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When Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) rolled out Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to millions of users, people had king-sized anticipations about what SP1 would do for their systems. Sadly, for some people, that eagerness turned into an imperial-sized disgust at what SP1 did to their systems. Sometimes SP1 wouldn’t install correctly; sometimes it wasn’t installed at all; and sometimes it left their machines far worse off than before.

Full Article – http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207402843&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

Windows PowerShell is a command line interface shell and associated scripting language that integrates with .NET Framework. Version 1, which was released on November 14, 2006, is available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and comes as an optional feature for Windows Server 2008. Version 2, which is backwards compatible with version 1, has many changes to the scripting language and hosting API.

Full Article – http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/05/05/windows-powershell-v2-ctp-2

Windows PowerShell is a command line interface shell and associated scripting language that integrates with .NET Framework. Version 1, which was released on November 14, 2006, is available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and comes as an optional feature for Windows Server 2008. Version 2, which is backwards compatible with version 1, has many changes to the scripting language and hosting API.

Full Article – http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/05/05/windows-powershell-v2-ctp-2

In my previous post I discussed how I went about trying to determine the differences in processor functionality provided by Hyper-V’s Limit Processor Functionality (LPF) checkbox. You probably want to read through that in order to get the necessary background to understand this final instalment.

In this post I discuss how you can determine:

1. If your operating system is running on a hypervisor,
2. The processor feature differences presented for an operating system running directly on hardware versus a parent partition operating system on a hypervisor,
3. The processor feature differences presented for a child partition operating system running without LPF set versus one that does.

Full article – http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/natashamocke/archive/2008/05/03/The-Mystery-of-Hyper_2D00_V_2700_s-Limit-Processor-Functionality_3F00_-_2800_Part-2-_2D00_-Final_2900_.aspx

In my previous post I discussed how I went about trying to determine the differences in processor functionality provided by Hyper-V’s Limit Processor Functionality (LPF) checkbox. You probably want to read through that in order to get the necessary background to understand this final instalment.

In this post I discuss how you can determine:

1. If your operating system is running on a hypervisor,
2. The processor feature differences presented for an operating system running directly on hardware versus a parent partition operating system on a hypervisor,
3. The processor feature differences presented for a child partition operating system running without LPF set versus one that does.

Full article – http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/natashamocke/archive/2008/05/03/The-Mystery-of-Hyper_2D00_V_2700_s-Limit-Processor-Functionality_3F00_-_2800_Part-2-_2D00_-Final_2900_.aspx

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft Tuesday confirmed that its Hyper-V server virtualization technology is likely to ship up to a couple months ahead of the previously projected date.

The company has said all along that Hyper-V, which is currently in beta, would ship within 180 days of the release of Windows Server 2008.

Full Article – http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/042908-microsoft-hyper-v.html

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc.

REDMOND, Wash., May 3, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

“We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo! was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

“We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners. While Yahoo! would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals,” Ballmer said.

“We are investing heavily in new tools and Web experiences, we have dramatically improved our search performance and advertiser satisfaction, and we will continue to build our scale through organic growth and partnerships,” said Kevin Johnson, Microsoft president for platforms and services.

Below is the text of the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.

Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-03letter.mspx

We are pleased to announce Windows Live Messenger for Facebook. This new Facebook application allows you to easily contact your Facebook friends using Messenger! Try it out here.

Using the Windows Live Messenger for Facebook application you can:

• Expose your Messenger status to your Facebook friends
• Receive instant messages from friends that visit your Facebook profile page
• View your friends’ Messenger status on Facebook
• Send instant messages to your friends on Facebook that are using Messenger
• Easily add your Facebook friends to your Messenger contacts

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/messenger/archive/2008/05/01/messenger-on-facebook.aspx

REDMOND, Wash. — May 1, 2008Microsoft Corp. today introduced two new products to help photographers manage their digital photos in a new way using location data, a process known as geotagging. Geotagging is an exciting new way to organize your digital photos that was previously available only to those with technical expertise.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools make geotagging available for all photographers and can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft Pro Photo Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto. Today, Microsoft also released Expression Media 2, a new version of its digital asset management software, which is part of the Expression family of products for creative professionals. Expression Media 2 is designed to help reduce the amount of time required by photographers to manage and organize large collections of photos and other digital media, and it includes geotagging functionality.

Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-01GeotaggingPR.mspx

Microsoft has released Expression version 2.

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

This month, Microsoft updated its Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a suite of desktop management tools that are currently offered only to the company’s Software Assurance (SA) customers. As with earlier versions of MDOP, this suite is a must-have collection of valuable utilities–many of which originated at startups since purchased by Microsoft–and an obvious and tangible benefit of Microsoft’s subscription-based enterprise licensing program. If you’re not taking advantage of MDOP, it’s time to take a look.

MDOP is typically used with Windows Vista Enterprise- or XP-based clients, though certain features are available only in Vista. In its latest incarnation, it offers five essential capabilities. These capabilities are:

Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_mdop.asp

Consolas is intended for use in programming environments and other circumstances where a monospaced font is specified. All characters have the same width, like old typewriters, making it a good choice for personal and business correspondence. Optimizing the font specifically for ClearType allowed a design with proportions closer to normal text than traditional monospaced fonts like Courier. This allows for more comfortable reading of extended text on-screen.

Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=22e69ae4-7e40-4807-8a86-b3d36fab68d3&DisplayLang=en

Last week, there was talk that Microsoft was considering broadening the way it makes Microsoft Office available over the Web using streaming technology.

On April 30, Microsoft shared a bit more about its future plans for streaming, using its SoftGrid technology. But officials wouldn’t talk — except in the most general terms — about how and when the company is planning to expand its use of streaming technologies around Office and other Microsoft apps.

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1371

Last week, there was talk that Microsoft was considering broadening the way it makes Microsoft Office available over the Web using streaming technology.

On April 30, Microsoft shared a bit more about its future plans for streaming, using its SoftGrid technology. But officials wouldn’t talk — except in the most general terms — about how and when the company is planning to expand its use of streaming technologies around Office and other Microsoft apps.

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1371

At the SQL Connections conference in April of 2008 I gave a presentation on some of the new Manageability Improvements for SQL Server 2008. In this blog post I’ll talk about one of those new improvements – our new PowerShell provider for SQL Server.

For a couple of days now I’ve posted about the basics of PowerShell. I mentioned that it has a few advantages that I think the DBA will find essential:

1. It’s like a batch-file based system (all of your old logic will still work)

2. It lets variables stand for objects (see the post yesterday for this)

3. It has piping (the | symbol)

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/2008/04/30/sql-server-2008-management-improvements-sql-server-provider-for-powershell-part-3.aspx