An updated version of Microsoft's WGA Tool for Windows XP, is on it's way out thru Windows Update.  It is not known at this time when it will become available...it was only mentioned that it will arrive in the next few weeks.

Continue at source.

Products Released

An * below indicates the product is available now.

Client upgrades

•	Windows Vista Business *
•	Office Professional 2007 *
•	Office Project Professional 2007 *
•	Office Visio Professional 2007 *
•	Office InfoPath 2007 *
•	Office OneNote 2007 *
•	Office Communicator 2007

Client enterprise editions

•	Windows Vista Enterprise *
•	Office Enterprise 2007 *

Server upgrades

•	Exchange Server 2007 *
•	Office SharePoint Server 2007*
•	Office Project Server 2007 *
•	Forefront Security for Exchange Server *
•	Forefront Security for SharePoint *
•	System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Server Enterprise editions

•	Windows Rights Management Services *
•	System Center Operations Manager Enterprise 2007
•	Unified Messaging Services for Exchange *
•	Excel and Forms Services for SharePoint *

New products

•	Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance
•	Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 *
•	Office Forms Server 2007 *
•	Office SharePoint Designer 2007*
•	Office Communications Server 2007
•	“Voice Call Management" for Office Communication Server 2007
•	Office PerformancePoint Server 2007
•	Forefront Client Security
•	Office Sharepoint Server for Search 2007 *
•	SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007
•	System Center “Desktop”
•	Office Groove Server 2007*
•	Office Groove 2007 *
•	Exchange Hosted Services*

The business availability of Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Exchange Server 2007 signals a new era in workplace productivity.

•	Feature Story: Q&A: "Business Value" Launch of Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange Server 2007 Creates Groundbreaking Opportunities for Partners - Nov. 30, 2006
•	Press Release: Steve Ballmer Kicks Off Most Significant Product Launch in Microsoft's History - Nov. 30, 2006
•	Feature Story – Microsoft Showcases Platform Strategy and Opportunity - Nov. 29
•	Executive Email: Steve Ballmer on A New Era of Business Productivity and Innovation - Nov. 30, 2006
•	Webcast: "Business Value" Launch Event - Nov. 30
•	Virtual Newsroom: “New Day for Business” Launch Event

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. may have a chance to take market share from the iPod as a Reuters survey showed 35 percent of those interested in its Zune device would be replacing an existing digital music player.

Microsoft, the world's No. 1 software company, two weeks ago began selling the Zune, which analysts have called its most serious effort yet to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPod, the best-selling player by far.

Apple has sold more than 70 million iPods since its introduction in October 2001, and the iPod now commands more than a 70 percent share of the U.S. market for MP3 players, as they are also known. Microsoft has itself acknowledged that it may take years for its Zune effort to take effect.

Zune was off to a quick start, grabbing 9 percent of the U.S. digital music player market in its first week of sales, taking the No. 2 spot from SanDisk Corp.'s (SNDK.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Sansa, market researcher NPD Group said on Wednesday. Apple remained the market leader with 63 percent unit share, NPD said.

According to the Reuters survey, which was conducted over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Apple remained the leader by a large margin, with about 70 percent of respondents answering unprompted that they would likely buy an iPod.

When given a list of MP3 players from which to choose, 80 percent of respondents chose the iPod. Some 7 percent of those given a list of players that also included Microsoft's player, picked Zune.

Among those expressing a preference for the Zune, some 35 percent were replacing an existing player while 18 percent of those who voiced an interest in the iPod were upgrading.

Some among the 35 percent were likely already customers of Microsoft's PlaysForSure initiative, which allows consumers to choose from a selection of devices and music stores which are mutually compatible, Gartner analyst Mike McGuire said.

Continue At Source

Two-day symposium to mark completion of iCampus Research Alliance for Educational Technology.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Nov. 30, 2006 —

•

What:On Dec. 1 and 2, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Microsoft Research will host a symposium called Learning Without Barriers/Technology Without Borders, bringing together national leaders from industry, academia and government to focus on how technology is transforming the educational experience and promising technological advancements that can help address the challenges facing higher education. Based on research sponsored by iCampus — a research collaboration between MIT and Microsoft Research — more than 70 academic papers were published on information technology in education. Although the event concludes the formal research alliance, the resulting tools and best practices will continue to benefit pedagogical research and will be used and further developed by higher-education institutions worldwide.

