August 2008 - Posts

The Application Virtualization article to end all articles
29 August 08 12:25 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

InfoWorld has produced a great article for anyone who wants to get up-to-speed on Application Virtualization:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/21/34TC-appv-extreme_1.html

Filed under: Virtualization, Softgrid, App-V

IE8 Beta 2 touted as a faster browser. But is it?
29 August 08 12:15 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

From a personal perspective, watching the time it takes for new tabs to load and then for the new pages to load in the tab, I’m a bit disappointed in the speed of IE8.  Even Maxthon, which uses the IE8 rendering engine is much faster opening new tabs and web pages.

My experience from testing Firefox 3.0 a while back, indicates that it is still the fastest browser available.  However, constant browser crashes and web site incompatibilities kept me from thinking seriously about using it long-term. 

So, that said, speed isn’t everything.  Still, the IE8 team needs to do a better job improving the speed and performance of IE8.

Filed under: Firefox, Internet Explorer, IE8

Adding a web slice adds a new RSS feed in MS Outlook
29 August 08 12:10 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

Hmmm…this I didn’t expect.  When you add a web slice to IE8, it also adds a new feed to MS Outlook (if you are using Outlook to read RSS feeds).

It also appears (and, I’m double-checking this) that installing IE8 also changes the update frequency of your feeds in Outlook.  If so, that’s not good.

Can anyone else confirm this?

Filed under: RSS, Outlook, Internet Explorer, IE8

Still no speed dial for IE8, but the Favorites bar will have to do for now
29 August 08 10:00 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

In Maxthon, Firefox, Opera, and even using IE7Pro, there’s a feature I’ve come to rely on, the speed dial.

Speed dial is a configurable page where you can insert regularly visited web sites for easy access.  Here’s a view from Maxthon.

You basically create visual representations of the web sites that you access most often, and clicking on the image whisks you away to the web site.

So far, there is no option or add-on for this functionality in IE8 (unless IE7Pro works with IE8 – I’m scared to try it).  But, the new easy-to-use Favorites bar in IE8 works kind of the same way.  So, I’m using that for now.  But, it would be nice to have this feature back in IE8.  Not a show-stopper by any means, just a personal favorite.

Hmmm…digging further into IE7Pro, it appears that IE8 Beta 1 is, at least, supported:

http://wiki.ie7pro.com/index.php/IE7Pro_Changelogs

I might have to give that a try later on.

Filed under: Internet, IE8

What is a Web Slice?
29 August 08 09:47 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

A Web Slice is a specific portion of a webpage that you can subscribe to, and which enables you to see when updated content—such as the current temperature, or a changing auction price—is available from your favorite websites. Once you have subscribed to the Web Slice, it appears as a link on the Favorites bar. When the Web Slice is updated, the link on the Favorites bar will appear with bold formatting. You can then click the link to see the updated content.

Filed under: Internet Explorer, IE8

Block advertisements in IE8
29 August 08 08:56 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

Adblock Pro:

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/details/Security/Adblock_Pro/

Filed under: Internet Explorer, IE8

Skin IE8 like Firefox
29 August 08 08:55 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

IE8 Theme Manager:

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/details/Time_Savers/Internet_Explorer_Theme_Manager/

Filed under: Internet Explorer, IE8

Setting up a local weather IE8 web slice
29 August 08 08:51 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

The IE8 add-on directory offers a weather web-slice, but only for the Seattle, WA area.  So, how do you setup a web-slice for your local weather?

Jump out to Live.com Search and enter your city and the word “weather” (with quotes).  The result will look something like the following:

When you hover over the weather component in the Live.com Search resulting page with your mouse cursor, you’ll notice that a green feed button appears.  Left-click on the green feed button and IE8 will ask if you want to subscribe to the new web-slice.

Once the new weather component is installed, you’ll have a new IE8 toolbar button which you can click to view the current, local weather conditions.

Neat!

Filed under: Internet Explorer, IE8

The IE8 Accelerator directory
29 August 08 08:44 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

Here’s some cool new add-ons for IE8 – with many more coming…

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/

Filed under: Internet Explorer, IE8

WSUS gets two new categories
29 August 08 08:31 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

From the WSUS product team blog:

Today you will see two  new product categories in your WSUS Synchronization Options dialogs: Windows Server 2008 Server Manager – Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Dynamic Installer and Windows Server 2008 Server Manager Dynamic Installer.

Filed under: Patch Management, WSUS

R2 Releases! – with Updated Documentation
29 August 08 08:10 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

The Release 2 add-on for Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 is released today. Keep an eye on it being announced on the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Web site with details of how to download it.

