Consider this your invitation to blow off Friday's responsibilities and blow up some spaceships, all for the cause of ... technology research. 

If you're like me, you constantly find yourself running powershell scripts and one or more array never returns the full list, it adds that pesky ... whether or not you try the FT -wide - autosize or FL and you never get the whole list.

This truncation of long output is the function of an enumeration limit in PowerShell.   You can fix this with ...

$FormatEnumerationLimit=-1

Oracle software is now generally available for Windows Azure, marking “an exciting milestone as we move the partnership with Oracle to the next step,” writes Stephen B. Martin, Windows Azure marketing & operations general manager.

The partnership with Oracle was announced last year, and reflects one of the “core tenets” of Windows Azure, to provide customers with an open and flexible platform.

Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server and Java are now generally available with license-included virtual machine images, Martin writes. These images are located in the Windows Azure Image Gallery.

You can read Martin’s post on the Windows Azure blog, and learn more details on the Windows Azure website.

You might also be interested in:

· Personal trainer has Surface by his side for outdoor classes to help clients
· Microsoft announces Office 365 Personal
· Bridgestone Asia Pacific to use Windows mobile cloud to improve customer service, productivity

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

The wait is over and “Titanfall” has arrived to broad critical acclaim. Since it launched on Tuesday, the Xbox community has been out in force playing “Titanfall” on Xbox Live. “Titanfall" is landing throughout Europe this week and the Xbox team has been celebrating with thousands of fans at launch events around the world and with hundreds of thousands of fans via the broadcast on Twitch.

February NPD Group figures released Thursday showed that Xbox One continues selling at a record-breaking pace with 258,000 units sold in the U.S. in the month of February, surpassing Xbox 360 sales by over 61 percent at the same point in time.

Also, Xbox 360 continues to grow its install base, with 114,000 units sold in February in its 100th month on the market in the U.S., more than any other seventh-generation console. The growing fan base for Xbox 360 will have their opportunity to play “Titanfall” -- which released this week for Xbox One -- when it launches on Xbox 360 on March 25.

With Xbox One and Xbox 360 combined, the Xbox platform sold more hardware than any other home console platform and held 43 percent of the home console market share in the U.S.

Highlights from February 2014 NPD include:

• Xbox One continues to see impressive software sales with an average of 2.75 games sold per console.

• Xbox One sold 772,000 games in February and Xbox 360 sold 2.46 million, totaling 48 percent of the total software market share (Xbox 360 and Xbox One combined).

• During the month of February, Xbox One and Xbox 360 both held five of the top 10 spots on the generation-eight and generation-seven console game lists in the U.S. respectively. Xbox One top titles in the generation-eight console game title list in the U.S. include: “NBA 2K14,” “Battlefield 4,” “Thief,” “Call of Duty: Ghosts” and “Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.” Xbox 360 top titles in the generation-seven console game title list in the U.S. include: “NBA 2K14,” “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” “Fable Anniversary,” “Grand Theft Auto V,” “Minecraft” and “The LEGO Movie Videogame.”

It’s been a big month for Xbox One, with the launch of a significant system update with improved matchmaking, party chat and friends features that make gaming on Xbox One an experience like no other, and the launch of Twitch and “Titanfall.” Xbox One is available in 13 markets around the world, with many more coming this year.

You might also be interested in:

• Ready for battle: The weapons of "Titanfall"
• Take the "Titanfall" personality test to pick your perfect Titan
• Video: Tackle "Titanfall" with these tips and tricks
  

Steve Clarke
Microsoft News Center Staff

Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Education for Microsoft.

Highlights so far;

• 260 Microsoft Expert Educators started their individual project competition with their Surface devices, judged by over 100 worldwide education thought leaders. Award winners will be announced at the Gala today.
• 80 Microsoft Mentor Schools and 34 World Showcase Schools initiated an inspiring week of collaboration, leadership and learning.
• Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Sonia Recasens, officially opened the event on Tuesday 11^th March during the welcome reception. Attendees had the opportunity  to discover new technologies and immersive learning scenarios through the Tech Showcase where partner sponsors provided hand on experience and demo’s of the latest technology.
• On Wednesday 12^th, the opening Keynote brought together all 1100 attendees and a number of special guests to provide an insightful start to the week ahead.
  • Eve Psalti, Global Director, Education Audience, introduced the keynote and framed the session about “be the change that you want to see in the world”;
  • Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Microsoft Europe, focused on the need for technology skills in a global world;
  • Xavier Prats Monne, Deputy-Director General for Education of the European Commission, who will be appointed Director General on July 1. to manage a 9,4 billion €€ budget aimed at transforming education across 28 countries;
  • Montserrat Gomendio, Secretary of State for Education, Training and Universities, Spain, announced the creation of two new platforms. (1) an open platform content with Creative Commons to provide a network between regional governments, involving teachers, families and students will share experiences and inspiration in education, (2) a digital book platform, which will facilitate the acquisition of books at significantly lower price to help families in crisis;
  • Anthony Salcito delivered the main keynote focused on Microsoft’s commitment to education, a view on the future of learning, and provided some home truths of what we all need to be thoughtful about when thinking about transforming education with technology. The keynote also included a demo of latest apps, Microsoft and partner solutions.

