TechNet Blogs

10 days till engine deprecation

Van.f@microsoft.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:54:10 GMT

If you have written into support lately you should have seen something like this in the signature of the engineer you were working with

Did you know Antigen and Forefront will be removing support for the CA, Sophos, AhnLab and SpamCure engines on December 1st, 2009? To find out more, please visit the Antimalware Engine Notifications and Developments TechNet page.

In 10 days we will be removing these engines from our update servers.

One thing that customers need to be aware of

If they have the “Box Set” license that comes with Antigen, CAVet, Microsoft, Norman, Sophos

they will be running with only the Microsoft updated engine as of the first.

The solution to this is to request a new license file that will unlock the Kaspersky, VirusBuster and Command engine and Cloud Mark for Anti-Spam.

The instructions for the license is in the link above.l

Launching Monday 11/23: Business Readiness Home Media Sweepstakes

PartnerTraining — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:47:34 GMT

We’re excited to launch a promotion that’s taking it back to the basics: the Business Readiness Home Media Sweepstakes. Here are the details…

Register and attend our featured Business Readiness courses below for a chance to win one of these great home media prizes – the more you participate, the more you’re entered:

PRIZE PERIOD	PRIZES
November 23, 2009 – December 25, 2009	Seven (7) Standard Prizes: TiVo High Definition DVRs with 1 Year Subscriptions Three (3) Grand Prizes: Panasonic 32” VIERA LCD HDTV – 720p
December 26, 2009 – January 22, 2010	Eight (8) Standard Prizes: Sony BRAVIA Theater Systems Four (4) Grand Prizes: TiVo High Definition DVRs with 3 Year Subscriptions
January 23, 2010 – February 19, 2010	Eight (8) Standard Prizes: Casio Super Slim Mobile Projectors Four (4) Grand Prizes: Bose Lifestyle 38 IV Home Entertainment Systems

The Business Readiness Home Media Sweepstakes includes a ton of course to help you drive success in your business, including:

Prospecting

It has never been harder to get profitable clients. Budgets are tight; competition is fierce. The secret to success is to fill your pipeline with only hot prospects. This free, two-part webcast series will help you to master the art of your most powerful sales pipeline development tool: referrals.

· Receive one sweepstakes entry for attending both courses in the Prospecting Learning Package.

Business Value

Solution Providers who are thriving today are those that know what customers want and can give it to them. What these successful Partners know is that it is not about price or discounts but about offering solutions that are “must haves” in the customers mind.

· Receive one sweepstakes entry for attending all three courses in the Business Value Learning Package.

Licensing

Strengthen your Microsoft licensing skills with recommended courses from the new licensing learning package.

· Receive one sweepstakes entry for each course you attend from the Volume Licensing Learning Package.

World Class Selling

World Class Selling requires the synthesis of the Art and Science of Selling and ultimately earns trusted advisor status with your customers. Receive one entry for attending each of the following World Class Selling Partnercasts:

· Partnercast: Art of Selling in Turbulent Times

· Partnercast: Compelling Communications at the C-Level in Turbulent Times

Enjoy!

The Partner Training Team

Official Rules

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. The sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 US states (includes D. of C.) 18+ who are employees of companies actively enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Network. Game ends on February 19, 2010. For full rules, please click here.

Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 R2 (Videos)

SystemCenterTeam — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:16 GMT

Use the Service Level Dashboard to keep mission-critical, line of business applications up and running.

In these three short screencasts, IT Pro Evangelist Matt Hester shows how you can use the Service Level Dashboard 2.0 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 to keep mission-critical, line of business applications up and running. The dashboard automatically displays application or system availability and performance in near-real time. Using the dashboard, you can easily keep track of availability and performance trends, and head off problems before they occur. The dashboard also lets you easily create role-specific dashboards to support different departments, like HR, Finance, or Operations.

Part 1: SLD overview
Part 2: How to install SLD
Part 3: How to configure SLD

- Solution Accelerators Team

Backup and Recovery of Non-Windows VMs on Hyper-V – IT JUST WORKS!

John Kelbley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:59:24 GMT

In the last few posts I showed you a simple (and low cost) manual method for back and recovery of virtual machines running on Hyper-V. When I ran through the process in my lab, I purposely used two different types of virtual machines:

one Windows VM with a VSS-aware OS and enabled integration services (Windows Server 2003)
VM without VSS or integration services and absolutely no support from Microsoft (Hannah Montana Linux)

I mentioned in the VSS Overview post that contemporary versions of Windows running in a VM on Hyper-V that support VSS and have the appropriate Integration Services installed can coordinate VSS activities with many of the applications and services inside the VM when a backup request is made on the physical host. This coordinated VSS processing via the Hyper-V Integration Services means that VSS aware applications can be backed up in a VM with absolutely no downtime. without installing an additional backup agent inside the VM (saving cost and reducing complexity).

For that other class of VMs, those that do not support VSS or do not have the “Backup” Integration Service enabled, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V still can create a consistent backup, but the process is a little bit different. If the VM (for whatever reason) cannot itself consume the coordinate VSS request, Hyper-V will save the state of the VM (hibernate it) copying the contents of memory to disk and then generate a snapshot of the disk housing the VM. Here’s how the process looks to a running VM in this category:

Backup is requested, and a running VM is found on the host – say, like Hannah Montana Linux (or Windows 2000), which does not have VSS
Hyper-V and VSS figure out that Hannah Montana can’t consume the VSS request, so the state of running VM is saved to disk into the directory which contains the VMs configuration file – this usually takes only a few seconds, but depends on the amount of memory used by the VM and the speed of the attached disk storage
Once the VM is completely stopped and the configuration saved, the VSS snapshot on the host can be created
After the snapshot is generated, the VM is restarted
The VM starts right back where it was, with only a brief “freeze” and “thaw’

Remember I did this entire process simply by requesting a backup of the physical Hyper-V host – I didn’t need to request all of this to happen Windows Server 2008 R2 / Hyper-V / VSS did it all for me! Any VSS aware backup of Windows Server 2008 should be able to do the same thing for you, if you use diskshadow, Windows Server Backup (WSB – part of Windows Server 2008), or a more full featured enterprise backup solution.

