Far Pointer

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Now In Beta!

At CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer just announced the general availability of beta versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2! 

Windows 7

I've been using Windows 7 on my main work desktop and laptop for a while now; the experience has been amazing, especially for a pre-release operating system, and I'm thrilled that customers can now evaluate the OS.  You can find more information on Windows 7 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx.  I also highly recommend the Windows Team Blog, and the Windows 7 Engineering Blog.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Cooler still for an old server admin like myself is Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft's first 64-bit-only OS.  Server 2008 R2 features tons of improvements and new features, from better performance on modern CPUs to enhancements in Hyper-V, PowerShell, VPN, and Remote Desktop.  Find out more about Windows Server 2008 R2 here, or on the Windows Server Division Weblog.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Better Together

The coolest story of them all takes place when you use Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 together... I'm particularly pumped about the new remote workplace solutions!  You can find out more about these features here.

Windows Mobile Web Browsers

The Windows Mobile Team Blog has featured a couple of posts lately about the range of Web browsers available for WM phones.

First, back in November, Josh Partlow wrote about Internet Explorer Mobile 6, in a post that generated quite a bit of comment traffic! 

Of course, Microsoft isn’t the only company making groovy Web browsers for Windows Mobile devices; I’ve just posted a survey of several different WM browsers from Skyfire Labs, Opera, and the folks at Mozilla.

Completely pumped about Hyper-V Server

So, I finally got around to burning an ISO of Hyper-V Server and installing it on my new dev box.  So far, I'm extremely impressed:

-- It installs *really* quickly... including reboots and first-time login, it took me under ten minutes!

-- It's a lightweight Hypervisor, so it leaves plenty of hardware resources for your actual VMs (and boots really quickly too)

-- It includes important stuff from Windows, like the ability to manage it in a domain, driver support, patching, etc...

-- It has a cute little CLI-based admin interface for configuring the basics

-- You can dump out to the command-line to do anything you'd nromally accomplish via the CLI on Windows Server -- although Powershell is *not* included

That last item is particularly exciting for me; maybe it's the old VMS admin in me, but I *love* having a box running the NT kernel that has no real GUI, which I can run totally headless and administer remotely via MMC and RDP.

I'll post more about it as I get my VMs migrated over -- right now, I'm waiting for an NTFS format of a big disk to finish up.

 

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 now available

I've been using Windows Server 2008 w/ Hyper-V for months now to host internal development systems; virtualization is letting me experiment with both test and production Windows Vista SP1 and XP SP3 images for doc writers, as well as with providing safe places to host development tools.

Now, just as I'm getting ready to migrate my Hyper-V environment to a new box, we've released the new Hyper-V Server 2008 product; the download site just went live today.  Hyper-V Server 2008 is a simplified hypervisor; it lacks a GUI, and uses only the core set of Windows Server features needed to provide support for drivers, patching, and remote management. For my development and desktop virtualization needs, it's perfect.

How do you decide between Windows Server 2008 w/ Hyper-V and Hyper-V Server 2008?  The Hyper-V Server 2008 site has more guidance.

MSDN Live Chat -- Embedded CE and Windows Mobile -- tomorrow morning!

Come join us for an MSDN Live Chat about Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile!  The chat is part of a monthly series.

The next installment starts tomorrow (September 30, 2008) at 9am Pacific.  To join us, or for more information about MSDN Chats, see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/

FYI: Transcripts of past chats are available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/mobileembedded/default.aspx

PDC 2008: Registration Filling Up Fast!

I'm not easily sold on conferences.  When I worked at Indiana University, our bosses offered us as much travel/training budget as they could, in an attempt to make up for the lousy wages -- so, needless to say, I've been to a number of them, mainly as an attendee, occasionally as a presenter.

Of all the conferences I've attended, the only one I can recommend without reservation is the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC).  For anyone working in the MS development ecosystem, I genuinely think the PDC is a worthwhile investment.

There's a lot to get out of the conference:

-- When I was a dev writing for the desktop and server, there were always more sessions that interested me, and had direct impact on my job, than I could possibly attend

-- Real MS devs, PMs, and MVPs working on the products you code with, and against, every day are there, eager to help you with your problems

-- You can network with other professionals in your field, including the leading movers and shakers.  The Open Source community is also well represented... back in 2003, Miguel de Icaza gave me a Mono t-shirt!

-- Lots of vendors are there to talk to you about their products, and to give away cool swag

-- MS also tends to give previews of exciting stuff -- this year, some Windows 7 bits will likely be the highlight

I won't be at PDC 2008 this year; in order to free the maximum number of slots for customers, we limit the number of MS attendees.  However, Windows Mobile and Embedded content publishing will be represented... more on that as we get closer to the PDC!

If you can make it, make sure you register soon -- the conference is almost full!

[Edit: Constanze's got more details about the Windows Mobile offerings at PDC 2008]

 

BSP Porting for Embedded CE

I've got a post up on the CE Base Blog about documentation for those looking to port Board Support Packages (BSPs) from previous versions of Windows Embedded CE to CE 6.x.

ADFS Resources

I don't write content for the ADFS team anymore; there are a few resources, however, that you can go to for more information.

-- My friend Nick Pierson is responsible for both the TechNet content on ADFS for IT Professionals, as well as the ADFS Documentation Blog

-- Developers can check out the ADFS page on MSDN to learn more about using ADFS in your own solutions

-- Developers interested in federation should also check out Microsoft Code Name Zermatt, and Windows CardSpace

-- The product support team for ADFS also has a ton of great information on their blog

-- Keith Brown at Pluralsight also has plenty of information on identity issues, including ADFS and Zermatt

If all else fails, I'm always happy to try and put you in touch with someone on the Identity team.  Let one of us know how we can help!

Introductions...

My name is Jim Causey.  I've been working in technology for nearly fifteen years; I've done everything from tech support (both front line and third-tier) through systems administration to writing software in C, C++, Pascal, Java, and C#, in both private industry and academia.  I've also written books on topics ranging from networking to Windows systems administration, and served as a technical editor, for SAMS and Microsoft Press.  Finally, I've also spent some time reviewing music and high-end audio equipment.

Most recently, I've combined two loves (software development and writing) as an author of developer-focused content at Microsoft, at the main campus in Redmond.  I started out working on the Identity and Access Control team, working on docs for technologies like UDDI, ADFS, ILM 2007, and Windows CardSpace.  In early 2008, I moved over to the Mobile and Embedded Products Group; I'm now responsible for the docs for the kernel, file systems and storage, power management, and device bring-up for Windows Mobile, as well as sharing some of the responsibility for the Windows Embedded CE product.

Operating system internals have always been a passion of mine, and being able to work with the brilliant folks who put together CE and WM is an amazing privilege.  I've also had an intimate relationship with MSDN over my years as a dev customer of Microsoft, and having leverage to improve the experience of developers all over the world, dealing with some of the frustrations that I had to fight in delivering software to my customers, makes me happy to get out of bed every day and come into the office.

In this blog, I'll be discussing what it's like to work on developer documentation here at Microsoft, as well as other topics I'm interested in.  I'll also continue blogging on related team sites, including the CE Base Blog and the Windows Mobile Developer Documentation blog.

If you have any questions or feedback about Microsoft developer documentation, whether on MSDN or through other channels, let me know how I can help!