Windows 8 is right around the corner, as Microsoft will release it officially on October 26, 2012. This is why we released today novaPDF version 7.7 which is fully compatible with Windows 8. Thus, if you plan to upgrade your … Continue reading →

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REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 10, 2012 — The Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (EPHEC), a university college renowned for its business curriculum, wanted to prepare its business students to work in a world where more and more activities take place online and in virtualized settings, and they needed to do this without making huge investments in technology. EPHEC found the perfect solution to this challenge: Microsoft Office 365 for education.

More than 4,700 students are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs at EPHEC, and the university college occupies three separate campuses in and around Brussels. The university college’s email infrastructure consisted of a single aging server, which provided email support only to the faculty and administrators. Before the Office 365 for education implementation, EPHEC did not offer its students any formal email services or electronic collaboration infrastructure. Although faculty and students discussed the move to cloud-based business infrastructures, online collaboration and other forms of instant communication, the students were still unable to work remotely on projects with classmates and professors.

“Today’s students are mobile, flexible and impatient,” said Vincent Fievez, lecturer in IT at EPHEC. “We wanted to use technology to communicate and interact with our students in new ways — and Microsoft Office 365 for education is the perfect solution.”

Office 365 for education provides secured, anywhere access to email, calendars, Office Web Apps, Web conferencing and file sharing. Because the cloud-based services run in datacenters owned and operated by Microsoft, which maintains the servers and the software on a day-to-day basis, EPHEC was able to free up the three IT personnel who had been supporting the email infrastructure to devote their time and attention to other activities.

And because Office 365 for education is offered at no cost to educational institutions, the move from its old email infrastructure effectively eliminated the expense of maintaining that infrastructure, saving EPHEC €7,000 each month.

“Saving money each month is great, but that was not the primary motive for moving to Office 365 for education. The primary reason was to adapt to a changing world,” Fievez said. “We needed to provide an infrastructure that would help prepare our students for the world outside EPHEC. We needed to have them using online services, shared calendars, online collaboration tools and more.”

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

NVIDIA is giving gamers another powerful reason to upgrade their rigs in advance of a bounty of soon-to-be-released, cutting-edge PC games, with today's introduction of the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 650 Ti GPU, priced starting at $149.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 9, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Reed Hastings, founder, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc., has decided that he will not seek re-election to Microsoft’s board of directors at the company’s 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.

“Reed has been a terrific board member, and his insights and experience have really helped guide us through a critical period of transformation for both Microsoft and the industry,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Hastings, who currently serves as the lead independent director on the Microsoft board, will continue to serve through the annual meeting of Microsoft shareholders in November 2012. The board will appoint a new lead independent director at that time.

“I’m thrilled to have served on the board at such a pivotal time for Microsoft, including the development of Windows 8, Windows RT and Microsoft Surface, which will bring exciting new opportunities for customers and the industry as a whole,” said Hastings, 51, who joined the Microsoft board in March 2007. “I’ve decided to reduce the number of boards I serve on, so that I can focus on Netflix and on my education work.”

Hastings currently serves on the boards of Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft, Dreambox Learning, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA).

The Microsoft board has traditionally ranged between nine and 11 members. The board added two new members with extensive tech industry experience earlier this year, with John W. Thompson, CEO of Virtual Instruments and former chairman and CEO of Symantec Corp., joining in February, and Stephen J. Luczo, chairman, president and CEO of Seagate Technology PLC, joining in May.

With Hastings’ decision, nine directors have been nominated for re-election to the Microsoft board: Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft; Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer, JPMorgan Chase; Maria M. Klawe, president, Harvey Mudd College; Stephen J. Luczo, chairman, president and CEO, Seagate Technology; David F. Marquardt, general partner, August Capital; Charles H. Noski, former vice chairman, Bank of America Corp.; Dr. Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management, BMW AG; and John W. Thompson, CEO, Virtual Instruments.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.