Kurt Shintaku's Blog

We keep talking about how Microsoft is entering a New Era.  This is usually in the context of our shift to a company focusing on devices & services.  But apparently this applies to Microsoft in more than one way.

Here’s something that I never thought I’d see:

That’s Microsoft Corporate VP of Windows Devices, Panos Panay, hugging ZDnet blogger & Microsoft reporter, Mary Jo Foley, who is mentioned immediately before Panos refers to a funny hypothetical situation involving the media.  (And if you look carefully, you can see Windows expert & all-around-curmudgeon Paul Thurrott to the right, facing her and laughing as she holds Panos’ locked down Surface 2 which contains the Surface product roadmap for the next 3 years)

My how times have changed.

But then again, there’s been other things announced recently that I only thought would happen when pigs flew.  In the meantime, check out a rather humorous & historic moment at 44:50 in the Surface 2 On-Demand Launch video below.

• VIDEO: Surface 2 Launch Event – On-Demand
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/surface/surfaceevent.aspx

As many of you know, Oracle Openworld was held this week in San Francisco. Below, is a link to Brad Anderson’s keynote address which outlines the Microsoft Oracle partnership in more detail and also speaks to the opportunity for Microsoft customers to leverage a singular cloud platform supporting multiple workloads.

• Brad Anderson’s keynote address at Oracle Openworld
  http://medianetwork.oracle.com/video/player/2689606459001

What was announced by Microsoft:

• Microsoft is offering a preview of license-included Windows Server virtual machine images running Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java Development Kit. You can download it now here.
• Oracle is also offering bring-your-own-license Oracle Linux virtual machine images running Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server in Windows Azure

What was announced with Oracle?

• Fully-supported Oracle software, including Java, Oracle Database, and Oracle WebLogic Server, on both Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure.
• A Windows Azure preview of license-included Windows Server virtual machine images running Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java Development Kit.
• Bring-your-own-license Oracle Linux virtual machine images running Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server – published to the Windows Azure image gallery by Oracle.

What is being announced with Azul Systems & MS Open Tech?

• Free and open source technology preview for Azul Systems Zulu: OpenJDK for Windows Azure
• Offering is based on the Java 7 SE OpenJDK implementation and has passed all Java certification tests in the Java SE 7 version of the OpenJDK Community TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit)
• Supports Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 on Azure
• Simplified deployment of Java applications on Windows Azure through the existing Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java

Read more here:

• Oracle OpenWorld 2013: Oracle’s Mission-critical Software and Microsoft’s Enterprise-grade Cloud
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/09/24/oracle-openworld-2013-oracle-s-mission-critical-software-and-microsoft-s-enterprise-grade-cloud.aspx)

PROBLEM:
When opening a rights-managed email within Outlook, have you ever seen an error with Windows Rights Management on your desktop that reads:

“You do not have permission to open this message.”

And this occurs even though you know should have permission to access the email.

Or maybe when you attempt to “Connect to server to download rights management templates” from within an email message or an open Word document, you either get NO RESPONSE or you get the following error dialog:

“To use content with restricted permission you must reinstall and repair the Windows Rights Management components.  If the problem continues, contact your administrator.”

SOLUTION:
This took a while for me to dig up internally here at Microsoft so I figured this might be useful for others to know.

OUTLOOK 2013:
The following troubleshooting steps (below) resolved my issue for Outlook 2013.  More specifically, the specific resolution was using the following command using an admin elevated command prompt:

rd /q /s "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSIPC"

After a quick restart of Outlook, I was able to not only open rights managed emails but also create rights managed content throughout Office. Yay!

OUTLOOK 2010:
I’m told that Outlook 2010 is slightly different.  I’ve never tried this since I don’t run Outlook 2010 but for those interested:

1. Go to the path:
c:\users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\DRM

2. Delete all the contents under the folder DRM except for the folder “cc” under it.

3. Restart Outlook

Yesterday, our CEO, Steve Ballmer delivered Microsoft’s message to financial analysts.  During the presentation he “clarified” where Microsoft stands in terms of ongoing profit & investor return.

If you really want to understand Microsoft’s business, may I recommend following the money?  This is where you’ll get real insight into Microsoft’s present & future business.

