Since its release, Windows Vista  has seen solid sales through the first year of availability, primarily through the sale of new PCs. Stand-alone retail sales, while not representing a large percentage of the business, represents an area of opportunity for additional growth the company sees based on the new editions introduced in 2007. To help reach that goal, Microsoft today announced price reductions on several consumer stand-alone editions. PressPass spoke with Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing at Microsoft, to discuss how these price reductions will take effect and what prompted Microsoft to make this decision.

PressPass: What did you announce today?

Brooks: Today we announced a variety of price reductions for copies of Windows Vista sold on retail shelves. In developed markets, the price changes will most notably impact upgrade retail versions of the new editions we introduced in 2007 -- Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions. In emerging markets, we are combining full and upgrade Home Basic and Home Premium versions into full versions of these editions and instituting price changes to meet the demand we see among first-time Windows customers who want more functionality than is available in current Windows XP editions. In addition, we are also adjusting pricing on Windows Vista Ultimate in emerging markets to be comparable to price changes developed market customers will see.

These price changes will take effect globally with the retail release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later this year, though some markets will see reduced prices sooner as a result of promotions many of our partners already are driving, such as Amazon.com in the United States.

PressPass: What’s prompting Microsoft to make these price reductions?

Brooks: Windows Vista has been on the market for more than a year now, with more than 100 million licenses sold in its first year. While this is great progress, we see an opportunity to grow our business even more with some of the new editions we introduced with Windows Vista. Today, the vast majority of Windows licenses are sold with PCs; retail stand-alone sales, in contrast, have been primarily from customers who value being early adopters and those building their own machines. We’ve observed market behavior, however, that suggests an opportunity to expand Windows stand-alone sales to other segments of the consumer market.

Over the past year, we conducted promotions in several different markets combining various marketing tactics with lower price points on different stand-alone versions of Windows Vista. While the promotions varied region to region, one constant emerged – an increase in demand among consumers that went beyond tech enthusiasts and build-it-yourself types. The success of these promotions has inspired us to make some broader changes to our pricing structures, to reach a broader range of consumers worldwide.

PressPass: It sounds like your strategy is to have different price points in different countries and regions, depending on whether they’re developed or emerging markets. What will the changes look like when they’re in place?

Brooks: Our research, along with feedback from promotions by our retail partners, has illustrated powerfully to us the degree to which customer needs vary, not only between developed and emerging markets, but also within markets. But the desire for the best value remains the same. As such, the Windows Vista editions involved and specific price decreases will likewise vary from region to region across the globe.

PressPass: Why has Microsoft chosen to announce this reduction now?

Brooks: Our retail partners will be refreshing their Windows Vista inventory once SP1 is released to the market later this year. We’re trying to make this as easy and efficient as possible for our retail partners to update their displays once.

PressPass: What does this mean for the business and future trends you expect to see? Are people buying more stand-alone products or are they buying Windows Vista preloaded on their computers?

Brooks: As we said earlier, traditionally, the vast majority of Windows licenses are sold through PC makers. That isn’t going to change because of what we’re announcing today. That said, it’s a great opportunity for our retail partners to sell more stand-alone copies of Windows, and help grow this small but important part of our business. At the same time, it will also enable more consumers worldwide to experience the benefits of genuine Windows software.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Join Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer as he kicks of a series of global events to launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. Ballmer will introduce new software and tools designed to help IT professionals and developers make a difference at work and in their communities.

February 27, 2008, 9am-10:30am (Pacific Standard Time)
February 27, 2008, 10pm-11:30pm (Pakistan Standard Time)

• 750kpbs

• 300kbps

• 100kbps

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

While Microsoft has shared some details (and code) for its upcoming minor update to Windows Home Server, it has said next to nothing about the next major version.

(Like the rest of the Windows client and server teams, the Home Server team is alternating between “major” and “minor” releases with its rollouts.)

I’ve tracked down (thanks to sources) a couple of new bits, however. The next major version of Windows Home Server is codenamed “Vail,” I hear.

And Vail is going to include more entertainment “capabilities.” What that means, precisely, I don’t know. Does it mean Windows Home Server will somehow become one with Windows Media Center? Again, not sure. Last year, in response to a question about Microsoft’s plans to integrate (or continue to keep separate) Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center, Todd Headrick, WHS Product Planner said:

“Time will tell – and please don’t infer that ‘time will tell’ means yes. There are a tremendous number of complex issues that need to be resolved to make this simple question become a reality.”

Continue At Source

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Last September we shipped Silverlight 1.0 for Mac and Windows, and announced our plans to deliver Silverlight on Linux.  Silverlight 1.0 focused on enabling rich media scenarios in a browser, and supports a JavaScript/AJAX programming model.

We are shortly going to release the first public beta of Silverlight 2, which will be a major update of Silverlight that focuses on enabling Rich Internet Application (RIA) development.  This is the first of several blog posts I'll be doing over the weeks and months ahead that talk in more depth about it.

Cross Platform / Cross Browser .NET Development

Silverlight 2 includes a cross-platform, cross-browser version of the .NET Framework, and enables a rich .NET development platform that runs in the browser.  Developers can write Silverlight applications using any .NET language (including VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby).  We will ship Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio tool support that enables great developer / designer workflow and integration when building Silverlight applications.

This upcoming Beta1 release of Silverlight 2 provides a rich set of features for RIA application development.  These include:

• WPF UI Framework: Silverlight 2 includes a rich WPF-based UI framework that makes building rich Web applications much easier.  In includes a powerful graphics and animation engine, as well as rich support for higher-level UI capabilities like controls, layout management, data-binding, styles, and template skinning.  The WPF UI Framework in Silverlight is a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in the full .NET Framework, and enables developers to re-use skills, controls, code and content to build both rich cross browser web applications, as well as rich desktop Windows applications.

• Rich Controls: Silverlight 2 includes a rich set of built-in controls that developers and designers can use to quickly build applications.  This upcoming Beta1 release includes core form controls (TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton, etc), built-in layout management panels (StackPanel, Grid, Panel, etc), common functionality controls (Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar, DatePicker, etc), and data manipulation controls (DataGrid, ListBox, etc).  The built-in controls support a rich control templating model, which enables developers and designers to collaborate together to build highly polished solutions.

• Rich Networking Support: Silverlight 2 includes rich networking support.  It includes out of the box support for calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS, and standard HTTP services.  It supports cross domain network access (enabling Silverlight clients to directly access resources and data from resources on the web).  Beta1 also includes built-in sockets networking support.

• Rich Base Class Library: Silverlight 2 includes a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc).  It includes rich APIs that enable HTML DOM/JavaScript integration with .NET code.  It also includes LINQ and LINQ to XML library support (enabling easy transformation and querying of data), as well as local data caching and storage support.  The .NET APIs in Silverlight are a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.

Silverlight 2 does not require the .NET Framework to be installed on a computer in order to run.  The Silverlight setup download includes everything necessary to enable all the above features (and more we'll be talking about shortly) on a vanilla Mac OSX or Windows machine. 

The Beta1 release of Silverlight 2 is 4.3MB in size, and takes 4-10 seconds to install on a machine that doesn't already have it.  Once Silverlight 2 is installed you can browse the Web and automatically run rich Silverlight applications within your browser of choice (IE, FireFox, Safari, etc).

Silverlight 2 Tutorials: Building A Simple Digg Client

To help people come up to speed with Silverlight 2, I wrote a Silverlight application and put together a series of step by step tutorials that drill into and explain the different programming concepts behind it (controls, layout management, networking, data-binding, styles, user controls, templates, etc). I also added a tutorial post that demonstrates how to migrate the application outside of the browser and make it a desktop application using WPF and the full .NET Framework. 

