Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog

Virtualisation Training February and March

endaf — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:26:00 GMT

Virtualisation Academy is a series of FREE Level 300 Technical ‘how to’ training seminars. Half-day instructor-led training seminars give attendees exclusive access to DEEP technical training delivered by the best of local and international subject matter experts.

Suitable for: IT Managers, IT Administrators, Sys Admins, Infrastructure Admins/Managers, Developers

Location: Microsoft Ireland Building 2 (EPDC2), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, D18

Virtualisation Academy Module III: System Centre – Managing Your Virtual Environment (16 February 2010)

Register and learn more @ http://www.tinyurl.ie/ag

This secession will be presented by Paul Keely, who Microsoft last year to setup a system centre practice. It will be fast paced and fact filled. Everything will be done on a virtual environment with no more than 10 slides for the whole presentation.
Agenda:

1. System Centre – the big picture: What is Microsoft’s management all about; What benefit can I get from using System Centre

2. System Centre Operations manager: End to end service monitoring; Base-lining Physical servers before and after the migration; Monitoring Hyper V

3. System Centre Configuration Manager: Controlling configuration management; Deploying images; Deploying patches

4. System Centre Data Protection Manager: Backing up critical Windows servers; Backing up the VHD native

5. System Centre Virtual Machine Manager: Manage your VHD’s Windows and VMware in one place; Scale out and control your environment

Virtualisation Academy Module IV: Client-side Virtualisation (23 March 2010)

Register and learn more @ http://www.tinyurl.ie/ah

Attend this session to learn how you can optimize your environment and save money by choosing Microsoft 2008 R2 as your application, desktop and server virtualization platform.
Agenda:

1. Client Desktop Virtualization: VDI

2. Application Virtualization: App-V, Windows XP Mode and Hyper-V Virtualization

3. Server side Virtualization: Remote Apps, App-V and ways to deliver those to end clients.

4. Best practices on managing complex Application Virtualization environments based on OS build-in solutions like PowerShell and standalone product System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

Learn about Windows 7 Application Compatibility

endaf — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:23:08 GMT

One of the challenges of migrating to a new desktop operating system is getting those legacy applications to work. This can seem so daunting that many organisations choose not to take advantage of new technology solutions to resolve business issues because the perceived cost and time requirements to get those applications working is too much.

Good news! Migrating to Windows 7 is a whole lot easier thanks to the solutions provided by Microsoft. These vary from technology built into the operating system, a free suite of tools provided by Microsoft and tools that are included in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP).

The available solutions were briefly talked about and demonstrated at the community launch events for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

In this session Vikas Sahni is going to walk you through using some of the solution available from Microsoft to get your legacy applications working on Windows 7. The agenda includes:

Session I - The Changes

Windows 7 Goals
Operating System Version – Compatibility Tab, Shims and Layers
UAC changes
IE changes
Depreciated Apps – Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker

Session II - The Tools

Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5
LUA Tools and Solutions
Sysinternals Tools
IE Compatibility Test Tool

The Speaker

Vikas Sahni will be presenting this session. He is the CEO of Softedge Systems. Vikas is a software expert and has a history as a technical trainer.

Softedge Systems, the first European Microsoft IP Venture Partner, is a Dublin based software company. They focus on providing unique solutions for our clients and help distinguish them from their competition. They also develop and market software products that are differentiated by their ease of use. Softedge with its R&D and project management teams in Ireland and coding team in India is able to offer high quality, cost-effective software development for third parties.

Where and When

Microsoft Ireland Building 1, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland

February 5th. Welcome at 09:30am, starting at 10:00am sharp.

Registration

You can register here.

Webcast

Please DO NOT REGISTER if you are going to join the webcast.

