulate current Ribbon-based software out there, I don’t see an immediate need for the level of granularity they demo’ed.

  • PDC 2009 (Day 1): Keynote Liveblog #1

    Rafael
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am
    Microsoft PDC09 Keynote 1 Webcam chat at Ustream Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: 37aa860d8f0e41a3973e635ea261c6fa (74.125.44.136) )

  • PDC 2009 (Day 0): Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp

    Rafael
    16 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am
    After a quick (and ungodly expensive) breakfast in the morning, Tom Warren, Long Zheng, Paul Thurrott, Stephen Chapman, et al, made a run (almost literally) to the already-started Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp with Mark Russinovich and gang. Paul and I ran to the front and managed to somehow snag seats right next to Mark Russinovich! Sweet. Copyright © This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital…
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    TechNet Blogs

  • Discover the Future of Visual Data Mining with Microsoft Pivot

    Viral Tarpara
    21 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    The world has too much information.  If you query any search engine for any topic, you will likely be greeted by millions of links of results.  Everyone knows that text cannot possibly be the end all, be all of data discovery.  Surely as the volume of unmanaged data grows, which grows about 70% year over year, better tools must exist to navigate such data sets.  Microsoft Live Labs is trying to tackle this enormous challenge with a technology called “Pivot.”  “Pivot is our most ambitious to date. Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in…

  • Two New MCA Exchange 2007's As Well!

    Greg Taylor
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pm
    I'm clearing off the to-do list today whilst the Qual Lab goes on, and wanted to make sure the world knew that we added two new MCA Exchange 2007's over the last month or so. These two guys upgraded their existing MCA Exchange 2003, so now hold all 4 - MCM 2003/7 and MCA 2003/7. That's a very exclusive club. So congrats to: Gary Cooper - My good friend and fellow Ranger R15'er. Gary works for Horizons Consulting Inc in the US Jeffrey Rosen - Another good friend (we get to know each other pretty well in these communities) who works for Microsoft in the US as a Senior Consultant in MCS.

  • And A New Exchange MCM To Welcome Too

    Greg Taylor
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pm
    Please congratulate and welcome Dirk Buntinx, A PFE for Microsoft based in Belgium, who passed the Qual lab and joins the MCM 2007 community. Dirk attended Exchange Rotation 3 in May, and has the most bizarre taste in clothing, fortunately for him, we don't test on fashion sense. I'm joking of course, but Dirk is a guy who I know can take a joke, or a yoke as he would pronounce it. Well done Dirk, glad you could finally find the time to join us!

  • A Windows 7 trick for multiple sound cards

    jamesone
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm
    I’ve mentioned here before background noise drives me nuts (it’s one of boxes that gets ticked doing Asperger’s questionnaires). Some noise in the office is unavoidable, but it’s long been my view that filling other peoples workspace with noise from your computer is plain rude :  I have been known to ask people “Do you need to borrow some headphones”. I still have not replaced the headphones which were stolen along with my laptop bag a few weeks ago, but I have another, quite bulky, set of headphones with a boom Mic: they plug into the USB port and show up as a second sound…

  • IBM Hardware Pack for Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, v1.1.

    frasim
    21 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm
    Our friends at IBM have been working hard to provide customers direct insight into IBM Hardware, and guidance for consolidated workloads for IBM System X and Blade servers using MAP 4.0. Take a look at the announcement. I am very proud to announce that the IBM Hardware Pack for Microsoft Assessment and Panning Toolkit, Version 1.1 The IBM Hardware Pack for Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Version 1.1 helps our customers assess their current IT infrastructure needs (based on resource utilization)...(read more)
 
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    LiveSide

  • A Bing boycott? Why not boycott China?

    Kip Kniskern
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:41 am
    Yesterday in a blog post, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called for a boycott of Bing, because of the way it handles Chinese characters searches outside of China when searching for politically sensitive (to China) material. Today in a blog post on the Search Blog, Adam Sohn responds, by first pointing out that some searches in Chinese do provide “very balanced web results”.  Mr. Sohn goes on to say: We recognize that we can continue to improve our relevancy and comprehensiveness in these web results and we will. In addition, today’s investigations uncovered the fact that…

  • Windows Live Essentials & Services Book

    Sunshine
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am
    For everyone who wants to get the most out of Windows Live: The Windows Live Essentials and Services Book. This book by MVP Brad Jones and Marcus Schmidt is a full-color, step-by-step guide for using Microsoft's new Windows Live Essentials series of free applications. Step-by-step instructions show you how to use not only these applications, but also associated Windows Live on-line services. As an example, you'll learn just how easy it is to create panoramic pictures in seconds or how to create movies from pictures in just a few minutes. Then you'll get the inside scoop on how to communicate…

  • Bing Maps China updated

    Sunshine
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 am
    Bing Maps China has updated their site with tons of new data and some new features: Yellow Pages – Over 8 million yellow page listings are now searching from Bing Maps China. Business Photos – Hundreds of thousands of business front photos are now available as a part of our YP listings results. Transit – Bing Maps China has had transit information for a while now; however, the site now hosts hundreds of transit lines around China Road Data Refresh – Updated the entire country with new road network data inclusive of over 4 million road segments Traffic – Higher fidelity, wider…

  • Bing begins showing “latest posts”

    Kip Kniskern
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:42 am
    One sure fire way to get a new feature noticed is to attach it to TechCrunch, and indeed TC noticed a new Bing feature yesterday that appears on Bing search results for “TechCrunch”:   The “Latest posts” feature only appears for certain websites (TechCrunch, New York Times, etc), and appears to be different than the “Top Headlines” feature that shows not the latest headlines, but perhaps the most popular ones? In the screenshot above you can see that a search on “New York Times” shows both lists, with the “latest posts” showing…

  • New from Live Labs: Pivot

    Kip Kniskern
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:13 pm
    I got called a namedropper on Twitter today for my earlier Day 1 post, but really we think of our readers as being the reason we’re here, and it’s because of you that we’re able to get to do this cool stuff. We’ll have a bit more later on the PDC in general, but at the risk of being called a namedropper again, today I had a chance to spend 20 minutes with Dr. Gary Flake of Live Labs, and got a personal demo of the project they’ve been working on for the past year, Pivot: Here at Live Labs we’re all about experiments, and Pivot is our most ambitious to date.
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    Microsoft Windows News

  • Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem

    21 Nov 2009 | 11:44 am
    Firefox has a CPU usage issue and, consequently, can cause overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables.

  • Live Blog: A First Look at Google's Chrome OS [Digital Daily]

    21 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am
    Speaking at Microsofta s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO said of Googlea s forthcoming Chrome OS a oe Who knows what this thing is.

  • Microsoft targets Windows 8 for 2012

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:33 am
    Did the Mayans know something we don't? After a patchy decade of desktop OS releases - " one not helped by the five year stretch between XP and Vista, or the release of interim operating systems such as 98SE and Me prior to shifting to the NT codebase - " Microsoft wants to get back on track with a three year release cycle for Windows.

  • King's Bounty: Armored Princess Released

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:05 pm
    Sequel to the multi-award winning title available immediately. November 20, 2009 - MOSCOW, Russia - Leading Eastern and Central European publisher 1C Company and Katauri Interactive today announced the release of King's Bounty: Armored Princess .

  • 10 things about Microsoft's PDC 2009: The good, the bad and the ugly

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:42 pm
    Microsoft's 2009 developer conference wrapped up yesterday in Los Angeles. Not since PDC 2003 has Microsoft talked so much and said so little.
 
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    Microsoft Windows SDK Blog

  • Using SecAnnotate to Analyze Your Assemblies for Transparency Violations

    wsdkblog@microsoft.com
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am
    SecAnnotate can be used to analyze your assemblies, especially APTCA assemblies in order to find transparency violations without needing code coverage from a test case.  The static analysis provided by SecAnnotate is valuable in ensuring that your assembly is fully correct from a transparency perspective.  You can get the tool now in beta form here, and read an in-depth article on the .NET Security Blog about how this tool might be used for a simple APTCA library. Karin Meier-Magruder Program Manager

  • New samples in Win 7 SDK: Direct2D and DirectWrite

    wsdkblog@microsoft.com
    20 Oct 2009 | 12:12 pm
    The Windows 7 SDK comes with several components, including tools, documentation, headers and libraries, and samples. In this series of blogs, I’ll go through a number of sample that particularly target the new features in Windows 7. I’ll talk about how to build and run them and what the requirements are for each. Samples have been one of the most valuable educational tools out there and Windows SDK sure has all those samples needed to educate yourself about any aspect of Windows programming. For the rest of this article, I’ll assume the default location for the Windows 7 SDK…

  • Building web services on Windows with C++

    wsdkblog@microsoft.com
    20 Oct 2009 | 10:19 am
    Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 introduce the new framework for building web services in C++ code. Windows Web Services API (WWSAPI) supports the core set of protocols for SOAP-based web services. Developers can use WWSAPI in applications where they need to use native C/C++ code and they cannot take dependency on .Net Framework. Solutions built with this API require significantly less memory than WCF on the client side. On the server side, the API allows developers to achieve much higher throughput than WCF. You can find links to all online resources available to you to learn more about…

