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.  

March 2007 - David Overton's Blog
Sort by: Most Recent | Most Viewed | Most Commented

  • The Small Business Summit is coming - 19th - 23rd March - watch online

    [updated 29th March 2007] Now the event has happened you need to go to http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/small-business-summit/FY07/SummitVideo/Watch.aspx to watch the various sessions. The Microsoft Small Business Summit is just around the corner: March 19-23. It's free, it's online, and we don't want you to miss it. To help you get the best value and training for your business, we've identified the top webcasts from the Small Business Summit. With links below, we've also simplified the process of adding your chosen webcasts as appointments on your Outlook calendar. On the date and time of your preferred webcasts, you have two easy options for viewing the live webcasts : Click the linked webcast title below. -Or- Click the linked webcast title in the Outlook appointment text. Note: To view the webcasts, you must have Windows Media Player installed. March 19, Day one (9:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Pacific Time) 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM - Keynote: Solutions for Small Business Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft...

  • Do you want to trial Exchange Server 2007, perhaps talk to the server? If so, look at the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hosted Trial

    I saw this over at Henrik's blog and throught it might be of interest to the SBSC community. I like this. While I discovered that demoing something like this using a free VoIP service was a bad idea, using OK quality phones delivers an amazing experience. Obviously we will not see Exchange 2007 embedded in SBS until Cougar ships, it can still be provided as a hosted service, on a 2nd machine or for a partner internally using the Action Pack copy that should ship next month (fingers crossed). For more information, pop over to Henrik's blog on the subject, including the link to the trial. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hosted Trial Like it was the case right after Exchange 2003 RTM, you can also sign up for an Exchange 2007 tempoary account… “Welcome to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hosted Trial web site. You can create a temporary account to experience the features of Exchange Server 2007 which will stay active for 5 days. Your account will be pre-populated with sample messages, calendar appointments and a...

  • Vista, by itself, and business value - what can you get

    I was a little horrified to see a small business group posting that said " In my opinion, there is nothing in Vista that warrants an upgrade at this time for businesses." Oh my golly gosh thought me. Has this person actually looked at the stuff we have to better explain what the benefits are? (I don't know, but if they have then Microsoft needs to do a better job, if not, then Microsoft needs to do a better job telling everyone). 1st off though, just as many people have commented - I expect many people to buy Vista with a new PC, but I also believe that the decision to buy a new PC will in part be driven by Vista as opposed to just hardware needs. OK, where does Vista add value to businesses (this is where I use it) over Windows XP out the box today and even more so over Windows 2000: Work More Efficiently Searching for documents, e-mails, contacts Preview files without opening them via thumbnails and preview pane Shrink to fit for IE printing Finding open programs, items on start menu, control panel items Enhance...

  • Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for Microsoft (UK) Partners' Friends and Family

    [updated 18th March 08:44am] - The links are working now - hurray Now before someone goes and shoots this down, we have managed a small discount for Microsoft UK Partners' friends and family. It is not a half price discount or anything close, but if you know someone who was going to buy our software or wanted too, it is now a more attractive price :-) Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for your Friends and Family Are you experiencing the 'WOW' of the new Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista yet? If you are you'll probably want your friends and family to feel it too! To help you spread the WOW factor Microsoft Partner DABS is offering a special price to Microsoft Partners' friends and family on the home-use versions of these exciting new releases*. Product Special Friends and Family Price** Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student £85.00 Vista Home Premium £185.00 Vista Home Premium Upgrade £123.50 *Please note: These products are not discounted. The products on offer are legitimate software applications...

  • Using Vista and getting a slower performing network? Perhaps with SBS or other network equipment? Then you need to read Kevin's post at Neoblog.

    We all know that sometimes things sloooowwwwwiiinnnngggg down can be a real drag. Some people have seen this sort of thing with Vista and while sometimes it is to do with drivers (do I need to say wireless here??), others it could be one of the "nice" new features in Vista. In the latter example I can give you a good pointer to help. Susanne Dansey pointed this out to me, which is a posting by Kevin Higerty on this very problem - pop along to his blog to get the low down. I’ve been running Vista on my SBS network for a while, well since the January Action Pack, and have noticed resource access to the SBS box getting slower and slower over the last few days. At the same time I had issues like log on’s taking 2 minutes, explorer time outs and generally the whole system running like a dog. The two symptoms have turned out to be seperate, but combined they are a ‘throw the sodding pc outa the window’ type scenario. Slow networking is due to the auto tuning of TCP/IP in Vista which is turned on by default. Source:...

