A new version of Windows Desktop Search has just been released - Windows Search 4.0 Preview. (The "preview" part means it's still being tested out, sort of like "beta.") For those of you who don't know, Windows Search is the desktop search feature that is built into Windows Vista, but you don't have to be running Vista to take advantage of Windows Search - you can run it in XP, too.

This latest update is a significant release, with many features designed for enterprise users. However, there are new features that will benefit everyone, like the speed increase (33% faster!), its ability to index encrypted files, and Remote Index Discovery, which means it can index all the Windows machines on your network, no matter what version of Windows they are running.

Other improvements include:

• Bug fixes - most of the reported bugs seen since Windows Vista RTM have been fixed.
• Rollback Recovery - your search index will roll back to the last known good state if an error occurs instead of being rebuilt from scratch.
• Windows software updates for Watson errors
• Faster previewer updates for Windows XP

For IT Professionals specifically, important new features include:

• Improved performance when indexing Exchange in online mode - less packets and less RPC calls are made, which means less load on the server. Plus, no local cache (.ost)
• Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
• Support for Group Policy settings (Search.adm/Search.admx) has been extended and improved, including per-user policies.
• An add-in for indexing redirected "My Documents" files (32-bit)

Here's where you can get it:

• Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008
• Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 64-bit
• Windows XP
• Windows XP 64-bit
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2003 64-bit

VIA Channel 10

There is so much video content across the Microsoft network, it only makes sense to aggregate that content into one area of the site to make finding videos even easier. Announced at MIX08, the Microsoft Video Portal will do just that. On this Silverlight-powered site, you'll be able to scan "Quick Picks" for the newest videos, browse by category, or search for videos by keyword(s). You'll also be able to share videos with friends or link to the video on your web site or blog. The site is currently available at http://preview.microsoft.com/video/, but there isn't much you can do there now, besides bookmark it for later, but the wait won't be too long, as it will be launching sometime in April.

VIA: Channel 10

This is the first release of prescriptive guidance modules for WCF Security. 

How Tos
Our How Tos give you step by step instructions for performing key tasks:

• How To - Create and Install Temporary Certificates in WCF for Message Security During Development
• How To - Create and Install Temporary Certificates in WCF for Transport Security During Development
• How To - Impersonate the Original Caller in WCF calling from Web Application
• How To - Impersonate the Original Caller in WCF calling from Windows Forms
• How To - Use netTcpBinding with Windows Authentication and Transport Security in WCF from Windows Forms
• How To - Use SQL Role Provider with Username Authentication in WCF from Windows Forms
• How To - Use SQL Role Provider with Windows Authentication in WCF from Windows Forms
• How To - Use Username Authentication with the SQL Membership Provider and Message Security in WCF from Windows Forms
• How To - Use WsHttpBinding with Windows Authentication and Message Security in WCF from Windows Forms
• How To - Use wsHttpBinding with Windows Authentication and Transport Security in WCF calling from Windows Forms

Videos
Our videos step you visually through key guidance:

• Video: How To - Host WCF in a Windows Service
• Video: How To - Impersonate the Original Caller in WCF calling from a Windows Form
• Video: How To - Use basicHttpBinding with Client certificate in WCF from Windows Forms
• Video: How To - Use netTcpBinding with Windows Authentication and Message Security
• Video: How To - Use SQL Role Provider with Username Authentication in WCF calling from Windows Forms
• Video: How To - Use WsHttpBinding with Certificate Authentication with Message Security
• Video: How To - Use WsHttpBinding with Windows Authentication with Message Security

About WCF
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a service-oriented platform for building and consuming secure, reliable, and transacted services.  It unifies the programming models for ASMX, Enterprise services and .NET Remoting.  It supports multiple protocols including named pipes, TCP, HTTP, and MSMQ.  WCF promotes loose coupling, supports interoperability, and encapsulates the latest web service standards.  With WCF, you get flexibility in choosing protocol, message encoding formats, and hosting.   For more information, see the MSDN WCF Developer Center.

About the Project
WCF provides a lot of options and flexibility.  The goal of our patterns & practices WCF Security Guidance Project is to find the key combinations of security practices for WCF that work for customers and share them more broadly.  At a high-level, you can think of the project in terms of these main buckets:

• Application Scenarios - These are whiteboard solutions for common end-to-end application scenarios.
• How Tos - These are step-by-step instructions for performing key end-to-end tasks.
• Building Codes - These are our sets of rules and practices.  This includes Guidelines, Checklists, and Practices at a Glance.
• Reference - This includes Explained, Cheat Sheets, and Q&A guidance.

The plan is to incrementally share our guidance modules on CodePlex as we go, then build a guide, then port the guidance to MSDN once it's baked.

VIA : J.D. Meier's Blog

Microsoft EDC
EDC 2008 is the biggest Developers Conference of the year in Egypt, and is a critical event for any developer who wants to see the newest as well as the next-generation technology. EDC is full of sessions and activities that help you to learn the current and the future of the Microsoft Platform and get to know people who are as passionate about software as you are.

Benefits of Attending EDC 2008
Egyptian Developer Conference is designed to help those who build, deploy, or operate solutions based on Microsoft technologies. It helps professional developers, designers, analysts and architects to learn the capabilities and the possibilities with the current Microsoft .Net Platform. It also helps technology managers evaluate the range of technologies to consider for the future growth and management of their ongoing IT systems needs and requirements.

Who should attend
Whether you are an amateur developer, a "code-guru" or anything in between, you need to be at the biggest developer conference in the region. Code developers, webmasters, web designers, infrastructure architects, applications & database developers, hobbyists or just plain geeks: If your job title has even a passing resemblance to any of these, be sure to be there. This developer conference is your window into the future of the Microsoft platform and the software industry as a whole. After the event, you'll be more informed, more skilled, and more inspired than ever before.
Hurrrry up registration is limited...
Registration: http://www.edc2008.com/Register.aspx
Agenda: http://www.edc2008.com/Agenda.aspx

VIA : FCI-H Blog

This white paper outlines how to use Visual Studio Team System for successful requirements management using Visual Studio Team System 2005 or Visual Studio Team System 2008. In addition, you can use this paper to learn about some of the challenges that Microsoft intends to address in the next release: Visual Studio Team System code name “Rosario.”

Download

We have released a new version of the VSTS Light Weight Scrum Process Template, version 2.1, for Orcas. Refer to http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSScrum/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=11972 for details.

Thanks to Mike, we will shortly release a version that will work with the Project Server connector. Watch this space ...

VIA : Willy's Blog

Some tips posted by John W Powell about how to increase your development productivity using Visual Studio 2008.

[Update] They are aslo can be applied to Visual Studio 2005 except Auto-Implement Properties

• Learn Key Bindings

• Generate XML Comments with GhostDoc

• Auto-Implement Properties

• Refactor

• Add Commands to Visual Studio 2008

• Speed up Compilation with Project Configuration

• Let Visual Studio Generate Unit Test Code

• Use Interface-Driven-Design

• Make a Mockery of Dependencies

• Data Drive Unit Tests

Read full article Here

VIA Channel 10

Most people on installing .NET 3.5 on the server "expect" an entry for  v3.5 under the ASP.NET version Tab in IIS manager. And not finding that entry start panicking. If you have been one of those read on. The more tech savvy folks try to run aspnet_regiis -i from the v3.5 framework folder... but even that is missing :)

That brings us to the question

What exactly is ASP.NET 3.5 ?

Read the answer + Full article @ Vijayshinva Karnure's Blog

A list of free on-line courses from Microsoft provided by US ISV Developer Evangelism Team

Collection 5134: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio 2005
Collection 6261: Developing Rich Experiences using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
Clinic 5135 : Introduction to Developing with Windows Presentation Foundation and Visual Studio 2005
Clinic 6262: Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008
Clinic 5230 : Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX Extensions
Clinic 5045: Inside Look at Developing with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 Clinic 5046: Inside Look at Building and Developing Solutions with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007
Clinic 5136 : Introduction to Developing with Windows Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio 2005
Clinic 5137: Introduction to Developing with Windows Communication Foundation and Visual Studio 2005
Clinic 6263: Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
Clinic 6264: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
Clinic 2806: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers
Clinic 2807: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers II
Clinic 2954: First Look: Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006 for Developers

Source : US ISV Developer Evangelism Team