I'm relaying the following article on behalf of my colleague Shanen Boettcher, General Manager of Windows Product Management for the enterprise.  During Virtualization Briefing Day in January, Shanen posted to give you background on what we're doing to make it simpler and easier to introduce and get the most out of virtualization of Windows in enterprise environments. He's back again today with an update on virtualization, as well as other components that illustrate our commitment to improving the optimized desktop.

This week at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas, we've talked about Microsoft's role in improving the optimized desktop and emphasized Microsoft's commitment to virtualization. I want to tell you about some news coming out of the show today, which includes details on the product roadmaps for specific tools within the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance.

The combination of MDOP and Windows Vista gives customers the tools they need to support more flexible work environments for their users, while making it easier and more efficient to manage and maintain their networks. This is the concept we refer to as the optimized desktop, and many of our customers have the tools to realize the benefits today.  We're responding to the enthusiasm our customers have shown for these products by continuing to improve upon them and roll out new updates in real time. Following are the updates you'll be seeing in the most immediate future:

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5: Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Release Candidate 1 is scheduled for June 2008 and will be made available to customers on Microsoft Connect. As customers begin to take advantage of the benefits of virtualization, we've seen a growing interest in Microsoft Application Virtualization. Over 7,000 customers have already downloaded the beta.

Asset Inventory Service (AIS) 1.5: AIS 1.5 is scheduled to be released to the web in Q3 2008. AIS 1.5 will add license reconciliation, System Center Configuration Manager integration and scalability enhancements. 

Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 3.0: AGPM 3.0 will be available for all customers in Q3 2008. AGPM 3.0 will provide Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 support (x86 and x64), globalization, more flexible security, enhanced reporting and an enhanced UI. 

We also announced today that for very first time we will be extending MDOP to languages beyond English. We plan to release localized versions of Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 6.0 and Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) 3.0 SP1 in ten languages in Q3 2008. AGPM and Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 will follow toward the end of 2008. Based on direct customer feedback from the international community, we plan to localize MDOP into the ten following languages:

• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
• German
• French
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish

As a follow up on our Virtualization Briefing Day announcement regarding Microsoft and Citrix's expanded alliance, I wanted to tell you about some progress we're making toward a joint VDI solution that will be available for production usage later this year. This turn-key offering combines the brokering and user experience components of Citrix XenDesktop, with the Microsoft hardware virtualization, application virtualization and virtualization management technologies.  Citrix XenDesktop has the capability to create Windows Vista images for specific users from a shared base image and significantly reduces the TCO of this solution relative to today's static deployments.

In separate but related news during Day 2 of MMS, Microsoft announced System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is a solution that comprehensively assesses, deploys and updates servers, clients, and devices - across physical, virtual, distributed and mobile environments. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, which will be available May 27^th, will provide further support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. Additionally, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 provides deeper management of the hardware. There is a new, attached service-based connection for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 that ensures accurate insight to the network landscape including support for Microsoft Application Virtualization applications.  

The System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 release natively integrates Microsoft Application Virtualization distribution and streaming technology into the Configuration Manager infrastructure to work even better with Application Virtualization within MDOP. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 will be available to customers in Q3 CY2008.

You may recall that earlier this month, Chris Flores announced the Microsoft Desktop Optimization (MDOP) Pack 2008 - a set of tools designed to make it easier for IT Pros to deploy and manage Windows Vista in their organizations. This, along with many of the solutions we're talking at MMS about today - provides IT Pros with an excellent set of tools for their IT environment and their Windows PCs.

For more information on news coming out of MMS this week, check out the Virtual Press Room.

-- Shanen

With the recent update of the Product Search experience (http://search.live.com/products/), users can both research and find deals on products within Live Search. We’ve incorporated feedback from our users during the beta cycle and revamped the user experience, so now users can search and refine products by user opinions, brand, category, and price ranges. In addition, users can sort results by best user, expert rating, and price. Try it out, and send us your feedback!

