July 2007 - David Overton's Blog

This is a strange blog entry - I got an e-mail from a Beth M who was having problems with people being able to e-mail her. Problem is that I can't e-mail her back! Beth, if you read this, just e-mail at admin@uksbsguy.com from any e-mail account with your full name and I can get back to you. thanks David

[updated on 28th July] Hi, I've pinged this around a bit internally and the answer I got back is that this is not supported and will not work. I have not tried it myself, but don't expect it to work. If you need this sort of functionality you need to look at MS-CRM I am afraid. History: You need a Volume License of Office 2007 to run in Terminal Services. You can get BCM with Volume Licensing of Office 2007 as noted at http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/suites/FX101635841033.aspx Outlook running in Terminal Services does not run in cached mode - http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/ba930d00-dc38-4564-ad00-8304d74f1d8c1033.mspx?mfr=true 3) BCM requires Outlook to run in cached mode (Office 2003 note in a KB about this - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831747/en-us and I have had PSS confirm this is still the case with BCM and Office 2007) Wish this was not the case, but better to say up front rather than pretend. Now, updated, if you look at How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside Terminal Server (which means that BCM can work too) then you can see how to enable cached mode, so providing you have a Volume License you can use BCM inside Terminal Services ttfn David Technorati Tags: BCM , Business Contact Manager , Office 2007 , Small Business

Malware Removal Kit The Malware Removal Kit is a download from TechNet that provides you with excellent guidance and tools to help you restore PCs infected with malware. The newest Solution Accelerator from Microsoft, it provides free, tested guidance to help you combat malware attacks and restore infected systems - so users can safely get back to work. The kit shows you how to use the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) to discover malware by performing a thorough offline scan of your computers, uncovering malware that may be hiding in the operating system. And once malware is located and identified, it can be quickly removed from infected PCs with a number of free anti-malware tools, like the Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Malware Removal , WinPE , Security

This information is from the last 2 Technet newsletters ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet ) Unified Communications Team Blog http://blogs.technet.com/uc/default.aspx Unified Communications - Office Communication Server 2007 Videos Two videos, one on Office Communications Server 2007 and one on Office RoundTable http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d67d3e846-ae4a-4b30-9e0c-eac22bd2a58a%26DisplayLang%3den Unified Communications and Collaboration Event Presentation Downloads Unified Communications and Collaborations Event Downloads http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3da10931b2-dceb-4ddc-8c5a-25c4b2c5804c%26DisplayLang%3den Using Exchange Server 2007 for Unified Messaging and Fax How can you best implement the Unified Messaging (UM) features of Exchange Server 2007? Microsoft IT uses the UM features of Exchange Server 2007 to integrate voice messaging with the internal e-mail messaging environment. This content will detail the technical implementation and deployment strategy for deploying Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging features in the Microsoft enterprise messaging environment. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=9&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3dde6b24ab-0d23-4d82-ac2e-342a86b22580%26DisplayLang%3den ttfn David Technorati Tags: Unified Communications , Office Communications Server , Exchange 2007 , RoundTable

I saw this and thought I would share it. Given the rumours around what can and cannot be done with Virtual Server and the technologies coming with Longhorn Windows Server 2008. I did not realise that we offered "Quick" migrations - a few seconds downtime - when moving from machine to machine. With recent announcements there has been some confusion about what Windows Server Virtualisation, can do: Virtual Server 2005 allows VMs to be moved between hosts and has a scripting API to enable this. VMs can move to Windows Server virtualisation, and you will move virtual machines between WSv servers. Our research shows scheduled maintenance - outside the working day - accounts for the overwhelming majority of moves (moving workloads for load balancing is very infrequent); workloads are moved to keep them running while their normal server is taken down to service the hardware or patch the parent/host operating system - something which will be required less with the new server core option. Live Migration should be invisible to users. It copies memory contents from the source host to the target in the background before taking it down. Only the last few bytes are copied with the source server down so the switch happens in less than a second. Some competing products can do this today, but it has been postponed to a later release of Windows Server virtualisation. We will still offer Quick Migration functionality. 'Quick' varies between a couple of seconds and a couple of minutes depending the speed of memory and disk - because with quick migration we save the state of the virtual machine, reattach the VHD and saved state to a new host and resume. Depending on the situation users may not be aware anything has happened, or they may see a brief loss of service. Both types use Windows Clustering to move the storage connectivity between hosts - we don't copy the VHD (that would be "'slow migration'). And this gives us a high availability failover solution for unplanned downtime - the virtual machines...

