In this video you will learn how to deploy Windows 7 the easy way.  We walk through a light touch deployment of Windows 7 and show all the steps that are needed to make it happen using WDS, MDT and AIK.  We start at the beginning of the process...

PowerShell is an incredible tool that will allow you to run scripts or commands on your server.  PowerShell is included with Windows Server 2008 R2 but it has to be added to Windows Server 2003.  I recently had a customer who got their server...

I sometimes get error messages when I am working that have to do with Network Communications.  The most recent was an Open Folder Error \\ServerName is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource.  Contact the...

In this 22 Minute video we walk through the process of upgrading a machine from Windows XP to Windows 7. There is no direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7 so we are using the User State Migration Tool to migrate user data and settings. Note that this...

If you do not have Group Policy Preferences installed see Install Group Policy Preferences . This link tells you how to do it in a 2003 domain. In a 2008 domain it is much easer as all you have to do is enable the feature. See "The Steps" section below...

Create USB Thumb drive key from Windows 8 ISO DVD or media to be used for install – Step-by-Step These procedures were written using Windows 8 Release Preview but will work with prior versions of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7 and Windows...

Before I get deep into SQL Installation let me tell you where we are starting… I am walking through the installation of SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 on a new server that I just setup in my demo environment. I want to use SQL Server 2008 R2 for my deployment...

I was looking for a really good and thorough post on network configuration via PowerShell and could not find what I was looking for. There were many out there but none of them gave me the complete story. DNS is a bit more complicated so they left off...

It is possible to run Group Policy Preferences on a Windows Server 2003 Domain. This post will step you through the process so you can get it deployed in your organization if you have not yet upgraded your domain to Windows Server 2008. I am a huge fan...

In a scenario where you have physically removed hardware from a machine you can no longer see it in device manager. This does not mean that it is gone. Evidence of that is, if for example you had a network card that had a Static IP address set and you...

In this very short video, I walk you through the step by step process of opening the 1433 firewall port for SQL Server. I am doing it because I am setting up a new System Center Operations manager server but the procedures would be the same for any other...

This post in in response to questions on how to turn maintain remote connectivity to a server running Hyper-V with the firewall enabled.  The first thing to consider is what inbound traffic you want to enable on the server.  If it is a Hyper...

I had a customer ask me today if it was possible to download SQL Server 2000 x64. I am posting here so others can benefit from the answer. If you have an MSDN or Technet subscription you can download the ISO image of the CD/DVD’s. If you do not have either...

Revised 4/2/2011 to add merge change instructions link and link to simple way to do this using diskpart. I documented the process at: How To Expand and Extend To Increase Capacity On A Virtual Hard Disk The Easy and Fast Way–Solve the problem of...

Similar to the Windows Server 2008 R2 component poster , the Hyper-V poster is a great visual tool to help in the understanding of the key features and components. It highlights key Hyper-V components including: Architecture Virtual Networking...

Native Boot To VHD (Boot2VHD) - Everything You Need To Know… In this multi-part video series we will dive deep into a the new virtualization feature built into Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. It is called Native Boot To VHD (AKA: Boot2VHD...

I am starting with a sysprep’d Windows Server 2008 R2 Server.  I have allocated 2 processors and 512mb memory to the guest using dynamic memory.  Once I get the system up and running, I will bump up the memory to be close to what I actually...

My colleague and friend, Jim O’Neil did a post on an issue he and others were facing with IE 9 performance.  I want to share so you can tweak your machine to get the best performance possible out of IE 9. “Like many, I installed IE9 today (on two...

At recent TechNet events, I had questions about migrating applications using the User State Migration Tool (USMT). As I suspected, there is support for migrating some applications including Microsoft Office. In fact, for Microsoft Office it can even migrate...

To set the default location of an outlook data file you have to make a registry change.  Once you make the change, anytime you create a new data file, Outlook will put the data file in that new location.  These instructions will work in prior...

I am walking through the installation of SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 on a new server that I just setup in my demo environment.  Hope this is helpful.  First lets look at the system requirements .  If you want to setup your environment with multiple...

Setting up the POP SMTP settings for your live.com ID is not difficult but it does not use “default” settings so making this post to show you how to do it and give you the details of what the settings should be. This post will walk through all the settings...

From SharePoint Saturday Boston Question and Answer on my session Managing and Monitoring SharePoint 2010 with Operations Manager 2007 R2 .   “How to configure Email or IM alerting in System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (SCOM)” To send...

Resources: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-outlook-hotmail-connector-pack Manage all your email accounts with ease – From Inside Outlook! Outlook Hotmail Connector provides a free solution for managing your Windows Live Hotmail email messages, calendar...

TechNet Video: Career Progression: Getting Ready for the Cloud Download WMV Download | WMA | MP3 Before benefitting from the higher levels of the cloud, you’ll need a firm understanding of virtualization as a foundation. For those that do...