We are working on significantly updating the Management Pack for Azure SQL Database. Your feedback on this public preview will improve the quality of the final release. Please install the bits from the download location below and send us your feedback. You can comment on this post or send specific feedback to sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

This release will bring support for Elastics Pools and Azure AD Authentication among other new features. We are also working on handling monitoring of larger number of databases. We are expecting to improve the scale by the time we RTM. Here are some numbers to give you an idea for this public preview:

• 2 management servers in resource pool, each server is 3CPU & 7GB RAM (VIAcode cloud), one server is launching workflows, the other is for High Availability

Azure SQL DB configuration it can healthily monitor: 1 Azure SQL server having 1000 deployed databases

• 4 management servers in resource pool, each server is 3CPU & 7GB RAM (VIAcode cloud), two servers are launching workflows, the others are for High Availability

Azure SQL DB configuration it can healthily monitor: 2 Azure SQL servers, 1000 databases per each (2000 databases in total)

• 1 management server, 4 CPU & 14GB RAM (Azure Cloud VM — DS3_V2Standard)

Azure SQL DB configuration it can healthily monitor: 2 Azure SQL servers, 1000 databases per each (2000 databases in total)

• 4 management servers in resource pool, each server is 4 CPU & 14GB RAM (Azure Cloud VM — DS3_V2Standard), two servers are launching workflows, the others are for High Availability

Azure SQL DB configuration it can healthily monitor: 3 Azure SQL servers, 1000 databases per each (3000 databases in total)

You can find the release at:

Microsoft System Center Management Pack (Community Technical Preview 1) for Azure SQL Database

Please see below for the new features and improvements. More detailed information can be found in the guide that can be downloaded from the link above.

New Features and Fixes in Microsoft Azure SQL Database Management Pack (Community Technical Preview 1) 6.7.11.0:

• Azure Resource Manager is now supported: the previous versions of the Management Pack used T-SQL queries to SQL Server system views to get information on the databases health and performance; now, the Management Pack can also get this information from Azure REST API (this is a preferred option)
• Multiple subscriptions and multiple servers are now supported
• Added support of Azure AD authentication
• Added regular expression filtering capability for Azure SQL Database instances and Elastic Pools
• Improved monitoring efficiency: monitoring target is now defined by monitoring pool; WatcherNode class is considered to be deprecated
• Improved SCOM Add Monitoring Wizard to reflect the new features of the Management Pack
• Added health monitoring for Database Geo-Replication
• Added health monitoring for Elastic Pools
• Added monitoring for “Average DTU utilization percentage” metric
• Fixed issue: some rules work only if more than 1% of Microsoft Azure SQL Database space is used
• Introduced performance improvements to the Management Pack
• Optimized performance rules notation: all Object Names are standardized; Instance Names are not used anymore
• Updated the guide to reflect all the changes
• Updated the visualization library

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Monitoring devices in a hybrid environment is imperative to your secure posture. The intent of having a tight secure posture is to close the gap between discovering a threat and taking an action to properly have countermeasures in place. Monitoring will play a big role in the detection phase of your secure posture as shown in the following diagram:

In a hybrid environment, you can leverage OMS Security & Audit Solution detection capabilities to identify threats and use some of the guidelines provided by OMS to help you to proper respond to that threat. While there are some scenarios that the threat itself will be easily detected by OMS, in some others scenarios you may just receive an alert that a suspicious activity took place in a particular system. The intent of this post is to show you how to leverage some of the OMS Security & Audit capabilities to help you during this investigation.

Note: It is important to emphasize that you should always leverage your organization’s incident response process to proper handle case by case.

Following the warning sign

When trying to identify a suspicious activity, the first step is to open OMS Security & Audit dashboard, and in there look at the Detection (Preview) tile as shown below:

When reviewing the list of alerts, you should address the issues based on the severity, in other words, high (red) severity first. However, for the purpose of this example we will use the second detection, which is a medium (orange) alert. This detection says: “Executable found running from a suspicious location”. If you click on this alert you will see the search result for this query:

In this case there is a suspicious executable file (suchost.exe) located at c:\windows\fonts folder. The query result also shows the user that ran this executable, the time that was detected and the computer’s information. At this point you have enough information to perform your investigation at the target host and verify if this is a legitimate process or not.

As a further measure, you can also configure OMS Security to send an email to you if this process is executed again, in any computer monitored by OMS. To do that click in the Alert button in the same search page that you found the suspicious activity.

The Add Alert Rule page will open and you can customize the fields according to your need. Below you have an example of a rule for this suspicious process:

Once you finish customizing the options, click Save.

More information

For more information (and demonstration) about how to use OMS Security for Incident Response scenarios, watch this presentation from Ignite 2016:

Stay alert!

Yuri Diogenes
Senior Content Developer, CSI Enterprise Mobility + Security (Azure Security and OMS Security)
@yuridiogenes

We believe that everyone deserves a personal assistant, and a great personal assistant should be available to help on-the-go, on whatever device you carry. We’re excited to bring Cortana*, your truly personal digital assistant, to Android and iOS in the UK, and a fresh new look for the apps.

Coming to the UK:

The Cortana Android and iOS apps are coming to the UK, extending the functionality of your Cortana on Windows 10 to whatever smartphone you carry, always in perfect sync, always helping you stay on top of things.

