Config Manager

1E released a new white paper written by Ian Godfrey last week entitled Remote Management of BIOS Configuration, which is centered around configuring Wake-on-LAN but the concepts and tools can be used to manipulate other BIOS settings as well. 

This paper covers a number of different hardware vendors and how to remotely configure the BIOS, something that is not standard across the hardware vendors.  It includes links to different tools, ConfigMgr integration, scripts, tips, troubleshooting, and a very in depth explanation of WOL.  If you are having trouble getting some computers to wake up when they are sent a magic packet or you need to learn how to remote administer the BIOS without touching each computer this is a must read.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

1E released a new white paper written by Ian Godfrey last week entitled Remote Management of BIOS Configuration, which is centered around configuring Wake-on-LAN but the concepts and tools can be used to manipulate other BIOS settings as well. 

This paper covers a number of different hardware vendors and how to remotely configure the BIOS, something that is not standard across the hardware vendors.  It includes links to different tools, ConfigMgr integration, scripts, tips, troubleshooting, and a very in depth explanation of WOL.  If you are having trouble getting some computers to wake up when they are sent a magic packet or you need to learn how to remote administer the BIOS without touching each computer this is a must read.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

In my post regarding what’s new in NightWatchman 5.5 I talked about the new NightWatchman Console.  I want to cover the security aspect of the console in this post to show some of the flexibility of the console as well as explain how to set the proper security.

In the NightWatchman Console the last tab on the right is Security, this is to manage the security of the console specifically, not the NightWatchman clients, but which users and groups have what rights in the console.

If you click on the Security tab it shows you the Users and Groups section by default this includes the user or group you specified during the setup who was the Administrator.  This user or group has full rights in the console which is the Systems Administrator role.

If you now click on the Roles tab next to the Users and Groups tab in this section you get a view of the roles and their rights.  From this view you have the options to add a new role and set or modify the permissions of a role.  As you can see the Systems Administrator role cannot be modified so that you don’t lock yourself out of the console completely.

If we add a new role we can then modify the permissions that the users who are assigned that role get when then open the NightWatchman Console.  What I am going to do is add a role for the IT group that manages the retails department.  I want this group to only be able to view and modify the power scheme and shutdown schedules for their particular department, preventing them from making changes to the settings for all other groups.

I do this by first clicking the Add button while still in the Roles tab.  This opens a dialog box asking me for the name and a description of the role.

Notice that in the fields that are required to be filled out there is a stop symbol because I have not filled out the name filed.  This also occurs in other fields in the console, say for instance you try to put in an invalid time in the scheduled shutdown’s time field you will get the same results and won’t be able to save your changes until it is filled out correctly.

I have filled out the name field and description and then clicked OK to create a group called Retail Admins. And it now shows up in the list of Roles in the console.

When I highlight this role I can see that there are no rights assigned to this role, not even the ability to launch the console, this is of course by design. Keeping in mind what my goal is for this group, I am going to assign it the following rights:

It is important to understand the difference between View and View All when assigning roles rights.  Since my plan is to only allow this role to view their group of clients I selected View and not View All as this would allow them to see all the groups in the console.

Notice if you do not click the Apply button and navigate away your changes will be discarded.

Here is what my Roles tab now looks like with the Retail Admins group selected.

Next I need to assign this role to a user or group of users.  If I click on the Users and Groups tab at the top it switches me back to the users and groups view where I can add a new user or group.  You can do this by clicking on the Add button and it will open the AD users and groups dialog where you can input the name of the user or group.  I am going to use a single user in this example but I could have just as easily added a group.  Now that I have a new user listed to the right I see a list of all possible roles that I can assign that user to.  The roles the user has assigned to them is indicated by a stop symbol or a checkmark if they are assigned that role.  By default a new user or group is not assigned any roles.  I am going to assign the new user (Anthony) the role of Retail Admins and then the role has a checkmark next to it to indicate that it has been assigned that role. If I click on the details link next to the role it tells me exactly what rights that role has so that I don’t have to switch back to the roles tab to determine if it has the correct rights before I assign it to a user or group.

