I know most of you probably know this already but nevertheless I would also like to mention it. We have finally officially released Windows Powershell 1.0 for Microsoft Windows Vista.
To download Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Windows Vista, please visit the following links:
I would also like to mention that we will have a Windows Powershell session at the Dev & IT Pro days delivered by Bruce Payette.
Just read on the bink.nu about some NetCmdlets which delivers great network tools for us IT Pro's.
The current package contains the following Cmdlets:
You can find out more about NetCmdlets here.
These are awesome tools.
Source: Powershell NetCmdlets Beta 2 is now Available
Still flying but almost there less than one hour to go, we are flying over Canada now.
Tony Krijnen my colleague IT Pro Evangelist in the Netherlands posted about the availability of Vista virtual labs.
After the installation of an active-x control you can start playing around with the lab's.
Here's the list:
Be aware the CompletePC Backup functionality doesn't backup your ost files. This is not a big issue because this file can be regenerated by the Exchange server the next time you connect.
I found the explanation why Vista doesn't backup this kind of files on this blogpost.
Basically because this file changes a lot it could take quite some IO to keep a shadow copy of this file.
Still sitting on the airplane but now 4hours later and flying over Baffin Bay wherever that may be. I read onto the msgoodies blog that we are releasing the Beta versions of Windows Based Hosting 4.5 (WBH) and WBH for applications 1.5.
Windows Based Hosting for Applications 1.5 is for ISV's that want's to enable their solutions for Hosting
Windows Server 2003 R2The infrastructure components of the solution now run on Windows Server 2003 R2, which extends the Windows Server 2003 operating system in important ways. Web platform features include support for .NET framework 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0 applications as well as 64-bit support for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0.A new licensing model that allows customers to get more value out of server virtualization.SQL Server 2005The solution incorporates fundamental advancements in database technology and security with SQL Server 2005. When compared with SQL Server 2000, the latest version of the comprehensive database platform of the solution provides:New features to easily support service offerings differentiated by additional capabilities rather than just database size and quantity.Support for 64-bit platforms so service providers can scale servers to any client's needs.SQL Server Hosting ToolkitThis tool enables hosters to more easily deploy SQL Server databases for customers.ASP.NET 2.0 supportASP.NET 2.0 encapsulates common Web tasks into application services and controls that you can easily reuse across Web sites. With these basic building blocks, ASP.NET 2.0 allows developers to write up to 70 percent less code for faster development of rich Web sites and applications.ASP.NET AJAX framework supportHosters can now offer developers a richer environment on which to build interaction-rich, cross-browser Web applications.Support for 64-bit computingAs the majority of new server shipments today contain 64-bit processing power, the solution has also moved forward with 64-bit computing support. The solution has been tested with and supports 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 R2 and SQL Server 2005.Support for Windows SharePoint Service version 3.0This version introduces improved administrative tools including a server farm-based Central Administration user interface. Also new in this release are the availability of 40 new application templates which hosters can use to enhance service offerings for small to medium business customers.
This valuable information/documentation if you want to host web applications for your customers onto our platform.
Source: WBH for Applications 1.5 and WBH 4.5 Beta
I am Sitting on the plane to Seattle and I am reading through my blogs. With 10 hours of flight it gives me quite some time to read all my blogs and let you know what interesting things I discovered. I am flying with NorthWest from Amsterdam to Seattle and it's quite a nice flight a bit long although. The first two things I wanted to share with you are Fluent and Scout. I found those product names in an InsideMicrosoft blogpost
We'll according to the post we named the Office 2007 Ribbon UI the “Microsoft® Office Fluent™ user interface”. Bwah I don't like this, who found this name I found the Ribbon pretty cool. It's always the same once we are used to a name we change it. So from now on we have the Fluent User Interface.
The second name Scout is a codename for an Office 2007 Add-on which apparently will add a a tab to Office 2007. Nothing special so far, but here comes the cool thing with this tab you will be able to search for a command and the rest of the Ribbon (sorry Fluent UI) will show the buttons that match the command you just type. Pretty damn cool isn't.
