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I love the original Microsoft free power toy called SyncToy. It had its limitations, but as a free tool for syncing and comparing data between two sources, it was quite a gem. The latest version, v1.4 has been released and it looks like they have listened to our feedback with some obvious improvements. Go out and give it a try, you wont be sorry!
- The ability to type in a UNC path;
- Support for longer folder pair names and ability to widen the left pane to see those longer names;
- The ability to support the maximum length for folder paths, and documentation was added to the help file about how to set up a share to be able to sync deep folder pairs;
- Better handling of the difference in precision between NTFS and FAT timestamps;
- More discoverable link to the help file for information on how to schedule SyncToy using the Windows XP Task Scheduler;
- Support for 800x600 screen resolution;
- Added a warning for users if the selected action will take some time to complete;
- Added brief explanations of the actions in the user interface;
- Improved behavior when choosing folders to include or exclude when there are large numbers of folders involved;
- Improved support for accessibility modes.
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Chris Pirillo linked to Mike's site and his disclaimer and it is so damn funny I have to do the same!
Batteries not included. Some assembly may be required. WARNING: NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL! Contents may settle during shipment. Drink before date on carton. Use only as directed. You’re soaking in it now. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Use only in well-ventilated area. Keep away from fire or flame. Keep away from children. Viewer discretion advised. May be too intense for some viewers. No bottles, knives, guns, or attitudes. Keep out of direct sunlight. Apply only to affected area. If condition persists, consult your physician. All models over 18 years of age, affidavits on file. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Contestants have been briefed on some questions before the show. List each check separately by bank number. No other warranty expressed or implied. Void where prohibited. Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. For recreational use only. Slippery when wet. Sanitized for your protection. Delivered fresh every day. For off-road use only. Your mileage may vary. Edited for television. Post office will not deliver without proper postage. For office use only. List was current at time of printing. This product is meant for educational purposes only. Penalty for private use. Substantial penalty for early withdrawal. Lost ticket pays maximum rate. Your cancelled check is your receipt. Add toner. Place stamp here. First pull up, then pull down. Avoid contact with skin. Beware of dog. Limited time offer, call now to insure prompt delivery. If you are calling from a touch-tone telephone please press one now. To ensure quality service, this call may be recorded. You must be present to win. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 to win. Employees and their families are not eligible. No passes accepted for this engagement. List at least two alternate dates. I want my MTV. Some equipment shown is optional. No Canadian coins. Not recommended for children. Prerecorded for this time zone. Reproduction strictly prohibited. Not for resale. Keep dog on leash. Please stand behind yellow line. Driver carries less than $20 cash. Driver does not make change. Many suitcases look alike. This is not an offer to sell securities. NO ANCHOVIES UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED. When a problem comes along, you must whip it. Whip it good. The Internet will change the way we live, work, and learn, yada, yada, yada. He who dies with the most toys, wins. I wish I had bought Microsoft a long time ago. Personal goal: to outlive the milk mustache commercials. And rap music. Isn’t everyone bored yet? Please return your tray table to its’ full upright and locked position and remain seated until we have come to a complete stop. We’re all special because we’re all different– just like everyone else. Do not mark in this space. WARNING! Severe tire damage will result! Are your turn signals on? Happy Hour is from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM. Buy one, get one free! We are closed on Wednesdays. Film at eleven. This vehicle not responsible for rocks thrown from tires. Tank you veddy much. No, really.
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I took a spin through the TechNet Virtual labs for Exchange 2007 and I was very impressed! The experience was smooth and very well organized. I even learned a few interesting things. When running through the installation for a new server, one of the steps is to query you for the versions of Outlook you will be running in your environment. All Outlook 2007 or a mix of previous versions of Outlook? I wondered why you are prompted for this information. I had an inkling as Exchange 2003 is able to restrict which clients can and cannot connect to it - but I wasn't sure. This morning I stumbled across Paul Robichaux's blog and a great explanation! I wont go in to it word-for-word, you can read it at Paul's blog.
The older versions of Outlook depend heavily for their experience of Offline Address Books (OAB) and the gathering of Free\Busy data for creating appointments and meeting requests. "Legacy" versions of Exchange server hold this data in a couple of public folders (Schedule+Free\Busy and Offline Address Book). Outlook 2007 does not have this requirement. So if you choose that you do use earlier versions of Outlook, a public folder database is created for the folders. If you choose an all Outlook 2007 environment though, previous versions of Outlook are prevented from making a MAPI connection. The experience is so poor for earlier versions of Outlook without the public folders they depend on, it blocks the connections altogether.
