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Microsoft engineers are putting a number of new power management features into Windows 7 that are designed to help IT administrators reduce power consumption and cost while improving the user experience. Some of the new features also are designed to give IT professionals more control and flexibility over management of the energy-efficiency capabilities of Windows 7 OS systems. The new features build off of the more than 30 power management enhancements in Microsoft made in Windows Vista, according to officials.

Full Article – http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Enhances-Power-Management-in-Windows-7-859390/?kc=rss

* Microsoft getting ready to unveil free anti-virus service

* Software maker says will soon put beta version on website

* Company employees testing it internally

Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for PCs that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

Full Article – http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/06/10/microsoft-will-soon-unveil-free-virus-software.aspx

The July edition of TechNet Magazine is now available online or, if you prefer, you can download as an  HTML Help .chm file for offline reading.

The cover highlights the article about managing Active Directory with Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. Although this is a subject that concerns most of the Messaging Administrators, there are 2 other articles that are more “Exchange-specific”: Utility Spotlight Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer and Exchange Q & A New Features and Improvements in Exchange Server 2010.

The July edition of TechNet Magazine is now available online or, if you prefer, you can download as an  HTML Help .chm file for offline reading.

The cover highlights the article about managing Active Directory with Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. Although this is a subject that concerns most of the Messaging Administrators, there are 2 other articles that are more “Exchange-specific”: Utility Spotlight Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer and Exchange Q & A New Features and Improvements in Exchange Server 2010.

The few vendors busy in the virtual lab automation space (which include VMware, Surgient, VMLogix, Skytap and the almost died StackSafe) may soon have a big, big problem called Microsoft.

After wasting years not leveraging its huge developers community to spread virtualization in every corner of the world, the company is finally moving on.

Announced in November 2008, the integration between Visual Studio 2010, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 and Hyper-V 1.0/2.0 for virtual lab automation scenarios is now a reality called Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management.

Full Article – http://www.virtualization.info/2009/06/microsoft-launches-visual-studio-lab.html

Apple spent part of its WorldWide Developers Conference this morning detailing Snow Leopard, the upcoming version of its Mac OS X operating system — including plans to release it in September as a $29 upgrade for people running Mac OS X Leopard. That’s about month before Microsoft plans to come out with its new Windows 7 operating system.

Full Article – http://www.techflash.com/Microsoft_Windows_7_vs_Apple_Snow_Leopard_in_upgrade_wars_47224297.html

Windows Games Explorer Tips
The Games Explorer in Windows 7 is much more useful. In Vista, it was almost as if Microsoft was ashamed of the idea of people playing games on their PC. The Explorer lived in the right side start menu, not show up in the programs listing and, if you had a lot of games, it would take forever to load.

The Games Explorer in Win7 is much more flexible. It actually shows up as a group in the “All Programs” now. And there’s other nifty stuff you can do with it. It’s still not the release version of Windows 7, so some features (like finding updates) don’t work. But you can still get a lot of benefit out of the Games Explorer.

Full Article – http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2348418,00.asp

What is it?

It’s the Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit, or WAIK.  WAIK is useful for IT Professionals to have a boot disk that will boot up from a CD instead of the computer’s hard drive.  With the boot CD, you can boot with a CD and open up, you have the same basic functionality as you would have if you had booted up with a DOS floppy disk.  This boot disk also gives you a little extra functionality that I talk about a little later.

Why do I need it?

• Have you ever had a computer blue screen on you and you needed to get a file off the hard drive now?
• Have you noticed that the use of floppy disks as a boot media is all but completely dead?
• Have you ever had a boot sector virus that you needed to clean but couldn’t get to?
• Have you ever wanted to install an OS from the ground up but needed a way to boot the computer first?
• Have you ever just wanted to poke around on the drive without booting up through Windows?

