The new year has arrived and Forza is celebrating 2017 in the best way we know – with amazing cars ready to hit the open roads in the Forza Horizon 3 Rockstar Car Pack!

Whether you’re cruising the wine country of Yarra Valley or tackling the most extreme elevations of Blizzard Mountain, the Forza Horizon 3 Rockstar Car Pack features seven cars that will kick your year off to a high-speed start. This pack features everything from classic Japanese power to a Ford trophy truck that’s ready to conquer anything Australia can throw at it. Then there’s the awesome BMW i8, making it production car videogame debut here in Forza Horizon 3. And that’s just the start of this incredible pack.

The Rockstar Car Pack is included in the Forza Horizon 3 Car Pass, which is available for separate purchase or as part of the Ultimate Edition of Forza Horizon 3. Players can also get the car pack standalone for $6.99 in the Xbox Store.

For a closer look at all of the cars in the pack, head over to Xbox Wire!

The post Ring in the New Year with the Forza Horizon 3 Rockstar Car Pack appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

We’re excited and proud to announce that Microsoft Azure is one of the first hyper-scale cloud computing platforms to become HITRUST CSF Certified.  The HITRUST Certification is the most widely recognized security accreditation in the healthcare industry.  It incorporates healthcare specific security, privacy and regulatory requirements from existing regulations such as HIPAA/HITECH, PCI, ISO 27001 and MARS-E as well as industry best practices.  This certification provides a single framework that is tailored to health organizations to evaluate the Azure environment.  

“HITRUST has been working with the industry to ensure the appropriate information protection requirements are met when sensitive health information is accessed or stored in a cloud environment. By taking the steps necessary to obtain HITRUST CSF Certified status, Microsoft Azure is distinguished as an organization that people can count on to keep their information safe,” said Ken Vander Wal, Chief Compliance Officer, HITRUST.

To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we must ensure that large industries, like healthcare, are unblocked from regulatory, privacy, and security obstacles which could prevent them from being able to move their IT workloads and operations to the cloud.  Achieving HITRUST CSF Certification is an awesome example of Azure removing yet another hurdle so a large and important aspect of our global society, i.e., healthcare industries and professionals, can confidently and securely leverage the services, efficiencies, and power of Microsoft Azure.

The following is a complete list of Azure Services included in this HITRUST certification:

Identity and Access Management

• Azure Active Directory
• Rights Management
• Multi-Factor Authentication

Compute

• Virtual Machines
• Cloud Services
• Batch

Networking

• Application Gateway
• VPN Gateway
• Express Route
• Virtual Network
• Load Balancer
• Traffic Manager

Web & Mobile

• Web Apps
• Mobile Apps
• Notification Hubs

Analytics

• HDInsight

Management & Security

• Azure Key Vault
• Scheduler
• Azure Management Portal
• Azure Classic Portal

Media & CDN

• Media Services

Data & Storage

• Redis Cache - including Premium
• SQL Database
• SQL Data Warehouse
• SQL Virtual Machines
• Storage- Blob, Table, Queue, Files, and Disks - including Premium

Hybrid Integration

• Service Bus
• Workflow

Thank you for your positive feedback on our first leaderboard published last month. Congratulations to the Top-10 contributors on the November 2016 leaderboard!

Hilary Cotter continues his Rank-1 position from last month. Five of this month’s Overall Top-10 featured in last month’s Overall Top-10 as well. Five others are new entrants.

The following continues to be the points hierarchy (in decreasing order of points):

For questions related to this leaderboard, please write to leaderboard-sql@microsoft.com

Happy Holidays everyone!

Today’s post was written by Jacqueline Campbell, Computing Science teacher at St Mungo’s RC High School in Falkirk, Scotland.

Our OneNote journey at St Mungo’s RC High School in Scotland started in early 2015 when a few “early adopter” teachers started using the OneNote Class Notebook app when it became available on the waffle menu through our Glow (Scottish schools intranet) sign-in. Word soon spread about what a fantastic tool we had available to us. A pivotal point for our school was when we hosted a Digital TeachMeet where best practices with OneNote and other Office 365 applications were shared with colleagues not only from our own school but from other schools and organizations. Our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) made the decision at that point to underpin our new Teaching and Learning policy with digital learning—adding a focus on the OneNote Class Notebook app. In August 2015, we started the school year with a OneNote in-service training for all staff. The training was delivered by the teachers who had adopted OneNote early and were convinced of its benefit to learning and teaching. Computing Science students, who had been using the application for their own learning, assisted with the training.

The use of OneNote Class Notebook continued to grow throughout the school year. More than 60 percent of teachers surveyed said that they felt OneNote was beneficial to their teaching and the learning of their students. We also benefitted from guidance from Malcolm Wilson, ICT curriculum development officer at Falkirk Council ICT Services.

At St Mungo’s High School, we use OneNote in several ways. First, all teachers across the curriculum use the Content Library to share resources with students. Having resources in the one place is beneficial to students, particularly in the lead up to examinations. Joe (age 14), when describing OneNote, says, “One of the best features is having all your notes and classwork in one place for every class. So far, many of my classes, such as Math, Computing Science and Physics have adopted OneNote.” Aaron (age 15), who is sitting his National 5 examinations this year, says, “Before I used OneNote I would spend ages flicking through worksheets and revision paper I would always lose and get stressed out about it, but now I just sign in to Glow, go to OneNote and all the information I need is right there organized into each subject notebook.” Teachers also find the Content Library useful as it allows them to organize their resources and know that their students can access course notes even in the event of teacher or student absence. A 14-year-old student, who is currently unwell, commented, “It allows for revision of topics that my in-class notes might not cover as extensively as I may wish or topics that I have not been present for, which is a large problem for me due to various health issues.”

Second, students and teachers at St Mungo’s High School use the student workspace—initially as a means of grading homework and providing feedback—but more recently for student work in class. During last session, the Technology School Improvement group looked specifically at delivering feedback through OneNote. Feedback is provided in several ways—traditional grading (i.e., annotation using the draw menu and a grade), written comment, audio feedback (through the insert menu) and finally comment-only marking using tags to indicate work that has been well done and areas for improvement. Stacey (age 16) says, “I find it easier to do my homework on OneNote as it is all stored in one place so no sheets can get lost and it is there to look back on as well as it can let you see where improvements need to be made.” Aaron (age 15) adds, “I would sometimes leave my homework at home by accident and get in trouble. But now the teacher just accesses my section in OneNote and marks my homework online—it has really benefited my school life.” Using a digital tool as opposed to the traditional written submission of homework is particularly important for some students. Brandon states, “OneNote makes handing in homework easier for me, as my dyslexia causes my handwriting to be unreadable at times, and I don’t have a printer.”

Students also find OneNote beneficial by using their own area for creating class notes. Pran (age 16) comments, “OneNote has many features such as the drawing tools, which I use to annotate my notes and highlight the important areas that I’m struggling with.” Using their own workspace for class notes allows students to pull together different media from a variety of resources into one place. For example, in senior school in Scotland, most subjects have access to a learning site called Scholar (provided by Heriot Watt University). Students use OneNote to take screen clippings from Scholar and other similar sites and to insert links to animations and to further reading on a specific topic. They can also insert graphics and text from other sources.