Next I need to assign my user to my group of clients.  To do this switch back to the NightWatchman Clients view by clicking on the tab in the top left corner of the console.

In this view you can see the NightWatchman clients in their groups, either by organizationally or by geographic locations since we are picking on the Accounting department we are interested in the organizational grouping.  If you don’t have a group you can create one from this view as well by just right clicking on the parent group and selecting Add Group.  Always keep in mind that the NightWatchman clients are assigned to the lowest tier in the grouping and there must be five levels starting from the highest level, in my example I am going to use the Auditors group and here is my hierarchy in the console.

If you right click on the Auditors group then select Properties from the context menu. When the properties window is displayed click on the Security tab and from the list of users and groups you will see that the users and groups that have the Systems Administrator role show up with the right already assigned to this group but any other group or user does not yet have rights.  To assign a user or group the ability to view this group simply click on them and they will then have a checkmark next to their name.

In this example I have added a group and a new user to demonstrate this and to show you can use groups as well.  Daniel has been assigned the Retail Admin rights but he doesn’t yet have those rights on this group.  Once I click on him he will then have the assigned rights we gave the Retail Admins group to this group of clients.  And that is all there is to it.  Once you click the OK button the user will have the rights to view this group, but this group only.  If you click on the Finance group or any group higher up in the hierarchy and the open the groups properties page on the security tab you will see that any user or group other than those assigned the Systems Administrator role do not have rights to view this group.  You could assign a user or group rights at this level and the lower tier groups under it would also inherit those rights.

As always if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

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

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

After you win the Wii at the 1E booth (311) at MMS and you have made Pro on all the sports, have made all your family members and friends into Wii peeps, the next logical step is to stream all your music and videos with it from your PC upstairs to your Wii downstairs in your media room.  XBox does this out of the box (no pun intended) from what I have heard, since my daughter is only in second grade and my son is just in junior high they aren’t quite ready for an XBox, plus I suck at video games so I am not a gamer.  The Wii doesn’t have a whole suite of additional features, and streaming music and video is not one of them.  It does come with a built in wireless adapter so you can get it on your home wireless pretty easy.  It also uses Opera for a web browser.  I mention both of these because you will need them for streaming.

I was first introduced to Orb several years ago when I got my first Netgear wireless router, it was 802.11B, so that should give you some idea on how many years ago.  The Orb CD came in the box and I checked it out to see what it was.  Set it up, showed it off at work a few times and then I didn’t use it much again.  Back when I was still working at ESRI I played Classical music in my office all day and it was local plus I didn’t want to use up the bandwidth needlessly.  I looked at it again when I started to travel with my last employer (Hey everyone!) I even bought a tuner card, but I don’t really like TV, and really don’t like 99.99% of movies for a list of reasons so I didn’t really end up using Orb or the tuner card. 

But now that I have a home office upstairs, and my wife’s art studio is downstairs when I am at home and the kids are in school and I am not on the phone I will play music, but I have to play music we both like and loud enough for her to hear.  So this is not ideal.  But our Wii is hooked up to the surround sound system and LCD downstairs, so if she could play music from it and choose her own music, and what level that would just about be perfect!

So what you will need:

1. Wii
2. The Opera browser installed on your Wii (500 Wii points or $5)
3. Your Wii connected to your LAN
4. Orb
5. Wake-On-LAN (if you are going to use Orb on a laptop)
6. A computer with music, videos, pictures, files…! 

Download Orb here.

Get additional addons for Orb from their MyExtras here.

extras include video mail, watching Internet videos on your mobile device, and watching you video content on your TV instead of in Flash in the Wii’s Opera browser.

You can get version 1.0 of Orb here.

Once you have Orb installed you will have to create an account.  Next specify what folders you want to include in the different categories.  Keep in mind that any folder you put on there you and your family will be able to access from the Wii console.

After you have Orb configured you will need to get the browser installed on your Wii if you haven’t got it already.  Once it is just go to orb.com, put in your account info and you will be listening and viewing in just a few seconds. 

