Like any IT Pro, you have what appears to be million tools and strategies to get your desktops deployed.  A very well written guide was just posted to TechNet that gives in-depth guidance on how to get Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 deployed using just a few, targeted strategies for specific scenarios.  This guide outlines the four main deployment methods as well as the IT Skill level required, the infrastructure that helps determine your choice, as well as strategy and tools guidance.  This is an amazing guide that I feel every IT Pro needs to read.

The Microsoft BI team showcased a very cool application known as Falcon Eye at TechEd which takes data navigation to a new level.  Falcon Eye integrates data with Virtual Earth so that you can investigate it hands on through a Microsoft Surface device.  When I did this interview I was so surprised by the WOW factor I really didin't ask may questions.  Have a look and see how you can take data navigation up a notch.

While at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles, I was asked by a couple of different attendees if we had plans to simplify basic configuration of items like networking and machine naming on Server Core.  Well the answer to that is a big YES!  Take a look at this screencast on the new SConfig tool included with Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows Server Backup has some pretty sweet changes coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 including:

• The ability to backup System State as a separate job as well as the ability to do incremental System State backups.
• The ability to exclude specific file types, file folders, and specific files instead of having to backup an entire volume.
• The ability to backup to a volume or a network share instead of requiring a dedicated disk for backups.

Gordon Ryan takes us through a demonstration of these changes in a recent video on TechNet Edge. 

For more information on Windows Server Backup in R2, take a hop over to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Tech Center on TechNet.

Yesterday I posted a link to my Active Directory Recycle Bin demo over on Edge.  Today I thought I would follow that up that post with a few things about the recycle bin feature in R2.

The great thing about the AD Recycle Bin is that if you make the mistake of deleting say an entire OU (you know the one that contains the accounts of every high up executive), you will be able to restore those objects in their entirety to the same state they were in immediately before they were deleted.  Previously we had to rely on re-animation of objects in AD that didn't restore all attributes and group memberships or purchase third party solutions in order to recover from accidental deletions.

A few things to be aware of:

• In order to use the AD Recycle Bin all of the domain controllers in your forest need to be running Windows Server 2008 R2 and your forest needs to be in the R2 forest functional mode.
• You need to enable the Recycle Bin feature since by default it's disabled.  Once it's enabled, you cannot disable it so be aware before enabling the feature.
• The default deleted item object lifetime is 180 days.  You can increase or decrease that value using Powershell.  You can also extend the ability to restore objects longer (via authoritative restore) by extending the tombstone lifetime.

For more information and details on how to execute a restore, take a look at the AD Recycle Bin step by step guide  on TechNet.

Wow what a crazy winter!  I've been traveling around speaking to folks about Windows Server 2008 R2.  Let me tell you all Prague is an amazing city, but winter there is COLD!  *Shudder*.  When I was in Prague speaking to all of the great MCT's who took the time out of their busy schedules to listen to this guy talk, I was asked about the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.  Well folks they are available now.  If you want to get your hands on them simple head over to the download site and grab em while they are hot! 

In the coming days I will also answer several questions that came up during my sessions regarding some of the new features on Windows Server 2008 R2.  For those of you who are not MCT's and have not yet had a chance to learn about some of these features, head on over to TechNet Edge and check out my post on the beta release of Server 2008 R2 as well as my feature demo of the Active Directory Recycle bin.  More feature demos are coming soon so keep checking!

While I do feel that this weeks Texans win over the Packers on the "Frozen Tundra" of Lambau field is Superbowl like... it's not the reason I'm heading to So. Cal for a week.  Apparently there is this thing called vacation that people take to get away from work.  In the 12 or so years as an IT Pro, I never experienced much of that vacation thing.  Well that's all about to change.  For the next week I'm going to be hanging out with the family and Mickey Mouse so no new posts.  Well, unless I find some really cool technology stuff here that I need to blog about.  I'm making a commitment to NOT use my laptop for work evil and to only use it to copy the pictures from the camera to the computer.  We'll see how that works out for me.  I'll be back with new posts starting on the 16th (if not sooner). 

Green IT is a a phrase that's buzzing all around the various publications and being uttered by those executives who help determine the direction of your IT department.  Well what can you REALLY do to improve the power efficiency of your data center?  Last week Adam posted a video with Francois Ajenstat who is the Director of Environmental Sustainability here at Microsoft that addresses some of the solutions out there.  Today I'll follow that up with a link to a white paper and blog post that the Windows Server Performance Team has posted.  These two items will help you discover how Windows Server can help you save power TODAY and not have to wait for future versions of Windows. 

