Matt Hester's WebLog

Windows 7 Film Fest Contest

Check out the fun films from the Windows 7 Film Fest 

The contest took 17 film teams in the Seattle area competed.  Rules were to create a 30 second to 2 minute film, targeted to IT Pros.  Each team picked a different genre from a hat (e.g. Comedy, Music, Parkour, Blast from the Past, etc.).  And they had to include the following in their film:

1. A character called “CIO Wiggins”
2. A line of dialog “The guys in IT are going to like this”
3. Mention “Windows 7”

The results are were pretty funny and interesting.  Check them out!   

Nachos vs Popcorn?

Who doesn't love the movies...and the movies' snacks? It's hard to resist the colorful candy packages and smell of fresh popcorn wafting through the air. But for the calorie conscious, which of these salty snacks is the better choice--the light-as-air popcorn or the crunchy chips dipped in gooey cheese?

This one really surprised me from the Spark people. Which do you get when you go to the theatre?

The average serving of movie theatre nachos (about 30 chips plus cheese sauce) contains 554 calories and 44 grams of fat. If you planned for the treat and split it with your movie date, you won't walk away with too much damage. However, the medium popcorn from the theater packs more than 1,100 calories and an artery-clogging 90 grams of fat (138% of your daily value). Of course, you'd do best to avoid the snack bar completely or bring your own healthy choices, such as bottled water, pretzels, or bite-size raw veggies.

Movie Theatre Snack Attack!
Share Your Reaction to this Showdown on SparkPeople's Message Boards

IT Pro Momentum Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

This is great project involving both Windows Server and Windows 7, take a look at the challenges and solutions below.

Objectives of the project:  We are still running win XP and 2003 server. The great debate we’ve been having is which to upgrade first or at the same time. Coming from the PC side, I’m pushing to do all the desktops first then move to the servers. But, I can see the wisdom of a server first upgrade, which in all likelihood is the direction we are going. Any issue that we have with either our servers or desktops are problems inherent to XP and 2003 server.

Are you piloting or deploying the products:  We are currently piloting and working out the particulars of our rollout plan. We plan to start sometime in the late first quarter early second with our rollout and to finish by the end of summer at the latest. Due to the nature of our business, downtime is not an option. So our pilot planning time is longer than most and pretty extensive.

Products used in the project: Currently testing windows 7 and server 2008 R2 at my site. The Exchange, SQL servers are being tested at another site.

Project description:  We have had great success. The issues I’ve run into have been few and far between. Although, I will say that the configuration for 2008 server has been quite extensive. I was a little unprepared for how much work I was going to have to put into the initial build. For my testing portion, I have 10 win 7 PC’s and several 2008 severs, a DNS, file and print server and active directory. All are DC’s.

Were the objective stated at the beginning satisfied?  Our goals are pretty straight forward. We are to be the test site for the upgrade. If all goes according to plan, then we will talked with developing a rollout plan for all of our site both here in the US and overseas. We are to migrate off XP to win7. Pay special attention to homemade apps and end of life apps. The later are to be tested and if found to not work, then alternatives are to be found. Stay within our ISO goals and maintain quality within the clean rooms. Ease of use amongst our lesser computer literate employees. Also, maintain security among our clean room, shop and warehouse PC’s and servers.

What do you think about the IT Pro Momentum program?   We tried to make this as easy as possible on everyone. I’m sure we would have been able to do it without the program, just would have taken longer. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten my TechNet subscription yet, so I’ve had to use the another admins TechNet account to research issues I’ve run into. As for planning, it’s been pretty good. I like having my plan online so I can bring it up in offsite meetings or anywhere I’m not at my desk. The server 2008 TechCenter was probably the most useful for me. I am still fairly new to the admin position and I wasn’t here for the 2003 server upgrade. So, I utilized the TechCenter a lot when doing my server builds. Along with the TechNet forums, it was invaluable for me.

TechNet Azure webcast - now available for viewing

In Q1 we did a number of events in the Central Region of the US on the topic of Azure.  Budgets being what they are these days, we can’t go everywhere but fear not, we recorded the sessions from the Nashville, TN event.  Here are the links to those recordings.  You can watch the streaming version or download for offline viewing. 

Since we also delivered a develop focused version in the afternoon of the event, I also included the link below to the MSDN session.

TechNet Events Presents: Real World Azure – Live Meeting

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032428582&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Events Presents: Real World Azure - Live Meeting

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032428630&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Here's the Silverlight streaming version of this webcast.

The hard-luck life of a Browns fan

Had this article forwarded to me, thanks John!

Hard-Luck Life of a Browns Fan 

Go Browns!

TechNet & MSDN Events Present: Highlights from “the New Efficiency” Launch

Two System Center betas Announced: System Center Essentials and Data Protection Manager

I just got wind of two

System Center Essentials 2010

More information on SCE here:

• Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteressentials/archive/2009/09/29/sce-2010-public-beta-is-here.aspx
• Main Site: www.microsoft.com/SCE

SCE 2010 is designed specifically for mid-sized organizations and delivers a unified physical and virtual IT management experience.