I saw this had been published and thought I would share - it is an amazing tool that I use for diagnosis all the time. Reading http://www.ditii.com/2007/07/03/network-monitor-31-released/ it also reminded me that this includes traces on wireless networks!! Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 Network Monitor 3.1 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. Version 3.1 is an update and replaces Network Monitor 3.0. Network Monitor 3.x is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version. Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Vista; Windows XP; Windows XP 64-bit It is suggested that you have a CPU of 1GHz or greater, 1G or greater of Memory and 25 Megs of available Hard Disk space, plus room for capture files. Supports Vista 64 bit as well as 32 bit. Instructions Network Monitor 3.1 can co-exist with Netmon2.x. NM3.1 installs in %program files%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3, so there is no conflict. But it will require that NM3.0 be uninstalled first. The NM3.1 install will do this automatically for you. For Vista, we have a new driver that supports new features available in the NDIS 6.0 driver. If you are using tools that rely on Network Monitor 2.x NPPTools, these tools will no longer work. Capturing on Vista requires NM3.0 or NM3.1, as Netmon2.x does not capture properly on Vista. Warning: Capturing with the NM3 GUI with conversations enabled can use up considerable amount of memory. This may cause a machine to become unresponsive. If you need to capture data for long periods of time, please use the included command line utility, NMCap, and the /DisableConversations switch. Download details: Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 ttfn David Technorati Tags: NetMon , Network Monitor , Network , Windows Vista , Windows Server 2003 R2 , SBS 2003 , troubleshooting

Office Communications Server 2007 Ignite Workshop This two-day workshop introduces many of the new features and capabilities that are built into Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, including Rich Presence, Instant Messaging, Audio/Video Conferencing, and Voice. Click here to enrol. Implementing and Maintaining Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Course This is a residential, intensive and compressed course intended for those partners who want to get a head start on the new SharePoint certifications. Ten days compressed into five Training for 12+ hours a day Residential course, with 24 hour availability of labs and instructor Exams taken during the week Limited number of seats – few deliveries are planned, so if you want your Partners to attend please encourage them to sign up now Click here for more information or to enrol Partner Sales 101 The next one is being held on the 11 th September 2007 Aim: This session will equip sales people with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to talk to new and existing customers about the business benefits of Microsoft technologies, and associated areas such as licensing. Target Audience : This session is aimed at sales people. People within a partner organisation who present technology solutions to customers from a non-technical or business point of view and people who are not technical experts and do not demonstrate software, but talk about the possible solution outcome. Objectives : For the sales person to gain an understanding of all key Microsoft technologies, with additional focus on infrastructure, and the Portals and Business Intelligence solutions, Windows Vista, Office 2007,the Microsoft Dynamics products and the fundamentals of Microsoft licensing. Click Here to register. Dynamics Sales Workshop Being held on the 20 th September 2007 Aim : This one day course and workshop that will equip your Partners with the unique value proposition for you & Microsoft Dynamics, the Microsoft Dynamics Strategic value proposition...

I saw a blog entry at Susan Bradley's blog about her now deploying Office 2007 with a classic menu . It was worth of a blog link for all those who want to stick to the old, old ways where you search for items over multiple menus (especially if you turn on personalised menus which hide all the things you don't use regularly). The tool looks slick, but then I found a 2nd one are realised that some cunning ISVs had seen this as their great opportunity to fill a gap that is very unlikely to be filled by Microsoft. The Two solutions are shown below and can be linked to from pschmid.net - RibbonCustomizer™ Feature Tour - Part 3: Classic UI Tabs and Show Classic Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Office 2007 : V1.1 Feature Tour - Part 3: Classic UI Tabs RibbonCustomizer™ V1.1 ships with a set of Classic UI tabs for Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2007. Those tabs emulate the Office 2003 menus and toolbars in Office 2007. We provide these tabs to help you familiarize yourself faster with the new Ribbon User Interface in Office 2007. Please note that the tabs are not intended to be full replacements for the Ribbon. There are no plans to provide similar Classic UI tabs for Access and Outlook 2007. The Classic UI tabs can be used with the free Starter Edition of RibbonCustomizer™. This means that you can get the 2003 menus and toolbars in Office 2007 without having to make any purchase. The Classic UI tab can be shown as the first tab, as shown in the following Excel 2007 screenshot: Alternatively, you can show the Classic UI tab as last tab, as again demonstrated in Excel: You could display the two Classic UI tabs also at the same time. The Classic UI tab in PowerPoint can be seen in the next screenshot: The Classic UI tab in Word is next: pschmid.net - RibbonCustomizer™ Feature Tour - Part 3: Classic UI Tabs Classic Menu for Office 2007 Frustrated by endless searches for features on the Ribbon? Download and install this software to bring back the familiar menus and toolbars to Microsoft® Office® 2007. The software allows you...

