All things SMS, System Center Configuration Manager, Active Directory, Group Policy, Virtualization, Security, Gadgets, Technology, and the Daily Thoughts of an SMS Engineer named Anthony Clendenen.

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Top Ten Events in Systems Management During 2007

December 31, 2007

First of all, Happy New Year, and may everyone find that in 2008 that your glass is more than half full, you and your loved ones are all very healthy and overly happy, that your careers are very prosperous, and that you gain all that you desire and more. As we welcome another year and reflect on the year ending it is always nice to note what was the highlights of the year. So below is my personal top ten of 2007 when it comes to Systems Management. 10. Thursday, October 23rd, System Center Partner...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Delayed

August 30, 2007

What is the status? Windows Server 2008, formerly Longhorn, will be delayed until Q1 of 2008 but will be available to SA and MSDN subscribers prior to RTM. SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 are scheduled to be released with Server 2008 so I can only assume they will be delayed as well. Vista SP1 also suffers from the same fate, delayed until Q1 of 08. The BETA of Vista SP1 will be available to participants in about two weeks however. And SP3 for XP is moving along with its BETA also being out...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: , , , , , , , , , ,

Vista SP1 Beta In Mid-July

July 09, 2007

According to Mary-Jo we should see the release of Beta 1 the week of July 16th, with the final release in November of this year, right around the launch of Windows Server 2008. Based on this release schedule this would give Microsoft a Beta window of only 4-5 months! Some of the expectations for SP1? Zippier copy of files! Desktop search modification to please Google EFI boot capability for 64bit Shutdown speed BitLocker to allow a single volume to be encrypted Regards, Anthony Anthony Clendenen...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , ,

No Vista Service Pack Coming - Yeah Right

May 12, 2007

The head of Intel speculated on a call a few weeks ago that SP1 for Vista would be out in October or November, but Michael Sievert a Marketing VP at Microsoft said there are currently no plans for a service pack for Vista. Obviously both parties have their own agenda and will tell the press whatever fits their agenda best. Working at a software development company for almost nine years and going through several different major releases during that time I can say that based on the problems seen with...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: ,

Vista and Office 2007 for Free! Yes It's True! - Sold Out

November 29, 2006

I saw reports of this yesterday and thought, like most, yeah right! But this has been confirmed by two different Microsoft employees as legit. If you watch three or more webcasts or virtual labs within 30 days of registration. You must be 18 or older, a US resident, and only one gift per person -per offer, this expires on Feb 28th or while supplies last. You are responsible for any taxes. Exact details can be found here . So sign up, watch, learn, and get Office 2007 and Vista for free! Check it...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , ,

New Downloads From Microsoft - Vista AJAX and Active Directory

October 20, 2006

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: , ,

Microsoft Announces Desktop Optimization Pack

October 17, 2006

Today it was officially announced that Microsoft will combine the recently acquired tools from Softricity, Winternals, and Desktop Standard into a single package that you can purchase for ~$50 per client. What this package gets you is SoftGrid application virtualization, group policy management/enhancement tools from DesktopStandard, and the remote repair tools from Wintenals. For this price you could not get even the tools from DesktopStandard, the backend for the SoftGrid used to run about $15...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: , , , , ,

Introducing - Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)

September 18, 2006

Original source: Introducing Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) The Windows Recovery Environment (aka Windows RE aka WinRE) team would use this blog to share information, tricks and tips about WinRE with support professionals and end-users of Windows. We would also like to use this blog to get feedback from the community. So what is WinRE? Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery platform based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE). WinRE provides two main functionalities: 1...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , ,

Microsoft Announces No More XBox!

May 10, 2006

Well, not really, but Microsoft announced a number of games from the XBox lineup to be ported to Vista. You can read more about it here . Tags: BlogDesk  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: ,

Vista and Office 2007 - Using Glass

May 02, 2006

If you have not seen Vista, and Office 2007 this is nice shot . I use Office 2007 on my laptop and it is a great improvement if you asked me. OneNote, Excel, and Outlook, are much better than 2003. Regards.  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , ,

MMS 2006 - Day 3 - SMSv4 (SCCM 2007) Beta 1 and Beta 1 Refresh Features

April 26, 2006

Presented by Josh Pointer and Michael Kelley IF YOU MISSED THIS SESSION MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND IT - THE SLIDES DO NOT DO IT JUSTICE YOU MUST SEE THE DEMOS!!! Included in Beta 1: (You may want to skip this section and get to the good stuff in Demo 1 below) Operating System Deployment (OSD) Software Updates Management (SUM) New UI Based on MMC 3.0 Filter Drag and Drop for patch and folders!!! Branch DP's What's new in the Beta 1 Refresh? - Matches Vista Beta 2 release time Deployment of Vista and Longhorn...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , , , , , , ,

MMS 2006 - Day 2 - Vista Management Overview

April 25, 2006

So what is new for managability in Vista you ask…Well here are a few areas. User account control Group policy additions and flexibility New Event Viewer Additional WMI providers Windows Resource Protection (WRP) Task Scheduler – Improved So more specifically the user acct control means that users are now allowed to do things they should have been able to do without admin rights, things such as manage their printers and change their power sheme. Probably the best feature of this is that legacy apps...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , ,

MMS 2006 - Day 2 - Group Policy What's New in Vista and Longhorn

April 25, 2006

David Power - Program manager Some pretty cool stuff, some of it is redundant. What's new? New in Vista is that GP's no longer run under Winlogon but instead run as a shared service and the service itself has been hardened by requiring local admins to have elevated privileges to stop the service, the service will also auto restart from any error. Network Awareness - policy application is not network sensitive, no longer a 90 minute wait before refresh if a DC is detected. If a system comes out of...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , , ,

Day 1 - MMS 2006 - Part 2

April 25, 2006

This was a long day, I managed to get into four sessions and spend some time at SMS Expert booth talking with Dave. If you have not seen the new version of ESD make sure you stop by and check it out, they have done some great things with it. I was not able to make it to the get together at the Marriott, I was tired and had not eaten since lunch so I got back to my room about 9:30, ate, and went to sleep. Hopefully I will be meet up with some of the myITforum people today. My wife and daughter arrive...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: , , , , , , ,