One of the best parts of my job is talking with customers, and hearing directly from them the ways they’re using technology to strengthen their business. Based on these customer conversations, I can get an appreciation for what is top of mind among IT leaders.

I often hear concerns about managing an ever-evolving and complex IT environment. For example, Group Health Cooperative recently shared with me how they’re always trying to keep applications up to date while staying in compliance. And Expedia said they’ve been looking to centralize management to increase automation while also tightening security.

I know that each of you are in the trenches, managing an innumerable set of demands, working to keep end users productive no matter where they work, to keep data safe and controlled, and planning cautiously so your IT investments today pay off tomorrow. Alongside equally important items like IT and employees’ skills, defined security and compliance policies, integrated management, rationalized IT processes, standardized imaging, and standardized devices, virtualization is in our DNA and we believe our customers will be best set up for their future business and technology needs when it becomes a part of their DNA as well. For these reasons, I want to focus on virtualization and its role in your desktop management strategy.

Our approach to virtualization is different than others in the market. First and foremost we take a desktop to datacenter approach, and guide customers to view virtualization as a holistic component to managing their IT infrastructure and applications. Second, we believe building a foundation of centralized and integrated management is a key to making virtualization a reality and having the control of physical and virtual assets. Third, we believe that each customer needs flexible technology, so they can pair the right solution with their unique business and end-user need.

Virtualization is not “one size fits all,” which is why there’s a portfolio of virtualization technologies available to you. For example, most of you are already using solutions from Microsoft and Citrix to manage your desktops and enable your employees to be productive. We have seamlessly integrated the various virtualization capabilities into System Center so that you can take advantage of virtualization using the tools and infrastructure you already have deployed. The net result is faster time to value at a much lower cost than others in the industry.

I see lots of scenarios where virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) should be used – it’s just another way to deploy Windows. While doing so, I recommend you think about VDI in conjunction with your overall desktop management strategy, and how you will want a single solution and infrastructure to manage your distributed and centralized desktops. Think about desktop virtualization beyond a point solution or VDI; it is a portfolio of technologies that help virtualize applications, data and settings, and the operating system. These are important elements to your desktop management strategy.

For those of you who are looking at VDI, or considering application virtualization or remote desktop computing solutions, there may not be a need to rip and replace what you have, but rather build on top and improve upon it. We can help there. Our heritage across Windows and with System Center makes us uniquely suited to enable centralized management across Windows and non-Windows environments, physical or virtualized.

In terms of virtualization on the desktop, Microsoft has the most comprehensive set of capabilities that are strengthened even more with the deep partnership we have with Citrix. One piece of news that I’m most excited about that helps with this is the “Rescue for VMware VDI” promotion we’re offering with Citrix. Think of it as a Cash for Clunkers trade-in of VMware View licenses to Microsoft VDI Standard Suite and Citrix XenDesktop VDI Edition licenses at no additional cost.

This promotion is just the beginning of our expanded customer and partner engagements around VDI. As more and more of you deploy Windows 7, and seek new ways of managing desktop compliance, I know more and more of you are looking at VDI as a deployment option. I spoke with a telecom company that has deployed 20,000 VDI seats fast, using Hyper-V, System Center and Citrix XenDesktop. There’s also a large manufacturer who deployed App-V to save $200 per desktop, and the plan to move 75% of their 77,000 employees to virtualized desktops in 2012 using a combined Microsoft and Citrix solution.

Today at 9:00 a.m. PDT we’ll be hosting a webcast that kicks off a series of worldwide customer events that dive more deeply into desktop virtualization. Joining us to sift through the buzz and give practical next steps and guidance are several customers, Citrix and Gartner analyst Mark Margevicius. You’ll hear how Holland America is using App-V and System Center Configuration Manager for more automation and application isolation while saving money or how Expedia plans to virtualize about 90% of its applications.

