US ISV Developer Community

Join for Windows Azure Platform Training in Irvine

2009-11-21T04:16:00Z

Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelism team invites you to a Metro Instructor Led Training event for developers using Windows Azure. The free event is for Microsoft Partners and customers. The event is held in Irvine, CA from December 15 to December 17.

Delivered through workshop style presentations and hands-on lab exercises, the workshop will focus on key services of the Windows Azure Platform – Windows Azure including the service bus and SQL Azure.

The topics covered over three days will be:

An introduction to Windows Azure
Working with Windows Azure storage
An introduction to SQL Azure
Building applications with SQL Azure
An introduction to .NET Services
Building solutions using the .NET Service Bus

This workshop is aimed at developers, architects and systems designers with at least 6 months practical experience using Visual Studio 2008 and C#.

The workshop will be run Dec. 15-Dec. 17th and is targeted at partners and customers who have projects that they are potentially looking to deploy to the Windows Azure Platform.

Space is limited to two attendees per company. Space is limited.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 Betas Available

2009-11-20T18:51:00Z

Microsoft announced the public beta release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010, Office Web Apps for business customers, and Office Mobile 2010. You can download, use and develop on the public beta at Microsoft Office 2010. You will also want to use Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.

Office 2010 provides a productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser. It is full of new innovations that make using Office faster and easier than ever—including Office Backstage View, Ribbon UI across all applications, photo and video editing in PowerPoint, fast new data comparison tools in Excel, and improved mail/calendar management in Outlook. With the new Click-to-Run technology, home users will also have a dramatically faster download experience.

In addition, with this beta we are unveiling several new features and products:

Office Web Apps for business customers, available through SharePoint Server, allows //my and //sharepoint sites to host browser-based Web Apps accessible from virtually anywhere. (Office Web Apps for consumers is still in Technical Preview.)
Outlook Social Connector, a new feature that brings communications history and social networking feeds into the Outlook experience.
Office Mobile 2010, which includes mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010 and is available on the Windows Mobile marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

Office 2010 Developer Resources

For developers, there is more opportunity than ever to use Office and SharePoint to build business applications that connect business users to the information they need. Among other things, the Office and SharePoint 2010 wave enables you to:

Extend the Office UI, the Remote Client API, and OpenXML file formats for business application client development in Office2010. For more information, see Technical Articles on Office 2010.
Build business applications with Visual Studio 2010 for first-class tooling and Silverlight for mash-able Web parts
Support SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online applications with REST-based access to the Windows Azure platform

Office 2010 Beta is a broadly extensible platform for building information worker productivity solutions and developing for Office with Visual Studio 2010 makes this easy. The following six key initiatives show you how to get started developing with Office 2010.

For more information, see the Office 2010 Beta Developer Center.

SharePoint 2010 Developer Resources

Together, the 2010 business productivity product line ensures that the whole of our offerings is truly greater than the sum of its parts. SharePoint 2010 plus Office 2010 provides a rich and robust platform for the enterprise and the Web, and allows Microsoft partners and developers to build innovative new business collaboration solutions.

Software developers can use the SharePoint 2010 business collaboration platform to build enterprise-class solutions for intranet portals and the web. Use these ten modules to get started with development for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010. To see the ten course modules, see Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010. You’ll find these courses:

Getting Started Home Page

Module 1: Getting Started: Building Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

Module 2: What Developers Need to Know About SharePoint 2010

Module 3: Building Blocks for Web Part Development in SharePoint 2010

Module 4: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Server-Side APIs

Module 5: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Client-Side APIs

Module 6: Accessing External Data with Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Module 7: Developing Business Processes with SharePoint 2010 Workflows

Module 8: Creating Silverlight User Interfaces for SharePoint 2010 Solutions

Module 9: Sandboxed Solutions for Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

Module 10: Creating Dialog Boxes and Ribbon Controls for SharePoint 2010

The Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (Beta) software development kit (SDK) contains conceptual overviews, programming tasks, samples, and references to guide you in developing solutions based on SharePoint 2010 products and technologies. You can download the SharePoint 2010 developer kit at SharePoint 2010 Reference: Software Development Kit.