More to come....
This session will give a detailed overview of the SharePoint 2007 architecture. Joris Poelmans will present the concepts of topology, server roles and network conditions.The session will also provide an overview of administration features with SharePoint 2007. We will introduce the three tier administration model: central administration, shared services, and site settings.
What we will cover:- SharePoint 2007 Architecture- Administration Features- Deployment Options
Level: 200
Speaker: Joris Poelmans, Information Worker Solution specialist, Dolmen
When: 07/02 - 18:00 - 20:00
Where: NH Hotel Diegem
Register Here
How do you combine the tasks and transforms offered by Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS) into a real extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) system? In this Funcast, we present design patterns for building an application that is maintainable, auditable, and scalable to populate your dimensional Kimball Method data warehouse and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services database.
Speaker: Gunter Staes
When: 14/02 - 16:00 - 16:45
Today we will have our big consumer launch event where we will officially launch "Windows Vista" and "Office 2007". Because I am traveling to Seattle tomorrow morning I will not be able to join some of my colleagues at this event. During the day there will be some press conferences and tonight there is a big party going on in the Atomium. Only a few of you where able to get an entrance ticket. But don't worry there is another opportunity for you here.
What will happen tonight is really cool and it's our Famous new Enthusiast Evangelist Miel that mainly worked the idea out. At 23h local time we will stream a live concert of a Belgian group called Praga Khan in Second Life. I wasn't a user of second life but for the occasion I will give it a try and who knows I might event like it.
On Miel his Micromiel blog you can find a post about how and where you will be able to see the Praga Khan stream.
Here are some screenshots of what will be available in second life:
However if you don't want to use second life we even have some other alternatives. The concert will also be streamed by MSN with the technical support of Telenet and also via 3G Vodaphone Live (Proximus). There lot's of possibilities to be part of the "WoW" event I will be watching the stream on Second Life :)
Update: More blogposts about the Belgian "WoW" event from Tom, David and Walter
This week I received a mail from my colleague Alain - http://alainler.spaces.live.com. with the list of all Windows Live services.
I thought it might interest you to have a list of all our Windows Live services:
1. http://get.live.com : Future entry point into the Windows Live Platform offerings (quite …empty… today though)
2. http://ideas.live.com: Shows the available Windows Live offering (market-dependant and possibly beta)
3. http://www.live.be: Personal home page for any Windows Live ID owner
4. http://search.live.com: Windows Live Search service to search the Internet for News, Pictures, Web Sites, RSS feeds, Academic Studies, etc
5. http://spaces.live.com: Blog/Picture shared page for any Windows Live ID owner
6. http://mail.live.com: Web mail service available to any Windows Live ID owner. Enables contact management and calendar management and sharing as well.
7. http://messenger.live.com: Instant messaging service to enable text, voice and video conversations between any two or more Windows Live ID owners (or Bots). Entry point to Windows Live Call that enables call from a PC to any landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world.
8. http://safety.live.com: Free service to occasionally check the state of your machine with regard to viruses, performance, cleaning and optimization. 9. http://onecare.live.com: Security service for maintaining the quality of 3 computer systems for any Windows Live ID owner. This is not beta anymore
8. http://safety.live.com: Free service to occasionally check the state of your machine with regard to viruses, performance, cleaning and optimization.
9. http://onecare.live.com: Security service for maintaining the quality of 3 computer systems for any Windows Live ID owner. This is not beta anymore
10. http://fss.live.com: Security service to allow any parent holder of a Windows Live ID to control how his/her children, each of them holder of a Windows Live ID, makes use of the Internet.
11. http://gallery.live.com: Directory of gadget, toolbar buttons, bots, etc all of them being individual elements usable inside of the Windows Live Platform.
12. http://domains.live.com: Allows the creation and maintenance of e-mail addresses inside of a personal domain name, each e-mail address becoming a valid Windows Live ID
13. http://local.live.com: Cartography service with route planner, push-pins, etc available to anyone
14. http://favorites.live.com: Enables the management of Web favorites that is always available wherever you are.
