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New Tool for DCM

This tool coverts Security Content Automation Protocol files into DCM packs. It is in public beta and you can get it here . Overview The SCAP Conversion Tool for DCM can convert any SCAP stream files into DCM Configuration Packs for use with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. This Beta release includes a user guide that provides detailed instructions for using this command-line tool, as well as detailed information about the mapping between the SCAP protocol and DCM. Please note...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, ConfigMgr, Configuration Manager, SCCM, Desired Configuration Management, Downloads

OneNote PowerToys

If you don't know I am a HUGE OneNote fan and have converted countless people from using Notepad, Notepad2, Word, paper, you name it to using OneNote since it first came out in Office 2003. (If you are only interested in the the list of OneNote PowerToys, skip this section and scroll down). Some of my favorite things are the ability to write anywhere, assign "tags" to notes, copy and drag from anywhere, any application, webpage, pdf - anywhere into a OneNote page, and have it enter...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Tools, et. all, Office, Office 2007, Blog, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools

ConfigMgr SDK (final) Released

Microsoft released the ConfigMgr SDK yesterday. You can get the download here . It includes DCM Digest Authoring guide, DCM digest schema, a SUM gadget that gives you current status messages on patches you have deployed, samples on creating admin console extensions, OSD custom task sequences and more. Regards, Anthony Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E http://configmgr.com © Anthony Clendenen Technorati Tags: ConfigMgr , SCCM , SDK , Gadget  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Scripting, Tools, Microsoft, Gadgets, VB Script, Documentation, ConfigMgr, SCCM, Desired Configuration Management, Microsoft Deployment, Downloads

Defrag Your Hard Drive

How often do you defrag your hard drives? Do you think it is often enough? Defragging your drives can make a substantial difference in performance, seek times as well as the health of your drive can be improved if you defrag your drives on a regular basis. Keep in mind that hard drives are mechanical devices and eventually one of those moving parts is going to fail and you can extend the life of your drives by making them work less when you try to get a file. Don't believe me? How about ExtremeTech...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, Hack, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools

AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 Professional for FREE

Computer Active is giving away the Pro version of AVG for free. I use the free version of AVG on several computers at home and it works fine, you get those annoying widows during updates because it is free, with Pro you can turn that off. Right now it looks like their servers are being flooded but you have until Jan. 17th with the option to stop the offer at anytime, which means they only have so many licenses. Direct download . Details here . Regards, Anthony Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools

How To Upgrade SMS 2003 to ConfigMgr

Back at the end of September I was preparing my home lab for ConfigMgr testing. Since then I have been trying to get back to this article to proof it and tidy it up for publishing. After a number of requests and a light amount of work after 15 hour day today I am sitting in my hotel room, eating mediocre room service, while the Bears are beating the Vikings on MNF, so what better time to do it. Here are the basic software prerequisites for upgrading from SMS 2003 to ConfigMgr: MMC 3.0 .NET Framework...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, ConfigMgr, Configuration Manager

ConfigMgr Toolkit Available for Download

This toolkit includes many of the classics along with a few new hits. Overview The following list provides specific information about each tool in the toolkit. Client Spy - A tool to help troubleshoot issues related to software distribution, inventory, and software metering on Configuration Manager 2007 clients. Policy Spy - A policy viewer to help review and troubleshoot the policy system on Configuration Manager 2007 clients. Trace32 - A log viewer that provides a way to easily view and monitor...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, ConfigMgr, Configuration Manager, Desired Configuration Management

Vista's Partition Magic

Did you know that Vista natively supports partition resizing in Windows Vista? If you go into Computer Management and navigate down to Storage, and then Disk Management in the right window pane you can select a volume, shrink that volume by right clicking on the volume and selecting Shrink Volume. This will open a dialog box to shrink the volume where you can configure how small you would like to make it, of course it cannot shrink it past the size of the data on the drive, if you want to completely...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Tools, et. all, Vista, Hack

Troubleshooting WMI With WMIDiag

If you have never worked with Microsoft PSS, PFE, QFE, MCS, RRE, or any other arm of their professional support staff you may not be aware of the tools that these army of men and women come equipped with to resolve issues. These are often home grown, field developed, custom tools that these same folks have written to help customers and the support staff at Microsoft quickly resolve issues and the WMIDiag tool is a prime example of this. Often these tools are used only by the Microsoft staff and are...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS 2003, SMS Tools, Scripting, Tools, System Center, TechNet, Microsoft, WMI, VB Script