The key thing to note is that you can improve the backup and recovery of even unsupported operating systems running on Hyper-V.

-John

Skydrive and Office 2010

tliles — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:49:10 GMT

I’ve been using my 25 gigs of SkyDrive for a while to share files with partners, customers, friends, family, and anyone else that might be interested in what’ hanging out in my publically shared folder. Mainly I use it when file attachments are just too big to put into email because of file size restrictions or just good manners of not filling up my recipients mailboxes.

You can upload files to SkyDrive via drag-n-drop or use a simple upload form where you choose individual files by navigating to them (pretty much the standard way most files are uploaded to websites). Now there is another way to get files into you 25GB of SkyDrive storage for easy sharing or just to have your files available on the web so you can get to them no matter where you are. It’s done via the Office 2010 client.

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel have this share option enabled under the current beta listed under File > Share > Save to SkyDrive. OneNote shows it as a feature but notes that it is not currently available. You will have to sign in with you LiveID to connect to the SkyDrive service. Once that happens, your folders will enumerate and you can save to any of your existing folders or create a new one. Choosing to create a new folder will launch the browser and take you to the “New Folder setup” on your SkyDrive account.

What’s better than being able to stay inside of your favorite Office applications and access 25gb of on-line storage? How about the fact that once you save your Office documents out to SkyDrive you can edit them with the Office WebApps through a web browser no matter where you are? Check out this overview of the PowerPoint Webapp from the PowerPoint Team Blog for more information on the PowerPoint Webapp.

Office 2010 beta can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

Test Blog

Shamiana — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:03:00 GMT

This is a test blog post

Chrome OS Engineering vs. Windows 7 Engineering

Viral Tarpara — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:03:00 GMT

Okay everyone, the moment has finally arrived! Google just announced…

A Big Pile of Nothing

It has been interesting reading the press and their view of the “game-changer” that is Chrome OS. Depending of what mindset you come from, your opinion of the project would be that of respect or if you’re like me, would be more attune to the statement “who cares.” If you haven’t kept up, then read Engadget for their review. It has been amazing seeing the comments from general techies. There are some consistent points made by most commentors, namely around speed, web-centricity, and cost.

Speed: The Chrome OS Unstory

“Oh my god, an operating system that boots in 7 seconds!”

The common thread embedded in the majority of news articles, whether it be TechCrunch or Reuters, is how this new Linux based OS performs so well in terms of speed. At Google’s launch event they used the following slide to describe traditional OSes vs. Chrome OS. If you’re technical like me, a few glaring issues come to mind. For example, what is a “standard kernel” ? Also, how “custom” is a firmware that boots a Linux environment really going to be?

If you want to see a modern operating system engineering decisions, check out Window 7’s Steven Sinofsky (fast foward to 33:33) showcase how modern computers will avoid putting apps in the boot path. Companies like Lenovo and Sony are starting to not put “crapware” in their machines. In fact, a lot of new custom software is taking advantage of features in Windows 7 like DeviceStage that provide device manufacturers a branded way to consolidate all software and documentation while keeping a standard UI. If you’re interested in a complete set of best practices for On/Off performance, check out some dedicated resources. But this is software at the OS level, what about pre-boot?

If you consider how most PCs today still have a legacy BIOS as its pre-boot initialization method, consider the following idea. If you could boot Windows in 10 seconds and start rocking away, would you really need Chrome OS? If you could go in and out of standby in about 2 seconds, is that a good user experience? Watch the following videos and be amazed!

How is this possible you say? It comes down to two things—one is that the BIOS is replaced with electronic firmware that initializes all hardware in under a second, and two, the machine uses a solid-state hard disk. If its not making sense where I’m going with this, it should. Windows runs great when the hardware isn’t a bottleneck. What does this have to do with Chrome OS? Well as it turns out, Chrome OS will only support SSD and electronic firmware. On top of that, they are limiting the number of hardware chipsets supported for devices like wifi. Only hardware approved by Google will boot in the OS. This is obviously to keep the performance of the OS lean and mean, but if you think about how much bigger Windows 7 is compared to Chrome, both in scope and size, we should all pause for a moment to realize how amazing of an engineering feat Windows 7 actually is. To show this further, I’ll hack Google’s slide below.

With further tuning and optimization, PCs will be able to achieve the same performance of a Chrome OS netbook running similar workloads. In fairness, the one really cool thing that Chrome OS has going for it is ARM support. Windows requires x86/x64 CPUs which are battery killers. So I’ll give energy efficiency to Chrome OS on ARM. I wish I could say that Redmond is working on native compiler technology that allows seamless application compatibility between ARM and x86/x64, but even if I knew of such a project, I couldn’t tell you. Windows/Office on ARM would be amazing!

Bottom line is that Google is not doing anything special here. They just happen to be releasing a product at a time when the hardware ecosystem is being refreshed to deliver on these new customer scenarios. Given the choice between an SSD-based Windows machines and a Chrome machine, the Windows machine wins every time.

Web-Centric: Especially When There Isn’t One

“The web is awesome, everything I do is on the web! Hold on, let me upload this 1080p video.”

