David Overton's Blog

Microsoft Silverlight (the new name for WPF/E) - the future of web based apps - try some samples on the site

I saw the news about Silverlight and the things that struck me was that it was a) cross platform and b) provided a fantastic experience. You can also use the Expression tools to build this stuff. So much was I impressed by the stuff that I have hosted it on my server for you to see what is there. To find out more go to Microsoft Silverlight It does pretty graphics, movies, effects like turning pages and more. If you install the runtime (you must have .Net 3.0 installed - i.e. native on Vista and installable for Windows XP) then pop along to http://uksbsguy.com/febctpsamples to see the demos. To get started you need to do some downloading (click below for Windows or http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/asp/downloads.aspx for Windows and MAC): System Requirements and Installation Instructions There are a number of blogs on this product and they can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/asp/blogs.aspx . It is also worth noting that the Silverlight web site ( http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight ) will...

Published Mon, Apr 30 2007 10:48 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Developer, beta, Expression, Silverlight

Longhorn beta 3 (the next version of Windows Server) is available to download

OK guys, so this is NOT Cougar - don't expect a beta of this for a while - I will post when we are getting closer, honest - however if you want to get a taste of where the product is heading too, then download Longhorn. For real flavour, you might want to get the 64-bit version as this is what you will be running with SBS v.next. Source: Microsoft Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Home ttfn David Technorati tags: Longhorn , 64-bit , download , beta 3

Published Sun, Apr 29 2007 10:49 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows Server 2003, beta

World's first IT support professional - just made me laugh

[updated with a URL rather than embedded object] I got this mailed to me at work and just p**sed myself laughing - even my good lady thought this was fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMa3QBqf3t4 ttfn David Technorati Tags: Fun , Support , IT Support

Published Fri, Apr 27 2007 1:15 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Support and Tools, Fun

Got SBS Premium (or an ISA firewall) and Vista customers - you will need the updated ISA Server Firewall Client

Just a quick note to say that if you have a SBS customer who has some PCs with Vista then you will need the updated ISA firewall client. You will need to go to this page - ISA Server Firewall Client Firewall Client for ISA Server Brief Description Firewall Client for ISA Server installs the Firewall Client software on 32-bit and 64-bit computers running supported Windows operating systems. It is also worth noting that the install script will look something like this \\Servername\shared folder\SETUP.EXE /Q /P "SERVER_NAME_OR_IP=Servername ENABLE_AUTO_DETECT=0 REFRESH_WEB_PROXY=1" Note this will almost certainly force a reboot due to the changes in the Winsock stack. ttfn David Technorati Tags: ISA , ISA Firewall client , SBS , SBS Premium

Published Fri, Apr 27 2007 11:55 AM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Security, SBS 2003 R2, ISA Server, Application Compatibility

SBS 2003 R2 & CALsare now on the Academic Price list so you can sell SBS to schools again :-)

Hi guys, I've just picked this up from one of our internats web chats and thought I would share it. SBS will be on the Academic Price List and available in all languages (SBS Standard, Premium + 5 CAL packs) through Volume Licensing as of April 1st. For FPP, retailers will be able to get the product as of May 4th. This is great news and I have had it confirmed that it is on Wescoasts price list, plus some other distributors. ttfn David

Published Wed, Apr 25 2007 12:01 AM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Business, Developer, Community, SBSC, SBS 2003 R2, charity, Licensing, Academic

Back from Holiday - lots to do, holiday snaps

Hello everyone - I'm back, as they say. I managed to fill my inbox while away, so stopped getting mail on Friday. I do have lots still to process, so it will be a little slow. If you want to see the photos, pop along to http://uksbsguy.com/photos/sailing/default.aspx ttfn David

Published Tue, Apr 24 2007 1:05 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Personal

Site work underway

I am in the process of upgrading the site - expect some spotty service while this happens. thanks David

Published Mon, Apr 23 2007 3:32 PM by David Overton

Where in the world is David?