We are also announcing several updates to VDI licensing, desktop virtualization technologies and partnerships to move customers to the next step of desktop virtualization. This news builds on traction we’ve made in server and application virtualization over the years, including the recent release of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Microsoft App-V 4.6, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2.

Tune in today to learn more about building out your desktop management strategy using virtualization. Plan to attend one of our series of worldwide customer events and share your feedback through #MSVirt on Twitter.

Brad Anderson

Additional Resources:

• For more information about the SP1 release of Windows Server 2008 R2, check out the Windows Server Division Weblog.
• Additional details on the new WS08R2 SP1 Features (Dynamic Memory and Remote FX) are available on Jeff Woolsey and Max Hermann’s blog posts on the Virtualization Team blog.
• Details about the Windows 7 SP1 release and Windows XP Mode can also be found here on the The Windows Blog.
• Edwin Yuen’s take on today’s news is featured on the Because It’s Everybody’s Business expert blog.
• And as always, visit the Infrastructure PressPass site for all related materials from today’s announcement.

We’re announcing an update to Windows XP Mode today that will make it a more accessible to PCs in small and midsize businesses who want to migrate to Windows 7 Professional but have applications that still require Windows XP. Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode will of course continue to use hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V if available. You can find more information and download the update which will go live later today here.

Windows XP Mode is designed for small and midsize businesses. For enterprise customers, we recommend they use Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. MED-V provides deployment and manageability features better fit to address the needs of the enterprise customer. For more information on MED-V, click here. You can discover how MED-V works with deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops in key scenarios for the enterprise here on the Springboard Series on TechNet. And Stephen Rose recently blogged about our MED-V SP1 release here.

Today during our online Desktop Virtualization Hour event, we’ll be talking a little bit about Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

For Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 will be introducing two new desktop virtualization features: Microsoft RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory. These features are designed to meet the increasing needs of our customers as they utilize virtualization in their environments with Windows Server 2008 R2. You can read more about RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory on the Windows Server Division WebLog.

For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7 is ready for commercial deployments now and many industry experts have recommended that customers do not wait for SP1. Many organizations are already in the process of deploying and are receiving benefits from their Windows 7 deployment. You can read some of those customer stories, as well as Forrester’s view of the benefits of Windows 7, with the following case studies:

• Forrester Total Economic Impact Study of Windows 7
• City of Miami TCO Study
• Baker Tilly TCO Study
• Getronics TCO Study

The Springboard Series on TechNet offers the best guidance for migrating from Windows XP as well as deploying and managing Windows 7. Some key resources to check out are:

• Choosing a Deployment Strategy
• Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Walkthrough Guide (Start to Finish)
• Deploying Windows 7 from A to Z Whitepaper
• Getting Started with Application Compatibility in a Windows Deployment

So don’t wait - go ahead and deploy… you know you want to! ;-)

We’re not yet announcing a beta or release timeline for SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 today. Once SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is released, the service pack will be delivered through Windows Update and be available on Microsoft Download Center for download as well.

I’ll be posting more on SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 once we get close to a release milestone. And remember, our Desktop Virtualization Hour online event starts at 9am PST today. Tune in if you want to hear more about desktop virtualization!

Here are links to the MIX10 conference sessions that are relevant for Windows Phone 7 Series developers from the first two days. Go to http://live.visitmix.com/videos to access all of the keynote & session videos from this year’s conference. There are tons of other session that are likely useful for Windows Phone developers, such as the Windows Azure talks and Silverlight 4 talks so we encourage you to view the whole list on the visitmix site.

Edit: I forgot the day 1 keynote – 2 hours long almost entirely about Windows Phone developement. Tons of GREAT demos of really cool 3rd party apps. Here’s the link to watch it streamed in high-def:

http://live.visitmix.com/MIX10/Sessions/KEY01

Sessions from today will be uploaded within 24 hours and we will update this post to include them asap.

