New Windows 10 Technical Preview Forums on TechNet

Hi all,

Today Microsoft released Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise. This is a preview release intended for IT Pros (not consumers). It is available for download here:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/dn783436

For more information about this release, check out these blogs:

• http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/09/30/announcing-windows-10/
• http://blogs.windows.com/business/2014/09/30/introducing-windows-10-for-business/

To support this release, we created three forums on TechNet:

• Windows 10 Technical Preview Feedback – Use this forum so submit feedback on Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise. Note: You may not receive an answer to a thread you create here, but the feedback is being collected.
• Windows 10 Technical Preview General – Use this forum for general questions and discussions that are not related to feedback setup/installation.
• Windows 10 Technical Preview Setup and Installation – Use this forum for setup/installation questions only.

Please try it out.

Thanks

-Tony

Windows 8 TechNet Forums Renamed to Windows 8.1

As many of you may know, I manage the Windows Client forums on Microsoft’s TechNet site, including those for Windows 8. With the release of Windows 8.1 today, we have renamed the forums to Windows 8.1 to reflect the latest release.The URLs did not change – only the names of the forums. Users can still use the forums to get community and Microsoft support responses to Windows 8 questions, but also Windows 8.1.

Prior to the General Availability (GA) of Windows 8.1, we had a specific forum dedicated to Windows 8.1 Preview. This forum is no longer needed, but there are many great threads you may want to reference that are relevant for Windows 8.1 also. Therefore, we have archived the Windows 8.1 Preview forum and made it read-only, but the URL stays the same.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Thanks

-Tony

The 5 W’s of Social Engagement

Last week I presented for about 1/2 hour (followed by a Q&A) on “The 5 W’s of Social Engagement – Best Practices for Social Engagement.” The 5 W’s are Who, What, When, Where, and Why. In this 100-150 level presentation I give an overview of things to think about in many areas of social engagement. The discussion and experience stemmed from almost 10 years of our company (Corporate Online Services) working in social media, beginning with online forum management for Microsoft.

I wanted to make the audience really think about when/how to engage in online conversations and how the sentiment of those conversations really matter for determining whether to engage and how. I give some examples of negative, positive, neutral, and mixed sentiment by taking actual Twitter screenshots, but certainly the concept of engaging works in other social media channels such as Facebook, blogs, forums, etc.

Thanks to the folks at Visible Technologies for hosting the call. They also presented some of the engagement features of their Visible Intelligence (VI) tool.

If you are involved in social media, please watch the recording here and kindly comment here on my blog or send me an email.

Thanks

-Tony

MSDN and TechNet Forum UX Redesign

The MSDN/TechNet platform team at Microsoft just released some exciting changes to the UX (User eXperience) for the Microsoft MSDN and TechNet forums. The underlying platform is the same for MSDN and TechNet so changes are rolled out to both at the same time.

Details of the forum UX changes can be found in Bryant Hawthorne’s forum post on MSDN, which includes links to videos where he walks through the redesign of the home page and thread page. If you are a moderator in a Microsoft forum, you’ll be particularly interested in Bryant’s video showing additional power user benefits. Thanks to Bryant for his post and for leading the charge for implementing these new changes. If you have any questions about the UX redesign, ask them here. Microsoft does listen to feedback!

1 Year Countdown to Windows XP End of Support

Today marks the 1 year countdown to Windows XP End of Support (EOS). On April 8, 2014. A new Springboard Series blog post, 365 Days Remaining Until XP End Of Support. The Countdown Begins, outlines what this means and lists many free resources available to you to learn how to migrate to Windows 7 or Windows 8. These resources give you all the information you need, including walking you through the process step-by-step. If you need to ask specific questions, please visit our TechNet IT Pro forums for Windows 7 or Windows 8.

New Windows 8 Consumer Preview Forums

Anyone who follows Microsoft technologies knows that Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released today. The ISO images can be freely downloaded here, while a streaming download/setup experience can be started here. However, did you know that there are some great Microsoft support forums as well? The correct forum for you is dependent on what you need (or what your job function is).

You can get help from the general community, MVPs, and Microsoft Support Engineers by simply posting your question in the correct forum:

• Microsoft TechNet – For IT Professionals (IT Pros) that are responsible for computers in a professional capacity in a work environment. IT Pros generally manage and perform large scale rollouts of software to multiple desktops. IT Pro topics include those discussions for situations that take place at work.
• Microsoft DevCenter (formerly MSDN) – For software developers who develop applications for Windows 8.
• Microsoft Answers – For users at home can come and get the assistance they require as well as browse useful and helpful everyday computer information.

All of the above forums are professionally moderated, so if someone posts a question in the wrong forum, moderators will do their best to move questions to the correct place. If you are a moderator and have a specific question, don’t hesitate to ask your question in the private moderator forum.

Join us for Community Moderator Training Wed 06-Jul-2011

Hi everyone,

If you are looking to become a Community Moderator on Microsoft Answers, join us for one of four monthly training sessions on Wednesday 06-Jul-2011. Detailed communication and links can be found through the MVP and MCC programs and on your respective Microsoft Connect site. If you are already a Community Moderator on Microsoft Answers, you don’t need to attend, as this is mainly for new and prospective Community Moderators. Please be prepared to bring your questions, as we will allow time for Q&A.

We’ll discuss:

• Platform changes for moderation
• Community Moderator role
• Community Moderator tasks
• Moderator assignment process
• Resources and help

I’m looking forward to seeing you in the training sessions.

-Tony

Microsoft Answers 2.1 Released

Microsoft Answers 2.1 was just released and contains the following features:

• Sign-in popup no longer appears
• eMail alerts now contain the option to mark a post as helpful or the answer right from the email
• Pagination and "jump to page" at the bottom of thread lists or search result lists.
• The size of the edit/reply box has Increased to eliminate the discrepancy in font size between creating posts and the final posts
• Search now includes results from help and support sites
• Operating System (OS) and browser version data automatically captured as defaults where required in metadata. This is a convenience feature and the values can be overwritten.
• 8 new languages (Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish)
• Turkish forums have been migrated form social.microsoft.com to Microsoft Answers
• Office for Mac forums are now part of Microsoft Answers

If you have any questions or comments on these features, please join the discussion in the Answers Feedback Forum.

Join us for Community Moderator Training Wed 01-Jun-2011

Hi everyone,

If you are looking to become a Community Moderator on Microsoft Answers, join us for one of four training sessions on Wednesday 01-Jun-2011. Detailed communication and links can be found through the MVP and MCC programs and on your respective Microsoft Connect site. If you are already a Community Moderator on Microsoft Answers, you don’t need to attend, as this is mainly for new and prospective Community Moderators. Please be prepared to bring your questions, as we will allow time for Q&A.

Looking forward to seeing you in the training sessions.

-Tony

P.S. For US readers: As you enjoy the holiday today, please make sure to take a moment to remember our veterans and those who are serving our country and their families.

Microsoft Answers System Maintenance

To all Community Moderators on Microsoft Answers:

Microsoft Answers will undergo scheduled system maintenance today at 6pm (18:00) Pacific. The forums will be in read-only mode during the update.

Cheers,

-Tony