  • Development with Windows SDK & DirectX SDK when Visual Studio 2008 is installed

    wsdkblog@microsoft.com
    15 Oct 2009 | 4:08 pm
    In order to utilize DirectX SDK resources you should ensure that the DirectX SDK include, library, and executables directories are set correctly in Visual Studio 2008. The order in which Visual Studio 2008 looks for executable directories and library files is important. The Windows SDK directories should appear above the DirectX SDK directories. The DirectX SDK includes some files that are also shipped in the Windows SDK.  These files may also be installed with the Windows headers and libraries that are included in Visual Studio 2008.  It's possible to get a mixture of different…

  • Win SDK Hidden Gems: Function Discovery Browser (fdbrowser.exe)

    wsdkblog@microsoft.com
    12 Oct 2009 | 12:49 pm
    The Function Discovery API, introduced in Vista, serves as an abstraction layer between applications and devices. This API allows applications to discover devices by function rather than lower level details such as bus or connection type. The Function Discovery Browser is a utility that displays information about devices in your local machine and connected via the network. Its primary purpose is to assist driver and hardware developers to verify that programs accessing the Function Discovery API and hardware registering its attributes with the Function Discovery API are doing so correctly.
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    Neil Hutson

  • Download the “Tailspin Travel Application” from Codeplex

    neilhut
    17 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm
    In Bob Muglia’s keynote at the PDC2009, Cameron Skinner presented a demo focused on some of the exciting new features coming in Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4, and the server platform. The demo was built to show of  ASP.NET MVC 2, Windows Identity Foundation,  and the beta of the new Windows Server AppFabric. For people who are interested in this demo app, you can now download the Tailspin Travel application from Codeplex (download here). In addition to the feature use cases that were presented in the demo, the released version of Tailspin contains many additional scenarios…

  • Microsoft Announce RTM of Windows Identity Foundation at PDC09

    neilhut
    17 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm
    At the keynote today at PDC09, we announced the RTM of Windows Identity Foundation which is a .NET Framework component which provides an open platform to enable simplified identity access to both on-premise and cloud applications. You can go to the following location to download the Windows Identity Foundation. To add to this announcement, Vittorio on the team has just launch a Windows Identity Training Course on channel9 in the learn section. Please go out and check the latest details

  • TechEd Europe 2009 – Keynote Recap

    neilhut
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:50 pm
    Here is a great recap of the keynote for TechED Europe. Pretty funny that 3 people got to go on stage in comfy chairs and watch the keynote while drinking beer. Stephen Elop closed out the day with the announcement of general availability of Exchange 2010.  In the keynote, he talked about some of the new features in 2010, like the new protection and management capabilities. He also talked about Cloud Computing, and how we're putting the choice in the hands of IT Pros - you can decide which parts, and how much of your environment you want to move to the cloud. The Windows Server team also…

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Training Course on Channel 9

    neilhut
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am
    Today we have launched the Windows Server 2008 R2 Training Course for Developers on Channel 9.  This will enable you to explorer this significant Windows Server release via a self-paced training course of videos and hands-on-labs with a focus on performance, web, management, and other server solution scenarios.   You will also be able to learn about developing applications for “many-core” scale, enable efficient “trigger-started” services, explore new Windows PowerShell features, create integrated solutions with the File Classification Infrastructure, build Web Platform…

  • 100 days to the Winter Olympic Games

    neilhut
    5 Nov 2009 | 4:31 pm
    It amazing that we are now (just) less that 100 days to the Olympic days. The new, interactive Silverlight player was recently launched on http://www.nbcolympics.com so its worth going there to see what is being planned by NBC. The site is going to broadcast the event in full HD using silverlight and taking advantage of Smooth Streaming which is part of Internet Information Server. This follows on from the great experience that we built with Sunday Night Football on NBC, where we are streaming the match live in HD, and also providing many new angles of the game, effectively building a better…
 
 
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    SuperSite Blog : Vista

  • Windows 7 Battery Life Worse on Netbooks

    pthurrott
    12 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pm
    Laptop Magazine has some surprising news for Windows 7 battery life, at least on three netbooks: It's not as good as it was on XP. Here's what they found: Back in August when we started testing the final version of Windows 7, we noticed that several netbooks didn’t last as long on a charge with the new OS installed as with Windows XP. Microsoft claimed that Win 7 notebooks would see longer battery life than Vista, and for the two full-size systems we upgraded that rang true. The Dell XPS Studio 16 only got an extra few minutes, but the Gateway NV lasted an extra hour. Netbooks have…

  • Get Tinker and Texas Hold 'Em ... For Free

    pthurrott
    5 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    Microsoft will soon make the Vista-era Ultimate Extras games Tinker and Texas Hold 'Em available for one and all, for free, via Games for Windows Live: Tinker and Hold 'Em are coming to Games for Windows! Need a break? If you like classic platform puzzles, or just want to play a quick hand of cards, we have a couple of great new games coming soon to Games for Windows! Tinker Even robots get lost, sometimes! Help this one get home by solving puzzles that untangle a surreal and misleading world...but be careful! Tinker only has a limited amount of energy, so you'll have to use it…

  • Microsoft Security Essentials Update

    pthurrott
    19 Oct 2009 | 5:03 pm
    Microsoft previously reported that its new Security Essentials anti-malware solution (see my review) had garnered 1.5 million downloads in its first week of availability. Well, the numbers keep going up: After two weeks, the download total stood at 2.6 million. Also, the company tells me that Microsoft Security Essentials has achieved ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Certification on Vista Ultimate 32-bit and Vista Ultimate 64-bit in the Desktop/Server AV Detection & Cleaning Testing criteria. This certification builds on its October certification from West Coast Labs.

  • Now available: Microsoft Security Essentials

    pthurrott
    29 Sep 2009 | 8:57 am
    The public version of Microsoft Security Essentials is now available from the Microsoft web site: Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple. Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and…

  • Microsoft Security Essentials Beta updated

    pthurrott
    20 Aug 2009 | 7:42 am
    If you're using the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, you'll notice an update in Windows Update this morning. It's unclear what's changed under the hood (the referenced KB article below doesn't yet exist), but there's a new tray icon at least. Here are some before and after shots...
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    Windows Experience Blog

  • The Windows Platform, Silverlight 4, and Facebook

    Brandon LeBlanc
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm
    Last week, we announced the availability of the Facebook SDK for .NET developers. The SDK supports coding for both Silverlight and the Windows Platform (WPF, etc.). Yesterday, Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform, took the stage for his part of the Day 2 Keynote at PDC09 where he announced Silverlight 4. During the keynote, an out-of-browser Silverlight 4 application called SilverFace was demonstrated. SilverFace was developed using the Facebook SDK we announced last week. SilverFace lets you do all kinds of things on Facebook directly from your…

  • Sneak Peak at the Acer Aspire 1420P

    Brandon LeBlanc
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:50 am
    Today is Day 2 of PDC09, and attendees were given a nice “treat.” During this morning’s keynote, Windows and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky took the stage and announced that all attendees* of this year’s PDC will be given an Acer Aspire 1420P Convertible Tablet PC. This is being done to show our gratitude for the support we received by PDC attendees in the development process of Windows 7. This PC enables developers to leverage many of the unique Windows 7 capabilities including multitouch – which I will talk about further down in this post. This laptop promotion is…

  • Seesmic Moving to Windows Platform, Announces Seesmic for Windows

    Brandon LeBlanc
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:05 am
    During this morning’s keynote at PDC09 – Seesmic Founder Loic Le Meur joined Ray Ozzie on stage to make a very important announcement regarding the future of Seesmic. Seesmic focuses on bringing many of your favorite social networking services like Twitter and Facebook together into a single application so you don’t have to bounce between those services. They are best known for their Abobe AIR Twitter and Facebook app called Seesmic Desktop today. While on stage with Ray, Loic announced the launch of Seesmic for Windows. With the vast majority of Seesmic users coming from PCs running…

  • Behold the Dell Inspiron Zino HD

    Brandon LeBlanc
    13 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm
    Yesterday, Dell officially announced availability of the Dell Inspiron Zino HD. The Inspiron Zino HD is a small PC that packs quite a punch in an 8” by 8” square. Hip to be square, right? Ok – enough Huey Lewis, let’s talk about what this PC comes (and can be configured) with: It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit or Windows 7 Professional 64-bit*. You can customize the PC with 7 solid colors. You can customize the PC with 3 designs. The Inspiron Zino HD uses AMD’s Athlon processor (single or dual core). The base configuration is 3GB of RAM, but can be configured with 4, 6,…

