Microsoft Research India today launched ResearchAndYou.com, a computer science (CS) community portal at TechVista, its annual research symposium. The portal was unveiled by Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. Coinciding with the lab’s fifth anniversary celebrations, the launch of this portal will bridge the gap between the small number of CS researchers in the country and the large pool of potential research talent at the Bachelor’s degree level. ResearchAndYou.com has some of the country’s leading academics and researchers as mentors and aims to achieve the following:

• Provide a forum where students across India can access the country’s leading researchers to seek guidance and information to start a career in research
• Clarify and demystify what research actually means vis-à-vis product development
• Attract students to take up advanced studies in CS
• Help students choose a career in research.

ResearchAndYou.com will provide students with an interactive forum where they can connect with researchers and faculty from fields of their interest to ask questions, explore research opportunities and understand the state-of-the-art. The portal will also serve as a single source of information for resources in different disciplines of computer science and related areas, with links and pointers to different kinds of information, including reference material, research papers, events and conferences, and research news.

TechVista 2010 was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The morning session of TechVista also saw a Distinguished Address by Turing Award recipient Professor Adi Shamir, Weizmann Institute of Science, a panel discussion on The Future of Computing and Computer Science featuring four Turing Award recipients, and talks by Dr. Rick Rashid, Senior VP, Research, Microsoft and Dr. P. Anandan, MD, Microsoft Research India.

Dr. P. Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India.

Research, innovation and technological leadership are closely related and interdependent. While India has great talent, it is yet to realize its potential to be a world leader in research. We hope ResearchAndYou.com will be a great resource in helping aspiring researchers.

Dr. Richard F. Rashid, Senior VP, Research, Microsoft Corporation, Said

Access and exposure to world class research and researchers from an early stage in education is critical in motivating students to look at a research career, which in turn is critical to developing a rich research talent pool. ResearchAndYou.com seeks to address this issue.

Microsoft has launched it online store in India to sell its complete rage of software, hardware and software as service products in India. Currently Microsoft India store offering Windows, Developer Tools ,Books, Games and other Microsoft software products.

Microsoft Store in India is a good move because a lot Indian consumers looking to purchase genuine Microsoft software but they don’t have access to vendors which can offer them genuine Microsoft software’s  to them.

Visit Microsoft Store Website

At CES 2010 Microsoft announced the next version of Mediaroom that is Mediaroom 2.0. Mediaroom is world most deployed Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform. Mediaroom 2.0, enable service providers to offer on demand on-demand TV services to their existing customers.The same on-demand service can also be enjoyed on Windows 7-based PCs using Windows Media Center and on Xbox 360. Service providers also can offer subscribers access to their on-demand programming remotely using a range of Web browsers running on Windows-based PCs and Macs and, in the near future, on compatible smartphones.Mediaroom 2.0 also adds support for Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming for the access and delivery of on-demand content.

Mediaroom 2.0 is scheduled to be available for operators to start testing beginning next month. Mediaroom 2.0 can be deployed by operators as their entertainment cloud powering the delivery of a complete television service, including cloud digital video recording (DVR), on-demand features, interactive applications, and access to both operator-hosted content and externally hosted content such as Internet TV. The operators’ service can be enjoyed by their subscribers on multiple screens including the TV (with Mediaroom set-top box), Windows Media Center, Web browsers (for Windows-based PCs and Macs), Xbox 360 and compatible smartphones.

At CodePlex Microsoft has released an experimental application called “Fishbowl” . Fishbowl is a desktop application that let’s Facebook users to browse all Facebook data without opening browser. This application requires Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 if it’s not there than it will automatically install. First time it will ask for Facebook user name and password as well as permission to publish posts without prompting you, and also to allow the program to access your News Feed and Wall.

It’s very easy to share and view pictures on Facebook. Fishbowl offers drag and drop functionality to view and upload pictures on Facebook. You can also watch full screen slideshows also on Fishbowl. Fishbowl is Fully integrated with Microsoft Windows 7 features such as the new taskbar so you can monitor Facebook activity and friends at a glance. Multitouch navigation and image gestures to navigate and view your photos.

The complete source code is available for download via CodePlex.

Download Fishbowl.

Download Fishbowl Source Code.

Passwords are most important thing and your bank account, personal data and social networking web site account are more secure when you use strong passwords. But how to check strength of your password, to solve this problem Microsoft’s Online Safety website could be useful you us. Microsoft Online Safety website has a password checker that lets you to determine the strength of your password. A strong password should appear to be a random string of characters to an attacker. It should be 14 characters or longer, (eight characters or longer at a minimum). It should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

About Password Checker

Password Checker does not collect, store, or transmit information beyond the computer that you use to access Password Checker. The image works on your computer desktop until you navigate away from the page.

The security of the passwords entered into Password Checker is similar to the security of the password you enter when you log into Windows. The password is checked and validated on your computer, but is not sent over the Internet

As we all know that Microsoft is a software company and it is well known for Windows ,Office and Visual Studio but with Windows 7 Microsoft taking an active role in customizing PC’s goes into sells via its online store or PC manufactures like HP,Dell or Compaq.

Microsoft Signature PCs come with full versions of the software you need, pre-configured and ready to run.* Included are:

• Internet Explorer 8: Surf the Internet faster, safer, and more easily than ever before.
• Windows Media Center : Preconfigured home entertainment shell allowing users to watch/record TV and download videos/shows on PC, manage pictures, movies, music, play stored media from TV and handset; additional configuration included
• Internet TV Update for Media Center: Software update which enables TV playback on PC.
• Playready PC Runtime (for WMC) Allows access to play-ready content
• Microsoft Security Essentials:
  Automatically updated software that protects against malware, spyware, virus, worms, and other threats to your security.
• Microsoft Silverlight:Software for delivering rich Web applications similar to Adobe Flash; Web application run-time.
• Adobe Flash Player for IE: Software for viewing Shockwave Flash (SWF) animations and movies using Internet Explorer.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader: Software for viewing PDF documents
• Bing 3D Maps: 3D mapping program for Bing Maps.
• Zune 4.0:Music, video, FM radio, and podcast player; provides access to Zune marketplace for music and TV shows.
• Live ID Sign-in Assistant: Software utility to link Windows account with Live ID.

Windows Live Essentials

• Windows Live Call : Allows users to make PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone voice and video calls
• Windows Live Family Safety : Software for controlling and monitoring online activities of children
• Windows Live Mail : E-mail client successor to outlook and windows mail; includes Calendar, Contacts, Feeds, Newsgroups
• Windows Live Messenger : Instant Messaging, calling, and video chat program
• Windows Live Photo Gallery :
  Photo-management software
• Windows Live Writer : Blog-publishing software
• Microsoft Office Live Add-In:
  Software allowing MS office programs to save files to and access files from a shared online workspace
• Windows Live Sync : File-synchronization program
• Windows Live Movie Maker :Movie-making software
• Windows Live Toolbar : Web browser toolbar to facilitate connection with Windows Live

*Software may vary from manufacturer’s original software provided.

Bing team in Microsoft working very hard to add more and more new feature in Bing. Bing team is now trying to build a bridge between Bing search results and social networking website. Bing & Ping will enable users to share their Bing search results with their friends on different social networking websites.

How Bing & Ping would Work ?

Bing & Ping will appear at the bottom of search results and users will be able to share these search results information with their friends via Social networking websites including Facebook, Twitter or they can simply send them an E-Mail.

Bing & Ping allow Bing users to share any kind of search results with their friends.

Bing & Ping is not yet available for testing yet but Microsoft only delivered a taste of the feature in the screenshots included with this article. If you’re interested in previewing this feature, be sure to become a fan of our Facebook page. Microsoft will be sending a special invitation to our fans to preview Bing and Ping. Check it out and let Bing team know what you think, if you like it and how Bing Team can make it better.

Microsoft planning to launch Windows 7 on 22 October 2009. Apply online to host a Launch Party. Choose a day from October 22-29 and if you’re selected, you’ll not only receive a special Signature Edition of Windows 7 Ultimate but your very own Windows® 7 Party Pack.

It’s a global Launch Party. Windows 7 Launch Party. Be there!

Microsoft is upgrading their Office live small business server on 12 and 19 September 2009. During this upgrade process websites hosted on Microsoft Office Live Small Business  server would be unavailable for  three hours. During this brief downtime, visitors to your site will see a message alerting them of the outage, and asking them to check back shortly. You will be able to log in to your Office Live Small Business account and access your E-Mail during the upgrade, but you will not be able to use the site-management tools.

Microsoft scheduled these updates on a Saturday, generally the lowest day for site traffic, in order to have as little impact on your website as possible. While these upgrades will improve the performance, reliability, and stability of your website, we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this scheduled maintenance may cause.

A new Corporate Citizenship Study was just released by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Burson/Marsteller and Landor. When asked to rate which companies they see as the best corporate citizens, survey respondents put Microsoft and General Mills at the top of the list.The citizenship report urges companies to associate their CSR efforts with their brands in order to maximize the investment in CSR reporting and compliance.