May 2005 - Posts

• Steve Lamb Promotes The Blogcast Repository

  Steve Lamb spoke at the Technical Roadshow in Birmingham last week. He mentioned the BlogCast Repository and it seems he is gearing up to make some more blogcasts. Steve has some great ideas and I can't wait to see them! I have been really impressed by many of the Microsoft folks who have seen the true benefit of the repository. I wish I could get Microsoft to have a full time link from their community links page. The funny thing about the repository that makes it different than most community web sites is that we promote every Microsoft technology, not just one. To properly link to us, they would have to have a link from several technologies and that's shows the site is diverse. myITforum is very similar in its diversity, but Microsoft does not link to it in every category they should. Hey Steve, can you get the link approved? Posted May 31 2005, 11:51 AM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Blogcasts

• More Blogcasts on the way... and a new category!

  I have been asked if I would create a SUS / WSUS category on the site by a SUS MVP. I think it's a great idea and will be adding the new category very soon. If you have yet to visit the SUS Wiki site, take a look! Posted May 30 2005, 02:21 PM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Windows, Blogcasts

• A GREAT IDEA!

  I have been contacted by someone very well known at Microsoft who has a great idea. Before I spill all the beans, I want to wait until I know more. What if we had people at Microsoft seminars and other MSFT events do video interviews and behind the scene videos and host them on The BlogCast Repository. This might be a great way to promote the events and show people what they are missing by not attending. We have a few ideas and will post them very soon. Stay tuned to find out more! Posted May 30 2005, 02:17 PM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Blogcasts

• Blogcast: Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Basics

  Don DiPasco has done a great gob with his first blogcast! Don shows the basic fundamentals of Virtual Server 2005 in this 20 minute BlogCast. He has been spending a lot of time working with Virtual Server, so if you have questions or want to see another BlogCast, make sure to email him. Posted May 26 2005, 10:39 AM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Windows, Blogcasts

• Great Blog Post about Longhorn and Start Menus

  I sent out The Blogcast Repository newsletter yesterday and had a link to Ryan Dawson's weblog. As I was just really looking at his blog, I came across this. Ryan has some great ideas on a new Start Menu and what he thinks it should really do. I think I agree that the menu has always been pretty poor and I never liked how when you click on All Programs on XP, it covers half the menu. He has a great picture of his idea and I think it's a vast improvement from what we have now. Posted May 25 2005, 01:18 PM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Windows

• The BlogCast Repository Newsletter

  NEWSLETTER 5/24/2005                                                                                         Blogcast Count: 63 Sponsor Blogcast Repository Links Windows Server Office SMS Development Windows Desktop Messaging Random Community Links Kirk Haselden Small Business Server Ryan Dawson Marc Orchant Alfred Biehler Create & Upload Create a Blogcast UPLOAD Contact Me Brian Tucker     Windows Server 2003 Disk Quota by Brian Tucker-  5/24/2005  - Elapsed Time: 12:05  Audio:     Level:100 Windows quotas allow you to determine how much drive space a user or group can have on a server volume, not just a share. If you have a server where drive space is critical and you need to make sure users don't take up too much space, quotas may be the answer.   HELP THE COMMUNITY BlogCasting is a great way to share your knowledge with everyone. You may think that BlogCasts are difficult to make or maybe you think what you have to say is not important enough. BlogCasts are simply a persons thoughts on how to accomplish a certain task. Everyone has something to learn, whether you are a novice or have years of expertise. Learn how to create a BlogCast and UPLOAD it to The BlogCast Repository and make your thoughts known to everyone. The design of The Repository is so you can teach anyone how to excel in a Microsoft technology. If you have questions and want to learn more about BlogCasting, send me an email and I can help you with your first one. RSS over the Newsletter The newsletter will not be a long term solution for you to receive information about The BlogCast Repository. The RSS feed will be the primary notification within 6 months. Get your RSS reader and subscribe to the feed! Posted May 24 2005, 10:32 PM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Systems Management, Windows, Miscellaneous, Blogcasts, The Blogcast Repository Newsletter

