August, 2011

Microsoft has released updates to the Windows Azure toolkits for Windows Phone and iOS (i.e., iPhone & iPad) this week, as well as offered a new toolkit: the Windows Azure Toolkit for Android . You can find much more information in the following posts...( read more ) ...read more

Greetings! This post describes another of our recent Best Practices books for developers: Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises , by Roger Sessions. (The book’s ISBN is 9780735625784, and its length is a simple 208 pages.) Roger’s...( read more ) ...read more

Securing Windows 7 and Internet Explorer Presented by Mike Halsey Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 10 PT, San Francisco In this webcast, Mike Halsey MVP, the author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out will describe what to look for to keep yourself...( read more ) ...read more

MCITP Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator: Training Kit 3-Pack: Exams 70-640, 70-642, 70-646 Prep in-depth for the MCITP: Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator certification exams 70-640, 70-642, and 70-646 -- and build real-world skills. Get...( read more ) ...read more

Greetings. Here’s a little treat for the weekend: two complete sample chapters, plus the complete Table of Contents, from Windows Sysinternals Administrator’s Reference , just published by Mark Russinovich and Aaron Margosis . Chapter 7, “Process and...( read more ) ...read more

We’re happy to announce the arrival of Working with Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (ISBN 9780735656703; 408 pages) by Charlie Russel, Sharon Crawford, and Andrew Edney. The book is designed to get you up and running quickly with the new...( read more ) ...read more

Microsoft Press is thrilled to be working with Ken Schwaber again! Ken will be writing a third book, titled Agile Product Management, in our Best Practices series. This book will describe how to rapidly take advantage of software development opportunities...( read more ) ...read more

In case you missed it, check out Todd Brix’s “ Marketplace & Tools Open for Mango App Submission ” post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog. Here’s the opening of the post: We promised in late July that August would bring another round of developer...( read more ) ...read more

Take a look at Scott Hanselman’s recent post, How to REALLY hurt yourself with PSEXEC - Deleting the Undeletable Registry Key and More . And now take a look at our recently published Sysinternals book , by Mark Russinovich and Aaron Margosis...( read more ) ...read more

Everybody, in our long stream of “New book” posts since we launched our blog in January 2009, in which we describe over 130 books we’ve published in the last couple of years, we apparently missed a book: Solid Code   (ISBN: 9780735625921; 352 pages), by Donis Marshall and John Bruno. Well, better late than never, I suppose! About Donis Marshall and John Bruno Donis Marshall has 20 years of experience as a developer and instructor, with an in-depth background on Microsoft .NET technologies. His firm promotes an entirely Web-based debugger for Windows applications. In addition to training and consulting, Donis has written several books, including Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2008: The Language and .NET Security Programming . John Bruno is a Microsoft senior program manager with 10 years ...read more

The Office 365 Small Business Revolution! Presented by Jaime Velez Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:00PM PT In this presentation Jaime Velez will introduce Small and Midsize Businesses to Office 365, its main capabilities, and will discuss the real business value behind this revolutionary service provided by Microsoft. ...read more

We are very excited to announce that we are able to offer  Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime (ISBN 9780735656949), by Katherine Murray, as a free eBook . For details on this book, including the Table of Contents , see our previous blog post here . To download your free PDF eBook, click here . Updates to this eBook, as well as additional eBook formats, will become available in the future, so check this blog for updates.   Introduction (excerpt) Let’s hear it for freedom. Freedom from your desk. Freedom from those ­boring managers’ meetings. Freedom to work anywhere, with anyone, anytime, on almost any device. Sounds good, right? Office 365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing. Using the various programs in Office 365, you ...read more

Register Now https://www.eventbuilder.com/microsoft/event_desc.asp?p_event=m58m12c5 Dates: August 23-24, 2011 Time: 8:00am – 4:00pm PST Duration: 8 hours/day, including hour lunch break Join the Mango Momentum in the App Hub | Mango is an important leap forward in Microsoft’s overall mobile strategy and the developer community has taken notice. Now is the time to embrace the “tile-and-app” UI and reap the rewards Mango provides your development team and user community. This fast-paced, demo-rich online course features Rob Miles and Andy Wigley , two of the most sought-after Microsoft mobile development MVPs on the planet. Rob Miles | Microsoft MVP & Lecturer | University of Hull, UK Rob teaches and lectures globally on Programming, Software ...read more

We’re very happen to announce that the second, newly expanded edition of I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft , by Eric Brechner is available for purchase. (Print ISBN 9780735661707; Page Count 448). Here is an excerpt from Chapter 5, “Software Quality—More Than a Dream”. Chapter 5 Software Quality—More Than a Dream Some people mock software development, saying if buildings were built like software, the first woodpecker would destroy civilization. That’s quite funny, or disturbing, but regardless it’s misguided. Early buildings lacked foundations. Early cars broke down incessantly. Early TVs required constant fiddling to work properly. Software is no different. At first, Microsoft ...read more

That's right, Microsoft MVPs Rob Miles and Andy Wigley are back! Microsoft Learning hosted a Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (plus an update course) last year and it was an absolute smash. Mobile application developers raved about the fast-paced, demo-rich approach, the timeliness of real-world content on new technology, as well as the engaging and often-times humorous delivery. Now that "Mango" has made such a huge splash, they have put together another great course. This two-day live virtual class, Building Applications for Windows Phone Mango Jump Start , is specially tailored for developers looking to build cool applications and games for the new Windows Phone Mango Platform. Dates: August 23-24, 2011 Time: 8:00am – 4:00pm PST Duration: 8 hours/day, including hour lunch break Registration ...read more

