Register for Tech·Ed before 31 July 2009 and be in to win.

As you may already know, Tech·Ed is New Zealand’s premier technical training event for IT professionals and developers. It’s an amazing opportunity for you to learn, share, network, and have fun!

And here’s the best part: if you register for Tech·Ed before 31 July 2009, you automatically enter the draw to win one of 7 (after all, it’s the year of Windows 7) super-slim Canon IXUS 100 IS digital cameras, with 12.1 megapixels and HD video!

Full specifications of the camera can be found on the Canon website here.

Getting ready to deploy Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2?  Check out the recently released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Beta 2. MDT 2010 is the next version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a free Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. New features such as flexible driver management, optimised UI workflow, and Windows PowerShell, which will help simplify deployment and make your job easier. Save time and money when you deploy faster and more easily with MDT 2010.

Download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2 and give us your feedback (Live ID login and registration required). If already a member, click here.

Learn more about this toolkit by visiting MDT TechNet site

MDT 2010 Beta 2 adds the following new features and functionality:

Deployment Workbench Enhancements

• Manage multiple Deployment Shares from a single Deployment Workbench including local Deployment Shares or from a network location including standalone DFS shares
• Replicate content between Deployment Shares through "Linked Deployment Shares" and use selection profiles to manage what content gets replicated
• Multiple users can now interact with the same Deployment Share
• Create folders to manage Drivers, Task Sequences, Operating Systems, and OS Packages
• Drag-and-drop, copy-and-paste, and cut-and-paste between folders or between Deployment Shares

Powershell Capabilities

• Anything done from within the Deployment Workbench can be scripted through PowerShell
• A drive provider has been added for enumerating folders, items, and properties
• Cmdlets can be used for importing content such as Drivers, Operating Systems, Task Sequences, etc.

Task Sequence and Script Enhancements

• Improved Diagnostics and Logging with more specific error messages
• Real time logging directly to a network share
• Enhanced log collection
• Two new task sequence templates (Capture Only, Post OS Installation)
• Pause and Resume a task sequence
• Automatically detect and fix domain join problems
• Improved user interface for client wizards
• Deploy to a specified disk or partition (Vista or later)
• Refresh BitLocker encrypted systems to Windows 7 without decrypting the contents of the disk

Configuration Manager Enhancements

• Improved wizard for creating task sequences
• USMT 4.0 hard-link support

Also check out Michael Niehaus blog, where he goes through the top features with a series of blog posts including:

MDT 2010 New Feature #1: Logging directly to the network

MDT 2010 New Feature #2: Gathering virtualisation details

MDT 2010 New Feature #3: Suspend and resume a Lite Touch task sequence

MDT 2010 New Feature #4: Folders everywhere

MDT 2010 New Feature #5: Support for multiple deployment shares

MDT 2010 New Feature #6: Drag and drop

MDT 2010 New Feature #7: Boot image creation optimized

MDT 2010 New Feature #8: No more visible command windows when booting Lite Touch Windows PE

MDT 2010 New Feature #9: Copy and paste support in the Deployment Workbench task sequence editor

MDT 2010 New Feature #10: Detection of signed drivers

MDT 2010 New Feature #11: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support

TechNet Magazine July 2009 issue is now available online, below is a sampling of articles from this issue.

User Account Control: Inside Windows 7 User Account Control

User Account Control is a set of technologies that has one overall goal: to make it possible for users to run as standard users. In this article, Mark Russinovich explains how the default Windows 7 UAC mode makes a PA user’s experience smoother by reducing prompts, allows them to control what legitimate software can modify their system, and still enables more software to run without administrative rights and continues to shift the software ecosystem to write software that works with standard user rights.

SQL Server: Understanding SQL Server Backups

In most situations, database backups are critical for recovering from a disaster, but there are lots of misconceptions about how backups work and what a good backup strategy is. In this article, the first in a three-part series on disaster recovery, Paul S. Randal explains how the three most common types of backups work and how you can combine them into an effective backup strategy.

The Cable Guy: Support for IPv6 in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 offer new features that support IPv6 for local and remote connectivity and for simplified management of host settings.

Windows Confidential: Cached Credentials

Depending on your point of view, cached credentials can be both a blessing and a curse. Raymond Chen explains how they work and how you can control them.

Microsoft Press have another couple of free eBooks available for download.  This time they are on Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.  Available as part of Microsoft Press 25 year anniversary “Free e-book of the Month”  Download today as the PDF files aren’t available forever

Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Step-by-step programming scenarios show you how to deliver high-quality VoIP, presence, click-to-communicate, and  contextual collaboration across the enterprise and across time zones.