In Orb you can search by artist, title, genre, playlist, resume a playlist, shuffle your search results, it’s pretty nice.

And if you have bluetooth in your car, a phone with an unlimited data plan and bluetooth…

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

ConfigMgr 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – Video Walkthrough

Are you struggling with setting up ConfigMgr 2007 Operating System Deployment and integrating MDT? – download and view the video walkthrough that shows you how to:

• Setup the server environment for ConfigMgr 2007 OS deployment
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Site Settings
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Computer Management Settings
• Configure the ConfigMgr 2007 Operating System Deployment Settings
• Setup and use MDT integration with ConfigMgr 2007
• Add a reference machine object to ConfigMgr 2007
• Create a build and capture reference image for mass deployment using ConfigMgr 2007

Download from here (51.2Mb)

The download pack contains the following high resolution (1024 x 768) narrated video

• ConfigMgr and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Setup and Config.wmv

The Deployment Guys : SCCM 2007 and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – Video Walkthrough

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

I wish Microsoft would standardize on either SoftGrid or Microsoft Application Virtualization.  Here is a KB on sequencing Office 2007.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;939796

INTRODUCTION

This article describes one method that you can use to successfully sequence a 2007 Microsoft Office program for use with Microsoft SoftGrid. The method that is described in this article is not the only method that is available. Additionally, you may have to modify the information in this article as appropriate for your particular environment.

 

MORE INFORMATION

Obtain background information

• Review the "Best practices to use for sequencing in Microsoft SoftGrid" article. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

932137 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932137/) Best practices to use for sequencing in Microsoft SoftGrid

• Review the product documentation that was included with SoftGrid. This includes the following documents:

• Quick Start Guide

• Sequencer Install Guide

• Sequencer User Guide

• Install the 2007 Office program to become familiar with the functionality of the program.

 

Prepare the environment

1. Use the Microsoft Office Customization Tool to create an .msp file. To obtain the Office Customization Tool in the 2007 Office system, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/8faae8a0-a12c-4f7b-839c-24a66a531bb51033.mspx?mfr=true (http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/8faae8a0-a12c-4f7b-839c-24a66a531bb51033.mspx?mfr=true)

The .msp file must define at least the following settings:

• On the Install location and organization name page, install the 2007 Office suite to Q:\unique eight-character path that you have not used previously\Microsoft Office.

• On the Licensing and user interface page, enter the appropriate license key, and then click to select the I accept the terms of the license agreement check box.

• On the Set feature and installation states page, click Run All From My Computer for each 2007 Office program feature.

• On the Add registry entries page, add the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences "PreventIndexingOutlook"=dword:00000001

Note This registry entry enables the "Classic" Outlook search feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

2. If you want to use Microsoft Office Project 2007 together with the 2007 Office program, create an .msp file for Project 2007. This .msp file must define at least the following settings:

• On the Install location and organization name page, install Project 2007 to Q:\unique eight-character path that you have not used previously\Microsoft Office.
Note This is the same path that you specified for the 2007 Office program installation.

• On the Licensing and user interface page, enter the appropriate license key, and then click to select the I accept the terms of the license agreement check box.

• On the Set feature and installation states page, click Run All From My Computer for each Project 2007 feature.

3. If you want to use Microsoft Office Visio 2007 together with the 2007 Office program, create an .msp file for Visio 2007. This .msp file must define at least the following settings:

• On the Install location and organization name page, install Visio 2007 to Q:\unique eight-character path that you have not used previously\Microsoft Office.
Note This is the same path that you specified for the 2007 Office program installation.

• On the Licensing and user interface page, enter the appropriate license key, and then click to select the I accept the terms of the license agreement check box.

• On the Set feature and installation states page, click Run All From My Computer for each Visio 2007 feature.