Well, some of you will know that I love sailing and this week I am indulging that love. Right this moment I am in a 44 foot sailing yacht anchored just off of a beautiful beach in Antigua. We have caught a few fish (you should have seen the ones that got away), sailed through a squal, briefly seen dolphins and a few other moments that i shall follow up with pictures. Normal service shall resume next week :-) Ttfn David Published with BlogMailr

Published Tue, Apr 17 2007 3:23 AM by David Overton

How to open Office 2007 (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007) files on Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003 by downloading the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for File Formats

I get asked this question quite often, so I thought I would point out the download location for the tool to make files work between Office 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. Just to cover off some details - Office 2007 can save in Office 97-2003 file format as well as the new Open XML and PDF file formats. Using this download, files can be opened and saved in Office 2007 format in Office 2000 and later. Of special note is that if you are using Microsoft Office XP or 2003 you MUST install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack . Also, if you don't have those Office programs, but you have the viewers (Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003) then you can use the pack to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074 . Also Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 to read or write documents containing complex scripts, please see http://support...

Published Sun, Apr 15 2007 12:01 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Office System, Support and Tools, Office 2007, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Application Compatibility, Office 2003, Open XML, Getting Started

Do you wish there was a good list of questions to understand a customers business and technical needs? Well you had better look at the Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit FAQ (and win copies of SBS 2003 R2 to sell)

I should have blogged on this ages and ages ago, but somehow I thought everyone knew about this already. It is a set of tools (pointers to documents, Q&A recording tool, customisation tool and general web based advice) to help you sell your services by understanding the needs of your customers and share this information easily around the business. The best place to start is the FAQ page ( Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit FAQ: Toolkit Updates ), which has loads of good links - below is just the start of the good information. Also, if you do a few assessements and submit the data to Microsoft, you could earn a free copy of SBS 2003 R2 for you to do with as you will - give to your partner at home, sell to a customer, mount on the wall as the only free thing Microsoft has ever given you :-) Find comprehensive answers to your questions about how to download, install and use the Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit (English only). For further information about the Windows Small...

Published Sat, Apr 14 2007 12:01 AM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Business, Community, SBS 2003 R2, Marketing, Small business, Partner

How to add external contacts to the GAL (global address list or the list of names found by default in Outlook) by adding them to Active Directory

So you may remember the call for help that led to the article How to add public folders to the list of contacts in Outlook : We currently have several public folders which contain email address and contact information for people outside of our company that we want to keep up with. I would like to put these in the All Contacts list on the server, so everyone can open it and reference it when sending email. The only thing I can find it to put them in Active Directory so they can be on the list. Surely there is another way to get this done, but how. I also am not opposed to manually typing them in (and weeding out old contacts), but don't feel very comfortable putting 800 outsiders in my AD. Having proposed the solution in the above link, I then got back the following reply: Thanks David for the reply. I have some address books in the public folder that I have done that to, but was trying to move away from the public folder and have the addresses included in the "All Contacts" under the "All Addresses" section for...

Published Fri, Apr 13 2007 12:01 AM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Office System, Support and Tools, Exchange, Office 2007, SBS 2003 R2, Outlook, Office 2003

How to configure SBS / Exchange to forward or duplicate mails to an external e-mail address

I have been using this for as long as the UK SBS GUY site has been around (it is how the admin mails get to me at Microsoft), but when I went looking for the "how to do this" blog item, I could not find it. After much searching of my blog I resorted to searching live.com and there was the article - not mine, but the one I used. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/MF015.html It is very common for some of your users to express an interest in having their mail delivered to a mailbox that is external to your organization. For example, the user is going to be working away from the office and would like their mail to be delivered to their Hotmail account. Another request might be to have their mail delivered to a different person altogether So I can finally give them the credit they deserve. ttfn David Technorati tags: forwarding mail , exchange , sbs 2003

Published Thu, Apr 12 2007 3:49 AM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Exchange, SBS 2003 R2, Tips

