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Remaining Ultimate Extra Language Packs Released!We are pleased to announce the release of the remaining 19 languages packs for Windows Vista Ultimate. This Ultimate Extras release brings the total number of language packs for use with Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) to 35. Windows Vista Ultimate enables users install multiple languages on their system and quickly switch between them by associating a system language with their login name.
MUI is particularly useful in multilingual homes where multiple people use a single computer and choose different languages for their primary use. People who wish to learn a new language will also find MUI to be a particularly useful feature. We are aware of a very large number of customers who have purchased Ultimate for this feature specifically and are gratified that these customers can now realize the full benefit of Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Update spoof allows early download of Vista SP1Ever since Vista was released, there has been discussion of when Microsoft would deliver SP1, and whether or not that delivery would be a significant milestone in the OS’s development. Microsoft has downplayed the importance of Vista service packs for months, arguing that Vista is “high quality right out of the gate,” but in the eyes of many businesses and consumers, the release of an operating system’s first service pack is the point at which the product begins to shift from “early release” to “mature product.”
Microsoft has released Vista’s SP1 to a group of select beta testers, but a Windows Update spoof has been discovered that allows any user to unofficially “join” that group. CyberNet News reports (via Ghacks) that a simple registry change will display Windows Vista SP1 as an available update ready for download. Installation of the beta will place an “Evaluation” watermark on the screen, but Ghacks has information on removing this as well. We don’t recommend doing this on your main system—the service pack is still in beta, after all—but it’s potentially useful as an early preview tool for anyone who can load Vista on a secondary system or test rig.
Continue at source. Original URL: Windows Update spoof allows early download of Vista SP1 Bill Gates: The Age of Software-Powered CommunicationsIf you’ve been in the work force for 20 years or more, you can remember a time when the pace of business-and life in general-was quite a bit slower than it is today. Back then we read newspapers and magazines and watched the network news to stay informed. Faxes were just becoming a common way to share written business information. A phone call might elicit a busy signal or no one would answer at all. In those days, no one expected to send documents to coworkers on the other side of the globe instantly, collaborate in real-time with colleagues in distant cities, or share photographs the very day they were taken.
These and similar advances have delivered remarkable results. The ability to access and share information instantly and communicate in ways that transcend the boundaries of time and distance has given rise to an era of unprecedented productivity and innovation that has created new economic opportunities for hundreds of millions of people around the world and paved the way for global economic growth that is unparalleled in human history.
But few people would argue that there is no room for improvement. Although we have once-unimaginable access to people and information, we struggle today to keep track of emails and phone calls across multiple inboxes, devices, and phone numbers; to remember a growing number of passwords; and to synchronize contacts, appointments, and data between desktop PCs and mobile devices. The fact is that the proliferation of communications options has become a burden that often makes it more difficult to reach people than it used to be, rather than easier. Windows Live SkyDrive rise to 1GBThese past couple of months since our last release, we asked ourselves, “What can we do to make SkyDrive even better?” The most obvious answer is something that our users have asked us to do: give out more storage. We’re excited to announce that we’re doubling everyone’s storage to 1 GB!
Many users told us, “Hey, we want to be notified when someone adds a file to a specific folder,” so we added RSS feeds to public folders. To subscribe to an RSS feed, go to the public folder that you’re interested in, and click on the orange RSS Feed icon Another thing users told us is that it’s difficult to share a folder with people that aren’t in your address book. People said, “We have to go to Hotmail or Messenger in order to add someone to our address books. Why can’t we just do it on SkyDrive itself?” We fixed that. Now, you can share with anyone directly from SkyDrive by typing in your friend’s e-mail address.
Continue at Source. Original URL: Windows Live SkyDrive rise to 1GB Word 2008: Word Publishing Layout ViewIn my previous post, the focus of attention was our new Office 2008 User Experience. For this post, I will turn the focus to another area that I am deeply passionate about — Microsoft Word 2008. At MacBU, many of us have the great fortune to work on multiple areas of interest. So when I’m not “pushing pixels” in our new Office UI, my other role is Lead Program Manager for Word for Mac. Together with my passionate and dedicated team, we’ve been hard at work on a feature that has been three years in the making. With this new post, I am pleased to talk about one of our latest labors of love — the new Publishing Layout View.
 + click to enlarge First, some background. For those using Word for Mac, you may already be familiar with Notebook Layout View from Word 2004. Notebook Layout View is a specialized notebook-like environment optimized for quick note-taking. By adopting the appearance of the familiar spiral paper-based notebook — with notebook tabs and rule lines — you can quickly capture thoughts and information as you would in an actual paper-based notebook. Notebook Layout View represented a new design philosophy in the development of Word for Mac. The premise of this new approach was to present a minimalist and “task-based” user interface in which 90% of Word’s typical UI is hidden and only exposing features relevant to the task at hand, in this case note-taking. Our customers have responded positively to this approach because the user interface is more approachable and less “bloated”, thereby making relevant features easier to find. I’m pleased to say that we’ve further streamlined and improved this popular feature in Word 2008, but that’s a subject for another blog post. 
