Kurt Shintaku's Blog

We’re happy to announce the release of our newest free ebook, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Field Experience (ISBN 9780735695825), by Danny Hermans, Uwe Stürtz, Mihai Sarbulescu; Mitch Tulloch, Series Editor.

If you’re responsible for designing, configuring, implementing, or managing a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager environment, then this book is for you. This book will help you understand what you can do to enhance your Operations Manager environment, and will give you the opportunity to better understand the inner workings of the product, even if you are a seasoned Operations Manager administrator.

This book assumes that you have a deep working knowledge of the Operations Manager product and its concepts, that you understand the concept of management packs, and that you are basically familiar with Microsoft Azure as an infrastructure-as-a-service platform. This is a book about best practices, design concepts, how-tos, and in-depth technical troubleshooting. It covers the role of the Operations Manager product, the best practices for working with management packs, how to use the reporting feature to simplify managing the product, how to thoroughly troubleshoot, and how to use and install Operations Manager in a Microsoft Azure Public Cloud environment.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Field Experience
  http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/
  ebooks#9780735695825
• DOWNLOAD: Companion Content for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Field Experience
  http://aka.ms/OpsMgrFE/files

Here’s the announcement video from BUILD 2015 around the official naming of Project Spartan.  Lots more to come…  like how extensions from Chrome & Firefox can be ported with virtually no effort to Microsoft Edge.

BUILD 2015 is tomorrow!

This was a message sent to us from the much-beloved Steve “Guggs” Guggenheimer, Corp VP of Developer Experiences & Chief Evangelist:

The Build Developer Conference returns tomorrow to San Francisco’s Moscone Center West and we couldn’t be more excited to host developers and press from around the world for three days of immersive content and demos.  It all begins Wednesday at 8:30AM PDT with a keynote featuring Satya Nadella, Scott Guthrie, and Terry Myerson.  You can watch the keynotes, live session presentations and Channel 9 interviews from anywhere in the world and join in the conversation on Twitter, (the official hashtag is #Build2015).

At Build 2015, developers will get an up-close look at Microsoft’s platform story, told by many of the company’s senior executives and top technical leaders, over more than 160 sessions.  Partner app announcements, Microsoft product news and compelling demos will demonstrate our most recent capabilities and accomplishments achieved in enhancing the platform; while numerous technical sessions will host Microsoft’s top engineers and evangelists, diving deeply into the areas that matter most to developers.

Many of us spend the entire year looking forward to this incredible week, and the opportunity to make the most of this event for our company, our partners, and our customers.  The developers attending are our strongest advocates, travelling from around the world to participate and we owe it everyone in attendance to make every Build better than the last.

In addition to those who come in person, tens of thousands will watch online, both in real time and through recorded sessions.  To support this broad and diverse audience we’ve created a schedule that we believe will appeal to their interests and goals.  We’ll be showing them ways Microsoft is supporting their existing technology investments, the power of Windows, Office and Azure in a mobile-first and cloud-first world, and how our platforms can help support their business needs and opportunities.

DOWNLOAD THE BUILD APP!
If you are attending, make the most of this time by interfacing with our partners throughout the week.  Also make sure to download the Microsoft Build 2015 app, which allows you to browse session listings, synchronize your personalized schedule with Channel 9, stay connected throughout the event and submit evaluations afterward.  The app is also a great reference for information and resources related to the event.

GET INVOLVED & TUNE IN
If you are not attending Build, our Channel 9 team will broadcast keynotes, top sessions and interviews live throughout the event.  Developers and partners will be able to submit their questions online with a chance to have them answered live by me and a collection of other Microsoft leaders.  Updates and announcements can be found on the Build News Center.  All remaining sessions will be made available on-demand within about 24 hours of presentation time.

Keynote	Speakers	Date/Time
Day One	Satya/Scott/Terry	April 29 – 8:30 AM PDT
Day Two	Steven Guggenheimer/John Shewchuk/ Joseph Sirosh/David Treadwell/Kevin Gallo	April 30 – 8:30 AM PDT

COMING: THE BUILD ROAD SHOW
After this week, we will be taking our show to the world.  You are invited to come along for the ride and join us for the Build Tour, a collection of one-day events being held across the globe, making the Build experience a local one.  These free event will be delivered by Microsoft Technical Evangelists and engineers, coming to 23 cities worldwide.  Attendees will get a look at the Best of Build, including announcements and insights, a deep dive into the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform for app and web developers, coding sessions and exciting demos, partner showcases and open Q&A and face-to-face time with Microsoft engineers.  Visit http://www.build15.com for details.

The past year has witnessed Microsoft undergoing an exciting transformation and our spirits are high, as we continue to deliver on the vision of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.  We’d love for you to add to the conversation via your social networks, and invite you to participate in sharing Build content with the world, whether you are at Moscone with us this week, or elsewhere.  For live reporting on Twitter follow @msdev and the official hashtag, #Build2015.

Thank you in advance for your support of our mission and effort spreading the word about our exciting transformation.

Are you on Office 365/Exchange Online for email?

Have you received an email like this recently?

Well, it turns out everyone on Office 365 did.

