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Advisory: Information on changes coming to First Run in Internet Explorer 8

IE settings wizard default browser questionThe IE team just posted on their blog changes they’re making to IE8’s first run experience, coming in the next cumulative security update for Internet Explorer. As noted in their posts on the IE blog previously here and here… 

"The goal of the IE setup experience is to put IE users in control of their settings and respect existing defaults.  IE will never install, or become the default browser without your explicit consent.  However, we heard a lot of feedback from a lot of different people and groups and decided to make the user choice of the default browser even more explicit. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to user choice and control.

"Specifically, users who install IE8 and have another browser set as the default will now see this panel as part of their first run experience…"

As noted, this will impact IE8 installations on Vista and XP as well as for users with a non-IE default browser install Windows 7. 

IT Pros and SysAdmins can find information on managing updates on Technet in the Update Management TechCenter

 

Tags: articles, what I read, IE8, customer support, feedback, customer service, Internet Explorer, IE8, Internet Explorer

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Internet Explorer

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Just ahead of Windows 7, Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA is now available

I now have a new project for the weekend: dogfooding the latest bits just released for the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA, complete with new enhancements for Windows 7 PCs. 

New from the Windows Home Server team is their announcement of the new Power Pack 3 Beta.   Just ahead of our Windows 7 release, the team provides a "better together" combination across your Windows 7 PCs and Windows Home Server (we have an HP Windows Home Server at home).   

imageWe are pleased to announce the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta which improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing the following new features: Backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers.

Power Pack 3 Beta provides some great new functionality including the full back up and restore for Windows 7 PCs, improved Windows Media Center abilities, and better support for small form factor portable PCs. 

Although the team hasn’t said when Power Pack 3 will be officially released, this is your opportunity to help to test the Beta. The team did say that this free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update should be released "prior to the Windows 7 General Availability date of October 22".

If you are running Windows 7 on your home computer and are a current Windows Home Server user, the team could use your help testing the release. The beta is now available to the public via Microsoft Connect (available by going here).

Tags: announcements, Home Server, Windows 7, hardware, Windows 7

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows, Home Server, Challenge-Windows 7, hardware, Windows 7

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Of interest for IT Professionals: Internet Explorer 8 via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) coming in August 2009

Internet Explorer 8Of interest: this post from Eric Hebenstreit on the IE Blog, a note on Internet Explorer 8 availability via Windows Server Update Services (aka WSUS) coming in August 2009…

For those of you who manage your organization’s desktops using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Internet Explorer 8 will be made available via this technology starting August 25, 2009.  Internet Explorer 8 will be made available as an “Update rollup” and will be applicable to all supported languages.

Is my organization affected?

If your organization uses WSUS and has it configured to auto-approve Update rollup packages, upon acceptance of the Internet Explorer 8 End User License Agreement (EULA) by the WSUS administrator, Internet Explorer 8 will install automatically on computers running Internet Explorer 6 or 7 on supported operating systems.

More info:

Download IE8 now: Click to select your locale and operating system.

Information for:

Tags: articles, what I read, IE8, customer support, feedback, customer service, Internet Explorer, IE8, Internet Explorer

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Thoughts on potential competitors, new technology, and a new Windows division President

Gosh, has it really been nearly two weeks between blog posts? Given the lack of blog posts, you should surmise that it’s been a busy few weeks at the company given we’ve been closing the end of our fiscal year, going through the last bits of, well, delivering RTM bits of Windows 7, and working on future products and services.

Today was a busy day at work, and in the news with lots of coverage of potential competitors, new technology, executive announcements and even tips and tricks for organizing your schedules, finances and other routines. 

But first, a moment I noted on Twitter.

I love movies. This past weekend we watched The Terminator series. In the two sequels, I noticed that the evil Chrome T-1000 Terminators that also jump back from the future to do in the poor heroes of the film are eventually sent packing by the dutiful, more real and established T-101.

At least they were real competitors, ones the T-101 could directly engage, rather than just being taunted from the future by the promise of a superior T-1000.

Enough about movies. On to exec announcements.

As On July 7, TechFlash broke the news that Steven (Sinofsky) was the new President of the Windows division. With Jon DeVaan, Steven has brought what’s been categorized as "new discipline to Windows engineering" – it’s been and continues to be a good partnership. These two guys have worked together closely at Microsoft, back to the days when Jon was a dev on the Excel team and Steven was the Visual Studio program manager (as noted at WinHEC ’08). The two of them continue to work towards developing and delivering Windows 7 with high quality.

It’s a huge effort and responsibility, and it’s great to have these guys leading the way on Windows engineering, along with so many talented, super smart and dedicated people on the product team. You can read more about Jon in this interview with Mary-Jo Foley and in this Q&A on Microsoft Presspass, and get a sense of Steven from his old techtalk blog (perhaps he’ll revamp it) and from this interview last year with Ina Fried. Of course, the Engineering Windows 7 blog provides even more backstage and interesting news from the Windows effort.

On competition, I thought of Miyamoto Musashi’s epic work The Book of Five Rings, and the passage that states…

In the Today is your victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

Something to keep in mind as we near the RTM and eventual commercial release (aka GA) of Windows 7.

Tags: Windows 7, Windows 7

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows 7

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Announcements: the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program and Windows 7 Pricing

New from Brandon over at the Windows team blog on the Windows 7 upgrade program. Windows 7 is coming on October 22, 2009. For customers in certain markets, here’s an easy way to get it fast and save a bundle: Pre-order a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49 or a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99 at this link on the MS Store site. (or visit the Store here today). That’s about half off the estimated retail prices.

Finally, as a way of saying thank you to our loyal Windows customers, we are excited to introduce a special time limited offer! We will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99. You can take advantage of this special offer online via select retail partners such as Best Buy or Amazon, or the online Microsoft Store (in participating markets).

This program begins tomorrow in the U.S., Canada and Japan. The offer ends July 11th in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5th for Japan or while supplies last. Customers in the UK, France and Germany, can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 starting July 15th and will run until August 14th (or supplies last) to ensure folks don’t miss out on this. Act fast if you want to be the first in line to get Windows 7 at this screaming deal! Note: The special low pre-order price will vary per country.

For more information on this special pre-order offer, click here

Brandon sat down with Brad Brooks to talk about these announcements…


Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing

The Windows Blog

Tags: Windows 7, media, Windows 7

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Challenge-Windows 7, media, Windows 7

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