A belated Happy St. Patrick’s Day and welcome to Spring. I took a few days vacation in New London, CT last week. We planned to go to the 2nd Annual St. Patrick’s Day parade but didn’t make it. We did see the parade last year.
Internet Explorer 8 Final Available Now from IEBlog
Today we’re excited to release the final build of Internet Explorer 8 in 25 languages. IE8 makes what real people do on the web every day faster, easier, and safer. Anyone running Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server can get 32- and 64-bit versions now from http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. (Windows 7 users will receive an updated IE8 as part of the next Windows 7 milestone.)
From Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows RSS:
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Internet Explorer 8 Review (Parts 1 and 2)
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Internet Explorer 8 Review (Part 3)
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Internet Explorer 8 Review (Part 4)
Why Internet Explorer 8 disappoints web developers from Paul’s SuperSite blog
Windows Internet Explorer 8 Compatibility View List from Paul’s SuperSite blog
Or, to use a more controversial headline which I’m sure you’ll see elsewhere:
Internet Explorer 8 natively incompatible with over 3,000 web sites
Microsoft has provided a list of web sites (in super-convenient Excel format) that haven’t taken as little as 10 minutes of time to make sure they work properly with IE 8, shipping today:
RE: IE8 Beta Feedback from IEBlog
Thank you to everyone who has provided the IE Team with feedback on IE8. Your dedication to making this product the best it can be is truly amazing. Here is an update on the feedback channels mentioned in IE8 Beta Feedback blog post back in March of 2008:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Software & Resources
from The Road to Know Where
Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s latest version of the familiar web browser you are most comfortable using, helping you get everything you want from the web faster, easier, more privately and securely than ever before.
Windows 7
A few more changes from Beta to RC… from Engineering Windows 7
Hey folks, just wanted to provide another update (building on the recent post on some changes since Beta) on some of the changes you will see in the Release Candidate. Again, there are many and this is not an exhaustive list. Of course we continue to gather telemetry from the large number of people running the Beta full time. Just a reminder, the Beta is the only official build from Microsoft. Chaitanya compiled this list from a broad set of feature teams focused on visible changes based on feedback that go beyond “bug fixes”, though we included some of the more widely reported bugs on this list as well. –Steven
Windows 7 logon UI background customization from Paul’s SuperSite blog
Rafael has done it again. And this is the perfect time to remind people that there is a huge difference between finding something that’s right there in the UI (as some have done with previous builds and tried to take credit for a "discovery") and delving into the underpinnings of the OS and making actual discoveries. This is the latter kind of discovery. The real kind.
Rescue Me: Windows 7 to Improve on Vista Compatibility from Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows RSS – Windows 7 will offer compatibility advantages over Windows Vista…
Federating Windows Search with Enterprise Data Sources from Engineering Windows 7
The Windows Explorer has evolved by enabling you to find all sorts of content by searching for it. Many of you have used the search features in Windows Vista (based on our instrumented data) from the start menu or from the search box in Explorer. It has been a long time since most of us could remember where everything is by carefully managing our folder hierarchy and finding things based on file name alone. We often rely on domain specific search (in music players, mail clients, photo clients) but with Windows Vista and Windows 7 we make it possible to search within a namespace and across namespaces. This post is about a new feature based on Search that allows searching across PCs and even servers in an Enterprise setting. Alwin and Scott, program managers, and Brandon, a developer, on the “Find and Organize” feature team authored this post. –Steven
New keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 from The PC Doctor
I’ve been using Windows 7 on several of my main systems for a while now and overall I’ve grown quite attached to it. But with every new OS comes a new learning curve, and one thing that I like to master are the new keyboard shortcuts.
Microsoft’s Windows 7 Security Software Partners Provide Free Beta Trials from The Road to Know Where
My friend Mike asked if there were AntiVirus & Security software compatible with Windows 7 — the answer of course, is -Yes!
User State Migration Tool from Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs
The User State Migration Tool (USMT) for Windows 7 is now part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and provides fast and flexible options to migrate user profiles and data from one operating system to another. Explore how the new Hard-Link Migration feature highlighted in his demonstration can dramatically reduce migration time for in-place operating system migration or computer refresh scenarios.
Windows Troubleshooting Platform from Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs
The Windows Troubleshooting Platform can reduce calls to the help desk by diagnosing and resolving common issues, and by providing built-in troubleshooters for several different types of problems including audio, video, and networking. Learn how to develop custom Windows Troubleshooting Packs using Windows PowerShell to help resolve issues commonly encountered in your environment.
User Account Control from Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs
User Account Control (UAC) was introduced in Windows Vista to help increase security and improve total cost of ownership by enabling the operating system to be deployed without administrative privileges. See how Windows 7 continues the investment in UAC with changes that enhance the user experience and put users in greater control of their prompting experience. For example, the number of operating system applications and tasks that require elevation is reduced, so standard users can do more than before and will see fewer elevation prompts.
DirectAccess from Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs
DirectAccess enables remote users to access the corporate network anytime they have an Internet connection, without the extra step of initiating a virtual private networking (VPN) connection. Find out how to use DirectAccess to provide a more secure and flexible corporate network infrastructure in which computers on and off the network can remain healthy, managed, and updated.