•	Who: Speakers at the symposium will include Susan Hockfield, president of MIT; John Seeley Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox Corp.; Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research; and Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness.

•	Agenda: See http://icampus.mit.edu/Symposium/Agenda.aspx .

•	Where: MIT campus, Cambridge, Mass.

•	When:Friday, Dec. 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST, with a special media-only event from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. EST

In just a few hours, the business launch of Windows Vista will take place at the NASDAQ headquarters.  At launch, Micosoft will unveil the new site: http://msnewday.com/.

Check it out!

Q&A: Tomorrow's triple launch of business availability of Windows Vista, 2007 Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 underscores Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to providing customers and partners with even greater platform opportunities.

With tomorrow’s launch of three key products – Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, 2007 Microsoft Office system client and server applications, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 – Microsoft is creating vibrant opportunities for both new and existing partners and customers through platform innovation.

To learn more about the launches from the platform perspective, PressPass spoke with Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president with Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism Group.

PressPass:  There’s a lot of anticipation for the launch of Microsoft Windows Vista, 2007 Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.  How do these releases shape the overall platform opportunity for partners and customers?

Sanjay Parthasarathy, Corporate Vice President, Developer & Platform Evangelism Group

Parthasarathy:  While the new IT and end-user features of these products get a lot of attention, there’s also a lot going on with the underlying platform that creates new opportunities for developers and ISVs to build applications and grow their businesses on the Microsoft platform. The release of Windows Vista is really critical to extending the capabilities of Web-based applications due to breakthrough innovation to the underlying infrastructure in the .NET Framework. On the Office front, there’s a lot of excitement around the new platform capabilities in the 2007 Office system which is, in a lot of ways, a culmination of our “Office as a platform” vision. And Exchange Server 2007 is raising the bar in terms of how Web services are being used for more sophisticated message sharing, delivery and management.

PressPass: What is the significance of the Windows Vista release?

Parthasarathy: Any time there’s a major release of Windows it’s significant because it raises the floor for the whole industry. For example, Windows 95 provided a standard TCP/IP stack which was a critical enabler of the Internet revolution. With Windows Vista, the .NET Framework 3.0 brings a rich set of platform enablers that span the Web services architecture, enhance user experience, and improve business process.  Already we are seeing great innovation on the .NET Framework 3.0. A great example of this is an application built by the New York Times called “Times Reader” that takes advantage of the capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation for richer delivery and readability of online content.

Also, the security and manageability features in Windows Vista will raise the bar on customer expectations in those categories, so the impact of Windows Vista tends to extend out not only to the customers who use it, but the partners who build on it.

Continue At Source

News conference at NASDAQ also marks Microsoft’s 20th year as a publicly traded company.

NEW YORK CITY — Nov. 29, 2006 —

•	What: Microsoft Corp. will host a news conference and live webcast to announce the availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system, the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Exchange Server 2007 for business customers with volume license agreements. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will celebrate this historic product launch, which coincides with Microsoft’s 20th year as a publicly traded company, by ringing the bell to open the NASDAQ market.
•	Who: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft, and executives from Microsoft customer and industry partner companies
•	Where: NASDAQ MarketSite event at Times Square in New York, 43rd St. and Broadway; a live webcast of the news conference will be available.
•	When: The news conference and webcast will begin at 10:35 a.m. EST (7:35 a.m. PST) on Thursday, Nov. 30.

Audio Replay

•	Information: An audio replay of the news conference will be available on the Events and Speeches page of the Microsoft® PressPass Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass approximately one hour after the conference has ended.

Webcast Replay

•	Information: A replay of the news conference webcast will be available on the Events and Speeches page of PressPass at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass .

Sound Bite, B-Roll Satellite Feed Coordinates:

•	1400-1415 eastern C BAND                  AMC 3     Transponder 19                      d/l frequency              4080(H) KU                          AMC 2     Transponder 6                        d/l frequency              11820(H)
•	1600-1615 eastern C BAND                  AMC 3     Transponder 19                      d/l frequency              4080(H) KU                          AMC 2     Transponder 6                        d/l frequency              11820(H)

Additional Online Resources:

•	Microsoft product launch Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/business/launch2007/default.mspx
•	“Ready for a New Day” Business Value Launch Web site: http://www.msnewday.com

Webcast: Steve Ballmer

Microsoft Product Launch Site

 Power Together



Check it out at source

National Internet safety tour provides guidance, tools and resources to help keep communities safe from Internet predators.