ConfigMgr SDK BETA 2 Available For Download

You can download the BETA 2 version of ConfigMgr's SDK from the Connect site. Details of SDK are copied and pasted below. I got to sit down with several of the Tech Writers for ConfigMgr today at lunch and there was some very interesting conversations. The most important of which was probably that they have plans to release many more of the SuperFlows, I don't know if you have seen the one that is available publicly but they make the flowcharts look like hieroglyphics. The documentation online...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: SMS Tools, Scripting, Tools, Beta, SCCM 2007, VB Script

Build Your Own SMS Knowledge Base

The amount of storage you can get with a free online email account now is probably 10x's larger than your first hard drive. I have used Gmail since it was by invite only and it still works great the SPAM filtering works very well and I like the way the conversations only take up a single line, indicating how many in the thread and if it is unread. One thing I would like to see is folders, Stars are okay, and labels help, but folders would be great. The mail search is the key benefit I get from...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Tools, et. all, myITforum, Hack

Booting Your Vista Box From A WIM File Stored Locally

Let me first say Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful Mothers out there hopefully you are having/had a superb Mothers Day!!! Today is Mothers Day in the US if you hadn't guessed. This is just amazing, this is the third time today that I have found someone already had a solution to a question I was asked just this last week. This is one, managing SMS clients in both workgroup and a domain, and problems with WinPE and RealTek drivers. This is a very cool solution to someone asking me something...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Vista, Hack, OSD, WAIK, Windows PE, BDD

Eileen Brown's WebLog : Migrating from Lotus Notes?

I have gotten this type of question three times in the last few months, and it has never come up before so this is perfect timing - thanks Eileen! Migrating from Lotus Notes? There's been a lot of information about migrating from Notes over on the Collaboration tools blog . Here are 3 tools in particular that may be of use to you if you're thinking of migrating to Exchange... Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino Demo: Messaging/Calendaring Coexistence and Migration This flash demo...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Tools, Documentation, Virtual PC

eWallet Is Your Friend!

I have been using Illiumsoft's eWallet for years. It all started one sunny day back in...sorry...eWallet stores passwords and a ton more! I recently switched to Cingular or the new at&t (Hey Rick J.!) to be on the same plan as the other 1E SE's in the US and moved to a Palm Treo 750 Windows Moobile PDA phone. I have had so many PDA's over the year and I usually give them up after six months because I never found one that really did what I wanted. For this one all I need is to get...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, et. all, Tablet PC

How To Save Your Company Millions Of Dollars The Easy Way!

What would your IT Director and CIO say if you ran into them in the elevator and asked them "What would you say if I could save the company a half a million dollars a year?" Not too long ago one of the projects I was managing was a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) project. We looked for the highest costs for desktop support and focused in on those areas only, so we left out things like training for end users, software and hardware procurement, just because the savings were not that great and...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Project Management, Tools, Shopping, SMSWakeUp, NightWatchman

Download details: Hotfix Scan Tool for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Deployment

Overview The Hotfix Scan Tool is a Visual Basic script file (HotfixScanTool.vbs). You can use this tool to scan for hotfixes that will potentially regress after you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). This tool can be run before or after installing Windows Server 2003 SP2. Knowledge Base Article 931940 gives instructions on how to find updated packages for the hotfixes that are identified by the Hotfix Scan Tool. Source: Download details: Hotfix Scan Tool for Windows Server...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools

Converting Error Codes to Meaningful Information

So you try to install a software package in SMS, it does go as you planned and then when you look in the ExecMgr.log you see something like this A failure exit code of -1073741790 was returned. This of course means nothing to you, how could you get a negative number as an exit code? Here is how to convert that long negative integer into a meaningful exit code that will give a real error message. Open up Calculator form Accessories, change it into scientific mode (view/Scientific) in Dec/Degrees mode...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Packaging, Hack

How I Made The myITforum.com Live Toolbar Button

If you have not looked at the Windows Live Toolbar I would suggest it for a couple reasons, first if you are still using IE6 it gives you tabbed browsing. The second is you can search the myITforum site directly from the search field in the toolbar with this button! To create the toolbar buttons you can go one of two routes. The first is to design it through their website, this is pretty straight forward, you can select your links and put them, your search link, RSS, tags, button icon, etc. It will...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, et. all, myITforum

WSUS 3.0 ACT 5.0 and PSexec

Today the release candidates of WSUS 3.0 and ACT 5.0 went live. WSUS 3.0 incorporates a new MMC facelift along with new features including better reporting and filtering. It also promised greater performance and reliability along with better remote office deployment options and more content from Microsoft Update. You still have to go to connect to download WSUS 3.0 The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT professionals who...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Tools

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Beta Program Now Available for Download