Click here to download this eBook. 

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit

Get the definitive resource for deploying, configuring, and supporting Office Communications Server 2007—now fully updated. For more information or to buy the print version of this title, visit the Microsoft Learning website.

Click here to download this eBook.

A few of you have have posted comments asking when I will be making the PowerPoint decks from the last UNPLUGGED available for download.  I also received numerous emails asking the same thing.  I’m sorry it took so long, but I finally got the decks uploaded to my Windows Live SkyDrive location.

Here is the link to the folder with the two slide decks – Windows 7 Overview, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview

http://cid-a23ebf2d3f5f8697.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Downloads/TechNet%20UNPLUGGED/2009

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Nathan Mercer

Did you see the news about the general availability dates for Windows 7?  Well the same is true for Windows Server 2008 R2 as well, as announced on the Windows Server Division Blog this morning, Windows Server 2008 R2 has the same RTM and Generally Availability dates.

RTM is on track for availability for OEM partners in the 2nd half of July, and will be broadly available around the same time as Windows 7 – October 22

Hopefully, you are all pleasantly surprised with the availability date, and by how much solid work we have been able to do to Windows Server in a short amount of time – improving scalability up to 256 Logical Procs, Hyper-V V2 with Live Migration, Cluster Shared Volumes, DirectAccess, BranchCache, Remote Desktop Services, reducing its memory footprint.  Wow, impressive, a minor release – all of this is an ‘R2 release’

Download the Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate today and start testing!

The next Wellington Infrastructure Group meeting will feature System Centre Operations Manager 2007 R2

Presented by: Ran Mayron (Microsoft Consulting Services)
When: 8th June 2009 5pm
Where: Microsoft HQ Wellington

The presentation will cover System Centre Operations manager including new and updated features in R2.

• Operations Manager Overview
• Management Packs
• Distributed Applications monitoring
• Service Level Dashboard
• Cross Level Platform (Linux) management
• And a Demo

RSVP to this event

For more info go to http://www.infrastructureusergroup.com/

If you are eager to start your own Microsoft User Group somewhere else around New Zealand, please get in touch, we are keen to assist!

I was browsing for some SharePoint content today and I noticed http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint has been moved over to SharePoint and Silverlight. Another site to add to Ian’s list of public facing sites running SharePoint – microsoft.com.

Cool to see the New Zealand Community SharePoint Conference 2009 listed on the front page too!

This month’s free eBook from Microsoft Press is Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Resource Kit. Download it now!

Join us for the May - June 2009 UNPLUGGED Roadshow as we visit locations around New Zealand presenting technical sessions for Developers and IT Pros. Choose from either the MSDN Stream for Developers or TechNet Stream for IT Pros.

TechNet Stream: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
If you're an IT Pro, join Microsoft IT Pro Advisor, Nathan Mercer as he presents these technical sessions demonstrating the essential features of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Session 1: Welcome to Windows 7

In designing Windows 7, the engineering team had a clear focus on what we call ‘the fundamentals': performance, application and device compatibility, reliability, security and battery life. Feedback from beta users and reviewers of Windows 7 indicate that the attention on fundamentals is resonating well with many users and professionals. This session will explore the new Windows 7 release, with enhanced security and control, secure anywhere access that makes users more productive, and seamless desktop management tools. We will discuss networking features such as DirectAccess and BranchCache and management improvements such as PowerShell V2.0, Group Policy enhancement, deployment features including virtual desktop infrastructure improvements, and Troubleshooting Packs.

Next we will discuss data protection features such as BitLocker and BitLocker to go, and core security improvements including UAC and AppLocker to ensure a secure desktop platform. Finally, the session will explore Windows 7 power efficiency improvements to reduce energy costs and improve battery life. Come see firsthand what all the buzz is about in this demo-intensive session.

Session 2: Introduction to Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft is excited to soon be launching Windows Server 2008 R2, the newest release from the Windows Server family. Join us for this no nonsense technical session, where we will discuss the critical improvements in the next version of Windows Server, including a technical overview of key features and benefits. Keeping with our 2/4 year major/minor release cycle, Windows Server 2008 R2 will be an 'R2 Style' release to address important industry trends including multi-core/many-core, virtualisation, power management, componentisation, and the change to a native 64-bit only architecture. Attend this session and understand how to you cut down on the amount of time you spend doing mundane tasks, reduce end user frustration and support headaches, and give your mobile workforce a competitive edge through ubiquitous access to company data - save time and money through an upgraded Windows Server infrastructure.

