Unfortunately I was unable to make TechEd this year. Today marks the start of a highly eventful week at our yearly conference for IT professionals. Roughly 10,000 attendees will gather at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FLA.

This year at TechEd we are launching the new unified Windows Client TechCenter. The new TechCenter is now the official new home to the Springboard Series of online resources (www.microsoft.com/springboard). This is a critical component of the Windows Vista deployment and management story. With Windows Vista we built a number of capabilities into the product itself, as well as number of tools to prepare for implementation. The piece that's been missing is structured guidance along adoption path that helps IT Professionals learn how new features and capabilities can assist common tasks and also how to pre-empt and address key challenges upfront... We're aiming to deliver this final piece through the new Windows Client TechCenter, which shares candid best practices from real-world experiences. For instance, check out Springboard Series articles such as Five Windows Vista adoption "Gotchas" and how to get beyond them. The new site offers a consolidated repository of resources across the adoption lifecycle, new troubleshooting zones

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Nicholas Rayner pointed out (via Twitter linking back to his blog) a new article available for download on Microsoft.com looking at 5 misunderstood features in Windows Vista today.

Download: 5 Misunderstood Features in Windows Vista

Those 5 misunderstood features include:

• User Account Control (UAC)
• Image Management
• Display Driver Model
• Windows Search
• 64-bit architecture

The article looks to clear up some confusion IT Pros might have with these features. This article is part of the Springboard Series on TechNet offering a collection of resources, tools, and monthly articles to address your questions on Windows Vista based on community feedback and feedback from early adopters.

We blogged about a Springboard Series Live Roundtable event in February in which Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich took part of addressing Windows Vista Deployment and Adoption. You can watch the recording of the session here.

Thanks Nick (a.k.a "aussienick") for pointing this out!

On Wednesday March 5th, Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich will be hosting a virtual roundtable session live over the Internet on Windows Vista Deployment and Adoption. Joining Mark on the panel for the roundtable will be independent industry experts and IT Professionals from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista as well as Microsoft MVPs. This roundtable offers IT Professionals worldwide an opportunity to ask questions about deploying Windows Vista.

To attend the event, just visit http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events at 9:00am Pacific Time on March 5th. You will be able to ask your questions live during the event. You are also welcome to submit your questions in advance by sending them to vrtable@microsoft.com between now and when the event starts. The panel will be 60 minutes long and try to answer as many questions as possible within that timeframe. The event will also be available on-demand afterwards as well.

For additional guidance, resources, tools, and straight-talk articles to help address your Windows Vista adoption questions, visit the Springboard Series for Windows Vista.