• Blogcast: Windows Server 2003 Disk Quota

  Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server allow for disk quotas. In this BlogCast, I show how to properly configure the quotas on a Windows 2003 Server. What is a disk quota and why would you want to set a file limit? You can set a quota for a specific user or group so that the user does not take too much server drive space. In environments where drive space is limited, this can be a great solution to manage how much a user can take. The BlogCast shows some of the do's and don'ts on file permissions and why some things work and others don't. The help files provided by Microsoft are not exact and if you have had problems setting the quotas, click the picture below to see how it works.  Elapsed Time: 12:05 Posted May 24 2005, 09:06 PM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Systems Management, Windows, Blogcasts

• HP Contacts Me....

  I had written to HP looking to see if they would be interested in a trade of services. I need a server that will run all the applications I want to Blogcast about. In return I would have an ad on the site and have HP wallpaper in the blogcasts. Well, I'm amazed they called me. The gal who called said she would pass it along to the marketing team and that she is the first step in the process. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned to see what happens! Ahhh..... the possibilities would be endless. Posted May 24 2005, 05:32 PM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Systems Management, Active Directory, Windows, Miscellaneous, Blogcasts

• Why does Microsoft still make Definition Files for SMS?

  Years ago, Microsoft started to make .PDF and .SMS files which were a help because they would setup package programs for you. Microsoft still does it, but why? I think they do it for packages with a .exe in the command line. However, I know people are doing it for .MSI's when I don't think it's your best choice. It's not custom to your application by any means when you already have a .MSI. When you have a package you want to add to SMS, add the package as a “package from definition” rather than a regular package. SMS reads the .MSI and pulls the package command lines to give you 6 programs. Hmmm.... I think I would like to have SMS read what the .MSI wants as a command line rather than a generic .txt file. If you have a transform for the .MSI, just add the rest of the command line to the existing one. Posted May 24 2005, 02:52 PM by Anonymous with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Systems Management

• The Red Screen of Death?

  Ok, I read this article on how Longhorn will introduce a new red screen of death for more serious errors. Hey, when you get a STOP error and you system crashes, do you really care what the color is? Maybe Microsoft should buy stock in Crayola and they can have all the colors in the rainbow. Yea, better yet... maybe we can have a new tab on the display properties where we can have a new themes for errors. To me that's just dumb and a waste of time to fool with. Posted May 24 2005, 08:45 AM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Windows, Miscellaneous

• XBOX 360 Graphics Pictures

  My kids are going to go crazy over this (and a few adults I know)... make sure to click “next” to see the other pictures. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050523/gallery/index.html Posted May 18 2005, 10:08 AM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Miscellaneous

• This is why I do it.....

  There's a lot of energy that goes into a article or a Blogcast. When you know you have helped someone understand something a little better it defines what you do. Here is the email (with his permission) I just got this morning. Thank YOU Richard! “Hi Brian,   Thanks for the Blogcast.  It's an another great post.    You make an excellent point: it's really all about collections.  After watching the blogcast and reading your article "SMS Standard Collection Structure and Management," I realized we should implement a similar "application" collection hierarchy.    There are two other critical lessons I took away from this blogcast/discussion: 1. There is no need to make the advertisements for core applications recurring.  As long as you assign 1 mandatory start time, systems added to the applicable collection will receive the advertisement/package, even if they are added to the collection 1 year after the mandatory start time.  Configuring advertisements for core applications as recurring is extraneous and creates some extra SMS overhead. 2. As you point out in your e-mail, we should make an "all or nothing" decision regarding whether to use SMS to deploy an application.  This will avoid double installs and other problems.   I know these lessons seem very simple, but I was totally missing the point on both accounts.   Thanks for you help! I look forward to reading future posts. -Richard“     Posted May 18 2005, 09:21 AM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Systems Management, Blogcasts

