Blogs

Well, the EVO Tour is underway, with some initial bad feedback, we have taken that on board and now the feedback is MUCH better from all partners, including SBSC members, so the inital concerns appear have been answered - which is well done to the team for such a quick turnaround. When I answered the previous complaints " here ", I wanted to respond more fully to Martin's comments, so I will do that here. This is what Martin said that I will respond to now: "because this customer has temps that may or may not work on these platforms[David: Vista machines], the changes in UI between XP and Vista are significant that this solution[David: Using Vista on some machine] will not work. They believe (and so do I knowing the workforce) they are going to have to upgrade all of their Computers all 35 Desktops. On top of this, they are then going to have to ensure that all of the other LOB Apps run, and then train all users on the diverencies. That will cost the IT budget for the next 12 months so just isn't going to happen...

I saw this little ditty that is part of the SysInternals acquisition - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx - it simulates a BSOD on your system as a screen saver and then even goes as far as to show the boot screen. Amazingly funny and I had to check that the machine was really ok by stopping the screen saver. Enjoy

This post is in reply to some recent questions raised by partners on Vista and Office. While the documents referenced here will be posted on the UK Vista and Office Microsite, I have hosted them quicker for your convenience. Files: Top 10 reasons why Vista and Office are right for small businesses Top 4 reasons why Vista and Office are right for small business Document explaining to partners why the top ten features are great for small businesses Why should your customer Vista and Office? Because they need it to solve many IT and business problems. Let's start with run rate. Not everyone has Windows XP, so many people are dealing with the computers they bought over the last 7 years. These people will need to buy new PCs, when they do, what will you tell them? The answer is a business PC that is designed for the 21st century. For those who have newer PCs and are not sure then the answer is that they might not want to upgrade just yet - this is not a "once only" offer - it will take years to move the whole world...

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...

If you have SQL based apps, they will have to upgrade to SQL 2005 SP2 (that includes the MSDE replacement SQL Express). e-Week noted ( SQL Server 2005 SP1 Users Face Vista, Longhorn Glitches ): These two operating systems will only support SQL Server 2005 SP2 "or later when it becomes available," according to Microsoft's SQL Server support Web pages. But there is no indication on these sites of how soon it will deliver SP2 or whether it will deliver the service pack at about the same time Vista and Longhorn are released. the CTP of SP2 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ctp.mspx More information on the problems users experience when not running SP2 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/sqlonvista.mspx with support information at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/windowsvistasupport.mspx which notes: Known Issues This section describes known issues that relate to installing and running SQL Server 2005 on Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn." Issues Related to User Account Control...

I saw this internal comment from Mark Stanfill and thought it was too good not to share. When moving to new hardware, this article is a good reference point: 249694 How to move a Windows installation to different hardware http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;249694 This article pre-supposes that they know a lot of details about their server (ACPI settings, filter drivers, HAL, etc) that they may not have access to. You should set the expectation that they will likely have to change some BIOS settings and that failures are likely and will have to be troubleshot on a case-by-case basis. If they have any concerns, this is a case where a call to CSS is highly advisable. Mark Stanfill, MCSE+I, MCSE 2000/2003, MCDBA Technical Lead, SBS http://blogs.technet.com/sbs One really important item in the mail - " If you have any concerns - call the support desk " - in the UK this might cost a couple of hundred pounds, but when doing a recovery and you are having problems, it might save you days of sweat,...

From the SBS Blog: We are looking for a few good testers to help influence the direction of this new Microsoft® Windows Server Solutions Product. Do you have three 64 bit machines that you can spare to test some of the most exciting technology Microsoft is working on? I know the system requirements are a daunting one, but this is the only way we can test "Centro". So, if you are already on the Longhorn Beta or the Exchange Beta, then you are already two thirds of the way there. For more information, codes to access the beta, how to sign up etc, go look at The SBS and Centro Community Lead Blog : So, what is "Centro" you ask...........?

I can't reveal all the details, although I am sure others will, however we are working on special event for SBSC members. This event design incorporates your feedback and suggestions as to what you want to hear about, share as a community as well as information Microsoft needs to share with you. Expect useful information, the opportunity to network with your peers, Microsoft and partners and the ability to socialise too J The timeframe for this event is February 2007, in Reading, Manchester (or Leeds) and Edinburgh, although more sessions will happen in the afternoon in Reading due to availability of speakers and rooms. The ROUGH agenda looks like this Morning: UK Exec who actually cares about Small Business (such as Natalie Ayres - Director of SMS&P*) talking about: What's the view from the top? Why does everything you've heard matter? What's the opportunity for partners? Aileen Hannah – responsible for SBSC programme in the UK, talking about: Highlights & lowlights of the program so far Latest resources...

The next meeting of the London Small Business IT Pro Group will take place on Monday, 13th November. If you can let me know you're coming that'll be great (just so I've got some idea of numbers) otherwise just turn up. This month we welcome Matt McSpirit, Partner Technology Specialist for Vista who is coming to talk about all things Exchange 2007, Vista and Office 2007. In fact he would like us to tell him what we'd like to hear about so he can tailor some of his talk to our requirements, so if you let me know you are coming also let me know what subjects around EVO you'd like to hear about and I'll feed that back. Please let me have your input by 9:00am Wednesday. The meeting will be start at 5:30pm Monday 13th November at Microsoft House, 10 Great Pulteney Street, London, W1F 9NB. Drinks and pizza will be served and the meeting will finish around 8:30pm in time for those who travel any distance to get away and for the locals to retire to the pub :-) This is as far as I know the last meeting...

The time has come, IE7 has shipped out the door, is available from http://www.microsoft.com/ie and will start coming down via Auto Updates on Windows PCs in a couple of weeks. ttfn David

This happens to everyone - I've certainly had my demos die - especially at SMBNation in Amsterdam, so ho hum. However, so many people enjoy seeing others in pain, I thought I would share :-) http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=ac651701-cd09-4021-9008-bbc5950107f1 ttfn David

I saw these on the Windows Help site and thought I would post them - these are all short videos to introduce items in Vista Getting started Demo: Desktop basics Demo: Learning to use the mouse Demo: Understanding the parts of your computer Programs, files, and folders Demo: Working with programs Demo: Working with files and folders Demo: Printing Internet and e-mail Demo: Using the web Demo: Using Windows Mail Security and maintenance Demo: Security basics Demo: Understanding user accounts Help and support Demo: Diagnosing problems and getting help Source: Windows Vista demos

I saw this and because IE is coming soon, thought you might like to read this! IE7 Installation and Anti-Malware Applications A few people have asked why we recommend temporarily disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware applications (which I’ll refer to together as anti-malware) prior to installing IE7, so here’s a little insight to the situation. Along with copying IE7 files to your system, IE7’s setup writes a large number of registry keys. A common way anti-malware applications protect your computer is by preventing writes to certain registry keys used by IE. Any registry key write that fails during setup will cause setup to fail and rollback changes. We work around the problem in most instances by checking permissions at the beginning of setup, but many anti-malware programs monitor the key rather than change permissions. Therefore, setup thinks it has access when it starts, but then fails when it later attempts to write the key. The majority of users likely haven’t seen any such problems even with anti-malware...