Microsoft Money 2007 Home & Business makes managing business and personal finances fast, easy and automatic. You’ll get precise tools that guide you through business taxes, inventory tracking, and online payroll alongside your personal credit, debt, investment and taxes, so you can spend less time on finances and more time with customers.
Money 2007 Home and Business includes everything in Money Deluxe and Money Premium, plus many other features to help you with a small business. Money 2007 Home & Business is a great choice if you:
Operate a small business with fewer than five employees Run a home-based business Commingle your personal and small business finances Money 2007 Home & Business’s customizable home page gives you a convenient snapshot of your financial picture. See your current account balances, profit and loss statement, income for last month, and more. View larger.

Buy Microsoft Money 2007 Deluxe – 19$

Microsoft Money’s upgrades (like Intuit Quicken’s, for that matter) tend to run hot or cold. Either they’re stuffed to the gills with new tools that will truly simplify money management and provide insight into your financial past, present, and future; or they include a couple of marquee features and some rather insignificant ones.

This year, Microsoft did the latter. Money Premium 2006 adds enhancements and increased usability in areas like investing, spending, and bill-paying. More noteworthy changes debut in the investing center. All told, it’s an incremental upgrade that makes this already-excellent personal-finance package that much better. But unless you’ve longed for one of the new features, there’s no compelling need to upgrade if you’re happy with the version you use now.
But let us restate: Money Premium is a terrific personal finance manager. The Setup Assistant walks you through the process of creating a record of all of your bank, credit card, and investment accounts. You can either enter information about all of them or build them automatically by supplying your user names and passwords for any accounts you’ve established online. Money then pulls history and other pertinent information in from the financial institutions’ Websites and continues to update them. This is a great time-saver.
Once your account foundation is established, Money continues to use this information. To pay bills or enter income (either by paper check or through existing online bank accounts), you build detailed records for each payee or source and enter transactions. Money simplifies this by reminding you when bills are due. New—and welcome—in this version is the ability to enter transactions from multiple accounts on the same page. A simple cash-flow analysis helps you predict future scenarios.
In several areas of the program, like account registers and budgeting, you can opt to use a very basic set of tools and customization or a more advanced one. Essential (simple) budgeting, for example, tracks categorized expenses and lets you compare income to expenses and spending to the budget. Advanced Budgeting lets you break down multiple budgets into more detailed slices. Money also tracks your spending patterns and alerts you to problems. Debt-related issues are consolidated in the Credit Center.
Money’s investing tools are top-notch, and they’re well integrated with Microsoft’s exceptional investing Website (moneycentral.msn.com). So integrated, in fact, that much of the investing content in Money comes directly from the site, such as the enhanced investment home page and the new ETF Center (for exchange-traded funds, a hot investment category). The portfolio manager (which now instantly updates stock prices when entering transactions) and equity screener are about the best free tools of this type around. Market data and commentary are in-depth and insightful. News alerts and specific decision-making help (in some of the 25 Decision Centers) make this a great home for your market forays.
Money Premium also offers terrific planning and tax tools, including help minimizing capital gains taxes, a variety of calculators, and a meticulous interactive planning feature. And (thank you, Microsoft) you can now finally back up to any folder or drive. Money Premium also comes with a generous palette of additional financial tools, including a year of credit monitoring and deduction-tracking software.
There’s little to criticize here, save for a help system that sometimes locked up on us (Microsoft is looking into the problem) and an inflexible payee list (more customization would be welcome here). Microsoft Money Premium 2006 is incrementally better than the 2005 version, and a step ahead of Intuit’s Quicken 2005—but that’s an unfair comparison. We’ll have to wait (not long, we suspect) to see if Money tops the 2006 version of Quicken, or if the two are equally matched (as they were last year). But for new users, Money Premium is an extraordinarily elegant, customizable, meticulous personal finance manager.

Buy Microsoft Money Premium 2006 – 19$

Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 is the latest addition to the Microsoft office family that turns your desktop or notebook into a fully functional digital note-taking program. Instead of having all your notes in messy folders or post-it-notes that become lost or unorganised, OneNote easily merges all these options into one program. No matter what kind of information you have, whether it’s typed, handwritten, drawn, graphical or spoken, OneNote 2003 organises all this information into your own personal organiser.

As with all Microsoft programs, the installation of OneNote 2003 was a breeze and it automatically installed upon my laptop when the CD placed into the CD-ROM drive.
Features
Type notes anywhere on the page and then rearrange them as you’d like
Record audio that’s synchronised with your typed or written notes
Input any type of information into your notes, whether graphics, drawings, pictures and the like
Write or draw your own information into OneNote through the use of a pen input device
Search and convert your handwriting on a Tablet PC
Works seamlessly with Office
Easily share your notes through e-mail or publish them as web pages
Once the installation was completed (without a reboot mind you), I was greeted with an extremely user-friendly interface that was extremely reminiscent of Microsoft Office 2003. Although the program looks and feels like a Microsoft Office product (menus are located at the top with popular icons below such as back, undo, search, print and various font options directly below, this is where the program ends in its similarity. The main window pane is designed as a folder (or organiser) called “My Notebook” that has various user defined folders that I created such as Contacts, Lecturers, Assignments and Personal. This feature allows users to give their organiser that personal feel without predetermined factors. OneNote 2003 also contains a variety of pen options (ideal for tablet PC owners) such as thickness, colours and various other pen functionalities that ensures that your notes will standout. This is basically a digital pencil case without the clutter or leaking pens.

Buy Microsoft OneNote 2003 Pro – 19$

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition empower individuals and small development teams to deliver connected applications that take advantage of the latest technology while more effectively meeting business goals.
NOTE: This disc contains a “UDF” file system and requires an operating system that supports the ISO-13346 “UDF” file system specification

Microsoft MSDN Libary for Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio is a complete set of development tools for building ASP.NET Web applications, XML Web Services, desktop applications, and mobile applications.
Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual C++ all use the same integrated development environment (IDE), which enables tool sharing and eases the creation of mixed-language solutions. In addition, these languages use the functionality of the .NET Framework, which provides access to key technologies that simplify the development of ASP Web applications and XML Web Services.

Buy Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 – 99$

To compete successfully in today’s challenging business climate, organizations must enable more efficient ways for information workers to communicate and collaborate. E-mail is currently the most widely used collaborative technology. More businesses use Exchange for e-mail-based collaboration than any other product. Exchange 2003 enables information workers to gain access to critical business communications almost whenever and wherever they need to and is designed to deliver greater security, availability, and reliability. Exchange 2003 sets a new benchmark for low total cost of ownership (TCO) by helping your information
technology (IT) staff to do more with less through improved management tools.

Buy Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition – 54$

To compete successfully in today’s challenging business climate, organizations must enable more efficient ways for information
workers to communicate and collaborate. E-mail is currently the most widely used collaborative technology. More businesses use
Exchange for e-mail-based collaboration than any other product. Exchange 2003 enables information workers to gain access to
critical business communications almost whenever and wherever they need to and is designed to deliver greater security,
availability, and reliability. Exchange 2003 sets a new benchmark for low total cost of ownership (TCO) by helping your information
technology (IT) staff to do more with less through improved management tools.

Buy Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise 2003 – 99$

Well, it’s been a little over three years since Windows 2000 shook up the IT industry. When Windows 2000 Server debuted, it created a frenzy of training and recertification. Corporations were now able to take advantage of a NOS (Network Operating System) that had the ease of management that so many Microsoft technologies had provided before then with a Directory Service similar to that of Novell Netware.

But many were less than delighted to see the new product from Redmond. I was teaching at the time as a Microsoft Certified Trainer and I remember the number of disgruntled students that had just finished their MCSE in NT4 Tracks and recently attained their certifications. Microsoft announced retirement of the NT4 MCSE and everyone had to get recertified. Many were quite furious. Let’s face it though. Microsoft did have a point. Windows 2000 was a completely different monster than NT4 was. Active Directory was much more than a Directory Service. Intellimirror was a beautiful new technology that, when implemented properly, could save an administrator many hours restoring machines. But there were flaws…
Windows 2000 was unable to avoid the mounting criticism that all of its predecessors had endured in times past. The native SECURITY was terrible. It was relatively easy to lock down a 2000 Server, but you had to actually have to go in and tighten everything manually, leaving room for human error. Nothing was automatically closed up. If you installed a new service, you would have to tighten it down. There was no end to the irritation, but it sure was easy to use.

Enter our Hero!!! Windows 2003 Server!!! For those of you thinking it’s only a minor upgrade, you are dead wrong. This product has been massaged thoroughly over the past three years. Microsoft has been listening to the requests of the Admin and Developer alike and provides each with a solution that we can be proud of. Many of you have heard of the tightened security in 2003. Usually tighter security comes with a price, your time, just look at Linux. (Although in its defense, Linux is getting significantly better.) This time, Microsoft has security locked down tight, and there are no apparent problems with the ease of use. If anything, the OS seems easier to use than before.
Another notable feature that Microsoft has added in Windows 2003 that I did not have time to elaborate on much in this review because of time constraints is VSS. The Volume Shadow copy Service is a new service in 2003 that is similar to the Salvage Bin in Novell. An Administrator can enable this service on a drive of a server and periodically the server will take snapshots of the drive. With this new feature, end users can recover a file if it has been deleted, or even retrieve a previous version if an older on is needed for whatever reason. Look into it further if you get a chance.

Buy Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64 Bit x64 – 54$

It’s not often Microsoft gives stuff away and there’s usually a catch, as with MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine), the cut-down version of its SQL Server product, for example.
Widely used by third-party developers and small businesses, MSDE may be free, but it suffers from performance and capacity limits, and a lack of management tools.

However, that’s all history because, with the launch of SQL Server 2005 last year, Microsoft replaced MSDE with a free, yet full, implementation of its database engine, called SQL Server 2005 Express.
There are still a few catches, some of which might seem retrograde. SQL Express, for example, can only use one processor, whereas MSDE supported two, and it can’t store data in more than 1GB of memory, compared to 2GB previously.
Plus there’s still a database size limit, although this has been raised to 4GB.
But there’s plenty of good news. Out goes the workload throttle, which stopped more than five concurrent tasks being handled, and the MSDE connection limits, while the SQL Server 2005 engine itself is much nimbler than its predecessor.
It’s also a full implementation, complete with support for the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and new XML data types.
Whereas MSDE only had a command-line interface, Microsoft has announced a free set of graphical management tools to go with SQL Express – SQL Server Management Studio Express.
We downloaded both packages and found them easy enough to install, although the process can take a while to complete.
The downloads are large (53MB for SQL Express and 30MB for the Management Studio) and they need to be installed onto a well-specified PC running Windows 2000 (SP4 ), XP or Windows Server 2003.
You also need Windows Installer 3.0, and version 2.0 of the .Net Framework. The setup program prompts for these if they’re not configured already.
Finally, it’s important to register if you intend to distribute the database with your own software, although client licences aren’t required.
A silent install option is still available – important if distributing with another application.
There’s also a new graphical setup tool with a wizard to guide you through the various setup options, including the choice of built-in security, NT authentication or mixed-mode deployment.
The new database is now tightly locked down, which means having to explicitly enable remote access using named pipes or TCP/IP.
But that’s easily done, and once installed the SQL engine runs as a background service, with a simple management utility to stop and start it and fine-tune the various parameters.
Management Studio Express can then be installed separately, adding tools to create databases, design queries, edit data and take backups.
For developers, full integration with Visual Studio 2005 also comes as standard, and there’s a free Express edition of that until 6 November 2006.
SQL Server 2005 Express is a welcome addition to a growing band of free database servers, which now includes Oracle as well as MySQL and other open-source products.
Performance and capacity limits mean it can’t be used for everything, but if you’re a small software developer it’s a no-brainer.
It’s also great for demonstrations, and for supporting a growing list of applications that need a database to run, such as network inventory tools and content management systems, where the cost of a full SQL Server licence might otherwise put such applications out of reach.
System requirements
Pentium III or better (1GHz processor recommended)
192MB Ram (512MB recommended)
525MB hard disk
Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2) or Server 2003 (SP1)
Net Framework 2.0
Windows Installer 3.0

Buy Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Full – 25$

Strengths:Easy to Use, Save to PDF, Easy Mail Merge, Many Templates
Weaknesses:Needs a Fast Processor and lots of hard drive space for complete install.

I’ve been using Publisher 2007 off and on for about six months now since the preview releases. This version includes a number of minor updates to the 2003 version. Since it costs less to upgrade to the 2007 version than the remaining 2003 copies on the market, the upgrade is worth the price. Previous versions of Publisher and Office Suites since 2000 qualify for the upgrade price. This new version looks and acts pretty much like the earlier versions. It’s easy to use compared to high end page layout tools. Creation of single and multiple page documents is simple with automatic text flow. The big improvement in this version is support for direct saving to PDF format. This ability must be downloaded from the Microsoft site. My tests showed that it worked very well. The quality and compression choices are limited, but it is quick and easy and will fit most user’s needs. Mail merge still seems easier in Publisher than in Word. Document layout is easier to maintain, and connection to address lists is easy. Anyone looking to create newsletters, advertising mailings, and postcards will quickly be able to turn out good looking pieces. I would recommend it to anyone running XP or Vista.

Buy Microsoft Office Publisher 2007

Not one of our more timely reviews, this, since IT Reviews didn’t even exist when Office 97 SBE2.0 was launched. But we’ve got a copy now, and it’s worth a look because this is the second edition of Microsoft’s office suite aimed, quite obviously, at small businesses. These are the sort of businesses that don’t require the full-blown database functions of something like Access, but would quite like to have a desktop publishing package for creating marketing materials and perhaps one or two other utilities such as a route-planning tool.

The first thing to note is the name. Why is it called Office 97 SBE2.0 and not Office 98 SBE? Simply because the core components of this package are those from the 1997 version of Microsoft Office – Excel 97, Word 97 and so on. It is called version 2.0 because there have been a few changes to the line-up. Excel and Word are still there, as is Outlook 97, the personal information manager. A voucher is included in the box for a free upgrade to Outlook 98, although you have to pay postage and packing costs. Plenty of column inches have already been devoted to these core applications elsewhere, so there’s little point in covering old ground. Suffice to say that they are here, they work, and most people will have at least seen or used them before. Compatibility with older versions of Excel and particularly Word is still a thorny issue, but if you’re careful it is possible to exchange data with other users without too much trouble.

Buy Microsoft Office 97 SR2 – 54$