Microsoft Support & Discussions

Microsoft has just hit the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 0 milestone with Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 and is expecting to deliver the final code to its server OEMs before the end of September, according to information from private testers. View the full article

Cloud hosting provider Rackspace rolled out on September 8 a new toolkit for customers who want to develop and deploy to its Cloud Servers for Windows service. View the full article

Having spent a few weeks with a near-final version of Windows Small Business Server "Aurora," I see the advantages of this starter server product, but also a few bits that will be confusing for the market it targets. View the full article

On September 7, I began receiving notes from several customers of Microsoft’s hosted Online Services — which include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online, Live Meeting and the BPOS bundle of these services — of new and troubling access problems. View the full article

The third member of Microsoft’s new trio of small business servers, codenamed “Small Business Server 7″ is running behind the other two, and is now set to go to public beta by the end of September. View the full article

In this week's mailbag, reader reaction to my iTunes 10 review and whether it's time to start ignoring Apple's products, a new Windows Phone 7-compatible version of the Zune PC software, whether Microsoft will ever make Zune for the Mac, the Windows Home Server add-ons I use (or, don't use), international Kindle usage, and whether Microsoft's online services will ever provide SSL access. View the full article

Apple's iTunes software has been so bad for so long that it's getting hard to justify using this unwieldy software. But what are the alternatives to Apple's superior iPhone, iPod, and iPad products? And does leaving the company's i-ecosystem even make any sense? View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss Windows Phone 7 RTM, the return of the Windows 7 Family Pack, Apple's meh music event, a new Xbox 360 controller and an Xbox Live price hike, the Amazon Kindle 3, and Windows Live Mesh. View the full article

Windows 7 brings back a feature from older Windows versions: The ability to add and remove bundled applications and services on the fly. View the full article

Microsoft has significantly updated Windows Explorer yet again in Windows 7, this time with a new toolbar, a resizable search box, and a new navigational pane. View the full article

Apple's latest version of iTunes is like a cruel joke foisted on Windows users. It features some minor UI changes and a new and largely empty social networking service called Ping. View the full article

The October 2010 edition of my print magazine column looks at a Windows Small Business Server "Aurora" update, a Windows Home Server "Vail" update, the great Windows Phone 7 debate, Windows 7 sales and deployment stats, the Slate PC, Internet Explorer on the rebound, and PDC 2010. View the full article

Microsoft’s hosted suite of enterprise applications — the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) went down for 90 minutes on September 3 for a number of customers in North America. View the full article

I appeared on this week's episode of the What The Tech podcast with Tom Davis and Andrew Zarian, and discussed Windows Phone 7, Media Streaming in the home, Apple Event perspectives, thoughts on the upcoming Phone Marketplace interface, Legacy architecture, and why Microsoft is still the most powerful force in the IT world. View the full article

I appeared on this week's episode of the Home Theater Geeks podcast with Scott Wilkinson to discuss the changing face of TV and movie delivery. View the full article

Microsoft execs haven’t been beating the parallel-computing drum as loudly as they were a year or two ago, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening in this space. View the full article

Should Web developers target Internet Explorer 9 or Silverlight when creating new Web and mobile applications? One Microsoft exec takes a new stab at an answer. View the full article

This month’s version of my Microsoft Codename Tracker includes a number of brand-new entries in the high-end server space — including MFx, Dryad, Nectar, Orleans, Quincy and TidyFS — plus lots, lots more. View the full article

Microsoft has released to manufacturing (RTM’d) the Windows Phone OS 7.0, company officials announced on September 1. View the full article

I’m kicking off a new series on my site: (Not So) Crazy Microsoft Rumors. This week’s rumor is all about whether Microsoft may bring to market one more Zune HD before it turns Zune into an audio/video service only. View the full article