• Reminders that Travel with You: Cortana has your back, seamlessly keeping track of the things you need to remember across all the platforms you use her. Set a reminder on your PC and get it on your mobile phone.
• Never Miss a Phone Call: In a meeting and can’t answer your phone? With the Cortana app, get a missed call alert on your Windows 10 PC and let Cortana send a text back letting them know you’ll call them later – all without leaving your PC.
• Optimized for Mobile: Designed specifically for your mobile life with quick action buttons and voice to get what you need quickly, a streamlined design and widgets for Android and iOS.

Of course, you can also use the app to quickly look up information. With the Android app, you can invoke Cortana hands-free inside the app with “Hey Cortana.”** And because it’s the same Cortana across devices, your Notebook with all your interests and connected accounts travels with you.

The Cortana Android app is available now in the Google Play store with the Cortana iOS app coming to the App Store in a few weeks.

A Fresh Look:

Since releasing Cortana on Android and iOS a year ago in the US, you have been telling us what you liked and how you’d like it to be improved.  We listened.  We’ve created a more simplified look and feel for the apps, designed with your mobile life in mind. Now you can get to what you need faster and easier than ever before with quick actions, putting the most frequent things you do front and center, so setting a reminder or viewing your reminders is just a tap away when you don’t want to use voice.

We’ve also made it more natural and consumable for you to get information from Cortana with clean, full-page answers.

It’s not just the look we’ve updated. The Cortana app is now faster so you can get what you need more quickly on the go.

The Cortana Android app is available today with the new look in the Google Play store and the Cortana iOS app will be updated in the coming weeks. You’ll find several more improvements in the app, so give it a try and let us know what you think.

*Available in select markets
**Not available on iOS

The post Cortana for Android and iOS comes to the UK, gets a fresh new look appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

Visio has been a trusted tool in diagramming for more than a decade. And we know its visual communication in the form of diagrams will become more powerful when anyone in the company can consume—regardless of their location or device. So, today we’re excited to announce Visio Viewer for iPad and Visio Online Preview, enabling users to share or access diagrams from nearly anywhere, gain operational insights and explore real-world diagrams easily.

Back to the basics—ubiquitous sharing and access with Visio Online and iPad app

As one of the most widely adopted process mapping tools, Visio helps thousands of organizations blueprint the business processes that drive their desired transformation. Using Visio Online Preview and Visio Viewer for iPad, you can securely store your diagrams in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online and easily share them with anyone as a link—allowing your colleagues to view and interact with diagrams effortlessly across devices.

Visio Online Preview—gain operational insights from anywhere

The Visio desktop has always been a powerful tool for creating network maps, organizational charts, business processes and more. Visio Online Preview amplifies the power of visual communication by helping teams glean real-time information from diagrams with just a browser—turning your data-linked diagrams into an operational dashboard that more employees can access.

Picture a network map that the IT department uses to manage the company’s global datacenters. As a static diagram, the map is perfect for understanding how different servers interact and show the location of those servers. Now, pairing that map with real-time data, IT admins can see things like server outages as they happen. You can use hyperlinks to bring in additional documentation, such as policy guidance created in Word. Or, moving from the network dashboard to the rack dashboard for a specific server performance, IT admins are able to drill down to the root cause of the outages and take the appropriate actions to keep the business up and running.

See the Visio Online Public Preview FAQs to learn how to access the preview.

Visio Viewer for iPad—explore real-world diagrams in high-fidelity on the go

Visio diagrams often comprise details that customers could miss on smaller screens. Built for iPad Retina display, Visio Viewer for iPad brings high-fidelity viewing of real-world processes and plans on the go. With the new exploration experience, plant managers can zoom in to production line issues from remote facilities, financial advisors can examine detailed workflows of a loan approval process while visiting clients around the world, retail district managers can conduct store management trainings with associates using detailed CAD-based store layouts and much more.

Using the Find pane, you can pinpoint all occurrences of a shape name, text or data—eliminating the need to sift through countless shapes. After you locate the shape with your desired metadata, smoothly navigate through your diagrams and zoom in and out with intuitive Pan and Zoom features. You can even reveal different visualizations of the same diagram by adjusting the visibility of certain layers. For example, an architect can share the same building layout with Facilities and HR, who can then visualize the respective layers which contain only the electrical map or personnel location for their own functional need. Operations managers can add an inventory visualization layer on top of a production line with throughput information to understand the root cause of a station breakdown.

You can download Visio Viewer for iPad today. We’ll bring Visio to the iPhone in the coming months.

Send us your thoughts

Visio is continuously innovating to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s digital transformation, starting with robust cross-platform capabilities. Please visit our UserVoice site to give us your thoughts and feedback on the Visio Online Preview, Visio for iPad and other innovations or capabilities that are important to you.

—The Visio team

The post Visio is coming to the web and iOS appeared first on Office Blogs.

IT departments are in a fundamental state of change, with the drive for digital transformation creating many net new applications and moving others to the cloud. At the same time, companies must also maintain stable and secure operation of their existing applications databases. To provide better flexibility in managing these diverse priorities, Microsoft is announcing two new offerings to help you run applications longer without disruption: Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance. These offerings add six more years of product support for Windows Server and SQL Server versions 2008 and newer–for up to 16 years of total product support. The additional support minimizes the risk and costs associated with upgrading critical application databases, and helps to secure data and maintain regulatory compliance for six additional years.