  • Windows 7 Wins Popular Science Award for Windows Touch

    Brandon LeBlanc
    12 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pm
    Today, Popular Science released their annual Best Of What’s New for 2009 which recognized this year’s top 100 innovations. Windows Touch in Windows 7 has won Popular Science’s Best of What’s New Award this year in the computing category. Very cool! Speaking of Windows Touch – USA Today’s Ed Baig takes a closer look at Windows Touch in Windows 7 and multitouch on PCs in general. He suggests Windows 7 could spur multitouch adoption in PCs. I’ve been playing with the HP TouchSmart tx2 and have a couple of multitouch monitors on the way for my office here in Redmond. If you…
 
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    Windows - RSS Feeds

  • Microsoft Countering Google Chrome OS Release with Windows 7

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm
    Microsoft issued an official response to news of Google releasing its Chrome Operating System to open source for developers. Although the Chrome OS will not be available to end users for at least another year, Microsoft is already citing Windows 7 as a more viable alternative for working on both the Web and the desktop. The initial target of the Chrome OS will be netbooks, whose always-on data connection will allow the browser-based operating system to launch and run its applications from the cloud. - Google's Chrome Operating System may not be available to end-users until late 2010, but…

  • Microsoft CEO Ballmer Touts Windows 7 Gains

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm
    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tells his audience at the Microsoft Annual Shareholder Meeting that Windows 7 has been outselling previous versions of Windows, including Windows Vista, by a ratio of 2-to-1. Data from outside analysts suggests that Windows 7 has made steady gains in the PC market since its Oct. 22 release. - Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has been outselling its predecessors, specifically Windows Vista, by a ratio of 2-to-1, CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience at the Microsoft Annual Shareholder Meeting on Nov. 19. quot;Since launch, we're already sold twice as many units…

  • Microsoft, SAP Partner on SAP BusinessObjects

    19 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am
    Microsoft and SAP announced that the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application would be a preferred solution for Microsoft customers seeking business functionality such as planning, budgeting, and financial forecasting. Both companies will explore ways to accelerate adoption of the SAP application among Microsoft's user base. Microsofts focusing on its core products, and divesting itself of some internally created business-intelligence applications, leaves it open to such partnerships. - Microsoft will offer the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application…

  • Windows 7 Was My Idea?

    18 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm
    Microsoft's Windows 7 Is My Idea billboard campaign reminds eWEEK Labs' Andrew Garcia that annoying things about Windows are still present in Version 7--and that new annoyances have been added to the list. Here's what Garcia would add to the OS to make Windows truly his idea. - Its been three months since I installed 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on my primary work system. Windows 7 runs without crashing much, starts and shuts down faster than Vista did on the same machine, and has a lot of pretty slideshow backgrounds to stare at. However, I would not say the new OS has r...

  • 10 Reasons Why Microsoft Should Fear Chrome OS

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pm
    News Analysis: With the preview of Google's Chrome OS possibly just a day away, Microsoft should be concerned. If Chrome OS delivers on Google's promises, it could eventually capture the operating system market. The computing world is moving to cloud computing on the Web. Chrome OS, starting from its base as a Web OS, could win over a host of developers and users to this new platform. If this happens then Chrome OS could become the first new operating system in many years that has a serious chance of shaking Windows' dominance on the world's PCs. - As the world prepares for the release of…
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    Windows Server Division WebLog

  • Thoughts on the Professional Developers Conference

    WindowsServer
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am
    Greetings!  Chris Steffen here again. You may have read my posts regarding virtualization and green IT in the past. I had the opportunity to spend the week at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) recently.  While I am not a programmer, as a technical architect, I took away several interesting tidbits from the conference that I thought I would take a moment to share: 1.  Windows Azure is the real deal. Previously, it seemed to be a hodge-podge of somewhat related technologies, with some of them helping customers get into the “cloud” – something elusive…

  • Haiku for Fun and Prizes

    WindowsServer
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:39 pm
    For all geek poets, A Windows Server haiku Means prizes click here   Oliver Rist

  • PDC 2009 – Windows Server and Windows Azure Platform

    WindowsServer
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am
    Yesterday at PDC, Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia announced the global availability of Microsoft’s new cloud computing service – Windows Azure Platform. In addition, Ray and Bob announced a number of additional announcements related to Windows Server.  I wanted to take a moment and provide some context for all our existing Windows Server customers and partners. For our existing Windows Server customers, the most important announcement at PDC was that in the future Windows Azure will support Windows Server virtual machines.  This Windows Server VM support will make it easier for…

  • Improve Web User Experience with IIS SEO Toolkit RTW and IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC

    WindowsServer
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am
    Remember the scene in Diehard when he shoots the glass? That was cool. What’s even cooler is now you can fine tune your Web site for the search engine, thus improving the experience for your Web users.   Today, Microsoft announced the releases of IIS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit RTW and IIS URL Rewriter 2.0 RC – both extensions for IIS.   Don’t take it personally – I know it can be hard when your significant other tells you how to make improvements on something you worked hard on, let alone a faceless piece of software. But really, they are both just trying to…

  • Microsoft Professional Developer Conference 2009 Opens Today!

    WindowsServer
    17 Nov 2009 | 4:24 am
    From Berlin one week to LA the next, Microsoft product managers love planes. Apparently. Me? Trans-Atlantic plane rides are still a good way to extract military secrets from me, but I'm new. Maybe long plane rides will grow on me. Like fungus. But if you're in Los Angeles or have the plane-loving impetus to go there, the Professional Developer Conference 2009, one of the world’s leading events for software developers and strategic architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform starts today! I hope you can make it to PDC 2009, but if you're not able or plane rides are…
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    Windows Virtualization Team Blog

  • LiveMeeting on Microsoft’s Integrated Virtualization Strategy: Thursday, Nov. 19, 8:00 AM PST

    SystemCenterTeam
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm
    Join us Thursday, November 19, 8:00 AM PST for a LiveMeeting session on “Microsoft’s Integrated Virtualization Strategy, Products and Solutions” presented by Kenon Owens, Technical Product Manager. This LiveMeeting is exclusive to members of the System Center Influencers Program (which is also open to virtualization enthusiasts).  Not a member?  Visit the program overview on TechNet to learn more about the program and how to join. Join Information Available on Influencer Portal.  Members of the program will need to log into the Connect site to access the LiveMeeting join…

  • Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 beta 2

    porourke
    5 Nov 2009 | 10:20 pm
    Hello, this is Bryon Surace again.  I’m a senior program manager on the Windows virtualization team at Microsoft.   Recently, the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 beta 2 became available for public download.  Part of this release is the Beta 2 version of Visual Studio Team System 2010 Lab Management; an integrated solution to give you all the benefits of virtualization for application lifecycle management. Congratulations to the Visual Studio Lab Management team for reaching this milestone! Beta 2 Improvements: §  Simplified Virtual Environment creation § …

  • Re-blog: Microsoft Site Recovery Solution Launch

    porourke
    3 Nov 2009 | 11:27 pm
    I'm re-blogging here. Over at Virt Planet blog, Jim wrote the following: This week Microsoft is launching a comprehensive solution to help customers implement cost effective, end-to-end site recovery programs. Built on proven capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 and the System Center management suite, Microsoft is helping IT Professionals leverage Windows Server Hyper-V and Failover Clustering along with tools like Virtual Machine Manager to deliver cost effective site recovery. The Microsoft Site Recovery Solution ecosystem is ramping with a broad range of storage replication partners like…

  • Upcoming Webcasts on Best Practices for Virtualizing MS Server Applications

    porourke
    27 Oct 2009 | 3:25 pm
    We’ve got some great webcasts coming up in the next few weeks to discuss recommendations for virtualizing MS server applications and the benefits of choosing hyper-V + System Center as your virtualization solution.  Each technical webcast will focus on a specific server application- Exchange, SQL and SharePoint.   Please see below for detailed information. TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for SQL Server (Level 300). Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 at 10am Pacific time Virtualizing business critical applications will deliver significant customer benefits…

  • Update: More than recession: IDC's server virtualization tracker report

    porourke
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:24 pm
    Update: The folks at IDC asked that I remove this blog post until further notice. That said, do check out Roger Johnson's post. He discusses Dell PowerEdge R910 and his Hyper-V deployment at Crutchfield. I met Roger at VMworld 2009. He's a VCP, having run an ESX Server-based datacenter for some time before Crutchfield moved away from VMware and onto Hyper-V/SCVMM earlier this year. Patrick
 
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    The Windows Blog

  • Fishbowl for Facebook Using the Windows 7 Taskbar for Extra Spice

    Yochay Kiriaty
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm
    During Wednesday’s keynote, Brian Goldfarb demoed an amazing Silverlight 4 client for Facebook. Beyond its amazing looks, this Silverlight 4 demo provides a full and complete desktop client application for Windows (and Mac). SilverFace is built on top of Silverlight 4 – also announced during the keynote. If you want a cool Facebook client application to work on from your Windows desktop, you should take a look at the Fishbowl for Facebook PreviewFishbowl is a great WPF application that you can install and enjoy as a user, and at the same time it is…

