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  • Migrating SBS 2000 to Windows SBS 2008 - download document now available

    Should you have a SBS 2000 system that you wish to move to SBS 2008 there is now a documented process on how to do this. Migrating Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 to Windows Small Business Server 2008 Outlines the steps necessary to migrate settings and data from an existing server running Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 to a new computer running Windows SBS 2008. File Name: Migrating_SBS2000_to_SBS2008.doc Date Published: 5/1/2009 Download Size:96 KB Download details: Migrating SBS 2000 to Windows SBS 2008 Note that Exchange is not migrated in itself, so PST backups of all mail folders is required using the process documented in the KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196492 . Thanks David Technorati Tags: SBS 2008 , SBS 2000 , Migration , Microsoft
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sat, May 2 2009

  • How to copy or archive files by year using the command line and robocopy

    I got this question via e-mail and decided I would post the answer here in a blog. (Updated 16th Feb 2017 with a typo correction) I want transfer all files created in Office Word 2003 by year (annual batchs - ex: 2005, 2006, etc.) to external HD. How can to do this? I will appreciate your answer. Edgar To do this via the command line you can use Robocopy which is present in Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you have Windows XP download the Server 2003 Resource Toolkit and install it. Robocopy will be part of the install and found in the install directory. The actual command would look like this and would need to be entered into a command prompt: for /L %x in (2009,-1,2000) do robocopy source destination \%x *.doc? /maxage:%x0101 /minage:%x1231 /s To break it down a bit.. for /L %x in (2009,-1,2000) do This creates a counter from 2009 up in steps of -1 (or down in steps of 1) until 2000 is reached. Each time the counter changes it is set into %x, so %x will become 2009, 2008 and so on. It then executes the command...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, May 6 2009

  • List of Windows 7 compatible applications that have been registered with Microsoft and how to get yours registered if you have an application

    I’ve been asked a few times about what software is registered with Microsoft as compatible with Windows 7 or has a certified status with Windows 7. The answers can be found on either of these two web sites: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx – Web based tool to search for software http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=890e522e-e39e-4278-aebc-186f81e29173&displayLang=en – Download an Excel spreadsheet with the information on it If you are an ISV who wishes to register your information, have a look at the downloadable template or web form here - https://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/partner/submission.aspx To learn more about developing for Windows 7, look here for Independent Software Vendors . You should also look at the ISVAppCompat site - https://www.isvappcompat.com/uk which gives details for how to certify your application and also make a press release about the fact. One of the ISVs I work with is Iris...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Dec 24 2009

  • Windows Intune - the book and me

    It is time for me to admit my next project, now that I've finally submitted the first chapter, and that is that I'm writing about Windows Intune. Those who have worked with me in the past will know that I'm not much of a "koolaid" person, but I do believe that Cloud Services will be the way of the future and I think that Windows Intune will be a key pillar of the Microsoft story for our existing customers. To this end I wanted to annoucne that I'm in the writing process of writing a book on configuring and deploying Windows Intune. I remember all the discussions about MOM on SPLA and centralised management with the SBSC partners and the number of conversations I've had with customers and it seems inevitable that Windows Intune will be a huge success. It will also be, in my personal opinion, quite disruptive to the current management offerings of the Microsoft partners in this segment as all cloud services by every company has proven to be so far, including to the SBS customer set...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 15 2011

  • Log files on each PC with Windows Intune

    Windows Intune is a cloud based management service with alerts and information stored in the Microsoft cloud, however sometimes it is very useful to see what is going on, on the actual PC. There are various log files that can be found on the client PC should you wish to explore. These are found at %ProgramFiles%\microsoft\onlinemanagement\logs . We can see several files in here, of which the following are particularly interesting if we want to go diving into the product: Enrollment – This file details the process of a computer enroling with Windows Intune. If the computer fails to appear in the Windows Intune list of computers, this is the log to watch. If enrollment to Windows Intune for the computer was successful we should see the following in the log file: 2011-10-05 09:00:46:615 12260 2d7c Enroll ********* 2011-10-05 09:00:46:615 12260 2d7c Enroll ** END ** Enroll: StartUpdateAgentService: Online Management Updates Service started, or already running 2011-10-05 09:00:46:615 12260 2d7c Enroll ******...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Nov 15 2011

  • Finally got all the Christmas Lights up for 2011 on the new house

    Hi all, I thought I would share my Christmas lights – I do love them David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Dec 15 2011
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  • Windows Server 8–Remote Desktop and VDI enhancements

