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- Wanted! IT Administrators with Windows Server experience (Puget Sound Only) Microsoft User Research is conducting a study focusing on the next version of Windows Server between August 22 and August 28, 2008
- Google Lively and 1E
- Microsoft App-V 4.5 Hits Release Candidate
- Troubleshooting an ever growing Usrvol_sftfs.pkg file
- anthony.clendenen@gmail.com sent you a link to content of interest
- Sysinternals Tools Can Now Run From The Web
- Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal
- Mars Lander Phoenix Touches Down Successfully!
- Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For the First Time In Decades [Cold
- Using Maintenance Windows While Patching
Recent Posts
- Wanted! IT Administrators with Windows Server experience (Puget Sound Only) Microsoft User Research is conducting a study focusing on the next version of Windows Server between August 22 and August 28, 2008
- Google Lively and 1E
- Microsoft App-V 4.5 Hits Release Candidate
- Troubleshooting an ever growing Usrvol_sftfs.pkg file
- anthony.clendenen@gmail.com sent you a link to content of interest
- Sysinternals Tools Can Now Run From The Web
- Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal
- Mars Lander Phoenix Touches Down Successfully!
- Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For the First Time In Decades [Cold
- Using Maintenance Windows While Patching
Wanted! IT Administrators with Windows Server experience (Puget Sound Only) Microsoft User Research is conducting a study focusing on the next version of Windows Server between August 22 and August 28, 2008
This is a great opportunity for IT administrators who have experience with Windows Server to provide feedback and help improve the next version. You do not need to prepare anything for this. We want to learn from you, the experts. We highly value your feedback and will be offering you a gratuity option in appreciation of your time and participation.We are recruiting individuals who:
• Have experience managing 3-16 Windows Servers.
• Are available for a 2 hour study session during the week of August 22, 2008
• Can make it to Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, Washington
If you are interested or know someone who might be interested in participating, please email us at itusable@microsoft.com with Windows Server in the subject line. For information on other studies and to learn more about Microsoft’s User Research program, email us.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
Microsoft App-V 4.5 Hits Release Candidate
What’s new in the 4.5 version?
- The name, it is now App-V, short fo application virtualization.
- HTTP Streaming of apps
- DSC (Dynamic Suite Composition) or combining two MSI packaged apps into a single suite
- Better integration with ConfigMgr R2
- And more - follow the jump
How to download the RC
Anyone may download the RC via the Microsoft Connect site (http://connect.microsoft.com). If you are not already signed in with your Windows Live ID once you are at the site’s homepage, click Sign In. If you have previously visited the Microsoft Connect site for the “Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta”, look in the Activity in All Connections Since Your Last Login section under Your Dashboard and then click Microsoft Application Virtualization. If you have not previously visited the Microsoft Connect site for the “Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta”, click Connection Directory and then click Apply Now next to the Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta listing. In the left navigation bar, click Downloads and then look for the link to the RC release download. Please make sure to read the Release Notes and Known Issues documents before installing the product.
Regards,
Anthony
anthony.clendenen@gmail.com sent you a link to content of interest
anthony.clendenen@gmail.com sent you a link to the following content:
Text2MindMap Turns Indents into Ideas [Mind Mapping]
http://lifehacker.com/394202/text2mindmap-turns-indents-into-ideas
The sender also included this note:
“You might have heard about the power of mind mapping from studious co-workers or, say, a certain blog, but never had the drive to jump in and start sketching. Text2MindMap, a free visualization web app, makes turning your ideas into node-based maps as easy as hitting Tab. Type or paste text into an input box, using indents to break up your ideas into categories, and then customize the font size, node colors, and more. When you’re done messing with your map, download it in JPEG format (interactive Flash downloads are said to be coming soon), and there’s no limit to how many you can create.”
–
Sent via a FeedFlare link from a FeedBurner feed.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/feedflare
Sysinternals Tools Can Now Run From The Web
Categories: Cool Tools, Downloads, Free!, Microsoft, News, TechNet, Tools.
While they also updated several of their tools like Process Explorer, Handle, ZoomIt and SigCheck, the much more interesting news is that you don’t have to download the tools any longer and put them somewhere in %PATH% you can execute them directly from the website. How cool is that?
From a command prompt or Run simply type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<tool name here>
And this site has all of their tools, check it out on their site at http://live.sysinternals.com
You can sill download the tools if you want to use them locally, go to the same link and click on the exe and/or the chm file to download them.