Here are highlights of our product search experience:

• One stop to research product details and find good prices  You see an image and description for each product, reviews from other users, prices to help you find good deals, and spec sheets for many products.


• Feature-based refinements  See which products are reviewed positively or negatively for the features that interest you. View product features such as screen size, battery life, ease of use, and portability.


• Sorting  Sort product results by user ratings, expert ratings, and price.


• Filtering  Filter product results by specific brands, categories, and price ranges.


• Richer product details  Read expert reviews and a spec sheet describing the product.

In the example below, you can view both positive and negative feedback on the Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS receiver. You can click Ease of Use above the green bar to read actual user comments specifically about Ease of Use. This makes it really easy to parse long user reviews to find exactly what you’re looking for. Learn more about summarizing user reviews in our previous post here.

Instant answers  In addition to the Product Search update, we’ve improved Product instant answers in web search for broader product queries like GPS, digital cameras, plasma tv, where your intent is research. The instant answer provides guides (we now have a larger selection) and user and expert reviews.

Try different product searches in web search and give us your feedback by clicking Is this Useful?

More to come  We’re excited to bring you these new Product search features, and we have a lot more planned in the coming months. In the meantime, try out a few searches like gps systems, mp3 players, and cell phones, and let us know what you think by using the Feedback link!

The Live Product Search team

We’ve just released the latest updates to our browser-based mobile search at m.live.com. One of our major efforts was to bring the power of product search to the convenience of a mobile phone. Think about how much time people spend shopping in brick-and-mortar stores â€” without the ability to do the product research they’re accustomed to from their PCs.

We took the great product search features from Live Search and made them easy to use on your mobile phone.

You’ll see a list of popular products, user ratings, and price comparisons from online stores.

You can also research products by reading a detailed overview or consumer reviews.

We even include feature ratings that are created by extracting the key elements of user reviews from across the Web.

Now the next time a consumer electronics device catches your eye in a store, you’ll be able to get the detailed rundown on its performance, read the consensus wisdom of the Web, compare it with similar products, and even make sure it’s being offered for a good price â€” all before you make that impulse buy. Now you can spend wisely, wherever you are.

Another of our favorite features this release was developed specifically for our friends abroad â€” those in the United Kingdom and Japan. Searching for nearby businesses is one of the most popular and most valued types of mobile search today. But most existing browser-based search services require the user to first type in their location â€” easy if you’re always in the same place, but a chore when you’re out and about, and a real challenge if you don’t know exactly where you are.

With this new feature, users can simply click Find my Location, and their location will be set based on their proximity to cellular towers. Then they can get the most relevant nearby results for all their searches.

Let us know what you think! You can send feedback to lsmbfeed@microsoft.com.

The Live Search Mobile team

You wanted it, and now you have it. We’ve incorporated RSS feeds into the browse and search results experience. Subscribe and stay up to date with stories from all categories or for specific searches that you perform. We appreciate all the feedback that you’ve given us. We take it all seriously and do our best to respond.

Try us out (http://news.live.com/), and keep the feedback coming!

The News Search team

Those of you who search for stuff related to celebrities in your spare time raise your hands.

C’mon now, don’t be sheepish about it â€” we know the numbers, and we know you do it because we do it, too. Here’s a thought. What if we could rank who you and all other Live Searchers like to search for?

And then there was born a child unlike its siblings, a Live Search feature whose sole purpose was to be â€” gasp â€” FUN?! Check it out here.

Here are a few of the key things I want to point out:

• The xRank^TM list that is based on search volume. Honest, we’re not making this up… I don’t even like Lil Wayne that much.


• A list for what we call “Top Movers” â€” celebs that are making strides up the ranks.


• Recent news articles on buzz-worthy celebs.


• A historical xRank^TM graph that tracks popularity over time (my personal fave).