Below are the pointers to the 8 tutorials I've put together:

• Part 1: Creating "Hello World" with Silverlight 2 and VS 2008
• Part 2: Using Layout Management
• Part 3: Using Networking to Retrieve Data and Populate a DataGrid
• Part 4: Using Style Elements to Better Encapsulate Look and Feel
• Part 5: Using the ListBox and DataBinding to Display List Data
• Part 6: Using User Controls to Implement Master/Details Scenarios
• Part 7: Using Templates to Customize Control Look and Feel
• Part 8: Creating a Digg Desktop Version of our Application using WPF

The application I've built the tutorials around is a simple search front end to the popular Digg.com site, and allows users to type in search topics and browse Digg stories that match them.

All of the UI in the application is built using Silverlight's WPF framework.  The application uses the Silverlight networking stack and cross-domain access support to query the Digg REST API directly, and uses LINQ and LINQ to XML to query/transform the returned data into DiggStory objects that I databind the UI against:

The application supports a master/details data interaction model that allows users to select stories from the search list and quickly drill into more details about them.  A user can jump to the Digg article directly from the details form, or close it and pick another story to drill into:

The entire application is implemented in about 35 lines of C# code and 75 lines of XAML page/user-control markup.  It only uses controls and libraries built-into Silverlight.

If you have used WPF before the UI concepts I discuss in the tutorial series will all be very familiar.  If you haven't used WPF before, the tutorials should provide a good overview of the fundamental programming concepts in it, and hopefully provide you with the basic knowledge necessary to start building Silverlight 2 applications with VS 2008 when Beta1 comes out.

I'll post details on my blog once Beta1 is available for download.  I'll also upload the final Digg application to my site (along with the code + project file to open and edit it in VS 2008) once Beta1 has shipped.

Source: ScottGu's Blog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Looks like games are coming for the Zune after all! Microsoft just announced XNA Studio developers will be able to use the Zune as a multiplayer wireless mobile gaming platform. Details are sparse at this point, but it looks like it's going to be second gen Zunes only, since it was specifically mentioned that it'd take advantage of the touchpad controls. We'll let you know more as we get it.
Update: Microsoft hasn't made any final decisions as to whether the specific hardware will be necessary, and has hinted that it would be up to the game developers to decide whether to make use of the Zunepad in second-gen models, or make controls work with first-gen Zunes as well.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Your next chance to see Surface in person will be at MIX 08, March 5-7 in Las Vegas. If you're going to be there, come check us out. We'll have some demo tables in the sandbox. We'll also have people from our UX team in some really cool sessions.
Microsoft Surface was at the Sheraton, San Diego today. See photos from the event via the blog link below.

http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/...

Our team was at the Sheraton in San Diego today. They had a great time showing Microsoft Surface to another new audience. \"I\'ve never seen anything like this.\" There\'s a lot of energy when we hold an event and visitors get to experience our cutting edge

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates today will unveil a software giveaway that will ultimately provide millions of college and high school students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge to unlock their creative potential and set them on the path to academic and career success.

View a Webcast of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talking to students at Stanford University about DreamSpark, Feb. 19, 2008.

The Microsoft DreamSpark student program (http://channel8.msdn.com) makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Broad global coverage, as well as an expansion of the program to high school students around the world, potentially reaching up to 1 billion students worldwide, will continue throughout the next year. Gates will share details with students and faculty at Stanford University as part of a U.S. and Canada college tour that kicks off today.

“We want to do everything we can to equip a new generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to harness the magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyze economic growth,” Gates said. “Microsoft DreamSpark provides professional-level tools that we hope will inspire students to explore the power of software and encourage them to forge the next wave of software-driven breakthroughs.”

Priming the Talent Pipeline

Microsoft DreamSpark is available to all students whose studies touch on technology, design, math, science and engineering. Students of today are more technical in their everyday lives than ever — representing both their personal interests and what is expected of them when they arrive in the workplace for the first time. The following cutting-edge software will be available to empower students to unlock their ingenuity by building critical skills:

1. Microsoft developer tools. Visual Studio is the Swiss Army knife of computer programming. These professional-grade products provide a security-enhanced and reliable environment, enabling students to program everything from a cell phone to a robot or to create their own Web page. Students will also be able to invent compelling new gaming content and make their dream game a reality by porting their creations to their Xbox 360 console.

2. Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition

3. Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition

4. XNA Game Studio 2.0

5. 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club

6. Microsoft designer tools. This ultra-versatile suite of tools will enable students to vividly bring their creative visions to life in vibrant new Web site designs and more effective digital content, including animation, imagery and photography.

7. Expression Studio, including

•Expression Web

•Expression Blend

•Expression Design

•Expression Media

8. Microsoft platform resources. The foundation for development and design platforms, these products deliver a security-enhanced, reliable and manageable environment for students to more quickly turn ideas into reality.

9. SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

10. Windows Server, Standard Edition

“The opportunity, as a student, to use the same professional tools that I can expect to use after I graduate gives me a real head start in my career,” said Nathan Murith, a computer science student at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, who tested the service in a pilot before today’s launch. “I’m already getting more out of my studies, applying my learning to try out new ideas, and gaining new insights into careers in software design and development.”

Demand for Software Expertise in All Marketplaces and Economies

Technological innovation is a critical economic growth engine and is expected to generate 7.1 million new jobs in the global economy over the next four years, according to a study of the economic impact of IT across 82 countries and regions carried out in 2007 by IDC and commissioned by Microsoft. The same study found that the IT employment base will grow to 42.5 million people, with the sharpest growth occurring in developing nations.

“Technology is the ignition key for job growth, economic development and creating sustainable solutions to global problems,” said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. “The emerging economies are forecast to drive over 25 percent of the new IT jobs over the next four years. These jobs will be driven by an evolving, highly skilled labor force. Tech skills are key to employability.”

Availability

In the next six months, the company expects to expand Microsoft DreamSpark to college students in Australia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and many more countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe, as well as to high school students by the third quarter of 2008. Students should check http://channel8.msdn.com for regularly posted updates to see when Microsoft DreamSpark will be available to them.

Microsoft is working with academic institutions, governments and student organizations around the world, such as the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) Association, to ensure the necessary local student identity-verification technology infrastructure exists to bring Microsoft DreamSpark to all students in markets around the world. The program will be expanded as fast as this community-based effort with government and organizations can be connected at a local level in new countries.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

You've made two things clear since our first release: You want more space; and you want SkyDrive where you are. Today we're giving you both. You now have five times the space you had before — that’s 5GB of free online storage for your favorite documents, pictures, and other files.

SkyDrive is also available now in 38 countries/regions. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., we’re live in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

This release also includes bug fixes and improvements to make the site even faster and more reliable. We’re proud of this release — so proud, in fact, that we’re officially removing the Beta tag!

Check out the new version and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy it!

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

A source close to Microsoft says the company will launch new desktop software called WorldWide Telescope on February 27 at the TED Conference in Monterey, California. Our guess is that this is what Robert Scoble was talking about last week when he said he saw a new Microsoft project that brought him to tears.

The service will be accessed through a downloadable application - Windows only for now is what we hear. Users will be able to pan around the nighttime sky and zoom as far in to any one area as the data will allow. Microsoft is said to be tapping the Hubble telescope as well as ten or so earth bound telescopes around the world for data. When you find an area you like, you can switch to a number of different views, such as infrared and non-visible light.

Dan Farber posted his own educated guess that the project might be WorldWide Telescope, based on the fact that Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay were involved, and he’s right. Last year Fay gave a presentation called “”The WorldWide Telescope, bringing the Universe to a PC near you.” In 1993, Wong started a project called “John Dobson’s Universe,” a virtual sky tour on a CD-ROM, narrated by John Dobson. The two began working together at Microsoft in 2005.