15. http://account.live.com: Allows the management of the account of any Windows Live ID owner.
16. http://toolbar.live.com: Internet-explorer-based toolbar for easy access to search, spaces, mail and other Internet resources through the use of toolbar buttons.
17. http://alerts.live.com: to hold and maintain the list of reminders you want the Windows Live Platform to send you.
18. http://soapbox.msn.com: to publish and broadcast any personal video.
19. http://dev.live.com: Entry point for all developers who are willing to create applications using the Windows Live Platform services.
20. http://microsoftgadgets.com: Entry point for all Windows Vista Gadget related resources
However, bear in mind that some services might not be fully available to Belgium.
Tonight we had our third TechNet evening of the Infrastructure week. Stefan Wijnen talked about the Forefront Security suite. He presented us an overview of ISA 2006, Whale, Forefront Antigen, Forefront client, etc ... After the event I always stay to talk with the attendees about the session or most of the time other technical stories.
Tonight someone came to talk to me and he was wondering how he could start an Usergroup. We spoke about how culminuss could help him and how I can support him to start and run a Usergroup.
Now running a Usergroup is not that difficult to do but it will take much of your free time if you want to do it good. Last year during the Dev & IT Pro days we announced two new user groups Pro-Exchange and SQLUG. I hope this year we will be able to do the same. There is already a new one IT-Talks and I hope the second will come too.
Why I am telling you this? Because the enthusiast that talked to me wanted to start a Belgium Identity Management (MIIS) user group. Now I want to call your help if you feel well this is something I want to help with than mail me and I'll introduce you to each other (arlindo.alves@microsoft.com)
If Identity Management is not your peace of cake but you want to start another user group in Belgium then feel free to contact me I can help you.
Just wanted to share with you that the Registration for the Dev & IT Pro Days 2007 is now open. If you register before February 28th we give you 15% off.
For the IT Pro's you will already find some of the Sessions that will be delivered here is an overview of what is planned:
Powershell - Bruce Payette
Infrastructure Security - John Craddock and Saley Storey DPM V2 - Jason Buffington Longhorn - David Lowe CardSpace - Steve Plank Vista - Tony Krijnen Longhorn Terminal Services - me myself and I Exchange Server 2007 - Ilse van Criekinge and Jill Frank
Infrastructure Security - John Craddock and Saley Storey
DPM V2 - Jason Buffington
Longhorn - David Lowe
CardSpace - Steve Plank
Vista - Tony Krijnen
Longhorn Terminal Services - me myself and I
Exchange Server 2007 - Ilse van Criekinge and Jill Frank
So this is just a summary of some of the sessions that will be delivered during the event. Want to have a look at the agenda? Go ahead it's live and will be updated piece by piece.
Sites and Articles
Microsoft Operations Framework Self-Assessment Tool 2.0 Product Evaluation for Vista Information Week: IT Manager Jobs Are up 44 Percent Get into the Groove: Solutions for Secure and Dynamic Collaboration Eight Great Tips for Reducing IT Costs Staying in Touch with Remote Offices Early Experiences with 2007 Office
Papers
The Relationship between IT Labor Costs and Best Practices for Managing the Windows Desktop Preparing to Deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System at MicrosoftWebcasts
Microsoft Webcast: Windows Vista Security Guide for IT Managers Microsoft Webcast: An Overview of the Integrated, End-to-End Business Intelligence Solutions from Microsoft
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2:
TechNet Articles
Virtual Server 2005 R2 Product Overview Virtual Server 2005 Frequently Asked Questions Linux Guest Support for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Virtual Server 2005 R2 System Requirements
SQL Server:
TechNet Sites and Articles
SQL Server 2005 Books Online SQL Server 2000 Backup and Restore SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2000
White Papers
Upgrading MSDE 2000 to SQL Server 2005 Express Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2005 An Overview of SQL Server 2005 for the Database Administrator Managing SQL Server Express with SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express Edition
Webcasts
Enabling Ad-Hoc Reporting with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Learn How to Leverage SWL Server Upgrade Advisor and the New SQL Best Practices Analyzer Tool Technical Benefits of SQL Server 2005 for Every Business
Windows Server:
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Internet Information Services (IIS) Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Overview Windows Server 2003 Group Policy Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference What can I do with Windows PowerShell? TechNet Virtual Labs: Windows Server 2003
