This is amazing…another milestone for Windows Live Services.

Hotmail is making it easier for you to stay up-to-date and be productive on your phone. Starting today, you can get your email, calendar, and contacts pushed automatically to your phone using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). EAS keeps everything in sync between your phone and Hotmail, so whatever you do on your phone, like delete an email, add an appointment, or update one of your contacts with a new number, will also be reflected on the web, and vice-versa. If you use an email client on your PC that already syncs with Hotmail, like Outlook with the Outlook Connector or Windows Live Mail, what you do on your phone will show up there as well, delivering a seamless experience for managing your stuff between your PC email client, your browser, and your phone.

Setup details: I encourage you to take a look at the phone-specific setup instructions and known issues at the Windows Live Solution Center page on Active Sync setup.

For more details visit

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/08/30/hotmail-now-supports-push-email-calendar-and-contacts-with-exchange-activesync.aspx

Have a nice Exchange Experience

Thank you all for attending the sessions during this series of Microsoft Virtual TechDays. Like a said during my presentations here is the complete list of all the resources that you will need to jump start the deployment of the technologies that we discussed.

Sessions on 18th Aug. 2010

First Session – Developers Track: Leveraging Federated Search to Search Custom Data

Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer's Guide

My SQL Server Database used is AdventureWorks Database for SQL Server 2008 R2

Download it here The site also includes all the installation instructions for deploying the database on your development environment.

MSDN Windows Federated Search & related content below

• Connecting Your Web Service in Windows Federated Search
• Enabling Your Data Store in Windows Federated Search
• Creating an OpenSearch Description File in Windows Federated Search
• Deploying Search Connectors in Windows Federated Search
• Overview of the Search Connector Description Schema
• Extending the Index

Federated Search in SharePoint Server Search & related content below

• Federated Search Overview 
• Architecture Guidance for Building Federated Search Connectors 
• Location Definition File Schema Reference 
• Code Sample: Federated Search SQL Server Connector

OpenSearch Specification

Second Session – IT Professionals Track: Windows Sysinternals Primer

I hope that all the IT Professionals enjoyed this particular session that covers a lot more deep dive information about Windows Internals. Here are some of the useful resources that you can leverage in your day to day operations for troubleshooting common issues.

• Sysinternals Website: http://www.sysinternals.com/ –> will redirect to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/sysinternals/default(en-us).aspx 
• Mark Russinovich’s Blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/MarkRussinovich 
• Blog posts and utilities by Aaron Margosis http://blogs.msdn.com/b/aaron_margosis & http://blogs.technet.com/b/fdcc 
• Sysinternals Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/Sysinternals 
• Sysinternals Live Site: http://live.sysinternals.com
• UNC syntax requires WebClient service \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\ 
• Sysinternals Community: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/sysinternals/bb469929(en-us).aspx

Sessions on 19th Aug. 2010

Thirt Session – IT Professionals Track: Tips & Tricks for Planning, Deploying and Troubleshooting the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service

I really enjoyed showing all the features to all the attendees of the Microsoft Office Live Meeting and I really hope that you will test the Live Meeting in your environment and leverage all the tips & tricks shared during the my presentation.

The first resource is http://www.livemeeting.com for all the product overview, features & information.

• Test Live Meeting: free 30 days trial: https://mocp.microsoftonline.com/site/default.aspx (BPOS Link)
• Office Live Meeting Resource Center: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/livemeeting/default.aspx
• MSDN Resources: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905513.aspx
• TechNet Resources: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/msonline/livemeeting/default.aspx
• Online Services Resource for Live Meeting on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc761476.aspx (Common FAQs)

Well, that’s all. Thank you all for attending Microsoft Virtual TechDays for this quarter and making it a huge success. Looking forward to see you all in upcoming events.

Ever wonder how can you find laptop serial number using command prompt???

Here is a quick command that you can use to find the Serial Number of your machine.

To find the serial number, open command prompt (cmd) and type the following command.

c:\>wmic bios get serialnumber

This will give you your machine’s serial number by pulling the information from BIOS. This is how it will look like.

If you are interested in scripting the same visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/558124

WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394531(VS.85).aspx

Hope you enjoy !!!

Update: Corrected syntax in the command

Thank you all for attending today’s webcast. We have many more Microsoft India Webcasts scheduled for this quarter.

