Microsoft

I saw this and thought of you :-) Seriously, if you are trying to resolve these issues then these tools can be very useful indeed. Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1 The Debug Diagnostic Tool (DebugDiag) is designed to assist in troubleshooting issues such as hangs, slow performance, memory leaks or fragmentation, and crashes in any Win32 user-mode process. The tool includes additional debugging scripts focused on Internet Information Services (IIS) applications, web data access components, COM+ and related Microsoft technologies. Source: Download details: Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1 ttfn David

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Now Available for Evaluation Make your evaluation period as efficient as possible: Downloading the software automatically registers you to receive relevant resources for the discovery, assessment and deployment stages. You'll receive links to webcasts, e-learning, virtual labs and more.

It does seem that from being SBS based, then into Small Business partners that the blog has finally morphed into the Vista blog. This is not the case, but I am responding to the needs and requests of the Microsoft partners. SBS 2003 still does an amazing job and should be part of almost any customer request where they have more than 5 PCs (IMHO). However, you know all about SBS, don't you? However I suspect that Office 2007 and Windows Vista are a little bit stranger, so hence the focus. Don't worry - SBS will become more prominent very soon :-) Every dog has its day and this is Vista's and Office's. Give it a week or so and it will be back to the whole ecosystem of Windows Client, Windows Server (or SBS), Office and Windows Mobile. ttfn David

Many of you have Windows Vista, but now need to understand what you can do with it. Rather than reading one of the nice big books, you could go look at the www.windowsvistamagazine.co.uk and read all the great info there. You could also go and look at the training available on the Microsoft Partner site. Finally, you could go and get all the tools you need to build a demo system, including the "scripts" for home and business use and then work through them - it will not take more than an hour to work through them, but by the end of it you will know most of the interesting features of both products. Windows Vista for Partners - Your DRT - the site includes: Step 1. Before getting started, learn what it takes to create your own DRT. Download and review the Windows Vista Demo Setup Guide . Step 2. Gain access to the latest tools for DRT development. Download the zip file , which contains Sample documents Demo files Sample applications Management shortcuts Step 3. Need a little direction on how to set up your demo...

[updated 18th March 08:44am] - The links are working now - hurray Now before someone goes and shoots this down, we have managed a small discount for Microsoft UK Partners' friends and family. It is not a half price discount or anything close, but if you know someone who was going to buy our software or wanted too, it is now a more attractive price :-) Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for your Friends and Family Are you experiencing the 'WOW' of the new Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista yet? If you are you'll probably want your friends and family to feel it too! To help you spread the WOW factor Microsoft Partner DABS is offering a special price to Microsoft Partners' friends and family on the home-use versions of these exciting new releases*. Product Special Friends and Family Price** Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student £85.00 Vista Home Premium £185.00 Vista Home Premium Upgrade £123.50 *Please note: These products are not discounted. The products on offer are legitimate software applications...

I saw this in a forum and got a bit upset by it... it read: “SP2 is not going anywhere near anything we manage until some other people have tried it and seen whether it has any unexpected side effects.” This was followed by “What would happen if everyone took that attitude? I believe that we have to take responsibility for testing these service packs ourselves for the benefit of our customers, not waiting for someone else to try it first.” And then “That's MS's job - not ours.“ And “It's not about whether others can be bothered it's about whose job it is to test these patches. It's not mine, nor my customers. There are far too many Microsoft bashers and there are far too many Microsoft sycophants - the rest of us just get shouted down when we say it like we see it.” The last comment really got my goat, so much so that I posted back to the forum this reply, but I thought I would make it wider as I think the conversation should be discussed broader. Now in defence, I have snipped little bits of the conversations...

I have been using this for as long as the UK SBS GUY site has been around (it is how the admin mails get to me at Microsoft), but when I went looking for the "how to do this" blog item, I could not find it. After much searching of my blog I resorted to searching live.com and there was the article - not mine, but the one I used. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/MF015.html It is very common for some of your users to express an interest in having their mail delivered to a mailbox that is external to your organization. For example, the user is going to be working away from the office and would like their mail to be delivered to their Hotmail account. Another request might be to have their mail delivered to a different person altogether So I can finally give them the credit they deserve. ttfn David Technorati tags: forwarding mail , exchange , sbs 2003

I saw this on Darrens blog ( Office Rocker! : Is your PC beefy enough for Office 2007? ) and decided that I would add to it. One point Darren makes very clear is that Office 2007 will run on Windows XP SP2 or Window Vista (you do not need to have Vista - just as Office 2003 will run on Windows Vista too). The Office 2007 spec is one of the more comprehensive that I have seen, which is good - just like Vista it scales according to the capabilities of the PC it is running on. You will note that to get grammar checking, contextual spell check and search you would need a 1GB machine, whihc is the minimum recommended spec for a Vista Business machine. If you are a power user, go for more memory. I run a 1GB machine at the moment, but when I have 10 windows open it can get sluggish swapping between the applications. Anyway, this is what Darren said: The hardware spec on our website says a few other interesting things, in small print at the end of this list has some of the exceptions: 2 gigahertz (GHz) processor or higher...

I was talking to Adrian from EJC.IT yesterday (a great Small Business partner) and one comment that was made was that I sometimes post lots of entries and knowing which one to read if only one was to be read was hard. So, I have decided to create the " If you only read one post today " tag for those blog entries that fall into the category. Obviously this is one as it is the 1st one and tells you about it :-) [updated 11:33 on 23/05/2007] The URL to get just these posts is http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/tags/If+you+only+read+one+post+today/default.aspx and the RSS feed for this is http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/rss.aspx?Tags=If+you+only+read+one+post+today&AndTags=1 ttfn David Technorati Tags: If you only read one post today

Since I re-published how to become a SBSC member I thought it would be worth pointing out that you can now also get a little bit of help in the way of FREE EXAM VOUCHERS. Jen Brinton has told me that "As a special incentive we have a limited number of FREE EXAM VOUCHERS which can be redeemed against any of the exams above. If you would like one of these vouchers please contact [email protected] but please hurry as these vouchers will be offered on a first come first serve basis and must be redeemed before the 22nd June." So, grab voucher and join the community today. ttfn David Technorati tags: SBSC , Exam Vouchers , Free

I saw this on the Small Business site in the US and thought it was an excellent tool as to what has changed between the versions of Office from XP through to Office 2007. Simply go to http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/products/wowpc/CompareOffice.aspx and click out the tabs to get the details. Ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office System , Office 2007 , Office 2003 , Office XP , Comparison , Small Business

Some people still think that SBS only works in a 1 server environment, which is clearly not the case. Karl suggests that perhaps nothing more than SBS should run on an SBS box. Here is a little extract of his thoughts, but click on the link for more information. He might have a point!! "You can host your own internet site: web and email! In addition, you've got all the benefits of Server 2003 and Exchange! Firewall protection. Microsoft's most powerful database. Plus Remote Web Workplace and Sharepoint. And every one of these has been completely revamped and replaced in the last three years. It really is the best $600 product in history." "Golly Gee, Mr. Balmer, That's Swell!" Many people don't sell SBS Premium because . . . to be honest . . . we're already asking that little box with 4GB Max RAM to do an awful lot. Here are a few notes from a conversation with someone on the SBS development team. I don't have permission to attribute his comments, but I don't think...