Microsoft News Summary 20th October to 2nd November

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545 articles were published across 203 Microsoft Team blogs between the 20th October and 2nd November – it’s been a very busy two weeks for Microsoft. Here is my summary of interesting news, software release announcements and key dates for your diary.

General News

·         Windows 7 officially unveiled: Microsoft announced at the PDC2008 details of the next version of Windows which will officially be named Windows 7. Read More... Details were also released about the next version of Windows Embedded which will be based on the Windows 7 product. Read More...

 

·         Windows Mobile Developers:   Windows Mobile is extensible and well suited for developing business applications. The Windows Mobile Developer Portal has been updated check out the new site. Read More... 

 

·         Office Live – Office in a Web Browser:   Microsoft announced details at the PDC2008 about the next version of Microsoft Office which will be available in the Cloud and through a web-browser. Read More.... You can also read the official press announcement. 

 

·         Security Runtime Engine: The Microsoft Connected Information Security Group provided a sneak preview of the Security Runtime Engine which helps developers secure legacy .NET applications where Cross site scripting and SQL injection are some of the most common vulnerabilities found.. Read More...

 

·         Windows Powershell in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7: Details have been released to confirm that PowerShell will be installed by default in the next versions of Windows. Read More... A separate article discusses the 574 reasons why the product group is optimistic about Powershell Read More... 

 

·         Application Readiness for Terminal Services: A new white paper has been released to help customers prepare for application compatibility problems to support deployment to Terminal Services. Read More... 

 

·         Microsoft CRITICAL Security Alert MS08-067: Microsoft strongly recommends you immediately deploy this critical security hotfix MS08-067. Code that exploits the vulnerabilities has been detected on the internet. Read More... Please note a number of questions have been raised regarding support for older unsupported products, the lifecycle team have provided some additional guidance. Read More... 

 

·         Windows Azure Services Platform: Microsoft announced at the PDC2008 details of the next phase of Software + Services and Cloud Computing. Read More... 

·         Windows Server 2008 R2: Details of the next release were announced at PDC2008 which includes 64-bit only support, virtualisation enhancements (including live migration), streamlined management, enhancements to the Web platform – IIS, and improvements in clustering and capabilities for enterprise storage. Read More... In addition in the next version Terminal Services will be renamed Remote Desktop Services. Read More... 

·         Windows Live ID Becomes an OpenID Provider: Beginning today, Windows Live™ ID is publicly committing to support the OpenID digital identity framework for interoperability with third-party sites. Read More... 

Software Releases

·         SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack: Nine additional features since the original release that increases your investment in the SQL Server 2008 platform. Read More... 

·         Windows Embedded Standard 2009: The next generation of Windows XP Embedded has arrived . Windows Embedded is an operating system in componentized form, helping device makers to easily create smart connected devices requiring rich applications, services, and end-user experiences. Read More... For further details about the new features - Read More... 

·         Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008: You can now manage over 90% of your virtual machines including those under Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005, and yes, VMware ESX! Read More... 

·         Windows File Server Migration Toolkit (FSMT) 1.1: This version allows customers to migrate and consolidate shared folders from Microsoft Windows servers to a server running Windows Server 2003, Windows Storage Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Storage Server 2008. Read More... 

·         Systems Center Operations Manager – Management Pack for SQL Updated: The latest management has been released with new support for SQL 2008. Read More... 

·         App-V (formally SoftGrid) Best Practices Analyzer: As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to common engineering criteriathe App-V team have released a best practices analyzer. Read More... 

·         Office 2007 Service Pack 2 – coming soon: The Office Sustained Engineering group announced that Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office can be expected between February and April 2009: Read More...

· System Center Online Asset Inventory Service: Microsoft Asset Inventory Service delivers an intelligent and comprehensive view of your company's desktop software environment. It is offered as part of the MDOP suite of products. Read More…

 

·         Enterprise Library 4.1 for Visual Studio:   The Microsoft Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Application blocks are a type of guidance, provided as source code that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on enterprise development projects Read more…

 

·         Unity Application Block 1.2:   The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container with optional support for instance and type interception. Read More…

·         XNA Game Studio 3.0:   Our ultimate goal with XNA Game Studio 3.0 is to continue to provide easy-to-use, approachable tools for hobbyists, academics and indie game developers capable of producing the best games to be shared with the world on Xbox 360, Windows PC and Zune. Read More…

 

Software Release –Updates and Service Packs

·         SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 – Cumulative Update #10: The latest cumulative update has now been released. Read More... 

 

·         XPS Essentials Pack for Windows XP SP3: The XPS essentials pack has been updated to support Windows XP Service Pack 3. Read More... 

 

·         URL Scan Version 3.1: This is a security tool that restricts the types of HTTP requests that Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 will process. Read More...

 

·         Forefront Intelligent Application Gateway IAG Service Pack 2: Service Pack 2 focuses on virtualization, interoperability and application intelligence. Read More…

 

Software Releases – Community Technical Previews (CTP) and Betas

·         Biztalk: Adapter Pack v2 - CTP4  

 

·         Windows Vista: Service Pack 2 Beta 

 

·         Windows Server 2008: Service Pack 2 Beta 

 

·         Commerce Server (code name Mojave): Community Technology Preview (CTP) is available for Download 

 

·         SQL Server 2005: SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 CTP Release

 

·         Web Deployment: The Web Deployment Tool Beta 2  

 

·         Visual Studio: Visual Studio 2010 CTP released  

 

·         Live Mesh: Welcome to Beta, Live Mesh and Windows Mobile 

Key Dates for your Diary Microsoft Conferences