It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment:

• A unified solution with a single console for managing your physical and virtual servers, client computers, hardware, software, and IT services
• Smart alert notifications of IT issues, providing expert diagnostic information to accelerate problem diagnosis and quickly resolve issues before they cause downtime
• Simplify complex management tasks, like creation of virtual servers, software deployment, update management, and inventory collection
• Designed to be easy to deploy and maintain, exclusively for mid-sized organizations

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

More information on DPM here:

• Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/jbuff/archive/2009/09/29/announcing-the-beta-for-dpm-2010.aspx
• Main Site: www.microsoft.com/DPM

There are lots of reasons to be excited about DPM 2010.  Here are a few:

• Virtualization folks get item-level restore from within VM backups, as well as support for LiveMigration (CSV) scenarios for Hyper-V R2
• SharePoint folks lose the need for a Recovery Farm and gain auto-protection of new content databases
• SQL Server administrators get auto-protection at a SQL instance level, huge scalability increases and a self-service restore utility for DBAs
• Exchange managers get support for Exchange 2010, including DAG configurations, as well as CCR/SCR
• Windows client users get protection and recovery for remote laptops, with protection online and offline
• Disaster Recovery planners get lots of new options around multi-site chaining and protection between sites

Interviewed: Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview

Normally I am the one giving the interviews, well the table was definitely turned on me this time.  David Giard was able to sit me down for a few minutes after my event in Columbus, OH. 

We had a brief chat on Windows Server 2008 R2 and what you can expect to get from the product.

Take a look at the interview here:

http://www.davidgiard.com/2009/09/28/MattHesterOnWindowsServer2008R2.aspx

Books of the Month for October 2009: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Trilogy

For this month I have chosen a Halloween treat for everyone.  I have chosen a relatively new trilogy for you by Dean Koontz.  Dean Koontz wrote his own twist on the Frankenstein story.  This is almost a retelling of this legendary story and he did a wonderful spooky story in 3 parts:

Prodigal Son

City of Night

Dead and Alive

The great thing for you is if you enjoy these stories you can read all stories back to back.  Even though the books have been re-published they originally came out close to 3 years ago.  What this meant for me is quite simply I had to wait nearly a year between each book.  Which in a word: Sucks!!!  Especially when each book gives you no sense of closure and leave you looking over the edge of cliff…..aaarrggggghhhh.  This is really the only negative thing I have to say about the books.

Dean Koontz set the story in the city of New Orleans, and moved the Frankenstein story into modern times, and yes the 2 original principal characters are still in play.  Dean also adds in a detective, her son and partner into the mix and you are set in a wild ride.  This is vintage Koontz, where he takes you down separate plot lines, chapter-to-chapter until the cross paths.  This is the fun part of reading the book, as you get sucked into a plot line from one chapter, the very next takes you down another road.  Sometimes I would skip a chapter to continue the chapter I was on.

These books tell a great story in an interesting and new way, and I think you would enjoy.  If you have read the books, let me know and if you pick them up let me know what you think.  Enjoy

IT Pro Momentum powered Windows 7 Project

Here is another Windows 7 upgrade project, powered by the IT Pro momentum program.  The only issue they are currently working on is a POS system.  Overall interesting project.  Enjoy!

Objectives of the project:  Begin to roll-out Windows 7/Windows Server 2008. Problems we set out to solve were for sure Driver incompatibilities. We have mostly Windows XP machines and were eager to see what Windows 7 had to offer and how it was going to handle the older hardware/software

Are you piloting or deploying the products?  Right now we are in piloting products with windows 7. We are planning on moving forward with this.

Products used in the project: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

Project description:  Deploying windows 7 on test machine checking for stability, reliability, and compatibility with older hardware/software. As of now we are having trouble with drivers for printers and software that runs point of sale software. But other than than we are really enjoying this experience

Are you going to save money?  How much over how many years? Yes/no Were currently gathering figures for you right now.

What do you think about the IT Pro Momentum program?   This program is awesome. A great way for people like me to test software that is out and make sure or at least try to keep our company up-to-date with everything. Without this program we would probably not be planning on rolling out windows 7 any time soon. There is nothing I would change about this program.

Become a System Center Configuration Manager and Operations Manager R2 Guru!

My good friend Kerrie Meyler, is already a guru and her books can help you get there.  Kerrie has written one great book on System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

She is also is writing another great book on System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.  The trick with R2 is currently only being scheduled to be in electronic form, unless there are enough pre-orders for the book.  So if you want to get a hard copy of the R2 book, check it and you can read more about her upcoming book here:

In Development – System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Unleashed

Enjoy the books and if you have read her books, let me know what you think! 

