Most of our users are using Windows Vista as the primary operating system and a lot many of them now looking forward to upgrade to WIN7 Beta. The Windows Vista image loaded on the laptop often creates only a single big partition that has all the Windows files/folders and users data. Now, if a user wants to install Windows 7 Beta, he / she have to install using the upgrade method.

There may be scenarios wherein, users may like to retain existing Vista OS, for testing / application compatibility reasons, in this case users can follow the below steps to have dual boot options without disturbing their older operating system (say vista), just by creating a new partition and then install Windows 7 onto that partition. By doing so, users can have Windows Vista on the first partition and can have Windows 7 onto the second partition.

Steps to Follow:

Step 1: Start Windows Explorer. Right click My Computer and click Manage or click Start -> Run -> compmgmt.msc

This will start Computer Management MMC Snap in.

Step 2: In this screenshot you can see there is Disk 0 with capacity 149.05 GB

There are two partitions

First Partition – BitLocker Created system partition 1.46 GB

Second Partition – Windows Vista of size 147.59 GB

So, in order to install Windows 7 we need to have another partition. We will now create a new partition on which we can install Windows 7.

Note: In some cases you may not find the first partition i.e. BitLocker Created system partition. This is created when you have deployed the MS IT BitLocker Supported Image or users have run the BitLocker Preparation Toolkit on their machine.

Step 3: Right click on the C: Drive i.e. 147.59 GB and click on Shrink Volume

Step 4: Select the amount of space to shrink in MB, below by default selected approximately 74.5 GB. Users can select more or less size depending upon their needs, Click Shrink. This will create new partition with unallocated space

Step 5: Right Click on the unallocated partition and click on New Simple Volume.

This will launch New Simple Volume Wizard. Click Next.

Step 6: Specify Size. We will keep it 30000 MB (30 GB). Click Next.

• In the assign drive letter option select D or E (depending upon the free letter, G in this case)
• Click on Next
• In the Format Partition Select Volume Label and select Perform a quick format option.

If users need, they can change the default Allocation Unit Size or Enable file and folder compression.

Lastly, after the wizard is completed, it will show a brief summary of the options selected. Click on Finish, this will create the new Primary Partition of 30 GB with the selected Label and Drive letter.

Step 7: Now, pop in your Windows 7 DVD and boot the computer from DVD. At the time of installation select ‘Custom Installation.’ Select the newly created partition to install Windows 7.

Ignore the remaining unallocated space that we did not utilize. Click on Next

After the installation you will see Windows 7 as default OS and also the Windows Vista entry in the Windows Boot Manager.

Enjoy Windows 7 dual boot with existing Windows Vista

What's New in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta

Brief Description

This document describes changes in Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) functionality that are available in this Beta release of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Overview

This document describes changes in Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) functionality that are available in this Beta release of Windows Server 2008 R2, including changes to the names of role services and management tools. Remote Desktop Services provides technologies that enable users to access session-based desktops, virtual machine-based desktops, or applications in the datacenter from within a corporate network or from the Internet.

You can download it here

Deploying RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide

Brief Description

RemoteApp and Desktop Connection is a feature in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta, which provides administrators the ability to group RemoteApp programs and virtual desktops and make them available to end users.

Overview

In Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta, RemoteApp and Desktop Connection is a feature of Remote Desktop Services that provides administrators the ability to group RemoteApp programs and virtual desktops and make them available to end users on the Start menu of a computer that is running Windows® 7 Beta or by using a Web browser.

 You can download it here

UPDATE: Thank you Vikram for notifying the typo error in the title.

Happy Virtualization

We have users who use Windows as our primary operating system and most of them are using Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and now lot of users have shifted to Windows 7 Beta. Often when users install Windows, generally they setup a local user (administrator) and then they configure the domain account. After configuring the domain account users usually never login onto our Local User Account. Sometimes user needs to login onto the Local user account for different reasons. For e.g. Domain account password expired and users needs to logon onto computer for accessing data or sending mails, browsing internet. It happens many of the times that because users have not used the local account users tend to forget local user account password. In that case many users reformat the machine.

But ideally spending time on reformatting the machine may not be a good option. So, how do we reset the password of the locked account? We have a solution for this problem. The solution is using DaRT. DaRT stands for Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit.

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset is a core component of the Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, a suite of advanced technologies designed to improve desktop manageability and security and decrease total cost of ownership (TCO).

