According to the WSUS blog “Very soon, the "Visual Studio" product family will be renamed to "Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables".
Microsoft plans to distribute various developer-related products through Windows Server Update Services, including Report Viewer 2005 and Report Viewer 2008.
Any updates for Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008 will be available under this new category.
Source: TechNet Blogs
This download helps you evaluate the new features of Windows 7, Windows 7 has better ways to find and manage files—like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews—to help you speed through everyday tasks. It's designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to. With 64-bit support, you can take full advantage of the latest powerful PCs. And great features like HomeGroup, Windows Media Center, and Windows Touch make new things possible. For more information about Windows 7, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/.
This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows.
Source: Microsoft Downloads Center
Microsoft has released the Release Candidate (RC) version of Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010. This is the final public release prior to our RTM (release to manufacturing) and even though no new major features were introduced in the Release Candidate, there are several important improvements about security, reliability, performance, telemetry integration and overall solution completeness.
You can install Forefront TMG 2010 RC today and upgrade to a licensed version once available without changing the configuration of your deployment.
The download of Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 RC is available from here.
My personal favorite feature of Forefront TMG is the ability to combine two ADSL lines (“ISP Redundancy”, as it’s officially called).
Microsoft has released the RTM versions of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC. They are currently available on TechNet and MSDN, with public downloads available soon.
Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 makes it easy to install and run many of your Windows XP productivity applications directly from a Windows 7-based PC. It utilizes virtualization technology such as Windows Virtual PC to provide a Virtual Windows XP environment for Windows 7.
Windows XP Mode provides a 32-bit Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (SP3) environment pre-loaded on a virtual hard disk.
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Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology that allows you to run many productivity applications on a virtual Windows environment, with a single click, directly from a Windows 7-based PC.
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For more information about Windows Virtual PC, please visit the Windows Virtual PC website.
Windows Virtual PC supports the following 32 bit Guest Operating systems : Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Professional, Windows Vista Enterprise Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise.
We are happy to announce that Exchange 2010 is Code Complete! Our senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to our early adopters for one final look before its public release. This Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are on our way to general availability and the launch at Tech·Ed Europe 2009 in early November
Source: Microsoft Exchange Team Blog
Microsoft has just released Beta 2 of “Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint”:
Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint helps prevents users from uploading or downloading documents containing malware, out-of-policy content, or sensitive information to SharePoint libraries. Using multiple anti-malware scanning engines from industry-leading security partners combined with file and keyword filtering, Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint provides comprehensive protection against the latest threats. The product integrates with SharePoint technologies to provide high performance, easily customized protection optimized for SharePoint collaboration environments
The download, which is 115.9 MB in size, can be found here.
Source: Microsoft Download Center
If you are using Windows 7, then Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5 is a must-have for enabling Windows 7 applications to deliver great features like sharing documents, pictures, music, and video.
Through the online provider, the Sign-in Assistant helps a Windows 7 application running on one computer identify and communicate with other computers that are associated with the same Windows Live ID. Just by linking your Windows Live ID to the user account on each Windows 7 computer you own, you enable those computers to identify each other and work together more easily than has been possible in the past.
Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5 can be downloaded in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors.
