April deadlines for Windows XP, Office 2003 product support

Folks itz the time to upgrade your older Microsoft Windows and Office products

Next month marks the deadlines for support — in some cases, free support, in other cases, paid — for a handful of older Microsoft Windows and Office products. Ref Support Life cycle Index

Windows 2000: Free support ended June 30, 2005; paid support ends on July 13, 2010. Service Pack 3 was retired on June 30, 2005. No more SPs planned.

Windows XP SP2: Service pack will be retired on July 13, 2010.

Windows XP SP3: Service pack due to be retired two years after SP4 (if there is one) releases or in April 2014, whichever comes first.

Windows Vista Business: Free support ends on April 10, 2012; paid support ends on April 11, 2017.

Windows Vista SP1: Service pack will be retired two years after the release of SP2 (which is expected in April 2009), so likely in April 2011

Office 2003 SP3: Service pack will be retired one year after SP4 (if there is one, which is doubtful) is released or in August 2014, whichever comes first.

Office 2007: Free support ends on April 10, 2012; paid support ends on April 11, 2017.

Office 2007 SP1: Service pack will be retired a year after SP2 debuts, so likely in April 2010.

Windows Server 2008: Free support ends September 7, 2013; paid support ends October 7, 2018.

Installing Win7 using a USB Stick

The below video shows, how you can install Win7 on notebooks. Which do not normally come with a DVD Drive. The video shows you how to prepare a USB drive with the installation bits and install from it.

Go through the Video in Below Link:

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Installing-Win7-using-a-USB-Stick/

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)

Overview:

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) helps IT professionals improve control of their desktop environments with a comprehensive set of tools to help IT professionals move their organization’s desktop strategy from a basic infrastructure maturity level to a dynamic maturity level. This document provides a basic technical overview of the tools included in MDOP. A discussion on how each tool helps organizations move through the infrastructure optimization model is also provided so that IT professionals and managers can better understand how MDOP can benefit the organization as a whole.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP

Download the Guide in below link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bf5c4b63-b484-4003-9343-f497fc8c9fb3&displaylang=en

See a Video Overview:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/videos/mdop_sa.asx

Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs

Explore the new and updated features in Windows 7, from AppLocker to the Problem Steps Recorder, with short video screen casts in below link:

http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/windows/dd320282(en-us).aspx

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP)

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning is an agent less toolkit that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The data and analysis provided by this toolkit can significantly simplify the planning process for migrating to Windows Vista®, Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Server® 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (formerly SoftGrid), Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Online Services, Forefront and Network Access Protection, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, and Virtual Server 2005 R2. Assessments for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista also include device driver availability and recommendations for hardware upgrades that may be required.
MAP includes features for gathering performance metrics from computers you are considering for consolidation using Hyper-V in addition to Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. Using the performance metrics and a model virtual server host computer, you can generate reports that recommend placement of the physical servers in a virtual server environment. Other new reports include a Security Center Assessment for client computers, a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 inventory report as well as an enhanced virtual machine inventory report to help you assess your virtualization efforts to date. MAP incorporates the assessment features provided by the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator, including localization of the Windows Vista assessment reports in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

System Requirements:

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows XP Professional Edition
  

• Hardware Requirements:
  

>1.6-GHz or faster processor minimum (dual-core for Windows Vista)

> 1.5 GB of RAM minimum (2.0GB for Windows Vista)

> 1 GB of available hard-disk space required

>10/100 Mbps network adapter required

• Software Requirements: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition for storing inventory and assessment data. Microsoft Word 2003 SP2 or Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Excel 2003 SP2 or Microsoft Excel 2007 for generating reports..NET Framework v3.5SP1,Windows Installer v4.5


• CPU Architecture: The Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit can be installed on 32-Bit and 64-bit versions of any of the supported operating systems.
  

For more Details:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx
For Downloading MAP Toolkit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67240b76-3148-4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&displaylang=en