Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server R2: There was very little new for Windows 7, just a consolidation of all released updates. However, the big plus for Windows Server 2008 R2 was the addition of support for Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX – see here for more details.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Exchange 2010: One of the new features that it adds is the ability to sync SMS Messages between a mobile phone and an Exchange mailbox. This is something that I have been asked about on numerous occasions. The full list of updates is here.

System Center Essential 2010: I had been aware of Operations Manager (the previous incarnation of SCE) for some time, but always dismissed it as an Enterprise solution that did not scale to the SME clients that I deal with.  However, this new release is built for midsized businesses with 50 to 500 PCs. SCE 2010 provides a unified solution to the problem of managing servers (physical & virtual), clients, hardware, software and IT services. It enables you to proactively manage your IT environment, helping keep your system up-to-date with a solution that accelerates problem resolution and enables automation of system updates and data collection. You can read more about it here. It is a very impressive product that I will be looking to roll out in the near future.

So what about the fun and games? Well, during the lunch break, they organised a demo of Kinect – Microsoft’s answer to the Nintendo Wii controller that does not need a hand-held controller. This unit plugs into any Xbox 360 and uses a couple of cameras and a microphone to track your movements and speech. It was a lot of fun and definitely on my Christmas list. Here is a short video I shot at the event – you can see the Kinect unit at the base of the screen.

The one limitation was that it only worked on one device at a time, while I needed to connect my iPhone and another laptop. I could have upgraded to their 3G/WiFi device but that was going to involve more expense to get around a very temporary problem. I remembered reading that Windows 7 had a “hidden” feature that allowed it to act as a Wireless Hotspot and share out it’s Internet connection.

After doing a bit of research, I came across a nifty utility that did all the donkey work and greatly simplified setting up a secure connection. I downloaded Connectify here: http://www.connectify.me/ and within minutes had my Windows 7 hotspot up and running. The best thing about Connectify is the price – zero, zilch, nada – i.e. free.

I’ve since used it in a number of locations, and overall it has provided a rock-solid solution to the problem of sharing your Internet connection – recommended.

I’ve been down this road and spent many happy hours with msconfig.exe disabling startup items in an effort to wring some extra speed out of a machine. For a more detailed approach to this problem, have a look at this post from the IT Expert Voice web site. It steps you through the process of establishing exactly how long it takes Windows to start up, and then identifying and eliminating the bottlenecks.

Most people are aware (I hope!) that they shouldn’t download software from an untrusted source so, just because a nice lady phones you, do not assume that she has your best interests at heart.

For the record, the number she called from was 0019476632176.

Update: I just noticed that there is an article about this by Paul Cullen in today’s Irish Times:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0525/1224271087384.html

Update 2: Just got another phone call from them this morning (28 May). The company name is Online PC Care and the phone number this time was 008884084117. She hung up on me as soon as I started asking questions.

However, this feature has a major limitation, it can only sync with one Exchange account. According to news site Ars Technica, this issue is about to be fixed with the next release of the iPhone OS – version 4, which will support multiple Exchange accounts, along with adding a unified Inbox so you can see all your mail from different accounts at once.

Other new features include multitasking support which, for example, will allow Skype to run in the background so you can receive calls while listening to music, encryption support and a “social gaming network”. Note however that all of the new features will only be available on the current iPhone 3GS, the older 3G model will only get a subset and that does not include multitasking.

The new OS is due for release this summer. More details on the Apple web site.

As these phones were second-hand, I wanted to erase any previous config and passwords with a factory reset and this is where I ran into problems. The Cisco documentation on how to do this is slightly misleading, and it’s advice is repeated on most of the sites I visited. I eventually found the correct procedure here. The procedure is to power on the phone while holding down the “#” key. After about 30 seconds, the line lights on the top right-hand side will begin to flash. Type in the sequence “123456789*0#” on the keypad and the display will change to “Upgrading” while it downloads the firmware from your TFTP server. The phone will reboot at least once, if not twice during this process, so do not interrrupt it unless you want a very fancy doorstop.

You can find more information on these phones at voip-info.org. There is a discussion on connecting 7941/7961 phones to 3CX here. Finally, if you are looking for the ringtone they use on the TV series 24, you can download it from here.

A word of warning if you are using the USB version, it comes with a utility to make the memory stick bootable – makeboot.bat. Copy all the uncompressed files to the memory stick and run makeboot from there, otherwise it will overwrite your MBR (master boot record) and make your PC unbootable.

Don’t forget that AVG also do a free version of their Anti-Virus software for home or personal use available here or alternatively, you can try Microsoft’s free Security Essentials.

Note that this only applies to Annex-A hardware in the UK, France and most of Western Europe.

I’ve seen this before, so I had a quick check on the HOSTS file located in \Windows\system32\drivers\etc. The HOSTS file is a hangover from Unix and is used to translate host names (e.g. www.google.com) into IP addresses. Normally, all it contains is a reference to the loopback address, localhost – 127.0.0.1, and on first inspection, this one was fine. But by going into Explorer, Folder Options, View and turning off “Hide extensions for known file types”, it became clear that the HOSTS file had been renamed to HOSTS.msn. The real HOSTS file had been hidden and was filled with entries for Google, diverting you to an alternate IP address.

I couldn’t delete the file, so I renamed it to HOSTS.bad and then renamed the HOSTS.msn to HOSTS. A quick reboot and Google searches were up and running.