.

New Zealand's very own Expert Educators, Theresa Bosch of Baradene College and Steve Martin of Howick College.

Beautiful Barcelona!

Predictions say that majority of SMBs today are expected to move into the cloud by end of the 2014 and give up their in-house IT departments entirely.

A new survey in late 2013 by cloud service provider j2 Global revealed that among the surveyed – more than 1600 small business professionals – most have had some trouble giving up traditional technologies, but most were planning to do so by 2014.

SMBs are by no means new to the cloud. They have been using SaaS for quite some time in the popular email solutions, project management and CRMs.

But while these solutions save a lot of money and time, there are other, more efficient IaaS cloud services available today, specifically suited for the special needs of SMBs. These continue to provide the many benefits that the cloud in general offers to the small and medium sized business.

 Why The Cloud For SMB’s

1. Levels The Playing Field

One of the major advantages of the cloud has been that it is a great leveler. With the help of the cloud, SMBs are able to access computing and services that were once only available to large companies. More and more businesses are opting to rent infrastructure as required for their businesses.

2. Creates Savings

Another important reason why small businesses are moving to the cloud is because of the significant savings it offers. It is far more economical to buy cloud services for a few tens or hundreds of dollars as opposed to maintaining and periodically upgrading systems on the premises.

For instance, businesses also save space (and costs) associated with buying and maintaining landline phones and fax machines, when they simply switch to online fax and give up office landlines for mobile-based services.

Cloud services are also automatically upgraded by the service provider, leaving the business free to focus on more important functions such as customer service and business growth.

3. Improves Customer Connection Through The Cloud

The cloud has made it easier for businesses to connect with their audience, gain advantages in social media and improve their email marketing campaigns.

Mobile social apps, automation tools and email campaigns that encourage social media sharing can add to marketing advantages for SMB’s on the cloud.

4. Leverages Growing Familiarity With The Power Of The Cloud

Most businesses are motivated by cost when they switch to web based IT infrastructures, but a greater familiarity with cloud-based apps and devices is also a factor in the decision. With more and more people using tablets and smartphones on a regular basis today at home, they come to expect the same power of computing at their workplace as well.

5. Location Independence (everyone's favorite)

The cloud gives the small business workforce a flexibility to work anywhere and anytime. This can also enable businesses to attract talent from across the world and enhance the business efficiency and reduce costs (think outsourcing).

An Idea: Jump Straight Into IaaS

There are many categories of services provided within the cloud itself: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.

1. Enterprise level equipment accessibility: One of the major benefits of IaaS is that no matter the budget that an SMB has for IT infrastructure, it can give them access to powerful, entry-level equipment as needed. In fact, some SMBs may not even have to invest capital resources for new hardware.

SMBs will be able to enhance performance without having to pay high overheads, and still be able to experience the benefits of enterprise level services.

For instance, rather than looking for a fast server to work with existing databases and web hosting, SMB’s can simply look for services that can work in an environment that is based on a distributed resource structure.

2. Pay As You Go schemes: SMBs can take advantage of the pay as you go schemes that IaaS can provide. This eliminates the need for computing power that is not necessary for the business, and at the same time allows for scalability as the business grows.

IaaS also helps to avoid the expense of technicians, as service providers take care of network issues and hardware that may crop up. Additionally, with sudden, unexpected business growth, upgrading your infrastructure is as easy as making a quick call to your provider.

3. Interoperability: This means that all aspects of the cloud – PaaS, SaaS and IaaS – can complement each other. If an SMB puts all of its infrastructure resources into the cloud, business platforms and applications can be often seamlessly integrated without interruptions and downtime opposed to traditional environment described bellow.

4. Cloud-based Data Centers: All IaaS models provide a web-based data center for your server needs, eliminating the need for in-house data centers that traditional IT infrastructures are associated with. IaaS services come with maintenance, monitoring and security, which is particularly beneficial for businesses that want to keep their confidential data secure.

