technical solutions and commentary

The 6 offical versions of Windows Vista

Business Cusotmers:
Windows Vista Business
Window Vista Enterprise

Consumers:
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Starter (for emerging world markets)

More information at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/versions/default.mspx

I discovered HP has a support matrix for Windows support on the Proliant Server line. If you are planning a Small Business Server (SBS) server deployment/migration, note that the DL (an BL) server line DOES NOT support SBS.

If you are going to deploy SBS on HP Proliant Server the only options in the support matrix are using the ML line of server. The only gotcha with the ML line is the ML530 is also DOES NOT support with SBS.

Review the support matrix before quoting or purchasing a Proliant Server here. 

I discovered HP has a support matrix for Windows support on the Proliant Server line. If you are planning a Small Business Server (SBS) server deployment/migration, note that the DL (an BL) server line DOES NOT support SBS.

If you are going to deploy SBS on HP Proliant Server the only options in the support matrix are using the ML line of server. The only gotcha with the ML line is the ML530 is also DOES NOT support with SBS.

Review the support matrix before quoting or purchasing a Proliant Server here. 

I just completed the configuration of IIFP to synchronizae Exchange GAL’s between two Exchange Organizations in two different forests. There where several guides that where handy in walking throuh the setup. One I can no longer find on the Microsoft.com web site, so I posted the document for download on this web site. The guide is entitled “IIFP_2003_GAL_synchronization_Step_By_Step”. Another guide is based upon the full MIIS product but has a walkthrough that works for the IIFP is entitled “MIIS 2003 Walkthrough: Implementing Global Address List Synchronization”, it can be downloaded as part of the Identity Integration Server 2003 Scenarios here. For the GAL synch setup see pages 15-29 for the step by step.

In order to automate the synchronization of the GAL on a schedule you have to create some simple scripts to perform the sync steps and then schedule the script execution using Task Scheduler. There is no built in funtion in IIFP to schedule and automated sync. You can find instructions on how to configure this, on the Windows Server Clustering & PCNews blog. The article for configuring the sync is here. The instructions for configuring the automated sync are toward the bottm of the original post.

Comic Strips posted on channel9.msdn.com (Microsoft Developer Network) are hilarious (and work safe of course)

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=104073  http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=118323  http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=162360 

http://www.w3bdevil.com/c9park/   

Microsoft Excel may have a problem where you select one cell and then you can not unselect the cell or use the menu options. After you select a cell and move your mouse, all the cells you dra the pointer over become highlighted. It almost appears as though it has something to do with the sticky keys feature in windows.

I know of a couple of different instances where this navigation problem occured. Microsoft has some troubleshooting steps to resolve this behavior (KB307812), but all we have found to work is: 1. uninstalling the mouse driver. 2. rebooting the workstation and having it redetect and reinstall the mouse driver.

I recently listened to the podcast “Inside the Net” in which they interviewed the Alex Bard of Goowy.com (pronounced goo-e). Goowy is a web based and client based “desktop” that provides webmail, contacts, calendaring, RSS feeds, on-screen widgets, and games using flash. What’s cool about goowy is that you have the ability to retrive external POP e-mail (inclusing gmail) through the web desktop. It’s easy to customize the dektop layout although it could be a bit confusing for a non-technical person.
Oh yeah, registration is required to use goowy. There is no preview version or basic version that can remember you using cookies.

Goowy.com reminded me a lot of what ProtoPage.com has been doing but to the third degree. ProtoPage gives you the option to register, which you have to if you want to really be able to customize your settings. Protopage also does not have any games which will probably be a big draw to the younger audience. While protopage still feels like a “prototype”, which would make sense given the name, goowy is more of a fun service in which to play. Unfortunately, if more than basic services are not included with these types of web sites, much more than what hotmail, gmail, yahoo mail already offer, I can’t see them really evolving into a serious business or consumer service.

My take is gowwy and protopage is fun to play with, but I’ll stick to yahoo mail for online based calendaring, mail, contacts and RSS services.

I recently had the opportunity to install the beta of ISA Server 2006. The interface of the 2006 version is very similar to the 2004 version. After the product is installed, the administration console provides te list of configuration tasks that need to be completed by the administrator. If you are familiar with installation and administering ISA Server 2004, there should be much of a learning curve when you move to the 2006 version.

I have created a screencast of the installation process of ISA 2006 which you can download if you are interested.

Microsoft released Windows Defender Beta 2 yesterday for free download. The entire application has been rewritten and nothing like the Windows Antispyware Beta 1 product. Windows Defender now runs as a service on the machine instead of running as an application in the system tray. This means you don’t need to have admin or igher level provledges to run the application, and it now runs without having to be logged onto the machine. This great for terminal servers where the service can watch for spyware and exploits.

The interface has been completly redesigned as simplified. The interface has a similar feel to the windows OneCare applicaiton which Defender will be integrated with in the near future. The toolbar uses many of the icons that are being incorporated in IE 7.

A couple of minor draw backs are if you are running Windows XP you have to have SP2 installed, if you want to install it on a Windows 2003 server you need to ave SP1 installed. It runs on Windows 2000 SP4 too. This version supports the 64-bit platforms which Antispayware beta 1 did not.

Overall this new version is much improved and I give it my full recommendation as an Antispayware solution in your collection. You can read an in-depth review at WinSuperSite, and can download the beta from Microsoft’s web site.

I also created a screencast of the simple installation process which you can download if you would like.

I have been recently asked how to upgrade MetaFrame Presentation Server from the XPa (advanced) to the XPe (enterprise) product. This is an extremely simple process with MetaFrame XPa since it already has the Load Manager components installed.

Make sure you have you new license keys from Citrix. You should have a server and user connection upgrade license pack for XPa to XPe. In addition you probably have user connection packs for XPe.

Go to the Licnese Manager in the Citrix Managment Console. First, add the “Server and Connection” upgrade pack and activate them. Since Citrix has provides unlimited servers in a farm ( they charge based upon concurrent user connections) this needs to be done first in order to enable the XPe functionality across all servers in the farm. Second, add and activate the user connection pack licenses for XPe. Third, install the optional XP Enterprise components onto servers in your server farm. That’s it.

If you are still running MetaFrame XP, consider pilot testing a Presentation Server 4.0 or 3.0 server or farm if you are able to. The new features are very powerful. Also, Citrix support for MetaFrame XP ends in December 2006.