4. Build the sequencing computer. To do this, use the information from the SoftGrid product documentation. Also, consider the following list of best practices when you create the sequencing workstation:

a. Join the sequencing computer to the domain and allow for Group Policy to be applied to the computer.

b. Log on to the sequencing computer as a member of the local Administrators group. However, do not use the local Administrator account.

c. Do not disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista.

d. Turn off any real-time scanning programs or indexing programs before you start the sequencing operation. This includes the following programs:

• Microsoft Windows Update

• Antivirus programs

• Anti-malware programs such as Windows Defender.

• Indexing programs or search programs such as the Windows Search service

e. To a local folder on the sequencing computer, copy the 2007 Office suite installation program and any other program that is to be sequenced.
Note Use the media package from a volume licensed 2007 Office suite installation for this purpose.

f. Install the SoftGrid Sequencer tool on the computer. When you install this tool, use the default installation options.

 

Perform sequencing

1. Start the SoftGrid Sequencer program.

2. On the File menu, click New Package.

3. Type the appropriate information in the following boxes, and then click Next:

• Suite Name

• Title

• Comments

• Hostname

• Path

Note For more information about the information these boxes can contain, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

932137 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932137/) Best practices to use for sequencing in Microsoft SoftGrid

4. Verify that the appropriate operating systems are selected on the Operating Systems page, and then click Finish.

5. Click Next to start the Installation Wizard.

6. In the Compression Algorithm list, click the appropriate compression algorithm.
Note We recommend that you click Not Compressed in this list.

7. In the Block Size list, click 32KB, and then click Next.

8. Exit all programs that are not needed, close all windows that are not needed, and then click Begin Monitoring.

9. Install Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 by using the .msp file that you created earlier.

10. Install other 2007 Office programs by using the appropriate .msp files that you created earlier.
Important Install all the following programs to the same package root folder:

• Visio 2007

• Project 2007

• Microsoft Office Communicator 2007

• Microsoft Office Live Meeting

• XPS/PDF add-in

11. Start each program that you installed except Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office Groove 2007.

12. Verify that each program works correctly. If it is necessary, start each program again.

13. Click Stop Monitoring.

14. When you are prompted, click the package root folder on the Q: drive to which you installed the 2007 Office programs.

15. Accept the default option to add files to the virtual file system (VFS), and then click Finish.

16. Click Next to start the Application Wizard.

17. Customize the shortcuts to be included in the package as appropriate for your environment. When you do this, remove shortcuts that trigger update actions or that are not needed.

18. Click Next.

19. On the Launch Applications page, click each program in turn, and then click Launch.
Important Do not select Outlook 2007 or Groove 2007.

20. Perform the operations in each program as appropriate for the functionality that you want to be included in Feature Block 1. For example, to include the spelling checker functionality, misspell a word, and then check the spelling. Or, to include the Help functionality in Feature Block 1, start Help.
Note By default, the 2007 Office program does not register the following file name extension associations:

• .doc

• .xls

• .ppt

If you want these file name extensions associated with the appropriate 2007 Office program, you must open a .doc file, an .xls file, and a .ppt file as appropriate, and then register the file type with the 2007 Office program.
When you are finished starting programs, click Next.

21. Click Finish to complete the steps in the Application Wizard.

22. On the Virtual Registry tab in the Sequencer, expand the following virtual registry location:

USER\%SFT_SID%\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\UserInfo

Then, delete the following values:

• UserInitials

• UserName

23. If you include the Live Meeting add-ins in the sequencing operation, follow these steps:

a. On the Virtual Registry tab in the Sequencer, expand the following virtual registry location:

USER\%SFT_SID%\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

Then, delete the Settings value and the Toolbars value.

b. On the Virtual File System tab, expand CSIDL_APPDATA\Microsoft\Templates, and then right-click this entry to clear the virtualized flag. This action lets the 2007 Office Online templates function correctly.

24. If you perform the sequencing operation on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, follow these steps:

a. On the Virtual File System tab, expand the following location:

CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON\Microsoft Shared\ink

b. Right-click this entry to clear the virtualized flag. This action lets Tablet PC computers function correctly.

25. Save the package together with an appropriate name.

26. Verify that local interaction is enabled. To do this, modify each .osd package to add the following entry to the <VIRTUALENV> section that appears after the <ENVLIST/> tag.