While I was at Star Wars Celebration Europe I managed to spend quite a bit of my unearned bonus on bits of "art". Some I will put pride of place on my wall, others will go in a tube because I don't have enough wall space. Here is what I bought (I just photographed them and then used a tool to remove the perspective from the photos, but don't expect print quality images): From Steven D Anderson the "Dark Avenger" poster, signed by him and one of 250 (11 / 250) and the little post card of the two ladies with blasters. Next up was Joe Corroney - I love his work especially since he also does some of the Star Wars comics. He has a web site http://JoeCorroney.com and his Star Wars blog can be found at http://blogs.starwars.com/joecorroney/70 . As you can see from the pictures on the left, I was lucky enough to not only get number 20 of 250 from his collection, but also the ORIGINAL PENCIL drawing that made this great poster. WOW, amazing and top. This is my best treasure from this event. For my sins, the next stand I never actually bought anything, but is easily worth a mention, which is Jake Steel - http://www.jake-art.com . I will be hunting down something from this man soon! Brian Rood had some fabulous posters, one of which was double sided. I liked his work so much I bought 3 sides (2 posters). The New Hope Posters are 39/250 (on both sides) and the think the Where Science Meets Imagination posters are un-numbered. Russell Walks had a couple of pieces there, one referencing Cell Block 1138 which I did not buy, but his other ones was very nice - showing characters from all 6 films. He signed his work and posed for a picture with Molly too . We also bought a couple of pencil sketch pieces from him. One of the nicest things about the Boba Fett one is that it was drawn for a celebration with Disney, another passion of mine, so he is carrying a Mickey Mouse autograph book - something truly original. Jerry Vanderstelt 's Yoda was eye catching, so much so that after much deliberation I went...

Once again I thought I would put pen to e-paper on the top reasons I give people to move to Office 2007. I don't think there are many businesses out there that use a PC and don't use some form of office productivity suite and while most use Microsoft Office XX (where XX could be 97, 2000, XP or 2003), some use other products that in my opinion just don't compare for a business that wants to look great and work efficiently. With Office offering a massive choice of products and features, these are the headlines I use when talking to people. For those with a version of Microsoft Office, but not 2007 More Professional and Impressive documents and materials Use Microsoft Publisher 2007 to build sales and marketing materials that look agency made, but are actually in-house work The updated Microsoft Word 2007 has many features to ensure your documents have a professional, consistent look and feel throughout the whole document conforming to your brand goals (no matter how big or small they might be). The readability tests will also share with you how easy it is for someone to understand the document. Writing can be so unengaging, yet pictures are often very time consuming to get right. Using the new text features, features such as subtle shading or reflections or glowing words are a click away and can make text dazzle. For the words that can be better communicated in a picture the impressive Smart Art feature can take a simple list and turn it into a process diagram, or an organisation chart and all with any of the new professional style schemes to be sure to enhance the impact. Most people can recognise an "old" Excel charts - the colours are bland and the charts often quite flat. For this very reason the charts in Office 2007 have been given a significant facelift to ensure they look professional, while still conveying the information they are supposed to. While sending an Office document to someone is very common, sometimes you want to be able to send something they can't edit, such as a price...

The Video I have delivered a number of Vista and Office demos over my time, so I decided to record a number of them for others to borrow, use, learn from or anything else they choose. This video covers the following subjects in enough detail for people to hopefully understand what they need to know on how to use these features in Windows Vista and understand how to be a little safer online: Phishing protection in Internet Explorer ActiveX blocking in Internet Explorer Windows Defender in Windows Vista To see the video played using Silverlight (just try it) click here *. I am hoping that in the near future that the WMV file will be available at new bCentral - the UK Small Business Center on MS.com. At the moment it is not available there, but a copy can be found here * it will take a few moments to open if you have Silverlight installed and require you to download Silverlight if you don't, but it is a 1MB download How I made it I simply ran through part of my normal demo talking as I went. When presenting to an audience it is easy to correct anything you do without anyone caring, however I tried to fix up the videos so this was not a problem. This has one drawback which is that the sound is not that good (one of those things I want to fix, but have not yet got round to) due to editing & cutting of the videos. I find it really hard to talk and move the mouse to the right place at the same time without a fluff in either my words or my mouse movements. Having captured the video is was simple to turn them into "Silverlight" Videos that were hosted on the Silverlight Streaming site for your pleasure - if you like them I can do more. Feel free to re-record the audio and play for your customers of make as a download for them. I have cut 10 videos to date and will release them over the next 2 weeks. The videos cover: For Vista - How to copy files to a DVD / CD, Use the recycle bin, Use previous versions for files and Use the built in Vista backup to check for Updates in Windows Vista use the new Security...

