Hello Folks,
I’m still using Windows 8 as my main production machine and I’m still very happy with it. I did find more resources and more documentation on the things I need to do on a regular basis.
1- Full Keyboard shortcut listing.
2- Closing metro Apps.
Cheers!
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you already know that we released the Windows 8 Consumer preview and the Windows Server “8” Beta on February 29th.
Now we’ve just published the new “Windows Server “8” Beta Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster” on the download center.
Please feel free to get your own copy.
Here is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29189
As always, the following blog can be used to access all the posters and to make you can access all the previous posters in one place. Feel free to share the blog with your staff : http://blogs.technet.com/b/theposterguy/.
Cheers!
(Keep in mind I wrote this before I left for Mexico. Just never got a chance to post it.)
WOW!
The original of this video is here. (
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows-8/consumer-preview)
That about sums it up.
I’m using a Lenovo W510 as my day to day production machine. its heavy but it has muscle. Here are my specs:
The performance of this machine is always been great and it probably does not compare well to most laptops in the wild. I have to admit that I love the 16GB of RAM when running VM.
Metro UI
Using the touch screen on my laptop for the Metro is challenging because the bezel is raised a bit and interferes with the smooth swipe movement from every side. So I mostly use the mouse.
I love the Metro UI as a start menu a lot more than i thought I would. I’ve organized it to show the programs i use the most to be on the left side so they always show up first. I pin all document/info that I access everyday to the Metro UI to the right. (some info has been redacted to comply with my Non-Disclosure agreements) So far it works very well.
If I need an app that’s not on my menu, I simply start typing the name and it shows up. (just like the old start menu on Windows 7) such as the Problem Step Recorder (I don’t use it all the time so i don’t pin it to the start menu.
I found that I got used to it very quickly especially after figuring out a lot of the keyboard shortcuts that make navigating Metro much easier when using a keyboard.
Here are some of the ones I’ve found very useful.
Win + Spacebar : Switch the input language and keyboard layout
Win + C : Open the Charms
Win + D: Show the desktop
Win + E: open Windows Explorer
Win + F: Open the Search panel
Win + H: Open the Share charm
Win + I: Open the Settings charm
Win + K: Open the Connect charm
Win + L: Lock the computer
Win + Q: Open the search pane
Win + R: Open run
Win + W: Opens the Settings search panel
I have not used the on-screen keyboard yet, but i take it from my friend Mitch, that it’s very useful and intuitive. see his post here
Applications
This one is easy to describe in terms of experience. ALL MY APPS WORK! all the programs I have for my day job worked, first time, without arm twisting. everything I needed installed without any issues. I’m not saying EVERY APP will run. I’m saying all the ones I installed worked….
I can’t comment on the Windows Store since it’s not running in Canada yet.
Hyper-v on Windows 8
I no longer need to dual boot Windows 2008 R2 to be able to usedemo 64 bit operating systems since we now have a full fledge Hyper-v in Windows 8. My VM were exported from Windows 2008 R2 and imported in Windows 8 Hyper-v without issues.
Now we’re cooking with butter!!
So Far that’s all I’ve got to report. I did procure a 32gb USB key and I’m planning on giving Windows To-goa run for it’s money. So, now that I’m back from vacation back to work…
Cheers.
Hello folks,
A customer ran into an issue this week and the first thing that was suggested was “Hey, I know, lets disable IPV6….”
Really?? No research, no questions? It’s easy! I’ve been told… Just go to the Ethernet Adapter setting and unbind the protocol.
WRONG!
Microsoft recommends leaving IPv6 enabled even when not in active use. if you really have to, you can. It is supported. but you have to do it the right way. We’ll cover that later in this post.
I wanted to talk about why it is not recommended to disable IPV6. First Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (and earlier) did not natively support IPv6. These OS’s require manual intervention to install and enable IPv6. Starting with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, IPv6 is installed and enabled by default. That was made possible because Microsoft redesigned and built the TCPIP stack using native IPv6. That’s why IPv6 cannot be uninstalled on these operating systems (or later ones), but it can be disabled 
Here is a extract from the IPV6 FAQ (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/cc987595.aspx)
Better yet! read Understanding IPv6 from Microsoft Press. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/book.aspx?ID=4883&locale=en-us
“From Microsoft’s perspective, IPv6 is a mandatory part of the Windows operating system and it is enabled and included in standard Windows service and application testing during the operating system development process. Because Windows was designed specifically with IPv6 present, Microsoft does not perform any testing to determine the effects of disabling IPv6. If IPv6 is disabled on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2008, or later versions, some components will not function. Moreover, applications that you might not think are using IPv6—such as Remote Assistance, HomeGroup, DirectAccess, and Windows Mail—could be.”
