I get so excited about the IT Pro Momentum projects I thought I would share just one more with you. Actually in this case it is more like 2 projects that are being set up in a single organization. I met Rob at one of my live speaking engagements and he mentioned he was interested in participating in IT Pro Momentum. Since then he has really been working hard! His organization is in the process of moving to a new larger location to help them deal with the growth of their business, and Rob has been building out the network.
Robs comments are inline. I love what he is doing!
"I have started a couple of projects. The first was to setup a 2008 server machine (since I am not using 2008 server in production yet). I wanted to use it for several applications that our engineers use (license server for some engineering software and a Source Safe database). I had some difficulties getting it configured. It kept losing the network connection. I messed around with it and learned several things before it finally just started working. It was a really weird thing with no explanation as of yet. This test is going well and I think I’m about ready to purchase Server 2008. For the most part the project has gone well. I had some difficulty with the connection of the new server but after it started working it has gone well. I can’t even tell you what I did to fix it.
The second project I was going to do was set up an exchange server. We had it in our budget to move to Exchange this summer. This has now been put on hold until we move. I still think I am going to proceed with setting up a server with the latest Exchange so I can test the process of moving our company to Exchange server. I will let you know how that goes. The feedback on this project will be more extensive since it is a much more complex project.
I don't know whether I am more impressed that his server fixed itself or that he is willing to pilot new technologies in the process of moving to a new office.
Great Work Rob!
If you're interested in participating in the IT Pro Momentum program please send me an email request and let me know.
I am hearing great things from the IT Pro Momentum Program. Today our focus is on a school district who is using the IT Pro Mo0mentum program to pilot Windows Server 2008. Like the two previous Momentum examples I shared with you I was able to ask some questions to the IT Pros running the Pilot. Some of their responses are absolutely great!
I first asked about the pilot.
"We are trying to have more end user control over our network. I had heard that Server 2k8 had some better tools for controlling network activity as well as some very good Virtual tools.
As of right now we are still piloting but have high intentions to move forward."
Which Products are you working with at the moment?
"Server 2k8, Vista, and Citrix"
Can you give me some more details?
"We are building 5 demo 2k8 servers at one of our smaller schools. We are using 2 for citrix, 1 for a DC, 1 for an IIS7 box, and 1 for our file and print sharing and a WSUS. So far I would have to say that we are pleased with the results so far. I especially like the management and search capabilities."
Do you feel like the pilot has been a success? Have you run into any unforeseen issues?
"For the most part yes. The only issue we can’t improve on is terminal server licensing. Because we are a school district we have students that will mess up computers. After we reimage the computer it seems like the terminal server is handing out a second terminal server license. One for the machine before the image and one for the same exact machine after the image and having to wait 89 days is way too long to resolve this when we have over 1000 thin clients using Citrix daily."
How much money will this project end up saving your organization?
"Since I don’t handle the budgets I can’t give a number on savings but it would be substantial with the Virtual environments we plan to implement as well."
So how do you feel about the IT Pro Momentum Program?
"I love the program. Without it I probably wouldn’t have tried to pilot server 2k8 for some time but with the program I have been able to build server 2k8, iis7, sql server2k8, and even some windows 7 boxes."
Great Stuff!
If you are interested in the opportunity to Pilot Microsoft products in your network and get the Tech Net Plus subscription as one of the included benefits please send me an email requesting an invitation to the IT Pro Momentum Program.
Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 are getting a lot of airtime in the media. I thought it might be interesting to get some insights from some of the folks who are piloting these products in their actual networks. One sizable US based company who would like to remain anonymous at this point is working with Microsoft through the IT Pro Momentum Program to test Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. I asked one of their IT Architects some questions about their initial findings.
· What are the objectives of the project?
"Right now, just testing 2008 R2 and Win 7, hope to venture into Hyper-V with live migration."
· What products are being used in the project?
"Windows Server2008R2 domain controller & Windows 7"
· How are you feeling about the products?
