DavidOverton.com
This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small.  

Microsoft
Sort By: Most Recent | Most Viewed | Most Commented

  • Green phone charging from Orange - designed for Glastonbury, but still useful

    Since I have been posting a few things on being greener, this is something that can help charge your phone on a beech, in the garden on anywhere else. Orange goes green for festival phone-fueling “Orange today launched a prototype wind-powered charger capable of delivering a constant supply of green juice despite “the unpredictable English climate”. How? The turbine charges a battery, and it’s from that power pack that the phone’s own battery is charged. It is, of course, a variation of one on humanity’s oldest devices, the windmill, though this time kitted out in suitable, sponsor-friendly colour. The windmil weighs a mere 150g - let’s hope it’s capable of being anchored against strong gusts - and is compact enough to be tucked into a rucksack.” ttfn David Technorati Tags: Climate Change , phone charging
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Jul 16 2007
    Filed under: ,

  • SBS Security - workstation and caller both point to your server and the error is about logon/logoff failure

    I recently created a FTP site to enable uploading of pictures for my blog entries by Word 2007 and suddenly I started getting lots of errors on my system. They took the form of: Event Type: Failure Audit Event Source: Security Event Category: Logon/Logoff Event ID: 529 Date: 09/06/2006 Time: 08:01:31 User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM Computer: SERVER Description: Logon Failure: Reason: Unknown user name or bad password User Name: calvin Domain: XXXXXXXXXX Logon Type: 8 Logon Process: IIS Authentication Package: MICROSOFT_AUTHENTICATION_PACKAGE_V1_0 Workstation Name: SERVER Caller User Name: SERVER$ Caller Domain: OVERTONHOME Caller Logon ID: (0x0,0x3E7) Caller Process ID: 564 Transited Services: - Source Network Address: - The reason why this error log scared me so much was because the security login was coming from my server. This made me think that someone had put something nasty on my box. It turned out with very little digging that this was actually the FTP service trying to authenticate, failing and therefore failing...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Jun 9 2006
    Filed under:

  • Microsoft Management software (System Center) - product information updates, trial software, web casts

    This is an extract from the TRM blog which can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/trm/ . I have removed the KB article list and some items which I don't think are relevant to small business / ISV partners, however the full info can be found on the blog page too News System Center Operations Manager – Microsoft/Gartner Video Watch this presentation describing some of the benefits of Operations Manager to help IT deliver to your business. Features, David Williams (Research VP, Gartner) & Eric Berg (Director, Systems Centre Product Management – Microsoft) http://www.accelacast.com/programs/gartner_microsoft_411/ Downloads System Center Trial Software With the new release of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 adding to the System Center family, why not evaluate the capabilities of some of the other Microsoft System Center family of products with these downloadable trial and Beta software versions. http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/evaluation/trial/default.mspx Events/WebCasts TechNet Webcast...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Nov 1 2007

  • Report: Small businesses moving to Vista fastest | InfoWorld | News | 2008-01-14 | By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service

    Yes this is a US report, but I believe a similar move is happening in the UK Nearly half of businesses polled in a recent survey are in some phase of updating to Vista, and of those companies, 53 percent are small businesses By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service January 14, 2008 Nearly half of businesses are in some phase of preparing to update desktops to Windows Vista with small businesses moving the fastest to implement the OS, according to a new report released Monday. The number of organizations evaluating and testing Vista increased from 29 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent by early November 2007, found the report, commissioned by reseller CDW and based on information collected by Walker Information from 772 IT decision makers. Moreover, about 35 percent of companies are currently implementing or have implemented Vista already, compared to 12 percent last February, the report said. The report is the third of a wave of reports on Vista adoption that CDW has done since the OS was in its final testing...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Jan 15 2008

  • Windows Live SkyDrive Updates - 1GB of storage, RSS feeds when someone makes an update and easier sharing of files

    I saw this on the SkyDrive blog and thought I should share it. Updates to Windows Live SkyDrive! These past couple of months since our last release, we asked ourselves, “What can we do to make SkyDrive even better?” The most obvious answer is something that our users have asked us to do: give out more storage. We’re excited to announce that we’re doubling everyone’s storage to 1 GB! Many users told us, “Hey, we want to be notified when someone adds a file to a specific folder,” so we added RSS feeds to public folders. To subscribe to an RSS feed, go to the public folder that you’re interested in, and click on the orange RSS Feed icon at the top right of the page. Then, anytime that folder is updated, you’ll be notified. We love this feature because we get notified as soon as our friends upload new files to their folders. Another thing users told us is that it’s difficult to share a folder with people that aren’t in your address book. People said, “We have to go to Hotmail or Messenger in order to add someone to...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Oct 12 2007