Also see SharePoint 2010 Developer Content Published.

Feature Demo

To learn more about the features in Office 2010, see this video where Chris Bryant briefs analysts and demonstrates new product features.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

New Version of Silverlight Unveiled at PDC

2009-11-20T10:08:00Z

The Silverlight 4 Beta was unveiled at the Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles.

The list of features for business developers is long, so here’s a list of keywords fo features to get you started: printing, clipboard, right click menu, rich text editing, html control, command key support, model view model for test driven dev, data networking, IDataErrorInfo, business rule validation on server, WCF improvements for better duplex, TCP support with WCF to improve networking speed.

Silverlight 4 preview is available today for developers. For more information and to get the tools, see Silverlight 4 Beta Information. Documentation is available online at Silverlight on MSDN. Free training course is available on Channel 9 at Silverlight 4 Training Course.

Silverlight 4 Features

Here are some new features for ISVs and business application developers:

Comprehensive printing support enabling hardcopy reports and documents as well as a virtual print view, independent of screen content.
A full set of forms controls with over 60 customizable, styleable components. New controls include RichTextbox with hyperlinks, images and editing and Masked textbox for complex field validation. Enhanced controls include DataGrid with sortable/resizeable columns and copy/paste rows.
WCF RIA Services introduces enterprise class networking and data access for building n-tier applications including transactions, paging of data, WCF and HTTP enhancements. This was renamed from .NET RIA Services.
Localization enhancements with Bi-Directional text, Right-to-Left support and complex scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew and Thai and 30 new languages.
The .NET Common Runtime (CLR) now enables the same compiled code to be run on the desktop and Silverlight without change.
Enhanced databinding support increases flexibility and productivity through data grouping/editing and string formatting within bindings.
Managed Extensibility Framework supports building large composite applications.
Exclusive tooling support for Silverlight, new in Visual Studio 2010. Including a full editable design surface, drag & drop data-binding, automatically bound controls, datasource selection, integration with Expression Blend styling resources, Silverlight project support and full IntelliSense.

Silverlight 3 pioneered the delivery of a new class of Rich Internet Applications to work on the desktop without additional code or runtimes. Silverlight 4 extends this capability:

For Sandboxed applications

Place HTML within your application enabling much tighter integration with content from web servers such as email, help and reports.
Provide support for ‘toast’ notification windows, allowing applications to communicate status or change information while the user is working on another application through a popup window on the taskbar.
Offline DRM, extending the existing Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady technology to work offline. Protected content can be delivered with an embedded license so that users can go offline immediately and start enjoying their content.
Control over aspects of UI include window settings such as start position, size and chrome.

For Trusted applications

Read and write files to the user’s MyDocuments, MyMusic, MyPictures and MyVideos folder (or equivalent for non-windows platforms) for example storage of media files and taking local copies of reports.
Run other desktop programs such as Office, for example requesting Outlook to send an email, send a report to Word or data to Excel.
COM automation enables access to devices and other system capabilities by calling into application components; for instance to access a USB security card reader.
A new user interface for requesting application privileges access outside the standard Silverlight sandbox.
Group policy objects allow organizations to tailor which applications may have elevated trust.
Full keyboard support in fullscreen mode richer kiosk and media applications.
Enhancements to networking allow cross-domain access without a security policy file.

Developer tools

Fully editable design surface for drawing out controls and layouts.
Rich property grid and new editors for values
Drag and drop support for databinding and automatically creating bound controls such as listbox, datagrid. New datasources window and picker.
Easy to pick styles and resources to make a good looking application based on designer resources built in Expression Blend.
Built in project support for Silverlight applications
Editor with full intellisense for XAML and C# and VB languages.

