... and before you ask, a Klatch is (according to dictionary.com) “A casual social gathering, usually for conversation”. Between you and me I went to look this up on the Oxford English Dictionary and they wanted me to subscribe before telling…...

Okay, this wasn’t planned but after my last post I checked out the blog of one of my colleagues: Barnaby Jeans and he has just blogged about the SQL Server 2005 CTP; http://blogs.technet.com/barnaby_jeans/archive/2005/08/24/409752.aspx . In...

As an IT Professional over the years, a big focus for employer choice was working for a company prepared to invest in me. Then when I became an employer, I found very quickly that if I did not invest in the team they soon went elsewhere. Many I have voiced...

Are you proud to be a Canadian? Well I think you should be… After now living in Canada for nearly 18 months, there are a number of observations that I think are worth sharing. Some are generalisations, all I feel are true… Canadians are a very friendly...

I would like to extend a huge welcome to Damir, the newest member of the Microsoft Canadian IT Pro team. Damir has entitled his blog Canadian IT Pro Data Base . You can find his blog at: http://blogs.technet.com/damirb/ Damir's focus is Databases and...

I always like to get other people's opinions and what better way that having my own guest bloggers... Jean-Luc David, President of the Toronto Windows Server User Grooup ( www.twsug.com ) has put down his thoughts on the current state of IT Communities...

If I ask you the question - This time 3 years ago did you have an anti-virus and anti- spyware tool on your computer? The answer will depend on who you are… If you are an IT Pro (i.e. you work in the IT Industry) you most likely had...

I was perusing John Oxley’s Canadian IT Managers blog and found an interesting article about Virtualisation via the OS: http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2005/08/12/409115.aspx In the post, he talks about the roadmap for virtualisation...

I have had the same question from a number of people about Windows Vista asking “That is great, a new operating system… now how to I deploy, secure and maintain it??” The question has really hit home over the last week with me...

The summer is always a break point for us from the old to the New Year at Microsoft. We are now finalising the planning for FY06 and I can safely say that you aint seen nothing yet! For those of you who don’t know, I am Bruce Cowper, and IT Pro Advisor...

A number of people have asked me what they should bring along on the 27 th , so I have compiled a short list J Yourself (obviously) A computer including screen, mouse, keyboard and all cables (power, video etc). This is very important as we will...

I have put together a list of the x86 video drivers for the install fest. I suggest that if you can, use a card listed with LLDM after the name as these support Aero Glass. The list can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/brucecowper/articles/409228...

Have you tried dual booting with Windows Vista and Windows XP? Well, I sat down earlier to set up a machine to dual boot with Windows Vista and Windows XP, which proved to be a little interesting. I noticed when I installed Windows Vista on a separate...

For those of you who are coming along to the Vista Client Beta 1Install Fest I wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of the reasons why I designed the event and am spending so much of my time organising it (with the help of the TechNet team and...

For the up-coming Vista Install Fest I have been asked by many what sort of hardware should I bring along… so what I though I would do is let you know what sort of machines I have installed Vista on to letting you know my experiences thus far… I will...

Have any of you started using the Vista Beta 1 yet? I have been using the various builds internally for a while and decided recently to extend this to the members of the TASK and TWSUG user groups by putting on a Vista Beta 1 Install Fest later...

I had a chance a couple of weeks ago to visit the Microsoft UK office and hook up with my colleagues there… Thanks guys, I appreciated the lunch etc! Okay, where is the point to this, well I thought I would give you my thoughts after the recent events...

I used to spend hours mapping networks I was working on until I discovered Visio and it’s auto detection facility. Now, as many of you may have noticed, in the latest version this feature was removed and more than a few people have asked me – Why Oh Why...

In the past couple of posts on this I took you through creating virtual machines and backing them up. In this section I am going to concentrate of controlling the virtual machines. In Part 4 I will look at some of the extended features available and beyond...

For those interested in Virtual Server, the VSMT is a very useful free tool that allows you to Virtualise a Physical box. Here is an edited version of the QB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555306&SD=tech by Guilherme Whitaker Carnevale...

Windows Server 2003 R2 is not that far off and I keep being asked questions about what changes / improvements are being incorporated in to Server 2003 R2 and how do they affect me? Firstly I would suggest you look at the R2 site on the Microsoft.com...

Over the past few weeks, I have had a number of people asking me for some basic control functionality within Virtual Server Scripting. For this I decided to take a number of basic tasks and give you the VB script code to achieve these. So, to start at...

More Virtual Server 2005 scripts... Backupvm.vbs Here is a nice script that is a variation on a version I posted a while ago. This script is designed to put a selected virtual machine in to saved state then back up the necessary files. There are...

I had the pleasure of demonstrating the scripting for Virtual Server 2005 recently for a group Academics in Mississauga, Ontario and as a result have had so many requests for the scripts I showed that I decided to post them here for you all! Now I can...

Please note that this post has been updated to include the links to the sesison material! What an event! I want to extend a huge Thank-You to all who attended, from presenters to attendess, from partners to user group members helping out on the booths...