I have been asked this many times and had promised to put these things down on paper (well e-paper), so now I am. This is my thoughts on why someone should buy SBS and also how I would sell it if I was selling it. Obviously there is much more that can be said and tailoring a solution to a customers needs is vital, but if presenting at an event or describing it on the radio, this is what I would say. Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SBS) is priced lower than other Microsoft servers to enable a small business to get the benefits of servers without any functionality compromise. We have even enhanced the product to put MORE in there than a standard Windows Server. To enable this price benefit Microsoft has put some limits (see below) on how SBS can be used which basically stops big businesses from using it, however you can cash in your investment in SBS and buy an Enterprise server should you ever need to and use the "cashed" in value to make the Enterprise server easier to afford too. Having said all that, the functionality limits rarely impact a small or smaller mid-market business and some of them are very technical. The Limits Only 1 SBS server in your business, but you can add as many other Windows Servers to your SBS network 75 or less licenses - a license can be a user or a device, but they cost the same so in 98% of cases user licenses would be the best Technical restrictions - SBS must be the "root" of the domain (rarely a problem in small businesses) and there can be "no server trusts" (again rarely a problem in small businesses) If you don't already have a server Share your files, printers, internet connection, fax and more without limits, while choosing who can read and modify information and who can't see it at all Enable strong security on PCs and Notebooks with a common password for each person on all machines, security updates automatically delivered all machines and all internet access protected by a server firewall Professional e-mail addresses for everyone in...

If you are having problems with authentication issues when trying to debug with Visual Studio on Vista then there is a fix for you. A Visual Studio patch that fixes the Visual Studio F5 debugging of IIS7 applications on Windows Vista Home Premium and above has been released! This patch solves the "An authentication error occurred while communicating with the web server. Please see Help for assistance.", and "Debugging failed because integrated Windows authentication is not enabled. Please see Help for assistance" errors, that until now had to be worked around using the instructions below. This patch also enables customers using Windows Vista Home Premium customers to use Visual Studio F5 debugging, who were not able to use this feature at all previously because Windows Authentication was not available on Windows Vista Home Premium. Mike Volodarsky's ServerSide : Fix problems with Visual Studio F5 debugging of ASP.NET applications on IIS7 Vista ttfn David Technorati Tags: Developer , Vista , Visual Studio

They are like chalk and cheese when you 1st meet them. I'm not going to say how, but read their blogs and I know that you will know what I mean. Both have good business sense and both are nice to people they like (I count my self in this camp most of the time). Vlad is a little more outgoing with people he doesn't like , while Karl is more of an organisation basher when they do bad (I'm just sorry it was Microsoft). Both are amazing people and business people (yes, both, not just one or the other) and since they are over the pond, I am less likely to see them with any frequency compared to the many, many, many people this side of the pond. There are others, Susan B, Dean and even Jeff although we never got much time to talk. I hope to personally say "bye for now" to people in the UK. Karl recently said some amazing things about me and I wanted to publicly say thank-you. If you have met him, you will know that his is not the loudest man in the room, yet has insight enough to make everyone listen. Farewell to some Great British Friends Three major players in the SMB space have moved on recently. People come and go all the time, in our business and every other part of life. Part of being in a community is to take note of these changes. We don't just let people wander off without a fond farewell. Three very successful people have been tapped for additional success in G.B. (More, I'm sure, but I will note the movement of these three particularly.) David Overton ( uksbsguy.com ) is moving to evangelize ISVs and to feed them Microsoft Kool Aid in large drums. I pinged Dave before the WPC and he told me that he wouldn't be there because of the "pending" change. I've bumped into Dave in London, Amsterdam, and the U.S. Always a good guy. Always willing to help. Always has a positive attitude. I met Robbie Upcroft during a fateful SBS User Group meeting at SMB Nation a few years ago. I introduced myself so I could apologize on behalf of the entire United States of America for the...

