Building Community One Brick At A Time

Microsoft Is Heading To Europe…Will You Be There?

2010-10-06T17:24:36Z

We have less than three weeks till we kick off our next European tour! Be aware, seating is limited, so if you have not registered, you will want to do so soon before all the remaining spots are taken. What can you expect at our five-hour free Tour Workshops? Learn about Office 2010 key IT investments. Learn about fast and easy deployment and application compatibility strategies and tools for Windows 7. Learn about virtualization tools and techniques for Windows, Office and Internet...(read more)

Steady State for Windows 7

2010-09-27T15:55:09Z

A few years ago we developed a tool called Windows Steady State to enable IT admins in shared computing environments to control configure and revert the configuration computer of computers used in schools, libraries, internet cafes, kiosks as well as other public and shared computing locations. Steady State was designed to work with Windows XP and Windows Vista, and was a really popular toolkit because it made it easy to do things like automatically discard all changes to a system that users...(read more)

The Springboard Series Tour–Free Microsoft Windows, Office and MDOP Deployment Workshops

2010-09-21T05:54:42Z

Amsterdam - 25 Oct | Stockholm – 27 Oct | Helsinki – 29 Oct | Reading – 1 Nov | Rome – 3 Nov | Vienna – 4 Nov The Microsoft Get On the Bus Tour is taking a winter hiatus to bring you a new tour – the Springboard Series Tour: Microsoft Windows, Office and MDOP Deployment Workshops! Amsterdam marks our first stop on a 6-city European tour, en route to TechEd Europe , in Berlin, Germany. Are you looking to plan, pilot or deploy Windows and Office? Our workshops will cover the Office 2010, key...(read more)

Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal

2010-09-10T22:04:37Z

We are delighted to announce the world wide release of the Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal on TechNet. The Springboard Deployment Learning Portal is an online assessment and learning tool, designed to help IT Pros identify their knowledge strengths and information gaps around Windows 7 deployment. Based on interactive assessment responses, the participant is provided targeted learning to help them gain critical deployment know-how, keeping them at the top of their game...(read more)

P2V Migration for Software Assurance Explained

2010-09-09T23:14:43Z

By now the announcements have gone out for the Beta , been blogged about and seen in other social networking channels, so I thought I would do something a bit more in depth on this for the Springboard Blog. A little (recent) history… In Fall of 2009 there was a perfect storm of tools and automation to enable something I have wanted to do for some time, automate local physical-to-virtual migration of a Windows client machine and redeliver and integrate that old environment within a new Windows build...(read more)

Tools To Make Working With Internet Explorer 6 in Windows 7 Easier

2010-08-26T21:22:42Z

Over the past few months, many of you have shared with me your need to continue to be able to offer support for Internet Explorer 6 specific application while rolling out Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 into your organization. Suggestions for walkthroughs, papers and application compatibility lists were made by many of you. Based on those conversations, I am very happy to offer the following resources to help you. Migrating from Windows Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP to Internet Explorer 8 on...(read more)

Improving Your Image: Sector-Based, File-Based, and Sysprep - What Makes the Most Sense? Part 3: Deploy-time Build Automation and Recommendations

2010-08-24T04:19:44Z

This is the third and final blog in the series . In the last blog, The Pros and Cons , I covered the main benefits and underlying drawbacks of file-based and sector-based core images. I intentionally stuck to core image files (the .WIM, .V2I, .GHO, .TIB, .VHD, etc. files themselves) and purposely left out the automation needed to tailor installations at install-time using automation. The automation will actually play a role into the overall recommendations of what type of image to use – file or sector...(read more)

Improving Your Image: Sector-Based, File-Based, and Sysprep - What Makes the Most Sense? Part 2: The Pros and Cons.

2010-08-13T04:07:27Z

Welcome to blog number two in the series where we’ll look at file-based images versus sector-based images. We’ve already done the tools primer and defined the terms again in the last blog post . Now we actually get some real work done by comparing the “tried-and-true approach” of sector-based images that most of us (including me) have grown up with and the relatively newer approach of composing installations with “builds” at deploy time using file-based “core images” (I defined the terms in quotes...(read more)

Windows 7 Language Packs

2010-08-02T23:20:28Z

Last Feb Brandon posted a piece on Language Pack availability for Windows 7 here . I have had a lot of questions from IT pros in the past few weeks that are deploying Windows on where to find them so we thought we’d resurface this important topic and resources. Windows 7 will continue to enable the widest range of people across the world to use Windows in their own language by providing Language Interface Packs in over 55 languages. LIPs are built using MUI technology and provide translation of the...(read more)

Have you tried the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP 1 Beta yet?

2010-07-29T21:16:24Z

Have you downloaded the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP Beta yet ? The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta helps keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level, provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer feedback, and is easy for organizations to deploy a single set of updates...(read more)