Entries for keithcombs

Complimentary Office Pro 2007 for MSDN event attendees [Complimentary Office Pro 2007 for MSDN event attendees]

keithcombs — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:04:48 GMT

Want a copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 ??? How about Groove 2007 ?

Well, if you are in the US and are a developer, then check out http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/01/05/how-would-you-like-a-complimentary-copy-of-office-2007-professional.aspx.

It's pretty simple. Attend a MSDN event in Q3 (Jan - March), learn kewl stuff and get a complimentary key. That key lets you download a real non time bombed copy of Office Pro 2007 along with Groove 2007.

As with all of our events, seats and stuff are limited so register quick.

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Windows Vista Complete PC Backup and Recovery [Windows Vista Complete PC Backup and Recovery]

keithcombs — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 06:38:06 GMT

Surely by now you've heard of Windows Vista Complete PC backup and recovery. No? Well, if you've ever managed to lose a hard drive, then you know how much fun it is to reinstall operating systems and applications. Not to mention potentially losing ALL of your pictures, music, documents, and other business and personal data.

Just yesterday, one of the managers in my group had the hard drive go belly up on her tablet pc. If she was running Windows Vista, and if she had performed a Complete PC backup, she could have recovered from that catastrophic event in roughly 30-60 minutes (I guessing based on the average amount of data most people have). This is only one isolated instance of bad stuff that can happen. If you don't think it can happen to you, think again.

Many of you have likely used some form of backup and recovery. If not, you are in for a surprise the first time you boot Windows Vista. We'll politely ask you to create a backup. I would heed that advice and do it. Right then. After you've installed your favorite applications and copied personal data, do another backup. Right then. In fact, use Complete PC to do the backup to DVD and you'll now have a personal image of your shiney new Windows Vista installation complete with your personal touch.

So how does Complete PC work?

If you look closely, you'll see Complete PC borrows some ideas from the virtual machine world. We do a physical to virtual state and data capture then write the results to the backup target media or drive in the form of a virtual hard drive. Huh? Yes, we write a bunch of information directly into a virtual hard disk file. It has the .vhd extension and everything.

Can I mount the .vhd with Virtual PC or Virtual Server?

I'm told you can. I haven't tried it yet but may mess around with it a bit this weekend or next week. I owe the Complete PC feature team some testing results so I can add this to the stuff I have planned. Why would we allow this? The only reason I can think of is to allow access to the data through another tool in case you manage to delete par of the backup set, but don't delete the .vhd file. For instance, if you look in the directory that is created by the backup, you'll see a number of catalogs and XML files. What if you manage to screw one of those up so Complete PC can't restore? Well, as a last measure you could mount the .vhd in a VM and gain access. You cannot boot the .vhd with our virtual machine products.

So checkout the screencast demo below and see what you think. If you are used to other imaging products, you'll be very happy with the simplicity of Windows Vista Complete PC. For more information on this and some of the other backup technologies, see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/backup.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/experiences/backup.mspx.

Errata

I was just listening to the recorded media file and noticed the following silly things I said, and one thing that was technically not possible:

I said at the end of the backup that it was the end of a webcast. Silly me.
I said the .vhd file was 5.8 meg instead of 5.8 gig. Dork.
I said during the beginning of the restore discussion that hopefully you'll have the Windows Vista Recovery Environment (RE) on a partition so that you can run Complete PC. Uh, hello? If you lose the drive, you lose the RE partition. This is where the Windows Vista DVD comes in handy.

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Who has one of these on order? [Who has one of these on order?]

keithcombs — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:41:10 GMT

[6]

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Windows Vista Imaging screencast [Windows Vista Imaging screencast]

keithcombs — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:36:23 GMT

Are you up to speed on the new imaging alphabet? ImageX, BDD, WIM, WSIM, WinPE and various other glorious acronyms are discussed in the screencast below. In the meantime, let me set the stage for the some of the desktop imaging problems today, and the solutions Microsoft is delivering with the next generation operating system, Windows Vista. Those technologies are being bundled into the Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 toolset.

The Problem

Ok, show of hands for those of you that have created a corporate desktop and rolled it out. For all of you with your hand in the air, keep it up if it changed almost as soon as you deployed it. In fact, I'd be willing to bet, the requirements for that desktop changed before you completed the rollout. You can put your hand down.

