Springboard Series Blog : Springboard

TechEd Berlin Wrap Up

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:38:00 GMT

What an amazing week here in Berlin. We had over 60 sessions presented by over 80 different speakers on Windows 7 this week.

We had hundreds of people stop by our Springboard Series on TechNet booth and the Talking About Windows booth. Since we localize Springboard in 10 languages we had a cool time showing demoing the site in all of the different languages. I also want to give out a huge thanks to our STEP (Springboard Technical Experts Program) members who helped to work our booth. These amazing guys came from Ireland (Aiden), Bolivia (Miklos), New Zealand (Erdal) and the UK (Justin) to help support Springboard and Windows 7.

I even had a chance to be part of the Pre-Keynote. Check out the video of the bus arrival with keynote hosts Hyper-D and Hyper-T.

We met tons of IT pros excited about Windows 7 as well. We worked with a STEP member named Alex de Jong from the Netherlands. Alex asked the delegates at Teched EMEA about their Windows 7 experience. Alex contributes to NGN, the Dutch community of IT Pros. To learn more about Alex and all he does for the community, follow him on Twitter at @alexdejongngn. So ready to see the cool interviews and hear what over 100 IT pros from all over the world had to say about Windows 7 and Springboard? Check out our Talking About Windows events page under the TechEd EMEA event listing here. (Also a huge thanks to his crew, Ed Wens and Michel van den Einden who did all the camera, editing, and production).

Also, make sure to check our our newest Engineering and IT pro videos on the main page from Lidiane Souza, Greg Lambert, Stephen Hall and Peter Menadu.

Tuesday night was our Springboard Party at the Water-Gate Club. Over 300 It pros from around the world showed up to party and share their love of Windows 7 and Springboard. It was a great time with great music courtesy of DJ Joey Snow and DJ David Lowe. Thanks again to our co-sponsors on the Windows Server team and TechNet+ team as well as everyone who showed up to celebrate with us.

It was a week of listening to amazing speakers, everyone asking great questions,cool demos, people working in HOLs all day and getting certified that evening, amazing food and people passionate about all of our products. All of this and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. Our motto, “Life Without Walls” really took on a whole new meaning for me as I stood in front of the wall and outside the Brandenburg Gate on Monday.

Thank you Berlin for an amazing time.

Stephen

Coming to TechEd EMEA in Berlin?

Stephen L Rose — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:33:00 GMT

Coming to TechEd EMEA? Well make sure you stop by the Springboard or Talking About Windows booths! Why? Well, in addition to all the cool information on Windows 7 we have to share with you we have tons of cool opportunities and prizes!

Talking About Windows booth

Attendees who find the Talking About Windows Video crew and record their thoughts about Windows 7 will have the opportunity to win prizes. Videos will be shown in the booth on the TAW plasma and on the TAW web site. Plus, we will be giving out some cool prizes.
Talking About Windows Interviews - Come hear from our community experts and ask questions live during our video podcasts. Stop by for a list of speakers and times.
Live MVP Call – At 10 am on Wed, join us for a live MVP call with Karen Anne Young of the MVP group and Graham Watson of Culminus.

Springboard Series on TechNet Booth

Springboard Series Community Influencers Party
Tuesday, 10 November, 17.00 – Midnight
Hosted by: Springboard Series, Server & TechNet+
Audience: MVP, TechNet+, MCT, Microsoft
By invitation only
Springboard Series Learning Plans - Complete a Springboard Series Learning plan for a chance to win a Flip HD video camera

Plus we have swag and other cool opportunities so stop by, say hi and learn about all the cool information we have to help you Discover, Explore, Pilot, Deploy and Manage Windows 7.

See you at the show!

Stephen

The “Get On The Bus Tour” Kicks Off Today In Milan

Stephen L Rose — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:44:00 GMT

Beginning today, 26 October, the Springboard/Microsoft Learning “Get On The Bus” tour will kick off an 11-city European road show that will begin in Milan and end at Tech-Ed Europe in Berlin on 9 November. At each tour stop, you’ll get an exclusive preview of Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), Med-V, App-V, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. The Career Express tour spotlights new training and certification opportunities that will sharpen your skills on next year’s hottest technologies.

Join us at a stop near you for technical training, professional networking, hands-on experiences, and real world guidance from industry experts.

We even have a web page showing you exactly where the bus is right now.