  • The Windows Platform, Silverlight 4, and Facebook

    Brandon LeBlanc
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm
    Last week, we announced the availability of the Facebook SDK for .NET developers. The SDK supports coding for both Silverlight and the Windows Platform (WPF, etc.). Yesterday, Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform, took the stage for his part of the Day 2 Keynote at PDC09 where he announced Silverlight 4. During the keynote, an out-of-browser Silverlight 4 application called SilverFace was demonstrated. SilverFace was developed using the Facebook SDK we announced last week. SilverFace lets you do all kinds of things on Facebook directly from your…

  • Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers

    Mark Pendergrast
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:13 am
    The Windows Home Server Team is pleased to announce that Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24th, 2009. Power Pack 3 will be made available to existing users via Windows Update. Users need to have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server. Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server. As we’ve communicated in a past post, Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with…

  • New Windows API Code Pack Version

    Yochay Kiriaty
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:02 pm
    I am glad to announce that today we shipped a new version of the Windows API Code Pack – version 1.0.1. This is not a major version with a lot of new features, but rather a minor version focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, adding demos and few features updates (new wrappers…) But before we dive into this new version of the Windows Code Pack let’s better understand what this Windows API Code Pack is all about. Windows 7 offers new features like the taskbar, libraries, and the Sensor and Location platform, to name a few. These features enable new scenarios and create new…

  • ASUS Announces TS Mini Home Server

    Mark Pendergrast
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:19 pm
    Hot off the presses, we’re extremely pleased to report that our newest OEM, ASUS, has just announced that they’ll soon be introducing a new Home Server to the market here in the US – and in other markets across the globe. Their TS Mini Home Server, powered by a 1.66 GhZ Intel Atom chipset and running Windows Home Server, will come in two configurations: 500GB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $349 MSRP 1 TB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $529 MSRP   The form factor is pretty sleek and comes packed with 6 USB ports and an eSata port for additional external storage options. In…
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    WinInfo

  • WinInfo Short Takes: Week of November 23, 2009

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news, including some post-PDC some soul searching, a Google Chrome OS announcement and a Microsoft response, Windows 7 off to a supposedly strong start, the Jonas Brothers and Xbox 360, and so much more

  • PDC 2009: Microsoft Pushes Windows 7 to Developers

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Microsoft Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky took to the PDC 2009 keynote stage on Wednesday morning to bask in the afterglow of Windows 7's successful launch and ask that developers create new applications that build on Windows 7 technologies.

  • PDC 2009: Microsoft Announces Office 2010 Public Beta

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Microsoft on Wednesday announced the public availability of Office 2010, which includes versions of the productivity suite, SharePoint Server 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office Web Apps for businesses, and Office Mobile 2010.

  • PDC 2009: Microsoft Launches Cloud Computing Platform

    17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Microsoft launched its forthcoming cloud computing platform, Windows Azure, on the opening day of its PDC 2009 event in Los Angeles.

  • PDC 2009 Opens: Mid-Week Short Takes

    17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Today, Microsoft takes the stage for the first of two days of PDC keynote addresses, with the software giant promising big surprises at each.
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    WinInsider.com

  • Microsoft's Dynamics ERP to gain new services

    21 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am
    Microsoft said it is readying two new online services, and one updated online service, for its Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning package -- all to debut next year.The company also said that its ERP hosting business has more than doubled in the past year as it moves more of its software and services business into its emerging Azure services cloud.

  • PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:16 am
    It ended up being a somewhat different PDC conference than we had anticipated, and even to a certain extent, than we were led to believe. Maybe this was due in part to a little intentional misdirection to help generate surprise, but in the end, the big stories here in Los Angeles this week were more evolutionary than revolutionary.

  • Windows 7: From beta to final code in one year

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am
    On Oct. 28, 2008, Steven Sinofsky, then senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live, stood on stage at the Professional Developer's Conference to announce the first preview release of Windows 7, the operating system that would succeed the poorly received Windows Vista.

  • PDC 2009: Microsoft pushes Windows 7 to developers

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:42 am
    Microsoft Windows chief Steven Sinofsky took to the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) 2009 keynote stage on Wednesday morning to bask in the afterglow of Windows 7's successful launch and ask that developers create compelling new applications that build on Windows 7 technologies.

  • Bing continues to increase its usage share

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:41 am
    Microsoft's Bing search engine accounted for 9.9 percent of all web searches in the United States, up from 9.4 percent the previous month. However, most of that gain clearly came at the expense of Yahoo! since market leader Google also expanded its share, from 64.
 
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    Neowin.net / All

  • Sale of Skype finalized

    Kevin Phillips
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:47 am
    eBay, the online auction giant and owner of the popular Skype software has finally sold Skype and the deal is complete. A message on the official Skype blog from company President Josh Silverman reads: "Great news – we've closed the deal with the new investors. The investor group is led by Silver Lake, and includes Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Joltid Limited and our founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Read full story...

  • Google phone on the way?

    Kevin Phillips
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am
    Everything up to this point has been a warm-up for something big happening at Google. The Android operating system from Google has seen its growth increase with the launch of such devices as the Verizon Droid and the Motorola Cliq. But reports are now surfacing of something bigger on the horizon for both Google and Android. There are rumors of a new Google phone that isn't just another re-branded handset on a major cellular network. This new device will reportedly be a VOIP handset that allows you to make calls using the Google Voice service. Read full story...

  • Banned Xbox's flooding eBay and Craigslist

    Kevin Phillips
    21 Nov 2009 | 1:08 am
    In the wake of the mass Xbox Live bans hundreds of Xboxs have appeared on online marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist by gamers looking to offload their Xboxs. In the past two weeks Microsoft has banned nearly one million users from the online gaming service after finding that they had modified their consoles to play pirated games. Since the ban is connected to the console rather than a gamer's online account, many modified Xboxs have appeared on multiple bidding and personal sales sites. eBay has issued a warning to potential buyers on its website to be wary of buying consoles in the…

  • Windows 8 is coming in 2012

    Brad Sams
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:13 pm
    According to the latest roadmap from Microsoft, it would appear that Windows 8 will arrive sometime in 2012. This would follow a three year product cycle that would keep it in line with Vista and Windows 7 releases. The road map is clear about the targeted date and does not try to hide the fact that the code name is "Windows 8". Little else is known about the OS other than its targeted date of release. Let the speculation begin. Image courtesy of msftkitchen.com Read full story...

  • Seesmic available for Android and BlackBerry

    Kevin Phillips
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm
    The popular Twitter client Seesmic has just released versions for both Google Android and RIM BlackBerry devices. These new releases come hot on the heels of their latest Seesmic for Windows launch which launched on Tuesday. Seesmic for BlackBerry groups all your Twitter timelines into a simple and clean interface. Here are some of the features on this application: Create and view saved searches View Twitter lists that you've created on twitter.com Shorten urls and send photos Configure notification alerts for Direct Messages and @Replies Seesmic for Android provides a feature-rich…
 
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    Active Win

  • Announcing App-V 4.6 RC and integration with Office 2010 Beta!

    First of all, we are excited to announce the availability of App-V 4.6 RC! In August we announced the App-V 4.6 Beta. Since then we have taken in lots of customer feedback and continue to refine the App-V 4.6 release so that we can deliver a great product!  We invite you to check out the RC release by registering and downloading the App-V 4.6 RC release via Microsoft Connect, where you can also submit feedback directly to the team.

  • NSA role in Windows 7 development raises privacy concerns

    Privacy expert says the NSA could build backdoors that enable tracking users and intercepting communications, but security researchers dismiss the idea

  • Microsoft still working on an Adobe Lightroom competitor, but with a social twist

    Mary Jo Foley: It’s been almost two years since I first got tips about Microsoft “SmartFlow,” a product which allegedly was going to be a competitor with Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom post-production software for professional photographers. I had thought that incubation project may have been quietly eliminated somewhere along the way.

  • PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

    It ended up being a somewhat different PDC conference than we had anticipated, and even to a certain extent, than we were led to believe. Maybe this was due in part to a little intentional misdirection to help generate surprise, but in the end, the big stories here in Los Angeles this week were more evolutionary than revolutionary. That was actually quite all right with attendees I spoke with this week, most of whom are just fine with one less thing to turn their worlds upside down. It's tough enough for many of these good people to hold onto their jobs every week.

  • Will Microsoft's Silverlight dampen the appeal of Google's Chrome OS?

