My Space for Wise & Otherwise ;)

फरक कुठे पडला आहे.....

2011-07-27T16:37:00.000+05:30

फरक कुठे पडला आहे

लहानपणी धाकटयावर दादागिरी करायचो
पण कुणी त्याला रागावला की पाठीशी घालायचो
काल तोच धाकटा जेव्हा परीक्षेला निघाला
पायाशी झुकून दादा आशीर्वाद दे म्हणाला
थोरला असो की धाकटा फरक कुठे पडला आहे
भावाकरता वाटणारी कळकळ तीच आहे

तेव्हा भाउबीजेला बाबंकडून ओवळणीचे पैसे घ्यायचो
ओवळणी द्यायच्या आधी ताईला खूप चिडवायचो
कमावता झाल्यापासून तिला काय पाहिजे विचारतो
मात्र अजूनही ब्लेकबेरीची मागणी नोकियावर भागवतो
ओवळणी बदलली तरी फरक कुठे पडला आहे
राखीच्या धाग्यांमधला प्रेमळ बंध तोच आहे

लहानपणी चौपाटीवर आईकडे पाणीपुरीचा हट्ट धरायचो
नाही म्हणाली तरी सोबत पाणीपुरी खायला लावायचो
परवा चौपाटीवर आईने मला पाणीपुरी मागितली
मनसोक्तपणे खा म्हणालो तेव्हा ती गोड हसली
पाणीपुरी मागणारा बदलला तरी फरक कुठे पडला आहे
मायलेकाच्या नात्यातला मायेचा ओलावा तोच आहे

कॉलेजात भेळपुरीवर वाढदिवस साजरा व्हायचा
बसथांब्याच्या टपरीवर गप्पांचा तास रंगायचा
आजही वाढदिवसाला पहाटेच प्रत्येकाचा फोन येतो
सेलिब्रेष्नच्या निमित्ताने पुन्हा मित्रांचा मेळा भरतो
शाळा कॉलेज संपुनही फरक कुठे पडला आहे
मित्रांसाठीचा जिव्हाळा अजूनही तोच आहे

लहानपणी मी बाबांचा हात धरून मंदिरात जायचो
त्यांचा हात धरून देवाला प्रदक्षिणा करायचो
आताही मी त्यांच्या बरोबर मंदिरात जातो
मंदिराच्या वाटेवर थकल्यावर त्यांना हात देतो
आधाराचा हात बदलला म्हणून फरक कुठे पडला आहे
बापलेकाच्या नात्यातला विश्वास अजुन तोच आहे

Non Tech days - The Beauty of Nature

2011-04-22T23:14:00.000+05:30

I have this innate habit of suddenly coming out of the dead zone and start blogging like a maniac. Work keeps me occupied for a good amount of time thru the year, well, Consulting isn't easy, and whoever thinks otherwise can go and do whatever. :)

Today being Earth Day, I realized that we really don't appreciate the beauty and silence of nature. As a child, my parents used to send me and my sister to nature camps, treks, etc. so we could experience the beauty of nature, see places and a side of life we've never seen before.

A friend of mine, Miko, recently posted this video she'd come across, and I was left spellbound.

Went on a nostalgia trip remembering the old days whilst also marveling at the stunning photography. Hats off to Tere Sorgejerd.

We never appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us. When paradise is lost, only memories remain..... but better to appreciate the beauty than never. View the video in Full Screen, HD and experience nature like never before.

PDC Nights - 3rd Clocker!

2010-10-28T23:50:00.000+05:30

Microsoft TFS on Windows Azure! What next?? I'm just salivating at the possibilities :) and for a good reason altogether.

Think about it, TFS on the Clous (Azure) and looking at the present demos of the AppFabric Composition Models on scaling OUT the applications using simple connector diagrams and framework is simply amazing.

What all can a developer do in a more scaled and connected environment> Think.....

PDC Nights - Post 2

2010-10-28T23:19:00.003+05:30

An awesome piece of news and demos from the PDC Nights being held here at the Hyderabad Microsoft Campus! Awesome becoz Bob Muglia announced that we can use a VM Image made in Hyper-V and directly upload it to Windows Azure! You read that right! HyperV VM to Windows Azure! :)

And the god of IT, Mark Russinovich demoed the same. Life just got sweeter!

PDC Nights post 1

2010-10-28T22:21:00.002+05:30

With Steve Ballmer Literally storming the stage with a slew of announcements, the best one of the day was that all the attendees would get a free WP7 device today at the PDC10.

Gee... can i pls pls pwetty pls get 1 too? X)

PDC Nights! The Microsoft PDC 2010 - Live @ the Hyderabad Microsoft Campus

2010-10-28T19:59:00.000+05:30

Folks,

Microsoft will be streaming the PDC Live at all it's offices, with the biggest screening happening at the Microsoft Hyderabad Campus at Building 3.

Be here for the in person event at 6 PM IST today evening, and I'm hoping that you've already registered. It's going to be a real big event with Keynotes being Live Streamed, Food & Beverage for the attendees plus a chance to network with Senior leadership from the product teams.

And something else is also in the works for the attendees, something special from Microsoft for ya'll. :)

If you are going to blog / tweet about the event, the Twitter Hashtag is #pdc10 / #pdc2010.

Cheers and meet you at the event.

Abhishek

Now Reviewing: Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista, XP

2010-08-17T12:39:00.000+05:30

Wuhahaha! I'M BACK! Been slammed silly in work :) woohoo! For all those people who used to say I'm vella, here's to ya'll! This in a nutshell explains my 'brief' absence form blogging, but Imma luvin it every bit!

I'm reviewing a new book called as Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista, XP. You can get some brief information about the book HERE !

The book aims to empower the System Admins and IT Staff to secure Windows Client / Desktop OS's effectively by imparting specific top-down knowledge in the following areas:

Implement Least Privilege Security in Windows 7, Vista and XP to prevent unwanted system changes
Achieve a seamless user experience with the different components and compatibility features of Windows and Active Directory
Mitigate the problems and limitations many users may face when running legacy applications
Distribute applications, updates and ActiveX Controls to least privilege users with Group Policy, application virtualization and the ActiveX Installer Service
Ensure reliable remote access for IT administrators to support users by configuring support features and firecall access

Sounds interesting? For me it specifically is. Having a diverse background in InfoSec, Consulting and Implementations, I'd say this book addresses some specific grey-areas that most other books would have overlooked. Not saying the others are bad, but some specific content I'll cite later is more or less prevalent and a must know in todays every changing IT Threat landscape.

Till then, cheers and have a great day. Go thru the e-book, or wait for my next post due in a few days.

Archive your Tweets on Twitter, with help from Microsoft!

2010-06-30T10:39:00.002+05:30

Ever panicked at the thought of waking up one fine day and losing your Tweets? I do. Several times.

Maybe I'm being a bit overly paranoid, but coming from a background in IT Administration, Storage Products implementation and Platform Migration, worrying about Data Backup is just one aspect of my work routine. I use Twitter to talk to a few fun people, socialize, make new friends, plan parties / events and also talk and Tweet about Technology on it.

Being an MSFTian allows me to work on and then tweet about the technology that helps shape, define and enrich our personal and professional lives.

A lot of my personal interactions are carried out on Twitter, and I've used BackupMyTweets to archive some of them, but I've always been left wanting for more.

Enter Microsoft to the rescue! ;) Something like the Brave Knight helping the Damsel in distress if I may put to add a little flourish! :)

There are now over 50,000,000 tweets being created each day. But, tweets are transitory. Twitter itself doesn’t allow access into their database more than two weeks – and for a trending topic, one may not be able to access tweets older than 24 hours.

Enter The Archivist, a new lab from Mix Online. It is a website that allows people to archive, analyze and export tweets.

The Archivist can create archives of tweets equivalent to any search done at http://search.twitter.com. What is the difference between searching directly on Twitter versus searching from The Archivist? Well, once you save a search from The Archivist, your search will continue to run, day and night, every day, every night, creating an archive for you based on that search.

Once you have started an archive, The Archivist data mines on your behalf, providing six visualizations that offer insight into a given archive of tweets.

Any additional data mining you’d like to do can be done by exporting and saving the entire archive, to be manipulated in a program such as Excel.

Some FAQ’s:

Is this a replacement for Bing or Twitter as a Twitter search tool?

No. Bing and Twitter are excellent search engines, but The Archivist’s main features are the ability to save, export, and analyze tweets based on a search. The Archivist will also continue to update your archive.

How long will you store my tweets?

As long as you log in within 60 days of your last log in, we will continue to store your tweets.

Hey, I looked at search.twitter.com and The Archivist and they do not match exactly, what’s up?

There's probably nothing wrong. We've found a great resource for explaining the limitations of Twitter search.

Why did you use Azure?

We wanted to take advantage of our cloud offering and the functionality it gave us. It provided background services, scaling, monitoring, database and more.

Why do I need/want to sign in?

Instead of making you have yet another username and password to remember, we tried making it easy for you by using Twitter to handle your credentials when you want to save your archives.

Hey, this is cool, can I build my own version of The Archivist?

Absolutely. With all MIX Online labs, we make the code and design assets available for folks to peruse and use in their own apps. In fact, you can also contribute to the project if you like. For more information, please visit the Developers' page. It will help you get started building services and applications using The Archivist and it’s codebase.

What is MIX Online?

MIX Online (at http://visitmix.com) is a community site for Designers, Developers and Web Builders. MIX Online provides insights from our team and other industry pros with articles and opinions; free, open source, ready-to-download prototypes and tools from our labs; and we host, speak at and attend lots of industry events.

What is a MIX Online Lab?

A Lab is a free, open source, ready-to-download tool or website prototype. Labs are not official products from Microsoft (e.g. Microsoft Office, MSN, etc.). Check out our other Labs we have built on our Labs page.

Feel this is groovy enough already? Why don’t you give it a spin? I’m already using it.

Deploying Windows 7: A lap around MDT 2010 - Part 4

2010-04-26T14:03:00.000+05:30

After a prolonged absence from blogging and a lot of other stuff happening, I'm back in action, and blogging my way back seems the best way to kick off the action.

In my previous posts, I started talking about Deploying Windows 7 using MDT, and this is a continuation of the same. We've seen the features of MDT, the OS's supported, the WAIK and the MAP toolkit also. So let's start off by diving into the nuances of a Windows 7 deployment!

Installing MDT 2010

MDT 2010 can be installed on x86 or x64 systems running the following operating systems:

Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows 7 or Windows Vista SP1
Windows Server 2003 SP2 (requires .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0)

Before you install MDT 2010 make sure you have installed the Windows AIK 2.0 on your technician computer. You can download both the Windows AIK 2.0 and MDT 2010 from the Microsoft Download Center. MDT 2010 is available in two forms:

MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit_x64.msi
MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit_x86.msi

I'd recommend installing the 64-bit version of MDT 2010 on a 64-bit system such as an x64 version of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Double-clicking on the Windows installer package launches the setup process:

You should ideally perform a complete install:

Once you have installed the MDT 2010 you can launch the Deployment Workbench:

If you compare the scree above above with the older version of the MDT, you can see some obvious differences. Specifically, the old Deployment Workbench had four main subnodes on the left:

Information Center
Distribution Share
Task Sequences
Deploy

The new one still has the Information Center node, but the other three have now been combined into a single Deployment Shares node.

Next, I'll post on how to create a deployment share.

Do More with Less!! Part 1

2010-03-03T13:35:00.000+05:30

I'll be posting a series of posts around the theme "Do More with Less!", albeit with Steve B's Keynote last year at the Tech.Ed India 209, he spelt the new revised Mantra "With Less Do More!". Any way you look at it, in the present IT & market scenario, we as IT Pro's need more resources at less cost to be very productive / effective in what we do, hence this series.

Out of this, and more related to my recent posts on Deploying Windows 7 with MDT, here are a few resources to keep you tweaked, busy for some time in exploring them. ;)

Deployability

Stay Tuned for More in the next part of this series. :)

Deploying Windows 7: A lap around MDT 2010 - Part 3

2010-03-01T21:56:00.001+05:30

In my previous post, I discussed about the capabilities and features of the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) and how it can be utilized in the deployment / planning process for Windows 7 deployment.

In this post, I’ll talk about the MAP 4.0 (Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit) and how to use it in the assessment of your IT Infra before proceeding with an upgrade process to Windows 7. I’m assuming that you already know about the MAP. In case you don’t, you can get more information at THIS link.

Before you use MAP to assess the readiness of your desktop computers for a migration to Windows 7, you need to make sure they can be assessed.

The great thing about MAP is that it is agent less, which means that you do not need to deploy a software agent to each desktop machine that you want to assess. Instead of using agents, MAP uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to collect hardware devices and software information from the computers on your network.

In order for WMI to be able to do this, your desktop computers must be configured to allow remote WMI queries. This means that you have to enable the Remote Administration and the File & Printer Sharing exceptions in Windows Firewall on all your desktop computers. You can use Group Policy to enable Windows Firewall exceptions in an Active Directory-based network (in a workgroup you have to do this manually on each computer).

Also, in a domain environment, you need to run MAP on a computer on which you have logged on as a member of the Domain Admins security group (in a workgroup environment you need to provide MAP with local Administrator credentials for each computer). Additional configuration steps may need to be performed in order to prepare your desktop computers for assessment by MAP.

Performing a Windows 7 Readiness Assessment

To perform your Windows 7 Readiness assessment, open the MAP console, select the Inventory and Assessment button at the bottom portion of the navigation pane, expand Discover and Readiness in the top portion of the navigation pane, and select Windows 7 Readiness

Running a Windows 7 Readiness assessment using MAP 4.0

Click the Inventory and Assessment Wizard link in the right pane to launch the Inventory and Assessment Wizard. On the first page of this wizard you can specify which method(s) you would like to use in order to locate the computers on your network. The supported methods in MAP 4.0 include:

Querying Active Directory for computer accounts in domains or OUs you specify
Using Win32 LAN Manager APIs to query the Computer Browser service to find computers belonging to workgroups
Importing a list of computer names (NetBIOS or FQDNs) from a text file
Scanning a specified IP address range for computers
Manually specifying computer names (NetBIOS or FQDNs) if you only have a few computers to assess
Discover Windows virtual machines running on VMware servers

By default, Active Directory and Windows network protocols are used, but to keep things simple in this example, we will clear the second option and only query Active Directory. Selecting different options on this page may result in additional wizard pages being displayed later on.

Choosing which methods to use to discover computers on your network

On the next page of the wizard we specify the Domain Admin credentials MAP can use to query Active Directory

Specify Domain Admin credentials for MAP to query Active Directory

On the next wizard page, we will specify that MAP should only query for computer accounts in the Seattle Computers OU since those will be the computers we will pilot Windows 7

Specify the domain and organizational units where the computers reside

The next wizard page asks us for credentials MAP can use to remotely connect to each computer using WMI

MAP needs credentials to remotely connect to computers using WMI

Clicking New Account opens the Inventory Account dialog box. Specify a Domain Admin account for the inventory account:

Specify a Domain Admin account for WMI connections to remote computers

Clicking Save adds the specified account to the WMI Credentials page of the wizard

Credentials for remote WMI connections have been specified

The final page of the wizard summarizes the choices you have made

Summary page of wizard

Clicking Finish starts the inventory process and displays a Status dialog box

Status of the inventory process is displayed

Once the assessment is finished, click Close. After a few moments MAP will display the results of the assessment. The following screen shows that two client computers were found in the specified OU and that both of them were ready for Windows 7:

Summary results of the Windows 7 Readiness assessment

Scrolling down the middle pane of MAP shows additional details of the assessment. For instance, we can see in the following screen that there are a few device incompatibility issues that we will need to resolve with device manufacturers before we migrate the computers to Windows 7.