"Currently the only part of the project in progress is piloting Windows Server2008 R2 in a domain controller in the lab. It was a pretty simple setup (even though server core isn’t the simplest to configure). Windows 7 client is a giant leap forward for Microsoft Desktop!"
· Were the objective stated at the beginning satisfied? Did you solve the problem?
"For Phase 1, yes. Haven’t defined Phase 2 yet, but hopefully it involves Hyper-V."
· Are you going to save money? How much over how many years?
"Hyper-V will save us money from a hardware perspective. We are currently using Hyper-V in 2008 with 20ish machines so the hardware savings are about 5k-6k per server."
· What do you think about the IT Pro Momentum program?
"I really like the IT Pro Momentum program. I haven’t used many features, but having access to TechNet is a GIANT plus!"
One of the best things about my role as an IT Evangelist is being able to assist organizations with resources and expertise to help them find solutions to their network challenges. One of the ways that Microsoft has facilitated this process is through the use of the IT Pro Momentum Program. As we work with organizations we will often highlight the work they have been doing and the results they are getting. One of these organizations is Educational Service District 112 in the state of California. They were having some real challenges solving problems related to desktop management and reporting issues in their network.
They profiled a project to work with System Center and test its functionality in their network. The initial evaluation went well and they decided to pilot a solution using System Center. Early on in the pilot one of their Key IT Professionals said,
"We’re just at the beginning of this project. Our hope is to be able to install changes, monitor problems both related to errors and hardware problems before the user contacts us."
What a great concept! This kind of proactive management philosophy will have a significant positive effect on the overall health of the network and the users in it. When I asked about other benefits to running System Center they are hoping to save more than 100 hours of labor. Easier management, savings, and better control seem to represent a better solution for this organization.
Finally, I asked about the value of the IT Pro Momentum program in this pilot project. The response was clear.
" It’s doubtful that we’d push forward with this process without seeing how the product would help us."
That's exactly what I had hoped to hear.
If you are interested in participating in the IT Pro Momentum program and are willing to provide tracking and feedback information about a project in your organization please contact me.
I have been working with Windows Servers for going on 15 years. We have come a long way since Windows NT 3.x. Many of the changes have been glamorous like Active Directory, or very slow and deliberate like the move to IPV6 (can you believe it was supported in Windows NT 4.) One thing has permeated every version of Windows Server. File and print service have always been there and looks like they are a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future. So what changes have gone on in the world of file services. It seems like with all the cool technology we have developed here at Microsoft we must have done something for the file server. Not to worry. File services have had their day in the hallowed halls of the Windows Server development team. I have to say the results are very good. Significant improvements to the SMB protocol have been made. Distributed File System (DFS) has matured to a level that I really enjoy using it. Clustered services is off the charts cool. This used to be the most painful process you could perform on a Windows Server. Now it is downright easy.
I recorded a session on the new file server features of Windows Server. It runs about 90 minutes but comes complete with Power Point slides a a series of demonstrations.
Click the monitor and Enjoy!!
One of the cool new features that can be utilized in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is the ability to boot from a Virtual Hard Disk. 
My friend and co-worker Keith Combs has done a great video of how the process works. He even takes the process up a notch by dual booting the machine. He also has the documentation of the process he follows in the video included in his blog post. I would highly recommend viewing it. It runs less than 25 minutes and is without question the best information I have seen to date on the subject.
http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2009/05/22/dual-boot-from-vhd-using-windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx
Thanks Keith!
Yesterday I was disappointed that Netflix didn't work on my Windows 7RC1 install. Today my kids watched "The Pink Panther" cartoons before school. How did it happen? Let me tell you. I thought about it for a while yesterday and came to the theory that the reason Netflix doesn't run on my install of RC1 is probably because it thinks it can't when in all likelihood it would be just fine. So I reasoned that if it is a report of the operating system version that is making Netflix not play, perhaps it would play just fine if the operating system report were something else. How do you get your machine to report another operating system version? In Windows 7 RC1 one of your options is to use Windows XP Mode. I have yet to do a real functional test of XP mode and this seemed like the right opportunity.
