Key features of Windows 7

As I have said before, a lot of people are considering skipping Windows Vista and going straight to Windows 7.  So I thought I would highlight a few of the key features of Windows 7 that will be useful to businesses.

Direct Access: DA uses Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 and the next generation of IP addresses - IPv6, along with IPSec to provide seamless tunneling for remote users into corporate systems.  This will replace the need for a VPN connection.  IT Managers can then use this access to implement software patching and updates.

Bitlocker To Go: Following on from the success of Bitlocker in Windows Vista, Windows 7 will have to ability to encrypt and secure data on USB flash drives and external storage devices.  Access is restricted to users who know the preconfigured pass-phrases.

Federated Search: In Windows 7, users can search for files and documents spread throughout the network.  This includes other users PC, shared drives, different file formats and SharePoint sites.

AppLocker: With AppLocker, Domain Admins can specify which software programs are permitted to run on the network.  Users will be able to install their own software from a list of available software.

BranchCache: This speeds up the transfer of files and folders to remote offices.  A server based cache copy of the file is held in the remote office after a user has successfully requested it from the main office.  This enables future requests to be fulfilled by the remote site cache server and the file does not have to be transferred each time it is requested.

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Microsoft Exchange 2010 Beta Release

Microsoft Exchange 2010 beta has been released for evaluation  It can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/try-it.aspx

Some of the new features of Exchange 2010 include:

Voicemail: Voicemail has been available through Exchange and Unified Comms since Exchange Server 2007, however Exchange 2010 brings with it the ability to preview your voicemails in text format.  Just as you would read an email, you can now read your voicemails so you know if it worth while keeping or listening to them.

RBAC: Role Based Access Control allows IT Administrators to delegate tasks to individual users or groups of users.  This is designed to free up Helpdesk time.  An IT Admin can delegate all sorts of tasks such as distribution lists, email tracking and email discovery.

Cloud: Exchange 2010 has increased ability to transfer partially or totally in to the cloud.  This enables groups of mailboxes to be located in the cloud while some are still held on the local server.

Archiving: As Compliance becomes a more important factor every day, Exchange 2010 has built-in archiving capabilities.  This is to remove the need to archive to a pst file located on the local computer.  Users do not see the difference between an archived email and a regular email.  Compliance officers are then able to locate all email as it is still held centrally in the Exchange Server.

Compliance: To further assist with compliance and Data Protection, Exchange 2010 now enables a suitably privileged user to be able to search mailboxes at a granular level and across multiple mailboxes.  This user can then place immediate legal holds on any suspicious emails.

I/O: To minimise overhead and assist IT departments to be more energy efficient; Exchange 2007 reduced I/O activity by 70% on previous versions.  Exchange 2010 has now increased this further to 85%.  This results in less writing to disk and faster responses.

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Everyone loves a freebie!

Yes indeed, everyone loves to get something for free. Couple that with the fact that Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 (MOSS) is massively popular and it makes great news that Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 is now a free download. This means that you can add all kinds of impressive features to your Microsoft SharePoint site without having to write the code.

SharePoint Designer 2007 includes Workflow Designer, pre-built templates and interactive ASP.Net pages that you can alter and utilise.

Download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

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A Taxing Subject...

Gordon Brown has announced a proposal to introduce a pay per use tax on web traffic. Fine details have not been announced but is believed that individuals would have to pay somewhere in the region of 25pence a time to access the sites which would be held behind a Government firewall.

Economists believe that if traffic volume continued as it is now and if the public paid the fee, then the UK national debt would be repaid in just 6 months.

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Facebook PLC?

Facebook is getting ready to float on the stock market. Facebook CFO Gideon Yu has left the Company and Facebook have said they will be replacing him with someone who has 'Public-Company Experience'.

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Wikipedia 1 - Microsoft Encarta 0

The open source community's Wikipedia may have caused the demise of Microsoft's Encarta. Microsoft have announced that Encarta is will be discontinued from June 2009. This will not have come as a surprise to the millions of people that use Wikipedia everyday.
Wikipedia's unique model of allowing anyone to update entries means that it is always going to be more up to date than any commercial package. The popularity of Wikipedia was clearly documented when they managed to raise $6 Million in donations, including $3 Million in just 10 days.

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Windows 7 RC Download date announced (well sort of)...

It seems that a slight mistake was made on the TechNet website last week. The Windows 7 Release Candidate download page was displayed a bit early.
So now we know that Windows 7 RC testing program will be available to download from May 2009 and this will most likely continue until June 2009.
Windows 7 RC will expire on 1st June 2010 when users will have to install the proper edition of the software.

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The end is near for Windows XP...

Microsoft will shortly be moving Windows XP from ‘Mainstream Support’ into ‘Extended Support’.
This means that although users will continue to receive security patches, they will no longer receive patches covering other issues such as stability or driver updates.
Only companies which have specific support contracts with Microsoft will be eligible to receive non-security patches. This will also have an impact on businesses that write their own Windows XP based applications and rely on Microsoft for assistance.

Windows XP will still be sold on some hardware, mostly netbooks which cannot host Vista due to limited budgets and hardware capacity. Users who purchase a netbook with Windows XP installed have to accept that they will not have access to mainstream support.

So now that you are looking at a network full of XP machines and you have just found out that mainstream support is ending, Vista might be an option after all!

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