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I stumbled across this excellent utility enhancement in the latest issue of Microsoft's TechNet Magazine in an article by Joshua Hoffman. Robocopy, as I am sure many of you know, is a great utility for copying large amounts of data from one location to another. It is highly customizable and is especially adept at mirroring data from one place to another, including changes. However, the syntax is a beast. Enter a GUI interface that makes creating the proper command line arguments for Robocopy a snap. And once you have it just the way you want it you can save it to run at a later date. You can download it here from the TechNet Magazine website.
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Exchange 2007 has a new feature where it can be installed from a command line. This also allows for easily scripted mass installs for the enterprise, or a way to better standardize builds across many engineers or locations. You can test it out at the TechNet virtual labs mentioned in my previous post.
"To ease deployments in large environments, Exchange Management Shell scripts can be used to automate server installation and provisioning."
>exsetup /roles:clientaccess /mode:install
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I have finally returned from Hong Kong after another not-so-fun fifteen hour flight. At least I had a window seat this time but as bad as I thought Delta was at times, I was being spoiled in comparison to what you get on a United flight. A couple of tiny bags of snacks a tiny little cup of a drink - not even a whole can of soda or mini-bottle of water! They open a big bottle and pour out of it. The screens for the movies during the flight (what else do you have to do - there are no power adapter plugs in coach) were horrible! All kinds of blurs, squiggles and interference. The only thing that went well is we weren't forced to pay five dollars to use our headphones to watch the movies!! Ugh. Please, Delta, open a route to Asia.
Everything went well with the migration. This is about the tenth one I have done overseas and it followed the typical formula:
- No matter how well you prepare there will be a large number of things missed with regards to client machines. Some small and some large. Fortunately, few are show stoppers. I have found due to the sheer numbers involved as well as language and cultural differences you will never uncover all the nits ahead of time.
- Twelve hour days are the norm - if not the minimum. Get in the office by 8am and work until you start making dumb mistakes.
- Go back to the hotel room and then work another 3-4 hours answering emails and doing things from your normal job.
- Start all over the next day.
We laid in the network first and got it squared away so we could then dcpromo the domain controller and allow replication to begin. The next question the PM had for me is how long will replication take? Our estimates came in at 41 hours. How will we know when it is complete? Good question. I had never thought about it but all of my previous dcpromos had been on LANs or pretty beefy WAN links. I never had to worry about if or when replication would complete. I knew how to check the various of aspects of replication with REPLMON but after combing through the event logs I found this little message that basically said "this wont be a domain controller until replication completes. To check to see when it completes, run the net share command and look for the sysvol share."
Once the domain controller was promoted we could begin with the client migrations. We used the great new desktop migration tools available in the Windows Vista AIK. ImageX especially came in handy in imaging the old workstations before laying down the new image. We could then mount the .wim file if needed to extract any data that was missed in the migration such as an obscure .pst file. The new file-based image is so much more convenient in this regard than the bit-based images that other disk imaging programs like Ghost provide.
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Windows Defender is finally out of (what seemed like a perpetual Google-like) beta. You can download the relased version here.
From the website:
Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected and minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive. Now with 2 free support incidents for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
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On Monday I stepped on a plane for a 14+ hour ride in coach (ouch) to Hong Kong to do some Exchange migrations for our Asian offices. Apart from the plane ride from hell (they should hand out drugs to all in coach) the trip has been a pleasure. Never having been to Asia before I was worried as to what to expect. I have traveled to Europe before and have always felt comfortable even if I didn't speak the language as it seemed that I could always figure out what I needed to know for the given situation. Coming to Asia though, the language and culture is so completely foreign I was wondering how I would cope. Riding the subway in Paris for example, even if I didn't know what "Rue de la Mongue" meant, I knew what to look for and listen for. Here, I was worried about having to find the "picture of the upside down house with a cat on top" symbol and don't even ask how I thought I would understand anything spoken.
I have been pleasantly surprised to find almost everything is annotated in English as well as Mandarin\Cantonese Chinese. And I have found almost everyone I have talked to has a basic understanding of English. I have been told this is from the many years as an English colony (I had forgotten all about that). That worry aside I have been able to really enjoy the culture and differences I have experienced.
You hear about the technology and cell phones here all the times. It really is as ubiquitous as they say. On the subway, walking down the street - everywhere - to a person almost is gripping a cell phone and either talking on it (and about 25% of them via a Bluetooth headset) or listening to music from it. Cell phone shops are everywhere with hundreds of phones to choose from. I read in Newsweek a couple of months ago that the average person in China\Hong Kong buys a new cell phone every four months. I wish they understood that concept in the US and didn't penalize you for wanting the latest and greatest phone currently available. I also see tons of iPods and other personal tech gear constantly being used around me. They have also definitely mastered the art of using it too - everyone is talking and swaying but no one person ever bumps in to another. The streets and subways are always jammed packed yet I was the only person bumping in to the travelers and I wasn't even on the phone!