To learn more about how Premium Assurance extends the product lifecycles for Windows Server and SQL Server, read the full Premium Assurance article on the Hybrid Cloud blog.

The road warrior travels from city to city, meets with potential clients and attends conferences and industry events. And their travel requirements don’t seem to be slowing down. According to the Global Business Travel Association, spending on business travel reached record-breaking levels of $1.2 trillion in 2015, and is expected to rise to $1.6 trillion by 2020.

Your road warriors bring your products and services into new markets, diversify clientele and strengthen existing relationships. They’re helping your business grow—now more than ever.

Doing their jobs from the road, however, can prove very difficult without the right productivity tools. So, how do you know if they have what they need?

Start by understanding the common challenges they face. Whether it is hosting meetings, collaborating with colleagues or meeting deadlines, you can make sure they are set up for success.

Here are four productivity fears that often strike business travelers while they’re on the road:

Did I forget to save files from the company server before traveling?

Secure file access shouldn’t be a privilege for in-office employees only. Being able to tap into the company server to access important resources is a basic requirement for most jobs. For employees who are on the move, it’s critical to have such access anywhere, anytime. Whether in a hotel lobby or a cafe, they should be able to connect to Wi-Fi and get their work done. When company documents are secured in the cloud, your employees can continue with business as usual, from virtually anywhere.

Will time away impact day-to-day communication?

For road warriors, productivity is dependent on seamless communication and collaboration with in-office teams. Without face-to-face interaction with colleagues, employees can sometimes feel disconnected—and the ability to connect in multiple ways can make all the difference. Secure video conferencing and messaging tools can bridge the communication gap, allowing business travelers to chat with team members and conduct online meetings on the fly.

Can we successfully collaborate while I’m in another location?

Teamwork is essential to business, whether your employees are on the road or huddled in a conference room. Business leaders must consider the value of technology that lets business travelers create, co-author and share documents in real-time. These abilities enable teams to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines together, from virtually anywhere. Now, with technology for sharing and collaborating remotely, it’s easier than ever.

5 tips for improving collaboration

How do you deliver the most reliable tools for working together while reducing the challenges of multiple applications, mobility needs and security risks? Here are five tips to make it happen.

Get the free eBook

What happens if I lose my connection to the internet?

Travel often happens during business hours. While on a train or 30,000 miles in the air, your road warrior still needs to email, build sales decks and meet deadlines. But sometimes technology falters and they could lose internet connectivity for minutes or even hours. At times like these, they can rely most on tools that save their work (documents, presentations and even email files) onto a hard-drive while offline and upload upon reconnection. While they’re offline, they can continue to read emails, compose drafts, edit files—and keep making work happen.

The productivity of your traveling employees is only as good as the technology that supports them. As a business leader, you have the power to provide technology that helps them do their jobs while on the road.

The post Road realities—how to support your road warriors with tech appeared first on Office Blogs.

New offerings and Software Assurance essential to your ongoing digital transformation

This post was authored by Mark Jewett, Senior Director of Cloud Platform Marketing, and Tiffany Wissner, Senior Director of Data Platform Marketing.

IT today is in a fundamental state of change, spanning between enabling digital transformation to make their company more competitive, while also maintaining stable and secure operations of existing systems. As part of this changing transformation, many applications are moving fast to the cloud, taking advantage of the agility, scale, and innovation it offers. Some applications arent ready to move yet, but require modernization to better utilize more agile development processes and further the organizations digital goals. Some mission critical and legacy applications just need to keep running without disruption. Your portfolio of applications has a diverse set of needs that will continue to evolve over time.

To provide you with further flexibility as your needs evolve, today we are announcing two new offerings to help you run applications even longer without disruption: Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance. These offerings add six more years of product support for Windows Server and SQL Server, allowing for a minimum of 16 years of total support (five years each of Mainstream and Extended Support, plus the new Premium Assurance period). The additional support period provides Security Updates and Bulletins rated Critical and Important (see the Security Bulletin Severity Rating System for definitions) for both products. This helps you continue to meet compliance requirements and ensure security on systems you arent ready to update. Furthermore, greater peace of mind on those applications allows you to focus your energy on the applications more core to your digital transformation.

Premium Assurance extends the product lifecycles for Windows Server and SQL Server

You can purchase Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium assurance separately or together, and both offerings will be available starting in early 2017. Premium Assurance pricing will start at 5% of the current product license cost, and will increase over time (up to 12%). Buying before the end of June 2017 means you will save nearly 60% on the cost of Premium Assurance. The first versions covered by Premium Assurance will be SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (Extended Support ends in July 2019) and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (Extended Support ends in January 2020).

Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance are purchased as add-ons to active Software Assurance for each product. In fact, Software Assurance is an essential investment in the journey to more broadly transform your application portfolio, providing the following notable benefits (and more!):

• To help modernize applications, Software Assurance gives you access to the latest Windows Server and SQL Server innovation at no additional cost. The next version of Windows Server is currently in planning, and will further advance the Windows Server 2016 capabilities around hybrid cloud, multi-layered security, containers, Nano Server, and software-defined datacenter technology. The next version of SQL Server, already available in preview, brings the performance and security of SQL Server to Linux.
• For applications moving to the cloud, Software Assurance provides unique flexibility and savings benefits. The Azure Hybrid Use Benefit provides up to 40-50% savings on Windows Server virtual machines in Azure. Similarly, License Mobility provides the flexibility to deploy existing SQL Server licenses in the cloud without additional fees.

To learn more about Windows Server Premium Assurance and SQL Server Premium Assurance, and the six additional years of product support they provide, read the datasheet. The new offerings will be available early next year. In the meantime, buying and renewing Software Assurance with all your Windows Server and SQL Server purchases continues to be the best way to get the latest innovation and most flexibility for your application portfolio.

We’re proud to announce Gigantic is available in the Windows Store in open beta for the Windows 10 and Xbox One Game Preview Program in North America and Europe! Gigantic is a free-to-play, third-person MOBA that pits two teams of five against each other in the fight to take down the enemy Guardian.

Choose between 16 different heroes, each with their own unique playstyle. Each hero can be built in a variety of ways, allowing them to focus on a different aspect of their arsenal. As you play and learn about a hero, make sure to experiment with the different upgrades to see which one best fits your style. Part of the fun of Gigantic is not only discovering what build suits you, but which will best counter the build paths the enemy has chosen.

We hope you decide to join the fray and download Gigantic. After all, it’s free via Xbox One’s Game Preview Program, so it’s worth a try. To help give you an edge in battle, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help you get started in this competitive game. Head over to Xbox Wire to read more!

The post Start playing Gigantic on Windows 10 and Xbox One today appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

In episode 110 of the Office 365 Developer Podcast, Richard diZerega and Andrew Coates talk with Yina Arenas about updates to the Microsoft Graph.

Download the podcast.

Weekly updates

• Update to Filtering and Sorting in the Mail, Calendar and Contacts REST APIs by Outlook API Team
• PnP webcast—Introducing Office 365 Connectors by PnP Core Team
• PnP webcast—PnP Core Team on future of SharePoint development by PnP Core Team
• Migrate SharePoint JavaScript Customizations to SharePoint Framework by Waldek Mastykarz
• Query the Office Graph in SharePoint Framework client-side web parts by Waldek Mastykarz
• We’re starting to write production code on the SharePoint Framework, should you? by Chris O’Brien

Show notes

• Microsoft Graph home page
• Microsoft Graph getting started
• Microsoft Graph documentation
• Microsoft Graph Github Account
• Blog post of Ignite Office Developer announcements
• Microsoft OneAPI guidelines
• Simon Jaeger’s Excel API work
• Richard Custance’s Excel API work

Got questions or comments about the show? Join the O365 Dev Podcast on the Office 365 Technical Network. The podcast RSS is available on iTunes or search for it at “Office 365 Developer Podcast” or add directly with the RSS feeds.feedburner.com/Office365DeveloperPodcast.

About Yina Arenas

Yina Arenas is an senior program manager in the Office Extensibility team developing the app models for Office servers and services. In previous releases, she worked on the Office authorization infrastructure and the SharePoint app model. Yina is passionate about enabling usage and adoption of Microsoft productivity services through the developer ecosystem and helping developers build collaborative applications more efficiently and effectively by leveraging the capabilities of Office applications and services.

About the hosts

Richard is a software engineer in Microsoft’s Developer Experience (DX) group, where he helps developers and software vendors maximize their use of Microsoft cloud services in Office 365 and Azure. Richard has spent a good portion of the last decade architecting Office-centric solutions, many that span Microsoft’s diverse technology portfolio. He is a passionate technology evangelist and a frequent speaker at worldwide conferences, trainings and events. Richard is highly active in the Office 365 community, popular blogger at aka.ms/richdizz and can be found on Twitter at @richdizz. Richard is born, raised and based in Dallas, TX, but works on a worldwide team based in Redmond. Richard is an avid builder of things (BoT), musician and lightning-fast runner.

A Civil Engineer by training and a software developer by profession, Andrew Coates has been a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft since early 2004, teaching, learning and sharing coding techniques. During that time, he’s focused on .Net development on the desktop, in the cloud, on the web, on mobile devices and most recently for Office. Andrew has a number of apps in various stores and generally has far too much fun doing his job to honestly be able to call it work. Andrew lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two almost-grown-up children.

Useful links

• Office 365 Developer Center
• Office 365 main blog
• dev.office.com blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
• FlipBoard
• Slack channel

StackOverflow

• http://aka.ms/AskSharePointDev
• http://aka.ms/AskOfficeDev
• http://aka.ms/AskOffice365Dev

Yammer Office 365 Technical Network

•  O365 Dev Podcast
• O365 Dev Apps Model
• O365 Dev Tools
• O365 Dev APIs
• O365 Dev Migration to App Model
• O365 Dev Links
• UserVoice

The post Episode 110 with Yina Arenas on Microsoft Graph—Office 365 Developer Podcast appeared first on Office Blogs.

Over the next few days we will roll out a new build image with the following software updates.

