Blogs

I saw this had been published and thought I would share - it is an amazing tool that I use for diagnosis all the time. Reading http://www.ditii.com/2007/07/03/network-monitor-31-released/ it also reminded me that this includes traces on wireless networks!! Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 Network Monitor 3.1 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. Version 3.1 is an update and replaces Network Monitor 3.0. Network Monitor 3.x is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version. Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Vista; Windows XP; Windows XP 64-bit It is suggested that you have a CPU of 1GHz or greater, 1G or greater of Memory and 25 Megs of available Hard Disk space, plus room for capture files. Supports Vista 64 bit as well as 32 bit. Instructions Network Monitor 3.1 can co-exist with Netmon2.x. NM3.1 installs in %program files%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3, so there is no conflict. But it will require...

I thought this was worth mentioning - I just pulled up the stats for my UKSBSGUY.com site to discover that Vista is doing nicely - nice to see partners moving to the Operating System and using it. Windows XP - 68% Vista - 23% Windows 2000 - 3% Windows NT - 2% (is that really still out there) Mac Intel - 1% Linux - 1% Mac OS - 1% Windows 98 - 1% (well 0.55%)

From the official blog – the preview is now available for download After extensive development and private evaluation, I’m pleased to announce that a public preview of Windows Small Business Server 2008 RC0 is now available. Windows SBS 2008 is the next major release in the Windows Small Business Server product family, and it offers a wave of new features for technology consultants and small business owners. There are too many updates and changes to list in one post, but here are some highlights: A new setup and administrative experience that has been re-designed to make initial deployment and day-to-day management significantly easier Many new management features such as extensible monitoring reports, and tools to manage internet domain names, data folders, certificates and more A revamp of the Premium Edition to include both SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition technologies and a 2nd copy of Windows Server 2008 A new server backup wizard built on the Windows Server 2008 block-based backup technologies, which allows...

I’ve just noticed this blog post on the Windows Vista Magazine - What software could you not live without? We’re searching for the 100 best programs for Windows Vista – and we need your help! By James Stables on 08 July 2008 In our October 2008 issue we will be compiling a list of the 100 best pieces of software which power up Windows Vista. These are the pieces of software you would never run Windows without, which make a difference to your everyday life and that you would recommend to all other readers. We want to hear your ideas to make sure no stone goes unturned and no program is left out. This is a great opportunity for the Windows Vista Magazine community to share the combined experiences and knowledge that help make this one of the most diverse magazines on the market. Leave us a comment saying what should be in our software top 100. I’ve just left my list, which to be complete is also below: My core products: Vista Office 2007 - for my work Live Writer for blogging Live Messenger to communicate To tweak...

I'm sorry to be so blunt. I get asked about this quite often, so thought I would write it down. The problem is that the Office 2007 applications will only run in a Terminal Server environment if volume licensing media and a volume license keys are used. Unfortunately the MAPS kit does not include volume licensing media, which means that the Office 2007 can not be used in a TS environment. There are some options on how to move this forward, which are: Acquire the Premium edition of MSDN via the Microsoft Open License Program. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa700832.aspx or For their own business use, Partners could purchase Office 2007 via the Microsoft Open License Program or one of the other volume licensing programs. Some people have commented that the same restrictions were not in place for the beta of Office 2007. It is worth noting that the beta code for Office 2007 software was created without regard to the channels that it will later be sold or distributed in. For this reason, Office...

Given the recent good moves forward with Office Live (UK web site - http://www.officelive.co.uk , partners getting excited - Tim Long , bCentral information on the products and 5 amazing case studies ) I thought I would share this further advancement in the online world. There will always be a place for the small business products that rely on physical servers, but the business by Vlad and many others shows us that the SaaS (Software as a Service and Software AND Service) work well for a business model. The difference between SAAS and SaS, IMHO, is one is rich in both client and web based tools, the other is ONLY rich when connected. Take Exchange and Outlook - Outlook is a great client when connected to Exchange. OWA is a great client too, however Outlook's offline ability is what sets it apart. You can get get great online and offline experiences with SaS. Microsoft and BT are to launch an online marketplace for hosted applications, with small-business customers as the target. The BT Applications Marketplace...

