IT edge

Migrating to Windows 7, Office 2010, and Windows Server 2008 R2 can be a large project. The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, provides free tools and guidance to help you through the process. Update 1 for MDT 2010 was released early July, 2010. MDT can be:

• used as a standalone toolkit with Lite-Touch Deployment options
• integrated into Configuration Manager 2007 for automated, or Zero-Touch Deployments
• used to create images and installation packages and used with third-party deployment solutions

Integration with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 provides:

• New “User Driven Installation” deployment method. An easy-to-use UDI Wizard allows users to initiate and customize an OS deployment on their PCs that’s tailored to their individual needs.
• Support for Configuration Manager R3 “Prestaged Media.” For those deploying Windows 7 and Office 2010 along with new PCs, a custom OS image can easily be loaded in the factory and then customized once deployed.
  

Standalone Toolkit, Lite-Touch Installation:

• Support for Office 2010. Easily configure Office 2010 installation and deployment settings through the Deployment Workbench and integration with the Office Customization Tool.
• Improved driver importing. All drivers are inspected during the import process to accurately determine what platforms they really support, avoiding common inaccuracies that can cause deployment issues.
  

For all MDT 2010 Update 1 Administrators:

• A smooth and simple upgrade process. Installing MDT 2010 Update 1 will preserve your existing MDT configuration, with simple wizards to upgrade existing deployment shares and Configuration Manager installations.
• Many small enhancements and bug fixes. Made in direct response to feedback received from customers and partners all around the world, MDT 2010 Update 1 is an indispensible upgrade for those currently using MDT (as well as a great starting point for those just starting).
• Continued support for older products. MDT 2010 Update 1 still supports deployment of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Office 2007, for those customers who need to be able to support these products during the deployment of Windows 7 and Office 2010.

Other Resources

• Download MDT 2010 Update 1 from the Microsoft Download Center.
• Learn more about MDT 2010 by visiting the MDT site on TechNet.
• Get the latest news by visiting Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog.
• Ask questions, post answers, and share your insights in the MDT Forum.

With the release of TMG 2010 Service Pack 1, new features have been added to the product, including:

• Overrides
• URL Restrictions
• Category Restrictions
• Block Page Redirect
• Branch Cache Integration (Branch Cache was introduced as a Windows Server 2008 R2 feature.)
• Reporting Enhancements

Details of the new features and enhancements along with screen captures can be found at http://www.isaserver.org/tutorials/Whats-New-Forefront-Threat-Management-Gateway-TMG-2010-Service-Pack1.html

Service Pack 1 can be applied to an existing installation of TMG 2010 or can be slipstreamed into deployment bits for any fresh installations. See http://tmgblog.richardhicks.com/category/threat-management-gateway/ for step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

Immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts, or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly. In addition, some Exchange Server administrators may notice their servers running slowly.

When an iOS version update occurs, you are replacing the Operating System (OS) on the device with a new OS. For example, updating the iPhone 3GS from iOS v3.x to iOS v4.x replaces version 3 of the Operating System with version 4. This update often forces the client to do a complete mailbox refresh from the server meaning they entire Inbox/Task/Calendar is re-downloaded after the update.

Apple will be releasing a new update to iOS 4 at some point that will resolve this.

Apple has published an Apple KB article (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398) with a link to a configuration file that can be downloaded to the iOS 4 devices through E-mail or with the Safari browser on the iPhone/iPad. This configuration file will raise the timeout value from 30 seconds to 4 minutes.  The file is a basic XML file that can be edited using a text editor if needed.  The default value is 4 minutes, but can be raised in circumstances where 4 minutes is not enough.  Note: 4 minutes is enough for the vast majority of people.

Last week Microsoft announced the release of Expression Studio 4 which makes it easier to create engaging user experiences (UX) for the Web, desktop, mobile devices, and Silverlight. Silverlight 4 and .NET 4 is now supported.

Expression Blend 4 New Features:

• VS2010 compatibility
• Windows Phone support
• Deeper Adobe Photoshop import (layer effects)
• New behaviors & conditional behaviors
• Enhanced sample data support
• Listbox path layout for designing with data
• Pixel Shader effects (including animations)
• Easier styling and customization
• Model View View-Model support

Expression Web 4 New Features include

• SEO Reporting from inside of the application
• New extensibility model enables creating add-ins with HTML, JS, and CSS
• New SuperPreview online service beta for browser compatibility testing now supports Macintosh Safari

Expression Encoder 4 Pro New features include

• Live Smooth Streaming (VC-1 & H.264)
• New H.264 encoder from MainConcept
• Enhanced Screen Capture
• DRM (PlayReady) for Live Content

The Why Microsoft Blog details the assumptions used in the Gone Google Calculator and costs that they leave out. He also walks through a sample calculation and details the information and the results in the blog post. It’s quite fun to read actually.