As you probably know, when you purchase a Microsoft Press ebook via http://microsoftpress.oreilly.com/ , you receive updated versions of the ebook as errata fixes are made. In the past week, we’ve updated a number of titles. Take a look: An updated copy of the following products is now available for you to download for free from your O'Reilly account. Go to members.oreilly.com , log in, and choose the titles and formats you want to download. CLR via C#, Third Edition Updated Formats: PDF, ePub, Mobi All formats were updated to reflect the changes in the July 2011 reprint, as described on the book's catalog page. MOS 2010 Study Guide for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook Updated Formats: PDF, ePub, Mobi All formats were updated to reflect the changes ...read more

Greetings! We're looking for authors who are interested in putting together a book to educate developers on both the range of current Kinect development projects and to provide them with instructions and code on how to build such projects. If you have experience with the Microsoft Kinect API and are interested in authoring or co-authoring such a book, or if you know people involved in Kinect projects that you think would be good for inclusion in such a book and you can provide introductions, please respond to b-rujone@microsoft.com . Thank you. ...read more

This week marks the 11th Microsoft DigiGirlz High Tech Camp on the Redmond campus. For the third year I volunteered to chaperone groups of girls on tours and demonstrations. What a great group of intelligent, interesting, dynamic girls! From the DigiGirlz website : High Tech Camp Microsoft is proud to offer technology programs specifically for youth. One of our signature programs, DigiGirlz High Tech Camp for girls, works to dispel stereotypes of the high-tech industry. We continue to look for opportunities to give young people a chance to experience, firsthand, what it is like to develop cutting-edge technology. About DigiGirlz High Tech Camps During the camp session, the girls listen to executive speakers, participate in technology tours and demonstrations, network, and learn through hands ...read more

Can’t wait for the book to be released next month? Check out the available chapters in Rough Cuts (drafts of pre-published manuscripts) in the Microsoft Press EReference Library hosted by Safari Books Online. http://mseref.safaribooksonline.com/book/operating-systems-and-server-administration/microsoft-sharepoint/9780735647848 Not a subscriber? Check out http://mseref.safaribooksonline.com/ . You can subscribe annually or monthly and enjoy Rough Cuts access. ...read more

Presented by the author of Microsoft Access 2010 VBA Programming Inside Out Building Access Applications with SQL Server Databases Tuesday, August 9, 2011 10AM PT, San Francisco 6pm - London | 1pm - New York | Wed, Aug 10th at 3am - Sydney | Wed, Aug 10th at 2am - Tokyo | Wed, Aug 10th at 1am - Beijing | 10:30pm - Mumbai Presented by: Andrew Couch Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free Once you have connected an Access accdb or mdb application to SQL Server, just how should you tackle the question of developing or adapting your application to be efficient and flexible? This session is sprinkled with VBA, TSQL, Access and the SQL Server Management Studio. The best way to get an overview of how to develop with an Access application linked to SQL Server and use the associated tools is ...read more

Hosted by O’Reilly Media, the official distributor of Microsoft Press books. See webcasts on Microsoft technologies, many of which are presented by Microsoft Press authors.                                  Building Access Applications with SQL Server Databases Presented by Andrew Couch Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10 PT, San Francisco In this session we will be demonstrating the construction of DSN's, linking tables, views, and using stored procedures and views in pass-through queries. This will include a discussion of the benefits in using SQL Server Schemas and Synonyms. The Office 365 Small Business Revolution! Presented by Jaime ...read more

This is an update to our post from June. These Training Kits are now available. Note: the only book we did not update is the Training Kit for exams 70-648 and 70-649, transitioning your MCSA/MCSE to Windows Server 2008. Sales of that particular Training Kit were not high enough to afford an update. MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-640): Configuring Windows Server® 2008 Active Directory® (2nd Edition) Link to this book at Amazon.com MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-642): Configuring Windows Server® 2008 Network Infrastructure (2nd Edition) Link to this book at Amazon.com MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-643): Configuring Windows Server® 2008 Applications Infrastructure (2nd Edition) Link to this book at Amazon.com MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-646): Windows Server® 2008 ...read more

We’re pleased to announce that Microsoft Access 2010 VBA Programming Inside Out (ISBN 978-0-7356-5987-2; 736 pages) is available for purchase from O'Reilly.com, our official distributor, from Amazon.com , and from Barnes & Noble. This supremely organized reference is packed with hundreds of time-saving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. It's all muscle and no fluff. Discover how the experts use VBA to exploit the power of Access—and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery! Enhance your application with VBA built-in functions and SQL code Use the Access Object Model to work with data in forms and reports Manipulate data using SQL, queries, and recordsets with Data Access Objects (DAO) Create classes for handling ...read more

Join Mike Halsey, author of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out , in this four-part webcast series on Troubleshooting Windows 7. On the first Thursday of each month, Mike will guide us through a new aspect of Windows troubleshooting. You'll learn how to take control of essential Windows 7 maintenance and security features and master quick fixes to the most common Windows problems. Bring your questions, too. Mike will allow plenty of time for Q&A. Securing Your Files and Data in Windows Thursday, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:00AM PT The most important part of your PC is your files and data, but how can you safeguard them against sudden disaster, and how can you recover them should things go wrong? In this webcast, Mike will talk you though how to keep your files and data safe from even the worst ...read more

From time to time Microsoft Press has been pleased to offer free downloadable eBooks available as either PDF or XPS files. We are now very happy to announce that five of these same eBooks can be downloaded in two additional formats, DRM-free EPUB and MOBI. These new formats enable you to read these eBooks on ereaders such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Sony Reader and Kobo eReader, as well as on iOS devices such as the iPad. Of course these files can also be read with ereading apps for the various devices (and other reading applications like Adobe Digital Editions) on netbooks, laptops, and desktop PC’s. The key difference between these formats and the previously-offered PDF and XPS files is that the text is “reflowable,” meaning that it recomposes ...read more