Windows

Windows InTune Beta Sign Up

Sign up for the beta today and let us know what you think! Please note that sign-ups will only be available until May 16th.

Interested in learning more? You can visit www.windowsintune.com. If you’re participating in the beta program and have questions, you can visit the Windows Intune IT Professional Forums on TechNet and for technical guidance visit the Windows Intune area on the Springboard Series on TechNet.

Source: In House

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Microsoft launches Windows MultiPoint Server 2010

Today Microsoft is launching Windows MultiPoint Server around the world. Windows MultiPoint Server is available for purchase through OEMs and Microsoft Academic Volume Licensing (VL) customers on March 1, for schools and educational institutions (mainly for use in classrooms, labs and libraries).

Windows MultiPoint Server, based off Windows Server 2008 R2, is designed to enable multiple people (students) to share access to a single host PC through a “station” simultaneously. A station is a device that connects to a host PC running Windows MultiPoint Server via USB and connects to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Windows MultiPoint Server shares out an “instance” of Windows to a specific station via Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services) technology built in to Windows Server 2008 R2. If you have 1 host PC with Windows MultiPoint Server, you can support up to 10 people connecting to it and using it at the same time (hardware permitting of course). Each person independently controls familiar Windows experience.

 Continue at source

See Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 in action

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Data Protection Manager 2010 Release Candidate – now available

Download the Release Candidate for DPM 2010

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 delivers unified data protection for Windows servers and clients as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution from Microsoft, for Windows environments.  DPM 2010 provides the best protection and most supportable restore scenarios from disk, tape and cloud — in a scalable, reliable, manageable and cost-effective way.

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Windows Azure may host virtual machines starting March

At the beginning of January Microsoft launched its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud computing offering: Windows Azure.
Despite the company’s Chief Architect Ray Ozzie said that Azure will be able to compete with Amazon EC2 and similar Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds, this component is not yet accessible, or at least we couldn’t find it, and Microsoft didn’t even officially confirm it exists.

A couple of months ago virtualization.info suggested that the IaaS component of Azure may appear in March, because Microsoft is going to release a cloud toolkit that month. 
It seems that Azure will indeed start hosting virtual machines in March 2010 according to TechTarget:

…Microsoft has announced plans to add support for Remote Desktops and virtual machines (VMs) to Windows Azure, and the company also says that prices for Azure, now a baseline $0.12 per hour, will be subject to change every so often.

Prashant Ketkar, marketing director for Azure, said that the service would be adding Remote Desktop capabilities as soon as possible, as well as the ability to load and run virtual machine images directly on the platform. Ketkar did not give a date for the new features, but said they were the two most requested items…

Continue: Windows Azure may host virtual machines starting March  virtualization.info

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Technology Fans Swarm Las Vegas, CES; Steve Ballmer to Keynote

Some 110,000 gadget-lovers are descending on this city for the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) – the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show.

Production Supervisor Terry Higgs tests the interactive lighting at the Microsoft CES booth. “We take weeks and essentially construct a building from scratch. Three days after the show ends, it’s nothing but bare concrete.”

The four-day show officially kicks off tonight, when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer takes the stage at the Las Vegas Hilton to deliver his keynote speech. Last year, Ballmer assumed the role from Bill Gates, who had traditionally opened the show.

Last year’s show was beset with gloom as the U.S. economy seemed to be in free-fall. Attendees this year can take heart that the just-finished holiday shopping season saw surprisingly strong numbers.

Revenue from U.S. electronics sales between November 1 and December 24 rose 5.9 percent over the same period in 2008, estimates MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which tracks all forms of payment. CES-bound manufacturers hope consumers extend their holiday shopping season into the new year and buy some of the toys on display at the show, including TVs with 3-D displays, wafer-thin laptops, and a new generation of e-book readers.

But before the show begins, an incredible amount of work is underway to make sure the booths that will showcase all that technology are ready for attendees to arrive. As of Tuesday afternoon, thousands of workers were still swarming over the show’s estimated 2,500 exhibits. Like many others, Microsoft’s booth looked like it was far from ready for prime time.

“Twenty-four hours before a skyscraper opens, you still have guys painting the walls and pounding nails,” said Terry Higgs, production supervisor of Microsoft’s CES booth. “Then, 12 hours before the opening, the boxes go away, stuff disappears, and you’re in a brand-new building.”

At the last minute, the booth will be ready, predicted Higgs. “I feel confident,” he said. “We’re in really good shape.”

As Higgs spoke, all around him determined crews were drilling, hammering, and laying carpet. Forklifts whizzed by. Some 75 crew members were at work on the Microsoft booth, which will be a focal point for the media, partners, and interested consumers. With all that attention, nothing is left to chance, Higgs said.

