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Gearing Up for DevDays '99

Microsoft Corp. is gearing up for next week when it will unleash a slew of announcements regarding Windows 2000 and its developer tools at DevDays '99 around the country.

One of the biggest announcements will be Internet Information Services 5.0 (IIS) with new technology for load balancing across Web servers for increased usage and better performance. There will also be emphasis on designing applications using the new COM+ services with support for loosely coupled events.

According to sources, Microsoft will announce what has been called Beagle thus far, a Visual Basic setup wizard that replaces the old one for simpler installations.

While Visual Studio 7.0 isn't due to come out until sometime next year, Microsoft will be releasing Visual Studio 6.0a and a readiness kit that will help leverage COM+ as well as support for XML since the BizTalk Framework and Server are due to come out later this year.

While DevDays '99 is on Wednesday, September 15, Microsoft's new Developer Division will be holding a press briefing on Monday, hosted by President Steve Ballmer and group vice president Paul Maritz to make some announcements and outline the company vision for the next generation of Web applications. -- Brian Ploskina

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.