  • March 2007 - UK Technical Rollup Mail - SQL

    I am shamelessly forwarding this from an internal alias: SQL Server News Now Available – SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 With New Features, Increased Performance Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) enables all editions of SQL Server 2005 to take advantage of the enhancements within Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System including SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services improvements for Office 2007; increased interoperability; and enhanced manageability and data compression. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/servicepacks/sp2.mspx SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Press Release Here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/feb07/02-19SQLSP2PR.mspx What’s New In SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283536.aspx A List Of The Bugs That Have Been Fixed In SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 This article contains information about the bugs fixed in SQL Server 2005 SP2. Please note: (1) other fixes that are not documented...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, Mar 7 2007

  • Site work underway

    I am in the process of upgrading the site - expect some spotty service while this happens. thanks David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Apr 23 2007

  • R2 delayed by a few bad files

    I knew a day or so that this was coming - R2 was delayed because a few of the core files were "old" versions and should have been updated. As expected this will delay R2 being in the shops and at distributors. As expected Susan B has blogged on this and I saw it at ZDNet . The usual SBS Team are saying very little about it, as you would expect, but worth looking at http://seanda.blogspot.com/2006/07/r2-recalled.html . So, still coming, just a wee bit delayed. ho hum - better it is stopped now than when in the hands of customers!! ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Jul 28 2006

  • Google Checkout downchecked by UK users (The Register) and Google doesn't mind not asking about Privacy

    I'm obviously in a little bit of a carefree mood as I am going to offer my personal opinion on one of the Internet greats. Google has built an amazing advertising business through search, but their company slogan of "Do no evil" seems to be more "deny any evil doing". Lets be honest, Google is a business, like any other who's primary aim is to live longer, grow bigger and feed shareholders. I have seen a few things that Google do that I don't like. I don't like them reading my e-mails, the meta data of the documents I have, my every browser move. These have been discussed by others many times before, but this week I have seen two storied that smacked of "sorry we got it wrong... its not our fault". I remember the reaction when I said sorry on the blog and it seems that a little bit of that humble pie is needed elsewhere (and more at Microsoft obviously). The two areas I am thinking about are their Checkout tool and their mapping tools. The Register, who I have had...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Jun 8 2007
    Filed under: ,

  • If you are a Virtual Earth wannabe, then you need to know about the UK Partner Day

    This is a simple "if you care about this" posts, but a few people have asked me about MapPoint / Virtual Earth. James has published details at James.Random() : Virtual Earth UK Partner Day on how to integrate Virtual Earth into your applications. Virtual Earth UK Partner Day The Microsoft Virtual Earth EMEA team are holding an event on 6 th February 2008 at the Great House at Sonning to provide you with all the information you require to integrate VE into your business offering. Never before has it been so easy for your clients to track assets, find customers, manage mobile sales force & engineers or make sure their customers find them before they find a competitor! The agenda is not yet finalised but will consist of: · Informative sessions; you will hear from customers and partners who have utilised Virtual Earth as well as technical presentations and the latest updates from VE. · A masterclass from Johannes Kebeck highlighting useful tips and tricks for developers, ensuring you get the most out...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Jan 11 2008
    Filed under: ,

  • Got Lotus ... "Microsoft's ISVs Cashing In On Lotus Exodus" - CRN and VARBusiness - where are the tools

    It is always nice to see good news and SharePoint and Exchange are providing lots of it at the moment. I thought I would share this story and also some tools. Microsoft: ISVs Cashing In On Lotus Exodus Microsoft earlier this week released an updated version of its Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino, a set of tools that helps organizations migrate from IBM Lotus Notes and Domino to Microsoft products. As interest builds around unified communications, Microsoft in the last six months of 2007 saw more than 300 enterprise customers -- representing some 2.8 million users -- begin making the movie to Exchange Server, Office SharePoint Server and the Office suite, according to Clint Patterson, a director with the unified communications group at Microsoft. This groundswell of interest has spawned a whole ecosystem of Microsoft ISVs offering products that ease the migration process. For example, companies that have large amounts of information stored in a Notes database have found it difficult to capture that data and...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Jan 25 2008

  • CIO Jury: The Linux desktop is dead - silicon.com

    I always like to share information about how Windows or Linux is perceived on the desktop, but this little article puts it stronger than I ever would! Linux is unlikely ever to be a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows on the desktop for corporate IT departments, according to leading CIOs. Just this week new research by the National Computing Centre (NCC) found only one Linux desktop for every 300 currently running Windows XP in UK organisations. Three-quarters of silicon.com's 12-strong CIO Jury backed the view that the Linux desktop dream is dead. Rorie Devine, IT director at Betfair.com, said Linux would have to change drastically to compete at desktop level. He said: "There would have to be a unified vision of where the components fit together and application developers would have to be able to work to that and have a mass market. At the moment there are too many options for the Linux desktop to support mass market tools. A more likely Unix on the desktop is Mac OS X." Source: CIO Jury: The Linux desktop...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Nov 9 2006

