Concept, term, or feature |
New or changed |
Comments |
Pre-upgrade checker |
New |
The pre-upgrade checker is an Stsadm command-line operation that you run in an Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment to find any potential issues for upgrade and to review recommendations and best practices. Unlike the pre-upgrade scan tool (Prescan.exe) that was used when upgrading to Office SharePoint Server 2007, the pre-upgrade checker does not make any changes to your environment. For more information, see Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Server 2010). |
SharePoint Central Administration Web site |
Changed |
The Central Administration Web site has been redesigned with such new available options and functionality as the following: · The ribbon makes it easier for you to view or change details about a Web application by supplying all the options on the same page. For more information about Web applications, see Web applications management (SharePoint Server 2010).
· Configuration Wizards have been added to make the configuration process easier by guiding you through the steps to configure the server farm. For more information, see Deploy a single server with SQL Server (SharePoint Server 2010).
· You can now perform a backup from the Backup and Restore page. For more information, see Backup (SharePoint Server 2010).
You now use the Central Administration Web site to manage services, instead using a separate administration site. |
Ribbon |
New |
The ribbon user interface has been introduced to ensure a consistent user experience and to make it easier for you to work with SharePoint sites. The ribbon is contextual so that you only see the options that are relevant to the tasks that you want to perform. The ribbon is also customizable. |
Service applications |
New |
New services architecture allows you to effectively manage and centralize services. Individual services can be configured independently and third-party companies can add services to the platform. For more information, see Configure services (SharePoint Server 2010). |
Master pages |
Changed |
A site owner can now apply branding to their site, independent of other sites, and administrators can specify whether the system pages in the _Layouts folder are rendered by using the site master pages provided by site owners or by default master pages available across the system. Also, it is possible to use Windows PowerShell to specify a customer master page to system error pages, login pages, confirmation pages, and other non-site-specific pages. |
Themes |
Changed |
SharePoint Server 2010 has changed the way themes work, making them easier to customize. You can import Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 themes directly into SharePoint Server 2010. Additionally, themes can now be applied to all subsites from this interface. For more information, see Plan for using themes (SharePoint Server 2010). |
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) |
New |
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) builds on the Business Data Catalog functionality available in the previous product version to provide access to external systems from SharePoint-based solutions. BCS supports interacting with external systems using SharePoint lists and Web Parts, and also supports interacting with data from rich Office clients. For more information, see Business Connectivity Services overview (SharePoint Server 2010). |
Claims-based authentication |
New |
Claims-based authentication is a new, more powerful and flexible authentication model that works with any corporate identity system, including Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), LDAP-based directories, application-specific databases, and new user-centric identity models such as LiveID. For more information, see Configure forms-based authentication for a claims-based Web application (SharePoint Server 2010). |
Throttling and list controls |
New |
Throttling and list controls are two new performance controls. Throttling provides a way to control server resources and is designed so that the server can be protected from overload during peak business hours. SharePoint Server 2010 also provides several different settings that will restrict the queries that can be run against a large list. These settings can be configured for each Web application. |
SharePoint Designer |
Changed |
SharePoint Server 2010 gives administrators added control over how SharePoint Designer is used in each Web application; for example, administrators control whether site administrators are allowed to customize master pages and layout pages, and whether site administrators can manage the URL structure of their site. |
Developer dashboard |
New |
This is a new addition to server diagnostics and displays detailed information for each page load and therefore helps troubleshoot performance issues. |
Sandboxed solutions |
New |
You can now enable site administrators to upload custom user code by using sandboxed solutions. For more information, see Plan for sandboxed solutions (SharePoint Server 2010). |