Category Archives: Windows Azure

Exam AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam

Exam AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam

Candidates for this exam are cloud developers who participate in all phases of development from requirements definition and design, to development and deployment, and maintenance. They partner with cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement solutions.

Candidates should be proficient in Azure SDKs, data storage options, data connections, APIs, app authentication and authorization, compute and container deployment, debugging, performance tuning, and monitoring.

Candidates must have 1-2 years professional development experience and experience with Microsoft Azure. They must be able to program in an Azure Supported Language.

Beta exams are not scored immediately because we are gathering data on the quality of the questions and the exam. Learn more about the value and importance of beta exams.

Part of the requirements for: Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Related exams: none

Important: See details

Languages: English

Retirement date: none
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: develop Azure compute solutions; develop for Azure storage; implement Azure security; monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions; and connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services.

Skills Measured
NOTE: The bullets that appear below each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. This list is not definitive or exhaustive.
NOTE: In most cases, exams do NOT cover preview features, and some features will only be added to an exam when they are GA (General Availability).
Develop Azure compute solutions (25-30%)
Implement IaaS solutions
• provision VMs
• create ARM templates
• create container images for solutions
• publish an image to the Azure Container Registry
• run containers by using Azure Container Instance

Create Azure App Service Web Apps
• create an Azure App Service Web App
• enable diagnostics logging
• deploy code to a web app
• configure web app settings
• implement autoscaling rules (schedule, operational/system metrics)

Implement Azure functions
• implement input and output bindings for a function
• implement function triggers by using data operations, timers, and webhooks
• implement Azure Durable Functions

Develop for Azure storage (10-15%)
Develop solutions that use Cosmos DB storage
• select the appropriate API for your solution
• implement partitioning schemes
• interact with data using the appropriate SDK
• set the appropriate consistency level for operations
• create Cosmos DB containers

Develop solutions that use blob storage
• move items in Blob storage between storage accounts or containers
• set and retrieve properties and metadata
• interact with data using the appropriate SDK
• implement data archiving and retention

Implement Azure security (15-20%)
Implement user authentication and authorization
• implement OAuth2 authentication
• create and implement shared access signatures
• register apps and use Azure Active Directory to authenticate users

Implement secure cloud solutions
• secure app configuration data by using the App Configuration and KeyVault API
• manage keys, secrets, and certificates by using the KeyVault API
• implement Managed Identities for Azure resources

Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (10-15%)
Integrate caching and content delivery within solutions
• develop code to implement CDN’s in solutions
• configure cache and expiration policies
• store and retrieve data in Azure Redis cache

Instrument solutions to support monitoring and logging
• configure instrumentation in an app or service by using Application Insights
• analyze and troubleshoot solutions by using Azure Monitor
• implement Application Insights Web Test and Alerts
• implement code that handles transient faults

Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (25-30%)
Develop an App Service Logic App
• create a Logic App
• create a custom connector for Logic Apps
• create a custom template for Logic Apps

Implement API management
• create an APIM instance
• configure authentication for APIs
• define policies for APIs

Develop event-based solutions
Note: Creating event models is in scope

• implement solutions that use Azure Event Grid
• implement solutions that use Azure Notification Hubs
• implement solutions that use Azure Event Hub

Develop message-based solutions
• implement solutions that use Azure Service Bus
• implement solutions that use Azure Queue Storage queues

QUESTION 1
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in
the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have
more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these
questions will not appear in the review screen.
You develop a software as a service (SaaS) offering to manage photographs. Users upload photos to a web
service which then stores the photos in Azure Storage Blob storage. The storage account type is Generalpurpose V2.
When photos are uploaded, they must be processed to produce and save a mobile-friendly version of the
image. The process to produce a mobile-friendly version of the image must start in less than one minute.
You need to design the process that starts the photo processing.
Solution: Convert the Azure Storage account to a BlockBlobStorage storage account.

Does the solution meet the goal?

A. Yes
B. No

Correct Answer: B

QUESTION 2
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in
the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have
more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these
questions will not appear in the review screen.
You develop a software as a service (SaaS) offering to manage photographs. Users upload photos to a web
service which then stores the photos in Azure Storage Blob storage. The storage account type is Generalpurpose V2.
When photos are uploaded, they must be processed to produce and save a mobile-friendly version of the
image. The process to produce a mobile-friendly version of the image must start in less than one minute.
You need to design the process that starts the photo processing.
Solution: Move photo processing to an Azure Function triggered from the blob upload.

Does the solution meet the goal?

A. Yes
B. No

Correct Answer: A

QUESTION 3
You are developing an application that uses Azure Blob storage.
The application must read the transaction logs of all the changes that occur to the blobs and the blob metadata
in the storage account for auditing purposes. The changes must be in the order in which they occurred, include
only create, update, delete, and copy operations and be retained for compliance reasons.
You need to process the transaction logs asynchronously.
What should you do?

A. Process all Azure Blob storage events by using Azure Event Grid with a subscriber Azure Function app.
B. Enable the change feed on the storage account and process all changes for available events.
C. Process all Azure Storage Analytics logs for successful blob events.
D. Use the Azure Monitor https: Data Collector API and scan the request body for successful blob events.
Correct Answer: B


QUESTION 4
You are developing a web app that is protected by Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF). All traffic to the web
app is routed through an Azure Application Gateway instance that is used by multiple web apps. The web app
address is contoso.azurewebsites.net.
All traffic must be secured with SSL. The Azure Application Gateway instance is used by multiple web apps.
You need to configure the Azure Application Gateway for the app.
Which two actions should you perform? Each correct answer presents part of the solution.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.

A. In the Azure Application Gateway’s https: setting, enable the Use for App service setting.
B. Convert the web app to run in an Azure App service environment (ASE).
C. Add an authentication certificate for contoso.azurewebsites.net to the Azure Application gateway.
D. In the Azure Application Gateway’s https: setting, set the value of the Override backend path option to contoso22.azurewebsites.net.

Correct Answer: AD

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AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Languages: English
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: Microsoft Azure

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

If you have other questions or feedback about Microsoft Certification exams or about the certification program, registration, or promotions, please contact your Regional Service Center.