Note that 6% of the devices on the assessed computers may be incompatible with Windows 7

Changing the Hardware Requirements

Let us examine what hardware requirements were used during the above assessment as a basis for determining whether our computers are ready for Windows 7. In the Actions pane at the right side of the above figure, click Set Assessment Properties to open the Assessment Properties dialog box

Default hardware values used by MAP for assessing Windows 7 readiness

By default, MAP uses the following minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7 readiness

CPU minimum speed 1.0 GHz
Minimum free disk space 20 GB for x64 systems and 16 GB for x86 systems
Minimum RAM of 2 GB for x64 systems and 1 GB for x86 systems

What if these hardware requirements are not sufficient for the needs of our business? For example, since we plan on using our two computers in Seattle for some fairly intensive work, such as digital processing, let us increase these minimum requirements and see if our computers will still be ready for Windows 7. To do this, select Use Custom Settings and specify the new requirements shown as follows

Specifying more stringent hardware requirements for Windows 7

Now click Run Assessment to re-run the Windows 7 Readiness assessment using these more stringent hardware requirements

Re-running the assessment

Generating Proposals and Reports

We have now run two assessments that basically answer the following two questions:

How many computers at Seattle are ready for Windows 7?
Will these computers still be ready for Windows 7 given our more stringent hardware requirements?

Let us generate reports we can share and review with our IT team and later with management. To generate reports, click Generate Report/Proposal in the Action pane at the right of the following screenshot shown previously. When you do this, MAP generates a proposal (Word doc) and an Excel workbook containing various reports

Reports and proposals are being generated

Let us look at the Excel workbook first as it contains the detailed information our IT staff will need to review. To find our proposals and reports, select View | Saved Reports and Proposals to open the folder where the proposals and reports are found

Let’s open the Excel Workbook and look at each worksheet. The first worksheet provides a summary of Windows 7 readiness information for computers that are already running a Microsoft Windows client

The next worksheet shows the system requirements provided by Microsoft in addition to any recommended settings that were used in the assessment

The next worksheet provides a summary of Windows 7 readiness information for computers that are already running a Microsoft Windows client operating system. For rows that report "Insufficient Data" refer to the WMI Status column for more information about why inventory data could not be collected

The next worksheet is a summary of the hardware devices found on the computers. It identifies whether a driver is available on the Windows 7 DVD, from Windows Update, or if you need to contact the hardware manufacturer to identify if a driver is available for Windows 7.

This summary worksheet has a row for each discovered device and provides the number of computers where the device was found. To identify the specific devices on each computer, refer to the Device Inventory Details Worksheet

The next worksheet describes the hardware devices discovered on each specific computer. It identifies whether a driver is available on the Windows 7 DVD, from Windows Update, or if you need to contact the hardware manufacturer to identify if a driver is available for Windows 7

The next worksheet describes computers that are not currently able to run Windows 7 and the hardware upgrades required for them to meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 7

The next worksheet describes computers that are not currently able to run Windows 7 or meet the minimum system requirements. It provides the hardware upgrades required for the computers to be ready for Windows 7 using the recommended hardware requirements selected for this assessment

The eighth and final worksheet describes up to 60,000 applications discovered through the inventory process on client machines and provides a count of the number of times a particular version of the software was found. The data in this sheet is based solely upon computers where a successful inventory was performed

Let ‘s examine the Word doc generated by MAP, which summarizes the results of our Windows 7 Readiness assessment

As you can see from the outline on the left, this document contains both the results of your assessment and also some additional information concerning the benefits of deploying Windows 7 Enterprise edition in your organization. You can use this document as the basis for the proposal you will present to management.

MAP 4.0 will give you the ability to insert your own text and logos within the Word template, allowing users such as consultants to customize the outputs with their own “branding” in future scans.

In my next post, I’ll discuss LITE TOUCH.

Deploying Windows 7: A lap around MDT 2010 - Part 2

2010-02-28T13:00:00.004+05:30

In my previous post, I talked about the MDT 2010 and deploying OS's using the MDT. In this post, I'll discuss the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit)

Windows AIK 2.0 Enhancements

Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) is pretty much unchanged although there are some new answer file settings, some existing answer file settings that have changed, and some deprecated answer file settings in Windows 7.
ImageX, the command-line tool for offline servicing of Windows image (WIM) files is still present but has been enhanced with several new command-line options.
Several other command-line tools that were included in the Windows AIK 1.1 are also still included in the Windows AIK 2.0. These tools include Bootsect, Drvload, Oscdimg, and so on.
Now here are a few tools that are new to Windows AIK 2.0:
Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool (DISM) is a new command-line tool in Windows AIK 2.0 that combines the functionality three tools found in the Windows AIK 1.1: Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe), the International Settings Configuration Tool (Intlcfg.exe) and the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PEimg.exe) tools. DISM.exe also includes basic image management capabilities and can be used to mount Windows images in order to add device drivers, packages, and perform other image servicing tasks.
BCDboot is a new command-line tool that can be used to quickly set up a system partition of repair the computer's boot environment (which is located on the system partition). BCDboot is typically run from Windows PE.
User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0 is a new version of USMT for Windows 7 (the old version 3.0.1 was used with Vista) can be used for migrating user profiles during large-scale deployments where you want to maintain existing user data and settings. USMT 4.0 is now included in the Windows AIK 2.0 (with Windows AIK 1.1, you had to separately download USMT 3.0.1) and has some cool new features such as hardlink migration that make migrating user profiles easier than ever.
Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) lets you automate and centrally manage the volume activation of Windows clients using a Multiple Activation Key (MAK). In Windows Vista, this tool was part of Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 and had to be separately downloaded; in Windows 7 however, the new version 1.2 of VAMT is now included as part of the Windows AIK 2.0.

Finally, the following tools that were part of the Windows AIK 1.1 are now deprecated in the Windows AIK 2.0:

Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe) is still included in Windows AIK 1.1 (and also in a default Windows 7 install) but is no longer needed because its functionality is now included in DISM.exe
International Settings Configuration Tool (Intlcfg.exe) has been removed because its functionality is now included in DISM.exe
Windows Preinstallation Environment (PEimg.exe) has been removed because its functionality is now included in DISM.exe
PostReflect.exe and VSP1CLN.exe have also been removed.

Installing the WAIK 2.0

You can install the Windows AIK 2.0 onto a technician computer running any of the following operating systems:

Windows XP SP3
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP3
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 R2

If you install the Windows AIK 2.0 on a pre-Vista operating system, you must make sure that you download and install the .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 first on the system.

The screenshot below shows the splash screen when you install the Windows AIK 2.0. Note that you can use this screen to download the following additional tools you may need for performing your deployment:

Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5 which can be used to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before migrating your desktops to Windows 7.
Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) is an inventory, assessment and reporting tool that does not use agent software and can be used to securely assess your environment prior to beginning your migration to Windows 7.
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 which helps to automate desktop deployment using scripts, a unified Deployment Workbench, and other resources.