Microsoft Corp.’s Get Net Safe tour, a 12-city initiative to help keep Internet users of all ages safe online, will visit Seattle for three days, running from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30. Microsoft and its partners will sponsor 10 educational events in Washington — in Seattle, Redmond, Everett and Tacoma — with specialized content to empower children, teens, parents, business owners and people over 50 to better protect themselves, their families and their PCs while on the Internet. All sessions are free to attendees. For those who cannot attend a particular event, tips and techniques are provided at http://www.staysafe.org.

“High-tech crime cuts across our state demographically and geographically, affecting people of all ages, backgrounds and regions,” said Rob McKenna, Washington state attorney general. “For this reason, the attorney general’s office has identified cyber crime as a top priority. We commend Microsoft and its partners for bringing together the expertise of the private and public sectors to provide the greater Puget Sound community with important tools and resources to stay safe online.”

Continue At Source

Online merchants report highest-ever sales during “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” kickoff to holiday shopping season.

Shoppers rang in the traditional start of the holiday gift-buying season with unprecedented traffic on MSN^® Shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend.

From the day after Thanksgiving, known as “Black Friday” in the retail industry, through “Cyber Monday,” the unofficial kickoff of the online holiday shopping season, MSN Shopping (http://shopping.msn.com) recorded 21 percent more visits compared with the same period in 2005. Site visits on “Cyber Monday” increased 63 percent from 2005 and consist of more than double the number visits to the site on “Black Friday” this year. Increase in traffic is believed to be due to MSN Shopping’s improved selection, handcrafted gift guides, popular Sales and Deals page, and tighter integration with MSN and Live Search

This year, visitors to MSN Shopping can consult an even broader selection of gift guides with recommendations for every person on their list, and save money with MSN Shopping online coupons. The site also offers expert buying advice provided by Consumer Reports and MSN’s own staff of editors to help shoppers find the best values.

“Gifts for Him,” “Gifts for Her,” and “Stocking Stuffers” were the popular MSN Shopping gift guides over the weekend. Jewelry, massagers, picture frames and beer-making equipment were among the most popular items. The most popular video game was “Madden NFL 07,” and the most popular toy was the Marshmallow Fun Company Marshmallow Shooter.

Also, MSN Shopping lets people compare more than 30 million products from over 8,000 stores to get the right gift at the lowest price. Shoppers could compare products from 26 percent more merchants this year than in 2005. The items that garnered the most price comparisons on “Cyber Monday” were the Garmin StreetPilot i3 GPS Receiver, The Marvel Comics Encyclopedia and Cannon PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH. Shoppers’ top five most popular searches were for “Burt’s Bees,” “heart jewelry,” “Swarovski,” “Nintendo Wii,” and “hoodies.”

For online shoppers who begin their shopping with a Web search, MSN Shopping powers answers within Live.com. Shoppers can simply enter a term such as “digital cameras” or “perfume” in the Live Search tool to trigger instant answers that direct them to merchants featured on MSN Shopping.

“Online shoppers are always on the lookout for the perfect product, but they also want to find that item from the widest possible selection,” said Jim Barr, general manager for MSN Shopping at Microsoft. “Offering more than 30 million products from over 8,000 merchants in one place, MSN Shopping gives consumers the best of both worlds with easy access to our hand-picked collections, extensive reviews and comparison features that help them make sense of all of the choices we provide.”

Maria Martinez comes to the Microsoft Worldwide Services organization from her current role as the corporate vice president of the Communications Sector.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Maria Martinez has been named corporate vice president of Worldwide Services, effective Jan. 5, 2007. Martinez will continue in her role as corporate vice president of the Communications Sector at Microsoft through the remainder of the calendar year. Martinez will work with Rick Devenuti, who recently announced his plans to retire from his role as senior vice president of Worldwide Services, as she transitions into her new role.

“Maria brings a strong track record to the services business of driving impressive results for the company,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft. “I have great confidence in her leadership and the team’s ability to continue our success in building our worldwide services business while successfully upholding our commitments to the partner channel.”

Martinez comes to the Microsoft^® Worldwide Services organization from her current role as the corporate vice president of the Communications Sector. Microsoft’s Communications Sector works with service and content providers around the globe, addressing the specific needs of wireline and wireless telecommunications companies, cable operators, hosting service providers, and media and entertainment organizations. 

Before joining Microsoft, Martinez served as CEO of a startup software vendor in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before that, Martinez was a vice president at Motorola Inc.

Martinez has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Ohio State University. Following college, Martinez worked for the prestigious Bell Laboratories for 12 years, developing and patenting disk storage systems and leading development of UNIX systems for symmetric multiprocessing and high availability.

Maria Martinez's Bio

Getting ready to make the move to Exchange 2007? You've come to the right place. This month we'll show you how to prepare for the upgrade, how to write scripts to manage Exchange using the Exchange Management Shell, and how you get the best of anywhere access and unified messaging when you combine Outlook Web Access and Exchange 2007.

In addition, you find all the latest improvements in both Exchange Server 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client, learn how to fight Spam more effectively with the Sender ID Framework, and explore journaling in Exchange 2007 for better control and compliance.

Upgrading Your Infrastructure to Exchange 2007

Whether your organization is large or small, a smooth transition to Exchange Server 2007 will require up-front planning. With the right game plan, you can avoid any service interruptions. Here’s a look at the steps you’ll need to follow when performing the upgrade.

Kate Follis Take Command with the Exchange Management Shell

The Exchange Management Shell gives administrators a powerful interface for managing every aspect of Exchange Server 2007. Get an overview of how you can start writing scripts, integrating applications, and performing other powerful management tasks from the command line.

David Strome Exchange & Outlook: Better Together

Together, Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 represent a giant leap forward in communications and collaboration. Find out how as we dive into simpler configuration, improved search capabilities, Unified Messaging, and more.

Michael Khalili Never Out of Touch with Exchange 2007

Communication has just gotten more powerful than ever. See how the Unified Messaging and Outlook Web Access capabilities built into Exchange Server 2007 allow you to access all your messages in one place…from anywhere.

Joshua Trupin More Powerful Journaling in Exchange 2007

Exchange Server 2007 provides much more flexible journaling capabilities, making it easier to monitor specific user accounts and meet compliance requirements within a large organization.

David Strome Fighting Spam and Phishing with Sender ID

E-mail authentication built on the Sender ID Framework (SIDF) is gaining wide adoption, providing a major advancement in the fight against spam and phishing messages. In fact, more than a third of the world’s e-mail volume is already authenticated and SIDF-compliant. Here’s how it works.

Craig Spiezle and Alexander Nikolayev

Download as HTML TechNetMagazine2006_12.chm (remember to unblock the file)

Today Microsoft launched Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange Server 2007 for Volume license businesses in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The theme was "Ready for the New World of Work".

The show started with a spectacular laser show, followed by an interesting talk from the new General Manger of Microsoft Netherlands, Theo Rinsema. Finaly "we" have a Microsoft boss here that is actually interesting to look and listen to, inspiring and even charismatic. But on the other hand, I was sitting front row [;)]
 


Later prominent Dutch managers/CIO's joined a discussion panel discussing the new way of work.

In the afternoon Kevin Johnson co-president of the Platforms & Services Division, gave a talk on "Platform for People Ready Business"

As an IT Professional (and attending IT Forums, WinHEC and Teched) this launch event was not that interesting, but I'm not complaining, we all got a box containing wine and two glasses [<:o)]

To hear Microsoft tell the story, you'd think its recently released Zune MP3 was doing just fine: Sales of the widely-reviled device were "exactly within our expectations," a Microsoft spokesperson said recently. Reality, however, is a bit more cruel: After appearing in the top 10 on Amazon.com's list of best-selling electronics devices for about a week after its debut, the highest-charting Zune model today can only be found if you scroll quite a ways down the list: The black Zune is currently nestled at number 95. The white and brown models, even more embarrassingly, can be found at numbers 866 and 687, respectively. Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research refers to Amazon's sales list as "a pretty good indicator of consumer interest."

So what went wrong? Just about everything, actually. The Zune provides only a small portion of the functionality a consumer gets with an iPod, and it does so with a device is that delivers less batter life and yet costs exactly the same as a comparable iPod. The Zune is incompatible with every single online service on the planet, even those that utilize Microsoft's PlaysForSure technologies. Zune's marketing is abysmal, while Microsoft appears to be going to great lengths to mimic everything about the iPod it can while offering virtually no real benefits over Apple's dominant solutions

Continue At Source