Higgs has been in Vegas since Dec. 21, overseeing work on Microsoft’s 16,000 square feet of space from the moment when crews started laying cables and carpet.

Nearby, Paul John Liszweski, audiovisual and broadcast lead for the Microsoft team, put the finishing touches on what has been a five-month marathon to get the booth ready to showcase the company’s product groups including Microsoft Office, Windows and Surface. “I try to make their dreams come true in this little world,” he said.

Beth Honebrink, experiential technical manager, shows off a bass guitar from Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle that will be on display at Microsoft’s CES booth.

Click for high res image

Once each group decided on a vision for its booth space, it fell to Liszweski to figure out how to wire it for sight and sound. A couple thousand feet of fiber optics cable later, the booth was nearly ready.

Along the way, Liszweski discovered he has another crucial duty once CES starts: DJ, spinning tunes in the media lounge.

What type of music will he play?

“Not techno lounge, not Sarah McLachlan,” he said. “It’s got to be chill – stuff I’d want playing while I had a cocktail with some friends. Maybe I’ll open with Snow Patrol.”

Colleague Beth Honebrink, an experiential technical manager, walked by carrying the bass guitar from “Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle.” If Liszweski was considering adding the Fab Four to his playlist, he doesn’t mention it.

Later, after the show ends, the crew will spend another few days stripping away the glitz and glamor. “It’s amazing to think about,” Higgs said. “We take weeks and essentially construct a building from scratch. Three days after the show ends, it’s nothing but bare concrete.”

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2010 CES Live Keynote with Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, and Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices Division, deliver the pre-show keynote address in Las Vegas to kick off the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Coverage begins on Jan. 6, 2010, at approximately 6:30 p.m. PST with the live, streaming keynote. The Microsoft 2010 CES Newsroom will be updated throughout CES with the latest news, videos, photos and press information from Microsoft and its partners.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/

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Kia Motors and Microsoft Usher in New Era of In-Car Technology

Kia UVO employs Microsoft Windows Embedded Auto to simplify in-car entertainment and communication.

Kia Motors America (KMA) and Microsoft today unveiled Kia UVO, powered by Microsoft, a new in-car infotainment system with advanced voice- and touch-activated features.

With UVO, drivers and passengers can quickly and directly access music files, change radio stations, make or answer phone calls, send and receive SMS text messages, and operate a rear-view camera when the driver shifts into reverse, all through voice-activated controls using Microsoft speech recognition technology. The hands-free system helps drivers stay focused on the road.

Features of UVO include advanced speech recognition; a 4.3-inch full-color display screen; and MyMusic, a jukebox-type function that enables drivers to shuffle between music sources including personal music folders, an MP3 player, or AM/FM and satellite radio.

Co-designed by Kia Motors and Microsoft, UVO is built on the award-winning Microsoft Windows Embedded Auto software platform. The system will be offered during the third quarter of 2010, starting with the 2011 Kia Sorento CUV.

Microsoft and Kia will demonstrate UVO at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

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Driver Magician Free Today Only, Normally $30

Driver Magician Free Today Only, Normally $30

Windows: Keeping all your data backed up is a smart move, but what about the device drivers that are sometimes hard to pin down after a re-install? Driver Magician, a free download today, backs up and restores your Windows drivers.

Driver Magician does its thing immediately upon starting up, asking you to update the driver database (which you should) and then scanning to find everything it can on your computer that makes your hardware work. You can back up everything whole-cloth, or just grab the drivers on your system that aren’t provided by Microsoft, making it easier to pin down what you really need in case things go bad. That’s just about all there is to this app, but it seems pretty smart at finding drivers and stashing them away for safe keeping.

As with any Giveaway of the Day download, you’ll want to read the Readme.txt file included in the ZIP package for instructions on activating the software, and be careful when clicking through, because the Giveaway site wants to be your bestest browser friend. This free download, available until midnight tonight Pacific time, won’t offer future upgrades or tech support, but will continue to grab remote database updates.

Driver Magician is a free download for Windows systems only.

Driver Magician 3.48 [Giveaway of the Day via Download Squad]

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Real world shots of the xpPhone trickle out, video coming “soon”

Outside of hardware renders and a few prototype appearances at trade shows, there aren’t a whole lot of photos of the nearly mythical xpPhone — the phone that runs Windows XP or, according to the manufacturer, Windows 7 — floating around. In fact, after hearing next to nothing beyond talks of pre-orders in almost six months, I’d begun to wonder if this thing actually existed.

Today, the manufacturer ITG released real world shots of their latest product sample, color-customized in white/green.

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Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista RTM End of Support Information

Let your customers know that Microsoft support for the Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (RTM) operating systems will end July 13, 2010. Help them plan system and operating system deployments to ensure that they maintain access to Microsoft support and updates.

Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista RTM End of Support Information PDF

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