Increasingly, the Collaboration Space is being utilized by teachers and students at St Mungo’s High School. Examples of how it has been used is for a starter activity in Music Technology to reinforce learning from the previous lesson; in Design Manufacture to gather student ideas before commencing a project; in Computing Science to create a “wisdom of the crowds” resource for a particular topic. Another recent example of the use of the Collaboration Space was to create questions for Anthony Salcito, vice president of Microsoft Education, as part of his Skype-a-thon with students from St Mungo’s High School.

OneNote Staff Notebook is also used in St Mungo’s High School with notebooks for both the whole staff and discrete groups of staff who work together on specific projects. Annemarie Jess, deputy head teacher, says, “OneNote has helped the SLT collaborate with team members by accessing planning documents with ease, in a range of locations. Using OneNote helped the SLT develop digital learning skills and experience the tool in the same way as the learners. We are currently in the process of creating a Teacher Toolkit for the entire staff. This will be a one stop shop for sharing of resources, ideas and professional reading. Our MIE Experts teacher is helping to deliver training on OneNote not only to our staff but also our primary colleagues and students.”

Our use of the OneNote Class Notebook app was recognized by Microsoft, and we were both honored and delighted to accept the status as Microsoft Showcase School for this session—the only school in Scotland. On November 3, 2016, we officially launched our showcase year. We invited guests to visit classrooms, held focus groups and a Digital TeachMeet where teachers shared their innovative use of Microsoft applications to a large audience of teachers from across Central Scotland.

We intent to extend our use of OneNote, specifically the use of the Collaboration Space and the OneNote Learning Tools add-in with students with additional support needs. We are also carrying out a short-scale classroom inquiry to measure the impact of the use of OneNote. We will continue to expand our use of the other Microsoft applications such as Office Mix, Yammer and Sway, and the ability to use them in conjunction with OneNote. We will also continue to encourage the use of the Microsoft Innovative Educator program and extend the number of our teachers who have achieved the status of Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE).

It is not an exaggeration to say that our adoption of the OneNote Class Notebook has had a transformational impact on both learning and teaching at St Mungo’s High School. It has been adopted across the curriculum by teachers who are using it as a tool to enhance their classroom practice, and it has also been well received by our students who use it not only to enhance their learning from a variety of devices but also to equip them with the digital skills they require as they move forward into further education and the workplace. “Overall OneNote has been integral to my learning and I believe is one of the biggest advances available in education technology in a long time,” says Brandon (age 14). “To be at the start of a revolution of the way people are taught is amazing and I can only hope that more schools utilize OneNote,” says Joe (age 14).

—Jacqueline Campbell

The post How OneNote has become integral to learning at a Scotland high school appeared first on Office Blogs.

Every small business knows that a great team is essential to success—but how can you compete with larger corporations when it comes to attracting talent?

Register now for the next Office Small Business Academy,“How to Build Your Dream Team,” airing January 24, 2017 at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET, and learn how to create and retain your best team yet. Plus, see firsthand how the new Microsoft Teams can help boost productivity by bringing people and projects together.

Watch the preview:

This month’s featured guests include:

• Best-selling author and CEO of Predictable Success, Les McKeown, reveals the four types of leaders you need to make a team thrive and how to develop your natural leadership style.
• Head of People and Culture at Rover.com, Jovana Teodorovic, shares her secrets for competing for top talent and creating a workplace culture that no employee wants to leave.

Sign up for free!

For more information, visit the Office Small Business Academy home page.

Related content

• Watch “Culture Rules! Create a Positive Business Culture Inside and Out.”
• Learn more about Microsoft Teams.
• Register now for a free trial of Office 365.

The post Learn how to build your dream team on the next Office Small Business Academy appeared first on Office Blogs.

Ahead of CES 2017, HP announced exciting new PC innovations built for Windows 10 that will change the way people interact with their PCs, including the next-generation Sprout Pro by HP that boasts a new sleek and streamlined design with new hardware and software such as Windows 10 Pro to power 3D experiences. In addition, HP’s latest updates to its premium portfolio celebrates ingenuity and power in beautifully crafted designs, while a new curved gaming display takes game play to the next level. These new devices will start to become available for pre-order as early as today.

Here’s a closer look at what HP announced:

The new Sprout Pro by HP powered by Windows 10

The new Sprout Pro by HP, the second-generation, immersive all-in-one PC now incorporates advanced technologies and new features that empower you to create highly visual content and interactive experiences by blending the physical and digital worlds. HP has evolved Sprout Pro’s software to make it easy to interact between Windows 10 Pro and Sprout’s unique HD resolution projector, touch mat and 2D/3D cameras. The touch mat is a secondary horizontal display and enables a more natural interaction with the Sprout system.  HP has made it easier to interact with Windows 10 Pro and developed streamlined software that gives easy access to Sprout’s key features, including faster 2D scanning and — for the first time — high-precision 3D scanning. You can simply hold and rotate a physical object beneath the camera for a much more intuitive experience. HP also added more powerful graphics capabilities to drive visualization apps for interactive 3D, making creations come to life.

Sprout Pro now features a hefty Intel Core i7 processor, 1TB of SSHD storage, up to 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics for faster 3D scanning and Windows 10 Pro with its innovative and secure experience.

Pricing and availability: Sprout Pro by HP pricing and availability for commercial consumers is expected in March 2017 in select countries.

Redesigned premium PCs powered by Windows 10

For work, home or on the go, HP premium PCs raise the bar to exceed expectations for what can be done on a PC. New premium products debuting today include:

HP EliteBook x360 is an extremely thin business convertible at just 14.9mm thin. It combines HP Spectre’s powerful thin and light design, HP EliteBook Folio’s collaboration capabilities and HP Elite enterprise security and durability with Windows 10 Pro. It features an incredibly long battery life for a convertible, at up to 16 hours and 30 minutes. Its integrated collaboration capabilities enhance productivity and bring new life to meetings with dedicated conferencing keys, powerful audio and an optional 13.3” diagonal 4K UHD display. Its  IR camera  enables easy and secure login with Windows Hello and the touchscreen with pen support is perfect for Windows Ink. It also protects the office of the future with HP WorkWise, the most advanced Smartphone App for PC Management and first to offer Tamper Protection.

Pricing and Availability: The HP Elitebook x360 is expected to be available at the end of January 2017 in the US.

HP Spectre x360, following the global success of HP’s 13.3” diagonal model, the second generation of HP’s 15.6” diagonal revolutionary x360 is the most powerful in the Spectre portfolio. A bigger battery allows for up to 12 hours while powering a micro-edge 4K display, maintaining close to the same battery life compared to last year’s Full HD model. It features the latest Intel Core processors, high performance NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics, adds two new front facing speakers expertly tuned by Bang & Olufsen for a great audio experience and an IR camera that enables fast and secure login with Windows Hello.