Small Business Server:
Migrating from Small Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server Backing Up and Restoring Windows Small Business Server 2003 Installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a Server Running Windows Small Business Server 2003 Deploying Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server to Host User Desktops in a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Environment Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Getting Started Guide
TechNet Magazine Articles
Master Your Domain: Build a Corporate Network at Home
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Technical Library System Requirements for Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft.com Articles
Features of Exchange Server 2007 Upgrading Your Infrastructure to Exchange 2007
Webcasts Managing and Migrating to Exchange Server 2007 Guided Hands-On: Using the Exchange Server 2007 Management Console and Shell Exchange Server 2007 Overview Best Practices for Managing Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint Environments
Virtual Labs
Installing Exchange Server 2007
Differences Between the 2007 Office System and Office 2003
Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a Stand-Alone computer
Welcome to the Microsoft Office 2007 Resource Kit
What’s New for the IT Professionals in SharePoint Server 2007
Get into the Groove: Solutions for Secure and Dynamic Collaboration
Integrating the Business Data Catalog and Business Applications Using Microsoft Office
Working with the Office Open XML Formats
V-Lab Express
Mirosoft Office 2007 Overview
Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server
What's New in Windows SharePoint Services Feature Walkthrough
Introduction to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
What's New in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Feature Walkthrough
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation
TechNet Articles and White Papers
Windows Vista Deployment Step by Step Guide
User State Migration Tool 3.0
Deploying Group Policy Using Windows Vista
Top 10 things to try with Windows Vista
Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility List
10 Things You Need to Know about Deploying Windows Vista
Achieve the Non-Admin Dream with User Account Control
Webcasts and Videos
On-Demand Webcasts
Deploying Windows Vista Using Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007
Imaging Windows Vista
Reliability Enhancements in Windows Vista
Windows Vista Deployment Overview
IT’s Showtime!
Knowing the Enemy – A lightning demonstration on how hackers attack networks
Windows Vista Kernel Changes
Advanced Malware Cleaning
Exploring New Functionality in Internet Explorer 7
Using System Image Manager to Automate Windows Vista Installations
Get a comprehensive look at Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with the new "24 hours of Exchange" series. Our Exchange experts cover in-depth topics such as deployment and migration, the new Exchange Management Console and Shell, Unified Messaging, high availability, and security, providing you with the tools and knowledge that help optimize your Exchange Server environment. Whether you are currently administering Exchange Server or looking to migrate to Exchange, you do not want to miss these Webcasts. This series runs through April 14th, 2007. This month’s Webcasts: Integration of Exchange Server 2007 and the Active Directory (January 19), Exchange 2007 Transport and Routing Architecture (January 24), Planning Exchange Server Installation (January 26), Installing Exchange Server 2007 (January 31).
The Business Desktop Deployment 2007 or BDD 2007 is now available for download.
Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is THE best practice set of comprehensive guidance and tools to optimally deploy desktops running Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, or Microsoft Office 2003. It helps IT professionals realize a quick return on investment while also setting new standards for reliability, performance, security, and ease of use.
Read more about the BDD 2007 framework on the TechNet site
Download BDD 2007
The IT-Talks UG are organizing a new event during that full day of Presentations and Hands-on labs they will teach you.
Wat: Windows Vista Deployment up closeWaar: Zaal Classics HarelbekeWanneer: Zaterdag 10 MaartProgramma:
Go ahead and check their website to be a member of this UG and to join the next event.
Everything is in dutch because this UG almost does everything in Dutch.
No need to comment :)
For the first time we are organizing a pre-conference day during the Dev & IT Pro days. During that full day of sessions you will learn about the Virtualization techniques and features of today and tomorro. Here is a sneak preview of the Pre-Conf agenda.
