Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Hundreds of thousands of students every year compete in the “Imagine Cup”, a competition put on by Microsoft to find great uses of technology.

We’re down to the finals of the competition and UCLA’s team has been selected as one of the final 22 teams!

UCLA’s project is “Word Hog”:

Word Hog is a kid’s game about a group of pigs who need the player’s help to write a paper for a school project. The player controls a trampoline where pigs bounce toward bubbles to collect items such as letters. The second part of the game is a puzzle where the pigs can use those letters to create words, shift the letters around, or discard letters.

Wanna support UCLA & see these students win the People’s Choice award? 

1. Vote everyday for PIGMASTER in People’s Choice now through May 19^th at http://aka.ms/PigMaster
2. Text "Pigmaster" to 45444
3. Tweet your vote :
   @mstechstudent I am voting for #Pigmaster in #ICPeoplesChoice. Rules: http://bit.ly/PCRules
   (Rules bit.ly/PCRules must be included for vote to be counted)

Here’s the announcement about the Imagine Cup finals:

Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. . .

We asked students from all over the world to come up with innovative uses of technology that would make the world a better place. They stepped up to the challenge, and the Imagine Cup US 2012 competition was on!

Imagine Cup is a global technology competition, enabling students worldwide to use technology to transform the world we live in. Every year, Imagine Cup inspires eager students to shine, developing skills that will power their futures, and applying what they have learned to make a positive impact in the world and build a brighter future.

Last year, over 325,000 students participated in Imagine Cup. Today, 22 teams from across the country have made it to the Imagine Cup US finals, developing solutions and providing awareness to issues that address  environmental stewardship, the worldwide obesity epidemic, and the plight of children in war-torn Africa.

Now it’s up to you: These teams need your votes to win the Imagine Cup People’s Choice award. The team with the most votes by May 19, 2012 will travel to the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia this July. Vote now!

Your vote is powerful. By helping select the Imagine Cup People’s Choice winner, you’ll not only be raising awareness for critical social issues, you’ll also be supporting the future of technology innovation here in the US.

And of course there’s something in it for you, too. Every time you vote, you qualify to win prizes like a laptop, an Xbox, or a Windows Phone!

Visit the Imagine Cup US Facebook page to check out our US finalists and vote for your favorite—it’s fast and easy. And remember, the more often you vote, the more often you can win, so stop by every day!

I’m totally ripping off my friend Dave’s article about App-V Package Accelerators.  Somehow I don’t think he’ll mind. (NOTE THE CONTEST BELOW FOR A FREE UNLOCKED NOKIA WINDOWS PHONE!)

—————-
Virtualize Applications Faster with Microsoft App-V Package Accelerators
Dave Trupkin, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft App-V, Microsoft

Where do you start when you need to create package for a new application in Microsoft App-V? If you’re an App-V expert, maybe you dive right in and create the package yourself. If you’re just getting started, or even just trying to save time, maybe you’ll search the Internet to see if your peers have already packaged the same application. If they have, they may have shared the step-by-step process—the recipe—for creating the package. In App-V, this is a process known as sequencing.

Where can you find App-V recipes? A good place to start is the App-V Sequencing Recipe Forum. We’ve even provided a link to the Recipe Forum right inside the App-V Sequencer! Here you’ll find recipes for applications such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010. Other popular packaging-oriented websites and our own App-V Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community also frequently post App-V recipes in the forum.

Beginning with App-V 4.6 Service Pack 1 (SP1), we’ve made it even easier for the App-V community to share packaging knowledge with the introduction of App-V Package Accelerators. Package Accelerators help make App-V packaging easier, faster, and more predictable, taking most of the manual steps out of sequencing. One of the best explanations I’ve heard of Package Accelerators came from the App-V development team, which thinks of Package Accelerators as "dehydrated" App-V packages. When you use the App-V Sequencer to combine the Package Accelerators with the application’s original installation files, you’re "rehydrating" the App-V package.