What is likely to become painfully obvious is how Chrome OS will become limited where ever there is no internet. I’ll admit that in the developed world, those in the tech circles will always find a way to scout out internet access. Whether its an 3G connection, a wifi hotspot, or using an iPhone as a router, we geeks tend to be a resourceful bunch. What about everyone else? India definitely doesn’t have the fiber to serve over a billion people. In South Africa, the telcos are so bad that its faster to send data via carrier pigeon then over the DSL line. Yes, Google has this thing called Gears, but in its current state even simple things like being able to access GMail offline just don’t work. At most, Gears allows you to continue working inside your web app when your connection drops. If there is no connection to begin with, forget it.

There’s also another matter around rich content. Videos, photos, and music content is very important in modern day computing regardless of technical literacy. There isn’t enough bandwidth in the world to satisfy this complex need. Google is still years off from making a web-connected laptop your primary machine. The issue of a primary versus secondary machine is an important one, because you really have to ask yourself, is a Windows netbook really that bad?

The reason to ask yourself this question is that Google is pushing Chrome OS as a secondary device, much in the same way PC OEMs and Microsoft is marketing netbooks. The the dirty little secret that no one will officially tout is that Windows 7 running on a modern netbook is actually pretty awesome! Contrary to every online press article written, netbooks can be great primary machines. So even if you are the type that has a primary machine, wouldn’t you rather have a great synced up secondary device instead of a glorified iPhone laptop? Actually that is almost insulting to the iPhone because at least the iPhone has native applications, Chrome OS doesn’t. I’m waiting for a Bluetooth iPhone keyboard. That’ll will give me about 90% of every function a Chrome OS laptop could do.

There is, of course, the natural question between Android and Chrome OS. Sergey tried answering it—he wasn’t successful, that is unless you actually believe that a phone with Chrome OS consuming only web apps is a desirable goal. For me, called me old fashioned, I like being able to leverage hardware functions natively. I don’t mean to put a nail in the coffin for the idea of universal web apps, I mean Apple tried and failed, but at what point do all the engineers and designers begin to think, “what a waste of computer resources” having all things run in a browser? The web will have to change too much before this dream can fully be realized. So maybe this is Google’s ten year outlook, the death of HTTP.

Cost: Because No One Would Buy It

“We believe in the power of the community so that’s why we’re making it free!”

They’re making it free because they chose to use Linux. I think Linux has its place. I really question why they didn’t go with BSD like Apple, however. But that’s besides the point. Let’s think about Windows. Windows 7 doubled the sales of Vista. Vista outsold XP. Microsoft believes that at least some functions of software development are worthy enough to put a price tag on. In fact, the sole reason Windows 7 has sold so well and beat Harry Potter on Amazon pre-sales was because Redmond listened to all of you. Seattle has a lot of coffee and Redmond got a strong whiff and woke up.

For Google, the only way people would use their OS is if it were free. But also, it speaks to how they see the software profession as a whole. Keep in mind, Google’s end game is not to be a software company. They are an advertising company. They will do anything to achieve these goals in the digital world, so it only makes sense to push their ad gateway to the masses for free.

For a good segment of you, this point doesn’t carry much weight, after all what other company has given so much for so little? Microsoft did, and guess what, Microsoft stopped doing it when no one was left to challenge the dominant products. For all Google’s values about “do no evil,” they’ll creatively justify the same practices. Open-source does not an open ecosystem make. This will be especially true as trusted clouds and trusted apps flourish in the web domain as trust goes beyond simple code. Just like the many who feel bound to the rules that Microsoft sets, Google will try to bind you to a similar set on the web. We have observed this behavior in the AdSense, AdWords, and Andoid Marketplace business.

Why I Want Chrome OS to Be Awesome…r

It’s actually odd to attempt a conclusion in favor of a competing product. I work at Microsoft, a 90,000+ person company. I must absolutely love Windows, Windows Mobile, Office, Live Messenger, Bing, and IE…right? WRONG!

I love Windows 7. I love my iPhone. I love Google Voice. I love Microsoft Office. I love Bing. I love…Google Chrome (browser). I love the things I do because they are awesome and whatever Microsoft makes that isn’t awesome, they try to make it awesome..r (see IE9 video at 48:45). I really want a cloud OS. I want to be able to use a super fast, secure, light-weight web device for most of my stuff. I truly buy the idea and vision, but Chrome OS fails on so many levels to push any real boundaries.

They aren’t doing anything new that the likes of Intel or Ubuntu haven’t already done with Moblin or Ubuntu ReMix. Their vision is narrow and for that reason, I don’t see Google working towards anything great here. I’d be a certified lunatic to think that Google wasn’t capable of doing better because they absolutely are, they just simply aren’t incentivized to take on the same challenges that Microsoft and Apple do. Trust me though, if you think Microsoft is just blowing off Chrome OS, they are not. Windows is serious business not because it makes billions of dollars, but because billions of PEOPLE use it. Windows is a universal language unlike anything else. To close, lets be honest and acknowledge Google’s thought leadership and initiative, but let’s not jump the gun and see a desert oasis where all that exists is glimmering sand.

DiskShadow / Xcopy RESTORE of Hyper-V

John Kelbley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:51:10 GMT

In my last post I showed you how to create a consistent backup of a Hyper-V host using the no additional cost Diskshadow command and an attached USB drive (in contrast to the costly VMware Consolidated Backup). Now I want to show you how to restore the VMs that you backed up to a separate host (what good is a backup of you can’t restore it!).

To recover the data, we’ll simply reverse the process on another Hyper-V host. I attached the USB disk used for backup to a different system, and invoked the diskshadow script below using the command diskshadow –s HyperVrestore.txt. HyperVrestore.txt looks like this:

set context persistent
#the backup.cab file mentioned below is the one created during backup.
load metadata G:\Hypervbackup\backup.cab
set verbose on
begin restore
exec C:\HypervRestore.cmd
end restore

It’s similar the HyperVBackup.txt script, except that it reads the metadata from backup.cab and uses Xcopy (in HypervRestore.cmd) to copy the files from the USB drive (G:) to the local system:

Xcopy g:\HyperVBackup\VMs\*.* C:\VMs\*.* /e /s /y /F /O /X /R /H

The command window looks pretty similar to the one I showed you in the backup posting.