First let me say I am totally impressed! Second let me say that this is not a one click install or a one click fix to get Netflix to work.
Here's the process I followed.
1. I went to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
2. Download and install the beta of Windows Virtual PC. (I saved it locally and installed from there.)
3. Download and install the XP Mode .msi. (This is going to be your XP Virtual Machine.)
Once installed I booted the XP Mode virtual machine. The machine took a good 4 to 5 minutes for its first boot. I suspect there is a fair amount of performance tuning going on here because subsequent boots are very fast. I noticed a few things right away. When the VM started it had direct access to my internet connected Network interface. It headed out to Windows update and asked to install available updates. I installed the updates. (there was no reboot required. NICE!) There is built in support for USB, which will be a big bonus for me.
I headed out to the Netflix web site. Netflix loaded without incident. When I went to the Watch instantly tab I needed to install their player which went fine. They asked that I install the update to windows media player rights management. This did not go as smoothly. I don't know whether the site got confused because I had already done windows updates and installed the player or whether XP had gotten confused with all I was doing. I cycled the machine and when I went back to Netflix sure enough it prompted for the rights update again. This time the install went without incident.
I selected one of my daughters favorite cartoons and it worked like a charm. My hats off to the Virtual PC Folks and to XP Mode.
One last note (which I expected) when watching Netflix on XP Mode the throughput rate is throttled by Netflix to the basic level, which is fine for cartoons but I don't think I would like to watch an actual movie at that level. At this point I am not sure why Netflix is measuring the throughput as basic. I'll keep working on this. For now enjoy watching cartoons from Netflix on you Windows &RC! machine with XP Mode.
Let's begin with the fact that I am a huge fan of Netflix! I love that this company has had the vision to see the future of movie distribution channels and the guts to stand in the face of the Blockbusters and Hollywood videos of the world and move ahead with technology. I love that Netflix has partnered with XBox to provide a channel experience through the xbox. Netflix is great! Now for today's reality check. My wife is babysitting here sisters kids. One of them is 3 years old and of course loves cartoons. As part of their morning routine they will usually watch 20 or 30 minutes of cartoons on Netflix (The Pink panther is their current favorite.) Imagine my surprise when I saw this message when we tried to play cartoons from the watch instantly portion of the netflix web site. After an initial search it looks like this is a common problem. It would appear that Netflix in a lapse of foresight has elected not to support the beta editions of Windows 7. I understand completely the reasons a company might consider this option but I am a little surprised one as forward thinking as Netflix has been would choose this developmental option. I wonder if they don't have something else going on that they are not talking about . I couldn't find any rumors online. I don't see any forthcoming resolutions so I am going to try some ideas and see what happens.
My wife uses a Dell Inspiron 1520. It has the Intel Core 2 duo processor and 3 GB of Ram. She has been running Windows Vista since she got the Laptop about 18 months ago with no real issues. Recently she has expressed an interest in Windows 7. I offered to swap the hard drive for a new one (just in case she really wants to go back) and install the new Windows 7 64Bit RC1. Some of my local IT Pros here in Salt Lake City have been bugging me about demonstrating how to do a USB based install of Windows 7 so I decided I would use the Inspiron as our demonstration example. Before we begin there are a few things to keep in mind if we are going to be successful.
1. The system BIOS must support booting from USB.
2. The USB Device must be of sufficient size to hold the installation files. (In this case I want something 4GB or larger)
3. The USB device will have to be formatted with a file system including a boot sector.
4. We will need the installation DVD to use as a source for the installation files.
I went in to the BIOS setup for the Inspiron and changed the boot order and moved the USB drive to the top of the list. (quick note to self. Go back and change the boot order after install.)