    Mary Jo Foley: I’m not one of those ready to write Windows an RIP certificate now that Google has finally taken (some of) the wraps off its Chrome OS. In fact, after reading through industry watchers’ questions and Google’s answers about it, I’m thinking that Chrome OS may not look quite so appealing by the time it rolls out in late 2010. Here’s why.
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    Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

  • Giving Away 3 HP Wireless Printers

    Amit
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    HP India is giving away the all-new HP Photosmart Wireless printers to three lucky Digital Inspiration readers in India. There are no lengthy surveys to fill nor any taglines to complete -- just fill in your details in this simple form. You can participate in the HP printer giveaway as long as your shipping address is somewhere in India. The HP Photosmart printers that are part of this giveaway include HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart Plus B209A and HP Photosmart C4688 All-in-one. I have had a chance to use one of these wireless printers (Photosmart C309G) for few days and it has…

  • What is Google Chrome OS – Video & Screenshots

    Amit
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am
    The Chrome OS team has a produced a new Common Craft style video that gives an overview of the new Chrome OS is 3 minutes. Here’s a high-res screenshot of Chrome OS.. ..and here are some Chrome OS screenshots captured from the press event: 1. Chrome OS Application Menu 2. Chrome OS Media Browser Cloud Storage - Everything you save inside Chrome OS is put on the cloud like this notepad application which will sync with Google Docs. 4. Arrington from TechCrunch -- Live-Blogging the Chrome OS event   5. Switching between Chrome instances - It’s much like Alt+Tab of Windows 7 with…

  • How to Use Windows 7 Themes on XP and Vista Computers

    Amit
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:35 am
    Microsoft paid close attention to personalization in Windows 7, and shipped it with a gorgeous collection of desktop backgrounds and themes. Windows 7 also makes it easy for users to create their own personalized themes and then share it with other Windows 7 users. If you are still using an older version of Windows (like Windows XP or Vista), you don’t have to feel left behind because, with some simple tricks, you can enjoy all or part of what these Windows 7 themes have to offer. Use Windows 7 Themes with XP and Vista First, launch the official Windows 7 themes directory and download…

  • Pull Images from any Web Page and Turn Them Into a Nice Photo Collage Online

    Amit
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pm
    What you see on the right is a butterfly-shaped photo collage made with photographs of Obama (see large version) and it took me less than 15 seconds to create one. Wondering how? That was simple. I did a simple search for "obama" on Google Images and then copied the search URL into shapecollage.com. Within seconds, the tool pulled all the photographs of Obama found on Google Images and turned them into a nice photo collage. This collage is interactive because if you click any of the thumbnails in this pile of photographs, it will open the full resolution picture on original website…

  • Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Now Available for Download

    Amit
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am
    You’ve seen all the new features of Office 2010 and now its time to try them on your own computer. The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 is now available as a free download on microsoft.com/office. And other then Office, you can also download Visio 2010 beta and Project 2010 beta for your Windows computer. This is the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 edition so you get to experience Publisher and Infopath 2010 as well in addition to the regular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook applications. The Office installer weighs around 700 MB in size but you need around…
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    Channel 9

  • Joe Stegman: Silverlight 4 - Out of Browser Evolves

    Charles
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm
    Joe Stegman, Director of Program Management on the Silverlight team, joins us to discuss Silverlight 4's Out of Browser improvements (OOB means you can run Silverlight applications on the desktop, outside of, well, the browser...). Of note, you can now interop with COM objects in SL4's OOB. We also touch on the the future of Silverlight and clearly define the distinctions/differences between Silverlight and WPF. When to use SL? When to use WPF? Enjoy.

  • Wes Dyer and Stephen Toub: Rx and Px - Working Together

    Charles
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm
    Reactive Extensions for .NET (Rx) released this week during PDC09. Rx uses Parallel Extensions for .NET (Px) for all of it's concurrent and parallel computing needs. How is it using Px, specifically? What's going on here and why?  Stephen Toub, PM on the Px team, and Wes Dyer, developer on the Rx team, tell us all about this partnership the experience of collaborating on two very compatible technologies that, taken together, create something beautiful. Some many xs, so little time. Enjoy.

  • C9 Lectures: Dr. Erik Meijer - Functional Programming Fundamentals Chapter 8 of 13

    Charles
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am
    We've kicked off C9 Lectures with a journey into the world of Functional Programming with functional language purist and high priest of the lambda calculus, Dr. Erik Meijer (you can thank Erik for many of the functional constructs that have shown up in languages like C# and VB.NET. When you use LINQ, thank Erik in addition to Anders).  We will release a new chapter in this series every Thursday. In Chapter 8, Functional Parsers, it's all about parsing and parsers. A parser is a program that analyses a piece of text to determine its syntactic structure. In a functional language such as…

  • SharePoint Feature and Package Designers in Visual Studio 2010

    Beth Massi
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:06 am
    In this interview I sit down with Lily Ma, a Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team building tools for SharePoint development. Lily shows off the new SharePoint feature and package designers in Visual Studio 2010 and how they make packaging up and deploying your SharePoint customizations easy. As she dives deeper into the tools, she also demonstrates the flexibility and control you have in specifying what features go in what packages across projects in your solution as well as how to modify the manifests to meet a variety of developer needs. Also if you missed it, check out Overview of…

  • Outlook Social Connector for Outlook 2010

    Larry Larsen
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm
    One of the new features we're announcing today at PDC is the Outlook Social Connector SDK. This is a new way to integrate social networking data into Office Outlook 2010. Too busy with the @Ch9Live show to tell you too much more but check out the video. :)
 
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    Channel 10

  • PDC News Day 2: IE9, Office 2010, Silverlight 4, Pivot

    Sarah Perez
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:57 pm
    Wednesday, the second day of Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference, was jam-packed with news about upcoming products, beta releases and more. If you didn’t tune into the live stream, here’s what you missed: Internet Explorer 9 Arguably one of the bigger announcements from PDC, Steven Sinofsky gave attendees a first look at what’s coming in IE9 with a demo of an early build. The updated browser will support new web standards including HTML5 and CSS3 and will also have a faster JavaScript rendering engine. Sinofsky admitted that JavaScript performance in IE8 was much slower than…

  • AP Launches New App for Windows Mobile

    Sarah Perez
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:56 pm
    The Associated Press has just launched a new application designed for Windows Mobile devices called AP Mobile. Soon to be made available in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the new application offers news from 1100+ local providers across 50 categories including top news, business, politics, world, sports, celebrity, travel, and more.  The topics appear across the top of the application and you can swipe through them using your finger. You can configure the app to just display the categories you care about, too, if you don’t want to see them all.  News items feature an image and headline…

  • Twitter App Seesmic Moves to Windows

    Sarah Perez
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:56 pm
    The popular Twitter application from Seesmic is moving away from the Adobe AIR platform and over to Windows where it will use .NET and WPF technologies. The company also announced a Silverlight version is in the works for some sometime next year which will re-introduce the cross-platform capabilities previously offered via Adobe AIR. Considering that some of the top Twitter applications currently use AIR (TweetDeck immediately comes to mind, for example), you may wonder why the company decided to make the switch. According to Loic Le Meur, Seesmic’s CEO, the app’s users have been asking…

  • "Be a Martian" Website Crowdsources Mars Exploration

    Sarah Perez
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:52 pm
    Thanks to a grant from Microsoft Research, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has launched a new website called Be a Martian. On the site, visitors can virtually “explore” Mars, zooming around the planet, looking at images from various Mars landers, explorers, and satellites from the 1960’s to present-day. But Be a Martian isn’t just an educational experience – it’s a crowd-sourced experiment that may end up helping NASA accomplish something important: process the massive volumes of image data they have collected about the red planet. To encourage visitors to pitch in with data analysis,…

  • Azure News from PDC

    Sarah Perez
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:17 pm
    On Tuesday, Microsoft kicked off the 2009 Professional Developer Conference (PDC) with some big news about Windows Azure, the cloud computing platform announced a year ago at PDC 2008. The biggest news to come out of the keynote was the announcement that Azure will launch into production on January 1st, but customers will get the first month of service free. However, prior to its public launch, a few companies are already using Azure now. During the keynote, some of them came on stage to discuss how. This group included some big names like WordPress, Domino’s Pizza, and the Cheezburger…
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    Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

  • Is it OK to use OEM Windows on your own PC? Don't ask Microsoft

    Ed Bott
    15 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    If you go shopping online for Windows 7, you'll find OEM System Builder copies at significant discounts from full retail prices. Microsoft's own web sites and support forums give conflicting, confusing, often inaccurate information about these products. What's an honest consumer supposed to do?

  • Your top Windows 7 questions, answered

    Ed Bott
    12 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pm
    Since Windows 7 launched on October 22, my e-mail inbox has been deluged with questions, comments, and pleas for help. I can't possibly reply to them all personally, so I thought I would answer some of the most interesting questions here. Learn the ins and outs of 64-bit upgrades, how to avoid a long download of your discounted student copy, and where to find drivers.

  • Why I'm letting someone else run my Exchange 2010 server

    Ed Bott
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm
    Microsoft officially released Exchange Server 2010 today. I could go download the code from my MSDN or TechNet account and install it in-house. Instead, I'm planning to let someone else handle the heavy lifting for me, and I suspect I have a lot of company. The biggest objection to a complex but powerful server product like Exchange is the hassle of managing it locally. Using a third-party hosting company eliminates those hassles and adds benefits like redundant data storage and simplified administration.

  • Seven perfectly legal ways to get Windows 7 cheap (or even free)

    Ed Bott
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am
    Only suckers pay retail. You don't have to pay full price for Windows 7. Most people have much better options available, if you just know where to look. I've researched deals in three separate categories: upgrade offers available to anyone, special deals just for students, and subscriptions intended for technical professionals and developers. Want to save 58%, 70%, 85%, or even get Windows 7 free? Keep reading.

  • What Microsoft won't tell you about Windows 7 licensing

    Ed Bott
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:41 pm
    If you're not a lawyer, the subject of Windows licensing can be overwhelmingly confusing. Over many years of studying this stuff, I have learned that Microsoft has buried much of this information in long, dry license agreements and on sites that are available only to partners. Microsoft hasn't assembled this information in one convenient place, so I decided to do the job myself, gathering details from public and private sources.
 
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    Microsoft Watch

  • Five Interesting Things About Microsoft's Office Mobile 2010

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm
    Back in August, Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership that would see Microsoft Office applications ported onto Nokia smartphones, starting with the business-centric Nokia Eseries. At the time, the move seemed a good one for Nokia, given that it would help strengthen its competitive position within the North American marketplace, and a good one for Microsoft, since it would strengthen its business-mobility segment by porting a version of Office onto the Symbian operating system. But, as I wrote at the time, it didn't seem like the greatest deal for Windows Mobile; if Microsoft's…

  • Microsoft Doesn't Need Yahoo to Challenge Google Online, Numbers Suggest

    17 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm
    New search engine numbers from research company ComScore, as reported by eWEEK earlier this morning, suggest that things are on the rise for Microsoft, showing Bing holding 9.9 percent of the market in October, Google continuing its dominance with 65.4 percent and Yahoo seeing its share dip slightly to 18 percent. Combine that with new data from Experian Hitwise for October, showing Bing at 9.57 percent of the market, and I think we have enough data points to suggest that Microsoft is doing something right. Certainly it must boost the egos of the Bing team, who had to face widespread…

  • Microsoft to Launch Zune Internationally, Without Zune HD

    16 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm
    If you wanted proof that Microsoft's strategy for its Zune brand involves veering away from the actual Zune HD device, look at its plans for Europe and other international markets: Starting tomorrow, Xbox owners in some 18 markets (including the United Kingdom, most of the European Union and Australia) will be able to stream Zune-branded movies to their televisions. Microsoft's emphasis on associating Zune-the-brand with cloud-based entertainment services, as opposed to the actual Zune HD device, seems to suggest two things, at least to me: a) Microsoft really is serious about its "three…

  • Microsoft Is Turning My Laptop into a Billboard

    13 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm
    This desktop now brought to you by Coke. Microsoft announced on Nov. 13 at the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo the rollout of what it's terming "two new exclusive branding opportunities available on Windows 7": branded desktop wallpapers and gadgets created by the likes of Coke, Ducati and Ferrari. For the pilot program, which will apparently run until October 2010, Microsoft is allowing only a "handful of brands" to plaster their visuals across Internet Explorer 8 add-ons, Windows 7 and Windows Vista-connected gadgets, Windows 7 backgrounds and borders, and "operating system audio…

  • Windows 7 Inspired By Mac OS X? Microsoft Says No Way.

    12 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am
    Did the designers of Windows 7 draw inspiration from Mac OS X?According to a Microsoft employee, the answer is "yes." That executive--Simon Aldous, Microsoft's partner group manager in the U.K.--told British tech-trade publication PCR that Windows 7 looked to Apple in modeling its end-user interface:"One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use. What we've tried to do with Windows 7--whether it's traditional format or in a touch format--is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics."The time-stamp…
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    Computing Tech

  • Will Win 7 Leave Users Champing at the Bits?

    21 Nov 2009 | 11:11 am
    HERE WE GO again! Welcome to the hoopla, hype, and hubbub that invariably accompanies the release of any full-blown Microsoft operating system. I’m not saying that the excitement is unjustifi ed. For many PC users, the release of Windows 7 is a big deal; and it may be the event of the year or (considering its predecessor) the decade. After all, Win 7 promises to shake up the computing landscape in ways that Windows Vista didn’t: forcing upgrade decisions on consumers and businesses, while selling boatloads of new PCs, laptops, and netbooks to users who long ago highlighted October 22,…

  • Ubuntu - Scanners

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:44 am
    In the digital world it seems like we’re always having to convert paper documents into a digital format. Whether it’s scanning old pictures to save as digital images or scanning important documents to save in PDF format, a scanner has almost become a necessity for any home workstation. Ubuntu provides the XSane application to interface with most of the scanners available. This section walks through the things you’ll need to know to get the most out of your scanner and Ubuntu.Detecting the ScannerBefore you can start using your scanner you need to ensure that XSane can work with it. Here…

  • Ubuntu - Modifying Printer Properties

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pm
    You can modify the properties of any printer on the system, whether Ubuntu automatically created it or you manually created it. If you double-click the icon for the printer you want to configure.The window on the left contains five main properties groups that contain printer information you can modify. The main groups are• Settings• Policies• Access Control• Printer Options• Job OptionsSome printers contain a sixth group for setting specific options for the printer. SettingsThe Settings group provides some basic settings you can change for the printer. From here, you can change the…

  • Ubuntu - Adding a New Printer

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am
    One amazing feature of Ubuntu is its ability to automatically detect printers connected via USB cables, parallel cables, and even serial cables. If you have one of these printers, you most likely don’t need to add it to the system. You should already see an icon appear under the Printers window. Just move on to the next section to configure it. If you are not fortunate enough to have your printer automatically detected, you’ll have to manually add it. Here are the steps for doing that:1. Click the New button on the toolbar. The New Printer wizard appears and lists your printer options.

  • Ubuntu - Printers

    17 Nov 2009 | 11:25 am
    Even though technology gurus keep predicting a paperless society, for now we’re stuck having to print some things out. In the past, printing was one of the dark areas in Linux. Trying to get modern printers working with Linux was a challenge. However, recently there’ve been some amazing advances that make Linux more printer friendly. Possibly the biggest advance in this area has been the common UNIX printing system (CUPS). CUPS provides a common interface between UNIX (and Linux) systems and printers. It runs in the background as a service, connecting to any defined printers and waiting…
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    SolSie.com

  • Seesmic: Twitter, Facebook Client for Blackberry and Android Available

    SolSie
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm
    Seesmic, the client for Twitter, Facebook with multiple timelines, just announced the availability for Android and Blackberry versions, in addition to the Web and AIR desktop (Windows & Mac) clients. Android users can download the Seesmic 1.0 from the Android Market app. Users of Blackberry 4.6 and later can download Seesmic 1.0.6 beta  from www.seesmic.com, [...]

  • Susan Boyle Pulverized Amazon’s CD Pre-Order Record History

    SolSie
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am
    Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who became famous after  the Britian’s Got Talent has seen her new album become the biggest CD pre-order in Amazon.com’s history. Her album entitled “I Dream a Dream” will be released on Monday, November 23rd has surpassed the previous record set by Japanese rock group Mr Children’s Supermarket Fantasy in [...]

  • Slacker Radio Mobile App Delivered to T-Mobile USA Customers on BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphones

    SolSie
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am
    Slacker, today announced that T-Mobile USA customers using a BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone will be given easier access to their favorite music through the free Slacker Radio Mobile application, as an icon for the application will be pushed directly to their smartphone. Already broadly available on BlackBerry App World(TM) to T-Mobile USA customers using BlackBerry® [...]

  • Google News Optimized for iPhone, Android and Palm Pre

    SolSie
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am
    Google just announced a completely new revamped Google News site formatted for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users. (Google already offer a mobile-optimized version of Google News for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60). Google News for mobile is now available in 29 languages and 70 editions. The mobile site http://news.google.com displays more stories, sources, and [...]

  • Fring is Available on Android

    SolSie
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:45 pm
    fring™, a VoIP mobile app that enables users to place VoIP calls especially for international calling alternative to their carrier’s expensive per-minute charges. In addition of its VoIP, the app also offers a unified instant messaging. You can live text chat/voice chat with MSN Live Messenger, Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, as well as  [...]
 
