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Dr. Z's Blog

Dr. "Z" lives in Northern Virginia with his family. He tries to stay in touch with developers and architects in the Mid-Atlantic region.

October 2009 - Posts

Resources for Developing Windows 7 Applications
Microsoft has put together a list of online resources to help developers get started with creating Windows 7 applications, including links to application compatibility tool, Windows SDK, managed code for Windows 7 APIs, and the training kit. See more Read More...
Windows 7 Runtime Libraries Available for Vista and Windows Server 2008
Microsoft has just released a set of runtime libraries to support some Windows 7 features on Vista and Windows Server 2008. This means that developers can add Windows 7 features to applications that run on Vista and Windows Server 2008. These libraries Read More...
One-Day Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp at PDC 09
It’s not too late to register for the free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp to be held on November 16 (the day before the PDC conference).  Top Windows 7 engineers will lead a full-day, technical workshop focused on optimizing application performance, Read More...
7 Ways to Change the World with Windows 7
To celebrate the launch of Windows 7 we are launching an exciting new online competition called 7 Ways to Change the World on October 21 st 2009.   The competition encourages people to create a two minute video explaining how they believe a Windows Read More...
SmileBooks Windows 7
Check out this cool photo book tool called SmileBooks on Windows 7. It makes editing and publishing photo/text albums easy and enjoyable and allows you to order prints of your photo book inside the tool. Watch the video and download the demo to see how Read More...
What you need to know about Windows 7
MSNBC.COM has just published a PCWorld article by Harry McCracken that goes over some basic and advanced features of Windows 7 from the perspective of end users. Mr. McCracken shares his experience and views regarding user interface, file management, Read More...
Windows 7 Launches and First Microsoft Store Opens Today
Windows 7 and Windows 7 PCs are available today in more than 45,000 retail stores around the globe. Watch Windows 7 launch events live at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/windows7   Also, the very first Microsoft retail store opens for business Read More...
Building A Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Ready Hardware Server with a Small Budget
As an architect evangelist at Microsoft, I am eager to get my hands on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Server and explore and learn about the virtualization technology. Since the laptops I normally use didn’t meet three Hyper-V prerequisites , I decided Read More...
Windows 7 Online Training
Microsoft has put together a collection of Windows 7 online training resources for developers at Channel9. Topics in the collection include: multitouch sensors and location taskbars ribbon shell libraries background services instrumentation and performance Read More...
Live Webcast of Windows 7 Launch Event in NYC 10/22/09
At 11 a.m. EST, October 22, 2009, Steve Ballmer will host a press event and webcast in New York City to celebrate this worldwide launch of the Windows 7.  To view the live webcast (or to watch the recording later) tune in to: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ Read More...
Innovation Showcase Windows 7 Contents
Thanks so much for attending the Innovation Showcase at Reston MTC. Let us know if you are working on any Windows 7 applications and would like to share your experience and success with us. You can download all four presentations here . Read More...
Three Options that Help You Understand and Resolve Windows 7 Compatibility Issues
Users who want to know if the hardware on their existing computers is adequate to run Windows 7 can use Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, a free tool from Microsoft, to check. This tool is very easy to install and use, and is available for download here . Users Read More...
Intel CEO Paul Otellini Speaks about Windows 7 and PC Refresh Cycle at FoxBusiness
(Starting at 2'50" of the video clip) Why asked by FoxBusiness reporters why businesses may not put off upgrading to Windows 7 this time, Intel CEO Paul Otellini responds by saying that three are three things coming together. Most corporations are Read More...
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Available
The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework Beta 2 is available to MSDN subscribers on Monday, October 19th, with general availability on October 21st. Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd441784.aspx Read More...
Setting Beautiful Bing Pictures as your Windows 7 Background
To set beautiful Bing pictures as your Windows 7 desktop background, download the custom theme file, install it on your Windows 7 computer and optionally modify the setting. A blog post outlines the three steps in detail. If you are curious about how Read More...
Insights to Six Concerns Over Windows Azure
In his blog post titled “Outlook for Azure – scattered clouds but generally sunny”, Vishwas Lele , CTO of Applied Information Sciences, addresses concerns over pricing, scalability, performance, remote desktop access and applicability of Windows Azure, Read More...
An Architect’s perspective on Silverlight 3
October 27, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST Title: An Architect’s perspective on Silverlight 3 Presenter: Tim Heuer Abstract: Many .NET developers are becoming more and more interested in the Rich Internet Application development space, and in particular Read More...
Deploying Windows 7 from an Infrastructure Architect’s Perspective
October 28, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST Title: Deploying Windows 7 from an Infrastructure Architect’s Perspective Presenter: Doug Klokow Abstract: We’ll discuss 5 key areas centered on deploying Windows 7: Developing business justification – Evaluate Read More...
Choosing the Right Version of Windows 7
While Microsoft has made great effort to simplify the choice of the latest operating system -- Windows 7, there are still confusions among consumers and users as to which version of Windows 7 is the best for them. The Microsoft web site lists 3 versions, Read More...
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