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I just popped along to http://gallery.microsoft.com/Results.aspx?vista=la... and saw that there was a number of Vista gadgets, 24 in total. For an RSS feed of the last 10, go to http://gallery.microsoft.com/rss.aspx?r=1&q=&l=1&s... ttfn David

This is just a very quick note to say that good old Sean has published a nice document on how to get SBS 2003 and the tools working with Vista RC1. For more info: SeanDaniel.com on SBS 2003 & other Tech-stuff: Looking to run Vista RC1 on SBS 2003? ttfn David

Once again the Small Business Ignite Tour is coming out and this time it is Exeter. You need to sign-up quickly, so go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/training/ignite/default.aspx?id=Exeter and sign up for the Small Business Tour (as opposed to the tour with a date in the past). If you do not know about the Small Business Ignite Tour, then this is the rough agenda: Introduce just how big the business opportunity is in the land of small business Introduce the topics of Flexible Working and Collaborative Business as these will be the basis of marketing campaigns this year from Microsoft into small business customers Demonstrate technologies that you can deliver to give your customers the benefits they demand - such as : working from home or on the road, using the tools in SBS, Windows XP or Windows Mobile Sharing files between workers, customers and suppliers in a natural and secure way using WSS and Office When to consider a hosted solution and when to consider SBS How to stop searching and start finding...

For those who need more info on Vista, want to see it, and will be managing it, come along to: • 11 September 2006, London: Windows Vista System Integrity Technologies Windows Vista will ship with several new system integrity technologies, including code integrity, secure startup, service hardening, mandatory integrity control and Internet Explorer protected mode. In this session, Steve Lamb explores how these technologies work to thwart malware's attempts to take over your computer. • 14 September 2006, Reading: What's New in Administering Vista In this session, we will examine group policy functionality improvements that have been made with Windows Vista. We will describe the new and updated features and how these help to alleviate the problems that were present with previous versions of Windows. ttfn David

One again I was scanning the news when this article caught my eye. It discusses the complexity of trying to make a more secure OS for Vista while also trying to enable application compatibility. I once discovered that we had over 10,000 "fixes" in previous OSs to cover for bad applications to ensure they ran, rather than breaking them by putting in place more robust APIs. Microsoft around the time of Windows XP SP2 started to change this, we now favour security over compatibility. Having said that, we have put in place a HUGE amount of technology to make applications run, but rather than breaking security we put in new ways to allow them to work without opening up a security hole. In my opinion, one of the biggest holes in Windows today is the number of users who run as administrator and then ignore any warnings we put up. If we had a dialog box that said "By clicking OK you agree for us to scramble all the files on your hard disk" I wonder how many people would click OK if it let them view...

Imagine the scene - Microsoft is running a marketing set of events and awareness to encourage customers to buy their technology. We tell customers that they need to work with SBSC specialists and point them to the bCentral web site. However, at the same time, you also get the materials you need from Microsoft to run your own campaign - be it post cards, handouts, telephone scripts, letters. And using a simple tool it will take you a few minutes to create the materials. Below is a walkthrough of how I built a campaign for SBS using 5 types of material (Telemarketing script, Postcard, Business Letter, e-Mail and Flyer) 1st off, you need to visit the Campaign Builder Web site and log in. This enabled you to choose the campaign that is right for you. You may notice it looked at the fact that I am a registered partner with the SBSC badge, so suggested the SBS Campaign (there are also campaigns for solutions that major in Office, Windows, CRM and so on). One I had selected the campaigns, it is simply a case of walking...

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...

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...

Vista, Your operating system of choice. So how are you going to get there? Hard Disk format, in-place upgrade, new system? Microsoft have released more information on the upgrade matrix - obviously you can not upgrade from anything to anything, so what can you do? Well the matrix at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeinfo.mspx shows WINDOWS VISTA EDITIONS Home Basic Home Premium Business Ultimate Windows XP Professional Windows XP Home Windows XP Media Center Windows XP Tablet PC Windows XP Professional x64 Windows 2000 Requires clean install. In-place installation option available. There is also a little side note that needs a little more testing that I have not had a chance to check into yet. "If you are currently using Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional x64, you are eligible for an upgrade copy to a corresponding or better edition of Windows Vista, but a clean install is required." This might mean that all of you with x64 copies of Windows might get the new OS...

Small Business+ has been seen as something that might be scary for a few partners - is Microsoft trying to take away the very business that most partners are searching for? This is interesting as I was talking to one partner last week who said that the types of questions that SB+ sought to answer were the ones that when they charged the customer for the support, customer got upset. The reason for this was that when a customer phones up and asks a question that takes just 5 minutes to resolve, how do you bill them - per the 5 minutes, by the quarter of an hour. If you try to track all of these, you end up in a admin mess and often a costly one at that. Since the original concern, not much in the way of bad press has aired, so I can only assume this was not the killer many had assumed. Also add to the fact that we are working on how to give a pre-selected partner contact details to the customer means that this can become a support service for both the partner and customer rather than a burden to the partner. Now...

Every so often someone asks me how to get device "xxx" working. Obviously the 1st stage to this is to finding the right device driver. Sometimes this can be hard to track down - one thing to look for is the hardare ID from device manager. The ID is made up of the bus type, vendor, major and minor ids. You can do a search for the vendor ID on the internet and once you have that, try their site for a device driver. This is sometimes a long winded process, but normally yields results. One alternative that I spotted today to this was the Microsoft Technet site for drivers . This site has both Microsoft controlled and non-affiliated sites that can help with the device driver searching. When Vista comes along, searching for device drivers will be an even bigger goal of the Update function that ships in the box. ttfn David

so, I have about 5 mins to write this, so it will be short & sweet. From the Small Business pre-day: event was sold out people told us licensing was still not up to scratch, but Eric Ligman's lessthancoffee.com site was very useful Much of the information for people was how to run a small business as it 1) enables us all to understand what is going on in the minds of our customers and 2) since many SBSC members are small businesses, hopefully gives them some ideas on how to be more successful as a business The Sloan Brothers were the highlight for me in advice ( http://startupnation.com ) - they said Got for 10% of the Watermelon, not 90% of the grape - this basically meant get funding and help to grow your business - keeping ownership of your business is more than just the number of shares - it is being there, so even if other people own 90% of the equity, you are still in charge. Outsource non-core skills Hitch your wagon to a star - eg Microsoft, but also someone local who will recommend you - so you get...