New Features for Users

Silverlight is already in use as a comprehensive platform for building rich experiences both for application and pure media scenarios including HD quality, interactive video through Smooth Streaming. Silverlight 4 introduces additional capabilities to enable creation of ever more rich, appealing high-performance interactive experiences and innovative media experiences:

Fluid interface enhancements advance application usability through animation effects.
Webcam and microphone to allow sharing of video and audio for instance for chat or customer service applications.
Audio and video local recording capabilities capture RAW video without requiring server interaction, enabling a wide range of end-user interaction and communication scenarios for example video conferencing.
Bring data in to your application with features such as copy and paste or drag and drop.
Long lists can now be scrolled effortlessly with the mouse wheel.
Support conventional desktop interaction models through new features such as right-click context menu.
Support for Google’s Chrome browser.
Performance optimizations mean Silverlight 4 applications start quicker and run 200% faster than the equivalent Silverlight 3 application.
Deep Zoom enhancements include hardware acceleration to support larger datasets and faster animation.
Multi-touch support enables a range of gestures and touch interactions to be integrated into user experiences.
Multicast networking, enabling Enterprises to lower the cost of streaming broadcast events such as company meetings and training, interoperating seamlessly with existing Windows Media Server streaming infrastructure.
Content protection for H.264 media through Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady.
Output protection for audio/video streams allowing content owners or distributors to ensure protected content is only viewed through a secure video connection.

Silverlight 4 Training Course

The Silverlight 4 Training Course includes hands-on-labs, a video and a whitepaper designed to help you learn about the new features in Silverlight 4 focusing on three major areas:

Enabling Business Application Development.
Empowering Richer Experiences.
Moving Beyond the Browser.

Some of the new highly anticipated features include Printing, WebCam and Microphone support, custom right-click, rich text, HTML support and access to local files with trusted applications.

About Silverlight

Silverlight helps companies design, develop and deliver engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop and mobile applications when online or offline. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET Framework and compatible with multiple browsers, devices and platforms. With printing support, rich reporting and charting, and integration with back-end systems and server products including Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), the Silverlight 4 Beta delivers a full suite of powerful features to application developers, bringing innovative platform capabilities to browser-based experiences.

For more information, see Silverlight 4 Beta Information.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 Training in Silicon Valley

2009-11-20T04:00:00Z

You are invited to join us for a three-day instructor-led event in Silicon Valley on Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Workshop December 16 - 18 in Mountain View, CA. You will work from Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.

Activities will include several overview sessions to provide a general overview of the entire Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 platform and tools. In-depth sessions and hands-on labs with individual technologies give you hands-on experiences with the most recent bits.

This event will explain Microsoft’s upcoming Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 offerings and provide you with information and guidance through presentations and hands on labs. This information will enable partners and customers to build solutions for this exciting development platform. This is a special event organized specifically to share Microsoft’s early, forward-looking plans for productivity-based technologies to our closest partners and customers.

This training event will cover key topics such as:

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0
Data Access
Web Development
Client Applications
App Frameworks
Windows Workflow and Windows Communication Foundation
Parallel Computing
Team System

The Framework and Tools Metro training event is three days in length, and begins at 8:30 am each day and concludes at 5.00 pm. There is no cost for the workshop; however participation is limited to two attendees per company. Continental breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack will be available to those who attend.

To register, click here. Participation is limited.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

New Video - SocialGrow: Grow Your Social Network

2009-11-19T17:53:00Z

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/SocialGrow-Grow-Your-Social-Network/

Larry Gregory talked to Marsh Sutherland, Charbel Elkhoury and Ken Herron from SocialGrow at a recent Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week in Boston hosted by Sanjay Jain. With a few days of design and development effort SocialGrow leveraged IE8 Accelerator, Multi-Touch and Federated Search capabilities of Windows 7 to help their customers in growing their social network.

