Whether you are starting a new SharePoint 2010 environment or migrating pre-existing SharePoint 2007 content, proper preparation and planning is key to building a solid collaboration platform that will grow with your organization. As we previously discussed in Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010 post, the most important requirement you should know before beginning your SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010 environment is that SharePoint can only run on a 64-bit server with 64-bit (x64) software. The following you should be considered before building your SharePoint environment:

64-bit Software

With all the new features and improvements incorporated into SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010, Microsoft had to move to a 64-bit architecture to support the intense processing power required for medium to large scale deployments. The benefits of using a 64-bit software with a 64-bit server is the ability to access physical memory (RAM) above 4 gigabytes (GB) and process two times the number of bits a 32-bit processor can process in one computation. To take full advantage of the increased performance of a 64-bit server both the operating system and applications must 64-bit or x64 to be optimized for the processor and memory.

Supported Operating Systems

SharePoint 2010 is only supported on a 64-bit server with a 64-bit (x64) version of Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2. SharePoint is not supported on “Server Core”installations of Windows Server 2008 and R2 as it does not contain some of the components required for SharePoint to be configured or run.

It is also possible to install SharePoint 2010 on 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7, however it is only recommended for development environments as upgrading to future SharePoint versions will not be supported. You will want to make sure that you install either Business or Professional editions of Windows. For more information on supported operating systems visit the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog or the TechNet Library.

Required Pre-installation Server Software

Before installing SharePoint 2010 it is important to install the following service packs, cumulative updates, and hot fixes on your server:

Optional Server Applications

The following server applications are not required to install SharePoint 2010, however they can provide additional robust functionality that can be integrated into your environment:

SQL Server

SharePoint 2010 installs SQL Server Express as part of the standalone installation and includes a database engine, reporting, and a database management application. SQL Server Express only utilizes 1 physical processor (including multiples cores), up to 1 GB RAM, and up to 4 GB storage to support development and small-scale environments. If you decide to use SQL Server Express you should install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition Service Pack 1.

For medium to large scale SharePoint environments, I highly recommend installing a retail version of 64-bit SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 for performance and scalability into the future. Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server are able to support the maximum amount of RAM install in your server and has no limit on the data base size. The Enterprise edition of SQL Server will also allow partitioning, parallel index operations, and indexed views. The following service packs (SP), cumulative updates, and hot fixes should be installed for SQL Server before installing SharePoint 2010:

64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005

64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Another optional application that can be installed as part of your SharePoint deployment is Microsoft Server Speech Platform that performs speech recognition and speech synthesis for applications. Microsoft Server Speech Platform is used in SharePoint 2010 for its phonetic matching (matching words based on how they sound) capabilities. Microsoft Server Speech Platform supports English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German phonetic matching. The following files should be installed before installed SharePoint 2010:

Additionally, you should update the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftSpeech Serverv10.0RecognizersTokensSR_MS__TELE_10.0Attributes] registry key for every language that you install. Click Start, and then run regedit. Find the registry key, and then update the Vendor value to Microsoft Corporation. The following is the language codes for each speech recognition pack:

  • English : 1033
  • French : 1036
  • Spanish: 1034
  • German: 1031
  • Japanese: 1041
  • Chinese: 2052

For more information on supported optional applications visit the TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485%28office.14%29.aspx#section3. For more information on SQL Server Editions go to http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/compare-features.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/editions.aspx. For more information on installing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Server 2010 go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662542%28office.14%29.aspx. For more information on Microsoft speech technology go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Tellme/default.aspx.

