MidMarket Events

Trial Software that is Easy to Find

My last post got me thinking about Microsoft evaluation software, and the easiest way to find what you need. So here are two links to the most popular sites:

Technet Evaluation Center provides links to download commonly used software

MSDN Evaluation Center provides easy access to developer tools

If you never get time to fully complete your software evaluation during the 60, 90 or 120 day evaluation period, then take a look at Technet Plus Subscriptions or MSDN Subscriptions. For a very low fee, you can evaluate Microsoft full version software without time limits, get Professional Support, technical resources and more.

To make Technet Plus even MORE attractive, enter code TMSAM09 to get 15% off the price!

I hope this helps you to quickly and easily find all the things that you need.

Have a great week,

Dawn

Windows 7 Beta

If you have been looking for information about Windows 7, have I got the website for you. Included on the Windows 7 site are tours of the new features, links to the latest news, the official Windows 7 newsletter, blogs, and even a place to download the beta. Yes—that's right. You can check out Windows 7 Beta for free. We are anxious to hear your feedback, but I'll warn you—the download will only be available until January 24th, so please hurry!

Have fun,

Dawn

Links to Great Free Stuff

I received an email over the weekend with links to a couple of Microsoft freebie software lists. It was amazing to me that I work for Microsoft, and I didn't know that many of these things existed! It just goes to show the sheer volume of things that we are working on all the time to meet our customers' needs.

So here's what you will find: add-ins for XP and Vista, developer tools, support and troubleshooting tools, utilities and even games. I hate to admit it, but I have spent the last several hours downloading and checking this stuff out. (If my boss calls—please tell him that everything I checked out was business related!)

If I enjoyed this, then I knew that you would too. Thanks to Blake Handler for putting this together.

XP and Other Goodies

Vista Goodies

Man--I work for a cool company!

Enjoy!

Dawn

Windows Defender-Anti-Spyware for XP too!

Want to protect against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software? Windows Defender features great 'Real-Time' protection for free! Defender is included with all versions of Windows Vista, and available to download for Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. Defender is just one way that you can harness your current investments, and harden security with no additional cost.

The benefits of installing Windows Defender include:

Spyware detection and removal

Improved Internet browsing safety

Protection against the latest threats

You can find more information about Windows Defender here or check out the demo

Happy New Year!

Dawn

Happy Holiday to You and Yours!

Whether you celebrate:

Christmas Day

Saint Nicholas Day

Eid'ul-Adha

Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe

St. Lucia Day

Hanukka

Boxing Day

Kwanzaa

Omisoka,

Or another special day…

Here is wishing you and your loved ones a very safe and very happy holiday season!

From The Momentum Team @ Microsoft

New Executive Corner Videos

We are enjoying getting feedback from you about technology overall as well as our products. This is great information to share with everyone else out there to help get those different perspectives. We really appreciate it and I have uploaded two new videos for you to enjoy. I will get an archive up shortly so that you can access previously published videos.

Thank you to all of our attendees who take a minute to give us your live feedback.

View the videos here, or you can start out on our home page at http://www.msmmevents.com and click on Executive Corner.

Stephanie

Windows Essential Business Server—Save Time and Money

This morning I was reading up on Essential Business Server (EBS), and I ran across the following testimonials:

• "Our administrative workload is one-tenth what it was before.… This is the largest step forward, in terms of our ability to focus on real business needs that we have ever seen."
• "We've reduced our technology management chores by 50 percent with the move to Windows Essential Business Server 2008. We've also reduced our server count, which represents a huge savings in ongoing maintenance work."
• "With centralized management, one single console, in Windows Essential Business Server, I'll be able to take care of problems proactively before something breaks. I'll be able to use a lot of the tools to do things quicker, simpler, better.

In this day of scrutinizing the bottom line, EBS is a great server solution that integrates management, messaging, security and even database. Developed and priced specifically with the mid-sized business in mind, EBS has two editions that are sure to meet your needs. To learn more, click here

There is a great click through EBS demo that can be downloaded here

Have a great week!

Dawn

Businesses see smart phone use rising, survey shows

The survey found that the number of smart-phone devices will grow about 30% in the next year and will have doubled over three years. The use of business applications on smart phones is also projected to grow, by 71% over one year and 196% over three years.

Stephanie

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)

During our recent events, there has been a great deal of interest in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, especially when many of you learn that it is a part of your Windows Server 2003 license. If you are interested in implementing WSS, but have concerns about the work that will be needed to customize WSS programmatically in order to meet your organizations needs, then take a look at the Software Development Kit (SDK) that is available for download.

The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK contains conceptual overviews, programming tasks, and references to guide you in developing solutions that are based on Windows SharePoint Services as a platform. The SDK includes information about the following:

• Web Part Framework
• Server-Side Object Model
• Web Services
• Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML)
• Master Pages
• Workflows
• Custom Field Types
• Information Rights Management (IRM)
• Document Property Promotion and Demotion
• Search and Query

Check out the download here

These development tools may help you to leverage what you already own, and save your organization money.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dawn

Why I Didn't Skip Microsoft Vista: Security

It's been a hard road for Microsoft's Windows Vista, but even though negative perceptions have followed the operating system since its release, recent data and positive user feedback show a glimmer of hope for Microsoft that Vista's ship is turning around. Read more

Thanks,

Indy

Creating a Blog using Windows SharePoint Services

While traveling to the great event in Boise, I read an in-flight article in United's 'Hemispheres' magazine. It quoted Steve Broback, author of Publish and Prosper: Blogging for your Business. He said: "Every business that cares about its online presence should have a blog." Small businesses to large companies are using blogs to improve their web presence, communicate better and increase their customer base.

Interested in using Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) to create blogs for your business? It's easy! Click here for step by step instructions to create a blog, set up categories, and customize blog settings.

Have a great week!

Dawn

Executive Corner Videos – Find out what other executives are saying.

We have been out talking to you during our Momentum events, and we appreciate you taking the time to give us your opinion. Listen to what others are doing in their environment at our Executive Corner on the www.msmmevents.com page here.

Please be sure to give us your feedback when you come out. See you in Waterbury, Cincinnati, Islandia, Columbus, and Boise this week.

Thanks,

 Stephanie 

Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk

The Microsoft VHD format is the common virtualization file format that provides a uniform product support system, and provides more seamless manageability, security, reliability and cost-efficiency for customers. This month we are featuring the following hard drives:

Forefront codenamed "Stirling"

Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Windows Vista Enterprise 30-Day Edition VHD

Check out these and many more for download here.

Thanks,

Stephanie

Search Server Express Free Download

During recent events, there has been considerable interest in Search Server 2008 Express as a FREE enterprise search solution. I promised to provide the link on our blog—and here it is!

This link provides both the 32 and 64 bit downloads as well as a demo, feature screen shots and the system requirements. Check it out!

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/try-1.aspx?WT.srch=1

Thanks!

Dawn

Windows Server Virtualization Calculators

Here is a great tool to calculate/estimate the number of Windows Server licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server. Click here to access the tool.

Thanks,

Indy