MapPoint Add-In for SQL Server released

The Microsoft® MapPoint® Add-In for SQL Server gives you the power to visualize and manipulate your spatial data - stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2008—on a MapPoint map. To use the Add-in you need SQL Server 2008, MapPoint 2009, and the MapPoint Add-in for SQL Server.

For the first time, natively, you can connect to your SQL Server 2008 spatial database right from MapPoint and pull in the respective fields, filtering data to be visualized in MapPoint 2009.

The MapPoint Add-In for SQL Server can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft Downloads Center.

Source: Bing Community

Free Windows 7 copy for beta testers

In a surprise move, Microsoft will offer a complimentary, for personal-use only copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to beta testers:

To show our appreciation, members of the invitation-only Windows 7 Technical Beta Program will be eligible for a free, final copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. For more information on how to take advantage of this, refer to Paul’s post in the .Beta_Program newsgroup for details.

Beta testers will have the options to either download the English ISO on August 6th, 2009 – the same day as ISVs, IHVs, TechNet & MSDN Subscribers or opt-in for an actual copy in its retail packaging, when available.

Source: Windows Team Blog

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 RTM

Windows Azure – July CTP released

The July CTP of the Windows Azure SDK and Tools was just released. Download them here.

What’s new in the Windows Azure SDK?

• The Windows Azure SDK supports developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service must include at least one role, of either type, and may include zero or more web roles, and zero or more worker roles.
• The new PowershellRole sample hosts the Powershell runtime within a Windows Azure role. It demonstrates a simple remote console web role as well as a worker role whose implementation is a Powershell script. The host also includes the CloudDrive sample snap-in to provide access to Windows Azure Storage from script.

What’s new in Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio

• New project creation dialog
• Support for developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service may contain zero or more web roles and zero or more worker roles with a minimum of one role of either type.
• Ability to associate any ASP.NET Web Application project in a Cloud Service solution as a Web Role
• Support for building Cloud Services from TFS Build
• Enhanced robustness and stability

Technorati Tags: Azure

Microsoft + Yahoo! deal confirmed

    

According to the deal:

1. Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search
2. Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers

The Microsoft - Yahoo! deal is intended to “improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry”.

Source: Choice. Value. Innovation. - Press Room

Windows 7 RTM Screenshot Gallery

Even though Windows 7 RTM (7600.16385) is not yet available to everyone except to OEMs,  Softpedia has released a screenshots gallery of Windows 7 RTM. You can watch all 123 screenshots at source.

Source: Softpedia

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 RTM

Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM – Availability Calendar

After announcing the Windows 7 RTM Availability, Microsoft has announced the availability dates of Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM:

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009: OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) will receive Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM in English and all Language Packs. The remaining languages will be available around August 11^th.

Friday, August 14th, 2009: ISV (Independent software vendor), IHV (Independent hardware vendor), MSDN & TechNet Subscribers will be able to download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM in English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish on August 14^th and all remaining languages starting August 21^st.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009: Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Partners will be able to download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM through the Microsoft Partner Program (MPP) Portal on August 19^th. Volume License (VL) customer with an existing Software Assurance (SA) license, will be able to download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM on August 19^th via the Volume License Service Center (VLSC).

Thursday, August 20th, 2009: you can download the 180 day evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2 from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/try-it.aspx

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009: Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers will be able to download Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM starting August 23rd.

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009: Volume License (VL) customers without Software Assurance (SA) agreements will be able to purchase Windows Server 2008 R2 through Volume Licensing on September 1^st

Monday, September 14th, 2009: Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available in the retail channel on September 14^th

Click here for a calendar view or import this calendar (ICS).

Source: TechNet Blogs

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows 7 Has RTM’ed

As it was expected:

Today (July 22nd, 2009) after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600 as RTM.

OEMs are expected to receive the RTM build as early as Friday, July 24th.

Windows Server 2008 R2 has also been Released to Manufacturing, as announced.

