Microsoft Support Information

When your Microsoft product fails, finding the right support can be overwhelming. Navigating Microsoft's large support structure can be as frustrating as failed software. Understanding the support system will enable you to quickly determine where to go for support.

1. Microsoft's Support Lifecycle Policy
Microsoft's Support Lifecycle Policy describes the type and length of product support available. Support is divided into three categories: mainstream, extended and online self help. Mainstream support is available for all products and includes incident support (warranty, free and paid), security updates and non-security hot fixes. Products that have new versions released annually, such as Microsoft Money, Encarta, Picture It! and Streets & Trips, have three years of mainstream support. Other products have five years of mainstream support. Extended support includes security updates and paid support, is only available for business and developer products and is available for five years following the mainstream support or two years after the second successor is released, whichever is longer. Self-help online support availability varies by product type. Refer to the self-help online support section for more information.

2. Who Provides Assisted Support?
Retail-licensed products are supported directly by Microsoft. Retail-licensed products include the CD/DVD, user guide and COA (certificate of authenticity) for the particular Microsoft product purchased. Retail-licensed products are purchased and installed by the end user. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are companies who contract with Microsoft to include Microsoft products in their own product. They are typically computer manufacturers (like Dell or HP) who preinstall a Windows operating system on the computers they sell. OEM-licensed products are required to be supported by the computer manufacturer/builder. To determine which type of license you have, check the product identification number (PID) of the software. An OEM license will have the letters "OEM" in the number. To learn how to find the PID, refer to the "Product Identification (PID) Locator" link in the Resources section.

3. Self-Help Online Support
According to Microsoft Support, "Self-help Online Support is available throughout a product's lifecycle and for a minimum of 12 months after the product reaches the end of its support." The self-help online support service is available for all products and to all users, regardless of license type.

source : eHow.com

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Life Cycle of Microsoft Products

The lifecycle of a Microsoft product begins with its introduction and ends with software retirement. During this period, Microsoft makes the software program available for retail sale and volume licensing, and provides support in the form of product updates, training and information, security enhancements, and patches and service packs to eliminate errors and fix program "bugs." While specific software programs may include specific lifecycle guidelines, Microsoft created a general policy you can use to understand what occurs during the product lifecycle.

Identification
Microsoft wrote their product lifecycle policy in October 2002 to cover products currently available as well as all future product releases. Lifecycle product categories include the Consumer, Hardware, and Multimedia category, the Business and Development category, and an additional category for software Microsoft updates annually such as Microsoft Money and Encarta. Basic lifecycle support depends on the category and consists of five years of product support for the Consumer category, ten years of support for the Business category and three years for the annual update category.


Considerations
Once a Microsoft product reaches the end of its lifecycle and mainstream and extended support (when applicable) ends, the product becomes an "unsupported" version. As technology advances and data security becomes an increasingly important issue, running "unsupported" software can be risky. Microsoft recommends reviewing product lifecycle documentation on a regular basis and upgrading software applications, and operating system to a new version to ensure your computer remains safe and eligible for updates and security enhancements.

Security Updates
While a long-term Microsoft goal is to release software not vulnerable to security issues, security enhancements and upgrades remain a regular occurrence over the lifecycle of a Microsoft product. When a security-related issue occurs, Microsoft deals with it in a general way by including a security fix in the next Service Pack release, or by issuing security "patches" if the issue is serious enough to warrant an immediate fix.

Product Support
Depending on the product, support consists of one or two phases that include Mainstream Support and Extended Support. Consumer and annual update products receive only Mainstream support, while Business products receive both Mainstream and Extended support, each five years in length. Mainstream support is the initial phase and includes complete product support, such as design and features enhancements, security updates, a variety of no-charge support options, and fee-based technical support. In addition, Microsoft provides access via their website to free training, articles and product information. Extended support includes fee-based technical support and security updates.

