- Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta
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Posted by oVan on Saturday, December 06, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft has released standalone versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta in this knowledge base article: KB948465.Download SP2 Beta
SP2 Beta Standalone updates for computers with one or more of the following five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. If your computer has any other language installed this option will not work.
- Windows Update installation of SP2 for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
- Five Language SP2 Standalone:
- ISO for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
- x86 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x86
- x64 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x64
- IA64 for Windows Server 2008 ia64
TechNet Plus SubscribersDownload integrated images, containing the full OS product and SP2 in a single image for clean install or upgrade scenarios
- Install the SP2 Standalone package using the links in Non-Subscribers section
Some more information on these releases:
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is prerelease code offered to the public through our Customer Preview Program. Please see the Windows Server SP2/Windows Vista SP2 Customer Preview Program page on TechNet/MSDN for additional details, documentation, and forums.
Windows Vista SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta apply to people, organizations, and technical enthusiasts who are comfortable evaluating prerelease software. This prerelease software is provided for testing only. Installation of Service Pack 2 Beta will result in Microsoft collecting information about the installation process, even if the installation is not completed. We do not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems. We recommend that you have a backup of your data before you install any prerelease software.
SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new kinds of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Server 2008.
Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta - Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.
Support for Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista SP2 Beta can be received by visiting the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 TechNet forum.Labels: download, Microsoft, Server 2008, Service, SP1, SP2, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista
- First look at CatalystWeb
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Posted by oVan on Thursday, November 22, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
CatalystWeb is a new small business software service that runs in your browser. It provides the functionality of Microsoft Outlook, combined with shared documents and corporate instant messaging. You can read up on the Catalyst launch blog for some background information by Bob Mathew.
The public website has a very clean and professional layout, and explains all functionality and benefits of the CatalystWeb product. The free trial signup process was also quick and easy. You provide a few details (company name, desired username and password, etc), and a minute later you receive a confirmation email with login link.
The initial login process took a bit more time than I anticipated: besides providing administrator credentials, you can set up all the users of your small business here. Even though you can import a user list from CSV, the other screens take too much time for the inpatient user. Luckily you can skip the user setup process altogether and complete it at a later time. In fact, that's what I recommend doing, since you have to setup departments and locations later on anyway.
Once you arrive at the main interface, you'll quickly realize that this application is truly capable of replacing your daily Outlook functionality: it contains features such as personalized views, public distribution lists, public folders for messages and files, you can define master lists for your organization, message templates, etc.
In fact, this web based office is perhaps almost too powerful for at least part of the target audience: I don't think that the very small businesses will use all functionality that is available to them. This is even more true due to it's not so easy interface. Sure, it is very clear and consistent, and help functionality is available. But it lacks discoverable functions, everything is so tidy that you might miss a lot of handy functions just because you don't see them.
Another small issue with the interface is that every action you perform might result in another popup window. At a certain moment you'll have 4 or more popups open, and all start with the same title (your personalised URL) followed by the popup window title. This means that a quick glance at your Windows' taskbar will not help you in finding the right popup.
Anyway, these are all items that can be improved upon, especially since it's a web based service and you don't need to install any software or updates. I'm sure feedback from early adopters will make them fine-tune the interface.
All in all, CatalystWeb is quite a mature product for a freshly released service, and it will definitely provide a lot of functionality you can use in a small business. Initial learning curve may be a bit steeper than what they promise, but that shouldn't hold you back from giving the trial account a try!
Labels: Business, management, Outlook, productivity, Service
- Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Finally Released
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Posted by oVan on Friday, December 15, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsThe long awaited Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 is finally here, so I'm not going to waste your time further... get it here:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 SP1Labels: download, Microsoft, Pack, Service, SP1, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005