For example, Microsoft sells on volume:  We’re pretty good at it & we do this across 12 different $1B businesses, diversifying how we make money.  See the graphic to the right.

And by the way, I have the say, the slide below presented by Steve is awesome.  And it’s just a taste of what’s in the video recording.  Have look see.

• VIDEO: Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting
  http://www.microsoft.com/investor/Events/FAM/2013/default.aspx

We will be holding the next meeting of the Southern California System Center Users Group at Microsoft in Irvine.

If you’re interested in participating, you’re welcome to join. The agenda & presentation will be delivered by Microsoft Datacenter specialists along with community members leveraging Windows Server & System Center technologies.

We currently have over 25 people registered from various businesses in SoCal so this should be an interesting discussion amongst birds-of-feather.

AGENDA: (September)

• System Center and Windows Server 2012 R2 Overview
  Join us to learn about the news features coming in System Center and Windows Server 2012 R2- Preview. Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview and System Center 2012 R2 Preview offer a great foundation for our customers to deliver private and hybrid cloud services to their constituents. Learn more about how to make it easy and cost-effective to set up on-premises or hosted cloud infrastructure while meeting critical multi-tenancy, manageability and chargeback requirements. This will includes the following : Service Manager, Operations Manager, Orchestrator, Virtual Machine Manager, App Controller, Configuration Manager, and Data Protection Manager.
• Windows Azure Pack
  With the Windows Azure Pack, Microsoft is bringing Windows Azure Web Sites to the private cloud. By enabling easy provisioning, deployment, and administration of web sites, hosting service providers or enterprises can now deliver web platform services outside of Azure datacenters. Products covered include Windows Server, Windows Azure Pack, IIS, Application Request Routing, Web Deploy, and Web Farm Framework.

Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Please be aware that the Microsoft office does not provide parking validation.

DATE:
Monday, September 23, 2013 from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (PDT)

LOCATION:
Microsoft Irvine Office
3 Park Plaza Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

REGISTRATION:
http://mscscug-irvine-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Q: What’s the point of having touch on a laptop display? 

If you’ve ever had a laptop with a touch screen, you’ve probably had the experience of working on a non-touch laptop and intuitively reaching out to the screen to “scroll” down a page, then laughing at yourself when it doesn’t work & resolving to have to find the mouse to accomplish the same task.

But that’s exactly it:  Why’d you reach out to touch the screen?  Why didn’t you instinctively reach for the mouse or press the down arrow on your keyboard instead?

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH NATURAL USER INTERFACE
It’s simple:  Because it’s faster, easier, and more natural to touch a screen when your hands aren’t already on the mouse/keyboard.  The fact is that we don’t always have our hands on the keyboard or the mouse, and during the times when we don’t, by reaching out to the screen and scrolling, we eliminate the process of changing our mind’s context, if ever so slightly, to first suddenly having to find the mouse or the down arrow on the keyboard and then refocusing on the screen to scroll/zoom/slide to where we want.

The simple elimination of this “locate-the-mouse” step is not just gratifying in it’s embrace of the natural user experience – it’s actually more productive, if for just that moment, and our mind’s subconsciously recognize this & appreciate the ease by which we were able to accomplish the scrolling, sliding, zooming, or whatever it is we needed to do on the display.

Personally, I believe this little bit of productivity allows people to work for longer periods of uninterrupted time.

KEYBOARD & MOUSE JOCKEYS:  LET IT GO
I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch (touchscreen laptop) and the freedom to touch the screen and scroll/zoom/slide, as I mentioned, is actually a productivity enhancer.  You know it’s more productive when you use it… you just can’t put your finger on why.

It’s all about eliminating context changes while working.  Refocusing on the mouse.  Refocusing on the display.  Refocusing on the keyboard.  Instead, when you use your finger, you cut short that context change because your brain doesn’t need it.  It’s like a shortcut.

And the proof is in the pudding:  The number of people I’ve talked to that have actually made the transition to a touch laptop and laughed about being one of the “converted” are more than I can count.

This increased productivity during the workday is tangible and a sort of “secret sauce” of Windows 8-based laptops.  This is what a lot of people who cavalierly dismiss touch laptops don’t understand.

