We have already covered about the legacy of Bill Gates here but I just thought I should add something about the man who I idolized for the larger part of my not so long life.

So here’s is to the man who changed the way I interact with computers!

For many, Bill Gates and his company Microsoft would more be remembered for the evil-doings and monopolization which led to their domination on desktop PCs but for me Bill Gates is a business man in a true sense of word. He truly knew the art of doing business. He broadened the company’s range of products,  and then pushed it so aggressively that it led to the the domination and success of his products. Bill Gates predicted “a computer in every home and on every desk”….and today its indeed in every home & on every desk and over 90% of those run Windows. So for me Gates will be remembered as one of the best-known business men and one of the best entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution.

And Now June 27, 2008 marks the End of an Era that was as Bill Gates has transitioned out of day-to-day role in the company which he co-founded with his friends Paul Allen & Steve Ballmer to spend more time on his work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But Gates will still remain Microsoft’s chairman and will be involved in select projects based on direction from Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and the leadership team. Microsoft will continue to be led by a deep leadership team, led by CEO Steve Ballmer, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie. With guys like Ray Ozzie at helm, Microsoft to me is in safe hands!

Here are some of the videos from farewell event of Bill Gates held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Do check them out!

Employees Welcome Gates (00:22)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduces Chairman Bill Gates at the Employee Town Hall. June 27, 2008
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Gates - Starting Microsoft (00:17)
Bill Gates describes how he and co-founder Paul Allen started Microsoft with the dream that software would be important one day.
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Ballmer - Microsoft Vision (00:21)
CEO Steve Ballmer describes Bill’s vision of a computer on every desk and in every home.
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Gates - Microsoft Leadership (00:51)
Gates describes the opportunities ahead for Microsoft’s leadership.
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Ballmer - Microsoft Culture (00:37)
Steve Ballmer talks about how Bill Gates has instilled a culture of intensity, tenacity and passion at Microsoft.
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Ballmer - Changing the World (01:14)
Steve Ballmer thanks Bill Gates for the opportunities Microsoft employees have to change the world and realize their true potential.
Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

I am thankful to Gates for his contribution to personal computing and I wish him all the best and is excitedly looking forward to the Post-Gates era at Microsoft Corporation.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Today, Microsoft reaches a significant milestone for customers and partners with the release of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the hypervisor-based virtualization feature included in select versions of Windows Server 2008. Those who have already deployed the x64 versions of Windows Server 2008 can receive Hyper-V from Windows Update beginning July 8, while new customers and partners can download Hyper-V later today (12:00 pm PT). The Windows Virtualization team will be counting down the days to download from Windows Update, so be sure to visit the Windows Virtualization Team blog to see daily spotlights on specific features and benefits of Hyper-V technology, as well as to read about customer stories and see postings from guests.

Since the beta release of Hyper-V in February, more than 250 customers have participated in Hyper-V’s early adoption program. Microsoft’s own deployment and results with Hyper-V is showcased today in Rob Emanuel’s guest blog and video on the Windows Server Division blog, specifically on customers using Hyper-V and partner benefits, visit the Microsoft PressPass site.

Also, check out the new Hyper-V videos on TechNet Edge:

TechNet Edge Interview: Hyper-V Overview with Mike Neil
TechNet Edge Interview: Hyper-V Program managers interview Part 1
TechNet Edge Interview: Hyper-V Program managers interview Part 2

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Do you use toolbar with your web browser?

Toolbars for me are the thing of the past. Gone are the days when I used to try toolbars from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo or AOL to be able to have features such as tabbed browsing, searching from the browser etc because back then such features were not a standard part of any of the available web browsers. Later Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and likes started pushing these toolbar just to get more market share in search as their respective search engines were built into the toolbars. This resulted in toolbars getting bloated with unnecessary features which halted our web experience. This was the time when I stopped using toolbars

Then came Opera and Firefox who in their newer versions of browsers added tabbed browsing, built-in search as the standard feature of their web browser. Microsoft later too added these features as a standard in Internet Explorer 7.

All this changed when a few months ago I was invited by Microsoft Connect to test out their upcoming Silverlight based toolbar. I tried a couple of builds of this toolbar and ever since then I have been using this toolbar and its now a part of my daily web browsing experience.

Last month MSN \ Windows Live team released the final bits of this toolbar. Its supported by both Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 however it will not run on Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1. Based on Silverlight technology, the toolbar feature not only sleek & sexy look but its also very rich when it comes down to features. The toolbar allows us to search & browse the entire MSN categories from the browser without going to the msn.com site.

On the left we have a Live Search textbox to search the web(pretty useless for me because I rarely use Live Search but its a neat feature nonetheless). On the right we have 3 buttons; one for flip, next one for settings and the last one for help. The flip button flips(animated ofcoarse) the MSN category options into Live options.