This is a quote from the About_This_Site.txt file.
“What is this?
This is a file share allowing access to all Sysinternals utilities. We have developed this to test an alternate distribution mechanism for our utilities.
This will allow you to run these tools from any computer connected to the Internet without having to navigate to a webpage, download and extract the zip file.
If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Windows Sysinternals, it is highly recommended that you visit the website at http://technet.microsoft.com/sysinternals before using these tools.
If you have any questions or comments on this file share, please email syssite@microsoft.com
Regards,
The Microsoft Windows Sysinternals Team”
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal
Categories: Blogroll, Downloads, Free!, Repost, Security, Tools.
In case you missed out the free AVG offer here is another free anti-virus product. Once you create a free 
account on the CA site they will send you link to download it.
There words regarding the account.
“This information will be used to create your FREE account in case you are in need of any support. Your information will be kept private and will not be shared with any third parties.”
Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
Mars Lander Phoenix Touches Down Successfully!
Earlier this afternoon the Phoenix lander touched down on Mars’ north pole. It will spend the next three months digging up ice to try and determine if life was on Mars at some point.
This is the first photo in from the lander but you can be assured more pictures and videos will be available soon. You can follow the Phoenix Mission blog here, and get news and updates from NASA on the Phoenix Mission here.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For the First Time In Decades [Cold
Cold fusion, the act of producing a nuclear reaction at room temperature, has long been
relegated to science fiction after researchers were unable to recreate the experiment that first “discovered” the phenomenon. But a Japanese scientist was supposedly able to start a cold fusion reaction earlier this we
ek, which if the results are real could revolutionize the way we gather energy.
Yoshiaki Arata, a highly respected physicist in Japan, demonstrated a low-energy nuclear reaction at Osaka University on Thursday. In front of a live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two tv studios, Arata and a co-professor Yue-Chang Zhang, produced excess heat and helium atoms from deuterium gas.
Arata used pressure to force deuterium gas into an evacuated cell that contained a palladium and zirconium oxide mix(ZrO2-Pd). Arata said that the mix caused the deuterium’s nuclei to fuse, raising the temperature in the cell and keeping the center of the cell warm for 50 hours.
Arata’s experiment would mark the first time anyone has witnessed cold fusion since 1989, when Martin Fleishmann and Stanely Pons supposedly observed excess heat during electrolysis of heavy water with palladium electrodes. When they and other researchers were unable to make it work again, cold fusion became synonymous with bad science.
But the method Arata showed was “highly reproducible,” according to eye witnesses of the event. If nobody calls this demonstration out as asham, Arata might have finally found the holy grail of cheap and abundant energy nuclear power, without its destructive heat. [Physicsworld via Slashdot]
Using Maintenance Windows While Patching
Categories: Config Manager, ConfigMgr, How-To, Maintenance Windows, Patching, SCCM.
I got a really good question today on maintenance windows and patching and how they can or cannot work together. Specifically if you had a maintenance window defined, but told the patches to install ignoring the maintenance window but suppress the reboots until the maintenance window will it install the updates and hold off on rebooting the clients until the maintenance window?
First let’s go over defining maintenance windows.
Assuming you already have a collection of computers built that you will apply the maintenance window to right click on that collection of computers (never users for maintenance windows).
Select Modify collection settings from the context menu.
On the Maintenance Windows tab click the starburst icon to create a new maintenance window.
Give it a name, and set the reoccurrence pattern, I set mine to daily and left the default time from 1 - 4 AM. Then click OK.
You should now see the maintenance window defined, click OK again and now we have set the maintenance window for these clients from 1 - 4 AM each day, or however you defined yours.
OK now for software updates.
The machine I am going to test on is an XP box that is one of my test machines in my home lab, it has been off for quite some time so it is not fully patched and makes an excellent client.
I have also created a search folder under software updates for critical XP patches in previous testing. This makes deployment much easier and if you don’t use search folders I highly recommended it.
Let’s look at the different settings for this package of XP Critical updates I have defined.
In the Deployment Management folder there is already the XP Critical Updates package, I am going to right click on the package itself and select properties and then look at the Schedule tab. I want to check the bottom box that tells it to ignore the maintenance windows and install as soon as the deadline comes.
And then on the Restart Settings tab, make sure that the checkbox telling ConfigMgr to restart outside of the maintenance window is not checked. I also have the box to suppress reboots on workstations unchecked.