You can join the web cast by:

1) Installing the free Live Meeting Client
2) Clicking on this link

SQL Academy Training for February and March

endaf — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:14:00 GMT

SQL Academy is a series of FREE Level 300 Technical ‘how to’ training seminars. Half-day instructor-led training seminars give attendees exclusive access to DEEP technical training delivered by the best of local and international subject matter experts.
Suitable for: IT pros, DBAs, Database Architects and Infrastructure Teams who are responsible for configuring SQL Server infrastructure

Location: Microsoft Ireland Building 2 (EPDC2), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, D18

SQL Academy Module III: SQL Server Analysis Services (16 February 2010)

Register @ http://www.tinyurl.ie/8c

‘SQL Server Analysis Services’ will follow on from the popular “101” session covering an introduction to analysis services. This session covers intermediate-level SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 topics and is suitable for BI developers and consultants who have some familiarity with basic Analysis Services concepts.
Agenda:

1. Modelling complex dimensions and measure groups with Analysis Services. In this session we’ll discuss how to handle more complex modelling scenarios in Analysis Services.

2. Security. This session will cover all aspects of Analysis Services security.

3. Implementing calculations with MDX. Last of all we’ll take a look at how you can improve the analytic capabilities of your cube by adding MDX calculations to it.

SQL Academy Module IV: SQL 2008 R2 – Next Generation Business Intelligence (23 March 2010)

Register @ http://www.tinyurl.ie/8d

‘SQL 2008 R2 – Next Generation Business Intelligence’, will provide demos and an overview of key Business Intelligence features included in SQL Server 2008 R2 which has just been released for the Community Technology preview (CTP).
Agenda:

1. Reporting Enhancements. This session focused on the new Report Builder 3.0 which is now available for download and demonstrations on the new functionality such as MAP based features and other enhancements such as Lookup functions, RDL sandboxing, data feeds and editing improvements.

2. Project Gemini I - Excel 14 BI Engine. In memory analytics is the fastest growing area within business intelligence. This session is a demo based walk through of radically different approach to business intelligence introduced with Project Gemini.

3. Project Gemini II – MOSS and Analysis Services. This session focuses on improvements in Analysis Services to support Project Gemini and publishing of business intelligence models to highly interactive and flexible portals. We will also demo how Analysis Services has been enhanced to allow for monitoring of In Memory data models.

Windows 7 (Ireland) Tech Community Launch - Content Online

endaf — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:12:24 GMT

The sessions from the Windows 7 technical community launch tour are posted online. On the Windows 7 Launch Tour website http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/windows7/launchevent/, you can find the PowerPoint slides and videos of the main sessions delivered in Dublin, as well as some helpful resources and links.

The content posted includes:

· Windows 7 ‘Made in Ireland’

· Windows 7 User Interface Tour

· Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 better together story

· Windows 7 Customer: Mainstream Renewable Power

· Introducing Exchange 2010

If you didn’t make it to one of the launch sessions we ran and are without a copy of Windows 7 – you still have a chance to bag one before Christmas! We are running a competition offering the launch session video viewers a chance to win a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. Learn more here.

Microsoft Security Essentials were mentioned a number of times at the launch sessions – this is a free downloadable security product you can use to protect your home PC, found @ http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx.

Finally, if you are work on development side of things, you should be looking into the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Visual Studio 2010 includes built-in tools for Windows 7 and SharePoint 2010 and the Beta 2 can be downloaded @ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ie/vstudio/dd582936(en-us).aspx.

Have a great Christmas and see you in 2010!

Rafal Lukewiecki Business Intelligence Seminar in January

endaf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:25:00 GMT

I have great news for you – top TechEd speaker Rafal Lukewiecki is coming to Dublin in January to deliver a (free) full day Business Intelligence seminar! Book your place now to avoid disappointment.

This event is a full day, instructor led seminar taking place on January 19^th, 2010 that will provide you with a unique opportunity to examine an end-to-end approach to building and delivering a BI solution using the Microsoft BI platform, focusing on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010.

Microsoft Solutions for Business Intelligence

Venue: Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4

Timing: 08:30-17:00

Registration: Register your attendance here

Event Description:

Improving decision-making and creating better insight into the functioning of a complex organisation is a number one concern of IT professionals and this is reflected in Business Intelligence being consistently rated at the top spot in many IT priorities studies. In response to this Microsoft has built a broad, integrated, easy-to-use, and rich platform for delivering BI which has been updated with the best of data integration and transformation, warehousing, and multidimensional analysis. Microsoft tools and technologies are designed to work the way that you like: Excel-style for the user, Visual Studio-like for a developer, SSMS for database experts, and MMC-like for IT professionals.