PS For lunch I almost had Pigeon. But we skipped it and chose the Goose instead. Tastes like Chicken!
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I am formally announcing the November meeting for the Southern Ohio Exchange Users Group. Details and directions can be found here at the registration site. While not required, please register so we can properly gauge the right amount of food and drink. Speakers will include Microsoft's Matt Hester and Symantec's James Kelly. Join us for a fun and engaging couple of hours with your fellow Microsoft Exchange enthusiasts!
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Eileen Brown, a Microsoft UK Technical Evangelist Manager, emailed me some comments on my last post. Apparently IE7 wasn't playing nice with the comments engine! Thanks for your persistence Eileen. BTW she has an awesome blog - especially for those with a bent towards Exchange! Below are her comments.
It does much more than that... You can cancel all of your meetings, record a voice mail attachment and send that out too. You can get a reading of your email and calendar items too. From whatever phone you use, wherever you are. And if the sound quality isn't good, and the UM assistant doesn't understand, you can always switch to dial tome commands. I recorded some blogcasts so you can see this working. The sound quality is terrible so I haven't blogged about them (until I've recorded them again!). the URL's are here though if you want to watch it in action...
http://www.msblogcasts.com/eileenb/Exchange UM demo blogcast 1.wmv
http://www.msblogcasts.com/eileenb/Exchange UM Demo Blogcast 2.wmv
http://www.msblogcasts.com/eileenb/Exchange UM Demo blogcast 3.wmv
Rough and ready but you get the idea... I will be re-recording these as soon as I get some free time!
Regards, Eileen
http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown
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Now this rocks! I am in an organization for the first time in a long while that does not routinely give mobile devices (Blackberries or Windows Mobile) out to all IT staff members (or even us important ones). I have had to get used to not having access to my calendar and upcoming appointments when away from my desk or laptop (on the upside I am not a slave to the crackberry). Being that my memory is terrible (just ask my wife) I was close to resorting to printing out my calendar each day and carrying it in my back pocket ... but now once we install Exchange 2007, with just a cell phone (yeah we get those) my calendar is accessible and much more! Read an excerpt from an overview found here at the Exchange TechNet portal.
At any time during the reading of the message, use the voice commands or the telephone keypad to instruct Unified Messaging. Some of the actions you can take while listening to your e-mail messages are: move to the next message, delete the message, delete the conversation, reply to all, rewind, fast forward, or pause. If you need to reply to a message, you can record a .wma file and attach it to your message reply.
If you are on your way to a meeting and realize you are going to be late, you can call Unified Messaging and access your calendar. When Unified Messaging plays your upcoming meeting, say "I'll be late" and then tell Unified Messaging how late you will be. Unified Messaging will send a message to all attendees informing them you will be late.
Totally wicked!
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Brian, who runs the excellent Blogcast Repository, recently shared with me how he could not use a host computer's wireless NIC with a guest OS when running Virtual PC when Windows Vista is the host OS. I even tried it on my laptop and sure enough, no luck. It just doesn't appear as an option under settings > network. After doing some digging in the readme that came with Virtual PC 2007 I stumbled upon: Virtual PC fails to open the network services driver after an upgrade of Windows Vista. It didn't seem to fit the bill precisely as both Brian and I had used clean installs for Vista RC2. But, I gave it a shot and followed the steps. Sure enough, my wireless NIC was missing the "Virtual Machine Network Services Driver." Follow the steps below to re-install it. in step four, the network services driver wasn't an option so I had to dig it out of the default location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv and pick VMNetSrv. Once completed, open the properties for the wireless NIC and make sure the NSD is selected.
Steps:
Virtual PC fails to open the network services driver after an upgrade of Windows Vista
This occurs because Windows Vista modifies the bindings on the network adapter when you perform an upgrade.
To reinstall the network services driver:
1. From Control Panel, under click Network and Internet, click Set up file sharing, and then click Manage network connections.
2. Right-click the network adapter and then click Properties.
3. Click Install.
4. Click Service and then click Add.
5. Select Virtual Machine Network Services driver from the list and click OK.
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Grab it here while you can! Read more about it here.