• Links to Images, Video, Biography, plus Albums and Movies.


• Related Celebrity thumbnails that link to other xRank^TM pages.

Everyone’s xRank^TM is updated several times a day to make sure we’re up to speed. Check in often!

This is still in beta, with more improvements to come. What we have now serves its purpose, but we’re all about “souping” this baby up with more features. Let us know what you think we can do to improve, especially if there is someone you think we missed.

Try it out now and lose yourself for a while.

Andy Lam, Program Manager, Live Search

We're excited about the progress we've made with Windows Vista Service Pack 1.  On March 18th, Windows Vista SP1 was made available for customers who chose to manually download and install it from the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.  Last week, we made the remaining languages available - giving WU users the ability to download and install Windows Vista Service Pack in any of 36 supported languages.  Today, we're happy to announce that we are beginning automatic distribution of SP1 in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. 

So what does this mean? Over the next few months Microsoft will automatically distribute Windows Vista SP1 to PCs that have automatic updates turned on (Learn how to turn on automatic updating) and running English, French, German, Spanish, or Japanese via Windows Update. Automatic distribution will only occur, according to user settings, on PCs ready for SP1. After Windows Vista SP1 downloads, WU will let you know that "new updates are available." You'll then be asked to make a few clicks before the installation of SP1 will begin. 

While we're beginning automatic distribution today, you might not see it right away since the distribution process is very gradual.  As I called out on April 7th, we'll be distributing the service pack slowly so that we can help Windows users have a good experience. 

As I posted above, we made the remaining languages of SP1 available for manual install on the Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update last week.  We'd like to let those of you running one of those languages that we'll plan to start automatic distribution of those languages sometime in mid-May.

We hope you enjoy the many improvements that have been made in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and are excited to start automatic distribution so more of you can begin experiencing the benefits.

We have made available updated Language Packs for users using Windows Vista SP1 as well as those running Windows Vista RTM. For those running SP1, the Language Packs should be showing up for you under Windows Update. The specific language packs which are being released are as follows:

• German
• English
• Spanish
• French
• Japanese
• Korean
• Bulgarian
• Czech
• Danish
• Greek
• Estonian
• Finnish
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Lithuanian
• Latvian
• Norwegian
• Dutch
• Polish
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Romanian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Swedish
• Arabic
• Hebrew
• Croatian
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Serbian (Latin)
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Russian

For more information on the Language Packs, click here.

If you're running Windows Vista Ultimate and noticed two new Ultimate Extras have shown up on Windows Update - don't worry, your eyes do not deceive! Today we released two new Ultimate Extras: Windows Sound Schemes and Windows DreamScene Content Pack #3.

Windows Sound Schemes is a pack of 2 new sound schemes for Windows Vista: Glass and Pearl. For more details on the Windows Sound Schemes - click here. Brandon tells me his favorite sound scheme is the Glass scheme.  

Windows DreamScene Content Pack #3 brings you 3 new DreamScenes for your Windows Vista desktop. For more information on Windows DreamScene - click here. Here is a small preview of the new DreamScenes in Content Pack #3:

And be sure you keep your eyes on UltimatePC.com for more Ultimate Extra news in future as well as hot Ultimate Exclusives for Windows Vista Ultimate users.

When we were thinking about what searches we could improve on for this release, one thing we realized was that we actually were already getting a lot of searches right. A bunch of these were searches about a particular website you wanted. We returned the website, and you went there. Good times.

But you didn’t stay there. We did some research, and it turns out that after you made it to that page, you often tended to go to a few predictable places afterwards. When you searched for CBS you weren’t just hanging out on the homepage, you were going off to check out the page for the Late Show with David Letterman. When you searched for King County you were often going to eventually make your way to their Trip Planner.

Since we knew that there was a lot of extra navigation going on, we figured that we should save you the extra clicks. So we did.

Enjoy!

Kemp Peterson, Program Manager, Live Search

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