Windows Vista Team Blog : Featured News, Announcement

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta

Mike Nash — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:13:00 GMT

Hi there, Mike Nash here.

As you know we are getting ready to talk about Windows 7 at the PDC next week. Before we do that, I thought I would give you an update on our latest work for Windows Vista.

We are committed to continually improving Windows, and we've been getting some questions about the timing of the next service pack for Windows Vista. Following the success of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 last spring, we have been working hard on Windows Vista Service Pack 2. As a part of the development and testing process, we're going to start by providing a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers with Windows Vista SP2 Beta for evaluation next Wednesday, October 29. The final release date for Windows Vista SP2 will be based on quality. So we'll track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date for the release.

Windows Vista SP2 Beta contains previously released fixes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues. We expect Windows Vista SP2 will retain compatibility with applications that run on Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1 and are written using public APIs.

Because we've adopted a single serviceability model, these improvements are integrated into a single service pack covering both Windows Vista (client) and Windows Server 2008 (server) versions. This should also minimize deployment and testing complexity for our customers.

In addition to previously released updates since the launch of Windows Vista SP1, Windows Vista SP2 contains changes focused on supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards:

Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

One question I know that you will ask is "should I wait for SP2?" The reality is that Windows Vista SP1 is a great platform that is both available on new Windows PCs and available as a free download for systems that are running the "gold" release of Windows Vista. While we will recommend SP2 when it ships, your best bet today is Windows Vista SP1.

I look forward to sharing more about Windows Vista SP2 in the future - stay tuned!

Mike

Introducing Windows 7

Mike Nash — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:56:00 GMT

Hi there, Mike Nash here.

For me, one of the most exciting times in the release of a new product is right before we show it to the world for the first time. And that time is right now.

In a few weeks we are going to be talking about the details of this release at the PDC and at WinHEC. We will be sharing a pre-beta "developer only release" with attendees of both shows and giving them the first broad in-depth look at what we've been up to. I can't wait for them to see it.

And, as you probably know, since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating system we have been referring to it by a codename, "Windows 7." But now is a good time to announce that we've decided to officially call the next version of Windows, "Windows 7."

While I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows. You might wonder about the decision.

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense.

We are very excited about the opportunity to tell you more about Windows 7 in the coming weeks, and show you how we have continued to build on investments begun in Windows Vista to deliver on the next release of the Windows operating system.

I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months.

--Mike

Video Demo: Identifying Security Vulnerabilities for Your Desktop Infrastructure

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Whether you are planning to deploy Windows Vista or already did, it is important that you keep security high on your list and make sure that all of your desktops are secured. So, how do you know if your desktops have Windows Firewall settings turned off? What if some desktops do not have Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware software installed?

To quickly get an answer, please check out the new Security Center assessment feature that we have added to the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 released in June. It auto-generates a security assessment report on your existing desktops as part of the "Windows Vista hardware assessment" migration report.

What's Next?

Start identifying these security vulnerabilities today with a free download of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. You may also view the new MAP Toolkit demo video and learn how to get the Security Center assessment report as well as the hardware compatibility assessment report for Windows Vista migration.

Cheers,

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team

Essential Tool for the Job - Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 for Windows Vista (RTM Announcement)

Baldwin Ng — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:53:00 GMT

RTM Announcement - Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1

Hello,

It's been a few months since I last blogged about the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 - formerly known as WVHA or Windows Vista Hardware Assessment. Today, I'd like to announce the RTM release of this tool with new capabilities including desktop security assessment, Hyper-V virtualization assessment, and more.

As you know, many of the IT pros out there like you are now spending a lot of time planning for Windows Vista deployments. But many question and challenges remain:

Are my existing PCs compatible to Windows Vista when it comes to Hardware and Device Compatibility?
Will my PCs have BIOS issues after the upgrade to Windows Vista?
Which of my PCs are ripe for an upgrade to Windows Vista? (e.g. CPU too old so it's time to replace them; or just add 512MB system memory and the PCs would be Windows Vista capable!)
What kind of software has been installed?
Are all of my PCs secure? Is Windows Security Center installed? Do they have Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware software installed? How about Windows Firewall settings?
What about application virtualization readiness?

