For the past couple of years I’ve been on our hosted Exchange services for my personal email.  Because it was the dogfood service, it isn’t exactly the same service that you can buy at microsoft.com/online .  I decided to take the plunge and purchase a real production subscription to Exchange...

June 15, 2010 marks the beginning of a new content and publishing adventure.  It’s called TechNet On: and we are bundling technical content into the topics that are top of mind for IT Professionals. First up is Cloud Security .  As with all topics, there are different layers or elements that...

I submitted a panel proposal to this years South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference.  The title is, “ Screencasting Lessons Learned ” and I’ll try to do the subject justice with the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the past four or five years. I am getting ready to record a number of Windows...

I have not seen an official announcement so I have no idea if it’s real or a mock-up. But if it’s real, I want it. Especially if it works with Camtasia, Expression Encoder 3 and Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition 9 and above. My screencasts will never be the same and it’s looking like it’s time to buy...

I submitted a panel proposal to this years South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference.  The title is, “ Screencasting Lessons Learned ” and I’ll try to do the subject justice with the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the past four or five years. I am getting ready to record a number of Windows...

You’ve seen me do literally hundreds of Camtasia captured screencast demos.  One of the screencasts I did on Windows Server 2008 was captured using the Windows Media Encoder x64 product.  That product has now been depricated and the screencast below was captured with a new product called ...

  http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/seethelight/default.html [UPDATE] Apparently they moved some stuff around after I posted some of the links.  Thanks for the comments.  Enjoy the new tools!!!

Executive Summary Boot from VHD is a new technique for installing and maintaining operating system environments.  Unlike virtual machines, the operating system that is running from a “boot from VHD” environment is using the actual hardware instead of emulated hardware.  This means a developer...

We’re a little over halfway done with the Interop Road Show I helped create. Last week Matt Hester did a simulcast of the live event from Chicago. Although he did a great job, I wanted to capture the demos with Camtasia v6.0.2 and provide some high quality audio and video of the demos, so here they are...

Remember when you jumped from dial-up to DSL or a cable modem?  You know what I mean.  Those technology jumps that just make you smile really wide?  Well, I have news for you.  There’s another one coming that is going to rock your world.  It’s called DirectAccess and although...

The other day I was complaining to myself (grumbling) about some application on my system using the wireless network nearly constantly.  That sort of thing bugs me.  It’s not like I was visiting one of those horrific myspace sites laden with heaven knows what.  I suspected it might be...

Are you the “Computer Guy” ???  You know, the Saturday Night Live character Nick Burns played by Jimmy Fallon ?  Well, one of the reasons computer users bring out the “Nick Burns” in many of us is the disconnect in communications and lingo between computer experts and computer users. Thankfully...

Lets face it, we all make mistakes.  Fortunately there’s a new Windows 7 feature that might just save your bacon if you misplace a USB drive with sensitive information on it.  You’ve probably heard about BitLocker.  It’s the drive encryption technology that’s been around now for a little...

Here's the latest installment of the popular TechNet Radio program.  In this audio only episode, I had the chance to catch up with friend and colleague Edwin Yuen.  Edwin is a Senior Program Manager in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager development team. Download the audio - l ength...

If you weren't already aware, Data Protection Manager Service Pack 1 released last week and is now available.  Senior Program Manager, Jason Buffington , is cranking out the information on his blog and via the screencasts he is recording.  Jason tells me has about four of five other screencasts...

I don't know about you, but that title sounds odd to me. Why on earth would you run the LAMP stack on Windows? Well for one thing LAMP commonly refers to Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. So running LAMP on Windows Server 2008 really means running it in a virtual machine and the only supported method for...

Right now I am installing Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. I’ll add all of the drivers, service packs and fixes, verify it works properly on my network, etc. Then we are going to give it away on or about December 19th, 2008. Just call me Keith “Santa Claus” Combs. Matt's the Elf...

Matt Hester has done it again.  He has produced some nice screencasts that discuss and demonstrate the improvements being made to the Internet Explorer 8 Beta.  Like many of you, I am particularly interested in the new privacy technologies (InPrivate™) going into the product.  Here are...

It’s been a while since I brought up a great feature in Windows Vista (not present in Windows XP) called Complete PC (CPC). Available in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions, Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore is a image-based backup tool that will help you out of a tight spot...

I’m glad to see some positive press on Windows Vista. Security is a tough business and when you’re on the desktops of millions of computers, everything is magnified to the Nth degree. A couple of recent articles and postings are getting a lot of attention. See “ Vista's Despised UAC Nails Rootkits, Tests...

Early this morning I downloaded the new WorldWide Telescope application from Microsoft Research. After exploring the galaxies, I decided this would be a cool screencast to demo the application for those of you that might not otherwise download, install and begin exploring. Your children are going to...

Matt Hester is one of the subject matter experts on my team in the Search and Sharepoint product mix.  Recently Matt recorded a screencast on installing Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007 on Windows Server 2008.  Specifically, he talks about how to slipstream the service packs into...

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the Remote Server Administration Toolkit (RSAT) that released and your ability to run those tools on Windows Vista SP1.  Around the same timeframe, we shipped Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V RC0.  A week after that, we shipped the RC0 tools that allow...

My good friend Chris Henley has put together a very innovative look at Bitlocker.  It’s unfortunate Chris missed the disco years at the Cat’s Meow in San Marcos, Texas.  He would have really enjoyed it.  However, those years are recorded vinyl history so you’ll have to...

A recent Wall Street Journal article, " The New Workplace Rules: No Video-Watching " written by Bobby White highlights the fact that many people are watching videos at work. It's even more interesting that the heaviest consumption of those videos takes place during the lunch hours. I worry about this...