Clicking on Windows Live brings out(animated) a sub menu for running Windows Live apps installed on the system.

Search box works very well. As soon as you search for anything, the MSN categories side flips into animation and transforms into options from Windows Live to assist in search as shown in the image above.

Color chooser is a nice touch and is now becoming almost a standard in all of the Windows Live apps. As expected, it allows us to colorize the entire toolbar into a color of our choice!

Being based on Silverlight techonology, the entire toolbar looks flashy and has got smooth animations on almost all mouse clicks.

Overall its a nice toolbar and the best looking out there and most importantly its light and doesnt slow down the web experience. I wish it had the option to change the search provider from Live to Google but oo.. well..

I’ll recommend you all to try it atleast once. Head over to toolbar.msn.com to download it!

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

The IE team at Redmond HQ of Microsoft has send a fancy little cake to Mozilla’s Montain View HQ as a good gesture to join in the celebration of the release of Firefox 3.

Well what can I say about this? Didnt expect this coming from Microsoft. I was very surprised when I got to know that IE team also sent in a cake when Firefox 2.0 was launched.

If this wasnt enough, Mozilla revealed today that the Firefox team kept the IE logo piece frozen since then!

Kudos to Microsoft & IE team for showing such a good gesture!

Image Credit: Mozilla Links

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

LiveSide & Steve Clayton has reported that Microsoft has silently updated their Live Mesh client-side application. The newer version is 0.9.2815.17 as opposed to version 0.9.2815.12

Live Mesh team is yet to publish any change log about the changes that this new update brings to the table but Scott of LiveSide has found out that after Live Mesh update is installed, Vista users are now no longer required to turn on the UAC for Live Mesh to work.
You can update your Live Mesh client app by right clicking on the Live Mesh tray icon and click on ‘Update Live Mesh’.

Stay tuned here for any updates regarding the changes which we get with this new update.

[update]
Nadia at Live Mesh forums has posted the change log:

The Live Mesh team has been working hard to fix bugs reported by our Tech Preview users and to address top requested features (such as removing the requirement that UAC be enabled in Windows Vista).  Below is a list of the most prominent fixes implemented in the latest Live Mesh release.  Thank you for all your great feedback!

Fixes

·         Live Mesh is now available in all English-speaking countries (not just the U.S.) 
·         Index for Desktop Search now works with Live Mesh folders
·         Removed the User Account Control (UAC) requirement when installing and using Live Mesh with Windows Vista SP1
·         Fixed bug where an underscore in a Hotmail account name returned an “Invalid Hotmail Address” error
·         Fixed bug with Silverlight 2 Beta 2 failing to load in Silverlight Media View
·         Fixed bug where the notifier tooltip incorrectly indicated that Live Mesh Remote Desktop was unavailable for a computer  running in non-admin mode
·         Fixed bug where the Live Mesh folder icon was not displayed in the e-mail inviting someone to share a folder
·         Fixed one of the bugs that caused Live Mesh to fail to start
·         Fixed problem with Live Mesh returning errors when waking from sleep/hibernate

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

This date is earlier than we expected but still not this year as some "manufacturer" (in fact: re-seller of models designed and made in Taiwan and China) claimed. Since HTC is biggest manufacturer of Windows Mobile phones with market share of over 80%, so it is interesting to see what HTC says about Windows Mobile 7:

At the HTC Touch Diamond launch in South Africa, I had the opportunity to have a little chat with Kevin Chen, General Manager of HTC for MEA and CIS. Besides having an in-depth explanation on the innovations that the Touch Diamond brings, Chen told me that HTC is planning to unveil a device with Google Android Operating System by Q4 of this year, and a Windows Mobile 7 by Q1 of next year, atleast that’s what’s on the planned release schedule from HTC.
To learn more, visit related story about Windows Mobile 7.

Commentary: the launch date of HTC's first phone powered by Google Android is nothing new because it was announced in many places that it is by the end of this year, however it is interesting to see that Kevin Chen from HTC - obviously a higher manager sent from Taiwan to manage regional sales - is unveiling HTC's roadmap for Windows Mobile 7. The statement however looks very optimistic as from our previous information the release date of the first Windows Mobile 7 phones would be summer 2009. It may be that in February 2009, during Mobile World Congress 2009, Microsoft will unveil Windows Mobile 7 officially for the first time and it is possible that HTC immediately at the same time will announce their first phone powered by it... or maybe even HTC will launch this device immediately, not just announce it. All in all it looks like Windows Mobile 7 will come out earlier than expected: Q1/2009 instead of Q3/2009...

Source: msmobiles

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

At this week's Tech Ed IT Pro 2008 in Orlando, IE Team announced some of the enhancements that they're making in Internet Explorer 8 to help IT Professionals deploy and manage IE8 within their organization.