  • Want to play with Vista, but don't want to install it - Welcome to the Microsoft Virtual Lab for Windows Vista

    I have had a few people say they don't have the resources to load and explore Vista, but wanted to see more. Well now you can explore all the following subjects without leaving your desk or loading a DVD. The Vista lab covers the following areas: Microsoft Virtual Lab Express: Exploring New Functionality in Internet Explorer 7 Using System Image Manager to Automate Windows Vista Installations Windows Vista: Image Engineering Configuring Windows Firewall with Advanced Security Exploring New Group Policy Settings in Windows Vista Exploring User Account Control in Windows Vista Migrating User State from Windows XP to Windows Vista Managing Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn Network Bandwidth with Policy-based Quality of Service Managing Windows Vista Using New Management Technologies Source: Microsoft Virtual Lab: Windows Vista Enjoy them! ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Sep 18 2006

  • Loading Vista with SBS

    SBS is a great, stable product, so why go and throw in a bunch of broken software into the mix? Untested - yes, Vista and Office 2007 are beta, so known to have bugs that have not be resolved in them. OK, so the 1st rule is never run beta software in production, unless you are doing so for known explicit reasons. Vlad has posted on this a few times already. I also saw that the SBS team have made a couple of statements about Office and Vista and the bottom line is that there are some known issues and Microsoft is addressing them. Also, looking on one of the forums, there are a few questions people are asking , so be warned. If you don't use the connect computer wizard, then joining a Vista PC to a domain is doable. You might have a few Group Policy problems, so I would check things like "My Documents" redirection and firewall settings. You will also get a few UAC prompts, but as Susan suggests , lead UAC on for your testing - the prompts should get less once the PC is set up and the latest builds of Vista should...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Jun 27 2006

  • Great R2 Spoof Advert based on DaVinci Code - good humour

    Microsoft often pokes fun at itself, but due to one of our competitors taking it a little too seriously some years back, these rarely come out to play in public. Well, have a look at this one . It was posted by Jules in the UKSBSG forum and I also got private messages from a few people saying that we should use this in the UK. ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Aug 7 2006

  • Understanding Workflow in WSS and Office 2007

    Many people have been asking about Windows SharePoint Services and Workflow and how this will work with SBS 2003. While I can not say how WSS v3 will be supported on SBS, the issue is likely to be one of the wizards and fax tools no working rather than the WSS v3 itself not working. One of the good features of WSS is the new workflow features that are available. From within the document it states: Many kinds of processes in many different kinds of organizations can benefit from automated support for human workflow. Examples include: Approval : A common aspect of human-oriented business processes is the need to get approval from multiple participants. What’s being approved can vary widely, ranging from a Word document containing next year’s marketing plan to an expense report from a trip to a conference. In every case, some number of people must review the information, perhaps appending comments, then indicate approval or rejection. Coordinating group efforts : Whether it’s preparing a response...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Sep 4 2006

  • Internet Explorer goes for standards 1st - Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8

    IE8 is cooking along nicely. IE is one of those products that is highly impacted by standards and given the announcements Microsoft made about standards and interoperability last week, the IE team have made some announcements ( IEBlog : Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 ) Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously. Why Change? Microsoft recently published a set of Interoperability Principles . Thinking about IE8’s behavior with these principles in mind, interpreting web content in the most standards compliant way possible is a better thing to do. We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8’s default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action. While we do not believe any current legal requirements would dictate which rendering mode a browser must use, this step clearly removes...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, Mar 5 2008

  • Do you get e-mails offering pirated software at discount rates and want Microsoft to do something about it?