Now let’s fast-forward to Word 2008. For years we have known that Word is used to create a wide spectrum of documents that fall under two basic categories:
Word has long provided a full complement of the features necessary for the creation of these two different categories of documents. However, given that all of such features were presented all at once with a single “one-size-fits-all” user interface, users found it difficult to find the right features for the right task.
Continue at source. Original URL: Word 2008: Word Publishing Layout View Downgrading Vista to XPI went along to Microsoft’s Cardinal Place today to sit in with a few familar faces (you know who you are!) and listen to the team talk about a number of OEM topics such as Windows Server 2008, Office Ready PC, and combatting illegal licensing. One of the Partners wanted to ask about an issue which I and the licensing team at work have been answering more often than not so I thought I would take the time to walk you through it. The question was about downgrading Vista to XP and here’s how you do it. Remember, a license isn’t the physical disc; it’s the sticker which has the unique code to activate the software. Oh, and also, you can only downgrade Vista at the specific request of your customer; downgrade rights are an end-user right and are documented in the product End User License Agreement (EULA) and refer to the ability of your customer to acquire the most recent version of Microsoft software but continue to run a previous version until they are ready to upgrade. You cannot uninstall a copy of OEM Windows Vista, but you can reinstall a previous operating system, which then replaces Windows Vista. To reinstall your old operating system, you must have the original installation disc (either the user has a copy or you could use your MAPs copy if you are a System Builder). Back up your programs and files, insert the installation disc into your computer, and then reinstall the old operating system. To regain the hard disk space used by Windows Vista, reformat the disk during the reinstallation process. After reinstalling your previous operating system, reinstall your programs and files. When an end user is using their downgrade rights offered under the EULA in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions and they use both Windows XP media and a product key that was previously activated, they will be unable to activate online over the Internet, due to the hardware configuration change when installing on the Vista system. In these cases the end user will be prompted to call the Activation Support Line on 0800 018 8345 (UK) and explain their circumstances to the Customer Service Representative. You will need to explain to them what you are doing so have the COA (Certificate of Authenticity) to hand. Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Vista Business or Ultimate license, the Customer Service Representative will help them activate their software. Continue at Source. Original URL: Downgrading Vista to XP Top 10 Overlooked Features of Windows Server 2008“These items haven’t garnered the same kind of press attention, hype and word-of-mouth as the others, but they’re nonetheless important — maybe very important — to your network.”
10. The Print Management Console (PMC). This was originally released with Windows Server 2003 R2. But unlike the R2 release, it’s a native function in Windows 2008, and available to everyone. PMC is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which lets an admin see every printer in an entire organization, from one console. In addition, you can use Group Policy to map printers to specific user groups, so that the Accounting folks won’t be hogging printers that Engineering needs.
9. Auditpol. This is a verbose logging tool that allows you to configure, create, back up and restore audit policies on any computer in your organization. In these days of regulatory compliance, auditing is more important than ever, and Auditpol may eliminate the need for a third-party auditing program. It includes a greatly expanded list of auditing counters from the simple tools available in Windows 2003, and hundreds of different categories that let you “create a paper trail of what’s going on inside your OS,” Ralston says.
8. Windows Remote Shell (WinRS). To connect to a command prompt on a remote computer in Windows 2003, an admin needed to use Terminal Services. TS worked well but wasn’t scalable, requiring a connection to a console on each remote computer. WinRS makes secure connections to as many remote computers as necessary, all from a single console. That could be a significant time-saver for admins.
7. Event forwarding. This benefit is available to organizations that run Vista on their desktops. Event forwarding aggregates and forwards logs of chosen computers back to a central console, making management much more efficient. Say you’re an admin and you start getting calls from users who are seeing the dreaded “Event 51″ pop up on their screens, indicating a logon problem. Instead of employing sneakernet technology — running from machine to machine to comb through security events or other problems — you simply “subscribe” Vista computers through your console, and they send whatever information you ask for right to your door.
6. Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS). In Windows 2003, this was known as Windows Rights Management Services. It was available in Windows 2003, but only as an add-on product for purchase. It’s built into Windows 2008, and includes some upgrades. AD RMS assists in the creation of rights-protected files, licensing rights-protected information, and checking to make sure that only authorized users have access to rights-protected data. Some of the enhancements for Windows 2008 include the ability to administer AD RMS through the MMC, and delegate AD RMS tasks through “administrative roles.”
5. New password policies. In Active Directory (AD), the domain is a security boundary. In the forerunner to Windows 2008, Windows Server 2003, that boundary led to the restriction of one password policy per domain. That is a limiting requirement, one that’s been done away with in Windows 2008. Now you don’t have to create new domains to have a new password policy; just set password policies for specific groups or users. If your C-level execs need more stringent policies than your administrative assistants, it’s easy to do in Windows 2008.
Continue at source. Original URL: Top 10 Overlooked Features of Windows Server 2008 Update on Office 2008 progress!Last Wednesday was our general “ZBB” target for the Office 2008 project, a major milestone on the road to release and something we’ve been pushing hard for over the past several months. We saw some fantastic surging by the development team to clear out backlogged product issues late into Wednesday night. Thursday, we sat down to review project status and metrics in depth, and to hear all teams report out on their plans and readiness to lock down for release. The bottom line takeaway that you may be most interested in: all teams have confirmed readiness to ship on the current schedule. As previously announced, this means RTM in December and general availability starting on January 15th (by region).