R2 is available free of charge to customers who have Software Assurance, and it comes with our updated documentation help file (SMSv4.chm). However, everybody can access this latest documentation online from the TechNet Configuration Manager documentation library. The documentation updates include the following:

• Configuration Manager 2007 R2 features (application virtualization, Forefront client security integration, client status reporting, SQL reporting services, operating system deployment enhancements that include support for unknown computers and multicast).
• Updates and corrections to the Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 documentation.

For more information about the new features and changes in R2, see What's New in Configuration Manager 2007 R2.

For a list of topics that have had a significant technical change since the SP1 release in May, see What's New in the Configuration Manager Documentation Library for August 2008.

Any topic that has been changed for this release has at the top Topic last updated—August 2008. This includes the topics that have significant technical changes, R2 topics that are new or have been updated for the release (previously preliminary), and also topics that have had minor updates such as non-technical typos and minor clarifications.

You will also find 3 important new topics:

· How to Upgrade the Windows Automated Installation Kit During Site Upgrades to Configuration Manager 2007 SP1

· Troubleshooting Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Setup

· Step-By-Step Example Deployment of the PKI Certificates Required for Configuration Manager Native Mode: Windows Server 2008 Certification Authority

If you do a search for the last updated date string, you’ll find over 150 topics, so you can see that we’ve been busy improving the Configuration Manager documentation library! We owe a lot of these improvements to customers who contacted us with questions, asked for clarifications, and pointed out omissions and typos – so thank you for helping to improve the documentation for others. We do value your feedback and try to incorporate it when possible.

Keep that feedback coming, and contact us on our usual address of SMSDocs@Microsoft.com.

- Carol

Filed under: System Center, ConfigMgr 2007

Conversation with Sumir Karayi, CEO of 1E
28 August 08 02:50 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

ReGeneration.org provides a short web interview with 1E’s CEO:

http://www.regeneration.org/2008/08/26/conversation-with-sumir-karayi-ceo-of-1e/

Filed under: Industry News, Green, 1E, Vendors

Don’t delete the TEMP or TMP directory on a ConfigMgr client…
28 August 08 11:41 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

J.C. Hornbeck tells why…

Today's tip comes from Vinay Pamnani, a Support Engineer in our System Center Configuration Manager 2007 group.  I didn't see a whole lot documented on these error codes so if you're seeing a 8004402F or a 80041010 then you might want to check where your temp variables are pointing:

========

Issue: Installing the client seems to fail either using push install or manual install and you find the following in the ccmsetup.log:

MSI: Setup was unable to compile the file ccmclasses.mof
The error code is 8004402F ccmsetup <date> <time> 3052 (0x0BEC)
MSI: Action 10:36:17: Rollback. Rolling back action: ccmsetup <date> <time> 3052 (0x0BEC)
MSI: Warning 25002. Failed to delete
CCM_Service_ErrorHandlerRegistration.Clsid="{0F95BCE5-2209-488a-B4BC-4396AD233C8D}" from CCM
The error code is 80041010 ccmsetup <date> <time> 3052 (0x0BEC)
Installation failed with error code 1603 ccmsetup <date> <time> 3052 (0x0BEC)

You may also see the following in mofcomp.log:

<day> <date> <time> : Parsing MOF file:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\CCM\ccmclasses.mof
(day> <date> <time> 2008.6050109) : (1): error SYNTAX 0X8004402f: Error creating temporary file

Cause: This can occur if WMI is unable to access the TEMP and/or TMP location, either because of permissions or because the path is invalid.

Resolution: In our case, these variables were set to %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp.  To resolve the issue we changed the variable to point to C:\Windows\Temp.  Once we did this the client installation completed successfully.

Filed under: System Center, ConfigMgr 2007

Issue with latest updated DHCP Management Pack
28 August 08 11:39 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

Steve Rachui talks about the latest flaw and workaround:

After installing the latest DHCP MP customers are seeing an issue where the event log cannot be opened on the DHCP systems.  An event similar to the following is logged

This problem is due to a known issue with the DHCP management pack.  To workaround the issue, disable the Microsoft.Windows.DHCPServer.Library.Server.UnitMonitor.DependentServiceHealth monitor.

Filed under: System Center, OpsMgr 2007

iPhone security flaw exposes private data
28 August 08 11:36 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

http://www.myitforum.com/absolutenm/templates/template6.aspx?articleid=5563&zoneid=72

Filed under: Security, iPhone