Earlier today, Core Security Technologies issued a security advisory for our Virtual PC (VPC) software. The advisory calls out a proof of concept where the virtual machine monitor allows memory pages above the 2GB level to be read from or written to by user-space programs running within a guest operating system. The advisory explicitly calls into question the effectiveness of many of the security hardening features of Windows, including DEP, SafeSEH, and ASLR.  Folks are already starting to ask questions about this advisory, so I thought it would be best to answer them here.

First and foremost, customers should rest assured that this advisory does not affect the security of Windows 7 systems directly. The security safeguards (DEP, ASLR, SafeSEH, etc.) that are in place remain effective at helping protect users from malware on that system. In addition, Our Windows Server virtualization technology, Hyper-V, is also not affected by this advisory. Applications running inside a Hyper-V guest continue to benefit from these same security safeguards.

The functionality that Core calls out is not an actual vulnerability per se. Instead, they are describing a way for an attacker to more easily exploit security vulnerabilities that must already be present on the system. It's a subtle point, but one that folks should really understand. The protection mechanisms that are present in the Windows kernel are rendered less effective inside of a virtual machine as opposed to a physical machine. There is no vulnerability introduced, just a loss of certain security protection mechanisms.

The functionality described only affects the guest operating system that is running within a Virtual PC environment.  In practice, the guest operating system in a Virtual PC environment is typically Windows XP as part of Windows XP Mode.  Of the safeguards Core calls out, it should be noted that only DEP is available in Windows XP SP3; Windows XP doesn't contain ASLR. The net result? An attacker can only exploit a vulnerable application running "inside" the guest virtual machine on Windows XP, rather than Windows 7!

We believe that Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC are great bridging strategies to help customers who have legacy applications get up and running on Windows 7. For those customers who need Windows XP Mode, they should look to install only the required subset of applications that need Windows XP in order to function properly while planning to move those applications to Windows 7 in the future.

One final point, whether the version of Windows you are running is virtualized or running physically on a computer, it's equally important to follow sound security practices. You should make sure your firewall is enabled, that you have anti-virus software installed, and that you keep your software up to date through automatic updates. For more information on how to protect your PC, visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect/.

Dean Hachamovitch finished his demo of Internet Explorer 9 at MIX10 a short while ago. He did a variety of demos for folks to see. Many of these you can try for yourself with the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview on the Test Drive site. To do these demos, a variety of Windows PCs were used. I thought I would call out those PCs and their specs.

In the first part of the demo, Dean used an HP xw8400 Workstation. Dean used this PC for demoing interoperability and standards (same markup!). This PC comes with dual Intel Xeon 5150 2.66GHz processors, 4GB of memory, 150GB hard drive, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 graphics.

For the GPU-Powered HTML5 demo Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live Division, dropped by to take part in showing off IE9 with Dean. Both he and Dean used identical PCs for this demo. The Windows PC they both used was the Dell Studio XPS 1640. The Studio XPS 1640 models they used had a Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz processor, 4GB DDR2 800MHz, ATI Mobility Radeon 3670 graphics, and a 500GB 7200 RPM Drive.

For the HTML5 YouTube and Video Carousel demos, Dean used the Dell Studio 1555. This PC comes with an Intel Dual Core T9600 2.8GHz processor, 4GB of memory, a 250GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 graphics.

Special note from me: the Studio 1555 is the very same model I use as my everyday laptop here at work. I refer to it as “The Goat” due to the special design on the back. You can see the design here. Dell’s Design Studio has 200+ designs to choose from for customizing your Dell laptop.

The netbook Dean used was the HP Mini 311 which comes standard with an Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB of DDR3 memory, 160GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, and NVIDIA Ion graphics.

You’ll notice a few of these PCs use NVIDIA graphics. NVIDIA posted a blog post earlier today about GPU computing and highlights IE9.

The breadth of different types of Windows PCs used in today’s demos of IE9 at MIX10 shows how the browser takes advantage of the power of modern hardware while utilizing fewer resources.

