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October 31  Download and install Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 if you run Windows Vista or Windows 7 on your computer and you want to sync content between your mobile phone and your computer. Windows Mobile Device Center is only compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7; if you run Windows XP or earlier, you have to download Microsoft ActiveSync.
Key updates and system requirements for Windows Mobile Device Center Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 key updates -
Information Rights Management (IRM) activation Automatically configures your Windows Mobile 6 phone to open IRM-protected documents and files. -
Certificate enrollment Acquires certificates through the computer that your Windows Mobile 6 phone is connected to. -
Product registration Register your Windows Mobile phone and get connected to information and offers available for your mobile phone. Windows Mobile Device Center system requirements
You can use Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 with the following versions of Windows only: Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 works only with the following versions of the Windows Mobile operating system: DOWNLOAD: Windows Mobile Device Cetner 6.1 for Windows 7 x64
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/microsoft/device-center-download.mspx This is NOT a rehash of the same discussions posted everywhere about “how to reinstall the x86 Windows Vista Sidebar”. What this is, is a quick mention of a tool that someone wrote called “MaxMax” -a program that simulates one of the benefits of sidebar without actually using Sidebar because of the horrendous problems related to using x86 Sidebar on x64 Windows 7. WHAT PROBLEMS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Installing the x86 Sidebar from an original copy of Windows Vista is anything but perfect. I really don’t know why people don’t mention these caveats beforehand because they’d probably stop a lot of people from going through the exercise of installing the Sidebar into Windows 7. There’s several problems but I’m going to only highlight the two that REALLY bothered me personally:
- NON-WORKING FLYOUTS
Have you ever installed a Gadget into your Sidebar, then clicked on it and have the it “extend itself outside of the Sidebar”?
Flyouts allow a gadget to go from this: … to this!
 
Well, if you like that, TOUGH. Installing the x86 Windows Vista Sidebar into Windows 7 x64 will disallow flyouts. Has something to do with how x86 applications like the Sidebar are encapsulated and run on x64. Nonetheless, it’s irritating.
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CAN’T INSTALL NEW GADGETSThis one REALLY sucks. If you attempt to download and install any new gadgets from the Windows Vista Gadget Gallery at http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/SideBar.aspx?mkt=en-us, it’ll allow you to download the gadget but the moment you attempt to install it, it’ll error out. This is because the gadget is downloaded to one directory and the gadget installation procedure attempts to execute the gadget installation in another directory and can’t find the gadget. The end result is that any new gadgets must be manually installed by extract & copying the gadget content into a directory. Yeah, I know. That sucks. OKAY. SO WHAT DOES ONE DO INSTEAD?
Well, the answer lies in simply not using the Sidebar any more. Instead, you install gadgets directly onto the desktop like Windows 7 allows, and simply keep them aligned to the right. What this unfortunately does is eliminate one of the key benefits of Sidebar: The ability to go “full screen” with application windows while always insuring your gadgets are visible on the Sidebar. If you go full screen on any application without sidebar, you’ll find your gadgets are completely covered. There’s no way to make sure your gadgets are “always on top” like there was with Sidebar. Here’s my current desktop. The window in view is expanded using the “Maximize” button. Notice that you can STILL see the gadgets on the right hand size, despite the window being maximized: 
SO HOW’D YOU KEEP THE GADGETS EXPOSED ON THE RIGHT?
Someone created a tool that effectively limits the territory in which Max Windows expands itself to, ensuring that gadgets placed on the far right hand are always in view. The tool is called “MaxMax” and it keeps gadgets on display anytime you expand windows out. Sort of like an “Always on top”. It allows you to set what monitor you want the “max window size” limitation set on, what side of the screen, how many  pixels you want reserved from that side, whether to run in memory at Startup, etc. All in all it’s a very good program and it’s free. Take a look at it. DOWNLOAD:
http://www.kmtools.win-os.pl/omaxmax.php?lang=ang  Greetings! We’re happy to say that another free e-book is now available.
Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2, by Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker with the Windows Server Team at Microsoft, can be downloaded here (XPS file, 28 MB) and here (PDF file, 11 MB). Here is the book’s Content at a Glance: - Introduction
- Chapter 1 What’s New in Windows Server R2
- Chapter 2 Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World
- Chapter 3 Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines
- Chapter 4 Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management
- Chapter 5 Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access
- Chapter 6 The File Services Role
- Chapter 7 IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform
- Chapter 8 DirectAccess and Network Policy Server
- Chapter 9 Other Features and Enhancements
- Index
And here’s part of the Introduction: Introduction Windows Server 2008 R2, or simply R2 for short, is the second release of Windows Server 2008. It isn’t a completely new release, but rather adds additional features and refinements to the existing release. In this book, we focus on the new features and refinements in R2. We assume you have at least a general knowledge of Windows Server, and that you have some familiarity with Windows Server 2008, although we don’t assume you’re actively running Windows Server 2008. Where an R2 feature is a refinement of a feature that was new in Windows Server 2008, we provide background on the Windows Server 2008 feature to
provide context. Who This Book Is For This book is targeted primarily at Windows server administrators who are responsible for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based servers for large organizations. Windows server administrators manage file and print servers, network infrastructure servers, Web servers, and IT application servers. They use graphical administration tools as their primary interface but also use Windows PowerShell commandlets and occasionally write Windows PowerShell scripts for routine tasks and bulk operations. They conduct most server management tasks remotely by using Terminal Server or administration tools installed on their local workstation. What This Book Is About Covering every aspect of Windows Server 2008 R2 in nine chapters and approximately 200 pages is clearly an impossible task. Rather than try to cover everything, we’ve focused on what is new and important, while giving you the context from Windows Server 2008. - Chapter 1, “What’s New in Windows Server R2” Provides a brief overview of all the new features and capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2.
- Chapter 2, “Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World” Covers minimum system requirements, basic installation and configuration of R2, and what is involved in adding an R2 server to an existing Windows Server network. Configuration of the Windows Server Core installation option, added in Windows Server 2008, is covered, along with the steps required to add a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller to an existing Windows Server network.
- Chapter 3, “Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines” Covers the new Hyper-V features of Windows Server 2008 R2, including dynamic storage management and Quick Migration of clustered virtual machines (VMs). Covers creation and management of virtual machines using the Hyper-V Manager console, Windows PowerShell, and the Failover Cluster Manager console and discusses the features of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.
- Chapter 4, “Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management” Covers Remote Desktop Services (the new name for Terminal Services) and the enhancements of Windows Server 2008 R2, including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which uses the new RD Virtualization Host capability of R2 to provide desktop virtualization. R2 also includes an all-new Remote Desktop Services provider for Windows PowerShell.
- Chapter 5, “Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access” Covers the new features of Active Directory (AD), including an AD Recycle Bin, a new set of Active Directory Windows PowerShell cmdlets, and
improvements in daily AD administration. - Chapter 6, “The File Services Role” Covers the new File Services features, including BranchCache, Distributed File System–ReadOnly (DFS-R), and the File Classification Infrastructure (FCI).
- Chapter 7, “IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform” Covers the features of the new version of Internet Information Services (IIS), including the new Windows PowerShell management features.
- Chapter 8, “DirectAccess and Network Policy Server” Covers the Network Policy Server (NPS) and the new DirectAccess feature that allows Windows 7 computers to be transparently connected to internal network resources from anywhere without requiring a virtual private network (VPN) connection.
- Chapter 9, “Other Features and Enhancements” Covers the enhanced version of Windows Server Backup included in R2, including the Windows PowerShell commands for backing up. Also covered is the new BitLocker To Go capability, which provides an important new protection for removable volumes such as backup disks.
DOWNLOAD: Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/C/0/5C0BD0AB-040D-4C56-A60B-661001012DDA/Windows_Server_2008_R2_e-book.pdf [taken from the MS Press blog] October 27 Microsoft® SQL Server® StreamInsight is a platform for the continuous and incremental processing of unending sequences of events (event streams) from multiple sources with near-zero latency. These requirements, shared by vertical markets such as manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities, financial services, health  care, web analytics, and IT and data center monitoring, make traditional store and query techniques impractical for timely and relevant processing of data. StreamInsight allows software developers to create innovative solutions in the domain of Complex Event Processing that satisfy these needs. It allows to monitor, mine, and develop insights from continuous unbounded data streams and correlate constantly changing events with rich payloads in near real time. Industry specific solution developers (ISVs) and developers of custom applications have the opportunity to innovate on and utilize proven, flexible, and familiar Microsoft technology and rely on existing development skills when using the StreamInsight platform.
