In The Know - Charles Van Heusen's Weblog

Windows Vista Enterprise Licenses available for Certified and Gold Certified Partner Usage!

I'm pleased to announce that Windows Vista® Enterprise will now be available to Certified and Gold Certified Partners for use within their businesses for internal and demonstrations to their customers.  This has been a Partner request since Microsoft launched Vista and their subscriptions provided Windows Vista® Business as the only option.

Special thanks is in order for Ken Lince from the Microsoft Delta Force Team, Eva Skidmore from the US Partner Group, and the many other for the Microsoft Partner Program that helped get this approved.   For those of you that are Microsoft Action Pack subscribers, I've already asked when we might see this rolled down to our subscriptions so bear with me.

Here is a list of a couple quick FAQs about the availability and licensing of the Windows Vista® Enterprise product.

In November, Gold Certified and Certified Partners will have license entitlement to Windows Vista® Enterprise for internal use and demonstration. (https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40036225)

Partners may install and activate Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise using the Windows Vista Business & Enterprise Editions Multiple Activation Key (MAK) located on the Partner Membership Center. (screen shot next slide)

Windows Vista Enterprise media was previously shipped to them in the program toolkit/welcome kit or may be accessed from the MSDN download center. https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40049043

The total internal use licenses for Business & Enterprise editions may not exceed the Windows Vista Business & Enterprise Editions grants listed on the licensing page at:

https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40029254

Available Resources: if partners require assistance installing or activating Windows Vista Enterprise or have questions, please direct partners to the Windows Vista Activation Guide in the November program toolkit or to visit https://partner.microsoft.com/vistaactivationguide for the Windows Vista Activation Guide, FAQ, and other valuable resources.

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Dynamics CRM Partner Launch Briefings - Webcast Series Coming Up

As we encroach upon the start of the Partner Readiness Tour for Dynamics CRM, there are two webcasts for the partner community to get you excited and up to speed on our US customer launch plans.  We will provide partners with direction and details on how to engage in the upcoming Dynamics CRM 4.0 Launch in 2008.. There is one webcast focused on ISVs and another focused on our VARs and SIs. You may have seen these webcasts announced in the CRM Partner Insights newsletter last week.

If you'd like to be in the know and be prepared to field questions from your customers on the upcoming products, I recommend that you sign up for these webcasts to get a jump start on your readiness!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Launch Tour 2008 – ISV Opportunities

Nov 30, 2007 11:00 AM Pacific

Attend this Live Meeting to get an overview of the U.S. Dynamics CRM 4.0 launch and find out more about the opportunities for engagement for ISV partners including sponsorships for the 2008 Launch Tour.

http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=8758

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Launch Tour 2008 – VAR Opportunities

Dec 4, 2007 11:00 AM Pacific
Attend this Live Meeting to get an overview of the U.S. Dynamics CRM 4.0 launch and find out more about the opportunities for engagement for Value Added Resellers and Systems Integration partners.

http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=8759

Watch out iPOD, Zunes are on the rise!

It's evident that the new Zune 2 series are a hot commodity and the discounted prices on the Zune v1. 30 gb units is being well received.

Here is some of the latest news on the wire about the Zune and the holiday weekend.

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)

A Zune media player is the top-selling digital musical device on Amazon.com, outselling Apple. Inc.'s iPod for the No. 1 ranking.

On Monday morning, Microsoft Corp.'s heavily discounted, 30-gigabyte, $134 Zune digital media player was ranked the No. 1 bestseller in the Seattle online retailer's (NASDAQ: AMZN) list of top-selling MP3 players in the "Electronics" category.

Apple's four-gigabyte iPod Nano was No. 2, followed by Apple's 80-gigabyte iPod "classic" at No. 3.

Last week, the Redmond computer giant (NASDAQ: MSFT) introduced a new 80-gigabyte Zune player, but they're hard to find. Amazon's site on Monday said they're "temporarily out of stock" and no future shipping date was listed. Microsoft's own Zune site said the 80-gigabyte player can't be ordered until "early December."

I just read an article at ABC news that claimed the Zune 80 was the most sought after gadget on black Friday!

http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/section/Technology/3913285_5 

Welcome to the New Windows Live

I thought I'd share the news that was released to us today by Senior Vice President Steve Berkowitz on the announcement of the New Windows Live Services.

Today we launched the next generation of Windows Live, marking a major step forward in establishing Microsoft as the leader in software and services for consumers around the world.  This release is the first time we have brought an integrated suite of Windows Live products and services to market at the same time, making it easy for customers to connect and share anywhere.

Windows Live has a solid foundation of over 400 million customers worldwide.  With this launch, we have a huge opportunity to win new customers, especially as we showcase the way Windows Vista and Windows Live work together.  Windows Live represents a great upgrade for the Windows experience that 1 billion people around the world enjoy every day.  Our integrated approach combined with the power of software plus services create a compelling reason for customers to choose Windows Live.  One experience that really shines in this release is photos – capturing, managing, and most importantly, sharing photos. 

To underscore our great new photo sharing capabilities, the launch was highlighted by a special “Share a Smile” event held in New York and Los Angeles.  This event featured a seven story sphere of smile photos shared by people around the world, including Microsoft employees.  As part of this event, Microsoft will make a donation to Operation Smile to help children around the world overcome facial deformities.  The more smiles shared and viewed using Windows Live, the larger our donation.

Donald Trump Jr,. Kevin Johnson and Billy Bush shown as Microsoft and Operation Smile announce a partnership to help repair children's smiles around the world at the South Street Seaport in New York City, November 6, 2007.

I encourage all of you to try this new release by visiting www.windowslive.com and start using Windows Live to share photos, communicate with your friends and family, as well as help protect your PCs and your family while on-line.  As you start to use the product, I am confident you will become an advocate for Windows Live and help us spread the word to everyone you know about this great new release.

Here are just a few of the great new capabilities in this release of Windows Live:

• Now you can post your photos to Flickr in addition to Windows Live Spaces directly from inside Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Going on vacation and want to let your friends and family know?  Set up a vacation auto-reply in Windows Live Hotmail
• Use the unified contacts for all your communications in Windows Live, including pictures and gleam notifications in Windows Live Messenger to keep up with updates from your contacts on Windows Live Spaces

Automatically rotate and group your photos by time when you import them using Windows Live Photo Gallery

Windows Live Writer lets you work off-line and easily add maps, videos, pictures, and more to your blog

Keep all your e-mail in one place using Windows Live Mail

Use Windows Live OneCare Family Safety to keep track of your what children are doing on-line

Set up your events, manage invitations, and collect photos from everyone using Windows Live Events

And that’s just the start!  Find out more details about everything listed above and some of the other amazing things you can do by visiting the Windows Live Wire Space and then go install the product by visiting www.windowslive.com.  You’ll also want to make sure you and your friends and family are one of the first to get a new, additional “@live.*” Windows Live ID too.

As you become a passionate enthusiast, I invite you to join the Windows Champion program, an exciting advocacy initiative the Windows BG is kicking off in early December encouraging all FTEs to become Windows Vista and Windows Live champions in online consumer communities reaching parents and digital enthusiasts.  Stay tuned for more detail as this program rolls out across Microsoft. 

Finally, I would personally like to thank the entire engineering organization – Windows Live Experience, Windows Live Platform, Mobile Services, and all the other contributing teams – for building such a great product.  I would also like to thank Brian Hall and his product management and marketing team for a successful launch in partnership with many teams around the company, including MSN.

Thanks,

Steve

P.S.  If you have feedback about the product, please use feedback.live.com and let us know.