Yesterday was Day 1 of MIX10 in Las Vegas and a lot of really cool things were announced – specifically around developing for Windows Phone 7 Series. You’ll find the gist of the Day 1 news from MIX10 here on the MIX10 website. Today is proving to be an equally exciting day as yesterday with Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, taking the stage for Day 2 Keynote to show off what we’re doing with Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is the next version of our Internet Explorer web browser. Steven Sinofsky first gave an early look at IE9 last year at PDC09. But today at MIX10, Dean is officially going beyond the “early look” phase by diving deeper into the specific investments we’re making to the platform behind IE9 and delivering code in the form of a Platform Preview. To be specific, we are highlighting 3 key investments we’re making in IE9 today.

Performance, specifically with JavaScript: We are announcing a new JavaScript engine for IE9 which is designed to make Internet Explorer faster. This new JavaScript engine for IE9 places us faster than the shipping version of Firefox today on Webkit.org’s SunSpider benchmark test.

Standards and Interoperability: We are committed to the ideal of having the same markup (tags, script, and language) work across all the different browsers. This makes it easy for developers to develop their websites. With this commitment, HTML5 is at the center of IE9, and IE9 will include extensive support for DOM, CSS3, SVG standards and XHTML.

GPU-powered HTML5: We believe that HTML5 applications will take advantage of the latest in PC advancements to offer a truly graphically rich and functional experience that customers and developers want them (and expect them) to be. IE9 is the first browser designed to take advantage of modern hardware by shifting from the CPU to the GPU for hardware-accelerated SVG, enhanced JavaScript performance, and GPU-powered HTML5. By moving IE9 to the GPU and taking advantage of the latest Direct2D technology in Windows, webpages will load faster, graphics will be improved and users can take advantage of the modern hardware in their Windows PCs while taking fewer resources from their PC.

With these key investments for IE9, this translates into a great opportunity for developers to build rich websites.

For more from Dean, he’s posted a blog post about his MIX10 Keynote over on the IEBlog. I definitely suggest checking it out. You can also watch the keynote on demand here.

In talking about the platform behind IE9, we wanted to give developers a way to try out the investment we’ve done to-date with IE9. Today we’re announcing the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview is simply a preview of the platform subsystems code that is “under the hood” of the browser. This Platform Preview is designed specifically for developers so that they can get an early sense of some of the changes in the browser including capabilities, performance, and standards support (investments I mention above).

The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview includes the IE9 Test Drive website that presents a series of tests that allow developers to test the functionality of the investments we’re making with HTML5, Java Script, etc. To ensure we’re keeping developers actively engaged and aware of our continued work in key investments in IE9, we’re also announcing today that we’re making a commitment to deliver updates to this build approximately every 8 weeks leading up to the beta of Internet Explorer 9.

One thing I need to be clear about – the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview is not a full-fledged web browser to be used for everyday browsing of the Internet (it doesn’t even have a “back” button). It is designed specifically to run side-by-side to your regular browser and is simply a preview of the platform investments we’re making in IE9 designed for developers to learn how to take advantage of these investments in their websites. For everyday browsing of the Internet, I highly recommend continuing to use Internet Explorer 8. If you’re not necessarily a developer (like me) but want to get an idea on what we’re going to be doing with IE9 and the direction we’re going, I certainly recommend giving the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview a test drive and try out some of the tests we’ve included. In particular, seeing how it performs on new hardware is pretty exciting.

We’re very excited today to be able to talk more about the work we’re doing in Internet Explorer 9. As we move toward the beta for IE9, you can expect to see more posts from me on IE9 moving forward.

Microsoft Hardware has announced today TrueColor Technology - designed to enhance the color and brightness of webcam video in the worst of lighting conditions. TrueColor Technology is a new image processing technology that automatically adjusts the picture quality to provide more colorful video.