Acquired from the Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer company, FAST Search Server 2010 provides a high-performance distributed search solution within Microsoft SharePoint Server that supports content-processing pipeline, metadata extraction, visual search, and advanced linguistics. You should consider using FAST Search Server 2010 in your environment if you:

  • Have the Enterprise edition of SharePoint 2010
  • Require scalability and performance
  • Require enriched search experience with the ability to tailor relevant search results and navigation
  • Have to crawl internal and external content sources that include large-scale Web content
  • Want sophisticated content processing including metadata or property extraction

According to the Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint document, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution consists of three main parts:

  • FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides processing, indexing and query capabilities, and the administration of these features.
  • FAST Query Search Service Application (SSA) provides the query Web front-end capabilities. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint Web server, and it hosts query Web parts and SDK query integration capabilities for your search solution.
  • FAST Search Connector (Content SSA) that retrieves content for indexing from SharePoint farms and other content repositories. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint application server.

FAST Search Server 2010 minimum hardware requirements are a 64-bit quad core processor server with a 2.0 GHz CPU, 4 GB of RAM and 50 GB of disk space. FAST Search Server 2010 is recommended to be run on a 64-bit eight core processor with 2.0 GHz of CPU, 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of disk space on RAID across 6 spindles or more. FAST Search Server 2010 can be installed on either Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64 or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.You can download the trail version of FAST Search Server 2010 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/ee424282.aspx.

For more information on FAST Search Server 2010 and whether it is a good fit for your company please visit Microsoft FAST Search Video, TechNet FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide, Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 , Deployment and Configuration for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 , Monitoring for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010, FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Overview , FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Help (Beta), FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Site Admin and Central Admin (Beta), Optimize search relevance with Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, and Query Integration in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta).

2007 R2

Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2 , is a software platform for presence information, instant messaging (IM), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video, call forwarding, and desktop sharing that helps end users be more productive by enabling them to communicate and collaborate easily with others in different locations or time zones using a range of different. In SharePoint 2010, OCS 2007 provide online presence gives individuals the ability to identify who is online and available to communicate with them at any given moment. With the new improvement in SharePoint 2010’s user profiles and social data, Microsoft Communications Server and SharePoint 2010 are power tools for facilitating communication across departments and companies around the world.

Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2 is recommended to be run on a 64-bit quad-core 2.0 GHz server with 16 GB of RAM, 2x RAID 1 (mirrored) 10K RPM or 15K RPM for system files, 2x RAID 1 (mirrored) 15K RPM for database log files, 8x RAID 10 (striped and mirrored) 15K RPM disks for database data files, and 2-port 1 Gbps network adapter. Microsoft Communications Server 2007 can be installed on 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2), or Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition with SP2. Microsoft Communications Server 2007 also requires Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to host the database files required of the application to run.

Download a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb684921.aspx.

Make sure you check on Microsoft Lync which is the latest version of Microsoft Communications Server that is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=29366ba5-498f-4d21-bc3e-0b4e8ba58fb1. Microsoft Lync is currently has release candidate status, but will be available for purchase later this year.

For more information on how of Microsoft Communications Server 2007 can help you company communication more efficiently and economically visit http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/product-details.aspx, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/default.aspx, http://communicatorteam.com/, http://www.microsoft.com/Office/2010/en/communicator/default.aspx, http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html, and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298136.aspx.

Microsoft Project Server 2010

Built on top of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010 extends SharePoint’s business collaboration services with end-to-end project and portfolio management capabilities to provide a robust work management solution. Microsoft Project Server 2010 helps organizations select project portfolios that align with their business strategy, gain insight into resource availability to maximize utilization while adhering to schedule dependencies, track progress with Web-based project management tools (such as task lists, timesheets, Gantt charts and schedules), improve productivity with collaborative workspace for team members to share information, and gain business transparency through reporting and business intelligence. Since Microsoft Project Server 2010 is so tightly integrated with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 their software and hardware requirements are the same. Please visit the Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010 post to see the necessary hardware requirements. Microsoft Project Server 2010 trial is available to download at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee410540.aspx.

For more information about Microsoft Project Server 2010 visit Microsoft Project Server 2010 Website, What’s new in , Microsoft Project Server 2010 Version Comparison Chart, Project TechNet Forum, Project 2010 Videos, Best Project 2010 Blogs, Microsoft Project Conference 2009, and TechNet Microsoft Project Server 2010.

Client Machine Software

Taking into consideration what is installed on client machines is just as important for planning the software requirements for your servers. The following are areas you should consider about software on your company’s client machines:

Web Browser Support

SharePoint 2010 offers a two tiered level of support for standard XHTML 1.0 compliant web browsers. Level 1 web browsers are able to take advantage of Active X controls and are able to use all the functionality SharePoint has to provide. Level 1 web browsers include:

Operating System Browser
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 (32-bit), Mozilla Firefox 3.5*
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 Internet Explorer 8 (32-bit), Firefox 3.5

*Some ActiveX features, such as list Datasheet view and the control that displays user presence information, do not work in Mozilla Firefox 3.5.
Note: The level 1 web browser requirements above can be found on Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc263526%28office.14%29.aspx.

Level 2 web browsers not take advantage of Active X controls and are provide basic functionality to read, write, and administrate SharePoint sites. Level 2 web browsers include:

Operating System Browser
Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard Apple Safari 4.x, Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 (64-bit)
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 Internet Explorer 8 (64-bit)
UNIX/Linux 8.1 Firefox 3.5

Note: The level 2 web browser requirements above can be found on Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc263526%28office.14%29.aspx.

Web browsers that are not included in the tabled above are not considered by Microsoft to be tested and supported with SharePoint 2010. You will notice that Microsoft has decided not to support IE 6. From at Internet prospective users will still be able to access your web content with fewer issues because of the high level of control you have over the markup through master pages, page layouts, and CSS styles. Problems will arise is when users with unsupported browsers try to author content and use administrative features within SharePoint.

For detailed information about SharePoint 2010 web browser support visit TechNet’s Plan browser support.

Microsoft Silverlight 3

Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful web application framework for creating multimedia, graphics, animations and user interactive experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline. In SharePoint 2010, Silverlight is used heavily in user interfaces for content editing, menus, and administrative screens. SharePoint 2010 developers also have the ability to host a Microsoft Silverlight application in a Web Part. The free Silverlight 3 plug-in can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx and is compatible with the following operating systems and web browsers:

Operating System Windows Internet Explorer 8 Windows Internet Explorer 7 Internet Explorer 6 Firefox 2, 3 Safari 3 Safari 4
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows XP SP2, SP3
Windows 2000 SP4 + KB 891861 **
Windows Server 2003 (excluding IA-64)
Mac OS 10.4.8+ (PowerPC) * *
Mac OS 10.4.8+ (Intel-based)
Linux, FreeBSD or SolarisOS
(Requries Moonlight)

* Silverlight 1.0 Only ; ** Silverlight 2, 3 Only

Note: The operating systems and web browsers compatibility chart above can be found on the Silverlight website .

For more information about Silverlight visit http://silverlight.net/, http://mono-project.com/Moonlight, and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539062%28office.14%29.aspx.

Optional Client Machine Software

Microsoft Office 2010

Although SharePoint 2010 can store any type of document, the Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications has additional features that interact with SharePoint to allow you to do more with your documents. The following are interoperability features with SharePoint and Office 2010:

  • Visio documents can be displayed and interacted with in a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • You can now design a workflow in Visio 2010 and then import it into SharePoint Designer for configuration.
  • InfoPath forms can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • With InfoPath 2010 you can edit SharePoint 2010 list on the fly from within InfoPath application for faster editing and publishing.
  • InfoPath forms can now be used in mobile devices.
  • Excel documents can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • Access databases can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • OneNote 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010 documents can co-authoring so that more than one user can be changing a document at the same time.
  • PowerPivot in Excel 2010 allows Excel to return more rows of information faster than ever before.
  • Within Word you can publish wiki and blog postings directly to SharePoint.
  • Within Word users can add metadata to documents quickly and easily when saving to SharePoint.
  • Outlook 2010 can connect to SharePoint 2010 duscussions, lists, and libraries to display and alter content within Outlook.
  • Office documents can be altered offline with asynchronous saves.
  • With Outlook you can view full documents stored in SharePoint.
  • With Outlook 2010 use the Outlook Social Connector you can view activity feeds generated by SharePoint. Activity Feeds are very similar Linkedin, MySpace, and Facebook activity feeds and allow you to track activities that have been posted by your colleagues. You can track content ratings, status messages, new colleague announcements, job title changes, manager changes, new blog posts, new memberships, sharing interesting ideas, tagging by colleagues, note board posts, tagging interests, upcoming birthdays, birthday announcements, upcoming workplace anniversary, workplace anniversary announcements, and employee profile updates.
  • Microsoft Office Web Apps are online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, enabling people to access and do light editing or sharing of Office documents from virtually anywhere using SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Fountain 2010.

Please noted that if you wish to use Visio services, which is now part of SharePoint 2010, to add functionality and interact with Visio documents you must purchase the Visio Ultimate edition. Visio Ultimate is not part of Office Ultimate edition and must be purchased separately.

Microsoft Office 2010 requires a computer with at least a 500 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 3 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 64 MB of on board memory. Microsoft Office 2010 can only be installed on Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit operating system (OS) only) or Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft Office 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version, but many common add-ins for Office don’t run correctly in the 64-bit edition.

If you are interested in using Microsoft Office 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of the software from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft Office 2010 visit the Official Microsoft Office 2010 Website, Microsoft Office 2010 TechNet Resource Center, Office on Twitter, Office on YouTube, Microsoft Office Blog, Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering Blog, Office 2010 the Movie, Microsoft Office 2010 Free E-Book, Deployment guide for Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2010 Blogs, Office 2010 Developer Center, and Ribbon Hero.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 is a robust development environment intended for developers and facilitates rapid SharePoint development by providing advanced debugging tools, IntelliSense, statement completion, and project templates. SharePoint projects can be developed by using either Visual Basic or Visual C#, although Visual C# is the language standard for SharePoint. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Visual Studio 2010 professional, premium, or ultimate editions can be used to develop SharePoint solutions. The following are features that can be found in Visual Studio 2010 to help your SharePoint development:

  • New visual web part project that allows controls to be dragged and dropped in a designer view.
  • Project templates for creating SharePoint sites, list definitions, workflows, business data connectivity models, and site definitions.
  • The new client object model enables access SharePoint objects through a referenced DLL as opposed to making Web service calls.
  • The Server Explorer view connects SharePoint to display sites, document libraries, lists within your web application.
  • The Feature Designer helps generates the Feature.xml file that describes the scope, dependencies, and code elements that your feature will deploy on activation.
  • The Package Designer helps generates a xml file that describes the grouping of SharePoint elements and features into a single solution package and configure whether to reset the Web server during deployment.
  • The Package Explorer view displays and allows modification of files that will be packaged to be deployed to your SharePoint environment.
  • F5 will now allow you to compile, build, debug and deploy SharePoint solutions.
  • Sandboxed Solutions allow developers to write server-side code that interacts with the SharePoint object model, but the code restricted, managed, and monitored.

Visual Studio 2010 requires at computer with at least 1.6 GHz processor, 1 GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) RAM with an additional 512 MB if running in a virtual machine, a 5400 Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) hard drive with 3 GB hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 capable video card running at 1024 x 768 or higher-resolution display. Visual Studio 2010 can be installed on Windows XP (x86) with Service Pack 3 (except Starter Edition), Windows XP (x64) with Service Pack 2 (except Starter Edition), Windows Vista (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 1 (except Starter Edition), Windows 7 (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2003 (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 R2 (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64).

If you are interested in using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of the software from the Visual Studio 2010 Downloads. For more information about Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 visit the Official Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Website, Channel 9’s SharePoint Development with Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio 2010 Extensions, MSDN Code Gallery: SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010, and TechNet’s SharePoint Development in Visual Studio.

Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

SharePoint Designer 2010 is an optional Windows application offered free by Microsoft for developers and advanced users to rapidly develop SharePoint applications using software wizards and “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors. SharePoint Designer 2010 is often used to create or modify master pages, page layouts, CSS, libraries, workflow, Line-Of-Business data integration, and business intelligence solutions. Unfortunately SharePoint Designer 2010 is not backward compatible and can only be used with SharePoint 2010 sites.

SharePoint Designer 2010 requires at computer with at least 500 MHz processor, 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 2.5 GB of hard drive space, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 64 MB. SharePoint Designer 2010 can be run on Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, or Windows XP Service Pack 3. The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SharePoint Designer 2010 can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. For more information about SharePoint Designer 2010 visit the Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog, Introducing SharePoint Designer 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Datasheet.

Microsoft Project Professional 2010

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 is an optional project management software program developed and sold by Microsoft that has been designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, demand management, managing budgets, and analyzing workloads. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can sync with Microsoft Project Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation to provide an overall view of how your company is doing and provide enhanced collaboration, task management, and business intelligence reporting. The following are additional software requirements to use all the additional features Microsoft Project Professional 2010 has to offer:

  • Certain advanced collaboration functionality requires Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and connectivity to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise.
  • The Import Outlook Tasks feature requires Outlook 2003 SP2 or later.
  • Visual Reports require Excel 2003 SP2 or later and Visio Professional 2007 or later.
  • Enterprise project, portfolio, and resource management capabilities require Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010.
  • Importing tasks to an Outlook calendar or tasks list requires Microsoft Project Web App and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or later.
  • Synchronizing Project Tasks Lists requires Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.
  • Publishing projects and Windows Workflow Foundation require Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise (installed with Microsoft Project Server 2010).
  • The Resource Substitution Wizard requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.
  • Certain online functionality requires a Windows Live ID.
  • Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require additional or advanced hardware or server connectivity.

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 requires a computer with at least a 700 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and 32-bit Windows Internet Explorer 7 or later. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can only be installed on Windows 7, Windows Vista with SP1, Windows XP (must have SP3) (32-bit), Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version, but many common add-ins for Office don’t run correctly in the 64-bit edition.

If you are interested in using Microsoft Project Professional 2010 you can download a trial version of the software from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft Project Professional 2010 visit the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 website, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Demos, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Help and How-Tos, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Forum, and Microsoft Project 2010 “Ignite”training slide presentations.

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 is the new name and version of Microsoft Office Groove. SharePoint Workspace 2010 is a client application provides direct bi-directional synchronization of library and list content between a SharePoint site and a workspace on an individual client computer. The power of SharePoint Workspaces is that you can take SharePoint documents and list anywhere with your laptop, make changes, and then update SharePoint when you get back to the office. SharePoint Workspace works well for employees who have to work in the field all day without Internet connective.

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 requires a computer with at least a 500 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 1.5 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and a graphics card with 64 and DirectX 9.0c compatible. Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 can only be installed on Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit operating system (OS) only) or Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version.

If you are interested in using Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of Office Professional Plus 2010 that includes SharePoint Workspace from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 visit the Offical Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 Website, SharePoint Workspace 2010 Overview, SharePoint Workspace 2010 Development Team Blog, Getting started with SharePoint Workspace 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 Introduction Video, Changes in SharePoint Workspace 2010, and It’s all about Groove and SharePoint Workspace Blog.

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About Author

Christine Weaver has been the technical lead on projects designing, developing, deploying, supporting, and delivering solutions for SharePoint since 2003. Christine’s knowledge and experience leans heavily on her 10+ years as a software consultant and from being a Microsoft certified professional. Christine has been a regular presenter at TechDays Canada and runs the Halifax SharePoint User Group.

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