If you would like the originator of the email (the From: field) to be something specific for your Enterprise organization (to avoid help desk calls or questions from confused end users), here’s an article around how to change the that field to something more IT friendly:

• TECHNET: Change the branding of Clutter notifications
  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn957583(v=exchg.150).aspx

Explore the technical aspects of Surface and learn how to plan for, deploy, manage, and support Surface devices in your organization.

• TECHNET: Technical Content for Surface 3 & Surface Pro 3
  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn903161

Here’s a sample of the Table of Contents:

Download
Get drivers for all of the components in Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro devices, as well as updates to the system firmware that have been released via Windows Update.

Get started with deployment
Find best practices to help you deploy Windows on Surface devices, and better manage those devices moving forward.

• Download the Surface Pro 3 Deployment and Administration Guide
• Plan for Surface deployment
• Find step-by-step deployment guidance
• Learn how to easily manage and keep Surface devices up to date

Stay informed
Keep up with the latest announcements, guidance, resources, and events for IT professionals managing Surface devices.

• Visit the Surface for IT Pros blog
• Find recent Surface and Windows 8.1 knowledge base (KB) articles

Find support
If you are trying to fix a hardware issue or searching for technical expertise, you can contact Surface warranty and software support:

• Call to submit an incident
• Microsoft Premier Customers: Submit an incident with Microsoft Premier Online

* Fees may apply. Customers opening incidents for hardware issues will not be charged unless the issue is determined to be outside of warranty coverage.

NOTE: There is a section specifically on configuring UEFI:

Advanced UEFI security features for Surface

• Manually installing the UEFI update
• Manually configuring additional security settings
• Automating additional security settings

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn965440

This is not new however I realized that I don’t actually have a post on this potentially very valuable feature within Office 365:  “Groups”

Accessible through https://outlook.office365.com, Groups for Office 365 give end users the ability to join/create groups that are applicable to services across Office 365.  Think of a grouping of users called “Workers on Project X” that can be:

• Message everyone in the group (like an Exchange Email Distribution List)
• Given permissions to a file folder using SharePoint Online (like a SharePoint Membership Group)
• View a single discussion’s threaded email history online to allow new members to get caught up (like a Yammer Group) and even interact with the discussion via your own personal inbox
• Share a schedule/calendar across the group (via SharePoint Calendars)

Office 365 Groups is accessible in the Outlook folder window online at https://outlook.office365.com

That’s what Groups is designed to do:  Solve the problem have having different grouping types across the entire Office 365 service.  These services were created with their own grouping systems but Office 365 Groups are designed to bring all of those together.

Read more about Office 365 Groups here:

• OFFICE BLOGS: Delivering the first chapter of Groups in Office 365
  http://blogs.office.com/2014/09/25/delivering-first-chapter-groups-office-365/
• SUPPORT: Find help about groups in Office 365
  https://support.office.com/en-US/Article/Find-help-about-groups-in-Office-365-7a9b321f-b76a-4d53-b98b-a2b0b7946de1?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
• WHITEPAPER: An End to End Experience with Groups
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45873
• ARTICLE: Exploring Office 365 Groups (Tony Redmond, Windows IT Pro)
  http://windowsitpro.com/office-365/exploring-office-365-groups

Overview of the new enterprise video streaming solution for Office 365. See how it works and how to use it.  Just published this month to reflect the complete solution.

Some folks mistakenly believe that Skype for Business was “just Lync 2013 renamed”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Here’s a list of capabilities that only Skype for Business has, that greatly differentiate it from Lync 2013, as written up by our Enterprise Voice Specialist, Christian Burke.

Skype for Business New Feature Matrix

UPDATE 8/10/16: Since the product is constantly evolving with Microsoft’s new cloud service delivery model, there is now a web page entitled, “What’s new in Skype for Business 2016?” that summarizes improvements made to Skype for Business since we initially released it.  At last check, there are published updates for Dec 1, 2015, Feb 9, 2016, & July 1, 2016.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-in-Skype-for-Business-2016-cece9f93-add1-4d93-9a38-56cc598e5781?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

I’m sure this is written somewhere else but I’ve gotten tired of having Read Mode as the default viewer for Word 2013 files. 

I NEVER, EVER, EVER use this mode.  I always switch to Print Layout as I am almost always editing the document I’m opening, and thus it makes no sense for this view to every be used for me, much less the default. (?!?)

To make Word documents open in the “Print Layout” view instead of “Read Mode” when you first open the document, within Word 2013:

1. Open a new document
2. Click File –> Options
3. Uncheck the box under “General”, “Start Up options” that reads:
   ”Open e-mail attachments and other uneditable files in reading view”
4. Click Okay.

We have received feedback that customers want to include the Surface App (formerly Surface Hub App) to their custom Windows 8.1 image without going to the Windows Store.

Today we are solving this issue, by making the Surface App available over the Microsoft Download Center.

Customers can now download the Surface App, and make the App part of their own custom image – without the need of a Microsoft Account or access to the Windows Store.

• DOWNLOAD: Surface App (for image deployment)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46703
• TECHNET: Installing Surface App
  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn705824.aspx