Microsoft

I am someone who likes the best browser for me. While I have often tried other browsers, I have always come back to IE based ones. I say IE based ones as I was a Avant and Maxthon user for a good 2 years until IE7 came on the scene. I loved tabbed browsing and those browsers gave me that. The discussion can be found at the CRN web site and does an amazing job of describing the browser wars and talking about who won each round. What might surprise many is that MS has not won many, but does have a large base now and the verdict is open for the next round. For the record, I now use IE7, I still get tabbed browsing and quick tabs and I have not yet had a site I could not browse, so that is great. I LOVE the new security features - protected mode and anti-phishing technology. I save trees with the "about time" feature of shrink to fit for printing and when I start the browser, it opens up the 8 pages I want it to in tabs, so no longer choosing which page will be my homepage, I have 8. (as it happens, they are Valdville...

We are publishing a long list of mini-presentations, aka the virtual conference on 26th September. You will be able to hear loads about Microsoft, our plans and products from the managers and people in the know. Below are just some of the items I think might be of interest to you. For a full list, go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/partnerconfere... on or after 26th September. Some of the topics include: Karl Noakes introduces the Virtual Partner Conference. David James from Henley Management College talks about what successful businesses are doing today outside of our industry and within it. Hear a discussion between Nigel Montgomery of AMR Research and David James of Henley Management about the UK market trends, opportunity areas and how you can align your business to take full advantage. Steve Marsh talks you through the 2007 Microsoft Office System, addressing key areas including personal productivity, communication and collaboration, enterprise content management and business intelligence. Exploring...

I am not one to laugh at other's misfortunes... or at least not very often, but Chris had arranged to go to the Kent Partner Group meeting, when I asked him how it went he gave me some story about hit house falling down. Being the sport he is, this is part of his blog entry on the whole sad affair. I still say it is an extreme way to avoid meeting partners, but that is Chris for you! I am sure he will be at the group soon! Source: Chris Parkes: A PC is not just for Christmas... : A Day in The Life (of the People Ready Business) A Day in the Life of...Ken 8:00 - 9:00 AM Check email/voicemail messages 9:00 - 10:00 Review cash on hand and bank balances 10:00 - 12:00 PM Attend scheduled meetings 12:00 - 1:00 Have lunch 1:00 - 2:00 Meet with accounting staff 2:00 - 3:30 Review finances/prepare reports 3:30 - 5:00 Continue work on current projects/work on the To Do list generated from meetings 5:00 - 7:00 PM Review and respond to email messages/work on a facilities issue/go home A Day in the Life of...Chris 2:15 - 2...

If you have a customer who wants these capabilities, but does not have the resources or cash to buy it, then Office Live could be quite amazing for you. Microsoft Office Live is coming - what is it Today, more than ever before, an Internet presence is indispensable for small businesses. That’s why Microsoft is introducing Microsoft Office Live — a set of affordable business productivity services designed to help you grow your business more easily by establishing a professional presence online. Microsoft Office Live will provide your company with its own domain name, Web site, and company-branded e-mail accounts for free. Additionally, Microsoft Office Live will offer you and your employees expert business management applications, such as customer, project, and document management tools, and a security-enhanced private Web site — affordably managed and maintained by Microsoft — where you can work together and share information with your employees, customers, suppliers, and contractors. If you’re not at the stage...

Jonathan Goodyear Marks IIS7 as the "Difference" in Windows Vista There are many cool features in Windows Vista that might make one developer happy over another. For President of ASPSoft Jonathan Goodyear, though, it is clear he sees ... http://forums.iis.net/1392889/ShowThread.aspx#1392889 Shipped! RC1 Out-the-Door! Learn from the all-new Updated IIS7 Articles Windows Vista Release Candidate (RC) 1 is out the door with a fresh new build of IIS7. This is an exciting time for the IIS team as we draw near the full release i ... http://forums.iis.net/1391795/ShowThread.aspx#1391795

http://officelive.microsoft.com/Misc/Links.aspx?linkId=preview If you are interested in solutions for the smaller small business, look at this. ttfn David

