Category: licensing

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Windows 7 Upgrade Offer


Today we had new pricefiles issued by our Microsoft distributor which include new items and details on the Windows 7 Upgrade offer, which will commence 19th of June. Bear in mind we are a Business to Business VAR, so the offer/pricing may well be different for consumers in high street stores/online etc.

There is a new set of part numbers for Vista OEM licences that come with a “Windows 7 Upgrade Form”-which when completed and returned, will entitle the customer to a “free” upgrade to Windows 7. I say “free” but these new part numbers are a little more expensive than their non-upgrade offering brethren; however the difference is only around £20 🙂

The upgrade offer is available on:

  • Vista Business
  • Vista Home Premium
  • Vista Ultimate

While this doesn’t directly apply to consumer PCs you can buy from PC World, Dixons, ASDA etc-there must be something very similar in place; as all those machines will ship with OEM licences on. I would expect that from 19/06/09, any new PC’s that ship out from manufacturing will all come with a “Windows 7 Upgrade” form 🙂

I don’t usually post about things directly involving sales and prices and info I get from work etc so I want to make it extra clear that posts on this blog aren’t representative of the company and any mention of price is subject to change, isn’t set in stone etc!

**Update** Final pricing and confirmation of how the EU decision will affect European upgrades has been released-see this post.**

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Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2


Windows 7 is excellent on it’s own, full of great new features, but when combined with Windows Server 2008 R2-it really comes in to it’s own. Things such as Direct Access, Branch Cache and Network Access Protection help make things easier, faster, more secure and better than ever before!

Win7 & R2

Direct Access:

Direct Access is Microsoft’s answer to the pain that is VPN’s. They are often tricky to set up, tricky to use with failed connections etc and can waste a lot of time and money in helpdesk calls and lost productivity; so this is where Direct Access comes in. Once PC’s have connected to the corporate network once, they’ll be able to do it anytime, from anywhere:

Direct AccessDirect Access

This means users will receive the latest updates wherever they log on…home, the airport, a hotel-anywhere! Making mobile working a more secure propostion for users and admins…

For more details, see my dedicated post here and there is a great Solution Design Technet article here.

Branch Cache:

This new feature is designed for remote office and works by caching information on local servers rather than retrieving it from HQ each time. I’ve just seen that the information can be cached on client computers and this is knows as “distributed cache mode”.This decreases network traffic and, at the same time, helps increase users productivity.

Branch Cache

Branch cache retention policies can be set by IT be it based on cache size, length of time cached etc. Technet has a great Early Adopters guide that’s full of information and can be found here.

To benefit from all these features, you need to run both Windows 7 AND Windows Server 2008 R2:

Licensing

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What is XP Mode?


XP Mode is new feature of Windows 7 that will be available in the Release Candidate (it wasn’t in the beta) and I think it wil be a game changer.

It is a simple, yet quite brilliant, concept-using Virtual PC 7 as a base, it lets you run XP only applications inside Windows 7 🙂 You might think, “Well why not just use Virtual PC?”…the biggest problem with using Virtual PC, VMWare Workstation etc is that you have 2 separate desktop entities causing you to switch back and forth without much interoperability but that’s not an issue here. XP Mode lets you run the legacy applications actually inside Windows 7, this screenshot from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows shows IE 8 & IE 6 running alongside each other in Windows 7:

vxp_ie_windows

As a feature this really is a biggie. So many people, especially corporate, are still running on XP and the vast majority of them are doing so becuase of app compatability. For example, our CRM system doesn’t work with Vista so as much as I’d love to have that as my work OS I simply can’t…however that’s all changed now. I’ll be able to use Windows 7 with XP mode and, like Hannah Montana, have the best of both worlds 😉

From a licensing perspective, it’s worth noting that XP mode will only be available in Pro, Enterprise & Ultimate editions.

From a technical perspective, Windows 7 XP Mode requires processors with Hardware Assisted Virtualization. Not all CPU’s have this, so a list of those that do is here.

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Microsoft BPOS available from Monday!


The much hyped, very exciting Microsoft Online Services will be available to order via the MOCP (Microsoft Online Customer Portal) from Monday 27/04/09!

Find more Microsoft Online here:

https://richardgibbonsuk.wordpress.com/ms-onlinebpos/

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Office 2007 SP2


The Microsoft Office team have released a great big list of fixes contained in Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 and some of them are great, and look like they’ll fix some issues I’m having 🙂 The full article can be found here and my pick of the fixes is below. (ps SP2 will be out 28th of April 2009-so next week!)

Excel: A chart object model has been added to Word and PowerPoint.

Groove: Synchronization reliability has been improved.

Outlook:

  • Performance in startup, shutdown, view rendering, and folder switch has been improved.
  • Calendar updates, search, and RSS are more reliable.

    • Powerpoint: Resaving of files is faster.

     Server side:

    Excel Services: Improved compatibility with Mozilla Firefox browsers.

    Props to Chris Parkes for his tweet on this 🙂

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    Comparison of Sharepoint Server & Sharepoint Online


    While Sharepoint Online is an excellent product and fits the bill nicely for the vast majority of customers, there are certain features it lacks when compared to it’s regular on-premise brethren; this is mainly down to the multi-tenant environment of the standard datacenters.

    moss-online-comparison

    Green = Sharepoint Online Blue = On Premise Server Only

    As you can see, the Search & Business Intelligence sections are practically non-existent online which may put some people off. However if you need those features then you can utilise MS Online in it’s full Software PLUS Services mode and have an online AND an on-premise server together. It will be interesting to see if Sharepoint Online features more Search & BI functionality once “Wave 14” hits as Sharepoint On-Premise will have a whole raft of new features in these areas…

    Microsoft state:

    In the current release of the services, the following actions are not supported:

    ·         Use inline code, build coded workflows, or develop Office InfoPath forms with coded business logic.

    ·         Deploy features, solutions, pluggable authentication providers, Web Parts, site definitions, or other modifications that require deployment and configuration on the server.

    ·         Modify built-in SharePoint files, web.config settings, security policy, and other elements.

    ·         Make configuration changes that affect the Web server or the Microsoft .NET Framework.

    ·         Make changes or add capabilities that require a custom database or changes to the database schema.

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    Windows 7 Editions Feature Comparison


    There are 6 diffferent editions of Windows 7, starting with the Limited distribution Starter edition through to Windows 7 Enterprise. Each edition builds on the feature set of the one before as the following image shows:

    windows-7-editions

    Note that Windows 7 Ultimate includes all Windows 7 Enterprise, including multiple-language packs.

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    No Office 14 until 2010


    Steve Ballmer has said that the next release of the Office family “Wave 14, won’t hit us until 2010-not the late 2009 that I and many others were expecting.

    Office 14 will bring the new versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote etc as well as Office for Sales, Sharepoint and OCS as well as other products too-so it’s a big ol’ release and one that I’m definitely looking forward to…

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    OCS Licensing changes coming with next version


    It appears that there will be an extra CAL (Client Access Licence) for users to choose from when Microsoft OCS Server 14  is released in 2010.

    On top of the current Standard and Enterprise CALs, there will also be a Voice CAL which will offer telephony & VOIP services. These features will be removed from the Enterprise CAL and thus the Enterprise CAL will drop in price by around 23%. Also, MS are allowing current OCS customers with SA (Software Assurance) to “grandfather” in the new Voice CAL-if they agree to buy it before July 2009.

    Hat Tip to Mary Jo Foley

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    Compare SQL Editions


    SQL has perhaps more separate flavours than any other Microsoft product (save Office) and this certainly has the potential to confuse people, both end users and sales people. To help with this, I thought I’d do a quick post highlighting the different editions and the differences between them. To be honest, this isn’t much more than reposting what’s on the Microsoft site but often it’s finding the info on their site that’s the hard part 🙂

    The main differences between the different version are the number of CPU’s they can work with and how much RAM they can address, this ranges from 1 to 256 and 1GB to 2TB. There are of course other differences and more in-depth info can be found via the links below.

    sql-comparison 

    The different editions are:

    SQL Standard: SQL Server 2008 Standard is a data management and business intelligence platform that provides best-in-class ease of use and manageability for running departmental applications. More info.

    SQL Enterprise: SQL Server 2008 Enterprise is a comprehensive data platform that meets the high demands of enterprise online transaction processing and data warehousing applications. More info.

    SQL Workgroup: Run branch locations on this reliable data management and reporting platform that provides secure remote synchronization and management capabilities. More info.

    SQL Web: Offer low-cost, large scale highly available web applications or data hosting solutions with a highly available Internet facing web serving environments. More Info.

    SQL Developer: A low cost edition of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise licensed per developer for development, testing, and demonstration purposes only. Not for production use. More info.

    Most people in corporate situations find themselves having to choose between SQL Std and SQL Enterprise so here is a detailed comparison pdf.SQL2008_Std_vs_Ent

    Trials and more for the above editions can be found here.

    There are also two free versions of SQL available:

    SQL Express: Available as a free download, SQL Server 2008 Express is ideal for learning and building desktop and small server applications and for re-distribution by ISVs. Download here. More info.

    SQL Compact Edition 3.5: Available as a free download, SQL Server Compact enables developers to embed SQL Server directly into their applications, enabling occasionally connected and stand-alone applications for mobile devices, desktops, and Web clients across all Microsoft Windows platforms. Download here. More info.

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