Win an XBOX 360 or 5 x Office and Vista while getting Microsoft to pay some or all of your Marketing Campaign Builder Expenses for Small Business PC, Branch Office solutions or Build Customer Connections Campaigns. Time limited - ends 30th April 2007

Hopefully I have your attention, which is good. Microsoft UK are trying to encourage the use of our marketing tools and also gain some feedback. First of all, the prizes for the best feedback - an Xbox 360 system OR 5 x Vista Ultimate AND 5 x Office 2007 Pro. Next, the cash - we can offer a limited number of people £150 towards a marketing campaign - if that covers the whole of the campaign, then so be it and it has cost you nothing! This money is to be used at the UK Partner Campaign Builder portal. OK, so now for the pitch! As many of you know we like to help our partners in many ways here at Microsoft and one area that small business partners have asked for help is in the marketing area. Campaign Builder is a one stop shop to either produce materials and run the campaign yourself, or use the agency to run the campaign for you (or at least print the materials). Well, we have a limited number of discount vouchers to make this a £150 easier process. The idea is simple to do, simply do the following this April...

Published Wed, Apr 11 2007 7:17 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Office System, CRM, Support and Tools, Business, Microsoft, Windows Client, Vista, Office 2007, Marketing, Small business, Partner

I have had many people ask me questions recently that should go via the UK Partner Contact Us Page, so if you want to ask Microsoft a question and you are a partner, give these people a try - they might be in when I am not :-)

I honestly want people to talk to me - really, but I don't want to be the 1st point of contact, unless you really don't know where to go, so here is how it works. I went to the UK Microsoft Partner Page - http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner - at the bottom is a "Contact Us" button - it goes here - Contact Us . If you cant find what you want via the support pages or the ask partner route, or want to tell me what was easy or hard, then PLEASE, PLEASE contact me. Bear in mind that my role is aimed at Microsoft partners. To make life easy, here are some of the more important routes to contact Microsoft for UK partners: General Enquiries To report problems accessing links or downloads , with navigation, or if you have content-related questions, please contact us . We’ll respond - usually within 1 business day. For general enquiries, including pre-sales product and service information, technical, sales and marketing support , and information about the Certified and Gold Certified Partner programme, contact the Ask Partner...

Published Wed, Apr 11 2007 6:02 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Support and Tools, Community, SBSC, Microsoft, Partner

How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact

I was recently asked by someone how to do this. Considering the fact that there are pre-defined public folders in SBS, including those for contacts I thought it was worth sharing this with a wider audience. Set this up for a customer using SBS and they can easily share contacts across the whole business. Add the contacts folder to the favourties list and they are also cached offline :-) I found the answer by experimentation, but then this article describes it well too. The magic tab in Office 2007 (and 2003) is pictured below from my system. How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books First thing you need to make sure that the public folders has a contact list created. Also, double check the permissions so that your users can view the contact list. To setup the Contact List in the Address Book navigate to your public folder and find the contact list you want to add. Right-click on the Contacts Folder and click properties . Click on the Outlook Address Book tab. Check the box next to “Show...

Published Mon, Apr 9 2007 11:49 PM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Exchange, Office 2007, SBS 2003 R2, Documentation, Outlook, Tips, Office 2003

Channel Expo Show presentations - Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Windows Server (SBS, Naked, Home Server and Longhorn) sales slides

If you visited the Channel Expo show this year then you probably saw one or two Microsoft presentations on desktop and server solutions. James Akrigg and Matt McSpirit provided the desktop entertainment while I covered off what servers we have out there and what is coming in the near future. We promised the slides and here they are: Desktop (Windows Vista and Office 2007)- Office 2007 PowerPoint Desktop (Windows Vista and Office 2007)- PDF Server (SBS, Windows Server 2003 R2, Longhorn and Home Server) - Office 2007 PowerPoint Server (SBS, Windows Server 2003 R2, Longhorn and Home Server) - PDF James has an amazing blog (Out of Office) at http://blogs.technet.com/outofoffice Matt touches many aspects of desktop technology including that for small business at http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit Have a look at the blogs and enjoy the presentations. ttfn David Technorati tags: Channel Expo , Vista , Office 2007 , SBS 2003 , Nakes Servers , Home Server , Longhorn

