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  • Improved searching of Windows Servers (2003, 2008, SBS, Windows Home Server) and Windows desktops (Vista and XP) through the Windows Search 4.0 Preview which improves local and network searching

    There is a feature that I 1st found of Windows Home Server that can be applied to SBS, Windows Server, Windows Vista / XP and any other Windows system with Windows Search 3 or 4 on it. This feature is the ability to search the other machine’s index rather than the files, meaning that you can go to a file share and search 100s of GBs of files in a couple of seconds simply by using the Vista search box. The Search V4 Preview extends this ability to more versions of Windows. That is not all it does – see the note from the Windows Vista Team Blog : Announcing the Windows Search 4.0 Preview that has some information: Windows Search 4.0 introduces several improvements I'd like to call out making search even better in Windows Vista: With Windows Search 4.0, the Windows Search Team has fixed most of the reported bugs causing a majority of distractions users have seen since Windows Vista RTM - many of those bugs were reported by you. Great improvements have been made with regards to performance .Even now as Preview...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Apr 3 2008

  • ISVs can learn about Microsoft’s strategy and products and how they fit into selling solutions – come to the events in TVP and Manchester on the 10th and 24th April

    One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft by our ISV partners is that they don’t know where we are going… well this even should help solve that – see you there perhaps: Introduction 09.30 - 10.00 Registration & coffee 10.00 – 10.15 Welcome & Introduction Deliver Innovative Solutions 10.15 – 10.45 Microsoft strategy direction 10.45 – 11.30 Microsoft technology roadmap 11.30 – 11.50 Coffee break Increase your opportunities 11.50 – 12.15 Marketing & sales initiatives Close more sales 12.15 – 12.30 Services & licensing for sales acceleration Support your Customers 12.30 – 12.45 Technical support resources 12.45 – 13.00 Wrap up with Q&A 13.00 – 14.00 Lunch & networking 10 th Apr, Chicago 1, TVP Registration url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032373283&Culture=en-GB 24 th Apr, The Lowry, Manchester Registration url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032373286&Culture=en-GB Enjoy the event! ttfn David Technorati Tags: ISV , Microsoft...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 4 2008

  • Extended Promotional offers for SBS 2003 – now available until June 30, 2008

    I saw these on the SBS Offers site and noticed that they have been extended, so here are the things you need to know below. It is worth remembering that it is up to you how you pass these benefits through to your customers!! What? – Promotion Offering: When? – The promotion extension means system builders and resellers can now submit claims for services they deliver between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008. Participants will have until July 31, 2008 to complete their claims. *If a partner submitted claims between January 1, 2008 and February 29, 2008 they will be applied to this extension period and cannot exceed 50 claims in total per partner. Who is eligible – All system builders and resellers in the participating countries in Western Europe, Germany, France, UK, APAC, India, MEA, CEE (EU only), and Latam (CCA only). How? – The system builder/reseller goes to www.sbsoffer.com to learn about the offer and the steps needed to redeem: ttfn David Technorati Tags: SBS 2003 , SBS 2003 R2 , SBSC , Partners , Microsoft...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 4 2008

  • Web site woes again

    Once again my internet provider and power company let me down at the weekend, causing the web site to be up and down – more down than up to be honest. Now, one of the hard disks has put it’s hands up from the abuse so that is failing too, impacting performance. Overall, until I find some more funds to sort the solution, it might mean the site is up and down for a few days … sorry. Normal Service will resume as soon as possible. ttfn David Technorati Tags: personal
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Apr 7 2008
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  • I know I shouldn’t, but the EU is beginning to make me wonder what they are playing at .. is it personal and how is it better for the people in the EU?

    It is strange that I have come to accept that we live and work in a global economy quicker, it appears to me, than the EU. I accept that we can’t be the best at everything in the EU and we have to work out what our value is to others – true for every business. However, the EU seems to have an anti-non-EU feel to it. It also seems to want to create competition, even when no-one wants to compete – just to stimulate the industries, rather than because “punters are asking for alternatives”. This week I’ve seen two things that I wanted to share that raise concerns in my mind. Oh, in case you weren’t sure – this is a personal rant – nothing to do with anyone else but my own opinion! First was the Intel vs AMD piece which talks about requiring Intel to raise prices to avoid being nabbed for anti-competitive practices - disco-tech | Discovery Institute's Technology Blog: EU vs. Intel : Since Intel can't possibly know what AMD's cost of production is, we either have to accept collusion or accept that Intel...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 11 2008

  • Why those Mac OS X vs Windows adverts are just so wrong … and so would the Linux vs Windows if they ran them