The MAP Toolkit 3.1 is designed to address all of these desktop-side issues from a single tool! The MAP Toolkit is a platform of tools that combines the strength of agentless discovery and report generation capabilities from the previous generation (Windows Vista Hardware Assessment). The pie-chart below is part of an auto-generated readiness report from the MAP Toolkit and it illustrates the level of hardware readiness for Windows Vista upgrades across the desktop infrastructure.

As a matter of fact, if you view the latest MAP Team RTM blog post from yesterday, you will find that the MAP Toolkit 3.1 also havs many server-side and virtualization features including a Hyper-V virtualization candidates assessment and SQL Server discovery!!

Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 RTM Version
Read documentation about MAP operations on TechNet
Learn tips and see video demos on MAP Team Blog
Join MAP Fan Clubs on TechNet Forum or Facebook
Very importantly, download other Windows Vista Solution Accelerators like the MDT Toolkit, Windows Vista Security Guide and more as well!

Cheers!
Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators - Virtualization Lead)

Windows Vista SP1 Released to Windows Update

Nick White — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:52:00 GMT

Today, you can now download Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. For those of you eager to receive the benefits of Windows Vista SP1, you can now do so. We've seen quite a bit of questions in our comments so we want to communicate as much as possible surrounding Windows Vista SP1 and today's release to Windows Update as we can.

For those of you happy to wait, sit tight because SP1 will start downloading to PCs automatically beginning in mid-April (remember, this happens only if you have your Windows Update configured to automatically download updates and SP1 will automatically download but not automatically install). But if you want to get the benefit of a year's worth of improvements right now, go check Windows Update today (hit the Start Menu, All Programs, and select Windows Update).

If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (eight, in fact -- see the whole list). Below are a few of the most common reasons why you might not see SP1 on Windows Update:

You have not yet installed all the prerequisite packages you need for Windows Vista SP1. To install them, visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates."
You have a pre-release version of SP1 and need to uninstall it before installing SP1
You already have it. To determine if you already have SP1 installed, Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and left click on Properties.
We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you. (You might not even know if you have an additional language installed -- check the Regional and Language Options control panel to see which languages you have installed.)
Back in February we announced that we'd be using Windows Update to help make the update as seamless as possible for our users. Windows Update will detect drivers that we know may be problematic when updating to SP1 and will not offer the service pack until an update has been installed.

I've received a lot of requests for more detail about the driver situation this last month, so I want to share some more information here. We spent the last couple of months looking closely at reports of driver problems on pre-release builds and, to be safe, we held the public availability until March.

We've completed our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version. We identified a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1. Check out the list here; we'll keep it updated with any additional drivers that we identify. As a result, we spent the past month or so working with our partners on driver updates for these issues. Of these drivers, most already have updated versions on Windows Update and are available for download now as optional updates. In a few weeks we'll start to deliver these updated drivers to PCs automatically via Windows Update.

We're working with the providers of the remaining devices to get updated versions of the drivers to our customers as well. In the meantime, Windows Update will recognize PCs with drivers that may be problematic and postpone offering SP1 to those PCs until it has installed corrected drivers or other applicable updates. Either way, Windows Update works to detect whether or not your system is ready for SP1 and not offer it to you until the time is right.

Those of you who find that SP1 isn't offered over Windows Update even after updating all your drivers, but would still like to download it can access our "standalone installer" from the Microsoft Download Center here. Windows Update will help ensure a better experience, so if you do choose to visit the Microsoft Download Center make sure that you read these KBs before installing.

Looking forward, we're also getting ready to begin releasing the second wave of SP1 languages in April. These are the other 31 languages that we haven't released yet.