For this full day seminar we are delighted to be joined by Rafal Lukewiecki from Project Botticelli. In his role as Strategic Consultant at Project Botticelli Ltd. Rafal is responsible for analysing and forecasting trends in the field of Information Technology. He specialises in a number of areas including; business intelligence, statistics, data mining, security and cryptography, IT architecture, and management of solution delivery

Who should attend?
IT Managers, BI Practitioners, IT Professionals, and BI Developers

Agenda Overview:.

08:30-09:00 Breakfast & Registration

09:00-09:15 Introduction to Microsoft Business Intelligence – Barry McMahon, Microsoft Ireland

09:15-09:25 Overview of the Day – Rafal Lukewiecki

09:25-10:40 Session 1: The Big Picture of Business Intelligence: Goals, Concepts, and the Platform

This session will introduce the overall picture of Business Intelligence and will relate the Microsoft BI Platform to it. Fundamental concepts, such as Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, Self-service Analysis, Dimensions, Facts, and Measures will be introduced, too. Technology, stressing the newly released products, will be briefly discussed and the overall road ahead will be outlined.

10:40-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:15 Session 2: The Knowledge Worker’s Perspective: Self-Service of BI

The most demanded and the fastest growing form of BI is the self-service, personal BI. This session will concentrate on how Office System 2010, in particular SharePoint 2010 and its PerformancePoint Services enable anyone to create and use BI in an organisation. We will also introduce the very new Microsoft PowerPivot stressing how existing Excel skills enable self-service analysis by intermediate and more advanced users. We will also mention other self-service aspects of BI, such as self-service reporting. This session will also discuss the IT Professional challenge of managing the life cycle of a potentially fast, organically growing BI system built by its users.

12:15-13:00 Lunch

13:00-14:15 Session 3: The IT Perspective: Data Warehousing, Management, and Analytical Structures

This session aims to take a look at BI capabilities of the SQL Server 2008 R2. We will introduce Master Data Management and new approaches to massive Data Warehousing. We will look at the way in which SQL Server functions as part of the overall BI Platform. Naturally, the fundamental BI functions of SQL Server, such as Data Integration and OLAP will also be discussed in order to enable all attendees to start planning their BI infrastructure after attending this seminar.

14:15-14:35 Coffee Break

14:35-15:50 Session 4: The Analyst’s Perspective: Ad-hoc Analysis with Microsoft PowerPivot and Office 2010 Excel

Returning to the key theme of this seminar, the self-service nature of BI, we will dive deeper into the most exciting of the recent additions to the Microsoft BI platform, the Microsoft PowerPivot. We will look at the ways in which an analyst can use their existing knowledge of Excel to perform advanced analysis of large data sets, including their acquisition and later publication. Briefly, we will introduce a new language for analysis known as DAX which can help more advanced users create powerful analytical applications all inside Excel and PowerPivot. Finally, we will review the existing Data Mining technologies of SQL Server 2008 R2 thus completing the day’s thorough journey through the Microsoft BI Platform.

15:50-16:05 Summary: Microsoft BI for Your Enterprise

16:05-16:30 Interactive Q&A

16:30-16:45 Close

I hope to see you there!

Core Configurator 2.0 is released

will.craddock — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:04:46 GMT

As a follow up to my previous post regarding all the free tools and services that Microsoft offers, people should be aware of CodePlex and some of the fantastic open source solutions that Microsoft and others post to this community. One of those projects is Core Configurator. We are pleased to announce the latest version of Core Configurator 2.0 built and designed for Windows Server 2008 R2 Core edition has been released.