Understand Cloud Concepts (15-20%)
Describe the benefits and considerations of using cloud services
Understand terms such as High Availability, Scalability, Elasticity, Agility, Fault Tolerance, and Disaster Recovery
Understand the principles of economies of scale
Understand the differences between Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
Understand the consumption-based model
Describe the differences between Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Describe Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Describe Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Describe Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Compare and contrast the three different service types
Describe the differences between Public, Private and Hybrid cloud models
Describe Public cloud
Describe Private cloud
Describe Hybrid cloud
Compare and contrast the three different cloud models

Understand Core Azure Services (30-35%)
Understand the core Azure architectural components
Describe Regions
Describe Availability Zones
Describe Resource Groups
Describe Azure Resource Manager
Describe the benefits and usage of core Azure architectural components
Describe some of the core products available in Azure
Describe products available for Compute such as Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, App Service and Functions
Describe products available for Networking such as Virtual Network, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway and Content Delivery Network
Describe products available for Storage such as Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, and Archive Storage
Describe products available for Databases such as CosmosDB, Azure SQL Database, Azure Database Migration service, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Describe the Azure Marketplace and its usage scenarios
Describe some of the solutions available on Azure
Describe Internet of Things (IoT) and products that are available for IoT on Azure such as IoT Fundamentals, IoT Hub and IoT Central
Describe Big Data and Analytics and products that are available for Big Data and Analytics such as SQL Data Warehouse, HDInsight and Data Lake Analytics
Describe Artificial Intelligence (AI) and products that are available for AI such as Azure Machine Learning Service and Studio
Describe Serverless computing and Azure products that are available for serverless computing such as Azure Functions, Logic Apps and App grid
Describe the benefits and outcomes of using Azure solutions
Understand Azure management tools
Understand Azure tools such as Azure CLI, PowerShell, and the Azure Portal
Understand Azure Advisor

Understand Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Trust (25-30%)
Understand securing network connectivity in Azure
Describe Azure Firewall
Describe Azure DDoS Protection
Describe Network Security Group (NSG)
Choose an appropriate Azure security solution
Describe core Azure Identity services
Understand the difference between authentication and authorization
Describe Azure Active Directory
Describe Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
Describe security tools and features of Azure
Describe Azure Security
Understand Azure Security center usage scenarios
Describe Key Vault
Describe Azure Information Protection (AIP)
Describe Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Describe Azure governance methodologies
Describe Azure Policies
Describe Initiatives
Describe Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Describe Locks
Describe Azure Advisor security assistance
Understand monitoring and reporting options in Azure
Describe Azure Monitor
Describe Azure Service Health
Understand the use cases and benefits of Azure Monitor and Azure Service Health
Understand privacy, compliance and data protection standards in Azure
Understand industry compliance terms such as GDPR, ISO and NIST
Understand the Microsoft Privacy Statement
Describe the Trust center
Describe the Service Trust Portal
Describe Compliance Manager
Determine if Azure is compliant for a business need
Understand Azure Government services
Understand Azure Germany services

Understand Azure Pricing and Support (25-30%)
Understand Azure subscriptions
Describe an Azure Subscription
Understand the uses and options with Azure subscriptions
Understand planning and management of costs
Understand options for purchasing Azure products and services
Understand options around Azure Free account
Understand the factors affecting costs such as resource types, services, locations, ingress and egress traffic
Understand Zones for billing purposes
Understand the Pricing calculator
Understand the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator
Understand best practices for minimizing Azure costs such as performing cost analysis, creating spending limits and quotas, and using tags to identify cost owners; use Azure reservations; use Azure Advisor recommendations
Describe Azure Cost Management
Understand the support options available with Azure
Understand support plans that are available such as Dev, Standard, Professional Direct and Premier
Understand how to open a support ticket
Understand available support channels outside of support plan channels
Describe the Knowledge Center
Describe Azure Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Describe a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Determine SLA for a particular Azure product or service
Understand service lifecycle in Azure
Understand Public and Private Preview features
Understand how to access Preview features
Understand the term General Availability (GA)
Monitor feature updates

Instructor-led training

AZ-900T01: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Online training
Explore more training on Microsoft Learn, including Azure Fundamentals.

Who should take this exam?
This exam is designed for candidates looking to demonstrate foundational level knowledge of cloud services and how those services are provided with Microsoft Azure. The exam is intended for candidates with non-technical backgrounds, such as those involved in selling or purchasing cloud based solutions and services or who have some involvement with cloud based solutions and services, as well as those with a technical background who have a need to validate their foundational level knowledge around cloud services. Technical IT experience is not required however some general IT knowledge or experience would be beneficial.

This exam can be taken as an optional first step in learning about cloud services and how those concepts are exemplified by Microsoft Azure. It can be taken as a precursor to Microsoft Azure or Microsoft cloud services exams. While it would be a beneficial first step, validating foundational level knowledge, taking this exam is not a pre-requisite before taking any other Azure-based certifications.

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Exam MS-101 Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security (beta)

Languages: English
Audiences: IT Professionals
Technology: Microsoft 365

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

If you have other questions or feedback about Microsoft Certification exams or about the certification program, registration, or promotions, please contact your Regional Service Center.

Implement Modern Device Services (30-35%)
Implement Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Plan for MDM
Configure MDM integration with Azure AD
Set an MDM authority
Set device enrollment limit for users
Manage device compliance
Plan for device Compliance
Design Conditional Access Policies
Create Conditional Access Policies
Configure device compliance policy
Manage Conditional Access Policies
Plan for devices and apps
Create and configure Microsoft Store for Business
Plan app deployment
Plan device co-management
Plan device monitoring
Plan for device profiles
Plan for Mobile Application Management
Plan mobile device security
Plan Windows 10 deployment
Plan for Windows as a Service (WaaS)
Plan the appropriate Windows 10 Enterprise deployment method
Analyze upgrade readiness for Windows 10
Evaluate and deploy additional Windows 10 Enterprise security features

