technical solutions and commentary

When moving users over to Standard Users from Local Administrators on a Windows machine, there are some restrictions that come into on sharing resources.

In order to allow a standard user to share a resource on a Vista PC, a local administrator needs to share the first resources. The standard user can then share resources for which they own or have access permissions to. If you need the ability for users to share local PC resources, during the setup of a new PC, the Desktop Technician should share the hard drive out as a hidden share (such as “c$”) and lock the permissions down to who needs access to it. This should allow any standard users to then share out what they need to.

On a domain or company environment enable “Standard File Sharing” and not Public File Sharing for better security.

For more details on how to manage resource sharing in Vista, purchase a copy of “Windows Vista Administrator’s Pocket Consultant” and read over chapter 10.

If you are interested in evaluation Windows Vista Enterprise you can download a virtual machine of a 30 day evaluation. Use Microsoft Virtual PC to run the Virtual machine.

• Download the Vista Enterprise VHD here.
• Download Virtual PC here.

Microsoft released Windows XP SP3 to manufacturing on April 21, 2008. On Thursday, April 23 SP3 was made available for download to MSDN subscribers. This is the last Service Pack that will be released for Windows XP and contains the security fixes and NAP (Network Access Protection) Client that works with Windows Server 2008 in verifying the PC, before its allows to access resources on the network, meets the minimum security requirements set by the IT administrators.

If you are a MSDN subscriber, you can download SP3 now. You can also get more information on SP3 through the TechNet Forum for SP3.

Get the visual, interactive reference guides to help your users find their favorite Microsoft Office 2003 commands in the new 2007 interface. Free downloads.

• Outlook 2007 Guide: Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 interactive command reference guide
• Word 2007 Guide: Word 2003 to Word 2007 interactive command reference guide
• Excel 2007 Guide: Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 interactive command reference guide

There has a been a lot of interest in the upcoming RTM of Windows Hypervisor or Hyper-V. One of the big discussions that I have been engaged in, is around VMWare Live Migration versus Hyper-V Quick Migration.There are some ideas that VMotion is superior when it comes to unplanned server downtime. This is simply not the case.

Unplanned server downtime typically is caused by hardware failure which takes the Virtual Servers offline. In the downtime scenario, there it no time for VMotion to move the workloads to the failed server to another operating host. The best thing that can happen in this scenario is that the system automatically boots up the downed VM guests on running hardware. This is the same result with using either VMWare or Windows Hyper-V.

The Microsoft Virtualization Team blog has posted some good information on Hyper-V Quick Migration and VMWare Live Migration. You can read these posts here:

• Hyper-V Quick Migration and VMWare Live Migration – Part 1
• Hyper-V Quick Migration and VMWare Live Migration – Part 2

Microsoft has a ‘Talk Tuesdays Series’ of webcasts for State & Local Government (SLG). The series is designed to demonstrate how similar agencies are implementing and deploying SLG Solutions around the country and the world. It’s a good way to learn how Microsoft and Microsoft Partner solutions can increase constituent and employee satisfaction, improve agency productivity, and improve IT integration.

• See the upcoming topics, recorded webcasts, and register free at  http://www.microsoft.com/governmentwebcasts
• Seamless Local Government site at http://www.seamlesslocalgovernment.com
  for government solutions, case studies, and whitepapers on how to implement the solutions. 

Oracle is scheduled to deliver 41 patches for its line of business software Tuesday (April 15, 2008). The Critical Patch Update affects the following products:

Microsoft Virtual Earth has released the Spring 2008 Updates. 3-D Models have been added and improved, GPS and traffic improvements, and RSS features have been added to the map software. Arstechnica has a hands on review of the new features.

The Windows Virtualization Team has been busy! Over the last few weeks they made some big announcements. You can follow their news and release information first hand by visiting or subscribing to their blog.

• Windows Hyper-V Release Candidate made available on March 19, 2008. Compared to the Beta version the RC as improved usability, additional guest OS support, and better performance. More on the RC release.
• Windows Hyper-V Manager MMC Release Candidate made available March 25, 2008. You can now manage your Hyper-V Servers from Windows Vista SP1 clients. More on the Manager MMC.
• Linux Integration Components for Windows Hyper-V RC are now available as of April 1, 2008. See screen shots and learn how get download these components from Windows Virtualization Team Blog post.