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell

(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde

(t) http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

New Video - Panopto utilizes Windows 7 features in Presentation Recording solution

2009-11-19T17:46:00Z

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/Panopto-utilizes-Windows-7-features-in-Presentation-Recording-solution/

Larry Gregory talked to Eric Burns, John Ketchpaw from Panopto at a recent Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week in Boston hosted by Sanjay Jain. With few days of design and development effort Panopto leveraged Taskbar, Speech-to-text, multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7 to enhance their presentation recording solution.

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell

(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde

(t) http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

New Video Published - BumpTop brings 3-D Desktop to Windows 7 users

2009-11-19T17:33:00Z

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/BumpTop-brings-3-D-Desktop-to-Windows-7-users/

Larry Gregory talked to Anand Agarawala, Patrick Dubroy from BumpTop at a recent Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week in Boston hosted by Sanjay Jain. With few days of design and development effort BumpTop brings a 3-D desktop leveraging multi-touch and patented advanced gestures.

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell

(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde

(t) http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

New Video - Baydin brings serendipity through emails

2009-11-19T17:15:00Z

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/Baydin-brings-serendipity-through-emails/

Larry Gregory talked to Alex Moore from Baydin at a recent Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week in Boston, hosted by Sanjay Jain. With few days of design and development effort Baydin created a working prototype to provide intelligence for outlook email messages leveraging Windows 7 Federated Search feature.

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell

(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde

(t) http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

New Video - AnswerPoint Medical Systems leverages native features of Windows 7 for EMR Solution

2009-11-19T17:04:00Z

Link to video - AnswerPoint Medical Systems leverages native features of Windows 7 for EMR Solution

Larry Gregory talked to Denise Scoppetta, Glenn McGregor from AnswerPoint Medical Systems at a recent BizSpark Incubation Week in Boston hosted by Sanjay Jain. With a few days of design and development effort AnswerPoint Medical Systems created an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) prototype leveraging multi-touch and speech-to-text features of Windows 7

John O'Donnell
Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation
(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell

(b) http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde

(t) http://www.twitter.com/jodonnel

Silverlight 4, Office 2010 Beta Highlight Keynotes at PDC

2009-11-18T20:31:00Z

Here are the headlines from keynotes this morning at Professional Developers Conference (PDC09).

For native Windows developers, Win32 investments include support for Windows Touch, Sensors & Location API, Device Experience Platform, Windows Web Services, and the ability to take full advantage of ever more capable hardware – richest, most performant user experience with DX11.

For managed code developers, .NET and Silverlight provide a rich set of UI capabilities to make developers more productive than ever before. Later today, Scott Guthrie announced the public beta of Silverlight 4, expanding the possibilities for a cross-platform runtime with a full set of improved controls and full tooling support in Visual Studio 2010 and Expression.

Web developers writing HTML are first-class citizens in the Microsoft stack. We continue to advance Web standards through the work with the W3C and the HTML5 working group, which Microsoft co-chairs.

Silverlight 4 Announced

Scott Guthrie announces the public beta of Silverlight 4, only four months after delivering Silverlight 3. The beta can be downloaded at http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta.

Guthrie noted that the newest version of Silverlight includes features such as these:

Extended out-of-browser capabilities to enable deeper desktop experiences without additional code or runtimes
Powerful enhancements for enterprise application developers, including full support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, providing access to Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint Server, and improved printing, networking, reporting and charting capabilities
Richer Web experiences, including new webcam and microphone capabilities, native multicast support for wide-scale media content delivery, and more than 60 customizable controls to build compelling, interactive applications

The Silverlight 4 Training Course includes hands-on-labs, a video and a whitepaper designed to help you learn about the new features in Silverlight 4 focusing on three major areas: Enabling Business Application Development, Empowering Richer Experiences and Moving Beyond the Browser. Some of the new highly anticipated features include Printing, WebCam and Microphone support, custom right-click, rich text, HTML support and access to local files with trusted applications.