Once you have installed the Windows AIK 2.0 on your technician computer, you can use it to deploy the following operating systems:

Windows XP SP3
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
Windows Vista SP1 or later
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 R2

More information concerning the Windows AIK 2.0 can be found in the Windows Automated Installation Kit User's Guide (WAIK.chm) which can be accessed by clicking Start | All Programs | Microsoft Windows AIK on a technician computer on which you have installed the Windows AIK 2.0

Deploying Windows 7: A lap around MDT2010 - Part 1

2010-02-26T09:29:00.001+05:30

A few days ago on one of my insider / peer meetings, I came across a question by a colleague on how to leverage the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 for Windows 7 Deployment. I haven't worked extensively on MDT 2010, but have worked on Win 7 deployments in Test Bed environments using SCCM 2007 & SCCM 2007 R2, and this tweaked my interest.

This will be a series of posts called as "A Lap around MDT", and I'll discuss / detail as much as possible on Win7 Deployment / OSD using MDT.

MDT 2010 Enhancements

MDT 2010 is the next version of MDT and has a lot of changes over the previous version MDT 2008 Update 1.

First of all, you can now deploy Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The previous version of MDT (MDT 2008 Update 1) cannot deploy Windows 7—you must use MDT 2010 to do this. Specifically, you can use MDT 2010 to deploy the following Windows operating systems:

* Client OSes: Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1+ and Windows XP SP3.
* Server OSes: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 R2.

In MDT 2008 Update 1 you had to create and configure distribution shares and deployment points. You may recall that a distribution share was the folder that contained the source files for an operating system such as Windows Vista that you planned on deploying using MDT 2008 Update 1. The distribution share also contained any packages, drivers, or applications you wanted to include in your install. A deployment point on the other hand was a folder that contained all the files needed to deploy your Vista image together with any drivers, packages and applications needed for the install. A big change in MDT 2010 is that these two things (distribution shares and deployment points) are now combined into a single thing called a deployment share. This change simplifies the process of preparing and using your MDT-based deployment infrastructure.

Some additional enhancements concerning deployment shares:

Deployment shares can be hosted on local drives, network shares, or in a standalone DFS namespace
Multiple deployment shares can be opened at the same time in the Deployment Workbench
Deployment shares can be managed from any machine where the Deployment Workbench is installed—provided the NTFS and shared folder permissions are appropriate on the share
Deployment shares can be linked so that when the content of one share is updated the content in the other share is also updated

Another big change in this version of MDT is that the underlying scripting logic has been migrated from VBScript to Windows PowerShell. In other words, most of the tasks you perform using the Deployment Workbench are actually accomplished using Windows PowerShell commands. In addition, you can use Windows PowerShell commands directly to perform various MDT configuration and management tasks and automate them, something that was difficult to do in previous versions of MDT as it required editing complex scripts. In other words, anything you can do using the Deployment Workbench can now also be done using Windows PowerShell commands and scripts.

The Deployment Workbench, which is the integrated workspace from which you can perform all of your deployment-related tasks, has also been enhanced in MDT 2010. For example, you can now create a hierarchical tree of folders in each deployment share in order to help you organize items such as operating systems, device drivers, and task sequences for that share. Plus you can cut/copy/paste and drag/drop items within these folder trees. And you can use selection profiles to manage groups of similar items (such as device drivers for a specific type of machine) as a single item. These changes all make it easier than ever to manage your deployment resources and tasks.

Finally, there are a number of other enhancements in MDT 2010 relating to security, stability and performance. For example, you can now refresh a computer that has a volume protected by Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption without having to decrypt and re-encrypt the protected volume. This makes this particular refresh scenario more secure and much faster than before.

In Part 2, I'll discuss more about the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) in detail.

Microsoft OCS 2007 R2. Wunderbar!

2010-02-22T19:39:00.003+05:30

My post may seem a bit late at best, but better late than never. :)

Office Communications server 2007 is already doing wonders when it comes to IM, live meeting and AV conferencing (with all additional concepts like communicator web access, archiving etc). If one thing I ever wanted to have great improvement at is the VOIP Capability.

It’s already good but somewhere I thought it’s not as great as other features are. I went through so many sources and concluded that the next release of OCS (OCS 2007 R2) is coming up with some real time great improvements and new features as far as voice support in OCS goes.

As per Microsoft Press Release, OCS 2007 R2 is coming up with the following great features.

Next-Generation Collaboration

• Dial-in audio conferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 enables businesses to eliminate costly audio conferencing services with an on-premise audio conferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the overall communications infrastructure.
• Desktop sharing. This feature enables users to seamlessly share their desktop, initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organization on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
• Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time. This application provides users with a list of all available chat rooms and topics, periodically archives discussions in an XML file format that meets compliance regulations, provides tools to search the entire history of discussion on a given topic, and offers filters and alerts to notify someone of new posts or topics on a particular topic.

Enhanced Voice and Mobility

• Attendant console and delegation. This allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences on behalf of other users, set up work-flows to route calls, and manage higher volumes of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
• Session Initiation Protocol trunking. This feature enables businesses to reduce costs by setting up a direct VoIP connection between an Internet telephony service provider and Office Communicator 2007 without requiring on-premise gateways.
• Response group. A workflow design application manages incoming calls based on user-configured rules (e.g., round-robin, longest idle, simultaneous), providing a simple-to-use basic engine for call treatment, routing and queuing.
• Mobility and single-number reach. This extends Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile functionality to Nokia S40, Motorola RAZR, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, allowing users to communicate using presence, IM and voice as an extension of their PBX from a unified client.*

OCS 2007 R2 only on 64 bit!

Another interesting thing is that the OCS 2007 R2 will not support 32 bit machines. It means you cant install OCS 2007 R2 on a machine which is 32 bit. I am pretty much sure that the Messaging Admins would be ready for this as they have already had experienced it with Exchange 2007. And moreover this seems to be a good decision in order to ensure the better performance of OCS 2007, with OCS 2007 R2 getting increased loads in form of new voice features like dial in conferencing and group chat etc.

What are the features I am excited about at its best!

Dial-in conferencing: It was pretty much needed. Conferencing without this feature was not as meaningful as it is now. Though you might still stick with the third party solutions for dial-in conferencing but still you have it in OCS 2007 R2.

Group Chat: It’s a real big thing and quite useful. I’ll come up with a different article all together regarding Group Chat functionality of OCS 2007 R2.

New Certificate Wizard: It’ll help us creating certificates in much easier way and it’s a great help for those fighting to create certificate request for edge servers and a communicator Web Access certificate.

New Group Policy Settings: Options to disable IM between clients and automatic software updates would be the highlights in new group policy settings. Though there are few more interesting policies on its way on OCS 2007 R2.

CDR & QOE on the same server: It’ll be possible to co-locate CDR and QoE on the same server and these two can share the same SQL instance with OCS 2007 R2.

Direct voice mail: You don’t need to call any contact to leave the voice message. You’ll get option to leave the voice message directly to any contact without dialing any number.

Trust me, OCS 2007 R2 is more than the above contents and it’ll be unfolded with time.

System Center Capacity Planner Discontinued!

2010-02-16T09:26:00.001+05:30

And my day started with a big Uh Oh! :) Last night the System Center Team made an announcement on Twitter saying that they are discontinuing System Center Capacity Planner 2007 with immediate effect!

Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) is formally being discontinued, effective immediately, as it no longer supports the current versions of Microsoft applications it was designed for.

The most recent version, SCCP 2007, is no longer available anywhere on MS websites.

No new versions of this standalone capacity planning tool, as well as any new or updated application capacity planning models, will be developed.

As an alternative to SCCP 2007 for capacity planning, the System Center team encourages you to make use of the following resources:

Microsoft Exchange Server – Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator, Mailbox Server Storage Design, and Performance and Scalability.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server/Windows SharePoint Services – SharePoint Products TechCenter, SharePoint Team Blog, and To the SharePoint Blog.
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager – R2 Design Guide and Sizing Helper.