The drive I am using for this install is a Western Digital 120 GB USB drive. That's way more size than we need, but it's what I had on hand so we will use it.
Its important to get this next part right. At first glance you might think you could just copy all the files on the DVD over to the USB drive and you would be good to go. If you did you would find out very quickly that without a boot sector on the USB drive you aren't installing anything.
I prepared the USB drive using the following steps after I plugged the Drive into a USB Port.
1. Right click on Command Prompt and choose "Run as Administrator"
2.At the prompt we are going to type "Diskpart"
3. We need to know the number of our USB Drive so we type "List Disk" The disks will be listed by number and by size. Mine happens to be DISK1
4. We select our disk by typing the command "Select Disk 1"
5. Clean all files from the disk with "clean"
This will remove all files from the disk.
6. To create a new partition we type "create partition primary"
7. next we select the partition by typing "select partition 1"
8. We mark it as the active partition by typing "active"
9. Finally we need to format the drive and create a file system. We type "format fs=ntfs"
At this point I am really paying the price of using a big drive. It took forever to format the drive. That's all right because it gave me time to watch the latest episode of Bones on the FOX web site and a re-run episode of Survivorman on Netflix.
10. Finally we will complete the formatting by typing "assign" to give the drive a letter. In our case the letter assigned was E:. Type "exit" to close diskpart.
With the drive formatted we are ready to proceed to the step of making the USB drive bootable.
1. I put the Windows 7 RC1 install disk in the DVD drive. (make a quick mental note of the drive letter of the DVD drive and the drive letter of the USB drive.)
2. From the command prompt we change to the boot directory of the RC1 DVD "cd D:\boot"
3. We add the boot sector with the command "bootsect /nt60 e:" (where E:is the assigned letter of the USB drive)
4. Lastly we copy all of the files from the Windows 7 RC1 DVD to the USB drive.
And with that we plug the USB drive into the Inspiron and we are good to go. The Inspiron recognizes the USB device as bootable and installation proceeds.
I have to tell you that with this install I am particularly impressed. All of the drivers were identified and seem to be running fine. No issues out of the box is a great experience!
Well there's your step by step instructions for building a bootable USB installation for Windows 7 RC1. Enjoy! I will keep you posted as my wife tests this machine over the next few months.
I'll admit that statistics were not my favorite courses in college. In fact I purposefully found the teacher that everyone said was the "Easiest" and would get me through unscathed. I am not proud of my behavior and have since learned to enjoy statistics. When I saw Ian Ayres book Super Crunchers it resonated with something inside me that wanted to learn more about databases, statistical modeling, and regression analysis. The book did not disappoint. IT kicks off with a great discussion of predicting price and quality of French wine vintages based on meteorological databases and regression analysis. I was hooked. I know many of you are thinking Chris Henley is off his rocker. Trust me you will be hooked too. Ayres uses a case study format and a story telling style to introduce technical concepts. His information is presented in a clear and concise way that allowed me to easily understand and then apply what I was learning onto situations in my own day to day life. I loved his matter of fact observations. It is science and math. This book will debunk some of the myths you hold about education, healthcare, and even entertainment. It will allow you to reconsider alternatives to the commonly held wisdom of the day by using analysis to validate or disprove commonly held beliefs. To be honest the most difficulty thing about reading this book for me was that I had to let go of some of the assumptions I have held to be correct in the face of factual evidence to the contrary. If your into reading and learning along the way Ian Ayres "Super Crunchers" is for you. Enjoy!
I have been thinking about an idea for a video around Bitlocker To Go for a while now. I finally got around to actually making it. Hope you enjoy the video!
Last week at one of my live events we were talking about Read Only Domain Controllers, and some of the benefits of using them. I told the group that there was a step by step guide on the TechNet web site.
"An RODC is an additional domain controller for a domain that hosts read-only partitions of the Active Directory database. An RODC is designed primarily to be deployed in a branch office environment. Branch offices typically have relatively few users, poor physical security, relatively poor network bandwidth to a hub site, and little local IT knowledge."
