Windows 7, Vista and XP - David Overton's Blog

Windows 14 - 15 March 2007, Reading: TechNet Brings You a Two-Day Seminar in Association with John Craddock Hear real world experience from leading technical experts with a flair for presenting deep technical content in an engaging and informative style. John Craddock and Sally Storey are IT systems specialists who have designed and implemented computing systems, from embedded high-speed industrial controllers to distributed IT solutions. (This is a chargeable event, for which there is a registration fee of £360 +VAT) Windows Vista 31 January 2007, London: Windows Vista System Integrity Technologies Historically, operating systems have lived in their own little bubbles of trust. Every part of an operating system assumed that every other part was exactly what it claimed to be and performed only what it claimed it could do. Recent attacks, though, have shown that such implicit trust is no longer suitable for computers that connect to hostile environments. In this session, Steve Lamb introduces the security features...

I am someone who likes the best browser for me. While I have often tried other browsers, I have always come back to IE based ones. I say IE based ones as I was a Avant and Maxthon user for a good 2 years until IE7 came on the scene. I loved tabbed browsing and those browsers gave me that. The discussion can be found at the CRN web site and does an amazing job of describing the browser wars and talking about who won each round. What might surprise many is that MS has not won many, but does have a large base now and the verdict is open for the next round. For the record, I now use IE7, I still get tabbed browsing and quick tabs and I have not yet had a site I could not browse, so that is great. I LOVE the new security features - protected mode and anti-phishing technology. I save trees with the "about time" feature of shrink to fit for printing and when I start the browser, it opens up the 8 pages I want it to in tabs, so no longer choosing which page will be my homepage, I have 8. (as it happens, they are Valdville...

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...

SBS is a great, stable product, so why go and throw in a bunch of broken software into the mix? Untested - yes, Vista and Office 2007 are beta, so known to have bugs that have not be resolved in them. OK, so the 1st rule is never run beta software in production, unless you are doing so for known explicit reasons. Vlad has posted on this a few times already. I also saw that the SBS team have made a couple of statements about Office and Vista and the bottom line is that there are some known issues and Microsoft is addressing them. Also, looking on one of the forums, there are a few questions people are asking , so be warned. If you don't use the connect computer wizard, then joining a Vista PC to a domain is doable. You might have a few Group Policy problems, so I would check things like "My Documents" redirection and firewall settings. You will also get a few UAC prompts, but as Susan suggests , lead UAC on for your testing - the prompts should get less once the PC is set up and the latest builds of Vista should...

Symantec Continues Windows Vista Bug Hunt I saw this article and it just made me want to cringe. Symantec have released a report that has rightly pointed out issues and concerns with the new technology in Vista. Every time code is changed there is a risk of inserting new security vulnerabilities, however, new code is the way of new products and the evidence from Windows Server 2003 and SP1 vs Windows 2000 shows that the processes Microsoft goes through has a real and tangible impact on the security quality of the applications. Now, security is indeed a key feature of Vista and while we all know there will be a security patch for the product at some point, jumping up and down and pointing the finger at bad code before we have finished the security sweep or even got out of beta is not likely to reflect life once the product releases. I have to say, this looks like someone getting a little upset with the features in Vista and therefore saying - look, you need us because they are not good at this security stuff. Obviously...

Windows Vista. An exciting operating system, but is there more to it than "eye candy". Can finding information, making systems easier to manage, support great applications and making another step change in Security really do enough to persuade people to buy? I don't have the answers to this yet, but there are now a total of 4 PTS-TV videos on Vista (2 newer ones with Mike Dixon and Tim Tiscornia and two I recorded a little while ago now). You might want to go see what it is all about :-) Obviously the downloads of Vista Beta 2 have closed, but this will be shipping in Action Packs , so you can still evaluate it yourself. Hopefully RC1 is not too far off and you can see the progress we are making in closing bugs. The videos for PTS -TV are always found at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/blog/pts-tv/ and the Vista ones are: PTS-TV: Tim Tiscornia Stream this video Download video (right-click/save as) Comment on this video PTS: Vista Stream this video Download video (right-click/save as) Comment...

Hi, this is not necessarily a small business only tool, but it is a computing device that has me excited at a personal level. It is a small PC, about the size of a book. It looks cool, runs Windows and Vista in the future and uses input devices such as your finger. For more information you can go to: http://www.origamiproject.com http://www.microsoft.com/umpc http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/mar06/03-09Mobile.mspx http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=169962 http://www.intel.com/design/mobile/platform/umpc.htm ttfn - as soon as these actually ship I will be buying one with my own money - a big commitment frome me & my wife I can tell you. Oh, did I mention the price point - $599 - $999.. sweeeet ttfn David

The product is finished, millions of downloads, 60,000 machines in Microsoft, a huge amount of feedback and the product is out the gate. We still need to produce millions of boxes, but if you have Volume Licensing you can get the product at the end of the month, otherwise we have the product launch in January. I am upgrading my laptops as we speak. They are over 2 years old and run Vista like a dream. No fancy hard disks, one has 1GB, one 2GB of memory, one has a 64MB ATI graphics card and it still makes Vista look amazing. Jim Alchin made a very long post here - http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/08/it-s-time.aspx and simply said "It's Time", however more information can be found at http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/08/windows-vista-releases-to-manufacturing.aspx including a video of Jim's announcement. ttfn David

I have just found this site - it is really quite good and will only get better. Simple go to http://windowsbeta.microsoft.com/vista/setup.aspx , tell it which version of Vista you are running (most likely 5384 - Beta 2) and then home button. On the left hand side a list of categories will pop up, but there is a HUGE amount to choose from. As an example, when I clicked security, this is the list: Security Internet Options Determine the privacy level you are using within the current security zone User Account Control When prompted, give permission for a program to continue Windows Defender Scan your computer using Windows Defender View items quarantined by Windows Defender Run Software Explorer to view all software running on your computer Windows Firewall Confirm that Windows Firewall is active and running Check to see if Wireless Portable Devices are unblocked by Windows Firewall the list of categories is long: (Recently Added) Application Compatibility Communications & Networking Ease of Access Entertainment...

The team I am part of is a fun little group and we made a roup of videos which discuss our technology. Each video is just a few minutes long, but might give you the overview you need before or after the meetings. The videos we have are: 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 I am sure you can figure out which is which. ttfn David

I often find it interesting when talking to many small business partners about their business. These people are often very credible and capable technically, but struggle when it comes to "running a business" especially on some aspects of "marketing". I have been wondering how to offer credible assistance to partners that see themselves in this space, as often described by the book E-Myth Revisited - Why most small businesses don't work and what to do about it - people go in to business for a multitude of reasons, often to make money out of their skills (technical in the case of small businesses) - not to run a business. While on my hunt for information around this area I came across another of Susanne's wonderful blog entries on marketing . She once again articulated that everything you do leaves your customer with an impression of you - so best ensure that every employee (from you down) knows what impression you want to leave. The next thing is to understand some basic tools of being...

I just opened up the latest newsletter from bCentral - if you don't get them, you should as hundred of thousands of people in the UK read the bCentral site and access this information. And if you were not sure, bCentral is the one stop shop from Microsoft for UK small businesses to find information on anything from finance to marketing (with a bit of technology in the middle). Anyway, while reading it, the top article was: Top tips to flexible working The benefits flexible working can bring to your business are significant. With the right technology, a flexible culture truly enhances the way you work because customers are better served and your employees are better looked after. For ten top tips to flexible working, download our free guide. Download the guide >> I thought, this looks interesting - the guide is a fantastic starter to explaining what the benefits of flexible working are for small businesses, so a simple read, and potentially mailing it to key prospects and customers would be top of my...