Some users encountered an issue last month when installing the Servicing Stack Update (KB937287). We've investigated this carefully and learned that it occurs only in certain rare situations. Specifically, this happens because the update needs to be completely installed before a restart occurs, but something caused a reboot during the install. While the update was carefully designed to avoid many of the common reasons for an inadvertent restart during installation, this issue was caused by some that were not caught. By temporarily suspending automatic distribution, and in making a small change on our Windows Update server, we believe we've largely eliminated this problem (our support call volume reflects this). We did find one aspect of the problem that was exacerbated when the update was installed using automatic updates. For this issue, we're planning to release an additional update before we resume automatic distribution of the Servicing Stack Update.

So what does this mean exactly? For those who've already installed the Servicing Stack Update or are waiting to install SP1 until Windows Update offers it to you automatically, you do not need to do anything at all. But if you want to install SP1 manually and haven't yet installed the Servicing Stack Update, you'll find it on Windows Update when you visit.

I know this post sounds like a lot of guidance, but we would rather over-communicate to reduce any surprises.

In sum, we are extremely pleased with Windows Vista SP1 and the benefits it offers our customers, and we look forward to hearing about your experience.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 announced at MIX08

Nick White — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:42:00 GMT

The Internet Explorer team hit an important milestone today and divulged as much at MIX08. IE's General Manager Dean Hachamovitch today announced the availability of IE8 Beta 1, downloadable for testing by all from here.

You can read more on IE8 at the IEBlog, where Dean explains eight specific advances comprised in IE8.

Soon Brandon will have a post up on the Windows Experience Blog talking about his experience using IE8 Beta 1 and what's new in it, so watch for that.

You can get the latest on MIX08 taking place this week in Las Vegas via MIX08 Online.

Microsoft Readying Customers with New Assessment and Deployment Tool for the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 Launch!

Baldwin Ng — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:43:00 GMT

Hello IT Pros!

February 27 is a big day. Windows Server 2008 will be officially launching in Los Angeles with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, kicking off in just a few hours.

In support of this very important technology milestone as well as the Windows Vista SP1 release, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team has just released the third-generation of the agent-less infrastructure assessment platform called Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 (or simply MAP). Through the use of remote WMI calls and secure inventory engines, the MAP tool enables you to quickly inventory a wide variety of networks (AD-managed, IP ranges, and workgroups), securely assess IT environments of servers, desktops, applications and devices, and auto-generate specific and actionable reports and proposal documents in a matter of hours.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE BLOG POST...

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING (RTM BITS)

Thank you,

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning)

Announcing the RTM of Windows Vista SP1

Mike Nash — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Hi, Mike Nash here from the Windows Product Management group at Microsoft. Today we are excited to announce that we have released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) for our first set of languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese).

Service Pack 1 is a very important milestone because it addresses many of the key issues that our customers have identified with Windows Vista over the last year both, directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement Program. With Service Pack 1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility. One of the great things about my job is that I get to play with the latest builds of our products -- I've personally been running Windows Vista SP1 pretty exclusively for a few months and I've noticed that my systems run faster and more reliably than they did with the "Gold" release of Windows Vista.

When we first released Windows Vista last year, there were lots of customers who had great experiences, but some had issues finding applications that worked well on Windows Vista; others had problems finding the right device drivers for some of the hardware devices that they used. The reason for these issues is that in order to improve the reliability and security of Windows Vista, we made some important architectural changes to the system. While this caused some issues in the short term, in the long term we know that these investments will improve both the reliability and security of the customer experience on Windows. Check out this blog post about the first year of Windows Vista security to see how some of these changes are paying off.

The good news is that this last year has been a great year of progress for Windows Vista in terms of improving application and device compatibility. For example, 98 out of the top-selling 100 applications have versions available for Windows Vista. And through the great work of our hardware partners, we now have 78,000 devices and components supported by Windows Update, up from about 34,000 in November 2006. As a result, we have licensed over 100 million copies of Windows Vista to date.

