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November 07 Windows 7 Post M3 Build Preview – Part 3Over the course of the Part 1 and Part 2 posts on Windows 7, I have examined the user interface, search, libraries, Home Groups, and related features. In this post, I will discuss some of the other features of Windows 7. Most of these do not yet have screenshots, so they will just need to be described. Here is a list of features that I will talk about in this post:
Windows PowerShell 2.0 About a year ago Microsoft announced that Windows PowerShell would become a required component in all enterprise products released after July 1, 2008. True to that promise, Windows PowerShell is in Windows 7 and is one of the few components installed by default. Windows PowerShell 2.0 is a major update to the platform providing a GUI interface to speed up script development, natively writes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) GUI components, now has full access to the entire .NET Framework, supports Remoting which allows data to be obtained from other machines, moves configuration from the registry to XML files, and much more. Being installed by default, it allows administrative teams to quickly access information, troubleshoot machines, use PowerShell for logons and more. Sensors and Locations Sensors and Locations are a brand-new feature in Windows 7 and one Microsoft has kept a secret until today. Sensors will be new hardware components built into mobile devices that will allow the mobile device to sense a change in lighting, for example, and then have Windows react. For example, a machine moving from a well-lit room to a dark room would have the display brightness adjusted to provide a better experience for the user. Locations leverages components like wireless cards, networking, Bluetooth, GPS, and other data to obtain positional data of the machine and then expose that data into any application enabling new, rich experiences without the developer needing to write special code to query these devices. BitLocker BitLocker was introduced in Windows Vista and enabled the primary system drive to be encrypted and protected. In Windows 7, BitLocker is being extended to all devices including USB drives allowing all drives to be encrypted. For USB drives, this will be called BitLocker To-Go and will require a password to be entered when accessing the device. For other drives in the machine, the password can be stored in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) like the system drive BitLocker password. DirectAccess DirectAccess is a new technology being introduced in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. DirectAccess solves a couple of problems most IT organizations face. First, how do you deal with Group Policy, password changes, and other network enforcement when a machine is disconnected from the network. Second, how can you provide access to content in an increasingly disconnected world as it relates to the corporate network. DirectAccess allows a remote Windows 7 machine to connect to core infrastructure within the organization without the use of a VPN client. As such, policies can continue to be enforced on the machine as well as providing access to files and applications. There are security concerns in how this is implemented, but it will work much like Outlook Anywhere does. User Account Control User Account Control (UAC) was implemented in Windows Vista as a means to enforce having the user run as a standard user and trying to force application vendors to write software designed for standard users. This is a security concern and something that UNIX-based systems have been doing for many, many years. However, people used to the old style got put-off by UAC – especially as pre-Vista applications were exposed that violated the Standard User approach to application design. Due to outcries on UAC, it will be changing some in Windows 7. Users will now be able to set application-specific settings related to UAC as well as putting UAC into one of four general settings that range from off, full UAC (what Vista has), and two levels in between. This can be controlled through Group Policy at the enterprise level to provide a consistent experience across an organization if desired as well. Dynamic Driver Provisioning and Windows 7 Drivers Dynamic Driver Provisioning is a change in how Windows 7 is installed and how Windows 7 corporate images are applied. No specific details of how the imaging process will change have been shared, but the changes will focus on making image deployments easier as it relates to drivers. In terms of drivers in general, though, Windows 7 will contain a driver database of known, problematic drivers that will be updated through Windows Update. If one of these drivers is installed on the machine, Windows 7 will disable the driver during the boot process to ensure the driver does not cause problems booting the machine or loading Windows 7. The user will also be notified of the driver issue so they can obtain an updated driver from the vendor. Group Policy Group Policy support will continue to evolve in Windows 7 providing more control over more aspects of Windows 7. However, the big change is Windows 7 will now include hooks to allow Group Policy to be applied on applications and components that are not normally Group Policy aware. This level of control will provide enterprise customers with a much needed benefit. CODEC Support Microsoft has been making major efforts to provide better interoperability and thus a better user experience. As such, Windows 7 is going to gain native support for many core CODECs and technologies. This includes the ability to natively write to Blu-Ray discs, play H.264 (MPEG4 Part 10) content, play AAC content, play DivX content, and play XVid content. This support is going to be native making it available to all applications. As such, Windows Media Center will be able to play H.264 content. This native support will provide a much better user