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    Softpedia News - Microsoft

  • Office 2010 Beta Build 14.0.4536.1000 75-Screenshot Gallery

    Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)
    21 Nov 2009 | 3:38 am
    The first public testing milestone of Office 2010 is now available for download, with Microsoft imposing no limitations on the number of users that can grab the bits, or on the period of availability. Office 2010 Beta Build 14.0.4536.1000 is offered in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) flavors and can be used until October 2010, when the product is set to expire. Microsoft slaps expiration dates on all its pre-release and trial software, allowing testers to run the software for free in exchange for their feedback. This is the case of the various editions of Office 2010 Beta, which were…

  • Windows 8 Availability Planned for 2012

    Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am
    According to information available from Microsoft, the next iteration of the Windows client and server operating system is at a maximum of three years away. The Redmond-based company revealed that it expects to deliver the next major release of Windows approximately in 2012. Of course, “approximately” is the key, as it offers the software giant a little elbow room. Microsoft has so far failed to commit to a specific timetable for the delivery of codename Windows 8, but customers looking forward to it should know that it will drop within two to three years. In the graphics included…

  • Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) - Behind the Curtain

    Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am
    With Internet Explorer 9 early in the making, Microsoft revealed at the Professional Developers Conference 2009 in Los Angeles that it had identified a total of three pillars for IE’s evolution: standards and interoperability, hardware acceleration, and JavaScript performance.At the bottom of this article, you will be able to find three videos embedded, each dealing with one of IE9’s development focuses. The videos feature the General Manager of Internet Explorer but also additional members of the IE team, actively involved in building the next generation of Microsoft’s…

  • Windows 7 RTM Already Has 9,000 Logo’d Products

    Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am
    At just approximately a month after the general availability deadline of Windows 7, the operating system enjoys strong support from hardware and software companies worldwide. In fact, there are approximately 9,000 products that now feature the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo, Microsoft revealed at the Professional Developers Conference 2009 in Los Angeles earlier this week. In this regard, Windows 7 is definitely not a repeat of Windows Vista, as the readiness level of the ecosystem of hardware and software products reveals. “The ecosystem around Windows is really amazing.

  • With IE9 in Sight, Firefox Jumps over 50% Market Share

    Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am
    Internet Explorer is not what it used to be. Firefox, but also additional rival browser such as Safari and Google Chrome, have eroded Microsoft’s dominance on the browser market. IE is left struggling even after the release of Internet Explorer 8 this year and with no end in sight to its downward trajectory. The Redmond company’s proprietary browser has continually bled audience to competitors, and it looks like on certain markets, Internet Explorer no longer occupies the dominant position. And it is only Mozilla’s Firefox to blame for IE being forced to give up the…
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    The Digital Lifestyle

  • Entertainment 2.0-Episode 54 Intro: Ask Ceton your questions!

    Athursby
    21 Nov 2009 | 6:35 am
    While there won’t be an Entertainment 2.0 this week due to some timing issues, we have a great Thanksgiving show coming for you. Next week, Josh and I will sit down with Ceton’s Vice President of Systems Integration, Jeremy Hammer. For this interview, we’ve decided to let our audience decide what gets asked. This is your opportunity to find out the answers to your questions involving Ceton’s products. Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first though. Just like any company bringing a new product to the market, Ceton has to keep a wrap on certain things.

  • VidaBox vCase3 Review

    mabrown
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:52 pm
    Earlier in the week I did an unboxing of this chassis, my initial impressions were high and after having built out a HTPC using the vCase3 my initial impressions were pretty much dead on.  Anyone who has ever built a HTPC using other chassis such as ones from Silverstone or OrigenAE knows the pain of small tight spaces, having to remove sections of the case in a certain order in order to get all of your components in and if a hard drive should fail you’re in for about an hours worth of work replacing it. I’m extremely happy VidaBox realized how frustrating these scenarios…

  • Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 to ship November 24th

    Ian Dixon
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:47 am
    Microsoft have officially announced that Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 is going to released next Tuesday (24th) via Windows Update. PP3 includes improved Windows 7 support and a great Windows Media Center addin Details from the Windows Home Server blog Windows 7 Libraries integration When you install the Windows Home Server Connector and log on a computer running Windows 7, you can access the Windows Home Server shared folders from the Windows 7 libraries. Windows 7 Action Center backup warning suppression After you install the Windows Home Server Connector to enable the home server backup…

  • Sky Player for Media Center launches today (officially)

    Ian Dixon
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:14 am
    I noticed that the Sky Player addin for Windows Media Center launched on Tuesday but apparently the official launch is today. On the Windows Media Center team blog they have the official announcement: Watch TV from Sky Live and On-Demand with Windows 7 A new world of high quality television programming is now open to Windows Media Centre users in the United Kingdom as Sky Player on Windows 7 launches today. That’s more than 500 movies available anytime from SkyMovies and thousands of programmes from 24 channels – all delivered to your PC, on your schedule. There’s plenty of great live…

  • Podcast: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

    Ian Dixon
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:04 am
    This week on the show long term listener Brian Frost talks photo tagging and how to get the most of your photos in Windows Media Center. Brian has some great tips on the methods and the tools needed to make the most of your photo collection.  I posted Brian’s tips on the TDL Wiki I have the weeks news and details of the the new app store for Windows Media Center: MadeforMediaCenter.com [mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDL_MediaCenter_20091119_231.mp3[/mp3] Listen Here (download mp3) -  Subscribe via iTunes - Subscribe via RSS - Subscribe with Zune Vote for the show…
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    TechNet Edge

  • Visio 2010 Process Diagrams: Drawing on Experience with Mark Nelson

    Harry Miller
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    Visio 2010 has new features specifically for process diagrams, such as cross-functional flowcharts (swimlane diagrams) and BPMN diagrams. Mark Nelson, the lead PM on the Visio team for these features, shows how they work using the Beta version of Visio.

  • Windows 7 DirectAccess Explained

    yung
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:01 am
    The Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems introduce DirectAccess, a new solution that provides users with the same experience working remotely as they would have when working in the office. With DirectAccess, remote users can access corporate file shares, Web sites, and applications without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN), as shown in Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience. Further, DirectAccess separates intranet traffic from Internet traffic, as shown on the left, and reduces unnecessary traffic on the corporate network.  DirectAccess requirements…

  • Morgan Keegan on Exchange 2010

    Adam Bomb
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:01 am
    The last stop on the Exchange customer road trip was Memphis.  We met with a couple guys from Morgan Keegan. They expect to see some significant cost savings and improved uptime.  They even got written up in Wall Street and Technology - you can see the write up here.

  • Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience

    yung
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pm
    This is a follow-up posting with Windows 7 DirectAccess Explained. Here, I configured a simple infrastructure with my Hyper-V-enabled laptop to demonstrate the user's experience in accessing corporate resources with DirectAccess including: dc.contoso.com DC/DNS/DHCP/CA da.contoso.com DirectAccess server with 2 network adapters and 2 consecutive Ipv4 addresses assigned to the one connected to the Internet app.contoso.com An internal only application server win7-client.contoso.com A Windows 7 machine configured as a DirectAccess client  The demonstration shows with DirectAccess a user…

  • Technical Talks with Tim Vander Kooi-Windows Server2008 R2

    Evren Toktas
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pm
    Join Tim Vander Kooi, chairman of the board for the North American arm of Culminis, and Kevin Watt, Product Manager as part of  Windows Server team in US Subsidiary, as they delve deeper into the changes that Windows Server 2008 R2 brings to the server OS and what these changes mean with regard to existing network infrastructure. What current applications and products are affected by making the move to Windows Server 2008 R2 and also how do Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 together bring a new dimension to network computing?  Visit IT Manager Community Hub on TechNet -…
 
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    Computer Techno

  • Windows 7 New, Improved Applications and Services

    Computer Techno
    21 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am
    Windows 7 makes numerous additions to its applications and services arsenal, including the following:• Multitouch support—Vista added Tablet PC support for Business, Enterprise, Home Premium, and Ultimate Editions. Windows 7 builds on this platform with support for Multitouch, a way to use visual gestures on touchscreens to instruct Windows 7 what to do, and how to behave. To better understand this capability, watch the Microsoft video demo at http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=8700c7ff-546f-4e1d-85f7-65659dd1f14f.• PowerShell 2.0—PowerShell is a scripting language that you can use…

  • Windows 7 System Management and Stability

    Computer Techno
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am
    Stability is probably the most important issue when considering whether to upgrade to a new OS or buy a computer with it installed. Early adopters have a choice about this, but as an OS becomes ubiquitous and new PCs come with it already installed, we must make peace with the thing. After the likes of Windows Me (we liked to call it Windows 666), the real question we always want answered is, “Does it crash less?” Windows 7 has some pretty impressive anticrash technology. Think of them as antilock brakes and airbags for your computer:• Manage AutoPlay feature for CD/DVD—With the recent…

  • Windows 7 Networking

    Computer Techno
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:22 am
    Windows 7 networking includes a variety of new features. Chief among these is a reworked version of the Network and Sharing Center, but you’ll also find some nice improvements to wireless networking, and simplified resource sharing on home networks thanks to homegroups.Improved Network and Sharing CenterThe Network and Sharing Center is a single location that lets you easily perform common network tasks, much as the Mobility Center does for portable computers:• Set up a new connection or network• Connect to a network• Choose homegroup and sharing options• Troubleshoot problemsThe…