I’ve been working working with Nicholas King, giving him a bit of a hard time to get all the SBS ducks lines up and I noticed from the SBS Down Under site that they had a link to Nicholas’s first video – a very quick walk through of the new RWW. If you like it, go to Nicholas’s site and tell him what you want to see next: Nicholas King : SBS 2008 Video Tidbit Having spent a fair amount of time with SBS and EBS, I thought I'd put together a series of videos quickly covering some of the cool features of SBS 2008. Here's my first one, the SBS 2008 Remote Web Workplace . Check it out and let me know what you think? I'm planning on doing a series of these to introduce you quickly to several of our cool features. Let me know what you want next? Remote Web Workplace Demo Tidbit See all the other SBS 2008 items at http://davidoverton.com/blogs/doverton/archive/tags/SBS+2008/default.aspx ttfn David Technorati Tags: Microsoft , SBS 2008 , SBS , Tips , SBSC , Small Business , Small Business Server 2008 , Community...

[updated post MS announcement on 22nd January 2009] I hate bad journalism and this is a really good prime example. Microsoft job cuts: thousands of UK staff at risk Author: Cliff Saran Posted: 11:08 05 Jan 2009 Rumours are spreading on the web that up to 3000 staff at Microsoft UK could face redundancy. Up to 30,000 jobs worldwide could be at risk, as the company battles with the economic crisis, which has led to businesses spending less on software Microsoft like any other business is facing financial pressure, so I'm sure there will be a squeeze, but there are less than 3,000 employees at Microsoft UK, so cuts of 3,000 staff would remove Microsoft UK from the map. Maybe someone lent on the keyboard too much and put an extra zero or two on the end. I'm absolutely not in the know, but this is clearly (I hope) bull writing at it's best. New people join and others leave Microsoft all the time, just like any enterprise. In the past the balance has been tipped so that more people join than those who want...

I posted the other day on adding Exchange 2007 to an SBS 2003 environment , but for some, there is also the desire on how to remove the Exchange component on SBS 2003. Obviously there are the install / uninstall options from the SBS setup screens that can be accessed through add/remove programs, however because SBS has the 1st Exchange server in a group you need to go a bit further. More information can be found on how to remove the first server via http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;822931 which discusses "How to remove the first Exchange Server 2003 computer from the administrative group". In this KB article it tells you how to: Replicate all public folders to another server Rehome the Offline Address Book folder Change the server that is responsible for generating the Offline Address List Rehome the Schedule+ Free Busy folder Rehome the Organization Forms folder Rehome the Recipient Update Service (RUS) Designate another server to be the routing group master Create another Site...

I seem to be able to find trouble at the moment. I attended part 1 (3 of 5-days) of a competent crew training course designed to get me on the ladder to bigger and better sailing experience and finally teach me what the wind has to do with sailing. Over the three days we started with the basics, like how to make a distress call, only ever abandon a boat when you will be stepping up into a life raft, clothing, life jackets and how to use a toilet on a boat. We then progressed to the basics of sailing, so the naming of the various parts of the boat (I have real trouble remembering the shrouds). Finally we got on with the sailing and had some awesome days learning to sail in all weathers. As should be the way with sailing, each night was spent with much merriment and drinking, but as many of you know, I don't drink, smoke or swear ever, so I was always 1st up :-). We also arranged it so that the 3 men on the boat all had cabins and the 2 ladies shared the communal area - this might sound mean, but the men managed...

Nothing like a blog entry on licensing to stir the people into action. Vijay posted a "small" post - Who understands Microsoft Licensing? . I'm now going to respond to both the main blog post and also some of the comments. I highly recommend you read the entry, the comments (some are included below, also for comment) and the linked blogs, especially the entry by Adam at Sorting out the complexity of Microsoft Volume Licensing as well as the others My conclusion to this question is that hardly anyone understands Microsoft Licensing. I’ve been to quite a few Microsoft Partner events and when the above question above is asked there is usually a very low number of businesses who say they understand it. This feedback is given time and time again but nothing really changes. The solution isn’t explaining it over and over again or writing Licensing Reseller Handbooks. If you can't explain something to a customer in a very succint way, then it’s just a waste of time and if as an organisation you have...

Someone asked me how to do this and I discovered that you can't have a negative discount percentage, negative quantity or negative price. So this makes it impossible to do... well, no, but it is not quite as easy as we would like. To make it work you need to create a Product and Service csv file to import to make it work. Here are the step by step instructions on installing it and using it. Installing the trade-in items Go to the BCM menu and select the Product and Services menu item Press the import button at the bottom of the dialog to get the screen shown on the left Create a csv file on your desktop called tradein.csv (start / run "notepad %homepath%\tradein.csv") Copy and paste the text below into the text file and save Trade In (10000), Trade in, -10000 Trade In (1000), Trade in, -1000 Trade In (100), Trade in, -100 Trade In (10), Trade in, -10 Trade In (1), Trade in, -1 browse the csv file on your desktop and press import Job done Using the trade-in items in an opportunity Now we have these...