David Overton's Blog : Community, Windows Server 2003, Vista

More ways to engage with customers using the Microsoft advertising campaigns

David Overton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:00:00 GMT

[updated 4th March]

Many people congratulated Microsoft after the Mr Busy campaigns allowed partners to drive their customers back to them using a MS campaign. Well, this is now being repeated for a number of campaigns. Today I found the click and go site to get them all (http://www.campaigns.arvato-services.com/). You can get 200 post cards or 1,000 e-mails for free and then a low price for additional cards/ e-mails if required. The campaigns covered include:

Business Productivity
Customer Acquisition and Retention
Security and Reliability
Small Business PC
Mr Busy

This method of engaging is not new to the Small Business team and others have covered this before (eg Susanne here), but it is worth re-highlighting this now as some of the campaigns have been renewed, so go back and visit the site!!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Marketing, Campaigns, Business Productivity, Customer Acquisition and Retention, Security and Reliability, Small Business PC, Mr Busy, Partner, SME, Small Business Server 2008, Mid-Market

Samba developers can now see the Windows Protocols, make their products more interoperable with Microsoft Windows and see where Patents are to then choose to avoid or license

David Overton — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:10:36 GMT

I have never been known to sugar coat my opinion and one that has been forming recently is that much of the EU work on opening the Windows Media player is undesired by the consumers or the industry. This is my opinion, but I've seen no evidence to the contra. However, the licensing of protocols, while I don't wholly agree with the pricing structure, I see it as a good thing. This is a classic example of a de-facto standard working how it should. Today yet another organisation licensed the protocols, this time for the Samba community (with restrictions on redistribution and patent awareness) and this should deliver the reality of "interoperability, not standards" that I personally feel is the true desire of the world.

Update: Microsoft to hand over Windows secrets to Samba team | InfoWorld | News | 2007-12-20 | By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

Developers of open-source Samba software will find their work a little easier thanks to an agreement with Microsoft, signed Thursday, that will give them access to previously secret data on how the Windows operating system works.
<snipped>
The deal was signed with a nonprofit group called the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation, (PFIF) which negotiated on behalf of the Samba team because Samba is not represented by a corporate entity. PFIF will pay a one-time fee of €10,000 and, in return, will be able to allow open-source developers, including the Samba team, to access the documents.
Developers will have to sign nondisclosure agreements and will not be allowed to redistribute Microsoft's documentation, but they will be able to write open-source software that implements the Windows protocols. The deal will also clarify which patents Microsoft believes are related to this technology, making it easier for open-source developers to avoid patent violations.

The article is quite negative in tone, ignoring that the licensing process was available before the EU stepped in and giving the glory to the EU, when I believe it is the free-market that made this move happen. Either way, the lack of standards that are used (yes, they do exist) in this technology arena means that people would rather work with existing solutions rather than build new ones. Having said that, Samba has some serious security weaknesses that using the MS protocols could well resolve!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Samba, MCPP, Microsoft Communications Protocol Program, WSPP, Work Group Server Protocol Program, Open Standards, Microsoft

Channel Expo Show presentations - Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Windows Server (SBS, Naked, Home Server and Longhorn) sales slides

David Overton — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:39:00 GMT

If you visited the Channel Expo show this year then you probably saw one or two Microsoft presentations on desktop and server solutions. James Akrigg and Matt McSpirit provided the desktop entertainment while I covered off what servers we have out there and what is coming in the near future.

We promised the slides and here they are:

Desktop (Windows Vista and Office 2007)- Office 2007 PowerPoint

Desktop (Windows Vista and Office 2007)- PDF

Server (SBS, Windows Server 2003 R2, Longhorn and Home Server) - Office 2007 PowerPoint

Server (SBS, Windows Server 2003 R2, Longhorn and Home Server) - PDF

James has an amazing blog (Out of Office) at http://blogs.technet.com/outofoffice

Matt touches many aspects of desktop technology including that for small business at http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit

Have a look at the blogs and enjoy the presentations.

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Channel Expo, Vista, Office 2007, SBS 2003, Nakes Servers, Home Server, Longhorn

Using Vista and getting a slower performing network? Perhaps with SBS or other network equipment? Then you need to read Kevin's post at Neoblog.

