Microsoft Demonstrates Value of Windows 8 for Businesses

At TechEd, Microsoft also announces updates to several Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack products.

KUALA LUMPUR, 12 June 2012 - Today at TechEd North America, Microsoft Corp. detailed the value Windows 8 brings to businesses through enhanced fundamentals, new enterprise features and strong application compatibility. The company also announced updates to several Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) products to help organizations manage, secure and enhance the Windows experience.

“Windows 8 is enterprise-ready by design,” said Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president for Windows Web Services at Microsoft Corp. “Adding features that bring new possibilities in mobility, productivity and security, Windows 8 will delight developers, IT professionals and the employees they support.”

Now available for download are updates to several MDOP products, which enable organizations to virtualize, manage and restore data, applications and users’ experiences on Windows.

Updates include:

 The beta for Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) 2.0 makes it easier for enterprises to protect data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go by using Windows 8 support to simplify the provisioning process, monitoring and enforcing compliance for improved security, and reducing the cost of managing an encrypted environment by integrating with existing managements systems, including System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012.

 Both the Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 4.0 Service Pack 1 beta and release candidate for the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 8 are available today, providing support for Windows 8 Release Preview. Downloads of these latest versions are available here.

 The second beta for User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) also will be available by the end of the month. UE-V is designed to give individuals the ability to change their device and keep their experience without reconfiguring applications or settings in Windows 7 or Windows 8. New features in the second beta include: roaming of operating system settings; support for additional operating system settings, like Start menu, Taskbar and folders; Group Policy support to ensure agent configuration consistency; and the roaming and sync of settings between Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10.

To download Windows 8 Release Preview and test it in the business environment, visit http://preview.windows.com. More information on Windows 8 for businesses can be found on the Windows for your Business Blog at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/business or at the Windows 8 Enterprise site at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/windows-8/default.aspx.