The net effect of the restore is the important part.

On the source system, I had two running VMs (an instance of Hannah Montana Linux and a Windows Server 2003 VM):

Before I ran the diskshadow restore, Hyper-V manager on the "recovery” system only showed three VMs:

Once the restore process completed, the recover host showed all 5 VMs!

Let me know if you would like me to go into more complex recovery scenarios (like different drive letters or changed drive letters / directories).

In my next post, I’ll show you some of the detailed wicked coolness of backing up non-Windows VMs using the Hannah Montana Linux instance noted above.

-John

Where are OC 2007 R2 Recent Contacts stored?

toml-lcskid — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:50:26 GMT

A customer question was raised about wanting to delete the Recent Contacts entry list for users due to some alias changes and migrations. Nobody knew the answer right away and I was pretty sure it would be in the backend database somewhere. Turns out it is kept client side.

If you want to know WHERE the recent contacts are, they are under this path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Communicator\<sip-uri of user>\GroupStateCacheU\~~

Deleting the ~~ or GroupStateCacheU folders is not sufficient to clear the recent contact list, you must delete the key for the <sip-uri of user>.

You have to exit the client before making the change and all caveats about the impact on directly editing the registry apply – do so at your own risk and testing.

How did they figure this out? I haven’t gotten an answer to that but knowing the answer I know 1 way to do it now – http://www.Sysinternals.com Process Monitor. I added 2 filters the default list, the first one was Process Name is Communicator.exe Include and the second filter was Path Beings With HKCU\software\Microsoft\communicator Include. Deleting the contact in my Recent Contact list didn’t trigger the path we now know about nor did sending an IM to a new contact. It was when I toggled the display of Recent Contacts in the client that I saw the path.

Doing this in reverse is not fair to those who dug on this to begin with but it reinforces things we value – Sysinternals tools and things we know – the path for monitoring user registry settings for communicator.

Have a great weekend

TomL LCSKid

New release of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange

Forefront Blogger — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:46:00 GMT

This week we released an update to Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) - our hosted service providing anti-malware and anti-spam for both on-premises Exchange and Exchange Online. FOPE can be used as an alternative to the new Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, or in tandem with it for messaging defense-in-depth.

The new release of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange offers enhanced policy control capabilities (such as enhanced regular expressions support, custom dictionaries) for IT admins to more effectively adhere to compliance needs. In addition, it supports advanced globalization/localization by supporting 13 languages in the Admin Console, in documentation and via telephone support. These enhancements were a direct result of feedback from Forefront Online Protection for Exchange customers, who expressed a need for more options when they created custom company policy rules for filtering, and more flexibility to manage these rules.

Additional enhancements with the new release:

· Policy rule syntax options: The new release provides the option to use either a basic syntax, which is a mixture of comma-separated values (CSV) and simple string-wildcard syntax or Regular Expressions.

· New Policy Rules e-mail header match option: FOPE now allows you to match e-mails based on e-mail header name and value.

· More flexibility for outbound forced TLS rules: The Policy Rules editor now offers a check box to enable Opportunistic TLS for recipients not specifically identified by the policy rule. Custom policy rules filters now feature the following enhancements:

The ability to upload dictionaries of custom-created lists or content for use in policy rules

The ability to apply the dictionaries across multiple rules and domains

Day in the Life of an IT Pro/Dev Writer/Editor

tonyso — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:31:09 GMT

IO XKCD 1K words…cause his pictures say it all… BTW, among the ultra-coolness of XKCD: Re-use policy: http://xkcd.com/license.html Searchable! Try searching on organic fuel...(read more)

Welcome to the Elevation PowerToys Blog

murgolom — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:47:55 GMT

A while back I wrote two articles for TechNet Magazine describing a set of tools to work around a number of shortcomings when trying to elevate some types of tasks in Windows Vista and higher with User Account Control enabled. You can find these articles here:

Utility Spotlight: Script Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.utilityspotlight.aspx

New Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.06.elevation.aspx

Since then I have been working on several Elevation PowerToys but have not had the time to sit down and create another large article and tools download. My experience with blogging on the Deployment Guys blog made me realize that the best way to get these new tools to you would be to create a new blog where I could write about and host the new Elevation PowerToys. It would allow me break up the work by posting about one tool at a time and take feedback on them as well.

So welcome to the blog and I hope you find the content to come useful and enlightening.

- Michael Murgolo, Senior Consultant, Microsoft Services, U.S. East Region.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.

SQL Server 2005の更新プログラムで 737d エラーが出てしまう時の対処方法その２

JSECTEAM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:40:00 GMT

小野寺です。

以前、737dエラーの対処方法を、このブログでお伝えしましたが、特定の環境で解決できないというコメントを頂戴しました。
別の解決策として、以下のサポート技術情報を公開しました。

Windows Update を使用して更新プログラムをインストールすると、エラーコード "737D" が表示される
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977268/ja

レジストリを編集する方法になりますので、手順を間違わないように注意しながら、実施してみてください。

Project Oslo, a.k.a. SQL Server Modeling Services

jdlambert — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:27:00 GMT

Interesting. Project Oslo has an official name now, "SQL Server Modeling Services." Who decided that? It's interesting because Oslo seems strongly oriented toward developers, not SQL Server. For example, Oslo was absent from SQL PASS 2009, the leading SQL Server professional conference, and which was only 3 weeks ago, and was instead announced at PDC09, which is the leading Microsoft conference for software developers. It's also interesting because the obvious acronym, SSMS, completely overlaps with the primary tool for admistering SQL Server, the SQL Server Management Studio, which is also, obviously, SSMS.