Resolution

Step 1: Obtain the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 6.0 and create the recovery cd using ERD Commander Boot Wizard based upon WinPE or obtain the CD from the Local IT.

Step 2: Boot the target machine using the DaRT Recovery CD

Select No for NetStart, we don’t require the network connectivity.

Step 3: Select the appropriate language. Default is US and click on Next

Step 4: Select the Operating System. If you have more than 2 Operating Systems, it will show 2 operating systems and Click on Next

Step 5: Once loaded you will see it’s like Windows Vista Bootable DVD Repair tools but with 1 more additional option ‘Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset’; click on it.

Step 6: You will see following tools in DaRT. Click on Locksmith

Step 7: This will launch Locksmith wizard. Click on Next

Step 8: This will show ‘Select New Password’ window. Select the account you want to reset the password. And provide the new password. After that click on Next

Step 9: You will get dialog box ‘Completing the Locksmith Wizard’ On next restart you will have an option to Change the local user account password after you log in.

Click on Finish. Click on Close and Restart

Step 10: Take out the DaRT CD and restart the machine.

Enter the recently changed password for the local user. Then you will get the above message stating ‘The user’s password must be changed before logging on the first time’

Click OK and type in the new password

Voila, you have just changed the password for the local account. Now you can login with the newly created password.

Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch, who leads the IE 8 development team, announced today the availability of Internet Explorer 8 during his keynote address at the company’s MIX09 conference going on in Las Vegas.

Available for Download

Internet Explorer 8 will be available for download at noon EDT in 25 languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified and Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. More information and a download of Internet Explorer 8 (as of noon EDT on March 19) can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8.

Download Internet Explorer 8 here

Attention Windows 7 users.

Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7 Beta at this time

Windows 7 Beta already includes a pre-release candidate version of Internet Explorer 8 that is optimized for that release. Windows 7 enables unique features and functionality in Internet Explorer 8 including Windows Touch and Jump Lists which require additional product tests to ensure we are providing the best Windows experience for our customers. We will continue to update the version of Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows 7 as the development cycles of Windows 7 progress and plan to include the final version of Internet Explorer 8 in the release candidate version of Windows 7 later this year. For the latest information on Windows 7 visit the Windows 7 site.

Makes Common Online Tasks Faster and Easier

In addition to offering improved security and privacy protections, Internet Explorer 8 is one of the fastest browsers on the market today, beating other top browsers in page load time on almost 50 percent of the 25 top comScore Inc. Web sites.* It also helps people save time while using the Web with easy-to-use new features, including the following:

•Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.

•Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.

•Visual search suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.

Read More from Microsoft Press Pass coverage.

The beta software is now available for download on Microsoft Connect. To download, simply go to our site on Connect and sign in with your Live Id.

Call to action:

• Download either the Full Software install or the pre-configured VHD from https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=799
• To get assistance with the beta please participate in the public forums for SCVMM. These forums are linked here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/virtualmachinemanager
• To provide feedback on the beta, use the "Feedback" link on the Connect site to log your feedback.

What is VMM 2008 R2 Beta and what are its new capabilities?
VMM 2008 R2 Beta is a comprehensive management solution for virtualized infrastructure that takes advantage of many of the great new features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta including:

• Live Migration: Enables the movement of running virtual machines from one virtual host to another with no downtime.
• Clustered Shared Volumes: Helps enable Live Migration and eliminates the previous one LUN per virtual machine requirement thus simplifying SAN administration.
• Hot addition/removal of storage: Allows the addition and removal of new virtual hard disks (VHDs) and iSCSI pass-through disks running on virtual infrastructure.
• Networking optimizations: two new technologies -- Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and Chimney - provide increased network throughput while reducing CPU load.

Note: If you are unable to access the download location using the given link. Use the following link, fill up the nomination survey form and the you will be able to access the downloads.

http://services.social.microsoft.com/feeds/FeedItem?feedId=b69011f6-dfb5-4f36-bb6a-e587004d2eda&itemId=4db6bceb-58a8-4b8e-96f9-d2a440265dec&title=Pre-register+for+VMM+2008+R2+Beta&uri=https%3a%2f%2fconnect.microsoft.com%2fSelfNomination.aspx%3fProgramID%3d3021%26pageType%3d1%26SiteID%3d799&k=QloWPUcrLUT6iwsJFAv59C0bNyOdm%2fQBjPlj%2fOnEUsg%3d

For more information visit: System Center Virtual Machine Manager TechCenter

Happy Virtualization