Plumbing & Wiring in a Microsoft World : Windows Client - Vista

Deployment and MDOP - Training for Technical Professionals

infoz — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:29:00 GMT

Looks like the folks at the Partner Academy have come up with a winning format for some technical training: an in-depth multi-week asynchronous delivery, as described below:

Register now! This Partner Academy class is specifically designed for technical audiences and covers the technical and business aspects of optimizing the desktop with Windows Vista and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack including its architecture, configuration, deployment, and ongoing management. You will get valuable hands-on experience as well as a business value perspective.

The registration link in the Partner Learning Center is:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=252533

[RH]

Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 Released to Manufacturing

infoz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:10:00 GMT

Monday, 04 Feb 2008 - Microsoft released to manufacturing the following products:

Windows Server 2008 - This long awaited product will be generally available on 01 March 2008. Check out the launch coming to a city near you in February and March.

Check out the Australian Windows Server 2008 site for all the information you would want - http://www.microsoft.com/australia/servers/ws2008/

Windows Vista SP 1 - Addresses many of the key issues that our customers have identified with Windows Vista of the last year, both directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement program. With SP1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility. [CM]

Waiting for Windows Vista Service Pack 1?

infoz — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:03:33 GMT

I came across this posting from the Windows Vista Team Blog during a recent trip around my favourite blog sites - worth checking out if you're interested in the likely what / when / where of SP1 for Windows Vista and the associated Beta program. Should help to answer a lot of those questions I've been getting from customers and partners. [RH]

Windows Vista Team Blog : Announcing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta

Update to Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Tool

infoz — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:22:22 GMT

Just a quick update the "Are your computers Vista Ready" posting from the back end of July. The Solution Accelerators team have released an incremental update of the WVHA tool as v 2.1, available here. What's new in 2.1?

· Faster discovery of large enterprises up to 25,000 workstations and servers

· Localized versions available in French, German, Japanese, Korean, LATAM Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese

· Inventory by network subnet (IP range scanning)

· SNMP discovery that gives customers and partners the ability discover non-Windows machines and network devices

[RH]

Aussie Partner Training and Readiness Update

infoz — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:53:00 GMT

Just a quick update on the partner-only training schedule for the next quarter - the following courses are running across a number of locations, including some or all of the following (varies by course): Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney

Windows Server 2008: Developer - a 2 day event designed to introduce developers to the new features of Windows Server 2008

Vista: BDD - 2 days dedicated to the technology, technologies and best practices for deploying Windows Vista through our Business Desktop Deployment methodology

Unified Communications & Exchange 2007 - 2 days focusing on building a unified communications platform to combine e-mail, instant messaging, voice and video

[RH]

Are your computers Vista ready??

infoz — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:22:09 GMT

Understanding how many of your network's systems are Vista and Office 2007 ready is vital before you can even think about taking the plunge and updating your SOE to the latest and greatest in desktop software. Typically, gathering this information would require the use of a configuration management tool such as SMS to collect and report the hardware inventory from across your network. Fine if you've installed SMS and configured inventory reporting, but otherwise what can you do to accelerate this discovery process??

Enter the snappily titled "Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator 2.0". Available for download free of charge, this utility provides a secure and agentless inventory of up to 25,000 systems and reports on the findings - identifying which systems are ready for Windows Vista, which ones require minor hardware upgrades and highlighting others which may be too costly to upgrade. (RH)

Desktop Optimisation Videos

infoz — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:25:00 GMT

Get the latest on optimising the desktop with Windows Vista and the Desktop Optimisation Pack in this series of streaming videos. Ranging in length from 6 to 63 minutes, and covering subjects as diverse as Bitlocker, Advanced Group Policy Management and SoftGrid Application Virtualisation, there's a host of useful information for anyone looking to maximise the performance of desktop systems. (RH)