I've been looking at Oslo lately, and as far as I've been able to figure it out, it ought to be Visual Studio Modeling Services, or Visual Studio UML Services. It appears to be a Unified Modeling Language (UML) software suite, comprised of a modeling language called "M", a graphical data browser/editor called "Quadrant", and a SQL Server database which has been called "Oslo Respository" until now. I haven't heard if the "repository" will get a new name. I don't know what it has to do with SQL Server other than the fact that it stores its data and metadata there, but that doesn't really make it a SQL Server feature.

Because of the slant toward developers, few of whom are DBA's or data modelers, here are few warning about the terminology for Oslo:

* The term "model" does not refer to an Entitry Relationship Diagram (ERD), like any professional data modeler would expect. It refers to an abstact class that typically includes object-oriented programming classes.

* The term "entity" does not refer to the logical idea behind a physical table, it refers to a single row of data.

* The term "data domain" does not refer to a unique set of values in a table column, but I'm not quite sure what it does refer to.

* The term "extent" does not refer to a set of SQL Server data pages, it refers to table of columns and rows.

* The term "module" is used to refer to database schemas.

Furthermore, don't expect SQL Server Modeling Services to help you figure out the correct way to model data, as in creating a well-structured logical design for a database. Oslo is not designed to help you with data modeling, and does not require or facilitate best practices in data modeling.

As always, if I've gotten anything wrong, I'd love to be corrected.

Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 is RTM

Tom Mertens — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:59:27 GMT

On 16 November 2009, the Forefront Threat Management Gateway product team released their product to manufacturing. Forefront TMG is the next generation of ISA Server. Here are some of the new functionalities in the product:

Secure Web Gateway
URL filtering
Anti-malware
Network Inspection System (NIS)
HTTPS scanning
Works well with the Windows 7 BranchCache feature

Additional resources

TechCenter for Forefront Edge Security
Forefront TMG technical library
Video: What’s new in Forefront TMG?
1 hour 6 mins by Tom Decaluwé from the IT-Talks community
Video (in Dutch): Beveiligen van Web Access met Forefront TMG
1 hour 45 mins by Tom Decaluwé from the IT-Talks community
Video: Network Inspection with Forefront TMG
35 mins by Tom Decaluwé from the IT-Talks community
Forefront Edge videos on TechNet Edge

Technorati Tags: microsoft,forefront,tmg,threat management gateway,network,malware,gateway,inspection,scanning,filtering

BНИМАНИЕ! перенос места проведения TechNet!

iWalker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:11:18 GMT

Коллеги, хочу обратить внимание, что с ОЧЕНЬ БОЛЬШОЙ регистрацией на TechNet во Львове – мы переносим место проведения семинара TechNet из отеля NTON в готель "Дністер", м. Львів, вул. Яна Матейко, 6. Просьба учесть это. И еще одна просьба – приходите на регистрацию заранее, к 9:00, а не к 9:30, чтобы не создавать bottleneck к моменту начала самих докладов и, для ускорения процедуры регистрации – захватите с собой распечатанное подтверждение регистрации. Кстати, это касается и других городов.

И еще, место проведения ИТ-клуба также переносится во Львове по новому адресу. Жду всех желающих на неформальное общение с пивом и обсуждение необходимости постоянного функционирования ИТ-клуба с 17:00 до 21:00 25 ноября.

Для одесских товарищей напоминаю, что ИТ-клуб будет проходить 23 ноября по месту проведения TechNet. Приглашаются все желающие пообщаться.

Игорь Шаститко

BНИМАНИЕ! перенос места проведения TechNet!

iWalker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:09:56 GMT

Коллеги, хочу обратить внимание, что с ОЧЕНЬ БОЛЬШОЙ регистрацией на TechNet во Львове – мы переносим место проведения семинара TechNet из отеля NTON в готель "Дністер", м. Львів, вул. Яна Матейко, 6 . Просьба учесть это. И еще одна просьба – приходите на регистрацию заранее, к 9:00, а не к 9:30, чтобы не создавать bottleneck к моменту начала самих докладов и, для ускорения процедуры регистрации – захватите с собой распечатанное подтверждение регистрации. Кстати, это касается и других городов....(read more)

Excelling at Excel: An introduction to conditional formatting

Suzanne100 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT

If you're new to conditional formatting in Excel, it's basically just what it sounds like: cell and text formatting that occurs when certain conditions are met. It can be used to add emphasis to your data based on whether it crosses certain thresholds that you designate.

A great example of this is a profit and loss spreadsheet: You can highlight cells with numbers in green or red to show whether they represent money made or lost.

Making this magic happen is easier than you'd think! Simply select the range of cells you want to affect and click the Conditional Formatting button in the Styles section of your Home tab. In the dropdown menu, select Highlight Cell Rules and then Greater Than.

Since any Net Income above zero is profit, enter 0 in the Format cells that are GREATER THAN field and pick Green Fill with Dark Green Text from the dropdown (or Custom Format if you want to define your own). Then do the same thing for Less Than, entering 0 again and Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text. That's really all there is to it.

Explore this feature and you'll find a huge range of applications; we'll share some more helpful examples as we run into them.

Suzanne

A ver qué bien te queda Office 2010, ¡a ir probándolo!