Seeing this, the first thing I did was to check my Technet Account and Viola, SCCP 2007 was no more in the listed downloads under Servers.The only version currently available is SCCP 2006 with SP1, and if I'm no wiser, I'd say that download it ASAP before it is pulled offline too.

More information regarding this development can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sccp/default.aspx

And Announcing the Microsoft Tech.Ed India 2010!

2010-02-11T23:21:00.000+05:30

And finally, the news most folks have been waiting for! The Microsoft India Tech.Ed 2010 is announced, and with the website going online too!

http://www.microsoftteched.in

Whereas TechEd India 2009 was a spectacular event, TechEd India 2010 is surely going to be Mind Blowingly Amazing to say the least. With a streak of Products targeting both the Infra / IT Pro and Developer / Dev Pro side to be launched through FY 2010, it's one event that you surely DON'T want to miss!


	Because you'll return to your office with knowledge and expertise that only four days at Tech·Ed can offer. You can learn about today’s cutting edge trends, helping make life easier for you (and everyone else) at work. But the most important benefit just might be the networking: you can build personal connections with Microsoft experts and peers that will last far beyond Tech·Ed!

The Thinkpad W510: The meanest Laptop on the block!!!!!

2010-02-07T11:43:00.000+05:30

Have some money to spend on the latest wares from Lenovo? Here are the specifications for the new Lenovo ThinkPad W510. Well, at least the one I would order if I could afford it. (6 months down the line, I know I can afford it since I'll be saving that much esp. for this :) )

Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Extreme i7-920XM, 16GB PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 15.6" (396mm) FHD (1920x1080) color, anti-glare, LED backlight,

242 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, 95% Gamut, and the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX880M, PCI Express® x16, 1GB memory GPU.

It also comes with USB 3.0, eSATA, and other bells and whistles. If you have to ask about the price, go order one at lenovo.com but this isn’t a $300 netbook.

The price tag post going for customization with the 16GB RAM comes to a whopping US $ 3169 + shipping, which translates to around 1,54,850.00 INR, which is pretty steep unless you are actually willing to shell out this much.

But the overall computing power and the mean glances you get from your coleagues are definitely worth the price. One item on my TO BUY list this year :D

Full specs at http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf. Order this bad boy at lenovo.com.

SCIT's Annual Event: Sprout IT / IT ELF 2010

2010-02-07T00:23:00.001+05:30

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I was presenting at the annual event of a Constituent college of Symbiosis Pune, SCIT. The event was on Technical Etntrepreneurship, or Technopreneurship, and also uploaded the Slide Deck I'd made for the event.

I got an email from one of the organizers today, and guess what? He very kindly emailed me a photo taken by them while I was presenting! :D

Photo Photo Photo Photo Photo.....is how my nephew in Oz goes, and now so do I! :D

I is happy! :)

Reducing Cost Resources in IT - Part 3

2010-02-03T14:00:00.002+05:30

Building more on some of the resources I've shared in 2 of my previous posts, here are some more for you all to go through, and build on your existing competencies, or establish new ones. The following White-Papers give a good amount of information in IPD (Infrastructure Planning & Design) with respect to technology, and you can utilize / apply the same to not just the Microsoft Technology stack, but other Technology stacks as well.

Whitepapers

And so till I compile the next set of resources, Cheers an have a great day! :)

Technopreneurship!

2010-01-31T16:55:00.001+05:30

I was speaking today at an annual college event @ one institution of Symbiosis, SCIT @ Hinjewadi. The theme was on Technopreneurship, and how Microsoft is helping the Entrepreneurial ambitions and initiatives of Students & Entrepreneurs worldwide via the following programs:

DreamSpark
BizSpark
WebsiteSpark

I covered these programs in brief, the benefits given by each, the qualifying criterion for them and how Microsoft can be woven by us into the Entrepreneurial ecosystem by throwing in a zip & dash of Technology along with a whole load of pep-talk ;) and Evangelism thrown in!!

For those interested in the slide decks, you can download the PPT HERE!

Till then, cheers! :D

Reducing Cost Resources in IT - Part 2

2010-01-28T17:13:00.001+05:30

Building on the resources shared in my previous post, I've got some more video and online resources that'll help you make the most of your new age IT investments on Microsoft Technologies.

Spread from the System Center Suite to Virtualization, Exchange 2010 and Deployment / Provisioning, it's a bit like Baskin Robbins: 31 Flavors, Something for Everyone! ;) :D

VIDEOS

I'm hopeful that these videos help you to learn more and apply the insights from these resources to your practical application scenarios to maximize your ROI and get the best possible TCO. In case you need more in-depth stuff, feel free to mail me at my UG mail ID given in the profile.

Reducing Cost Resources in IT

2010-01-26T12:42:00.003+05:30

The main mantra of IT departments these days is reducing Cost resources / overheads.

Rather from a different perspective, and I'm borrowing a statement made by Steve Ballmer while delivering the Keynote for Tech.Ed India 2009 last year: "Till now, we used to operate on the principle *DO MORE, WITH LESS*. With the market and economy crash that has been rephrased to *WITH LESS, DO MORE*!"

What does this mean for some of us folks who are responsible for the actual upkeep of the mission-critical IT resources? It means that we / you need to get more resources for a cost-effective manner and that you also be at the cutting edge of Technology when it comes to implementing new technology in your IT Infra to reap more benefits.

By re-evaluating IT investments and business practices through a cost optimization lens, businesses have an opportunity to enable more efficient IT operations and delivery as well as more productive, cost-effective business processes.

With this in mind, Microsoft has given some great resources for us all! Take a peek at the On Demand Webcasts and information resources to be more productive, with less hassles. I sincerely hope that you enjoy them as much as I did, and that these resources do give you a value add for your knowledge as well as fattening that resume of yours eh?! :D

Videos

Do drop me a mail at my UG E-mail ID listed in my blog profile if you'd like to know more or get more resources to be more effective, productive and at the razor's edge of technology.

Till then, cheers, and have a great time.

77 Windows 7 Tips

2010-01-23T20:57:00.001+05:30

Windows 7 may be Microsoft’s most anticipated product ever. It builds on Windows Vista’s positives, and eliminates many of that OS’s negatives. It adds new functionality, too—all in a package that is less resource-hungry than its predecessor.

And whether or not you're upgrading from Vista or skipping it altogether and moving up from Windows XP, you'll need to know how to make the most of it in your environment. Here are 77 tips and tricks to get you there.

1. Pick Your Edition. Most business users do not need the more expensive Ultimate Edition; stick with Professional unless you specifically need BitLocker.

2. Upgrading? Go 64-bit. As the second major Windows release to fully support 64-bit, the x64 architecture has definitely arrived on the desktop. Don't buy new 32-bit hardware unless it's a netbook.

3. Use Windows XP Mode. Yes, it's only an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of WinXP—but it's an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of Windows XP! This is the first profoundly intelligent use of desktop virtualization we've seen—and a great way to move to Windows 7 without giving up full Windows XP compatibility.

4. Use Windows PowerShell v2. More than just a shell, this is the administration tool you've always wanted: Parallel, distributed processing for administrative tasks! Manage 100 machines literally as easily as you manage one with the new Remoting feature. Windows PowerShell v2 ships for the first time in Windows 7, and within six months will be available for older versions of Windows.

5. Use AppLocker. We've been fans of Software Restriction Policies since Windows XP, and AppLocker finally makes application whitelisting possible. Use it to enhance or even replace your anti-virus software, ensuring that only the software you want to run will run.

6. Shift to and from Explorer and CommandPrompt. The classic Windows power toy Open Command Prompt Here is now an integral part of Windows 7 Explorer. Hold down the shift key then right-click a folder to add this option to the property menu. While you're in a command prompt, if you want to open an Explorer window with the focus of the window on the current directory, enter start.