Did you read that? Microsoft products are not tested with IPv6 disabled. Disabling IPv6 places that host and application into a less-tested state. Which means we don’t know what you’re going to get!! if you contact the MS support center, they may ask you to re-enable it. In the end, leaving IPv6 enabled, even when not in use, does not impact production networks.
But if you ARE going to disable it….. DO IT RIGHT!
Like i said earlier, disabling it in the Properties of the NIC is NOT Recommended. When you do that a few things come into play:
This will introduce support issues. Things will start to break. There are known issues reported already. The product group do not perform any regression testing by keeping IPv6 disabled.
There is no easy way to manage “Unbind or “Bind” operation for IPv6 centrally. You need to go to each server locally to configure this setting. There is no GPO or scripted way to manage this configuration. In other words it is going to increase your administration overhead when you may wants to turn this setting on (Bind IPv6 again) the machines at the enterprise level.
OK OK… after all i just said if you still want to disable IPV6 here’s how you do it.
It is recommend using the DisabledComponents Registry Key to disable IPV6 it’s well documented in the following KB article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
The DisabledComponents key does not exist by default and must be created the KB tells you how to do that too…
So, create HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpip6ParametersDisabledComponents
Enter any one of the following values in the Value data field to configure the IPv6 protocol the way you want it
Of course you need to leave the IPv6 box checked in the NIC properties when using the DisabledComponents Key to disable it. And watch out for 6to4 address that may get generated automatically and get registered in DNS if the IPv4 address is defined in public range of addresses. if you’re running private addresses, don’t worry about it.
Individual transition technologies (ISATAP, 6to4, Teredo, IP-HTTPS) can be disabled individually via GPO on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher.
The policy is located here in the GPO:
•
I know some people have already mentioned using the firewall to bloc the traffic, well all i can tell you is that it’s not supported or recommended.
Now you know.
If you are considering this, take a really good look at why you’re trying to disable it. you might be introducing more issues that it’s worth.
That’s my IT 2 cents.
Chao!
MCITP, ITIL | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
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While participating in a discussion on LinkedIn (http://linkd.in/r3WJPl) where we were discussing what are the different processeshabits that people have in order to setup a newly acquired machine, i decided to document my own process. I personally use a mix of WinPE and ImageX to image the machine and that way preserve that new PC smell.
Here are the details:
to create the WinPE disk, Download the Windows Automated Install Kit from here (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136976) and install in on a workstation.
On that computer, click Start, All Programs, Windows AIK, right-click Deployment Tools Command Prompt, and then select Run as administrator.
In the command prompt type “copype.cmd x86 c:winpe_x86” to prepare the staging area.
In the command prompt type “copy c:winpe_x86winpe.wim c:winpe_x86ISOsourcesboot.wim” to copy the boot image to the staging area
In the command prompt type “copy “c:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsx86*.*” c:winpe_x86iso” to copy all the tools for manipulating the wim files to the staging area.
Now you need to create a Bootable a USB key. you can refer to an old post of mine that explains and shows the video on preparing the USB stick here (http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2009/02/16/windows-7-on-a-stick.aspx) or folow the steps below.
To prepare the USB key using the diskpart utility built-in to Windows 7.
now that the key is ready, copy the staging area to your key “Copy C:winpe_x86iso*.* /e D:” D: being the drive letter assigned to the USB key.
Your key is now ready. so boot your newly acquired PC (or any PC you need to capture) with the USB key we just created and once booted connect to the network share you want to use as your repository for the image.
in my case i use my home server so the command will be as follows “net use z: homepublic” you should be prompted for credentials, and once supplied the drive Z: will be mapped.
once mapped, it’s as simple as using the ImageX utility to capture your system partition to the network drive. the command line in my batch file looks like this, “imagex /capture d: z:newpclenovox61data.wim “lenovo x61″ /verify”
you can find more information on the ImageX command line structure here.