This is also a huge money saver as businesses won’t be bothered with hiring expensive professional individuals and companies for managing their hardware/software stacks as it’s all been taken care of behind the curtain.

5. Limits Hardware Needs: IaaS offers far superior bandwidths than most broadband connections available to companies using traditional IT systems. All computing is done on the cloud-based data centers, leaving businesses free of the hassle of having to connect to high speed Internet on their premises.

Custom-Tailored For SMB Needs

When switching to the cloud, important fact (plenty of service providers are aware off now) to remember is that each business is different and may not fit the certain limitations in terms of predefined sets of services/plans companies are offering these days thus need for various custom solutions became a necessity.

Usually known as 'hybrid cloud solutions', or a system in which some resources are managed on the cloud while other resources are managed in-house. Many IaaS providers offer PaaS services and also allow businesses to install their own operating systems and development platforms.

Each company should take advantage of the many customizable opportunities on the cloud and find a balance that creates the best savings and performance.

But, Before The Jump..

As I mentioned that no small business is the same, same can be applied to cloud service providers. Luckily, there are plenty of reviews and information available on both major and local service providers so you can easily decide who will power your business and accommodate your growth.

#Protip: Go big.

If we are to believe the marketing from any of the cloud services providers, we don’t really need any in house infrastructure to run a modern business, as our e-mail, collaboration and line of business systems can all be hosted for us.  However in the UK there are several challenges not least the appalling lack of connectivity, so while any business may move some of its services to the cloud there will still be a need for some in house IT infrastructure. So in this post I want to look at using the art of the possible for small and medium sized businesses and my definition of small is where physical hosts + server Virtual Machines(VMs is less than 100).  I have covered the 'how to' do some of this on my own blog, I've provided relevant links to keep this post short and sharp

10.  DHCP Failover: - a simple mirrored pair of servers for DHCP means that if one fails the other takes over

9. VPN & Direct Access: it’s just another role that you can turn on to provide secure remote access to your infrastructure.  You don’t need to do anything on the remote clients to get this to work.  I mention both because to use Direct Access the remote machine needs to be domain joined and running Windows Enterprise edition (7 and later).  On the other hand a VPN can be used by any tablets and phones running any old or new OS.1. Basically life is good if you have Windows Server 2012 or R2 as there are two key utilities to make managing your servers really easy, Server Manager In fact form a monitoring perspective you can do a lot with just one 2012/R2 server.

8. Active Directory: We may well have a domain controller or two and one stop management in the Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) which includes an AD recycle bin as a safety net (you do need to enable it though )

7. Remote Desktop Services:  You can provide secure virtual desktops with or without a VPN provides a Windows desktop from wherever you can get an SSL connection.  RDS covers both the good old terminal services style session based virtual desktop as well as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure based on a collection of VMs each running Windows 7/8/8.1 on top of Hyper-V.

6. PowerShell. For those who like to have procedures in place for doing things in predictable way then PowerShell 3/4 (depending on which OS you have) is a lot lot easier to learn and once you get it you’ll be wondering how you managed without it.  I don’t have one post on this I have a series called Lab Ops.

5. Multi-server management Multi-server management. Windows Server 2012 & R2 have remote management setup by default, so it’s the work of a moment to add all your servers into Server manager to see what they are doing, how they are doing it, and to run the appropriate tools to manage whichever role they are running. You can also manage older servers (as early as 2008) though not quite to the same extent.

4 . MinShell and Server Core MinShell and Server Core. Now that we can centrally manage servers  (maybe from a Windows 8/8.1 desktop with the Remote Server Administration Tools) I can rip the management tools out of the other servers so they run like server core or have a MinShell to save patching, memory and make them that bit more secure (i.e. no IE!).

3. Deduplication. We probably need to store data on our servers and by turning on this feature on you could save up to 80% of your disk space on a non system volume.  Just make sure your backup provider supports this before enabling it

2.  Hyper-V. You may not be a fan but Microsoft’s type 1 hypervisor is sitting inside of Windows Server waiting for you to give it a go.  Server Manager doesn’t care whether your servers are physical or virtual, and your PowerShell skills will become even more useful

1.  Like most Microsoft software there prerequisites for installing Windows Server, and one that isn’t often mentioned is YOU.  If you are going to use this new OS effectively you are going to need to understand it and I would recommend a few MVA Courses like this Jumpstart, downloading it and building your own lab and if you are serious then get certified!