Every time the requirements change, a good desktop developer and integrator probably starts another version from the old desktop, or builds from scratch. Many of you use the popular imaging tools on the market and they are life savers in terms of their ability to take a snapshot and blow those images down to a hard drive or do desktop replacement. Thank god for multi casting, PXE and Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).

The problem is, every time you get a new driver, security patch, or requirement, you end up creating another version of that desktop and the number of images you maintain piles up. Maintenance equals expense and studies have shown that the expense is considerable. Enter from stage left, WIM.

Windows Imaging (WIM)

The Windows Imaging (WIM) format is new for Windows Vista. It is the basis from which many of the tools are derived and is unique in many respects. The WIM format is documented and used through the WIMGAPI SDK. Documentation for the WIMGAPI is included with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). In other words, if you don't like our tools you can certainly make your own, and if history is any indication, there will be a healthy market for those tools when Windows Vista ships.

A WIM file is the store for the packages and components that are installed and make up Windows Vista. The packages and components can also be non-Microsoft products. This component specification is defined in the Component Platform Interface (CPI) reference. This reference and guide is also included with BDD 2007 and WAIK. Look closely at the CPI specifications, research, and test package management. It's an important new set of services. I don't demo the package management tools in this screencast, but I plan to cover it at a later date when I cover package creation, security patch updates and driver injection.

ImageX

ImageX is one of those tools that uses the API to do a variety of chores with one or more .wim files. In the screencast, you'll see me use imagex to dump the content of a wim, mount a wim to a directory, export a particular image from a multi image wim into a new wim and other fun stuff. As with all tools, the best way to learn this stuff is to experiment. In my screencast, we use the install.wim from build 5520 which contains seven of the Windows Vista products SKUs.

Imagex is also a core tool used to capture or take a snapshot of a hard drive after customization and sysprep. A few of the imagex functions can only be used from WinPE and /capture is one of those.

Windows System Image Manager (WSIM)

The Windows System Image Manager is the tool of choice for creating custom Windows Vista deployments and having an answer file implement your changes. In the screencast, you'll see me open a .wim file, in this case the install.wim, create a new catalog of the packages and components, then start customizing those components. WSIM will also validate those choices to make sure you have the correct expected parms and data for it to work with. Once again, WSIM is using the underlying package management and storage capabilities in the new image technologies.

Business DeskTop Deployment (BDD) 2007

The BDD toolset brings all of the technology together into a single integrated environment. For corporate desktop deployment, it is the supported methods and tools. The emphasis for BDD 2007 is Windows Vista and Office 2007. Surprise! Please go signup for the BDD 2007 download at connect.microsoft.com. You'll see the tools from June right now but we are getting ready to bring the toolset up-to-date with the RC1 codebase.

The Solution

Hopefully after you've read this and watched the screencast, you'll download and explore the BDD 2007 toolset. You'll see we're serious about improving the underlying technologies and tools needed to create and maintain corporate images. With the patch management technologies coming with Windows Vista, keeping those images secure and up-to-date will be far easier than in the past. The end result should be less time and expense associated with creating and maintaining those images.

Screencast Demo

You can watch my http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416.

Oh, and if you want to go see an expanded version of the demos complete with slides, see the webcast I delivered on this subject a couple of weeks ago. Go to http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032301598.

"See you" again soon.

Additional Deployment References

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/deploy/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/deploy/winpe.mspx

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Windows Vista Performance and Reliability Tools screencast [Windows Vista Performance and Reliability Tools screencast]

keithcombs — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:34:47 GMT

If you haven't had a chance to look at Windows Vista and it's instrumentation, eventing and monitoring toolset's, you really should grab a copy when the "release candidate" code becomes available. You'll be pleased with the improvements we've made to the amount of information that is available, and the tools that let you monitor, analyze, and act on that information.

In this screencast, we're going to take a brief drive into the tools that are installed locally on a Windows Vista implementation. Make sure to checkout some of our webcasts on Systems Management Server (SMS), Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and other enterprise tools to understand how the Windows Vista plumbing can be centrally managed and monitored.

If you visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/relperf/default.mspx, you'll see a number of good documents describing the built-in diagnostics for things like resource exhaustion, failing memory or hard drives, and even the failing human. What? Yes, you heard me correctly. We'll tell you when you fail to backup your system. I really like that feature. Ninety percent of the people I know never backup their machines. Hopefully that will begin to change with the new backup nanny.

So how do you tell what's going on in the machine?

