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Windows Vista Product Guide

The final version of the Window Vista Product Guide is available for download:

Microsoft XML Notepad 2007

Microsoft has updated their handy, and free, XML editing tool XML Notepad, get it here:

Download Microsoft XML Notepad 2007

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE

Microsoft has released a free add-on to Visual Studio 2005 that supports creating applications for Office 2007.  VSTO is great, Office 2007 is groundbreaking new technology, the two together should be a home run.  Grab the bits and start building solutions! 

Read more here.

Download here.

Time Zone Update for Windows

In March 2007 daylight savings time for the US and Canada will change.  Daylight savings time will start 3 weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March and will end one week later, on the first Sunday in November.  This is going to result in a load of missed appointments and confusion I’m sure, but to help avoid that Microsoft has release updates to Windows to update the time zone data (and to address other reported time zone irregularities). 

Be sure to apply these updates before next March:

Update for Windows XP

Update for Windows XP x64 Edition

Update for Windows Server 2003 package

Update for Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based Systems

Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

Windows Vista includes these time zone changes.

Microsoft KB Article:

2007 time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems

Source via Bink.

Windows Automated Installation Kit Available for Download

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is now available for download on microsoft.com.  This package is a set of tools used for deploying Windows Vista.  Form the site:

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Microsoft Windows Vista™ family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.

Get it here.

It’s great to see that Microsoft is finally making Windows PE publically available (v 2.0 is included in this download) and not just to SA customers.  There are so many great soultions that can be build using Windows PE that have been hampered by obtuse licencing.

Zune has no love for Vista?

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft’s just released Zune digital media player is not compatible with Windows Vista (what?).  Read the posting here.

Is it me or does it seam strange that Microsoft’s two biggest releases this year are not going to work together out of the box? 

I am very familiar with the problem of compatibility with coinciding releases, but this is just on of those cases where Microsoft has to get it right.  I am sure that there will be patches and updates flying very shortly.

PowerShell Downloads

The PowerShell downloads referenced in my earlier post are working now, although you’ll notice that no Vista version of PowerShell is available yet.  This is expected to be posted in the coming weeks.

PowerShell 1.0 Released

Wow, loads of announcements lately, but here’s another biggie coming out of ITForum in Barcelona.  Windows PowerShell 1.0 has been released to web.  Read the PowerShell team blog post here.

Here is a link to the English download:

go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75284&clcid=0×09

The download links on the page do not seam to be working yet, but I am sure that they will shortly.

If you are not familiar with PowerShell visit the PowerShell home here and start digging it’s command-line scripting goodness.

Microsoft Hosts Sysinternals Site

The well known Sysinternals freeware utilities that were developed and previously hosted by Mark Russinovitch and Bryce Cogsworth have now found a home at Microsoft, here is a link to the new site:

Windows Sysinternals Site

There are a couple new things here that are worth mentioning as well.  They have created a new tool named Process Monitor  (not to be confused with Process Explorer)  that combines process status with the capabilities of Filemon and Regmon.   Also, they now have a download link to download the whole bundle of tools together labeled Sysinternals Suite (I don’t think that they had this before)  this saves a lot of time downloading each of the tools individually.  Many of the tools have updates as well.

Several sites have pointed out that there is some irony in the fact that Microsoft is now hosting the BSOD Screensaver.  Do everyone a favor and promise me that you will never put this on a production server “just as a joke”.  I have heard many disastrous stories of admins beginning their server recovery processes because of this.

These tools are essential gear if you are a Windows developer or administrator or even an advanced user…and did I mention that they are freeware!

Sounds Like Vista

Jim Allchin has posted an interesting blog post on The Sounds of Vista follow the link for more.