    VDI and RDS have been something I’ve been writing about, so I wanted to share the documents I’ve discovered from Microsoft that discuss the new features for VDI and RDS. The 3 documents are: Understand and Troubleshoot Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server "8" Beta This Understand and Troubleshoot Guide (UTG) enables you to learn technical concepts, functionality, and troubleshooting methods for Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server “8” Beta. Date Published: 2/29/2012          Download This Understand and Troubleshoot Guide (UTG) enables you to learn technical concepts, functionality, and troubleshooting methods for Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server “8” Beta. This UTG provides you with: • A technical overview and functional description of this feature. • Technical concepts to help you successfully install, configure, and manage this feature. • User Interface options and settings for configuration and management. • Relevant architecture of this...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Mar 1 2012

  • Turn off Ctrl-Alt-Del in Windows 8

    This is a very quick one.  I saw the videos and saw that Ctrl-Alt-Del was turned off in Windows 8.  While this can be done by setting the local security policy, it can also be done via command prompt.  This is no different to other versions of Windows. If you search for cmd and then right click it to select Run as Administrator Then once cmd is running, use this command (it is all one line) to turn off C-A-D as a requirement: REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableCAD /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f To turn it back on, use this command: REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableCAD /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f   That is it.   ttfn   David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sat, Mar 3 2012

  • How the IDC whitepapers can help you choose a new business area - or Turning presentations into information for those who were "not there"

    Hi, So the previous blog entry talked about the IDC information for all those at the Harry B event - Lets explain how they can help you change your business if you were not there. Have you ever wanted to know what people are doing to be successful in a particular area of business that you might want to expand into? I know that I always like to be early into a new segment, but not the 1 st . The IDC whitepapers give you this information on the following technologies and areas – have a look and tell me what you think: Delivering Server Solutions with SBS 2003 From 2005 through 2009, more than one million servers are expected to be installed in small businesses worldwide.* This market opportunity is unmatched by any other segment and is a key opportunity for Microsoft partners. Read this article to get specific guidelines, best practices, and tools for building a business around first-server deployments, entry-level installations, enhanced deployments, and migration projects. *Source: IDC Delivering Maintenance and...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sat, Mar 4 2006

  • Do you sell SBS to UK charities - we can help

    I LOVE working with charities in the UK, so much so that I am the treasurer for one in the UK – if anyone wants to give funds or assistance to the Farnborough and District Samaritans (you know, the people you call when you are feeling very low or suicidal) let me know. Anyway, we would love to help other charities, so here is how we can work together. Here is the deal – if you: Send me details on the charity, including their charity number Tell me why they want the SBS server (a paragraph, not war and peace) Promise that we can talk to them within 6 months of it being put in to see how it has helped Then I will try to do you a deal – this has been very successful in the past. Mail me at [email protected]
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sat, Mar 4 2006

  • Not sure about the value of partner - here is a good list of reasons

    I was asked to record a little video as to why people should join the partner programme, especially with regard to selling to small businesses. It is worth looking at the video if you are not sure of the value around the levels. However, one nice thing about the site is the list of benefits you get - are you making use of all of them yet? http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/programme/registered/default.aspx?page=overview These include: Hands-On Labs Online Classroom training Quarterly not-for-distribution software* Partner Marketing Centre access Project Guides Business-critical phone support Microsoft Managed Newsgroups Partner Solution Profiler Then, if you join the SBSC programme you also get: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/sbsc/ A Small Business Specialist badge so you can differentiate yourself in a busy market Connection with customers looking for IT suppliers in your area Access to our pilot of free pre-sales technical support Customisable sales and marketing collateral aligned with Microsoft marketing...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Mar 17 2006

  • Freezing in Bristol

    Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with the Bristol Partner Group (a Partner Group is a User Group, expect all it's members are partners). It was a great time listening to peoples needs and offering information from Microsoft. I have posted a note to the forum http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/102.aspx with all the details. It has also raised some great questions along the way that have been posted to the SBS and training areas. I have created a training forum found at http://uksbsguy.com/forums/21/ShowForum.aspx where you can choose to get e-mails when anything changes and I will post training information as I find it for you. ttfn David P.S. Why freezing in Bristol... well the reception was very warming, but once i left I found myself spending 90 minutes on a freezing cold platform waiting for a train heading Reading way.
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Mar 17 2006

  • CRM V3.0 Demo tools (inc VPC)