<POLICIES>
<LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED>TRUE</LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED>
</POLICIES>

When you enable local interaction, Windows Internet Explorer interaction is improved.

 

Known issues

• The Outlook 2007 Instant Search feature does not function in a SoftGrid environment. The registry key change that is described in this article turns on the Classic form of Outlook search.

• After streaming, the shortcut that is created in the Quick Launch area by Outlook 2007 and the shortcut that is created in the Startup folder for Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 are no longer valid. Therefore, users must manually re-create these shortcuts.

• Items that require interaction with Outlook 2007 from the operating system or from other programs do not function correctly. This includes "mailto:" links and the Start menu shortcut for the default e-mail client.

Regards,

Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Most IT related folks have an old laptop laying around that is too slow for what they need to do or they get a brand new one every six months.  I know I have one that the hard drive has bad sectors on and don’t want to spend the $40-60 to get a replacement drive since I have over half a dozen computers in my house and only four people.  I have used it for testing in the past, setting up Server 2003 with SMS 2003 on it for upgrade testing to CM, testing the 1E products in different configurations, as a DC, and other scenarios.  LifeHacker ran an article last week on different idea on what to do with your old laptop and there are some good idea that may spark life into some of your old equipment, check the comments too for additional ideas.  If you find that it doesn’t then you may want to consider recycling it or donating it since you can’t just toss it.

Like a famed race horse or a classic book, you don’t just throw away a laptop because it’s banged up a little. Even if it seems outdated and underpowered, most any laptop is still small, quiet, and relatively low on power consumption, making it a seriously valuable spare to keep handy—even without a working screen. With some free software, a little know-how and some creative thinking about your home network, nearly any old laptop can find its second wind, and today I’ll run through some of the best ways to get it there.Photo by daveynin.

Create a no-monitor, low-power spare system

So everything on your laptop runs just fine—except the screen, the most important (and expensive) part. That’s not a death knell, just a chance for re-purposing. Set your laptop up somewhere near your router, connect it with network cable, then read up on how to set up your system to run "headless" with any OS and only when you wake it up. That way, you’ve got a computer that uses a bare minimum of power and doesn’t neeed no fancy screen to convert a file, download a big file, or serve as a temporary backup box. But if your system lacks Wake on LAN abilities, or you’re just looking for more use out of that laptop, you could always …

Convert it to a home server

The idea of a "server" usually conjures images of rack-mounted, temperature-controlled boxes, or at least a desktop system, but a laptop’s power-scaling abilities, small size, and built-in screen can actually make for a quietly-great unit. You could put it next to your printer to allow printing from anywhere, use a browser to get it grabbing BitTorrents in Windows or Mac systems, or set up your own web server for grabbing files or hosting things like your personal Wiki. Oh, and don’t forget your multi-purpose media server, if you’ve got the hard drive space. Once you’re set up and have enabled outside access, the world—or at least your files at home—is at your fingertips.

Make a better digital photo frame

Unless you avoided the big stores entirely last holiday season, you’ve probably noticed the boom in digital picture frames—those small $100-and-up devices with not-so-amazing screens and a canned slideshow ability. If you know your laptop isn’t much for getting anything done these days, consider bending it over backwards to make for a sizable, attention-grabbing frame that can show whatever you want and possibly even grab photos as they’re dropped on a main computer. Instructables has a highly detailed guide to taking apart a MacBook to get started, while Popular Science shows an alternate scheme using an old ThinkPad. To keep your spare laptop from becoming a power draw (or running long and hot), consider setting up timers to run your "frame" only during your waking hours.