In support of TrueColor Technology, Microsoft Hardware is also announcing 3 new LifeCam models that support TrueColor Technology. All of these new LifeCam models not just support TrueColor Technology, but include 720p HD sensors and Auto Focus technology as well.

LifeCam HD-5000

LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks

The LifeCam HD-5000 and the LifeCam HD-5001 will have an estimated retail price of $49.95 and will be available later this month. The LifeCam HD-6000 will have an estimated retail price of $59.95 and be available in May. The LifeCam HD-5000 and LifeCam HD-6000 will be available for pre-sale on Amazon.com and Buy.com starting today.

If you’re a LifeCam Cinema owner like me, you’ll be happy to know there is both LifeCam software and a firmware update for the LifeCam Cinema available now that enables TrueColor Technology!

The Microsoft Hardware folks have also launched a new Microsoft Hardware blog today. Check it out and make sure to subscribe to their RSS feed!

Today, during the Mix opening keynote, we saw some amazingly cool Windows Phone (WP) demos. Although Windows Phone was announced about a month ago, today we heard the complete end-to-end story for both the user and the developer. On top of that, Scott Guthrie announced the availability of the Windows Phone Developer Tools Community Technology Preview.

We recognize that one of the success criteria for a popular consumer platform is having a large ecosystem of developers writing games and applications. Developers require tools and guidance to create compelling applications. The process of obtaining the development tools and getting started should be, as much as possible, friction free, easy, and welcoming. Hence you will love to learn that in order to get started developing for WP, all you need is to download and install is a single installer. But the best news is that the entire WP development environment is free! Yes, you read it right; everything you need to develop, test, and ultimately deploy your WP application is packed into a single 300MB (give or take) installer that is free to anyone using the Community Technology Preview CTP version as well as the final released version.

As part of our effort to help you jumpstart development of your Windows Phone applications, we released the Windows Phone Training Kit for Developers. You can download a local copy of the training kit, or you can go to the online version on Channel 9.

Both kits include four Hands-On Labs:

Today we’re disclosing the details of the Windows Phone 7 application development platform and tools and how to create more compelling and creative applications and games based on Silverlight and XNA. Everything starts there, but it doesn’t end there, not until you’ve been able to distribute and sell your application to a customer. The way users discover and download an application or game on their Windows Phone 7 Series device is through the Windows Phone Marketplace.

I’ll be describing the Marketplace experience from two vantage points this week. In today’s post, I’ll do so from the user’s point of view and later this week from the developer’s point of view

END USER AS SHOPPER FOCUS

We started our thinking about the design of Marketplace by talking to users about what defines a great shopping experience, not only on phones but physical and online shopping experiences as well. So what makes a great shopping experience?. First it’s a place where customers:

• Can easily locate and use from wherever they are.
• Get everything they’re looking for in one place that looks and performs consistently.
• Have access to experiences and content they just can’t find anywhere else
• Want to visit often and linger because it’s always fun, fresh and vibrant every time they go.
• Can leisurely browse the latest, greatest and the most popular goods available or quickly find what they are looking for
• Have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision
• Get the opportunity to try a free sample or take a test-drive
• Pay the way they want, without waiting in line

And second, a great shopping experience is also one where all the products for sale:

• Always work well and reliably
• Do no harm
• Are legal and of generally good taste
• Are easily found once I’ve got them and I can incorporate the way I want into my life
• Tell me when there is new information available

So how are we delivering against these expectations with the Windows Phone Marketplace?

