|
|
September 2009 - Posts
-
Here we are, half way done the first day and things are flying. It’s awesome to see how many people came out to attend TechDays Toronto in order to pick and choose their personalized “a-la-carte” track from the over 40 sessions. As you can see – we’ve got some interesting challenges with capacity planning for certain sessions – so we’ve got monitors outside the rooms to accommodate some overflow. 
We actually managed to re-configure the rooms so that instead of a half and half experience of classroom desks and rush seating, we’re going for full rush seating to accommodate the load. Luckily we can re-jig this over lunch.  One of the cool added experience piece that we have up and includes internet kiosks running Windows 7 – so you can both stay in touch with the office and your regular day job while trying out Windows 7 to boot. They are in a couple of spots around the venue and people seem to be using them quite frequently.
I am currently writing this blog post in the Windows 7 Lounge – nice couch setup with HD TV, Windows 7 touch devices and of course an xBox360 configured as a media extender to one of the HP TouchSmart systems. Funnily enough – I am working away on my Dell E4300 laptop writing this blog post while Barnaby Jeans is playing the demo for Forza 3 with Christian Beauclair and Rob Burke watch on. 
I’m off – the 5th session is going to be starting soon followed up with FailCamp! 
Rick Claus | Senior IT Pro Advisor | Microsoft Canada
phone 613.795-9216 | Live messenger rick.claus@hotmail.com
IT Pro blog | IT Manager blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
|
-
Hey guys/gals, By now I hope you know that TechDays is a technical conference that we’re putting on across most of Canada – 7 cities to be exact. The other day I tweeted that I was excited because we crossed the 350 registered attendees for our “expansion city” of Halifax as of the registration reports on Friday. This is awesome for the region – mainly from a community / ecosystem perspective – it’s probably now one of the largest technical gatherings in Atlantic Canada in recent years! Not long after tweeting and emailing about that event – I started the packing process for TechDays Toronto. I arrived in on the flight this morning just after the thunderstorms blew through. Quick pit stop at the office for a meeting or two and then down to the MTCC South building to see the new Digs and help with the setup process.  TechDays is going to be BIG – over 1200 people registered for Toronto! Don’t worry – we have a couple of the large 800 series rooms for the food hall and some great sized breakout rooms on the 700 level for each of the tracks. I popped my head in room 718B (718 Butter) to see how the setup was progressing – the Servers, Security and Management track has over 400 registered attendees!
To accommodate this – we had changed the room setup to allow for the front half of the room in classroom style and the back half of the room as regular seating. If you are looking for the prime location – get there early! 
I’ve got to get back to setting up the infrastructure and also get the Windows 7 Lounge area configured as well – more on this as they take shape. 
Rick Claus | Senior IT Pro Advisor | Microsoft Canada
phone 613.795-9216 | Live messenger rick.claus@hotmail.com
IT Pro blog | IT Manager blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
|
-
 I remember the first set of books I bought on Windows. The Windows 2000 Resource Kit was 7 volumes plus a poster and a CD with some great tools on it. The other day while flying to Vancouver for TechDays I was sorting through email lists and came across an email asking if the resource kits were dead. Mitch Tulloch, a friend, MVP and author chimed in with this response which he allowed me to post.
------------------------- GROAN. Resource Kits are NOT dead--it's only unsupported Resource Kit TOOLS (executables) that are no longer provided. The Windows 7 Resource Kit is an 1800 page book on how to deploy, manage, maintain and troubleshoot Windows 7 and will be available in bookstores in mid-October. You can also pre-order this book today from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735627002/mtitenterprises). In addition to having 32 chapters of content that has been peer-reviewed by dozens of individuals on the Windows team at Microsoft, there is also a companion CD in the book that includes: - The Windows 7 Resource Kit PowerShell Pack, a collection of Windows PowerShell modules that adds over 700 new Windows PowerShell cmdlets and functions to those already present in-box in Windows 7. - Almost 200 sample Windows PowerShell scripts are included to demonstrate how you can administer different aspects of Windows 7 using Windows PowerShell. To repeat, Resource Kits are definitely NOT dead--I should know as I'm the lead author for this book :) Cheers, Mitch Tulloch ------------------------- Hope that settles that question. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Windows 7 Resource Kit! 
|
-
![3436495785_7653964d1a_o[1]](http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/canitpro/WindowsLiveWriter/WhathaveyoubeenuptolatelyHowstheITdepart_14CD0/3436495785_7653964d1a_o%5B1%5D_thumb.jpg "3436495785_7653964d1a_o[1]") Picture yourself walking into an elevator and having a senior executive standing in there. After the pleasant head nod, you press your floor button and stand to the side. After the doors close - the executive finally recognizes you and remembers you’re in IT. Because it’s a long ride up – she asks you a small talk type question like “So Bob, what projects have you been up to lately? How’s life in the IT Department?”.