Find out more about Microsoft Business.

The first update for Skype for Xbox One is available, and it brings an improved chat experience, including synced chats if you jump between using Skype on your PC to your phone and your living room.

Push notifications also are available, alerting you when a new message arrives, and providing a longer chat history of up to 1,000 messages, instead of just those from the past seven days. Another update lets you filter your contacts by who is online, so you don’t have to scroll through your contacts list to see that info.

To learn more about this update, head over to Skype’s Garage & Updates blog.

You might also be interested in:

· Let the Madness begin: 12 apps and games for surviving the NCAA basketball tournament
· Xbox One continues most successful launch in Xbox history
· Buck(y) up with these new “Captain America” emoticons for Skype

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

When you’re on the go and you really want to catch up with your shows on some of the biggest cable networks, you can. NBC Universal delivers a trio of free apps filled with some of your favorite programs to your Windows Phone device, PC or tablet. Everyone gets free basic content, and for more expansive features, you can login with your TV subscriber credentials.

USA Now brings shows like “Modern Family,” “Suits,” “Psych” and “CSI” to your devices – along with a handy program guide and easy searching. New episodes are available the day after they air on television, as are older episodes for some shows. If you don’t have a TV subscription, or if your provider doesn’t carry USA, you can still find special full episodes that don’t require an account to view and exclusive video clips, including behind-the-scenes and interviews, on USA NOW.

Telemundo Now brings the best of this popular Spanish language network right to you, from telenovelas like “La Promesa” and “Avenida Brasil” to shows like “Top Chef Estrellas” and “La Voz Kids.”

And Syfy Now brings shows like “Scare Tatics,” “Being Human” and “Face Off” to your big (or small) screen. Free through the app are full episodes and clips from Syfy shows, behind-the-scenes interviews and original online series like “Riese: Kingdom Falling.”

You can also find the tablet and PC versions of these apps in the Windows Store: USA Now, Telemundo Now and Syfy Now.

You might also be interested in:

• App of the Week: Stay in touch with your BFFs with Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone
• Apps for Windows Phone, tablets and PCs help keep your financial house in order
• Let the Madness begin: 12 apps and games for surviving the NCAA basketball tournament
  

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

The TechNet Wiki Day award of February was one of the most disputed in the last months and many articles were listed by the Selection Committee Articles.

The difficult task of defining a winner among all articles, only highlights the technical quality of these articles presented below:

	Gold: SharePoint 2013: Exportando dados da lista para Excel by Demétrio Silva
	Silver: Realizando P2V online com SCVMM 2012 by Walter Teixeira
	Bronze: SQL Server 2014 - Buffer Pool Extension - BFE by Luan.Moreno A.k.a SQL.Soul

Congratulations to all the winning articles and their authors.

The Gold medal article: SharePoint 2013: Exportando dados da lista para Excel was also posted on Wiki Ninjas Brazil Blog and recognized by TechNet Wiki Day WINNER tag.

Congratulations Demétrio Silva and thanks for your commitment and dedication, still contributing to the growth and the quality of the our Microsoft TechNet Wiki Community.

See you soon here !

Brazilian Wiki Ninja Durval

An Xbox 360 Spring Value Bundle will be available soon at U.S. retailers, and for a limited time you can get it for $50 off the estimated retail price of $299.99, reports Major Nelson’s blog.

The bundle includes an Xbox 360 250GB console, “Borderlands 2” and “Forza Horizon,” and one month free of an Xbox Live Gold membership.

To learn more, head over to Major Nelson’s blog.

You might also be interested in:

· Let the Madness begin: 12 apps and games for surviving the NCAA basketball tournament
· “Titanfall” launches to widespread props and praise from game reviewers
· Buck(y) up with these new “Captain America” emoticons for Skype

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

In the Oscar-nominated “Her” the protagonist of the not-so-distant future wears the smartest smartphone ever in his shirt pocket and talks to it all day. In our present, people wear watches and glasses that do everything our smartphones do – and more.

But this year at London Fashion Week, runway onlookers saw something that eclipsed those accessories: a Fyodor Golan skirt made with a 3D printed skeleton tiled with 80 Nokia Lumia 1520 smartphones to create a mosaic that reflected the designers’ autumn/winter 2014 print. The images on the six-inch 1080p full HD screens changed with movement.

The effect was a magical merger of fashion and technology, as well as art and innovation, as many individual smart devices came together to make one super smart wearable object.