Service Pack 1 brings new improvements that are based on feedback we heard from our customers. It further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista. The information we collect thanks to tools like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting help us learn about where and when customers are having issues with Windows Vista and the applications that run on it. Since these issues have a direct impact on our customers' experiences, we've invested time and energy to make this better. While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process.

SP1 also includes changes focused on improving the performance of Windows Vista in areas that impact the customer experience the most. For instance, with SP1, copying or moving files around your PC, your home network or your corporate network should now be much faster -- up to 50% faster in some scenarios (according to our internal tests). In addition, on many kinds of hardware, resuming a Windows Vista-based PC from sleep is faster on Service Pack 1.

The key learning over the last year is that when we change the operating system, it takes time to let the ecosystem make sure that the hardware and software that they build works well with Windows Vista. So as we release Windows Vista SP1 to manufacturing, we are going to be thoughtful about when and how it gets distributed.

With today's RTM of SP1, a number of processes kick off as we deliver the update to customers. Our OEM partners will get SP1 and start producing new PCs running Windows Vista with SP1 pre-installed. We will also start the manufacturing process for retail product of Windows Vista with SP1. Both will be available in stores for new Windows Vista customers in the coming months. Today we also start the process to manufacture DVDs for our enterprise customers who get our software via our Volume Licensing program.

As we update our customers to SP1, we want everyone to have a great install experience. We are going to stage our rollout of SP1 for current Windows Vista users to be approximately concurrent with the availability of Windows Vista SP1 on new PCs and in stores. There are a couple of reasons for this. Our beta testing identified an issue with a small set of device drivers. These drivers do not follow our guidelines for driver installation and as a result, some beta participants who were using Windows Vista and updated to Service Pack 1 reported issues with these devices. Because the issue was with the way the drivers were installed and not the drivers themselves, the solution was simply to reinstall the drivers. While this worked fine for our more technical beta testers, we want to deliver a better experience for customers as we make the update broadly available.

While we know that most customers who update from Windows Vista to SP1 will NOT be affected, our approach is to improve the experience for all our customers. To do this, we will begin making SP1 available through Windows Update in mid-March, giving us time to work with some of our hardware partners to make adjustments to the installation process for the affected drivers. As SP1 gets delivered through Windows Update, we will only offer it to PCs that we detect don't have any of the affected device drivers installed. We're taking the next month or so to continue our work of identifying as many of these devices as possible.

Here's the timing for SP1 availability for current Windows Vista users:

In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update (in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese) and to the download center on microsoft.com. Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1. If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1. Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.
In mid-April, we will begin delivering Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Vista customers who have chosen to have updates downloaded automatically. That said, any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not update successfully will not get SP1 automatically. As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1. The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience.
The remaining languages will RTM in April.

New customers should feel great about buying Windows Vista today, knowing that when everything is ready, SP1 will be available to them via Windows Update. In the meantime, remember that you can take advantage of the benefits of Windows Vista (including many improvements delivered via Windows Update) even without Service Pack 1.

This is an important milestone for our current and future Windows Vista customers around the world. I want to take a minute to thank our customers for their feedback on Windows Vista and the beta of Service Pack 1. I also want to thank our hardware and software partners for their continued efforts to deliver the best experiences on Windows Vista.

-Mike

Announcing Microsoft Assessment and Planning Beta Refresh for Windows Vista & Windows Server 2008

Baldwin Ng — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:12:00 GMT

Introducing Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0

For those of you who are considering the migration of your desktop and server infrastructure to Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, we have good news for you!

As we've announced at TechEd IT Forum 2007 in Barcelona last November, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is going to release the expanded version of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 called Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 (aka MAP).