Session Abstracts
Microsoft Vitalization: Today and Tomorrow
Virtual PC and Virtual Server have gained significant adoption in development and test environments, and are an important stepping stone to realizing Microsoft's vision of self-managing dynamic systems. Vitalization technology is gaining a foothold in the data centre, enabling more efficient utilization of hardware and helping IT react more quickly to changing demands. This session introduces the Microsoft Virtual Server technology, its capabilities, how its being deployed today and the benefits and challenges customers are seeing. We look at how Microsoft will evolve the technology with the introduction of Hypervisor in codename Longhorn Server. We’ll look at the steps Microsoft is taking to help customers and partners use Virtual Server effectively in heterogeneous environments. Finally, we’ll predict how vitalization will change IT, from the data centre to the branch, servers to the desktop.
Managing a Mixed Virtual/Physical Environment: Tools and Techniques
Microsoft believes the management of physical and virtual machines should be largely transparent. The same tools and techniques should be used to deploy, monitor, maintain, and backup physical and virtual machines. For this to happen, tools need to understand the difference between physical and virtual, and automatically adjust the actions they undertake to accomplish the same task for physical and virtual. This session looks at System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Microsoft's first product which bridges the gap between physical and virtual. We’ll look at the complete lifecycle, from provisioning, to backup, migration (physical to virtual and back) to monitoring, and how this fits into the management of the rest of the server infrastructure.
Microsoft Vitalization Deep Dive
What is the Architecture of Virtual Server, and how will this change with the introduction of Hypervisor? How does host clustering work, what are enlightenments? This session starts with a look at the components which make up Virtual Server, covers the changes introduced with Windows Vitalization (Hypervisor), and takes a detailed look how the vitalization stack works. We cover the High Availability capabilities inherent in Virtual Server, investigate the benefits of AMD-V and Intel VT hardware vitalization for non-Windows guests and cover some of the standards work Microsoft is pushing to improve the performance of disk and network for the vitalization industry.
Notes from the field: Practical advice on adoption, deployment and migration
If you believe the hype, you could be forgiven for thinking Vitalization can solve most IT problems. In this session, we will share the experience gained by customers that deployed and managed Virtual Server. We’ll look at typical workloads, why they’ve been virtualizes, the challenges they needed to overcome to gain business benefits. And, of course what the business benefits were. Things like backup and recovery, load balancing and capacity management are all covered. In effect, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Note that you can still submit your IT Pro session to me: arlindo.alves@microsoft.com
We've released the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, this was also previously known as SQL Everywhere.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is the next version of SQL Server Mobile adding the desktop platform. SQL Server Compact extends the SQL Server Mobile technology by offering a low maintenance, compact embedded database for single-user client applications for all Windows platforms including tablet PCs, pocket PCs, smart phones and desktops.
SQL Server Compact Edition offers a maximum database size of 4 GB, the ability to run in with applications, contains subsets of Transact-SQL and ADO.NET, and, most importantly, sync technologies - all in a compact footprint.
This is our next generation of FREE SQL Server product.
Download the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition from here
Read more about the product onto the SQL Server 2005 Compact edition site
TechNet Funcast : MIIS: From Zero to Provisioning in (under) 30 minutes
January 22, 2007 / 16:00 - 16:30Live WebcastDuring this TechNet Funcast Paul Loonen from Avanade Belgium will demonstrate User Lifecycle Management with the Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) platform. In the short 30-minute timeframe of this TechNet Funcast, Paul will show you how to use the HR data stored in a SQL Server database to provision, manage and de-provision users and groups in Active Directory.
Register now
I knew sooner or later I would get tagged. So now I have been I'm obliged to share 5 things you probably didn't know about me and I must select 5 other blogger's.
Let's go these are the 5 things:
The 5 bloggers I tag are: Tom Mertens, Hans Verbeeck, Kris Hoet, Walter Stiers, Kurt Roggen