Implement Microsoft 365 Security and Threat Management (30-35%)
Implement Cloud App Security (CAS)
Configure Cloud App Security (CAS)
Configure Cloud App Security (CAS) policies
Configure Connected apps
Design cloud app security (CAS) Solution
Manage Cloud App Security (CAS) alerts
Upload cloud app security (CAS) traffic logs
Implement threat management
Plan a threat management solution
Design Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Policies
Design Microsoft 365 ATP Policies
Configure Azure ATP Policies
Configure Microsoft 365 ATP Policies
Monitor Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA) incidents
Implement Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Plan Windows Defender ATP Solution
Configure preferences
Implement Windows Defender ATP Policies
Enable and configure security features of Windows 10 Enterprise
Manage security reports and alerts
Manage service assurance dashboard
Manage tracing and reporting on Azure AD Identity Protection
Configure and manage Microsoft 365 security alerts
Configure and manage Azure Identity Protection dashboard and alerts

Manage Microsoft 365 Governance and Compliance (35-40%)
Configure Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Configure DLP Policies
Design data retention policies in Microsoft 365
Manage DLP exceptions
Monitor DLP policy matches
Manage DLP policy matches
Implement Azure Information Protection (AIP)
Plan AIP solution
Plan for deployment On-Prem rights management Connector
Plan for Windows information Protection (WIP) implementation
Plan for classification labeling
Configure Information Rights Management (IRM) for Workloads
Configure Super User
Deploy AIP Clients
Implement Azure Information Protection policies
Implement AIP tenant key
Manage data governance
Configure information retention
Plan for Microsoft 365 backup
Plan for restoring deleted content
Plan information Retention Policies
Manage auditing
Configure audit log retention
Configure audit policy
Monitor Unified Audit Logs
Manage eDiscovery
Search content by using Security and Compliance Center
Plan for in-place and legal hold
Configure eDiscovery

Preparation options

Instructor-led training

Who should take this exam?
Candidates for this exam are Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrators who take part in evaluating, planning, migrating, deploying, and managing Microsoft 365 services. They perform Microsoft 365 tenant management tasks for an enterprise, including its identities, security, compliance, and supporting technologies.

Candidates have a working knowledge of Microsoft 365 workloads and should have been an administrator for at least one Microsoft 365 workload (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Windows as a Service). Candidates also have a working knowledge of networking, server administration, and IT fundamentals such as DNS, Active Directory, and PowerShell.
More information about exams

Preparing for an exam
We recommend that you review this exam preparation guide in its entirety and familiarize yourself with the resources on this website before you schedule your exam. See the Microsoft Certification exam overview for information about registration, videos of typical exam question formats, and other preparation resources. For information on exam policies and scoring, see the Microsoft Certification exam policies and FAQs.

Note

This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format. To help you prepare for this exam, Microsoft recommends that you have hands-on experience with the product and that you use the specified training resources. These training resources do not necessarily cover all topics listed in the “Skills measured” section.

FAQ: The ins and out of Windows 8 pricing

What’s it cost to whom and for what

Last week, Microsoft and its retail partners revealed a few more details about Windows 8 pricing, clarifying what the Redmond, Wash., developer has purposefully left muddy in the months leading up to its release next week.

Windows 8 may come in fewer flavors than its predecessors, but pricing seems as confusing as ever, in large part because of Microsoft’s secrecy — this cycle it’s dribbled out information so slowly it’s driven some analysts half-crazy — with a dash also due to a record-setting discount for upgraders through the end of January.

We’ve tried to answer the most-pressing questions, filled in the blanks as best we could, and thrown up our hands when we had no more of a clue than you.

If Microsoft answers the open questions — it again declined to do so last Friday — we’ll be back with an updated FAQ.

Can I score a free copy of Windows 8? Yes, you can, but the OS is good for just 90 days.

The free trial of Windows 8 Pro RTM (release to manufacturing) can be downloaded from this Microsoft website. But when the 90 days are up, you have to replace the trial with a purchased copy or another operating system, and reinstall all applications, other software and files.

Sorry, I like OSes that stick around. What else do you have? How about $14.99? That’s the price of a Windows 8 Pro upgrade from Windows 7 for anyone who purchases a new PC between June 2, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013.

To get the cut-rate upgrade, PC buyers must register at the Windows Upgrade Offer site.

Thanks, but that doesn’t work for me. How much for my best deal? For most Windows users, the $39.99 Windows 8 upgrade, which Microsoft will kick off Oct. 26 and offer through Jan. 31, 2013, will be the most economical.

First announced July 2, the upgrade — from XP, Vista or Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro — will be available only as a download at that price. It’s unclear if Microsoft will open registrations or pre-orders for the download before Oct. 26, but it definitely will go live on Windows.com that Friday.

At Windows.com, look for something called “Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant,” a tool that checks your PC to ensure it will run the OS, takes your order, then kicks off the download and installation process.

I want something I can hold in my hands. How much for an upgrade on DVD? Microsoft will sell you one of those for Windows 8 Pro at the discounted price of $69.99.

From the hints on Newegg.com, one of the online retailers also selling the SKU, or “stock-keeping unit,” the price for a Windows 8 Pro upgrade on physical media will jump to $199.99 after Jan. 31, 2013.

In other words, just like the $39.99 online upgrade offer, you should strike quickly.

The $30 surcharge for a DVD may seem steep, but Microsoft has actually done a little bit better by customers than rival Apple: In 2011, Apple sold a USB drive with OS X 10.7, also known as Lion, for $39 more than the download price. Apple didn’t even bother to reprise the offer this year for Mountain Lion.

[Note: The Windows 8 Pro online upgrade lets you create a bootable installation DVD or USB drive, so unless you have a very slow Internet connection and want the media to save hours of dial-up agony, that’s a less expensive way to get a DVD.]

I run Windows in a virtual machine (VM) on my Mac. What’s the damage? Looks like $99.99 for Windows 8, $139.99 for Windows 8 Pro, is the cheapest bet for now.

Those are Newegg.com’s pre-sale prices for what Microsoft is now calling “System Builder” — formerly known as “OEM” — an edition aimed at small-scale or homebrew PC makers, as well as users who want to run the OS in a virtual machine or in a dual-boot setup on a Mac or PC.

System Builder includes a license that allows for installation in a virtual environment, but offers one-time-use only. “We grant you the right to install [Windows 8] … as the operating system on a computer that you build for your personal use, or as an additional operating system running on a local virtual machine or a separate partition,” states the end-user license agreement (EULA) we’ve seen. “If you want to use the software on more than one virtual computer, you must obtain separate copies of the software and a separate license for each copy.”

