Report Builder 2.0 - RC1 Release

Report Builder 2.0 RC1 is now available on Microsoft Download Center.  Use this link for download.  RC1 delivers improvements in the following areas compared to RC0:

• Easy to use wizards for creating table, matrix and chart data regions.
• Support for directly opening and editing reports stored on the report server.
• Support for using server resources such as shared data sources.
• A query designer for Microsoft SQL Server data sources.
• Enhancements to the Report Builder 2.0 ribbon.

Please direct your feedback to the main Reporting Services MSDN forum, or to http://connect.microsoft.com/.

Source- MSDN Blog

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Hosted CRM 4.0 Trial Site – Now Available

Shorten the sales cycle for you and your partners with the NEW 4.0 version of the Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM Trial Site*!

Previously in pilot, the Hosted CRM Trial Site is now widely available; powering FREE 60-day TRIALS for anyone who wants to evaluate the product prior to a purchase.

What’s DIFFERENT about the Hosted CRM Trial Site?

• The URL has changed! Whether you’re already using it or referring the site to someone, direct them to http://www.hostedmicrosoftcrmtrial.com. (The former URL for the site, http://www.solutiondemo.net/demodynamics, will be maintained for several months until it is officially retired in Q2.)

• The updated trial site leverages the multi-tenancy capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Source- MSDN Blog

System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP) 4.0

SCUP is a stand-alone tool that enables independent software vendors or line-of-business application developers to import software update catalogs, create and modify software update definitions, export update definitions to catalogs, and publish software updates information to a configured update server. By using updates Publisher to define software updates and publish them to the update server, administrators can begin detecting and deploying published updates to client and server computers in their organization.
Feature Summary:
Update Publisher enables administrators to do the following:

• Import catalogs created by non-Microsoft organizations or created from within the administrator’s organization
• Create applicability and deployment metadata for software updates.
• Export software update catalogs so that they can be imported by Updates Publisher at another location, or export a test catalog to verify that the rules for the updates work as expected.
• Manage software updates information

New in version 4.0

• Ability to import and publish the following update types: bundle, driver, detectoid and updates with pre-requisites.
• New “Software Update Details” view with “Dependencies” tab that displays update dependencies (prerequisites for a single update or children of an update bundle).
• Note: none of the above update types can be duplicated or edited in the SCUP console (only export ,import, flag for publish, expire, delete and publish is available)

Download here

Download Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009 trial edition

Every trip is a good one with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009! With tools and features to help you create custom routes, set driving preferences, plan breaks, and calculate travel costs, this trip planning software makes travel easier, whether you’re going around town or anywhere across the U.S. and Canada. As the #1 best-selling travel and map software, it gets you where you’re going quickly, easily, and without all the guesswork.

Download here

SBS 2008: Released to Manufacturing!

On behalf of the SBS team, I am extremely pleased to announce that Windows Small Business Server 2008 software has been finalized! Today both SBS Standard and Premium are being released to manufacturing, which means we begin the process of finalizing international versions, creating media, building packaging, delivering the product to distribution channels and handing it off to our OEM partners, so it will be widely available by our November 12 launch. (More information about launch will come in the future.)

As you can imagine, this is an exciting day for me and the rest of the team. Development of SBS 2008 has been a big effort here at Microsoft and the software has undergone extensive testing within Microsoft, by our partners, private tech beta participants and our Technology Adoption Program members. We are proud to say we have truly heard and incorporated input from our partners and customers throughout product planning and development. As a result, we feel very confident that this new release builds on the success of SBS 2003 R2 and makes the power of enterprise IT accessible and affordable for small business, helping them increase productivity and grow. And, just as important, SBS 2008 provides solution providers with a great platform to meet the needs of their small business clients.

Source- Technet Blog

Windows sysinternals: New Tool: Desktops v1.0; Updates: Autoruns v9.33

Desktops v1.0: This new utility enables you to create up to four virtual desktops and to use a tray interface or hotkeys to preview what’s on each desktop and easily switch between them.

Autoruns v9.33: This Autoruns update adds command-line options for automatically scanning and exporting scan results, as well as a number of bug fixes.

Source- Sysinternals blog

New Product Families - Windows 7

Yesterday a new product category for Windows 7 Client was published to Windows Update and was made available to WSUS (another one for Windows 7 Server should be appearing soon as well). As with all of our other new product categories, this is for Microsoft teams who are publishing Windows 7 beta drivers/updates in the near future. In the future, we’ll try to let you know about new categories ahead of time.

Source- Technet Blog

The Ultimate Steal: A Deal on the 2007 Microsoft Office System for Students

As part of Microsoft Corp.’s commitment to education, the company is re-introducing The Ultimate Steal program this school year, inviting students who are actively enrolled at educational institutions to purchase Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 at a low student price of $59.95 (U.S.). This program begins in the United States today with additional countries to be launched throughout the year. The offer will be available to students throughout the academic school year.

Office Ultimate 2007 provides students with a comprehensive set of tools that can help them create high-quality documents, gather and consolidate lecture notes and other information, stay organized, find what they are looking for quickly, and easily collaborate with colleagues and professors across geographies. Office Ultimate 2007 includes the entire Microsoft Office toolset that students are accustomed to working with and more, including Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office Access 2007, Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, Office OneNote 2007, Office Groove 2007 and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.

Additional Products Offered this School Year

This year, The Ultimate Steal program features additional products, including the following:

•Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade.1 The most comprehensive edition of Windows Vista, combining the power, security and mobility features that you need for work with all the entertainment features that you want for fun.

•Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007.1 Visio Professional makes it easy for students to visualize, explore and communicate complex information. Students can go from complicated text and tables that are hard to understand to Visio-based diagrams that communicate information at a glance.

•Microsoft Office Language Packs.1 Office Language Packs help multilingual students who routinely create or edit documents in different languages by providing the flexibility of switching the entire user experience — including menus, help and proofing tools such as spell checker, dictionary and thesaurus — to any of 37 different languages.

The additional products will be available in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2008. Those wanting to see what upgrades are available in which countries should visit http://www.TheUltimateSteal.com.

Source- Microsoft Press Release