• .NET Core 1.1
• Android SDK v25
• Azure CLI 0.10.7
• Azure PS 3.1.0
• Azure SDK 2.9.6
• Cmake 3.7.1
• Git for Windows 2.10.2
• Git LFS 1.5.2
• Node 6.9.1
• Service Fabric SDK 2.3.311
• Service Fabric 5.3.311
• Typescript 2.0.6 for Visual Studio 2015
  
• Permissions changes to allow building of .NET 3.5 ASP.NET Web Forms projects

For a full list of software see https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/admin/agents/hosted-pool#software-on-the-hosted-build-server

343 Industries is getting the holiday celebrations off to an early start – Monitor’s Bounty is out now for Halo 5: Guardians! The latest content release marks the tenth update for Halo 5: Guardians, and includes new weapons, armor and skins, brand new ways to play and seek out custom games and the largest Forge update we’ve ever released.

Halo 5 players on Xbox One and Windows 10 will now have a new way to find matches and teammates with the addition of the join-in-progress Custom Games Browser. This new browser enables players to search for in-progress games from the main menu and utilizes the content browser to filter for any map or mode your heart desires.

With this powerful new feature, Halo 5: Forge on Windows 10 graduates to a full-fledged Halo Arena multiplayer experience, letting players search, find and join games to play with strangers and friends alike – at up to 4K resolutions – for free!

With Monitor’s Bounty, Halo 5’s Forge mode has also been updated with more than 650 new objects on top of entirely new systems and functionality! One of the most exciting outcomes is an expanded ability to create all-new game modes in Halo 5. With this new “Minigames” functionality, players can not only experience fan-favorite modes like Race and King of the Hill, but also create new modes and experiences, the likes of which have never been seen in a Halo game before.

Head over to Xbox Wire to read more about the update, and happy holidays from 343 Industries!

The post Monitor’s Bounty available now for Halo 5: Guardians appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

With this summer’s release of the Windows 10 Anniversary update and the recent announcement of the Store supporting apps built with the Desktop Bridge technology, we are receiving much interest from many customers wanting to participate. Many developers are seeing the value of the new Windows 10 app packaging technology that enables your app to cleanly install, uninstall and update, as well as get full access to UWP APIs including Live Tiles, Cortana, notifications and more.

However, the conversion process can be intimidating if you are not familiar with your application’s footprint on the system and the technology it uses. This article is intended to educate you on the options for converting your app’s installation into a Windows app package.

Background

Before we begin to list the options and their various pros and cons, it helps to understand a little about what makes up a Windows app package and how an existing application runs under the Desktop Bridge environment. In the context of the Desktop Bridge, the key parts of an app package, also known as a “.appx” file, has the following:

• Application files– these are the files your app requires to execute and are usually placed in the root of the package. Typically these are the same files that are installed in the application’s folder under “C:\Program Files” or “C:\Program Files (x86).” In the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), package is placed in an app specific directory under “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps” and are secured to prevent tampering.
• xml– this file is used by the Windows Store to validate the package contents and identity of the publisher, and it is used by the deployment pipeline to install the application. The purpose of the manifest is to make everything about the installation of a package declarative and thus handled by the system. A key pillar is that no user code is executed at deployment time.
• dat – If the application writes to the registry at install time, or the app expects certain registry keys to be set when it starts, this information must be stored in a local application hive. At runtime, this hive is mounted and merged with the system registry so the application sees a merged view. The isolation provided by this model allows for no-impact install and uninstall guarantees provided by the UWP packaging model for apps in the Windows Store.
• Virtual File System, VFS (optional)– If the application places files in other locations outside its typical product folder, i.e, c:\windows\system32, these files should be placed under the VFS folder. At runtime, the VFS is mounted and merged with the actual file system on disk so the application is presented with a merged view. The isolation provided by this model allows for no-impact install and uninstall guarantees provided by the UWP packaging model for apps in the Windows Store.

After you understand the essential parts that are required for a UWP package, the next step that will influence the conversion is understanding how the application impacts the system – what files are installed where, and what registry entries does the application installer write. Depending on how much a developer knows about their application installer, they can make the decision on the best approach.

Don’t know what your setup package does?

Desktop App Converter

The Desktop App Converter (DAC) is the first option most developers are exposed to, as it requires very little knowledge of the application’s installer. The DAC leverages an isolated environment to install the application. While the install is happening, the isolated environment captures all file system and registry access within that environment and saves the deltas to disk.

The DAC then processes the deltas, filtering out changes made by the OS itself (the isolated environment is similar to a light weight VM running the OS and so there are services, filesystem and registry access happening while the installer is running), and locates your application via shortcuts registered in that environment by the installer. The DAC saves the installer-specific changes, creates the manifest file and sample image assets, and builds the UWP package if specified.

The benefits of this approach are:

• Straightforward if you know your installer’s silent or unattended setup flags.
• The DAC can be used to create an initial package, and the output (the PackageFiles folder) can be manually updated with new binaries and rebuilt when there are updates to the application. There is no need to re-run the DAC unless there are significant changes to the installer.

