The Windows Home Server team have blogged about their World Cup competition - the latest standings are that NZ trails just behind Norway in second place!

Windows Home Server has now been sold in 47 different countries around the world.  The top 8 countries are:

1. Norway
2. New Zealand
3. United States
4. Germany
5. United Kingdom
6. Denmark
7. Australia  
8. Switzerland

The ranking are computed by taking Windows Home Server sales divided by the number of households with a broadband connection in each country.

The biggest event of the year is approaching rapidly and it will be big. Register now and on September 1st -3rd 2008, you'll be a part of the New Zealand TechEd experience!

Since going live with registrations at the end of last week we have already sold out 49% of the 1000 early bird pricing registrations, Tech Ed always sells out in NZ, so if you're keen to come along this year, get your early bird ticket real soon now!

TechNet NZ event series is back in (late) May featuring Microsoft Virtualisation.

Stu and I will be doing a drilldown into and demos of the complete Microsoft Virtualisation Stack including Windows Server Hyper-V, VECD & MDOP, Application Virtualisation (Softgrid), System Centre Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager; and Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services.  Hope to see you there, it will be a busy 3 hour morning with wide interest on this hot technology area.

The official website hasn't been updated yet, so in the meantime you can still register with the URLs below:

Microsoft provides a comprehensive set of virtualisation products, tools, and services that span from the datacentre to the desktop. Our offerings cover server virtualisation with Hyper-V, presentation virtualisation with Terminal Services, application virtualisation with Microsoft Application Virtualisation (Softgrid), and desktop virtualisation with Virtual PC and VECD.

We will also review the positioning and value proposition of this powerful technology with strong management and security features. Virtualisation helps reduce costs, increases agility and system availability for server consolidation, disaster recovery, test and development, and, when coupled with System Centre Virtual Machine Manager, the end-to-end management of the dynamic datacentre.

This is a technical session for technical people, come along for a comprehensive overview of the entire Microsoft Virtualisation stack, packed full of demos and presented by 2 Microsoft subject matter experts on Virtualisation – Stu Fox and Nathan Mercer.

Please register using the links below, so we can cater and organise the correct room layout and sizes :)

• Registration/Coffee        9 AM
• Presentation Start           9:30AM
• Presentation Close          12:30PM

Auckland

Tuesday 27^th May

Microsoft Auckland, Viaduct Harbour

Registration site: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032377956&Culture=en-NZ

Wellington

Wednesday 28^th May

Microsoft Wellington, Lambton Quay

Registration site: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032377958&Culture=en-NZ

Christchurch

Thursday 29^th May

Christchurch Convention Centre

Registration site: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032377959&Culture=en-NZ

Still very handy to use to manage and remote control Virtual Server 2005, and this version works against Window Server 2008 too.  The latest version is now available for download from the DLC

Original blog post here

If you've no idea what VMRC Plus is read on:

Virtual Machine Remote Control Client Plus (VMRCplus)

This tool enables management of Virtual Server 2005. It combines configuration management and remote control of Virtual Server and virtual machines from a single Windows application.

VMRCplus is a tool for both configuration management of Virtual Server and remote control of virtual machines. It allows for local and remote management of Virtual Server and supports simultaneous management of up to 32 Virtual Server hosts.

Remote control sessions of virtual machines are grouped in a single window using Tab pages. The interface enables sorting virtual machines based on various properties like name, status and description. Multi-select of virtual machines enable you to perform actions to change their status or open remote control sessions all at once.

VMRCplus is a Windows application and does not require IIS to manage Virtual Server.

Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enables IT administrators to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2008 from a computer running Windows Vista with SP1. It includes support for remote management of computers running either a Server Core installation or the full installation option of Windows Server 2008. It provides similar functionality to Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack.

As mentioned in the Group Policy Preferences session at Launch this morning, Today the RSAT went live and Released to Web

You can download from here:

· Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista with SP1 (x86): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FF6E897-23CE-4A36-B7FC-D52065DE9960

· Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista with SP1(x64): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D647A60B-63FD-4AC5-9243-BD3C497D2BC5

The Hyper-V team also released their remote management tools.