• The BlogCast Repository Newsletter

  5/18/2005                                                                                         Blogcast Count: 62 Sponsor Blogcast Repository Links Windows Server Office SMS Development Windows Desktop Messaging Today's Community Links Dan Thomson Dave Goldman Mark Kruger Harry Waldron Bink Create & Upload Create a Blogcast UPLOAD Contact Me Brian Tucker     SMS 2003 Software Distribution Best Practices    by Brian Tucker-  5/17/2005  - Elapsed Time: 10:54  Audio:     Level:100 I received a request to talk about advertisement best practices. Your collection structure will be your guide to how your SMS clients receive packages you want them to have. The Blogcast explains advertisements in general and how I setup my collection structure and why.   Contests on the Way I am working on a few ideas for some contests. Some types of contests might be: Whoever creates the most new blogcasts in a week. The first person to create 3 new Blogcasts on 3 different technologies. Whoever does the first level 500 (most difficult) Blogcast. Whoever uploads the most new Blogcasts for a month. Some of the prizes I am working on are possibly a X Box, Microsoft software, a new microphone headset and or anything else I can come up with. If you work for a company that can donate items (yes I am looking to you Microsoft folks), let me know! So if you're not Blogcasting yet, you need to get started.   RSS Feeds I am also working on possibly adding a new RSS feed that links all the Microsoft communities into one feed. There are a few different types of software out there that I will begin testing very soon. I find myself constantly adding new feeds into my reader, if I can bring all the feeds into one it would make it much easier for everyone. If you already know of someone doing this, let me know.   Posted May 18 2005, 08:48 AM by Anonymous Filed under: Systems Management, Blogcasts, The Blogcast Repository Newsletter

• The Blogcast Repository - Back on Track Again

  It's been several weeks since I have put any time into The Blogcast Repository. I think I needed a few weeks to slow down and figure out what exactly I'm doing with the web site. Having your own site is a bit crazy when you are trying to figure out how to get people involved, make the videos, build the site itself, update the RSS feeds and send out the newsletter. As for the newsletter, this has really proven to be the most frustrating part. I don't have any real disposable cash to buy a good mass / bulk email software. Before I found what I use now, I was sending out one email at a time to almost 100 people because a lot of recipients block bulk sends (which is good). I do have a program I am working with and there are only a few people that get blocked. If you have not received a newsletter from me, that's probably why. When I have a few bucks to find something better I will hope to get everyone on the list. I would suggest those people use the RSS feed. I will be starting some contests soon and you need to Blogcast to be a part of it. Some types of contests might be: ·         Whoever creates the most new blogcasts in a week. ·         The first person to create 3 new Blogcasts on 3 different technologies. ·         Whoever does the first level 500 (most difficult) Blogcast. ·         Whoever uploads the most new Blogcasts for a month. Some of the prizes I am working on are possibly a X Box, Microsoft software, a new microphone headset and or anything else I can come up with. If you work for a company that can donate items (yes I am looking to you Microsoft folks), let me know! So if you're not Blogcasting yet, you need to get started.   Posted May 18 2005, 08:46 AM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Systems Management, Blogcasts

• Blogcast: SMS 2003 Software Distribution "Best Practices"

  I received an email from Richard Zigame today who wanted to see a blogcast on “best practices“ for advertisements. Advertisements are only the deciding factor on when and how (to some degree) the package will execute. Your collections are really the most important part of your package deployment process. Collections are the foundation because how you configure them will decide how the membership will install the advertisement. Perhaps you have collections based simply by site. Maybe you have collections based on Active Directory groups and your collection membership us updated when a user or workstation is added to the group. No matter how you set your advertisements, collections are far more customized based on the organizations needs. Every site and org will be different. It's a team effort to discuss how you want your clients to get the packages they need. I don't think there is a standard “best practice“ because every organization is different. The Blogcast explains how my collection structure works based on AD group membership and the basics of advertisements and how they work. Feel free to email me if you have questions or want something more specific. I will be doing another blogcast on how to upgrade packages (applications) soon. Watch the Blogcast! Posted May 17 2005, 06:52 PM by Anonymous with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Systems Management, Blogcasts