Smarter Geek

During one of the final session of TechEd New Zealand 2010 Nigel Parker from Microsoft compared the performance difference of the latest build of IE9 to Chrome. This demonstration shows that the hardware acceleration in IE9 is still much faster than Chrome even when hardware acceleration was enabled in the latest Chrome Canary build.

For some time Mozilla and Google would tout that performance of their browsers JavaScript engines as compared to IE but now that the performance difference is almost negligible Microsoft has taken a huge lead in what the next big performance benchmark for browsers, HTML performance.

This is a very funny video done by Microsoft showing just how easy it is to be tricked into giving out your personal information.

Here is a funny video from Microsoft Australia evangelist Andrew Coates… Quite a funny take on the evolution of cloud computing.

Source: The Platform Story–now available as an animated Feature – Andrew Coates ::: MSFT – Site Home – MSDN Blogs

Friend of mine recently had issues with installing SQL Server 2008 so I have decided to do a walk though install of SQL Server 2008 on a standard vanilla install of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Before starting remember that Windows Server 2008 R2 is 64bit only so you will need to install the SQL Server 2008 x64 bit version of the database.

Step 1. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968382 and download the latest service pack for SQL 2008. Also remember to download the 64bit version of the service pack.

Note: This is required as SQL 2008 was released a full 2 years before Windows Server 2008 R2. As such it was not originally written to work for the newer operating system. The support for the newer server OS was later added in Service Pack 1.

Step 2. Run Setup.exe from the SQL Server 2008 install CD and click Run Program on the Program Compatibility Assistant

Info: Windows Server 2008 is giving you a clear warning that the version of SQL is not compatible with Server 2008 R2 and give you a link to the service pack for downloading.

Step 3. Click on Installation on the left hand column

Step 4. Click on New SQL Server stand-alone or add features to an existing installation

Step 5. Again you are warned about compatibility issues. Click Run Program

Step 6. Click on Show Details and make sure that all the setup support rules have passed and then click OK

Step 7. Type your key in the field and click Next

Step 8. Tick I accept the license terms and click Next

Step 9. Click Install

Step 10. Click Next

Step 11. Select the components you want to install and click Next

Step 12. Configure the Instance name and details and click Next

Step 13. Review the disk space requirements and click Next

Step 14. Configured the Service accounts that you want to use and click Next

Step 15. Add a SQL Server Administrator and Click Next

Step 16. Click Next

Step 17. Click on Show Details and review the install rules and then click Next

Step 18. Do a final review of the install and click Install

Wait…

Step 19. Click Next

Click 20. Click Close

Now you MUST MUST MUST install Service Pack 1….

Step 20. Now run the Service Pack you just downloaded…

Step 21. Click Next

Step 22. Tick I accept the license terms and then click Next

Step 23. Review the features that are going to be upgraded and click Next

Step 24. Click Next

Step 25. Click Update

Step 26. Click Next

Step 27. Click Close

Your done…

Microsoft have just released to the public beta of a new version of Microsoft Security Essentials. This new versions looks relatively unchanged from the previous version with only a few added features.

Windows Firewall Integration – While the product itself does not include a firewall it now prompts you to turn on the firewall on during install.

Enhance protection from web-based threat – This feature does real time scanning of your web traffic into your computer to ensure that there are no malicious scripts being downloaded.

New and improved protections engine – The scanned engine has now enhanced detection and cleaner and better performance. Microsoft Security Essentials is already a really fast performing AV product only make it better.

See the new “Enable network protection against exploits of known vulnerabilities” real-time scanning option.

You can download it right now from https://connect.micosoft.com/securityessentials