In short, MAP is an automated agent-less network-wide inventory and assessment tool that can quickly determine if your organization's desktops and servers are ready for migration to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

What do I mean by AGENT-LESS inventory? Simply put, it means that you do not need to launch any software agents on any of those machines you want this tool to inventory and query - so no more security concerns and user interruption!

It offers quick network-wide inventory of machines and generate hardware and device compatibility reports with actionable recommendations in the form of auto-generated proposal documents - perfect documentation for your IT project planning in the new fiscal year!

The best part is that you can use this tool to inventory your environments ONCE and get multiple assessments and reports for not just server and desktop migration, but also various virtualization options from Microsoft (see our Virtualization Day Summit blog post here)!

How it Works?

Through the use of a sophisticated, agent-less and network-wide inventory engine, Microsoft Assessment and Planning will be able to discover machines on your network whether they are in workgroups or managed AD environments. By way of WMI, Win32, SNMP and other protocols, we can then securely collect hardware and device attributes of each machine and auto-generate migration readiness reports in Microsoft Word and Excel for the user.

What a great way to help you jump-start your planning process when you know your manager is waiting for your IT project plans for the New Year!

What's New with MAP 3.0?

Full incorporation of the features of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment including the generation of reports and proposals in 7 languages including N. American English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese
Windows Server 2008 migration hardware assessment
Windows server virtualization assessment (supports Virtual Server 2005 R2; will also add Hyper-V assessment in later this year)
Application virtualization infrastructure assessment for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)
New Graphical User Interface

Check it Out!

Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Beta Refresh today, give us your feedback, and see how you may get a free copy of Windows Vista software and more!
Visit the MAP Team Blog to learn more or check out other great Solution Accelerators!
Subscribe to the Windows Vista Team Blog & MAP Team Blog RSS feeds to make sure you're the FIRST to know when MAP 3.0 will RTM (target date: February 27, 2008)
Sign up to join our weekly Live Meetings and chat directly with our development team
Download the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment - if you can't wait for MAP RTM version (RTM on Feb 27)

See you next time!

Baldwin Ng - Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning + Virtualization Solution Accelerators

Do the (RED) thing

Nick White — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:32:00 GMT

There's been some speculation online that Windows, Dell and (RED) are going to make an announcement later this week at Davos. Wouldn't it be incredible if, through the simple act of choosing a PC, and at no extra cost to you, you could put someone living with AIDS in Africa on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for more than six months? Windows, Dell and (RED) are proud to introduce our (PRODUCT) RED products later this week. Look for details in the coming days...

Microsoft Virtualization Day: Helping IT professionals do more with less

Nick White — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I'm relaying the following article on behalf of my colleague Shanen Boettcher, General Manager of Windows Product Management for the enterprise. It's the first in a series of posts from Shanen exploring what we're doing to make it simpler and easier to introduce and get the most out of virtualization of Windows in enterprise environments.

Today we're making a series of announcements outlining our company-wide strategy for virtualization from the desktop to the datacenter.

For all the hype and excitement in the industry, the primary scenario of using machine-level hardware virtualization to consolidate server machines has been used on less than 10% of hardware servers. While virtualization started in server consolidation, it is only a small piece of the value offered by virtualization. Nowadays virtualization is not a single technology; instead, it is a collection of technologies that can be applied to all aspects of the server and the desktop. Less than 1% of desktops take advantage of virtualization and yet machine virtualization, application virtualization, presentation virtualization and even profile virtualization are upcoming virtualization techniques that when applied can increase the flexibility, business continuity, security and agility of desktop deployments. Application virtualization -- the notion of reducing conflicts between applications running on a single copy of Windows -- is especially important for the desktop and interest in this technology is very high. Microsoft Application Virtualization (technology we acquired and improved from the application virtualization leader Softricity) became the fastest-ever selling enterprise product at Microsoft, with four million units sold in less than a year. Profile virtualization enables users to take advantage of separating their documents and profile information from Windows, making it easy to get working again on a new machine in case of a stolen or dropped laptop. Presentation virtualization provides the ability to work remotely. More and more virtualization vendors are moving toward creating a comprehensive set of technologies that interoperate and are managed consistently, and we are strongly focused on providing customers with these solutions.

