Since yesterday (August 6th, 2009) 6PM GMT/10 AM , Windows 7 RTM is available for MSDN and Technet subscribers.

First I thought I wait till today because of the slow performance while everyone is downloading, but just couldn't wait and tried the download.  I took less than 1 hour to download Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit .  So I got no really download performance problem .

You can download it here :

• MSDN : http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-be/subscriptions/default.aspx
• Technet : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

Good news .

All those who attended the Techdays 2009 in Antwerp and those who couldn't attend, you could view all the recorded sessions online for free.  Follow this link http://www.microsoft.com/belux/techdays/2009/about.aspx and choose the menu option MSDN tracks or Technet tracks.

 

Already for the third time, the new community day in Belgium. Organized by all the usergroups for developers and IT Pro’s or anyone who is interested.

When? Thursday 25th June 2009

Where? Utopolis Mechelen

All info can be found here http://www.communityday.be.

Food, drink and knowledge are available. And yes, it’s still free .

So go the website and register fast as the seats are limited.

OK it was yesterday, but the big Launch wave has started.  3 new products are luanched in this big release :

• Windows Server 2008
• Visual Studio 2008
• SQL Server 2008

The kick off was done by Steve Balmer.

There's also a luanch website here : HeroesHappenHere.com where you can find all the info you ever want to know about those 3 new products.

For Belgium, the official launch will be in less than 2 weeks from now, during the Techdays 2008 in Ghent.

During my christmas holiday, bink.nu (the well known Microsoft watchers blog) published a full list of what we can expect from Microsoft.  You can read the full list here.

March 11 is the official launch of Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 in Belgium.

On 12 and 13 March Techdays will start with more than 65 technical breakout sessions.  So be there.  Click on the image to go to the website for more info.

The Company I work for is one of the Diamond sponsors.

OK, I know.  The official RTM is released last monday (So 4 days late with blogging it), but I haven't had time to blog.  So here's a full list of all info I have about VS2008.

Since monday, you can download VS2008 RTM if you are an MSDN subscriber (almost 4GB).

But you aren't a MSDN subscriber and you still want to have it.  Well here are a few possibilities :

• Download the express editions
• Download the trial editions

You can also download the .Net 3.5 runtime.

Read a few Microsoft blogs who announced the shipment :

• Somasegar's weblog
• ScottGu's blog

When you're a Silverlight developer, be sure to read the last paragraph with some important info.

Also the VS2008 RTM Training kit is available for download.  This kit contains presentations, hands on labs, demo's,... about VS2008.  It's just a great bunch of sources. Go and download it here.

More and more info can be found on blogs.  Dan Fernandez has blogged a list with 15 nice and great new features which can be found in thss editions.  Here's his list. Great work Dan.

And if you're in game programming.  You can download the beta of XNA Game Studio 2.0 add-in here.

So fo those who doesn't still have anything of VS2008.  Go, grap it, download it and install it.  You just will love the new version.

Just read on Tweakers.net that Microsoft has released the CTP of Powershell 2.0.

Read the whole article here (in Dutch).  Strange thing is that here on Teched no announcement is heared or found about this.

A few new events by the Visug group are comming up :

1. Light up the web : Visug goes Silverlight.  A presentation by my colleague Gill Cleeren
2. Speakers Dev Match : The technical blood will flow over the attendees of this session, while two speakers try to convince them about a type of technology
3. Best of TechEd : Not able to go to TechEd Barcelona this year.  Visug organize their mini TechEd with an overview of the big Brothers TechEd.
4. Christmas Geek dinner : After the spare rib fun of last year, this year a new dinner is coming up.  No more info for the moment.  I hope they choose a place with Bancontact this year as some people has troubles with paying the meal last year.

For more info and to register for one of the events just go to the Visug site.

Yesterday evening and today, I received a few mails with some sad news. David Boschmans passed away the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.

We all know David as an enthusiast man for the Belgium Development community as a developer evangelist.  He enjoyed live and after a few events we had a good pint and laugh.

David, We will miss you.  You will not be forgotten.  Rest in peace my friend...

My thoughts go out to his family.

Update :

Tom Mertens created a small place, where you can leave your message, so we will always remember David.  Go to http://david.vsdotnet.be.