Pricing and Availability: The HP Spectre x360 15.6” is expected to be available for pre-order in the US starting on Jan. 3, 2017 and purchase on Jan. 15, 2017 via BestBuy.com starting at $1,499. The HP Spectre x360 15.6” is expected to be available via HP.com in the US on February 26, 2017 starting at $1,279.99.

HP ENVY Curve AIO 34 the next edition of HP’s award winning and wide curved all-in-one, now adds more computing power for immersive media experiences. The new curved all-in-one features a 34” diagonal Technicolor Color Certified Ultra WQHD micro-edge display that floats over an integrated four speaker sound bar tuned by Bang & Olufsen. For evening use, the display can easily switch to a low blue light mode for improved eye comfort and a better night’s sleep.

This device also includes 7th Generation Intel CoreTM i5 and i7 desktop processors, the HP Privacy Camera with IR support for Windows Hello and a microphone that is hidden when not in use. It offers wireless charging support for mobile devices and optional NVIDIA GFX discrete graphics and storage options up to 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD.

Pricing and Availability: The HP ENVY Curved All-In-One 34 is expected to be available on HP.com on January 11, 2017 and select retailers on February 26, 2017 starting at $1,729.99

The new OMEN X 35 Curved Display

First launched in August, OMEN X by HP is now bringing gamers closer to their respective virtual worlds with the immersive experience of the new OMEN X 35 Curved Display. As the first OMEN display with NVIDIA G-Sync technology, you don’t need to worry about stutter and lag when paired with a NVIDIA compatible GPU, providing higher refresh rates that result in a more natural, realistic, true-to-life gaming experience. HP continues to expand the OMEN by HP portfolio to meet the need of gamers everywhere. The latest addition of a 35-inch diagonal curved display to the OMEN lineup adds a whole new level of immersion for gamers engaging enemies on the battlefield or maneuvering against the competition on the racetrack.

Pricing and Availability: The OMEN X 35 Display is expected to be available on HP.com and select retailers in March 2017 starting at $1,299.99.

It’s exciting to see HP deliver these incredible new devices that will unlock new innovations and experiences powered by Windows 10. Be sure to keep it right here on the Windows Blog for all the hardware news coming out of CES, and head over here to learn more about HP’s news.

The post CES 2017: HP announces redesigned Sprout Pro, 4K PCs and curved gaming display appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

Ahead of CES 2017, Acer announced an impressive new lineup of Windows 10 PCs focused on performance and entertainment. These new devices feature stunning 4K screens, optional Tobii eye tracking for a more immersive gaming experience and facial recognition cameras that unlock Windows Hello.

The new devices Acer announced today include three new Aspire Series devices, comprised of two high performance laptops the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition and the Aspire VX 15, and one desktop the Aspire GX, as well as the highly-anticipated, curved-screen notebook, the Predator 21 X gaming laptop, shipping early this year!

Here’s a closer look at what Acer announced:

The Aspire V Nitro Black Edition & Aspire VX powered by Windows 10

Both the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition and the Aspire VX come with up to a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor that is designed to bring incredible performance and responsiveness, immersive 4K entertainment and longer battery life. The chipset is the perfect match for the notebooks’ equally impressive GPUs, the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or 1050 graphics. Whether a movie buff or a gamer, you will be able to fully enjoy the latest movie releases in the Windows Store and Xbox games like Xbox Play Anywhere titles without compromise.

The sleek Aspire V Nitro Black Edition is the ideal device for those seeking high-quality entertainment on a notebook. Under the aluminum cover, Acer combined 7th Generation Intel Core processors to drive performance and the latest NVIDIA technologies, starting with up to a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM and up to 16GB of DDR4 system memory, upgradable to 32GB using two soDIMM modules. A built-in finger print reader also comes with the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition that enables Windows Hello for a more secure, password free sign in. It also comes with a NVMe PCIe Gen 3 or SATA SSD for fast, solid-state storage, and a HDD of up to 2TB capacity for additional storage.

The Aspire V 17 Nitro Black Edition is available with an optional Tobii eye-tracking module that makes the device more responsive through the use of eye movements. Combined with the Precision Touchpad, it enhances productivity, allowing you to more quickly and conveniently navigate across apps and programs with a simple glance. Gaming is also enhanced with eye tracking, creating deeper immersion and allowing you to aim, shoot and explore freely using your eyes.

The Aspire VX 15 features large cooling vents and an edgy red chassis, clearly showing its determination for gaming. The iron red backlit keyboard makes sure gamers are always striking the right notes during gameplay.

The 5.5lbs (2.5kg) Aspire VX 15 also comes with up to a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, offering significant improvements in performance over preceding generation processors, all the while providing lower battery consumption. The notebook also comes with up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics with GDDR5 VRAM (delivering up to 32GB/s bandwidth). Speed is also a notable attribute of the memory system, offering up to 16GB DDR4 memory out of the box and can be user-upgradeable to a maximum of 32GB. Storage is provided by a 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD.

Pricing and Availability:
The Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition will be available in North America in February starting at $1,199; in EMEA in February with prices starting at €1,299; and in China in February starting at ¥8,999.
The Acer Aspire V 17 Nitro Black Edition will be available in North America in February starting at $1,399; in EMEA in February with prices starting at €1,299; and in China in February starting at ¥8,999.
The Acer Aspire VX 15 will be available in North America in January starting at $799; in EMEA in January with prices starting at €899; and in China in January starting at ¥5,499.

The Aspire GX desktop PC Series powered by Windows 10

For those seeking out additional capabilities that only a desktop model can offer, Acer created the Aspire GX series desktop PC. These VR-ready PCs come equipped with up to 7^th Generation Intel Core processors, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM and up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, making them powerful enough for demanding VR applications. What’s more, they’re capable of delivering stunning 4K resolution visuals and support up to four displays at once for maximized gaming experiences.

Pricing and Availability: The Aspire GX series will be available in EMEA in February with prices starting at €799; and in China in February starting at ¥5,999.

The Predator 21 X gaming laptop powered by Windows 10

The highly anticipated, curved-screen Predator 21 X gaming laptop features Windows 10 and was designed for ultimate gaming enthusiasts who only want the best.

The Predator 21 X features the latest 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7820HK processor, 5 cooling fans and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI for unmatched graphics performance. It offers a curved 21-inch IPS display and delivers a truly immersive gaming experience, especially when combined with the notebook’s Tobii eye-tracking technology. The curved screen also features NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, ensuring smooth and sharp gameplay.

The Predator 21 X’s Tobii eye-tracking camera works with Windows Hello, supporting secure and password-free sign-in by recognizing your face. Skype for Business Certification ensures you can communicate with crisp and lag-free quality, and also allows for clearer, higher quality audio and a great Cortana with Voice experience.