We have a vision that focuses on businesses employing our virtualization toolset to more simply and cost-effectively manage their IT environments. We're calling that vision Dynamic IT. Dynamic IT is aiming to help IT professionals get more out of their computing resources across both server and desktop environments. One of the benefits of this initiative is to enable IT managers to dynamically make changes or add capacity to their deployments in a matter of minutes instead of hours (or even days). In a phrase, Dynamic IT is about efficiently getting the necessary resources to users and computers at any given moment and with a minimum of hassle and effort. We expect this vision to result in a whole new era of datacenter and desktop PC management, all hinging on virtualization technologies and Windows.

Central to the vision of Dynamic IT is the concept of the Optimized Desktop. The Optimized Desktop refers to virtualizing a user's applications and profile together so that they follow that user, regardless of the location of the PC in use at the moment. An example of this all-too-common scenario is a run-of-the-mill user happily working on their laptop in a taxi, but absent-mindedly leaving the taxi without the laptop. Fortunately, the laptop was BitLocker-encrypted, so the lost information was "safe" from prying eyes -- but for many users today it would have been lost data. However, that changes entirely with virtualization: taking advantage of application virtualization and profile virtualization, we provision a new laptop for the user, including installing their applications, resetting their desktop wallpaper and restoring their documents in only a few minutes and with no manual steps. It's pretty impressive and really how we expect people will be deploying Windows Vista to their mobile workforce. When presentation virtualization is used alongside the Optimized Desktop, it helps in allowing users remote access to individual LOB (line-of-business) applications running in the datacenter, and can even run whole Windows desktops virtually on the server (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI) for certain enterprise users.

The point of all this is that virtualization eliminates the need to "hard-wire" any single computing resource across the computing stack (operating system, applications, presentation, storage and network). By enabling virtualization across an entire enterprise deployment, we aim to help IT managers keep up with the changing needs of their individual business by speeding up deployment while reducing risk and cost.

With all the flexibility that virtualization brings, great management tools are essential to enable IT Pros to apply business rules and policies to each level of resources and data. The most successful vendors will provide the full stack of virtualization capabilities, coupled with management tools that can span both the physical and logical datacenter. Because companies will not convert their whole datacenter to virtual over night, they benefit greatly from management tools that work the same across both environments, helping consistently manage both virtual and physical resources from a single management suite. This is where we believe Microsoft has the best and most complete offering with System Center 2007.

Per today's announcement, we are now offering a comprehensive set of products and technologies to enable virtualization at all layers of the computing stack, from datacenter to desktop to management:

Hyper-V (Beta), the brand-new hypervisor architected on top of hardware virtualization technologies from AMD and Intel that is an exciting new feature of Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Application Virtualization (aka Softgrid) for running specific applications in a virtualized environment
Folder Redirection and Offline Files for user profile virtualization in scenarios such as hot-desking or PC replacement
Virtual PC 2007 for creating and managing virtual desktops
Terminal Services for presentation virtualization

In addition, Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop allows for an entire desktop to be hosted on a server and remotely delivered to a desktop device.

With all that said, virtualization itself is not a panacea. It is a great enabling technology, but alone does not translate to business value. Virtualization will require broad platform support, integration with other products, mapping virtualization to specific needs of a given company, and implementation best practices and guidance in order to help customers make the most of virtualization in their businesses. MS as an entire organization is strongly committed to making it very easy for our customers to deploy, manage and use virtualization throughout their entire environment, from the datacenter and network to the desktop PC and application stack. In addition to redefining virtualization within the IT environment, we've also undertaken a number of initiatives designed to make it easier still to integrate virtualization as an IT professional:

We've acquired Calista Technologies, whose technology in combination with our virtualization portfolio will enable people to watch video, listen to audio and enable remote workers to receive a full-fidelity Windows desktop experience without the need for high-end desktop hardware
We are partnering with Citrix to develop a desktop connection broker, which will create the ability to further optimize the desktop experience. Our joint offering will be based on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Optimized Desktop solutions, extended with Citrix’s XenDesktop and Presentation Server products, and managed by System Center
With Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop, we're simplifying the license for Centralized Desktop to help ease virtualization of hosted desktops
By modifying virtualization in Windows Vista Home Basic, we are extending virtualization rights to allow virtualization throughout all versions of Windows Vista
Regarding application virtualization of Microsoft Office: we're providing new and clear guidance on support of Microsoft Office when virtualized with Microsoft Application Virtualization
To help customers evaluate, plan, secure and deploy Microsoft virtualization technologies across desktops and datacenters, we've introduced four new Solution Accelerators that will be available at the Windows Server 2008 launch in February. This is a set of free guidance resources and tools to help customers effectively plan and deploy virtualization technologies, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services and Microsoft Application Virtualization

Our virtualization toolset continues to be used by IT professionals to realize the tangible benefits and quick returns on investment at the core of the Dynamic IT initiative. Are you doing all that you can to maximize your IT investments by enabling virtualization in your computing environment? Check out our tools listed above to find out more, or go here to learn more about virtualization in Windows in general.

This is only the first of a series of posts on virtualization in Windows and the concerted efforts around it occurring throughout MS. Expect to hear more from me about virtualization in Windows Vista in the very near future.

-- Shanen

IE8 achieves web standards milestone

Nick White — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:50:00 GMT

Today Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch posted about an important milestone in the development of the next version of Internet Explorer, IE8. As of last week – 12 December, to be exact – the latest build correctly renders the Acid2 browser test in IE8 standards mode. As Dean points out, this is just one of many milestones ahead for Internet Explorer 8 and we can expect to hear more as further progress is made.

IE8 will be at MIX08, with a beta release due sometime in the first half of 2008.

If you have questions on IE8 and the team’s progress, those are best directed to the IE Team blog.

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Getting A Major Facelift: Tool Expansion Announced at IT Forum 2007

Baldwin Ng — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:37:00 GMT

Hi all! It's been a little bit over 2 months since my last blog on the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 (WVHA) release back in August. You may wonder what our dev team is up to. Well, aside from getting the much needed rest, we have been busy working on the NEXT version of the tool. Yes, we're talking about a major expansion here. For those of you who haven't heard of WVHA, it's basically a network-wide readiness assessment tool that goes out to your network and securely assess each PC for their hardware and device compatibility for Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office migration - click here for my detailed blog post.

Tool Expansion - Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator

This expansion will not only retain the original WVHA functionalities and the 7-language localization, but it will also incorporate many elements for the Windows Server 2008 wave and Microsoft Integrated Virtualization initiative. Imagine having the same agent-less inventory capabilities to survey the IT infrastructure of servers, applications and workstations and get back a series of assessment reports in an hour or two!

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator, the new name announced at IT Forum 2007 this week, will be the next-generation WVHA where we will add new assessment scenarios for Windows Server 2008 migration, server virtualization via Hyper-V, application virtualization recommendations using Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid) and more.

Come join our MAP Beta Program today and give us your feedback on the new product/technology scenarios!

http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=297

Cheers and stay tuned for more...

Baldwin (mapsbeta@MICROSOFT.COM)

Announcing the next generation in Windows Live apps & services

Nick White — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:25:00 GMT

Today the Windows Live team announces the final release of the Windows Live suite of applications and web services designed to enhance the Windows user experience. Consumers can now download the full Windows Live suite at once or pick and choose their favorite apps and services.

Why Windows Live on this blog? Simply put, the two product platforms are now linked more than ever before. Windows Live includes the Windows name because, ultimately, it is designed to take the Windows computing experience one step further. The power of the PC is now combined with the flexibility and pervasiveness of Windows Live online services. For example, the Windows Live Photo Gallery client app for Windows Vista now includes panoramic photo stitch and the ability to publish to Flickr.

This release comprises these Windows Live Applications:

Windows Live Messenger 8.5
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live OneCare Family Safety

...and these Windows Live Services:

Windows Live Spaces
Windows Live Events
Windows Live Hotmail
Windows Live for Windows Mobile (client-based or browser-based access to Windows Live from a Windows Mobile-based device)

To install the final versions of the Windows Live suite of applications, go here to access the Windows Live installer, which will let you pick and choose among the available applications. New in this release is installer support for 64-bit PCs.

If you choose not to install all of the Windows Live applications at once, you can re-launch the Windows Live installer to install any of the remaining Windows Live applications whenever you wish.

Going forward, we'll be covering more of how the new Windows Live applications enhance the Windows Vista user experience both here and on the Windows Experience Blog. Expect us to dive deep into each specific Windows Live application.

Meantime, be sure to check out the Q&A over with Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience Program Management, where Chris details what makes today's release a compelling one for consumer users, developers and advertisers alike.

New Extenders and Internet TV unveiled for Windows Media Center

Nick White — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:41:00 GMT

Today at Digital Life in NYC the eHome Division and partners together announced new Extenders for Windows Media Center. In combination with the new Extenders, we're also releasing a beta of a new feature for Windows Media Center called Internet TV.

Take a look at the new Extenders for Windows Media Center and you'll see that users are getting sleek and quiet devices that bring content to any room of their house. Upcoming this holiday season is an impressive line-up of Extenders:

Linksys Media Center Extender DMA2100: In a small form factor, the DMA2100 offers dual-band Wireless-N and all the necessary features to take full advantage of Windows Media Center. Perfect for smaller bedrooms and offices where a small device is needed. Estimated street price is US$299.99.
Linksys Media Center Extender DMA2200 with DVD Player: Bigger than the DMA2100, the DMA2200 offers dual-band Wireless-N with a built-in DVD player on top of its Extender capabilities. Estimated street price is US$349.99.
D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge HD Media Center Extender: The DSM-750 connects users to their home networks either via Ethernet or dual-band draft Wireless-N. It also includes a USB 2.0 port for access to music, photos and videos stored on removable USB flash drives or hard drives. Users of the DSM-750 can also enjoy HD videos at 1080i. Estimated street price is US$349.99.
HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV: The HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV (available in 42-inch and 47-inch sizes) has embedded Extender capabilities allowing the HDTV to tap directly into a Windows Media Center PC on home network via wireless (802.11N) or wired connections. The HP MediaSmart HDTV supports HD resolutions up to 1080p as well. The HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV is expected to be available in Best Buys nationwide.
Niveus Media Extender – EDGE: Supporting 1080p video, the Niveus Media Extender – EDGE takes in the 3D user interface found on the award-winning Niveus Media Center as well as the proprietary Niveus Glacier Passive Cooling System for quiet and cool operation. Pricing has not yet been announced for the Niveus Media Extender – EDGE.

These new Extenders, available to users of Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, allow quick access to premium cable and HDTV and support popular video codecs such as DIVX, XVID and WMV. Users will be able to pause a recorded TV show and then resume watching that very same show in a different room.

The eHome Division is also launching a beta (currently for U.S. users only) of Internet TV for Windows Media Center users. On 28 September, users of Windows Media Center on Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate will see the addition of Internet TV under the TV + Movies section. Internet TV will deliver high-quality video content streamed over the internet to Windows Media Center. Users will be able to watch full episodes of TV shows, concerts from artists, high-quality movie trailers and clips from MSNBC. Internet TV is designed for both TV and PC screens and is accessible via Media Center Extenders (including the Xbox 360). Brandon will have a more in-depth look at Internet TV on the Windows Experience blog shortly.