You can also see pictures of David at Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/groups/davidboschmans/pool/

It seems that Microsoft is going to experiment with free office software.  The first software will be Works 9.  Works is a lightweight package of the big brother Office and is mostly used by home users.  One the items that is not provided in Works is the presentation package (e.g. powerpoint).  Works also cost around 40 dollar, a lot lesser than Office,where people sometimes has to pay 10 times more.

The people who wants to install the free version of Works will see some little advertisments on the screen.

Microsoft hopes to be in competition with tools as Google online Docs & Spreadsheets or the free OpenOffice.

For this architecture Microsoft has requested a few weeks ago a patent for showing advertisments within Windows and other software.  This software will show advertisments to the uer based on information of the users hardware, content of documents.

Yep, finally it's there.  Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2008.  And it's not only VS2008, but also the .Net framework 3.5.  Full support for WPF and Silverlight is included, so UI guys, you can play around now .  Beta 2 also contains a Go-Live license.

You can find the downloads here :

1. The installation files :
   • Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition Beta 2
   • Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition Beta 2
   • Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Team Suite Beta 2
   • Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Team Foundation Server Beta 2
   • Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Test Load Agent Beta 2
   • MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
2. The VPC files :
   • Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Team Suite Beta 2 VPC
   • Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Team Suite & Team Foundation Server Beta 2 VPC
3. Installation instructions (You can find the download links also here).  As always read them carefully
4. Visual Studio 2008 Express Beta 2

Update : Scott Guthrie has written an nice article about this beta.  You can read it here.

Update 2 : When you want to create Silverlight projects in VS 2008, you need the Silverlight Extensions.  Go get them here. (Txs Gill).

Micorosft has unveiled the world wide launch date of

• Visual Studio 2008
• SQL Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008

The date is set to February 27, 2008 for all three products.  Although an RTM version will be released in November via MSDN and Technet.  Just as with Vista .

And for you who like gadgets  : There's already a countdown gadget available.  Get it here for the site version and download here the Vista gadget.

Microsoft started with a beta as an answer for Joost.  It's called Livestation.  At this moment only a few people can test it, but later this year they will invite more people. One of the advantages of LiveStation is that users not only can look to On_Demand, but also Live television.

The architecture uses just like Joost the P2P technologie.

So I'm looking forward to test LiveStation and give a complete report about it and the differences with Joost.

If you use sandcastle, you can download the June 2007 CTP of Sandcastle. 

Read more here. Download it here.

Microsoft is pressing photo's on the Vista DVD's against the piracy. It are miniscule photo's and contains 3 faces of employees of Microsofts anti-piracy team. It just one of the pictures that can be found on the DVD. See the pictures

For those who want to know how to start with MOSS or Sharepoint, the Ordina N-Technologies team is delivering two very interesting seminars with very good content.

1. "Portals voor fijnproevers", June 26th 2007 @ Brouwerij Cantillon (Gheudestraat 56, 1070 Brussel) : this seminar is intended for a Business audience. More info.
2. "SharePoint 2007: fuzz & facts" June 27 2007 @ Interleuvenlaan 15H, Haasrode : this seminar is intended for a Technical audience + Gill Cleeren will give you a smashing preview on Silverlight (aka WPF) !!! More info.

Our Sharepoint consultants will also be there, so this is your time for free consultancy, ask the experts !!!

After experimenting a while with Joost, it's time for a post about Microsoft and .Net.  Although it's more of a summary with a few links/tools I collected the last weeks .

The IE Developer toolbar.

I think every web developer knows this already from somewhere in (If I’m correct) 2005.  But it was still in beta.  Finally MS half of May has released the first final version.  You can download the toolbar here.
A fine overview is also available on this page

Interesting MSDN event in Belgium for web developers

On 6th of June: AJAX.  Info and registration can be found here.

Powershell

On the DEV & IT Pro days this year I had bought a book about Powershell.  Meanwhile I also found a digital copy of a powershell book.  You can download it here.

The book gives you a short but good starting overview about powershell.

News for the mobile users :

Next monday on the 3GSM World Congres, Microsoft will officially announce the new Windows Mobile version.  More info and a few screenshots can be read here.

For me the most interesting part is that .Net Compact Framework and SQL Server is now build in in Windows Mobile.

I'm going to try and run it on my Pocket PC (I hope that everything will go fine with this upgrade).

Yesterday I attend the 2 sessions presented by Scott Guthrie @ the Visug event.  The first one was about asp.net "Orcas", in his second presentation Scott gives us several tips and tricks for ASP.Net 2.0 and ASP.Net AJAX.

The sessions where a hugh success.  More than 200 people where there.  Hope to see some pictures soon on the Visug website.

Txs to Visug for organizing this free event.  Hope to see more of such events in the future.

Update :

1. The first pictures of the event are online @ the Visug site.
2. Find the whole presentation about Orcas online @ the blog of Tom Mertens
3. Or click below to see the video directly.

Scott Guthrie's First Look at Visual Studio "Orcas"

From now on, you can buy Windows Vista.  Although only with a new computer, upgrade users have to wait till march-april.  Also Office 2007 is released.

Bill Gates has celebrate the launch from Times Square in New York City.  You can view a webcast of this event :

• 500K
• 220K
• 100K

BTW : Microsoft has a new page just for Windows Vista.  Go to http://windowsvista.com/ for a nice visit .

The new Dev & IT Pro days are arriving. More info can be found here.

 

For the first time, Scott Guthrie will come to Belgium.

Read more and register @ the VISUG website.

Windows Blackcomb the next windows version after Windows Windows Vista, will get Windows Vienna as codename.  This doesn't indicate that there are big changes in this version, but just as before Microsoft likes to use names from cities or location with a beautiful view (vistas).

Names like Whistler were coming from a Canadian ski-place. Longhorn (codename of Windows Vista) comes from a certain saloon "Longhorn Saloon

(Info found on the Belgium newspaper "Het Laatste Nieuws")

The 7th and 8th march of this year, the Developer & IT Pro days 2006 are held in Ghent.  VS 2005, Team System 2005, SQL 2005, Biztalk 2006, WSS 3.0, Windows Vista and Office 12 and much more will be discussed during those two days.  Speakers like Peter Himschoot, Jan Tielens, Joris Poelmans, Hans Verbeeck and many more will be present.

More info about the agenda and speakers can be found here : http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/devitprodays/

In the MSDN Belux Flash & Events - Volume 9, Number 22, I found following "nice to have" tools:

The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar.  A must have for web developers.  This toolbar provides you several features like:

• Exploring the DOM
• Viewing HTML object details
• Validating HTML
• ....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

Snippy - Visual Studio Code Snippet Editor.  A code editor for Visual Studio 2005.  Snippy can be used to add new snippets or to modify previous created snippets.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=b0813ae7-466a-43c2-b2ad-f87e4ee6bc39

 

Microsoft is developing a new software packet, which can be used as an alternative for BitTorrent.  This technology is called Avalanche and can be used to share big files, like movies and software, through the Internet.  Microsoft announced that it’s not designed for sharing illegal files.  Following the specifications, the speed will be 20 percent faster than the current peer-to-peer networks.  No release date is known.

Yep, I know.  It's already announced for a while and by several other bloggers.  But OK.  Here is my announcement.

Get a one day event of the latest version of ASP.Net.  More info can be found @ the MSDN Belux site.

A few days ago, the Tech.Ed 2005 Europe website went live.  Find it here.

I just have received a link from Yves Kerwyn's presentation about Integrated Innovation.  Yves is announced by Bill Gates himself.  The demo was given at the partner conference on the 1st of february 2005.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

And just like Roy Dictus, I have a christmas present for you.  The first 5 people who send me an e-mail @ sven.cipido@gmail.com will get one.

Just came back from a few days of somewhere without internet, e-mail, computer, ... .  Had a great time.  And now I read that since today the site for the developer & IT Pro days here in Belgium is up and running.

Great

And Bill Gates will give the opening keynote.  Hope I can attend there.

Roy Dictus is organising the 2nd edition of the Belgian Geek Dinner.  Look here for more info.

Since last week Host Integration Server 2004 is available. What is HIS.  HIS will integrate IBM Host applications and data sources with new solutions developed using .Net.

Get more info here.

<Commercial Talk>
          When you have a project in your company (Belgium and The Netherlands), you can
          always contact the company I work for.
          We already have succefully implemented HIS 2004 for customers.
</Commercial Talk>

A list of programs having this problem can be found at Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 842242.  Problems are especially because by default the Windows Firewall is enabled.

Microsoft will launch a tool that put's the automate install of WinXP SP2 on hold.  This is very usefull for companies so they can first test the immpact on their network.  All other updates will still be installed when needed.  The system will disable the delivery for 120 days starting from august 16.  After this period, SP2 will be delivered to the systems.

In GuntherB's weblog, I read that following service packs are availale in tech preview for download :

• .Net framework 1.0 SP3 Tech preview
• .Net framework 1.1 SP1 Tech preview
• .Net framework 1.1 SP1 Tech preview for W2003

Details about this service packs can be read at his blog or by clicking the specific SP link above.

Feedbacks, comments or suggestions can be send to the MS .Net Product Groups.

Just found on the Microsoft site.  Date for TechEd 2005 Europe is already confirmed :

5-8 July 2005 in Amsterdam RAI, The Netherlands

Hope I can attend this time

Also available now is SQL Server 2005 Beta 1 Express Editions.  The same as for the Express editions of VS 2005, it's a lightweight version of SQL Server 2005.

You can find more info here :

• Microsoft Labs
• Brian A. Randell
• VS Data team's Weblog

Update :
Check also the VSExpress blog.

Finally the first beta of VS 2005 is available for download.

There are two version. 

1. The full beta, available to MSDN Subsscribers
2. The express beta products, available for free public download

According to the information I found, it seems that the express version is more for beginning hobbyists, people who get started with .Net programming, ...

Update
Be sure to check out the Channel 9 Summer Of Express Contest.  A lot of info can be found.  BTW you can win one of the 6 Xbox with XBox Live Subscription and the Halo2 game.

I just came across a blog about Windows XP SP2.  The site is from Tony Goodhew.  A lot of useful information is available, including links to past webcasts.

After years of pointing out the Mono project as a beacon of hope to those who want to enjoy the benefits of ASP.NET without suffering Microsoft lock-in, I had honestly given up hope of ever seeing this open source effort bear practical fruit. Imagine my surprise last week when Beta 1 of the Mono Project was released!

Downloads are available for Windows and Mac OS X, as well as all popular Linux platforms.

For those who don't know, Mono is an open source project that aims to create cross-platform versions of:

• a C# compiler
• the Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• most of the .NET Framework's class library, including ADO.NET and ASP.NET

Most notably for Web developers, ASP.NET (including both Web Forms and Web Services) is advertised as being fully functional with this release!

The Mono project, which is sponsored by Novell (who bought out Ximian last year), have two more beta releases planned before the final release of Mono 1.0 on or about June 30, 2004

Yep, Microsoft Belux is finding it's way to the blog world.  After Yves Kerwyn, I want to welcome Rudi Larno.

Because of company policies, I have removed all information about the Beta version of HIS 2004.  As soon as I get the green light everything will be published again, together with new information.  I’m sorry for this, but keep reading for my other posts.

Finally, after some hidden suggestions of several other bloggers, Yves Kerwyn has his own blog.

You can find his blog at : www.kerwyn.net .  Yves, welcome to this wonderfull world.

I'm happy.  Just as David Cumps, today my blog is added in the list of the Belux bloggers @ Microsoft.

And Thanks to David Cumps notification, I also discovered that I'm mentioned in the March issue MSDN Flash Wow, this feels great 

Thanks everyone, now that I'm a part of this big electronic space.

Some sad news about the releases of these products.

First for the developers.  According to the website of ZDNet Whidbey and Yukon  will be push out to the first half of 2005.  This decision is made to ensure that they meet the high quality requirements of Microsoft's customers.  During the next months a second beta of Yukon and the first beta of Whidbey will be released.  At the end of 2004, a third beta of Yukon will become availlable.  The final product name for Yukon will be SQL Server 2005 and for Whidbey Visual Studio 2005.

then a bit about Longhorn.  According to Datanews only a beta version will be availlable during 2004.  The full Operating System will not be released before 2007.  This final release will only become availlable after Microsoft received feedback from beta trials and tailored the product.  It's more likely that Microsoft will deliver an interim update of XP and Windows Server 2003 before the Longhorn release.

This technet event from Microsoft in Belgium, is next week on the 3rd of March.  I'm glad that Jan Tielens, a collegue of me, is there to speak togheter with Yves and Patrick Tisseghem.  I think it's his first session for Microsoft.  So I hope I find some time to go there.

You can subscribe to this event here.  More info can also be found on the speakers Blogs.

Betaversion of Virtual Server 2004

Microsoft has released the betaversion of Virtual Server 2004 for a selected group of customers.  The full version will be availlable for the market somewhere in the middle of this year.  This VM is for Windows 2003 which can host development, test and production environment.  VM is bought by Microsoft from Connectix.
(Thanks to Datanews)

Infopath update 2

I'm not the first one, who mention this.  Some downloads for Infopath are availlable :

• Service Pack 1
• Toolkit for Visual Studio .Net

For more info, you can go to Patrick Tisseghem's Blog.

It seems that there are two products which creates web based forms form your infopath form.  So the user don't have to have infopath on his PC. 

At this moment I haven't played with those tools, but if you have some experiences with it, let me know.

These are the links :

• Unique World Software
• Vision Forms

Thanks to Yves K. and Patrick Tisseghem's blog for the info.

Just to inform you that an update of infopath will be unveiled on February 23rd. This will be as a part of the office update.

Keep you informed at Patrick Tisseghem's blog.

I just fund out that the ASP.net resource kit is availlable for download (Thanks to Tom).

So follow this link to download the file.

This kit contains code snippets, samples, components, white papers and a little extra.  Namely a hosting offer from Hostbasket.  A belgium hoster, who is also integrated in the Visual Studio .Net upload.

Jan, a collegue of me, has an interresting fact about the Belgium politics and Microsoft in his blog.  Follow this link to go directly to the item. 

Some important news !!

It seems that a part of the sourcecode of Windows NT4.0 and Windows 2000 can be found on the internet.

Who's responsible for this leak, isn't known at this moment.  The most bizar thing is that although the heavy security for the blueprint, someone just hacked it.

Another possibility is that one of the orginisations, universities or governements who has parts of the code are the leak or had a hack.  Normally they only had the code under strong restrictions.

At this moment, only Microsoft can say how big the damage will be.  But we could expect several hot fixes for this problem.

More info about this sourcecode :

The part that was stolen is around 660MB, while the whole code is around 20GB.  This was mentioned on news.com.  So you can't build a new OS with this source, but you can see how everything is build, and use this information to create hacks,... for these windows versions.

The update for the bookshelf symbol 7 font is available to remove the unacceptable symbols.

More info can be found in KB833407

Every year developer.com publishes a list of the best products of the previous year.

Much to my pleasure, Visual Studio.Net is the best development tool of the year.  On the same place for the same title we can find Sun Java Studio.

A complete list of winners can be found here.

Microsoft has extended support for Windows 98, 98SE and Millennium Edition (Me) for another 30 months.

The software giant had previously said it would end all support and security patching for Windows 98 on 16 January, with Me support scheduled to end on 31 December 2004. But Microsoft will now continue to offer paid phone support, and will review any critical security issues and take appropriate steps for the operating systems until 30 June 2006. The company said in a statement that it had made the decision to "accommodate customers worldwide who are still dependent upon these operating systems and to provide Microsoft with more time to communicate its product lifecycle support guidelines in a handful of markets - particularly smaller and emerging markets". Microsoft also wanted to bring Windows 98SE into compliance with the company's current lifecycle policy for new products, which provides support for seven years instead of the previous four. The decision to lengthen support for 98 and Me was taken "in order to provide a clear and consistent date for support conclusion for all of these older products". According to analyst IDC, there are 39 million Windows 98 users worldwide. From 15 January more details about the extended support period will be announced.

News provided by Datanews (c) 2004

The Swedish court has taken a decission.  It's forbidden for the Swedish company to use the name Lindows.  The same case is running in the US since december 2001.  At this moment, there's no decision in this case. 

The first game is for Microsoft in this case.

Yesterday evening, I tried to install the Bluetooth adapter I got from my manager, but when I opened the packages, no CD-rom with drivers was availlable, so I couldn't install the blue tooth adapter.

First test with bluetooth and my mobile failed.  Will try again later.

For the installation with Virtual PC, I didn't have the time to do it, so this will be done later.

News about Microsoft :
It seems that in Office 2003, the font Bookshelf Symbol 7, a standard Office 2003 font, contains a forbidden German war character.  A tool to delete this character is availlable here.  It seems that this sign has a different explication in Japan than in the western world.  In Japan it means "Swastika" and it means something about the feets of Boeddha.