Daniel Levi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:36:00 GMT

F inalmente está disponible para descargar el beta oficial de Office 2010, ¡y en español!. En el post anterior te adelanté algunas de las nuevas características, ahora es tu turno probarlas. Para descargarlo, haz click aquí . Mi experiencia ha sido bastante prometedora, he notado cambios interesantes enfocados a productividad. Por ejemplo, en Outlook la vista por conversaciones es muy conveniente (¡y la posibilidad de ignorarlas! como te comentara previamente). Las opciones de búqueda de palabras...(read more)

11 Languages MUI out of the box

FSSTeam — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:28:00 GMT

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server will soon be available in 11 languages: US English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian. This is the same set of languages that were available in Forefront Security for Exchange Server 2007 but there is a big difference. In the 2007 release the product was single language, which means you had to choose which language you wanted and stick with it. In the 2010 release we are using multilingual technologies to simplify the user experience.

How does it work from a user's perspective? It is easier than ever, just download “the” package for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (there is only 1 package, no need to choose a language) and run it. If your language is in the list, the product will display everything in the language you are currently using. If your language is not in the list, it will be displayed in English.

Multilingual technologies can be particularly helpful for very large multinational organizations distributed geographically. Imagine a mail security administrator working in the US feeling right at home because everything shows up in English; then when the 24x7 shift changes and it is time for the administrator working in Japan to work with the product, he will be able to run it comfortably in Japanese; finally when the administrator in France takes over, she will have no difficulties because the product will be displayed in French. We are talking about the same installation of the product, running in the same machine, not multiple installs. This benefit is directly available from the default installation; there are no additional patches or language packs to apply.

The language displayed is based on the user settings in Windows. For the above scenario to work correctly, all that needs to be done is for each administrator to have different accounts and use the control panel in Windows to select their language (which we expect to be the case for the multinational scenario described here).

The only caveat I should mention in our multilingual scenario is in the defaults for user-configurable text, for example, the message that is sent out as a replacement when a virus is detected. This text is configured at install time using the language for the person running setup. Users can later configure it to any language they want, possibly a multilingual message if appropriate, but that is a manual step that needs to be done afterwards. The language used at install time will also affect minor items such as names in the Start menu and service names.

There are a few questions that may arise due to these localization changes:

Q: Can I see a different language on a server running a localized administrator console? For example, can I view the English Forefront administrator console on a server where Windows is configured to display German text?

A: Yes, the Forefront administrator console will be displayed in the language of the current user. Even if the server is configured to display German text by default, you can access the server using an account configured for displaying English. Forefront will respect the account preferences rather than the server default.

Q: I only need one language, so how will this change impact disk space on my server? Can I just delete the other language packs?

A: The language packs take up about 4 MB per language, which should not have a big impact on your server. If you do need to free up some space, you can delete the language files that are not used.

For example, if the ja-jp, de-de, fr-fr, it-it, es-es, ko-kr, zh-cn, zh-tw pt-br and ru-ru folders are all deleted, the only effect is that the program will always be displayed in English but everything else in Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server will run exactly the same as it did before deleting the folders.

Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann

Forefront Server Protection

[WMI-NetAPI] Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration の結果が重複する 2/(2)

jpilmblg — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:09:54 GMT

みなさんごきげんよう。ういこです。

久しぶりに天空の城ラピュタを見ています。私ムスカ様が大好きで、某 SNS のファンコミュニティに勢いで入ってそれっきりなくらいラブです。ちなみにぴろとくんは飲み屋でビニール袋でないと触れない激辛チキン食べた際にリアル「目が、目が～」をやったそうです。グッジョブ！

さて、今回は以下のミッションのシリーズ第二回目です。

第一回目はこちら

[WMI-NetAPI] Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration の結果が重複する 1/(2)http://blogs.technet.com/jpilmblg/archive/2009/11/20/wmi-netapi-win32-networkadapterconfigration-1.aspx

【今回のミッション】
環境上にあるネットワークアダプタがある条件下ではレジストリにゴミ情報が残り、その結果 WMI の Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration クラスの取得結果が重複してしまうことがある。
以前問い合わせをした際、その動作自体は OS の規定の動作ということで GetAdaptersInfo()、GetAdaptersAddresses() などを使ってアクティブなデバイスを取得し、そのデバイスから Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration の情報をフィルタしたいと思っているが、フラグに使おうと思う変数が思うような値を返さず、フィルタ条件として有効にならない状況である。
Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration のうち、適切なアクティブな状態のアダプタの情報だけフィルタして取得する方法とは何か！

*****************

前回は同じネットワークアダプタなのに、重複して情報がレジストリに登録されてしまうという話をお伝えしました。
今回は、対処方法についてご案内します。

1) Win32_NetworkAdapter の Availability プロパティをみたらどうかな？
…残念ながらこの方法ではだめです。

最初私が試したのは、Win32_NetworkAdapterSetting の取得の前にWin32_NetworkAdapter をクエリし、各ネットワークインターフェースの状態を見るということでした。
Availability プロパティは、デバイスの状態を指します。このとき、3 (0x3) が返されたデバイスは、"Running or Full Power" の状態ですので、それを使えばいいかなと思ったのです。
ちなみにこのとき、物理デバイス以外も 3 を返しますので、さらに PhysicalAdapter プロパティが True、すなわち物理デバイスであるかも条件に含めました。
重複してても、現時点で有効ではないデバイスは状態は 3 ではないと考えたのです。
しかし、結果はだめでした。やはり、重複分も検知されてかえってきてしまうのです。DDK のなおきお～さんに伺ったところ、そもそも OS からすれば、OS 停止中に抜かれたデバイスは復帰する可能性もあるので、Running or Full Power として認識したままになるのはおかしいことではないのではないかということでした。
デバイスのことはあまりよくわかりませんが、そういうものなのでしょうか。

ただ、現実的にうまくいかないことから、次の手を考えなくてはいけなくなってしまいました。

2) GetAdapterAddresses() あるいは GetAdapterInfo() の Index を使ってみたらどうかな
※ 注意 : 以下は今後の OS の設計あるいはサービスパックによって動作が変更される可能性があります ※

できなくはないのですが、手を入れる必要がかなりあります。
これらの API を使うと、GetAdapterInfo() API なら IP_ADAPTER_INFO 構造体の Index、GetAdapterAddresses() API なら IP_ADAPTER_ADDRESSES 構造体の ifIndex にネットワークアダプタインターフェースのインデックスとして振られる番号をとることができるのですが、このインデックスの振られ方にくせがあるため、ちょいと工夫が必要になります。

通常の流れはこうなると思います。

1. Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration にて、Description と、SettingID を取得
2. SettingID を使用し、レジストリから NTEContextList を取得
3. GetAdaptersAddresses() あるいは GetAdaptersInfo() で Index を取得
4. 上記 2. の NTEContextList と 3. で取得した値がマッチするかチェック

引っかかるのは、3. です。たとえば、Windows XP では、65539、Windows 2000 では、16777219 といった値が返ってきてしまうことがあります。

じつは、この "65539"、"16777219"、10 進数では意味のわからない値ですが、それぞれ 16 進数で見ると 65539 = 0x100003、16777219 = 0x1000003 となります。インデックス番号の順番は必ずしも 1, 2, ... n といったような順序ではなく、0x1000003 (Windows 2000)、0x100003 (Windows XP 以降) といった振られ方をされることがあるのです。

<< なぜインデックスが変な値になってるの？ >>
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 以降から OS の設計上の動作が変更され、ネットワークアダプタインターフェースのインデックスとして振られる番号は以下のような構成になりました。

PnP インスタンス + ネットワークアダプタインターフェースのインデックス

要は、これらの ifIndex やら Index で取れる値そのままを使っても、WMI の index として取得される下位のインターフェースインデックスとそのまま比較できないのです。
また、"PnP インスタンス + インターフェースのインデックス" のフォーマットは、OS ごとに異なります。

・Windows 2000 … 01 000003 = 0x1000003 = 16777219
(01 が PnP インスタンス、それ以降が NIC インデックスです)

・Windows XP / 2003 … 00 01 0003 = 0x10003 = 65539
(00 が常に 0 でデバイスを表します。01 が PnP インスタンス、0003 が今回でいうところの NIC インデックスになります)

比較の前に、下位ネットワークアダプタインターフェースのインデックスのみ抽出してあげる必要があります。
以下は C++ の例です。

例) Windows 2000 の場合

PIP_ADAPTER_INFO pAdapterInfo, pAdapt;

//…(中略) …

if ((Err = GetAdaptersInfo(pAdapterInfo, &AdapterInfoSize)) != 0)

//…(中略) …

// シフトしてIndex 取得、以降 WMI の index と組み合わせる

test = (pAdapterInfo->Index << 16) >> 16;

例) Windows XP 以降の場合

PIP_ADAPTER_ADDRESSES pAddress;

//…(中略) …

if ((Err = GetAdaptersAddresses(AF_INET, 0, NULL, pAddress,&AdapterInfoSize)) != 0)

//…(中略) …

DWORD test;

//…(中略) …

// シフトしてIndex 取得、以降 WMI の index と組み合わせる

test = (pAddress->IfIndex << 8) >> 8;

シフトではなくて、マスクでもいいかもです。

3) SetupDi にてデバイスの状態確認を行う
上記の方法はシフト計算なので、C# などでもできなくはないですが (API 呼び出すのはちと骨が折れますが) 、なにぶん OS の将来的な設計変更なんかがあるとリンダ困っちゃいます。
重複情報があっても、デバイスマネージャでは常にデバイスはひとつしか出ません。
そこでこれを応用し、さらに敷居は高いのですが、デバイスマネージャの仕組みと同じく、デバイスの状態を見るという手もあります。

厳密に現在 Active なデバイスの状態を判断するために、Windows Driver Kit (WDK) のSetupDi を使い、WMI の Win32_NetworkAdapter で取得できる PNPDeviceID を与えることによって、判別するデバイスを指定しデバイスを列挙することが出来ればその NIC は有効、出来なければ除外するという処理を行うという手段です。

<< コード例 C++ >>
以下コード例です。IsPresentedNetClassDevice という関数を実装しています。使い方は簡単。Win32_NetworkAdapter クラスの PNPDeviceID を取得し、IsPresentedNetClassDevice() の引数に与えてやってください。現在有効なデバイスであれば True、無効（重複したいらない情報）であれば False を返します。

※ 注意 : SetupDi 系関数をご利用いただくには、Windows Driver Kit を開発環境にインストールしていただく必要があります。

WDK の入手方法 : http://www.microsoft.com/japan/whdc/DevTools/WDK/WDKpkg.mspx

// ←-- コード抜粋ここから

#pragma comment(lib, "setupapi.lib")

#include <setupapi.h>

#include <cfgmgr32.h>

#include <devguid.h>

BOOL IsPresentedNetClassDevice(LPCTSTR szTrgetDeviceId)

{

BOOL bFound;

DWORD index, result;

HDEVINFO hDevInfo;

SP_DEVINFO_DATA DevInfoData;

TCHAR szDeviceID[MAX_PATH];

bFound = FALSE;

hDevInfo = NULL;

if(szTrgetDeviceId == NULL)

goto Done;

hDevInfo = SetupDiGetClassDevsEx(&GUID_DEVCLASS_NET,

NULL,

DIGCF_PRESENT,

NULL,

NULL);

if(hDevInfo == NULL)

goto Done;

index = 0;

ZeroMemory(&DevInfoData, sizeof(DevInfoData));