This little tool is something worth downloading and reading to help answer some of those licensing queries and to learn more about selling Volume Licensing and the rules and benefits of other licensing types. Get it from here It walk through: Basic licence types How to become a reseller How to sell these licence's (key messaging and operational info) Product Specific licensing ‘need to knows’ ttfn David Technorati Tags: Licensing , Tools

The Video I have delivered a number of Vista and Office demos over my time, so I decided to record a number of them for others to borrow, use, learn from or anything else they choose. This video covers the following subjects in enough detail for people to hopefully understand what they need to know on how to use these features in Excel 2007 and apply them to all of the Office 2007 applications: Find a template and use it - I use an accounting template as it is based on Office 2003 and US based Change the currency cells from dollars to pounds using find and replace for formatting Change the date formatting from US to UK Dragging a list across a range of cells to give column a different month To see the Excel 2007 Video played using Silverlight (just try it) click here *. If you want to download it as a WMV file then head over to the new bCentral - the UK Small Business Center on MS.com - It is on this page as an Excel Accounting sample: * it will take a few moments to open if you have Silverlight installed and require you to download Silverlight if you don't, but it is a 1MB download How I made it I simply ran through part of my normal demo talking as I went. When presenting to an audience it is easy to correct anything you do without anyone caring, however I tried to fix up the videos so this was not a problem. This has one drawback which is that the sound is not that good (one of those things I want to fix, but have not yet got round to) due to editing & cutting of the videos. I find it really hard to talk and move the mouse to the right place at the same time without a fluff in either my words or my mouse movements. Having captured the video is was simple to turn them into "Silverlight" Videos that were hosted on the Silverlight Streaming site for your pleasure - if you like them I can do more. Feel free to re-record the audio and play for your customers of make as a download for them. I have cut 10 videos to date and will release them over the next 2 weeks. The videos cover: For Vista - How to...

I blogged about this a week or so ago, but the new site is now up and running and looks pretty fabulous. Click the Image to get to the new site. You can see that it is split into two sections, for those starting a business and those growing a business. Have an explore to find out what is there that you or your customers can use. Remember that bCentral was able to draw over 1/4 million UNIQUE visitors in a month, so your customers might well be on the list. The new blog can be found at http://blogs.technet.com/smallbusiness/default.aspx - it already has some excellent entries which I will be referring to soon. ttfn David Technorati Tags: bCentral , Microsoft , Small Business

Again from the Trends Blog . Big, color e-paper E-paper Still Coming Soon: LG.Philips LCD Teases World With A4 Color Electronic Paper “This is their all-new, world-first A4 electronic paper, a 4,096-color flexible 14.1-inch page made using “metal foil and plastic substrates rather than glass.” They only use power when the image changes and since they are reflective like real paper, they can be seen perfectly from any angle. Even under direct sunlight.” Slightly-flexible displays LOLED: Sony Flexi-OLED Screen Is Trouble Waiting to Happen “Today Sony showed off some 2.5-inch OLED screens that are capable of being slightly bent. It is made out of a glass substrate and is only .3mm thick. Supposedly the display has been created for lightweight, bigger and “softer” electronics” Interactive paper Digital paper with interactivity and sound “By combining paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink that is engineered to be sensitive to pressure. When the paper buttons are touched, the sound is played out via the printed speakers.” ttfn David Technorati Tags: e-Paper , trends

I saw on the OneCare blog that a new beta is out this can be signed up for at Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta . I like OneCare - while it has it cranky moments (like I have to manually remove the old product to install the beta) it works better than some others I could mention without killing my machine or network. It is the product that I have bought for my home to protect it. According to the sign up site, this is what OneCare does. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta - All-in-one security and performance for all your PCs Windows Live OneCare is an automatically self-updating PC care service that's on whenever your PC is on, helping provide persistent protection against viruses, hackers, and other threats. It also performs regular tune-ups to help keep your PC running at top speed, and helps you back up important documents. Runs quietly in the background, providing anti-virus, anti-spyware, online identity and scam protection (anti-phishing) and firewall protection Updates itself to help you keep ahead of the latest threats Runs regular PC tune-ups, even checking for ways to shorten PC boot-up time Provides one-click solutions to most problems Makes backups a breeze Lets you see the status of all your computer systems at a glance As for improvements on the Blog they say: Here’s a quick overview of the new features we’ve added to OneCare version 2.0 to help keep users’ PCs and networks safe, reliable and performing well: Multi-PC and home network management. Helps ease management of multiple-PC environments by providing a single navigation bar for monitoring the security and maintenance of networked computers. Also enables one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network. Printer sharing support. Makes it easy to connect printers to local networks so all users in the vicinity can use the same printer. Start-time optimizer. Speeds PC boot time by removing rarely used applications from start-up menu. This helps to address one of the noticeable areas of frustration for PC users as time goes on...