Read the blog post here

Vista x64 Edition: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=450931F5-EBEC-4C0B-95BD-E3BA19D296B1&displaylang=en

Vista x86 Edition: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BC3D09CC-3752-4934-B84C-905E78BE50A1&displaylang=en

What Is Included in RSAT?

This is the list of Windows Server 2008 administration tools which are included in RSAT:

Role Administration Tools:

· Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Tools

· Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools

· Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools

· DHCP Server Service Tools

· DNS Server Service Tools

· Shared Folders Tools

· Network Policy and Access Services Tools

· Terminal Services Tools

· Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools

Feature Administration Tools:

· BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools

· Fail-over Clustering Tools

· Group Policy Management Tools

· Network Load Balancing Tools

· SMTP Server Tools

· Storage Manager for SANs Tools

· Windows System Resource Manager Tools

The tools in the following list are fully supported managing Windows Server 2003 servers as well:

· Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools

· Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools

· Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Tools

· DHCP Server Tools

· DNS Server Tools

· Group Policy Management Tools

· Network Load Balancing Tools

· Terminal Services Tools

· Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools

I just saved my slide deck from the Launch Wave 2008 event, up onto Skydrive, and its available on the link above. 

All the decks will be officially published up to http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/launchwave/default.mspx later this week, I will update this post once they're available

Core Infrastructure Improvements in Windows Server 2008
Presenter: Nathan Mercer, Microsoft NZ
In addition to incorporating new capabilities and enhancements to existing features, Windows Server 2008 includes a number of improvements in the core OS.
These are aimed at increasing the ability of Windows Server 2008 to support highly critical workloads by improving operational reliability, reducing system failures and easing management.
We will also discuss improvements in networking, security, remote application access, centralised server role management, performance and reliability monitoring tools, failover clustering, deployment, and the file system.

Mauricio from Geekzone was at the Launchwave 2008 event at Te Papa yesterday and posted a photo being snapped next to the "hero" silhouette banner, bearing a quotation about his experience with  Windows Server 2008 / IIS 7.0 as part of his early adopter experience with Win2008

"We have been running geekzone.co.nz on Windows Server 2008 RC since early November 2007. In those 2.5 months Geekzone served more than 6 million page requests, always with great performance - we have received many comments from our users pointing out how faster they felt the site since we installed Windows Server 2008."

I upgraded my demo machines from beta to Release Candidate of Hyper-V last night, and I'll be using them for my Win2008 demos at the Auckland Launchwave 2008 event next week.

This morning it was great to wakeup to the news that we have announced the Hyper-V Release Candidate!

The Release Candidate 0 (RC0) update to the Hyper-V role provides improvements to security, stability, performance, user experience, forward compatibility of configurations, and the programming model. All users of the Hyper-V role are encouraged to apply this upgrade

The download is here, the page also includes installation and migration information.

• The Press release is here.
• KB with x64 install - here
• KB with x86 install - here
• Hyper-V Release Candidate Release notes
• Also check out KB article 949219 which will walk you through the upgrade process step-by-step.
• Hyper-V FAQ
• Hyper-V RC Key Features
• Supported Guest OS for Hyper-V
• How to Install Hyper-V

More info on the Windows Virtualisation Team Blog

A reminder that this year, daylight savings ends two weeks later than previous years due the law changes introduced in April last year. This year, daylight savings ends at 3am on 6^th of April 2008. For more information on products affected, patches that needed to be applied prior to daylight savings starting, guidance and other resources, please refer to the New Zealand Daylight Savings Website.

Get the x86 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en.

Get the x64 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en.

Not long to go now, till we kick off the launch of the 2008 Wave of Server products, starting in Christchurch next week

We've mentioned this in the TechNet Flash, but as a reminder:  join us at one of our Launch Wave 2008 Technical Briefings and get an in-depth look at the cutting edge technologies within Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

The agenda for the Launch Wave 2008 Technical Briefing will consist of a Keynote, followed by two streams of content for IT Pros and Developers.