Some of the key feature areas are: - Derive meaningful and relevant information from data/events streams through complex patterns. These patterns can be defined using a declarative query paradigm based on well-defined streaming semantics with LINQ as query language.
- For the development of applications, adapters, and analytics, the user can rely on well-established and powerful development frameworks and tools such as .NET, LINQ, and Microsoft Visual Studio.
- The platform integrates with various data sources and sinks through input and output adapters. The framework to build domain-specific adapters utilizes a .NET API to make adoption of the platform easy. Independence between adapters and queries facilitates seamless integration of real-time and historical analysis.
- The platform architecture supports a variety of deployment options, from scenarios with a low-footprint embedded option to high-end server deployments.
- A rich set of manageability features such as a management interface, a diagnostic interface and a debugging tool are provided as part of the platform.
The Microsoft® SQL Server® StreamInsight CTP2 has two different methods to complete the installation process: - Attended Installation – an interactive user interface will guide you through the set-up process and obtain all of the information and consent required to complete the installation. This includes the displaying, acknowledgement, and archiving of the applicable SQL Server license terms.
- Un-attend Installation – this is a DOS command line set-up process that does not have an interactive user interface to guide you through the set-up process. In this case, you will be required to enter a parameter during installation that indicates your acceptance of the license terms.
Here is the copy of the Microsoft® SQL Server® StreamInsight license terms for your review. DOWNLOAD: SQL Server StreamInsight
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a3faa562-b6dc-4702-90c6-bf8e08df3b8b TECHCENTER: SQL Server StreamInsight
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ee476990.aspx Windows 7 is good. Very good. I know I’m biased but the independent reviews in the media all generally agree that Windows 7 is a good product.  Is Windows 7 too good for Apple to FUD?
What I really hope is that Rob Enderle is right and that Windows 7 is viewed by the consumers at-large as being simply too good for Apple’s negative campaigning to touch. When Apple insists on banging the same tired drum over and over again, you have to wonder if anyone is still listening to their negative campaigning.
I mean, Enderle literally draws a comparison between Apple & some recent election losing politicians and their negative campaigning: “Is Apple the Tech McCain or George Bush?” OUCH. Is Windows 7 too good for Apple to FUD?
By Rob Enderle, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 06:20 Opinion: Apple was blindsided by Windows 7. It wasn’t the product which they saw coming, it was the sustaining marketing budget and positive reviews from Apple loyalists like Walt Mossberg they didn’t see (though several Mac fans have told me that Steve Jobs has taken Walt to task and he is changing his tune). As a result they have shifted their negative campaign against Windows Vista into a FUD campaign against Windows 7 using innuendo and association to disparage Microsoft’s new platform. You can see the ads here but broken promises and PC News are pure but well done FUD. … READ MORE: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/44437/141/  How Microsoft blindsided vulnerable Apple with Windows 7
Rob Enderle also goes on to make some points about how he believes Microsoft got the drop on Apple and their ‘modest’ announcements.
How Microsoft blindsided vulnerable Apple with Windows 7
By Rob Enderle, principal analyst, Enderle Group, Thursday, October 22, 2009 18:05 Column - I think the saying goes that those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. This is likely to point with Apple this month as they sit stunned that Windows 7 is doing so well and they are left looking foolish with products priced out of the segment. Their big news this week was a couple of PCs, a new keyboard and a multi-touch mouse. This last will likely go down in history as one of the lamest devices yet as they should know, given the iPhone, that touch is connected to the screen and not anything else. They likely would have done better putting fir on the damn thing and building it to fart the star spangled banner at least that would have been patriotic. … READ MORE: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/44402/140/ Downloadable Content for Windows 7 as well as updated content for the month of August 2009 is now available for download for the Productivity Hub:
- Updated content for Access, Communicator, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Sharepoint, and Word
- 5 brand new content topics: Live Meeting, OneNote, Project, Publisher, and Visio
DOWNLOAD: Content Packs for Productivity Hub (Requires registration)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=277fefca-d62f-41bc-943d-79002254cfee
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For those that forgot, the Productivity Hub is available to download for FREE. Here's a site that has a public installation of the product.
