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Download Windows 7 Beta

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Microsoft, from Friday (9/Jan/2009), is going to offer download of Windows 7 Beta. Yes, you read that right. The download will be official & legal from Microsoft. Microsoft announced it on Windows Blog. The download is available only for a limited time & is available only for first 2.5 million downloads.

The beta will be available for both x86 & x64 (32 bit & 64 bit) architectures in an ISO file which you’ll need to burn on a DVD. The download is available in five languages- English, German, Hindi, Japanese & Arabic. From these Hindi language ISO will only be available in x86 architecture. The Windows 7 Beta trial will expire on August 2009, which is a very long duration.

The beta can be downloaded from Windows 7 page from Microsoft’s website on 9/Jan/2009, Pacific Time.

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only (we’re not sending out physical media) and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta.

The Windows 7 Beta will be available in English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi, and each language will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (except Hindi which will only be available in 32-bit). Because the Windows 7 Beta will be offered download-only, it will be provided to you as an ISO image (an .iso file) that you download. After downloading either the 32-bit or 64-bit ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta, you will be required to burn the ISO image to a DVD to install Windows 7. So you want to be sure you have a DVD burner before spending the time downloading the ISO image.

– Windows 7 Team Blog

Download Microsoft Virtual TechDays videos

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Microsoft Virtual TechDays held on November 24-26, 2008 is now available for download. You can download the videos and presentations from Virtual TechDays website. These downloads are available free of cost. All you need is a valid MSN/Hotmail/Live ID to register and download them.

 

Topics covered in the online sessions were:

  • Query Tuning with SQL Server
  • Fundamentals of cloud services
  • Introduction to Microsoft Strata
  • Essential Business Server 2008
  • Load Testing in VSTS 2008

 

The next Virtual TechDays sessions will be held on Feb. 18-20, 2009.

Windows Vista: Solution to “System shut down unexpectedly” when resuming from Hibernate

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I was having this problem on my Windows Vista x64 based PC. Hibernation previously worked fine on my system but from some days whenever I switched on my desktop to resume my system from hibernation I got this error: ‘System was shut down unexpectedly’. Hibernation is a very important power saving feature of Windows which is very useful specially for laptop users. I prefer hibernating my desktop too. This error irritated me as I love the hibernation feature of Windows.

I tried switching off the hibernation feature using the ‘powercfg.exe /hibernate off’ command and then switched the hibernation back on by using ‘powercfg.exe /hibernate on’ command (you need to run Command Prompt as an Administrator to run these commands). I also deleted the ‘Hibernation file cleaner’ using disk cleanup and then ran those commands again but it didn’t help. That error was still thrown to me when ever I tried to resume my desktop.

After trying all this I searched for the solution and found something on MSDN forums. I tried those steps and voila! Hibernation started working again. Hibernation stops working because Boot Configuration Data (BCD) stores corrupt information. Here are the steps you need to follow in case the commands mentioned above don’t work for you:

  1. Open up the Start menu and type ‘cmd’ (without quotes) and press ‘Ctrl+Shift+Enter’ keys on the keyboard or go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories. Right click Command Prompt and select ‘Run as Administrator’. Enter your Administrator credentials on the UAC prompt.
  2. Type this in the Command Prompt: ‘bcdedit -enum all’ (without quotes).
  3. From the given output locate this entry- Resume from Hibernate – Identifier {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx} . You’ll see your identifier instead of these xxxxs’.
  4. By using your mouse, right click on the identifier string. Select ‘Mark’ from the menu and then highlight the entire identifier information and then press ‘Enter’ key on the keyboard in order to copy it.
  5. Now type ‘bcdedit /deletevalue’ (without quotes) press ‘Space’ key on the keyboard Right click with mouse and select ‘Paste’ to copy the identfier then press ‘Space’ key again and type ‘inherit’ (without quotes). It should appear like this- bcdedit /deletevalue {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx} inherit. Now press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard.
  6. You’ll shortly see the success message in the command prompt.
  7. Close Command Prompt and restart your PC. HIbernation should now be working.

Microsoft Virtual TechDays are back

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Microsoft Virtual TechDays are back to give you another opportunity to get trained on the latest and in demand Microsoft technologies. You get the opportunity to learn and explore how Microsoft products and tools can help you quickly address your most time-consuming development challenges.

You can:

  • Learn about the latest Microsoft tools and platforms from Microsoft technology experts
  • Learn about how to extend your expertise on technologies that you work on every day
  • Interact with the best-in-class technologists attending the event.

Topics which are to be covered are:

  • Query Tuning with SQL Server
  • Fundamentals of cloud services
  • Introduction to Microsoft Strata
  • Essential Business Server 2008
  • Load Testing in VSTS 2008

You first need to register for this event on the Virtual TechDays website and download Microsoft Live Meeting to join the fellow developers, architects and project managers at this online event on November 24 – 26 from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM.

Free Microsoft Software for Indian Students= FAIL!

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UPDATE (23/Jan/2009)- Microsoft Dreamspark DVDs are now available for students at NIIT institutes as per reports.

Microsoft recently started ‘offering’ free developer software to Indian students. According to Microsoft Dreamspark India website, the students can get the software through two mediums- Downloads and DVD(s). The free developer software that Microsoft is offering are- Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, Microsoft Expression Studio, Visual Studio 2005, XNA Game Studio 2.0, XNA Club Online and some other free express edition software.

The DVD(s), according to the website, can be obtained at no charge from the specified business partners. However, students from various locations spanning across India had something else to report. They said when they visited the partner locations they were not given the DVD. The students were told that they (MS partners) have no information regarding this offer! To verify this, my eligible student friends and I went to a business partner in Ludhiana to get the DVD. The authorities gave us the same answer that they have no information about this offer at the moment.

The Microsoft Dreamspark India website doesn’t have any contact information. I wonder how can a complaint be submitted to Microsoft and why did they start this offer if they cannot provide the DVDs to the eligible students.

Have you got the DVD(s) from Microsoft?

Myth: Windows Vista is a resource hogger when compared to Mac OSX Leopard

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As I noted earlier this week, I’ve begun using a MacBook (the basic white model) and keeping a log of my experiences. Because this system has a mere 1GB of RAM, I was curious to get a sense of how thrifty OS X Leopard is when it comes to memory usage. I was especially curious to see how Leopard compares to Vista. Windows Vista used roughly 2% more than its Mac counterpart running the same set of tasks […]

Read full article on ZdNet