ZBB what? This stands for Zero Bug Bounce, or as alternately phrased, Zero Bug Backlog. At this point we have been logging, tracking and verifying all changes to the product in great detail for some time – collectively we refer to this list of logged issues as the “bug list”, though in reality it includes a variety of issues including bug/defect reports, tracking records for artwork or content, usability improvements, numerous suggestions (submitted by team members or beta testers, or representing customer or partner requests), and various other categories of issues. The ZBB milestone is defined as the date across which we will no longer carry logged product issues that are more than one week old. Hence, the “backlog” of issues has been cleared out, and all older pending decisions on what we are or are not going to change before we ship have been made. It also means that the developers have “caught up” or “outpaced” the incoming find rate of our test efforts.
From here on out, the focus is increasingly on lock down. We are testing for defects literally around the clock, using a variety of methods ranging from automated efforts such as “massive file testing” to targeted manual test passes and “ad hoc” free testing. We also continue to log and fix significant issues found in private beta testing. At this point we remain busy fixing bugs as they are found (any one of our millions of lines of code could be the source of a defect,) but there will now be increased scrutiny on making changes – i.e., is there sufficient customer need to justify a proposed code change given the associated risk of regression (the outside chance that making a given change causes a new and potentially more severe problem.) Stabilizing the product for release requires conscious commitment to slowing and eventually stopping the changes we’re making to it, and as a result we now start reviewing all proposed changes daily in “triage”.
Continue at source. Original URL: Update on Office 2008 progress! Windows Vista SP1 Beta positive reviewWindows lives and dies by its service packs. I can’t recall the last initial release of any Windows product that didn’t have at least some problems. Microsoft has often used the service packs for some serious after-release polishing of the OS. In the case of Windows XP, the first service pack made a difference in speed and software compatibility, with a few nods to security. But XP really took off with the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2)—effectively a rethinking of the entire security underpinning of the OS that bought Microsoft extra time to get Vista ready for release. Now, roughly nine months after Vista started hitting desktops, Service Pack 1 (SP1) has started its beta run. The latest iteration of the SP1 beta, which is closed to the public, reveals a useful set of OS updates, but one that’s not as critical as SP2 was for XP. SP1 speeds up a few operations and enhances third-party program compatibility, but it changes little you’ll notice in your day-to-day experience. Once again, the bulk of the development effort has gone toward upgrading security subsystems—elements that enterprise clients find appealing but consumers and small-business users won’t really notice. Still, given that Vista is essentially a rewrite of XP meant to enhance security (and, of course, media features), I’m not surprised to see Microsoft take this route for the service pack. Installation
Once released, this update, like all its predecessors, will appear in downloadable form on the Microsoft Update site, but you’ll likely be able to order it on DVD and will certainly be able to purchase a DVD that will bundle both the full, installable version of Vista and SP1. Although many will argue that a service pack behaves better as an entirely new installation of the OS (a “clean install”) rather than as an upgrade to your existing OS, often that’s simply impractical. Most people have already installed most of the programs they need on their current version of an OS. Applying the service pack to the OS in use rather than doing a clean install is the only realistic option.
I tried both, though. The clean install worked perfectly and went much faster. The update didn’t install properly the first several times I tried, but that’s typical with an early beta of any service pack, since the whole point of the process is to find and fix bugs. I finally got the update to work by upgrading my office machine from XP to the first Vista release—a process that took over 2.5 hours—then applying SP1, which took about 30 minutes. That resulted in an immediate speed improvement, although not as much as with an installation on a clean system (it just makes sense that Windows slows down as you clutter it up with all kinds of start-up programs, drivers, and the like).
Continue at source Original URL: Windows Vista SP1 Beta positive review Halo Games Maker to Be Independent of MicrosoftMicrosoft said yesterday that it was giving up its controlling ownership of Bungie Software, the video game subsidiary that developed the hugely popular Halo franchise, including its latest iteration, Halo 3. Bungie, based in Kirkland, Wash., said it planned to return to its roots as an independent game studio, a move that eventually will cost Microsoft exclusive ties to one of the most successful and sought-after teams of game developers.
Harold Ryan, president and studio head of Bungie, said that he had been working for months on a plan to separate the studio from Microsoft, based in nearby Redmond, Wash. Mr. Ryan said that the companies had a good working relationship, but that developers at Bungie yearned to work for themselves, not a corporate owner.
“It’s an emotionally creative point of view,” he said of the decision to take the studio independent. “That’s the state we wanted to be in.”
Neither Mr. Ryan, nor Shane Kim, the head of Microsoft’s game studios, would discuss the financial terms. Microsoft originally acquired Bungie in 2000 for an undisclosed amount.
Bungie’s Halo games have been of singular significance to Microsoft in the development of its video game machine business
Continue at source. Original URL: Halo Games Maker to Be Independent of Microsoft
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