DEMO SITE: http://templates.wssdemo.com/sites/productivity/Pages/Default.aspx
The Productivity Hub is a SharePoint Server 2007 site collection. It comes packed with over 300* pieces of content, including videos, documents and PowerPoint slides. This gives you a great start at building a learning community behind your firewall.
Microsoft has developed the Productivity Hub to help you optimize your Microsoft end user training plans, and is provided at no cost.
The Hub centralizes Microsoft’s end user training content while providing a great use case for using SharePoint Server throughout your organization. It removes the need for you to have to find, centralize and publish Microsoft’s free end user training to an internal site; we have done the work for you. You can customize the Hub to fit your branding and needs. The flexibility and rich feature set of SharePoint Server 2007 allows you to add web parts, remove web parts, and add your own content to the Hub.
The Hub highlights the best features of SharePoint Server 2007, while providing you with end user training for the newest versions of Office, SharePoint, and Windows.
The Hub uses SharePoint Server’s social networking features to engage end users. It also offers training for “coaches” or power users internal to each customer. Coaches can help reduce the burden on training and helpdesk staff by adding another level of support.
The Productivity blog is another way to give your end users ongoing Tips and Tricks – and the blog is where you will find out about new content for the Hub. You can either keep the RSS feed on your Hub home page, or put it on a hidden page and reuse the blog content in your own internal SharePoint blog.
Benefits to you:
- Helps reduce costs: Streamlines training and helps reduce training overhead. Acts as a tool for training departments and IT.
- Multiple learning paths: Includes learning roadmaps, coaches, forums, searchable content and more.
- Helps increase productivity: Accelerates 2007 Office system use through a learning community.
- Drives adoption: Ongoing access to training enables deeper use and helps create new power users.
- Ignites collaboration: Encourages self-help through the coach program.
- Proof of concept: Provides a vision for collaborative learning – leading to collaborative work.
Quarterly Content Updates
We will provide quarterly content updates for your Hub beginning August 2009. You can learn about the updates on the Productivity blog. The following is an approximate delivery schedule (subject to change).
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Update |
Month |
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First quarterly update |
August 2009 |
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Second quarterly update |
November 2009 |
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Third quarterly update |
February 2010 |
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Fourth quarterly update |
May 2010 |
A Note on 2010 Office Content
We will provide content updates for 2010 Office when it becomes available. We are also planning an upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010 and will have a migration path for customers currently using the SharePoint Server 2007 Hub.
 Updated Content for Productivity Hub
Once registered for the Productivity Hub download, you will see download buttons for both the Hub software itself along with an Installation Guide. In addition, as of recently, you will see Downloadable Content for Windows 7 as well as updated content for the month of August 2009 which includes:
- Updated content for Access, Communicator, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Sharepoint, and Word
- 5 brand new content topics: Live Meeting, OneNote, Project, Publisher, and Visio
Note that this is the same location is where you can anticipate Content Updates this coming November 2009.
ORIGINAL POST: http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!5750.entry
 The Windows 7 Product Guide provides a detailed look at the many new and improved features in Windows 7. The guide is designed as an accurate source of information that can help you to understand how Windows 7 Simplifies Everyday Tasks, Works the Way You Want, and Makes New Things Possible.
The guide is also designed to provide IT Professionals with information about how to Make People Productive Anywhere, Manage Risk Through Enhanced Security and Control, and Reduce Costs by Streamlining PC Management. This is not a help and how to guide. Rather, it provides an overview of the many exciting features in Windows 7 and pointers to more information. The Windows 7 Product Guide is available in both XPS and PDF formats. DOWNLOAD: Windows 7 Product Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b3c68ec2-e726-4830-ac89-31c71d6be5f3  Here are a few FREE Online Training Clinics that Microsoft is currently offering. These online training clinics serve as great resources to become familiar with our latest products and technologies.