I was browsing the Trends Blog I came across these. While not core or even necessarily affordable, it is worth seeing what is coming. Large touch screen Touch Me: Dahan Unveils the T-View, 120 Inches of Touchability - Gizmodo “Korean company Dahan has come up with a monster 10-foot touchscreen with an amazing 10 millisecond response time. The T-View runs in Windows 2000 or XP, uses rear projection and a surface mirror system, and corresponds to multi-finger touch….” Hi-res screens Dell Redesigns The LCD: Dell’s Display Port Prototype Will Allow for Resolutions 4x Better Than HD “It measures about half an inch thick and packs a resolution that’s 4x sharper than the current HDTV resolutions. It’s part of Dell’s new Display Port technology. The new interconnect will let you daisychain multiple monitors and connect other peripherals via one bi-directional cable. As you can see from the pic, it’ll also allow for embedded peripherals around the display (this one has speakers built in on the side).” Monitors with two overlayed displays Samsung and PureDepth show off 46-inch Multi-Layer Display LCD “PureDepth is describing its technology as a “a layered, multi-dimensional (using real depth between two or more LCD panels) viewing innovation that enables users to simultaneously view two separate fields of data on one monitor,” which is simply a fancy way of suggesting that users can experience “3D-like images” sans unsightly goggles.” ttfn David Technorati Tags: Fun , Displays , Trends

Steve Ballmer has stated his case for Software PLUS Service. This should not be news for anyone who has been watching the world, but what is great to see if how Microsoft is trying to get it's existing partner leveraged model to work in the new web 2.0/3.0 world. Of course this will not suit everyone, but if done well, everyone can move forward is a happy little dance as things get re-jigged. Ballmer Outlines Microsoft's Software-As-A-Service Plans - Software - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness noted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes the evolution of the "computational model" and new user interfaces are going to create a flood of opportunities for the vendor's channel partners. In a Tuesday keynote speech to more than 12,000 attendees at Microsoft's worldwide partner conference in Denver, Ballmer provided insight into the Windows Live platform and how new technologies like Silverlight mark the beginning of the transformation to a new user interface model. Ballmer peppered his keynote with demos and testimonials about upcoming technologies, focusing on Microsoft's Google-like Windows Live services and on Silverlight, Microsoft's fledgling Adobe Flash rival. Silverlight demos have been in the spotlight at all of Microsoft's recent conferences, including Mix07 and TechEd. Ballmer's keynote showcased an MLB.com application created by Microsoft partner Frog Design, illustrating the power of the platform Microsoft hopes will bring rich Windows functionality to mobile devices and Web browsers. One big question partners have had about the future of Windows Live is what will happen on the back end with servers, which used to be on customers' premises, but increasingly are hosted and on the Internet, Ballmer noted. The emergence of server farms, and the ability to adjust capacity on demand has enabled the focus to move from back end servers to shared computation handled on customer premises, he added. "This is a long term migration to bring the best of the web and best...

I was jumping around the web and found this blog - definitely something to add to your readers. Below are just the 3 most recent Server Core blog entries that I think are all of massive interest. If you want a version of server that is so cut down that does not have .Net installed, does not have a GUI and so on - Core is for you. Server Core TechNet Webcast I did a TechNet Web cast on Server Core yesterday. If you missed it, it is now available at: http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032341828%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e There were a couple of questions at the end regarding networking technologies that I didn’t know off the top of my head. Here are the answers: What version of SNMP is supported in Windows Server 2008? SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa379141.aspx for more info. How to enable/disable the Scalable Networking Pack (SNP) functionality in Windows Server 2008? You can use netsh interface tcp set global Andrew Posted Friday, June 29, 2007 1:18 PM by amason | 0 Comments IIS in Server Core For those of you at TechEd recently or who saw the articles, IIS is now a role included in the Server Core installation option. If you have access to the recently released CTP build, IIS is available for you to start testing. Because Server Core does not currently have any managed code support, IIS does not support ASP.NET when used on Server Core. The IIS PowerShell cmdlets are all based on WMI, so they can be used to remotely manage IIS running on a Server Core installation. Andrew Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:11 AM by amason | 4 Comments Step by Step guide for Server Core The Server Core step by step guide is now available in two locations 1 – To read online or print...

Microsoft Announces Product Offerings and Customer Early Access Program for Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM - This could be huge - $44 per calendar month per user for Professional CRM and $59 for Enterprise edition (Professional Edition plus offline support)!!! Then, when you thought it was not so good for partners, look at the models: With the new Live service, partners in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM ecosystem will have new opportunities to deliver value to their customers and to drive revenue for their businesses by developing and deploying solutions across the three deployment options — Live, on-premise and partner-hosted models . For revenue in the new Live model, partners will be compensated on a recurring basis, not a one-time basis; each year they will receive 10 percent of the yearly Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription revenue for each customer for whom they are the partner of record. During 2008, a special incentive will allow partners to receive 15 percent of the SaaS subscription revenue for that year Steve from BMS noted the following: Microsoft WPC 2007 notes at BMS Blog: SBS Consulting in the UK Dynamics CRM Live launched Live Demo by Brad Wilson - General Manager for CRM Ability to download and completely remodel the CRM environment via partner provided XML templates Direct competitor for salesforce.com etc. Early adopter program Only available through partners Focus on making revenue from consultation ttfn David Technorati Tags: WPC , Partner Conference , Dynamics , CRM , CRM Live , Live

In a recent announcement we now offer the ability to downgrade the Premium technologies in R2. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/downgrade/default.mspx with a FAQ at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/faq/bizsolutions.mspx . Please note that this is a time limited capability due to the End of standard support of SQL 2000. If you have licensed a copy of Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Premium Edition (which includes Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition), but your line of business applications are not yet available on the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 platform, you may be able to request downgrade rights to SBS 2003 SP1 Premium (which includes Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition the version of Microsoft SQL Server that shipped with Small Business Server 2003 and SP1), and use the downgraded SQL Server in your SBS 2003 R2 environment. You may exercise this downgrade through the channel in which you licensed your original version of Windows Small Business Server R2 Premium Edition. This downgrade offer is available only through April 30, 2008 . The downgrade from SBS 2003 R2 Premium (which includes Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition) to SBS 2003 SP1 Premium (which includes Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition) should be for new data installs only. This is not recommended as a migration path for data already ported to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition. Product Support Update How to Downgrade Downgrading for OEM Customers Downgrading for Volume Licensing Customers Downgrading for Retail or Systems Builder Channel Customers Product Support Update When you use Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition (included in SBS 2003 SP1 Premium) in your SBS 2003 R2 Premium Edition environment, the product support policies for the downgraded version of SQL Server will follow the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 lifecycle. Mainstream support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 will retire on April 8, 2008. After this time, Microsoft SQL...

Lets be honest, when it comes to searching a desktop's files, Vista is the best. When it comes to searching the internet, some other vendors do a pretty good job. Now, to help you search all the files in your business you can search the whole lot through a server appliance. Now that might not be that exciting, but it is important that you use something that is designed to search business files and not the internet as the search engine here. Microsoft UK and SCAN Develop MOSS Search Appliance Microsoft in the UK have broken new ground, partnering with SCAN technolgies to develop a Search Appliance based on MOSS. The appliance will be offered across the MOSS SKU range and hardware specification can be tailored to meet customer requirements http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=12 ttfn David Technorati Tags: MOSS Appliance , Search , SharePoint

On Saturday, 7/07/07, MSN sponsored Live Earth, The Concert for a Climate in Crisis . This 24-hour global event featured more than 150 of the world’s top bands performing on all seven continents, with concerts in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Istanbul, London, New York, and other cities around the world. There have been many, many critics of the Live Earth concert ("all the pop stars traveling leaves a huge carbon footprint" , "there was not 2 billion people watching", "why should we believe the pop stars", " climate change is not real, not even the scientists can agree "), but even if the world is not about to blow up, surely being better to the planet is good for us, great for our children and sometimes a matter of survival for other people and animals in the more extreme climates. If you have missed everything that Live Earth was about, go have a look at the SoapBox video here . An interesting blog on the whole should we shouldn't we explore these types of events can be found at A great review of what it is all about can be found at http://bettinathenomad.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/rocking-it-the-green-way/ . Now that all the concerts have been played out, they can be viewed from the http://liveearth.uk.msn.com/ site. At the Live Earth site, in addition to streaming the performances, the MSN team has posted an extensive collection of interactive media and content that is designed to entertain, educate, and inspire all of us to work together to create a more sustainable environment. For your personal reading I can recommend http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17950339/ which has some interesting stories about businesses and the community and pledge section on http://liveearth.uk.msn.com/ has some great tips on doing your bit. My Personal Carbon footprint include a broken boiler last year which meant that I was burning gas through the night and had electric heaters in my house, yet I still seem to fall under the national average for a household, even though we have 2 children and lots...

I have grabbed these security tit-bits from Technet this month and thought I would share them with you. Expect to be playing with Forefront in one form or another with a year, so might as well see what it does now :-) Microsoft Unveils Next-Generation Forefront Business Security Solution Codename "Stirling" http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6951832 Announced this month, the new Microsoft Forefront solution, codename "Stirling," is a single product that will deliver unified security management and reporting with comprehensive, coordinated protection across client, server applications, and network edge. "Stirling" acts as a distributed system, sharing and correlating information to identify complex threats, and dynamically responding to protect the organization. Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-Day Trial Is Available http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959785 Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-day trial version is available for evaluation, a security solution that helps protect business desktops, laptops, and server operating systems from viruses, spyware, and other current and emerging threats. - Read how other IT professionals use Forefront Client Security http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959833 - Take the virtual labs http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959834 - Download the trial software http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959835 Microsoft Security Awareness Toolkit http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6951861 Guidance, samples, and templates for creating a security-awareness program in your organization. Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console Beta 2 Forefront Server Security Management Console allows administrators to easily manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Microsoft Antigen. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2048daae-b9f2-4612-ada9-51537a5479ca&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console Beta 2 User Guide Forefront Server Security Management Console allows administrators...

There was a short burst on e-mail the other day about this, but I thought I would share. The situation was that someone was adding SBS to an existing domain, not a problem, but the existing domain had some trusts set up. Since SBS does not support trusts things did not go well. So, to follow up we need to remind everyone that when doing this you get a short period of time to make everything within the SBS constraints or things stop working. Details on how to do all of this are documented in the Knowledge Base (KB)article mentioned below. Here are the bones of the internal notes: You can add one SBS to an existing domain, but the SBS requirements have to be met within a certain grace period. (14 days, according to KB 884453 .) By the end of that grace period: The new SBS 2003 computer must be a domain controller that is installed on the root of the domain. The new SBS 2003 computer must hold all the Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) roles. The new SBS 2003 computer must be a global catalog server and must be the licensing server. There must not be any existing domain trusts or child domains. Only one SBS server can exist on the domain. If SBS 2003 is installed, no other SBS 2003 or 2000 server can be installed on the same domain. thanks David Technorati Tags: Windows Server , SBS 2003 , SBS 2003 R2

Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection See how Windows Server 2008 can help you increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure. Use the online resources to learn how you improve your organization's networking infrastructure, security, server performance, and reliability. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7009024 Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection > Overview Spend less time on day-to-day tasks and more time adding value to your business with this next-generation server operating system. Windows Server 2008 helps you to increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements allow you to have more control over your servers while providing advanced protection so you can spend less time on everyday tasks and more time bringing greater value to your organization. Leverage these online resources to explore Windows Server 2008 today. Webcasts Watch these 90-minute Windows Server 2008 webcasts and learn how your organization can leverage the enhancements in Windows Server 2008. Tune in for live webcasts and stream or download webcasts for on-demand viewing. Virtual Labs Try out Windows Server 2008 during a virtual lab. It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module, and you can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime. Podcasts Stream or download these TechNet audio podcasts onto your favorite podcast software or mobile device. These podcasts are free and do not require registration—just click, listen, and learn about Windows Server 2008. Chats Join an online, text-based question and answer session in real time from a chat room. This is your opportunity to interact with Microsoft experts on Windows Server 2008, provide feedback, and get answers to your tough questions. Understand the Server Core Option for Installing Windows Server 2008 The Server Core installation...

I was reading the latest Technet newsletter and saw this and thought I would pass on these two items: 2. How do I license Microsoft Office so my users can access it over Terminal Service? Microsoft has produced a Word document (126Kb) that discusses the options available to customers who would like to configure access to Office in this way. 3. How does Microsoft license its products for use in a disaster recovery situation? View the guide to "Cold" Server Back-Up for Disaster Recovery" . ttfn David Technorati Tags: Licensing , DR , Disaster Recovery , Office 2007 , Terminal Services

I found this on the Office Website when someone asked me about form customisation for BCM. I thought I would share it. Demo: Customize Business Contact Manager forms You can customize Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager forms by adding fields and list items (drop-down lists) that are unique to your business. You can customize the following types of forms: Account Business Contact Opportunity Business Project You can customize drop-down lists by clicking Edit this list and then adding your item to the list. Watch this short demo to see how to customize a Business Contact Manager for Outlook form. How to do it (text version) Customize your Business Contact Manager forms through user-defined fields Customize drop-down lists on Business Contact Manager forms Demo: Customize Business Contact Manager forms - Outlook - Microsoft Office Online ttfn David Technorati Tags: Business Contact Manager , BCM , Customise , Customize

This little mashup of Microsoft technologies just shows how things are going to change in the future. You can shoot aliens at any location that has birds eye view (In the UK that includes ( Wembley Stadium , Blackpool Tower , Millennium Dome and Brighton Pier ) http://www.andybeaulieu.com/silverlight/DestroyAll/Default.html?latitude=40.689059&longitude=-74.04455 ttfn David Technorati Tags: Local.live.com , silverlight