Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2015 - RC

Recently Microsoft released RC for VS2015 and TFS 2015, Refer the links below for more details:

Download Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2015 RC
VM of Visual Studio 2015 RC in Azure
Visual Studio 2015 RC Release notes
TFS 2015 RC Release notes
Visual Studio 2015 RC KB Article
TFS 2015 RC KB Article
 

SQL Server 2014 CTP1

Microsoft has released SQL Server 2014 CTP1 Product Guide. This product guide release represents a significant milestone for customers and partners who want to experience the extensive new value delivered by SQL Server 2014 CTP1.

Download the datasheets, white papers and technical presentations from,
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39269

This will help you evaluate Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP1.

SQL Server 2012 Launch Announcements‏

Hi... Wanted to give you a quick heads-up on news today from Microsoft regarding SQL Server:

Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2012 has released to manufacturing (RTM). Customers and partners can download an evaluation of the product today and can expect general availability to begin on April 1.

Microsoft also disclosed that it will release a new, limited preview of an Apache Hadoop-based service for Microsoft Windows Azure in the first half of 2012. The Apache Hadoop-based service helps you to glean simple, actionable insights from complex data sets hosted in the cloud by optimizing connectivity with SQL Server 2012 and tools such as Excel, PowerPivot, and Power View. Customers interested in signing up for the latest preview should visit this page. 

I also wanted remind you about Today’s SQL Server 2012 virtual launch event.

For more context and information on this news, check out Ted Kummert’s blog post and visit the SQL Server News Center page.

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 CTP

Overview:-
Microsoft Released the CTP version of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (SP3), It is available at, http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27150

The above mentioned link provided the list of packages, which will help you to upgrade any of the following SQL Server 2008 editions:

• Enterprise
• Standard
• Evaluation
• Developer
• Workgroup

SQL Server 2008 SP3 CTP contains the cumulative updates up to SQL Server 2008 SP2 cumulative update package 1 to 4, and fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. These include supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting.

Note: To obtain SQL Server 2008 SP3 CTP for Express Edition or Express Edition with Advanced Services

Visual Studio 2010 Professional Whitepaper

The Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional development system is an integrated environment that simplifies creating, debugging, and deploying applications. Unleash your creativity and bring your vision to life with powerful design surfaces and innovative collaboration methods for developers and designers. Work within a personalized environment by targeting a growing number of platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint and cloud applications, and accelerate the coding process by using your existing skills. Integrated support for test-first development and new debugging tools let you find and fix bugs quickly and easily to ensure high quality solutions.


Download VisualStudio2010Professional_Whitepaper.xps

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit

February Release of the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including:

• C# 4.0
• Visual Basic 10
• F#
• Parallel Extensions
• Windows Communication Foundation
• Windows Workflow
• Windows Presentation Foundation
• ASP.NET 4
• Windows 7
• Entity Framework
• ADO.NET Data Services
• Managed Extensibility Framework
• Visual Studio Team System

This version of the Training Kit works with Visual Studio 2010 RC and .NET Framework 4 RC.

Download VS2010TrainingKitFebruarySetup.exe

Silverlight 4 Training Kit - Download

Microsoft Released "Silverlight 4 Training" Setup kit, Version 1.0.1 and Published on 1/27/2010, It Includes the Following

*. Hands-on-labs

*. A video and

*. A whitepaper

These are all designed to help you learn about the new features in Silverlight 4 focusing on three major areas:

1. Enabling Business Application Development,

2. Empowering Richer Experiences and

3. Moving Beyond the Browser.

Some of the new highly anticipated features includes

*. Printing

*. WebCam and Microphone support

*. custom right-click

*. rich text

*. HTML support and access to local files with trusted applications.

Download Silverlight 4 Training Kit

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit - January Release

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including:

• C# 4.0
• Visual Basic 10
• F#
• Parallel Extensions
• Windows Communication Foundation
• Windows Workflow
• Windows Presentation Foundation
• ASP.NET 4
• Windows 7
• Entity Framework
• ADO.NET Data Services
• Managed Extensibility Framework
• Visual Studio Team System

This version of the Training Kit works with VS 2010 Beta 2 & .NET Framework 4 Beta 2.

