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US ISV Developer Evangelism Team

Posts helpful to US-based ISVs implementing products on the Microsoft platform

May 2008 - Posts

Developer, Technology Center Improves Community Participation in MSDN, TechNet
Microsoft Developer Network ( MSDN ) and Technet have been redesigned to make it easier to discover and participate in online communities and showcase community experts. The initial redesign covered 18 technical and developer resources in seven languages. Read More...
IT Pro Resources for Windows Server 2008
We’re often asked for resources that can help training both your IT Pros and developers in Windows Server 2008. There are a series of events that have been put together through MS Readiness that are available here . There are events listed in the Windows Read More...
Preliminary PDC Session List
The PDC website has a preliminary listing of sessions that will be offered at this years event. Among them are a number of sessions on Microsoft's cloud-based services, and a few on Windows 7. Among the Windows 7 sessions will be one on the multi-touch Read More...
New System Turns Any Surface into a Low-Cost Multitouch Screen
Microsoft's LaserTouch prototype can inexpensively retrofit any display into a touch screen, giving researchers a platform to experiment with different form factors and develop interesting software. The system has been shown at recent conferences. LaserTouch Read More...
Big Picture for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Your company may be in the same state as many of my ISVs. Getting ready to launch a new product before summer. And while you are heads down doing testing, bug fixes, many are thinking about their next generation products to ship next winter and spring. Read More...
Big Picture of .NET Framework 3.5
Each release of .NET Framework adds to previous releases of .NET. And as features come out, they are slowly evolving the architecture for new applications and for updating applications in production. It's no longer about stitching together a set of libraries Read More...
Security Workshop Presentations
THANKS to all who attended and supported the Security Workshop in Redmond on May 6 th and 7 th . The workshop was focused on ISVs, the objective was to get the ISVs in a room to talk about what Microsoft has done and is doing to make the platform more Read More...
SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart Training Materials Available
You can learn the with content from the new SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart event. The site contains presentations, recordings, hands-on labs and demonstrations for the SQL Server 2008 JumpStart technical training event. There are five tracks: Overview Sessions Read More...
Site Launches for Startups and Investors, Startup Superstars
The guide to working with Microsoft for startups and their investors has launched as http://www.MicrosoftStartupZone.com/ . The core of the site is a set of blogs about industry trends, innovate startups, and how to work with Microsoft. You'll find discounted Read More...
Full screen Silverlight apps
At the end of last week, a question came up about whether Silverlight was capable of delivering apps that go beyond the browser frame. I thought I had recalled a sample that did this up on the Silverlight gallery but couldn't locate it, so I did a little Read More...
Windows Server 2008 as a development workstation
When I'm not messing with WPF and SL, I write software that needs to run on servers (behing WCF endpoints, usually.) I started experimenting with using Windows Server 2008 directly for this purpose, and I'm pleased to report that this experiment was quite Read More...
Mythbuster -- Software Factories for ISVs
In this post I address, and clarify, the top 5 myths that I often hear about Software Factories, especially in regards to small software development projects and organizations! When talking to friends, colleagues, and customers about Software Factories Read More...
Meta-tag on Your Site Provides Internet Explorer Backwards Compatibility
Web standards interoperability in Internet Explorer 8 helps web developers and designers drive toward write once, run anywhere . The commitment in IE8 also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases. Read More...
Licensing Site Provides Resources for ISVs
One of the big business issues in adopting Microsoft products is licensing. A new Licensing Web site for ISVs is a first step towards simplifying the Microsoft Licensing landscape. It was developed to address feedback we’ve received from our ISV partners Read More...
Learn More about Virtualization
Check out the Microsoft Virtualization site for resources on our virtualization offerings. You will find white papers, demos, webcasts, downloads, and a truckload of other information. You can download Windows Server 2008 Evaluation and Hyper-V RC1 . Read More...
2007 Microsoft Office System to Support XPS, PDF, ODF
Greater choice and more flexibility among document formats is being offered in the next service pack of Microsoft Office System. The additional formats create additional opportunities for developer and competitors and expand the range of document formats Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 has been RTM'd and released on Partnersource
I am very pleased to announce that Dynamics AX 2009 has been RTM'd L ive on Partner Source Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009!!!! Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is AVAILABLE NOW for download from Partner Source https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/support/selfsupport/productreleases/DynamicsAX2009release.ht Read More...
SharePoint Fire Starter Event Comes to Redmond
Join the product team and experts for an all-day SharePoint Server Fire Starter Event in Redmond, WA June 11. The event includes an introduction to SharePoint, a whirlwind on how SharePoint works with Visual Studio, Silverlight and SharePoint together, Read More...
Windows HPC 2008 Training Available During June
Microsoft invites you to participate in our HPCPAL Jumpstart technical training series for IT Pro's and Developers. This one day immersion style event will help you get the technical information you require to start deploying and developing HPC solutions Read More...
Second Beta for Windows HPC 2008 Ships
The second version beta of the high performance computing platform, Windows HPC 2008 has been released on the web. The release was announced on the Ryan Waite's entry on Windows Server Division WebLog . Windows HPC Server 2008 combines the power of the Read More...
June Webcasts for Developers
Three sets of webcasts can help prepare you and your company for Microsoft’s emerging technologies. The webcasts are offered by ISV Innovation. Software + Services The Microsoft Software-Plus-Services (S+S) model blends locally installed, full-package Read More...
Programming SharePoint for .NET Developers Webcast Series
Paul Andrew announced in this blog post on Monday that we are going to be hosting a series of Webcast to help .NET developers learn how to develop on SharePoint. You can read more in Paul’s post, but in case you just want to sign-up for the sessions here Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - Integration and Development with .NET Framework
We are happy to announce the availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 classes for our ISVs. For details see here . You may register here . Location Dates Dallas, TX June 12-13, 2008 Reston, VA June 16-17, 2008 Redmond, WA June 25-26, 2008 Sanjay Jain Read More...
Enterprise Library 4.0 Assists Developers with Guidance, Code
The patterns & practices team has shipped Enterprise Library 4.0 , a collection of reusable software components, known as application blocks , designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development challenges, such as logging, validation, Read More...
Excellent Series on ADO.Net Data Services
We all struggle to stay up to date on new Microsoft technologies. To that point, I wanted to share an excellent resource I found today for learning ADO.Net Data Services quickly. These recordings are from Mike Taulty in the UK. He's also got several other Read More...
Create Managable Apps Using a New Health Modeling Tool Available for VSTS
You customers may be using System Center Operations Manager 2007 to monitor your environment, but what about your applications? Architects, developers and IT Pros have a new tool available to build highly manageable applications that can be monitored Read More...
Windows XP SP3 RTM Available on Windows Update, Automatic Update and Download Center
Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released. Although the update is available on automatic updates, you can download the standard package from the following links: Windows XP SP3 EXE Windows XP SP3 ISO Windows XP SP3 Network Intallation Package Windows® Read More...
Map Your Data - Part 2
The fundamental barrier to using WPF or Silverlight to plot data on a map is knowing where to plot geocoded points on a rectangle. A geocoded point is simply a latitude+longitude pair (I'll show you how to obtain these later), but translating these to Read More...
Cool Embeddable XAML Designer Component
Several of the ISVs I work with have a requirement to provide customized WPF forms for display within their line of business applications. These requirements range from the simple cases (e.g., load a few descriptors from a database and dynamically create Read More...
Moonlight 1.0 released
Novell and the Mono community announced the first public release of Moonlight, an implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight RIA (rich Internet application) platform for Linux. http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/May-13-1.html http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight Read More...
Map your data - Part 1
Over the past year, I've been doing lots of work using WPF and Silverlight to plot data on maps, and of late, I've had the good fortune to tap into the power of SQL 2008's geospatial capabilities to enhance my applications. As I think these experiences Read More...
Windows Presentation Foundation Update Brings Smaller Footprint, Better Performance
The new version of .NET Framework Service Pack 1 includes an update to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that includes a slimmed down version called Client Profile. Instead of more than 50 megs that had been required on Windows XP, now you'll have Read More...
Immersive Web 2.0 Experience Comes Alive in WorldWide Telescope
Microsoft Research has unveiled a new user experience by looking up. WorldWide Telescope is Web 2.0 visualization software for your computer to act as a virtual telescope.You can now experience WorldWide Telescope to see the same images that scientists Read More...
Free Benefits You Probably Don't Know About
Greg Oliver, one of my peers, recently sent out an e-mail about valuable free resources our partners frequently miss and I thought it'd be great idea to pass these resources on to our broader audience. Researching our portfolios we found that over 80% Read More...
.NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit May Preview Released
So, you’ve downloaded and installed the .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta bits but you have no clue what’s new, right? Have no fear, the team that brought you the extremely popular Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit has released a new kit to teach Read More...
VSTS 2008 Licensing Whitepaper published
Brian Harry, of the Visual Studio team, posted a link to a new whitepaper the team has published on Visual Studio Team System 2008 licensing. So, if you’ve been trying to figure out just what you need to be properly licensed for Visual Studio, here’s Read More...
Beta for VS and .NET Framework SP1 Available
The first beta release of Service Pack 1 for both Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 are available. With Service Pack 1, Visual Studio 2008 introduces a large assortment of new features for targeting Windows, Office, and the Web. Developers building Read More...
Guides, Walkthrough for Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint Released
User guides, samples, and walkthroughs have been released for Visual Studio extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 v1.1 (VSeWSS). This extensions are currently available for Visual Studio 2005 and will be available for Visual Studio 2008 in June. Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: Axonom
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one… Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: 422 Group
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one… Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories: Client Profiles
In this Microsoft Dynamics Platform Adoption Stories series, I will continue to share success stories of my managed ISVs, highlighting their platform adoption experience, their Aha moments and advice to newer ISVs to be successful. Enjoy the next one… Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Performance and Scalability White Papers
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to meet the performance and scalability requirements of large enterprises. The benchmark test results detailed in these white papers can help customers and partners understand various aspects of performance and scalability Read More...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Platform for xRM Business Applications
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is built on a sophisticated line-of-business application platform that provides the basic services required by ISVs and developers to build upon. While this ability is clearly applicable in CRM-type scenarios, Microsoft Dynamics Read More...
XNA Game Platform CTP Released for Zune
XNA Community Games Platform team has delivered the first community technology preview (CTP) of XNA Game Studio 3.0 , enabling developers to build games for Zune. XNA Game Studio 3.0 allows all game developers to create unique and imaginative games for Read More...
Multi-tenant Sample Uses Online Storage Provider
LitwareHR has been updated to support SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) as the online storage provider. LitwareHR is the Software as a Service (SaaS) reference application that demonstrates how to create multi-tenant applications on the Microsoft platform. Read More...
Popfly Goes Gamer
Popfly has added gaming to its mashup and web page capabilities. The Popfly team has announed an alpha version of Popfly Game Creator on its team blog as a new way for beginners and non-programmers to create games. The tool is built in Silverlight . Popfly Read More...
OBA Composition Reference Toolkit 2.0 Released
Version 2.0 of the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit is now available at the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit site. There, you will find installers, sample components, documentation, and overview video. Version 2.0 (V2) of the OBA Composition Reference Read More...
PowerShell Gets GUI, Remote Management
PowerShell is getting the two most requested features, a graphical user interface and remote management support in its community technology preview (CTP) for version 2.0. Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT Read More...
Expression Studio 2 Released to Web
Expression Studio 2 has been released to the web adding Silverlight support along with a new product, Expression Encoder. You can now design user interfaces for both the Windows desktop and the web by utilizing the power of Windows Presentation Foundation Read More...
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