Please join us this Sunday, September 22^nd at 2pm for our Cre8tive Workshops Launch Event on Film Making.

Aspiring filmmakers will not want to miss actor and Academy Award winning director Adam Davidson as he debuts his digital short film in-store utilizing Windows Movie Maker. Adam is best known for his work as Director of The Lunch Date, which won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1991 and the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. He is a notable an in-demand director of many television series including Community (NBC), Friday Night Lights (NBC), Entourage (HBO), and True Blood (HBO).

While there, you’ll get an insider’s look at Hollywood filmmaking with an up close and personal exclusive Q&A with Adam. You can also register to attend a two hour hands-on Cre8tive Movies workshop where you’ll learn how to breathe life into a photographic story by adding motion. Using Windows Movie Maker, learn to bring together photos, videos, art, sound effects and music to make a vivid vibrant animated presentation. Get ready to write your very own Academy Award acceptance speech!

Register today!
http://content.microsoftstore.com/en-us/event/detail/westfieldcenturycity?eid=26793afa-410f-e311-87cf-00155d7d361b

You can also check us out on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/events/1413102112235422/

The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Windows application analyzes the threat landscape of exploits, vulnerabilities, and malware using the latest data from hundreds of millions of systems around the world and some of the Internet’s busiest online services.

Readers will find the data, insights, and guidance provided in this report useful in helping them protect their organizations, software, and users.  

Key features of the application include:

• All content, in one convenient place – includes all 800+ pages of content from Volume 14 of our latest report and is fully searchable.
• High fidelity charts – Many customers have asked us if they can obtain high resolution versions of the charts. We’ve delivered that in the application and have even included the “save as” functionality so that customers may use them in other applications, such as PowerPoint.
• Reader friendly – We’ve designed the application with you, the reader in mind. One example of this is the integration of our glossary into the body of a page which appear as mouse-over tool-tips.

More from the Security Intelligence Report at the main SIR web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/sir

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 14 Windows Application (8/13/13 – 18.9MB)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39929
• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 14 (PDF, Full report, 120 pages, 2.67MB)
  http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/0/F/E0F59BE7-E553-4888-9220-1C79CBD14B4F/Microsoft_Security_Intelligence_Report_Volume_14_English.pdf

Microsoft’s Virtual Academy has published a training course specifically for SysInternals Tools, including Process Explorer, ProcessMonitor, PS Tools, PsTools, Autoruns, etc.

Microsoft Premier Field Engineers step through a technical deep dive on utilizing SysInternals tools. This course focuses on key administrative and diagnostic utilities and addresses key insights, and best practices.

• TRAINING: Utilizing SysInternals Tools for IT Pros
  http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/utilizing-sysinternals-tools-for-it-pros

Q: What if Outlook had the artificial intelligence to automatically recognize & sort your emails into the right folders after you’ve read them?

Folks – that’s exactly what “SimplyFile” does.  After selecting an email within Outlook, it instantly examines:

• Subject line
• Individuals on the From:/To:/Cc: lines
• Content within the body
• Attachments

…and automatically shows you the NAME of the email folder on a button in the Outlook Ribbon that it believes the message belongs in.  If it’s correct, you simply press the button, and SimplyFile moves the email to the right folder. 

This process is shockingly accurate & quick.  SimpleFile does two things to figure out where email messages should be sorted:

• It INDEXES your email to identify & profile each folder.
• It LEARNS what messages belong to what folders based on where you manually move emails on your own

This is one of the most useful productivity tools I’ve ever used & it’s one of my “secret sauce” products that I use with Outlook to keep efficient.  It’s also something that you can only do if you’re a Outlook user.

• TRIAL:  TechHit’s SimplyFile – Email sorting plugin for Outlook 2007/2010/2013 (3rd party)
  http://www.techhit.com/SimplyFile/
  ($49.95 full version)

Note:  Some people are “filers” – individuals that file emails for archival & referencing later.  Others are “pilers” – individuals that let their inbox just pile up with 1000’s of emails and simply search for what they need.  This tool is obviously for filers so if you’re a piler, more power to you.  Outlook & it’s search folders are still a great tool for you.  But for those of you who are filers… rejoice.