Microsoft rolls out a refreshed Security Essentials, new SQL test builds and more
I'm scrambling to catch up on blogging, after two days of meetings in Redmond with lots of different Microsoft teams. (More from those meetings coming up soon here on the blog. Stay tuned....)
Microsoft has rolled out a number of new test and final builds of all kinds of products in the past day or two. Rather than do individual posts on each, I'm providing a few pointers where you can get more on these various new deliverables:
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE): Microsoft quietly refreshed the beta of MSE, its free "Morro" antivirus/antimalware service that is due to ship in final form before the end of this year. The new beta build, 1.0.1500.0, is was available to current MSE testers via Microsoft Connect. (It sounds like Microsoft may have pulled it from there, based on Ars' story.) The MSE refresh also was released as an optional update on Windows Update yesterday, Ars Technica reported. No word from Microsoft as to what's new in this update, the first it released since delivering the beta of MSE in June.
Windows Live Movie Maker: After several delays and a reset, Microsoft has finally delivered the final Windows Live Movie Maker bits. Microsoft removed this feature -- which allows users to create slide shows and movies -- from Windows a while back and turned it into a Windows Live Service. It is now part of the Live Essentials suite. SQL Azure Database: On August 18, Microsoft rolled out the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of its SQL Azure database. SQL Azure is the product formerly known as SQL Server Data Services and then SQL Data Services. It is a cloud version of SQL Server. Interested testers can apply to be part of the test. Microsoft also released a new CTP of Version 1.1 of its SQL Server Driver for PHP -- a free PHP 5 extension for reading/writing SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Data from PHP scripts.
SQL Server StreamInsight: Microsoft made a test build of this new feature of SQL Server 2008 R2 available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, as well as the general public, this week. StreamInsight is a "low-latency complex event processing platform" for SQL Server that will help users who need real-time analysis of Web analytics, algorithmic trading, industrial process-control and other arenas. Microsoft plans to ship the final SQL Server 2008 R2 release in the first half of 2010. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010: The Release Candidate (RC) test build of MDT 2010 also hit this week. The RC willwork with Windows 7 RTM and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM as well as all previously supported operating systems. The toolkit, formerly known as Business Desktop Deployment, is designed to automate desktop and server deployments of Windows by IT admins.
Anyone see any other interesting Microsoft test builds or final downloads I missed this week?