Other features include:

• Full-sized mechanical keyboard featuring Cherry MX Brown switches, with individually programmable backlit keys, offering 16.7 million color options. A unique numeric keypad allows it to be flipped over and turned into a Precision Touchpad.
• A new 3-way (tweeter, midrange, woofer) audio design which produces Hi-Fi quality sound and is powered by 4 speakers (2 tweeters, 2 midrange) and 2 subwoofers to produce a full spectrum of sound.
• Making each Predator 21 X unique, Acer lets customers add a design, flag and laser engraved name to the notebook’s maintenance panel
• Thunderbolt 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps.
• Advanced cooling architecture of 5 system fans, 9 heat pipes and Acer Dust Defender

Pricing and Availability: The Predator 21 X will be available in North America in February with prices starting at $8,999; and in EMEA in February with prices starting at €9,999.

Predator 17 X with Windows 10 gets an upgrade with higher performing CPU and GPU

The Acer Predator 17 X gaming notebook also received both a CPU and GPU upgrade, and will now include models with a 7^th Gen Intel Core i7-7820HK processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8G GDDR5X video memory. Featuring overclocking, desktop grade components, a custom triple-fan cooling system with front air intake and a server-class vapor chamber, it is ideal for the most demanding games and running virtual reality (VR) devices.

Its overclocking lets gamers experience turbo speeds of up to 4.3GHz for the CPU; up to 1732MHz for the GPU; and up to 5.4GHz for VRAM. Immersive game play is delivered with buttery smooth visuals via the notebook’s 17.3-inch G-SYNC Full HD IPS (1920 x 1080) or UHD IPS (4K 3840 x 2160) display. It features a Precision Touchpad supporting Windows 10 gestures and also Skype for Business certification for crystal-clear audio communications.

Pricing and Availability: The refreshed Predator 17 X will be available in the North America in January with prices starting at $2,599; in EMEA in January with prices starting at €2,999; and in China in February with prices starting at ¥39,999.

Acer’s announcements today are truly exciting to see as their new devices offer great gaming experiences on Windows 10! To learn more about today’s news from Acer, head over to Acer.com. Be sure to keep it right here on the Windows Blog for more news coming out of CES 2017!

*Cortana available in select markets

The post CES 2017: Acer announces new PCs for gaming, immersive 4K entertainment and virtual reality appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

Ahead of the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Toshiba announced the new Portégé X20W, a premium 2-in-1 convertible PC running Windows 10 Pro. The New Portégé X20W features a 360-degree, dual-action hinge that allows this device to easily transform from a powerful, performance-oriented notebook into a premium digital inking tablet by simply rotating the display. Measuring 15.4mm thin and weighing less than 2.5 pounds, the Portégé X20W has a battery life of up to 16 hours and is designed for mobile professionals, educators and students.

The Portégé X20W is designed to take advantage of the best of Windows 10 and includes multi-directional microphones to support Cortana, a pair of IR cameras to allow you to login easily and securely with your face or fingerprint using Windows Hello and a touchscreen for digital inking with Windows Ink or marking up webpages in Microsoft Edge.

Here’s a closer look at the Portégé X20W:

To meet the demands of the modern workplace, the Portégé X20W encompasses a 7th Generation Intel Core Processor, Windows 10 Pro, 12.5-inch diagonal Full HD multi-touch wide viewing angle display, Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a solid state drive all inside its durable magnesium casing.

A sturdy 360-degree dual-action hinge enables smooth transitions into five core viewing modes—Laptop, Tablet, Tabletop, Presentation and Audience. Tackle the day with a slim, high-performance laptop, flip the screen to conduct presentations or create through an engaging tablet and digital inking experience. When changing modes, the laptop smartly switches system settings and uses a smart-locking feature to protect the keyboard and prevent mishaps.

Other features of the Portégé X20W include:

• Premium audio experience via Harman Kardon stereo speakers and DTS Sound software. Toshiba’s exclusive custom-tuned speakers adapt to the rotational view of the display, delivering a robust, crisp and natural audio from every angle
• A USB Type-C port, USB 3.0 port and headphone/mic combo port. As the industry’s new universal standard, the USB Type-C port on the Portégé X20W features reversible plug orientation and supports Display, Power Delivery and Thunderbolt 3 with speeds up to 40Gbps
• All-new Corning Gorilla Glass 4, offering higher levels of damage resistance as it’s better able to withstand the shock of accidental bumps
• A 12.5-inch diagonal, Full HD (1920 x 1080), multi-touch wide viewing angle display packs over 2 million pixels onto the screen
• Included TruPen using Wacom Feel technology, which can detect 2,048 levels of pressure, perfect for taking notes, drawing on webpages in Microsoft Edge and using Windows Ink
• Compatibility with two advanced docking solutions– the Toshiba WiGig Dock and Toshiba Thunderbolt 3 Dock, which will be available later his quarter

Pricing and Availability: The pre-configured Portégé X20W (Slate Gray) will be available soon at Microsoft Store and microsoftstore.com.

To learn more about today’s news from Toshiba, visit this site.

*Cortana available in select markets

The post CES 2017: Toshiba debuts new Portégé X20W 2-in-1 convertible with Windows 10 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

As we kick off what will surely be another very exciting year of progress in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science, we start with a quick recap of our “Top 10” most popular posts (based on aggregate readership) from the year just concluded.

Here are the posts that had the most page views in the recently concluded year, in increasing order of readership:

10. Recent Updates to the Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machine

We announced a major set of updates to the Data Science VM (DSVM) in September last year. DSVM gives you a comprehensive set of tools for data movement, storage, exploration/visualization, modeling with ML/AI algorithms, and operationalization – and using multiple languages in either Linux or Windows environments.

9. Introducing Microsoft R Server 9.0

Just last month, we announced our latest and most powerful version of Microsoft R Server. Supporting popular operating systems and a variety of data sources, MRS 9.0 helps you create and deploy sophisticated analytics models for real world problems, efficiently and at scale.

8. Microsoft and Liebherr Collaborating on New Generation of Smart Refrigerators

An unexpected post for a Top 10 list, perhaps, but this goes to show the broad excitement in our community around the possibilities of computer vision, deep learning and IoT. Our award-winning vision and deep learning capabilities around image processing are now a cornerstone of an ever-widening array of products offered both by Microsoft directly and our customers and partners.

7. Introducing the Team Data Science Process from Microsoft

In October, we introduced the Team Data Science Process – a methodology and set of practices designed to help your business truly reap the benefits promised by collaborative data science.

6. Game On! Introducing Cortana Intelligence Competitions

Back in March last year, we gamified Cortana Intelligence with the launch of our competition platform, and announced our first ever contest, a very successful competition on Decoding Brain Signals.

5. A One-Step Program for Becoming a Data Scientist

A link to a webinar we delivered early last year, in response to an ask from the community on what it takes to be a successful data scientist. Both the webinar and blog post emphasize the importance of building things first-hand.

4. Building Deep Neural Networks in the Cloud with Azure GPU VMs, MXNet and Microsoft R Server

This was the first in a series of posts we launched in September last year, showcasing deep learning workflows on Azure. In this post, we setup N-Series VMs on Azure with NVIDIA CUDA and cuDNN support, using MXNet as one example of deep learning frameworks that can run on Azure. We also show how Microsoft R Server can harness the deep learning capabilities of MXNet and Azure GPUs using simple R scripts.

