Newsletter Archives

• Goodbye Technet, MSDN – welcome to Microsoft Q&A

  Posted on October 31, 2019 at 06:25 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  It’s too early to tell how this is going to turn out, but MS has committed to freezing Technet and the MSDN network, and replacing them with the latest, greatest Answers forum yet, Microsoft Q&A.

  MSDN and TechNet forums are outdated. To provide the set of capabilities that our customers need and want, we created a robust, scalable, and reliable new platform called Microsoft Q&A.

  It doesn’t replace the Microsoft Answers forum, which will continue its role as a neglected wasteland of officially neglected complaints. Sorry. Microsoft Q&A supports:

  Azure Active Directory
  Azure Active Directory Domain Services
  Azure Active Directory B2C
  Azure Information Protection
  Azure DevTest Labs
  Azure Lab Services
  Azure Virtual Machines
  Azure Web Apps
  Universal Windows Platform
  Partner Center API

  Which leads to such titillating questions as:

  What types of applications can I deploy with Service Fabric Mesh?

  Not likely to be one of your burning queries, eh? Microsoft explains:

  This integrated experience will allow us to better prioritize and answer questions, and give users clearer paths between documentation, learning content, and answers. Microsoft Q&A also offers a much better set of permissions that will equip our moderators with improved tools.

  Which all seems well and good for the technically plugged-in.

  MS is making a clean break with its old MSDN and Technet forums. If you’ve earned “reputation” points in the older forums, they’re disappearing, at least for now:

  In the next few months, when a user searches for something that doesn’t appear when they’re browsing in Microsoft Q&A, we’ll use machine learning to display read-only questions and answers from MSDN and TechNet forums… Currently you can’t carry over your MSDN and TechNet reputation. However, in the future we’ll give you the opportunity to link Microsoft Q&A and MSDN and TechNet forums. When this is an option, your current badges and points from MSDN and TechNet forums will be displayed as part of your Microsoft Q&A profile.

  I wish them luck!

  Microsoft News MSDN, TechNet

• Missing the deleted Microsoft TechNet and MSDN blogs? They’re all available, archived on OneDrive.

  Posted on April 13, 2019 at 07:56 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft recently deleted all of the old Office 2010, Windows 7 and Windows 8 blogs – along with dozens of additional oldies but goodies. (OK, I have a visceral reaction to Steve Sinofsky’s posts, but I’m not complainin’.) Even Michael Niehaus’s old blogs are there. Mark Russinovich’s.

  Ever wondered about Error 0xC0000034 during Service Pack 1 installations for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2? Yep. Gotcha covered.

  Anonymous Coyote not only archived them before they were yanked, he (she? it?) has posted an archive of all of the blogs in both HTML and PDF format. On OneDrive, of all things.

  An amazing resource, just in case.

  Thx, @h0x0d

  Other archive, MSDN, TechNet

• Developers stand up to keep TechNet alive

  Posted on July 16, 2013 at 07:13 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If you ever thought of using TechNet, take a look at this article and consider signing the petition. I have.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch

  Microsoft News TechNet

• Microsoft kills TechNet

  Posted on July 2, 2013 at 19:09 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  … but the fate of its software licenses is murky.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch

  Microsoft News TechNet