Group Policy tools use Administrative template files to populate policy settings in the user interface. This allows administrators to manage registry-based policy settings.  Looking for the admin templates for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012?  Here they are. Go get em @ http://www.microsoft...

This is an excellent resource tool.  Go get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34798 .

“I have a 250GB hard drive. When I look at the properties of the drive, it tells me that I have 75GB free and that 175GB are in use. However, when I add all my files together, I only see 150GB in use. That is a difference of 25GB. Where did my space go?” Ever have a similar question in your mind? ...

DirectAccess provides users with the experience of being seamlessly connected to their intranet any time they have Internet access. When DirectAccess is enabled, requests for intranet resources (such as email servers, shared folders, or intranet websites) are securely directed to the intranet, without...

The Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) team is excited to announce the second Jump Start in a three-course virtualization series. This course is designed for VMware professionals looking to get up-to-speed with how Microsoft virtualization and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V works and compares with VMware vSphere...

Today we announced the Microsoft Surface Pro. See the Surface Pro website for more information. See the specifications for the details on the hardware. See the press release at Microsoft.com.  Save your pennies.  It is for sale on February 9, 2013.

During the football games today, I decided to run some dual booting experiments using a ThinkPad T430s, Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and Windows 8 Pro x64.  In the ThinkPad is a 320GB HDD.  Partitions On the initial test, I decided to split the hard drive right up the middle and create two partitions...

Client Hyper-V® is the virtualization technology built into Windows® 8. Client Hyper-V is the same virtualization technology previously available only in Windows Server®. A similar functionality in Windows 7 is called Windows XP Mode. Client Hyper-V enables you to run more than one 32-bit or 64-bit x86...

Windows To Go is a new feature in Windows 8 Enterprise Edition that enables you to provision a USB drive with a complete, managed Windows 8 system image. You can insert the USB drive (known as a Windows To Go workspace) into any Windows 7 or Windows 8 host computer to boot and run a managed Windows 8...

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop, server and cloud migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information...

The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) brings together the brightest IT professionals from around the world to increase their technical expertise through deep hands-on training, best-practice sharing, and interaction with innovators in desktop, device, and datacenter management, as well as cloud technologies...

See the official post @ http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/11/29/next-up-for-the-surface-family-surface-with-windows-8-pro-pricing.aspx .

A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Samsung Series 9 NP900X3D-A02US notebook.  It came with Windows 8 Professional pre-loaded.  I’ve been wanting a Series 9 machine for quite some time, but I waited until the Ivy Bridge based silver model landed on USA shores.  When I saw that mwave...

This young man is obviously an advanced Windows 8 user. Brilliant video. What a cute kid. Heard on the internet at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57536828-71/windows-8-is-easy-ask-this-3-year-old/ . Next up, Windows 8 and Office 2013 automated deployment by a 2 year old?

Looking forward to the launch this month!

Lenovo announced several devices including the S230 pictured above.  See the full press release with information and prices at http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1637 .  Now things will start to get interesting.

Raise your hand if you are getting a little sick of the phrase “consumerization of IT”.  I know I am.  But the concepts around it are interesting and they pose some interesting challenges for IT organizations as they are increasingly forced to support connections to the corporate network from...

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 introduce the latest operating system technology and software development platforms for use by app developers and enterprises worldwide. As part of further enhancing the security, reliability, performance, and user experience of Windows, Microsoft has introduced many...

These spreadsheets list the policy settings for computer and user configurations that are included in the Administrative template files delivered with the Windows operating systems specified. You can configure these policy settings when you edit Group Policy Objects. You can use the filtering capabilities...

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 includes Server Manager, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, consoles, Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers, and command-line tools for managing roles and features that run on Windows Server 2012. In limited cases, the tools can be used to...

Deploy Windows and Office 2010 with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1. MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits: Unified tools and processes, including a set of guidance, for deploying desktops and servers...

Go get it @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

Attack Surface Analyzer is developed by the Trustworthy Computing Security group. It is the same tool used by Microsoft's internal product groups to catalogue changes made to operating system attack surface by the installation of new software. Attack Surface Analyzer takes a snapshot of your system state...

You can still get on the wait list.  Go to http://www.buildwindows.com/ .

Today is another exciting day for Developers and IT Professionals as we mark a new milestone for the Visual Studio and Windows product families.  Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) phase and will soon be available for download. ...