Most of the clinics can be completed in 1-2 hours and can be taken at your own pace. Some of the available free training include: Windows: SQL: Exchange: Development: Security: Sharepoint: Additional technologies: And there are several more learning clinics available! To view all our free training clinics, please access the link below: LINK: http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/Catalog.aspx?view=free October 26  Microsoft System Center Service Manager is Microsoft’s entree into the help desk/ticketing system solution space. Leveraging the foundation in place that most customers have such as Active Directory & SQL Server, Service Manager promises to be a great addition to any IT organization looking for richer integration with their existing management infrastructure.
Customers that own other elements of the System Center suite such as System Center Configuration Manager and System Center Operations Manager will find that Service Manager fits like a glove due to it’s immediate integration with these partnered system. REGISTRATION:
Try the beta (available from the Connect site) You must sign up thru the directory.
https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=446&wa=wsignin1.0 Tell us what you think on the public forum.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/systemcenterservicemanager/threads/ NOTE: This milestone is the feature complete milestone for Service Manager. From here on out we will only be fixing bugs and responding to customer feedback. After 4 yrs in the making of the product, the end is in sight! Key Technologies - A workflow engine for automating all or portions of IT processes and for integrating System Center solutions
- A common data warehouse and reporting platform for integrating business intelligence information across System Center
- A connector framework to support technology integration across System Center, other Microsoft products, and common industry management tools
- A CMDB to support the management of information about IT service components and how they relate to one another
- A self-service portal to provide end users access to IT resources, reducing help desk call volume
- A knowledge base to capture and share practical knowledge for IT professionals and end users
Background/Supporting Materials
What’s new in Beta 2? - Problem management
- End user self-service portal
- IT analyst portal
- Inbound email to incident workflow
- New reports
- Full extensible data warehouse
- Authoring console for customizing forms and creating custom workflows (without writing code!)
- Operations Manager integration – alert to incident scenario and service/service component inventory sync
- Self-service software provisioning
- significant improvements in performance and scalability
Also, of note this is the first time that any System Center product has ever simultaneously shipped a beta release in multiple languages (English, German, and Japanese for now). October 25  Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) helps customers who have PCs without optical disk drives (such as small notebook PCs) to upgrade to Windows 7. (See http://www.microsoftstore.com/win7usb)
The WUDT is downloadable from Microsoft Store and the Microsoft Download Center. Windows 7 customers who purchase an electronic software distribution (ESD) edition of Windows from the Microsoft Store can create bootable USB devices (thumb drives or external hard drives) or DVD backup media by downloading the ESD edition (an ISO image) and then running the WUDT.   On Tuesday, Oct 27, Paul Thurrott, Michael Otey, Paul Robichaux, Jeff James, and key Microsoft leaders gather for a lively discussion of how to make the most of the new releases!
They will discuss how Windows® 7, Windows Server®2008 R2 and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 are designed to help simplify IT infrastructure management, save costs, and get more from systems with solutions that are interoperable. PEOPLE - This is a FREE virtual event! Did you see the list of speakers? (See list to the right) It’s practically a who’s who of the Microsoft ecosystem. In the keynote and three technical sessions participants will discover exactly what's in it for their business and will receive technical resources to get the most out of the new features and capabilities. This event is presented in an interactive, real-life simulation, with a lifelike visual environment, networking and interactive tools, staffed sponsor booths, and educational chats to complement each conference session. 
The Gartner Symposium this week included a Windows 7 Early Adopter Customer Panel sponsored by Microsoft. In this highly visible discussion, featured Gartner Research VP & Distinguished Analyst Michael Silver facilitated a panel discussion with four early adopters of Windows 7: These companies shared their deployment and planning experiences, as well as their recommendations for companies new to Windows 7 deployment. This is a great chance to get valuable insider information from Microsoft customers who are leaders in their industries. October 24  Interested in getting access to Microsoft’s Office 2010 Web Apps “Tech Preview” including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, & OneNote?
Visit the following link and sign in with a Windows Live ID. Accepting the agreement will give you immediate access to the Office 2010 Web Apps Tech Preview. --------------------- OKAY. I ENROLLED. NOW WHAT?
The applications will show up/execute when you click the newly appearing “VIEW” or “EDIT” menu items available after selecting a document that is stored within your Skydrive.  UPLOADING & VIEWING YOUR OWN SPREADSHEETS/DOCUMENTS TO SKYDRIVE
By going to http://skydrive.live.com while logged in with your Windows Live ID, you should be able to upload spreadsheets to Microsoft’s online storage. (See snapshots of my own Skydrive storage to the right)
When you click on your own uploaded spreadsheet, the option to “EDIT” should appear. (Or at least “VIEW”) Clicking on “edit” will open the document in Web-based Excel. WAIT! WHY CAN’T I EDIT WORD DOCUMENTS?