7. Record Problems. The Problem Steps Recorder (PSR) is a great new feature that helps in troubleshooting a system (see Figure 1). At times, Remote Assistance may not be possible. However, if a person types psr in their Instant Search, it will launch the recorder. Now they can perform the actions needed to recreate the problem and each click will record the screen and the step. They can even add comments. Once complete, the PSR compiles the whole thing into an MHTML file and zips it up so that it can be e-mailed for analysis to the network admin (or family problem solver, depending on how it's being used).

Figure 1 The Problem Steps Recorder dramatically speeds up troubleshooting.

8. Make Training Videos. Use a tool like Camtasia to record short, two to three minute video tutorials to help your users find relocated features, operate the new Taskbar and so forth. Get them excited about Windows 7—and prepared for it.

9. Start Thinking About Windows Server 2008 R2. Some of Windows 7's more compelling features, like BranchCache, work in conjunction with the new server OS. The R2 upgrade path is pretty straightforward, so there's little reason not to take advantage of the synergies if you can afford upgrade licenses.

10. Prepare Those XP Machines. There's no in-place upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, so start planning to migrate user data now, in advance of a Windows 7 upgrade deployment.

11. Consider Clean Installs. Even when upgrading Windows Vista machines, consider a clean install rather than an in-place upgrade. Yes, it's more hassle, but it'll produce a more trouble-free computer in the long run.

12. Consider Upgrade Assurance. Even if you've never bought it before, consider it for your new Windows 7 licenses. Access to the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which includes App-V, MED-V and other cool technologies, is worth the premium.

13. Find New Tools. Within Control Panel is a single Troubleshooting link that leads you to all of your diagnostic tools on the system. There are additional tools, however, not installed by default. Selecting the "View all" link in the top left-hand corner will help you to see which troubleshooting packs are local and which ones are online. If you find a tool that you don't have, you can grab it from here.

14. Understand Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Windows 7 plays an important role in Microsoft's VDI strategy, where virtualized Windows 7 machines are hosted on a central virtualization server using a special blanket "Enterprise Centralized Desktop" license. Read up and figure out if you can take advantage of this new strategy.

15. Prepare for DirectAccess. DirectAccess makes it easier for users to remotely access their office-based resources, without a VPN. DirectAccess also opens up remote computers more fully to Group Policy—but it requires Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

16. Employ Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). If you quickly want to list or manage Windows packages, features or drivers, use the command-line utility DISM. The "image" in the name may fool you into thinking that this is solely a deployment tool. An online command-line switch lets you manage the features in the currently loaded OS. To get a list of the loaded Windows features, enter dism /online /get-features /format:table. To enable a feature, enter dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:<name>.

17. Embrace Troubleshooting Packs. Designed to help users troubleshoot and solve problems on their own, you need to update your support procedures to acknowledge these Packs. For example, don't force users to repeat steps the Pack already walked them through, and consider developing your own Packs (in Windows PowerShell) to support in-house systems.

18. Check Reliability. The Reliability Monitor was introduced in Windows Vista as 'The Reliability and Performance Monitor." In Windows 7 it has been separated from Performance Monitor and moved to a new location under the Action Center. You open the Action Center in Control Panel and then look under the Maintenance options for the "View reliability history" link. You can also just type in Reliability Monitor from the Instant Search (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 The Reliability Monitor has been broken out separately from Performance Monitor.

19. Accept Diversity. Not every organization will be ready to move entirely to Windows 7 right away. That's fine—but that shouldn't mean the entire organization stays on Windows XP, either. The myths of the cost savings of having only one OS have been largely disproven or downplayed, so use Windows 7 where it makes sense to do so.

20. Get Snippy. The snipping tool has also been around in various incarnations but it's even easier to use in Windows 7. Launch the tool, then drag and drop any part of your screen. The tool will snip the selection. You can save it as a graphic file or annotate with basic drawing tools. Teach your end users how to use this tool so they can grab the snapshots of their problems and send them to the help desk. Or create your own library of visual notes.

21. Presentation Nirvana. Press Windows+P to access the new Presentation mode, and easily turn on your projector and laptop screen at the same time. No more messing with vendor-specific utilities and arcane keystrokes. (Windows+X accesses the Mobility Center, with additional presentation options.)

22. Cut the Clutter. Press Windows+Home to minimize all but the current window, removing background clutter and letting you focus on that report your boss has been bugging you about.

23. Be a Mouse-Click Administrator. Windows 7 makes it easy to gain admin rights with a keyboard shortcut. Click on Ctrl+Shift on a taskbar-locked icon, and voila! You've launched it with appropriate admin rights.

24. Faster Installations. If your computer is capable of booting from USB, try this: XCopy the Windows 7 installation DVD to a sufficiently large USB drive, boot from that drive, and install Windows from there. It's faster than a spinning platter.

25. Burn Discs with a Click. Or two; double-click an ISO file to burn it to your CD or DVD writer.

26. Restore Point Previews Many of us used to shut off System Restore because we were terrified to actually use it; under Windows 7, we can be much calmer. After selecting a Restore Point, Windows will now offer to show you which files and folders will be affected by restoring to that point.

27. Sync Time Zones. If you work with offices in different time zones and frequently find yourself missing meeting times because you are not in sync with their time zone, try the "Additional Clocks" feature that was first introduced in Vista. Within your Date and Time settings is a tab called Additional Clocks, where you can add two or more clocks to your taskbar time, and set them to provide different time zones from your current time zone.

28. Configure User Account Control (UAC). Even if you're a UAC hater, give it another try. Go to the Control Panel to configure its behavior to something slightly less obnoxious than what Windows Vista had, and see if you can't live with the extra protection it offers (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 User Account Control, the bane of administrators, has been revamped and improved.

29. RoboCopyCopyCopy. The always-useful Robocopy.exe can now run multi-threaded; run Robocopy /? to review its new parameters (like /MT for multithreading) and make your copies go faster.

30. Remote Desktop Console. Windows 7 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) does not include a console-based remote desktop utility. And even if it did, the standard remote desktop console has some nagging limitations: It can't move connections around in the list; it can't sort by folders and so forth. If you manage lots of servers from your Windows 7 workstation, try downloading a copy of mRemote from mremote.org. This donation-requested utility allows you to mix together a variety of remote control applications, including Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA), Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Virtual Network Computing (VNC), Secure Shell (SSH) and rlogin. All host names are displayed in a standard tree control that can be divided into folders, sorted alphabetically, and allow you to assign different logon accounts and secure passwords to each connection.

31. Multiple Monitors. Windows 7 makes working with multiple monitors intuitive and flexible. There are a variety of shortcuts and mouse motions that flick windows from monitor to monitor. To make the most of this, you need lots and lots of screen real estate. Try one of the new QWXGA monitors from Samsung (tinyurl.com/qwxgasamsung) or Dell (tinyurl.com/qwxgadell). These 23-inch monitors have a 2048x1152 resolution, making it possible to put two full-sized pages on the same monitor. Pair them together and you'll get enough space to have all your admin tools open along with Office, Visio, your intranet sites and a little note to your mom in Live Mail. Move your taskbar to the left or right side of the window instead of along the bottom to free up even more real estate.

32. Windows PowerShell Scripting. If you want to make the most of Windows PowerShell on Windows 7, you'll need a quick way to build and debug scripts. Windows 7 comes with an interactive editor that allows you to try out cmdlets and test functions on the fly.

33. Drag-and-Drop Notification Icons. The redesigned notification area displays only a minimum number of icons; all other notification icons are moved to a side window. Rather than using the Customize option to select icons for the main display, you can drag-and-drop icons from the side window to the notification area.