From the IE Blog is the following - we have all heard that IE7 is coming, but that day is almost upon us, so time to get ready. I finally installed IE7 for my wife yesterday - for the 1st time in a long time she actually said "Oh, that is useful" when talking about technology - a win for everyone! IE7 Is Coming This Month...Are you Ready? The final release of IE7 is fast approaching … and I mean really fast … and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it’s available for download. We want to ensure that you are ready and the information below will help get you there. Compatibility with sites, extensions and applications has been a very high priority for us as we develop new features, enhance the existing features and move the platform forward to be more secure and standards compliant. We are continually listening to feedback from our customers, partners and leaders in the industry to resolve major compatibility issues to ensure our common customers have...

Pete Scargill is the IT chair of the Federation of Small Business , and someone who can be fun to read his blog and knock about with - which I need to arrange again anyway. It was nice to see his appreciation for Office is finally public :-) Office BETA Have you tried the Office 2007 beta yet? Well, they've just brought out a "technical refresh" - why these people can't use simple terms like "update" I'll never know, however, for those of you who like to experiment, I have to say before I downloaded Office 2007 I was the first to be critical. "They've changed the interface, that'll never sell2 - well, I got that wrong, it's MARVELOUS. Anyone who thinks that the likes of Open Office can even hold a candle to this need to download the beta and have a tinker with it. I said when Office 2003 came out that it seemed like Microsoft had finally gotten their act together and I still stand by that - but the new stuff is even better! Source: The Chronicles of Scargill: Office BETA

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 9:18 AM by UK Partner Online Landing this week The new partner magazine is out this week and it's fab. It's the second edition of the new look magazine that editor Nicola Meek is on point for delivering. It landed on my desk yesterday and I had a read last night over dinner. It really is an interesting read and I got through it in 20-30 mins. There's interesting insights into Microsoft as well as views from partners and industry trends. It blends sales. marketing and technical issues into a compelling read. This issue is all about technology change - very apt given the imminent launch of EVO (Exchange, Vista and Office). I love the front cover - not something you'd expect from an IT company! A problem we have with distribution of the magazine is getting it into your hands. Make sure you've profiled yourself at the Subscription Centre so that you receive it - tell your colleagues so they can get it to. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/partnering/subscription/ and profile yourself...

I was browsing Robert McLaws blog entry on Launch 2007 e-Learning Courses and notices a HUGE stack of training courses - well worth checking out. The ones I think you might want to focus on are below - more on the blog. The WSS ones are key for anyone looking at Live people!! ttfn David New 2007 Microsoft Office System - Home & Office Users Free for 90 Days! Course 4622: What's New in Microsoft® Office Access 2007 Summary: This online course introduces the new features and functionality in the latest version of Microsoft Office Access. There have been substantial changes to the user interface in this database application, and this course can help you get up-to-speed quickly. Course 4623: What's New in Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 Summary: This online course introduces the new features and functionality in the latest version of Microsoft Office Excel. There have been substantial changes to the user interface in this spreadsheet application, and this course can help you get up-to-speed quickly. Course 4624...

I saw this and because IE is coming soon, thought you might like to read this! IE7 Installation and Anti-Malware Applications A few people have asked why we recommend temporarily disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware applications (which I’ll refer to together as anti-malware) prior to installing IE7, so here’s a little insight to the situation. Along with copying IE7 files to your system, IE7’s setup writes a large number of registry keys. A common way anti-malware applications protect your computer is by preventing writes to certain registry keys used by IE. Any registry key write that fails during setup will cause setup to fail and rollback changes. We work around the problem in most instances by checking permissions at the beginning of setup, but many anti-malware programs monitor the key rather than change permissions. Therefore, setup thinks it has access when it starts, but then fails when it later attempts to write the key. The majority of users likely haven’t seen any such problems even with anti-malware...

The time has come, IE7 has shipped out the door, is available from http://www.microsoft.com/ie and will start coming down via Auto Updates on Windows PCs in a couple of weeks. ttfn David