I already run older Windows in several virtual machines. How much do I pay? For each VM you upgrade — up to a max of five per person — you pay $39.99 to migrate to Windows 8 Pro from XP, Vista or Windows 7 through Jan. 31, 2013.

You upgrade the VMs (or partitions, like a second boot partition on a PC, or Boot Camp on OS X) the same way someone upgrades a physical machine: by running the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant on Windows.com.

Any chance that the System Builder SKUs will fall in price after Oct. 26? We don’t think so.

The list prices for the Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional System Builder equivalents are $128 and $179, respectively, according to Amazon. Not surprisingly, Amazon’s prices are less: $92 and $128, or close to the Windows 8 System Builder prices on Newegg.

In other words, unless Microsoft drastically reduces the list price of System Builder, the numbers on Newegg are probably the discounted prices.

How much to upgrade a new Windows 8 system to Windows 8 Pro? $69.99 during the discount stretch.

Microsoft’s calling this the “Windows 8 Pro Pack;” It consists of an activation code that turns Windows 8 into Windows 8 Pro. The Pro Pack is analogous to the in-place upgrades the company touted as “Anytime Upgrades” for Windows 7.

Newegg said the Pro Pack’s $69.99 price was a $30 savings over the regular price of $99.99, with the latter presumably the upgrade’s eventual list price. If so, that’s a $10 increase over the Windows 7 Home Premium Anytime Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, which costs $89.99.

It may be cheaper to buy the new PC with Windows 8 Pro already installed, if the option’s offered. Sony, for example, charges an additional $50 to bump up a pre-ordered Windows 8 notebook to Windows 8 Pro. (Dell, on the other hand, adds the same $70 as the price for the Windows 8 Pro Pack to juice a Windows 8 machine to Windows 8 Pro.)

What about Windows 8? What will it cost to upgrade to the consumer version, rather than Windows 8 Pro We don’t know because Microsoft’s not saying.

Among the blank spots in an imaginary Windows 8 pricing chart are those for the entry-level edition. So far, Microsoft’s only talked about upgrades to Windows 8 Pro.

The company may be waiting until Oct. 26 to divulge a price for a Windows 8 upgrade, or dawdling until early next year, after the discounted $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade offer expires.

Or the omission may mean more. It’s possible that Microsoft won’t even bother to sell an upgrade to Windows 8, leaving that SKU to OEMs to pre-install on their least-expensive consumer PCs, and to the System Builder line.

Clues to that include: The silence surrounding Windows 8, the Oct. 26 availability of Windows 8 Pro Pack, and the absence of a multi-license SKU for Windows 8. Microsoft sold one dubbed “Family Pack” for $150 that was able to upgrade three PCs to Windows 7 Home Premium, but Microsoft’s said nothing of something similar for Windows 8.

If the sans-Windows 8 alternative is what Microsoft chooses, it will be even more important for upgraders to move before Jan. 31, 2013, when the $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade expires.

Minus a Windows 8 upgrade option, the choices would narrow to a $199.99 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro, or one of the System Builders, which don’t provide support from Microsoft. Neither sounds very attractive.

What if I hate Windows 8? How much will it cost me to get Windows 7 back? Depends.

If it’s an old PC you’ve upgraded to Windows 8 Pro, it should cost you nothing except a lot of time. You’ll need to reinstall the previous OS from your media — which is why it’s a good idea to make sure you have it before you try Windows 8 — and all your applications, as well as restore your files and other data from a backup.

But if you bought a new PC with the new OS already installed, you may need to pony up. Only Windows 8 Pro comes with “downgrade” rights, and then only to Windows 7 Professional, so you’ll need media for the latter to use the license that came with the machine.

If you don’t have that media, or have Windows 8 on the PC, you’ll have to fork over for a new Windows 7 license. Your best bet: A System Builder-like “OEM” Windows 7 license. As we said earlier, Amazon sells that for $92 for Windows 7 Home Premium, $128 for Windows 7 Professional. On Newegg, the prices are $99.99 and $139.99, respectively.

 

 

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QUESTION 1
You work as a Network Administrator at Certkingdom.com. You have been asked to deploy Lync Server
2010 as a VOIP telephony and video conferencing solution for the company.
Company management is concerned about the possible network load imposed by the VoIP and
video conferencing features of Lync Server 2010.
To manage the network bandwidth used by the system, you configure Call Admission Control.
How can you enable the Call Admission Control feature?

A. By running the Set-CsNetworkInterSitePolicy cmdlet.
B. By running the Set-CsNetworkConfiguration cmdlet.
C. By running the Set-CsCpsConfiguration cmdlet.
D. By running the Set-CsVoiceConfiguration cmdlet.

Answer: B

Explanation:


QUESTION 2
You work as a Network Administrator at Certkingdom.com. The company’s communication system is
provided by a Lync Server 2010 infrastructure.
You have configured a bandwidth policy to limit the network bandwidth used by real-time audio
and video sessions.
You want to override the policy for the Managing Director of the company.
What type of policy should you create first to enable you to override the bandwidth policy for the
Managing Director?

A. You should first create a Conferencing Policy.
B. You should first create a Client Version Policy.
C. You should first create a Voice Policy.
D. You should first create an External Access Policy.

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 3
You work as a Network Administrator at Certkingdom.com. You are configuring a new Lync Server 2010 infrastructure.
You want the company phone number to be displayed in the format +11112222333 when users on
the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) receive calls from users using the Lync Server
system.
Which cmdlet should you run?

A. You should run the Set-CsVoiceConfiguration cmdlet.
B. You should run the Set-CsNetworkInterSitePolicy cmdlet.
C. You should run the Set-CsVoicePolicy cmdlet.
D. You should run the Set-CsLocationPolicy cmdlet.

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 4
Your work as a Network Administrator at Certkingdom.com includes the management of the Lync Server
2010 infrastructure.
The Lync Server 2010 infrastructure includes a Mediation Server pool that includes three servers
named Certkingdom-Med1, Certkingdom-Med2 and Certkingdom-Med3.
You need to take Certkingdom-Med3 offline for maintenance.
Which two of the following steps should you perform to allow you to take Certkingdom-Med3 offline without
disconnecting any current calls in progress?

A. Navigate to the Lync Server 2010 Topology Builder.
B. Navigate to the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel.
C. Modify the properties of the Mediation Pool.
D. Modify the properties of Certkingdom-Med3.
E. Create a new Mediation Pool.

Answer: B,D

Explanation:


QUESTION 5
You work as a Network Administrator at Certkingdom.com. You are in the process of deploying a Lync
Server 2010 infrastructure for the company.
You have configured dial-in conferencing and verified that it is functioning properly.
You now want to notify users about the availability of the feature. The notification should include
introductory instructions such as the initial PIN and the link to the Dial-in Conferencing Settings
webpage.
What is the easiest way to send the notification with the required information to the users?

A. Open the Lync Management Shell and run the New-CsAnnouncement cmdlet.
B. Open the Lync Management Shell and run the Set-CsPinSendCAWelcomeMail cmdlet.
C. Open the Lync Management Shell and run the New-CsConferenceDirectory cmdlet.
D. Open the Lync Management Shell and run the New-CsConferencingConfiguration cmdlet.

Answer: B

Explanation:


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What to expect at TechEd North America 2012

As anyone who’s been to TechEd will attest, the event is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. With hundreds of technical sessions, workshops, labs and vendors, the annual Microsoft event doesn’t lack quantity. But what’s actually worth paying attention to?

Thanks to the timing of the event, the published agenda and the tarot cards found lying around the TechTarget office, we have a few informed guesses regarding what attendees can expect to hear a lot about, and where Microsoft wants the industry conversation to go. Here are the top topics we’ll be watching:

Windows Server 2012
With the recent name change from Windows Server 8, there’s a renewed anticipation for Microsoft’s upcoming server OS – and heightened expectations for all the things the company claims it can do. Server and Tools Business president Satya Nadella will be one of the featured keynote speakers at the show, and he’ll likely hammer on all of the many documented improvements within Server 2012, from enhancements to Hyper-V and PowerShell to the new Resilient File System. There are also 72 technical sessions in the Windows Server track, which should sate folks eager to play with the Release Candidate, available now.
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Windows 8
It’s no secret that Microsoft is betting big on Windows 8, its “reimagined,” “fast and fluid” new client operating system. With the next iteration – dubbed the Release Preview – now available, you can bet it’ll be a major point of emphasis for many speakers, if not for the IT pros who remain skeptical of how the touch-centric interface will translate to the enterprise. The agenda includes technical sessions on Windows 8 deployment, Metro-style app delivery, Windows To Go and more. Developers will have plenty to chew on as well: Visual Studio corporate vice president Jason Zander will be speaking during Monday’s keynote session, and Antoine LeBlond, corporate vice president for Windows Web Services (with a focus on the Windows Store) takes the stage on Tuesday.

Certifications
Sure, IT pros have been able to take certification exams at TechEd every year. But this year adds some intrigue, given the recent changes to Microsoft’s program, including the return of the MCSE and a focus on the cloud. Many are wondering what the changes mean for them, whether they should get recertified and what the value of these things are, anyway. If there is any place to get answers, it’s here.

Device (or user) management
It’s pretty difficult to avoid the topic of consumerization and BYOD programs at any conference these days, and for good reason: Any organization that isn’t dealing with it now will soon need to or risk being beaten over the head by iPad-wielding employees. One of the main ways that Microsoft is addressing the new reality is through improved device management. The revamped Windows Intune, which will purportedly give IT the ability to manage and deliver applications to iOS and Android devices in addition to Windows devices, will be featured in demos and discussions throughout the week (as will System Center Configuration Manager 2012). Expect to hear about Microsoft’s “user-centric” management model a lot, and get explanations as to why Windows RT tablets don’t need to join Active Directory domains.

Cloud
The word “cloud” at a Microsoft conference usually means Azure. The public cloud platform will definitely be a major coverage area at TechEd, given both the timing – there was a recent branding brouhaha, and the company is scheduled to make a significant Azure announcement on June 7 – and the speaker slate (which includes sessions from Azure executives Scott Guthrie and Mark Russinovich, and purportedly something on the new Windows Azure Active Directory). But don’t discount Microsoft’s private cloud push, which includes System Center 2012 and Hyper-V.

System Center 2012
Though Microsoft’s updated systems management suite got plenty of time in the spotlight during the Management Summit in April, IT pros are looking to learn more about how to better monitor and respond to increasingly complex environments. Many of the suite’s most significant products, including Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager and Orchestrator, will get dedicated technical sessions, and should be touted as ways to tie together many of the topics mentioned above.

Office
We’ve heard very little about how things are going with Office 365, Microsoft’s answer to Google Apps, and maybe that’s for a reason. But the roadmap should become a little clearer during TechEd, as there are several sessions scheduled that cover the cloud-based productivity suite in depth, including its tie-ins to the Sharepoint collaboration platform (and we may get more details on the new government-specific version). Though there’s nothing listed, we might also hear something about Office 15, which will reportedly be delivered to Windows devices before anything else.

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Microsoft Continues Rebranding, This Time It’s Azure

Microsoft must be in a mood to rename things this month. First, the company re-branded its small and medium business advertising site and eliminated Windows Live branding. Now it’s moved on to Azure. Will any of these changes have a positive impact on revenue or just result in confused customers?
Rebranding Azure for Billing Reports
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Microsoft has sent a message to Windows Azure users that it is rebranding its cloud services. “Azure” will no longer appear on the billing site and many of the cloud offerings will get slightly modified names. For example, SQL Azure is becoming SQL Database and Azure Compute will now be Cloud Services. Although the change is imminent, it’s unclear if the rebranding will be isolated to billing and usage records or if will apply to the brand as a whole.

Microsoft hasn’t released an official statement explaining its rebranding actions. However, the move may be designed to blur the distinction between on premises and cloud-based solutions. The company has long been committed to having both a premises and cloud versions of its products. In 2009, Microsoft combined the Windows Server and Azure teams.

Microsoft doesn’t want customers to worry about moving between locally deployed and cloud-based solutions. The company wants to create an ecosystem where customers can mix deployment options and easily move between environments.

In addition to the name changes, Microsoft also updated the Azure privacy policy. The policy doesn’t include any additional restrictions or protections. According to the company, the change only added more details for clarification.
What This Means

The cloud market is continuing to mature and has grown more competitive. Microsoft seems to be positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for business computing. The company has offerings at every level of the cloud stack from infrastructure-as-a-service to software-as-a-service.
However, the company isn’t stopping with the cloud; Microsoft is also supporting every deployment strategy from traditional on premises installs to the public cloud. The approach will likely be attractive to organizations that don’t want to invest time and resources into integrating best of breed solutions from multiple vendors.

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Windows Vista infection rates climb, says Microsoft

End of support last year for SP1 responsible for spike in successful attacks

Computerworld – Microsoft said last week that a skew toward more exploits on Windows Vista can be attributed to the demise of support for the operating system’s first service pack.

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Data from the company’s newest security intelligence report showed that in the second half of 2011, Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was 17% more likely to be infected by malware than Windows XP SP3, the final upgrade to the nearly-11-year-old operating system.

That’s counter to the usual trend, which holds that newer editions of Windows are more secure, and thus exploited at a lower rate, than older versions like XP. Some editions of Windows 7, for example, boast an infection rate half that of XP.

Tim Rains, the director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, attributed the rise of successful attacks on Vista SP1 to the edition’s retirement from security support.

“This means that Windows Vista SP1-based systems no longer automatically receive security updates and helps explain why there [was] a sudden and sharp increase in the malware infection rate on that specific platform,” said Rains in a blog post last week.

Microsoft stopped delivering patches for Vista SP1 in July 2011. For the bulk of the reporting period, then, Vista SP1 users did not receive fixes to flaws, including some that were later exploited by criminals.

Vista SP2 will continue to be patched until mid-April 2017.

Rains also noted that the infection rates of both Windows XP SP3 and Vista dropped dramatically last year after Microsoft automatically pushed a “backport” update which disabled AutoRun, a Windows feature that major worms, including Conficker and Stuxnet, abused to infect millions of machines.

Rains seemed to intimate that the AutoRun disabling had more impact on XP than on Vista, and by Microsoft’s data, he may have been on to something: While XP’s infection rate continued to drop throughout the year, Vista SP2’s climbed from the second quarter to the third, and again from the third to the fourth.

Windows 7’s infection rate also increased each quarter of 2011.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, had a different theory for XP’s infection rate decline and the rise of Vista’s and Windows 7’s.

“As Microsoft’s intelligence gets better in [the Malicious Software Removal Tool] and fewer attackers focus on the older OS, then fewer infections should be found on the older OS,” said Storms, talking about Windows XP.

Most of Microsoft’s infection rate data is derived from the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), a free utility it distributes to all Windows users each month that detects, then deletes selected malware families.

And the rise of infection rates in Vista and Windows 7?

“It would be expected that all the SKUs should go up slightly over time simply because new vulnerabilities are found, more attacks always happening, and so on,” Storms added.

Rains urged XP and Vista users to upgrade to the supported service packs — SP3 for XP, SP2 for Vista — to continue to receive patches.

The 126-page Security Intelligence Report that Rains referenced can be found on Microsoft’s website (download PDF)

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MSL Product Planner Shares Perspective

A few months back, Microsoft Learning Product Planner, Eamonn Kelly shared perspective on the lab experience from course 10215A: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization. If you have not signed up for Virtualization training, Learning Partners are offering special offers on four popular Virtualization courses this quarter. Take a look at current offers to the right.

 

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Eamonn’s post:

10215A released in October 2010 and in that short period time it has become one of our most popular courses in terms of positive feedback submitted via MTM. This five day server virtualization course covers a lot of technologies and functionality. At a high level it covers Hyper-V, SCVMM 2008 R2, Integration with SCOM 2008 R2, DPM 2007 Sp1 as well as RDS. So it’s a broad set of technologies and students should come away from it with a good understanding of what the options and pitfalls are when considering virtualizing a server infrastructure. As well as this, it also prepares students for the 70-659: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization exam.

The lab experience for students was one of the key drivers when designing the course and as such the requirements for the labs are above the standard spec, namely a single host running Windows server 2008 RTM. In this course the Instructor and each student require two host machines running Windows Server 2008 R2. Labs covering High Availability, in Module 9 for example, will not be able to be completed unless this is available, but this “above standard” spec does provide an excellent and real world lab experience. Definitely to be recommended to students!

I will return to post additional bogs on the actual content covered in the course both this week and next and will dig a bit deeper into the labs to try explain why decisions were made and why some items were covered as they are.

If there are any specific questions around the labs or the course feel free to post them here and I’ll try my best to answer!

Thanks,

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet

Steve Ballmer had a dilemma. He had two groups at Microsoft pursuing competing visions for tablet computers.

One group, led by Xbox godfather J Allard, was pushing for a sleek, two-screen tablet called the Courier that users controlled with their finger or a pen. But it had a problem: It was running a modified version of Windows.

That ran headlong into the vision of tablet computing laid out by Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft’s Windows division. Sinofsky was wary of any product–let alone one from inside Microsoft’s walls–that threatened the foundation of Microsoft’s flagship operating system. But Sinofsky’s tablet-friendly version of Windows was more than two years away.

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For Ballmer, it wasn’t an easy call. Allard and Sinofsky were key executives at Microsoft, both tabbed as the next-generation brain trust. So Ballmer sought advice from the one tech visionary he’s trusted more than any other over the decades–Bill Gates. Ballmer arranged for Microsoft’s chairman and co-founder to meet for a few hours with Allard; his boss, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach; and two other Courier team members.

At one point during that meeting in early 2010 at Gates’ waterfront offices in Kirkland, Wash., Gates asked Allard how users get e-mail. Allard, Microsoft’s executive hipster charged with keeping tabs on computing trends, told Gates his team wasn’t trying to build another e-mail experience. He reasoned that everyone who had a Courier would also have a smartphone for quick e-mail writing and retrieval and a PC for more detailed exchanges. Courier users could get e-mail from the Web, Allard said, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

But the device wasn’t intended to be a computer replacement; it was meant to complement PCs. Courier users wouldn’t want or need a feature-rich e-mail application such as Microsoft’s Outlook that lets them switch to conversation views in their inbox or support offline e-mail reading and writing. The key to Courier, Allard’s team argued, was its focus on content creation. Courier was for the creative set, a gadget on which architects might begin to sketch building plans, or writers might begin to draft documents.

“This is where Bill had an allergic reaction,” said one Courier worker who talked with an attendee of the meeting. As is his style in product reviews, Gates pressed Allard, challenging the logic of the approach.

It’s not hard to understand Gates’ response. Microsoft makes billions of dollars every year on its Exchange e-mail server software and its Outlook e-mail application. While heated debates are common in Microsoft’s development process, Gates’ concerns didn’t bode well for Courier. He conveyed his opinions to Ballmer, who was gathering data from others at the company as well.

Within a few weeks, Courier was cancelled because the product didn’t clearly align with the company’s Windows and Office franchises, according to sources. A few months after that, both Allard and Bach announced plans to leave Microsoft, though both executives have said their decisions to move on were unrelated to the Courier cancellation.

The story of Microsoft’s Courier has only been told in pieces. And nothing has been disclosed publicly about the infighting that led to the innovative device’s death. This article was pieced together through interviews with 18 current and former Microsoft executives, as well as contractors and partners who worked on the project. None of the Microsoft employees, both current and former, would talk for attribution because they worried about potential repercussions. Microsoft’s top spokesman, Frank Shaw, offered only a brief comment for this story and otherwise declined to make Microsoft’s senior executives available.

“At any given time, we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them,” Shaw said in a statement when word leaked in April 2010 that Courier had been cancelled. “It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.”

While the internal fight over Courier occurred about 18 months ago, the implications of the decision to kill the incubation project reverberate today. Rather than creating a touch computing device that might well have launched within a few months of Apple’s iPad, which debuted in April 2010, Microsoft management chose a strategy that’s forcing it to come from behind. The company cancelled Courier within a few weeks of the iPad’s launch. Now it plans to rely on Windows 8, the operating system that will likely debut at the end of next year, to run tablets.

Courier’s death also offers a detailed look into Microsoft’s Darwinian approach to product development and the balancing act between protecting its old product franchises and creating new ones. The company, with 90,000 employees, has plenty of brilliant minds that can come up with revolutionary approaches to computing. But sometimes, their creativity is stalled by process, subsumed in other products, or even sacrificed to protect the company’s Windows and Office empires.

‘Not a whim’
Courier was much more than a clever vision. The team, which had more than 130 Microsoft employees contributing to it, had created several prototypes that gave a clear sense about the type of experience users would get. There were still tough hardware and software issues to resolve when Microsoft pulled the plug. But an employee who worked on Courier said the project was far enough along that the remaining work could have been completed in months if the company had added more people to the team. Microsoft’s Shaw disputes that.

“There was extensive work done on the business, the technology and the experience,” said a member of the Courier team. “It was very complete, not a whim.”

Ballmer and Microsoft’s senior leadership decided to bet solely on Sinofsky’s Windows vision for the company’s tablet strategy. Though it crushed some innovative work from dedicated employees, that decision had plenty of logic to it. Corporate customers may be more inclined to use a Windows tablet than, say, Apple’s iPad, because those devices will likely include well-known management and security tools that should make them easy to plug into secure corporate networks.

A new survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that more than 40 percent of current tablet users in the United States want a tablet that runs Windows. That number jumps to 53 percent when non-tablet owners are included. The reason: familiarity with Windows, which still runs nearly 90 percent of all PCs sold.

“They think a common operating system will make this experience seamless across devices,” said Boston Consulting senior partner and managing director John Rose. “The products will be introduced, and they’ll be better (than the iPad) or they won’t be.”

Ballmer went out of his way to underscore Microsoft’s Windows strategy at the company’s financial analysts meeting last month, which it held concurrently with a conference where Microsoft wooed more than 5,000 developers to the Windows 8 platform for tablets.

“The first thing, which I hope is obvious, about our point of view is Windows is at the center,” Ballmer told analysts. “Certainly I can read plenty of places where people will question whether that’s a good idea or not. I think it’s an exceptionally good idea.”

But using Windows as the operating system for tablets also implies that Microsoft will update the devices’ operating systems on the Windows time frame, typically every three years. Compare that to Apple, which seems likely to continue to update the iPad annually, a tactic that drives a raft of new sales each time a new generation hits the market. By the time Windows 8 rolls out, Apple will likely have introduced its iPad 3. Moreover, Amazon’s much anticipated Kindle Fire tablet, which goes on sale November 15, will have nearly a year head start on the Windows-powered tablet offerings.

On the other hand, Courier, with its modified version of Windows, could have been updated more frequently than the behemoth operating system itself.

How far behind is Microsoft? Tablet makers sold 17.6 million devices in 2010, and are on a pace to sell 63.3 million more this year, according to industry analyst Gartner. In 2012, the firm expects sales to jump to 103.5 million devices. Just 4.3 million of those tablets, the ones that go on sale at the end of the year when Windows 8 debuts, will run Windows, according to the firm. Gartner expects Apple’s game-changing iPad to continue to dominate with a two-thirds share.

Building consumer muscle
Microsoft counted on Allard, more than any other senior executive in the last decade, to help it figure out how to reach the types of consumers who are now racing to buy iPads. Once an Internet wonk who helped a mid-1990s Microsoft wake up to the Web, Allard led the team that created Microsoft’s biggest non-PC consumer success story–the Xbox video game business. Always willing to stand up to leadership, Allard successfully argued that Windows wasn’t suitable to power the video game console, something Gates wasn’t initially keen on.

The success of the Xbox led Microsoft to create its Entertainment and Devices division under Bach. And Bach tapped the chrome-domed Allard to be his chief visionary.

Allard is a downhill mountain-biking maniac, who co-founded a cycling team, dubbed Project 529, whose name is intended to reflect the team’s after-hours passion, what they do from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. He often used Apple products, such as the iPod or the Mac, much to the disdain of some Microsoft colleagues. While he has serious technology chops, Allard also appreciated the importance of design, creating studios, rather than traditional office space, where his teams toiled. A key Allard trait: challenging convention.

Gizmodo broke the Courier story in September 2009, posting leaked pictures of what the device might look like and how it might work. Rather than the single screen that consumers have come to know as a tablet, Courier would have had two screens, each about 7 inches diagonally. The device would have folded in half like a book. It would have supported both touch and pen-based computing. The gadget-loving site drooled over what it had found.

“It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet,” Gizmodo wrote. “But maybe we’ve all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft’s astonishing take on the tablet.”

The gadget was the creation of Allard’s skunkworks design operation Pioneer Studios and Alchemie Ventures, a research lab that also reported to Allard. (The lab took the German spelling of “alchemy” to highlight the stereotypical Teutonic traits of structure and regiment it hoped to bring to its innovation process.) The two groups were created to identify consumer experiences that Microsoft could develop and hatch.

“Our job is to incubate those and work with the product teams to bring them to market,” said Pioneer’s co-founder Georg Petschnigg in a video posted to Microsoft’s developer Web site last year.

Allard created Alchemie to focus on innovation process to make sure that the efforts of Pioneer were not scattershot. It studied best practices, both within and outside Microsoft, to “design a repeatable, predictable and measurable approach for building new business” for Bach’s division, according to the Alchemie Ventures Toolkit, an internal Microsoft book reviewed by CNET.

“If Microsoft wants to truly implement effective and sustainable incubation, we have to embrace rigorous, repeatable, and measurable processes–and make those processes available to everyone,” Alchemie’s general manager Giorgio Vanzini wrote in the book.

Courier was born from the minds of both groups. And while Apple was working on its iPad at the same time, Courier was designed to be something entirely different. The iPad is all about content consumption–surfing the Web, watching videos, playing games. Courier was focused on content creation–drafting documents, brainstorming concepts, jotting down ideas.

“We weren’t fearful of it,” a Courier worker said of the iPad. “We were doing something different.”

Early on, the group opted to use Windows for Courier’s operating system. But it wasn’t a version of Windows that any consumer would recognize. The Courier team tweaked the operating system to make sure it could perform at high levels with touch- and pen-based computing. What’s more, the graphical shell of Windows–the interface that computer users associate with the operating system–was entirely removed. So while it was Windows under the hood, the home screens bore zero resemblance to the familiar PC desktop.

Creating a new approach
The Courier group wasn’t interested in replicating Windows on a tablet. The team wanted to create a new approach to computing. The metaphor they used was “digital Moleskine,” a nod to the leather-bound notebooks favored in the design world. In fact, according to a few team members, a small group led by Petschnigg flew to Milan, Italy, to pick the brains of the designers at Moleskine to understand how they’ve been able to create such loyal customers.

“Moleskine was interested but a little perplexed,” said one executive who worked on the Courier project.

Designers working on Courier came up with clever notions for how digital paper should work. One of the ideas was to create “smart ink,” giving text, for example, mathematical properties. So when a user wrote “5+8=” on, say, digital graph paper, the number “13” would fill in the equation automatically. Additionally, if users selected lined digital paper, words would snap to each line as they were jotted down.

The phrase at the core of the Courier mission was “Free Create.” It was meant to describe the notion of eliminating the processes and protocols that productivity software often imposes on workers.

“Free Create is a simple statement that acts as a rallying cry, uniting the consumer’s core need and Courier’s core benefit,” reads a passage in an internal Microsoft book memorializing the Courier effort, reviewed by CNET, that was given to the team after the project was shuttered. “Free Create is a natural way to digitally write, sketch and gather inspiration by blending the familiarity of the pen, the intuition of touch, the simplicity of the book and the advantages of software and services.”

It’s clear there were substantial resources behind the effort. The commemorative book, designed to resemble the journal-like look of the Courier, lists the 134 employees who contributed to the gadget’s creation. Moreover, Petschnigg writes on his LinkedIn profile page that he “managed $3.5 (million) seed funding, (and) secured $20 (million) to develop this new product category.”

Those funds helped build a multi-disciplinary team. It included interaction designers, who worked on new interfaces using pen- and touch-computing. There were also employees who worked on software to synchronize data from the Courier to Web-based services. The project had moved far enough along that there was staff that worked on brand strategy, advertising, retail planning, and partner marketing. Courier even had a deeply considered logo, something of a squiggle that looks a bit like an ampersand, meant to evoke the doodling that often is the start of a creative process.

“The Courier logo expresses the free-flow and formation of ideas,” reads the description of the logo in the commemorative book. “It references simple scribbles that are often the beginning of new ideas.”

While the software prototypes ran on existing tablet PCs built by Microsoft’s partners, they didn’t meet the performance goals for Courier. So Allard’s team also worked with several hardware makers, including Samsung, to create hardware prototypes.

“It was not off-the-shelf tech,” said a Courier team member. “There is no commercial product today that meets the specs we had for it. It was highly demanding and innovative and no one partner had all of the pieces.”

When Courier died, there was not a single prototype that contained all of the attributes of the vision: the industrial design, the screen performance, the software experience, the correct weight, and the battery life. Those existed individually, created in parallel to keep the development process moving quickly. Those prototypes wouldn’t have come together into a single unit until very late in the development process, perhaps weeks before manufacturing, which is common for cutting-edge consumer electronics design. But on the team, there was little doubt that they were moving quickly toward that final prototype.

“We were on the cusp of something really big,” said one Courier team member.

In late 2009, before the iPad had launched, the Courier team recognized the market for tablets was ready to explode. It laid out a detailed engineering schedule and made the case to Microsoft’s top brass that Courier could be a revolutionary device that would define a new product category. The team put forward a vision that Microsoft could create a new market rather than chasing down a leader or defending an established product.

“J (was) incubating with his tribe, very much thinking consumer and very much thinking the next few years,” a former Microsoft executive said. “He was trying to disrupt Microsoft, which hasn’t been good at consumer products.”

In fact, one of the mandates of Alchemie was to look only at product ideas and business concepts that were no farther than three years into the future. The Alchemie book includes something of an innovation process road map that lays out four “gates” that ideas needed to pass through to move from incubation to product development. And a source said that Courier had made it through all four gates.

So why did Courier die? The answer lies in an understanding of Microsoft’s history and cultu