Microsoft Convergence 2013–Blog 3–Opening Keynote

Today, Tuesday 19th March 2013, we were greeted with the Opening Keynote. This is the must attend session to kick of Convergence 2013. After taking in a good breakfast at the hotel we all headed over to get our reserved seats at the Keynote – right up the front!

Yep you read it right. 11,500 attendees to Microsoft Convergence 2013. Great turnout Microsoft. Also means 3,000+ partners in attendance.

What I will do for this blog post is post the photos in the order I took them and you can then consume the information from them. A picture is worth a thousand words .. right?

Walking into the Keynote area

Wow! that is a heap of seats. Thanks to those who had to set them all up. You deserve a beer or three.

Keynote Music

The team representing New Zealand start to fill up there reserved seats – that includes me!

Large attendance for Convergence 2013 Keynote

Speaker list for the Keynote, which included the customers sharing their experiences with the Dynamics products.

Officially announced today. Microsoft has acquired social monitoring analytics vendor Netbreeze to integrate with the Dynamics CRM platform. NAV 2013 and GP 2013 will be available in Windows Azure from June 2013.

5 Billion GBs of data is collected in 10 minutes!

Microsoft’s View: Devices and Services

Chobani share their experiences to the attendees

Weightwatchers share their experience to the attendees

Revlon share their experiences with the attendees

Now we start to see the demo information (via photos in this blog post)

Multi-tasking apps in Windows 8. Skype call goes out to Reuben in this demo.

The CRM UI flow process

Yammer integration with CRM. “Liked by Hamish Hill” – nice one!

Taking the power Netbreeze. The new product coming to the CRM platform

Analytics in motion!

Social experience inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM

That concludes blog posting number 3. Hopefully the photos were helpful, especially if you couldn’t make Convergence this year.

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Surface – Surface with Windows 8 Pro

If you are digging around on the internet for specs on the Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro, then look no further. Below is the specifications from Microsoft with a link to download the PDF file.

Note: There is no option for a 3G SIM slot with the Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro. So the best option here is to enable internet tethering with your smartphone and connect the Surface via this option.

 

Download: Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro Specifications [PDF: 193kb]

 

 

Enjoy!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Windows 8 – Fix: Enable Feature .NET 3.5 Error 0x800F0906

Within Windows 8 you can add the following Windows Feature – .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) as shown below.

To enable this feature simply tick the checkbox and click OK.

When the wizard ran through it’s process I was faced with the following error:

Windows couldn’t complete the requested changes.

Windows couldn’t connect to the Internet to download necessary files. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, and press “Retry” to try again.

Error code: 0x800F0906

Using the wizard I was unable to fix this error. Therefore to fix this issue, follow the steps listed below.

Fix:

1. Open Windows Explorer (Windows + E)
2. Mount the Windows 8 installation ISO you used to install your operating system.  You can do this by right clicking on it and selecting the option Mount. UPDATE: If you have the Windows 8 Installation Disc in your optical drive, then use this instead. However, make sure you change the commands mentioned later to match your optical drive.
3. Use the RUN command in administrator elevated mode. You can do this by navigating to the location c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe and right-clicking on the cmd.exe application and selecting Run as administrator.
4. Once the command windows has loaded, then type the following command (Note: Match the drive letter to your appropriate drive letter for the ISO or DVD):

dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFX3 /All /Source:E:\Sources\SxS /LimitAccess

Hit enter once you have completed the command.

Below is a screenshot of what this will look like when you hit enter.

Now your Windows Feature of .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) is enabled.  To verify this, open the Window Features again to see the option is now enabled.

Success! You have the Windows Feature enabled.

Extra Information

This blog post will also support users that wish to install Windows Essentials 2012 because the installer requires the .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) feature to be enabled. Make sure you carry out the steps mentioned earlier to install Windows Essentials 2012 on Windows 8 operating system. I use Windows Live Writer, which is a part of the Windows Essentials 2012 installer and for me to complete the installation, I had to complete the steps mentioned earlier first before running the installer.

Hope this helps!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Windows 8 – Add My Computer to Desktop

Follow the steps below to add the My Computer icon (with it’s functionality) to a Windows 8 desktop.

1. Right-click on the desktop
2. Select Personalize
3. Click on Change Desktop Icons
4. Select Computer under Desktops Icons
5. Click OK to finish. Now you should see the icon on your Windows 8 desktop.

Hope that helps!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Windows 8 – When can I get my copy?

As mentioned earlier on this blog post, Windows 8 has been released to RTM as of 1st August 2012. But you might be asking, when can I get my copy?

Below is a list of the key dates (extracted from here):

• August 15th 2012: Developers will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via your MSDN subscriptions.
• August 15th 2012: IT professionals testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through your TechNet subscriptions.
• August 16th 2012: Customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC), allowing you to test, pilot and begin adopting Windows 8 Enterprise within your organisation.
• August 16th 2012: Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Windows 8.
• August 20th 2012: Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to Windows 8.
• September 1st 2012: Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers.

General Availability for Windows 8 will be on October 26^th 2012 either by upgrading for $39.99 or on a new PC or device. And if you buy an eligible Windows 7 PC today, you will be able to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (U.S.) through the Windows Upgrade Offer.

Greg Olsen
Yellow Duck Guy

Windows 8 – Released to Manufacturing (RTM)

1st August 2012 – Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 has been Released to Manufacturing (RTM). This basically means the final code for Windows 8 is complete.

Make sure you head to the Windows 8 Blog to read more about this announcement.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/08/01/releasing-windows-8-august-1-2012.aspx

Greg Olsen
Yellow Duck Guy