Nokia and Windows

Yesterday Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop(formerly of Microsoft) just sent out a fairly devastating internal memo to all Nokia employees. Elop suggested that his company is “standing on a burning platform” and must “change [its] behavior,” suggesting that the adoption of a non-homegrown platform like Android or Windows Phone 7 is a more realistic possibility than ever before.

Observers have been wondering what Nokia’s next step will be following its CEO’s Burning Platform memo yesterday. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported this morning that Nokia is in talks with Microsoft to license the latter’s Windows Phone 7 operating system for use in its devices and that a deal may be announced at an event in London tomorrow. The company has also been in talks for several months with Google about its Android OS, which seem not to have panned out.
A Financial Chronicle interview yesterday with Microsoft India’s new Managing Director, Amit Chatterjee, on the Indian launch of Windows Phone 7 included an interesting tidbit :
“While HTC has already launched a couple of devices to support the Windows 7 phone, Microsoft is likely to join forces with Nokia for exploring the Indian market”
Similar rumors have been flying for a while, but the most recent set seem unusually intense, and Nokia-Microsoft deal might make a lot of sense now. Nokia continues to produce class-leading hardware but has seen its smartphone OS efforts (Symbian and MeeGo) founder in light of strong competition from Apple iOS and Google Android.

Microsoft, once a strong smartphone player with its Windows Mobile OS, has completely rebooted its phone OS with a new offering, Windows Phone 7, that offers an entirely new UI paradigm and smooth experience but has a lot of catching up to do in market share. While Google’s Gundotra was seemingly quick to dismiss the potential of such a deal, a combination of Nokia’s hardware prowess and global retail presence (especially in emerging markets) with Microsoft’s slick new OS could form a strong mobile competitor for Google and Apple.

Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008: EBS and System Center

SBS 2008 and EBS 2008, previously known by their respective codenames of Cougar and Centro, are important because they are based on the all new server technologies that include Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007. Additionally, both products use System Center Essentials as a primary management platform and require 64-bit CPUs. SBS 2008 is a single-server solution for up to 75 desktops, with an optional second SQL server, which can run a 32-bit OS.
System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 is installed automatically on the first server that is built, the Management Server. The Essentials EBS instance is modified from a default Essentials by adding management packs for Exchange 2007, Forefront Server Security (for Exchange 2007), and Forefront TMG (former codename ISA Server Nitrogen). There is also an EBS management pack that we’ll take a closer look at in a moment. Essentials agents are automatically deployed to the Security and Messaging servers, and the Essentials product features are pre-configured during the EBS install.

Read more here

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release to Automatic Updates

Microsoft is committed to providing quality products to customers.  As part of this commitment, we would like to remind you that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released to Automatic Updates shortly.  The third service pack to Windows XP includes the previously released updates and hotfixes to Windows XP, creating a new baseline for servicing.  

Optional Actions

If you wish to prevent users from installing Windows XP SP3 through Automatic Updates, Microsoft recommends you take one or more of the following steps:

1. Download and deploy the Windows Service Pack Blocker Kit. The Blocker Toolkit is available in the Microsoft Download Center. 

2. Deploy an update management solution that provides full control over the updates you deploy to computers in your network (Compare Update Management Solutions).  IT Administrators using an update management solution should use their product’s standard features, rather than the Blocker Toolkit, to control SP1 distribution.

Source- MSDN Blog

Language Portal Search Tool - Bidirectional Search Enabled!

The Language Portal Search Tool now offers bidirectional search functionality. Up to this month, search was only possible from English to target language. Going forward, it is also possible to look up English terms entering a target term into the search text box. When using target to English search, the name of the target language needs to be selected in the drop down list entitled "Language" (same as for English to target search). Then check the checkbox "Reverse search direction".

Step-by-step description of reverse search:

1. In the search text box, enter a non-English IT term, for example "klicken" (the German term for English "click").

2. In the language drop down list, select the language affiliated with the non-English search term (in this case, "German").

3. Select the check-box "Reverse search direction".

4. Click on the "Search" icon.

The search tool will now display the English term(s) and strings associated with German "klicken".