    I have posted details in the forums, but there are a great set of tools to help you learn, use and sell MS CRM V3.0. This information was provided by Dan Best at the Bristol Partner Group ... good on ya Dan . About the only bad thing is that I was not aware of it until Dan told me. Anyway, go to the forum posting for more information, but the basic link is http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8edfc7b-01d8-4500-845b-01370d4eed21&DisplayLang=en and the forum to discuss these can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/140.aspx ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sun, Mar 19 2006
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  • Site up and down - the moral of the story is to not do config when you are tired

    Sometimes it is possible to do some really, really stupid things. I thought I would share it with you all as 1) you may have noticed a little less availability to the site and 2) this is just to prove that I am human too What did I do, well, I was playing with ISA 2004 on the SBS system that this site runs on and changing the rules. It was late at night and my timetable has been busy to say the least recently, so I decided to fiddle with http headers in SBS. The problem was that I changed the headers to be blocked, rather than the headers to use, so the site was passing all content for uksbsguy.com through, but blocking any headers from that site .. major badness ANyway, this is fixed, when looking at it in the cold light of day, and you should see the site be 100% available again. Oh, now where did I put my halo..... ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Mar 21 2006

  • Vista and Office roadmap changes

    Hi, many of you may have seen me present Vista and Office at recent events and I thought it was only fair that I updated you on the changes that have been annoucned over the past few days. Two press releases have been made, both confirming the ship and launch plans for the products, which now falls before and after January. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-24OfficeTimingPR.mspx covers the Office plan and annoucnes that the product with RTM in October and a release to Software Assurance customers will happen pre-Christmas and an aligned launch with Vista will happend in January. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx states pretty much the same, with Software Assurance customers getting access pre-Christmas and the launch (obviously as it is joint), in January. This is being described in the press releases as a business and consumer launch, but since many small business customers do not have Software Assurance, they will be in the January group...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Mar 24 2006

  • Security Discussion

    While many people poo-poo the site, have a look at the get safe online site – it does do the job that people are asking for. John and Peter raised some interesting points. Some customers just do not believe that security is a threat they have to pay attention to, or that it requires real management to fix. This is something we can start to work towards. We do have materials on bCentral.co.uk around security which is key for business and obviously the www.microsoft.com/security newsletters to our partners. I was also asked “how long should I wait before I apply a patch”. This is always a difficult question in the real world, but you basically have to weigh between – what is the impact if I don’t apply the patch and what is the worst case if I do. On the “If I do not” front, then the system could be compromised, data lost or the server turned into a bot. If it is really nasty, it could also gather information from the employees potentially impacting both the business and it’s staff personally. On the flip site,...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Mar 30 2006

  • Video's everywhere

    Hello, I have started added video links into the site - have a look under http://uksbsguy.com/files , but until I do so, you might also want to have a look at the following items on the Microsoft Partner blog site ( http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog ) http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo01-gettingemailanywhere.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo03-realtimecommunications.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo04-datavisualisation.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo05-portals.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo06-electronicforms.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08a-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08b-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo08c-businesssolutions.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo11-crm.wvx http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/demo13-enterpriseprojectmanagement.wvx ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Mar 31 2006

  • Hello and welcome.....

    Hi! Welcome to my blog...... I am hoping to use this to drop bits and pieces of information that I come across as I do consultancy work for my SME clients here in Peterborough. Partly so that I can pass those things on to all and sundry, but also somewhere where I can find them when I need them again!! A bit about me...... I run an IT Consultancy in Peterborough, UK working with a wide range of SME companies in the area. Our main focus is on Small Business Server 2003, but we have clients running on a wide range (both in size and age!) of Microsoft platforms. My passion is to see real business benefit come out of my client's investment in IT. Hope you enjoy what you read!

  • Off topic- another feature played with in Vista

    Hello again everyone, I have been playing with a new feature in Vista . It is the the ability to dictate directly into the operating system or application, so for example this blog was dictated using a the headset and Windows Vista speech recognition of my UK accent. While it can be frustrating while windows lands my voice one benefit at least is that I no longer have to spell check what type type is this is automatically performed by the voice recognition technology. It can even be set to use my local language so words which would normally be spelt in the American way such as a magazine are now starting the English way. While this technology is not knew I had spent many hours in the past training this sort of behaviour into applications before where is now it is taken over a short amount of time to get it right. The process of correcting its mistakes is also very nice as is the way in which you can now move around other applications including Internet explorer by showing that numbers for all of the places where...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Apr 4 2006

  • Microsoft Licencing as Religious Enlightenment.......

    I'm fairly convinced that there only a select few who Truly Understand MS Licencing. These are the High Priests. They are the only ones who are privy to The Inner Secrets. The Prolitatriat and the bog-standard Priesthood (who are on the Licencing Desk or who work for Distributors) are left to struggle on in the dark as best they can. Occassionally a member of the Priesthood or Redmond Forbid one of the Prolitariat have a flash of insight into the inner workings of Licencing. However the feeling of Enlightenment and Well-Being soon dissolves when one the High Priesthood gently explains that it really Isn't Like That At All. Gloom and Despondency then returns to those who are not so Enlightened.......

  • Microsoft makes Virtual Server Free and buys Pro-Clarity

    Well folks, I could not tell you this was coming (and only knew about the price change in Virtual Server), but it is quite a day for news. VS becoming free means that all you who wanted to look at it for Swing Migrations, or small projects can now do so, although check the requirements for licesnes inside the VMs. Anyway, the two News items are: April 3, 2006 • Microsoft Agrees to Acquire ProClarity, Enhancing Business Intelligence Offering Leader in advanced analytics adds to Microsoft’s comprehensive BI capabilities. • Q&A: Bringing the Benefits of Virtualization Technology to the Mainstream Microsoft delivers Linux support and makes Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 available to customers at no charge as part of its ongoing effort to radically simplify IT management. ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Apr 4 2006

  • So what did Microsoft ever do for me - or latest offers and help with licensing?

    One of the things that I am often hearing is how Microsoft could do more for opur partners - and I don't disagree, but in many cases the things I am asked for are already available. One of the goals of SBSC is to enable me to spend my time with better quality partners, and for Microsoft to direct customers to those quality partners. There are lots of other benefits and purposes too, such as providing focused support and offers, listening to your needs and delivering on them etc. Two things that people have asked me for recently are: Help understanding what "offers" Microsoft has running at the moment - check out http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/sales_and_marketing/promotions/default.aspx?page=latest for a full list Help me configure against my license needs -See the license configurator - http://members.microsoft.com/partner/uk/sales_and_marketing/gearup/ One nice feature of the configurator is that you can compare various license types. We are also running a couple of campaigns at the moment, but the one I...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sun, Apr 9 2006

  • Thinking about SLAs to improve your business, or better documentation or swinging?

    We are priviledged to have some of the SBS GREATs speaking over the next 3 nights on these subjects and more and if you wanted to join in, now is a great time to "come on over" to the Partner Groups. Details of the events can be found at http://www.sbsbpi.co.uk and you will find people speaking in Dublin (Jeff Middleton on Swing Migration), London tonight (Karl and Matt on documentation and SLAs), Birmingham on Tuesday (Karl, Jeff (I think) and Matt on documentation, swing migration and SLAs) and then in Thames Valley on Wednesday with Karl and Matt again. On the subject of SLAs, I have posted a short piece in the forum at http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/258.aspx for people to expand the discussion around. ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Apr 10 2006

  • Are your SBS customers wanting to move off SBS to bigger things?

    I often tell people about organisations that have outgrown their SBS system. Many people are not aware that the answer to this problem is the Transition Pack. For those who are, they often worry about "what is involved" and "how long will it take". Believe it or not, I have not used the transition pack yet, so while my copy is on order, I thought that I would share this resource to help you understand more. It covers everything from licensing, to documentation through to process. http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/01/12/417350.aspx Let me know what you think David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Apr 13 2006

  • Sharepoint, metadata and OneNote 2003

    I've just been out and bought myself a Tablet PC. I decided to go for an HP TC4200, but that's another blog post at some point or another. One thing that I have now started using is Microsoft OneNote 2003 so I can scribble notes when on client's sites. I've also found that if you are talking to clients they are less intimidated by it than if you opened your laptop up and started typing away. One thing I wanted to be able to do was upload these OneNote scribblings to my Sharepoint site in a Document Library and at upload time add some metadata to the document entry such as Client, Product or whatever. However I couldn't get it to work I could save the OneNote document to the Sharepoint site (no problem with that) but I couldn't get it to ask me to update the metadata. It works beautifully in Word and Excel, but not in OneNote <sigh> It would appear that it doesn't work in OneNote by design. Yet another one of Microsoft's bizarre design decisions. This document was very helpful in sorting this out: http:/...
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