Category: Microsoft

This category is for anything Microsoft related-so you’ll probably find that msot posts end up in here!

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Microsoft BPOS-A first hand look


Today I was finally able to set up our test account for Microsoft BPOS and it was definitely worth the wait. I’ve not been playing around with it for long but already I’m highly impressed with the amount of features and how easy it is to use. All the most common options you will need, such as create site, add user, increase storage are contained in easy access menus and are pretty much exactly where you’d expect them to be 🙂

Within 5 minutes I’d added users to the system, created a new Sharepoint Site Collection and then added said users to the Sharepoint site…and I’m no Sharepoint Administrator! I then proceeded to add multiple documents to the Sharepoint site which was easy and very quick-just as quick as an on-premise solution as far as I can tell.

There are some things missing such as Excel Services, forms etc as well as the ability to run custom code, so it won’t fit everyone-but on the whole it covers what people need very well.

Moving on to Exchange, I’ve just signed in to OWA and without having to do any configuration either as a user or admin (other than setting the size of the mailbox), I’m up and running and firing emails off all over the show 🙂 

For business that want to run BPOS alongside their existing on-premise installations, it is very simple synchronize your Active Directory (AD) and/or Exchange Global Address Lists as well as migrating existing mailboxes across to Microsoft Exchange Online. These are all done via wizards and having seem them demonstrated at TVP, they’re pretty simple to use.

I’m very impressed with the user interface and the general “flow” of the entire BPOS suite site, from the perspective of both an admin and a user. My gallery of screenshots can be found here.

cloud2_2

I want to thank Hugh Mcleod and Steve Clayton for this great S+S diagram!

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SalesForce.com outage


Over at The Register, they have tell of a Salesforce.com outage that struck today and left over 900,000 people unable to access their apps and data for about an hour today, starting 12:00 pm PST (so about 20:00 GMT).

While it perhaps hasn’t affected many UK companies, having that many business users, particularly in the States offline, “paralyzes a small fraction of the world’s economy” to quote El Reg. In these tough economic times to have almost 1 million man hourswasted in a day (and that’s just the directly affected number, the knock on could well increase that number significantly) isn’t a particularly great advert for SAAS.

It does however help strengthen Microsoft’s strategy of Software PLUS Services (S+S), rather that Software AS a Service (SAAS). Microsoft’s S+S is based on users having some software installed on-premise and then complementing that with online services so if a Salesforce.com style outage was to hit Microsoft-customers would have a much better chance to stay productive. Perhaps they wouldn’t have access to ALL the features but some are definitely better than none!

See my first impressions of using Microsoft’s S+S BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) here.

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More Windows 7 Beta Availability News


Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNetsays that Steve Ballmer is expected to announce the official availability of the closed Windows 7 beta during his CES KEynote speech on Wednesday January 7th, along with Windows Server 2008 R2.

However, she also states that her sources are indicating that the Public beta will be announced at the same time, with the Server beta being available on 08/01/09 and Windows 7 public beta downloadable from 09/01/09!

This is excellent news-I really can’t wait to get my hands on the official, non-torrented Win7 beta and get my test on-whoo hoo!!!

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Free Vista to Windows 7 Upgrades


Tech ARP are reporting that Microsoft plan to offer free upgrades to Windows 7 to customers purchasing new Vista machines as 1st of July 2009, a great indicator of the timescale until release.

They appear to have obtained a copy of the draft proposal that was sent to OEM’s in December, outlining Microsoft’s proposal for this scheme. It includes info such as:

The only Windows Vista® versions eligible for the program are :

  1. Windows Vista® Home Premium
  2. Windows Vista® Business
  3. Windows Vista® Ultimate

* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.
 

and

“The Program does not support multiple upgrades for medium, large, or enterprise customers. Customers that want to upgrade multiple PCs should use the appropriate Microsoft Volume Licensing program.”

so this is clearly aimed at consumers and small businesses.

Thanks to Mary Jo Foley for posting this first…

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President Bob Muglia


Bob Muglia is, as of yesterday (05/01/09), Microsoft’s President of Server & Tools. A great accolade after 21 years at the company, well done Bob!

See Steve Ballmer’s email over at Mary Jo Foley’s All About Microsoft.

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Windows 7-better than XP?


It’s something few people have ever said about Vista, but it looks like it could become a widespread phrase soon:

“Windows 7 is better than XP”

There will of course be a certain group of people who will refuse to admit that is even possible however I and many others have been saying it for a while now-and now Engadget have reports of something approaching proof!

Adrian Kingley-Hughes from ZDNet compared XP, Vista and Windows 7 at performing everyday tasks such as “boot up, shut down, file maneuvers, installations and other common tasks” and “On both test systems, an AMD Phenom 9700 setup and an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200 number (with ATI and NVIDIA graphics, respectively), the Windows 7 install soundly bested XP and Vista task by task, with few exceptions.”.

