Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

For those of you that are like me and tie your Hotmail account to Outlook, the Outlook connector has been a good friend. Recently, Microsoft has released version 14.0 to replace version 12.1 The newly released Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 is compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010. I have a new post up on the Toolbox for IT website titled Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 Tutorial Walk-through that will walk you through the steps you need to take in order to install or upgrade to a newer version of the Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector. As always, I’m interested in your feedback so feel free to drop me a note and let me know your thoughts.

With all of the enhancements that Windows 7 offers over Windows XP there are a number of netbook owners that are interested in migrating their systems to Windows 7. Because of the hardware demands of Windows Vista, netbooks had been primarily released running Windows XP. Once Windows 7 came on the scene, Windows 7 Starter Edition had been made available for use (primarily) on these systems. I have a new post up on the Toolbox for IT website titled Windows 7 Starter Edition Netbook Installation that will walk you through the steps you need to take in order to prepare media for a Windows 7 Starter Edition Netbook Installation by using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. As always, I’m interested in your feedback so feel free to drop me a note and let me know your thoughts.

Hi gang – I’m back. I’ve been on hiatus for the past month Saving Wallingford’s Fireworks . They’re saved and now I can get back to doing some technology blogging. I’ll be at TechEd North America 2010 in New Orleans in a week as well; I am sure I’ll have some things to post from there. As an MCT, I am going to be helping out at the Hands-on-Lab (HOL) area. If you’re going to be there feel free to stop by and say “hi”.

As posted on the IT World Open Exchange website , IT professionals that are subscribers to MSDN and TechNet are going to be able to get their hands on the Office 2010 RTM (release to manufacturing) bits on Thursday April 22nd. Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscribers will be able to download the RTM bits of the different versions of Office 2010 five days before volume license customers with Software Assurance will be able to. End consumers will have to wait until June for retail copies to be available. This is just one of the many benefits of the Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscription programs. For the full details please see the MSDN, TechNet get Office 2010 this week posting at the IT World Open Exchange website For more information on the different TechNet Plus Subscription Offerings please see the Microsoft TechNet Plus Subscription Offerings website For more information on the different MSDN Subscriptions that are available please see the Compa...

The Microsoft Store website has been updated to offer users the chance to pre-order Office 2010. Office Home and Student 2010 is showing as retailing on the site for $149.99 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Office 2010 is expected to be generally available in June of 2010. I have a post up over on my Toolbox for IT blog that outlines some of the system specifications and requirements for this upcoming release of Office 2010. Please see Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 - System Requirements

The Microsoft Store website has been updated to offer users the chance to pre-order Office 2010. Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, is planned to announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST . Office Home and Student 2010 is showing as retailing on the site for $149.99 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Office Home and Business 2010 is showing as retailing on the site for $279.99 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote as well and  will also include Outlook. Office Professional 2010 is showing as retailing on the site for $499 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook and will also include Publisher and Access. Office 2010 is expected to be generally available in June of 2010.

The Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer is a free tool available for download from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/sam/en/us/msia.aspx that can help you with your software inventory. The current release of MSIA (5.1) will allow an administrator to scan and inventory all of the Microsoft software that is installed on a single system or across multiple systems (up to 250 systems in total). The tool can then generate a report that will show the details of all installed Microsoft products, including the type and the number of licenses. The tool can be used to identify and report all installed Microsoft products listed under Add or Remove Programs and it can c onsolidate the MSIA report with the Microsoft Licensing Statement (MLS) report (in .xls format). Downloads for MSIA 5.1 are available as shown below: View the MSIA online User's Manual View the MSIA Frequently Asked Questions View the logon script View the read me file ...