Service Pack Support
Microsoft handles issues such as errors that cause programs to crash or refuse to open, or enhancements that can help the program run more efficiently by packaging and distributing Service Packs at various intervals during the product lifecycle. Each new Service Pack builds on a previous one, so users do not have to download and install all Service Packs to address an issue covered in an early Service Pack release when purchasing a new computer or software program. Regardless, Microsoft provides support for legacy operating system Service Packs for 24 months and all other software programs for 12 months.

Source: eHow.com

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Windows 8 winning support from mobile chipset

US chipset manufacturer Qualcomm has confirmed full support for Microsoft Windows 8 PCs and smartphones based on its next generation Snapdragon family of processors. The move is of interest as it marks the arrival of an OS designed to span both the PC and mobile device form factors and Qualcomm’s foray into the same area.

Qualcomm’s head of product management, Cristiano Amon, said that the next generation of Snapdragon chips, dubbed the S4, would feature dual and quad core technology and would be available to the market during the first half of 2012.

During a keynote address at the Microsoft Build conference this week, Microsoft demonstrated an early developer preview of Windows 8-based prototype PCs powered by Snapdragon processors.

In addition, Qualcomm’s Gobi mobile internet connectivity offerings will provide Windows 8-based PCs with wireless 3G and 4G, while the company’s Atheros’ WCN3660 combo chip will deliver dual-band wifi, Bluetooth and FM radio connectivity.

But Qualcomm is facing some ARM-based rivalry in the form of Nvidia’s Tegra SoC offering. Nvidia this week launched its own Windows 8 developer program, with a nod to its next-generation, quad-core Tegra processor, code-named Project Kal-El, targeted at the tablet and notebook sector.

The processor manufacturer also announced plans to support Windows 8 on x86 systems with its GeForce, Quadro and Tesla GPUs.

Source : telecoms

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Microsoft Products - Life Cycle

The lifecycle of a Microsoft product begins with its introduction and ends with software retirement. During this period, Microsoft makes the software program available for retail sale and volume licensing, and provides support in the form of product updates, training and information, security enhancements, and patches and service packs to eliminate errors and fix program "bugs." While specific software programs may include specific lifecycle guidelines, Microsoft created a general policy you can use to understand what occurs during the product lifecycle.

Considerations
Once a Microsoft product reaches the end of its lifecycle and mainstream and extended support (when applicable) ends, the product becomes an "unsupported" version. As technology advances and data security becomes an increasingly important issue, running "unsupported" software can be risky. Microsoft recommends reviewing product lifecycle documentation on a regular basis and upgrading software applications, and operating system to a new version to ensure your computer remains safe and eligible for updates and security enhancements.

Identification
Microsoft wrote their product lifecycle policy in October 2002 to cover products currently available as well as all future product releases. Lifecycle product categories include the Consumer, Hardware, and Multimedia category, the Business and Development category, and an additional category for software Microsoft updates annually such as Microsoft Money and Encarta. Basic lifecycle support depends on the category and consists of five years of product support for the Consumer category, ten years of support for the Business category and three years for the annual update category.

Service Pack Support
Microsoft handles issues such as errors that cause programs to crash or refuse to open, or enhancements that can help the program run more efficiently by packaging and distributing Service Packs at various intervals during the product lifecycle. Each new Service Pack builds on a previous one, so users do not have to download and install all Service Packs to address an issue covered in an early Service Pack release when purchasing a new computer or software program. Regardless, Microsoft provides support for legacy operating system Service Packs for 24 months and all other software programs for 12 months.

Security Updates
While a long-term Microsoft goal is to release software not vulnerable to security issues, security enhancements and upgrades remain a regular occurrence over the lifecycle of a Microsoft product. When a security-related issue occurs, Microsoft deals with it in a general way by including a security fix in the next Service Pack release, or by issuing security "patches" if the issue is serious enough to warrant an immediate fix.

Product Support
Depending on the product, support consists of one or two phases that include Mainstream Support and Extended Support. Consumer and annual update products receive only Mainstream support, while Business products receive both Mainstream and Extended support, each five years in length. Mainstream support is the initial phase and includes complete product support, such as design and features enhancements, security updates, a variety of no-charge support options, and fee-based technical support. In addition, Microsoft provides access via their website to free training, articles and product information. Extended support includes fee-based technical support and security updates.

