Businesses users will be able to get their hands on Office 2010 (both web and desktop editions) less than two weeks.Microsoft have officially announced that the code for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010 have been released to manufacturing. Pre ordering from Microsoft has been available since April 15th.

Volume licenses customers with software assurance will be able to download the new versions from the Volume Licensing Service Center on April 27. Those without software assurance will be able to access the download from May 1st.

In a first for Microsoft and following hot on the heals of Google Docs and Apples’ iWork.com website the first ever web based version of Office called Office Web Apps will be available to volume license customers at the same time. Microsoft have also announced plans for cloud based implementations of Office Web Apps as well as on premise versions customers can host in their own environment

Microsoft Office 2010 will officially be launched on May 11th in New York

As yet there has been no work on when the free consumer version of Office Web Apps will be available, despite being in testing since September 2009. Microsoft have said that for now the consumers, Office Web Apps will remain in technical preview until availability.

If you want more information about pricing or availability for your business please contact your account manager or a member of the Solsis Sales team on 01344 401500

Microsoft have today released their Browser Choice Update forcing users to choose the browser they want installed on their computer. So how does this work and how does it affect you?

Key points

1. A choice of 12 browsers (7 of which this techie has never heard of)
2. The browser choice software will be delivered as part of the Windows Update system Microsoft usually uses to distribute security patches.
3. The choice screen will keep appearing until a user has made a choice. Anyone wanting to stick with IE will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version.
4. Microsoft said that Windows 7 users who have fixed or “pinned” IE to their taskbar will have it unpinned by the update. Right clicking the icon for any browser will let users pin that program to the taskbar.
5. It will not pop up in front of those who already run a different default browser, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome.
6. Users guaranteed to see it are those that have Internet Explorer (IE) set as their default browser and have taken the option to let Windows automatically download and install updates.

How to handle the Update

After the update is downloaded and you have restarted your computer, you’ll automatically be shown the Browser Choice screen, and you can then select and install the browsers you want to use. (If the Browser Choice screen doesn’t automatically appear when your computer restarts, you can double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop to select and install web browsers.)

The Browser Choice update doesn’t add or remove any programs from your computer. If you’re using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer is your default browser, the update will unpin the Internet Explorer icon from your taskbar. Internet Explorer will still be available from your Start menu, and you can choose to pin it back on your taskbar. For information on how to pin programs to your taskbar, see Pin a program to the taskbar.

To select and install web browsers using Browser Choice

Follow these steps to use Browser Choice to install one or more browsers to your computer:

1. Double-click the Browser Choice shortcut on the desktop.
2. In the Welcome screen, click OK.
3. In the Select your web browser(s) screen, for each browser you want to install, click Install. Click Tell me more for information about any of the browsers.
4. Follow any on-screen instructions to install the browser you chose.

At Solsis we recommend using Internet Explorer 8, it’s fantastic security features and compatibility with programs such as Outlook Web Access, and Microsoft Office Web Apps is the natural partner for your current network applications

This guide has been replicated in parts from the one on Microsoft’s own website which can be found here. However the part relating to browser recommendation is purely the view of the author

• Upgrades to Windows 7 from the following operating systems are not supported:
  • Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS
  • Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2
• Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported.
• Cross-language in-place upgrades (for example, en-us to de-de) are not supported.
• Cross-SKU upgrades (for example, Windows 7 N to Windows 7 K) are not supported.
• Upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows N, Windows K, Windows KN, or Windows E are not supported
• Cross-build type in-place upgrades (for example, fre to chk) are not supported.
• Pre-release in-place upgrades across milestones (for example, Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM) are not supported.

Microsoft recently announced changes to the licensing model for Office 2010.  The first of these is to discontinue OEM editions of Microsoft Office, and replace it with what they are calling a PKC (Product Key Card) licence.

The product key card will be available from the PC manufacturer at the time of purchase or via retail stores.  Like the current MLK versions of 2007 and unlike versions prior to 2007 it will ship with no DVD media.

The key number contained on the card will unlock Office 2010 software that has been pre-loaded onto your new PC, and enables a simpler way for you to begin using Microsoft Office.  The three versions this applies to are, Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, and Office Professional 2010.

Microsoft are also introducing Microsoft Office Starter 2010. The starter edition is basically a reduced-functionality version that includes in program advertising and will be available exclusively on new PCs. The goal for Microsoft being to expose as many people to office before they get a chance to install open source alternatives such as Open Office or Lotus Symphony both of which are free.

The Starter edition includes Office Word Starter 2010 and Office Excel Starter 2010, with the basic functionality for creating, viewing and editing documents, which on the one hand is offering a replacement to Microsoft Works, and on the other hand is offering the user a consistent experience, with things such as the Ribbon toolbar and a simple path to upgrade to a fully-featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.

From a technical perspective this is a great because there will be only two licence models, (Volume licence and PKC)  and it’s likely that every PC from major manufacturers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo to name a few will all ship with office on every PC.

Only a week to go now folks.  So the big question is will Windows 7 really fix your Vista woes or will you be stock piling those Windows XP licences.  Well in anticipation of this conversation with our helpdesk we thought we would take a look.

Over the next few weeks we will explore the pro’s and cons, and the features of Windows 7 to begin to build a picture that will give you the best possible overview of the latest edition to the Windows family.

So where to be begin.  Well first there is the edition you want.  Like Vista there a multitude of product versions to choose from:

Home Basic is not available outside of emerging markets like India so we don’t need to say any more

Starter is a low end product designed for Netbooks.  Along with only being 32-Bit Microsoft have stipulated a few requirements for the platform it’s on.  It must have an Intel Atom processor, 1Gb or less of RAM, and 256GB or less of hard disk space.

Enterprise is only available to Enterprise volume licence customers.  So if you buy your PC’s with Windows already on them (OEM) then ignore this one two

That leaves three Windows versions which is going to make this choice a lot easier.  The charts below give you an overall feature comparison and in the next entry of this series we’ll start to discuss some of these features in more depth

Hardware Support

Enterprise Features

In the next edition we will be looking at migration and upgrade options