Features include:
- Support for hardware virtualization (Intel and AMD)
- Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system
- Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system
- Note: No support for Aero Glass though - just Aero Basic
- Support for 64-bit host operating systems
- Note: Virtual machines are 32-bit only
- Improved performance
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Everyone out there that has been using and beta testing both Windows Live One Care and Windows Vista rejoice! One Care is now Vista (build 5500 or later, RC1 recommended) compatible. Version 1.5 has all the goods and the details can be found here.
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Windows Vista RC2 (build 5744-16384) has been released to Technical Beta testers.
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I live in the Midwest and sometimes the storms can get pretty nasty. Not tornado nasty, but days of raining nasty. Flooding nasty. Basements full of water nasty. Knock on wood I have never had to deal with the downside of this after living in Ohio for fifteen years.
The company I work for has an on-call arrangement for the infrastructure engineers where we take turns being on-call 24/7 for a week once each quarter. Its a good arrangement. Two days ago severe rain and thunderstorms passed through our area overnight. And when it rains - for some reason - I sleep like a baby. The worse the storm, the better I sleep. It was in the middle of this blissful sleep that I was awoken by a page from the support desk at 2:40am. Grumbling at my luck I went downstairs to my computer so I could acknowledge the page. As I went to my home office, I passed by the door to the basement. It seemed odd that I could not hear the sump pump making its traditional on\off\on\off noise during a storm this bad. As I listened closer, it sounded like someone in my basement was filling up a bathtub. Odd, since I don't have a bathtub . . .
As I opened the door to see what was going on, I was greeted by the sight of, what looked like, some phantom firehose on full blast pouring water in to my basement! Upon closer inspection - once the horror and shock came off my face - found that the coupling ring had come loose on the large PVC pipe that runs the water up and out from the sump pump to the drainage sewer outside. This effectively meant that my sump pump was pumping all of the storm water out in to my basement. I quickly slammed the two halves of pipe back together and thought all was well. About sixty seconds later as I was inspecting the damage I heard a loud pop and they separated again and continued to pour out water.
Obviously this pipe was going to need some help so in a panic I re-connected it and raced up stairs for some handy all-purpose duct tape! After half a roll had been generously applied, all seemed well. The storm had also started to die down and the sump pump seemed to be able to start making some progress in lowering the amount of water under the foundation. As I started to clean up all the standing water with the ShopVac, I thanked God I had gotten that page! I can only think of the amount of water damage the basement would have sustained had I not gone down stairs until 6:00am.
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Microsoft's podcast page. Find links and RSS feeds for mp3 and wma versions of all podcasts as well as feeds for product specific podcasts like SQL, Exchange, Vista, Active Directory and Scripting.
Link to Podcasts: Download Audio of Webcasts and Hear Them on the Go
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Kevin Remde, Microsoft TechNet Presenter and uber blogger presents Q&A with the Microsoft Exchange 2007 team members. Earlier this year at TechReady he cornered the team and talked about deployment, unified messaging and disaster recovery. Introduction by the sultry-voiced Aurora Queen.
tags: Exchange, Exchange2007, Kevin+Remde, unified+messaging, disaster+recovery, Aurora+Queen, TechNet
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The Infrastructure Architecture blog at the Microsoft sponsored SkyScrapr website has finally put up another post (<rant> the first since 6/9/06 - what is it with Microsoft blogs? One post per 90 days ... I thought the Tablet PC blog was on a roll and then nothing ... </rant>) this time highlighting a tool called the Windows Server System Reference Architecture. A prescriptive guide to knitting together all the bits and bobs that make up the plumbing of an infrastructure. The cool part being that it was all vetted out in a lab environment - not just tossed around by a bunch of engineers with nothing better to do. Read on!
- Microsoft Server System Reference Architecture homepage
Overview
Windows Server System Reference Architecture is a technology architecture that has been rigorously tested and proven in a partnered lab environment to provide exceptional planning and implementation guidance that addresses fundamental infrastructure issues such as availability, security, scalability, and manageability of the platform.
WSSRA consists of the following downloadable packages:
- Overview Documents
- Architecture Blueprints
- Implementation Guides
- Deployment Toolkit
The Overview Documents provide the supporting information that will aid the understanding of the documentation set and ensure its most effective use within IT infrastructure. The documents included in this download package are as follows: - Getting Started
- Introduction
- Lab Implementation
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I am honored to say that my mug has found its way to the front of the the Microsoft MCP* homepage for a little while. I was profiled in the latest MCP Flash newsletter as part of a series that started at this year's TechEd in Boston when they gathered a bunch of us MCP's up and took our pictures, asked us some questions and decided to profile us on the site.
*Microsoft Certified Professional
tags: MCP, Microsoft+Certified+Professional, TechEd