Kurt Shintaku's Blog

In case you missed it, a couple days ago, we published the drivers for Surface Book for download:

Cumulative and current firmware and drivers for the Surface Book. This firmware and driver package contains drivers for all of the components in the Surface Book, as well as updates to the system firmware that have been released via Windows Update. These drivers and firmware are compatible with Windows 10, including Enterprise versions. The driver MSI and ZIP files include all of the drivers and firmware needed to deploy custom images of Windows on your Surface devices. Additionally, the WinTab driver is provided for those professionals needing WinTab compatibility with certain Surface Pen enabled applications.

• SurfaceBook_Win10_151102_0.msi 168.6 MB
• SurfaceBook_Win10_151102_0.zip 704.1 MB
• Wintab-1.0.0.20-64-bit.zip 4.5 MB

Use these drivers and firmware to prepare your custom images for enterprise deployment, or to repair problems with custom installations of Windows on your Surface Book. These drivers and firmware are compatible with Windows 10, including Enterprise versions. The ZIP file allows you to selectively install or deploy individual drivers. The MSI will install all relevant drivers automatically. Additionally, the WinTab driver is provided for those professionals needing WinTab compatibility with certain Surface Pen enabled applications.

• RELEASE: Surface Book Drivers and Firmware
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49497

There’s an old article posted on our Wiki on how to do an auto-repair of Windows in the event you suspect some form of OS corruption – and it’s particularly simple but effective with Windows 10.

It involves using two tools:

• System file check (SFC)
• Deployment Image Servicing & Management (DISM)

Again, despite being written in 2013, this article works for Windows 10 and is particularly useful for scenarios when Windows appears to be behaving badly for totally unknown reasons.  If you’re an IT Professional or even if you’re just a geek Windows jockey, I encourage you to keep this post in your back pocket.

• POST: Windows Community: System file check (SFC) Scan and Repair System Files & DISM to fix things SFC cannot
  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-update/system-file-check-sfc-scan-and-repair-system-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93

I also found a tool that orchestrates the usage of SFC & DISM, called SFCfix.  It appears to automate the steps outlined above.

• SFCfix: Automatic SFC Corruption Repair
  http://thetechcookbook.com/automatic-sfc-corruption-repair-sfcfix-exe/
• More of the usage of SFCfix
  http://www.ghacks.net/2015/11/06/sfcfix-comes-to-the-rescue-when-sfc-scannow-cannot-repair-windows-file-corruption/

This is a quick post that I wanted to make sure made it to the blog: Have you ever used OneDrive for Business from Office 365 (the Click-to-Run media) and saw an “!” next to the OneDrive for Business icon in the System Tray.

When you investigate Sync Errors, you see that you’ve received the error “Credentials needed” on your files. While looking through the Internet for a resolution – specifically for the Office 365/Click-to-run version of OneDrive for Business (not the .MSI installable version), I came across a brief mention of there potentially being something wrong with the cached credentials in Windows’ Credential Manager.

SOLUTION: CLEAR CREDENTIAL MANAGER
I have no idea which credential it was but I went into Control Panel – Credential Manager and basically deleted any credentials I had in there. Lo-and-behold, after a reboot the Sync Errors had disappeared and everything was fine with OneDrive for Business.

If you’re having the same problem with the Office 365 OneDrive for Business, try this as a solution.

SOLUTION: LOG IN TO ONEDRIVE FOR BUSINESS FROM THE WEB
Another possibility that’s worked for me in the past when using the old OneDrive for Business client, is to go to my OneDrive for Business site via Internet Explorer, logging in, then stopping & starting the OneDrive for Business client.  There’s two ways of doing this:

1. LOGIN USING YOUR ONEDRIVE FOR BUSINESS URL
   Go to OneDrive for Business directly.  This is usually “https://companyname-my.sharepoint.com/personal/username_companyname_onmicrosoft_com” or “https://companyname-my.sharepoint.com/personal/username_companyname_com”
2. LOGIN TO OFFICE 365
   Go to the general login page for Office 365.  This is “https://login.microsoftonline.com/”
   To verify that you can access OneDrive for Business, you can hit the “grid” icon in the upper lefthand corner and select “OneDrive”.

The OneDrive for Business client may start syncing on it’s own if you wait.  Alternatively, you can EXIT the systray tool and restart it from the START menu.