Easy. Go look at my screencast and then start checking out your system. The Reliability Monitor generates it's report every day. When you first install Windows Vista, you aren't going to see anything until the following day (on the reliability report). And don't worry if you go check the next day and the report still isn't there. It'll do it's thing, so please be patient. Check your email, pay the bills, buy some stuff, chat with your honey, etc. Come back in a little while and you'll see the first report. Maybe if you are lucky, you'll have a perfect 10.

Where else can I get information on Windows Vista reliability and performance?

The link above has some good information, but please read http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/relperf/suppcost.mspx. It's really good. The Performance Tuning Step-by-Step Guide is ok but looks to be in need of an update. All of the guides and tuning advice are being updated. In the meantime I think you'll have some fun exploring some of this on your own, especially when you get a chance to see the next public release.

Screencast Demo

You can watch my http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416. "See you" again soon.

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Windows Vista Aero Glass and Usability screencast [Windows Vista Aero Glass and Usability screencast]

keithcombs — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:27:27 GMT

Surely by now you've heard of Windows Vista Aero Glass. It's the sexy new transparency stuff you see in the operating system. It's very noticeable in a variety of the core applications. However, transparency isn't the only user interface improvement you see in Windows Vista.

Of course the most visible change initially is the icon for the start menu, affectionately called the "Pearl". If someone sees an oyster coughing up Vista Pearls, please call me. The Start menu is now faster, more streamlined, and is more helpful than in previous versions of Windows. The Start menu features integrated desktop search through a new feature called Instant Search which can help you find and launch almost anything on your PC. Eliminating the cascading "All Programs" view, the new start menu can help you get something started more quickly than ever. You'll also notice some glass effects on the Start menu.

So why does glass matter?

This windows in your house or building allow you to see what is going on around you. For those of you that get claustrophobia, I'm sure those windows help you get through the day. I am not making fun of that at all, just making a point about the importance they play in giving us another dimension to our world.

In the case of Windows Vista, it gives us a better view of the activity in our system. Seeing outside the box has a number of benefits. When we demo Aero Glass, it's all too common to see a video or some other animation indicating activity. In my day-to-day activities, glass lets me see progress bars more quickly. Downloads or installation status can be seen at-a-glance through glass transparency or via the Aero thumbnails on the taskbar. If you looked at my Flip3D screencast, you saw a demo of that.

Sparkle

Another really subtle usability enhancement is the highlighting that takes place around the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons for all applications. This gives the user a better sense of interactivity with the application and system. I just think it's a kewl feature. I wondered about this feature from an accessibility point of view. Does it help? I don't know.

Fatter Frames

What I do know is that there are new fatter frames around the application window. They don't seem that phat because the glass transparency makes them seem lean and mean. I personally like the new thicker frame for re-sizing purposes. Easy to grab!

Taskimation

After you get past the sexy stuff, start looking at the context sensitivity of the new Windows Explorer shell. As you move in and out of the different folders for pictures, music, documents and other stuff you'll see different tasks show on the task bar just below the address bar. Is that cool or what? I'm sure a few years ago we would have come up with an Intelli name for the feature. Intellitask. Intellidoodaad. Glad we seem to have dropped the Intellieverything.

I would talk about search more, but I'm going to save that information for a post coming up.

Screencast Demo

So pretty picture clips are good and all, but how about a nice streaming video on the subject? You got it. You can watch my http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416. "See you" again soon.

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Windows Vista Instant Search screencast [Windows Vista Instant Search screencast]

keithcombs — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:24:08 GMT

I'm guessing most of you think finding stuff is pretty important. The Windows Vista development team also thinks search should be an easy to use core operating system feature. The search feature set in Windows Vista is really multiple parts. We like to call this set of features Windows Vista Instant Search.

The Indexing Service

As with most search technologies, you have an indexing service that is responsible for indexing the data. Duh. You might think it's easy to write such a service. Think again. The trick is to write such a service so that it doesn't suck all of the performance out of your machine. I mean after all, you've got to pay the bills so you'll need some performance to run those mission critical applications like Live Messenger.

So how do we do it? Well, take a close look at the process list in task manager or the other performance monitors in Windows Vista. You'll see the search service is assigned as a low priority task meaning it's not supposed to consume so much performance and I/O that you feel it doing it's job.

A nice test is to add a .txt document to your desktop and add a unique word to the body. Save the document and search for the word from the Start | Search area. You'll see it's already indexed the document. Pretty cool eh?