A couple of weeks ago the guys over in the IIS team delivered a new set of media tools for those of you out there who are managing media on IIS.  The IIS Media pack consists of two previously released extensions: Web Playlists and Bit Rate Throttling.

Web Playlists allows you to control on the server side, media playlists from your IIS infrastructure rather than having to have a dedicated streaming server.  You are in control if you allow clients viewing the files to be able to skip past or seek through a media file in a playlist.  Think about it, you could run advertisements for HR's open enrollment before that training video, then bill back HR effectively monitizing an IT asset!  Cool stuff. 

Bit Rate Throttling gives you the ability to meter the delivery of various media file times (11 in all) including .flv, .wmv, and .mp4 files.  This allows you to control how fast or how much data is downloaded to the client.  If you are concerned about bandwidth utilization Bit Rate Throttling for your media will allow you to set rules required to manage your bandwidth.

You only need to work in IT about five minutes before someone comes in and asks you to cut costs and find ways to make things work more efficiently.  Virtualization is an easy way to achieve those goals.  Just like everything else in IT there are many different ways to implement things and many different environments that need to be supported.  A great white paper was recently published that highlights how Microsoft customers are cutting costs and building value using the family of Microsoft Virtualization products.  These are real world customers using virutalization and saving real money.  Take a look at the white paper and while you are at it head on over to the virtualization teams ROI site for more details, an ROI calculator, and even a video.

Running out of room in your data center?  Want to be greener in you data center? Why not just back up a big old container stuffed full of servers, attach it to some UPS and cooling gear and be done with it?  Mike Manos has published an amazing post on his blog about the vision that he an his team have for the future of data center designs.  They also have published a video demonstrating the concepts.  I know it's a long post but there are some really innovative ideas there.

Last week I posted this video interview with Joe Yong talking about virtualization of SQL Server using Hyper-V.  Today I follow that up with a link to a great white paper that details out things such as system resource overhead that is imposed by running SQL in a Hyper-V environment as well as describing out the various test configurations run by Microsoft.  The best thing that this white paper brings are checklists and recommendations to ensure you are running in the best manner possible.  The document also includes some great performance tuning and monitoring suggestions.  I myself have taken the guidance and used it to build out my demo environment that I use when I present on SQL Server.

Customer Preview Program (CPP) availability for Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista was announced today over at the Windows Client Springboard TechCenter.  MSDN and TechNet subscribers can download the SP2 CPP now, the rest of you will get access on Thursday.

 
I wanted to take a few minutes and share with you all some of the changes that are included in this service pack.  What makes this service pack interesting is that it's a single service pack that applies to both the client and server operating systems (Vista and Windows Server 2008).  How is this done?  Well the code base for Windows Vista is shared with the same code base of Windows Server 2008.  This means a single update can be deployed across your entire infrastructure.  This also helps provide the ability to detect and incompatible driver and warn users of loss of functionality during installation or even use that detection to block the installation of this service pack.

On the server side there are three main features:

• Improved power savings over the RTM release of Windows Server 2008
• Integration of Hyper-V into Windows Server 2008.  SP2 includes the Hyper-V RTM Code.
• All previously released hotfixes and security updates are rolled into SP2.

For Windows Vista IT Pros will see improvements in:

• Emerging Hardware Support such as the ability to record data on Blu-Ray media, Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack as well as support for the new VIA 64-Bit CPU.
• Improvements in performance including Windows Search 4 that enhances indexing performance and integrating Windows Search into Group Policy.
• A new Wireless Feature Pack and fixes for issues where Wi-Fi Connections were lost after resuming a PC from Sleep.
• A really cool service pack clean-up tool that restores hard disk space by deleting the previous versions of the files serviced by Windows Vista SP2.
• Of course this service pack includes all previously released updates, hotfixes, and patches since the release of Vista Service Pack 1.

You do need to be aware that you must have Windows Vista Service Pack 1 installed (or Windows Server 2008) in order to get Service Pack 2 installed.  I reccomend pulling down this service pack and get your testing started on your lab machines. 
For more information on Windows Vista SP2 take a look at the Notable Changes in Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Vista SP2 Beta post on TechNet.  Of course for all of your Windows Vista needs head on over to Springboard.

I had a chance to sit down and talk with Joe Yong from Scalability Experts regarding SQL Server and Virtualization.  This short 7 minute video is jam packed with great information.  Head on over to Edge and check it out.