Category Archives: Azure

Amazon.com, Apple, Apps and Utilities, Azure, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Visual Studio

Downdetector shows outage information for websites and services

Downdetector shows outage information and status for widely used websites and services such as  mobile and internet service providers, social media sites, banking and financial services, etc.    This includes:

Azure, Cloud, Programming Languages, Visual Studio

Visual Studio Codespaces – an online only development environment

Visual Studio Codespaces – formerly known as Visual Studio Online – allows you to create Visual Studio solutions entirely in the cloud across multiple devices.  This development environment is currently in public preview.

Azure, Visual Studio

Azure DevOps is the new name for Visual Studio Team Services

Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) has been renamed to Azure DevOps as of September 2018. Microsoft offers guidance on conversion from Team Foundation Server (TFS) to Azure DevOps Services.  Features within VSTS have been given new Azure DevOp names as well.

User settings can be changed by logging into app.vsaex.visualstudio.com.

Documentation regarding Azure DevOps is available at docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/.

Azure, Databases, Linux, SQL Server, Windows

Azure Data Studio is the new name for SQL Operations Studio

Microsoft announced the September 2018 release of Azure Data Studio, formerly known as SQL Operations Studio (preview version).  Azure Data Studio is a new open source desktop environment for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse data that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Apps and Utilities, Azure, Databases, Linux, SQL Server

SQL Server and Azure SQL Database Tools and Utilities

Microsoft has made available many free downloadable apps for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse, including:

Android, Apps and Utilities, Azure, Operating Systems, Windows

Windows Admin Center – a new management tool for Windows 10 and Server

Microsoft announced the release of Windows Admin Center, a new web based administrative management interface for Windows systems.  The original development name of this tool was Project Honolulu.  This tool consolidates data from Event Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management, Task Manager, Server Manager and other console windows into one interface.  It can be downloaded and installed on Windows 10 Fall Anniversary Update (version 1709) or newer, or Windows Server 2016 or newer.   More information can be found at:

Windows Admin Center is part of a set of management solutions from Microsoft, which also includes Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), System Center, Operations Management Suite and Azure Stack for Azure-related management, as well as Intune for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices.

Azure, Cloud, Databases, SQL Server

Azure SQL Database Managed Instances offer greater SQL Server compatibility

Microsoft has made Azure SQL Database Managed Instances available in Preview mode.  These instances offer much greater compatibility with traditional SQL Server when compared with Azure SQL databases.

A free Azure account can be created at azure.microsoft.com/free.

More documentation can be found at: