Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange 2007 Developer Launch: Technical Links

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Windows Vista Dublin LaunchOn December 5th, Microsoft Ireland launched Windows Vista, the 2007 Office System, and Exchange Server 2007 at Croke Park in Dublin. If you were one of the 3,000 people there on the day, you got to experience a whistlestop tour of those three very important releases, a drill-down presentation into Vista's security features, and also had a chance to explore the applications yourself, in four guided hands-on lab rooms themed as follows:

  • Simplify how people work together
  • Help protect and manage content
  • Find information and improve insight
  • Reduce IT Costs and Improve Manageability

We've just received your feedback from the launch, and it looks great. Thank you for your thoughts, and for joining us for the event. Clare has some follow-up on the evening technical launch event in her blog.

So where do developers go from here to learn more and stay on top?

Vista and .NET 3.0 Developer Information 

The .NET 3.0 Developer Community site is still going strong. There you'll find forums, blogs, info about .NET books, and all the downloads you can eat: Link

There is also a Windows Vista for Developers site at https://devreadiness.org/, which is positioned as the community site dedicated to helping you, the developer, get your applications ready for Windows Vista: Link 

2007 Office System Developer Information

There's a reason the word "System" has been added to the Office name. The 2007 Office System is about client extensibility and, although I'm loving the new interface, it's clear that Office's new charm is principally in the deep integration and collaboration potential provided by the server. Your first port-of-call as a developer is the Office Developer Center, which has been freshly updated: Link 

I've particularly had a lot of questions about Excel Services, which allows you to create "one version of the truth" by sharing and managing your Excel documents on the server side. Developers may be interested in this technical overview: Link 

Finally, I showed a quick demo of Sharepoint 2007's integration of Windows Workflow during the launch. The SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Portal will get you started: Link