Microsoft Live Mesh was a big part of the PDC announcements at the start of November, and although it’s still in beta, I think it’s going to become very useful to a lot of people; especially once you can add mobile devices to the mesh.
I’ve started using it since I got a new laptop, as I now tend to blog on that while sitting on the sofa rather than than slightly uncomfortable chair for the desktop. There were a number of files such as pictures, drafts of posts etc that were held locally on the PC, so I’d be halfway through a post on the laptop and suddenly need to boot up the other PC too…annoying and bad for the environment!
Now I simply add all the files to a folder in my Mesh and I can access them from either machine…nice 🙂
Where is Microsoft after this year’s PDC Conference?
I think Microsoft is in a very strong position-at the head of many points of the market, and hot on the heels of the leaders in others..Cloud computing, Web applications, Desktop OS, Collaboration and more..
Windows Azure & Windows 7 have had a massive amount of buzz around them, and it nearly all seems to be good! I’ve got a few colleagues in the “Anti-Vista” camp but even they are cautiously optimistic about what Win7 will bring us…I am ridiculously excited and everyone else is looking forward to it 🙂
Azure instantly puts MS in the top 3 players in the Cloud space, and I don’t think it will be long before the No.1 spot is theirs.
Office Web Apps shows that Microsoft ARE taking the web seriously and as an answer to Google, it’s a pretty good one! This will bring online apps to a whole new section of users..I don’t use Google Apps for many reasons..but I’ll definitely use Office Web…
Live Mesh was another big part of PDC 2008 and this could seriously make peoples lives easier, faster and more fulfilling…if it’s executed correctly. Mesh isn’t a huge concern for me personally (at the moment) but could be important for so many others.
All in all I think the most important thing that PDC 2008 has done is breathe new life into Microsoft, it’s partner eco-system and the end users, who let’s face it are the ones that REALLY matter! People once again believe in Microsoft, are excited by Microsoft and dare I say it, people LIKE Microsoft!!! 🙂
A number of Windows 7 features have been announced today (28/10/08) at the Microsoft PDC 2008. The vast majority of the features we saw today were for the consumer but fear not, Microsoft promise there are numerous Enterprise related additions too! These include:
Federated Search: Deliver a consistent experience finding file across PCs, networks, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server systems.
DirectAccess: To link users to corporate resources from the road without a virtual private network.
BranchCache: To make it faster to open files and Web pages from a branch office.
Bitlocker ToGo: Data protection for removable devices.
Refined Universal Access Control: To give fewer prompts for users and more flexibility for IT.
PowerShell and group policy management.
Client virtualization: With virtual desktop infrastructure enhancements, to improve memory utilization and user experience.
Device Center: To provide a single place to access all connected and wireless devices with Device Stage, to see status and run common tasks from a single window.
HomeGroup: To make it easier to share media, documents, and printers across multiple PCs in offices without a domain.
Direct Access:
“DirectAccess in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 enhances the productivity of mobile workers by connecting them seamlessly and more securely to their corporate network any time they have Internet access—without the need to VPN.”
Anything that means we don’t need to use VPN’s is brilliant! I find they rarely work as well as end users need them to and they can make a System Admin’s life difficult, so removing VPN’s could be enough to make the detractors forget all about Vista!
“With DirectAccess, IT administrators can manage mobile computers by updating Group Policy settings and distributing software updates any time the mobile computer has Internet connectivity, even if the user is not logged on.”
“To keep data safer as it travels public networks, DirectAccess uses IPv6-over-IPsec to encrypt communications transmitted across the Internet. DirectAccess can use split-tunnel routing, which reduces unnecessary traffic on the corporate network by sending only traffic destined for the corporate network through the DirectAccess server (running Windows Server 2008 R2)…”
Bitlocker To Go:
With all the lost data flying around these days, BitLocker To Go extends the proven BitLocker technology to removable USB devices, securing them with a passphrase. “In addition to having control over passphrase length and complexity, IT administrators can require users to apply BitLocker protection to removable drives before being able to write to them”.