DevInfoData.cbSize = sizeof(DevInfoData);

while(0 != SetupDiEnumDeviceInfo(hDevInfo, index++, &DevInfoData))

{

ZeroMemory(szDeviceID, sizeof(&szDeviceID));

result = CM_Get_Device_ID(DevInfoData.DevInst, szDeviceID, sizeof(szDeviceID), 0);

dbgprint(TEXT("%s\n"), szDeviceID);

if((result != CR_SUCCESS) || (CSTR_EQUAL != CompareString(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, NORM_IGNORECASE, szTrgetDeviceId, -1, szDeviceID, -1)))

continue;

bFound = TRUE;

break;

}

Done:

if(hDevInfo)

SetupDiDestroyDeviceInfoList(hDevInfo);

return bFound;

// ←-- コード抜粋ここまで

ただ、これを VBScript やらでやるというと…↑の関数を DLL とかにして、参照するしかないのかなぁと悩んでます。
WMI や VBScript は、色々なテクノロジーで使えるようになっているので、各テクノロジーをそれぞれ勉強しないとわからないこともあり、「WMI」担当というくくりはちょっときっついなぁと思うこともありますが、日々勉強だなあと痛感しております。おいおい、VBScript でのやり方も考えていこうと思っていますが、ご参考まで。

協力 : WDK サポートチームなおきお～さん (Blog : Japan WDK Support Team Blog)

ういこう@アパラチャノモゲータ！(フハッ)

7 Ways Winner: Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Bremerton Branch

Unlimited Potential team — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:58:00 GMT

Today we are announcing the fifth winner of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. Congratulations to Elizabeth Wallace who submitted the video on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound: Bremerton Branch. The video: “Our new club member” takes a creative look at how a new PC with Windows 7 gets welcomed into the club.

Boys & Girls Clubs programs have taken members from the Clubhouse to the White House; from the games room to the corporate boardroom; from the high school orchestra to Carnegie Hall. Boys & Girls Clubs of America has a lineup of tested and proven nationally recognized programs that address today's most pressing youth issues, teaching young people the skills they need to succeed in life. More than 25 national programs are available in the areas of education, the environment, health, the arts, careers, alcohol/drug and pregnancy prevention, gang prevention, leadership development and athletics.

Video - 7 Ways: Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Bremerton Branch

We would like to congratulate Elizabeth and everyone at the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound Bremerton Branch for a creative and fun submission.

On Monday we’ll announce our sixth winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition.

In the meantime, why not take a look at some of the other video submissions which you’ll find in the online gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

SMB Customer Marketing Team: Seeking Windows 7 Professional Customers for Case Studies

UK SBSC — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:53:00 GMT

Do you have a customer that has deployed Windows 7 Professional and has more than 10 PC’s? A customer who is willing to have a customer success story written on their organisation to show the benefits of Windows 7 Professional?

If so, email a summary of the key benefits that the customer has experienced to Ayeshna Hirani (t-ayhir@microsoft.com) by 30 Nov 2009. That application will then be considered for case study – unfortunately not all applications can be progressed.

1 – 2 – 3 Kørselsvejledning

Priskorn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:09:15 GMT

Som vi allerede har skrevet om her på bloggen, så er Office 2010 kendetegnet ved den meget effektive og intuitive måde at arbejde på. Endnu et eksempel på dette er situationen hvor du skal besøge en kunde, familie, venner eller lignende. Tidligere ville det betyde følgende step:

Find kontaktperson i Outlook
Kopier adressen
Åben internet browser
Slå korttjeneste op (Bing/Google Maps/Krak/De Gule Sider osv.)
Indsæt adressen
Lav kørselsvejledning

Men med Outlook 2010 er det et snuptag:

Find kontaktperson i Outlook
Klik på Map It knappen:
Adressen bliver nu vist med Bing Maps og ved et klik på Directions har du en kørselsvejledning:

Keine hexerei – nur Outlook 2010 ;-)

Jesper Priskorn

Senior Technology Specialist – Office Client

AppCompat – An MVP helps you to be a Windows 7 Ninja

indiamvp — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:01:14 GMT

Vijay Raj, a Setup & Deployment MVP from Bangalore, India, authors a popular blog on Software Development & Deployment at http://www.MSIGeek.com.

To aid migration to Windows 7, Vijay has authored a 5-part series on Windows 7 Application Compatibility. AppCompat is one stop point whenever someone wants to move to a new operating system (in this case, Windows 7).

This series of posts covers information on how the core changes of Windows 7 will affect the Day-to-Day applications. It also covers methods to mitigate these issues from the basic viewpoint of Developers, IT Pros and End-Users. Highly recommend!

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DiskShadow / Xcopy RESTORE of Hyper-V

Where are OC 2007 R2 Recent Contacts stored?

New release of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange

Day in the Life of an IT Pro/Dev Writer/Editor

Welcome to the Elevation PowerToys Blog

SQL Server 2005の更新プログラムで 737d エラーが出てしまう時の対処方法 その２

Project Oslo, a.k.a. SQL Server Modeling Services

Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 is RTM

BНИМАНИЕ! перенос места проведения TechNet!

BНИМАНИЕ! перенос места проведения TechNet!

Excelling at Excel: An introduction to conditional formatting

A ver qué bien te queda Office 2010, ¡a ir probándolo!

11 Languages MUI out of the box

[WMI-NetAPI] Win32_NetworkAdapterConfigration の結果が重複する 2/(2)

7 Ways Winner: Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Bremerton Branch

SMB Customer Marketing Team: Seeking Windows 7 Professional Customers for Case Studies

1 – 2 – 3 Kørselsvejledning

AppCompat – An MVP helps you to be a Windows 7 Ninja

SQL Server 2005の更新プログラムで 737d エラーが出てしまう時の対処方法その２