Curious George on TechNet and more...

And it's goodbye from me, for now......

Georgina Lewis — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:50:00 GMT

The day has come.....today is my last day before commencing maternity leave. I will be back but not sure when yet.

In the meantime, the IT Pro team remains dedicated to you, and there are several ways you can contact them:

Phil Cross - philcr@microsoft.com; www.twitter.com/philcr
Alex Ball - alexanba@microsoft.com; www.twitter.com/Alex_Ball

Congratulations to Jonathan Noble, PowerShell MVP

Georgina Lewis — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:40:00 GMT

Congratulations to Jonathan Noble (@jonoble), who has just been announced as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, specialising in PowerShell.

Jonathan has been a really key community member and is always willing to give his opinion to the TechNet UK team. He is also a member of our Community Council and is there to voice the opinion of infrastructure specialists in the UK.

Deep Zoom Michael Jackson Tribute

Georgina Lewis — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:37 GMT

A Microsoft partner, www.shoothill.com, have produced a Michael Jackson Deep Zoom for MSN, which is currently pride of place on the front of http://uk.msn.com/

Zoom in on MJ

Still on the Windows 7 Beta? You need to move to the RC by 1st July

Georgina Lewis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:04:40 GMT

Starting July 1^st, the Beta will start to reboot every 2 hrs and expire Aug 1^st.

Want to download the RC? . The RC download program closes August 15th. After that, you won’t be able to get the download, but you can still install the RC and get a key if you need one. (To get a key, just go to the Downloads page and follow the instructions.)

If you’re using the Windows 7 Release Candidate, we hope you like what you see. Let us know -- go to http://input.microsoft.com and tell us what you think. You’ll be able to give feedback on various aspects of the operating system.

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable: Windows 7 Application Compatibility: Your Questions Answered (Part 1)

Georgina Lewis — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:18:20 GMT

Date: Thursday, June 18
Time: 11:00am Pacific Time
Location: https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard

Windows 7, is approaching fast and from the application standpoint is very similar to Windows Vista. We’re going to examine Windows 7 application compatibility not only from the perspective of moving from Windows Vista, but also for those coming from Windows XP. Join us to discuss the most common challenges around application compatibility when coming from a legacy operating system, why changes were made along the way, compatibility technologies inside the OS and methods for getting incompatible applications to run on Windows 7. Along the way we share tips and tricks, demonstrate free tools to analyse and fix applications and answer your specific questions about application compatibility live.

In Part 2 of this Virtual Round Table discussion (planned for later this Summer/Autumn), we’ll discuss the options and approaches for using virtualisation tools In depth to address application incompatibilities – including presentation virtualization, desktop virtualisation and application virtualization. We’ll be sending out more details and posting information to www.microsoft.com/springboard for part 2 as the dates are finalized.

As part of the “virtual” experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

The Microsoft Licence Advisor

Georgina Lewis — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:36:00 GMT

Anything that can help with licensing can only be a good thing and this advisor answers many of the questions we are asked. This 3 step tool enables you to:

1) Quickly determine which Volume Licensing program best suits your needs

2) Select the products you need and determine the required quantities

3) View a comprehensive report showing the Volume Licensing program comparisons, products and the associated benefits as well as SKU information. The report can be printed from the browser or downloaded to Word or Excel.

Remember to select your country in the drop down box on the homepage

Microsoft Licence Advisor

Can you Bing it? Apparently, yes you can!!!

Georgina Lewis — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:49:00 GMT

It came as quite a shock to me when Bing was announced internally. It seemed uncharacteristically “cool”. This was supported by a piece of press coverage recently:

“So Bing is the biggest example of Microsoft’s new public face: friendly, human, interesting but even occasionally, as its changing homepage images indicate, surprising.” Matt Warman, Daily Telegraph

You’ll find it at www.bing.com and it will automatically know that you’re in the UK. Here are three of the features I think are great:

1. New Image Homepage – we’re using high definition photography (and we will soon be displaying iconic British images)

2. Best Match – the feature presents results for popular searches intuitively and this saves you clicks and gets you to your answer quicker

3. Ciao! Shopping Integration – we’re offering you the opportunity to shop directly from Bing using Ciao! product comparisons and user reviews (Ciao! is the shopping network Microsoft acquired in October -- read more about Ciao! here)

General Availability and RTM Dates for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Georgina Lewis — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:23:30 GMT

Release To Manufacturing (RTM) is an important milestone on the path to GA. We anticipate that we’ll be able to make the RTM code for Windows 7 available to our partners sometime in the 2^nd half of July. We also expect to be able to make RTM code for Windows Server 2008 R2 available to our partners in this time frame as well.

Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 GA date of Oct 22.

Find out more here:

Windows Server Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/

Windows Team Blog: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/06/02/the-date-for-general-availability-ga-of-windows-7-is.aspx

The Road to Windows 7

Georgina Lewis — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:26:26 GMT

Having literally just upgraded from Windows 7 beta to RC, which was a thoroughly pain-free and easy experience. Microsoft IT ran some excellent “Installation Fairs” where they had people on hand to assist us through the process. What’s even better is that although we had to do a back-up (as back-up) the actual installation was done using an image that transferred all our existing data over anyway. I am pleased to report that all was present and is working not only fine, but even better than before

An significant milestone for me, is also that Live Writer now works. I have been having absolute nightmares with just getting it to load but since moving to RC, these have disappeared :)

To the point then….Alex (twitter.com/Alex_Ball) has worked beyond belief to get a series of Windows 7 videos recorded to cover the key points of RC

To fully prepare you for deployment, they have been releasing two videos every week in which our experts James O’Neill and Jamie Burgess will give you the information you need on user experience, enterprise, deployment, productivity, application compatibility and security

Join us on the Road to Windows 7, plus you can sign up to the feed to see when the new videos will be released.
Download the RC
You can also win on your journey to Windows 7 – you can get your hands on a Windows Vista Notebook or one of 300 goody bags containing your own release candidate disc of the new Windows 7 and a T-shirt. Enter the draw now for your chance to win

IT Professional Top Licensing FAQs May 2009

Georgina Lewis — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:18:00 GMT

Q) Can I downgrade Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Ultimate purchased pre-installed on a new PC?
A) As an end user you have the right to downgrade as set out in your Software Licence Terms.

Example: You’re buying a new computer system and it needs to run the same operating system as your existing 10 systems — Windows XP Professional. Pre-installed Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate both include downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional.

You need to source your own media which should be a legally licensed version (bought as either boxed or pre-installed software, or through a Volume Licensing agreement). You don’t need to have one set of Windows XP Professional media for each PC you are downgrading because you have legitimate full operating system licences for Windows Vista Business/Ultimate, which gives you the right to downgrade. You can then run Windows XP Professional until you are ready to upgrade the system to Windows Vista Business/Ultimate—when you would already be licensed.

When you downgrade Windows Vista Business and Ultimate as set out in your Software Licence Terms and you use both Windows XP media and the associated product key that was previously activated you need to activate via the phone only, 0800 0188 354, Once confirmed that you have a valid Vista Business or Ultimate licence, the Customer Service Representative will help you activate your software.

Q) How do I license Microsoft Office for use over Terminal Services?
A) You need a licence for each device that remotely accesses the application stored on the Terminal Server. As pre-installed
and boxed software licences don’t generally permit network use, Volume Licensing is the correct option. The licence used on the device which is doing the accessing must match the suite/edition, components, language, and version that is installed on the server. For more information please click here.

Q) Can I reimage my PCs with a single Microsoft Windows Vista image?
A) Yes. If you bought under a Microsoft Volume Licensing agreement, you can use Volume Licensing media to create a standard software image across multiple licensed devices. It doesn’t matter whether those devices are licensed under Volume Licensing, or if they’re running pre-installed or boxed software, but they must be licensed for Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. For more information click here.

Q) I am looking to deploy technology that allows multiple users to use a single device at the same time. Can I use a single Microsoft Windows licence for this?
A) No. The software licence terms for the Windows desktop operating system don’t allow multiple users to access or use a licensed copy of the software simultaneously.

· Use models where multiple users simultaneously access a single licensed copy of the Windows operating system are considered mis-licensed

· Current licensing terms specify that each PC or device must have a unique licence to run Windows Vista or Windows XP

More information can be found here.

Q) I am using Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to manage my servers. How do I know if I need an Enterprise Management Licence (ML)?
A) A Standard ML is required when you are only managing basic server workload* and basic operating system utilities.

*Basic Server Workloads

§ Basic Operating System Utilities. System Resource Manager, Password Change Notification, Baseline Security Analyser, Reliability and Availability Services.

§ Storage/File/Print Servers. Print or file-sharing servers that run file transfer protocol (FTP), network file system (NFS), and Windows file sharing (SMB or CIFS).

§ Networking Servers. DHCP, DNS, WINS, or Radius servers. DHCP servers dynamically assign TCP/IP addresses and communication options, such as default gateways, subnet masks and routing tables. Naming servers, such as DNS and WINS, map TCP/IP addresses to friendly intranet- or internet-published names. RADIUS authenticates and monitors machine credentials to control the client network access privileges.

If you’re managing any server workloads or applications other than those listed above, you need an Enterprise Server Management Licence. For more information click here.