All attendees will receive a promotional pack containing 'not for sale' versions of Launch Wave products and other software goodies. This include a copy of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, a 40% discount voucher for TechNet Plus subscription and much more. Click here to find out more and to register.

Technical sessions, delivered by an awesome bunch of local and international speakers, will drill into the features and functionality of the Launch Wave 2008 products, with sessions including:

• Core infrastructure improvements in Windows Server 2008
• Security technologies in Windows Server 2008
• Virtualisation
• SQL Server 2008 deployment and management
• SQL Server 2008 for developers
• Web development with Visual Studio 2008
• Building connected applications
• and more

Register here

We have just launched the worldwide availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta.

You can sign up now at http://workspace.officelive.com with immediate access and no waitlist.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta is a free Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that enables people to access their documents online and easily share their work and collaborate with others:

Anywhere Access

•         Store over 1,000 Microsoft Office documents and other files (500 MB available) in a password-protected location on the Internet and access them from almost any Internet-connected computer (full Firefox support for PC & Mac)

•         View Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint or PDF documents, even if Microsoft Office is not on the computer you are using

•         Keep Web-based lists (eg to-do lists, guest lists and wish lists) and ad hoc notes so that they are available when needed

Share and Collaborate With Others

•         Share a single document or a collection of documents; you control who has access to the areas of your workspace

•         Give editing or view-only rights to those with whom you share access, with full document versioning and time-stamping

•         Track workspace activities with the new activity panel and receive notifications when changes are made in the workspace

•         Use Microsoft SharedView beta to work with others in real time and share applications

Extend the Microsoft Office Experience

•         Open and save files directly to your workspace from Microsoft Office XP, 2003 or 2007

•         Automatically synchronise Contact, Tasks and Event lists with Outlook 2003 and 2007 so you are always up to date

•         Export any workspace list to Excel to archive list content or simply take it offline

Sign up yourself and tell friends, family & colleagues to go to : http://workspace.officelive.com

Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Thursday, March 6 (NZ time).

The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark will be independent industry experts and IT pros from organisations that have already deployed Windows Vista—all openly discussing known challenges, solutions and workarounds, and sharing tips & tricks. But this event is really focused on the "virtual" participant—you!

Visit http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events at 6AM NZ Time on Thursday March 6th and ask your questions live during the event. Want to submit your question in advance? You can do that too by e-mailing your question to vrtable@microsoft.com anytime between now and the day of the event. The panel will answer as many questions as they can during the 60-minute event so take advantage of this opportunity to ask the experts and find out what you want to know about Windows Vista adoption.

For those of you who don't know Mark, check out his blog at http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich.

For additional guidance, resources, tools, and straight-talk articles to help address your Windows Vista adoption questions, visit the Springboard Series for Windows Vista.

Add to your calendar here: - CLICK HERE TO SAVE THE DATE -

Yes I know 6AM is early, especially if you're not an early rising lark - but I'll be up early that day and having a coffee in my slippers and participating over the WiFi at home.  Hope to see you there...

A quick reminder that Microsoft Learning will retire 22 exam titles on March 31, 2008. These titles are focused on technologies no longer supported by Microsoft mainstream support and include part of the MCSA and MCSE tracks for Windows Server 2000 and the MCSA and MCSE upgrade paths from Windows Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003.

See here for more info

• Windows Server 2000 exams retiring March 31, 2008
• Windows NT 4.0 exams retiring March 31, 2008
• Exchange Server 2000 exams retiring March 31, 2008
• Other exams retiring March 31, 2008

Just announced this morning, the Windows Live SkyDrive service is now available in New Zealand (as well as 37 other countries around the world)

And now also has five times more space than was previously available — 5GB of free online storage for your favourite documents, pictures, and other files

Check it out and signup here

For more info see the SkyDrive Team blog post here