Some of the Google Calculator assumptions are:

• You click on 77 spam emails every day.
• If you lose a laptop it costs you $47,000.
• Migrations costs from your existing system to Google are $0.
• End user training costs are $0
• The cost for your own IT Pros to deploy a new LDAP sync tool, installing Outlook connectors on every desktop, and new web browsers on every desktop to enable new Docs features is $0.
• Users don’t have Blackberries (which requires you to host your own BES Servers).
• Lost productivity per employee due to document fidelity issues between Office, OpenOffice, and Google Docs = $0.

• Even if all of your business documents are converted to Google Docs, business partners will still send Office attachments that will need to be reformatted and then possibly reformed again if you change it and send it back to the business partner.

• Even if your users only work when they are connected to the network and not while traveling, Google has had 450 minutes of downtime within the last 60 days (as of 6/15/10).
• Google does not have a financial backed SLA, meaning that whatever business experienced this downtime, they just get a few more days of Google Doc services, not a service refund.

Then there is the question of when you decide to move away from Google, what is the exist strategy?

• How do you migrate from Gmail (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) and Google Docs to another Cloud provider or on-premise solution?
• How do you get your data out (over the internet only, on backup tapes (format), on hard drives, on removable media. etc)?
• What data file format are you given?
• What content or capabilities are lost?
• How much will it cost?
• Does it require a partner to help?

Does Google understand the Enterprise? Check out Andrews analysis and the calculator walkthrough and decide for yourself.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/whymicrosoft/archive/2010/06/15/lies-damned-lies-and-the-gone-google-calculator.aspx

Exchange Server 2007 Operational Configuration Pack is designed for managing the configuration of Exchange 2007 Servers. It defines recommended configurations based on a limited number of settings affecting the configuration of Exchange 2007 servers (these settings should not be considered a complete list of what should be managed).

Once imported into Configuration Manager 2007, the config pack items can be targeted to collections of systems to be audited for compliance. If settings are detected to be out of compliance, events will be generated and sent SCCM for reporting. This enables early detection of configuration changes and allows the admins to correct the settings.

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Operational Configuration Pack includes configuration items for the following:

• Client Access Server (CAS)
• Exchange Core
• Gateway
• Hub Transport
• Mailbox
• Unified Messaging

Download the Config Pack from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1d270c31-1ee2-4b5a-bd76-c053a37385be

Jeff Woolsey, Microsoft Group Program Manager, has a series of blog posts which explain Dynamic Memory in Depth, what it means for Hyper-V, and how it will help server virtualization capacity.

Dynamic Memory Part 1: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v.aspx

Dynamic Memory Part 2: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/25/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-2.aspx

Dynamic Memory Part 3: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/04/07/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-3.aspx

Dynamic Memory Part 4: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/04/21/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-4.aspx

Dynamic Memory Part 5: http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/05/20/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-5.aspx

The public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released by the end of July. Service Pack 1 will be a joint release for both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. There are not feature changes to Windows 7, however for the Server, there are two important new features around virtualization.

Dynamic Memory – an enhancement to Hyper-V in R2 that allows administrators to pool all the memory available on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to VMs running on that host as needed. VMs will be able to receive new memory allocations without a service interruption based on workloads. Check out the Virtualization Team Blog for more info on Dynamic Memory here: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/Dynamic-Memory-Coming-to-Hyper-V.aspx

RemoteFX enhances the desktop virtualization stack. IT will be able to deliver a richer and desktop virtualization experience to end users. RemoteFX which functions independently of any graphics stack supports any screen content including Silverlight and Adobe Flash. It enhances the end user hardware experience with support for USB redirection. RemoteFX works on a wide target of devices so you can deploy it to both thick and thin clients and a variety of network configurations. Check out the Virtualization Team blog for details here: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/Explaining-Microsoft-RemoteFX.aspx

Microsoft recently had it’s annual TechEd North America Conference for IT Professionals June 7 – 11th, 2010 in New Orleans, LA, USA. With budget cuts happening all over, many of us may not have been able to travel this awesome event. For those that were unable to attend, much of the session content – recordings, PowerPoint decks – can be viewed and downloaded for free from here: http://www.msteched.com/2010

If you are planning on using SharePoint for an Extranet here are some resources that you may find helpful.

TechNet/MSDN Resources:

• Design extranet farm topology: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263513(office.12).aspx
• Plan security hardening for extranet environments: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262834(office.12).aspx
• 25 Tips to Lockdown your SharePoint Environment: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2007/02/03/25-tips-to-lockdown-your-sharepoint-environment.aspx

CodePlex Resources. These are not supported by Microsoft but may be valuable for what you are trying to do:

• External Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint http://cks.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=External%20Collaboration%20Toolkit%20for%20SharePoint%20%28Community%20Edition%29&referringTitle=Home
• SharePoint Account Provision: http://spaccountprovision.codeplex.com/