Make it fly again with lightweight Linux

If you’re shelfing your trusty road warrior mostly because it just runs … so … slow, consider that it’s not always the laptop’s fault. Most modern operating systems aren’t designed to give you only the web, email, document handling, and a little multimedia, but there is an entire OS realm that is that can make your old system seem new again. Here are a few free, open-source recommendations and what an old laptop might get out of them:

• Puppy Linux: Very slim (97 MB) distribution, but retains a basically smooth and polished interface, with apps to cover common computer uses.
• Damn Small Linux: For really, really fast and light performance with a straight-up interface. A system smaller than 50 MB that can run on a machine with a minimum of 16 MB memory (assuming you can boot/load it on there).
• Xubuntu: Puts the Ubuntu methodology and software support into a lighter, XFCE-based desktop (check out its look and newest features here). For an even lighter kind of "Damn Small Ubuntu," try Fluxbuntu.
• gOS: For those who live inside their browser, gOS isn’t so much a gimmicky "Wal-Mart OS" as a webapp-focused version of Ubuntu, with a lightweight window manager (Enlightenment) and an OS X-like bottom dock containing most of what you need

Convert its LCD into a Stand-Alone Monitor

Not for the faint of heart or unsteady of hand, this Instructables guide runs you through the basics of turning a perfectly good LCD laptop screen into a vertical-mounted monitor. Havingl pulled apart a laptop myself to replace a monitor cable, I can just tell you that you should go real slow, and make sure you have a place to put all the spare screws and parts during disassembly.

Salvage an external back up drive from it

Assuming your laptop didn’t die from hard drive failure, those little magnetic platters inside it can make for a really handy pocket-sized external drive. Follow Lifehacker alum Rick Broida’s instructions on properly enclosing a 2.5" drive, and you’ll have avoided paying a premium for a seriously useful addition to your computer inventory. Photo by Justin Ruckman.

Extend your wireless coverage

If wireless coverage throughout your house is hit or miss, your best bet is to do a little DIY router upgrading. If, however, your router can’t handle Tomato or DD-WRT boost, your trusty laptop can serve as a temporary booster. If your trusty laptop is running OS X, Vista, or XP, you can turn on its hot spot abilities with only minor tweaking. Linux users should check out this Linux.com tutorial for general guidance, while Ubuntu fans can get more specific instructions here. Finally, those who also keep an Xbox on their network but think Microsoft’s $100 wireless adapter is a bit much can jerry-rig that shelved laptop to serve as a stand-in.

I tried to cover the basics and a few quirky ideas for an old-but-trusted laptop, but many of you have years of experience on me in this area. What’s the coolest, or most useful, thing you’ve done with an old laptop? What do you wish you could do with it? Share your tales and wishes in the comments.

Kevin Purdy, associate editor at Lifehacker, hopes he never has to part ways with his ThinkPad. His weekly feature, Open Sourcery, appears every Friday on Lifehacker.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

J.C. over on the SoftGrid Team blog posed a list of SoftGrid virtual labs.  If you are new to the technology, need a refresher or just want to pick up on some stuff you might not already know this list covers quite a few different areas of the entire SoftGrid process from sequencing to troubleshooting. 

I would also recommend subscribing to their RSS feed if you don’t currently. 

Are you new to Microsoft Application Virtualization (aka SoftGrid) and looking for a quick and easy way to ramp up your skills? If so then these virtual labs are a great place to start. In as little as an hour or two you can use these to evaluate and test many of the features and concepts through a series of guided, hands-on exercises. Sure you can read the guides and manuals and all that stuff (you do read all those, right?) but if you’re anything like me there’s no substitute for getting your hands dirty. Plus a little practice now using these labs can save you a ton of time troubleshooting mistakes down the road. Check them out:

======

TechNet Virtual Lab: SoftGrid Application Virtualization- Sequencing (basics)

After completing this lab, you will be better able to publish an application in the SoftGrid environment, stream and test the application, and perform an active upgrade of the application.

For more information see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032366074&culture=en-US

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TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft SoftGrid Virtual Application Advanced Sequencing

In this lab, you will walk-through performing a Virtual File System (VFS) installation of an application as well as a sequencing of a web-based plug-in. Before working on this lab, you should be familiar with the basic concepts of the SoftGrid environment.