Fashion designers Fyodor Golan– a married couple – worked with Nokia and KIN, a London-based design studio, to create this eye-catching piece of wearable technology. Nokia has a history of collaboration with creative industries, so they were a good fit as partners in a project focused on exploring the possibilities of smart technology and fashion coming together, and supporting new talent to create something unique.

The Nokia Lumia 1520, in particular, is the star of the skirt. As KIN explains, “A phablet is not a new idea, but we particularly liked the amount of screen real-estate and the quality of image on screen.” But several of the phone’s key features really stood out: “the imaging quality in the hardware and the engineering know-how that's gone into the development of the camera technology – from PureView software to Carl Ziess lenses.” KIN also wanted the opportunity to work with Windows. “We've developed on lots of platforms over the years, but by far the most technology we've built is for desktop PC's running Windows and the opportunity to develop for the mobile version opened up interesting new possibilities for us.” 

The skirt was part of FG’s AW14 "Crocodile" collection, which set a surreal tone through contrasts. The designers infused their clothing with militaristic and urban elements, combining those with couture shapes through layering and oversized pieces, 3D embroideries and prints mirroring their impressions of the Myanmar mosaics and temples they visited last year.

Each collaborator had a slightly different take on the completed piece. Nokia explains, “It’s a technical work of art. We started with the vision from FG and worked with KIN to create something based on the technical capabilities and design cues of the Nokia Lumia 1520. This includes the seamless 3D printing of the intricate internal structure, the interaction between the phones using the Windows Phone software, plus the unibody design and stunning Nokia Camera capabilities.” FG described it in three words: “Urban, industrial and multicoloured” reflecting their experience traveling in Southeast Asia. KIN defined it as a “wearable and experimental piece of technology.”

KIN explains that the skirt was a six-week project that combined software (Python, C# and a custom-built app) with a physical model, drawings and engineering tools (3D printing and laser cutting). The software development took the most time – four weeks. After the design process, KIN began modelling their ideas using software to see what was possible in the time they had. Then they established key functionality – while simultaneously keeping FG in the loop in discussions about form and feeling.

That functionality envisions one key property of the skirt: one continuous surface that changes its orientation and position as it moves. That surface has two different modes that it can run – it can show static images, either pre-loaded into the system, or it can load live images from a camera feed. It can also show moving images, either pre-loaded or from a live camera feed.

The fashion element is what elevates this above a really spectacular science project, as eloquently stated by KIN: “Laid over this is a slight colour change that shifts as the dress moves. This is intended to make each node within the dress shimmer and soften what is essentially a load of overlaid mobile computers giving a digital output some of the tactile character of a physical fabric.” You can see how it came together in photos in this Nokia feature story.

The project shows Nokia’s support for and collaboration with new talent, with a product that shows what can happen when a team of collaborators create a seamless union between technology and fashion. It’s not every day wear, but this kind of collaboration isn’t every day, either. It’s functional, yes, but it’s also a work of art.

Beyond the fashion season, the skirt will continue to be shown at other events and exhibitions, with future collaborations between Nokia and FG in the works.

After installing Office 2013 with Service Pack 1 from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) with a customized MSP file using the Office Customization Tool (OCT), Lync and OneDrive for Business are not installed.
 

To work around this issue, do one of the following:

1. Use the Updates folder on the original RTM release and the publically available Service Pack 1 MSP files: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817430.

For further information on using the Updates folder to install Office updates, refer to the following Microsoft article: Deploying software updates with an initial Office 2013 installation

2. Use the config.xml file to add Lync and OneDrive post install of Office 2013.  To accomplish this, edit the config.xml file to have the following:

<Configuration Product="ProPlus">

               <Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />
               <OptionState Id="GrooveFiles2" State="local" Children="force" />
               <OptionState Id="LyncCoreFiles" State="local" Children="force" />

</Configuration>

Once the install of Office 2013 with SP1 has completed, run the following command-line:

<path>\setup.exe /config <path>\config.xml

For further information on using the Config.xml file in Office 2013, refer to the following Microsoft Article: Config.xml file reference for Office 2013

Tech events coming your way this March and beyond to pencil in your diary!

Watch out for some of our Microsoft teams out on the road this month and next:

Also in March and onwards, the Microsoft Server and Tools team have People-Centric IT workshops and Transform the Datacentre workshopswhich have been running from January right through till June. These are ½ day and delivered jointly with our one of our strategic partners at regional locations across the UK. Find out of either Roadshow is at an city near you soon!

See all upcoming events below, which one are you going to? Let us know via @TechNetUK.