The caveats are:

• First-time acquisition and setup of the DAC and its base image can take some time.
• Requires the developer to be familiar with their installer, at least enough to know if it supports a silent or unattended mode. Some installers are not very clear on how to do this and can require a lot of trial and error to figure this out, which is beyond the scope of this article.
• If the installer hangs, it can be a challenge to get the installer log files for debugging.
• The file and registry filtering takes a conservative approach to remove system activity because installers can have a broad impact to the system. This approach was taken to ensure the greatest level of compatibility. Developers should review the virtual file system and registry and remove entries that are not associated with their application.

The Desktop App Converter itself can be downloaded from the Windows Store. For more information, please check out the documentation on the Windows Dev Center.

XCopy Deployment?

Manual Packaging

If an application setup is very simple and does not require registry entries nor copying files to protected locations, then a manual packaging option is the most straightforward.  This solution is common for single executable tools or “xcopy” deployments. Typically, all that is required is to place the application files in a folder, and to create an AppManifest.xml with the proper fields updated to identify the publisher and the app executable. Step-by-step instructions for manual packaging can be found on the Windows Dev Center and a sample can be found on GitHub.

Need to support both MSI and Windows 10?

Install technology partners with .appx packaging support

We’ve been working with our partners that build setup technologies to add support for directly building Windows app packages (.appx file) with their tools. These tools will create the app manifest and produce the app package as part of their build process. The key benefit these solutions provide is the ability to maintain one installer code base that will produce an MSI installer typically used in older versions of Windows (e.g. Windows 7), as well as build a no-impact install package for Windows 10 (i.e., .appx file for Windows 10). More information can be found at:

• FireGiant WIX toolset extensions
• Flexera Software’s InstallShield
• Advanced Installer
• InstallAware APPX Builder

Additionally, Embarcadero has announced support for the Desktop Bridge in RAD Studio, which lets you directly output a Windows app package through the build process.

In summary, the best option depends on how complex the application is and much a developer knows about their existing installation methodology. Whether you have an installer with unknown setup technology, a simple xcopy install, or an application that already has existing assets in a given installer technology, there are approaches to meet your needs.

For more information on the Desktop Bridge, please visit the Windows Dev Center.

Ready to submit your app to the Windows Store? Let us know!

The post Conversion options for bringing your existing desktop app to the Universal Windows Platform using the Desktop Bridge appeared first on Building Apps for Windows.

We’re excited to let you know that we’re giving away five albums for free and nine holiday albums for 99 cents each in the US, available now in the Windows Store.* Check out the whole collection of free albums and the holiday albums for 99 cents here, or keep reading!

Don’t miss these five albums, yours for free

Halsey – Badlands (Deluxe)

Badlands is American singer and songwriter Halsey’s first studio album, and includes the songs “Castle,” “New Americana,” “Hurricane” and more.

Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage

The seventh studio long-player from the veteran California-based metal ensemble, and their first new collection of music to feature ex-Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman behind the kit, Stage sees Avenged Sevenfold rolling up their sleeves and delivering an ambitious concept LP.

2 Chainz – Collegrove

This album is the debut LP between 2 Chainz and fellow American rapper Lil Wayne under the stage name ColleGrove, and includes production from several high-profile record producers; including Mike Will Made It, TM88, Infamous, Zaytoven, Lil’ C, Metro Boomin, Ben Billions and London on da Track, among others.ColleGrove is the combination for 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne’s hometowns of COLLege Park & HolloGROVE respectively.

Gwen Stefani – This is What The Truth Feels Like

Don’t miss “Used to Love You,” “Rare” or “Red Flag” – all included in This Is What the Truth Feels Like, Gwen Stefani’s first solo album in ten years.

James Bay – Chaos and the Calm

When it comes to debut albums, you can’t do much better than Choas and the Calm by this young English singer-songwriter.

Get 10 holiday albums for 99 cents each from the Windows Store

We’re sharing nine holiday albums for only 99 cents each in the Windows Store! Don’t miss the chance to get Amy Grant’s Tennessee Christmas, Rascal Flatts’ The Greatest Gift of All and more. Head over here to see the full collection of holiday albums!

Want even more music? Get a Groove Music Pass and download and listen to these and millions of other songs, wherever you go. Sign up here for a free 30-day trial of Groove Music and start listening today on your Windows 10 devices.

*Available in US only until 11:59 p.m. PT, Dec. 9, 2016 or while supplies last. 

The post Get five albums for free and nine for 99 cents each from the Windows Store appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

Python is one of the most popular and fastest-growing languages used today. Pyodbc (Python-SQL Server Connector) is an open source Python module maintained by Michael Kleehammer that uses ODBC Drivers to connect to SQL Server. It allows you to connect from the platform of your choice to SQL Server on-premises and in the cloud. Pyodbc is also cross platform and can be installed using pip.

We recently announced SQL Server v.Next CTP1 on Linux and Windows, which brings the power of SQL Server to both Windows and — for the first time ever — Linux. You can now connect your applications to SQL Server running on Linux, Windows and macOS (with Docker).

For our Python developers, we have a few updates that will improve Python connectivity with SQL Server. Pyodbc is now:

• Officially supported: You can contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) via phone, email, Twitter, forums, etc., to report and get help with any issue.
• Available in Jupyter Notebooks for SQL Server: The Jupyter Notebook is a web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations and visualizations.Pyodbc and its dependencies ship out of the box with Juypter notebooks on Azure. To get started, go to notebooks.azure.com and create a new Python 2 notebook or follow the instructions here. Check out the code sample and paste it in your notebook’s interactive prompt to get started.
• Compatible with Python 3.5 and Django 1.10 through Django-pyodbc-azure.