If you are planning on deploying Vista this is a tool for you. If you are doing it in house or for a customer this tool will tell you if your hardware is Vista ready or not. It works without installing an agent and runs from a single, centralized server. It scans your network and evaluates the hardware for Vista readiness. For those computers that are on the network but are not Vista ready it recommends specific hardware upgrades that need to get them Vista ready. This is a beta, but it is a public...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Beta, Vista, News

ACT 5.0 Released

If you haven't used ACT (Application Compatibility Toolkit) what it allows you to do is first get a database of applications you have installed, be it on all computers or just a select few, but any that install the monitoring tool. Then compare that list (automatically if you like) to the Microsoft database of applications they and vendors have certified as well as feedback from those who use the tools, monitor applications for problems on the clients running the ACT tool and then you can mitigate...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Tools, Vista, News

WMI Diagnostics Tool v2

On Friday there was a TechNet webcast on using WmiDiag version 2 for troubleshooting WMI issues. I wasn't able to attend so I can provide any details, here is the introduction on the TechNet site. "The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a pervasive component of Microsoft Windows that is often useful in critical situations. Many enterprise management applications rely on WMI, so it is important that administrators know how to troubleshoot it properly. In this webcast, we explore how the WMI...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, TechNet, WMI, Webcast

Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate Available Now

The next version of Virtual PC is available for download on the Connect site. I downloaded this last night and used it and right away I noticed it was much faster. I had been working with several VPC's all day in VPC 2004 and after uninstalling VPC 2004 and installing 2007 the speed difference was very noticeable. The drag and drop function of being able to move files from your host OS to the guest OS is still there as well. The interface looks the same. Regards. What's new in Virtual PC 2007 Release...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Tools, Microsoft, Virtual PC

Print to Your Printer From Anywhere

I know I am not alone in suffering from this frustration before. You are at the library, in class, at work, anywhere but at home on your own network and you want to print something, maybe a rebate form, your taxes, homework, an article on how to upgrade to SMS 2003 SP2, whatever it is you want it printed on your printer at home. So you save it to a USB drive, or you email it and then when you get home you print it out. Printer Anywhere eliminates that. Now you can print to your home printer from...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Tools, Office, Hack

Use ImageX without installing WAIK

From Michael Greene’s TechNet blog. Source . Use ImageX without installing WAIK I've heard a few people actually say ImageX.exe is included with Vista. That's not technically accurate. ImageX is most certainly a value add to Vista but it is packaged separately in a download called "WAIK" or Windows Automated Installation Kit . So let's say you want to use ImageX but don't want to run the full WAIK install. You copy imagex to a separate machine and run it. Works, but certain things fail, why...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Vista

Building and Deploying Vista from an Image

Aaron has put together a great list of resources for building a Vista image. If you have not used Vista, or read about it, the install process as well as how the OS is built is different than XP and prior OS’s. In addition with the new OSD FP/USMT we move to .xml files, but probably the most interesting technology so far is WAIK. WAIK will allow you to edit an image without having to lay it down on a system and then recreate the image. You for got a driver, want to add that new company standard...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: SMS 2003, Tools, Vista, SCCM 2007, OSD

Data Protection Manager 2006 Service Pack 1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=93b4745c-a10b-44a9-9117-06fc4865b9f4&displaylang=en Brief Description Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 Service Pack 1 (SP1) enables you to protect more types of file servers, provides an interface for configuring your Microsoft Update selection, and includes updates previously released as individual hot fixes plus several bug fixes. Overview Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 Service...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Microsoft

New Version of Windows Defender

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en Specific features of Windows Defender include: A redesigned and simplified user interface – Incorporating feedback from our customers, the Windows Defender UI has been redesigned to make common tasks easier to accomplish with a warning system that adapts alert levels according to the severity of a threat so that it is less intrusive overall, but still ensures the user does not miss...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Security, News

Windows Easy Transfer Companion for Vista

The Windows Easy Transfer Companion transfers actual applications from your Windows XP PC to your new Windows Vista PC and will be made available as an extended public beta version to coincide with the launch of Windows Vista. It supports transfers via network connection or the Easy Transfer Cable and eliminates the need to manually reinstall programs when upgrading to a new PC. It will be freely available as a download for Genuine customers. Anthony Clendenen '> Listen to this article  ... Read the full post or  the 6 comments. Filed under: Tools, Vista

New Downloads From Microsoft - Vista AJAX and Active Directory

Microsoft ASP .NET AJAX v1 Beta ASP.NET AJAX is a set of technologies to add AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) support to ASP.NET. It consists of a client-side script framework, server controls, and more. AD Forest Recovery – Best practices white paper. This paper is a best-practice recommendation for recovering an Active Directory® directory service forest, if forest-wide failure has rendered all domain controllers in the forest incapable of functioning normally. Optimizing client...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Tools, Vista, Microsoft

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