		17th March, Cloud OS Week: Online - A week-long series of MVP led online videos and live Q&A covering each pillar of the Cloud OS story, along with a one day session on Office365		Register here
21st - 22nd March : SQL Saturday #269 - SQL Saturdays are a free training day, which are open to anyone. The day has a number of sessions on a variety of topics, with a number of tracks available.   Register here
25th March, Cambridge: SharePoint User Group UK - March meeting in Cambridge is live, with a couple of great sessions.by John Timney and Andy Talbot.   Register here     31st March, London: M.UC.UG.UK ‘A Day Of Lync 2013’ Tour– Announcing The Microsoft Communications User Group ‘A Day of Lync 2013’ tour. A day packed full of content all about Lync 2013 and its ecosystem.   Register here
		2nd April, London: Windows Phone User Group - //BUILD special - Not going to BUILD? Don't worry. We're teaming up with the Windows Store Developer Group, Microsoft UK & Nokia UK to stream the keynote live from San Francisco.		Register here
		4th April, Edinburgh: M.UC.UG.UK ‘A Day Of Lync 2013’ Tour– Announcing The Microsoft Communications User Group ‘A Day of Lync 2013’ tour. A day packed full of content all about Lync 2013 and its ecosystem.		Register here
		9th April, Reading: M.UC.UG.UK ‘A Day Of Lync 2013’ Tour– Announcing The Microsoft Communications User Group ‘A Day of Lync 2013’ tour. A day packed full of content all about Lync 2013 and its ecosystem.		Register here

Why not also check out…..

People-Centric IT Workshops

The Microsoft People-Centric IT Workshops are ½ day and delivered jointly with our one of our strategic partners at regional locations across the UK.
Don't lose sleep. People-centric IT (PCIT) empowers each person you support to work virtually anywhere on PCs and devices of their choice, while providing IT with an easy, consistent, and secure way to manage it all.

Transform the Datacentre Workshops

The Microsoft Transform The Datacentre Workshops are ½ day and delivered jointly with our one of our strategic partners at regional locations across the UK.
We recently announced the availability of new modern datacentre and cloud solutions to help you manage hybrid cloud services and connected devices with greater agility and cost-efficiency.
Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Azure are key solutions that deliver against our Cloud OS vision to provide you with a modern platform to address your top IT challenges.

Be sure to keep up to date on TechNet social for more regular event updates. Why not tweet us and let us know which event you’re going to!

At this week’s Microsoft in Education Global Forum, more than 1,100 attendees are getting a crash course on education innovation, but they’re also going home with free professional development programs to help them the rest of the year.

For some schools, Microsoft’s professional development program is the foundation of their technology programs. The company has invested $750 million in free training and support for the past 15 years to help educators in a new era of digital learning. Microsoft provides product-specific training along with ongoing, integrated professional development. 

Teachers can receive help through peer coaching, teaching with technology and digital literacy. They also have access to ongoing peer collaboration and learning through the Educator Network, providing mentoring, feedback and inspiration from education innovators throughout the world.

School leaders can access coursework that helps them manage the changes that come with classroom technology.

Head over to the Microsoft in Education blog to find out more about the professional development Microsoft provides to educators and school leaders.

You might also be interested in:

• So many education apps! Here’s help picking the best
• Microsoft pledges continued support for education for teachers, students and school leaders
• Microsoft in education: “Student safety and privacy rights come first”
  

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

The Microsoft Exchange Conference will be held March 31-April 2 in Austin, Texas and will delve into email-related aspects of news announced recently about Office Graph and the social workplace, writes Jeff Teper on the Office Blogs.

There will also be dozens of sessions for customers using Office 365, including encryption in Exchange, reporting on Office 365 mail flow and mailbox data, eDiscovery and organizational search in Exchange, and developing apps for Outlook, Exchange Online and Office 365.

To learn more about the Microsoft Exchange Conference, head over to the Office Blogs.

You might also be interested in:

· Microsoft announces Office 365 Personal
· Get work done faster with “Oslo” – the next-generation search and discovery tool in Office 365
· First update for Skype for Xbox One includes synced chats, push notifications

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

Summary: Learn how to use Windows PowerShell to display DSC resources.

 How can I use Windows PowerShell to find what DSC resources are available to me?

 Use the Get-DSCResource cmdlet.

one of our neighbors is approaching the one thousand blog post mark - i was reminded to check it out today.  it got me thinking about how many blog posts i have made at microsoft and to make a contest out of it for our next cwug meeting.  find out the answer next thursday!