Installfest (Optional)

At the end of the sessions, you will have an opportunity to install the Windows 7 Release Candidate on your own machine. You bring your computer - we bring the Windows 7 installation and a Microsoftee to help.

A test PC for the Windows 7 RC should meet these minimum hardware recommendations:
1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
16 GB of available disk space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
DVD-R/W Drive or machine that supports booting from USB
Please bring a spare, non-production computer to install the software onto. We will help with loading Windows 7 onto your machines, and will have wired or wireless Internet connections available for drivers and updates. If for some reason, Windows 7 does not have the appropriate driver for your computer hardware, we will do our best to download drivers off the Internet and get them onto a USB key for you. We won’t be able to provide “support” afterwards, but we’ve created an online forum where you can ask questions.

If you didn’t get a chance to download your own copy of Windows 7 RC we will have a supply of Windows 7 DVDs.

What you need to know before installing the RC.

Register for a Windows 7 RC product key

Dates and Location

25 May: Palmerston North - register

26 May: Tauranga - register

27 May: Hamilton - register

28 May: Auckland - register

3 June: Christchurch - register

4 June: Dunedin - register

5 June: Wellington - register

Sessions 9 - 12.30pm. Level 300 for IT Pros

MSDN Stream: Developing for Windows 7 and Silverlight 3
Find out how to get started developing rich applications for Windows 7 and Silverlight 3. Two sessions, presented by Microsoft New Zealand Developer Advisors, Mike Zeff and Nigel Parker. More information and details.

With TechEd North America now completed last week (you can visit TechEd online) we are kicking off the 2009 Tech Ed season here locally too. Australia and New Zealand events happen in September (8-11th for Australia, 14-16th New Zealand).

Planning is well underway for our local events and you can read more about how the event is shaping up over at Andrew Coates’ blog.

You may have noticed on Andrew’s blog there is a Call for Content. This means you can suggest a session that you would like to deliver at Tech Ed this year.

Here are the rules for submitting content and what we’ll cover/not cover if the track owners select your session(s).

All the way through the process you’ll be able to review your submission and track its status. This is the first time we’ve opened up the Call for Content publically like this and we’re likely to receive many more proposals than we’ve got slots to fill, so please don’t be disappointed if your submission isn’t selected.

Tips for Successful Submissions

• Write a descriptive, fun and enticing title
• Target 300-400 level technical content; 200 level content is in low demand
• Describe content that is new, unique or significantly refreshed from a previous presentation.
• Take a solution oriented approach
• Align your topic to the technologies listed for the track
• Ensure there is no marketing in your content
• Showcase your speaking experience
• Focus on currently released technologies, technologies in beta or technologies that will be released within 12 months of Tech·Ed
• Include one or more live demos. Historically, sessions with strong demos receive higher audience scores

Submitting a topic

So how do you go about submitting a session? Go to the Call for Content tool and register with your email address and the RSVP code TechEdANZ. Fill in all the details and hit submit. You can come back to the site at any time to update or review the progress of your submission.

Registrations for Microsoft Tech Ed New Zealand 09 are now open at www.microsoft.co.nz/teched

This year’s event is shaping up to be the best one yet and will feature a great line-up of speakers from New Zealand and around the world.  Tech Ed 09 will be held from Monday 14 September to Wednesday 16 September at SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland.

A limited number of discounted early bird tickets will be available for the first 600 who register. Last year’s event sold-out in a matter of weeks so if you’re thinking about heading along, sign-up now to avoid disappointment. 

Tickets went on sale at 9AM this morning and as of midday we have already sold 56% of early bird tickets and 14% overall.

Tech Ed 09 will feature 11 tracks on the latest Microsoft innovations, with sessions targeted at the specific interests of developers and IT pros. In particular:

• IT Pros will get new insights into Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, hosting, virtualisation, and reducing IT costs
• Developers will get hands-on time with new tools for security, learn about maximising deployments and the Azure Services Platform, as well as building rich web and client applications, and much more.

Tech Ed 09 is a great opportunity to up-skill on the Microsoft platform and network with others in the IT community, plus anyone who registers for the event gets a free ticket to the Tech Fest party.

You can keep up-to-date with Tech Ed 09 announcements as they happen by following the official Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/techedlive the twitter hashtag we are using for the event is tenz9.

