Simon May - All Comments

re: Enable and Activate TPM for BitLocker Pre-Provisioning in WinPE

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:47:41 GMT

I believe he is referencing the shutdown.exe commands and not setup.exe

re: Enable and Activate TPM for BitLocker Pre-Provisioning in WinPE

Carlito Castillo — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:03:06 GMT

Hi, I looked for both to “setup.exe /s” and “setup.exe /r” but could not find it so I can edit. Can you assist?

re: Why Windows 8 is Great for Business–Technically Speaking

Stephen Mills — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:03:07 GMT

Syncro with Outlook calendar is a non-starter for me. I have wasted too much time already. Moving to Google calendar.

re: Why Windows 8 is Great for Business–Technically Speaking

John — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:04:16 GMT

I assisted my sister going from XP to Windows 8. I use Vista, and my Dad uses 7, and I do all their support work. Windows 8 is NOT intuitive as an upgrade from XP, Vista or 7, so why anyone thinks it is is beyond me. It is so different it is NOT intuitive for someone like me that started with a Commodore 64, learned Fortran, and progressed from 98 and has used just about every version in between.

It may be more intuitive if you have moved to & conquered smart phones, but I have not and neither have many others who are pulling their hair out with 8. I alos do not like touch screens, which get dirty, and in any case, I prefer my screen at the back of my desk, which is not within easy reach.

A Vista/Windows 7 user interface, as suggested by Scott, similar to previous versions of Windows to allow a user to go back to how they did it before, and have more time to learn 8 would have been a great idea, sadly missing in Windows 8. In fact, I see there are already several third party add on programmes that emulate at least some of the functionality of previous versions. Now if they ara available, does that suggest that 8 is intuitive. I think that indicates exactly the opposite.

Not everyone has IT professionals on call that have been trained up in Windows 8.

I am of course looking forward to the day that someone I know, who is not an IT expert, tells me they have conquered Windows 8 and stopped threatening to throw their brand new laptop on the fire.

re: I’m now an MTA (Microsoft Technology Associate)

varun — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:07:26 GMT

Hi Simon,

iam very much interested to complete MTA, could you please provide me the material.,my mail id ptvarun@gmail.com

thanks

re: Power Tip –Launch PowerShell from File Explorer in one second

Trevor Raynsford — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:12:11 GMT

ALT+F O works a treat - thanks for this.

But ALT+D then type "Powershell" - no joy, it only opens the folder I already have in my history called "powershell" !

re: Why Windows 8 is Great for Business–Technically Speaking

Si May — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:06:09 GMT

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the comment, the feedback is always appreciated. I do however disagree (I would though) but I honestly do disagree that it's not intuitive and that there's too much switching between old and new interfaces. I actually am a business user of Windows 8 (along with a bout 80,000 colleagues) and whilst the change took me a about a week to grasp I'm now more productive than I used to be.

The desktop hasn't changed, save for the Start menu changing to the Start screen - but I didn't even use it. I have for the past 6 years (4 with Windows 7, 2 with Windows 8) not needed it because I just type what I want. I also pin apps I use regularly on the desktop to my task bar and or occasionally use desktop shortcuts. Both the Start + typing and the one click access to the things I use most make me more productive. Also if I need to change a setting I just type "mouse" on the Start screen and Windows will show me mouse settings for example no matter what part of control panel they are buried in.

Some users will have challenges grasping any new system, they always do and that's why end user training should always be part of a solid deployment plan. I'm sure we will see what we've seen with Windows 7 (and XP, 2000, 98, 95 etc.) which is that corporate end users will require less training as they start exploring Windows 8 at home. And there are some great books out there :) to help people, especially people who want to go beyond the basics.

I also don't think end user training or skills (or lack there of) should be any kind of excuse (read barrier) for not being able to adopt the security features above (if it were no one would ever use anything secure - I'm looking at you keyfobs). Ditto for the mobile brand features (I'm looking at you terrible mobile broadband software) and so on and we are far removed from that.

I also understand that there is cost in end user training but again you can either train people to train themselves or train them to do a task, so it's philosophical.

Long reply, I should probably write a post...

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply though.

Simon

re: Why Windows 8 is Great for Business–Technically Speaking

Scott Galpin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:16:55 GMT

I understand all the technical stuff that has been done for Windows 8 is better than Windows 7, but the interface for business is atrocious.

It is so not business friendly having to switch between app windows, getting to control panel etc. now has more steps etc. etc. From a support point of view to the end user it is a nightmare because it is so different an un-intuitive compared to previous versions of windows.

Why can’t there be a Professional version that sticks with the same theme and layout of previous versions? Why force business users who do not need or use social media applications to use a social media based platform?! Surely there could be two versions to cope with this?!!

In my opinion, Windows 8 is not a benefit to business as a whole. Yes there are technical benefits, but on a user interface, it is a bit fat disappointment that is there to be seen!

re: IT Professionals and the cloud infographic

Waqas M — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:48:24 GMT

Nice post

re: A tour of Microsoft’s Datacentres

Waqas M — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:22:14 GMT

Nice post