News

A Look Back at 2008 and a Look Ahead to 2009

Admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:39:49 GMT

With 2008 drawing to close, Microsoft is at a crossroads between its past and the cloud computing future. But that doesn't mean that the software giant's most traditional products won't continue to impact us in the year ahead. Today, I'd like to take a short side trip and look both back at 2008 and ahead to the year that's coming.

First, let's reflect a bit on the year that's now coming to a close. I primarily cover Microsoft, of course, so I will focus on what I consider to be the top 10 most important Microsoft product releases of the year. Here they are, in alphabetical order.

Full Article - http://www.winsupersite.com/server/retro_2008.asp

At Home with HomeGroup in Windows 7

Admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:14:08 GMT

Like many places we’ve spent the past few weeks under quite a bit of snow, which is pretty unusual for Seattle! Most of us on the team took advantage of the snow time to install test builds of Windows 7 on our home machines as we finalize the beta for early 2009—I know I felt like I installed it on 7000 different machines. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing folks kick the tires on the beta when it is available. For more information on the beta, please stay tuned to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 which is where we will post information about participation.

This post is about a Windows 7 feature that covers a lot of territory—it is about networking, user interface, sharing, media, printing, storage, search, and more. HomeGroup is a way of bringing all these features together in a way that makes it possible for a new level of coolness in a home with multiple PCs running Windows 7. A lot of us are the sysadmins for our own homes and for many others (friends and family). We set up network topologies, configure machines, and set things up so they work—HomeGroup is designed to make that easier so it can be done without a volunteer sysadmin. It makes for some challenges in how to describe the feature since the lack of such a feature has each of us creating our own private best practices or our own techniques for creating and maintaining a home network. HomeGroup is about making this easier (or possible for everyone else) and at the same time giving you the tools to customize and manage—and no matter what, under the hood the file and printer sharing, media sharing, and networking you are already familiar with is there should you wish to stick with the familiar ways. HomeGroup is a deep feature that builds on a lot of new infrastructure/plumbing new to Windows 7, though in this post we’ll talk about it from the experience of setting up a network.

Full Article - http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/12/30/at-home-with-homegroup-in-windows-7.aspx

30gb zune issues -- official update

Admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:30:56 GMT

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.

The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Full Article - http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2008/12/31/30gb-zune-issues-official-update.aspx

Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 - CTP

Admin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:39:44 GMT

Commerce Server 2009 (formerly known as Commerce Server 2007 code name “Mojave”) delivers the ability to increase your business reach by making it possible to sell via multiple channels using an out-of-the-box shopping site, SharePoint Commerce Services, and the Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation. The new out-of-the-box shopping site leverages SharePoint Commerce Services, which provides a gallery of ASP.NET 3.5 Web Parts, a comprehensive e-commerce shopping feature-set, and technology integration between Commerce Server and SharePoint technologies. The Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation provides a new unified, extensible run-time programming model for Commerce Server, including new run-time e-commerce capabilities. The December CTP adds the following capabilities over previous Commerce Server 2007 code name “Mojave” releases:

Update package from Commerce Server 2007, allowing for seamless in-place upgrade of existing deployments.
Complete out-of-the-box e-commerce shopping site in SharePoint with new search functionality, new shopping features, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) content management and design experiences. This helps to facilitate rapid assembly and maintenance of e-commerce Web sites by business users and creative professionals.

Download - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=dc30f74f-e510-40b4-8da2-895e33fc9490&displaylang=en&tm

Windows 7 Beta: Notes and Observations

Admin — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:23:35 GMT

I've been putting Windows 7 Beta candidate builds through their paces for over a month now, and with build 7000 finally making its way into the hands of testers around the world, I thought it might be time to highlight a few of the more interesting changes that have appeared or evolved since Microsoft issued its M3 ("milestone 3") release back in October. In no particular order...

Full Article - http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_beta_notes.asp

Citrix Project Apollo: Aero, DirectX, and OpenGL via ICA

Admin — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:21:04 GMT

It's been over a year since Citrix first demoed "Project Apollo," their solution for remoting Vista Aero glass to clients. Displaying Vista Aero glass over a remote display protocol like ICA or RDP is complex, because Aero requires a GPU to render the complex graphics. (It's not as simple as just enabling the "themes" service like when you wanted to add the Windows XP Luna experience to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server.) This is essentially impossible in a multi-user Terminal Server enviroment, since each session would require its own GPU. (Sure, maybe you could pop a graphics card into your server, but best case that'd just give you Aero in a single session--and that's assuming that you had a remote display protocol that could support it.) Microsoft is rumored to be working on an Aero remoting solution for Terminal Services based on the Calista technology they acquired earlier this year, but so far nothing official has been announced.

Full Article - http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2008/12/29/citrix-project-apollo-aero-directx-and-opengl-via-ica.aspx

Windows 7 Beta Review

Admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:57:06 GMT

How does one review a supposedly new version of a product that they have, in reality, already been using for months? It's not easy, believe it or not: The Beta version of Windows 7 (build 7000) that Microsoft will later deliver to tech beta testers and then, in January, to the public, is nothing more than a very finely tweaked version of the various post-M3 (Milestone 3, or build 6801--see my lengthy overview of that build) builds I've been using since October. In fact, there is almost no difference at all between this version of Windows 7 and M3, assuming you've enabled all the hidden M3 features using Rafael Rivera's "Blue Badge" tool.

Full Article - http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_beta.asp

Why are all computers shown with a Printers folder even if printer sharing is disabled?

Admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:42:43 GMT

When you visited a computer on the network by typing \\computername into the address bar, Explorer showed you a Printers folder if the computer had printer sharing enabled. But starting in Windows Vista, the Printers folder is shown regardless of whether the remote computer is sharing any printers. Why did this change?

Communicating with the remote computer to ask it about its printers simply took too long. The IShellFolder::EnumObjects method returns an enumerator that produces a list of items in the folder. Think of it as the shell namespace version of FindFirstFile. When the IEnumIDList::Next method is called, it must produce the next item in the folder or return a code that means Sorry, no more items. There is no return code that means Hey, deciding on the next item is going to take a while, so maybe you should go do something else for a while and check back later when I finally have an answer for you. After all, FindNextFile doesn't have such a return code either. It returns the next file or says No more files. (Yes, there are also other errors that can be returned, but they aren't important here.)

Full Article - http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/12/26/9252861.aspx

Resources - Migration from SQL 2000/SQL2005 to SQL 2008

Admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:35:20 GMT

I will keep on adding the resources which I would find useful to help customer upgrading from SQL Server 2000/SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008

White paper written by experts SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide

SQLCAT Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlcat/archive/2008/12/08/ultimate-guide-to-upgrading-to-sql-server-2008.aspx

MSDN Link Resources for Upgrading to SQL Server 2008

SQL Server UE team blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverue/

Upgrade Advisor http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=F5A6C5E9-4CD9-4E42-A21C-7291E7F0F852&displaylang=en

Source - MSDN

Microsoft warns of critical bug in SQL Server

Admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:49:15 GMT

Microsoft on Monday warned customers that attack code has been released targeting a critical vulnerability in older versions of its widely used SQL Server database software, and urged users to apply a temporary workaround.

The bug was first reported to Microsoft last April by an Austrian security consulting company, SEC Consult. But the firm apparently grew tired of waiting for Microsoft to decide when or whether it would release a patch, disclosed the flaw two weeks ago and published proof-of-concept exploit code.

Full Article - http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/23/Microsoft_warns_of_critical_bug_in_SQL_Server_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/23/Microsoft_warns_of_critical_bug_in_SQL_Server_1.html

Top Issues for Microsoft Support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:48:35 GMT

Hyper-V Beta released as part Windows Server 2008. The final release of Hyper-V happened shortly after the Windows Server 2008 release and can be downloaded here. After a few months of supporting customers, we now have enough case data to report on the top issues being reported for Hyper-V. The issues are categorized below with the top issue(s) in each category listed with possible resolutions and additional comments as needed. These may change as time passes, but as of this post, this is how we see it here in CORE. As always, we welcome your comments.

Full Article - http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/12/23/top-issues-for-microsoft-support-for-windows-server-2008-hyper-v.aspx

Windows 7's Better Backup Features

Admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:48:10 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, while lamenting Microsoft's poorly-articulated Previous Versions story, I alluded to an earlier post in which I detailed my attempts to reproduce Mac OS X's "Time Machine" feature under Windows Vista.

At the time (mid-late October 2007) I found myself stymied by a lack of configurability in Vista's File Backup utility. Specifically, there was no way to directly specify which files or folders to backup - only highly generalized categories like "Documents" or "Music." Worse still, Vista File Backup made a habit of skipping files it considered to be part of the operating system, including the myriad .aspx files I had created as part of my web development projects.

Full Article - http://www.pcworld.com/article/155959/windows7_backup.html?tk=rss_news

PowerShell for Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2

Admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:47:28 GMT

Hi Cluster Fans,

In Windows Server 2008 R2 (“R2”) we are introducing PowerShell as the new scripting language for clustering technologies. PowerShell with Failover Clustering will replace Cluster.exe and the Windows Server 2008 R2 release will be the deprecation release for Cluster.exe. This means it will still available for use so it doesn’t break legacy scripts, but no improvements have been made and Cluster.exe will be completely removed in the next release of Windows Server. This allows ample time for you to learn (and love) PowerShell.

PowerShell provides numerous benefits over standard command line interfaces, including easily customizable scripts and the dynamic use of variables. In Windows Server 2008 R2, PowerShell can also be run on Server Core machines. Using PowerShell on a Core cluster, you can directly run cluster Validation and generate dependency reports, without needing to manage the Core node through a UI-based remote machine.

This blog post will provide an overview of PowerShell with Failover Clustering. In the next few weeks, a post about PowerShell with Network Load Balancing (NLB) will be added to the site.

Full Article - http://blogs.msdn.com/clustering/archive/2008/12/20/9243367.aspx

Microsoft explains how it missed critical IE bug

Admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:25:15 GMT

Microsoft's developers missed a critical bug in Internet Explorer because they weren't properly trained and didn't have the right testing tools, a noted proponent of the company's secure code development process acknowledged last week.

The bug, which Microsoft patched last week with an emergency update, had gone undetected for at least nine years.

Full Article - http://bink.nu/news/microsoft-explains-how-it-missed-critical-ie-bug.aspx

Windows PowerShell V2 Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3)

Admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:22:09 GMT

Use the Download link on this page to download the installation package for the Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3. Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3 introduces several significant features to Windows PowerShell 1.0 and Windows PowerShell V2 CTPs that extends its use, improves its usability, and allows you to control and manage the Windows environment more easily and comprehensively.

This software is a pre-release version and should not be deployed in a production environment. It will not work the way a final version of the software does. Features will change before final release.

Many features introduced in previous CTPs were modified based upon customer feedback. If your scripts used those features, they may have to be modified to run properly. A list of the changes is provided in the Release Notes.

Full Article - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c913aeab-d7b4-4bb1-a958-ee6d7fe307bc&DisplayLang=en