The download can be found at : http://www.codeplex.com/CoreConfig

The primary focus of this project is to get feedback and contributions back from the community to make this a tool the best/ free tool everyone will want in their toolkit.
Core Configuration tasks include:

Product Licensing
Networking Features
DCPromo Tool
ISCSI Settings
Server Roles and Features
User and Group Permissions
Share Creation and Deletion
Dynamic Firewall settings
Display | Screensaver Settings
Add & Remove Drivers
Proxy settings
Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
Multipath I/O
Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
Join Domain and Computer rename
Add/remove programs
Services
WinRM
Complete logging of all commands executed

For those looking to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 in the core installation for any number of specific roles will find this tool very valuable.

Cheers

Free Technical Training via the Microsoft Tech Academies

endaf — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:14:00 GMT

Further to my blog post last week on Subsidised Microsoft technical training courses taking place in Dublin and Belfast...I wanted to let you know about some great free training which could act as a handy pre-cursor to the subsidised training and getting certified.

Sign up now for a Microsoft Tech Academy and get free access to Level 300 technical training through a series of half-day, instructor-led training seminars. Attendees get early access to deep technical training, delivered by the top speakers from Ireland and overseas.

See below for an overview of Virtualisation, SQL, Visual Studio and Windows Azure Academies.

SQL Academy Series

Topic: SQL Server Analysis Services.

When: 13.30-17.00, 16^th February 2010 Where: Microsoft Ireland Building 2, Leopardstown, Dublin 18 (directions)

This session covers intermediate-level SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 topics and is suitable for BI developers and consultants who have some familiarity with basic Analysis Services concepts.

Suitable for: IT Pros, DBAs, Database Architects and Infrastructure Teams who are responsible for configuring SQL Server infrastructure.

Register here.

Also, 23^rd March 2010: SQL 2008 R2 – Next Generation Business Intelligence. Register here.

Virtualisation Academy Series

Topic: System Centre – Managing Your Virtual Environment.

When: 9.30-12.30, 16th February 2010. Where: Microsoft Ireland Building 2, Leopardstown, Dublin 18 (directions)

Agenda tbc.

Suitable for: IT Managers, IT Administrators, Sys Admins, Infrastructure Admins/Managers, Developers.

Register here.

Also, 23^rd March 2010: Client-side Virtualisation. Register here.

Visual Studio Academy Series

17^th February 2010: SharePoint Development with VS2010. Register here.

24^th March 2010: Launch of VS2010 and A lap around .NET 4 , Sketchflow, Silverlight 3 and IE8. Register here.

Windows Azure Academy Series

18^th February 2010: Scaling out with SQL Azure. Register here.

25^th March 2010: Building Applications using the .NET Services. Register here.

I look forward to seeing you at one of the academies!

Resource Guide to Free Microsoft Software and Online Services

will.craddock — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:12:39 GMT

I came across this post on all of the current free tools and offerings that Microsoft offers and I immediately thought of you, because everyone likes something useful and free!

If you are looking for Free Software and Online Services then this resource guide should help point you in the right direction. If you are looking for general information about Microsoft products and software I recommend visiting the main site Microsoft.com You should refer to the appropriate licensing agreement, terms of use or contact Microsoft if you require further information or clarification.

Please note that this page was last updated on 17th November 2009. When Microsoft announces any changes to this information updates will be made to this page as soon as possible. If you identify any incorrect or missing information on this page then please let me know so I can correct it.

There are so many downloads related to Microsoft products and technologies it would be impossible to list them all here. On the Microsoft Download Center you will find Tools, Utilities, Feature Packs and Resource Toolkits.

Continue Reading the long, long list of current free stuff here

PS:

I got an email from Blake Handler - Microsoft MVP and author of the "The Road to Know Where" blog who gave me a link to another comprehensive list he has developed titled “Ultimate List of Free Windows 7 Software & Resources from Microsoft” Link Here

ENJOY :)

Subsidised Microsoft technical training courses taking place in Dublin and Belfast

endaf — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:48:00 GMT

Microsoft training partner New Horizons is offering HEAVILY subsidised training courses to TechNet Flash/blog readers! The courses include Windows 7, Windows Server Hyper-v, SQL Server 2008 and Exchange 2010. Now’s the time to get certified!