The Search User Interface

I never have been a big fan of the term "user interface". It sounds a lot like "in your face". That's actually the point. When building search into the operating system, you don't want it to be intrusive. You don't want the indexing service dogging the system, and you don't want big ugly in-your-face UI to have to do a search.

Thankfully, the Windows team did a really nice job of adding searchability to Windows Vista. The first place you'll notice it is on the Start menu area. Just click the Windows Vista Start pearl or hit the windows key on most modern keyboards. Up pops the Start menu area with search at the bottom.

Or, while you are using the Windows Explorer tool, you'll see the Instant Search input field in the top right most portion of the explorer shell.

Search Results and Tagging

If you've been a good doggie and added properties to your documents as you saved them, you'll find those properties are now really useful. The search interfaces in Windows Vista allow you to search using advanced criteria and filtering. Tagging is a kewl way to categorize incoming information for later filtering and searching.

Think very strategically about the information you are saving NOW. As you'll see in my demos, adding the extra information to your documents, spreadsheets, slide decks, pictures, music, etc. will be highly leveraged with Windows Vista Instant Search. The following screencast is a quick look at the integral shell enhancements.

If you want the under-the-covers information on desktop search technologies from Microsoft, be sure to add a bookmark for my team's resident subject matter expert, Matt Hester. You'll find he has a search category on the subject and a recent TechNet Magazine article as well. He promised to add some more articles on Windows Vista Instant Search soon, along with some other "stuff".

Screencast Demo

You can watch my http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416. "See you" again soon.

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Windows Vista Flip and Flip3D [Windows Vista Flip and Flip3D]

keithcombs — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:55:31 GMT

This month my team kicked off a series of free live seminars. We are doing a Windows Vista Technical Overview in the first couple of hours, and Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 in the second couple of hours. So far, the Windows Vista interest has been huge. In the next few days, I'll be recording all of the Windows Vista demos (as promised). To kick things off, lets talk about some of the sexy stuff.

I'm sure by now, you've seen some demo of Windows Vista. Most of the webcasts we do are using Virtual Machines (VM). VMs are great for testing and demonstrating software, but they lack the graphics card horsepower needed for Windows Vista and Aero Glass. No fear, I'm going to show you in the screencast below, exactly what all of the fuss is about. To do the demonstration, I'll use Camtasia to capture the screen.

Background Information and References

Before we get to the Flip3D screencast, lets look at some other information on the subject. First of all, you should really invest at least 15 minutes watching the video at Kam Vedbrat being interviewed by Robert Scoble. Kam does a good job of giving you some of the background and design points about Windows Vista, Aero Glass and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) services. Don't worry, the video is a high level discussion so I don't think anyone will get lost. You'll notice this video was shot back in September long before Beta 2. My screencast demo below was captured using a build for this week so you'll see some subtle changes.

Next, head over to microsoft.com and read up on Aero. It's a light weight article but useful for reference purposes. If you want to go slightly deeper, see the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) article. Most of the information in that article is useful for learning a little more about the requirements and mechanics.

Screencast Demo

My here in Windows Media Video (WMV) format and will stream from our server.

It is also published on my blog at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/08/15/447045.aspx. At the bottom of that post, you'll see "attachment". It's actually a RSS <enclosure> for the WMV file so that if you have a video podcast player with WMV enclosure support, you can download the demo and view it offline. Maybe Zune will do that. If you are truly lazy like me, you can just right mouse click the attachment below and save it local for later viewing.

The capture and conversion process is still imperfect. When you watch the video, please don't judge Windows Vista performance based on what you see in the screencast. The conversion drops frames and the full fidelity of the true user experience. I do think you'll get a pretty good idea of the feature though.

Summary

So what do you think about Aero Glass and Flip3D? Hopefully you found the Windows Vista Flip3D information above useful. As you can see, finding and "flipping" to an application is now very easy in Windows Vista.

I plan to record all of the demos we're doing at the live events. They are hardly a comprehensive look at the OS but hey, it's a Technical Overview so we're just sticking our toe in the water. All of my screencasts can be seen easily in this blogs screencast category. Subscribe to my screencast RSS feed at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416. "See you" again soon. [H]

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Who has the biggest ripped cd and dvd collection here? [Who has the biggest ripped cd and dvd collection here?]

keithcombs — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 06:46:26 GMT

I was wondering who has bragging rights here. I was actually wondering how the hell you store all of your stuff.

I just wrote an article and screencast about iSCSI but I wondered if any of you have built a SAN to store your collection.

