The Vacuum Tube : Resources

And There Was Much Rejoicing: Visual Studio Works in Vista!

Viral Tarpara — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:26:00 GMT

During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability ~~basically things that annoy you~~ from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility ~~Wordperferct 2.0 thanks you~~, some of the system enhancements, such as ~~User Account Control~~, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact ~~made sucky~~ Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements (hazaa!).
Many of the Windows Vista enhancements are documented at the Windows Vista Development Center.

This download installs the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista for the following Visual Studio SKUs:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual J# 2005 Express Edition (English Only)
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Controller
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Code Profiler
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer

Daylight Savings Time Information for the Frustrated IT Professional

Viral Tarpara — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:54:00 GMT

I'm sure there are more than a handful of you that are swamped with some DST issues. If you want to find the latest updated information, refer to these two links:

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/03/02/get-your-daylight-savings-time-dst-answers-real-time.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007/default.aspx

The first link will point you to information regarding a live chat room where you can share, troubleshoot, and get information regarding your DST issues. The second link will point you to a blog dedicated to the DST issue. Hopefully you can all resolve your questions!

Microsoft IT Showcase: How We Deployed Vista

Viral Tarpara — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:32:00 GMT

Hi everyone! I want to invite all of you out there to join Microsoft for a live webcast on March 27th, 2007 to learn how Microsoft deployed Vista within the company. It will give all attendees a great 300-level view of the process as well as an inside look at MSIT! Register here! The webcast will be presented by Chad Lewis, Microsoft IT Group Program Manager. For more information on our many IT showcases and whitepapers, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase

And now back to college basketball :)

Microsoft IT Whitepaper on Virtualization

Viral Tarpara — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 01:51:00 GMT

I'm sure many of you have seen this, and though I linked to it in response to one of my TechNet emails, I thought it should warrant a separate post. The whitepaper is an interesting read on how MSIT has done planning and deployment of virtual servers using Virtual Server 2005. Many businesses are now grasping the concept of virtualization and how it can reduce their IT costs. Something that was only previously deployable with a large IT staff can now be done in a single room on a few boxes. When I think of virtualization, I am reminded of that hilarious IBM ad with the guy who says, "the servers are our friends!" ~~If only their products were as easy to like as their messaging.~~ The point of that commerical is that as IT needs grow, it is logical to add more appliances and servers to meet those needs--but somewhere along the line, many IT departments forget about efficiency. This is not surprising considering senior IT administrators are routinely tasked with putting out fires rather than being an active layer of overall business strategy. As small and mid-size business managers wise up to the cost savings that virtualization can provide now and in the near future with Longhorn, it is important for professionals in the industry learn from best practices from corporations that have gone through the hurdles of deployment using alpha and beta builds. Now, some two years later, explore how a mature solution like Virtual Server 2005 R2 can impact your business today.

TechNet Emails: Zooming Utility, Exchange 32-bit, TechNet Laptop Specs

Viral Tarpara — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:52:00 GMT

So I received a lot of emails congratulating me on a well received presentation, but of course after reading the comment sheets I saw a good many of you were put off by the sound quality. Rest assured future events will address this issue. I'll be answering many questions as I get more time this weekend, as well as do a recap, but in the mean time, I thought I would answer a few emails.

Oscar of Gmail writes

Hi.

I was one of the many in your presentation in the SD convention center.

First of all let me say you did an awesome job, i dunno what other thought about it, but i think it had a little bit of everything and all well explained. I wanted to ask a question at the end of the presentation but a bunch of people just gathered like crazy .

My question was... what are your laptop specs, i mean you had like a bunch of windows and virtual machines running and i didn't see any lag or anything. Well i dunno if it was your laptop running all that cause i saw you had like 3 machines set-up.

Offtopic...

And yeah haha, i saw that WoW icon on one of those desktops, so i guess thats the MMO you talked about. Well then, thanx for the awesome presentation. I'll be reading your blog frequently now.

Thanks Oscar, I appreciate your words. My laptops are awesome aren't they :) At present I am using the IBM (Lenovo) T60P with a Core Duo & 3GB of RAM, though it ran great with 2GB. The only reason Technet guys went up to 3GB was for the large number of server VMs we had to run. Memory is the biggest limitation for us when doing demos since it must be statically allocated when using Virtual PC 2007 RTM (IT'S FREE) ~~LIKE BEER!!~~! The laptop has an ATI FireGL V5200 card, runs most of my DX9 and DX8 games at 1600x1200 and it has a built-in EVDO card from Verizon. Using the drive bay, I have two 100GB 7200rpm drives. Running flawless VPCs is all about managing CPU usage as well as memory. If you have 5 VPCs running but are only at 40% CPU on average load, pile more on and you won't notice a thing as long as you have enough memory. Just make sure you factor in CPU usage spikes per VM 'cause a dual processor will overload quickly as you increase the number of VMs. Read about Microsoft IT and their experience with virtualization in house. I also had a Dell Latitude D820 with 2GB RAM running on a Core 2 Duo. It also had two 100GB drives and 1080P resolution. The only thing ~~two things~~ i hate about the Dell are the video card drivers from Nvidia and the crappy trackpad.

Steve of BK Electric

Hey,

I was at your presentation yesterday morning. I learned alot, thanks! So I'm sold on exhange 2007 but I only have 32 bit hardware and no budget for new hardware. So I have 2.5 questions.

1. will micrsoft be releasing a deployable 32 bit version?

1.5. If so, when?

2. If I purchase a 64 bit license will it cover the 32 bit version when it is realeased?

Thanks!

Steve

Good questions Steve, and ~~unfortunately I don't have an answer of you since I can't comment on vaporware~~ *found it* fortunately I have an official answer if you read this FAQ. For you lazy people, SBS "Cougar" will release after Longhorn and will be 64-bit ONLY. I can tell you that our server products will all be supporting 64-bit here on out as it is much more efficient, stable, and secure platform compared to x86. I wouldn't count on being able upgrade to 32-bit products in the near future. For those of you making hardware decisions, buy x64 even if you plan on deploying 32-bit now.

Junianto of Hotmail

Hi Viral,

I attended your presentation at "Microsoft Launch" in San Diego, CA. I like it. It has a lot of good features with the new platform. My question is that where could I get a copy of the "zoom in" software that you have used during your presentation?

Thank you.

Regards,

Junianto

Yeah that is a great tool for anyone who doesn’t follow Guy Kawasaki’s “10-20-30” rule for Powerpoint presentations. The tool is called ZoomIT and it is a free utility from Microsoft. Download it here.

Here it is "Your Moment of Zen," have a great weekend all!

And There Was Much Rejoicing: Office Migration Planning Manager

Viral Tarpara — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:59:00 GMT

For people who wanted to convert all their MS Office documents to the ECMA OpenXML file format *soon to be ISO ratified* in a batch process, this download will speed up your organization's migration. IT'S FREE!! ~~like beer!~~

Don't worry, it wont modify your orginal binary files, it will just create new XML equivalents in a separate folder. There is no downside, unless you think files that take up half the size is bad. *yay*

Vista, Office 2007, BDD, Exchange, Infrastructure Protection Oh My!

Viral Tarpara — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:29:00 GMT

Test Windows Vista and 2007 Office system for your organization http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx Download the free Business Desktop Deployment 2007 solution to get all the deployment tools http://microsoft.com/desktopdeployment...(read more)