Source : Ehow

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Windows 8 Features, people would like to see

Microsoft recently allowed select OEM partners to download updated preview builds of Windows 8. Since then, there have been several leaked images of supposedly new features that you might see in the next version of Windows when it launches (perhaps in early 2012). And Microsoft showed off some features in a preview last week. Here we have compiled the most interesting ones.



1. Windows Phone 7's theme and UI
Last week, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 8 will have a tiles-based interface. Called Immersive, this GUI is meant to be used in full-screen mode, and is probably targeted at tablets running Windows 8.

2. Ribbon User Interface in Explorer
It looks like Microsoft is taking the Ribbon GUI that they introduced in Office 2007, and gradually extended to their other software products including Windows Live Essentials 2011 and Windows 8. So expect a Ribbonized Explorer.

3. Cloud Integration
The Windows 8 Explorer interface suggests it will access Microsoft's cloud services, possibly SkyDrive and Windows Live Mesh. SkyDrive is an online storage space that you can put your files in, and Mesh lets you sync your other Windows computers and mobile devices remotely. Both are already available by installing Windows Live Essentials 2011 onto Windows 7 or Vista.

4. Windows Live Integration
Along with being more wedded to Microsoft's cloud services, the Windows 8 preview suggests that you'll be able to use your Windows Live (or Hotmail) account to log into your Windows 8 computer. The profile image of your Windows Live user profile would then appear to the far right of the system tray. If you want to experience how this might work, this unofficial, user-created app mimics this feature for Windows 7.

5. Built-In PDF Reader
Microsoft may include the capability for Windows 8 to load and display PDFs, with its own PDF reader they're calling Modern Reader. So there will be no more need to download and install Adobe Reader or its speedier competitor Foxit Reader. The user interface and look of Modern Reader is full-on Metro.

6. ISO Mounting
It looks like you'll be able to mount an ISO file to Windows 8 and access its contents as though it is a data CD or DVD drive. Having this functionality in prior versions of Windows has been available only as a third-party program, such as Virtual CloneDrive or Daemon Tools.

7. File Download Verification
First implemented into Internet Explorer, it looks like Microsoft may be expanding its SmartScreen filter feature throughout the Windows 8 ecosystem. So when you try to download a file, SmartScreen will kick in and evaluate whether the source URL is known to distribute malware.

8. Aero Auto-Colorization
Here's something that doesn't address the critical nuts-and-bolts of Windows 8, but could be fun: Aero can be set to automatically change the colors of your Windows theme based on the primary colors of a desktop wallpaper image you use. The result could be harmonious or awful, of course. This is one of those tinker-around-with toys. There's already a program that does the same thing for Windows 7 called Aura.

For More info: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/060611-windows-8.html

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Microsoft Office Registration Help

The issue of privacy is important to the Microsoft corporation. Their products and services are designed to ensure security of your personal information. While it's not necessary to register your new Microsoft software, doing so comes with benefits.

Microsoft Product Activation

Before registering your new Microsoft Office product, you must activate it, either via the Internet or by telephone. Microsoft Product Activation is anti-piracy technology that is designed to protect your personal information. This service ensures that the products you're installing are licensed by verifying the software product key. This product key is necessary for installing the new software.

Benefits

You can register your new software immediately after activating it or later. By registering your products, you'll have access to updates and special offers from Microsoft.

Read more: http://goo.gl/yJTNb

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Locate My Microsoft Product Key

During the installation of your operating system you are required to enter your Microsoft product key into the Windows installation utility. To locate your key after installation, you need to open the appropriate utility in Windows.

Instructions

Click "Start."

Right-click "Computer."

Click "Properties." Your Microsoft product key will be listed in the box on screen under the "Product ID" field.


Read more: http://goo.gl/g40mz

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