Get started today

• Try the new getting started tutorials that show you how to:
  • Install SQL Server on Linux or Windows or run on Docker in multiple platforms.
  • Create a simple app using C#, Java, Node.js, PHP and Python with SQL Server.
  • Create a simple app using popular web frameworks like Django with SQL Server.
  • Try out some cool SQL Server features that can make your apps shine.
• Get the latest v17.0 RC1 versions of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).
• Get the mssql extension for Visual Studio Code and develop apps with SQL Server on Linux/macOS/Windows.

Connect with us

• Join the conversation at https://gitter.im/mssqldev.
• Sign up to stay informed about new SQL Server on Linux developments.

Learn more

• Visit Connect(); to watch overview, security, high-availability and developer tools videos about SQL Server on Linux on demand.

Learn more

• Go to the next release of SQL Server webpage to get started with interactive SQL Server on Linux hands-on labs for Linux administrators new to SQL Server and for existing SQL Server database administrators new to Linux.
• Visit Connect(); to watch overview, security, high-availability and developer tools videos about SQL Server on Linux on demand.

Other videos in this series

• Watch the Microsoft Mechanics video to see how to get started with SQL Server on Linux in less than a minute.
• SQL Server on Linux: use SQL Tools with SQL Server
• SQL Server + Node.js: what’s new
• SQL Server + Java: what’s new
• SQL Server + C#: what’s new
• SQL Server + PHP: what’s new

Today’s Microsoft Office 365 post was written by John Wrenn, vice president of information technology for enterprise solutions at Flex.

Global enterprises often struggle to maintain the kind of fast-moving culture of innovation that smaller companies appear to employ effortlessly. But this is a time of change in business, and thanks to technology advancements, global companies can communicate almost as quickly as a team working side by side. Now, companies like Flex can reach across geographical boundaries to serve global customers even more effectively than ever before. At Flex, our approximately 200,000 employees handle prototyping, design, manufacturing and logistics for customers worldwide. We’re operating as a single, cohesive company focused on innovation. It’s not just that we can communicate and collaborate efficiently among our more than 100 factories or between headquarters and our various business centers. We’re taking our focus on reinvention a step further by empowering all employees to share their ideas and experience to make Flex even more nimble.

The notion of continuous improvement is well established, but we wanted to make sure we’re capturing opportunities to enhance operations across every facet of our business—from the IT department to the factory floor. We’re supporting that effort with Microsoft Office 365, using the integrated apps not just for cross-company teamwork, but also as the basis for applications that foster innovation and process improvements. For example, we’ve built an ideation portal on Microsoft SharePoint Online where we can crowdsource ideas. Employees submit and vote on ideas, and we see which ideas gain momentum and buy-in. We’ve even included some gamification around the winning ideas to encourage our whole workforce to participate.

Giving employees the opportunity to see their ideas come to life is rewarding and empowering. It also benefits the operational efficiency of our business and enhances our level of service for customers. Supporting bottom-up communication is paramount to our ability to improve, because our employees see how things work every day and think about new ways to deliver improved results. And most important, employees can make an impact on a global level when their ideas are implemented as part of a workflow used by other colleagues.

We’ve also created interactive SharePoint Online communities for our project managers and salespeople, who can use Yammer directly from within the SharePoint Online sites or on their smartphones with the Office 365 mobile apps. Employees can freely engage with each other across geographic and hierarchical boundaries, communicating and cooperating throughout the company. Whether it’s for customer onboarding, production-line setup, materials distribution or new IT projects, select employees are using Office 365 to help us share expertise and foster better teamwork across Flex.

Our customers count on us to deliver the best solutions for their success. Showcasing the ways in which we’re tapping into our own knowledge base to become a stronger company makes us a better business partner and a smarter employer. The kinds of unified, open communication and support for innovation that we’re providing through Office 365 help us meet those goals in the modern workplace.

—John Wrenn

Read the case study for more on the Flex digital transformation.

The post Flex—delivering supply chain innovation on a global scale with
Office 365 appeared first on Office Blogs.

Flying pigs, bunnies with wild eyes and ninja cats. In 3D. Since the launch of Paint3D, people have been creating and remixing crazy 3D creations. Today we’re highlighting some of our favorite weird and wonderful designs. If you are eligible to join the Remix3D Preview community, you can download and remix any of these models (and more!) to kick start your own creations.

Could it “bee” any easier?

When we set our remixers loose on our various creations, everything from cats and dogs to sharks and starfish, we saw a number of unique hybrids come to life – including this multi-legged bee, complete with matching yellow feet. And his happy facial expression shows how easily you can give personality to any kind of object you want.

Fly the friendly skies

With just a few simple pieces and the drawing tool, our remixers can take to the skies, literally and figuratively. This easy-to-create little plane promises a safe and enjoyable trip, and is customized with drawn-on windows. The happy clouds and sun provide the right backdrop, with just a sky-blue square and stickers.

Ice cream astronaut

An ice cream cone large enough to ice skate on. This cold creation combines two of our favorite frozen things – skating and sweets. It also shows how easy it is to change perceptions using 3D. The artist resized the image of the skater and the ice cream to create a new vision of reality. The future looks delicious.