experience with media and should open the door for many applications. As a note, though, Microsoft has not yet confirmed if Windows 7 will include native movie playback for Blu-Ray. This requires extra licensing of the Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and there have been legal issues in the past between Sun and Microsoft on this component. Video Memory The Video Memory changes may appear small, but have a huge impact on Windows 7. Windows 7 changes how video memory is accessed and loaded. With Windows Vista, the OS loads video memory very aggressively which causes a Vista machine to need more power and RAM to provide a good experience. With Windows 7, the video memory will not be loaded until it is needed and the OS will be much less aggressive in how the memory is used. As a result, Windows 7 will actually have lower hardware requirements than Windows Vista and has been shown to run fine on a 1 GHz CPU with 1 GB of RAM. From a user perspective, this means Windows 7 will appear much smoother, faster, and all of the animations will appear much more fluid. Touch With Windows 7, touch will be a major input mechanism. Windows 7 will include native multi-touch capabilities built into the OS. This will allow any touch-enabled device to consume the capabilities. Windows 7 will expose the mouse functionality as touch objects for non-touch aware applications. Touch-aware applications will be able to provide a much richer experience. The touch capabilities are multi-touch allowing very rich applications. Think of this as the iPhone on steroids. Autodesk has already demonstrated a CAD application supporting touch capabilities. Wireless Changes In addition to the quick access and connection options shown in the user interface in Part 1, wireless changes will be present under the hood as well. This will include native support of Bluetooth 2.1, support for 802.11k, r, s, and other new standards, and much more. The goal for wireless is to make connecting and used wireless devices and technologies much more seamless. Processor Support Windows 7 is going to take huge leaps forward in parallel computing and will take better advantage of the multi-core CPUs that are out now and coming out over the next several years. The Windows 7 client will now support up to 256 CPU cores allowing much better scaling and support for the chips Intel and AMD are currently working on (8-core and 12-core chips will arrive in 2009; 16-core and 24-core chips are expected in 2010/2011). Math Input Controls As part of the richer UI capabilities, Microsoft is now going to add support for users to write out math equations using the mouse, touch, or pen devices and then Windows 7 will automatically write out the problem in text form that can be used in a document. While a small feature, I know I personally would have used this a few times in college! Windows 7 Post M3 Build Preview – Part 2In Part 1 of the Post M3 Build review, I focused on the desktop experience and what is changing there. I also focused on pre-M3 builds and more theoretical discussions on Windows 7 here if you would like to refer back to that blog entry. For this entry, I will focus on other features outside of the desktop. In looking at Windows Vista, Microsoft found the search capability worked well, but most people didn’t learn the keywords to use when performing a search to make it bring back the right data. So, Windows 7 has a number of changes in searching to make it better for users:
While not shown in the screenshot above, when you click on the search box, it will display some quick hints on the search, much like Internet Explorer 8. In the screenshot above, though, you can see some of the contextual changes in the search data as more content is shown and it provides a richer experience than what Windows Vista provides. Part of using documents is being able to find them. This is an area where Apple and Microsoft have taken very different approaches. Apple has taken the approach of put all music together, put all pictures together, and so forth to make it easier. Microsoft has decided people won’t put their stuff together and their “stuff” may even span machines – especially in a corporate environment with file shares. So, Windows 7 presents a “new” concept called Libraries. I say “new” as this was actually something that was present in early Windows Vista builds, but got changed some before release dumbing it down. A Library is a collection of content that can be on multiple machines. So, a Music Library is all of the music on that machine as well as music on other machines in the library. Here is what this looks like for documents:
In this library, the user doesn’t need to worry about specific folder structures. They have specified what should be included in the “Documents” library and all of that content is being pulled and aggregated together. The searching capabilities can then go against this library making it easier for the user to find the specific content they are looking for. The Stacks feature of Windows Vista has also been improved so a Stack can be applied against a Library. So, here is an example of a Stack being applied against a Picture Library:
In the screenshot above, you can see there are two locations being used for the library and then the stack is being applied against the metadata of the pictures. Libraries is all about making it easier for the user to find and work with their content and data. While this concept has generally worked fine in the enterprise with a common authentication system, this has not worked at home. Most home users really have struggled to get a home network working and sharing documents, photos, music, printers, and so forth. Unless they had someone in the family that knew computers well, they just stuck to having some issues. Windows 7 introduces the concept of a Home Group. A Home Group is somewhat akin to a domain within the home. Home Groups are secured by a password and each machine can specify what resources will be exposed.
Once a machine connects into the Home Group, all of the resources on the network are then exposed and available. In the screenshot above, the Pictures, Music, Videos, and Printers from this computer are being shared, but the Documents are not. More granular controls are available to prevent access to specific documents if desired. As soon as the computer joins the Home Group, all of the Home Group resources appear on the computer. So, libraries are updated with the music, pictures, video, and documents. Also, any printers in the Home Group are automatically added to the machine without the user worrying about drivers or manually adding the printer. From a user perspective, it means something like a Music Library is the one-stop place to access any music – even if it is on another machine. In Windows 7, Windows Media Player 12 and Windows Media Center will share this same library so no additional discovery is needed in most cases. When dealing with media and content, a major focus in Windows 7 is making it easier to get this content on mobile devices and other devices in the home. Microsoft has added a new feature in Windows 7 called Device Stage. Device Stage is a one-stop location to get information on any connected devices, synchronize content, access data, and so forth. Ultimately devices will need to be Device Stage certified to provide full functionality, but the foundational pieces for this are already in Windows Vista. Here is the Device Stage for a sample mobile phone:
In the screenshot above, you can see data on new photos and other content on the device that can be synchronized back to the PC. The user can also change synchronization options, device settings, and more from this view. Device vendors can also integrate into this view to provide links to manuals, support information, and more. The idea with Device Stage is to better help devices integrate together and to more easily share data. This allows devices like DVRs, photo frames, Media Center Extenders, and so forth to all connect and more easily share and consume data. Microsoft has made sure Windows 7 will be DLNA 1.5 (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified allowing other devices to more easily consume and use the services. For example, Windows Media Player 12 will allow a user at the PC to control the music playing on a device in the home. This could be a Sonos music player and in one-click, the PC can modify what is being played on the Sonos:
Windows 7 is about taking the experiences in Windows Vista and providing improvements to make it easier for the consumer and to enhance the user experience. In Part 3, I will continue to dig into the features and changes in Windows 7. Windows 7 Post M3 Build Preview – Part 1Microsoft has finally started showing off Windows 7 and the new interface and features. This blog post will capture some of the major announcements and screenshots of the current build (post M3). All of this functionality will be present in Beta 1 when it ships in late December or early January. The Desktop The desktop is getting a few key changes – namely in the taskbar, notifications area, and Start Menu. Here is what a Windows 7 desktop will all applications minimized looks like:
Note how the taskbar has changed – the old Quick Launch and taskbar components have largely been merged together. In this screenshot, there are three open applications – Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer 8, and Windows Media Player 12. So, to see what is open, you just mouse over. So, if we mouse over Internet Explorer, this is what we will see:
A thumbnail will appear showing the open windows including each of the open tabs in Internet Explorer. In the above screenshot, you can also see Quick Launch applications not open – Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger. Note the square images around the icon denoting the number of open windows. So, with this taskbar and open applications, this is what a Windows 7 desktop looks like:
With the new desktop experience, Microsoft has decided to get rid of the fixed Sidebar for gadgets. Instead, Gadgets can now freely float around the desktop and be placed where the user wants them. Here is what this looks like:
With the free placement of gadgets and the changes in the taskbar, users need a way to quickly look at the desktop. Notice the “Show Desktop” quick launch icon is gone now. This has been moved to the far right-hand side of the screen. Notice the thin button-like element by the clock. Click on this will provide a peak at the desktop, but will still show the outline of the open applications:
This view provides a quick and easy way to look and the desktop. The taskbar also contains other changes in the Notification Area. In previous versions of Windows, if a wireless network was detected, a balloon appeared for the user to click on which jumped to another view before you could connect. So, Microsoft has moved all of this to the Notification Area. Here is what you see when a wireless network is present:
In addition, Microsoft has focused on making the Notification Area a better user experience. They found too many applications tried to place icons in this area and send messages to the user. This got distracting for many users, so changes have been made allowing users to more easily control what appears as well as the notifications that could be displayed:
The Start Menu has also seen a few tweaks. These include spill-out menus on applications like Windows Explorer making it easier to open files as well as Office applications.
Between the changes in the Start Menu, the taskbar, the notification area, and Sidebar, Microsoft is trying to make the overall desktop a better user experience. In subsequent parts, I will continue to show more of these new features. September 22 Certification Overview: 70-624 – TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System DesktopsBefore I take certification exams, I always like to read and hear what others thought of the exam - was it harder than normal or easier than normal? Any insights into the exam? I have seen a couple of people share some thoughts on exams, but thought it might help some of those I work with and others to know a little more about the exams without sharing information that would go against the NDR. Sorry - no brain dumps here - just some insight. Exam Name: 70-624 - TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops Title Obtained: MCTS: Business Desktop Deployment, Configuring Difficulty: Medium Number of Questions: 53 Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-624.aspx My Thoughts: Exam 70-624 is one of those exams that covers a lot of technologies and tools and requires some diligence in preparation. However, I found the exam to be about average in terms of difficultly. Before taking this exam, you really need to know and understand the User State Migration Tool (USMT), Application Compatibility Tool (ACT), the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack for Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS OSD), the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD) tool, as well as core changes in Windows Vista and Office 2007 when looking at deployments – namely drivers, WIM files, updates, package management, and so forth. If you do not know all of these tools, you will not pass this exam. An interesting challenge with this exam is the tools have all been updated since the exam was released with slightly different features and options – some of which may not align with questions on the test. For example, the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 (MDT) has replaced the BDD 2007 toolkit. While most of the core functionality is the same, some has changed that could cause you to get hung up on a couple of questions. So, if you are more familiar with MDT than BDD, spend some time to figure out what has changed. While a vast majority of the exams questions are straightforward, there are questions that will probe some very specific areas. For example, you really need to understand how to deal with language options. This means adding multiple languages to Office both during the initial install as well as when Office 2007 has already been deployed. Likewise, you will need to understand the WIM file format and how images are stored in the WIM files. As Vista was released after the SMS OSD components, you need to know how to deal with WIM files and Vista components and any impacts this might have on SMS. Finally, be sure to understand the BDD tool in general and deployment options and configurations. This includes everything from custom images shown to users, deployment options, drivers and driver management, patches and updates, and controlling how and when applications are installed during the deployment. The exam is a little skewed towards Zero Touch Installations (ZTI) over Lite Touch Installations (LTI). So, be sure to really know how to make the ZTI components work and how to bring together ACT, USMT, BDD, and SMS OSD to allow the ZTI deployment to work. August 11 Certification Overview: 70-654 - TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring (BETA)Before I take certification exams, I always like to read and hear what others thought of the exam - was it harder than normal or easier than normal? Any insights into the exam? I have seen a couple of people share some thoughts on exams, but thought it might help some of those I work with and others to know a little more about the exams without sharing information that would go against the NDR. Sorry - no brain dumps here - just some insight. Exam Name: 70-654 - TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Title Obtained: MCTS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring Difficulty: Easy - Medium Number of Questions: 71 (this is the beta version) Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-654.aspx My Thoughts: Exam 70-654 is the only exam required to earn the "MCTS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring" certification title. The exam (at least in beta form) had a heavy emphasis on dealing with common business needs across the numerous components of Essential Business Server (EBS). While the exam requires knowledge of the EBS Administration Console, it seems many of the questions dig a little deeper into what would be common tools in those consoles, but potentially less familiar to someone that only works with the EBS console. This means, before taking the exam, you should be familiar with some of the more common and basic tasks in the following consoles and tools:
As EBS does not build out a Unified Messaging server component or an Office Communications Server 2007 component, those items are not covered. I personally think Microsoft could have made EBS that much more compelling by getting OCS integrated into the suite. In addition to covering common management tasks, you need to really understanding how EBS licensing works and what the right combination is and impacts of your choices. The other major focus area on the exam deals with migration tasks - mostly from Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server, but there are other migration questions for the non-SBS environments. This exam should be available in its final form around mid-October to align with the public release of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 on November 12th. August 08 Certification Overview: 70-238 - PRO: Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007Before I take certification exams, I always like to read and hear what others thought of the exam - was it harder than normal or easier than normal? Any insights into the exam? I have seen a couple of people share some thoughts on exams, but thought it might help some of those I work with and others to know a little more about the exams without sharing information that would go against the NDR. Sorry - no brain dumps here - just some insight. Exam Name: 70-238 - PRO: Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Title Obtained: MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Difficulty: Medium Number of Questions: 48 Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-238.mspx My Thoughts: Exam 70-238 is one of three exams required to earn the MCITP: Enterprise Messaging title. The other exams required are 70-236 and 70-237. While 70-236 is focused on administration and 70-237 is focusing on designing solutions, 70-238 is focused on deploying those solutions and dealing with some of the issues traditionally seen in deployments. Due to deployment recommendations from Microsoft and typical situations, this exam requires a lot of knowledge in many areas. Before taking the exam, you should understand the official Microsoft best practices related to security and monitoring. I found almost 10% of the questions to explore areas like Operations Manager used for management, dealing with issues related to Internet Security & Acceleration Server, PKI, 802.1x EAP-based wireless systems, VPN tunnels and connection points, and so forth. In terms of actual Exchange questions, this exam covers a few areas quite heavily. For example, high availability is a major topic including how to deal with recovery. You must understanding streaming vs. VSS-based backups, dealing with log truncation, failing over a LCR or CCR database replication, dealing with client connectivity, differences in Outlook 2002/2003 vs Outlook 2007 for configuration, and how to deal with those issues in a failure. The exam also touches a lot on integration issues with Exchange 2000/2003, Lotus Notes, and internal applications and email systems. You will need to understand how to build new environment, integrate into existing environments, and deal with mixtures of environments. As the exam deals with deployment issues, there are a fair number of questions related to the ETS configuration and how to handle everything from EdgeSync, connectors, transport rules, and message hygiene. While studying for this exam, I made sure to spend extra time on the high availability items and found this was very important. There are so many potential "gotchas" that the exam team spends a lot more time in these areas. Be sure to really know the different backup options and the impacts. Overall, the exam does a good job covering the common issues in deployments and how to deal with things related to availability, best practices, and integrating the Exchange system with other platforms. Certification Overview: 70-236 - TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, ConfiguringBefore I take certification exams, I always like to read and hear what others thought of the exam - was it harder than normal or easier than normal? Any insights into the exam? I have seen a couple of people share some thoughts on exams, but thought it might help some of those I work with and others to know a little more about the exams without sharing information that would go against the NDR. Sorry - no brain dumps here - just some insight. Exam Name: 70-236 - TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuring Title Obtained: MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuring Difficulty: Hard Number of Questions: 53 Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-236.mspx My Thoughts: Of the three Exchange tests required to obtain the MCITP: Enterprise Messaging, I think 70-236 is the hardest of the group. The reason this exam is so much harder is the sheer amount of Windows PowerShell commands that you must know including various parameters. It seemed like 5 - 10% of the questions had answers that came down to knowing specific parameters to complete the desired action. The exam really focuses on a handful of key areas including recipient management, public folder management, Active Directory routing, Edge Transport configurations, mailbox recovery and storage group recovery, server recovery, resolving issues with databases and full-text indexes, and dealing with compliance and transport areas. Also, there are questions related to getting reports and testing various scenarios. However, there were no questions related to the Unified Messaging components. I found focusing on the SET related commands while studying to be most beneficial as those commands expose basically all of the settings and parameters. Then, I focused on how to apply those commands against the normal GET, NEW, REMOVE, etc. commands. An important part of studying for this exam is thinking through common scenarios. For example, how do you deal with issues related to the queue like finding a message. Or, how can you remove a harmful or inappropriate email from mailboxes after the message is delivered. Or, how can you modify policies against a set of mailboxes on a server. These common type of issues seen in a normal environment are the most common types of questions on the exam. However, you will still need to know how to deal with some uncommon types of issues and things that can impact Exchange mail routing and delivery. I found some of these questions to be more geared towards the Deployment certification exam than this as they would touch on minor changes that might happen in the business, but not a normal administration type of task. Finally, you will need to know how to get Exchange set-up (from the command line) and requirements when dealing with Exchange 2000/2003 as well as Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 environments. As the exam was developed before SP1 was released, there were no questions about Windows Server 2008, SCR, and some of the SP1 changes. Though, I expect the exam will be updated at some point without warning to add these items. So, be sure to know those PowerShell commands and parameters before trying this exam - you will really need to know them. Easily 95 - 98% of the exam is in PowerShell... Certification Overview: 70-555 - TS: Microsoft Office Groove 2007, ConfiguringBefore I take certification exams, I always like to read and hear what others thought of the exam - was it harder than normal or easier than normal? Any insights into the exam? I have seen a couple of people share some thoughts on exams, but thought it might help some of those I work with and others to know a little more about the exams without sharing information that would go against the NDR. Sorry - no brain dumps here - just some insight. Exam Name: 70-555 - TS: Microsoft Office Groove 2007, Configuring Title Obtained: MCTS: Microsoft Office Groove 2007, Configuring Difficulty: Medium Number of Questions: 55 Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-555.mspx My Thoughts: Exam 70-555 is the only exam required to earn the MCTS: Office Groove 2007, Configuring certification title. The exam focuses on four key areas - Groove client configuration and issues, Groove Management Server configuration and issues, Groove Relay Server configuration and issues, and Groove Data Bridge Server configuration and issues. As it related to the Groove client, you will need to know a decent amount about the client ranging from how to configure the client, ports that are used, the order ports are used, how the client obtains updates, and what happens if the client doesn't connect for an extended period of time. Further, you will need to know and understand the different workspaces, what the requirements are to support those workspaces for any custom tools you might create, how to handle network traffic issues, and impacts of things the user might do like a password change or deleting a workspace. Due to how the client connects and works with Groove, client questions get integrated with server questions throughout the exam. For the Groove Server Manager portion of the exam, you will again need to know and understand how the server is installed, key technologies needed to support the server, how administration is performed on the server, and how the server works with other servers and clients including ports used, the order of connection, and which components talk to other components. One area that is very important in the exam is understanding how Groove implements policies for users and devices and the client implications of those policies. Be sure to know these policies in and out and what gets implemented and where. For the Groove Relay Server portion of the exam, you must know and understand the requirements of setting up the server including what causes issues including things like IIS, port mappings, and so forth. You must also understand how a Relay Server is integrated into the Management Server and the set-up requirements to make these systems talk. The relay portion of the exam will really require an understanding of the issues related to configurations and port access as well as dealing with how client machines use the Relay. The Groove Data Bridge is probably the lightest portion of the exam as it is simply not as critical as the other pieces and my guess is far less companies implement this piece compared to the other pieces. Like always, you should know how the server is installed, configured, and integrated into the other components. Of course, you must also know how the Data Bridge is used in workspaces and the implications. Overall, I think the test is a medium in difficultly. This is due to the large amounts of things that must be known, but also how the test really seems to dig at troublesome areas in implementations. It was almost like Microsoft Product Support gave a lot of feedback. Understanding core configuration, rules, connections, and data routing on the server side will really help. Then, add the client implications into those pieces and you should be fairly well prepared. June 13 Looking Into the Microsoft Release Crystal BallA joke among my peers and friends seems to involve me and the "knowledge" I have of Microsoft products and timelines. I say "knowledge" because it isn't too hard these days to find information with the number of people blogging. The common question, though, seems to be around when a product is coming out. So, here is what I know and think. I am attaching "final" names as well as Microsoft generally follows a standard when naming products based on the release timeline. So, here we go - looking into the crystal ball of Microsoft! In a couple of weeks Microsoft will start its new fiscal year and enter the second half wave of products. The thing to note about how Microsoft names products is that the naming is often tied to Microsoft's fiscal year. So, products will pick up the 2009 moniker starting July 1st running through June 30, 2009. After that, the names will switch to 2010. Now, this isn't always the case. For example, Microsoft named SQL Server "Yukon" to SQL Server 2004 for a short time, then jumped to SQL Server 2005. However, the product came out in the 2006 fiscal year. But, due to investments in the name, it stuck. So, here is what I know/think will come out in the 2H 2008 calendar year.
Now, here is what I know/think is on tap for 2009. Timing is a little fuzzy on some of these, so I am not going to group them by time period. Also, it should be noted that products like Office 2010 and Windows "7" will likely hit the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) level by the very end of the year, but the general public release will happen in early 2010 much like Office 2007 and Windows Vista.
So, that is what I expect we will see between now and the end of next year. I assume more products will be announced, some will be delayed, some will get different names than I suggested, but more or less I think this is the general list of what is coming. June 12 Standards Only Matter when Microsoft Doesn't Follow Them?Yesterday at Tech Ed I attended a session on PBX integration with Office Communications Server 2007. While the content wasn't quite as deep as I hoped for, I picked up a very interesting tidbit of knowledge. When Microsoft started working on Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS), they focused on making sure they followed the core telephony and SIP standards to ensure proper communication and routing of VoIP content. One of the standards that needed to be followed was RFC 3966 - the manner in which a telephone number is passed through a SIP message using the TEL URI handler. So, the OCS team made sure to closely follow RFC 3966 and implemented the full TEL URI components and E.164 normalization of phone numbers. According to members of the team in my session, Microsoft is one of the few vendors that actually follows this specification fully. Other vendors do not appear to fully follow the standard or don't even support it at all. For example, Cisco's platform does not properly handle the TEL URI using E.164 normalization like the standard requires. As such, many phone integration pieces have not worked with OCS at this point due to vendor problems in the PBX software. Even worse, though, is many of these vendors are not planning on fixing the issue in their current software. Instead, the fix will be rolled into the new major revision. For example, Cisco isn't going to fix this issue fully until version 7 of their platform comes out. Other vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, ShoreTel, and more also do not follow the standards. So, to help solve this issue, a QFE is going to be issues by Microsoft around the October timeframe that will BREAK OCS from following standards. This is silly - if Microsoft doesn't follow standards everyone throws a fit. However, in this case, no one seems to be following the standards except maybe Nortel. It makes me wonder - do standards only matter when Microsoft doesn't follow them? |
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