Where can you find App-V Package Accelerators? You’ll find them in the App-V Package Accelerator Gallery. And, just like the Sequencing Recipe Forum, we’ve included a link to the Package Accelerator Gallery right inside the App-V Sequencer.

One of the best things about the App-V Package Accelerator Gallery is that it’s easy for you to share Package Accelerators that you create by uploading them to the Gallery!

Between April 5, 2012 and May 3, 2012 we invite you to create your best Package Accelerators, share them with the community, and possibly win an unlocked Nokia Windows Phone or an Xbox 360! We’ll pick the best two contributions and announce the winners in May.*

To help you get started, check out these videos on how to create an App-V Package from an App-V Package Accelerator, and how to create your own App-V Package Accelerator. You can also find more information in the App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencing Guide and the online technical documentation for App-V. You can get App-V 4.6 SP1 if you are a MSDN subscriber or TechNet subscriber by downloading the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2011 R2 Language Update, or you can check out the App-V 4.6 SP2 Beta.

Happy sequencing!

* No purchase necessary. Open only to IT professionals 18 years of age or older. Game ends May 3, 2012. For details, see the official rules.

Version 2.5 of the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool is now available for download! In addition to key features from the previous version, SCM 2.5 offers long-awaited new baselines for Exchange Server (2007 and 2010), along with several updated client product baselines! SCM 2.5 also enables you to quickly configure and manage computers and your private cloud using Group Policy and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. Learn more about new and updated features in the Springboard Series blog.

The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager is the next evolution of the Microsoft Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. We’ve taken our extensive guidance and documentation—including the previously stand-alone product-specific security guides—and incorporated it into this tool, enabling you to access and automate all of your organization’s security baselines in one centralized location.

To access the security guidance for Windows client and server operating systems and Microsoft applications, simply download the tool, and select the "Attachments \ Guides" node within each product baseline tree.

Take advantage of the experience of Microsoft security professionals, and reduce the time and money required to harden your environment. This end-to-end Solution Accelerator will help you plan, deploy, operate, and manage your security baselines for Windows client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications. Access the complete database of Microsoft recommended security settings, customize your baselines, and then choose from multiple formats—including XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs), Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, or Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)—to export the baselines to your environment to automate the security baseline deployment and compliance verification process. Use the Security Compliance Manager to achieve a secure, reliable, and centralized IT environment that will help you better balance your organization’s needs for security and functionality.

Key Features & Benefits

• Integration with the System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC: Product configurations are integrated into the Process Pack for IT GRC to provide oversight and reporting of your compliance activities.
• Gold master support: Import and take advantage of your existing Group Policy or create a snapshot of a reference machine to kick-start your project.
• Configure stand-alone machines: Deploy your configurations to non-domain joined computers using the new GPO Pack feature.
• Updated security guidance: Take advantage of the deep security expertise and best practices in the updated security guides and the attack surface reference workbooks to help reduce the security risks that you consider to be the most important.
• Centralized Management of Your Baseline Portfolio: The centralized management console of the Security Compliance Manager provides you with a unified, end-to-end user experience to plan, customize, and export security baselines. The tool gives you full access to a complete portfolio of recommended baselines for Windows® client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications. The Security Compliance Manager also enables you to quickly update the latest Microsoft baseline releases and take advantage of baseline version control.
• Security Baseline Customization: Customizing, comparing, merging, and reviewing your baselines policy configurations just got easier. Use the customization capabilities of the Security Compliance Manager to duplicate any of the recommended baselines from Microsoft and quickly modify security settings to meet the standards of your organization’s environment.
• Multiple Export Capabilities: Export baselines in formats like XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs), Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, or Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) to enable automation of deployment and monitoring baseline compliance.
• Available policy configuration baselines include Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Hyper-V, Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Windows Internet Explorer 9, Windows Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Office 2010 SP1, Microsoft Office 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2010 SP2 and Exchange Server 2007 SP3.

DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Security Compliance Manager v2.5 (33.9MB)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=16776

Ever wish Log Parser 2.2 had a GUI front end?