While this isn’t an exact science, it’s certainly very indicative of how things will be once Win 7 is released-and it’s looking good 🙂 Especially considering that this is the Beta of Windows 7 that’s being tested so one would assume that it’s final RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version will be even slicker.

It seems that Microsoft are really onto a good thing here…I can’t wait!

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Windows 7 to come with DivX


According to apcmag.com, Windows 7 will include DivX out of the box.

“So what?” you might ask…this will go along way to putting an end to hours spend trawling the web to find the correct/latest codecs to play that (legally) downloaded/ripped for backup purposes movie; thus making media watching in Windows an even more enjoyable experience 🙂

Codec packs are often from unverified publishers and run the risk of infecting your PC with malware and/or you ending up with various conflicting codecs that slow your machine down. Windows 7 shows a real attempt by MS to give users what they need and want and to help make the user experience as smooth, safe and stable as possible-good on you boys!

It doesn’t stop there though…Windows 7 will also play the H.264 video and AAC audio formats, as used by  iTunes, via Windows Media Player. However, don’t get too excited as Good Ol’ Apple refuse to licence  their FairPlay DRM so tracks purchased via the iTunes store are still off limits to WMP…Boo Hiss I say-that would make things SO much easier for me and stop me having to double up on tracks in both AAC and WMA/MP3 formats. Still, the AAC inclusion should mean that WMP can search & index all the (non-purchased) iTunes media, so simplifying the listening experience.

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Microsoft @ CES 2009


The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 is only 5 days away (01/01/09) and is the first big show of it’s kind this year.

**Update: See what came out of the CES KEynote here**

This time it’s going to be Steve Ballmer delivering the Keynote now that Mr Gates is no longer the day to day head of MS but he’s not going to be alone. Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices division @ Redmond will be there too…a new Xbox perhaps? Oddly I’m not a fan of the Xbox so I’d be happier to see him announcing the availability of the Zune in the UK 🙂

You know what, I’ve got a feeling that the next version of WinMo (so 6.5) is going to be mentioned at CES today too…and maybe a home version of Surface, haha 🙂

You can see Steve’s streamed webcast on January 7th 2009 @ 02:30 am GMT (18:30 PST) in 100K, 300K or 750K .

Hopefully Mr Ballmer will give us another Youtube moment!

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Fix for Zune 30GB


Even though, or perhaps because, I still can’t buy a Zune here in the UK, I like to keep my eye on news relating to these wonderful devices. I saw earlier today a number of reports about the 30GB editions of the Zune locking up and “bricking” for no apparent reason.

**Update** It turns out that this was down to a Toshiba driver in the clock.

Microsoft have now released an official reason for the problem and, more importantly a fix for the issue. It all comes down to these particular devices having some issues with the leap year so MS have said “That being the case, the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). ”

The full statement from Microsoft (which I saw via Gizmodo) is below. The official Zune Team blog is http://zuneinsider.com/ so you can check there for more info on this, and other Zune related topics 🙂

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. That being the case, the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.

Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?
It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.

Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?
This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q: What’s the timeline on a fix?
The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?
There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue?
The issue should resolve itself.

Q: Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices?
This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.

Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold?
All 30GB devices are potentially affected.

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Predictions for Microsoft in 2009


Mary Jo Foley has come up with her list of what she thinks Microsoft will, and won’t, do in 2009 and it looks like a pretty good list.

However the one I disagree with most is number 10:

“10. Become so completely consumed by Apple envy that it over-invests on the consumer side of the house. In 2009, Microsoft’s failure to tend to its enterprise knitting will begin hurting its business software/services sales.”

Although it’s clear that MS are looking to grow in many consumer based areas, I really don’t think they’ll let the corporate Enterprise market slip and/or lose focus. This area is where MS earn the most money and the most respect so they MUST keep tending to it and with all the releases we are already looking at for 2009 including OCS 2007 R2, Office 14, Sharepoint 14, VStudio 2010, SQL 2010, Biztalk 2009 and many more, I’d say that the Enterprise market is being pretty well looked after already.

On top of this is Microsoft’s Software+Services push, which is a HUGE focus for them as evidenced by the WPC 2008 and later events I attended at Reading campus. The US launch was November ’08 and has already taken off very well and the UK launch is due around May time. MS are getting partners ready to take S+S to the marketplace in a confident, well balanced way and I truly believe this will be a huge part of 2009 for anyone involved with MS on a corporate level; whether as a customer, partner or competitor. I’m going to say that Microsoft’s S+S will be a contributing factor to helping the UK get out of the credit slump faster than expected…how’s that for a prediction?! 😉

I also think the Zune will start to make an appearance in Europe. I’ve already heard that France is slated to be the next country to get the Zune and I can’t imagine that the UK can be far behind if that is true.

I would put a top 10 list together but so many would be the same as Mary Jo’s it hardly seems worth it!

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