Source: The Windows Blog

Technorati Tags: Windows 7

Windows 7 RTM – Availability Calendar (Updated)

Microsoft has announced the availability dates of Windows 7 RTM build:

Friday, July 24th, 2009: OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) will receive Windows 7 RTM.

Thursday August 6th, 2009: ISVs (Independent software vendor), IHVs (Independent hardware vendor)and owners of TechNet and MSDN Subscriptions will be able of downloading Windows 7 RTM in English.

Friday, August 7th, 2009: Volume License (VL) customers with an existing Software Assurance (SA) agreements will be able of downloading Windows 7 RTM in English via the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). The rest of the languages for Windows 7 RTM should be available within a couple of weeks after that.

Sunday, August 16th, 2009: Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) Gold/Certified Partners will be able of downloading Windows 7 RTM in English through the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal. By October 1st, the remaining languages will become available to download.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009: Microsoft ActionPack Subscribers will be able of downloading Windows 7 RTM in English through the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal. By October 1st, the remaining languages will become available to download.

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009: Volume License (VL) customers without Software Assurance (SA) agreements will be able of purchasing Windows 7 through Volume Licensing.

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009: Windows 7 will be in retail stores and shipping on new PCs. If you pre-ordered Windows 7, it should be delivered sometime around the October 22nd timeframe (depends on the retailer).

Click here for a calendar view or import this calendar (ICS).

Source: Windows Blog

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 RTM,Windows 7

Silverlight 3 & Expression 3 Launch Experience Site

Microsoft has just launched the Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 launch “experience” site, where you can:

1. watch the “Visual Kitchen” TV Show
2. find product demos
3. discover how customers, agencies and partners build great user experiences

http://vepexp.microsoft.com/seethelight

See the (Silver)Light

http://www.seethelight.com/ is about to launch in an hour. Stay tuned.

Welcome SQL Azure

Microsoft has rebranded the SQL Services that make part of the Azure platform.

Effective immediately, SQL Services will be called Microsoft SQL Azure, and SQL Data Services will be Microsoft SQL Azure Database.

Confused? Well, in order to make sure that everything is understood correctly:

Microsoft SQL Azure is a building block of the Azure platform, delivering on the Microsoft Data Platform vision of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Microsoft SQL Azure will deliver a rich set of integrated services that enable you to perform relational queries, search, reporting, analytics, integration and synchronize data with mobile users, remote offices and business partners. More information about Microsoft SQL Azure is available on Microsoft.com.

Microsoft SQL Azure Database, a component of the SQL Azure “platform”, is a cloud-based relational database platform built on SQL Server technologies. With SQL Azure Database, you can easily provision and deploy relational database solutions to the cloud, and take advantage of a globally distributed data center that provides enterprise-class availability, scalability, and security with the benefits of built-in data protection, self-healing and disaster recovery. More information about Microsoft SQL Azure Database is available on Microsoft.com.

Microsoft is expected to release a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of SQL Azure Database very soon, at the Worldwide Partners Conference 2009 (WPC09), July 13-16 in New Orleans.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information about SQL Azure, WPC, Microsoft Technologies and more.

Source: Technet Blogs

SCONFIG for Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Deployments

If you have ever tried to configure a Windows Server Core deployment, you will find SConfig is a very useful configuration utility:

We are pleased to announce that in Windows Server 2008 R2, there's an easy to use CLI, SCONFIG. SCONFIG dramatically eases server configuration for Windows Server 2008 R2 core deployments. With SCONFIG, you can easily set your system up, get it on the network so you can easily manage the server remotely.

• Rename your computer? Press 2 and you will be prompted to type in the computer name.
• Domain join? Press 1 and you'll be prompted for name & password.

Simple and fast.

With SCONFIG you can easily have a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core deployment setup in minutes. I should also mention that SCONFIG is also localized in almost 20 languages.

Tasks include:

1. Domain join
2. Rename Computer
3. Configure Remote (Enable management via Server Manager, & PowerShell including properly configuring the firewall.)
4. Configuring Windows Update
5. Enabling Remote Desktop (in case you want to login remotely.)
6. Configuring Networking (static vs. DHCP and for multiple NICs)

All you have to do is type sconfig at the command line.

Source: Windows Virtualization Team Blog

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Hot off the press:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Do you think Windows has just got a serious competitor?

Source: Official Google Blog

Download: Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner

Microsoft has released a new diagnostic tool for network:

The Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner is a diagnostic tool that is designed for administrators of small or medium-sized networks (recommended up to 20 servers and up to 500 client computers) who want to assess the overall health of their network infrastructure. The tool identifies common problems that can prevent your network environment from functioning properly as well as problems that can interfere with infrastructure upgrades, deployments, and migration.
When run from a computer with the proper network access, the tool takes a few minutes to scan your IT environment, perform more than 100 separate checks, and collect and analyze information about the following:

• Configuration of sites and subnets in Active Directory
• Replication of Active Directory, the file system, and SYSVOL shared folders
• Name resolution by the Domain Name System (DNS)
• Configuration of the network adapters of all domain controllers, DNS servers, and e-mail servers running Microsoft Exchange Server
• Health of the domain controllers
• Configuration of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for all domain controllers

If a problem is found, the tool describes the problem, indicates the severity, and links you to guidance at the Microsoft Web site (such as a Knowledge Base article) to help you resolve the problem. You can save or print a report for later review. The tool does not change anything on your computer or your network.

The Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner can be downloaded here.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 to launch on July 10, 2009

Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 will be unveiled at a virtual launch event on July 10, 2009. Attend the event at www.seethelight.com on July 10 to watch the keynote sessions and see new in-depth sessions.

Stroll through the customer and partner pavilions in the Exhibition Hall or stop by 'The Visual Kitchen' TV show and watch the chefs as they dish up digital designs and development entrees as part of this exclusively produced online experience.

Project 2010 Technical Preview – Register now

The Office Project Team is looking for beta testers for the upcoming Project 2010 Technical Preview beta program, scheduled to launch within the next few weeks. According to their announcement:

We are taking nominations to participate in the Office 2010 Technical Beta program. We expect availability of our first beta release, known as Technical Preview, in the month of July. The team is excited to get feedback from our community that will help us make this a great release. Here is your opportunity to nominate yourself to participate in the program (space is limited). If you are interested in beta testing Project, please complete the following nomination form (you will need to log into Microsoft Connect with a Live ID).

Source: MSDN Blogs

Post-SP2 updates for SharePoint 2007 released

Microsoft has released the bi-monthly (June ‘09) Cumulative Updates for MOSS and WSS3.0.

Fixes for MOSS

Notes: An “uber-package” for MOSS has not been released yet. Either install all MOSS fixes or wait for the single-install package. “Language specific” fixes have to be installed for each language installed on your system.

KB972569 Global http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;972569

Issues resolved: In Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you start an out-of-the-box approval workflow and set a due date. As soon as the due date passes, you edit the workflow and then delete the due date. Immediately a task overdue e-mail is sent out to the approvers with the original due date. The approvers continue to receive a task overdue e-mail (referencing the original due date) weekly until the workflow is canceled, a future due date is set or the workflow is approved.

 