    I got a mail from one of the community leads the other day about "downloading Office 2007 for a 80% discount". These mails are always fraudulent - in many cases you will not even be sent any software, pirated or stolen, but your credit card details will be re-used. Should you be sent something, as said, it will not be legal, so at best will be stolen, at worse, will be hacked together and probably contain spy/malware too. This business damages us all, so if you are in the UK and wish to report it, please just foward these mails to the UK Piracy team at [email protected] . thanks David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Dec 8 2006

  • Comically bad 24 hours in the Overton household ... how you know Monday was a bad day

    I just had to share with you the back end of my weekend and why it made Monday such a disaster. All was well on Sunday, I went sailing, then about 4pm my back decided to jump back into the land of extreme pain. OK, so 1 member of the household down. About 8pm Lizzy, my 1 year old, started throwing up... not good... and it carried on through the night. One rug in the bin, 5+ changes of night clothes for her and more. All with me unable to do much due to back pain and my wife phobic about people being sick. Two members of the household down. Next morning, we get some quality sleep from about 6am until about 7:30am when Molly, my eldest, tells us she is not feeling well and she has an upset tummy and a temperature. We decide that she is not faking it, so off from school for her and now food for a while. Three members down and one left standing. About 7pm Mel, my wife, goes to put something in the bin, trips over the rug and slips. "Ouch" she said (and a few more colourful words too), took off her rings...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Sep 25 2007
    Filed under:

  • Office 2007 training clinics

    First Look Office 2007 - instructor-led training and Hands-on Labs (Halo) Course 3370: Getting Started with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, one-day clinic Course 3041: Deploying Microsoft Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System Client Products, half-day clinic Course 3374: Getting Started with Microsoft Office 2007 Sharepoint Server, one-day Halo Course 3199: Getting Started with the 2007 Microsoft Office System, half-day clinic Course 3372: Getting Started with the 2007 Microsoft Office System, half-day Halo Course 3369: Getting Started with Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0, half-day clinic Course 3373: Getting Started with Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0, half-day Halo ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Sep 28 2006

  • OFF TOPIC - Raise money for NSPCC (UK Childrens charity) while searching the internet using clickscount.co.uk

    I know this is s a small one, but if you go to http://www.clickscount.co.uk to try your internet web searches, you will rasie money for the NSPCC each time you click. Underneath is the MSN Search engine, which has improved hand over fist over the last few months, but it has got to be worth a try, even if it is just for MS related information. ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, Jun 21 2006

  • The hunt for Jim Gray has not turned up the man yet, even with the best of science looking for him

    Now I have never been good at expressing things that get under my skin, so if this seems awkward, so be it. There was once a man who helped invent the modern day database. In doing so he gave me a career in computers that has changed my life, and countless others. I have had a couple of meetings with Jim and was always in awe of the thoughts and processing that went on in his mind. He could stretch from super computing problems to how data should be made more useable in small businesses. In the one day we spoke about the complete database needs of the UK for all health matters - diagnosis through to information sharing and then discussed how data should be shared and sliced in a 6 man business - and he still ran rings around me, even though 8 years ago I was designing and benchmarking databases up to 170TB and I have been focusing deeply on small business needs for the last four. If you don't know about Jim, have a look at 426 documents that reference him in the acedemic search or read what he was looking at on...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Feb 20 2007
    Filed under:

  • Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" – Learning Portal

    Since we will all have to learn Longhorn for the next version of SBS, here is a place to start Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" – Learning Portal Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" is the next-generation Windows Server operating system that helps IT professionals maximize control over their infrastructure with increased security, reliability, and flexibility. E-Learning training Collection 5934: Introducing Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" (Beta 3) — Free for a limited time! This online learning collection of five clinics introduces the new features and functionality in Windows Server "Longhorn." The courses cover server virtualization, security and policy management, branch office management, centralized application access, and server management. You can take the entire collection or just the courses that interest you. • Clinic 5936: Introducing Security and Policy Management in Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" (Beta 3) • Clinic 5937: Introducing Branch...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sun, May 13 2007
    Filed under:

  • If you want Vista - go get it today or mis out

    I have just read at Ian Moulster's blog that Vista beta code is on a time limit to sign up - and that time is soon to expire. If you want Vista, go to http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/engb and start the process now, like today. You have been warned! ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Jun 29 2006

  • looking for bugs in Vista at the moment is the right thing to do, but to say that by finding a bug constitutes a security risk just makes me laugh

    Symantec Continues Windows Vista Bug Hunt I saw this article and it just made me want to cringe. Symantec have released a report that has rightly pointed out issues and concerns with the new technology in Vista. Every time code is changed there is a risk of inserting new security vulnerabilities, however, new code is the way of new products and the evidence from Windows Server 2003 and SP1 vs Windows 2000 shows that the processes Microsoft goes through has a real and tangible impact on the security quality of the applications. Now, security is indeed a key feature of Vista and while we all know there will be a security patch for the product at some point, jumping up and down and pointing the finger at bad code before we have finished the security sweep or even got out of beta is not likely to reflect life once the product releases. I have to say, this looks like someone getting a little upset with the features in Vista and therefore saying - look, you need us because they are not good at this security stuff. Obviously...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Jul 27 2006
« First ... < Previous 40 41 42 43 44 Next > ... Last »

(c)David Overton 2006-23