Microsoft accepting nominations for Access 2010 Technical Beta program

The Access team is 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 Access 14 please complete the following nomination form (you will need to log into Microsoft Connect with a Live ID)

Source: Microsoft Access Team Blog

Technorati Tags: office 2010,office 2010 beta program

Office 2010 Beta: apply now!

Microsoft has just started receiving applications for the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Program, through Microsoft Connect.

The Microsoft Office Technical Beta program is an invitation only program intended for committed beta testers. The purpose of the program is to gain product feedback and technical validation across the family of Office client and server products. Selected participants will receive pre-release software, early product documentation and guidance, and beta technical support through our sponsored Technical Beta Program newsgroups. Selected testers will be expected to participate in monthly program surveys and other requests for feedback.

Space is very limited, and all nominations will be evaluated on a first come, first served basis.

Note: The Microsoft Office Technical Preview build will only be available via download. No CD/DVD format will be available.

Click here to apply for Office 2010 Click-to-Run Technical Beta for Home and Small Business Consumers.

Source: In-house

Technorati Tags: Office 2010

No 3-app limit for Windows 7 Starter

Microsoft will be making Windows 7 Starter available worldwide on small notebook PCs and will enable Windows 7 Starter customers to run as many applications simultaneously as the customers would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included.

Windows 7 Starter still includes only a subset of the features offered in the higher editions of Windows 7 such as Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and above. Windows 7 Starter does not include:

• Aero Glass, meaning you can only use the “Windows Basic” or other opaque themes. It also means you do not get Taskbar Previews or Aero Peek.
• Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes.
• The ability to switch between users without having to log off.
• Multi-monitor support.
• DVD playback.
• Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV or other media.
• Remote Media Streaming for streaming your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer.
• Domain support for business customers.
• XP Mode for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP programs on Windows 7.

Source: Windows 7 Team Blog

Technorati Tags: microsoft,Windows+7,Windows+7+Starter

DirectX vulnerability discovered for XP

Microsoft warned yesterday that hackers are using QuickTime media files to exploit an unpatched 0-day vulnerability in DirectShow.

In a posting on Microsoft's security response center blog company officials confirmed the new vulnerability affects Microsoft DirectShow in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, under limited attack.

After initial investigation Microsoft have confirmed that the vulnerable code was removed as part of their work building Windows Vista. This means that Windows Vista and versions of Windows since Windows Vista (Windows Server 2008, Windows 7) are not vulnerable.

Microsoft have provided workarounds for the exploit available under the 971778 security advisory.

Source: Neowin

Technorati Tags: microsoft,directx

Bing.com top features

• Auto-Suggest. Offers intelligent alternatives for search queries
• Instant Answers. Serves up information within search results, eliminating the need to click on anything
• Best Match. Provides useful links and information for definitive sites
• Related Searches. Points to deeper information available with one click
• Deep Links. Enables easy, direct access to relevant content within a site
• Quick View. Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before clicking through to the site
• Smart Video Preview. Previews a 30-second clip of videos simply by scrolling onto them
• Infinite Scroll. Provides easily browsed image results without clicking to a new page
• Quick Tabs. Tailors search results with one click

Source: Bing Product Guide (.xps)

Technorati Tags: bing,microsoft

Bing.com available worldwide by June 3rd, 2009

Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Bing, a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions. Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

The new service, located at http://www.Bing.com, will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.

The new brand portfolio will include the following changes to existing Microsoft programs:

• Virtual Earth, will now be branded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. More information can be found here.

• Farecast is now a central part of Bing Travel.

• Microsoft’s popular cashback program, now dubbed Bing cashback, with more than 850 merchants and more than 17 million products available, will be fully integrated into the Bing Shopping experience.

Sources: Microsoft PressPass, Live Search blog

New WSUS Product Categories for Office Communicator R2 releases

There are 2 new product categories being added to the WSUS Products and Classifications dialog, both under the product family “Office Communicator Server and Office Communicator”.

The two new categories are:

Office Communications Server 2007 R2:

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2, including service packs, critical and security updates.

Office Communicator 2007 R2:

The Office Communicator 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2 , including service packs, critical and security updates.

Source: WSUS Product Team Blog