Are you ready for this question? How would you answer?
Remember - You’ve got one minute to promote your personal brand and make an impression. Are you ready for that?
This is a serious topic that comes up in conversation when my team is out at events and talking with people. It’s mostly around the issue of looking for a job or trying to break into he industry as they are newly out and seeking employment. Kudos to the ones that are asking – most are seeking advice on what to say and how to promote. What about all the OTHER people in the room who are not doing a good job of connecting and self promoting? Sure – maybe they are gainfully employed now or have not had to look for a new job in a while – but what about if something changed?
Self Promotion / personal brand awareness / pride in projects completed AND being able to clearly communicate them in the proper depth and manner that matches the situation is something that is hard to do. Are you someone like me (believe it or not) who’s a little introverted when one finds oneself in a crowd of strangers, nervous to be the one who does the approaching - but more then happy to talk once approached by someone in a crowd to talk. Maybe you are a bit more extreme – someone who shies away from getting out there at all, making connections and selling yourself. Being confident and taking the time to build and nurture your “public” brand may not seem important to you now – but what about when it really counts?
- when you find yourself being passed over for a new role with more responsibility.
- when you feel it’s time to move on down a slightly different career path.
- when it’s time to strike out into new territory all together and look for a new employer
- when it’s time to get into your first career or into your next career change.
How do you stand out from the crowd – even if it’s not your style? Can you summarize your accomplishments from past projects clearly and succinctly? When is the last time you updated your resume or maintained your “project portfolio”?
My team and I have committed to do whatever we can do to support your career growth as an ICT professional both on the traditional “technical skills” side as well as on the “personal/professional skills” side. With this episode of the Ignite Your Career webcast series - I figured it was time to focus a little energy towards this very important topic. When I reached out to the team to see who they would suggest would be good panel members – WOW. I was impressed with who wanted to talk on this topic.
We’re coming at it from all angles here: A brand and image savvy developer, an IT manager looking to hire, a headhunter who can help locate the right candidate or give you an edge and finally an HR professional who knows all about recruiting and staffing processes. Check out this line-up!
 Scott Hanselman – Principal Program Manager at Microsoft. You can find him on the web at http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ or listen to his podcast HansleMinutes. Trust me – if you are a developer – you’ve heard of Hanselman.
 Andrew Dillane is the Group CIO for the Randstad Canada Group of Companies. He’s the national president for the CIO Association of Canada and is actively involved in the Program Advisory Council for Ryerson University’s Information Technology Management degree program.
 Nick Crocodilos is no stranger to the Ignite Your Career webcast series. He’s provided colourful insight and valuable information on how to work with HeadHunters. His latest book How to Work with Headhunters is a great read and his previous book Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing The Interview to Win The Job was the #1 selling interview guide on Amazon for 26 months. You can reach Nick over on his AskTheHeadHunter blog. Note: Nick is making a SPECIAL OFFER for webcast attendees – Save $10 on his new book How to Work with Headhunters by using discount code = ignite
 Heather Hamilton – manages Microsoft’s Global Competitive Programs Team which is responsible for monitoring competitive talent landscape and leverage opportunities to recruit the best technical talent possible. She’s a well known blogger over on her site called One Louder and is a requested speaker on topics related to candidate outreach and community building.
I honestly can’t wait for Thursday the 24th. This will be an episode you will NOT want to miss! Register today to attend this free webcast series.
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
|
-
Are you ready for Windows 7? It is a common question now that Windows 7 is released to manufacturing. This 2 hour 4 part session will cover all the key aspects, guidance, tools and resources to help prepare you and company for Windows 7. For anyone looking how to Discover, Explore, Pilot, Deploy or Manage Windows 7, this is the seminar for you. This session will answer questions like "Why and how to move to Windows 7 from Windows XP?", "What are the differences between the versions of Windows 7?" and focus on the three key pillars of Windows 7 - deployment, security, networking. From new deployment techniques, application compatibility, to improved security and remote access options this session will get you ready to answer questions about Windows 7. Register today! 
|
-
TechDays Vancouver is underway and soon heading to a city near you. John Bristowe and I shot this short video to give you a peak at the TechDays Survival Kit and a look behind the scenes! 