Word is extremely complicated due to the amount of real-time activity that goes on while you edit a document – remember that this is all done using AJAX! - whether it’s spellchecking as you type or changes/edits between different users on the Internet in real time to allow multiple people to edit the same document without collisions. As a result, Word does not allow editing YET in this Tech Preview release. It will provide editing capabilities in a future release of the online app. 
 Service Pack 2 for Configuration Manager 2007 delivers new platform support for Windows 7 client, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2. In addition, Service Pack 2 delivers continued innovation with Intel vPro technology, support for Branch Cache enabled environments, and continued development for 64 bit architectures.
Feature Summary - New Operating System Support
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista Sp2
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows Server 2008 SP2
New Features in Out of Band Management
In addition to providing feature parity with SP1 and AMT firmware versions 3.2.1, 4.0 and 5.0, the following new features are supported: - Wireless management with up to 8 wireless profiles
- End point access control: 802.1x support
- Audit logging
- Support for different power states
- Power control options at the collection level
- Data storage
- Scheduling configuration for in-band provisioning
Asset Intelligence Certificate Requirement Removal
Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 introduced Asset Intelligence v1.5. This version allowed customers to configure an online synchronization to ensure that their catalog was up to date with the latest Microsoft inventory for both hardware and applications. This initial release required a certificate. With Service Pack 2, the requirement to have the certificate has been removed, so any customer can configure their Asset Intelligence capabilities to connect online and update their catalog. Software Assurance is not required for this functionality. 64-bit Architecture Development
Service Pack 2 will also continue to deliver new support for x64 architectures, including the following: - X64 support for Operations Manager 2007 Client Agent
- Update to Management Packs for 64-bit operating systems - SP2 will ship 64-bit performance counters (the management pack is a separate release)
- Remote control support added for x64 XP and x64 Server 2003
Improved Client Policy Evaluation - Faster policy processing
- More efficient software distribution configured to run at user logon
Branch Cache Support
Support for scenarios where Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Client are present and Branch Cache is enabled DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3318741a-c038-4ab1-852a-e9c13f8a8140 One of our employees, Samer Chidiac, is also a DJ and he got his hands on one of the Windows 7 demonstration videos. Try not to crack a grin during his remix. I have to admit, I’m giddy. EVERYONE I talk to that’s installed it – former XP users & former Vista users - loves Windows 7 hands-down. And then there’s this:
(Yes, I realize the photo’s not necessarily flattering to us, but if that’s the worst spit-in-the-eye we have thrown at us, I’ll take it.) [unceremoniously stolen from Engadget] Windows 7 breaks Amazon UK pre-order volume record, ousts Harry Potter 
“Take it from us, your London-based sleuths, when anything sells faster than Harry Potter books or DVDs in the UK, it's scorching hot. Case in point is Microsoft's Vista successor, which has sold so well that it has beaten the Amazon UK pre-order record previously held by J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In fact, Windows 7 was able to tally up more sales in the first 8 hours of pre-order availability than Vista was able to collect altogether. Now that's what we call an upgrade.” LINK:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/21/windows-7-breaks-amazon-uk-pre-order-volume-record-ousts-harry/ October 21 This has been gone over many times before but it came up recently so I thought I’d take a moment to write about it:  Why is Windows 7 listed as Version 6.1?
If you run “ver” from the command line you discover that Windows returns a version number of 6.1. Not 7.0.
This of course initiated the typical lame comments I hear like, “See - Windows 7 is just a service pack of Windows Vista! It’s just a dot-release and only fixes what was broken in Windows Vista.” (This is a direct quote from someone. You know who you are.) Windows 7 is a MAJOR release
First of all, I really have to say something: You’d really have to be completely uneducated about Windows 7 to make the statement that Windows 7 is nothing more than a “big service pack” over Windows Vista. Windows 7’s technology & functional advancements are so massive, it should be obvious to anyone that’s kept up to speed with Windows 7 that it’s very deserving of a full version increment. Yes, Windows 7 inherited the rich development foundation that Windows Vista provided.
Yes, Windows 7 inherited the overall user interface improvements that Windows Vista delivered.
Yes, Windows 7 inherited the superior security infrastructure that Windows Vista introduced.
Yes, Windows 7 inherited the diverse mobile solutions technologies that Windows Vista brought to laptops. But Windows 7 also introduces: - MANAGEMENT – Secure workstation lockdown from rogue applications through “Applocker”
- NETWORKING – Intelligent cache-accelerated file access over WAN connections using “BranchCache”
- MOBILITY – Seamless virtual access to corporate networking resources without a VPN thru “DirectAccess”
- SECURITY – Eliminate data leakage from mobile storage using “Bitlocker-to-Go”
- EASE OF USE – Enterprise Search accessible through the the desktop user interface.
- DEPLOYMENT – Desktop boot from single file distributables for flexible deployment using “VHD Boot”
- MANAGEMENT – Device-level configurable power management from the user interface
- COMPATIBILITY – Complete application compatibility through “Windows XP Mode”
- … and many other major functions that are written about online.
So what’s the deal with the “6.1”?
Two words: Application Compatibility. As it turns out, when applications install into Windows, many are frankly written poorly and only check the major version number. When they expect to see “6” and the operating system returns “7” to them, this can cause installation headaches when working with poorly written applications. So to ensure that Windows 7 is as compatible as possible, we’ve made “Windows 7”, version 6.1 in the eyes of application installations so that the major version number does not change. To quote the blog: “The only thing to read into the code versioning is that we are absolutely committed to making sure application compatibility is optimized for our customers.” A thorough overview of this topic is available on the Windows Team Blog: 
Microsoft’s eBook Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine combine selected chapters written by industry experts Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team with select Windows 7 articles from TechNet Magazine. This 332 page eBook provides complete chapters from the massive 1000+ page official Microsoft Press book, “Windows 7 Resource Kit” and should serve as a primer for anyone looking into deploying Windows 7 for a large organization. Chapters included: - Chapter 3: Deployment Platform (33 pages)
- Chapter 4: Planning Deployment (57 pages)
- Chapter 5: Testing Application Compatibility (38 pages)
- Chapter 6: Developing Disk Images (41 pages)
 Chapter 7: Migrating User State Data (22 pages)- Chapter 8: Deploying Applications (23 pages)
- Chapter 9: Preparing Windows PE (27 pages)
- Chapter 10: Configuring Windows Deployment Services (40 pages)
- Chapter 11: Using Volume Activiation (28 pages)
- Chapter 12: Deploying with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (23 pages)
DOWNLOAD: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EE2A1D38-88A9-43B3-95BC-7E962F0B6030&displaylang=en  Microsoft App-V for TS/RDS is now available to customers that have Terminal Services licensing (Windows Server 2003 R2 or prior) or Remote Desktop Services (Windows Server 2008 or newer) under Software Assurance at no extra charge. It’s been posted on the public Microsoft web site for customers to download.
Server growth is a costly issue for organizations that rely on session hosts / terminal servers. To avoid application conflicts, applications must undergo significant testing to determine which applications will collide and, therefore, must be separated and run on different session host / terminal server silos—a time-consuming and costly process. Running multiple separate terminal servers for each application routinely results in servers being underutilized because each one is locked into a specific configuration, capable of serving only a limited set of non-conflicting applications, typically using just 25 percent of capacity. Often, 20 servers are required to support 1,000 users. Microsoft App-V for Terminal Services completely changes this situation offering the following features and benefits: Consolidate servers and end server siloing, end application conflicts and regression testing, accelerate application deployment, reduce deployment risk, simplify profile management WARNING: You will need to register to get access to the bits and this will require a 20 digit product registration key from you Windows Server disk. (ahemjustsoyouknow,any20digitswillworkcough) DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services(Requires registration - 266MB)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0890d6cd-0d3b-4c9d-b208-231c65d3e55a DOWNLOAD: Application Virtualization 4.5 for Terminal Services Whitepaper
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/0/69095D7C-649D-4A0E-AF0B-17B26EACCF67/App-V%20Terminal%20Services.docx
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