We have some great Microsoft and community experts presenting on all the topics. I will even be on the tour doing the Windows 7 sessions starting in Amsterdam Nov 2nd. So if you can’t make it to TechEd EMEA this will be one of your best opportunities to meet the experts and see the new technologies from Microsoft live and in person.

For more information on the bus tour visit The Bus Tour or follow the Twitter feed here

Missed Our Application Compatibility Virtual Roundtable?

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:40:05 GMT

Did our VRT wrap-up post wet your appetite for more? Looking to learn about virtualization as a application compatibility tool? No need to worry if you missed the live event as the is now available to stream or download here.

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2: Virtualization

In part two of this Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable on Windows 7 Application Compatibility, you'll hear from Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich and a panel of experts on how virtualization tools can help you with application compatibility concerns whether you're migrating from Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Here’s your chance to get powerful insight into how presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization can reduce testing times, expedite deployment, and ultimately help you streamline PC management. Also covered are the latest desktop virtualization technologies from Microsoft including Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), and Windows XP Mode for Windows 7.

To see part one of this Virtual Roundtable or to view any of our previous roundtables, click here.

As always, visit the Springboard Series for the latest tools, walkthroughs, FAQs and information for IT pros around Windows 7 and visit our Talking About Windows Event Portal to see all the latest IT pro events worldwide on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 in your area. More events are being added every day!

Application Compatibility Roundtable with Mark Russinovich Wrap-up

Stephen L Rose — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:02:58 GMT

Thank you to all of you who tuned in and posted or sent in questions for our most recent roundtable and made it another huge success. We will be posting all the questions and answers in the next few days so keep an eye out.

Missed the VRT? Here is the promo of what you can look forward to when the replay become available later this week.

To be the first to know when the replay goes live, follow our Twitter feed @MSSpringboard or watch for our blog post here.

Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate Update

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:11:22 GMT

I just wanted to take a moment and post a few quick reminders.

The Windows 7 Beta expires on August 1^st.
The Release Candidate download ends on August 20^th. You will still be able to get a product key beyond that date but, downloads will not be available. So if you have not downloaded the release candidate, please do so soon.
Looking to start a Windows 7 deployment? Questions on application compatibility? Check out these key resources

As always, your key source for Discovering, Exploring, Piloting, Deploying and Managing Windows 7 are available on Springboard at www.microsoft.com/springboard.

For the latest tips and trick, follow us on Twitter at @MSspringboard

The Springboard Application Compatibility VRT rebroadcast is live!

Stephen L Rose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:04:00 GMT

Last week we posted the promo teaser here on the Springboard Blog for the Virtual Roundtable on Application Compatibility. As of today, the rebroadcast is live and ready for you to view.

If you missed the live broadcast, here’s your chance to hear Aaron Margosis, Paul Schnell; Darren Baker (also watch for Darren’s interview on TalkingAboutWindows next week), Greg Lambert Michael Sciacqua, Gov Maharaj, Celine Allee, Jeremy Chapman, and of course Mark Russinovich discuss the issues in getting your Windows XP and Windows Vista applications to work with Windows 7 quickly and effectively. From ACT 5.5 and Shims to discussions on key resources and tools, this VRT is a must see for those IT pros looking to make the jump to Windows 7.

To view the complete VRT, click here.

Also, here are some of our previous VRTs you can view as well.

Welcome to the new Springboard Series blog!

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:12:00 GMT

I am Stephen Rose, Sr Community Manager for Windows Client IT Professionals. Today, I am excited to announce that the Springboard Series Blog will now be part of The Windows Blog!

By partnering with The Windows Blog, we are taking one more step towards creating that one stop shop for key information on Windows through blogging at one location.

The Windows team is always looking for better ways to keep you ‘in the know' on the information important to you and the people you support. One of the best ways to do that is to keep all the important information in one location.

We here on the Springboard Team pride ourselves at being the ultimate source for Desktop IT Professionals. At www.microsoft.com/springboard, we have taken all the key tools, FAQs, whitepapers, screencasts, how-to's and technical guides important to IT Pros. By putting all this in one location, it makes it fast and so much easier for folks to find the information that they are looking for - no matter which no matter step in the implementation lifecycle they are in (Discover, Explore, Pilot, Deploy or Manage).

So it's the same blog but at a different place with a different look and more information.

As always, an thoughts, comments, or suggestions around Springboard or the blog are welcomed and encouraged.

I look forward to connecting with you.

Stephen

(for more IT Pro tips, tricks and information, join our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/MSspringboard)