http://www.prometric.com/microsoft/careeroffer.htm#vouchers25

The course titles New Horizons are currently offering at discounted rates are:

• Windows 7
• Exchange Server 2010
• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
• Windows Small Business Server 2008
• SharePoint Portal Server 2010
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• SQL Server 2008
• Microsoft Office Communications Server
• Systems Centre 2008
• Visual Studio 2008

January

City	Start Date	#Days	Course Title	Price	Registration Details
Belfast	11/01/2010	2	Deploying and Managing MS System Center Virtual Machine Manager (Course 6331)	€475	neil.2.beasley@bt.com
Dublin	11/01/2010	2	Deploying and Managing MS System Center Virtual Machine Manager (Course 6331)	€475	alan.deery@newhorizons.com
Belfast	13/01/2010	3	Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments (Course 6294)	€680	neil.2.beasley@bt.com
Belfast	18/01/2010	1	What's new in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (Course 10134A)	€240	alan.deery@newhorizons.com
Dublin	18/01/2010	3	Workshop on OCS - Implementing in a PBX Telephony Environment	€680	neil.2.beasley@bt.com
Dublin	20/01/2010	3	Planning, Deploying and Managing MS SCCM 2007 (Course 6451)	€680	alan.deery@newhorizons.com
Dublin	20/01/2010	3	Applications in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Course 8913)	€680	alan.deery@newhorizons.com
Belfast	25/01/2010	3	Implementing and Administering Windows SBS 2008 (Course 6445)	€680	alan.deery@newhorizons.com
Dublin	25/01/2010	3	System Center Client Bootcamp	€680	alan.deery@newhorizons.com

Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Betas Available for Download on TechNet

will.craddock — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:55:21 GMT

Today is a very important day for the Information Worker business! The Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 betas are being released today for Technet subscribers.

Microsoft® Office 2010 gives you rich and powerful new ways to deliver your best work - whether you’re at work, home, or school - on a computer, Web browser, or Smartphone. Grab your audience’s attention and inspire them with your ideas using enhanced tools, customizable templates, and photo editing capabilities. Work with multiple people from different locations at the exact same time using new co-authoring capabilities. By offering more ways to access your files from virtually anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control.

I have been using Office 2010 for some time now, as many of you have seen as a result of my PowerPoint presentations running on it. My favourite new features are spread across the office suite. Email is the main application most of us use on a day to day basis so Outlook is the application I turn to for most of my day. Outlook 2010 brings some great new features

Top 10 new ways Outlook 2010 takes your e-mail experience to the next level

	Manage multiple e-mail accounts from one place You can easily manage e-mail messages from multiple mailboxes. Synchronize multiple types of e-mail accounts from services such as Hotmail, Gmail or just about any other provider to Outlook 2010. Improved connectivity with Microsoft Exchange Server supports the use and management of multiple Exchange Server e-mail accounts in one location.
	Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease The Conversation View in Outlook 2010 improves the tracking and managing of e-mail conversations while saving valuable inbox space. Compress your long e-mail threads into a few conversations that can be categorized, filed, ignored or cleaned up with a few clicks.

	Customize common tasks into single-click commands With Quick Steps in Outlook 2010, you can save time by creating and defining multistep tasks that you can execute with a single click, including reply with a meeting request, move to a specific folder, create a new e-mail to assigned groups and more.

	Make scheduling a breeze Conveniently and efficiently schedule appointments, share your calendar availability and manage your work schedule. With the e-mail calendar feature, you can send your schedule to others so they can quickly find time for your next appointment. If you’re using Outlook 2010 on Exchange Server, you can use the new Group Scheduling View to see multiple calendars side by side or save frequently used groups of calendars together from one place.

	Search to easily find what you’re looking for With Outlook 2010, you can easily sort through high volumes of data. The enhanced search tool lets you quickly find and manage large quantities of e-mail, calendar items and contact files.
	Create e-mail messages that capture attention Dynamic graphics and picture editing tools are not just for Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office PowerPoint anymore. With Outlook 2010, you can grab your readers’ attention by using compelling visuals such as pre-built SmartArt Graphics, Themes and Styles. You also can more easily bring your ideas across to your readers by inserting and formatting screenshots in Outlook.

