Windows Home Server
Get 15% off Office & Windows Server
Quick heads-up on our latest customer offer: get 15% off selected Microsoft Office & Windows Server products - offer ending December 31st, 2008.
Following on from our "Economy" campaign, this is a great way to help customers save money as they start to tighten their belts.
Details here: https://partner.microsoft.com/australia/40086487
Source- MSDN Blog
Now Available!!!! Windows Server 2008 Evaluation Virtual Hard Drive Images (for Hyper-V)
Are you working with Hyper-V?? Want to save some time creating virtual machines? Then take a look at the Virtual Machine download site, there are two virtual machines available: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Server CORE installation and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Server FULL installation.
These VHD’s are only available in English only and is only for evaluation and testing purposes. Evaluating Windows Server2008 software does not require product activation or entering a product key. Any edition of Windows Server 2008 may be installed without activation and evaluated for an initial 60 days.
Need an Evaluation Period Longer Than 60 Days ?
If you need more time to evaluate Windows Server 2008, the 60 day evaluation period may be reset (or re-armed) three times, extending the original 60 day evaluation period by up to 180 days for a total possible evaluation time of 240 days. After this time, you will need to uninstall the software or upgrade to a fully-licensed version of Windows Server 2008. To extend the initial evaluation and testing period, please go here and follow the instructions.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Neither virtual machine has anti-virus installed, so it is highly recommended you install anti-virus softeware BEFORE you connect the machines to any network. THe virtual machines are patched with all updates as of May 8, 2008, so make sure you also get the latest updates installed after .
Source- Technet Blog
Windows Home Server System Builder Software Price Decrease
On November 1, Microsoft will introduce a 30% price reduction of the Windows Home Server software for the System Builder channel. After a successful year in the market, Microsoft is reducing the price of the System Builder version of Windows Home Server to provide additional value to the system builder community and further promote the home server category. Momentum for Windows Home Server remains strong. During the first year, Windows Home Server has been embraced by System Builders in over 50 countries. The list of hardware partners continues to grow and third-party software developers have released or have announced more than 60 Add-in programs extending Windows Home Server’s capabilities. Thanks for all of the great support over the last year, and we look forward to working with you all in continuing to grow the home server marketplace!
Source-Windows Home Server blog
Announcing Windows Server 2008 R2!
Windows Server 2008 R2 showed its pretty face at the Professional Developers Conference today, here in Los Angeles. Hi there, my name’s Oliver Rist and I’m a new technical product manager on the Windows Server team. I’m down here in La-La Land heaving great sighs of satisfaction as we unveil the first sneak peeks of pre-beta Windows Server 2008 R2. Though this release is right in line with our announced roadmap strategy for future Server releases, there are several items of note with R2:
First and foremost, 32-bit is done. History. Archives. Windows Server 2008 R2 is the first Windows OS platform to go 64-bit only, and frankly it was high time. Customers have been unable to purchase a 32-bit server CPU for over two years now, and the advancements in CPU architectures really dictated that we squeeze as much performance out of customers’ hardware purchases as possible. The move to 64-bit is a first step.
You’ll also find that we’ve aligned R2 development around four core technology pillars:
First, there’s virtualization. R2 represents our most pervasive move into virtualization yet, including R2’s undisputed marquee feature, Live Migration. Think physical host migrations of running VMs happening in milliseconds—no service or user connection interruptions. With Live Migration, data centers can truly go virtual and largely divorce management considerations between software and hardware, and all managed from inside a single OS frame.
R2’s virtualization also extends to a new Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 (think mucho better management, beefier resources for VMs and more). And potentially more exciting, Terminal Services is updating its remote applications feature to include a true Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Think desktops and applications wrapped in virtualized packages, managed centrally and deployed to Windows 7 desktop with such tight integration most users will be unable to tell the difference between centrally hosted apps and those installed locally. (And don’t worry, a Web Access feature will let Windows XP and Windows Vista users in on the fun, too.)
Source- Technet Blog
Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview Feature Overview
This week at PDC 2008 in LA and next week at WinHEC 2008 Microsoft will announce details about the next release of Windows codename Windows Seven. In this article I will inform you about what is coming to Windows Seven Server, which will be released as Windows Server 2008 R2, this is the same release schedule as first used with Window Server 2003 (Major release, Minor Release). For this reason I still find it strange that Microsoft used "Seven" as a codename (for client even releasename). For both client and server this is a minor release or point release, the kernel version is 6.x and not 7.0. Ah well, marketing is not my thing I guess.
As stated by Bink.nu few years back already, this Windows release will be a 64 bit only version, a logical decision, since all server hardware for a few years now is 64 capable. (Maybe Windows Seven Client Starter Edition will still be 32 bit)
With the release of Windows Seven it is the second time that Microsoft will release both client and server at the same time, just like it happened when Windows 2000 was launched in January 2000.
Source- Bink.nu
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 beta
Building off the great work done on Windows Server 2008, I’m happy to share that next week, a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers will be getting their hands on Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Beta. As we have done in the past, we routinely start testing a service pack release for Windows Server with a small group of testers first before making the beta more broadly available to the public. Windows Server 2008 helped make major strides in the areas of Web, Virtualization, and Security. SP2 builds upon this by enhancing the operating system for IT Professionals.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 addresses feedback from our customers. It contains all previously released fixes integrated into a single service pack covering both server (Windows Server 2008) and client (Windows Vista) versions. We adopted a single serviceability model for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista when we launched Windows Server 2008. Because of this, Microsoft can provide customers with a single, high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity.
In addition to the above, Windows Server 2008 SP2 contains two changes that will ease deployment and help reduce cost.
- Hyper-V RTM is included
- Additional changes to the power profile have yielded a 10% improvement over the power profile of Windows Server 2008 RTM
These two changes will help customers save money and ease deployment of Hyper-V for IT Professionals.
I’m very excited about SP2 and will share more information in the coming months.
Source- Windows Server Blog
Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server SP2 is coming….
Information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2
Article ID:948465
Last Review:October 2, 2008
Revision:2.1
Beta Information
This article discusses a beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice.
No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product. For information about how to obtain support for a beta release, see the documentation that is included with the beta product files, or check the Web location where you downloaded the release.
INTRODUCTION
This Microsoft Knowledge Base article will be updated with more information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) when the information becomes available. Currently, the product release notes and related information about Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2 are not available.
Microsoft help and support center-http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;948465
Download Windows HPC Server 2008 for Free
Microsoft® Windows® HPC Server 2008 (HPCS), the next generation of high performance computing (HPC), provides enterprise-class tools, performance, and scalability for a highly productive HPC environment. HPCS provides a complete and integrated cluster environment including the operating system, a Job Scheduler, Message Passing Interface v2 (MPI2) support, and cluster management and monitoring components. Built on Windows Server® 2008 64-bit technology, HPCS can efficiently scale to thousands of processing cores and includes a management console that helps proactively monitor and maintain system health and stability. Job scheduling interoperability and flexibility enables integration between Windows and Linux-based HPC platforms, and supports batch and service-oriented architecture (SOA) workloads. Enhanced productivity, scalable performance, and ease of use are some of the features that make Windows HPC Server 2008 best-of-breed for Windows environments.
Windows HPC Server 2008 can help shorten user time-to-insight for HPC workloads through easier deployment and management. By using the existing Windows-based information technology (IT) infrastructure, HPCS simplifies management, security, and storage for the cluster, and provides seamless access from the desktop.
HPCS includes improved provisioning based on the Windows Server 2008 Windows Deployment Services technology, a faster Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MS-MPI) that includes new NetworkDirect support, an advanced Job Scheduler, and a new management interface built on the Microsoft® System Center 2007 user interface (UI), which has support for Windows PowerShell™ as a preferred scripting interface.
Windows HPC Server 2008 integrates with other Microsoft products to help increase HPC productivity and improve the overall end-user experience. This includes collaboration through Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and the Windows Workflow Foundation, as well as improved management and efficiency by integrating with System Center 2007. Through integration with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows HPC Server 2008 allows developers working with SOA applications to harness the power of parallel computing offered by HPC solutions.