Now this is funny, Bolt owns ESPN

I particularly like the guys stretching and warming up:

Finally some live Event Questions and Answers

Alright what happens when you are on the road for so long you forget how to blog.  Well one of the things, I truly am sorry, is you lose all the fun pieces of paper with questions from live events on them.  I was able to track down most of the questions from the last several weeks of events I have been delivering and here they are.  You will find question from Azure and Windows 7 events.

Again sorry for the delay, and here are some great questions:

Question: Is the cloud, Azure ITIL compliant?
Answer: While it seems no cloud apps are there are two interesting articles on the topic:

• http://cloudstoragestrategy.com/2009/07/cloud-computing-and-itil-measuring-the-quality-of-service-delivery.html
• http://www.microsoft.com/environment/our_commitment/articles/datacenter_bp.aspx

Question: How to turn off window snapping in Windows 7
Answer: It is in the ease of access center in control panel.

1. Open Ease of Access Center.
2. Under Explore all settings, click Make the mouse easier to use.
3. Under Make it easier to manage windows, do one of the following:
   • To turn Snap off, select the Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen check box.
   • To turn Snap on, clear the Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen check box.

Question: What are the minimum requirements for Windows 7
Answer: Are located here: http://windows.microsoft.com/systemrequirements

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Question: What resources are required for XP mode in Windows 7
Answer: In addition to the Windows 7 requirements, Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on.

Question: What is the maximum RAM for Windows 7
Answer: While I could not find this information on any official site, it seems that 192 GB of RAM.
on 64-bit versions seems to be the max.

Question: Why is the version of Windows 7 listed as 6.1?
Answer: If you run ver from the command prompt, you will see the version listed as 6.1, while talking with some folks, that is just the way it is. J

Question: Can you uninstall Windows Media Player?
Answer: Yes, you can turn it off In the add remove programs of Control Panel, of course why would you want to. :-)

Question: What versions of Windows 7 support bit-locker-to-go?
Answer: BitLocker To Go is available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows 7

Question: How to manage XP Mode, compacting and differentials?
Answer: I could not find any specific steps to maintain XP mode, I did find an interesting setup document here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee449430(WS.10).aspx with an interesting note on backing up: :

We recommend that you keep an archival copy of the Windows XP Mode package (WindowsXPMode_xx-XX.exe, where xx-XX is the locale) as a backup in case you need to restore the Windows XP Mode environment. For example, you could burn the .exe package to CD or DVD and store it in the same location as your other installation media. An archival copy is recommended because the Windows XP Mode environment uses two virtual hard disks—a parent virtual hard disk and a differencing disk. The differencing disk is unusable without the parent disk. If the parent disk is deleted or damaged and you need to recreate an existing Windows XP Mode environment, you must use the same parent virtual hard disk that was used when you set up Windows XP Mode.

Question: What are the Microsoft Hosted Applications?
Answer: There are 4 big solution areas: Windows Server, Message and Collaboration, CRM and ERP, you can take a look here for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/hosting/solutions/default.mspx

Question: Where can I learn more about security and the cloud?
Answer: There is some great information online located here: http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/ and here is some good general information on the datacenters worldwide: http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/.  Thanks Kai!  Kai also wrote and interesting post here:

Is Cloud Computing Really Risk Transference? 

Question: What are the specifications for Office Live?
Answer: From the FAQ located here: http://workspace.officelive.com/en-us/FAQ

You only need an Internet connection, a Web browser, and a Windows Live ID with a valid email inbox. Office Live Workspace works with the most commonly used browsers, including:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista.
• Mozilla Firefox on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later.
• Safari 3 and 4 on Mac OS X 10.2.x and later.

Some features may require a browser that supports ActiveX.

Question: Is Office Live cross browser compliant?
Answer: Yes, IE, FF, Safari, see above question on requirements

Question: Does Office online use ActiveX?
Answer: I could not find a list but depending on what your features of Office Live you are using I would say yes.

Question: How do you handle e-discovery in the cloud?
Answer: There is some good discussions going on now about this located here: http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/issues.html#ediscovery

Join TechNet and MSDN Events for a Live Webcast on September 29th to explore Windows Azure™–

As some you have attended the live evnets for Azure this quarter, we have a webcast going on next week, click the links to register!

TechNet Events Present:  Real World Azure

Come spend a morning with us on September 29th to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view!  During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™.  What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job?  Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.

TechNet LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

MSDN Events Present:  Real World Azure

Come spend an afternoon with us on September 29th to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view!  During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™.  What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job?  Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.

MSDN LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

When are you planning to load Windows 7, what are your barriers?

Jon Box one of my teammates sent me a great little article talking about Windows 7 deployments.  

Click here to read the article: Survey: 41 percent of IT admins to adopt Windows 7 by 2010 

Here is a quick part of the article about what the surveyed IT Admins thought the biggest barriers for deployment are:

• Time and Resources: 42.7 percent
• Application Compatibility: 39.1 percent
• OS Deployment / Migration: 8.4 percent
• Hardware Support: 7.5 percent
• Migration of User Settings: 2.2 percent

So what do you think when are you planning to deploy Windows 7, what are your barriers?