technical solutions and commentary

Microsoft is offering a free e-learning clinic on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-v. The course is "Clinic 5935: Introducing Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008" and is intended teach hyper-v management and implementation skills to IT pros.

activate the free content here.

the first update to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 (MDT 2008) is available for download. the big features added are:

• OEM preload scenarios for Lite Touch Installation and Zero Touch Installation with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
• new management pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1

Get MDT 2008 Update 1 from Microsoft Downloads.

Microsoft has released a new Release Candidate for App-v 4.5 (Formerly known as softgrid). The Major highlights include:

• HTTP streaming. We now support streaming virtual applications from an IIS server (v6 or v7). This will provide dramatic performance and scalability improvements for customers with large App-V deployments.
• Re-designed Sequencer.  Simplifies the process and reduces the complexity of creating virtual application packages. There is now a single wizard for creating a new package and advanced settings have been put into an optional screen.
• Dynamic Suite Composition (DSC) for MSI packages allows the flexibility to control virtual application interaction. Administrators wanting to consolidate virtual environments, and enable faster, easier administration, can use the product’s Dynamic Suite Composition, which sequences and manages packages for middleware applications separately from the main application.
• Seamless integration with SCCM 2007 R2. Allows customers to easily deploy virtual applications through the SCCM 2007 R2 infrastructure and scale their deployments.
• Client cache improvements. The maximum size of the client cache has been increased to 1 TB.
• Improved Manageability. Integration and support for VSS writer, MOM Pack, ADM template
• Accessibility. The product is now Section 508 compliant, bringing App-V in line with other Microsoft products.

get more details on what this release will include from the Microsoft App-V Blog. download the RC from Microsoft Connect.

Creating a slipstream image is the process of taking the installation media for an Operating System and injecting a Service Pack into it so you have the Windows Installation Media that is pre-loaded with the Service Pack. This saves the step from having to apply a service pack to a new Windows machine after the OS installation is complete.

There are four basic steps in creating a slipstream Windows Installation:

1. Copying the Windows installation file from the media to your hard drive.
2. Downloading and extracting the Service Pack file to your hard drive.
3. Applying or Slipstreaming the Service Pack file to the Windows installation files.
4. Creating Bootable Media for installing Windows with the Service Pack included. 

Download the PDF instructions on how to Create Slipstream Windows Installation Media.

I recently ran into the issue that users cannot open a file on the network as ‘read-only’ when one user already has the file open. Instead of receiving the option to open the file as ‘read-only’ they get the error: <filename> cannot be found. Check your spelling, or try a different path.

This problem seams to be specific to the user profile.

To fix this:

1. Close Excel
2. Open “RegEdit” from the command prompt from with in the users profile
3. Backup the entire registry
4. Now make these changes from within RegEidt:
   • Expand: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\
   • Right click the “Excel” registry key and rename it to something like Excel-OLD
   • Exit “RegEdit”
5. Open Excel. You will see “Windows Installer” popup and install something this first time you open Excel.

Tripwire recently released a tool to check the security configurationof VMware ESX Servers called ConfigCheck.

The free utility runs only on Windows and connects remotely to ESX hosts. The tool verifies the ESX configuration against a specific security guideline that VMware published.

Tripwire also has a free document that guides admins in correcting any reported configuration issues.

• Download ConfigCheck here.
• Download the Remediation Guide here.

Tripwire also offers an enterprise version of this tool through BMC.

The second CTP (Community Technology Preview) for Parallel Extensions to .NET 3.5 Framework (June 2008) was released today by Microsoft. Parallel Extensions simplifies development by providing library-based support for introducing concurrence

into applications written with any .NET language. It includes:

• Task Parallel Library (TPL) - which provides imperative data and task parallelism
• Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) - which provides declarative data parallelism
• Coordination Data Structures (CDS) - which provides support for work coordination and managing shared state.

This CTP provides several improvements over the first, including CDS, a new scheduler that is more robust, efficient, and scalable. TPL also exposes new functionality, including methods for continuations. PLINQ now runs on top of TPL, clarifies order-preservation, and provides several new operators.

This download works with the .NET Framework 3.5 as a simple, small-footprint installation that drops a single DLL, documentation, samples, and registers the DLL with Visual Studio 2008.

Download the CTP from the Microsoft download site. See this MSDN Blog Post on the Parallel Programming with .NET Blog for more information.

Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a blended threat that allows remote code execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple’s Safari for Windows has been installed. Safari is only installed on Windows manually or through Apple Software Update.

Anyone that has a Windows XP or Vista PC with Safari installed should review the Microsoft Security Advisory 953818.

This week Microsoft released some limited information around Windows 7, and even created a video demo of the multi-touch feature in the OS. Unlike previous versions of the OS, which Microsoft immediately began sharing information on when development started, with Windows 7 there has been little communication.

Check out the post on the Windows Vista Blog “Communicating Windows 7” to learn why there has been close to no communication around Windows 7.

To see the first video demo on Windows 7 which features the multi-touch technology see the Windows Vista Blog post “Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch” which is based on the demo seen at the All Things D 6 Conference.

Apple released the 10.5.3 update this week an is recommending all users update Leopard to this latest version. You can get the details and the download from Apple Support here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1141

You can get a list of all the Apple security updates here - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222