Continue At Source

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Rumours were circulating today that Microsoft is set to dump HD DVD and bring out a Blu ray Xbox 360 by as early as May 2008. The move will allow the Company to go head to head with the Sony PS3 gaming console which has been credited with being one of the main reasons that retailers have preferred Blu-ray over Toshiba’s HD DVD.

Insiders at Microsoft in the USA have told SmartHouse that Microsoft has already configured a standalone Blu-ray player that can be connected into an Xbox 360 and that subject to internal marketing and sales approvals the model could be on sale within 3 months.

The Company has also been working on a built in Blu-ray player however insiders are claiming that Microsoft see the HD format battle moving online with consumers offered 1080p movie and content files as a download as opposed to having to buy a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc.

Both Intel and Microsoft have been supporters of the HD DVD format that is set to be killed off this week.

Continue At Source

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

An updated version of Popfly has been released with feature addition as: 

• Data sources, a.k.a. yellow blocks.  For everyone who has ever wanted to bring their own data into the mashup creator, we present the data source editor: comma separated values are converted into yellow data source blocks for use in the mashup designer.

• Improved search interface.  Search for projects and users through the search bar located at the top of most pages. We’ve improved searching in Popfly Explorer as well.

• Build a better block.  For the block creators out there, you now have the ability to upload images or any other supporting files to your block.

• Comments on profile pages.  Reach out to other community members through profile page messages.

• Better ways to invite friends.  We’ve improved the intelligence of the contact list import feature – find your friends who already have Popfly accounts, and invite others to play around with Popfly.

• New blocks. MovingSlideshow (smooth panning and zooming transitions) and RSSList (would look great in a blog sidebar).

• Help Wiki.  Find more tutorials and getting started information at a new location: www.popflywiki.com. Help being relocated to the wiki – for now the team will be updating the wiki, but we’re looking into opening this up to the entire community.

• Silverlight support in Popfly Explorer. You can now add Silverlight to your Popfly Web Site.

Source: Popfly Team Site

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Windows Server 2008 is the best OS to be released till date from Microsoft's stable. And the moment I got hold of the RTM build I could not resist installing it on my workstation. Due to the nature of my work I always prefer running a Server OS on my main workstation... I have been running Windows 2003 disguised as XP (with all the themes and stuff) all these days.

So here is my tale of how I went about setting up Windows Server 2008 to look and fell like its desktop counterpart Windows Vista.

1. Enable Hardware Virtualization

My workstation is a x64 machine with hardware virtualization capabilities. This means I can run Hyper-V on my machine. Even if your machine's hardware supports virtualization it is most likely not going to be enabled by default. You have to enable it via your BIOS setup.

2. Install the latest Graphics and Audio drivers

Being a server OS Windows 2008 carries with it basic graphics and audio drivers. To utilize the full strength of your hardware ensure you install the latest drivers for both graphics and audio hardware. Only with the proper graphics drivers will you be able to enable the "Aero" experience on Windows 2008.

3. Desktop Experience Feature

The Desktop Experience Feature enables a bunch of stuff that is by default present on a desktop OS. Most importantly it includes Themes, Windows Media player and the Aero related features. You will have to enable it form the Server Manager. The "Turn Windows features on or off" / "Add remove windows components" has all been rolled into the Server Manager now.

Server Manager > Features > Desktop Experience

Installing the Desktop Experience feature does not enable them. You have to manually set them up.

4. Themes

To enable Themes you will basically have to enable the Themes Service. Again being a server OS it is not enabled by default.

Services.MSC > Themes

Set the start up type to Automatic

Enabling the Aero Theme.

For this go to Control Panel > Personalization >Theme and select Windows Aero

5. Search

Search is also disabled by default on Windows 2008. Searching is important for me as I use it a lot to find my emails. To enable search you will have to add the File Services Role via Server Manager.

Server Manager > Roles > File Services > Windows Search

Outlook relies on this search service.