Here is a quick run down to all the support that IE 8 is going to offer for IT Professionals:

Slipstream Support in Internet Explorer 8

Deploying Internet Explorer 7 as part of Windows XP installation was v.hard and troublesome. Many IT Pros wanted to update their Windows XP images to contain IE7 by default, so IE7 gets installed as part of the OS install. To do that the IT Pros needed to boot their existing images of Windows XP, install IE7 and then recapture the image. This process roughly used to took about 2 hours per image.

With Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Vista this isn't the case anymore! as they will allow us to “Slipstream” Internet Explorer 8 into a Vista image so that when you deploy Vista it already contains Internet Explorer 8.  Slipstream IE8  will only take about 10-15 minute per image.

Application Compatibility and Internet Explorer 8

Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) will help IT Pros detect and resolve potential issues between IE8 and internal applications and web sites. Further more Group Policy settings will help control those settings that most impact compatibility.

Updates to Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK)

The Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) will enable IT Pros to customize IE for their company’s needs. IEAK was previously available with IE 6 & IE 7. But in IE8, IEAK is getting a facelift and some enhancements has been added to improve the performance of IEAK. IEAK8 will support custom IE8 builds for new platforms: Vista and Windows Server 2008 and new IE8 features like Activities and Web Slices.

All of the above mentioned features will be included when IE 8 Beta 2 is released sometime in August.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Microsoft made available to select testers on June 5 the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 0 of SQL Server 2008.

As of Friday, Microsoft had released the latest test build of its database to TechNet Plus and Microsoft Developer Network(MSDN) subscribers only. The new build wasn’t on the private Connect test site. (Not sure if availability has changed since then.)

Microsoft officially “launched” SQL Server 2008 in February, alongside Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008. Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said they were planning to deliver SQL Server 2008 by mid-2008. Company officials last week reiterated Microsoft’s more recent guidance: The company is planning to deliver the final build of SQL Server 2008 in the third calendar quarter of 2008.

All of the versions of SQL Server 2008 — Developer, Enterprise, Standard, Web and Workgroup — are part of the latest RC 0 download.

Source: Mary-Jo Foley

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

With Live Wave 1.0 & Live Wave 2.0 well behind us, Windows Live team at Microsoft has been working on the next version of its online services (Windows Live Wave 3) for quite a while now and it is said to carry a new theme for header UI. While Live Wave 2 Suite brought us an All-in-one online installer which included Windows Live Messenger 8.5, Mail, Writer and Photo Gallery, it also introduced a new theme for header UI for all the Windows Live services that actually marked the end of Flair (version 1.0 UI for Windows Live).  

LiveSide is reporting about the new header that will be released when Windows Live Wave 3 launches. This new header while in many ways looks much better & cooler than the current one also marks the end of Live Orb. Orb has become a standard symbol in many of Microsoft services and applications. Introduced first with Windows Vista (replacing the Start button) and Office 2007 (replacing the File menu), Orb is basically a trademark button that provides sub menu options. Rumor has it that even Internet Explorer 8 when released will feature an Orb.

Here is a quick run-down to the history of Window Live UI’s:

Flair (Live 1.0)

Flair or Blue Vapor was the first UI for Windows Live. my.live.com and Windows Live Favorites still uses this interface.

Live 2.0

Windows Live Wave 2 introduced a new theme for Windows Live services. This theme replaced the Flair which was part of Live 1.0

Live 3.0

Windows Live Wave 3 will feature a new theme UI for Live header. This theme has got some resemblance to the Zune theme and it looks very cool. However one thing which it really misses is the Windows Live Orb which as shown in the image below has been replaced by a simple Windows Live logo.

Image Credit [LiveSide]

Changes include (from LiveSide):

- No orb: Windows Live is seemingly following the MSN approach, providing links to the key services and then a drop down menu with the other services on offer. This should make it easier for users to discover the less main-stream services.

- Customisable background: Users can choose from a range of standard backgrounds to appear across the Windows Live sites, but we’re also hearing that users can use a custom background too.

- Search: The box is less intrusive, blending in with the background. Also of note is the removal of the ugly green button, which goes a long way to making this design much more aesthetically pleasing.

- No product names: In an attempt to seemingly clean up the branding issues once and for all, Microsoft is making the product names less obvious. Instead products are referred to by a basic, self-explanatory name, Files instead of Skydrive, for example. That’s not to say the product names are necessarily being cut, but this simplification is a move which is long overdue.

In my opinion Live Orb should be included simply because it is now a trademark symbol for pretty much all the flag ship services (Windows Live) and applications (Windows Vista, Windows Media Center, Office 2007, Internet Explorer 8(Rumor) ) of Microsoft. Plus it also brings some sort of uniformity & consistency between all the services & applications of Microsoft and gives them all an overall impression that they belong to one hut.

