Published by nb July 30th, 2007
in Windows and Blogsphere.
Microsoft has rolled out to select testers two new Windows Vista fix packs that deliver many of the same updates expected to be provided by Vista Service Pack (SP) 1.
The fix packs (detailed in Knowledge Base articles 938194 and 938979) were made available to Windows Server 2008 testers on July 29 earlier this month. The packs provide a number of performance and reliability improvements to Vista, testers said. Among the new Vista fixes are patches for speeding up Vista?s hibernate/sleep/resume performance; improving file copy/transfer capabilities; and enhancing Vista memory management, all of which are set to be part of Vista SP1, testers said earlier this month.
I?m wondering whether these two fix packs are just another name for what Microsoft has been calling the Vista SP1 private beta/preview. In spite of Microsoft?s best efforts to quash talk of its plans for Windows Vista SP 1 ? while simultaneously confirming its 2010 target ship date for Windows 7 ? the Windows team did tell certain testers to expect a private beta of SP1 the week of July 16th or possibly a week later (the week of July 23, which was last week).
?SP1 Beta is projected for release to influencers ? either the week of the 16th or the following week, depending on how things proceed. The public Beta will follow shortly thereafter,? according to a note Microsoft provided to testers it was considering adding to the Vista SP1 beta program.
Some other factoids from the note that went to certain testers earlier this month ? a copy of which I recently had a chance to see:
Continue at source.
Published by nb July 19th, 2007
in Office.
This VHD contains both the 30 day edition of Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and an evaluation of Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. See how with these new platforms can simplify how people work together, find information and improve business insight, help protect and manage content, and reduce IT costs and improve security. Test drive today to experience how Windows Vista and Office 2007 work better together!
Download: Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD
Published by nb July 11th, 2007
in News.
The software maker has been talking for some time about its plans to have a full-fledged platform that lives on its servers, as opposed to a set of discrete services, as is the case today. However, the company has been extremely short on details. During a speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference here Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t quite answer all the questions. But he did promise more news will come sooner rather than later, while also offering a few hints as to where the company is headed. During the presentation, Microsoft also pledged to share more information with partners and developers.
“This is an ambitious project for us but it is very important,” Ballmer said. “We have a lot of news and things that we’ll be talking about and unveiling…this year.”
Ballmer said that later this year Microsoft will deliver the first version of a set of developer tools to build on top of Microsoft’s Windows Live effort and noted that the tools will be based on .Net.
“We are in the process today of building out a services platform in the cloud,” Ballmer said.
Doing so, however, will take time. It requires Microsoft to have a new computational model, a new storage model, a new virtualization model and more, Ballmer said.
Later during the talk, Windows Live general manager Brian Hall came out to demonstrate some of the existing partner opportunities. Hall also promised far more to come.
“Fundamentally, we are opening it up,” he said. “What’s ours is yours.”
Continue @ source.
Published by nb July 5th, 2007
in Windows.
Microsoft Windows Vista 30-Day Eval VHD is pre-configured VHD.
For organizations with complex desktop infrastructures, whether large or small, Windows Vista Enterprise is the operating system designed specifically to help realize a better return on IT investments. In this VHD, you’ll have the opportunity to road-test new and improved features including management (e.g. MUI, BDD, etc?) usability (e.g. Search, Navigation, etc?) and security (UAC, Windows Defender, etc?), enhancements to the Windows Vista platform.
A virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines.
Download: Microsoft Windows Vista 30-Day Eval VHD