6. Disable Shutdown Event Tracker

Since I am using it as a workstation I do not want to keep a track of all the Shutdowns. The Shutdown Event Tracker is the pop up that you get asking you for a shutdown reason. To disable it

Open mmc.msc

Add the Group Policy snap-in

Under Administrative Templates expand System

Set Display Shutdown Event Tracer to Disabled

7. Audio

For audio you need to enable the Windows Audio service. You do this by setting the startup type to Automatic.

Services.msc > Windows Audio

Ensure you have proper drivers for your audio hardware... for me the default driver was not enabling the headphones ... it started working fine after I got the proper driver.

8. SuperFetch

As a workstation, enabling SupertFetch will give you that additional bit of responsiveness. The SuperFetch services is disabled by default and when you try to enable it you will most likely get an error message "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application"

You will have to make two registry changes to enable this service. I basically copied them over from my Vista machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

EnablePrefetcher DWORD 3

EnableSuperfetch DWORD 3

9. Get a codec pack.

For media hungry buffs download a codec pack. This will ensure you can play all media files.

10. Enable Hyper-V

With Hyper-V you can run virtual machines on your workstation. This is useful if you want to run your tests on older OS versions. Enabling  Hyper-V is easy

Server Manager > Roles > Hyper-V

Remember you need a Hyper-V enabled Windows 2008 licence and also your hardware has to support virtualization.

Also If you are using an existing VHD it may ask you to re-Activate Windows as it detected hardware changes.

One good thing about Windows Server 2008 is that it no longer asks for the i386 folder like Windows 2003 while you enable features.

& yea.. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! :D

Via: The Way I See It

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft published an article that describes in detail how to automatically extend the evaluation period for Windows Server 2008 to 240 days.

How to install Windows Server 2008 without activating it

1. Run the Windows Server 2008 Setup program.

2. When you are prompted to enter a product key for activation, do not enter a key. Click No when Setup asks you to confirm your selection.

3. You may be prompted to select the edition of Windows Server 2008 that you want to evaluate. Select the edition that you want to install.
Note After Windows Server 2008 is installed, the edition cannot be changed without reinstalling it.

4. When you are prompted, read the evaluation terms in the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then accept the terms.

5. When the Windows Server 2008 Setup program is finished, your initial 60-day evaluation period starts. To check the time that is left on your current evaluation period, run the Slmgr.vbs script that is in the System32 folder. Use the -dli switch to run this script. The slmgr.vbs -dli command displays the number of days that are left in the current 60-day evaluation period.

How to manually extend the evaluation period

1. Click Start, and then click Command Prompt.

2. Type slmgr.vbs -dli, and then press ENTER to check the current status of your evaluation period.

3. To reset the evaluation period, type slmgr.vbs –rearm, and then press ENTER.

4. Restart the computer.

This resets the evaluation period to 60 days.

Follow the complete article here

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Interested in improving your IT Service Management?  Optimize your IT Processes with Hana (MOF v4)

Hana guidance provides a structured approach for IT process optimization.  Hana integrates MSF and MOF, plus extends the guidance to include planning and governance. Hana enables you align IT with your business goals, deliver IT as a service, and leverage compliance activities to optimize your people’s effectiveness.  

HANA Life Cycle Model

  Guides Available in this Release

This beta includes the following documents:

· Hana Beta Reviewers Guide 3

· Business/IT Alignment SMF

· Change and Configuration SMF

· Customer Service SMF

· Financial Management SMF

· Problem Management SMF

· MOF Overview

· Mapping Spreadsheet (earlier versions of MOF to version 4.0)

· Design and Deliver Phase Overview

· Operate and Support Phase Overview

· Plan and Optimize Phase Overview

· Manage and Adapt Integration Layer Overview

· Build SMF

· Deploy SMF

· Envision SMF

· Governance, Risk, and Compliance SMF

· Operations Management SMF

· Policy Management SMF

· Project Plan SMF

· Reliability Management SMF

· Service Monitoring and Control SMF

· Stabilize SMF

  Where to Find the Beta Program

Our goal for this beta is to receive feedback from a broad group of IT experts regarding Hana’s content structure and high-level concepts across the entire set of SMFs.  Your feedback will be addressed in our March and April beta releases, but we’ll need your input soon to make Hana the best it can be.