34. Add Unindexed Shared Folders to Library. You can add UNC paths such as \\servername\sharename to a Library, but the server must index the folder. If you want to add a UNC path to an unindexed server, you can create a symbolic link to the UNC path, then add the link or links to the library. Use the mklink command. For example, mklink HomeFolder \\ServerName\Homefolder.

35. Simplify Cloned Machine Setups. You can't run Sysinternals' newsid utility to change the identity of a cloned Windows 7 machine (either a virtual machine or imaged PC). Instead, create a template installation then run sysprep /oobe /generalize /reboot /shutdown /unattend:scriptfile. Clone or copy this virtual machine file. When it launches, it will get a new SID and you can fill in the name. The reference for building unattended script files is at tinyurl.com/winunattend.

36. Snap That Aero. The Windows key is great for all your shortcuts. Now you can use it to work with the new AeroSnap feature in Windows 7. Select a window, hit the Windows key and a left or right arrow to snap the window to that half of the screen, or use the up arrow to snap it to the top of the screen.

37. Shortcut the Taskbar. The Windows key is great for shortcuts. You can select the Windows key and a number to correspond to items on your taskbar. So, if IE (for example) is the third icon on your taskbar (not counting the Start button), you can hit the Windows key and the number three to launch or open IE.

38. Manage Passwords. Control Panel includes a new application called Credential Manager. This may appear to be a completely new tool that allows you to save your credentials (usernames and passwords) for Web sites you log into and other resources you connect to (such as other systems). Those credentials are saved in the Windows Vault, which can be backed up and restored. However, you might see this as similar to a tool we have in XP and Vista. From the Instant Search, type in control /userpasswords2 and you will be brought to the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel, where you can also manage passwords for your account (see Figure 4).

Figure 4 The Credential Manager provides a handy, secure place to store passwords.

39. Trigger Actions. Event Viewer is closely tied into Task Scheduler. You have the ability to take an event (select it in Event Viewer) and then from the Actions pane, select the option "Attach a Task" to have that event, when it appears, trigger an action. That action can be: launch a program; send an e-mail; or display a message. This feature may be very helpful in troubleshooting a problem.

40. Browse InPrivate. A new feature in IE8 is the ability to open the browser in an InPrivate Browsing session that allows you to perform banking and so forth from a public location without fear of leaving behind any residue. IE will not retain anything you do in an InPrivate Browsing session. You can perform this action if you are already within IE by selecting the Safety button and then InPrivate Browsing. This will open another IE window altogether. However, you can save a few steps by using the shortcut. Right-click the desktop IE icon, click InPrivate and the windows will open in an InPrivate session already.

41. Go Live. Many applications installed on past versions of Windows have been removed. Starting with Windows 7, these applications (and a few others not typically installed with Windows) have been moved into the Live Essentials downloadable applications, at download.live.com. These applications include Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety and a few others.

42. Remove Apps. Although some applications have been moved off of Windows to become an optional download, other apps, such as IE8, Media Player, Media Center and DVD Maker are still included. In times past, especially when it came to IE, the applications were tied into the OS. However, in Windows 7 you can easily remove them if desired. Head to the Program and Features applet in Control Panel and select the "Turn Windows features on or off" link in the top left-hand corner. Then you can select the checkbox of the features you want to lose or add for your system (see Figure 5).

Figure 5 Windows 7 unbinds many applications from the OS, making it easy to add and remove them.

43. Are You Windows 7 Experienced? System properties has a rating called the Windows Experience Index (WEI). This rating is a collection of five different ratings that are determined by the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT). The highest rating score is 7.9 (compared to 5.9 in Vista), using the categories of Processor, RAM, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Primary Hard Disk. The final rating is not an average of all the ratings, but the lowest of the subcomponent scores.

44. Analyze Processes. One of the coolest new features in the revamped Resource Monitor (resmon) is the ability to see the "wait chain traversal." An unresponsive process will be shown in red in the Resource Monitor; right-click the process and choose Analyze Process. This will show the threads in the process and see who holds the resources that are holding up the process itself. You can then kill that part of the process if you like.

45. Create Virtual Worlds. Virtualization capability has been added to the Disk Management tools. If you open Computer Management, go to the Disk Manager tool and then click the Action button at top, you will see the options Create VHD and/or Attach VHD. This allows you to create and mount a virtual hard drive directly from within the GUI. Note: With Windows 7 you even have the ability to boot a Windows 7 VHD (see Figure 6).

Figure 6 Windows 7 adds a great deal of virtualization support, including the ability to create and attach virtual hard drives from the GUI.

46. Encrypt USB Sticks. Use BitLocker To Go. Maybe you've managed to never misplace or lose a USB key, but for the rest of us mere mortals, it's a fact of life. Most of the time it's no big deal, but what if it contains sensitive data? BitLocker To Go enables you to encrypt data on removable storage devices with a password or a digital certificate stored on a smart card.

47. Lock with Group Policy. Take control through AppLocker application control. AppLocker intercepts kernel calls that try to create new processes or load libraries and ensures the code is allowed to execute. Practically, that means you can eliminate unknown and unwanted software by implementing AppLocker through Group Policy.

48. Be Our Guest. Guest mode proves a convenient method to give a guest or child access to your computer with limits on making system changes, installing software, or writing to the disk outside the user profile. After the user is done and logs off, data saved inside of the user profile is deleted. You cannot use Guest mode in an AD environment.

49. Restore from Backed up Restore Points. You can choose to include restore points in your backups and restore from them when using System Restore. This is convenient if you want to create a baseline of a working configuration and be able to restore to it in the future without overwriting other data on the hard disk.

50. Benefit from BranchCache. BranchCache helps you save on round trips for requested files in remote branch scenarios. If one person requests a file over the WAN, it's cached locally and either distributed across computers at the remote branch or stored on a central server at the remote branch.

51. Disable Search Suggestion Popups. As you type in the Search Box, Windows 7 makes suggestions based on past queries by pulling past queries from the Registry. You can disable this in the Local Group Policy by enabling User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer | Turn Off Display Of Recent Search Entries In the Windows Explorer.

52. Pin Control Panel to Taskbar. If you use the Control Panel frequently, you may have noticed that you cannot simply right-click the Control Panel and select Pin to Taskbar. Instead, you must first Open Control Panel so its icon appears in the taskbar. From there, you can right-click the icon in the taskbar and select Pin this program to taskbar.

53. Leverage Search Connectors. You can now search the Web using the search functionality. Windows 7 includes Federated Search to increase the search scope beyond the local and network resources. Several search connectors are available, such as for YouTube and Twitter, or you can create custom ones to fit your needs.

54. Use Stickier Notes. Even though this feature has existed in previous versions of Windows in one form or another, it's much easier to use in Windows 7. You can stick a note on your desktop for quick reminders. It's a snap to change the font or note color. If you have a note selected, use Ctrl-N to create a new one.

55. Try out Improved WordPad. You probably haven't given much thought to WordPad lately, but the version shipping with Windows 7 has undergone a major renovation. Think of it as a lite version of Microsoft Word. WordPad sports a spiffy ribbon interface, making it a snap to create well-formatted documents. Plus, you are no longer relegated to saving them as .RTF files. WordPad now supports the Office Open XML document (.DOCX) format. This makes it even easier to open .DOCX files created in Word in WordPad.

56. Calculate. Another basic utility that received a major overhaul is the venerable calculator. In addition to standard and scientific views, there are now programmer and statistic modes. You will also love the conversion and calculation features. Want to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit but can never remember the formula? Use the conversion panel. You'll also enjoy the data calculation extension. Quickly find the difference between two dates or calculate a new date by adding or subtracting years, months or days.

57. Manage Services from Task Manager. The Windows 7 Task Manager now includes a tab to manage services. You can quickly see at a glance the status of all services on your machine. Click a column heading to sort. You can even start and stop services with a simple right-click. If you need full-blown service management, use the Services button to launch the Services management console. You may often have the Task Manager running in the system tray; now, having service management access means one less window to have open.

