Kurt Shintaku's Blog

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BUILD 2012 – Redmond, WA
Oct 30-Nov 2nd
http://www.buildwindows.com

REGISTRATION BEGINS AUGUST 8th.

BUILD 2012 is Microsoft’s developer conference specifically for the Windows platform. Topic include development information for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, Windows Phone, Visual Studio 2012 and more.

The 2012 event was announced yesterday on the Microsoft blog. Registration starts August 8th & we know this will sellout very quickly. For reference, the last BUILD event sold out in 1 week. This year, Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 / Windows Phone 8 will all be releasing making this event all the more crucial – and likely much higher attended.

CUSTOMERS: I’m posting this now because I will have no avenue to get you in if you miss this registration; if you intend on joining us for this event, please get your budgeting & approvals to attend done ASAP so that you can register immediately on the 8th. – ks

Contrary to what some evaluators have written, I believe it’s a great desktop OS.  It’s just that many folks haven’t figured out how to use it yet.  And that’s probably our fault.  Then again, that could be part of Microsoft Corporate’s master plan.  Notice that they don’t reveal much about anything with regard to Windows 8 until the very last minute.

Whatever.  Here’s a few points about using Windows 8 as a desktop OS that you might find interesting:

START BUTTON = ‘THE ATTIC’
There was an explanation made similar to  this as to “why we got rid of the START button”.  The answer was that in our usability testing, people just don’t really use it.  I personally know that that’s true for me:  I rarely use it. 

I actually have Shortcuts to applications in my Taskbar (or on the desktop) that allow me to run the shortlist of apps/tools that I use frequently… but rarely do I ever click on the START button for anything other than to go to Control Panel or Shutdown my PC.

The START button has ultimately become nothing more than ‘the attic’ for Windows apps.  It’s all the stuff you never use except once in a blue moon.  The programs in there are needed, no question, but they’re the digital equivalent of the “Christmas lights”, “High School memorabilia”, and ‘tools you rarely use’.

MOUSE = SLOW; KEYBOARD = FAST
This is a weird one so stay with me.  It has to do with the fact that people complaining about the disappearance of the START button are the very experts that are probably the most proficient & productive users of the Explorer interface and should probably be cheering the removal of the START button – not jeering it.

When you’re typing on your computer & have to navigate to another app, most people:

1. move their hand over to the mouse
2. discover where the mouse pointer is on the screen
3. navigate to the icon for that app & click it
4. move their hand back to the keyboard

What’s the alternative?  Instead of moving your hand over to the mouse:

1. try hitting the “WinKey”  (a.k.a. the Windows key on your keyboard)
2. type the 1st couple letters of the app you want & hit ENTER

Done.  Your eyes never lost focus on the screen or had to look for the mouse pointer, you kept your fingers on the keyboard & never had to relocate you hands to the mouse & back, and you got where you wanted to go.

And what about those that prefer the slower, more deliberate, point-and-click, using-the-mouse, UI metaphor of the START button?  These folks will appreciate the tiled, colorized, look & feel of the new START page.  Applications are represented by more than just icons, but ‘Live Tiles’ that provide information about the apps.  These folks will like the new START page – even though you might not.  How do we know this works?  Because it sure as heck didn’t slow down the iPad, did it?

TO BE CONTINUED…
There’s one more thing I’d like to point out about using Windows 8 that I think goes unnoticed in all this hubbub about the START button and the new START page.  I’ll post that in a separate post cuz it’s kinda long.

Join the SQL Server Security Baseline POC Review Lync Meeting and Share Your Feedback

The Security & Compliance team at Microsoft builds security baselines for Microsoft products, including Windows operating systems and Office applications. In response to your demand for SQL Server security baselines, we are developing them in a Proof of Concept (POC) that works in the  Microsoft Security Compliance Manager.

We will demonstrate this exciting new POC during an online meeting on Thursday, July 19, 2012. If you are looking to add SQL Server security baselines to your environment, this is a good opportunity to preview the SQL Server security baseline POC and provide your feedback.

If you have not used your computer to participate in a Microsoft Lync Meeting before, click the following link before the meeting to check your computer to ensure that you have all the required software installed in order to join the meeting and watch the POC demonstration.

• Date/Time:
  Thursday July 19, 2012, 11 A.M.–12 P.M. Pacific Time
  (2 P.M.–3 P.M. Eastern Time)
• Location:
  To access the online meeting, click the following link or join the meeting by phone using the conference ID.
  Join online meeting at  https://join.microsoft.com/meet/xtan/KW8DC8DC 
  Listen by phone at +14257063500 or +18883203585
  Or find a local number at  https://join.microsoft.com/dialin 
  Conference ID: 640645674

I’ve had this 1GB portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive for a while now.  I’ve always used it for backups and whatnot and never really paid attention to the connectors it used.

One day, I decided that along with my new Sony VAIO S laptop, I would buy a USB 3.0 hub so that I could have a USB 3.0 speed backup drive attached all the time when I got home and backup stuff at 5Gbps. (Wheeee!)  That’s when I noticed the cable connectors were… well… sort alien to me.

USB 3.0 Type-A
Here’s the connector & port that everyone knows:  The “blue” colored USB 3.0 connector.  It looks identical to USB 2.0 ports/connectors except the inside connector plate is the tell-tale SuperSpeed ‘blue’ color and the cable is labeled with an ‘SS’. 

USB 3.0 Type-A connectors are compatible with USB 2.0 ports, and vice versa, but anytime you’ve got the USB 2.0 connected to USB 3.0 peripherals, you’ll see the slower 2.0 data rates.  That’s easy enough to understand.

USB 3.0 Type-B
Here’s the more foreign port/connector that folks that have had stationary periperals like desktop drives, CD/DVD external chassis’, etc. may recognize a bit.  It’s the larger, more sturdier port connector that looks more square-ish and fits the back of larger devices like printers and such. 

Interestingly enough, USB 2.0 Type-B cables are compatible with USB 3.0 ports, (shuttling down their speed accordingly of course) but not vice versa.

USB 3.0 Micro-B
Now this is where it gets funky.  The Micro B connector is labeled with a “B”, has the tell tale ‘SS’ on it, and it has a very thin, short connector.  This has to be the single WORST connector every created and I can tell you from personal experience that if you can, you’ll want to avoid this connector.  Why?  Because it’s VERY easy to break/snap off into the drive/hub it’s plugged into, or worst, break the female port that it’s plugged into.  This is exactly what’s happened to me several times with this connector on hubs, drives, and peripherals.  If you have to use, it be very careful as it can be delicate.

So why’d they design it like this?  Well, it turns out for the same reason as I’ve mentioned above:  Compatibility with USB 2.0 Micro-B connectors.  A USB 3.0 cable can obviously (due to size) not be plugged into a USB 2.0 port, but a 2.0 cable can be used in a 3.0 port – and it’ll work, but at the slower data rate of USB 2.0.

Exchange Server 2013 Preview is now available for download along with it’s tech docs.  They describe the 2013’s release as focusing on the following:

• Remain in control, online and on-premises.
  Exchange Server 2013 enables you to tailor your solution based on your unique needs and ensures your communications are always available while you remain in control, on your own terms – online, on-premises, or a hybrid of the two.
• Do more, on any device.
  Exchange Server 2013 helps your users be more productive by helping them manage increasing volumes of communications across multiple devices and work together more effectively as teams.
• Keep your organization safe.
  Exchange Server 2013 keeps your organization safe by enabling you to protect business communications and sensitive information to meet internal and regulatory compliance requirements.

A WORD ABOUT EXCHANGE 2013 “DATA LOSS PREVENTION”
One capability that is not specifically mentioned by alluded to by the final bullet above is Exchange Server 2013’s new “Data Loss Prevention” functionality, an enhanced set of capabilities that enables an organization to effectively place a “filter” on all communications to avoid having the wrong data leave the company. 

It essentially is a set of services & administrative features that apply specific pattern matching & transport rules to email communications and allows administrators to templatize these “conditions” and “actions” sort of like Group Policy… but for email.  This allows to testing, packaging of policies, application to specific targets but not others, etc.

One thing to know is that this new DLP feature appears from what I’ve been able to gather to require Exchange Server 2013 Enterprise CAL, so a stock Exchange Server 2013 Standard CAL license won’t be enough.  You’ll need both Std & Ent CALs licensed to use this feature.

More on this capability is written about in the TechNet docs for Exchange Server 2013:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150527(v=exchg.150)

If you’re looking to try Exchange Server 2013 in your lab, the following is recommended:

1. Download the Exchange Server 2013 Preview installation bits
2. Review the System Requirements
3. Prepare your lab Active Directory environment
4. Install Exchange Server 2013 Preview in your Lab
5. Configure Exchange Server 2013 Preview in your Lab

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973395.aspx
• DOWNLOAD: Technical Documentation for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview, Exchange Online Preview, and Exchange Server 2013 Preview Hybrid Deployments (.CHM)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30338
• ONLINE:  Microsoft Technical Documentation for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124558(v=exchg.150)

A couple years ago, I attended CES like I always do ever year, and as I was walking from the buses on the South Hall side of the Las Vegas Convention Center, I saw these advertising/marketing pole wrappers that some company bought & set up:

It turns out it was one of those avant garde advertising campaigns that you so often see at large conventions.  Microsoft did one of the first of these crazy in memory back at COMDEX in 1988 with the release of Windows 3.0 (which I will write about in a separate post) so these sort of things bring back fond memories.

WHAT THE… THAT’S US!
But when I looked closer at the wrappers… it was us!

They were ads for Windows Home Server, a low-cost hardware+software solution for maintaining an on-premise network-based backup system for families with multiple computers.  It would automatically maintain the PCs in the house, automatically backup files, provide a means of remote controlling home workstations through remote proxy (from the Internet), and other capabilities.

Needless to say, it never caught on.  As stupid as it is, most consumers simply don’t think about backing up their data.  Why would they pay money to setup another computer to do that?  Also, OEMs didn’t exactly put their best foot forward in building innovative Windows Home Servers and the Best Buys of the world didn’t support them… so they were doomed to languish despite being extremely, extremely cool devices.

CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF WINDOWS HOME SERVER
Well this past week, it was announced that for a variety of reasons, that we were pulling the plug on Windows Home Server.  So in memory of our beloved Windows Home Server, I thought I would post the digital version of the chotchkie that we handed out at the CES booth that year.

We gave out these things called, “Stay-at-home Server” books.  They were real books, written as sort of a humorous  children’s literature.  To prove that they were “real” books, check out this entry on Amazon.com for the book.  Yes, you could actually buy this thing.  (Still can apparently as a used book)

• AMAZON:  Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? [Paperback]
  http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Why-There-Server-House/dp/160530641X/

Anyway, here’s the original .PDF of the book that used to be posted to the StayAtHomeServer.com web site. (as documented on the WHS blog here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/homeserver/archive/2007/12/07/mommy-why-is-there-a-server-in-the-house.aspx 

• DOWNLOAD:  Mommy, Why Is There A Server In the House?
  http://sdrv.ms/Pgep6p

Yes, you read that correctly.  We’re not referring to it as “Office 2013” however we are referring to the new applications as the “2013 Editions” of the products. 

The overall product is being aggregated into a set of subscription services that inherently incorporate Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud offering for home users, small business users, and professional/enterprise users. 

The solution includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access.

The highlighted capabilities are as follows:

Office at Its Best on Windows 8

• Touch everywhere. Office responds to touch as naturally as it does to keyboard and mouse. Swipe your finger across the screen or pinch and zoom to read your documents and presentations. Author new content and access features with the touch of a finger.

• Inking. Use a stylus to create content, take notes and access features. Handwrite email responses and convert them automatically to text. Use your stylus as a laser pointer when presenting. Color your content and erase your mistakes with ease.

• New Windows 8 applications. OneNote and Lync represent the first new Windows 8 style applications for Office. These applications are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. A new radial menu in OneNote makes it easy to access features with your finger.

• Included in Windows RT. Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which contains new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, will be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft Surface.

Office Is in the Cloud

• SkyDrive. Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.

• Roaming. Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.

• Office on Demand. With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.

• New subscription services. The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to exciting cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.

Office Is Social

• Yammer. Yammer delivers a secure, private social network for businesses. You can sign up for free and begin using social networking instantly. Yammer offers integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics.

• Stay connected. Follow people, teams, documents and sites in SharePoint. View and embed pictures, videos and Office content in your activity feeds to stay current and update your colleagues.

• People Card. Have an integrated view of your contacts everywhere in Office. The People Card includes presence information complete with pictures, status updates, contact information and activity feeds from Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

• Skype. The new Office comes with Skype. When you subscribe, you get 60 minutes of Skype world minutes every month. Integrate Skype contacts into Lync and call or instant message anyone on Skype.

Office Unlocks New Scenarios

• Digital note-taking. Keep your notes handy in the cloud and across multiple devices with OneNote. Use what feels most natural to you — take notes with touch, pen or keyboard, or use them together and switch easily back and forth.

• Reading and markup. The Read Mode in Word provides a modern and easy-to-navigate reading experience that automatically adjusts for large and small screens. Zoom in and out of content, stream videos within documents, view revision marks and use touch to turn pages.

• Meetings. PowerPoint features a new Presenter View that privately shows your current and upcoming slides, presentation time, and speaker notes in a single glance. While presenting, you can zoom, mark up and navigate your slides with touch and stylus. Lync includes multiparty HD video with presentations, shared OneNote notebooks and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming.