Microsoft Learning has just launched some free Windows 7 training content - three free eLearning Clinics. Specifically targeted at audiences : Consumers, IT Professionals and Information Workers

What’s New in Windows 7 for Consumers (1 Hour)
What’s New in Windows 7 for IT Professionals (2 Hours)
What’s New in Windows 7 for Information Workers (2 Hours)

There are also sample book chapters from upcoming MS Press books and other resources (like Learning Snacks and some chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit) available on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/windows-7/default.mspx

This week, TechEd North America is happening up in LA, in this mornings keynote Bill Veghte announced that Windows 7 is on track to be available for the “holiday season” that means before Christmas for us here in NZ.  

and from Engineering Windows 7 blog:

If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 7 match our expectations then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 3 months. 

You can check out the TechEd keynote videos at TechEd Online

Also today at TechEd we announced attendees will get an opportunity to participate in the invitation-only Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview programme in July 2009. Check out http://www.office2010themovie.com and if you’re interested, join the waitlist for the Tech Preview. More info on the Office 2010 blog.

We also announced 64 Logical Processor support in Hyper-V R2 (up from the original plan of shipping 32 way support)  64 is totally feasible in the foreseeable future with 4 core CPUs mainstream, 6 core out and 8 core coming shortly, an 8 way 8 core machine with 64 cores total. Hyper-V R2 RC also supports Processor Compatibility Mode to Live Migrate between different processors classes, more info on the Windows Server blog, AMD have posted a Live Migration demo, what is different about this, is that they do this across CPU families using Compatibility Mode.

SCVMM R2 will also have a release candidate in about a month. It has support for live migration, Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV), and hot add/remove of storage. SCVMM R2 RC includes:

• Storage Migration
• Queuing of Live migrations
• Rapid Provisioning
• Host compatibility checks
• Support for 3rd party CFS
• Support for Veritas Volume Manager

For more info check out SCVMM 2008 R2.

Welcome to Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) testing.  Go download Windows 7 RC today!

We’re on our way to Windows 7, and the RC is a great opportunity for IT professionals like you to take Windows 7 and begin testing it in your real environment. You get to see what’s coming, and we get to see if our changes and fixes from the Beta testing are working correctly. We want to encourage you to install and actively test the RC code. This will help us ensure Windows 7 is the best possible release, and help you get ready for Windows 7 deployment.

Here’s what you need to know:

This is pre-release software, so please read the following to get an idea of the risks and key things you need to know before you try the RC.

• You don’t need to rush to get Windows 7 RC. The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we’re not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.
• Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use. (Learn more about installing Windows).
• Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don’t test Windows 7 RC on your primary home or business PC.
• Technical details/updates: Before installing the RC please read the Release Notes, and Things to Know for important information about the release.
• Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog or Windows team blog. Want technical guidance, tips, and tools? Visit the Springboard Series on TechNet.
• Keep your PC updated: Be sure turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.
• Microsoft Partners: Learn more about Windows 7 on the Microsoft Partner Portal.

Want to know what has changed between Beta1 and RC?  Watch the What’s New In The RC screencast.  Windows 7 RC offers many improvements over the beta release, including:

• DirectAccess User Experience — Corporate Connectivity Notification has been removed to simplify the user experience; only Internet Access is displayed.
• User Account Control (UAC) — In the beta release, a user could change the notification level in the UAC control panel without receiving a prompt for administrative credentials. The UAC control panel now runs in a high integrity process; changing the level of the UAC will prompt for confirmation. When a user is logged on with a standard user account, that user must provide administrative credentials to change the default UAC notification level.
• AppLocker — The AppLocker UI includes a new Group Policy administrative template, which can be configured by an administrator to display a customised URL when AppLocker blocks an application from starting. The message can be used to reduce help desk calls by directing users to a helpdesk intranet site.
• System Partition Size — The Windows 7 partition drive size (required for Bit Locker and Windows Recovery Environment) has been reduced from 200MB to 100MB.
• Network Troubleshooting — Support for diagnostics is greatly enhanced, including a new Windows Troubleshooting Pack for DirectAccess within Control Panel. If a resource is not reachable (for example, a Web site fails to load), use 'Diagnose Connection' in Internet Explorer or 'Troubleshoot problems' diagnostic entry points to help determine the cause of the issue.

To learn more about Windows 7 from an IT professional perspective, check out our screencasts as well as our resources on Deployment, Application Compatibility, Security, Imaging, and more—all of which are available through the Springboard Series on TechNet.