Before you start reading the content, please take a look at the Reviewer’s Guide, which lists some of the specific feedback we’re seeking. We’ve intentionally presented content in different ways in certain SMFs, and how you respond to these differences will guide our final choices. The Hana beta is available on the Connect website via invitation only.

To join the Beta, please visit our Connect site.

Please send your comments and feedback to MOFPM@microsoft.com

Source: D' Technology Weblog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Yesterday I installed Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and found the OS rock solid. The last build I tried before this was Release Candidate 0.

I have taken some screenshots from RTM (Build: 6001.18000.080118-1840) x86 version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. Screenshots could be found in Photos section.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released to manufacturing today and will start being available to customers in March, starting with Microsoft Volume Licensing customers. Windows Server 2008 was also released to manufacturing today and will be available for purchase to new customers on March 1. Microsoft Volume Licensing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance coverage or an Enterprise Agreement will be able to download the server software toward the end of February as part of the joint Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 “Heroes Happen Here” launch event.

Where:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/default.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/feb08/02-04WS2008.mspx

How: Windows Vista SP1 includes quality improvements that help enhance reliability, security and performance. Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of past server solutions and helps give organizations a solid foundation for their information technology (IT) infrastructure. Organizations using Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 together can see a number of improvements for IT professionals, including benefits in security and manageability, overall system performance, and streamlined planning and deployment.

As Windows Server 2008 RTMs, Customers and Partners Adopting with Help of New Tools, Training

Here's the timing for SP1 availability for current Windows Vista users:

• In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update (in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese) and to the download center on microsoft.com.  Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1.  If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1.  Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.
• In mid-April, we will begin delivering Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Vista customers who have chosen to have updates downloaded automatically.  That said, any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not update successfully will not get SP1 automatically.  As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1.  The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience.
• The remaining languages will RTM in April.

Via: Bink

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

It's iPhone clone running Windows Mobile 6, that even has motion and light sensors! And this Windows Mobile logo instead of Apple logo on the back of the phone - is just precious...
Information from the hardware vendor follows.

• Operating System: Windows 6.0 mobile pocket PC Support 26 languages
• RF frequency: GSM / EDGE; / GSM900/DCS1800/PCS1900
• LCM: TFT 3.2 inch, QVGA 240 x 320 resolution
• front camera of actual 3 megapixels ,behind camera of actual 2 megapixels ,both CMOS high-definition camera 1Gb+512 Mb RAM (DDR) system memory
• built-in Bluetooth 1.2, support A2DP standards and the use of Bluetooth stereo headphones
• built-in GPS satellite navigation system, Wi-Fi wireless Internet access
• support for Microsoft Office Outlook, Word, Excel, PPT, Html, enable you to do online business anywhere
• agenda, music, photos, business cards and other information easily synchronized with the computer (ActiveSync4.5 synchronization software)
• built-in Media Player, with PC synchronization, support up to 2G expandable storage.
• JAVA module enables you to play a superior number of video games,bluetooth enables you to play with many people
• Internet Explorer high-speed Internet, the stock market, MSN, QQ
• stocks online, Skype, Kingsoft, network television, calls firewall, voice, calendar, a variety of third-party plug-300
• three sensor design
  • Light Sensor: sense light intensity around to adjust screen brightness;
  • Movement sensors: When phone users hand the phone horizontally t,it automatically adjust to cross-screen display;
  • Nearly Sensor: Sensing th phone user put the phone beside the ear, it automatically close the screen to save energy

To learn more visit official page of the T32 iPhone clone.

Source: msmobiles.com

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

I just checked for updates on my PC running Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 RC Refresh 2 and got an update to install Windows DreamScene as an Ultimate Extras download. So it seems like finally Microsoft has made Windows DreamScene available to SP1 users.

 Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)