David Overton — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:26:20 GMT

We all know that sometimes things sloooowwwwwiiinnnngggg down can be a real drag. Some people have seen this sort of thing with Vista and while sometimes it is to do with drivers (do I need to say wireless here??), others it could be one of the "nice" new features in Vista. In the latter example I can give you a good pointer to help.

Susanne Dansey pointed this out to me, which is a posting by Kevin Higerty on this very problem - pop along to his blog to get the low down.

I’ve been running Vista on my SBS network for a while, well since the January Action Pack, and have noticed resource access to the SBS box getting slower and slower over the last few days. At the same time I had issues like log on’s taking 2 minutes, explorer time outs and generally the whole system running like a dog.
The two symptoms have turned out to be seperate, but combined they are a ‘throw the sodding pc outa the window’ type scenario.
Slow networking is due to the auto tuning of TCP/IP in Vista which is turned on by default.

Source: neoblog » Vista + Network = Slow

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Windows Vista, Network, Slow, Auto Tuning, Syn

Using Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 in a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Network

David Overton — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:47:00 GMT

[updated 28th Feb 2007 - 07:47 with correct link for Outlook 2007 and Windows XP]

Use this document to join computers that are running Windows Vista to your Windows Small Business Server 2003 network using the "Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility (KB 926505).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46E95C56-1A4C-45BD-8D69-5F41FF8F1F22&displaylang=en

File Name:
SBSVista_Conceptual.doc

Date Published:
2/8/2007

Download Size:
265 KB

The “Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility (KB 926505)” adds support for the Client Deployment tools in Windows Small Business Server (Windows SBS), and it resolves compatibility issues for running Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 in a Windows SBS network. Use this document to join computers running Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 in your Windows SBS network.

You might also want to look at:

· Vista and Office 2007 FAQs

· Related Knowledge Base Articles

KB 926505 – Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility

· KB 911829 – Outlook Web Access (OWA) update

· KB 929556 – Firewall Client for ISA Server

· KB 930414 – ISA Server 2004 update package for Vista 64-bit editions

· KB 930955 – Vista User Profile WMI Provider

KB 931905 – Regarding Outlook users; note: this is a catch all KB for someone who has XP with Outlook 2007 – a separate update is not required, it is the same update as mentioned in KB 926505

Technorati tags: Vista, Windows Vista, Small Business, SBSC, SBS 2003, Small Business Server 2003

I'm sorry - I am not perfect and nor is Microsoft. Sometimes it is our fault

David Overton — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:26:51 GMT

I can be abrasive sometimes and whether it "is my fault" or not, I don't always understand others' point of views. To this I would like to say "It is my fault".

Now, if you have got up off the floor, let me give you a few examples.

I say "contact our customer support" and you say "I don't have time". Before I rant - OK, I understand this, if you could share the bug at some time, we will try to fix it. We haven't been able to identify it yet, so need your help
I say "There is no OEM media, get over it" and you say "I need OEM media to do my installs". OK, I can't fix this one. I do understand where you are coming from. If I were to share the fact that in the UK, which is a low piracy country, our tests so far have shown between 10-15% of all copies of Windows are pirated and many come from Action Packs and other OEM keys, does that help understand why this is such an issue? I do wish I could give you back OEM media, but I've been told it is just not possible. While Microsoft did publish the changes coming, I now get the impression that many did not realise that this was linked to the change in qualifying an upgrade, making the process different to Windows XP

The list goes on, however why did I even start this? Well a man I respect lots is Joel. I started reading his latest filing:

"Now I was fuming. Squiggly lines were coming up out of my head. I was a half hour late to work and had to go to the locksmith for a third time. I was tempted just to give up on him. But I decided to give this loser one more chance."

"Seven steps to remarkable customer service
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html

It then carries on:

I stomped into the store, ready to unleash my fury.
“It still doesn’t work?” he asked. “Let me see.”
He looked at it.
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.
“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused me. That was all it took.

Potentially wise words from the sage. I mean what I say

have a great day

David