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Microsoft has release the beta versions of Office & Sharepoint 2010. Both are available on MSDN & Technet Plus right now. MS Office 2010 will become available in a x86 and x64 version. Sharepoint 2010 will be a x64 version only.

Microsoft is planning to release the  MS Office 2010 products in the first half of next year (2010).

More information about the Office 2010 products on http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

Today at the Tech-Ed Europe 2009 conference, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop announched that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is now available. Microsoft Exchange 2010 comes with a new simplified cluster technology (DAG) which will replace LCR, CCR, SCR and SCC. It wil be possible to integrate your Exchange Server 2010 installation with Microsoft Exchange hosting services. Unified Messaging is now able to give a text preview of your voicemail messages. OCS 2007 presence info will be available in Oulook Web Access. These are just some of the many new features!

Exchange 2010 RTM is now available on Technet Plus and MSDN. Download a copy and try out all those great new features!

For more information about Exchange Server 2010 look at www.msexchangeteam.com

Installing two operating systems on one system is not new, it has been possible for years. So why this blog post? With the introduction of Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 it’s possible to boot from VHD. The VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) file format is know from virtualization products like Virtual PC, Virtual Server and Hyper-V. The file format a container with can contain a operating system but can also contains documents and applications. Within Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 a VHD container can be attached like a normal physical disk. In this post I will guide you through the steps to make Windows 2008 R2 boot from VHD. The OS will boot entirely from a VHD and is running on physical hardware instead of running virtual. This guide assumes you are already running Windows 7 which is installed on a physical HDD.

Step 1.

Insert and boot your system from the Windows 2008 R2 DVD.

Choose the right regional settings and press next.

Step 2.

On the installation screen don’t choose “Install Now” but press SHIFT+F10. A command console will open.

 Step 3.

Enter diskpart to start the partitioning utility.

Step 4.

Create a new VHD file by entering.

create vdisk file=”D:\pathToVhd.vhd” type=expandable maximum=maxsizeInMegabyte

Step 5.

Now select the new VHD and attach it as a physical disk.

select vdisk file=”D:\pathToVhd.vhd”
attach vdisk

Step 6.

Close the command console and continue the installation as normal. You will notice a extra destination volume you can choose from. Select the VHD volume and finish the installation.

Step 7.

After the installation you can choose which OS you want to boot from. Too change the default OS in the bootmanager use BCDEDIT.

Open a command console and start bcdedit /v

There will be a list of all the different Windows Boot Loaders. Each of the Boot Loader has a unique ID. Only one of the Boot Loaders has been set as default, see first red box which indicates that Windows 7 is the default loader right now. To set Windows 2008 R2 as default loader type bcdedit /default {indentifier}

Microsoft Press just release another free e-book. This time it’s all about Windows 2008 R2.

The book contains the following chapters:

• Introduction xvii
• Chapter 1 What’s New in Windows Server R2
• Chapter 2 Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World
• Chapter 3 Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines
• Chapter 4 Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management
• Chapter 5 Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access
• Chapter 6 The File Services Role
• Chapter 7 IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform
• Chapter 8 DirectAccess and Network Policy Server
• Chapter 9 Other Features and Enhancements

Download the e-book here (XPS file, 28 MB) and here (PDF file, 11 MB).

The guys from the MS Exchange Team announced a new release of the remote connectivity analyzer. This webbased tool can help you troubleshooting connectivity problems like Active Sync and RPC / HTTP (Outlook Anywhere).

New/Updated Features:

• Updated user interface
• New CAPTCHA implementation. (This is the hard to read words that make you prove you are a human)
• No more ‘Beta’ label
• Additional tests
• Exchange Web Services – This allows you to perform connectivity testing for Exchange Web Services client such as Entourage. Developers can also use the Service Account Verification test to ensure things are configured and working properly for access with an alternate account or ExchangeImpersonation.
• Outbound SMTP – Performs Reverse DNS testing, DNS RBL Checks, and SenderID validation against a provided “outbound” IP address
• Updated the Outlook Anywhere test logic to work with Exchange 2010
• Added a link in the footer to the Remote Connectivity Analyzer TechNet forum
• Added a password confirmation text box to ensure the proper password was entered before running a test. This will reduce the number of tests that fail simply due to a typo in the password.

Go to the MS Exchange Team blog for more information. www.msexchangeteam.com

Link to tool: https://www.TestExchangeConnectivity.com

On october 15th Microsoft released a security update KB974571 ((MS09-056). After applying this update it will cause the LCS or OCS servers to show running with the evaluation version and then noting it as expired. Microsoft is investigating the cause of the problem. The MS09-56: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing article has been updated with a Known Issues section for the LCS and OCS product.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: OCS Server
Event Category: (1000)
Event ID: 12290
Date: 10/15/2009
Time: 3:52:31 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SRV-OCS01
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 has expired. Please upgrade from the evaluation version to the full released version of the product.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

If you allready applied the update you can fix the problem by simply uninstall the KB974571 update on your LCS / OCS servers.

Microsoft has released Security Essentials (MSE). MSE is a free anti-malware product that will replace Windows Live OneCare. MSE is only for home use. Next year Microsoft will release a corporate anti-malware product Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010. The release is planned for H1 2010. To install MSE you must run a genuine version of Windows XP, Vista or 7.

Download MSE here.

To find out more about the difference between MSE and Forefront Endpoint Protection see the following post on Microsoft Edge

Okay, I know this will be old news for the most of you. Most of Exchange IT pro’s allready have downloaded Exchange 2010 RC. If you have missed the news, the 120-days free release is available for download here:  http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/try-it.aspx

Last week Windows 7 RTM came availible for MSDN and Technet Plus subscribers. Today also Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM is availible on MSDN and Technet Plus. Some of the new features like Direct Access require both new operating systems. Go get both new Windows versions!

Steve Bink wrote about some new Exchange 2010 rumors. On his weblog he wrote about rumors from partners telling him Exchange 2010 will be RTM soon. Microsoft responded on his article, telling him it’s not finished yet. Before Exchange 2010 RTM release there will be at least 1 Release Candidate (RC) release, which will be publicity available. On October 12, Exchange 2010 will be officially launched together with Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 at “the new efficiency” launch event. So I expect a Exchange 2010 RC release very soon!