KB970948 Global http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970948

Issues resolved: When you try to a create a Key performance indicator (KPI) item by using the "Indicator Using data in Excel Workbook" option and the Excel workbook has Unicode characters, you receive a "File not found" error message. When you click a link to a Report Center Dashboard page in your My Site page, you receive the following error message:  An unexpected error has occurred. When you use the spelling checker on words that do not include accented characters, the spelling checker does not suggest corrected words to include the accented characters. For example, you use the spelling checker to check the spelling of "telefono" in Spanish, and it results in no suggestions. The correct suggestion should be "teléfono" to include the accented "é." If you enable binary large object caching on a site collection intermittently you receive "File not found" errors when you open already cached files during the BLOBCache automatic background cleanup procedure. After you install this update, the probability of "File not found" errors caused by this race condition is minimal. If you copy some text into a Rich Text Edit control in Internet Explorer 8, click Save as in the File menu, and then click Cancel, you find that the text is pushed down the page. After you install this update, you can use the RichTextEditorShortcutEnabled property to control all rich text edit boxes. This includesthe AboutMe rich text edit box in My Site. For example: stsadm.exe -o setproperty -url http://portal/MySiteURL -pn "richtexteditorshortcutenabled" -pv "no" A federated search location can be configured to use "Common Cookie Authentication." However when this location is used on a site through the Federated Search Results Web part, the Web part is not shown. You use UserA account to create a page and then click Check In to Share Draft. Then, you delete the UserA account. After that, if you change to the All Draft Documents in the Manage Content and Structure page, you receive the following error message:  Unknown Error A search alert is added to inform you of any new results for a particular query term. However, after crawling a content source that contains many changed or new documents by using that query term, you find that the resulting alert e-mail only contains results for 10 of these newly crawled documents. You are never notified of the other document

 

KB970947 Language specific http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970947

Issues resolved: Consider the following scenario: You copy text that contains smart tags from a document that is created in Microsoft Office Word 2007 or an earlier version of Word. You paste the text into a Content Editor Web part in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. You use the Remove Inline Styles feature to remove the inline styles. In this scenario, the text that is associated with the smart tags is removed

 

KB972562 Language specific http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;972562

Issues resolved: In a slide library, you have a slide that contains more than two commas in the file name. When you click Copy Slide to Presentation, PowerPoint 2007 does not start. Additionally, there is no error message.

 

KB972564 Forms Server Global http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;972564

Issues resolved:  Consider the following scenario. You use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. You design an InfoPath form that contains an ordinary rich text control and a read-only rich text control. The controls are linked to the same data source. You enter text that represents a URL to the ordinary control. The read-only control is updated with the same content. You open the form by using SharePoint, and notice that the URL in the read-only control is also hyperlinked. You click the link in the read-only control. In this scenario, the Web page that the URL points to is open in the control instead of in a new Internet Explorer window. Note This problem does not occur in the ordinary control.

Fixes for WSS

Notes: no information about the actual fixes has been released yet

KB971538 uber package


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;971538

KB970946 Global


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970946

Source: MSDN Blogs

Forefront Service Packs released

Microsoft has released new service packs for Forefront products.

Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 2: Help protect your Exchange server from viruses and other malware.

Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 3: Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 3 helps business protect their Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 collaboration environments by eliminating documents containing malicious code, confidential information, and inappropriate content.

Contest: Get Your Photo on Bing.com

How would it feel to have your photo published on the Bing.com home page for a day?

Now you can do it by entering the Facebook contest. But hurry up, the contest will be available until July 16th, 2009.

The winning photo will be used on Monday August 3rd. 2009.

Contest rules can be found here.

Best luck to the participants! However, my personal favorite photo has already been published on Bing.

Source: Channel 10

Office 2010 Technical Beta testers for SharePoint Workspace (Groove)

If you haven’t already nominated yourself for the upcoming Office 2010 Technical Beta Program, don’t let the opportunity slip out. The SharePoint Workspace (ex-Groove) Team is looking for beta testers:

We’re pleased to announce that the SharePoint Workspace (Groove) team is taking nominations to participate in the Office 2010 Technical Beta program.

We expect to release our Technical Preview in the month of July.  The team is excited to get feedback from our community in order to help make this a great release. Here is your opportunity to nominate yourself to participate in the program. 

Space is limited, so if you are interested in beta-testing SharePoint Workspace 2010, please complete the following nomination form (you will need to log into Microsoft Connect with a Live ID).  We look forward to hearing from you.

And a tip for those that read posts to the end: the easiest way to get yourself nominated is by selecting the ‘individual’ option at the respective question.

Source: SharePoint Workspace (Groove) Team Blog