  • How to speed up displaying other peoples calendar in Outlook 2007

    If you have Exchange in use then Outlook 2007 may well have the caching of people's calendars turned on. This means that when you open a calendar you have to wait for the cache to populate, which can slow things down a bit sometimes. This is how to turn it back to how it was with Outlook 2003. 1. Go to the Tools Menu and select Account Settings 2. Select your Exchange Account and press the change button 3. Press the more settings button 4. Select the 2nd tab (Advanced) 5. Un-tick the "Download shared folders" option. Note that this will stop cached Sharepoint folders from downloading into Outlook too. 6. Press OK until all options are saved. ttfn David Technorati tags: Outlook 2007 , calendar , Office 2007 performance

  • Peering inside the network with Network Monitor (netmon V3), debuging WMI and other systems problems

    I often spend time debugging systems when things go wrong. Besides the tools at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx these are the others I use: Microsoft Network Monitor 3 Network Monitor 3.0 can co-exist with older versions of Network Monitor. NM3 installs in %program files%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3.0, so there is no conflict. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa8be06d-4a6a-4b69-b861-2043b665cb53&DisplayLang=en Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1 The Debug Diagnostic Tool (DebugDiag) is designed to assist in troubleshooting issues such as hangs, slow performance, memory leaks or fragmentation, and crashes in any Win32 user-mode process. The tool includes additional debugging scripts focused on Internet Information Services (IIS) applications, web data access components, COM+ and related Microsoft technologies. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=28bd5941-c458-46f1-b24d-f60151d875a3&DisplayLang=en The WMI Diagnosis Utility -- Version 2.0 WMIDiag...

  • Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack including Softgrid and Sys Internals - 1/2 day technical overview

    The half day overview for partners is scheduled for 28 th March in Reading at Microsoft Thames Valley Park 44SE002 - Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack: why it’s more than just Softgrid 44SE002 - Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack: why it’s more than just Softgrid Summary This event provides the background to Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack, its components, licencing, positioning, strategy and future. It includes a drilldown on the Softgrid application virtualisation technology. Recommended Audience This event is aimed primarily at technical sales staff within partner organisations delivering Microsoft desktop and infrastructur Details Register Detailed Agenda Background and context: overview and positioning of Core Infrastructure Optimisation (IO) Software Assurance (SA): range of benefits eg Desktop Deployment Planning Service Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack: positioning within SA Licencing Elements available outside SA MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack) Technical overview of all 4 components...
    Filed under: , ,

  • Infopath training

    There are then a number of labs online - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb251751.aspx covering Lab 1: Publishing an InfoPath 2007 Form Template to a Server Running InfoPath Forms Services Lab 2: Deploying and Managing InfoPath 2007 Forms Lab 3: Integrating InfoPath 2007 with the Data Connection Library Lab 4: Enabling Digital Signatures in InfoPath 2007 Form Templates Lab 5: Importing Word Forms into InfoPath 2007 Lab 6: Using InfoPath 2007 E-mail Forms Lab 7: Restricting Permissions to InfoPath 2007 Forms and Form Templates Lab 8: Using the InfoPath 2007 Object Model and Visual Studio Tools for Applications Lab 9: Designing InfoPath 2007 Forms for Mobile Web Browsers Lab 10: Creating and Inserting InfoPath 2007 Template Parts Lab 11: Integrating InfoPath 2007 Forms in Web Sites Using Visual Studio Lab 12: Using SharePoint Server Workflows with InfoPath 2007 To use these labs you need a number of downloads found at InfoPath 2007 Sample: Training Labs . ttfn David Technorati tags: Infopath , Training...