BranchCache from Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs
The introduction of BranchCache in Windows 7 is the next step to improving end user productivity in branch offices. BranchCache caches content from remote file and Web servers in the branch location so that users can more quickly access this information. The cache can be hosted centrally on a server in the branch location, or can be distributed across user PCs.
Exposing Microsoft Windows 7 User Account Control (UAC) from WindowSecurity.com by (Derek Melber) – Taking a look at the old and new UAC technology to determine if you should consider Windows 7 and UAC.
SharePoint
Announcing the Microsoft Translator web page widget from Brian Smith’s Project Support WebLog
The Microsoft Translator team is very proud to announce the technology preview of an innovative offering for web page translations. Attendees to MIX09 this week get a special invitation to try out the Microsoft Translator web page widget.
This sounds way cool.
Low Tech SharePoint Hack: Project Status Indicator from cazh1: on Business, Information, and Technology by James P. MacLennan
I’m doing a little hacking in SharePoint that is pulling together a few ideas from the past:
Getting Started with Excel Services from End User SharePoint by Nicola Young
Embed Video and Audio files in the SharePoint Environment from End User SharePoint by Ken Cronin
- Embed Video and Audio files in the SharePoint Environment: Part 1
- Embed Video and Audio files in the SharePoint Environment: Part 2 – Add a Dropdown Selection Menu
- Embed Video and Audio files in the SharePoint Environment: Part 3 – Single Embedded Player with Multiple Dropdown Menus
Use an approval workflow in SharePoint from Get the ‘Point: Posts – Workflow video
Display a list in another site (Cont’d) from Path to SharePoint by Christophe
Two months ago I published a simple method to display a SharePoint list in another site. A few days ago, Nathan posted the following comment: The one (minor) inconvenience I have found is that when you click the ID or Title field to navigate to the full record (dispform.aspx), the Close button will redirect you to the default [...]
The Shortcut Guide to Storage Considerations for Microsoft SharePoint by Wendy Henry from Realtime Nexus: IT eBook alerts
- Chapter 1: SharePoint Capacity Requirements
- Chapter 2: SharePoint Storage Architecture
- Chapter 3: Best Practices for Deploying SharePoint on iSCSI
- Chapter 4: High Availability, Disaster Recovery and Maintenance
Post Webcast Wrap Up: Simplified SharePoint Application Development from SharePoint Joel’s SharePoint Land: Posts by Joel Oleson – The webcast deck and recording
New Download: Visio Stencils for Design Architecture Posters from To the SharePoint by Brenda Carter
By popular request, we have packed up and created a download for the stencils that we used to create many of the SharePoint Technical Diagrams. These models are created using Office Visio 2007. You can modify the Visio files to illustrate how you plan to incorporate Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies in your own environment.
Here’s the URL for the download package: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=08105458-1d92-44ad-b7e0-744aa853a7bf.
Security
Microsoft releases !exploitable crash evaluation tool from CGISecurity.com: Your Web Site and Application Security Resource
"Aiming to better identify bugs that could lead to security issues, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it planned to release a tool to help developers classify and assess program crashes. The tool, known as !exploitable and pronounced "bang exploitable," is a plugin for the Windows debugger that categorizes crash information using…
Project Management
The one best practice to rule them all … from CleverWorkarounds
This is a post or three that I have really been looking forward to writing, and it is a long time in the making for various reasons. Some of you, after reading it, will no doubt wonder if I have been taking magic mushrooms or something similar, but if the feedback from the SharePoint Best Practices conference is anything to go by, then maybe a couple of readers will have the same sense of realisation and clarity that I had.
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 1
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 2
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 3
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 4
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 5
- The one best practice to rule them all – Part 6
Color Coding Tasks Based Upon Date Range from PMConnection
So you would like to be able to quickly examine your project schedule to see which tasks your team should be working on this week…or…maybe you would like to see which tasks you should work on next week. The following is a dynamic approach, quick to implement, and will meet this need.
Export MS Project to Excel, Update, Then Import Updates Back Into MS Project from PMConnection –
I’ve had many request to translate from MS Project to Excel but never back again…
Miscellaneous
My Final Exam Question: Can You Answer It? from Bob Sutton
The quarter is winding down at Stanford, and my course assistants and I are busy grading some very creative final exams. In my course "Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach," I give the students the final exam question on the first day of class, and it is due the last day. It is, "Design the ideal organization. Use course concepts to defend your answer."
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What is your ideal organization? You don’t have to use all 3000 words — in fact 25 words or less might be most fun. There are hints about aspects of my ideal organization that go beyond The No Asshole Rule on my list of "15 Things I Believe." But if I forced myself to stay under 25 words, I would say something like:
Check out the comments!
Field Notes: Video Conferencing for Business Conversations from cazh1: on Business, Information, and Technology by James P. MacLennan
This past week saw my first experience with video conference calling – something obvious to consider in these tight economic times. Some observations -
Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope Now Available Online from The Road to Know Where
Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope desktop program still has a "better" experience than this new online (within your browser) offering — but this project never stops amazing me.
Microsoft’s MSDN Recommends Free Financial Calculator Templates for Excel 2007 from The Road to Know Where
Microsoft’s Template Partner, Vertex42, has released eight free financial calculators to help you "know what your money is up to."
Steve Mullen has been involved in information technology for over 35 years. He is also actively involved in the music program (voice and English hand bells) and Vestry of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Damascus, MD.