As promised here is a link to the information.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772234.aspx
I am very interested in what is happening with the hardware we would traditionally use to run the Windows client operating systems. Acer, HP, Lenovo and Dell have all made entries into the Netbook workspace with mini-laptops that run the Atom processor. They have 8 to 10 inch screens, a mid sized internal hard drive, and little to no internal accessories. Accessories are run as external add-ons. I like these boxes in theory but in practice there is one huge drawback for me. I really don't like a screen that small. What I
would really like is a bare bones machine with internal Wi-Fi card, an internal Broadband/SIM card slot, and a traditional gigabit ethernet card, all with a screen that is 13 inch HD wide screen. While we are at it we should throw in HD sound and great video card.
Enter the Dell Adamo. I don't own it yet. but I am in negotiations to get one. It has all of my wants and my needs in a super slim sexy package. If the functionality is as good as the marketing then this machine could be my future.
I do have some hesitation on the machine at present. Cost! I realize we are talking state of the art hardware but the pricing is pretty high in comparison to the net book market at large. With that said I don't know that Dell is thinking of this as a competitor in that marketplace. Either way I think this device meets my future needs.
For those of you who are thinking ugh... so how is it going to do with Windows 7? I have 2 words for you, No Problem! More on that later.
Last night while watching an amazing basketball game between Memphis and Missouri I saw the commercial I have been dreaming about making for a long long time. So here's the deal, I hear all the time how "cool" Apple is, and no one seems to bat an eye at the outlandish cost of Apple hardware. I can't believe people are willing to pay twice as much just to have the Apple logo. So finally someone from the ad agency got the clue to focus on price, and value for money. Even more importantly Microsoft dropped the crazy notion that we should advertise the benefits of Windows without offending the competition (in this case Apple.) The truth in this case is very refreshing. Watch out Penguin lovers! The commercial is great!
P.S. It would have been just one step better to actually see the Apple hardware, and the sales folks all standing behind the counter shaking their heads "no" that they could not sell her an Apple laptop for under $1000 no matter what she was willing to accept. Not cool enough indeed.
In the United States we have the privilege of paying taxes on our income to help fund the programs of the State and Federal government. Every year there is a "True up" called a tax "Filing" to ensure that you are paying what you are suppose to be paying into the tax coffers. If you happen to have overpaid then you will receive a refund of those tax overpayments. I traditionally try to just barely overpay my taxes. Not too much mind you, just enough so that when tax time comes around I don't actually owe any more than I have already paid. This year I had some stock losses that engendered an overpayment of my taxes and a received a refund a little larger than usual. I have been watching a 32 inch standard definition TV for a long time now. 
I have toyed back and forth with the idea of buying a really nice LCD HDTV or possibly going with a DLP projector for more of the "Theater" experience. Sony has this great 70" Bravia on sale for $19,999. For starters it's a lot out of my price range. Second I would really like something a little larger. (I know that sounds ridiculous.) Stay with me here. I am going for a movie screen experience. I headed on over to do some comparisons on projectors and was surprised to find this little baby from Dell. I realize I could spend much more and get state of the art. However, I am not after the state of the art. I am after a great viewing experience at a reasonable price. I spent the $750. Ouch that still hurts to say. The projector is on its way. My wife and kids have already discussed how cool it will be to play XBOX360, and Wii games on a huge screen. I cannot wait for Friday night movie night. Think "Iron Man" or "Transformers" on a true 6 by 9 screen. 6 feet by 9 feet that is. I really think it should be fun. I will keep you updated on the projector and of course on the setup we use to feed all of our content to the projector. Something tells me I will need to rethink media delivery options at home. Hmmm... I am thinking an NCAA final 4 party at my house where the video feed is from NCAA.com using their High Quality Silverlight player delivering content to my new projector would be worth attempting.