|
-
For those of you attending TechDays Vancouver (or those of you who are just curious), I’ve put together a schedule (with actual times, rooms and maps) as well as some other information that you might find useful. Enjoy! Venue 
TechDays Vancouver takes place at the Vancouver Convention Centre, located right on the waterfront. If you’re taking the SkyTrain, it’s right by Waterfront Station. Schedule TechDays Vancouver takes place on Monday, September 14th and Tuesday, September 15th. There’s a complimentary breakfast from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on both days, and the session start running at 9:00 a.m.. There’s an introductory session for each track on both days that runs from 9:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., where the track leads provide an overview of the day’s sessions. Each track has two morning sessions spaced out by a 15-minute break, followed by 75-minute break for lunch. Monday is the longer of the two days, as it has three afternoon sessions spaced out by 15-minute breaks; the third session is a bonus session. Demo Ignite Camp will take place Monday evening. Tuesday has just two afternoon sessions, spaced out by a 15-minute break and will conclude at 4:00 p.m. Day 1 (Monday, September 14th) | Time | Track 1:
Developer Fundamentals and Best Practices | Track 2:
Developing for the Microsoft-based Platform | Track 3:
Windows Client | Track 4:
Servers, Security, and Management | Track 5:
Communication and Collaboration | Track 6:
Developer Foundations | | Room | Rooms 1-3 | Ballroom A | Ballroom C | Ballroom B | Rooms 11 - 12 | Rooms 8 and 15 | | 8:00am to 9:00am | Breakfast | | 9:00am to 9:15am | Track Introduction | | 9:15am to 10:30am | Tips and Tricks for Visual Studio | What’s New in Silverlight 3 | Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010: The Next Generation | From Zero to Live Migration: How to Set Up a Live Migration | Deploying Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in a Virtual World | S-O-L-I-D : The Five OO Principles that will Change your Life Forever | | 10:30am to 10:45am | Break | | 10:45am to 12:00pm | Test Driven Development Techniques | Expression Blend for Developers | A Geek's Guide to Windows User State Migration Tool 4.0 | SCVMM 2008: Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) and Management Integration | Versioning and Upgrade of SharePoint-based Solutions | Going from 0 to 100 Dollars per Hour with the .NET You Never Knew | | 12:00pm to 1:15pm | Lunch | | 1:15pm to 2:30pm | Patterns for the Rest of Us | Building Modular Applications Using Silverlight and WPF | Easing the Migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 | Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtualization Considerations and Best Practices | Comprehensive Security for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 | Layers, the Secret Language of Architects | | 2:30pm to 2:45pm | Break | | 2:45pm to 4:00pm | A Strategic Comparison of Data Access Technologies from Microsoft | Optimizing Your Apps for the Windows 7 User Experience | Working the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) | Monitoring UNIX/Linux with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 | Using Microsoft Dashboards, Scorecards, and Analytics to Monitor the Health of your IT Infrastructure | Refactoring for Fun and Profit | | 4:00pm to 4:15pm | Break | | Bonus sessions 4:15pm to 5:30pm | How ISVs can strengthen their business by Working with Microsoft | Taking Your Application on the Road with Windows Mobile Software | Application-Aware Data Protection with Dell EqualLogic | Interoperable Web Platform: IIS7, Web Platform Installer and Web App Gallery | TBD | TBD | | 5:30pm | Day 1 ends | | 7:00pm to 9:00pm | Demo Ignite Camp
For details, see below or visit Demo Ignite Camp's event page. | Day 2 (Tuesday, September 15th) | Time | Track 1:
Developer Fundamentals and Best Practices | Track 2:
Developing for the Microsoft-based Platform | Track 3:
Windows Client | Track 4:
Servers, Security, and Management | Track 5:
Communication and Collaboration | Track 6:
Developer Foundations | | Room | Rooms 1-3 | Ballroom A | Ballroom C | Ballroom B | Rooms 11 - 12 | Rooms 8 and 15 | | 8:00am to 9:00am | Breakfast | | 9:00am to 9:15am | Track Introduction | | 9:15am to 10:30am | Practical Web Testing | Introducing ASP.NET MVC | Inside the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 | Reinventing Remote Access with DirectAccess | Architecture of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 | S-O-L-I-D : The Five OO Principles that will Change your Life Forever | | 10:30am to 10:45am | Break | | 10:45am to 12:00pm | Better Software Change and Configuration Management Through TFS | SOLIDify Your ASP.NET MVC Applications | Solving Application Compatibility Issues Through Virtualization | BranchCache: Helping You Save on WAN Bandwidth Consumption at Branch Offices | Transition and Deployment of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 | Going from 0 to 100 Dollars per Hour with the .NET You Never Knew | | 12:00pm to 1:15pm | Lunch | | 1:15pm to 2:30pm | Metrics That Matter: Using Team System for Process Improvement from Microsoft | Building RESTful Services with WCF | Windows-Based Application Readiness for Developers | Server Management Improvements in Windows Server 2008 R2 | High Availability in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 | Layers, the Secret Language of Architects | | 2:30pm to 2:45pm | BREAK | | 2:45pm to 4:00pm | Database Change Management with Team System | Developing and Consuming Services for SharePoint | No Budget for Tools? No Problem! Hot Tools on a Limited IT Budget | Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) | Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools | Refactoring for Fun and Profit | | 4:00pm | Day 2 ends; conference wrap-up | Demo Ignite Camp 
Since we had the venue for two days, it meant that we had these nice large conference rooms available to us on the night of Day 1. Rather than let them just sit there, we thought it might be fun to put one of them to good use with a community event. We got in touch with Boris Mann, and thus Demo Ignite Camp was born! Demo Ignite Camp is a “show and tell” event for the Vancouver tech scene. It’s going to feature 8 short presentations, which can be one of two types: - Demo: A demonstration of a project in action. You’re only allowed to show your working project on the big screen – no slides allowed!