Anyone who regularly uses Log Parser 2.2 knows just how useful and powerful it can be for obtaining valuable information from IIS (Internet Information Server) and other logs. In addition, adding the power of SQL allows explicit searching of gigabytes of logs returning only the data that is needed while filtering out the noise. The only thing missing is a great graphical user interface (GUI) to function as a front-end to Log Parser and a ‘Query Library’ in order to manage all those great queries and scripts that one builds up over time.

Log Parser Studio was created to fulfill this need; by allowing those who use Log Parser 2.2 (and even those who don’t due to lack of an interface) to work faster and more efficiently to get to the data they need with less “fiddling” with scripts and folders full of queries.

With Log Parser Studio (LPS for short) we can house all of our queries in a central location. We can edit and create new queries in the ‘Query Editor’ and save them for later. We can search for queries using free text search as well as export and import both libraries and queries in different formats allowing for easy collaboration as well as storing multiple types of separate libraries for different protocols.

• BLOG: Introducing Log Parser Studio
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/03/07/introducing-log-parser-studio.aspx
• DOWNLOAD: Log Parser Studio
  http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Log-Parser-Studio-cd458765

Microsoft® Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell® (pre-release) helps scripters find Windows PowerShell scripts, snippets, modules, and how-to guidance in online repositories such as the TechNet Script Center Repository, PoshCode, local or network file systems and Bing Search Repository. Microsoft® Script Explorer enables:

• Integrated community and Microsoft resources to help you unlock the power of Windows PowerShell.
• Seamless searching across online repositories to locate script samples relevant to you
• Establishing and searching local, network, and corporate script repository is easy

If you’re interested in downloading Script Explorer, visit this link:

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29101
• DOWNLOAD: Script ExplorerUser Guide
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245439
• DOWNLOAD: Script Explorer Deployment and Troubleshooting Guide http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245460

This preview release is designed to enable the community to experience and review the preliminary designs and direction of key features in Microsoft Script Explorer and to solicit feedback before features are finalized. If you have additional questions, need help in troubleshooting issues, and other product features visit the Microsoft Script Explorer Forum on TechNet. Your feedback is important to us. Help improving Script Explorer by submitting bugs and suggestions to Microsoft Script Explorer Forum on TechNet.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations.

MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment.

MAP also provides private and public cloud planning assessments, and server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include:

• the discovery of active Windows devices
• Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP)
• the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server.

Learn more.

MAP is one of the tools provided by the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Security Compliance Manager provide tested guidance and automated tools to help organizations plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. All are freely available, and fully-supported by Microsoft. Learn more.

For home users and users with a few computers to migrate, use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to understand the readiness of your computer for Windows 7.
The MAP Toolkit includes the following components:

• Microsoft_Assessment_and_Planning_Toolkit_Setup.exe. Installation package containing the tool, release notes, Getting Started Guide and toolkit help (chm file).
• readme_en.htm. Available as a separate download. Provides information to read before installing the MAP Toolkit, including installation prerequisites and known issues.
• Getting_Started_Guide.en.doc. Provides information about toolkit installation, environment preparation, and assessment scenarios supported by toolkit wizards and the UI.
• MAP_Training_Kit.zip. Available as a separate download. Contains sample databases and training materials.
• MAP_Sample_Documents.zip. Available as a separate download. Contains sample reports and proposals.

DOWNLOAD:  Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 6.5
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7826

Many organizations today rely on some degree of virtualization. Whether it is a few virtual machines running on a single physical computer or a whole server farm across multiple root servers, virtualization optimizes investment in hardware and network infrastructure by:

• Increasing the utilization of underused hardware.
• Improving server availability.
• Reducing IT costs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance and best practices for deploying Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 in a virtualized environment with Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper V™ technology. This paper has been carefully composed to be relevant to organizations of any size.

WHITEPAPER: Best Practices for Virtualizing Exchange Server 2010 with Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper V™
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2428

Looks like System Center 2012’s release bits have landed on MVLS and are downloadable by VL customers and Technet/MSDN subscribers.