Administrators can still allow unsecured USB devices to be used in a Read-Only mode and policies are also available to require appropriate passwords, smart card, or domain user credentials to utilize a protected removable storage device.
A related addition is AppLocker which is “a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism that enables IT professionals to specify exactly what is allowed to run on user desktops.” It uses “publisher rules” that are based on digital signatures so, with correctly structured rules, you can deploy updates etc without having to create new rules.
Virtualization Enhancements
Virtual Desktop Infrastructire (VDI) in Windows 7 is closer to the experience of a local PC now with support for Aero, video viewing in Media Player 11 and multiple monitor configurations. New microphone support enables remote desktops running WIndows 7 Enterprise to provide VOIP & speech recognition functionality. Last, but by no means least, is Easy Print which allows users to print to local printers without installing drivers on the server.
The guys over at ActiveWin have got a great, in-depth review of the Windows 7, M3 Preview which contains any number of screenshots and a whole host of info. Some of the bits that caught my eye were:
Location Aware Printing:
In Windows 7, you no longer need to select the printer to match your location. When you change network locations, such as taking your work laptop home for the evening, the default printer setting can change to reflect the best printer for that new location. When you print at work, Windows 7 will print to your work printer. When you print at home, Windows 7 will automatically select and use your home printer.
Media Player 12 will ship with Windows 7 and according to ActiveWin: “this new version features radical changes to its menu structure, with some menus positioned on the left and right sides of the interface…and features two thick toolbars of controls, the second one focusing on traditional features such as Organization, Sharing, Playlist and Search…Common media formats supported include WMV, WMA, MPEG-4, AAC and AVC/H.264.”
Ultra Wideband (UWB) and Wireless USB (WUSB):
UWB and WUSB are new technologies that provide wireless alternatives to USB cables. Support for UWB and WUSB in Windows 7 lets you take advantage of new wireless devices and wireless USB hubs.
Libraries also seem like a really cool multimedia feature. I’m forever duplicating files as I can’t find where I saved them, creating numerous folders in different places all with the same names and finally just keeping stuff on my desktop so I don’t lose it. None of this leads to a brilliant user experience at home or at work and this is where Windows 7 libraries come in.
“With Libraries, you can not only organize, but view and manage files that that are stored in more than once place. This reduces the need to view files even when they are stored in different folders. Libraries are so powerful that they even span different disk drives and/or PCs on your home network. There are a range of options for organizing and browsing, by type, date taken or genre depending on the file type.”
On top of this, there is the already well known addition of touch and multi touch capabilities to Windows 7. If you’ve got a touchscreen monitor, or more likely a Tablet PC, you can open things from the Start Menu etc by pressing them. MultiTouch will let you zoom in and out on images by moving 2 fingers together/apart as needed and more..
Another new feature of Windows 7 will be the ability to re-order applications on the taskbar…I think this is awesome! This is one of those little things that has annoyed me for years and will finally be gone. I have a certain order that I like my applications to be in and I always have Outlook as the first program. However at the minute if I have to re-start Outlook it ends up buried on my Taskbar between to IE windows or something..and then it takes me a little while each time I need to go back Outlook.
I’ve asked around the office and this addition is met with unanimous approval!
Something else I’ve just seen on pcworld.com is that you can schedule desktop background changes with WIndows 7, I think that’s quite a neat touch!
Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott has got a great gallery of Windows 7 Screenshots which you can find here. Below is a shot of the desktop which shows another new feature, that gadgets are no longer confined to that bar on the right hand side..now they can reside anywhere on the desktop 🙂
Microsoft Office Web Applications has been announced today (27/10/08) at the Microsoft PDC 2008.
This is awesome!! Microsoft Office is coming to the Browser to compete directly with Google Apps et al, and will work across browsers including IE (obviously), FireFox & Safari for the editing and creation of Word, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote documents. The aim is to provide an easier, more consistent experience for users across all their various access points..work pc, home pc, laptop, mobile device etc..
