Microsoft Support & Discussions

All of us who work in technology-related fields have experienced disruptions that seem to change everything, and figuring out how to manage through the transition can mean the survival or demise of an enterprise. When faced with innovation, it is critical to determine when, where, and how to adopt the change. At Microsoft, we talk a lot about the shift to cloud computing. As we continue to invest in this shift, we are developing and delivering outstanding on-premises data platform solutions, capabilities to bridge between the cloud and on-premises, and advancing cloud technologies for next generation applications. As examples, consider: The breakthrough perform…

As the clock struck midnight on March 11, stores around the world began selling “Titanfall,” Microsoft’s new next-gen shooter that combines wall-running, double-jumping action with powerful, fast-paced titan warfare to set the new bar for online multiplayer gameplay. ...(read more) Continue reading...

Forrester Research, Inc. has positioned Microsoft as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2013. Forrester analyst Boris Evelson notes in the report that “While many BI platform features are becoming commoditized, it’s not the individual capabilities that differentiate the Leaders, but rather the completeness, comprehensiveness, and integration of the entire BI architectural stack. ...(read more) Continue reading...

It takes everyone to innovate. And in advance of International Women’s Day, March 8, we’re celebrating by profiling five dynamic individuals from all corners of the company who are changing the world through technology. We’re also highlighting some of Microsoft’s efforts to ensure we’re growing future generations of women in computer science today. Meet a software developer, a researcher, a board member, a test lead and a diversity manager who are passionate about their work, and are themselves a diverse and inspiring bunch. You might also be interested in: · Three women changing the world through technology · Sarah Churman: Hearing for the first time · C…

In this final section of the Success with Hybrid Cloud series, I want to get technical. The following posts are going to dive into the technical elements that make a Hybrid environment tick. This first technical post is an important one: How IT Pro’s can provide their users with a self-service experience on-prem that matches what application owners are experiencing in Windows Azure. This is an important subject in the enterprise for infrastructure operations because it is critically important for on-prem infrastructure operations to be able to clearly articulate their value-add and eliminate any process hurdles to provisioning so that the experience is just as seamles…

The Imagine Cup believes in the power of students to change the world. We don’t have to look very far for a great example: Bill Gates was the university student, along with his friend from high school, Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft. They know what it means to dream big and work hard. Every year, we see amazing teams of Imagine Cup students shine from countries all over the world. They bring us their dreams, their skills, and their passion. They show us what they can do. When that happens we can see the future right there, in the faces of those leaders of tomorrow. For Imagine Cup 2014, we wanted to find a way to connect some of those future leaders with th…

The following post is from Greg Myers, Vice President, Microsoft Federal. On Tuesday in Washington D.C., federal technology leaders are gathering – in person and virtually – for Microsoft’s Federal Executive Forum. This annual one-day event brings together people from around the federal government to discuss how technology is helping agencies successfully innovate, leverage the most of existing investments and manage to very tight fiscal constraints. It’s a time for collaboration among agencies, sharing best practices and addressing everything from change management to leveraging what they already own to mastering cloud migration. Here are just a few highlights …

The following post is from Kirill Tatarinov, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions. Convergence, Microsoft’s premier business event taking place this week in Atlanta, is a celebration of business achievement and an opportunity to connect, engage and discover. We are pleased to highlight the achievements of great Microsoft customers such as Delta Air Lines, New Belgium Brewery, Lotus F1 and others that are succeeding by connecting with their customers. This is an exciting time. Microsoft Dynamics is on the cusp of delivering a staggering wave of innovation to the market this spring that will significantly help businesses deliver amazing experienc…

About 100,000 people visited Microsoft Technology Hall during the XXII Winter Olympic Games in the Olympic Park, featuring the latest Windows 8.1 devices for anyone to try. Many records were broken at the Winter Games, but Microsoft can claim some credit for helping to break at least one more: The largest-ever audience on an authenticated stream for any sporting event in history. More than 2.1 million people tuned in to watch NBC Sports Digital’s record-setting stream of Team USA versus Canada in the semifinal hockey game, thanks in part to Microsoft’s public cloud platform - Windows Azure. Like the elite athletes who competed, the Windows Azure cloud platform ste…

The following post is from Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise marketing, Microsoft. Less than a year ago, we announced Windows Azure services for Japan to support the growing demand for Microsoft’s cloud services. I am pleased to share that Windows Azure in Japan East (Saitama Prefecture) and Japan West (Osaka Prefecture), will be generally available later Tuesday. Japan’s cloud market has grown considerably in the last few years and this growth is only expected to increase, with the projected 2014 forecast estimated at around $1.6 billion, according to IDC. These new regions will help fulfill the current and future needs of our cloud c…

The following post is from Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft. Mobile World Congress is in full swing in Barcelona this week, one of the biggest events of the year for the mobile industry. I love Barcelona, and am sad to miss MWC this year. There is something about the combination of the history and tradition of Barcelona past and the energy and innovation of Barcelona present, with all the attendees of MWC a punctuation mark. And there is always something new, companies with something to say. Microsoft is no exception. On Sunday afternoon, we hosted a press conference where we reinforced the momentum we’re seeing for Windows Ph…

There are no shortage of disasters – either natural or man-made – but the cloud has also made mitigating these disasters simple and cost effective. These technical advances have moved Disaster Recovery (DR) from being a luxury to a requirement. Having a DR strategy is widely considered a base-line requirement, and even a mandatory feature for many organizations. Very often it is necessary just to survive – just ask the financial services companies whose offices and datacenters were underwater during Hurricane Sandy but didn’t miss a day of work. What’s surprising, however, is how many organizations don’t have a DR plan – or they have one that is under-managed, under-…

It’s moving day, with free cloud storage OneDrive now globally available — but you don’t have to do a thing. Existing SkyDrive customers are all set: Your files are ready in the new OneDrive, writes Chris Jones on The OneDrive Blog. “All you have to do is head over to OneDrive.com and log in.” You’ll find some changes, ones we think you’ll like. “We’re rolling out several new capabilities, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos,” Jones writes. “We’ve also added new ways for you to earn more storage — on top of the 7 GB we already give you for free. Customers who refer friends can now receive up to…

The following post is from Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft. The past year has been a busy one at Microsoft – and not just because of new products, a new acquisition and a new CEO. It has also been a busy time for our employees and their support of the nonprofit community. In fact, 2013 was a record-breaking year! Microsoft’s employees raised $113 million for 19,123 nonprofit organizations worldwide. Amidst Microsoft’s transformation, the value of community involvement continues to define us as employees. The $113 million total includes our employees’ cash donations, the company’s matching …

This has been a really exciting week for the Microsoft data platform. On Monday, we announced the general availability of Power BI for Office 365. This morning, we announced that support for Hadoop 2.2 clusters is now in preview for Windows Azure HDInsight—our cloud-based Hadoop service. And, I just presented at Strata, one of our industry’s premier big data events, where I talked about making data work for everyone. A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts about the changing nature of data in the modern business enterprise, leading to the conclusion that there is a “new value” of data. At Microsoft, we have a bold vision of bringing big data to a billion people. That…

In this post I’ll examine how enterprises in the Financial Services industry (and the service providers working with them) are successfully leveraging Hybrid Clouds. As a quick refresher on this series, my goal with each of these posts has been to take a close look at the definition of a Hybrid Cloud, explain our perspective on why a Hybrid environment is so valuable, and a provide a piece-by-piece look at the solutions and tools that constitute a Hybrid Cloud. With all of these ideas in mind, this series has already covered how to plan, build, deploy, operate, and save money with a Hybrid Cloud. Prior to this, we’ve looked at the retail and oil/gas industries. The fi…

Today, Dell announced hardware support for Storage Spaces in Windows Server. Over the past few months, you’ve seen this blog discuss how storage is changing, and explore new options for datacenter and hybrid storage. Microsoft is working to help customers transform the datacenter with the power of software, and Dell’s announcement is an important piece of that evolving story. Storage Spaces virtualizes storage by grouping industry-standard disks into storage pools, enables the creation of virtual disks from those pools, and also provides more advanced features such as automatic storage tiering and disk resiliency. Hardware components that work with Storage Space…

The following post is from Quentin Clark, Corporate Vice President, Data Platform Group. On Monday we announced that Power BI for Office 365 – our self-service business intelligence solution designed for everyone – is generally available. Power BI empowers all kinds of business users to find relevant information, pull data from Windows Azure and other sources, and prepare compelling business intelligence models for analysis, visualization, and collaboration. Modernizing business intelligence Today business intelligence is only used by a fraction of the people that could derive value from it. What we all need is modernized business intelligence which will help …

We just completed Build 2014 last week, and what a show! Between extensive keynotes packed with many important announcements, over 150 breakout sessions, and the channel9 live recordings from the show floor itself, there’s much to digest! Throughout April, then, we’ll help you navigate all the content that’s now available on channel9 at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014. We’ll do this by sorting sessions into related groups so you can more easily find those that are most important for your development work. This week we’ll recap the keynotes, sessions related to the newly-announced Windows Phone 8.1, and sessions that cover how Windows is now spanning a va…

Israel-based TabTale is a world leader in children’s mobile entertainment and education and has repeatedly been featured among the Top 10 on Apple’s iOS global publisher rankings. Serving over 25 million active users globally each month, TabTale recently expanded its proprietary cross platform development engine to support Windows 8 across PCs, phones, and tablets. With titles such as Paint Sparkles, Baby DressUp, and several others, now available on the Windows Stores, TabTale intends to further solidify its leadership position. I caught up with Eran Heres, Vice President of R&D Technologies at TabTale, to discuss their latest focus on Windows and their cross-platfor…

Viraf Gandhi is a Senior Program Manager in the Engineering Partner Experience team in the Operating Systems Group. Windows is a compelling platform in part because it delivers a single development environment for a broad range of hardware, including PCs, embedded devices, Internet of Things (IOT), and system-on-a-chip (SOC). A new Microsoft initiative will soon make it easier to develop and certify Windows drivers using cost-effective boards designed for specific SOC systems. Creating Windows drivers for SOC platforms poses certain challenges. Unlike PCs, which have PCI slots and/or USB ports, SOC systems such as tablets and clamshells use low-power internal bus…

This week at Build, we announced Windows Phone 8.1 and the Visual Studio tooling to build apps for it. With this release, the team brings platform convergence to the Windows developer platform, completing the convergence journey to the top of the stack and making it more accessible to build apps that engage and flow across every Windows screen in a user’s life. As the mobile market continues to mature and evolve, success for the average mobile developer is a challenge – it’s no longer enough to simply be good at coding and churn out an app that has short-term potential. Most users make a decision on an app within their first 15 seconds of use – and that’s pretty harsh. …

With Windows 8.1 Update, we’re pleased to introduce two features for side-loaded Windows Store apps that make it possible to interoperate with desktop processes (apps or local services) outside of the app container. First, is the ability to use network loopback, and second, a brokering mechanism that allows you to mix desktop and Windows Store app code within the same app. Both features are fully described on the Enterprise page of the developer center, from which you can also download two complete white papers and sample code. Continue reading...

Eight months ago we launched Windows Phone App Studio Beta. Over 400,000 of you have used it, including novice developers who have built and published their first app, college professors, who’ve used App Studio to teach app design in the classroom, and experienced developers who are pushing the limits of App Studio by adding extensions in Visual Studio. Your innovations continue to amaze us. The #1 request from the community has been “What about Windows apps?” Today, we relaunched the tool as Windows App Studio Beta. With this release, you can build a universal Windows app project that results in an app for Windows Phone and Windows, all in a single session. Creating a…

This post was authored by Maria Kang, Program Manager, Windows Ecosystem & Frameworks Team Today the source code of the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) is being released under the Apache 2.0 license as an Open Source project by Microsoft Open Technologies (MS Open Tech). The source code is available now on GitHub where you are welcome and we encourage you to try it out, provide feedback, and submit contributions. Additionally, WinJS is taking its first steps to becoming cross-platform by supporting browsers and other devices. Web developers can now take advantage of high-quality controls and infrastructure, and existing WinJS developers can expand thei…