Here’s a screen shot that I just took:

As you can see there is a number of listed products including:

• System Center 2012 Datacenter
  Provides all System Center management technologies for an unlimited number of virtualized server OSs on a single host that is properly licensed per processor
• System Center 2012 Standard
  Provides all System Center management technologies for ONLY 2 server OSs (virtualized or not) on a single host that is properly licensed per processor
• System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection
  Installable add-on to System Center Configuration Manager 2012 to provide managed anti-malware, security management, and behavioral detection. (Formerly Forefront Endpoint Protection)
• System Center 2012 Client Management Suite
  A single suite providing Configuration Manager for clients, Operations Manager for clients, Virtual Machine Manager for clients, and Service Manager for clients.

This month’s digital downloadable issue of TechNet Magazine is a good one.

There are articles on:

• Windows 7: Group Policy Preferences
  By William R. Stanek
  Group Policy preferences let you control computers in a number of ways. Think of them as unmanaged settings for your computers and users.
• IT Management: Audit Those Windows Servers
  By Tom Kemp
  Often times, it’s difficult to articulate the business justification for auditing efforts and expenses to senior management. Here are three major business reasons why you should audit your Windows Servers.
• System Center Operations Manager 2012: Expand Monitoring with Ease
  By Paul Schnackenburg
  The new System Center Operations Manager promises to bring better integrated and extended network monitoring capabilities.
• Cloud Computing: Virtualization Classes
  By Kai Hwang , Jack Dongarra , and Geoffrey Fox
  There are several different approaches to—or classes of—virtualization, each suited to their own specific situations.

DOWNLOAD:  TechNet Magazine – February 2012
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/C/F/6CF044F8-F13F-4F96-950F-8E5B5932EEFD/February2012.pdf

Ah.  The nirvana of repairing PCs instead of reimaging them.  It’s finally upon us.

As Microsoft continues to help businesses get the most out of their IT environment with new tools and solutions, today we’re making available the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 8 (DaRT) beta release. The DaRT 8 beta is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and provides businesses using Windows 8 with a way to be more proactive with their desktop repair procedures. Using DaRT 8, businesses can develop recovery and support plans that best fit their IT staffing and infrastructure requirements to save time and reduce challenges associated with troubleshooting and repairing system failures.

DaRT 8 beta is designed to help IT professionals easily recover PCs that have become unusable, rapidly diagnose probable causes of issues, and quickly repair unbootable or locked-out systems, all faster than the average time it takes to reimage the machine. DaRT, in partnership with a desktop recovery plan, can help businesses minimize downtime of their systems, keeping employees productive. New features specific to the DaRT 8 beta that can help IT include the ability to:

• Repair PCs instead of reimaging. The DaRT 8 beta enables IT professionals to easily recover PCs that have become unusable, rapidly diagnose probable causes of issues, and quickly repair unbootable or locked-out systems, all faster than the average time it takes to reimage the machine.
  Use scripts to enable image creation. The DaRT 8 beta has an image creation wizard that is now built on top of PowerShell cmdlets, allowing IT departments to mount, create, apply, ad dismount and burn via scripting – ultimately letting the image creation process be saved and repurposed for later use. This kind of automation should save IT departments some time.
• Provide native support for USB media deployments. In previous versions of DaRT, additional tools were required to place DaRT images on USB drives. With DaRT 8 beta, this functionality is natively supported in the image creation wizard, minimizing the number of tools required for USB deployment.
• Create multiple images from one device. The DaRT 8 beta is able to create both 32-bit and 64-bit images on a single machine and transfer them between.
• Choose the output format. Now as part of the image creation process, WIM and ISO output formats are supported in the DaRT 8 beta so that IT departments are sure the right format is an option for a broader deployment plan.

BLOG: MDOP: DaRTing to the Future
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/business/archive/2012/03/28/mdop-darting-to-the-future.aspx

BLOG: DaRT 8 Beta Q&A
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2012/03/28/microsoft-dart-8-beta-q-amp-a.aspx