For more information see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032345999&culture=en-US

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TechNet Virtual Lab: Using Microsoft SoftGrid Sequencer to Package and Install an Application and Implement an Updated Package using Active Upgrade

After completion of this lab, you will be more familiar with performing a standard sequence of an application, publishing the application to test in the SoftGrid system, and also performing an active upgrade to the application. Before working on this lab, you should be familiar with the basic concepts of the SoftGrid environment.

For more information see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032346000&culture=en-US

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TechNet Virtual Lab: SoftGrid Application Virtualization- Publishing

After completing this lab, you will be better able to publish an application in the SoftGrid environment, stream and test the application, and perform an active upgrade of the application.

For more information see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032366076&culture=en-US

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TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft SoftGrid General Troubleshooting

In this lab, you will learn how to troubleshoot sequenced applications using common utilities. After completing this lab you will be able to create a package troubleshooting environment, use File Monitor to repair a package that is missing file(s), and use Process Monitor to add registry keys.

For more information see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032367800&culture=en-US

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J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Microsoft has released a Best Practices guide for Application Virtualization or SoftGrid v.4.2 app sequencing that was compiled from the MCS group.  Here are some of the highlights in the first two sections followed be the TOC’s.  There is far too much information to be effectively summarized here.  Great work!

Get your pdf copy here and your xps copy here.

Highlights of the Sequencer setup recommendations

• Sequence on a machine that is the oldest OS that the sequenced app will run on.
• If Office is part of your base image, install it on your Sequencer.
• Create an ODBC DSN setting as part of your Sequencer’s base images.  This will keep you from virtualizing all the ODBC DSN registry keys in the event the app you are sequencing creates any ODBC settings.
• Create a fake printer as part of your Sequencer’s base image.
• Everyone knows to create the Q drive on a separate partition right???  Everyone nod Yes..
• Put your %TEMP% directories and scratch directories on different physical drives for better performance while sequencing an app.
• Make sure you turn off all those auto start programs on your sequencer box.  Like your AV client, Adobe speed launcher, and search programs, Explorer, anti-spyware programs.

Highlights of recommendations for sequencing

• Know the app you are going to sequence.  Know if there are dependencies on other apps, know the install process, know if there are post install processes you have to complete. 
• Document all the above (commonly called a recipe) so someone else can do this or so you remember what to do when you finally get back to sequencing the app.
• Put relevant comments about the sequencer into the comments filed, your name, date, OS, SP, apps as part of the base sequencer image.
• Yes, you still need to use the 8.3 directory names.
• Configure and test the sequenced app during the Install phase.  If you make changes to the preferences as part of your normal install of the app, do it when you sequence the app as well.  And make sure the app runs as normal before you seal it, get rid of any registration dialogs or other annoying things the app does the first couple of times it runs.
• Don’t stop the monitor until all apps have been installed. 

Here is the rest of the TOC so you can see what else this guide includes.

Gauging Applications for Sequencing…………………………………………………………………………………. 20
Sequencing Limitations …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 21
Sample Sequencing ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
Package Configuration……………………………………………………………………………………………. 22
Application Wizard …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
Saving the Package …………………………………………………………………………………………. 25
Application Package Upgrade………………………………………………………………………………….. 25
Compression of the SFT …………………………………………………………………………………………. 27
Advanced OSD Scripting ………………………………………………………………………………………… 27
Advanced Sequencing Techniques …………………………………………………………………………………….. 34
Sequencing Applications That Cannot Install to Q:\ …………………………………………………….. 34
Sequencing Web Based Applications ……………………………………………………………………….. 35
Sequencing for an OS other than the one required by the application. ………………………….. 35
Sequencing applications that require access to local devices and or resources ……………… 36
Sequencer Log Files ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 36
Finding Additional Information …………………………………………………………………………………………… 36
Error Codes and the Microsoft Knowledge Base ………………………………………………………… 36
SoftGrid Team Blog ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 37
SoftGrid Product Documentation ……………………………………………………………………………… 37
SoftGrid Related Technical Discussion Forums and Web Sites ……………………………………. 37

Related links:

App-V version 4.5 from the Connect site.

What’s New in 4.5

SMS and SoftGrid together

Webcasts

App-V on TechNet

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen