Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Microsoft recently released a compatability pack allowing users of Office 2000, XP, and 2003 to be able to open, edit, and save files in the new 2007 format. This applies to Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), and PowerPoint (.pptx) files. Before installing the compatability pack, users should be sure that all office updates are in place. To download this free utility, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&DisplayLang=en

Visual Studio 2005 SP1

Microsoft released SP1 for Visual Studio 2005 earlier this month. To view all of the new features in VS2005 along with SP1 enhancements, go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/88fx1xy0(VS.80).aspx

To download SP1, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BB4A75AB-E2D4-4C96-B39D-37BAF6B5B1DC&mg_id=10055&displaylang=en#Overview

For related issues with installing SP1, go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=928957

Microsoft support for classic ASP and VB6

Q: Do you know the date when Microsoft will end support for classic Asp and VB6?

A: Primary support ended in April of 2005 for those products. They are currently in the "extended support lifecycle" which means that we only provide free security fixes. That will be ending next year in April and then there will only be the "online" support of KB articles that are already published.

If you have a customer still using them, I highly recommend you upgrade them, as that technology just isn't up to the task of dealing with Today's types of security, scalability or reliability requirements.

Thanks to Bill Steele (Microsoft) for providing this info first hand.