vista/office2007/exchange2007 launch event!

[mustangraven]

I went to the MS launch event yesterday at the albany crowne plaza hotel for Vista, office 2007, exchange server 2007. figured I would post some of the new info I gleened from the event for the MS geeks out there. MS gave each of us a free copy of office 2007 which was nice a tshirt light up pen a pad and one of those goofy synch bag backpack things. not a bad haul for free crap I thought.
The MS speaker was excellent very knowledgable yet not overly technical and very personable. Probably the best tech seminar I have been to. As some of you know that server admin tools pak does not work on vista without hacking the registry and exchange server admin utils just dont wrk on vista period. Being a bit of an antagonist during Q&A I asked him about it and he did not deny it and was upfront and said it was true and that it was being worked on and MS does not recomend admins use vista until those kinks are worked out. Which I thought was very cool. Overall vista has alot of great new features especially nice is the new user permissions engine they are using which means that annoying prompt when you go to install something is actually for a reason. each time something is installed the prompt elevates your permissions by using a split token to do the install which is to prevent malware spyware virii etc etc. there were other nice features also but I dont want to blather on on vista
Office 2007. Looked really nice a big change from 2003 which was basically a rehash of office xp. I asked him about about the issue with access not working with vista also and legacy access apps also being broken. He said a SP is in the works to fix access issues but the other apps are sound. all apps work fine on xp. if you want to play with office 2007 I would recomend it on a xp box for now until the interoporablity issues with vista are sorted out.
exchange 2007. this was the real reason I was at the event! there are alot of new features in exchange 2007 the biggest change is that it will only work in 64 bit configurations bye bye 32 bit exchange. also you can do split installs on the new exchange which allows you to use multiple servers to delegate the exchange tasks which will be really nice to spread the load around a bit. another new feature is the gatway exhage server portion which gives you the ability to put the exchange gateway out side of your domain to do the routing/filtering of emails so nothing gets into your domain at all that you do not want. it looks up mailboxes using a ldap proceedure which is nice (kinda reminded me of some opensource solutions out there to be honest). However you can still do a single exchange server install if you are running a smaller exchange situation. even so I would still recomend an old box to do the gateway machine as it is such a great new feature if done correctly it could seriously reduce spam!

Ok enough geek talk from me just figured I would give you all the straight poop on MS's new venture.

[mikecentola]

I'd definitely like to try out office 2007. Like I said before, though I don't think I'll be running vista for a while, especially for mission critical stuff.

I'm also finding some issues with running xp x64 because there is no firefox for it and there are some other issues with running 64 bit also.

[Pike]

Right on, I was there too! Where you in the morning or afternoon session? I attended the afternoon IT Executive seminiar. What surprised me a little about Vista is that it doesn't introduce anything new, or rather groundbreaking. The search function is well done and seems sensitive enough to find anything and everything. But After 4 years I was expecting some bit more entirely involved with the OS. Aero is nice but it's just cosmetic. But I did appreciate some of the streamlining the did, especially with the Event Viewer. And their addition of XML in the system sounds promising. I also like direction they're taking SharePoint and looking forward to see how 2.0 progresses. Something I may consider heavily on in the near future for training.

Did they show they're "Devil Wears Prada" demo to advertise Exchange? Seems like an interactive voice Exchange Server in essence, pretty badass. They're teleconferencing solution seems pretty interesting too and has market potential considering their asking price.

I haven't installed Office 2k7 either but I can say if and when our client decides to upgrade, they are going to hate it first then completely love it. I really like some of the functions they have improved on; a good majority of tasks that people do here on the regular has now been well adjusted to 2 or 3 clicks as opposed to 8 or more for options deep down in the menus. The Ribbon is an efficient touch and I'm sure a lot of people will appreciate it. Outlook 2k7 now has the ability to display previews for any Office documents and even allows you to scroll through the document. Not too shabby.

[nctarheel1089]

im currently running windows vista, its actually pretty good. its strange now going back to windows xp

[mustangraven]

I went to the morning session. they wanted to put me in the basic session talking about ie7 and office only I told them this is a joke I dont need someone to show me how to use a web browser I was there for the technical information. pop up blocker woohoo my life is complete lol.

[Pike]

Heh nice. At one point the MS rep we had said "By now you all are using IE 7..." The entire room just kinda snickered and laughed quietly heh.

Does anyone know if the 64bit version is on the same disc when purchased?

[mustangraven]

I am thinking I will install office 2k7 on my home machine tonight after I get don doing my chores that is walk the dogs bring in firewood shovel snow etc that is if I dont pass out or die of a heart attack.

[Shawn96VR-4]

Originally Posted by Pike

I also like direction they're taking SharePoint and looking forward to see how 2.0 progresses.

I am glad you mentioned this. I am going down to Tampa for SharePoint training by Microsoft. We are building an application based on SharePoint/C#/ASP .NET. I am not familiar with SharePoint so I have some learning to do.

[mustangraven]

I installed the freebee office 2k7 on my machine last weekend and I have to admit I am really liking it. the new version of exchange is very nice. hope they resolve backwards compatability issues soon with it though.

[mikecentola]

Yeah hopefully I'll be installing office 2007 tonight, if all goes well

[mustangraven]

doh I meant to say the new version of outlook not exchange. the button layout is much much nicer than previous versions important ones are larger and more logically placed etc not to mention it just looks way cooler!