A recent behind-the-scenes video about the infrastructure of Windows Live Hotmail has let loose a new golden logo for Windows Live Hotmail presumably for the imminent Windows Live “Wave 4″ refresh.
As straightforward as it might be, this logo actually comes at somewhat of a surprise to me since it contrasts with current text-based “Wave 3″ Windows Live branding with a Windows logo, the name “Windows Live†and the name of the service affixed to the end wordmark.
Microsoft execs said last month that the final version of Silverlight 4 would be available in April. It looks like the “launch†date is April 13, though as of April 7, company execs weren’t ready to promise that’s when final code will be available.
An aside: In Microsoft’s world, “launches†are not necessarily simultaneous with “release to manufacturing†and/or “release to the Web.†Sometimes launches follow RTM (as will be the case with Office 2010) and sometimes they precede the RTM/RTW.
Today Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 2 is available for download. I’d like to highlight a few new features and some recent developments:
· Scalability and performance. We’ve continued to improve scalability, regularly testing on the 1,000 node cluster in Microsoft Research—we plan to pursue Top500 runs that prove much greater scalability. We also know customers want to make use of spare processing cycles as part of their overall HPC infrastructures. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 2 now integrates with workstations running Windows 7, enabling organizations to use them as cluster compute nodes.
While we appreciate all the positive feedback we’ve received on Exchange Server 2010, we know you all are eager to find out what’s been going on in Redmond since November. Today, we are happy to give you a first look at what’s coming later this year in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
SP1 will include fixes and tweaks in areas you’ve helped us identify, including a roll-up of the roll-ups we’ve released to date. I also wanted to flag some of the feature enhancements we’re excited to bring to you with SP1 including: archiving and discovery enhancements, Outlook Web App (OWA) improvements, mobile user and management improvements, and some highly sought after additional UI for management tasks. This is not an all-inclusive list, so stay tuned for the detailed list coming soon!
Link – http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/04/07/454533.aspx
This software is an optional supplement to the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. In Windows Server 2008 R2, the Streaming Media Services role (which includes the latest version of Windows Media Services) is not included in Server Manager. To obtain Windows Media Services for Windows Server 2008 R2, you must run the Streaming Media Services role installer file on the platform.
VAMT helps adminsitrators to manage keys acquired through a Microsoft volume license agreement, subscription programs such as MSDN, TechNet or Microsoft Partner Network, or the retail channel. VAMT 2.0 enables management of the following product key types, for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Office 2010 client suites and applications, Visio 2010 and Project 2010: • Key Management Service (KMS) host keys (CSVLK) • KMS client setup keys • Multiple Activation Key keys (MAK) • Retail keys
I’ve written previously about 64-bit and Windows Server and the long, steady adoption of 64-bit computing over the years. Having been involved in Windows Server support for Alpha processors in the past, and seeing many of the early chapters of 64-bit Windows Server written on Intel’s Itanium architecture, it’s with a sense of nostalgia that I pass on some important news.
Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the last version of Windows Server to support the Intel Itanium architecture. SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are also the last versions to support Itanium.
Yesterday Microsoft has finally released a (beta) version of its Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V virtual machines that support multiple vCPUs.
Specifically, the new component introduces:
Mark Russinovich: This is the first blog post in a series I’ll write over the coming months called Pushing the Limits of Windows that describes how Windows and applications use a particular resource, the licensing and implementation-derived limits of the resource, how to measure the resource’s usage, and how to diagnose leaks.
Here’s the index of the entire Pushing the Limits series. While they can stand on their own, they assume that you read them in order.
Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory
Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory
Pushing the Limits of Windows: Paged and Nonpaged Pool
Pushing the Limits of Windows: Processes and Threads
Pushing the Limits of Windows: Handles
Pushing the Limits of Windows: USER and GDI Objects – Part 1
Pushing the Limits of Windows: USER and GDI Objects – Part 2
Microsoft have announced that existing users of Expression Web 3, will get Expression Web 4 at no charge when it’s available. Existing users of Expression Studio 3 will receive version 4 at no charge.
The official release date hasn’t been disclosed yet, but by looking at similar Microsoft offers, it should be released in 1 or 2 months.
Link – http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Upgrade.aspx
Download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your PC is ready for Windows 7. It scans your hardware, devices, and installed programs for known compatibility issues, gives you guidance on how to resolve potential issues found, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.
-Microsoft has a new plan to make more money from Office: give it away.
With Office 2010, one of the biggest changes is how many ways there are to get Microsoft’s most profitable software program for free.
In addition to the free, browser-based Office Web Apps, Microsoft is also offering PC makers the ability to install a basic version of Office on new computers. The new program, Office Starter, includes a stripped-down version of Word and Excel. PC makers, retailers and Microsoft can all make money if the PC buyer later upgrades to a paid version of Office.
icrosoft has extended its programme offering businesses a free trial of Windows 7 Enterprise to the end of 2010.
The 90-day trial programme was introduced in September, ahead of Windows 7’s official launch. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the new schedule for it.
"Due to popular demand, the Windows Enterprise Trial program has been extended. This means you now have till 31 December 2010 to download and evaluate the trial version," wrote Stephen Rose, senior community manager for Windows, in a post to the Windows team blog.
Some of you may have seen the Windows Phone 7 Series demo apps that were shown during the MIX10 keynote. If you missed them, here are videos of the demos that were shown during the keynote.
A theme is a visual definition of the look & feel for common controls in an Operating System.
Themes are usually end-user selectable, changing the theme at the OS level, impacts the look & feel of running applications that are ‘theme aware’. As an example, on Windows Vista and Windows 7, a popular/desired theme is the Aero theme.
Link – http://blogs.msdn.com/jaimer/archive/2010/03/30/theming-in-windows-phone.aspx