Office Web apps will be made available via Office Live, which will have both a free ad-supported version and also a subscription based, ad free version.
It seems that Corporate customers will be able to take up subscriptions via their existing Volume Agreements (Open Value, Select, Enterprise Agreements etc) according to readwriteweb.
Readwriteweb also have a nice comparison between Office LIve Workspace & Google Docs here.
The Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build will be available to PDC 2008 attendees from Tuesday 28th of October (tomorrow) but Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has got some info on what features we can expect to see:
Device Stage – a central location for customers to more easily interact with devices, ranging from printers, cameras, cell phones, media players, etc. Device Stage will only recognize “Device-Stage-enabled” peripherals.
Action Center – a self-diagnosis feature to help users troubleshoot problems with their Windows 7 systems
A new Animation Framework for customizing animations
New Task Bar & Shell Integration
Multi-Touch & Gesture Recognition
There isn’t much more info on these features as of yet so roll on tomorrow!!
The Microsoft PDC 2008 COnference is due to start in around 5 hours (16:00 UK time), and I can’t wait!
Unfortunately I’m not over there in The City of Angels due to the fact that I’m not a developer so I’m here in the UK, getting ready to watch the live streaming keynotes as well as tracking the various blogs and tweets from the guys and gilrs that are attending.
I’ll try to collect and collate as much of the relevant info as possible so you don’t have to go searching all over the intertubes for it 🙂
Microsoft Silverlight will soon be on Mobile Devices..which can only be a good thing for enhancing the mobile experience of both consumers and business users.
More information will be revealed at the PDC 2008 (I seem to be saying that a lot!) as we can see from the session description:
In this demo-filled session learn how to extend your existing Silverlight 2 applications to work on Windows Mobile and how to build rich mobile Silverlight apps that access device peripherals such as camera; GPS or WiFi or the radio stack for location; as well as mobile web services. We also talk about tooling enhancements in Microsoft Visual Studio that support Silverlight app development on Windows Mobile, what to consider when delivering eye-popping UI on mobile, and help you understand the key differences from developing Silverlight apps for the desktop.
I’m excited to see what Microsoft can do with this..particularly as Adobe don’t seem to be taking Flash for Mobile Devices quite seriously..come on MS, make it easier to enjoy rich content on the move!!
As always, I want to give a shout out to Mary Jo Foley @ ZDNet for this.
Microsoft Silverlight 2 is ready and will be available for download from tomorrow (14/10/08) here. (If you’re currently using Silverlight 1 or Silverlight 2 beta, you will be automatically upgraded through Microsoft’s patching mechanisms over the next few months..)
It works on a variety of platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. No iPhone compatibilty (thanks to Apple) but it does play nice with Google Chrome.
Microsoft have done some great inter-operability work here as the .Net Framework and Common Language Runtime are now officially cross-platform, with Windows and Mac support today and Linux (via Novell’s Moonlight work) coming some time in the future.
Mary Jo Foley over @ ZDNet also tells us that more mobile/SIlverlight related news will be revealed at PDC 2008..
This year’s PDC 2008 is going to bring with it a whole host of new things for the industry from Windows 7 advancements, cloud computing updates, new projects and more. I’m going to use this post as a central repository for the various different bits of information that we will see.
One of the new things that the PDC 2008 will reveal is “Project Velocity“, Microsoft’s main memory distributed caching framework which was “built to meet the performance, scale, latency, and availability requirements of large scale enterprise and web applications”.
“Oslo” is also present at the PDC 2008. There are 5 sessions around Oslo which is a family of new technologies to enable “data-driven development and execution of services and applications.” It “provides a language for creating schemas, queries, views, and values” and “uses schematized data stored in the “Oslo” repository to drive the development and execution of applications and services”.
A link that shows all the sessions is available here.
There’s a whole host of things being revealed at the PDC this year, here are links ot my other PDC 2008 related posts:
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 