  • Windows 7 Power Management

    Computer Techno
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:18 am
    As energy conservation and consumption loom ever larger in assessing true costs of computer ownership, and users seek to cut those costs, Windows power management tools have gained considerable importance. Windows 7 makes some nice additions and enhancements to power management features already present in Windows Vista (and to some extent in Windows XP as well).Reduced Power ConsumptionBy paying closer attention to Windows activity levels, Windows 7 can implement sleep or hibernation features in modern PCs, and even shut down system components that aren’t in use. Most users can turn these…

  • Windows 7 New Accessories

    Computer Techno
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am
    Historically, Microsoft has packed ever-increasing globs of accessories into Windows. In the olden days of Windows 1.0 you were lucky to get a clock and one game. Windows 7 departs from tradition and adds only a few items to its software offerings and, almost unbelievably, removes some supplied applications (many applications are now offloaded into the Windows Live service online). To access these and other Windows Accessories, click Start, All Programs, Accessories. Here’s what’s new for accessories in Windows 7:• Math Input Panel—Lets you use the mouse to enter mathematical formulas…
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    Windows Tools, Help & Guides | Mintywhite.com

  • Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide Released [Italian Translation]

    Rich
    21 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)The Italian translation of Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide is now available. Thank you to the translators:FSoftSalvatoreDownload Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide (Italian)Download Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide (English)(Free Newsletter sign up required.)Direct Link for newsletter subscribers (Instructions for subscribers)Random PostsWindows Vista SP1 Wreaks Havoc On Some PCs, Users ComplainWindows 7: Change Mouse Scroll Wheel Settings [How To]Windows 7 M3 ScreenshotsAdd Up to Two Extra Clocks in Windows…

  • Zip Tools: The Best Alternatives to WinZip and WinRar

    Rich
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)WinZip and WinRAR are classic file managers for compressed archives; however, over the years, these programs have become more commercial and less useful (feel free to disagree — I don’t feel that strongly about it.) In this guide, you’ll learn about three alternatives to WinZip and WinRAR: 7-Zip, PeaZip, and TUGZip.(...)Read the rest of Zip Tools: The Best Alternatives to WinZip and WinRar © Rich for Windows Tools, Help & Guides, 2009. Rich Robinson | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us

  • Windows Vista – Customization Manual v1.3 Released

    Rich
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)Windows Vista – Customization Manual v1.3 is available for download. Here’s a list of some of the changes (what I can remember):Major grammar rework (thanks Larry Schwartz for your proof reading.)Linked table of contents and clickable sidebar contents (in compatible PDF readers.)Cross referencing to assist in navigation through the book.Notational conventions to assist in learning.Meets service pack 2 specifications.Broken links updated.More screenshots to assist in learning.Rework of layout,…

  • Free Desktop Wallpaper Showcase: Set 68

    Rich
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)A collection of desktop wallpapers for Windows, OS X, and Linux. If you have wallpapers you’ve made yourself or if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments or contact me.(...)Read the rest of Free Desktop Wallpaper Showcase: Set 68 © Rich for Windows Tools, Help & Guides, 2009. Rich Robinson | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us

  • Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook Released

    Rich
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)RSVR85 and I got together about a month ago and put together the Windows 7 Media Center Customization Handbook. RSVR85 took his previous Windows 7 Media Center Guides, updated them, and made them even easier to follow. I just put everything together and now it’s online and ready for your reading pleasure.I’d like to thank RSVR85 for his hard work. This book is fantastic and I can’t wait to update my Media Center PC to Windows 7 so I can put these hacks into effect. His original forum post on…
 
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    Petri IT Knowledgebase

  • Easier Navigation Between Remote Desktop Sessions with Windows 7/2008 R2

    Daniel Petri
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:49 pm
    In previous version of Windows, the remote desktop client, mstsc.exe, used to have a yellow tab on top of the screen, viewable when using the RDP connection in full screen. This tab could be fixed to the top of the screen, or minimized when needed. So far, so good. Now imagine this: You're using a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008, or even a Windows XP Pro machine as an RDP Gateway to other servers/computers on your network. This is a very common usage scenario for many organizations that need to enable remote administrators' access to their internal servers, but do not want to…

  • Big Improvements to Virtualization in Windows Server 2008 R2

    Daniel Petri
    17 Nov 2009 | 4:02 pm
    Windows Server 2008 R2 brings a lot of improvements in the virtualization area. Some of the top improvements include: 1. Hot-Add VM Storage Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V supports hot plug-in and hot removal of disk storage in the format of Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) files and/or pass-through disks. This can be done while a VM is running, and allows administrators to meet changing workload requirements. 2. Enhanced Processor Support 64 Logical Processors per host - Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V supports up to 64 logical processor cores, making it possible to run even more demanding workloads…

  • Speeding Up Internet Explorer 8 with Accelerators

    Jason Zandri
    1 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm
    Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 is the newest release of Microsoft's infamous web browser. In this newest release and running natively in Windows 7 there are a host of new features and options that users can leverage to get more out of their experience on the web and to make it safer than before. Petri Recommended: Update to the Latest Vista Drivers Vista's performance can be improved dramatically by installing the latest Vista-Certified hardware drivers. PC hardware manufacturers release new, improved Vista drivers continually: New versions are probably available for your PC right now.

  • How to access USB and Other PCI Devices in VMware ESXi4 VMs with VMDirectPath

    Tom Finnis
    30 Oct 2009 | 10:55 pm
    Introduction to VMDirectPath Although hardware independence is fundamental to many of the advantages of virtualization it also creates a problem when you need to connect a specific hardware device to a virtual machine. Although SCSI passthrough has been available in ESX for some time accessing other types of device, especially USB, has always required alternative solutions such as USB over IP hubs. With the release of vSphere4 VMware have introduced a new feature called VMDirectPath I/O which allows up to two PCI(e) devices on the host server to be connected to a Virtual Machine. Officially…

  • Getting Familiar with the Windows 7 Start Menu

    Jason Zandri
    22 Oct 2009 | 8:54 am
    As of today, Windows 7 has been officially released and while there are some subtle changes to the Graphical User Interface (GUI) from Vista it is a pretty big departure from what many people are used to seeing under Windows XP Professional or Home Editions. Petri Recommended: Update to the Latest Vista Drivers Vista's performance can be improved dramatically by installing the latest Vista-Certified hardware drivers. PC hardware manufacturers release new, improved Vista drivers continually: New versions are probably available for your PC right now. Petri IT Knowledgebase Team >> Download…
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    My Technology Guide

  • Free Beta MAK Activation Keys for Office 2010, Visio, Project & Sharepoint 2010

    Mezanul
    21 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am
    Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta, Visio 2010 Beta, Project 2010 Beta, SharePoint 2010 Beta have been available free download and free usage till October 2010 after activated. Of the many beta products that available free download, Office Home and Business 2010 Beta and Office Professional 2010 Beta requires user-specific retail product key for activation, which can be requested online from officebeta.microsoft.com. These MAK product key below (which is the same for every downloads) can be used to activate unlimited copy of Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta, Visio Premium 2010…

  • Download Free Units Conversion Program – Convert

    Mezanul
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm
    There are many unit conversion tools available for the Windows platform but nothing comes close to Convert in terms of speed, accuracy and user-friendliness. Convert, created by Joshua F. Madison, is a free and easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions. Convert v4.10 can run without any problem in any version of Windows starting from Windows 95 to Windows 7. To be precisely speaking it runs on…

  • Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Downloads Now Available for Everyone

    Mezanul
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:47 am
    Microsoft Office 2010 Beta downloads have been active for a few days for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Now Microsoft Office 2010 Beta downloads are available for the public and are now available on the official Microsoft Office 2010 Beta website. To be able to download the beta of Microsoft Office 2010, users need to first log in using a Microsoft Live account and fill out a short form. Downloads are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit editions and for various languages. The product key for the beta will also be displayed on those pages. This key is required to activate the beta after…

  • Quick Tip: Fine Tune ClearType Font Smoothing in Windows 7

    Mezanul
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:56 pm
    The default font smoothing may not suite to everyone. If the setting that is nice is smooth to your eyes may be blurry for someone else. For this reason Microsoft provides the ClearType Text Tuner in Windows 7. To start the ClearType Text Tuner, click on the Start Button and type cttune in the Start Search Box and then press Enter. Now, just follow the wizard and select the options that looks best to you. Then after a few more customizations, the wizard will complete. If you are not satisfied run the wizard again. Click on Finish to save your settings.

  • Download Yahoo! Messenger 10 Final (Offline Standalone Setup Installer, all Languages)

    Mezanul
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm
    Yahoo has officially released Yahoo! Messenger 10 final version, build 10.0.0.1102. The final version incorporates many bug fixes, including some bugs related to the new video call feature, also improves on overall stability of the product. It also offers users with detailed connection log for troubleshooting connection woes. When a user tries to download Yahoo Messenger 10 from the official home page, they get the web installer instead of the full installer. This web downloader when started downloads the messenger app in background. Not many users likes this approach. They…
 
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