Full Article – http://mikeblane.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!25FBED687A2B871F!330.entry#comment

You may have seen some of the recent news articles that have started to roll out around the RTM and General availability dates of Windows 7.  As Windows Server 2008 R2 is a joint development effort with Windows 7 we are aligned with the same RTM and General Availability (GA) dates.

With that – Windows Server 2008 R2  RTM code is on track to be available to our partners sometime in the 2^nd half of July. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 GA date of Oct 22.

Download and start testing with the RC candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver

Source – Microsft.com

I’ve written an article titled “Need to Know: Google Wave,” that will appear in the July 2009 issue of Windows IT Pro Magazine. I’ll publish the full article here on the SuperSite when possible, but for now, here’s an excerpt with some images and links where you can get more information. Google Wave is a big deal, a game changer, and it is has deep implications for Microsoft and users of the software giant’s products.

At its annual Google I/O conference this week, Google unveiled Google Wave, a forthcoming online service that will provide a personal communications and collaboration hub for users and an extensible platform for developers. Google’s descriptions of Wave are both goofy and unhelpful–example: “Google Wave can make you more productive even when you’re having fun”–and the service isn’t available yet for testing. What exactly is this thing? Here

Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/alt/google_wave_fl.asp

Lots of reviewers, pundits and even Dancing with the Stars king Steve Wozniak already have weighed in with what they think about Microsoft’s new Bing search engine. But what about Microsoft’s search rivals — and specifically its former takeover target, Yahoo?

Late last week, I had a chance to talk to Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo! Search Strategy, about his impressions. (Given that a number of industry watchers believe Bing will take search share from Yahoo more than Google, Yahoo’s take on Microsoft’s new engine was especially relevant, in my opinion.)

Raghavan was upfront that he had only seen Bing demos and screen shots and not actually used the Bing test site. Same here, I told him. As Microsoft has started rolling out Bing to the public today, June 1, those of us who weren’t among Microsoft’s chosen few now can start trying it, too.

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2929

Today at Computex, the largest computer exhibition in Asia taking place in Taiwan, Steve Guggenheimer, the corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division announced both the RTM and the general availability dates for Windows 7.

According to the announcement, Windows 7 will be in stores for the holidays, beginning October 22nd, 2009. In order for this to happen, the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) will be made available to Microsoft partners in the last two weeks of July.

As customers purchase new PCs over the summer and onwards, they will be given the option to participate in the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program. This will be made available to anyone buying a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium and above. At the time of purchase, the PC will run Vista, but when Windows 7 becomes publicly available, they will be given the option to upgrade for either a low cost or free, depending on the manufacturer.

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22.

To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview.

Microsoft made the near-final release candidate version available last month. Shortly after its release, Microsoft finally confirmed that it was aiming Windows 7 for a holiday 2009 release, something that was widely anticipated, but not confirmed by those in Redmond.

Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10253924-56.html

Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said they planned to deliver the final version of Silverlight 3 before the end of 2009. Looks like they meant months before…

Microsoft is planning to launch Silverlight 3 and its Expression Studio 3 family of designer tools on July 10 in San Francisco, company officials said on May 28.

Silverlight 3 adds 3D support, GPU acceleration, H.264 video support and out-of-the-browser capabilities to Silverlight, Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe Flash. The out-of-browser support will add to Silverlight capabilities that are available currently in Adobe AIR.

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2912

REDMOND, Wash. — May 28, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. announced today that sales of Xbox 360 consoles have passed the 30 million mark globally, with its Xbox LIVE community swelling to more than 20 million active members. After the biggest year in its history in 2008, Xbox 360 achieved the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009, up 28 percent over the previous year.¹

The success of the platform can be measured across the business, with Xbox LIVE now considered the world’s largest global entertainment network. Increasing consumer desire to connect with friends, download and enjoy blockbuster movies and TV shows, and extend the life of their favorite games has been the primary driver behind the growth of Xbox LIVE membership and the reason Xbox continues to expand offerings on the platform.

Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28XboxGrowthPR.mspx