These are just three of our favorites. But hey, with hundreds of models remixed already, there are many more we hope you’ll check out. Discover them for yourself and get inspired! Then, create your own with the Paint 3D Preview.

Have a remixed creation you want us to showcase? Tweet your work to @JessicaMarzipan, and follow us at @Windows!

The post Remix3D Preview Community Spotlight appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! Head over here to get Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 for 30% off, learn how to find your favorite holiday music with Microsoft Groove or catch up on the latest Xbox and Windows 10 devices – built to make it easy to play anywhere, connect socially around your favorite games, and even take your progress with you during holiday travels.

Don’t miss Microsoft Stores’ 12 Days of Deals through Friday, Dec. 16

Whether you’re looking to knock out the last items on your gift list, find a new game for a friend or treat yourself to some of the coolest gadgets, the Microsoft Store has you covered. With great savings on some of the most sought-after gifts of the season like Xbox One games, select Surface devices, virtual reality experiences and many others, Microsoft Stores put everything you want within reach – at a great price. Visit your local Microsoft Store or microsoftstore.com for more details on availability and pricing.

Dead Rising 4

Trying to figure out what to get the zombie survivalist in your life for the holidays? Dead Rising 4 ($79.99 Deluxe Edition) has you covered and we’re excited to share the game is available today across the world in the Windows Store for Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One, and in Japan this Thursday, Dec. 8.

Forza Horizon 3 Logitech G Car Pack

Hot on the heels of Forza Horizon 3 winning the Best Racing/Sports award at the 2016 Game Awards, today we’re unveiling our latest car pack – the Logitech G Car Pack ($6.99), which features seven amazing vehicles hand-picked to deliver driving delights during the holidays. Leading off the pack is the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept. Sure, it might not be drivable in the real world yet, but it’s easy to appreciate this car’s beautiful melding of performance and luxury in Forza Horizon 3.

Best of 2016 in Movies & TV

Experience the biggest digital releases of the year all over again with the Best of 2016 collection! From superheroes to Stormtroopers, from dragons to zombies, we’ve got all your favorite movie and TV titles from 2016, along with everything you meant to watch this year but didn’t. Find it all in the Movies & TV section of the Windows Store.

The Magnificent Seven

Seven gun-slinging outlaws join forces to protect a small town from vicious thieves in Antoine Fuqua’sThe Magnificent Seven ($14.99). Starring Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington, this action-packed retelling of the iconic western is available in the Movies & TV section of the Windows Store two full weeks before it comes to Blu-ray.

Gigantic

We’re proud to announce Gigantic is available in open beta for the Xbox One and Windows 10 Game Preview Program in North America and Europe. Gigantic is a free-to-play, third-person MOBA that pits two teams of five against each other in the fight to take down the enemy guardian. Get it from the Windows Store today!

Have a great week!

The post This Week on Windows: The Magnificent Seven, a new car pack for Forza Horizon 3 and more appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

Howdy folks,

Since our most August 2016 preview release of our new admin experience in the new Azure portalwe’ve seen a ton of use and received a ton of feedback. Thank you to all of you who are giving the new experience a whirl! We really appreciate it. Since

Ive invited Senior Program Manager Adam Steenwyk to write a blog post introducing the first of many updates, which youll find below.

Please read, dig in, and make sure to tell us what you think!

Best Regards,

Alex Simons (Twitter: @Alex_A_Simons)

Director of Program Management

Microsoft Identity Division

————–

Hi there,

Today is an exciting day for us as we reveal the first of many updates weve made to our Azure AD administrative experiences. In fact, theres so much new stuff to cover that over the next few weeks well be releasing several blog posts going into depth about each of the improvements weve made.

Todays post is focused on the updates weve made to Enterprise Application management in the new portal. Be sure you stay tuned for more posts to come!

Do more with Enterprise Applications in the new portal

In this latest update, weve given you many of the Enterprise Application management tools youre used to using in the Azure classic portal, and added a few new ones, too, including:

1.) A brand-new application gallery that supports all your favorite apps, including:

• Thousands of pre-integrated apps
• All your own existing apps
• Newly created, custom-developed, apps

2.)A new quick start experience to get you going with a pilot of your newly added apps

3.) Support for bring your own password-based sign-on apps, including improved auto-detection of sign-in fields and the ability to customize user sign-in field labels

4.) Windows Integrated Authentication single sign-on mode to support full configuration of on-premises apps through the Application Proxy

5.) The ability to configure self-service application access for any application

6.) Updated SAML-based sign-on configuration to support the SAML relay state parameter, full customization of SAML token attributes, automatic SAML signing certificate creation, as well as customization of the options and algorithms used to sign the certificate

7.)Updated Application proxy experience to support custom app URLs using your own HTTPS certificates

Going deeper

If youd like to read more about the specific improvements weve made and how to try them out, check the Enterprise Applications public preview 2 release article, or watch the video below!

Feedback

We hope you enjoy using our updated preview experience. Please keep the feedback coming! Post the things that are working and not working for you, or ideas for improvement in the Admin Portal section of our feedback forum.

Cheers,

Adam Steenwyk

Senior Program Manager

Identity Division