Now I am going to add the new patches to this package by going to my search folder selecting my search for Critical XP Patches, selecting the new patches
and in the Actions pane clicking Download Software Update under the selected items section which start the Download Updates Wizard and I tell it to add these patches to my XP Critical Patches package.
I finish going through the wizard and wait for the patches to download and about a minute later I get a success telling me that the patches have been downloaded and added to my package.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch or on our client, once the client notices that there are patches to be installed and the deadline for install has passed the patches do get installed on the computer. You can completely hide this from the user now, or you can give them a balloon notification and allow them to watch the progress.
If the user does watch the progress, assuming you allowed this through your configuration, they also have the option to reboot now or close the window. If the users selects the close option we see in the %System32%\CCM\logs\RebootCoordinator.log file that our maintenance window is preventing the client from being rebooted until the maintenance window.
I have adjusted the maintenance window settings for this client to put us inside a maintenance window to see if it will actually reboot the computer. And after I force the client to do a policy refresh a couple seconds later up comes the dialog box telling the user they have five minutes before their computer is restarted.
To answer the original question, yes you can use maintenance windows to only delay the reboots and have the patches install ASAP.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
ConfigMgr SP1 Goes RTM
Categories: Config Manager, ConfigMgr, Downloads, News, SCCM, Server 2008, Vista.
Update: Download link
Overview
Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 now offers full support for management with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, integrates customer feedback, feature Integration with Intel vPro Technology and enhances Asset Intelligent features.
- Full Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Support: Deploy and manage Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008—with full support for the latest Windows platforms, from planning through inventory, to deployment, and into operational scenarios such as software distribution, software update management, desired configuration management, and more.
- AMT Integration: Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 integration with Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) enables hardware-based power control (on/off/restart) and delivers many new remote diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities. Configuration Manager can now perform scheduled or on-demand power control operations on Intel vPro enabled systems in the enterprise, enabling higher levels of software update compliance as well as increasing application installation and operating system deployment success rates. The new out of band management console provides direct hardware interaction using Windows Remote Management (the Microsoft implementation of WS-MAN). This enables remote boot control, allows forced PXE boot for operating system deployments, remote network boot for customized remote tasks and diagnostics, and direct inspection of hardware inventory and power state—even if the system is powered off.
- Asset Intelligence: Building on the original release within Configuration Manager, this enhancement to the inventory capabilities of Configuration Manager 2007 provides improvements for stronger inventory of hardware, software, and software licenses in use throughout the enterprise. The enhancements made enable administrators to more easily, and more accurately, inventory and manage hardware and software assets as well as view and manage purchased software license information. By providing this essential information, Asset Intelligence makes it easier for administrators and asset managers to more effectively plan for upgrades, migrations, and software license compliance reporting.
Asset Intelligence in Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 adds the following additional functionality over that provided by the Asset Intelligence feature in Configuration Manager 2007:
- The Asset Intelligence feature node has been added to the Configuration Manager console to allow easier Asset Intelligence–related administration tasks and rich reporting capabilities.
- The Asset Intelligence Configuration Manager Console home page has been added to provide at-a-glance feature state status and information.
- The Asset Intelligence catalog has been expanded to contain categorization and identification information of a large catalog of software titles—both Microsoft and 3rd party—as well as the hardware requirement information for many software titles found in today’s IT environments.
- The ability to customize the Asset Intelligence catalog with additional software categorization information and hardware requirements information has been added.
- New reports have been added that enable administrators to generate a total of 70 reports, based on inventoried information, that present data about hardware, software, and license usage.
- General reports are linked to more specific reports and allow IT administrators to query general information or drill down to more detailed levels if required.
- Hardware inventory enhancements have been added to gather information such as processor age, speed, and USB devices in use or when hardware has changed since the last inventory or during a specified period of time.
- Installed software inventory enhancements have been added that gather information about installed software in use in the enterprise.
- These enhancements allow IT organizations to identify and better categorize their software assets.
- Robust reports provide information about types of software in use to help identify redundant software and optimize software support and purchasing.
- Software license management capabilities have been added that allow purchased software license data (both Microsoft and non-Microsoft) to be imported into the Asset Intelligence catalog to enable better license management and reporting.
- Improvements have been made to provide data about utilized Client Access Licenses (Windows Server, and Exchange Server) and computers acting as Key Management Servers for Windows Vista activation.
- The report output format is congruent with Microsoft License Statements facilitating system-wide license tracking and compliance.
Just made public today, it will take a day or so to get the bits available for download.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager
© Anthony Clendenen