• Eighty-two-inch touch-enabled displays. Conduct more engaging meetings, presentations and lessons, whether in person or virtually, with these multitouch and stylus-enabled displays from Perceptive Pixel.

DOWNLOADS: 

• Install (Web Install)
• Office 365 Home Preview
  http://microsoft.com/office/preview
• Project 2013 Preview
  http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/preview/default.aspx
• Visio 2013 Preview
  http://visio.microsoft.com/en-us/pages/default.aspx
• Downloads (Manual install)
  • .MSI for Office ProPlus Preview
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973391.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_114_1_33
  • .MSI for Project 2013 Preview
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973401
  • .MSI for Visio 2013 Preview
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973399
  • Activating manually installed 2013 products (
    http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-activate-office-2013/ 
• Documentation
• Office Reviewer’s Guide
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/office/docs/OfficeRG.docx
• Deployment guide for Office 2013 Preview
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30388
• Fact Sheet for Office 365 Home Premium and Office Client
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/office/docs/OfficeHomeFS.docx
• Fact Sheet for Office 365 for Businesses and Office Servers
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/office/docs/OfficeServerFS.docx
• ‘Making the Switch’ Tutorials:
  • Making the switch to Word 2013
  • Making the switch to Excel 2103
  • Make the switch to PowerPoint 2013
  • Make the switch to OneNote 2013

VIDEO: Video announcement of new Office availability
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass

NEWS: Press Announcement for “The New Office”
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Jul12/07-16OfficePR.aspx

One of the coolest things a IT person should have in their toolkit is a big-ol’ USB drive that has a bunch of .ISO files on it that will allow you to install the operating system of your choice on to any computer.  The trick is getting the computer to boot up on your USB flash drive… then giving you the option to select what .ISO image to start.

For example: 

I have a single 16GB USB flash drive that has the .ISO images for:

1. Retail Windows 7 Ultimate + SP1 x86
2. Retail Windows 7 Ultimate + SP1 x64
3. Volume-licensed Windows 7 Enterprise + SP1 x86
4. Volume-licensed Windows 7 Enterprise + SP1 x64
5. Volume-licensed Windows XP Professional + SP3 x86

I’m able to boot up on this drive and I’m presented with the 8-bit menu similar to that which you see above that allows me to select what .ISO image to boot to.  The software then emulates a CD/DVD drive and mounts the .ISO for you automatically then boots the system up as if you were booting to a CD/DVD of the .ISO you selected.

Fortunately, this is actually really trivial to configure.  In order to produce such a drive that will allow you to select what .ISO file to mount and start up on at boot time, you need a tool called YUMI – aka “Your Universal MultiBoot Installer”.

YUMI is a standalone Windows-based executable that doesn’t require any installation.  It can even be run off of your USB drive itself.  Simply follow these steps:

1. Plug in your USB drive
2. Download the YUMI executable and run it.  Acknowledge the Terms of Use to continue.
3. Select the drive letter of the USB flash drive you plugged in earlier.
4. In the List, scroll all the way down the dozens of OS distributions to the section at the bottom entitled, “Bootable ISOs”.
5. Select “Try an Unlisted ISO”
6. Click on the “Brows to and select the ISO” text field and select the .ISO file of your choosing on your system.
7. Click the CREATE button.

If your USB drive is new, the YUMI setup program will:

• Make the USB drive bootable
• Install the YUMI boot/option software along with SYSLINUX and some other boot level emulation software necessary to allow you to boot to .ISO files
• Create configuration/menu entries for the .ISO you selected
• Copy the .ISO file to the USB flash drive
• Provide you with the option to return to the YUMI setup program to select another .ISO to add to your USB flash drive.

Once completed, you’re done.  If you want to go back later and add additional .ISO files to your USB drive, simply plug your USB drive in, run YUMI again, and select another .ISO file to add.  YUMI will automatically recognize that it’s been previously installed and will simply copy the .ISO over and make the necessary menu configuration changes to allow you to boot to the new .ISO.

• DOWNLOAD:  YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator tool (Windows)
  http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

NOTE: YUMI is a little convoluted in that it has a ton of provisions in there for installing/booting to Linux distributions.  If you don’t care about any of that and just want to focus on .ISOs, there are other tools like XBOOT that exist that focus exclusively on .ISO booting:

• DOWNLOAD: XBOOT – Multiboot ISO USB Creator (Windows)
  http://www.pendrivelinux.com/xboot-multiboot-iso-usb-creator/

Everyone has been in a situation where they’re about to make a major change to their system like a driver upgrade or a software install.  The safeguard has always been to make sure you have a System Restore Point to come back to in the even things go bad.

Navigating through Control Panel just to create a System Restore point is laborious. 

1. START—>CONTROL PANEL
2. SYSTEM
3. Click SYSTEM PROTECTION TAB
4. Click CREATE button

There’s two ways to make a shortcut on your desktop that will shorten the path to accomplishing the same thing:

SHORTCUT TO THE SYSTEM PROTECTION TAB:
Create a shortcut that points to the following:

%SystemRoot%\System32\SystemPropertiesProtection.exe

(Note that this still requires that you click the “CREATE” button.)

SCRIPT THAT AUTOMATES EVERYTHING:
Create a text file called “Script System Restore Point.vbs” that has the following content in it:

‘——————————————————
‘Create an instant System Restore Point under Windows 7
‘——————————————————
If WScript.Arguments.Count = 0 Then
  Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
  oShell.ShellExecute "wscript.exe", """" _
  & WScript.ScriptFullName & """ Run", , "runas", 1
Else
  Set oWshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   oWshShell.Popup "Creating a SystemRestore point. Please wait.", _
    2, "System Restore", 0
  swinmgmts = "winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore"
  GetObject(swinmgmts).CreateRestorePoint _
    "Manual Restore Point", 0, 100
  MsgBox "System Restore Point created", 0, "System Restore"
End If

This will automate the process end to end, requiring only a single click to create a System Restore Point.

Once again, Adobe Flash has me baffled.

This time it’s with the LeapFrog Connect, the software that is required to configure & upload software to the “My Own Leaptop”, “LeapPad”, the “LeapFrog Explorer”, among other LeapFrog electronic products for young children.

THE ISSUE:  LEAPFROG CONNECT WON’T RECOGNIZE MY INSTALLATION OF ADOBE FLASH PLAYER
So the LeapFrog Connect software requires Flash.  Fine – during it’s installation it says that it needs to execute the installation.  The only problem is that once the software states that Flash Player is required, it opens up Internet Explorer & sends you to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer and has you installing Adobe Flash Player 11 or whatever.  After verifying that the player works within the web page by displaying some sort of Flash animation, it returns you to the LeapFrog Connect software…

…and the LeapFrog Connect software promptly says, “Adobe Flash failed to install properly.  LeapFrog Connect cannot continue.”

THE PROBLEM:  WRONG FLASH PLAYER INSTALLED
I went through and uninstalled, and reinstalled, and then did what Adobe calls a FULL uninstall through a special Adobe Flash Uninstaller program.  But ultimately, it turned out that:

• I’m running Windows 7 64-bit Edition
• Windows 7 64-bit Edition has TWO versions of Internet Explorer available.
  • Internet Explorer 9.0 32-bit (x86)
  • Internet Explorer 9.0 64-bit (x64)
• LeapFrog Explorer uses Internet Explorer 9.0 64-bit & Adobe Flash Player x64
• 99% of the world uses, by default, Internet Explorer 9.0 32-bit

When a browser opens up, it opens up a 32-bit version of Internet Explorer 9.0 and installs the 32-bit version of Adobe Flash Player.

When you return to LeapFrog Explorer, it is using the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer 9.0 and requires the 64-bit version of Adobe Flash Player.

So naturally, the software thinks the installation of Adobe Flash failed since it still can’t see Flash.  It’s not that Flash hasn’t been installed however… it’s just that the wrong EDITION has been installed.

THE SOLUTION:  MANUAL INSTALLATION OF ADOBE FLASH PLAYER x64
You basically have to manually pop out to the desktop and run Internet Explorer 9.0 64-bit Edition manually and do the installation of the Adobe Flash Player for x64 manually.

1. Click START BUTTON –> All Programs –> Internet Explorer (64-bit)
2. Type http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer into the Address Bar of Internet Explorer when it comes up.
3. Follow the instructions during the installation. (But be sure to not install Chrome or you’ll take 4x as long to complete the installation all just to get browser you don’t really need for this exercise)
4. You may need to close the Internet Explorer 9.0 64-bit window at some point during the Adobe Flash Player installation (it’ll tell you on the screen) to allow the Adobe Flash Player installer to finish.  This is normal.  Once completed, a browser window should open with an Adobe Flash animation that demonstrates that Flash is now working within IE 9.0 64-bit Edition.
5. Go to the desktop and double click on “LeapFrog Connect”.  LeapFrog Connect should have put a shortcut on your desktop to allow you to run the software.  If it’s not there, go to START –> All Programs –> LeapFrog Connect –> LeapFrog Connect

The software should now run and no longer give you the message that Adobe Flash Player needs to be installed.