Once the process is finished, i have an image i can restore at any point should i need to.
I hope this helps.
Cheers.
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Microsoft Canada | Senior Technical Account Manager | pierre.roman@microsoft.com
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Hello Folks,
I meet a lot of you during the last TechDays season. And a few of you asked me if there were any information or guidelines for “tuning” servers. Well I found out that an old document has been updated and is just as relevant today as it was when it was just published back in June 2009.
This guide describes tuning parameters and settings that you can tweak to improve the performance and energy efficiency of your Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. It describes each setting and its potential effect to help you make an informed decision about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals.
After going through it i figured i have to tell the guys about this document. I know they will be interested.
The different workloads discussed in this whitepaper are :
download the white paper. Read it, Try the different setting and make that server hmmm like the performance machine it’s meant to be.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/s.stem/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx
Cheers!
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Microsoft Canada Co.| Senior Technical Account Manager| pierre.roman@microsoft.com
I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you a little story about my trip to the Halifax edition of TechDays 2009. The reason why it’s interesting is the fact that all IT pros at some point need to “demo” or talk about certain solutions. So we must always be prepared.
So here i am on Sunday morning trying to get quickly through security with 4 laptops, 3 external hard drives, a wireless access point and a bag full of cable. Quickly… yeah right…
Anyway, the security personnel were very puzzled as to why I carry so much hardware, so a discussion followed regarding TechDays 2009. They actually were very interested to talk about Windows 7 once they noticed all the stickers on one of my laptops.
Also because of the amount of hardware I had they made me turn them on. Which lead to more questions and impromptu demo of Windows 7 at the security counter. Other travelers were starting to gather around and we had very good discussion regarding performance, usability, simplicity.
The moral of this story is that when you’re the IT guy people will want to pick your brain about things that will make their lives easier and simpler. If you want to get prepared, check out the Windows 7 How-to videos that you can base you own demo experience on.
Be prepared there’s an impromptu demo waiting for you just around the corner….
Cheers!
_________________________________________________
Pierre Roman | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
Microsoft Canada
Hello folks,
Since Windows 7 Beta 1 became available i have been slowly upgrading all my machines. It started with my test box A Dell Latitude D830, followed by my production machine a Dell Latitude E4300. I thought to myself, WOW this rocks!!! so i went one step further and upgraded my Media Center PC. Boom, done working perfectly, no driver issues, simply flawless….
Hmmm… which one do I do next? The only two machines left are the family PC in the kitchen, or my wife’s laptop. That decision was very simple. My wife does not respond well to technological change. and i do not want to change anything on her setup these days since she is in the middle of a very important project at work that cannot be late.
Ok my decision was taken, DVD in hand i make my way to the kitchen…. Turn the machine on, hit the DVD button. It will not open!?!… hit the button again…. Still nothing. Logon to Vista, open explorer and right click the drive select “eject”…. Again, nothing. At that point my daughter walks by and says “oh yeah! That stopped working weeks ago”. After further investigation and interrogation it turns out when you forcibly shove the drive door shut when the PC is turned off, bad things can happen.
Anyway back to the topic at hand. What to do now. Hmm. The machine is fairly recent, it should be able to boot from a USB device. GOT IT! Build a image on a USB key to install Windows 7.
It turns out it was very easy to accomplish. let me show you.
Here you have it. Windows 7 on a stick.
go forth and deploy!
Cheers.
Pierre Roman, MCSE, ITIL| Microsoft Canada Co.| IT Pro Advisor | pierre.roman@microsoft.com
phone: 613-212-2370 | mobile: 613-715-2311
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The coolest thing to hit the “cloud” in recent history is now available to Canada, without wait list. You can now use the power of Live Mesh and have all your devices work together. Live Mesh puts you at the center of your digital world it seamlessly connects you to the people, devices, programs, and information you care about—available wherever you or your device happens to be.
Take it for a test drive and see for yourself. Live Mesh allows you to link (or Mesh) all your devices together so they can be aware of each other and share the same data.
This is a great example of the power of Software as a Service (SaaS). find out more about it here (http://www.mesh.com).
You can see the official announcement by Amit Mital for more details. You can also see the introduction of the technology by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, in a recorded interview here.
Add your devices and stop looking for that file you forgot on your home machine.
Cheers!
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
IT Pro blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn