Windows Live QnA

Windows Live QnA Beta is the place where you can ask your questions and get answered by experts, you can also help others by answering others questions. This is a lot similar to Yahoo! Answers.

Try the Windows Live QnA Beta.

Get the latest info on Live QnA.

11 March 2008 in Beta Testing & Live & Web Services | Comments (0)

Windows Live FolderShare

Windows Live FolderShare is the revamped newer version of FolderShare. Windows Live FolderShare helps you to sync the folders between multiple computers.

All you need to do is to download and install the Windows Live FolderShare Client in your PCs and access your files from any computer on the Internet. . FolderShare can sync files up to 2 GBs in size and works on both Windows and Mac.

Windows Live FolderShare is in Beta so you can report the bugs you come across here.

Keep updated on the lastest on Windows Live FolderShare from the Team Blog.

Alternative Windows Live FolderShare Client download link.

11 March 2008 in Beta Testing & Live & Web Services | Comments (0)

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Released

Microsoft has released the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Public Beta Testing.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/Install.htmIE 8 has a host of new features, which includes

• Activities - Activities are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another. Internet Explorer 8 Activities make this common pattern easier to do.
• WebSlices - WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.
• Favorites Bar - In Internet Explorer 7, the Links bar provided users with one-click access to their favorite sites. The Links bar has undergone a complete makeover for Internet Explorer 8. It has been renamed the Favorites bar to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
• Automatic Crash Recovery - Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Windows®Internet Explorer® 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions. Learn more…
• Improved Phishing Filter - Internet Explorer 7 introduced the Phishing Filter, a feature which helps warn users when they visit a Phishing site. Phishing sites spoof a trusted legitimate site, with the goal of stealing the user’s personal or financial information. For Internet Explorer 8, we are building on the success of the Phishing Filter with a more comprehensive feature called the “Safety Filter.”

Internet Explorer 8 can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista® Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP® Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server® 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Downloads are available from the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/getitnow.mspx

6 March 2008 in Beta Testing & Developer Tools & Software | Comments (0)

Microsoft Live Volta

 Microsoft Live Labs hs announced the Volta technology preview, a developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications using existing and familiar tools, techniques and patterns. Volta’s declarative tier-splitting enables developers to postpone architectural decisions about distribution until the last possible responsible moment. Volta enables new end-to-end profiling and testing for higher levels of application performance, robustness, and reliability. Using the declarative tier-splitting, developers can refine architectural decisions based on this profiling data. This saves time and costs associated with manual refactoring. In effect, Volta extends the .NET platform to further enable the development of software+services applications, using existing and familiar tools and techniques.

You architect and build your application as a .NET client application, assigning the portions of the application that run on the server tier and client tier late in the development process. You can target either web browsers or the CLR as clients and Volta handles the complexities of tier-splitting. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and all communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together. In effect, Volta offers a best-effort experience in multiple environments without requiring tailoring of the application.

Learn more about Microsoft Live Volta.
Download Microsoft Live Volta

27 February 2008 in Beta Testing & Developer Tools & Live | Comments (0)

Virtual Earth 3D

Virtual Earth 3D brings you another step closer to knowing “what it is like out there”. You can search, browse, and organize local information viewed in three dimensions, just the way it exists in the real world. This enables you to more effectively find the data that is relevant to you, making Live Maps more useful than ever. Even better — it’s just plain fun!

System Requirements:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Windows Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 2.0
• 250 MB or more hard disk space
• A 1 GHz processor (2.8 GHz or faster recommended)
• 256 MB of system memory (1 GB recommended)
• 32 MB video card (256 MB recommended) that supports Microsoft DirectX 9
• A high speed or broadband Internet connection

Download Virtual Earth 3D

7 November 2007 in Beta Testing & Software | Comments (1)

Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate Released

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the next generation of the Windows Server operating system that helps information technology (IT) professionals maximize control over their infrastructure while providing unprecedented availability and management capabilities, leading to a significantly more secure, reliable, and robust server environment than ever before. Windows Server 2008 delivers new value to organizations by ensuring all users regardless of location are able to get the full complement of services from the network. Windows Server 2008 also provides deep insight into the operating system and diagnostic capabilities to allow administrators to spend more time adding business value.

Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of the award-winning Windows Server 2003 operating system and on the innovations delivered in Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003 R2. However, Windows Server 2008 is far more than a refinement of predecessor operating systems. Windows Server 2008 is designed to provide organizations with the most productive platform for powering applications, networks, and Web services from the work group to the data center with exciting, valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system.

The various Editions available are,

• Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
  This edition of Windows Server 2008 provides key server functionality across most server roles and features. It includes both full and Server Core installation options.
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
  This edition builds on Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition to provide greater scalability and availability, and adds enterprise technologies such as failover clustering and Active Directory Federation Services.
• Windows Server 2008 Data center Edition
  This edition offers the same functionality as Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition with support for additional memory and processors, and unlimited virtual image use rights.
• Windows Web Server 2008
  This edition is designed specifically for use as a Web and applications server. Other server roles are not available in this edition.
• Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems
  This edition is designed for use with Intel Itanium 64-bit processors to provide Web and applications server functionality on that platform. Other server roles and features may not be available.

Learn More about Windows Server 2008

System Requirements for Windows server 2008

Get the Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate

27 September 2007 in Beta Testing & OS | Comments (0)

Visual Studio 2008 Beta Released

The next version of Visual Studio, Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008, is out for Beta Testing. It will provide an industry-leading developer experience for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the Web. In addition, it will continue in the Microsoft tradition of development language innovation.

Several versions of Visual Studio 2008 Beta are available for download. You can download the following versions,

• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Express Editions
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Standard Edition
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Professional Edition
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Foundation Server
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Test Load Agent
• MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

Learn more about Visual Studio 2008 and download the Betas

26 September 2007 in Beta Testing & Developer Tools | Comments (0)

Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” Public Beta

Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” is the next generation of the Windows Server operating system gives you more control, greater flexibility, and increased protection for your server infrastructure while reducing time and costs.

Microsoft Windows Server code name “Longhorn” helps IT professionals to increase the flexibility of their server infrastructure while offering developers a more robust Web and applications platform for building connected applications and services. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements offer more control over your servers and network and provide advanced protection for your applications and data.

28 April 2007 in Beta Testing & OS | Comments (0)

.NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 Released

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 is a preview release of the latest version of the .NET Framework. Many ISV’s, enterprises and Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has a minimal number of breaking changes. So that existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 should continue to run without requiring changes. The .NET Framework 3.5 adds new features in several major technology areas; including:

• Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness
• ASP.NET AJAX for quickly creating more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers
• New web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM and several new WS-* standards
• Full tooling support for WF, WCF and WPF including the new workflow-enabled services technology
• New classes in the base class library (BCL) for the .NET Framework 3.5 address the most common customer requests.

.NET Framework 3.5 is planned to release at the end of 2007 and will ship with Visual Studio code name Orcas and will also continue to be available for separate download from MSDN.
Download .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1

28 April 2007 in Beta Testing & Developer Tools | Comments (0)

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Beta

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 provides users with streamlined real-time communications on an extensible VoIP foundation that provides the operational control your organization requires.

Office Communications Server 2007, the next evolution of Live Communications Server, delivers streamlined communications for your users so they can find and communicate with the right person, right now, from the applications they use most—like Microsoft Outlook.

Learn more about Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Beta.

Download Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Beta. (Registration required

18 April 2007 in Beta Testing | Comments (0)