Anyone want to offer what you are using? I'm probably going to build a bad box soon for HDTV recording so I'm looking to get some ideas on the cabinet, back plains, array controllers, GigE nics, etc.

Thanks,

Keith

fyi, the post is at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/03/26/423149.aspx

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How about a SAN for your music collection? [How about a SAN for your music collection?]

keithcombs — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 06:36:33 GMT

Microsoft has made some recent bets on storage management. That is good news for me for a variety of reasons. First, it offers a glimpse of my HDTV future. What? Yes, you read that correctly. I’ll get to the explanation in a little bit. Second, it means our customers will have a broader range of storage support in Microsoft products.

One of the recent acquisitions we made was from String Bean Software. We acquired their WinTarget iSCSI Target software. I don’t know all of the details of the contract so I can’t cite the terms. The acquisition brings some fascinating technology to the Windows platform. With any luck, we’ll see the iSCSI Target code show up in all of the Microsoft server products. I have my fingers crossed for a home server so I can record HDTV until the cows come home.

See http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/03/26/423149.aspx for a detailed explanation of the new Microsoft storage technologies.

There are two screencast demos that go with the above blog posting.

See mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/inetpub/keithcombs/iSCSI.wmv for the detailed iSCSI and iSNS demo.

Keep in mind iSCSI is in Windows Vista and opens the door for some interesting MCE and home SAN solutions. :P

I have also linked the iSCSI demo to this post.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Keith

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Get yer Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides [Get yer Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides]

keithcombs — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 07:27:12 GMT

I know you guys don't read no freaking manuals, but just in case yer chick left town with your money, and you have nothing else to do... :P

I posted all of the links to the guides at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/02/25/420540.aspx

Enjoy :|

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SQL Server Data Encryption [SQL Server Data Encryption]

keithcombs — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 03:16:10 GMT

SQL Server 2005 includes some new encryption capabilities that all administrators, programmers and database analyst should be aware of. Key and Certificate creation and management is now an integral part of SQL Server 2005. You have the flexibility to create your own X.509 certificates, use Windows Server 2003 CA issued certs, or use other certs purchased from a trusted certificate authority.

There are a number of levels in the key hierarchy, but you’ll spend most of your time with database level certs and symmetric keys. See the SQL Server 2005 Encryption Hierarchy article for a detailed description of certificates, asymmetrical and symmetrical keys. You’ll also notice at the bottom of that article is a link to the SQL Server 2005 Permissions Hierarchy. I would recommend reading and digesting both. It’s a short read and will be a good use of your time as we review the following scripts and demos.

Watching the Demos

My team is now disseminating information using a variety of publishing techniques. See the following scripts http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2005/11/24/415079.aspx

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SQL Server 2005 Trip Wires [SQL Server 2005 Trip Wires]

keithcombs — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 22:07:40 GMT

A number of changes and improvements have been made to SQL Server 2005. Did I really need to state that? One of the big improvements is in the management and security area. The SQL Management Object (SMO) infrastructure replaces much of what used to be accomplished using SQL-DMO. SMO is tightly integrated with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This linkage is so tight, new capabilities now exist to take advantage of the eventing taking place.

One way to take advantage of this instrumentation is to use Data Definition Language (DDL) or Data Manipulation Language (DML) via T-SQL. Last week, Kai Axford delivered a webcast on SQL Security as part of the “A More Secure and Well-Managed Infrastructure” series. In his webcast (Part 11), he did some DDL and DML demos. A number of people wanted me to post the scripts, so look at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2005/11/21/414908.aspx
for those scripts.

My team is also delivering live seminars as part of the “Best Of SQL Server 2005 Launch.” One of those demos is DDL. It’s a pretty simple demo, but to understand the power, you really need to look as the available events and build some automation around them. The SQL Server 2005 books are now online. If you look at the DDL_EVENTS hierarchy, you’ll notice we have database and server levels events we can trap. Once we trap an event, we can setup a tripwire to take the appropriate “corrective” action. [6]

In our demo, we use DDL_DATABASE_LEVEL_EVENTS to see what is occuring on the virtual machine demo environment. Our script will detect unapproved actions and roll them back while logging the time, date, user ids and stuff to an audit table. Our script will also post a nice little message indicating to the user that action was prohibited. In reality, you might take advantage of other automation like sending a page to a pager/cellphone, sending an email message to the DBA’s or security professionals, etc. The automation is only limited by your imagination and programming skills.

For more information, head over to my blog at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/default.aspx

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