So what do you think? What can we do about this?

Well one thing which we can do is to provide feedback about this to Windows Live Team at their email address livefb [at] microsoft [dot] com
So if you really want to see Live Orb in the upcoming update to Windows Live then start sending your requests at the email address provided above.

Remember: Together we can and we will make a difference!

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Silverlight 2 Beta2 was released today.  You can download both Silverlight 2 Beta2 and the Visual Studio and Expression Blend tools support to target it here.

Beta2 adds a lot of new features (more details below), but is still a 4.6 MB download that takes less than 10 seconds to install on a machine.  It does not require the .NET Framework or any other software to be installed for it to work, and all features work cross-browser on both Mac and Windows machines.  These features will also be supported on Linux via the Moonlight 2 release.

Silverlight 2 Beta2 supports a go-live license that allows you to start using and deploying Silverlight 2 for commercial applications. There will be some API changes between Beta2 and the final release, so you should expect that applications you write with Beta2 will need to make some updates when the final release comes out.  But we think that these changes will be straight-forward and relatively easy, and that you can begin planning and starting commercial projects now.

You can build Silverlight Beta2 applications using the VS 2008 Tools for Silverlight and Expression Blend 2.5 June Preview downloads.  You can download both of them here.  The VS 2008 Tools for Silverlight download works with both VS 2008 and the recent VS 2008 SP1 beta release. 

UI and Control Improvements

Silverlight 2 Beta2 includes a bunch of work in the UI and Control space:

More Built-in Controls

In Beta 1 only a few controls were included with the core Silverlight setup.  Most common controls (including Button, ListBox, Slider, etc) were shipped within separate assemblies that you had to bundle with your applications (which increased the app download size).  Beta 2 now installs 30+ of the most common controls as part of the core Silverlight 2 download.  This means that you can now build Silverlight 2 applications that use core controls that are as small as 3kb in size - making Silverlight application downloads small and startup time fast.

In addition to the core controls included with the base Silverlight 2 setup, we are also this week shipping additional higher-level controls that are implemented in separate assemblies that you can then reference and include with your applications.  This includes controls like DataGrid (more details on its new Beta2 features below), Calendar (now with multi-day selection and blackout date support in Beta2), and a ...

Continue at ScottGu's Blog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft Videos lets us explore and watch Microsoft’s collection of online video. The whole experience is built using Microsoft Silverlight platform. The site is a collection of all types of Microsoft videos which includes demos, advertisements, tutorials, press releases, Microsoft Research videos etc. We can scan through Quick Picks for the latest videos, or enter a search for a particular video and we can also choose from one of the given Video Categories.

I personally liked the site. It has got some useful demo videos especially for Expression Studio and I being a developer loved it as it isnt quite easy to find free demo videos for Microsoft Expression suite on the Internet.

Though I also think that the site wont really appeal the average Joe and it seems like the only purpose of Microsoft behind this website is to push their Silverlight technology more into main stream.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Do you fancy using your Windows Mobile phone as an external display for your notebook or PC?
Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile is an application for Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PCs and Smartphones that allows you to use your Windows Mobile device as a Bluetooth SideShow-compatible device. This enables you to use your phone as an extra window into your PC. You can both access your computer’s information from your Pocket PC or Smartphone, and control the computer through a gadget interface. While the phone is out of range, or when your computer is off, you can continue to view content sent to the phone previously. This makes it easy to send information to the phone that you'll need later on.
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista.

To learn more or to download visit related pages at Microsoft.

Source: msmobiles

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Its been ages since we last heard or read anything from Windows Live team about Windows Live for TV (codename Orbit), let alone any working build for Windows Live for TV. When the project was first announced (I managed to get on the beta program), there was lots of interest specially when Windows Messenger was left out of Vista Media Center.

But now if you check out the official team blog of the Windows Live for TV team, you would notice that the last post which they posted was on 10th April 2007 which gives us a clear indication that this service is not going anywhere in fact it probably also means that this Live service like a few others is now officially dead.

It’s a real shame that this very promising & one of the most awaited service for Windows Media Center is looking like not coming after all.

For those of you who dont know what Windows Live for TV was supposed to offer: Windows Live for TV was built for Windows Media Center to bring popular Windows Live services like Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces & Phone calls right to our 10-foot Media Center experience (Windows Vista only).

I wouldn’t be surprised if some parts of this came back from the dead for the upcoming Media Center update codename Fiji or even in the Media Center of Windows 7, but I don’t think we will ever see Windows Live for TV as the plug-in it was once meant to be.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Windows Vista on the 421-meter tall Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China. It is one of the tallest building in Asia!

Credit for the image goes to a Chinese blogger Jakob Montrasio

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)