    What an amazing graphic … it talks about security issues and fixes. The nice “Apple” man seems to be hiding how many problems he has on his adverts :-) What is also interesting is how many issues are stilling being found on the various implementations of Linux. Obviously there is still more detail around this, so for the full rundown have a look at http://blogs.technet.com/security/archive/2008/01/23/download-windows-vista-one-year-vulnerability-report.aspx . ttfn David Technorati Tags: Apple , Microsoft , Redhat , Ubuntu , Security , Updates
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 18 2008

  • This consumer operating systems stuff is harder than 1st thought – Red Hat and Novell no longer targeting consumers with desktop Linux

    I saw this and it made me smile – looks like building a desktop OS for consumers is harder than people thought :-) And I thought consumers were more willing to put in time to fiddle too, so that makes the enterprise play even less likely for me!! Red Hat skips consumer Linux desktop Red Hat has no plans to create a traditional desktop product for the consumer market, but will continue to place its bets on a desktop for commercial markets. "We are focused on infrastructure software for the enterprise market, and to that market we are offering the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop," said Michael Chen, vice president of corporate marketing at Red Hat. "You need a different support ecosystem and applications for the consumer desktop," Chen added. Among the company's desktop goals for 2008 and 2009 is to ensure that its desktop products complement its server and middleware products, Red Hat said in a company blog post Wednesday. Red Hat's strategy is similar to that of Novell , which is currently...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Apr 18 2008

  • How to sell Hosted CRM (CRM Online) in the UK and still retain your customers and a good profit – by working with Increase CRM

    [updated with contact details at 16:38] I have a partners or two that are looking to implement CRM internally and through the conversations about how they could do this came to know of the guys at Increase CRM. The good folks at Increase CRM seem to understand how SBSC partners think because the offerings they have for referral and resellers seem to be quite good to me. if you want the brochure on the subject, let me know, but here is the important piece for partners: What is the Referral Program? Partners in the Referral Program refer their customers to Increase CRM and we offer hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM and support services directly to the customer. Typically, the partner will provide implementation consulting services and may choose to provide first and second line support. Referral Partner Commissions The Referral Program guarantees partners commissions from any customers referred to Increase CRM: Subscribers Commission 5-10 100% of the first month’s subscription fees 11-50 200% of the first month’s subscription...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Apr 24 2008

  • Get a makeover for your Office Live Site as well as a Dell Laptop and cash too!

    I just saw this over at https://microsoft.eprize.net/officelivesaveoursiteuk/index.tbapp and thought I would share. We are offering a makeover, £540 in cash and a Dell Laptop. If you have a site, or know someone who does, then forward this on to them. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office Live , Small Business , Competition , Microsoft , Office Live Small Business
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, May 23 2008

  • If you are a Microsoft partner who sells SBS, then please fill in the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Community Survey

    Kevin asked a couple of weeks ago if I could share this – so I’m sharing :-) The Windows Small Business Server 2008 WW Community Survey is live This is the third year we have published an SBS WW Community Survey to the SBS Community. Because of the previous surveys, we have made some adjustments in our community engagement. To name a few; we really worked on putting more focus on the Official SBS Blog. Our Sustaining Engineering team runs mini betas with our MVPs before KB's and Bug Fixes are released via Windows Update. We try to get more involvement in our techbetas from our User Groups. The list does go on. To the survey, the SBS Product Team would like to hear from the Windows SBS Community again. This survey is completely anonymous. In fact, some of you may have to sign out from Live in order to take the survey. So, if you get a PAGE NOT FOUND error message, please log out of Live and click on the link to the survey again. We want to know how valuable your experience is with the community resources and...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sun, Jun 1 2008

  • System Center Essentials 2007 on Windows Server 2008

    I got a question the other day asking in SCE was available on Windows Server 2008. From the System Center Essentials 2007 hope page I noticed that is states that with SP1 Windows Server 2008 is supported. Service Pack 1 Is Now Available! System Center Essentials just got better and faster: The new improvements include up to 70% less memory consumption, faster console, support for workgroup joined computers, SNMP v1 devices, improved setup, new update approvals rules, enhanced third-party update experience, and support for Windows Server 2008. Download the trial or update your existing Essentials server . For more information on what’s included, visit the SP1 Resource Page . Now, I’ve not installed this on Server 2008, but apparently there are a few tricks that you need to learn – I’d suggest that you have a look at Permanent Link to Installation Guide for System Center Essentials SP1 on Windows Server 2008 (x8 and Permanent Link to Reinstalling System Center Essentials 2007 . Thanks David Technorati Tags: Microsoft...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, Jun 18 2008

  • Microsoft wants to know what you want for the UK SBS 2008 Launch? Time to stop saying you want it better and time to start saying what you actually want and would use!!

    One thing I have never been accused of is holding back my opinion and on the Yahoo Groups recently there has been some discussions around what Microsoft has done for partners. As part of the discussion this blog post from Sonal, the UK Product Manager for SBS 2008 and EBS 2008, came up with a question around what do partners want to see in a UK launch. I thought people who read this blog might like to pop over to Sonal's blog and give a voice to their wants. I've seen suggestions from free beer, which was a Joke I was later told, to license pricing, features and benefits, how to up-sell/cross-sell. The problem with the later items is that they are simply personal to the business doing the selling - why have an upsell to mobile devices if your business can't facilitate it? What do you want to see at the UK SBS 2008 Launch? In May 2006 we had a server event for guys (and gals) who sell server - specifically Small Business Server. We split the event into two - the morning event was for those who were...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Sat, Jun 28 2008

  • Problem with PureMessage can cause Exchange to be unresponsive

    We have had problems both with our own Exchange server and with another client’s this morning. Sophos released a Support Advisory last night and the KB article is here: http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/42245.html To resolve the problem we tried restarting the PureMessage services, the Sophos Services and the Exchange Services but the only thing that really seems to have solved it is rebooting the SBS box...... Hope that might help someone else.....
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  • New SQL 2008 training for UK partners

    Hi, I know I’ve been away a lot recently (closing the year end and then doing some travelling for work), but while cleaning my inbox (ohh, 2500 mails processed, replied too, filed and actioned – yee har!) I came across this and it is bang up to date. SQL 2008 is going to be the hot, hot, hot product for a few months, along with how it sits with other BI solutions, such as SharePoint and PerformancePoint. To help you get started, here are some training opportunities : SQL Server 2008 Database Infrastructure and Scalability This three-day training course will help database administrators understand how to exploit the new performance, scalability, manageability and high-availability enhancements introduced in SQL Server 2008. They will also learn how to exploit these capabilities, ensure application scalability and how to manage a database using the new features. Click here Introduction to SQL Server 2008 BI Solution Development This three day course is designed to give developers the confidence to tackle a BI project...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Jul 15 2008

  • 4 painful days while davidoverton.com transfers ownership and gets powered up again

    Well, this is one of those “I should have called support earlier mails”. I’ve been trying for about 3 months to get my davidoverton.com domain transferred from one vendor to the vendor I use for all the others. All attempts failed, so last night I phoned Australia to try and get it fixed and now the transfer is underway. However, the transfer has a 4 day “cooling off” period, so the domain is in limbo. Most people still access via uksbsguy.com, so most traffic will get through, but expect a few problems!! ttfn David Technorati Tags: personal , uksbsguy.com , davidoverton.com
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Jul 31 2008
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  • Want MIX08 in the UK? Then come to ReMix08 in Brighton on 18th and 19th September and save if you book an early bird place now

    I love what goes on at these events. It would be good to see you there. Here is the little advert: Final chance to save £110 . Very limited Early Bird places left - don't say we didn't warn you! 1,000 web developers, designers, development managers and technology evangelists are going to take the media they love to the next level. Why? Because ReMix UK 08 is getting bigger and better. Scott Guthrie Developer Track Bill Buxton Design and UX Track For Designers, Developers, the Community and Beyond Work Julie Howell, Fortune Cookie • Brendan Dawes, Magnetic North • Paul Foster, Microsoft Evangelist • Guy Smith-Ferrier, Capella • Tim Regan, Microsoft Research • Mike Taulty, Microsoft Developer Evangelist See the website for the growing list of speakers... What's in the mix • Panel discussions to Interactive Mash Ups • Designers and developers hand-in-hand to • All day VJs to conceptual walls • Open Source project, CodePlex • Backnetwork to Moo cards • Photosynth master classes to Microsoft Surface • Our...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Jul 31 2008

  • Site updates for next few days

    Hi, I need to update the site again – newer technology, so expect some changes over the next few days and things not looking great for a day or two. Thanks David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Aug 4 2008

  • Developer Events in September and October in the UK

    I just saw this, so thought I would pass it on: Join other developers at free regional Microsoft Technical Events to receive technical know-how demos from Microsoft experts, insights into our latest technologies and a chance to meet and talk to other developers. Events nearest to you MSDN Event: Rich Internet Applications with Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Location: Reading Date: 2 September 2008 MSDN Event: Rich Internet Applications with Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Location: London Date: 4 September 2008 MSDN Event: What's New in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1? Location: Reading Date: 2 October 2008 MSDN: What's New in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1? Location: Bristol Date: 22 October 2008 MSDN Roadshow Re-Run Location: London Date: 24 October 2008 ttfn David Technorati Tags: Developer , RIA , Rich Internet Applications , Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 , Service Pack 1 , Microsoft , Events
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Thu, Aug 7 2008

  • Back to blogging on SBS 2008, Microsoft, Developer “stuff” and anything that interests me, including Star Wars!

    Well, I seem to have taken quite a break over the last couple of months.  Towards the end of the financial year I found myself cutting contracts right to the wire, including working with the legal teams until the small hours of the morning to get the orders in.  After that came two trips to the US – Houston for WPC and Atlanta for a Microsoft internal event.  At both these events I spoke with several members of the WESS team (Windows Essential Server Solution) about SBS 2008, licensing, usage scenarios, messaging and many other things.  The good news is that fantastic progress was being made and has continued.  I’m not sure I’m going to have anything gripe about come the launch!! I’ve also had some holiday too, in the UK and I have to say, without much sunlight Now I’m stuck in the “start of year” work, but I think I need to start shooting off quick entries. ttfn David Technorati Tags: SBS 2008 , Star Wars , Microsoft , Personal
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Sep 1 2008

  • Watching Pink at in Atlanta

    Just thought I had to add a quick post to explain why I have a bunch of Pink photos on the blog site. While at an internal Microsoft event the final day treat was time at Six flags with Pink. I’m a great Pink fan, although not all Microsoft employees were, which meant that when Pink tried for audience participation she didn’t quite get the reaction she was hoping for. Anyway, some of the thumbnails are below and more on the link above. ttfn David
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Sep 1 2008
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  • VMware Consolidated Backup and Backup Exec

    We've implemented a VMware ESX farm in our offices (and we do have a Hyper-V server as well) and I have been looking at using VMware Consolidated Backup along with our NFR copy of Backup Exec to take snapshots of the VMs. I'm cheap see :-) I have got the VCB command line utilities working fine with the given documentation but whan I set BE up it failed with invalid username or password. This has been doing my head in. However looking around I discovered one post where someone had improved the JavaScript files that come with BE integration module and this gave me the idea to see if I could find out what username and password were being passed. I edited glue.js and wrote the username and password out to STDERR. In the CONFIG.JS I had put the username and password in (I'll lock down when it's all working) and was using a domain user in the form of domain\username. When I looked at the output in the logfile I was seeing domainusername all together. Being a JavaScript file it needed two \\ between the...

  • Can't find the WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) sales and marketing toolkit for SBS 2003 - here it was

    I've had someone ask me about the WSS toolkit that was referenced at How to Sell, Deploy, and Build Business with Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 and SBS 2003 R2 . The download location has moved to http://www.partnersalesresources.com/Pages/sbskit.aspx# . ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows SharePoint Services , WSS v3 , SBS , SBS 2003 R2 , Microsoft , Partners
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Fri, Sep 5 2008

  • New UK SBSC Blog, welcome to Emily Lambert to SBSC and Sales training on September 30th

    Some things come and some things go.  Unfortunately someone came and went while we blinked for the UK SBSCers, but every cloud has a silver lining and Emily has popped up as the successor.  If you attend the SBS Group meetings around the country then you will have most likely met Emily. Not only has Emily appeared on the scene to drive SBSC value in the UK, but she has started regular updates to the UK SBSC Blog. A classic example is the sales and licensing entry below.   I’d recommend that you say Hi to Emily at one of the SBSC meetings, catch the new blog and explore the new sales and licensing tools :-) New look Sales and Licensing Induction for Partners The Microsoft Partner Readiness Team have just announced the release of the new look Sales and Licensing Induction for Partners . This session is aimed to equip sales people with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to talk to new and existing customers about the business benefits of Microsoft technologies and associated areas such...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Wed, Sep 10 2008
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  • Just in case you missed it SBS 2008: Released to Manufacturing and date for launch set

    I know I am very, very, very behind the times on  this, but just in case you missed it …  This means that SBS Cougar is now completely done and now a 100% SBS 2008!! The Official SBS Blog : SBS 2008: Released to Manufacturing! On behalf of the SBS team, I am extremely pleased to announce that Windows Small Business Server 2008 software has been finalized! Today both SBS Standard and Premium are being released to manufacturing, which means we begin the process of finalizing international versions, creating media, building packaging, delivering the product to distribution channels and handing it off to our OEM partners, so it will be widely available by our November 12 launch. (More information about launch will come in the future.) <snipped> We invested in a number of different areas for this release; here’s the big picture of the themes and features in SBS 2008: For IT managers and technology consultants:  · Microsoft’s newest server technologies: Powerful and more secure infrastructure that...
    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Tue, Sep 16 2008

  • Microsoft Microsite test

    Posted to David Overton's Blog by David Overton on Mon, Sep 29 2008
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