Important Update on SBS 2003 upgrade from RTM (SP0) to SP1 for Premium customers who wans ISA 2004

If you have recently tried to upgrade from SBS 2003 RTM you might have hit a minor issue - we did not have the premium tech CDs available. While we can not promise them to be available today, the problem is being worked on and the issue will be resolved. However, the supply of CDs is limited, so if you plan to do this, order the CD now and save the CD for when you want to upgrade. The URL with the information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/downloads/sp1/default.mspx . Standard users will still just need to download the SP1 bits. Premium users will need to download the SP1 bits AND order the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium CD3 which contains the bits needed for ISA. An update will be posted on April 30, 2007. thanks David Technorati tags: SBS 2003 , Service Pack 1 , ISA 2004

Published Thu, Apr 5 2007 2:55 PM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, ISA Server, Service Pack

What to do if you need the migration pack (transition pack) for SBS 2000

First off I have some bad news for you - this pack no longer exists (although if you search the web hard enough you might find someone with a legitimate one to sell). However, this pack would have taken you to Windows 2000 - not exactly the best destination, so what are your options? Migrate to SBS 2003 and get the Transition Pack for SBS 2003 Ditch SBS and just buy Windows Server 2003 and migrate the information by hand If the number of users is still going to be below the 75 CAL limit and it was the 50 CAL limit of SBS 2000 that was the problem, then simply move to SBS. Some useful reading will come from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555040 and http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/d/c/6dccf9b4-d915-4c95-b5af-100b89e02add/SBS_MigratingSBS2k.doc ttfn David Technorati tags: SBS 2000 , Migration Pack , Transition Pack , Windows Server

Published Thu, Apr 5 2007 2:37 PM by David Overton

Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Windows Server 2003, SBS 2003 R2, Tips

Help to make the Office 2007 document type a standard (Open XML) - click the link

I love standards - they make life easier. TCP is one, ODF is one, SNA is one, ASCII and EBDIC are. Even PDF is one. It just makes life easier. In this connected world standards are a good thing and sometimes more than one standard is very good. Microsoft has offered the Open XML (Office 2007 document format) as a standard too. We can have it as a standard in a short time frame or a long time frame. I want you to sign the petition to help it happen in the short time frame. Even Novell are supporting this as they see it as just making their customers lives easier. Go here and sign the petition to help move things forward in the short time frame. If you want to see how developers could use the standard have a look at http://openxmldeveloper.org/posts.aspx . You might wonder why I am asking you to do this. Well I've read the text at the microsoft.com site on Open XML and I like the idea of this being a public standard that people can write to without having to pay for the right to do so and the knowledge that...

Published Wed, Apr 4 2007 7:55 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Office System, Support and Tools, Business, Developer, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, Office 2007, Word, Excel, Demo, Small business, Internet and Web, Partner, Licensing, Academic, Application Compatibility, Office 2003, Open XML

View and Search the Windows Vista Registry from the Windows Shell (Explorer) through this Namespace Extensions

I came across this due to someone pointing it out internally - talk about awesome. The Windows Registry Shell Namespace Extension allows Windows Explorer to view and interact with the Windows Registry data via Explorer windows. It demonstrates existing Shell extensibility points like IShellFolder2 and SHCreateShellFolderView and also demonstrates new concepts in Vista including the property system, property schema extensibility, and content indexing via Protocol Handlers. This project is implemented using C++ and ATL. This release includes all of the latest deltas and addresses the installation issues for systems without VS2005. This is a temporary fix until James finishes the WIX setup. Installation notes: - Download/open the zip file. - If you have VS2005 installed, just double-click RegNamespace.msi. - If you don't have VS2005, run Setup.exe. This will install the necessary VC Redistrubutable. Source: Windows Vista Registry Shell Namespace Extensions ttfn David Technorati tags: Vista , Windows Vista , Search...