3. Data Science with Microsoft SQL Server 2016 – Free eBook

Few things in life can beat “free”, and that was certainly true about our free eBook on creating intelligent apps using SQL Server and R. You can now embed intelligent analytics and data transformations right in your database, and make transactions intelligent in real time. Combining the performance of SQL Server in-memory OLTP and in-memory columnstores with R and machine learning, apps can achieve extraordinary analytical performance in production – and with all the benefits you expect from our industrial-strength database, including high throughput, parallelism, security, reliability, compliance certifications and great manageability.

2. Announcing R Tools for Visual Studio

The ML and data science community was just as delighted as us when we announced the newest language spoken by Visual Studio, back in March 2016.

1. Making R the Enterprise Standard for Cross-Platform Analytics, Both On-Premises and in the Cloud

Early in 2016, we announced how we are delivering Microsoft R Server across multiple platforms, allowing enterprise customers to standardize advanced analytics on one core tool, and regardless of whether they are using Hadoop, Linux or Teradata. We also announced that, on Windows, Microsoft R Server (MRS) would be included in SQL Server 2016. This post also talked about the free Developer Edition of MRS, as well as our commitment to Microsoft R Open. This was our #1 most widely read and circulated post of 2016.

Stay tuned to this channel for much more exciting news in 2017.

We wish all our readers a very happy and prosperous new year. 

CIML Blog Team

Hello everyone, my name is David Loder, long-time reader, first-time PFE blogger, based out of Detroit, Michigan. And I have a confession to make. I hate servers. Or more precisely I hate logging in to servers.

If you’ve been administering Windows Server for any length of time, you’re hopefully aware of the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) package. RSAT provides the server management tools for the Windows client Operating Systems like Windows 7 or Windows 10 so that you don’t have to RDP into a Domain Controller just to run the Active Directory Users and Computers GUI.

The RSAT package is OS specific. There is a different package for each client OS that corresponds to the matching server OS. There are links to each of the packages from the main RSAT Knowledge Base article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2693643.

If you are a typical enterprise customer you’ve most likely been running Windows 7 as your client, and are just now starting to explore Windows 10.

Because of the OS specifics, RSAT for Windows 10 is tied to Windows Server 2016. The Tech Previews all had a preview version of RSAT available for them. Since Windows Server released, only the RTM version of RSAT for Windows 10 is available for download. On the download page, you’ll currently see it as v1.2 with the WindowsTH-RSAT_WS2016-x64.msu name or WindowsTH-RSAT_WS2016-x86.msu if you’re planning on running 32-bit Windows 10 for some reason. I’m personally surprised we’re still making x86 versions of RSAT available.

The first caveat you’ll hit is that Windows Server 2016 RTM corresponds to Windows 10 build 1607, also known as the Anniversary Update. If you are running one of the earlier releases of Windows 10 (builds 1511 or 1507), many of the RSAT tools from the current v1.2 download will not work. For example, if you open Active Directory Users and Computers and look at the properties of a user, most of the tabs will be missing, including the General tab. Instead you’ll get a view that looks like this.

Or if you open the newer Active Directory Administrative Center, then try to open a user’s properties, the console will crash.

To avoid these problems, you must be on Windows 10 build 1607.

When you upgrade from an earlier build to 1607, RSAT will not remain installed. You’ll have to reinstall after upgrading. And you’ll be treated to the expected results within ADAC and ADUC.

One nice thing about RSAT for Windows 10 is that you no longer have to enable the tools after installing the package. All the tools are automatically enabled. Windows 7 required installing RSAT and then remembering where to find the GUI to enable the tools. This behavior is back to how Windows 2000/3 worked. It was re-introduced with RSAT for Windows 8, but I can count on one hand the number of admins I’ve seen running that platform in the field.

Here is the full list of GUI tools that are added to the Start Menu Windows Administrative Tools folder:

Active Directory Administrative Center

Active Directory Domains and Trusts

Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

Active Directory Users and Computers

Certification Authority

Cluster-Aware Updating

DFS Management

DHCP

DNS

Failover Cluster Manager

File Server Resource Manager

Group Policy Management

Microsoft Azure Services

Network Load Balancing Manager

Online Responder Management

Remote Access Management

Remote Desktop Gateway Manager

Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser

Remote Desktop Licensing Manager

Routing and Remote Access

Server Manager

Shielding Data File Wizard

Template Disk Wizard

Volume Activation Tools

Windows Server Update Services

The full list of features that are enabled are:

Feature Administration Tools

BitLocker Password Recovery Viewer

DCB LLDP-Agent Management Tools

Failover Clustering Tools

Group Policy Management Tools

IP Address Management (IPMA) Client

Network Controller Tools

Network Load Balancing Tools

NIC Teaming Tools

Shielded VM Tools

Role Administration Tools

Active Directory Certificate Services Tools

Certification Authority Tools

Online Responder Tools

AD DS and AD LDS Tools

Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

AD DS Tools

Active Directory Administrative Center

AD DS Snap-ins and Command-line Tools

DHCP Server Tools

DNS Server Tools

File Services Tools

Distributed File System Tools

FSRM Management

NFS Administrative Tools

Storage Replica Administrative Tools

Remote Access Management Tools

DirectAccess Server Management Tools

Remote Access module for Windows PowerShell

Remote Desktop Services Tools

        Remote Desktop Gateway Tools

        Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tools

        Remote Desktop Licensing Tools

        Volume Activation Tools

Windows Server Update Services Tools

API and PowerShell cmdlets

User Interface Management Console

Server Manager

You may notice a few differences from previous iterations of RSAT. Hyper-V is now built in to Windows 10, so the Hyper-V tools are their own features to be turned on or off and are not part of RSAT anymore. The DCB LLDP-Agent Management Tools includes the NetLldpAgent PowerShell Cmdlets. The Shielded VM Tools includes the Provisioning Data File Wizard and the Template Disk Wizard. To find out more about how these tools help create Shielded VMs you can read Dean Wells’ blog post on Creating Shielded VMs Step by Step. Finally, the Microsoft Azure Services tool is simply a link to get you started with understanding the Operations Management Suite.

If you’ve gotten your RSAT fix for now, and are wondering what’s next, you might want to spend some time reading up on Microsoft’s next generation of server management tools. We now provide an Azure-hosted management portal called Server Management Tools. It uses a gateway located on-premise to proxy between your on-premise servers and Azure so that you can securely administer your servers from anywhere on any device. Look through their blog at https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/servermanagement if you want to know more.

Thanks for spending a little bit of your time with me.

-Dave

#proudmicrosoftemployee

Hello, my name is Ritesh Sinha and I am a Support Escalation Engineer on the Windows team.  Today’s blog will cover “Why Bitlocker takes longer to complete the encryption in Windows 10 as compared to Windows 7”.

A brief summary of Bitlocker is: Bitlocker is a disk encryption system provided by Microsoft with the Windows operating system. Bitlocker uses a set of protectors (both hardware and software) to encrypt the data on the drive which makes sure that the data is accessible to only the authorized person, and only on the authorized machine.

Recently, we heard from our customers that they are noticing a significant increase in time for the encryption to complete on Windows 10 machines compared to Windows 7 machines.

To understand why Bitlocker takes longer to complete the encryption in Windows 10 as compared to Windows 7, we need to understand the points listed below.

1. BitLocker in Windows 10 has been made to run less aggressive for its background conversion. This makes sure that you are not experiencing slow performance of the machine while the encryption is in progress.
2. This is compensated by the fact that this new conversion model BitLocker now uses (on all client SKUs and any internal drives) ensures that any new writes are always encrypted regardless of where on the disk they land (which was not the case for the original BitLocker watermark-based conversion model).
3. The new conversion mechanism, called Encrypt-On-Write, immediately guarantees the protection (encryption) of all writes to disk AS SOON AS BitLocker is enabled on the OS or fixed (internal) volumes.  Removable drives work in the older mode for backwards compatibility.
4. The pre-Windows 10 conversion mechanism could only make such a claim AFTER the conversion reached 100%.
5. If one thinks about it, #2 and 3 are very significant because:
   • Regardless of the version of Windows used, without Bitlocker enabled and the drive fully encrypted, you could not guarantee that data wasn’t already compromised or stolen.
   • Therefore, those serious about any such compliance claims would have to wait for the older BitLocker conversion process to reach 100% before placing any sensitive data on drive.  This means possibly waiting a long time if the drive is large.
   • With the new method, they could safely copy sensitive data as soon as BitLocker is enabled and the volume is in the encrypting state.
6. Due to achieving compliance status for all writes immediately upon enabling BitLocker, the pressure of reaching 100% conversion status is less and converting all pre-existing data happens at a slower rate (further lessening the impact on interactive user).

Apart from this reason, there are several new feature enhancements which have been made to Bitlocker since Windows 7.  Some of these enhancements are:

· New encryption algorithm XTS-AES.  The new algorithm provides additional protection from a class of attacks on encryption that rely on manipulating cipher text to cause predictable changes in plain text.

• This is also FIPS-compliant, which is a set of United States Government standards that provide a benchmark for implementing cryptographic software.
• Bitlocker can be administered through various means such as BitLocker Wizard, Manage-BDE, Group Policy, MDM policy, Windows PowerShell, or WMI to manage it on devices
• Integration with Azure Active Directory for easier online Bitlocker key recovery.
• DMA port protection using MDM policies to block the DMA ports and secure the device during its startup.
• Bitlocker Network Unlock
• Support for Encrypted Hard Drive for faster encryption time.
• Support for classes of HDD/SSD hybrid disks (small SSD used as a non-volatile cache in front of slower spinning HDD, known as Intel RST technology).

To get these enhancements, the whole product has gone through a major design change to make sure that Bitlocker is more secure, the machine stays much more responsive during the encryption process and we provide the latest feature and manageability to the users.

Because Window 10 and Windows Server 2016 share the same kernel base, these changes are applicable to Windows Server 2016 as well.

You may notice significant improvement in Windows 10 Bitlocker encryption time after installing the Windows 10 Creators Update which is expected to release in 2017 but encryption time is also dependent on the hardware you are using as well as the workload on the machine.

I hope this article will help everyone understand that Bitlocker is better than before even though it may seem like it is slower when encrypting existing data on a hard drive.

Ritesh Sinha
Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support

We are happy to announce that the brand-new management pack for SQL Server vNext is ready to go. Please install and use this public preview and send us your feedback (sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com)!

Please download the public preview bits at:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54535

The most important new features are as follows:

• X-platform opportunities came true: monitor SQL vNext on Linux and SQL vNext on Windows!
• Agentless monitoring is now available along with traditional agent monitoring. The monitoring workload can be transferred to management servers included in the SQL Server vNext Monitoring Pool.
• Usage of scripts is discontinued in favor of .Net Framework modules, which enables more efficient resource usage.
• For getting information on health and performance, SQL Server Dynamic Management Views and Functions are now used instead of WMI calls. This provides better efficiency and connectivity.

All the details regarding the new functionality can be found in the Operations Guide that can be downloaded along with the Management Pack. Full functionality will be available with SQL Server vNext GA. This CTP release only covers a subset of monitors and rules. We will work towards full functionality as we release new CTPs.

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback (sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com)!

We are happy to announce new updates to SQL Server Management Pack family. All Management Packs are available in all 11 languages!

• Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server enables the discovery and monitoring of SQL Server Database Engines, Databases, SQL Server Agents, and other related components.

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2014

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2016

• Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Replication enables the monitoring of Replication as set of technologies for copying and distributing data and database objects from one database to another and then synchronizing between databases to maintain consistency.

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2008 Replication

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2012 Replication

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2014 Replication

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2016 Replication

• Management Pack for SQL Server Analysis Services enables the monitoring of Instances, Databases and Partitions.

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services

• Management Pack for SQL Server Reporting Services (Native Mode) enables the monitoring of Instances and Deployments.

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (Native Mode)

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (Native Mode)

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2014 Reporting Services (Native Mode)

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services (Native Mode)

• Management Pack for SQL Server Dashboards

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Dashboards

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

New SQL Server 2008/2008 R2/2012 MP Features and Fixes

• No extra permissions on remote WMI are now required for Local System account when Always On hosts have names that are no longer than 15 symbols
• Fixed: Always On discovery and monitoring scripts cannot read cached values in Windows registry
• Fixed: Wrong MP version number in some Always On scripts
• Fixed: CPUUsage and DBDiskLatency scripts fail with the reason: “Index operation failed”
• Added retry policy in some Always On workflows to make PS-scripts work more stable
• Updated the visualization library
• Changed behavior of Always On scripts for cases when WSFC service is stopped

New SQL Server 2014/2016 MP Features and Fixes

• No extra permissions on remote WMI are now required for Local System account when Always On hosts have names that are no longer than 15 symbols
• Fixed: Always On discovery and monitoring scripts cannot read cached values in Windows registry
• Fixed: Wrong MP version number in some Always On scripts
• Fixed: CPUUsage and DBDiskLatency scripts fail with the reason: “Index operation failed”
• Added retry policy in some Always On workflows to make PS-scripts work more stable
• Updated the visualization library
• Fixed: Always On objects get undiscovered when any Always On discovery crashes

New SQL Server Replication 2008/2012/2014/2016 MP Features and Fixes

• Added support for configurations where computer host names are longer than 15 symbols
• Fixed: MonitorDistributorSnapshotFreeSpace fails when being launched against SQL Server 2014 SP2
• Fixed: Wrong source detection in logging
• Updated the visualization library

New SQL Server Analysis Services 2008/2012/2014/2016 MP Features and Fixes

• Added support for configurations where computer host names are longer than 15 symbols
• Fixed: AS workflows sometimes crash
• Updated the visualization library

New SQL Server Reporting Services 2008/2012/2014/2016 MP Features and Fixes

• Added support for configurations where computer host names are longer than 15 symbols
• Fixed: Web Service monitors do not support URL reservation https://+:/ (protocol is HTTPS)
• Updated the visualization library

New SQL Server Dashboards Features and Fixes

• Fixed: Tiles content is replaced with question signs after a long period of inactivity

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Christian Wade stops by Azure Friday to speak with Scott about Azure Analysis Services. Built on the proven analytics engine in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Azure Analysis Services delivers enterprise-grade BI semantic modeling capabilities with the scale, flexibility, and management benefits of the cloud. Azure Analysis Services helps you transform complex data into actionable insights. Users in your organization can then connect to your data models using tools like Excel, Power BI, and many others to create reports and perform ad-hoc data analysis. By leveraging the skills, tools, and data your team has today, you can get more from the investments you’ve already made.

Watch Christian as he introduces Azure Analysis Services and shows various demos of how to use and manage Analysis Services in the cloud.

Try the preview of Azure Analysis Services and learn about creating your first data model.

It is the start of the year and my team and I are traveling to CES today in Las Vegas. CES has transitioned in recent years from an electronics show to a broader meeting of technologists. This makes sense as software eats the world, developers take on an increasingly more important role in every company since every industry is in the process of being transformed and/or disrupted. Faster processors, seemingly limitless storage and ubiquitous bandwidth has created the perfect ingredients for the technology wave that we are now enjoying. When we meet with developers and partners this week, we will be discussing the next wave of innovation that will be built on today’s technology trends. These include big data, AI, bots, AR/VR, 3D and devices.

In thinking through the conversations that I believe will occur across CES. A talk I gave recently at DevIntersection in October of 2016 could be a fun primer for some of the discussions that will take place and technologies that will be on display this week in Las Vegas. Since many of you will be thinking about your technology priorities in 2017 I decide to share the video below.

This is not an exhaustive list but is a good start. As exciting as 2016 has been for technology, the future looks to be even brighter.

Cheers,
Guggs
@stevenguggs

With near edgeless touch screens to unlock experiences like Windows Ink and built in finger print readers to take advantage of Windows Hello, these new laptops are built to deliver superior portability in ultra-lightweight designs.

The newest LG Gram laptops come in three different screen sizes – the 13.3” and 14.0” models weigh in at a miniscule 940 grams and 970 grams, respectively (that’s around 2.1 pounds each), while the largest model only weighs 1,090 grams (only 2.4  pounds) despite its impressive 15.6” screen.

The LG Gram screen is framed by super slim bezels to create a sophisticated, near-edgeless touchscreen that’s great for using Windows Ink to make notes and annotate directly on webpages in Microsoft Edge. With a built-in fingerprint reader that unlocks Windows Hello, you can log in easily and more securely with a scan of your fingerprint in place of memorizing passwords. The 2017 LG Gram models feature a 60W battery – the highest capacity in the industry to-date – for a long battery life between charges making it an ideal companion for busy people on the go. The LG Gram is available in three premium metallic colors, dark silver, shiny white and metal rose.

Designed with more than just portability in mind, the LG Gram’s 7^th generation Intel Core i7 processors maximize productivity. Equipped with state-of-the-art CPUs, the LG Gram can simultaneously run multiple memory-intensive programs without a hitch. In addition, the latest LG Gram models boast plenty of space to save a library of important multimedia files, with up to 512GB SSD and max 16GB DDR4 Dual Channel Memory.

The 15.6” LG Gram comes with a Thunderbolt port, as well as additional USB Type-C ports which allow simultaneous video signal, data transfer, and charging via a single cable. The versatile LG Gram has features designed to enhance usability at all hours of the day, such as its backlit keyboard for putting in extra hours of work at night. On the 13.3” and 14.0” LG Gram laptops, you can use Daylight Mode, which enhances screen brightness so that it is viewable even under bright sunlight.

Pricing and availability will be announced at a later date.

It’s exciting to see partners like LG officially unveil and publicly demonstrate these new Windows 10 laptops that offer high performance in a sleek new portable design. To learn more about LG’s news from head over to LG’s CES 2017 newsroom.

The post CES 2017: LG showcases new Gram laptops powered by Windows 10 appeared first on Windows Experience Blog.

To read last week’s post, see The week in .NET – On .NET with Steve Smith, Jint, Blue Effect.

On .NET

Last week, I published another short interview from the MVP Summit, this time with Glenn Versweyveld about Kliva, his Strava client for Windows:

This week, I’ll publish the last of our MVP Summit interviews, in which Reed Copsey, Jr. told me about the F# Software Foundation and its new programs. Next week, we’ll resume our regular shows.

Package of the week: Protobuf.NET

Protocol Buffers, or Protobufs for short, are a serialization format invented by Google, that is popular for its performance and simplicity. Google’s C# library generates C# code from a Protobuf specification. Protobuf.NET takes a different approach, that is arguably more idiomatic, and closer to existing .NET serializers such as DataContractSerializer, by starting from C# code, using attributes to specify contracts.

The serialization and deserialization APIs are then very simple:

• NuGet: protobuf-net
• GitHub: mgravell/protobuf-net

Game of the week: Arizona Sunshine

Arizona Sunshine is a post-apocalypse first-person shooter designed for virtual reality. Strap on your headset and jump into a zombie invested world, exploring freely, scavenging and battling flesh eating undead who need to be put back into their graves! Arizona Sunshine features over 25 different weapons that operate with real-life movements, multiple environments for exploration, a full-size single player campaign and co-op multiplayer.

Arizona Sunshine was created by Vertigo Games and Jaywalkers Interactive using C# and Unity. It is available on Steam for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

User group meeting of the week: HoloLens mixed reality experiences in Burlington, MA

The New England Microsoft Developers user group holds a meeting tonight, Thursday, January 5 in Burlington, MA, where Gavin Bauman will show you how to build mixed reality experiences with HoloLens.

.NET

• Back to basics: string interpolation in C# by Rick Strahl.
• Not your grandad’s .net – Pipes Part 1, A faster lower allocation stream stack wielded for ALPN/TLS and… HTTP2 – Pipes Part 2, and The journey continues to Secure Pipelines, via OpenSsl – Pipes Part 3 by Tim Seaward.
• In-memory C# compilation (and .dll generation) using Roslyn by Joseph Woodward.
• .NET Posts – 2016 Year In Review by Joe Petrakovich.
• Implementing the retry pattern in C# using Polly by Alastair Crabtree.
• Rx over the wire by Sacha Barber.
• New release of my NATS client focusing on simplifying usage by Daniel Wertheim.

ASP.NET

• Building production ready Angular apps with Visual Studio and ASP.NET Core by Damien Bod.
• Introducing a new Markdown View Engine for ASP.NET Core by Hisham Bin Ateya.
• Creating a WebSockets middleware for ASP.NET Core by Radu Matei.
• How to enable gZip compression in ASP.NET Core by Talking DotNet.
• Change primary key for ASP.NET Core Identity and more by Thien Nguyen.
• Content negotiation and custom formatter in ASP.NET Web API by Snesh Prajapati.
• Create HTTP request pipeline using ASP.NET Core custom middleware: build/run on Mac, Windows, Linux or Docker container by Neal Pandey.
• In-memory caching in ASP.NET Core by Jignesh Trivedi.

F#

• F# Software Foundation grows from over 200 members to over 1200 members since January of 2015.
• F# Advent 2016 Gitbook – over 600 pages of F# Wisdom!, curated by Scott Wlaschin.
• The magic of Type Providers by Roman Nevolin.
• End to end F# with the Elm Architecture by Matthew Doig.
• Azure Notebook in F# – creative way to share your notes beside the code by Michał Niegrzybowski.
• More simple mocking with object expressions by Jeremy Bytes.
• Suave Web Services by ASP.NET Monsters.

F# contributions: 118 Pull Requests from 17 contributors, 13 of which are community members.

New F# Language Proposals:

• Allow multiple base types/interfaces on flexible type annotation.
• Enumerable.OfType equivalent for List, Array and Seq modules.

Check out the F# Advent Calendar for loads of great F# blog posts for the month of December.

Check out F# Weekly for more great content from the F# community.

Xamarin

• Xamarin.Android – Entity Framework by Jon Douglas.
• Making It Snow! Xamarin.Forms and CocosSharp and Particles by Matthew Soucoup.
• Introduction to the Mobile Software Development Lifecycle by Xamarin.
• Enabling TLS 1.2 in Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS by Xamarin.
• An introduction to SkiaSharp by Xamarin.
• Xamarin Show Snack Pack 5: Android Archive Manager for Visual Studio by James Montemagno.
• Creating Tizen applications using Xamarin.Forms by Javier Suárez Ruiz.
• Xamarin Forms pull to refresh with ListView by Adam Pedley.
• Identifying users with HockeyApp by Tomasz Cielecki.
• Wrapping views in Xamarin.iOS by Marcos Cobeña Morián.

Azure

• Sharing code between Azure Functions by Jeremy Hutchinson.
• My take on an Azure open source cross-platform DevOps toolkit – The beginning, a 12-part series by Bruno Terkaly.

Games

• Game design deep dive: how Rogue Legacy handles tutorials without being boring by Teddy Lee.
• Ludum Dare 37 Results
• Unity: Blend trees are awesome! A quick tutorial! by TheoremGames.
• 16 highlights from 2016 on the Unity blog by Community Team.
• (SadConsole) Controls overview by Andy De George.
• [Unity 5] Tutorial: How to make an inventory system – part 3 by Gamad.
• A* Pathfinding (E07: smooth weights) by Sebastian Lague.

And this is it for this week!

Contribute to the week in .NET

As always, this weekly post couldn’t exist without community contributions, and I’d like to thank all those who sent links and tips. The F# section is provided by Phillip Carter, the gaming section by Stacey Haffner, and the Xamarin section by Dan Rigby.

You can participate too. Did you write a great blog post, or just read one? Do you want everyone to know about an amazing new contribution or a useful library? Did you make or play a great game built on .NET?
We’d love to hear from you, and feature your contributions on future posts:

• Send an email to beleroy at Microsoft,
• comment on this gist
• Leave us a pointer in the comments section below.
• Send Stacey (@yecats131) tips on Twitter about .NET games.

This week’s post (and future posts) also contains news I first read on The ASP.NET Community Standup, on Weekly Xamarin, on F# weekly, and on Chris Alcock’s The Morning Brew.

We start off the new year with a quick recap of our most popular posts on this blog channel from the year just concluded.

Here are the posts that got the most number of views from our readers during 2016, in increasing order of readership:

10. SQL Server 2016 Express Edition in Windows containers

In October, we announced the public availability of SQL Server 2016 Express Edition in Windows Containers, a capability that comes in especially handy when you need to quickly create SQL Server instances for development or testing; or to maximize density in a test or production environment (especially in microservice architectures); or when you need to isolate and control apps in a multi-tenant infrastructure.

9. SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 1 generally available

A couple of months back, we made several new capabilities available as part of the SP1 release of SQL Server 2016. Developers can now build to a common programming surface across all editions – and do tons more, see the graphic below or read the full article for more.

8. WideWorldImporters: The new SQL Server sample database

We figured a major release of the magnitude of SQL Server 2016 deserved its own new sample database. Besides, it was time for an upgrade of the erstwhile AdventureWorks database, which had a good run for over a decade. The new Wide World Importers sample illustrates how the rich feature set of SQL Server can be used in a real world setting. While it doesn’t attempt to use every single feature (as that would be unrealistic!) it does showcase a variety of key SQL Server 2016 capabilities and performance enhancements.

7. Preview the newest ODBC SQL Server Driver for Windows and Linux

Early last year, we announced our community technology preview of Microsoft ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server on Windows and Linux, supporting Ubuntu, RedHat and SUSE distributions, providing robust data access to Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database via ODBC on Windows and Linux platforms.

6. Microsoft announces major commitment to Apache Spark

Back in June last year, we announced an extensive commitment for Spark to power Microsoft’s big data and analytics offerings, including Cortana Intelligence, Power BI, and Microsoft R Server.

5. JSON in SQL Server 2016: Part 1 of 4

JSON is one of the most widely used data exchange formats, with most modern services returning information as JSON text, and web browsers using information formatted as JSON. JSON is the common format when semi-structured information needs to be stored, such as in files. Because so much data is formatted as JSON, it’s critical for SQL Server to process JSON text retrieved from other systems, and to format information retrieved from SQL Server tables as JSON text. This was the first post in a 4-part series; use the links that follow to read Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of the series.

4. SQL Server on Linux: How? Introduction

Many of you in the community expressed your curiosity about how we made SQL Server run on Linux, so – just before the holidays – we kicked off a blog series last month to share technical details about this very topic, starting with an introduction to the journey of offering SQL Server on Linux.

3. Announcing SQL Server on Linux public preview, first preview of next release of SQL Server

The community shared our excitement when we announced the first public preview of SQL Server on Linux in November, allowing developers to create their SQL Server solutions on Linux, Windows, Docker, or macOS (via Docker), and then deploy to Linux, Windows, or Docker, on-premises or in the cloud. There’s been tremendous interest from large enterprises as well, with a majority of Fortune 500 companies signing up for this preview release.

2. SQL Server 2016 is generally available today

Perhaps our biggest announcement of the year was the general availability of SQL Server 2016, back in June. There was also this post a month prior to the release, recapping key capabilities and benchmarks we achieved. As the world’s fastest, most price-performant database for HTAP (Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing) with updateable, in-memory columnstores and advanced analytics via deep integration with R Services, SQL Server offers industry-leading TCO and is a truly watershed product.

1. Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition is now free

The best things in life are free, as they say – and so it was certainly so for our announcement that SQL Server Developer Edition was being made a free download for all Visual Studio Dev Essentials members. Note that the SQL Server Developer Edition is only for development and testing, and not for production environments or for use with production data. This announcement was an important step in Microsoft making SQL Server ever more broadly accessible.

Stay tuned to this channel for much more exciting news during the year ahead about databases in general, and the SQL Server family in particular.

We wish all of our readers a very happy new year!
SQL Server Blog Team