	Access your e-mail in MORE ways Now you can stay connected to your work and personal connections by taking the new Outlook experience with you. Enjoy the new features and benefits from Outlook 2010 on your Windows Mobile-based Smartphone or the Web by using Outlook Web Access.¹

	Ensure that your e-mail messages get to the intended audience For business users, sending unnecessary e-mail messages to out-of-office contacts, accidentally replying to a large distribution list and distributing confidential information outside the company are frequent concerns. With the new MailTips feature, you’re alerted when you are about to send e-mail to a large distribution list, to someone who is out of the office or to individuals outside the organization.²
	Receive voice mail and faxes in your inbox With Outlook 2010 and new technology in Exchange Server 2010 you can have voice mail and faxes sent directly to your inbox, making them capable of being accessed from almost anywhere using your computer, Outlook Mobile or Outlook Web Access.¹
	Initiate live conversations from Outlook Keep in touch with your contacts. By using Office Communicator with Outlook 2010, you can see your Communicator buddy list. Hover over a name, see their availability and then easily initiate a conversation directly through instant messaging, voice call or video.³

see for yourself by downloading and trying the whole Office 2010 Suite and find more information at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

cheers

Wilbour

Exchange 2010 is now Available

will.craddock — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:20:15 GMT

At TechEd EMEA in Berlin we announced the official release and availability of Exchange 2010. As we showcased on the Windows 7 Community Launch Tour in Ireland, Exchange 2010 brings a number of new features and enhancements to an already rock solid, industry leader.

Exchange Server 2010 includes a host of new features customers will benefit from, including new integrated e-mail archive and discovery functionality, new user features to battle inbox overload, voice mail management enhancements, and improvements that simplify administration.

For businesses, highlights include:

New integrated archiving and discovery capabilities.
New unified mailbox resilience model that provides high availability, disaster recovery, and back up capabilities.
Ability to easily delegate administration to specialized users, such the help desk or a compliance officer.
Comprehensive information protection capabilities—from e-mail moderation to automatic e-mail encryption.
The choice to run Exchange on-premises, as a service hosted by Microsoft or as a hybrid of both.

For users, highlights include:

A consistent inbox, calendaring, and contacts experience across the PC, browser and phone.
Integrated conversation view bringing together information across all folders, inbox and sent and deleted items.
Ability to remove (or "mute") themselves from irrelevant conversations with the click of a button.
Text preview of voice mail messages in the inbox.
New Call Answering Rules to easily create customized voice mail rules, such as call transfer options.
Mail Tips to notify users about potential mistakes before they send e-mail.

Technical Details

Cheers

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Free Books to Download

will.craddock — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:39:53 GMT

A couple of free eBooks are available, written by MVP’s. This again amplifies the value that Microsoft MVP’s to the general IT Pro community.

First up is an eBook from Canadian Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and lead author of the just-published (and hot-selling) Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages). Mitch has created a short 11 page eBook called “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

Your sound card has stopped working, your computer seems sluggish, the network is down, your hard drive is clicking, you can’t view a website, your monitor is hard to read, your new webcam isn’t working, your favourite program won’t run, and a funny burning smell is coming from your computer. What can you do on your own to try to troubleshoot the issue before you pick up the phone to call tech support?

If you’re running Windows 7, quite a lot. Microsoft has included a lot of self-support tools in Windows 7 that you can try using before you seek the help of others, and we’ll examine these in a moment. Then there are the tools you were born with—your five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) and most importantly your brain. And by brain I’m including your memory, experience, and capacity for logical reasoning. Finally, there is ancient and sacred lore passed on in secret from Master to Disciple over the millennia. We’ll see shortly how your brain, your senses, and the secrets of the Wise Ones can be very helpful for troubleshooting computer problems. But first let’s look at what troubleshooting tools are built into Windows 7.

You can download the eBook in XPS format here and in PDF format here. Enjoy!