58. Get Under the Hood. Windows 7 offers more ways to peek under the hood without adding third-party solutions. A terrific example is the Resource Monitor. The performance tab in Windows Task Manager is a good start, but sometimes you need more information. Click the Resource Monitor button to get more detailed information and performance graphs for key subsystems like CPU and Disk. You can also find the Resource Monitor under Accessories | System Tools.

59. Check Vital Signs. Another new system tool you'll enjoy is the System Health report. In the Run dialog box, type perfmon /report, which generates a system health report. This report records details about your computer's performance, resource usage and more. The report also includes diagnostic information about things that aren't working as they should and suggested steps to resolve. The reports are saved and can be accessed with the Performance Monitor management console. You can also save as an HTML file or send via e-mail.

60. Get More Windows PowerShell. Windows PowerShell v2 promises to be a game-changer for many system administrators. Many will prefer to use the graphical Windows PowerShell console, also known as the Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE). You'll find this in the Windows PowerShell folder under Accessories. Add a keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+Alt+I to quickly launch it. Run any Windows PowerShell command in the lower panel and see the results in the middle. Create or edit scripts in the top pane. Open multiple Windows PowerShell sessions connected to remote computers. The ISE makes Windows PowerShell v2 easy to use and fun (see Figure 7).

Figure 7 Windows PowerShell has been much more tightly integrated with Windows 7, and adds the Integrated Scripting Environment.

61. Put It on Old Stuff. One perhaps-not-so-obvious Windows 7 tip is that you should attempt to install it everywhere. One user has a 6-year-old laptop that originally shipped with Windows XP. He could never get Windows Vista to install on it. But Windows 7 installed without complaint and runs extremely smooth. Granted, there are some Windows 7 features he can't take advantage of because the processor lacks certain features, but these are minor issues considering the laptop now has life again.

62. Improve Security. In Vista it was difficult to manage system protection via restore points. The System Protection tab in Windows 7 is a vast improvement. In one spot you can configure how much space to devote to restore points, delete and create restore points or even turn off system protection altogether. This is very useful on older systems where disk space may be at a premium.

63. Actually Use Help and Support. Much of Vista's clutter has been reduced in Windows 7. For instance, the Help and Support page has three links, a search window and a link back to Microsoft's Windows site. It's much less intimidating for end users, so make sure they know about it. Search is much improved as well, making for a better, faster experience.

The 14 Best Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

The Windows key now performs a wide variety of functions. Here are a handful of the most useful ones:

64. Win+h - Move current window to full screen

65. Win+i - Restore current full screen window to normal size or minimize current window if not full screen

66. Win+Shift+arrow - Move current window to alternate screen

67. Win+D - Minimize all windows and show the desktop

68. Win+E - Launch Explorer with Computer as the focus

69. Win+F - Launch a search window

70. Win+G - Cycle through gadgets

71. Win+L - Lock the desktop

72. Win+M - Minimize the current window

73. Win+R - Open the Run window

74. Win+T - Cycle through task bar opening Aero Peek for each running item

75. Win+U - Open the Ease of Use center

76. Win+Space - Aero Peek the desktop

77. Ctrl+Win+Tab - Open persistent task selection window, roll mouse over each icon to preview item and minimize others

Want any more reasons WHY we Love Windows 7? :)

References: http://technet.microsoft.com

The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)

2010-01-19T18:16:00.001+05:30

Most of you would be wondering why the heck I, an IT Pro would bw posting something related to the DevPro side. It's funny to a lot of people, but the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle plays a very important and integral part of the way we IT folks, be they Administrators or End users / Consumers IT Services work, use and play IT as a whole.

Microsoft CTO and Senior Vice President Craig Mundie authored a whitepaper in 2002, defining the framework of the company’s Trustworthy Computing program. Four areas were identified as the initiative’s key “pillars”. Microsoft has subsequently organized its efforts to align with these goals. These key activities are set forth as:

Security

Privacy

Reliability

Business Integrity

Security

Microsoft’s first pillar of Trustworthy Computing is security. Security has always been a part of computing, but now it must become a priority. According to Microsoft, security goes beyond the technology to include the social aspect as well. This is outlined in the following three components:

Technology Investment – Investing in the expertise and technology necessary to create a secure and trustworthy computing environment.

Responsible Leadership – Microsoft highlights the responsibility that goes with being an industry leader. This includes working with law enforcement agencies, government experts, academia, and private sectors to join forces and create partnerships necessary to create and enforce secure computing.

Customer Guidance and Engagement – It is important to develop trust by educating consumers with training and information on best practices for secure computing.

Privacy

For computing to become ubiquitous in connecting people and transmitting information over various networks and services it is critical that information is protected and kept private. Microsoft has privacy as the second pillar for Trustworthy Computing and commits to making privacy a priority in the design, developing, and testing of their products. To ensure this privacy, it is also important to contribute to standards and policies created by industry organizations and government. Privacy policies must be honored and practiced across the industry.

Another essential element of privacy is providing the user a sense of control over their personal information. This includes ongoing education, information, and notification of policy and procedures. In a world of spam, hackers, and unwanted pop-ups, computer users need to feel empowered with the tools and computing products, especially when it comes to protecting their personal information.

Reliability

Microsoft’s third pillar of Trustworthy Computing is reliability. Microsoft uses a fairly broad definition to encompass all technical aspects related to availability, performance and disruption recovery. It is intended to be a measure not only of whether a system is working, but whether it will continue working in non-optimal situations.

Six key attributes have been defined for a reliable system:

Resilient. The system will continue to provide the user a service in the face of internal or external disruption.

Recoverable. Following a user- or system-induced disruption, the system can be easily restored, through instrumentation and diagnosis, to a previously known state with no data loss.

Controlled. Provides accurate and timely service whenever needed.

Undisruptable. Required changes and upgrades do not disrupt the service being provided by the system.

Production-ready. On release, the system contains minimal software bugs, requiring a limited number of predictable updates.

Predictable. It works as expected or promised, and what worked before works now.

Business Integrity

Microsoft’s fourth pillar of Trustworthy Computing is business integrity. Many view this as a reaction by the technology firm to the accounting scandals of Enron, Worldcom and others, but it also speaks to the concerns regarding software developer integrity and responsiveness.

Microsoft identifies two major areas of concentration for business integrity. These are responsiveness: “The company accepts responsibility for problems, and takes action to correct them. Help is provided to customers in planning for, installing and operating the product”; and transparency: “The company is open in its dealings with customers. Its motives are clear, it keeps its word, and customers know where they stand in a transaction or interaction with the company.”

Educate yourself and your organization on how to build more secure applications.
The SDL Developer Starter Kit offers content, labs, and training to help you establish a standardized approach to roll out the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) in your organization - http://msdn.microsoft.com/hi-in/security/sdl-starter-kit(en-us).aspx

The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995349.aspx

SDL Home - http://msdn.microsoft.com/hi-in/security/cc448177.aspx

SDL Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/sdl/

Security Forums - http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlsecurity/threads/

The focus for this months' posts will be focussed more on Security from a Software, Applications and usability perspective. So till the next post, cheers :)

Will be offline for a few weeks

2010-01-04T10:04:00.000+05:30

Folks, I'll be offline for 2-3 weeks from today. No more blog posts, et all. Have some things to take care of that merit me spending more time at home with the family, and realign my priorities to set my professional life in the background till all things come full square

Will try to be back online and back to blogging as soon as possible, but family first.
In case you wish to reach me, I'm available 18x5 on my cell phone, or I can also be reached at my Pune User Group ID.

Best wishes to you for the year 2010.

Abhishek