Windows 7 Opportunities

Steven Sinofsky profiles how developers can take advantage of the unique software and hardware innovations fueled by Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 to build compelling computing experiences for customers. Sinofsky also shared an early look at some of the work under way on Internet Explorer 9, highlighting advancements in performance and interoperable standards, as well as advancements such as using DirectX to bring the full power of the PC to the Web experience.

Public Availability of Office 2010

Kurt DelBene announces the release of the public betas of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 and Office Web Apps for business customers. The 2010 release is designed to give people the best productivity experience across PCs, phones and browsers. The betas can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/2010.

For more information, see Microsoft Office 2010 Reaches Beta, Bringing Productivity Gains to the PC, Phone and Browser.

Extend the Office UI, the Remote Client API, and OpenXML file formats for business application client development in Office2010
Build business applications with Visual Studio 2010 for first-class tooling and Silverlight for mash-able Web parts
Support SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online applications with REST-based access to the Windows Azure platform

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Get a Single Development Experience for On Premises, Cloud

2009-11-18T20:09:16Z

Microsoft’s new Windows Server AppFabric gives you new tools to develop, manage and deploy composite applications, both on premises and in the cloud.

Composite applications reuse existing services and business logic to provide new and innovative functionality for end users.

You can get started today with the beta on Windows Server 2008 R2 with the AppFabric coming for Windows Azure later in 2010.

Key Points

Windows Server AppFabric is a set of integrated technologies that make it easier to build, scale and manage Web and composite applications that run on IIS.

You build composite applications using your existing skills with the .NET Framework.

AppFabric includes:

Application Server for RESTful or SOAP-based applications, workflows, and application-level monitoring. AppFabric provides a runtime environment for composite applications built on ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation. It’s based upon efforts formerly code-named “Dublin”.
Service Bus and Access Control services to secure connect between loosely coupled services and applications, enabling them to navigate firewalls or network boundaries. With the new tools, capabilities and hosted services in AppFabric, you can easily create composite applications that allow employees to access information across the company or outside the firewall. The technology was previously called .NET Services.
Caching capabilities to provide high-speed access, scale, and high availability to application data. This feature was previously codenamed "Velocity".

Developers also will be able to move the individual pieces of an application from being on-premises to the cloud, or from the cloud to on-premises.

Release Dates

Customers can download the beta of Windows Server AppFabric today with the final version slated for release next year. Later in 2010, Microsoft will debut a CTP of Windows Azure platform AppFabric, which will offer the same set of tools for managing and deploying applications for the cloud.

The next major release of BizTalk Server will provide platform support for Windows Workflow Foundation and take advantage of certain Windows Server AppFabric services.

About AppFabric

During a keynote address at Professional Developers Conference 2009, Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business, unveiled Windows Server AppFabric and Windows Azure platform AppFabric, a new technology that bridges on-premises and cloud deployment and management scenarios.

The demo shown on stage took an ASP.NET application using the Web Role and without code changes the application was moved and hosted in Windows Azure. The demo also showed how the caching technology helped improve application performance by caching data used in a client application.

For more information of what is available in the beta, see Application Server Extensions for .NET 4.

Get Started

The Windows Server AppFabric landing page on MSDN provides links to:

Product Documentation
Architectural Overview
Tutorials
Collection of Virtual Labs will get you started building applications with AppFabric and related .NET Technologies.
Microsoft AppFabric Samples
Read the introductory whitepaper on AppFabric Service and Workflow Management.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Office 2010 Beta and SharePoint 2010 Beta Now Available on TechNet and MSDN

2009-11-17T21:13:51Z

You can down grab the Beta bits from TechNet and MSDN. Here’s a snip of the MSDN download list:

You can see that everything is there for you to begin playing with. So, what are you waiting for, grab the SharePoint bits, install them on your Windows 7 machine and begin developing those apps with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 today! I can’t wait to see all of the cool BCS apps our ISVs create!!