—————————
MORE ON FIXING ONEDRIVE FOR BUSINESS… FOR OFFICE 2013 SPECIFICALLY
Note: I’d also found some other articles – including those for Office 2013’s version of OneDrive for Business, which is handled differently from the OneDrive for Business that comes with Office 365.  Here’s some of those posts:

Fix OneDrive for Business Sync Problems
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Fix-OneDrive-for-Business-sync-problems-e12c6a8b-4bbe-4391-9c23-1a52b55a1967
October 21, 2015, update for Office 2013 (KB2986219)
Fixes the following issue:   After you install October 13, 2015, update for Office 2013 (KB3085566), you can’t synchronize files by using the OneDrive for Business client, and you receive the following error messages instead of an option available to enter your credentials.
Credentials needed
Please enter your credentials
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2986219

—————————
SHAREPOINT/ONEDRIVE CONSTANTLY SYNCING?
If you’re having issues with the OneDrive for Business client CONSTANTLY syncing and never completing, you may want to look at this post:

• INFO: SharePoint document library won’t stop/continuously attempts to sync
  https://kurtsh.com/2016/05/20/info-sharepoint-document-library-wont-stopcontinuously-attempts-to-sync/

I stumbled upon something that may be interesting to you.  (It was for me)  It’s called the Search Engineers blog, an active blog on very technical search topics from Premier’s search-centric team members.

RARE SKILLS
This is kind of a big deal in my mind.  Enterprise Search is sort of a dark art and many people don’t know how to tune the SharePoint Search engine, much less build out search workflows that align with business processes.

The team apparently originates from both the SharePoint side of the house as well as our long-ago FAST Search acquisition.  The bottom line is that it’s a warehouse of Enterprise Search experts that Microsoft enterprise customers can tap through their Premier Support & Services contracts.

Check out the blog.  It’s VERY interesting… at least to SharePoint Search tuners & jockeys:

• On Search: Microsoft search experts on all things search (searchengineers@microsoft.com)
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/onsearch/

The Azure cloud platform has been built from the ground up to be an open platform, and currently 1 in 4 Azure virtual machines is powered by Linux and 60% of the solutions in Azure marketplace are Linux based. Today we are announcing another significant step forward in our ongoing openness efforts and support for Linux on Azure, and I am pleased to inform you that we have entered into a partnership with Red Hat to provide joint, enterprise grade support on Azure for a breadth of Red Hat solutions. Key elements of the partnership include:

• Red Hat solutions available natively to Microsoft Azure customers. In the coming weeks, Microsoft Azure will become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider, enabling customers to run their Red Hat Enterprise Linux applications and workloads on Microsoft Azure. At this time, Red Hat Cloud Access subscribers will be able to bring their own virtual machine images to run in Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure customers can also take advantage of the full value of Red Hat’s application platform, including Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform; Red Hat JBoss Web Server; Red Hat Gluster Storage; and OpenShift, Red Hat’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. Also, in the coming months, Microsoft Azure and Red Hat plan to provide Red Hat On-Demand— “pay-as-you-go” Red Hat Enterprise Linux images available in the Azure Marketplace, supported by Red Hat.
• Integrated enterprise-grade support spanning hybrid environments. Customers will be offered cross-platform, cross-company support spanning the Microsoft Azure and Red Hat offerings in an integrated way, unlike any previous partnership in the public cloud. By co-locating support teams the experience for customers will be simple and seamless.
• Unified workload management across hybrid cloud deployments. Red Hat CloudForms will integrate with Microsoft Azure and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, offering Red Hat CloudForms customers the ability to manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux on both Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure. Support for managing Azure workloads from Red Hat CloudForms is expected to be added next year, extending the existing System Center capabilities for managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• Collaboration on .NET for a new generation of application development capabilities. Expanding on the preview of .NET on Linux announced by Microsoft in April, developers will have access to .NET technologies across Red Hat offerings, including OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, jointly backed by Microsoft and Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be the primary development and reference operating system for .NET Core on Linux.

For more information:

• Visit the Microsoft and Red Hat landing page here and view the announcement webcast by Microsoft’s Scot Guthrie and Red Hat’s Paul Cormier.
• Attend (or watch a recording) of a technical webinar on running Red Hat solutions on Microsoft Azure.
• Go here to learn more about our overall Microsoft open cloud approach and join our social blog.

Today, I learned that the charger for the Surface Book outputs a much high amperage than the Surface Pro 3. 

• The Surface Pro 3 power supply/brick operates at 12V & 2.53A = 30.36W
• The Surface Book power supply/brick operates at 12V & 4A = 48W

This is a big deal:  Despite looking nearly identical to another – including the connector to the Surface itself – the rate of charge is dramatically higher using the Surface Book charger because of the higher wattage outputted. 

There’s a couple ways to tell which power supply is which if you own both:

1. The Surface Book’s power characteristics (Output: 12V & 4A) are listed on the power supply in tiny, tiny print.  If you’re old like me, this can be hard to read
2. The Surface Book power supply has a holographic sticker on there that reads “Windows”.  The Surface Pro 3’s power supply has a stick that reads “Windows 8”.

Bottom line: If you’re gonna grab a power supply to take on the road, the Surface Book’s 4A power supply is the one you’re gonna wanna take.