- Ignite: An Ignite presentation is a slide presentation with a special constraint: you’re allowed only 20 slides, and they must auto-advance every 15 seconds!
We have 8 presentations, after which we’ll head to a nearby pub. Demo Ignite Camp is free to attend – just be at the Vancouver Convention Centre at 7:00 p.m.! For more details about Demo Ignite Camp, see Demo Ignite Camp’s event page. Other Things at TechDays Vancouver Windows 7 Lounge The Windows 7 Lounge is a place for you to chill out on a couch, play some XBox, get your email and take Windows 7 for a spin. Bing Booth Want to find out more about the best search engine in Canada? Head over to the Bing Booth! MSDN/TechNet Booth MSDN is Microsoft’s one-stop information place for developers; TechNet is the equivalent for IT pros. You can learn more about these valuable resources at the MSDN/TechNet booth. Ford/Sync Ford will have a car set up in Hall A showing off Microsoft’s Synch technology. No, you can’t the car as swag. Internet Cafe Lounge We’ll have two Internet Cafe Lounges set up with computers so you can check your mail, post some tweets, look at LOLcats or whatever else you need to do online. 
|
-
 Are you the leader of your pack? The person everyone comes to with technology questions? Have you been getting asked more and more about “this thing called Windows 7”? Based on emails I’ve been getting from TechNet Flash subscribers there is a lot of excitement about Windows 7, not only from people in the industry, but from consumers and PC users from all walks of life.
When you get asked these questions you have two choices a) pretend you don’t know and hope they stop asking you questions all the time or b) give them a long winded, deep technical answer and hope they stop asking you questions all the time. Well I’d like to introduce option c) send them some free Windows 7 training.
There are three training sessions available from MS Learning that cover the large scope of people that might be asking you questions. The courses are between 1 and 2 hours and cover the IT Pro, consumer and information worker audiences.
What’s New in Windows 7 for Consumers (1 Hour)
What’s New in Windows 7 for IT Professionals (2 Hours)
What’s New in Windows 7 for Information Workers (2 Hours)
So next time rather than choose A or B, go with C and send them for some free training.
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
|
-
 Hi Everyone,
I’m John Oxley and for those that don’t know me, I’m the Director of the Technical Audience team at Microsoft Canada. I manage a team of technical audience marketing managers and technology evangelists that reach out, support and connect with the ICT community. The team is all about empowering your success, helping you make connections, grow your skills and enabling you in your role. From student to CIO, Developer to IT Pro, my teams mission is to build your trust. We endeavour to support you in a manner to earn your satisfaction, gain insight on how we can improve as a company and drive platform adoption. Our focus is not revenue and we don’t have any utilization targets. Twice a year there are two surveys that go out to measure our impact. They are sent out in an online manner in the fall and early spring. One survey focuses on developers, to gauge their level of satisfaction with Microsoft (as a company, resources and products) and understand the technologies they use. The other is a global relationship survey in which we use to gain your feedback and understand your level of satisfaction with our resources, team and support. I’m sure you can see, given the size of the country this isn’t an easy mission. Yet as it is you that brings the magic of software alive, we aspire to earn your trust so you are very satisfied with your relationship with Microsoft. We do this by listening to you, trying understand what we can do better and being an active participant in the ICT ecosystem. There are many way in which we can help and depending upon the results and your feedback, some we can action right away in Canada and some that we need be your ambassador within Microsoft. Can you help us, help you? My ask is two fold - If you get the survey please take the time to provide us feedback and if you’re not very satisfied please provide us some guidance.
- If you don’t get the survey, and would like to provide feedback, I’m always listening and encourage you to send me an email, call me or connect with me on twitter.
We need your help to ensure we are doing the right things, investing in the right areas and to grow our understanding on how we can better serve you and support your success. It’s very important to me and my team to earn your trust and understand how to help. The recent broad positive feedback on TechDays, Align IT, Ignite your Career and other programs give me comfort that we are on the right track…yet when it comes to your satisfaction we don’t want to take anything for granted. Success to us is earning your trust and for you to feel comfortable to express that you are very satisfied with your relationship with Microsoft and you provide feedback on how we can improve. Till next time John John Oxley Director Technical Audience Marketing and Community Evangelism Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589|Messenger joxley@microsoft.com | twitter:joxley 
|
-
 Can I work a room or can I work a room?
Why Work the Room? If you’re attending TechDays (or any other tech conference this year), you should keep in mind that while we spend a lot of energy on the presentations and sessions, the opportunity to meet and talk to the other people there is just as important. I’ve observed that some of the most important things I’ve learned at conferences didn’t happen at the presentation, but in the hallways, conversing with the other attendees. This observation is so common that it’s given rise to “unconferences” like BarCamp, whose purpose is to invert the order of things so that the conference is more “hallway” than “lecture theatre”. It’s especially important to talk to people you don’t know or who are outside your usual circle. Books like The Tipping Point classify acquaintances with such people as “weak ties”, but don’t let the word “weak” make you think they’re unimportant. As people outside your usual circle, they have access to a lot of information that you don’t. That’s why most people get jobs through someone they know, and of those cases, most of the references came from a weak tie. The sorts of opportunities that come about because of this sort of relationship led sociologist Mark Granovetter to coin the phrase “the strength of weak ties”. The best way to make weak ties at a conference is to work the room. If the phrase sounds like sleazy marketing-speak and fills your head with images of popped collars and wearing too much body spray, relax. Working the room means being an active participant in a social event and contributing to it so that it’s better for both you and everyone else. Think of it as good party citizenship. 9 Ways to Work the Room  Here are some bits of advice for working the room at TechDays, culled from a mix of Susan RoAne’s advice in her books How to Work a Room and Face to Face: How to Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World, Larry Chiang’s article in GigaOm on the topic and my own experiences working the room (which in turn led me to this job and is why you’re reading this blog entry).
- Be more of a host and less of a guest. No, you don’t have to worry about scheduling and who’s running the AV rig. By “being a host”, I mean doing some of things that hosts do, such as introducing people, saying “hello” to wallflowers and generally making people feel more comfortable. Being graceful to everyone is not only good karma, but it’s a good way to promote yourself. It worked out really well for me; for example, I came to the first DemoCamp as a guest, but by the third one, I was one of the people officially hosting the event.
- Beware of “rock piles”. Rock piles are groups of people huddled together in a closed formation. It sends the signal “go away”.
- Beware of “hotboxing”. I’ve heard this term used in counter-culture settings, but in this case “hotboxing” means to square your shoulders front-and-center to the person you’re talking to. It’s a one-on-one version of the rock pile, and it excludes others from joining in.
- Put your coat and bag down. Carrying them is a non-verbal cue that you’re about to leave. If you’re going to stay and chat, put them down.
- Show and tell. We’re geeks, and nothing attracts our eyes like shiny, interesting pieces of tech and machinery. It’s why I carry my accordion around; I think of it as a device that converts curiosity into opportunity (and music as well). Got a particularly funky laptop, netbook, smartphone or new device you just got from ThinkGeek? Got a neat project that you’ve been working on? Whatever it is, park yourself someplace comfortable in the hallway, show it off and start a conversation!
- Save the email, tweets and texts for later, unless they’re important. They’ll draw your attention away from the room and also send the message “go away”.
- Mentor. If you’ve got skills in a specific area, share your knowledge. Larry Chiang from GigaOm says that “It transitions nicely from the what-do-you-do-for-work question. It also adds some substance to party conversations and clearly brands you as a person.”
- Be mentored. You came to TechDays to learn, and as I said earlier, learning goes beyond the sessions. One bit of advice is to try and learn three new things at every event.
- Play “conversation bingo”. If there are certain topics that you’d like to learn about at TechDays, say Silverlight, test-driven development, REST, and so on, put them in a list (mental, electronic or paper) of “bingo” words. As you converse at the conference, cross off any of those topics that you cover off the list. This trick forces you to become a more active listener and will help you towards your learning goals. Yelling “BINGO!” when you’ve crossed the last item on the list can be done at your discretion.
We’ll see you at TechDays, where we’ll be doing all of the above! 
|
-
 The legacy application. Some have a longer legacy than others but we all have them. Those applications that won’t run on anything but Windows XP, or in some cases even, Windows 9x. It was a little over 3 years ago when I was installing a $250,000 CNC milling machine that I came into contact with my biggest legacy application, both in terms of size (the CNC had its own 3000 sq. ft. room) and age. You see the CNC was running a MS-DOS based application. Not a big deal, most of them will still run in XP, but in this case the OS was also DOS 6.22.
Today you might be dealing with your own legacy applications (hopefully none as bad as the CNC) but thankfully you have a lot of options. For the very minor issues like OS version detection and permissions you can usually fix them with the Application Compatibility Trouble Shooter built into Windows 7 (aka Compatibility Mode in Vista). For bigger issues there is the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 which will allow you to scan your network, detect applications with compatibility issues and create and deploy shims to fix them. Finally, for those applications that just won’t work, there is virtualization. XP Mode in Windows 7 is one option that uses virtualization to “host” the application in an XP virtual machine running in the background. To the end user all they see is a red border around the application window. Now managing 2-3 XP Mode machines in your environment shouldn’t be a big deal but in an 8, 25, 500, 1237 seat network it becomes more of a challenge.
This is where MED-V, aka Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, comes into play. MED-V is XP Mode on steroids allowing you to build, deploy and manage virtual environments to the desktop clients allowing those legacy applications to run while giving you the management control you need to keep things running and keep your sanity.
Now there have been a ton of questions on XP Mode and MED-V and while there is a day dedicated to solving app compat issues at TechDays there is also a series of webcasts with Mark Russinovich on solving app compat issues.
Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable: Windows 7 Application Compatibility
Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable: Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2 – Virtualization
Watch the videos, join the roundtable on September 24th or come out to TechDays and learn how you can solve your app compat issues! It is easier than you think!
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
|
-
Three guys got together over pints in February 2009 and talked about how one of the issues facing Technical Professionals today is keeping their systems patched and up to date. This issue was brought up to them at a User Group meeting they were attending (Ottawa Windows Server User Group) where we were participating in an “Ask the Microsoft Guy” panel discussion.
Over pints at D’Arcy McGee’s, Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and I decided we would try to help solve the issue of information overload regarding patching and put together a timely podcast to go live each “Patch Tuesday”.
Goals:
- Use plain English terms and every day language that any Technical professional can understand – minimize “corporate speak”.
- Breakdown each Security Bulletin with summary information first followed by more details as to the impact an IT Pro would face.
- Outline mitigation factors in case patches couldn’t be tested or applied in a timely fashion
- Keep it top 20 minutes OR LESS. This one is critical – Keep It Simple, repeatable and get out of the IT Pros way to get on with their day.
- Have fun!
Have a listen directly from the embedded Silverlight player OR subscribe to the specific feed and download it to your iTunes / Zune software.
As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. Mail me directly – rick.claus@microsoft.com
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
  
Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.
Bulletins discussed for September 8th, 2009:
Podcast Participants: Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and myself.
Additional Technical Show Notes:
- The IE8 Block Toolkit that was mentioned during the podcast (in order to block IE8 from downloading on unmanaged machines) can be found at this URL.
- Beverages on Pierre’s patio were Alexander Keith’s Red Amber Ale (http://www.keiths.ca/)
PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental”
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
|
-
I got an email from a friend of mine who is a prof at Algonquin College – Richard Hagemeyer. I met him a while back on one of my visits to the college to talk to students and we became friends both online and in person. He’s one of those guys who’s been around the industry a long time and has a very diverse background with a very long memory. He’s kept a running tab of his experiences using the RTM code for Windows 7 on one of this machines. He sent me this email update documenting his thoughts on the install, issues and use of Windows 7 along with some of his observations. It makes for an interesting read. What about you? What are your experiences? Oh – and Richard – I’ve got that Windows 7 Sticker for ya. Come to think of it – if anyone catches up to me on my travels over the next while – ask me for one. 
-------------------- Do I want to wait? Saturday, 2009.220
In 75 days Windows 7 will be launched. Do I want to wait?
Technet downloads at school were frustratingly slow this week and my Vista severed all network connections at least once in the middle of downloading. The school network sometimes does wonky things, so I will continue today from home.
I tried the regular Technet downloading mechanism, but Windows 7 RTM iso images were really too slow to be of use. I then noticed a small link on an announcement page for a secondary download site. This would be available during the expected heavy initial downloads of Windows 7 RTM. Perfect! I could now saturate my pipe (and do nothing else online)!
Sunday, 2009.221
Still timid and no firm plan. I burn a copy of 32 bit Ultimate and try it out on my Dad's old laptop. A smoother install, but the video card is still not recognized. I had previously tried putting on Vista and Windows 7 RC and both had issues with the video card. I was hoping that RTM would be better, and it was. Miscellaneous other small issues disappeared, but still no widescreen. Oh well, I guess this old laptop has Linux in its future.
Some app complained today and I had to reboot Vista; that's about a minute to shutdown and five (yes 5!) minutes to boot up and log in. I've seen Vista run very well on other’s machines, and for a long time now I've suspected it's a 64-bit issue. My only real complaint with MS has been the perception that they abandoned Vista and with 64-bit Vista they apparently went running in the other direction. Windows 7 will be better; right?
Well actually a few companies seem to have software like Star Trek movies, one good, one bad, repeat as required. Norton Utilities used to be this way and MS's OSes seem to be following the same pattern. DOS 1, good; DOS 2, no so much, and so on. Moving on to Windows, I again saw the good/bad pattern emerge throughout; Win 3, Win 95, Win 98, Win Me, XP, Vista. So, according to this very scientific method, Windows 7 will be a hit.
So, with no better feeling from "trying" Windows 7 on either a virtual machine or some old hardware, but still frustrated by 64-bit Vista, I decide to go for it!
No guts, no glory.
I burn a copy of 64-bit Ultimate and start preparing to upgrade. The first step is to free up some space by tossing the recovery partition, I burned a set of recovery DVDs so I don't worry too much. I really cramped my laptop's HD when I downloaded all the Win 7 ISOs (and a few other items from Technet), so I could really use the space. Next I turned off Diskeeper; Diskeeper is an excellent tool for keeping your HD defragmented and I recommend it.
I popped in the DVD and started the upgrade. After a bit, a page came up with a few software warnings. Now I didn't expect this because the Upgrade Advisor didn't indicate any issues. The warnings were about VMWare player, DigitalPersona and HP launch keys. It suggested that I uninstall these before I upgrade and that VMWare player would be okay to reinstall after the upgrade.
So I aborted the upgrade to investigate. Oddly enough VMWare player did not have any way to uninstall. I use VMWare workstation anyways and I only use the player if I am testing an image for students. VMWare workstation likely has to be reinstalled anyways, so I'll ignore this one.
DigitalPersona is the software used by my fingerprint reader. I know this is less secure than a password, but I like the convenience. I mostly use it to log on to Windows and only rarely for web pages and such, so I wonder whether or not uninstalling this will take away my ability to log in. The website isn't much help and suggests that software support for bundled versions is though the laptop manufacturer, in my case, HP. I also wonder whether uninstalling it will make it impossible to upgrade later. I ignore this too.
Finally the HP Quicklaunch keys. The only key I ever use is the speaker mute key. I tried to use the volume adjustment, but it always froze things under Vista. I ignore this and continue.
Once the upgrade in place starts, it takes a few hours. Once I am convinced it will not be prompting me, I leave it be. Nap time.
Success!
It worked! I log on with a fingerprint scan and it builds my desktop. Woohoo!
The first thing I notice is that it seems smoother and cleaner than the RC release. My video resolution has to be set and the power setting needed to be redone. Other than that, it looks clean.
After some initial playing around, I decide to test sleeping. Now under Vista, my laptop could never sleep. More accurately, it slept fine and woke up fine but networking wasn't. The fingerprint reader also dies upon waking. I called last year about this problem, but it couldn't be fixed. Now having a laptop that can't sleep is not a real laptop, it's really just a very light transportable.
So the machine goes to sleep. I wake it up, log in with my fingerprint... so far so good. The desktop appears... and the network works! Woot!
Monday, 2009.222
Well, I played all weekend, now I have to work. I have an exam to prepare today, time to put the machine back to work too. I do put off the exam long enough to write this, but real work awaits me. Wednesday, 2009.224
The exam is written and now returned and no troubles from Windows 7, that’s a relief! I mean playing around with new technology is fun and all, but real deadlines don’t wait for issues to be resolved. I’m glad everything worked well. Thursday, 2009.225
Exam’s over, now to mark. If Excel cooperates during marking as much as Word cooperated before, this should be a breeze. I really like the user interface and the whole experience of Windows 7; very clean. It seems that more than a few UI types at Microsoft have been buying and using stuff from Apple, ‘cause it definitely moving in the right direction. Overall, the threading seems a bit better, less time waiting. But then again, I’ve only used two real apps. Time will tell. Sunday, 2009.228
Did I mention that I’ve already downloaded a dozen or so updates so far? A few for Windows Defender (nice to know that team never sleeps!), a couple of security updates for Visual Studio (ditto on the kudos) and a couple of driver updates. There doesn’t seem to be much of a schedule, so I will infer from this that the folks at MS want to have a solid product by launch day and the individual teams have the freedom to release when ready. It’s kinda fun being in on the ground floor! Wednesday, 2009.231
At school today; my plans are to see how well Windows 7 plays in the corporate/educational environment. I head to the lab first. I’m not doing much lab work, but my office is a mess! The first thing I notice is that the network connects fine and I can access my network share and print, this is good. However, when I try a wireless connection it chokes and gags, oops! I fiddle with a few things with no luck. I then delete the connection entirely and let it find the network and prompt me – success! I use SSH and VNC to connect to my servers and find no problems here either. Sweet! Thursday, 2009.232
I configure Outlook to access the new Windows Exchange server at the college and it really chokes. Since I’m unsure whether it’s a Windows 7 or an Exchange issue, I leave it for now. Saturday, 2009.234
I want to check out VPN access to work. I expect no trouble, but you never know... A few dialog boxes later, the Cisco VPN chokes and dies. This would suck if I can’t VPN to work! I guess I’ll try deleting and re-adding like I did with the wireless; later. Sunday, 2009.235
More playing around today. The library thing is kind of neat, but takes a bit of getting used to. Hopefully, I’ll “lose” fewer files this way! Started noticing some issues, Acrobat reader seems to lock things up a bit while it’s reading. Firefox doesn’t seem nearly so leading edge anymore compared to IE 8 on Windows 8. I always had trouble with IE 8 on Vista, so this is an unexpected pleasure. Friday, 2009.240
I’ve noticed that quite a few programs “lock up” while loading/doing IO. The Office 2007 programs are guilty and it is annoying! The threading seems to work better while the programs are running, but when a program is starting up or loading a file, it sometimes seems to take forever. In generally though, less CPU usage makes the machine quite a bit more responsive and I like that! Sunday, 2009.242
Fifty-three days to go and I’m sold! Each passing week has more updates, more drivers. 64-bit does not seem to be an issue... at all... period. The UI and the whole user experience are happy times. Each problem seems to just require a little bit of thought and even less effort. I guess I should mention that removing and reinstalling the Cisco VPN did work as I expected. I also had some networking issues with VMWare, but again, reinstalling got me going. I haven’t yet tried all the networking options, but I don’t anticipate major issues. My mother now wants me to “evaluate” a copy on her computer. She’s a bit far away, but she dove right into Vista without much tech support (actually, practically none), so I might consider trying her desktop platform and evaluate Windows 7 on a desktop machine. She has a terrible video card and Vista won’t support the Aero features, but everything else should work fine. It’s kind of neat to have parents who are early adopters and they do provide me with valuable information about product usage and compatibility. Perhaps next visit... Now all I need is a new sticker on my laptop to replace the “Windows Vista” sticker! Richard Hagemeyer
Professor, Computer Studies
Algonquin College 
|
-
 Windows 7 has RTM’d and if you are a TechNet and/or MSDN subscriber you have not doubt downloaded it and installed it already. If you are coming to TechDays you’ll also get your hands on Windows 7 through your TechNet subscription included as part of your registration. But what if you don’t have any access to these options?
Well today you can download a 90 day trial of Windows 7 Enterprise so that you can give it a run through, start testing applications and develop a deployment plan. A few things to be aware of before you download the Evaluation code from the Springboard Series site on TechNet:
· A limited number of licenses are available, so the download will only be available while supplies last.
· Following the 90 day evaluation period, IT Pros who wish to continue to use Windows 7 Enterprise will be required to purchase and perform a clean installation of Windows 7, including drivers and applications.
· Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 90-Day Trial is the final Released-to-Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. This is the same software that is available to Volume Licensing (VL) through Software Assurance (SA) and is feature-complete.
· Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese in both 32 and 64 bit versions.
· Activation of Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is required within 10 days after installation, or the product will shut down every hour. Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is valid for 90 days after installation. After expiration, your computer will shut down every hour.
Once your trial expires you will have to reinstall but if you have some spare hardware or VM resources this is a great way to get some hands on experience. So give it a try and bring your questions to TechDays! We’ve got two jam packed days covering Windows deployment and application compatibility. Also be sure to check out the Springboard Portal for more technical guidance, tips, and tools you can keep up all the general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog, becoming a Springboard Insider or by following our Twitter feed @MSspringboard 
|
|
|
|