Microsoft Support & Discussions

By Paul Thurrott In my news article about Microsoft’s Xbox TV services announcement, I mentioned a Windows Phone app that lets the handset act as a remote for the video game console. Not coincidentally, Microsoft has separately detailed this app, which is called the Xbox Companion. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Microsoft announced its TV services for the Xbox 360 today. Here are some shots of the service, which will debut this holiday season, courtesy of the software giant. Source: Win Super Site

Roslyn, Microsoft’s project to open up the VB and C# compilers to support ‘compiler as a service’ scenarios, looks to be a post-Visual Studio 2012 deliverable. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott This week on What The Tech: Andrew and Paul run down Apple’s "Let’s Talk iPhone" event. Did Apple make a smart move with the iPhone 4S? Paul speculates on Apple’s strategy with the iPhone. Andrew questions who has the advantage now, Android, or iPhone. Could Android remain a big player in the cellphone industry? Paul wonders whether or not people will run out in droves when the 4S released. Andrew compares the Android experience to the iPhone. Andrew and Paul also discuss the iPad, Kindle Fire, and the death of Zune. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott I’ve been saying for a while now that Apple fanatics are underestimating the demand for Windows on an iPad-like tablet, and that many consumers probably walk into Apple Stores to see the iPad but then walk out without one when they discover it doesn’t run Windows or Microsoft Office. This leads me to further believe that Windows 8 will be enormously successful on iPad-like tablets. Well, now it’s no longer just a supposition. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Anyone hoping to hear about the long-rumored iPhone 5 was disappointed Tuesday when Apple instead announced a much more evolutionary iPhone update called the iPhone 4S. Sharing the same form factor and exterior hardware as its buggy predecessor, the iPhone 4S does have all-new internals, with a faster CPU, faster graphics, and a few other minor improvements. Source: Win Super Site

Windows 8 testers and potential users aren’t completely sold on the new start screen (the Metro-style look and feel) of the coming version of Microsoft’s operating system. Some positive changes may be coming, however. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott With Apple set to launch at least one new iPhone model today, it is electronics giant’s competitors that are making hay in the tech news. Credit Apple fatigue, the lack of Steve Jobs, or the simple fact that the iPhone is already being outsold by over 2-to-1 by Android in the marketplace, but the attention of the world isn’t on Apple this week, its elsewhere. And one of the prime beneficiaries, go figure, is Windows Phone. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Microsoft this week revealed that it will no longer manufacture Zune hardware. But that announcement is a formality: As my sources at the software giant told me long ago, Microsoft disbanded the Zune hardware team just days after they completed work on the Zune HD in mid-2009 and have never intended to make another Zune device. Furthermore, Microsoft began laying plans for the dissolution of the Zune brand at that time as well. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Microsoft is hosting its SharePoint Conference 2011 this week in Anaheim, California, the first time the company has held the event in a few years. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott In a new post to the Inside Windows Live blog, Microsoft’s Dick Craddock explains that while spam gets all the attention in the email world, there’s a much bigger problem, called graymail, which is unwanted email like newsletters that’s not technically spam. Since users report so much graymail to Microsoft as spam, the software giant is taking steps in Hotmail to reduce the problem. Source: Win Super Site

The RIM-hosted Blackberry cloud service for Office 365 users is going to be available in January 2012, with an open beta kicking off in October 2011. Source: All About Microsoft

It looks like it’s finally official that Microsoft is out of the Zune hardware business — the same day that Microsoft is changing its ZunePass subscription terms of service. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is adding more granular spam-fighting and organization tools to Hotmail between now and the end of the year, officials said on October 3. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott In the wake of last week’s surprisingly successful release of Windows Phone 7.5, I’ve received a ton of email about the release with many questions and tidbits of advice. Here’s some of the best Windows Phone 7.5 email I’ve received in the past week. Source: Win Super Site

Hi Guys, :rolleyes: Just wondered if someone could please help point me in the right direction This is our current setup We have 2 sites with 2x Server 2008R2 using DFS replication SRV1 site using 192.168.0.0/24 head office SRV2 site using 192.168.1.0/24 - remote office Both sites joined via IPSec Tunnel via the router and everything working as it should, sites and services setup correctly on DC Now here is the problem we are facing, there are a couple of users that use our terminal server through RDP at our remote office as we are running a large case management system, but when they are not using the case management system and they just want to open word…

By Paul Thurrott Google’s Chrome web browser has made significantly usage inroads in the past year and some are predicting that it could actually surpass usage in Mozilla’s Firefox browser by the beginning of 2012. But not if Microsoft can help it: The software giant’s free anti-virus solution, Security Essentials, was flagging Chrome as malware and even deleting it from users’ PCs late last week. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott With Net Applications publishing its September 2011 web browser usage share numbers, Microsoft is once again framing the discussion around the gains it is making getting its most modern browser, Internet Explorer 9, deployed to its most modern OS, Windows 7. In a similar vein, the software giant is touting that usage of the aging and insecure IE 6 browser has once again dropped significantly. Source: Win Super Site