AppFabric, Identity, Data Services Announced Today at PDC

2009-11-17T18:59:31Z

Today at Professional Developers Conference (PDC09) the news covers the foundational elements of the software experience made possible by the data center and in the cloud back-end developer experience.

Here are the headlines from today’s announcements.

AppFabric Supports Moving Your Web Application from Windows Server to Windows Azure

Microsoft releases Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1, a set of integrated application services that enable developers to more easily deploy and manage applications spanning both server and cloud. Available for download today at http://msdn.microsoft.com/AppFabric with availability in 2010.

Windows Identity Foundation, ASP.NET MVC Beta 2 Supported on Windows Azure

Other announcements include Windows Server virtual machine support on Windows Azure, RTM of Windows Identity Foundation, and ASP.NET MVC beta 2, a free, fully-supported framework that enables developers to rapidly build standards-based Web applications.

Commercial, Reference Data Service Offered in Cloud

Microsoft introduces an information and brokerage service, codenamed “Dallas” that enables access to commercial and reference data from partners including Associated Press, Citysearch, ESRI, DATA.gov, NASA, National Geographic, RiskMetrics Group, the United Nations, WaveMarket, Weather Central, and more.

New Developer Training Courses Available

Just released today on Channel 9:

New Identity Course for ASP.NET web site+WCF web services developers. Take advantage of the Windows Identity Foundation http://r.ch9.ms/id
Windows HPC Server 2008 Training Course-get an understanding of this productive, cost-effective + high-performance solution http://r.ch9.ms/hpc
Learn how to build applications that utilize Windows Azure + SQL Azure in this self-paced course http://r.ch9.ms/azpd

Connect with PDC

As always, leverage our world-class online event experience to listen, learn, evangelize, and connect:

Track keynotes and conference information on the PDC website
Each day after the keynotes, watch live video interviews with executives, developers, and partners on Channel 9 Live on microsoftpdc.com
Track Microsoft PDC news and partner success stories in the Virtual Press Room
Follow PDC09 on Twitter and Facebook
Download all of the press releases, talking points, and narratives here so you can drive conversations in your markets with developers, partners, and the press

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Developers, Architects Meet at PDC

2009-11-16T20:41:02Z

Professional Developers Conference (PDC09) begins tomorrow in Los Angeles. Attendees from around the world gather at the Professional Developers Conference to learn about the future of Microsoft's developer platforms and network with fellow professionals.

At this annual event, Microsoft showcases new products in its pipeline, gives developers insight into future direction, and hosts workshops that help attendees better understand industry-leading technologies. In recent years, PDC has also been the epicenter of nearly every major platform announcement from Microsoft, including Microsoft .NET, Windows XP and Windows 7. In 2008 Microsoft unveiled its Windows Azure platform, Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative.

This year’s lineup of speakers comprises Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie; Server and Tools President Bob Muglia; Kurt DelBene, senior VP of Microsoft’s Office Business Productivity Group; and Corporate Vice President of the .NET Developer Platform Scott Guthrie. Judging from PDC keynotes from past years, you can expect to hear these industry veterans outline Microsoft’s vision for the future of software application development, see amazing demos from Microsoft and partners, trace the evolution of existing technologies and perhaps even unveil new products.

Keynotes will be available through smooth-streaming broadcast using IIS 7 and Silverlight on the PDC site. The keynotes begin at 8:30 am Pacific (11:30 Eastern), Tuesday and Wednesday.

November 17: Ray Ozzie & Bob Muglia

November 18: Scott Guthrie, Kurt DelBene & Special Guest

if you are attending the conference, stop by the MSDEV booth or see MSDEV at PDC on uStream live. For the top ten reasons why you should stop by the booth, see Top 10 Reasons to Stop by the MSDEV Booth at PDC.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Videos Show How You Can Light up Your Applications with Windows 7 Features

2009-11-13T18:44:00Z

Windows 7 offers a real opportunity for ISVs to enhance the user experience of your software with new features. Many of these features are straight forward, such a support for libraries and jump lists.