Download VS2010TrainingKitJanuarySetup.exe

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate provides an integrated environment of tools and server infrastructure that simplifies the entire application development process. Deliver business results using productive, predictable, customizable processes and increase transparency and traceability throughout the lifecycle with detailed analytics. Whether creating new solutions or enhancing existing applications unleash your creativity with powerful prototyping, architecture and development tools that let you bring your vision to life targeting an increasing number of platforms and technologies including cloud and parallel computing. Realize increased team productivity by utilizing advanced collaboration features and use integrated testing and debugging tools to find and fix bugs quickly and easily ensuring high quality solutions while driving down the cost of solution development.

For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 visit

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/products/2010/default.mspx

This virtual machine does not have anti-virus installed. It should not be connected to any network until it has anti-virus installed. In addition, the operating system and programs installed were patched with all updates as of December 10, 2009.

Download Details:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 Hyper-V Image

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 for Windows Virtual PC Image

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Virtual PC SP1 Image

ASP.NET MVC 2 RC

ASP.NET MVC 2 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).

The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object. The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.

Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5 SP 1, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.

Download AspNetMVC2_RC_VS2008.exe and ASP.NET-MVC-2-RC-Release-Notes.doc

Microsoft Silverlight Release History

The Microsoft Silverlight Release History containing information on each public release of Silverlight.

Download Silverlight Release History file, it contains information of following release:

Build 3.0.40818.0 Released September 1, 2009

Build 3.0.40723.0 Released July 27, 2009

Build 3.0.40624.00 Released July 9, 2009

Build 2.0.40115.00 Released February 18, 2009

Build 2.0.31005.00 Released October 14, 2008

Build 1.0.30715.00 Released July 23, 2008

Build 1.0.30401.00 Released April 4, 2008

Build 1.0.30109.00 Released Jan. 15, 2008

Build 1.0.21115.00 Released Nov. 20, 2007

Build 1.0.20816.00 Released Sept. 4, 2007

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Silverlight GUIDs

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Books Online (July 2009)

SQL Server 2008, the latest release of Microsoft SQL Server, provides a comprehensive data platform. Books Online is the primary documentation for SQL Server 2008.

Books Online includes the following types of information:

Setup and upgrade instructions.

Information about new features and backward compatibility.

Conceptual descriptions of the technologies and features in SQL Server 2008.

Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in SQL Server 2008.

Tutorials that guide you through common tasks.

Reference documentation for the graphical tools, command prompt utilities, programming languages, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are supported by SQL Server 2008.

Descriptions of the sample databases and applications that are available with SQL Server 2008. You can download the sample databases from the SQL Server Community Projects and Samples page on CodePlex.

NOTE: Non-English installs of Books Online may encounter minor issues. To address these issues try rerunning the installation.

Download SQLServer2008_BOLOct2009.msi

ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta

ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta provides a new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 runtime.

ASP.NET MVC 2 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).

The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object. The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.

Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5 SP 1, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.

Download AspNetMVC2_Beta_VS2008.exe and ASP.NET-MVC-2-Beta-Release-Notes.doc

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP

Building on the trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform delivered with SQL Server® 2008, The Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview (CTP) provides a wealth of new improvements that will help your organization scale with confidence, improve IT efficiency, and enable managed self-service BI. This CTP release includes new and enhanced capabilities for application and multi-server management, complex event processing, master data services, and end user reporting. Also introduced is PowerPivot for Microsoft® Excel (previously known as project “Gemini’) to empower users to easily access, integrate, analyze and share information using Microsoft® Office tools they are already familiar with.

Key features in this CTP release include:

• A new Control Point Explorer for central multi-instance and application utilization management.
• Built-in wizards to help you quickly set up and enroll instances and Data-Tier Application components into central management.
• Dashboard viewpoints for quick insight into application and instance utilization.
• Report Builder 3.0
• PowerPivot for Microsoft® Excel
• Master Data Services
• StreamInsight core technology engine.

To read what is new in SQL Server® 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview click here.

Note:

1 ) Some components in the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview have certain Internet-enabled features, including the Customer Experience Improvement Program and Error and Usage Reporting component, enabled by default to help us identify and address issues that you may encounter while using SQL Server®. For more information and instructions on how to disable these features, see the SQL Server® Privacy Statement.

2 ) Some components in the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview have two different methods to complete the installation process:

Attended Installation – an interactive user interface will guide you through the set-up process and obtain all of the information and consent required to complete the installation. This includes the displaying, acknowledgement, and archiving of the applicable SQL Server license terms.

Un-attend Installation – this is a DOS command Line set-up process that does not have an interactive user interface to guide you through the set-up process. In this case, you will be required to enter a parameter during installation that indicates your acceptance of the license terms.

Here is the copy of the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 November CTP license terms for your review.

Download Files

Microsoft .NET Services SDK (Nov 2009 CTP)

Microsoft .NET Services is part of the Azure Services Platform. Microsoft .NET Services includes two services: the Access Control Service and the Service Bus.

This SDK includes API libraries and samples for building connected applications with the .NET platform. It spans the entire spectrum of today’s Internet applications – from rich connected applications with advanced connectivity requirements to Web-style applications that use simple protocols such as HTTP to communicate with the broadest possible range of clients.

Download SDK

MSMQ Activation for WCF Workflow Service Application

This article describes how to set up MSMQ activation for WCF Workflow Service Application hosted in Windows Activation Service (WAS).

In .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010, you can build pure Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, pure Workflow Foundation (WF) applications, or a workflow service, which is a workflow application exposed as a WCF service. The out-of-box messaging activities, e.g. Send and Receive activities, come with implicit WCF endpoints, which can be employed for external communication to the workflow, including WCF activation of the workflow instance when the first message arrives. A workflow service, like any application with a communication component, can benefit from the advantages of queuing technologies. Adding a queue element to application design can improve robustness. The queue can also provide load-balancing support and improve scalability.

Download HowToSetUpMSMQActivation.docx

Microsoft .NET Services SDK (Nov 2009 CTP)

Microsoft .NET Services is part of the Azure Services Platform. Microsoft .NET Services includes two services: the Access Control Service and the Service Bus.

This SDK includes API libraries and samples for building connected applications with the .NET platform. It spans the entire spectrum of today's Internet applications - from rich connected applications with advanced connectivity requirements to Web-style applications that use simple protocols such as HTTP to communicate with the broadest possible range of clients.

Download NetServicesSDK.msi

Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework Feature Community Technology Preview 2

 

This CTP is a an early preview of features that build on top of ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.0 Beta 2 (Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 2).

The features included in this CTP are :

1. Templates for Self-Tracking Entities (N-Tier support)
2. Code-Only Programming Model that allows you to write Entity Data Model based applications without requiring external artifacts

Refer to the Readme and Getting Started for additional instructions.

Download EF4FeatureCTP2.exe

Attend The New Efficiency products interactive session in your city - Register today!

We cordially invite you to experience The New Efficiency The launch of the New Efficiency products from Microsoft – featuring Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010 – is set to boost productivity and reduce management costs in business organisations. But new deployments or migrating from existing infrastructure often becomes a cause of problems if the right tools and strategies are not adopted. You are invited to an exclusive session for IT Professionals on ‘Deploying and Migrating Your Client/Server Infrastructure to Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2’. This session will feature interactive discussions with Microsoft experts about the various tools that you can use to deploy or migrate IT infrastructure. The strategies suggested will cover the entire range of business organisations ranging from few desktops to a large number of servers and clients. Some of the live demos featured will be on Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, User State Migration Tool & Windows Easy Transfer, Application Compatibility Toolkit, Windows Server Migration Tools and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010. Click here to Register now! For More Details, you can call 080 41161412. Event Details City Date Time Coimbatore 03rd Nov 10 am – 1:30 pm Trivandrum 04th Nov 10 am – 1:30 pm Cochin 05th Nov 10 am – 1:30 pm Jaipur 10th Nov 10 am – 1:30 pm Kolkata 25th Nov 10 am – 1:30 pm Chandigarh 01st Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm Chennai 03rd Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm Bhopal 04th Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm Hyderabad 08th Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm Ahmedabad 09th Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm Nagpur 15th Dec 10 am – 1:30 pm SPEAKER PROFILES: M.S. Anand is a Product Technology Specialist (Infrastructure) with Microsoft India. He has interacted with various infrastructure technologies over the past 11 years and has been an Information Architect in various medium and large customers. He is a familiar face at Microsoft Events and is a MCITP Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008. Ranjana Jain is an IT Pro Evangelist with Microsoft India. In her current role, she works closely with online IT communities and is passionate about spreading excitement about the latest in the Microsoft Infrastructure. She conducts regular events and live sessions for the Microsoft SI Partners and online community. Ritu Patney is a Technology Specialist in Windows Client and part of the Microsoft Technical Sales Team for Enterprise & Partner Group. She is a frequent speaker at Microsoft Business and Technical events across India. Ravi Sankar is a Technology Evangelist at Microsoft. He works closely with the IT Pros community in India, helping them learn and adopt cutting-edge server technologies from Microsoft. He is passionate about Security, Virtualization and High performance computing.