All posts tagged Windows

Beta Release of Windows Azure Drive

Today we are providing access to a beta release of Windows Azure Drive (announced as XDrive at PDC 2009).

Customers have told us that they want to take their already running Windows applications and run them in the cloud using the standard Windows NTFS APIs, and make sure that the data is durable. With Windows Azure Drive, your Windows Azure applications running in the cloud can use existing NTFS APIs to access a durable drive. This can significantly ease the migration of existing Windows applications to the cloud, enabling customers a more seamless migration experience while simultaneously reducing the amount of time it takes to move their applications from your own Windows environment to a Windows Azure environment. The Windows Azure application can read from or write to a drive letter (e.g., X:\) that represents a durable NTFS volume for storing and accessing data. The durable drive is implemented as a Windows Azure Page Blob containing an NTFS-formatted Virtual Hard Drive (VHD).

Link – http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure/archive/2010/02/02/beta-release-of-windows-azure-drive.aspx

Introducing Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit V3.7

We are happy to announce the immediate availability of the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit (MWT) Version 3.7 in all markets!

You can find more details about our changes in the updated documentation. 

Give it a try at http://dev.live.com/messenger.

There will be so much Windows Mobile, Microsoft can’t fit it in one event in February

Something big must be brewing in Windows Mobile land because apparently it will be such a revelation Microsoft can’t even explain it all in one day, let alone one event.

Moments ago, Microsoft sent out a press release detailing the February schedule for upcoming events for the financial analysts and investors community.

Link – http://www.istartedsomething.com/20100128/so-much-windows-mobile-cant-fit-one-event/

There will be so much Windows Mobile, Microsoft can’t fit it in one event in February

Something big must be brewing in Windows Mobile land because apparently it will be such a revelation Microsoft can’t even explain it all in one day, let alone one event.

Moments ago, Microsoft sent out a press release detailing the February schedule for upcoming events for the financial analysts and investors community.

Link – http://www.istartedsomething.com/20100128/so-much-windows-mobile-cant-fit-one-event/

Microsoft releases tool to restore NTBackup files on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

This week Microsoft released an update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with a utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers that are running Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.

Link – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=d9a3d988-bd82-41ca-acf4-39dea08ff7ab

Support for Windows 2000 ends on July 13, 2010

The Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center is a starting point for planning your migration strategy from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

For more information please see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy.

Windows Live for Windows Phone

Now  you can stay connected to those that matter most with Windows Liveâ„¢ for Windows® phone. Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail®, Photos and the “What’s New” feed are now all available on your 6.x Windows® phone. Windows Liveâ„¢ for Windows® phone (Pro) is for use with a touch phone.

Alternatively you can browse to http://wl.windowsmobile.com using Internet Explorer on your device to install using direct download.

Version: 10.7.0061.0500

Windows Live for Windows® phone (Pro)

Windows Live for Windows® phone (Std)

A short history of Hotmail

Hotmail was born on July 4th, 1996 – the creation of a Silicon Valley startup founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith. It was one of the very first services to offer free web-based e-mail. Originally, Hotmail was spelled “HoTMaiL,” emphasizing its use of HTML for the web user interface. Hotmail became popular quickly, and by the end of 1997 already had millions of customers. Hotmail was acquired by Microsoft late in 1997 and was later integrated with another acquisition –  the web-based calendar service, Jump. Hotmail continued to grow very quickly – reaching tens of millions of users in just a few years. Today, Hotmail has provisioned well over a billion inboxes and has several hundred million active users around the world.

Link – http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowslive/archive/2010/01/06/a-short-history-of-hotmail.aspx

Sign up for a Windows Azure platform offer today and get visibility into your usage

Today marks an important step towards our goal of enabling you, our customers and partners, to build and grow your businesses on the Windows Azure platform. We are pleased to announce that starting today you can upgrade your Community Technology Preview (CTP) accounts of the Windows® Azure™ platform (i.e., Windows Azure, SQL Azure and/or Windows Azure platform AppFabric) to paid commercial subscriptions. If you upgrade your CTP accounts during the month of January, 2010, all Windows Azure platform usage incurred during this month will be at no charge. You will also have full visibility during this month to your Windows Azure platform usage. Billing and SLAs for all commercial accounts will begin on February 1st, 2010.

Link – http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure/archive/2010/01/04/sign-up-for-a-windows-azure-platform-offer-today-and-get-visibility-into-your-usage.aspx

A peek behind the scenes at Hotmail

Hi, my name is Arthur de Haan and I am responsible for Test and System Engineering in Windows Live. To kick things off, I’d like to give you a look behind the scenes at Hotmail, and tell you more about what it takes to build, deploy and run the Windows Live Hotmail service on such a massive global scale.

Hosting your mail and data (and our own data!) on our servers is a big responsibility and we take quality, performance, and reliability very seriously. We make significant investments in engineering and infrastructure to help keep Hotmail up and running 24 hours a day, day in and day out, year after year. You will rarely hear about these efforts – you will only read about them on the rare occasion that something goes wrong and our service has run into an issue,.

Link – http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowslive/archive/2009/12/22/a-peek-behind-the-scenes-at-hotmail.aspx

Windows 7 and MinWin

Windows 7 has introduced many new and improved features not only on the user experience side but also at the kernel level. If you are curious of what changes have been made at the Windows kernel level, you can find great insights from Mark Russinovich’s PDC09 session on “Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Kernel Changes”.

Link – http://blogs.msdn.com/zxue/archive/2009/12/23/windows-7-and-minwin.aspx

Citrix XenApp for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

As Microsoft introduces Windows Server 2008 R2, Citrix expects to release a final version of XenApp on Windows Server R2 in the first half of 2010. But you won’t have to wait that long. This fall, Citrix will release a Tech Preview version of XenApp for Windows Server 2008 R2 to showcase our complete application virtualization technology suite and deliver powerful solutions for our joint customers.

Link – http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1854441

Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista RTM End of Support Information

Let your customers know that Microsoft support for the Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (RTM) operating systems will end July 13, 2010. Help them plan system and operating system deployments to ensure that they maintain access to Microsoft support and updates.

Link – Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista RTM End of Support Information

To R2 Or Not To R2?

…that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the server cabinet to suffer the outrageous lack of valuable new functionality, or to take arms against the powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system. And by opposing, manage without them? To sleep (or hibernate): perchance to dream of an easy upgrade. I guess you can see why I don’t write poetry very often – it always seems to end up sounding like somebody else’s.

Link – http://blogs.msdn.com/alexhomer/archive/2009/11/29/To-R2-Or-Not-To-R2_3F00_.aspx

Guided Tour inside the Windows Azure Cloud

at PDC09 in Los Angeles this week and got a great opportunity to get a guided tour of a piece of the Windows Azure Cloud from Patrick Yantz, a Cloud Architect with Data Center Services. You may think it’s a Cloud Container, but it’s not!
Join me on this very technical 15 minute deep dive inside the making of the hardware behind the Windows Azure Cloud.

Hanselminutes on 9 – Guided Tour inside the Windows Azure Cloud with Patrick Yantz Scott Hanselm

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