PROVIDING A GREAT SHOPPING EXPERIENCCE

• Marketplace is always present on every Windows Phone 7 Series device making it front and center discoverable to every Windows Phone 7 user. Since people like to shop from their PC we also be making Marketplace available as a PC experience as well.
• There will be a single, consistent Marketplace on Windows Phone 7 Series for users to acquire all the content they can download which are organized smartly by groups of applications, games, music, podcasts and special offers and exclusives from Mobile Operators and OEMs, all in one integrated experience.
• Marketplace will uniquely make available Xbox LIVE games for their phone, applications based on latest Silverlight runtime, and millions of songs and podcasts from Zune, only available on Windows Phone.
• Marketplace is one of the six signature hub experience of Windows Phone 7 Series and has a fresh, fun vibrant design that a user touch navigates through a panoramic viewing experience. It looks like this:

• From this Marketplace Hub entry point, users can access the content-specific marketplaces, see available application updates, and view a selection of editorially placed application, game and music content. When the user touch selects ” applications” they go the application marketplace (if they selected games they would go to Games Marketplace, and so forth) which looks like this:

• Marketplace helps users find what they’re looking for through a variety of softer views like: genre type, popularity, newness, editorial placements or keyword search. The design of Marketplace also helps user discover content with layered visual placements of application and game content from the top level of the marketplace hub experience (in this representation one panoramic placement-Associated Press- and thirteen other applications and games spread across popular, new and featured”). You’ll also notice an important principle in this design: a focus on the content, not the chrome. In the Windows Phone Marketplace it’s your app or game that is the hero (in this case the app from Associate Press). The background visual (we call the panorama placement) that defines the theme for the day or the user session and provides ample encouragement for a user to click to learn more.

• Marketplace helps users make informed decisions with price, ratings, descriptive information up to 8 screenshots, and recent reviews as you’d expect to find, and have added a few other features: First as a publisher, if you have multiple applications or games, you can let users know about them in your app description and click to access them. Second, we are adding a “deep link” feature which enables a developer to include the deep link on their web-site, in a text/email, or social network post which when a user clicks directly takes them to your application description. Third we include a “related” tab which suggest content users might also like based on apps or games other users have downloaded who have also downloaded this app.
• Marketplace now adds a new Trial API that gives every application or game developer the option, but not the requirement, to enable a single instance of their code to include trial usage limitations (like time or level) so that users can test drive the app/game they are considering.
• Marketplace also continues to enable MO billing or credit card as payment options. MO Billing enables users a convenience option to purchase apps or games and have the charge added to their phone bill. Our experience with operating the existing Windows Mobile Marketplace and Danger suggests MO billing promotes paid sales of all apps and games several multiples over credit card alone.

ENSURING HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS

In addition to designing what the Marketplace is and how it works, we’ve also focused on what users expect of the content they find and have built and operate a certification process that every application and game goes through to meet these customer expectations.

Customers reasonably expect the applications and games they find:

• install and run correctly,
• use device resources efficiently
• are not malware compromising their identity or that of their friends family and colleagues
• transparently ask and inform users what personal information the application is accessing
• are legal to own and use in their country of residence, and
• Are of generally good taste excluding pornography, hateful/inflammatory speech, and gratuitous violence.

These policies are posted today (at developer.windowsphone.com) for the Marketplace on Windows Mobile 6.x, and will be refined, updated and posted later this Spring, but will be largely consistent with what we’ve published.

Finally, customers buy or download apps and games in order to use them. Every app or game a user downloads always appears in one place, the Applications List (located a swipe to the right from the Start screen), in alphabetical order, to be easily found. From there, a user has the option to personalize their Start experience by pinning the app or game they’ve downloaded from the Application List to the Start screen as a dynamically updated Live Tile and place that tile in any order they want. Developers define the design and function of their tile and can build it to reflect notifications they choose to serve to the users (like updates, alerts or other information the developer wants to surface to the user and encourage usage). In addition, certain content types are auto-organized where users would expect: games are also accessible via the Games hub, photo applications are available in Pictures hub, and music and entertainment apps are available from the Music+Video hub.

The Marketplace in Windows Phone 7 Series is as different as the phone experience itself, and is designed and run for users to easily, enjoyably and safely discover and download applications and games.

Later this week I’ll share more about the developer experience for publishing applications and games through Marketplace and how developers can take advantage of the user experience to promote their app or game and connect with customers.