Source- Technet Blog

Windows SteadyState 2.5

Windows® SteadyState™ 2.5 is now available on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet café, a library, or even in your home, Windows SteadyState helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them.
Windows SteadyState runs on genuine copies of Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Starter. And, Windows SteadyState is offered free of charge to Windows Genuine Advantage customers!
SteadyState Helps Make it Easier to Manage Your Shared Computers Shared computers are commonly found in schools, Internet and gaming cafés, libraries, and community centers. It is increasingly common for owners, teachers, or non-technical personnel to manage shared computers in addition to their many other responsibilities.
Managing shared computers can be difficult, technically challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. And what’s more, without system restrictions and protections, users can inadvertently change the desktop appearance, reconfigure system settings, and introduce unwanted software, viruses, and other harmful programs. Repairing damaged shared computers can require significant time and effort.
User privacy is also an issue for shared computer environments. Shared computers often use shared user accounts that make Internet history, saved documents, and cached Web pages available to subsequent users.
Windows SteadyState provides a more effective way to help defend shared computers from changes by untrusted users and unwanted software installations. It can also help safeguard system resources.
Windows SteadyState Features Windows SteadyState includes the following features to help you manage your shared computers:

• Getting Started – Provides the initial steps to help you during your first time use of Windows SteadyState.
• Windows Disk Protection – Help protect the Windows partition, which contains the Windows operating system and other programs, from being modified without administrator approval.Windows SteadyState allows you to set Windows Disk Protection to remove all changes upon restart, to remove changes at a certain date and time, or to not remove changes at all. If you choose to use Windows Disk Protection to remove changes, any changes made by shared users when they are logged on to the computer are removed when the computer is restarted
• User Restrictions and Settings – The user restrictions and settings can help to enhance and simplify the user experience. Restrict user access to programs, settings, Start menu items, and options in Windows. You can also lock shared user accounts to prevent changes from being retained from one session to the next.
• User Account Manager – Create and delete user accounts. You can use Windows SteadyState to create user accounts on alternative drives that will retain user data and settings even when Windows Disk Protection is turned on. You can also import and export user settings from one computer to another—saving valuable time and resources.
• Computer Restrictions – Control security settings, privacy settings, and more, such as preventing users from creating and storing folders in drive C and from opening Microsoft Office documents from Internet Explorer®.
• Schedule Software Updates – Update your shared computer with the latest software and security updates when it is convenient for you and your shared users.

Download here

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Microsoft Office Outlook

This download installs Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Microsoft Office Outlook and the related Release Notes (Read me).
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook enables access to the same data through Outlook as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook with Offline Access allows data to be taken offline.

Download here

Windows Sysinternals Updates: ZoomIt v2.10, Process Monitor v1.34, BgInfo v4.13

ZoomIt v2.10: Includes a zoom-out effect when you exit zoom mode and enables you to specify a background bitmap for the break timer.

Process Monitor v1.34: This update adds the ability to filter on result values.

BgInfo v4.13: Now displays correct version information for Windows Server 2008.

Source- Windows Sysinternals blog

Windows 7 Will Not Inherent the Incompatibility Issues of Vista

Microsoft is hard at work aiming to prevent the Windows 7 apple proverbially falling close to the Windows Vista tree. In fact, Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group, promised that that incompatibility issues would not be among the legacy that Vista leaves for Windows 7. Otherwise, the next version of the Windows client will inherent the vast majority of the architecture of its predecessor, most importantly the core of Vista. But, in addition to the kernel, Windows 7 will also feature the same graphics and audio subsystems

as Windows Vista, context in which existing hardware and software products will continue to be compatible.
"You've let us know you don't want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista. As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7. Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward," Veghte stated.
This is, in fact, Microsoft's vision: Windows Vista will be a transition operating system, streamlining the migration to Windows 7. Officially planned for availability within three years since Vista hit the shelves on January 30, 2007, Windows 7 is heading for a more realistic launch date at the end of 2009, but ahead of the holiday season.

Source: Softpedia