The next book is written by Jaap Wesselius , a Microsoft MVP’s for Exchange Server from the Netherlands. With only 5 chapters, you might think it is light on content but each chapter has quite a few subchapters so don’t think the book is light. It’s not.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Exchange Server 2010
CHAPTER 2: Installing Exchange Server 2010
CHAPTER 3: Exchange Server 2010 Coexistence
CHAPTER 4: Managing Exchange Server 2010
CHAPTER 5: High Availability in Exchange Server 2010

Section 1.6 Exchange Server 2010 Server Roles, for instance, is particularly interesting in explaining the roles – especially for folks like me that still have the old 2003 architecture & server roles in mind.

Section 2.1 Installing the Exchange Server 2010 Prerequisites, reads like a to do list which is particularly useful if you’re new to the new “Exchange Server 2007+” world.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.red-gate.com/specials/Exchange/esa_exchange2010.htm

cheers

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Windows XP and Windows 7 Migration and Coexistence

will.craddock — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:51:09 GMT

Keith Combs, Senior IT Pro Advisor in the US wrote a fantastic blog post on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Coexistence. Instead of duplicating the information, I am just pointing people to this very detailed overview.

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2009/10/27/windows-xp-and-windows-7-migration-and-coexistence.aspx

cheers

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Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool

will.craddock — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:29:20 GMT

When talking to customers and partners about Windows 7, XP Mode and Hyper-V the question that always came back is what hardware is required for the technology. Windows Virtual PC and Hyper-V requires processors capable of hardware-assisted virtualization with AMD-V™, Intel® VT or VIA® VT turned on in the BIOS.

The Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool detection tool helps you check if the computer processor supports hardware virtualization. The tool also checks if this feature is enabled on the processor.

For more information about Windows Virtual PC, please visit the Windows Virtual PC website and for more information on Hyper-V, please visit the Hyper-V website.

DOWNLOAD

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Deploying Windows 7 from an Infrastructure Architect’s Perspective

will.craddock — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:10:22 GMT

October 28, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST (18:00 to 19:30 Dublin)

Title: Deploying Windows 7 from an Infrastructure Architect’s Perspective

Presenter: Doug Klokow

Abstract:

We’ll discuss 5 key areas centered on deploying Windows 7: Developing business justification – Evaluate the capabilities provided by Windows 7 and develop a plan for how to realize business value from these solutions; Where are you today – Explore the differences of preparing for Windows 7 based on your current desktop operating system; Application readiness – Explore the tools and resources available to gain insight into your readiness to deploy Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8, and/or Office 2007/2010; Deployment readiness – Explore the tools and resources available to create a design and deployment solution for your enterprise; Training your employees – Discuss available resources for training your IT Staff and End Users.

SPEAKER BIOS

Doug Klokow

Part of Microsoft Consulting Services for 9 years focused on client desktop deployment solutions. He is part of the Virtual Deployment Practice that is focused on driving early customer deployment on Microsoft client technologies and is also supporting Microsoft’s Desktop Virtualization capabilities and service offerings.

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Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog

Virtualisation Training February and March

Learn about Windows 7 Application Compatibility

SQL Academy Training for February and March

Windows 7 (Ireland) Tech Community Launch - Content Online

Rafal Lukewiecki Business Intelligence Seminar in January

Core Configurator 2.0 is released

Free Technical Training via the Microsoft Tech Academies

Resource Guide to Free Microsoft Software and Online Services

Subsidised Microsoft technical training courses taking place in Dublin and Belfast

Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Betas Available for Download on TechNet

Top 10 new ways Outlook 2010 takes your e-mail experience to the next level

Manage multiple e-mail accounts from one place

Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease

Customize common tasks into single-click commands

Make scheduling a breeze

Search to easily find what you’re looking for

Create e-mail messages that capture attention

Access your e-mail in MORE ways

Ensure that your e-mail messages get to the intended audience

Receive voice mail and faxes in your inbox

Initiate live conversations from Outlook

Exchange 2010 is now Available

Free Books to Download

Windows XP and Windows 7 Migration and Coexistence

Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool

Deploying Windows 7 from an Infrastructure Architect’s Perspective