The most notable difference is a more compact lock screen, sporting smaller, subtler text. Some of the tiles have also been updated with new icons and designs, Outlook and Market place now stand out more on the screen.

The platform has a more complete look in terms of features, and is more responsive than it has been previously. Microsoft has confirmed that it will be giving prototypes to developers ?very soon?.

Announced in February, Windows Phone 7 is the much anticipated successor to Windows Mobile. Microsoft has announced that it will be available by "holiday season 2010", and that they are taking a break from the mobile market until that time. Windows Phone 7 has been built from scratch, the UI has change and so too has the underlying code of the platform.

Security Essentials is a product that is from the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre. This is the core area of research from Microsoft that is dedicated to providing anti malware research and response capabilities for all aspects of Microsoft’s security products.

What does it look like? – Not too bad. It has a very subtle interface that fits in well with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and looks as if it was just meant to be there.

Microsoft Security Essentials Front Screen

What I want to cover very quickly is something that might be of use to any SME with Exchange that has thought about implementing a Highly Available solution. Lets face it, once we heard about clustering.. we all thought.. would that help my business? How difficult is this? and of course.. how much would it cost? No matter what size your business is, email is (for most) absolutley critical and whatever we can do to protect that service from failure is a worthwhile consideration.

Before the advent of HYPER-V, in order to get full redundancy for Exchange Server you would need to have 7 seperate servers. 2 for Active Directory and DNS, 1 For File and print, 2 for Client Access Services and Hub roles and another 2 servers running the mailbox mode in a CCR environment.

Fast forward to today and the exact same level of protection can be delivered with the use of only 3 servers by using Virtualization (Specifically HYPER-V). By anybodys standards thats some kind of improvement.. see the diagram below for the config:

Windows Server operation manager Chrissy House has stated extended support for Windows Server 2000 will end on the 13th July 2010. This announcement comes at the same time as information that Windows Server 2003 will NOT be receiving another service pack. In short, Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003 is the last full service pack and there will NOT be a Service Pack 3 (Presumabley with a view to pushing Server 2008).

As of the 13th July 2010 (The date Server 2000 extended support ends), Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will be moved from their current mainstream support band and into the ‘extended’ support band, thus signalling their end. During ‘extended’ support Microsoft will be providing paid for support issues and also regular windows updates for security related issues

Windows 7 has been available to us in the IT community for a while now in its