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January 15, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
Just a reminder, Windows 2000 will reach it’s end of life in July. Microsoft has outlined July 13, 2010 as the date Windows 2000 will no longer be supported by Microsoft. There are already a variety of security threats in the wild where Microsoft has said they will not be releasing updates to protect Windows 2000 because they say it is not feasible. After next July, no support or new updates (except for online self-help) will be available.
In a related bit of news, Microsoft is addressing an issue latest Forefront antimalware client update won’t install on Windows 2000 when the installation is run via Automatic Updates. When this issue occurs, the update uninstalls the previous version of the antimalware client, and then tries to install the new version and fails, leaving the system without the antimalware service. Microsoft’s published workarounds are to decline the updates for Windows 2000 systems (976669 is the FCS slipstream client) and make sure that the previous FCS antimalware updates are approved (971026 and original FCS client), or run the install interactively as a logged on user.
My workaround… stop using a 11 year old operating system and upgrade to at least Windows 2003.
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January 15, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
Edmonton, Canada has rolled out their open government program using Microsoft’s Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) solution, and is working with them to develop an website that will give citizens and developers easier access to information and suggest ideas that enhance public infrastructure and services. The city’s program uses open source components along with Windows Azure. The use of open standards and application programming interfaces lets local developers and the city’s IT staff easily retrieve data for use in online applications or mashups.
According to Port 25, “Microsoft announced the OGDI initiative in May 2009, with the goal of reducing the cost of publishing government data while simplifying data access by leveraging cloud computing and open standards, which is exactly what has been achieved with Edmonton.”
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January 11, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2010 is coming soon, and Microsoft is set to release an updated test version even sooner. The beta of 2010 has been out since September and the product team has been taking feedback to make the product even better then the 2007 version.
This Thursday, at 9AM PST, Microsoft will be hosting a 90 minute webcast to cover what has changed in the release candidate and the progress being made towards the final version. Anyone using DPM will want to be sure not to miss this. The team will demonstrate the software that early adopters have been running as well as new Windows client protection capabilities, the new SQL/SharePoint/Exchange protection and recovery features, as well as their enhanced Disaster Recovery scenarios.
There will also be information on the new auto-healing/auto-scaling features (which current DPM administrators like myself will love) — the team also promises a few new surprises that weren’t in the beta.
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January 11, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
If the pending purchase of Sun (owner of MySQL) by Oracle scares you, and you’re looking to get your data out of MySQL before it gets eaten up by that other evil empire, then Microsoft has a tool for you.
They’ve released a test version of their new migration assistant to help database administrators make the change over. There is a version for both SQL 2005 and for SQL 2008 or SQL Azure. The tool provides an assessment of migration efforts as well as automates schema and data migration from MySQL to SQL Server. The tool will migrate any MySQL 4.1, 5.0 or 5.1 database.
Microsoft makes other migration assistants available for Oracle, Access, and a variety of other database formats, so this new tool is not unprecedented. It is however the first time it has made tools for the open-source MySQL available.
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January 7, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
This patch Tuesday will be one of the lightest ones for security in recent memory. According to the Security Bulletin Advance Notification for this month, Microsoft will only be releasing one patch for Windows, and none for Internet Explorer or Office. The patch will be issued on Tuesday, January 12, and will be followed on January 13 by a 90 minute webcast at 11:00 AM Pacific. In addition to the one patch for Windows, Microsoft will also release an updated version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool.
The patch is considered critical for Windows 2000 users, and low for all other versions, and relates to a remote code execution venerability. Effected operating system versions include every currently supported edition both on the client and server side:
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 [Critical]
Windows XP Service Pack 2 & Service Pack 3
Windows XP x64 Edition Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (32-bit, 64-bit & Itanium)
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 & Service Pack 2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (32-bit, 64-bit & Itanium – except Server Core installs)
Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit & Itanium – except Server Core installs)
Microsoft will still be releasing one or more non-security but high-priority update through Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services, but has not yet disclosed details.
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January 7, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), is a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance customers. It allows administrators to provide a virtualized desktop image to users and manage them from a central console. The upcoming Service Pack 1 for MED-V will expand support for Windows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit) as a host platform. Considering most large companies held off on upgrading to Windows Vista and opted to wait for Windows 7, this technology will help boost the migration since they can do so and run older programs that may no longer be supported or have not been certified for Windows 7.
In V1 SP1, MED-V continues to employ Virtual PC 2007 as the virtualization engine but unlike the consumer “Windows XP Mode” it does not require hardware-assisted virtualization like Intel VT or an AMD-V to be present in the processor. This allows even those with lower end or older processors to take advantage of enterprise desktop virtualization.
Microsoft has put together a screencast demonstrating running a MED-V workspace using a V1 SP1 client in the Windows 7 environment.
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January 7, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
The QWERTY keyboard and the mouse have been the primary methods of interaction with computers for a long time. But there is a group at Microsoft seeking to make that a thing of the past. Enter the team at Microsoft Research.
Larry Larsen over at Microsoft’s Channel 9 has a great interview with Bill Buxton, one of the Principle Researchers at MSR and the author of Sketching User Interfaces. It talks about their work with what Microsoft has dubbed “Natural User Interface” and how the multi-touch technologies in products like the Apple iPhone and Windows 7 will eventually become a regular part of computing, as well as new technologies like those in the Xbox 360 Project Natal.
If you couldn’t get a chance to watch the Microsoft CES pre-show keynote last night, you didn’t miss much. If you were actually at the event, I feel sorry for you, it must have been hard to stay awake.
After starting late due to power issues (which fried one of the Microsoft demo units on stage) the keynote got off to a rather boring start with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, giving various statistics about how well recently released products like Windows 7 and Bing are doing. For the first half hour, the audio stream for the webcast was so bad, it kept cutting out and then required constant volume adjustment. Note to Microsoft, hire a decent sound engineer next time.
It was all pretty much downhill from there. The much discussed “Courier” tablet that many in the tech press was excited they would announce never came, and there were no details about Windows Mobile 7… at all. Only “we’ll have more about mobile at Mobile World Congress.” So overall, the keynote failed to deliver much of anything that we didn’t know or have not seen already. But, here is a breakdown of what was covered, after the break.
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January 6, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
There are many less than glamorous roles that a Windows server can take on. Not all of them are born to be an Exchange server, a domain controller, or even a web server. Some are destined to take on the role of managing printers. And for every role in Windows server, there is a team of programmers and engineers behind it, and they need your help.
If use the Print Server role in your environment, Microsoft is looking for your feedback, especially if you’re using the print server management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007. Your input will help form the future manageability plans for the print server role in Windows Server. If you deal with printers like I do, you probably know how frustrating they can be so you’ve probably got a lot of feedback to give. (Although truthfully none of my issues are really Microsoft’s fault — I’m looking at you Xerox)
Head over to the OpsMgr public site on Microsoft Connect and fill out the “Print Server Management Survey” You’ll need to login to Connect using your Windows Live ID but Microsoft claims the survey is anonymous and should take about 5 minutes to fill out the 11 questions.
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January 6, 2010 :
By Michael Stanclift ·
Category : News
Microsoft has posted a little bit of light reading, a document titled Changes in Functionality in Windows Server 2008 R2 that outlines exactly that, the differences between the R2 release and the original 2008 release. It only weighs in at 1.1MB and 211 pages. You can grab it from the Microsoft Download Center in Microsoft Word format or browse the document online through Technet.
Topics such as new features in Active Directory, DNS (including DNSSEC), Group Policy, iSCSI, IIS, clustering, Windows Deployment Server and many other elements are all covered in great detail. If you’re looking at a server wondering if you’d see any significant benefit to upgrading, other then getting the latest guts of Windows, this is a helpful guide.
Windows Server 2008 was released in February 2008, followed by R2 which was released in October 2009. R2 is Microsoft’s first 64-bit only operating system release and is based on many of the same core programming as Windows 7.
Marshalus: Wishes @westarenergy would fix the flaky power grid in my subdivison. Four brown/black outs in the last couple hours. My PC is not happy.
06 Sep 2010
Marshalus: I have a random gadget idea, but first I need to know, are DSLR hotshoe brackets standard among brands? Or is Canon different than Nikon?
06 Sep 2010
Marshalus: @simon360 it has it's uses, wouldn't do anything "professional" on it but for chopping up a little home movie it's pretty nice
06 Sep 2010
Marshalus: Finally playing around with iMovie for iPhone. Had it installed forever but never used it. Editing some high school football video.
06 Sep 2010
Marshalus: @planeliker very true. We have planes, I'm just not qualified to use them :( Now that my GTM3 is done I'm eyeballing some wings ;)
06 Sep 2010
Marshalus: RT @DepressedDarth: Even as an impartial Sith, I can admit Top Gun had much cooler pilot call signs than Star Wars. Iceman and Maverick ...
06 Sep 2010
Just a reminder, Windows 2000 will reach it’s end of life in July. Microsoft has outlined July 13, 2010 as the date Windows 2000 will no longer be supported by Microsoft. There are already a variety of security threats in the wild where Microsoft has said they will not be releasing updates to protect Windows 2000 because they say it is not feasible. After next July, no support or new updates (except for online self-help) will be available.