Your developers can learn about the effort and how to implement these features in a series of videos on MSDEV titled Windows 7 New Features for Managed Code Developers.

This series presents examples of how you can write in managed code (Visual Basic and C#) to take advantage of some of the new features of Windows 7. The series includes: an introductory overview on new features, overview of the Windows API Code Pack and individual sessions that include a demonstration of the new features in Windows 7.

The series features:

New Features in Windows 7. A high-level overview of what's new in Windows 7, including elements in the new User Interface along with other features
Overview of the Windows 7 API Code Pack. A high-level overview of the Windows 7 API Code Pack, which provides access to Windows 7 features for .NET developers using Visual Basic or C#.
Windows 7 Feature: Taskbar and Jump Lists. Demonstrates the improvements to the taskbar in Windows 7, along with managed code for implementing some of the new functionality it provides
Windows 7 Feature: Power Management. Shows how to tune your application to use power more efficiently, saving energy and extending battery life for laptops or other mobile devices
Windows 7 Feature: Extended Linguistic Services. Describes the new API for working with ELS features such as basic text, date/time/calendar formatting, keyboard layouts, or sorting behavior
Windows 7 Feature: Explorer Browser. Demonstrates working with the new Explorer Browser control to add a control that mimics the Windows Explorer within a managed application.
Windows 7 Feature: Application Restart and Recovery. Explains how to use the Application Restart and Recovery features to save data and state information if an application exits unexpectedly or stops responding, and to restart the application if you choose
Windows 7 Feature: Libraries and Known Folders. Covers the new feature that provides folder-like collections of user data. In Windows 7, libraries are intended to be the primary entry points for users to access their documents, graphics, and sound
Windows 7 Feature: Task Dialogs and Common File Dialogs. Demonstrates how to use managed code to create and use a Task Dialog, which is a more fully-featured Message Box, and the new Common File Dialogs.
Windows 7 Feature: Shell Features. Shows how Win 7 supports shell features for searching and drag-and-drop
Windows 7 Feature: Network Management. Explains how to use the Network and Network List Manager objects to get access to network information with managed code.

Videos are between 30 and 60 minutes. See them at Windows 7 New Features for Managed Code Developers on MSDEV.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

US ISV Developer Community

Join for Windows Azure Platform Training in Irvine

Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 Betas Available

Office 2010 Developer Resources

SharePoint 2010 Developer Resources

Feature Demo

New Version of Silverlight Unveiled at PDC

Silverlight 4 Features

For Sandboxed applications

For Trusted applications

Developer tools

New Features for Users

Silverlight 4 Training Course

About Silverlight

Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 Training in Silicon Valley

New Video - SocialGrow: Grow Your Social Network

New Video - Panopto utilizes Windows 7 features in Presentation Recording solution

New Video Published - BumpTop brings 3-D Desktop to Windows 7 users

New Video - Baydin brings serendipity through emails

New Video - AnswerPoint Medical Systems leverages native features of Windows 7 for EMR Solution

Silverlight 4, Office 2010 Beta Highlight Keynotes at PDC

Silverlight 4 Announced

Windows 7 Opportunities

Public Availability of Office 2010

Bruce D. Kyle ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation

Get a Single Development Experience for On Premises, Cloud

Key Points

Release Dates

About AppFabric

Get Started

Office 2010 Beta and SharePoint 2010 Beta Now Available on TechNet and MSDN

AppFabric, Identity, Data Services Announced Today at PDC

AppFabric Supports Moving Your Web Application from Windows Server to Windows Azure

Windows Identity Foundation, ASP.NET MVC Beta 2 Supported on Windows Azure

Commercial, Reference Data Service Offered in Cloud

New Developer Training Courses Available

Connect with PDC

Developers, Architects Meet at PDC

Videos Show How You Can Light up Your Applications with Windows 7 Features

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation