Bolstered by the strong recommendations and positive experiences that my colleagues had shared with me I finally decided to dive into Windows 7 Beta. In the spirit of full transparency I should be clear I've only been running the beta on my production box for three days, but… Wow! This has truly been a _great_ experience!

Now, being a manager, I will admit it took me over a week to get the environment full set up – though that had very little to do with Windows 7 and a lot do to with the amount of time I had available to get everything installed and configured. In fact, that leads to my first top 5.

Number 1 – Fast, Fast, Fast
I am completely serious, this OS is all sorts _fast_. And it started with the install. After blasting the drive partitions with the nice GUI-based FDISK-like utility and rebooting to a "fresh" machine (yeah, I'm OCD like that), the installer laid down the initial OS in what couldn’t have been more than 10 or so minutes.

While I have a decent little laptop here, it's no power machine. It's one of those little (PRODUCT) RED™ Dell XPS M1330 small footprint laptops (that I hosed with the heavy 9-cell battery, but I get 5 hours, so I suffer through it). It's got a decent ESATA drive running at 7200RPM, solid data transfer rate, a decent bus, and a nice 8x +R/W slot-drive, and a T7500 Intel Core Duo clocking at 2.2GHz. So, decent but not blindingly fast.

And the install really completed in just about 10 minutes, give or take. And that's not the only speedy thing about Windows 7. Quite literally _everything_ is fast. Boot up time? Maybe 20 seconds. Launching and shutting down Outlook 2007? Noticeably, visibly faster. Internet Explorer 8? Much, much faster (though that's probably a combination of the improvements in IE8 over IE7 plus the Windows 7 enhancements). Launching Visual Studio 2008? Yup, quicker. Shut down? My favorite; when I'm ready to go home or grab a beer with the gang, I just do not want to wait – and Windows 7 hits a home run. Don't believe me? See Denny Boynton's post on his first 24 hours with Windows 7. Where I just have a gut feel this thing is faster (and it's only a beta; performance tuning is still around the corner), Denny actually times the differences between Vista and Windows 7.

Not to speak heresy here, but I think my Windows 7 install on a "manager's laptop" outperforms the big machine running Windows XP at home.

Number 2 – Jump Lists
I was there in LA and I saw the demo at PDC. I thought, "That's interesting." But I didn't really quite get them at the time. Now I've played with them and I have to say, killer feature. Jump Lists are basically MRUs (most recently used menus, like the last files opened in Word) integrated into the new taskbar.

A picture of the Windows Live Writer Jump List is to the right. The Jump List is easily accessed by right-clicking the program icon on the taskbar. You see a couple of options. At the bottom of the menu is the option to close the current app. Above that is to pin the program to the taskbar, which adds the application icon permanently to the taskbar – sort of like the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP and Windows Vista, but with more powerful capabilities. Next up is the ability to launch a new instance of Live Writer. Finally you see the Live Writer file MRU. This is a list of the recent files you've saved (you see this post in draft). What I love about this is that I can actually manage my MRU. I can pin the files to always appear on the list, I can view the properties of the file, and I can remove the file from the list (I wish the Office MRU had that feature).

Jump Lists also appear in Start Menu as a fly-out menu, exposing the file MRU and offering the same access to file properties and the ability to pin or remove the file from the list. Just click the arrow and the Jump List flies out over the right side of the Start Menu. Love this feature!

Number 3 – Taskbar
Initially I rebelled against the taskbar. Not because the taskbar wasn't functional, useful, and powerful, but because my beloved Quick Launch Toolbar is gone (more on _that_ below). But I've come to not only respect but love the taskbar.

These are the icons you right-click to get at the application's Jump List. You can see multiple running instances of the application with the little outlines to the right of the icon. Windows 7 give you information about the application through the icons – for example, if you're downloading a large file a green gradient progress bar-style "fill" progresses across the IE icon on the taskbar giving you a constant update on long-running tasks without you needing to swap to the window with the progress bar on it. And in a vast usability improvement over XP/Vista, if you hover over or click the icon of a running application, you get a much improved preview of each of the windows of the running application. And in the case of IE8 (and possibly other applications), you see a preview of each _tab_ in the browser:

You can instantly close a window associated with that application with the close button. And as an added little bonus (and there are loads of them; again, see below), if you hover over one of the open windows, the OS hides everything on the desktop except the running instance that you're looking at. This feature has definitely had a positive impact on my productivity… and I don't even miss the Quick Launch Toolbar as much anymore (again, see below for a pleasant side story on the Quick Launch Toolbar).

Number 4 – Location Aware Printing
This may be one of the smaller features, but it's made it to my top 5. Location aware printing simply means that the default printer changes depending on the network. When I am at home my default printer is my HP Color LaserJet 2840. When I am at work, it is the big dog HP LaserJet M9050 printing/copying/scanning/faxing behemoth. This is a really great little productivity feature; no more Ctrl+P to bring up the print dialog – just click print and the document spools to the right printer every time. w00t!

Number 5 – Spiffed Up Apps
I'm a sucker for eye candy. I like the enhancements to Paint and WordPad. Both now have Office 2007-style ribbons that make features more discoverable.

Paint	WordPad

I honestly didn't realize Paint had those capabilities, and I am both surprised and impressed that WordPad supports a variety of file formats now, not just RTF or text. You can now open and save Word 2007-compatible Office Open XML files as well as the OpenDocument specification that IBM and Sun have proposed.

More Goodies
I am sure there will be a number of "Top 5s" that I come up with as I dig into Window 7 more deeply. Despite "going over to the dark side" (management), as my friend Joe Healy often accuses (I still love ya, Joe), I still fancy myself a Windows power user. I am really looking forward digging into the internals of Windows 7 and learning all the nooks and crannies.

And if you would like to learn about some of those nooks and crannies from an expert on the subject, Tim Sneath posted a stellar article, The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets, listing his 30 favorite hidden Windows 7 features and capabilities. It's a great article with wonderful nuggets of goodness (such as how to restore the missing-by-default Quick Launch Toolbar). Read it, get hold of a copy of Windows 7 Beta, and try it out for yourself.

Warning: Another Ginsu moment…

If you’re interested in attending MIX09, but haven’t made up your mind, perhaps a $400 discount on registration might help sway your boss to fork over the cash. Here’s the skinny on the details…

Register before February 13th, use RSVP code MIX09offer, and you can save $400 off the registration cost of $1,395. So you can attend MIX09 for $995. And, as some would suggest, the best part is this is in Las Vegas (what happens in Vegas) at the Venetian (a great venue) from March 18-20 (a great time of the year to visit Nevada).

The holidays were great. I took some much needed time off to recharge the batteries and spend time with my family. Returning from the holidays I jumped right back into the thick of work with mid-year review preparation and business reporting as well as four outstanding events that saw me on the road each week in January.

Where’ve I Been?
The first week of the new year took me to Sandusky, OH by way of Cleveland, OH to attend CodeMash, a conference organized and  run by several community leaders across Ohio aimed at bringing together developers, designers and technologists from a wide array of technology disciplines, from .NET to Java to Ruby and more. It was held at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, a resort and indoor water park, and the conference featured great activities for families and children, a really interesting addition to the traditional (and non-traditional) conference format.

Following CodeMash, the team and I hosted four more MSDN Developer Conference events, in Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Dallas. I was able to attend Chicago on January 13th, Detroit on January 22nd, and Dallas on January 26th. Each event was very successful, despite some rough weather in Chicago and Minneapolis (they had –14F… before wind chill). It was great fun being able to participate in the events, meet with people, and see the team and our outstanding group of community-based presenters run several great events.

All this made for one busy January, which also included mid-year business reviews, budget reviews, and planning for our (still in the works) ArcReady and MSDN Unleashed events. And knowing we’re a bit behind the planning eight ball (due to a couple of extenuating reasons), we’re getting a jump on next quarter’s event plans as well. We should be announcing our plans for this quarter in the next week or so, with those events happening in March, and next quarter’s plans (looking at early May) getting locked in a couple of weeks later. And, as a surprise added bonus, we’re working with our colleagues who cover the TechNet events engine to begin incorporating them into our quarterly event plans as well. Finally, we’re taking a good long look at how we run our quarterly events and considering some rather significant fine-tuning for our next fiscal year. If they come together well, you could see our new approach by late August or early September. (Yup, I’m really tired of being behind the eight ball, so I’m cooking up plans quite far out.)

Yeah, That’s Nice, but What About this Readiness Stuff?
Okay, I went on a bit about what’s kept me away from the nine of you who follow my blog. What about that developer readiness I mentioned, eh? Well, first those fine folks in Evangelism at the mother ship have continued to publish their 10-4 schedule. They are up to Episode 6 now, and it’s some really great stuff covering Visual Studio 2010 and Team System.

• Episode 1 —  Working with the Visual Studio 2010 CTP VPC
• Episode 2 —  Welcome to Visual Studio 2010
• Episode 3 —  ASP.NET Web Forms 4.0
• Episode 4 —  No More Parallel Development Pain
• Episode 5 —  Code Focused in Visual Studio 2010
• Episode 6 — Parallel Extensions

Warning: Ginsu alert…

But Wait, There’s More!
It’s late and I’m in a silly mood. But in this case, the analogy applies. The great folks who run the Ramp Up site have posted a whole new track of content on SharePoint, complementing their earlier track of SharePoint for Developers content. The first part covered the basics of web parts, data lists, event handlers, workflow and leveraging Silverlight. The new track of SharePoint for Developers adds content covering for page navigation, page branding, web services, custom content types, and user management. Between these two tracks of Ramp Up training content, developers will definitely get a feel for developing solutions based on SharePoint.

In Closing… MVP Summit 2009
On a side note, I will be attending the MVP Summit, along with a couple of other folks from our team. If you are an MVP, drop me a note at brimoore at microsoft dot com and perhaps we can meet up at the welcome reception, Palermo’s party, or some other time during the Summit.

This will be my first Summit, and I am really looking forward to it. (Can you believe it? I’ve been at Microsoft over 8 years and this is my first Summit.) If you’re an MVP, I hope to see you there!

My colleagues in Redmond, Brian Keller and his crew, have launched a new video podcast called 10-4. This is a weekly video/screencast featuring what's new in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework v4.0. If you're interested in what we've got in store for you when VS2010 ships, or if you're just plain curious about what we're cooking up, this new video podcast is for you.

Episode 1: Downloading and Using the Visual Studio 2010 September CTP
For this first episode of 10-4, we’ll look at how to download and use the Virtual PC image of the Visual Studio 2010 September CTP. We’ll give you tips on how to download this massive (7GB+ compressed) VPC, show you how to get past some pesky expiration issues, and get you started with the CTP walkthroughs. Lastly we’ll cover where to get assistance and provide your feedback about this release.

In future episodes we’ll dive more deeply into the technical underpinnings of Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, but for this first episode we wanted to make sure everybody could get the CTP and follow along at home.

Visual Studio 2010
If you'd like to learn more about Visual Studio 2010, check out our MSDN Developer Conference events (they're coming to a city near you in January), the PDC videos on Channel 9, and the Visual Studio 2010 developer center on MSDN (note: like updated) as well as the Visual Studio 2010 product feedback center.

Are you curious about Windows 7? Would you like to get your hands on the beta? On physical media? Without having to download a 1+GB image?

MSDN Developer Conference Attendees to Receive Windows 7 Beta DVD
Register to attend the MSDN Developer Conference, and you will receive the Windows 7 Beta on DVD. Attendees at early events, especially those happening in December and possibly in early January, will have DVDs shipped to them after the event. Attendees at later events will get the DVD at the event.

Agenda
There is a great set of topics planned for the MSDN Developer Conference events, plus a load of prizes. So check out the conference site and join us!

My colleagues are running a survey on cloud computing and they are interested in your thoughts. If you have some opinions on cloud computing, please consider taking this survey. We value your input and welcome your feedback!

As we are close to wrapping up our latest round of MSDN Unleashed and ArcReady events — and rounding the bend on the first of our MSDN Developer Conference events — the team and I are starting to for the next quarter's events. We're targeting late February or potentially sometime in early- or mid-March.

I thought I would open our planning process up, to a small degree, to you, the developers and software architects in our geography (the exhaustive list of states including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin). If there is a topic that interests you, and you live in one of the 18 states my team and I cover, please feel free to drop me a note via a comment on my blog. If you feel motivated, please don't hesitate to drop me an email at BriMoore at Microsoft dot com.

The team and I definitely appreciate your feedback. We'll listen to it and do our level best to adapt our plans to your feedback.

Details keep coming together on the MSDN Developer Conference, a local delivery of highlights from the PDC made possible by Microsoft, our partners, and local community leaders (you fine folks!). Join local Microsoft Evangelists and local community luminaries for a recap of Windows Azure, Visual Studio 2010, and our language and platform roadmap. Not only will you have the opportunity to mix and mingle with your peers and colleagues and discuss the events' topics with your local Evangelist, we've got a pretty solid lineup of prizes to raffle off at each event.

Prizes Galore!
First and foremost, we'll be raffling off four Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 with MSDN Premium Subscriptions at each event. That's right, four lucky people will win a MSDN Premium Subscription. This level of MSDN Subscription includes Expression Studio as well as a host of server products, like SQL Server 2008, BizTalk Server, Exchange Server, operating systems, and more — all to help you with the development and testing of robust applications.

Attendees at each event will also be in the running to win one of three Lego NXT Robotics Kits and the WROX Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio book. Other giveaways include a "Gamer Backpack" filled with a handful of Xbox games (Mass Effect, Gears of War 2, Fable II... I hope we have a great spread of great games, many of which I am currently playing myself... in my not-so-copious free time) as well as a "Gadget Backpack" laden with interesting hardware and gadgets that geeks (usually) love, like cutting edge mice or web cams.

Harnessing the Power of the Community (or Vote with your Feet)
We'll also be hosting the Community Courtyard, where attendees can mix, mingle, and talk about whatever they want to talk about. Running in parallel with the sessions, this is an open discussion area where you and your fellow attendees are in charge: you choose the subjects, the participants, and the speakers. Whether you just want to mingle with the presenters, talk about a session, or gab about any other topic, you have the opportunity to do so. Borrowing from the wildly successful Open Space formats, this area is yours.

Event Calendar — Complete with Handy Registration Links

PDC was, for me, a bit too short. I wasn't originally going to attend and had booked travel accordingly. I stumbled into a pass from one of my colleagues; he had a conflict, so lucky me. I feel guilty for taking his pass... but not too much.

Many things were covered at PDC: Azure, Windows 7, Live Services, Visual Studio 2010 and a much, much more. Here are some of my favorite highlights from PDC.

Extreme Makeover: Logo Edition
Remember Year 2000? Not 'cause of the y2k bug, but because Microsoft unveiled Next Generation Windows Services. Shortly after that, Microsoft announced the Microsoft .NET Framework and revealed a logo that captured the colors of Windows, Office, and our Enterprise Server Products. It nicely captured the idea of the .NET-ification of Microsoft products, servers, technologies, and services. In fact, when I started with Microsoft in October 2000, I often joked that I spent as much time telling people what .NET _was_ as I spent telling them what it _wasn't_.

But, as in all things, the .NET logo grow a bit old and stale. New logos and product came (and, in some cases, went), and the old logo started looking a little tarnished. I felt this was especially the case when we unveiled Silverlight. What a sharp logo! And when you put both the aging .NET Logo and the new, engaging Silverlight logo on a slide together, the difference was stark. At least in my mind. Don't get me wrong, it was a great time, very exciting. I loved that old .NET logo, I loved talking about .NET (and still do).

But at PDC2008 I stumbled across something interesting, a card at the .NET Framework kiosk in the Microsoft Pavilion in the Expo Center. A nifty new .NET Logo, one that looks a little bit like the Silverlight logo, sleek and engaging. It was the first of many micro-WOW! moments for me.

Some Windows 7 Highlights
Admittedly the overview in the keynote was brief. And admittedly I chose to go to other breakout sessions (WPF Roadmap was a highlight for me, personally). But what I saw was fairly engaging, some of it especially for folks that write code, demo or present a lot, or who use a laptop.

• Multi-touch support (engaging new way to interact with your computer, using your fingers, a mouse, or what-not)
• VHD Support in Disk Management Utility
• Win+P Monitor Support (built-in support to toggle monitors)
• Default printer switching (set different default printers for different networks; your "work" default and your "home" default)
• Slider control for UAC (level of sensitiveness)

Some Visual Studio 2010 Highlights
I must admit I had to step out briefly for part of this session, but I did pick up a few nuggets that really interested me...

• Enhanced extensibility (ScottGu did a great demo extending XML comments with formatting — and integrating text from Team Foundation Server Work Items)
• IDE shell rebuilt with WPF
• Multi-monitor support

Numerous Other Highlights
There were too many highlights to count, or for me to remember. My colleagues have all blogged extensively about PDC (see the blogroll to the right). A few highlights...

	— a cloud services operating system that provides development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform
	— makes developing loosely coupled cloud-based applications easier
	— a set of building blocks within the Azure Services Platform for handling user data and application resources

Next Steps
PDC, for me, was short (and this post almost too far removed from the event to be relevant; perhaps my wife _is_ right, and I'm too busy), but there are load of videos on Channel 9 for you to watch.

We also have our MSDN Developer Conference (MDC) events coming up in December and January, bringing PDC (and a dozen outstanding local speakers and Microsoft Evangelists) to a city near you. Houston, TX is first up...

Attend a MDC event and you'll have a chance to win a fabulous prize, such as a LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit or a Visual Studio Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription. Yup, four lucky people from each event will have a chance to win the big daddy of Microsoft developer tools: Team Suite with MSDN. More details on the SWAG and prizes for MDC coming in a post, soon. I promise.

Can you tell I'm behind on posting to my blog? Two post in one day is a bit of a shock, even to me. Both posts are short, of course, so that might explain the sudden prolific posting.

Microsoft just recently — earlier this week, in fact — launched BizSpark, a program for software develop startups designed to help them get off the ground quickly and equip them with the tools and technology to help them do so. The goal of BizSpark is simple: accelerate a startup's success by providing access to Microsoft tools and technologies, including production licensing for hosted solutions.

The program includes software, like Visual Studio 2008, Team Foundation Server, Windows Server, SQL Server, Office SharePoint Server, Systems Center, and BizTalk Server, as well as access to support resources _and_ potential visibility to investors, customers, and business partners.

If you are a recently formed startup, or are thinking about forming a startup, check out BizSpark or read the program guide.