Here are some the resources for my today’s session so that you kick-start developing Windows Troubleshooting Packs for your environment.

MSDN: Windows Troubleshooting Pack

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd323778(VS.85).aspx

How Do I: Windows Troubleshooting Platform?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd572173.aspx

TechNet: Windows Troubleshooting Platform Overview

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424318(WS.10).aspx

Blogs

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowssdk/archive/2010/02/22/how-about-hidden-gems-troubleshooting-pack-designer.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattbie/archive/2010/02/15/gaming-with-the-windows-troubleshooting-platform.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattbie/archive/2010/06/03/windows-troubleshooting-platform-quick-reference.aspx

Microsoft Virtual TechDays are back. Register here. http://www.virtualtechdays.com

This time I am delivering 2 sessions. On 18th Aug. I am presenting on Windows Sysinternals Primer, in this session I will be covering the key tools for troubleshooting common system related issues. The Sysinternals utilities are vital tools for any computer professional on the Windows platform, tools such as Process Explorer, Process Monitor, Autoruns will be covered. On 19th Aug. I am presenting on Planning, Deploying & Troubleshooting Microsoft Live Meeting Service, in this session we will drill down about managing Live Meeting for your environment.

The 9th Edition of Virtual Techdays is designed to provide you technical training that should help you grow in your job and your career. This 3-day event will focus on some of the key technology domains that you work on as part of your day-to-day job – and ones that will shape the direction of the IT industry in the near future:

• Client and Web Apps
• Cloud Computing
• Database Development & Management
• Collaboration &amo; Productivity
• Security & Identity
• Virtualization

This exclusive Online event will have 30 deep technical sessions per day – and, attendance is completely FREE. There are dedicated tracks for Architects, Software Developers/Project Managers, Infrastructure Managers/Professionals and Enterprise Developers.
The event also entitles you to potentially WIN 3 Laptops, 16 Mouse and 80 Movie Tickets by participating in the Session Assessment Quizzes.

Enjoy.

Here is a quick snap of my demo during Office 2010 Launch demo.

You are using Windows 7 on daily basis and of course you enjoy. I have been using Windows 7 almost on every system except my demo machine where I run Windows Server 2008 R2. But that’s not a concern as the both the operating systems share a same code base. I use USB headsets or any other standard headsets for recording audio or joining conference instead of using laptop speakers.

Sometimes it’s bit difficult to configure a Microphone because when you plug additional Microphone to your machine you have no idea exactly which Microphone is default. It could be your on board Microphone or USB Connected Headset’s Microphone. In most cases user try to disable the on board Microphone. This is how users do it.

In the System Tray Right Click on Sound Icon and click on Recording Devices. Other option is go to Start –> Control Panel –> Sound.

This will display all the available Recording Devices like this.

To disable the first device in the list, Right Click and DISABLE

Now, the moment you DISABLE the device, it will be gone and this is what you will see. And your DISABLED device is now missing from the list.

For time being you have found a solution, your other device becomes default device and you can use headset Microphone for some time. But what if later on you need to use on board Microphone or in case where you don’t have your headset with you?? Hmm, that’s interesting I did not think about it.

Now what users do to get back missing Microphone. Well, ideally lot of things. Let me list down some of them.

For this you will open up Device Manager to search the device.
They will try to reinstall the device drivers.
Users will even restart your system assuming that it may turn up somehow in the list.
They will dry to unplug USB headset and many more things.

Well, let’s see how do I get it back. No more hunting stuff. Well, usually the device when disabled becomes hidden device but due to default settings do not show disabled devices, you can’t see them in the list. Here is the easy solution below. Right Click on the empty area, then you see couple of options to Show Disabled/Disconnected Devices. Click on to it.

Voila, you see those DISABLED/DISCONNECTED devices back in the list. You can right click onto it to and click Enable.

Note: You can right click on any of the device and Set it as a Default Device. This is applicable for both Playback Devices as well as Recording Devices.

Actually when you disable the device, it should be visible at the same time rather than finding that option. I have heard from many folks that they could not easily find the option to highlight the disabled/disconnected devices. It was like a challenging stuff to hunt down that option. I hope you will find it useful, saving your precious few minutes hunting down missing/hidden devices.