This is sitting on my kitchen table right now.  This is the package I bought:

Surface Book with Core i7/16GB GDDR5 RAM/512GB SSD/discrete Nvidia GPU and new Surface Pen, and the new Surface dock.

Notice the two extra Surface pens.   That’s because they work on the Surface Pro 3 and 4 – which I’m also getting or already have.  This means the tail eraser works. I bought them because I know I’ll probably lose one of them – I’m so irresponsible.  Also I don’t believe that the extra tips come with the pen that comes with the Surface Book, but they do come with the extra pens.

A WORD ABOUT THE NEW SURFACE PEN
I actually had to read the instructions to figure this out but there’s a new pairing feature of sorts. 

• Press & hold the eraser for 5 seconds and a little light on the side of the pen will begin flashing.
• Hold the pen tip to the Surface screen for 10 seconds to pair it to the Surface.

You can also pair it using the normal Bluetooth pairing technique through Control Panel.

A NOTE ABOUT COMPLETE FOR BUSINESS
It turns out there is a new Complete warranty type being offered by the Microsoft retail stores called “Complete for Business”.  

There’s some sort of detail where if you get the dock and Complete for Business – which has THREE YEARS of warranty coverage – they will discount the package by something like $60.  I didn’t even know about this bit but was glad I heard about it while I was there.

EXTRA SURFACE STUFF… FREE! (FOR MICROSOFT RETAIL STORE BUYERS)
One more benefit of picking up your Surface from the store:  Apparently if you get it at the retail store, you also get a free Surface T-shirt, a free Surface case (looks like it’s for the power supply), a 8GB USB flash drive, and a coupon for 10% off Surface accessories until Nov 24^th. 

This may be a limited time offer thing though so don’t hold me to it.

Taken from the page:

The moment we have all been waiting for is almost here! We invite you to join us at the Halo 5 Launch and Celebration, beginning at 6:00 PM PT on October 26 at the Westfield Century City Microsoft Store.

We’re pulling out all the stops for the biggest game launch party of the year. We will kick off the night with free, early game play of the most dramatic Halo story. We will have live broadcast shout-outs throughout the event along with on-site gamer-relevant talent such as 343 developers, voice talent, and the 405th regiment to answer questions and sign autographs. If you pre-order Halo 5: Guardians or make a purchase of $25 or more, you could receive a limited edition poster only available on launch day. We…’ll even have a giant Master Chief Helmet Installation, augmented reality photo experience, Halo-inspired food and beverages, and live music.

As an extra bonus, we will be having raffles throughout the event including a Halo 5 Xbox One console grand prize and more. Plus, you will have the opportunity to enter our sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip for 2 to Seattle, lunch with Major Nelson, and exclusive behind-the-scenes Xbox experiences.

Monday, October 26
4:00 PM PT – Halo 5 Launch and Celebration lineup begins
6:00 PM PT – Halo 5 Launch and Fan Celebration begins
9:00 PM PT – Halo 5: Guardians game pick-up

See rules and FAQs: msft.it/Halo5laFAQ

Taken from Halo Waypoint:

Meet voice-over actors from the game, including Darren O’Hare (Lasky), Q&A with key 343 Industries developers and surprise celebrity guests. Fans will also have a chance to appear on the Halo 5: Live broadcast throughout the night…

Lineup begins at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 26, with doors opening at 6 p.m. More details on the Microsoft store Facebook page

Register here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/192177014448409/

Are you a developer?  Get ready for the next Microsoft Connect event!

It all started here – are you ready for what’s next?

A year ago Connect(); started the journey for a new Microsoft for developers, unveiling the future of an open source .NET on Linux and Mac, and a free Visual Studio for targeting any device and any OS.

Join us this year to hear directly from Scott Guthrie, Brian Harry, and Scott Hanselman on what’s next in this exciting journey. Get deeper insights into our exciting announcements with over 30 on-demand sessions. Interact with the engineering team members behind Microsoft tools and technologies to help you get started.

Developer keynotes & technical sessions will all be available streaming live so register for this exciting event!

• DATES:
  November 18, 2015 – 10:00AM-4:00PM Eastern
  November 19, 2015 – 11:00AM-7:00PM Eastern
• REGISTRATION:
  https://www.visualstudio.com/connect2015

Halo fans:  Are you ready for a full dose of the feels?

343 Industries has made available the entire 39 track soundtrack from Halo 5: Guardians (written by Kazuma Jinnouchi) available to listen to on SoundCloud, leading off with Track 01:  Halo Canticles.

And we all know what that is.

• RELEASE: Halo 5: Guardians (Original Game Soundtrack)
  https://soundcloud.com/343ndustries/sets/halo-5-guardians-original-game-soundtrack