  • Sales tools, campaigns, downloads and brochures for Selling the Small Business PC (running Vista and Office 2007)

    Kerry in the Small Business team sent me this mail, so I thought I would forward it on. It is worth knowing that items from the stock shop are often free, including P&P. I’m getting lots of questions about what is available to partners to use to support the small business PC campaign. Details have been included in the campaign updates – but I understand the volume of email we all receive, so hopefully this will be more specific to your needs. We have the following produced and available: Item Details Where to get it! Campaign Builder This campaign promotes our latest product releases specifically for small businesses, Windows Vista™ Business and Microsoft® Office Small Business 2007 promoting how it’s going to transform the way they do business. Aimed at the small business owner/manager, it highlights how Windows Vista™ Business and Microsoft® Office Small Business 2007 introduces powerful new technologies that empower them and their employees to do so much more with their PC. Ultimately, helping them collaborate...

  • Do you want to be able to see PDFs previewed in Outlook 2007 and the preview pane in Vista Explorer? What about C#, VB, SQL and javascript code?

    This has been banded about a lot inside Microsoft, but it is just too good to ignore. Enjoy!! Foxit PDF Preview Handler in my daily work i spend a majority of my 'computing' time in outlook. communicating with peers, team members, customers, etc. is mostly done via communication (sad, i know). a lot of that time it involves sending information attachments back and forth, using office documents, etc. i've said a lot about how much i love the preview functionality within vista and office 2007. i even wrote a code preview handler for .cs, .vb, .sql, .js files. one of the samples in the msdn article was for pdf files...of which i receive a lot. i don't use adobe reader because i think it is overkill for reading pdf's personally. the sample, however, relies on having adobe reader installed...which i didn't like. i started working with the foxit activex sdk , because i love their reader product. after some communication with the team at foxit, we started collaborating. as a result of that collaboration, foxit software...

  • I love the press - saying that organisations are "banning" Vista when they are doing normal testing - and then writing another story when they get it wrong!!

    I read with interest the previosu stories about large oganisations banning Vista deployments, wondering if this was anything but normal policy. Then this story broke where NIST in the US "were irked" at suggestions that the ban was in anyway but normal practice until they finish testing Explaining a Vista ban The National Institute of Standards and Technology has put a moratorium on using Windows Vista, but that's business as usual, says agency's CIO. newsmaker The prestigious National Institute of Standards and Technology has put a ban on Windows Vista, but that's standard procedure, according to NIST's chief information officer. NIST, which does research and sets standards for things like cryptography for government use , is among several federal agencies that have put a moratorium on the use of Vista . The agencies are taking some time to make sure that the new Microsoft operating system meets their needs. It is not unusual that large organizations aren't rushing to install major software updates. These organizations...

  • UK Vista Community Group - First Meeting - March 28th

    Vista Squad The place to discuss Windows Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0. We're excited to announce the inaugural meeting of the Vista Squad! The event will be held between 18:15 and 21:15 on Wednesday 28th March 2007 at Microsoft's HQ, Thames Valley Park, Reading. This will be a great opportunity to meet other members, discuss Vista and see two cracking presentations. If you'd like to come pop your name in a comment and we'll add you to the list. The line-up is as follows: 18:15-18:30: Refreshments 18:30-18:45: Introduction session to introduce the group, the key people involved and finally our aims and goals – (Ray Booysen, Scott Belton, Robert Knapp) 18:45-19:45: Presentation 1 - Are you ready for Vista - Windows hardware assessment tools (Scott Belton) 19:45-20:15: Break - Food, refreshments and networking 20:15-21:15: Presentation 2 - WCF Introduction– (tbc) 21:15: Roundup and close Source: Announcements : First Meeting

  • iQubed Blog » You gotta love Linux - why, you can do this on Windows too

    I saw this over at Vijay's blog and remember these commands from my *nix days. I then thought, well I do these on Windows, so I had better share how to do it on Windows too. 1st - create DVDs and CDs from ISOs - get the MS utility from the Server 2003 Resource Kit - CDBurn.exe and DVDBurn.exe - from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en 2nd - mount ISOs on XP & Vista - use the tool located at Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP - note on Vista as it loads a device driver you need to run from an elevated CMD prompt and then you will only be able to access the drive you create from tasks running as admin, such as the elevated cmd prompt. There are 3rd party tools that also do this, such as daemon tools too (and then the non-admin parts of Vista work too) You gotta love Linux March 20th, 2007 by vijay I was loving Linux today because I needed to download an ISO, the IBM ServeRAID 7K bootable CD. I used Linux to download the ISO...

  • Building Office Live applications - this is where you need to start

    I had a partner ask me about Office Live today, so these are the places you need to start: 1) Client SDK - Windows Live ID Client 1.0 SDK in Alpha 2) Web Based Info - http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=924592&siteid=1 and http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905514.aspx 3) Windows SharePoint v3 APIs - Working with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Services (what is supported from WSSv3 and what is blocked) 4) Some important sections: How to: Integrate Access 2007 and Excel 2007 with Office Live How to: Integrate Office Live with other Office 2007 applications Chris's unofficial Office Live developer blog That is it for now - the client SDK is key - you can build rich client applications and then share data via the OfficeLive web. nice. ttfn David Technorati tags: Office Live , Live , Saas , Software as a service , software with service

  • Virtual PC 2007 released

    With support for Vista and Office 2007 being key for people inside and outside of Microsoft we have had two updates recently to support this. This entry relates to Virtual PC 2007 and another will relate to SQL 2005 SP2. You can find out about Virtual PC 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx , however the key features over and above the 2004 product are: · Support for Windows Vista as a host · Support for Windows Vista as a guest · Support for Windows Vista 64-bit as a host · Improved performance compared to Virtual PC 2004 Ttfn David Technorati tags: Virtualisation , Virtual PC , Vista , Windows Vista , x64

  • HD Photo Plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® Software (Beta Release for Windows) - The future after JPEG?

    I'm not really much of a photographer myself - all my cameras are snappers and the pictures I take are just that - snaps. Now Jo in the Office is a Pro and has sold many of her photographs. Every so often I ask her about Office Collaboration, SharePoint, Content Management to understand what can be used in the small biz space and then spend time talking about which camera I should get :-) I heard recently about HD Photo which is "and format for end to end digital photographers" (Press release " Microsoft Announces HD Photo, a New Imaging File Format With Advanced "). It is worth noting that to speed release there is a HD Photo Plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® Software (Beta Release for Windows) too. If you've ever paid close attention to your photos you will know that a "lossy" format means that you loose some of the detail compared to the original, but get much smaller files. Now "HD Photo fully preserves the original image fidelity with high dynamic range while still allowing for significant improvement in compression...

  • Windows Vista for beginners - new Vista Wallpaper collection by Hamad Darwish

    I found this great site - http://www.vista4beginners.com - which has some interesting content - first up, some great new wallpapers for Vista - which are great Vistas. Vista Wallpapers Collection Fri, 03/02/2007 - 11:46 — admin Today we are very pleased to announce that our site is hosting a great collection of Windows Vista wallpapers that did not make the cut into the final Vista Collection. The author of these great wallpapers is Hamad Darwish - a talented young man from Kuwait with a passion for photography. Read more Source: Windows Vista for beginners | Windows Vista made simple Technorati tags: Windows Vista , Vista , Wallpaper

  • Help us to shape next-generation 64-bit technology - from Microsoft Partner Newsletter

    Help us to shape next-generation 64-bit technology We are shipping a private beta of our upcoming 64-bit server for medium-size businesses, codenamed 'Centro', and we're looking for partners to test the technology and give us feedback. The server, which is an x64-only version of Longhorn targeted at smaller enterprises, will integrate Exchange 2007, System Centre Essentials, SQL Server 2005 and ISA Server. To sign up to the beta programme, go to http://connect.microsoft.com/ , click on 'Invitations' (in the left-hand navigation) and sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID). Then enter the following invite ID; Extr-GHBC-JCJM. You will be asked to take a short survey. When you have completed the survey you will receive an email from [email protected] . If you don't already trust this address, please add it to your trusted email addresses. More information on the beta programme More information on Centro Technorati tags: Centro , Beta , Exchange 2007 , System Center Essentials , SQL Server 2005

  • Microsoft Rolling Out ODF Document Converter and participating in Standards processes

    This is not new news, but when I was at the Technet event yesterday it did come up. Someone asked about the what and why of Open XML and Open Document format. Luckily Darren Strange was on hand to answer the question (which he has done before). ODF is a great standard, but does not allow for amny of the things that our customers want, such as charts (to name just one). It is not unusual to have more than one standard way to do things (such as ASCII and EBDIC for character sets), so while ECMA has ratified OpenXML we are now working with a 2 nd standards body (ISO) to also get OpenXML ratified there too. For more information about the ODF converter, have a look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/odftranslator/ for the code and this article for news - Microsoft Rolling Out ODF Document Converter . Ttfn David

  • BBC News Online | Technology | Decoys fix quantum key swapping

    As some of you might know, my background was in Security for a while and I studied how Quantium keys and security could be used while at University (RHUL for those who want to look it up, although for me it used to be called Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London). Anyway, quantum keys and entanglement were the talk of the days and how bullet proof they were. Well now it appears that they might not be quite so amazing, or at least our ability to use them without leakage. Anyway, I saw this at the BBC technology site and it is nice to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel :-) Decoys fix quantum key swapping British scientists have found a way to fix a vulnerability in quantum cryptographic systems. If left unpatched, the flaw would make it possible to grab information about the keys used to scramble information without being detected. The flaw emerges because of the way that laser diodes emit the photons of light used to carry quantum key data. Using decoy photons, researchers...
    Filed under: ,

  • Games for Windows - Live beta announcement and invitation

    Are you interested in being part of a select group that is invited to help beta test a new service that lets PC game players connect with their friends on the Xbox through the LIVE gaming network? If you are, please read on. The registration period for this upcoming beta testing opportunity will only be available for a limited time. To be considered you will need to complete the Games for Windows - Live Beta application survey. Please only submit the survey once. Multiple entries will not improve your chances at being chosen. If you are interested in participating please direct go to https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=363 ttfn David
    Filed under: ,

  • Microsoft Virtualisation technologies and roadmap days

    44SE003 - Microsoft virtualisation technologies and roadmap 1 Day, 23 Mar 2007, Reading 44SE003 - Microsoft virtualisation technologies and roadmap 1 Day, 26 Mar 2007, Edinburgh 44SE003 - Microsoft virtualisation technologies and roadmap Summary This event focuses on giving you a thorough overview of Microsoft’s current technologies and future strategy in virtualisation, to prepare you for what you can do now and what you should plan for in the run-up to Windows Server Virtualisation. Overview Microsoft’s vision and strategy for virtualisation Why Microsoft? Drilldown: Virtual Server Drilldown: SC VMM Drilldown ttfn David

  • Vista x64 and Action Pack

    I have updated the FAQ, but I can now confirm that there is an intention to ship Vista x64 to partners via the Action Pack, although all the details for the process have not be sorted, meaning that I cannot yet confirm which pack they will be shipping in. As soon as I get more information I will share it, but for now, be aware that we have again put in place a solution to the issues raised by partners around their desires for the Action Pack. ttfn David Technorati tags: Action Pack , Windows Client , Windows Vista and XP , Windows Vista , x64

  • FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) workshop presentations (IT Management using Microsoft technologies and Sales and Marketing using Microsoft solutions)

    I recently delivered the following workshop at the FSB conference in Belfast and promised to upload these files as promised. Making the management of your IT easier using your Microsoft software and services Understand how standard Microsoft software and online services can solve many common IT headaches, including security, backup and management of your PCs and business policies. File can be downloaded from http://uksbsguy.com/files/FSB%20_%20IT%20Management.pptx Technologies : Windows Vista, Small Business Server 2003 R2, Office Live Improving your sales and marketing using Microsoft Software and Online Services? Many people want to get more from software, but often don’t know where to start. In this session we will go through a process to improve the consistency and look of your documents as well as demonstrate how to use the Office tools and online services to better manage your customer information, improve your marketing efforts both on and offline and close the loop in a marketing campaign to them. File...
    Filed under:
< Previous 1 2 3 Next >

(c)David Overton 2006-23