Published Tue, Mar 27 2007 11:42 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Support and Tools, Developer, Fun, Windows Client, Vista, Tips

Dreamscapes 3D spinning earth background where lighting changes depending on the time of day - for Vista, amazing!

I just have to share some of the pictures my PC created while running Dreamscapes (free from StarDock at http://dream.wincustomize.com/ ) - this one is of the planet Earth spinning, but the view of the earth changes depending on the time of day, so you get to see the light polution if it is night etc. It also works well, as you might expect with Flip 3D: See the tools to produce this and much more at: http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/vista-enhancements-and-utilities-changing-the-screen-savers-adding-extra-search-functionality-to-the-start-menu-objectdock-logon-screen-changer-windows-blinds-and-wim-image-modifier.aspx http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/vista-has-flip-3d-for-changing-applications-well-here-are-some-more-3d-cube-based-virtual-desktop-window-switcher-rotation-based-flip-3d.aspx http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/changing-vista-boot-screens-and-opening-yourself-up-to-rootkits-or-not.aspx

Published Tue, Mar 27 2007 12:06 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Fun, Windows Client, Vista

Vista enhancements and utilities (changing the screen savers, adding extra search functionality to the start menu, Objectdock, logon screen changer, Windows Blinds and WIM Image modifier)

Changing the screen saver settings: http://tweakvista.com/Article39129.aspx (make ribbons fatter, increase the number of them and so on) Start++ - search tools from WDS in Vista: http://brandonlive.com/2007/02/22/new-tool-i-made-for-vista-start/ “clear” aero theme for Winblinds for Vista: http://www.skinbase.org/rate.php?skins=32542 Logon Screen changer (free from StarDock when released, part of Object Dock during beta): See http://www.stardock.com/newsitem.asp?id=942 and skins at http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=65 DreamScenes, Dream Maker and Dynamic Dreams – some free, some charged for, for Ultimate Users: http://dream.wincustomize.com/ and http://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/ - these include triggers in the “dreams” vLite – image tweaking tool: http://www.vlite.net/about.html ttfn David Technorati tags: Vista , Dreamscene , Logon Screen Changer , Dynamic Dreams , vLite

Published Mon, Mar 26 2007 10:10 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Fun, Windows Client, Vista, Tips

Changing Vista boot screens and opening yourself up to rootkits (or not)

I love people who want to customise WIndows Vista and some of my previous posts have covered this, however you can go too far - you can hack the OS. While I understand the desire to "hack" the OS to get customisations, there are better ways. This particular example is where people want to change the boot screen in Vista. The ability to do this will be coming from StarDock soon, but until then people have taken to modifying the existing OS files. THERE IS ALWAYS a change that by downloading someones customised file to your PC and it being loaded so early on in the boot process that it could do nasty things, especially since these files are in now way certified by Microsoft. A classic example of this can be found here when people want to change the boot logo - this could easily be a social engineering attack. The instructions tell someone to remove the access and security permissions from a core system file, overwrite it with one that might make the system look prettier during boot, but who knows what else will...

Published Mon, Mar 26 2007 5:12 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Security, Fun, Windows Client, Vista

Vista has Flip 3D for changing applications, well here are some more (3d cube based virtual desktop, Window Switcher, Rotation based flip 3d

3d cube based virtual desktop: http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.php?en/Download Rotation based Flip 3D: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=529816 Alternative to flip-3d (switcher): http://insentient.net/

Published Mon, Mar 26 2007 10:14 AM by David Overton

Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Fun, Windows Client, Windows XP, Vista, Tips

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...

Published Sat, Mar 24 2007 6:47 PM by David Overton

Filed under: Event

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